Chapter 234 Military Trade and Explosives

Zhao Dongyun listened and picked up the report in his hand. He looked at the exit and said, "As long as they place an order, they will sell them with enough cash silver. The price of bullets and shells is slightly tight compared with previous cases, with more than 500,000 bullets and more shells and more than 1,000 shells. Purchases are not allowed without my approval. Light machine guns, mortars and artillery are still the same as the old rule, and you are not allowed to buy any!"

Although Zhao Dongyun hoarded a large amount of ordnance in his hand to prepare for action, he did not intend to sell everything. Among them, rifles and heavy machine guns were basically open to supply, and the price was relatively favorable. This is because even if Zhao Dongyun doesn't sell it to them, they can still get enough supply from major foreign banks. It's better to sell them to make money than Zhao Dongyun.

And if you want to sell it to make money, you have to compete with imported goods. Well, it is mainly the German second-hand Type 88 rifle and Mauser 98 and the 30-year-old and 38-year-old type of Japan. The price of the rifle is now lower than that of Mauser 98 and Japan-88, and higher than the second-hand Type 88 rifle and 30-year-year rifle. Guns, and not much high, so the Fuchang's Type 88 rifle is still quite attractive to domestic warlords.

After all, in the domestic munitions market, the new rifle is the cheapest one, and the price is far lower than the German Mauser 98 and the 38-year-old model that has just been installed. As for the second-hand rifle, it is not as cheap as the new rifle, and Zhao Dongyun also has it. His third division has been equipped with the Type 88 rifle for several years. If you want a second-hand rifle, Zhao Dongyun will directly change into a brand-new rifle and sell the second-hand one to you, and the price is still It's cheaper than the German second-hand 88 and Japan's 30-year style.

Heavy machine guns are similar. Although Fuyuan Machinery Factory can produce heavy machine guns, there are also many heavy machine guns in Westerners. Japanese and Russians, Germans and even French and British are selling heavy machine guns in the Far East. Only money to buy imported heavy machine guns is not a problem, so it is not as good as making foreigners earn Make it yourself.

But bullets, shells, as well as light machine guns and artillery are different. Although Zhao Dongyun also sells the bullets and shells of the first two, they have a limited supply. This is not to say that the production of the Fu Factory is insufficient, but that Zhao Dongyun does not want several other warlords in the North Ocean to hoard a large amount of ammunition. In short, it is to hang them, no They can't have ammunition, but they can't hoard too much, and the price is cheaper than that of foreigners to prevent them from importing directly from foreigners.

The latter two light machine guns and artillery are completely banned from sale. Why? Because these two other domestic warlords can't get a lot from major foreign countries in a short period of time, and even if they can buy them, the price is basically sky-high. For example, even Zhao Dongyun himself needs to import long-bung guns, German 1903 guns and various improved versions, such as 1906, the price is not Low, that's an expensive weapon of more than 10,000 taels of silver. Even if Zhao Dongyun, who is sitting in the three eastern provinces, wants to buy these long-tube field guns, he has to think about it.

And usually can't buy them. After all, the production of German artillery is also limited. At the beginning, I spent a lot of money to buy hundreds of artillery, but the Germans worked hard to produce them for more than a year before delivering them one after another. Now these domestic warlords are willing to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy these advanced tube retreat cannons. They don't expect to get too much* in a year.

Although Fu Factory can't produce field guns, it can produce short-tube 75mm tube retreat mountain cannons, which is also a big killer in China. The output of Fu Factory is not much. Zhao Dongyun doesn't think it's enough to use it himself, and he has to find a way to get it from Japan and the Germans. Imported artillery will be sold to other warlords in China!

Light machine guns are similar. Nowadays, there are only two ways for domestic warlords to buy light machine guns, that is, to find Danes to buy Madsen light machine guns. However, Madsen is now very popular. Orders from Denmark, Germany and even the United Kingdom have been arranged for several years. These domestic warlords are Don't expect to get a large number of light machine guns in a year or two. As for the second way, it is Fuyuan Machinery Factory, but Zhao Dongyun doesn't sell it. This light machine gun is not enough to use by himself. Naturally, it won't be sold.

The output of mortars is enough, but it is currently the only one in the world without a subcolon. Other domestic warlords can't obtain this weapon from other means. In addition, mortars have a great tactical effect on the Fengtian army, so don't expect Zhao Dongyun to export light machine guns.

The technical content of this mortar is not high, and it will not be a big problem if foreign arsenals want to produce and equip them, but the problem is that although mortars have appeared in China for several years, they have not actually participated in large-scale wars, and the armies of foreign powers have not noticed or paid attention to them at all. If foreign troops don't have this demand for this kind of weapon, naturally those foreign arsenals will not develop and produce it.

