Chapter 1530: Doing Business
At this moment, Peter wanted to overturn the table immediately, but the reason in his heart told him that he had better be patient.
Over the years, he has made some progress.
Under the crazy suppression of the Smith Party headed by Fisher, he was able to lead the Republican Party to survive until now. Compared with the past, he has matured a lot.
But maturity always comes at a price. His hair, which was already a Mediterranean style back then, has now become increasingly sparse, with only a few pitiful hairs left, embellishing his increasingly shiny scalp, demonstrating his owner's final stubbornness.
In Peter's opinion, five hundred muskets were not safe enough. In order to ensure that nothing could go wrong, he felt that he needed at least one thousand or even two thousand muskets.
But according to the Great Zhou, the next batch of matchlock rifles will not arrive until next spring at the earliest.
In addition, although the matchlock is an easy weapon to use, it undoubtedly takes some time to train in order to effectively demonstrate the power of group shooting on the battlefield.
These two reasons made Peter finally calm down and not act rashly.
However, the whole thing did not go as smoothly as he expected.
As Peter's training began, the relevant news quickly leaked.
"They bought a weapon called a matchlock gun from the Great Zhou. It's a bit similar to a single-soldier crossbow, but it's more powerful. With a pull of the trigger, it can pierce through iron armor with a bang!"
In a room somewhere, a white man in tattered clothes was gesturing and telling Fisher, who was sitting above, the information he had learned.
After saying that, he couldn't wait to grab the barbecue on the plate and stuff it into his mouth. After a few bites, his mouth was full of oil.
Needless to say, this was the spy hired by Fisher.
When the Russian Republican Party rose and began to liberate slaves, these guys gained their freedom and wanted to occupy the country and be their own masters. At that time, these guys were still a little more confident.
I fantasize about killing all the black people and letting them completely control the country. Then everyone will have no worries about food and clothing.
But as time went on, they gradually discovered that this was not the case at all.
The blacks led by Fisher still control the economic resources of the Smith Republic, and their lives are still hard.
Gradually, some people will have other thoughts.
In this situation, Fisher was rich and powerful and used money to pave the way, so he easily found people who were willing to work for him.
After listening to the other party's report, Fisher casually threw a bag of money in front of the other party.
"Keep watching. Report any new developments to me immediately."
After turning around and leaving, Fisher almost immediately sent a greeting letter to Zhou Xu, and at the end of the letter, he asked about the "matchlock gun".
Zhou Xu, who received the letter, was not surprised at all.
At the same time, he had no intention of concealing anything and directly introduced the product to Fisher.
Although he and Peter have cooperated in this area, their current cooperation is limited to them doing the manufacturing, while Peter is responsible for providing the raw materials.
Under this premise, for every two guns they made, they would give one to Peter.
Simply put, Peter can get a gun at the cost of two raw materials.
This is the core content of their cooperation, which obviously does not include a ban on selling guns to others.
If Peter had this request, the cooperation would not be possible.
The cost of manufacturing a matchlock gun is not just the raw materials, but also labor costs, time costs, and factory maintenance costs, and this does not include the initial research and development costs.
With all this calculation, judging from the selling price of the guns alone, Zhou Xu could almost be said to be losing money with Peter.
Although the bulk of this kind of business is in bullets and gunpowder, which are consumables, you can't let him lose too much on the matchlock gun, right? If you can't make money from Peter, at least let him make some money from other customers.
If Peter wants to block his way, then the talks between the two sides will fail.
These things had been agreed upon at the very beginning, and Peter could not have forgotten them, but he might not know now that Fisher had contacted him to ask about the matchlock gun.
Of course, this is not something Zhou Xu needs to worry about.
He is just a businessman. When it comes to business, he does what he should do, but he never interferes in other people's affairs.
In his reply to Fisher, he also had something to say, and directly stated that the orders from other customers had not been completed yet. If you want to place an order, you'd better pay the money first and get in line, otherwise you may not be able to get your turn until next year.
On this basis, Zhou Xu was not stingy and directly sent an envoy to deliver a handful of samples.
Whether this thing is good or not, you have to see it with your own eyes to know.
After writing a reply to Fisher and arranging things, Zhou Xu turned around and left the city, took a train and came to the Grassland Military Region.
Of course, he came here not to inspect the troops this time, but to confirm the latest research and development results of the Ordnance Research Department.
After all, at this stage, the Ordnance Research Department and the corresponding ordnance production plants have all moved to the Grassland Military Region for the sake of safety and confidentiality.
"That's it, Your Majesty."
At the test site, the project leader excitedly presented Zhou Xu with a rifle that was at least 70% similar to a matchlock rifle.
Needless to say, this is the first flintlock rifle of their Great Zhou!
Of course, it is still in the testing phase.
For any job, the beginning is basically the hardest part. Creating something from scratch is the most difficult stage. After successfully developing the matchlock gun, the next work will be much easier for them.
After all, although Zhou Xu did not have a thorough understanding of guns, he still had some knowledge of the general evolution process of firearms.
Once the direction is right, they can ensure that they will not go further and further down the wrong R&D path, and the difficulty of R&D can be reduced by at least half.
From a design perspective, there is actually not much difference between a matchlock and a flintlock. To put it simply, the matchlock is replaced by flint, also called a flint.
When the trigger is pulled, the spark formed by the flint hitting the metal sheet ignites the gunpowder, thereby achieving the purpose of launching the projectile.
However, in this process, there are requirements for the entire linkage of the trigger structure and the strength of the flint striking. It is not like a matchlock gun, which does not require strength and only needs to allow the burning fuse to lightly touch the gunpowder through the linkage structure.
It was a small request, but it required a certain level of technical support to achieve. The R&D department here also adjusted it back and forth many times, which unexpectedly took a lot of time.
(End of this chapter)
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