America 1881: Legend of the West

Fall in Roswell comes later than usual.

From the outside, there is not much difference except that the sun is not as strong as before.

The main background color of this world is still earthy yellow.

In the Roswell Council Hall, a quarterly Roswell Science and Technology Committee meeting is taking place.

This so-called Science and Technology Committee was proposed by Chen Jianqiu.

The original intention was to recruit scientific and technical talents from all fields.

But because the environment in Roswell was so harsh, no one responded to the invitations sent by Holmes.

So so far, apart from Holmes, the only members are three inventors from the gun factory.

Maxim Brothers, Browning.

Naturally, this quarterly meeting became a regular internal meeting of the Roswell Gun Factory.

Holmes looked at his research report on geological improvement with boredom. He felt that this topic needed an agriculturalist or engineer to study it.

Helena Maxim yawned. He stayed up late last night revising the drawings of his heavy machine gun.

Although Chen Jianqiu told him that the test results were very good, he also said that there were some areas that could be improved.

And his brother, Hudson Maxim, was happily giving a report on his own research.

He was very proud of himself.

Chen Jianqiu has applied for a patent for smokeless gunpowder, but he has changed it to a very inconspicuous name, and the effect has been retained.

He had just received a share of the patent for smokeless gunpowder given to him by Chen Jianqiu.

In his words, the smokeless gunpowder now produced in Roswell is reliable, excellent, and can be mass-produced.

In addition, he is also studying how to build an explosives production line in Roswell, because the railway will be connected to Roswell next month.

Chen Jianqiu, who was sitting in the main seat, dragged his chin and looked at Hudson Maxim who was speaking, but he was thinking about other things in his mind.

Although kerosene sells well, New Mexico is a frontier after all, with a vast land and sparsely populated areas, and Mexico on the other side of the border is not a wealthy place.

Financing for railways was certainly considerable, but the line from Lincolnshire to Roswell was being built and required a lot of money.

Recently, I am opening a bank and setting up a detective agency, so the demand for funds is quite large.

In addition to using Sanjiang Bank to finance himself, he decided to increase the sales volume of the ordnance factory.

Need a hit.

But there is little civilian demand for the Maxim heavy machine gun, and the military has nothing to do with it, and he doesn't want to sell it to these people for the time being.

Geronimo and others on the border have not yet completed their historical mission.

If a few Maxims were stationed in the town where the federal army was stationed at this time, the U.S.-Mexico border would have long-term peace and stability.

This is something Chen Jianqiu doesn't want to see at this stage.

He planned to obtain a patent in a low-key manner, export it first, and then export it to domestic sales.

Several big European colonialists obviously need something like this more.

"Where's Browning? Where's he gone?"

After Hudson Maxim finished his report, Chen Jianqiu suddenly realized that there was one person missing from the meeting.

"I don't know, this guy seems to be tinkering with something recently." Haileda Maxim yawned continuously, with a look of resentment on his face.

After the machine gun was roughly formed, Browning was not very concerned about improvements, but went into his studio.

"I'm coming!"

Say Browning and Browning will come.

The door to the conference hall was opened, and the gunsmith walked in wearing a suit, and behind him, Li Sifu was holding a long thing wrapped in cloth.

Everyone in the room, including Chen Jianqiu, all raised their heads.

"Put it on the table, put it on the table." Browning gestured to Li Sifu.

Li Sifu threw the package on the table with a thud.

"Be gentle! Be gentle!" Browning complained as he went to remove the cloth from the package.

Anyone with a discerning eye would know that the thing covered in the brie must be a gun.

"Have you tinkered with a new gun again?" Chen Jianqiu asked with a smile.

"Yes." Browning kept moving his hands and talking about his recent achievements like chanting:

"Smokeless gunpowder is a good thing. It has high power, low smoke, and more concealed shooting. It will definitely replace black powder and become the main filling material for future bullets."

As a firearms inventor, he has a keen insight and perception of the development of firearms.

"This will be a revolution."

"If you are too late, others will take the lead, so the top priority is to develop bullets and firearms filled with smokeless powder."

"But time is too tight, so I can only modify the existing rifle."

"Since the energy of smokeless gunpowder is much higher than that of black powder, the recoil produced by the original charge will be unbearable for the firearm and the shooter. Therefore, the diameter of the projectile was reduced to 8 mm and the length of the cartridge case was shortened to 50 mm."

"At the same time, I learned from the latest jacket technology and changed the bullets to copper jacket lead core bullets."

At this point, Browning had already opened the cloth bag in his hand.

A long rifle lay inside.

Chen Jianqiu went up to take a look and was happy.

Isn’t this Lebel 1886?

Although the details are different, the forced design ideas make the two surprisingly similar.

Sure enough, history is about accidents constantly producing inevitable results. Unexpectedly, when all conditions were met, Browning designed the world's first smokeless powder bullet rifle, which was designed by a French designer a few years later.

"Browning asked me to test this gun." Camilla walked in from outside the meeting hall. "The range and power are very good."

"I'm already planning to change my gun," she said with a smile.

"Yes, the effective range of this gun is at least 400 meters, and the maximum range is more than 1,600 meters."

Seeing Browning's triumphant look, Chen Jianqiu covered his face.

"Tubular magazine, right?" Chen Jianqiu said while rubbing his face.

"Ah, yes, tubular magazine. What's wrong? Is there any other way to feed ammunition?" Browning picked up the rifle in his hand and asked puzzledly while admiring his work.

"Is that a round-head bullet?" Chen Jianqiu was still rubbing his face.

"Yes, if it were not a round-head bullet, it would easily hit the front primer and misfire." Browning wished he could give his boss some basic firearms education.

"Next time you try the box type, and then use the pointed tip to play." Chen Jianqiu finally finished rubbing his face and said.

"What does the box look like?" Browning was confused.

"I'll draw a diagram for you later."

Chen Jianqiu can't draw blueprints, but he has seen them, so he can still draw the schematic diagrams.

This kind of thing is not something that spans several eras. These talented gun designers understand it at once.

"What about this gun?" Browning looked at Chen Jianqiu, somewhat unwillingly.

"This gun is mass-produced and sold." Chen Jianqiu said, "If you use our gun, you have to use our bullets; if you want to use our bullets, you have to use our gun."

"No matter how bad this gun is, it is still the first rifle to use smokeless powder bullets."

"Then, continue to modify it. Believe me, after the modification, the performance of this gun will be much better than it is now."

Chen Jianqiu turned his head and said to Camilla, "I suggest you look forward to the improved model."

"Okay!" Browning's invention was confirmed and he was very happy.

As for improvements, he's not worried at all.

He's used to it.

"By the way, what's the name of this gun?" Browning asked.

"You can take whatever you want, just don't get involved with me." Chen Jianqiu lay on the chair with his hands on the back of his head.

"Okay, let's call it Roswell M1882."