In China, a large number of mortars have been used in Zhao Dongyun's troops, which has attracted some attention. However, at present, the two factories in Jiangnan and Hanyang have not started imitation production, so the southern warlords have not been able to get mortars for the time being.

As for many warlords in the north, such as Duan Qirui, there is at most an equipment repair house under him. It is barely possible to repair guns, but others are not allowed. They can't even produce their own rifles, bullets and shells, let alone expect them to build their own mortars.

"In addition, you should also pay more attention. Don't delay the payment of the Fu factory without delay. They reported to me this month that you owed them another 300,000 yuan?" Zhao Dongyun continued: "You must know the importance of Fuchang. It's not good for us to delay their payment!"

Zhao Dongping said: "There were quality problems with the two batches of shells they shipped before. The chief officers of several artillery regiments came to me and said that these batches of shells were not only less powerful than the original ones, but also prone to accidents. Half a month ago, there was a bomb accident during the training, and our army not only lost a 75 The millimeter mountain cannon, and many people were killed and injured. According to the investigation of our Ordnance Department, it was the Fu Factory that changed the charge of the shells that caused quality problems, so the Ministry of Vocational Department suspended the payment for the purchase of shells!"

Unexpectedly, Zhao Dongyun said, "I knew about this before. I asked them to change into new explosives!"

"Before, all kinds of shells used imported explosives, and mortar shells were only black explosives. With the increasing cost of imported explosives in recent years, Fuchang has imitated and developed fierce explosives! This has just come out. There must be some problems. It's also my fault that I want them to use these new drugs in order to reduce the price. I'll send them a letter later and ask them to use the imported gunpowder first. Don't drag the money here, or their shell factory will have to close down!" Zhao Dongyun also sighed as he spoke.

It is actually more difficult to develop and produce explosives than to produce artillery!

In history, China had good performance before the founding of New China, but artillery was at least made, but it could not mass-produce bitter acid or * explosives on a large scale. The shell explosives needed in China were heavily dependent on imports for half a century from the late Qing Dynasty to 1949.

There are generally two kinds of shells loaded with small and medium-caliber shells. One of them is gunpowder or *. As the name implies, this kind of gunpowder is to fire shells. *There are *, chestnut gunpowder, and then smokeless gunpowder. At present, many domestic arsenals have entered the era of smokeless gunpowder in recent years, and there is no problem with technology and output.

The second is explosives. The function of explosives is to make cannonballs explode, and there are generally three kinds of explosives used in modern times, that is, traditional *, the bitter acid used in contemporary Japan as the main component of Shimose gunpowder and * used by other major powers.

The 75mm shell imported by Fu Factory is also *. Because the imported * is expensive, in order to reduce costs, another kind of shell produced by Fu Factory, that is, the explosives loaded by *, are *.

In order to produce its own explosives, Fuyuan Machinery Factory has also begun to try to imitate bitter acid and * a few years ago. At the end of last year, it successfully imitated bitter acid. At the beginning of the year, it began small-scale trial production and loaded into 75mm shells.

However, the bitter and sour thing is really unstable. In addition, the technology of Fuyuan Machine Factory is still slightly lacking, and the research and development time is too short. It is not surprising that there will be an accident after hurried loading.

It's one thing to get bitter and sour, but it's also a troublesome thing how to use it safely. Why don't the great powers use bitter sour? It's because it's not stable enough, and I dare to use it on a large scale all over the world.

Fuyuan Machine Factory is also imitating*, but this kind of gunpowder is more difficult to imitate, and countries are also quite confidential about this technology. After failing to try to buy patents, Fuyuan Machine Factory can only organize its own scientific researchers to develop imitations. Only the old genius knows when it can be made.

So although he knows that the bitter acid is not stable enough and troublesome to use, Zhao Dongyun still decided to use a small amount first and slowly improve it later. He has used it for decades, and there is no reason why we can't use it!

But he didn't expect that there would be a major accident as soon as the trial production occurred!

However, despite the accident, he plans to stop using bitter acid explosives for the time being, but Zhao Dongyun does not intend to give up bitter acid explosives. As long as the explosives have not been developed for a day, he will have to use this bitter acid for a day. Anyway, it is better than importing extremely expensive explosives every day.

This home-produced bitter acid explosive not only can reduce the cost of 75mm, but also the widely used mortar shells in the Fengtian Army can also use bitter acid explosives to obtain greater explosive power at a lower cost.

After all, it's 1907, and even mortar shells can't be used all the time*!

After dealing with the affairs related to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, Zhao Dongping did not leave, but said, "Marshal, the second batch of artillery we ordered from Germany last year has also arrived. Would you like to have a look?"

"Oh, those cannons have arrived?" Zhao Dongyun was happy to hear this: "The 75mm guns in front are fine, but these six 150mm cannons are going to have a look!"

In addition to dozens of 75mm field guns, there are 12 100mm cannons in many batches ordered by Zhao Dongyun from Germany!