Chapter 1531 is outrageous!
"Bang! Bang! Bang..."
At the shooting range, testers holding flintlock rifles fired in an orderly manner.
Although it is only a small change, the shooting process of the flintlock rifle appears to be smoother than that of the matchlock rifle, and the shooting efficiency is also improved.
From this point of view alone, it is completely capable of replacing the existing matchlock guns.
"I think the performance of this flintlock is fine. What is the reason why it cannot be mass-produced?"
"Your Majesty, wait a moment."
The developers obviously had no intention of concealing the shortcomings of this flintlock rifle.
In other words, the main purpose of this test is to report this problem to their Majesty.
Taking the flintlock from the tester, the researcher reached out to pull the hammer back and then buckled it.
"Your Majesty, the main problem with this flintlock now lies in the spring inside."
As the researcher spoke, he gestured in front of Zhou Xu.
"The hammer's strike needs to be of a certain strength to form a spark, which in turn ignites the gunpowder. This operation is mainly accomplished by the spring inside. However, as this process is repeated over and over again, frequent use will cause the spring to lose its original elasticity, which will lead to a decrease in the firing rate of the flintlock, or even the inability to successfully ignite..."
At this point, the researcher paused.
"Simply put, the springs are not durable enough."
The researcher who said this had a hint of helplessness in his voice.
"If it were a large-scale machine, the spring problem could be solved by increasing the material and size, but due to the size of the flintlock, this method is not so easy to use."
At this point, the researcher paused.
"In fact, if we want to mass-produce it, we can already do it, but we feel that it may be able to be improved, not only in terms of the spring, but also in terms of power and range..."
Zhou Xu's requirements for military equipment, in addition to controlling costs and achieving mass production, are also very important, that is, they must have sufficient stability and durability.
Zhou Xu's idea undoubtedly had a profound impact on researchers.
After hearing what the researchers said, Zhou Xu took action.
"Show me the test data."
From its successful development to the present, the flintlock rifle has been tested tens of thousands of times, and the data obtained from it is undoubtedly reliable.
After reading the data, Zhou Xu's expression became subtle.
Are they setting too high a bar for themselves?
Others may not be very clear about it, but Zhou Xu himself has a rough idea in his mind.
So he knew that the flintlock rifle was actually pretty much the same, it was just a thing of this level, you can't have too high expectations and requirements for this thing! To upgrade it further, Zhou Xu also had an idea, which was to carve spiral rifling on the inside of the barrel, and then change the projectile to a conical bullet.
But to be honest, making this upgrade is no longer the responsibility of just one department in the Firearms Research Department.
It requires relevant manufacturing technology, and even gunpowder needs to undergo a comprehensive upgrade.
These things have to be done one by one, it is impossible to finish them all at once.
[How should I tell them about this?]
Zhou Xu continued to look through the test data while thinking.
"Huh? You also wrote a solution?"
Hearing this, the researchers were stunned at first, and then laughed awkwardly.
"Your Majesty, those two plans were written randomly and have no implementation value. I probably didn't pay attention when I took the documents, and they got mixed in."
That being said, seeing Zhou Xu flipping through the book, the researchers standing nearby could only awkwardly introduce themselves...
"We have thought about adding some fire crystals to the raw materials when manufacturing that part. The properties of fire crystals can improve the toughness of the alloy. In this way, the durability of the part can also be improved."
“On this basis, we can also add the immutable stone to increase the stability of the parts material while providing memory.”
According to their previous research results of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the immutable stone can not only increase the stability of the alloy, but also, to a certain extent, possesses properties similar to memory metals.
If a sword with the immutable stone is slightly bent during battle, then give it some time and the sword will slowly return to its original curvature.
From this point of view, it is really suitable for making this part.
"Another way is to directly use fire crystals to replace the entire ignition structure. Fire crystals themselves contain flame energy. With the corresponding enchantment inscriptions, the energy in the fire crystals can be stimulated to ignite the gunpowder. Then the flint and the entire related linkage mechanism will not be needed."
Faced with the two suggestions from the researchers, Zhou Xu was speechless for a moment.
Let’s not talk about the first option for now. The second option is to directly change the flintlock rifle into an enchanted equipment.
Of course, essentially speaking, if the flintlock rifle could really be converted into an enchanted equipment and its performance was significantly improved, Zhou Xu would not be unable to accept it.
But the problem is that the essence of this plan is to turn the fire crystal and the enchanted inscription into a lighter! So much effort, just to light a fire? ! Moreover, the performance of the flintlock itself has not been significantly improved, but the entire cost has been directly increased! This is outrageous! In comparison, the first plan sounds much more reliable.
But the problem is that fire crystal and constant stone are both rare materials.
The output of Fire Crystal is scarce, and it is basically used to make enchanted equipment. Needless to say, the Immortal Stone can only be obtained through trade with the Saint Laurent Empire.
But the problem now is that the Saint Laurent Empire has not conducted any transactions with them since then, which has temporarily deprived Da Zhou of the way to continue to obtain the Immortal Stone.
With this as a premise, the weapon that requires large-scale mass production is made using the scarce Fire Crystal and the Constant Stone that cannot be obtained stably at present.
Whether considering it from the perspective of cost or resource acquisition, this is obviously not realistic.
As mentioned before, in Zhou Xu's opinion, the value of the flintlock itself is just that. If he wants to increase it, he will have to wait until the development of related industries in their Great Zhou is comprehensively improved.
The key to this all-round improvement lies in the thorough popularization of steam power.
The project of applying steam power to manufacturing and even various related industries has long been on the agenda, but progress has been slow.
On the one hand, the war had just ended. How long had it been since then? Some countries probably hadn’t even finished their post-war recovery work yet. There were too many things to do and they couldn’t handle them all. On the other hand, there was a shortage of core talents with sufficient professional capabilities.
Qin Fen is just one person after all. Over the years, he has devoted all his energy to the manufacture of steam ironclad ships. In the later period, he basically stayed in the South China Sea and had no time to spare.
Of course, after the manufacture of the ironclad ship No. 001 was completed and the test was successfully completed, Zhou Xu called him back, and he is now busy working on this project.
(End of this chapter)
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