Munitions Empire

It was winter just the same, and in a room just the same, but Tang Mo's room, in comparison to Gis's, was more than just a little shabbier.

He had no warm fireplace, nor a fancy floor, and the room was steaming hot solely because it was now filled with people.

Or rather, it would be more fitting to say packed with people.

Tang Mo sat by the table, counting from the left, there were Roger, Mathews, Parker, Redman, Tagg, and Li'ao seated in order. Wes wasn't seated; he stood behind Tang Mo, fiddling with a new left-wheel handgun in his hand.

He had only recently received this thing from Tang Mo, and he truly adored it to the core. He had already taken the gun out to clean it three times in a while, each time carefully breathing on it and gently wiping it with a piece of suede, treating it as if it were a gemstone.

On the table lay a K1 Quick Gun, a brand-new rifle, and a lever-action rifle that closely resembled a Winchester, along with a revolver and the latest model of the Colt Left-Wheel Handgun.

Everyone was silent, as Redman and Tagg scrutinized the weapons on the table, some familiar, some not, and for a moment, they didn't know what to say.

Mathews, on the other hand, was very happy, as today's meeting was clearly convened because of the lever-action rifle he had developed, so he looked quite proud.

"It seems that the elves are indeed not planning on paying back the debt," Tang Mo said, leaning back in his chair and addressing Roger and the others.

Wes had been dealing with those slaves lately, exhausted to death, so he looked somewhat spiritless. He yawned indifferently and said, "Anyway, didn't you say that if they don't pay the debt, you have ways to deal with it?"

"There aren't any particularly good methods now, but in the future, we will have them, plenty of them," Tang Mo said nonchalantly.

His words were almost an admission that the debt of 100,000 Gold Coins on the books was unlikely ever to be repaid.

So everyone's mood dipped for a moment, despite the fact that they hadn't really been short on cash over the past two months, 100,000 Gold Coins were no small sum at any time.

He shrugged it off and gave his evaluation of the Elf Race, "It's a pity, these foolish elves don't even know what they have missed out on."

Having said that, he paused before continuing, "The reason for calling this meeting was to introduce our latest technological research achievements at Great Tang Group to all of you."

"You all have seen these; these are our latest technological innovations." While he spoke, he picked up the K1 rifle and set it aside, "Everyone is too familiar with this one, so no introduction is necessary."

After that, he picked up the revolver and placed it aside as well, "The same goes for this one; everyone might have used it already."

Amidst everyone's laughter, he grabbed the weapon that looked much like a Winchester lever-action rifle and began to introduce, "Firstly, we have designed a new type of weapon called a lever-action rifle, named the K2 Rifle, formally Great Tang Group's K2 Lever-Action Rifle."

As he spoke, he pointed to a Dwarf elder nearby, who was already looking two centimeters taller in pride, and said, "This weapon was developed under the direction of Mathews; it can be loaded with more than ten bullets and fired in rapid succession!"

While he spoke, he pulled the rifle's fore-end to make an engaging 'click' sound.

"Click!" He performed the action once more, then continued, "Now a bullet has been chambered; just pull the trigger, and it will fire."

After repeating the action, he continued, "The second bullet has been chambered; you can fire again! It's convenient and efficient, simply perfect!"

"What?" Exclaimed Tagg, his eyes wide with disbelief upon hearing Tang Mo's words.

Wes was also taken aback, just having thought his left-wheel handgun was incredibly advanced, he hadn't expected a long gun comparable to the left-wheel handgun to exist: "My god!"

"You're kidding!" Redman was also shocked. He couldn't begin to imagine how powerful his troops would become once equipped with this kind of weapon.

"Impossible!" Li'ao didn't understand weapons, but he knew what it meant to have a rifle capable of firing a dozen rounds in quick succession.

If he could take these weapons back with him, surely his criminal status would be pardoned. Or rather, if he led an army equipped with such weapons to fight his way back, it seemed his criminal status wouldn't need anyone's pardon…

The lever-action rifle was actually a stroke of genius in its design, its emergence horrifyingly enhanced the firepower density of an individual soldier.

This type of rifle, which can be reloaded swiftly by manipulating the fore-end downwards, can astonishingly achieve the terrifying firing rate of one shot per second.

In general, this type of rifle could be loaded with seven or eight bullets, and at times even up to 13 bullets, and it could pour out all these bullets in one breath.

Compared to almost all rifles now, its advantages are obviously very obvious: simple action, which can ensure continuous loading while aiming, and continuous firing without pause.

So after the blueprints of this weapon were handed over to Mathews, he began to contemplate the creation of this powerful killer.

Technically speaking, there is actually no difficulty in producing such a weapon; Tang Mo's weapon workshop could easily switch to manufacturing it.

Its structure is not too complicated and not secretive; as long as it is disassembled, it can be easily replicated without any technical difficulties.

What really restricted the development of such a weapon were two other factors: the first was problems brought about by the gun's own structure, and the second was the flaws with the bullets.

The lever-action rifle's magazine—or rather, its fixed magazine—was a tubular ammunition chamber located under the barrel.

This chamber relied solely on the force of a spring to push the bullets and provide feeding, so it was inevitable that the closer the bullets were to the spring, the less force they received during the feeding process.

Therefore, a magazine that could be loaded with 13 bullets, in most cases, would only be loaded with 6-9 bullets, and then the spring's strength would be increased to ensure smooth feeding.

Also, think about it, so many bullets pushed into a tube are obviously very prone to jamming. Hence, there is actually a slit at the bottom of this tubular magazine to facilitate quick troubleshooting.

This way, if a bullet were to get stuck, you could use a knife or some other tool to clean the magazine and fix the malfunction.

Then, this slit used for repairs became another cause of jamming: in the complex battlefield environment, sand and gravel could enter the magazine from here, jamming the spring.

Furthermore, the internal structure of the lever-action rifle is also very complex, which means that making such a weapon would be expensive and prone to malfunction.

An expensive price means that those in power would not crazily purchase these and replace all their troops' rifles with this type. Because no one can afford such a large expenditure, at least no one right now thinks it's worth it.

Being prone to malfunction means that regular soldiers would feel uncertain using this weapon, which would severely affect combat effectiveness. Going into battle with a weapon full of malfunctions would definitely provoke mutiny among the soldiers, so this also doomed the lever-action rifle to not being widely equipped.

Therefore, this rifle ultimately did not replace the single-shot breech-loading rifle, which had fewer malfunctions and was more reliable and safe for soldiers on the battlefield.

Another complaint about this rifle comes from the special ammunition it uses—or rather, this is another flaw that the lever-action rifle design carried from the very beginning.

All the lever-action rifle's spare ammunition was loaded into a tubular magazine, and this design granted it a powerful advantage in continuous shooting. NovelFiremp yr content

At the same time, this design also introduced a fatal flaw: the rifle could only use flat-nosed bullets as its ammunition.

Why? Because if pointed bullets were used, then the bullets in the tubular magazine could easily be set off by the point striking the primer of the bullet in front of it, leading to accidental discharge of the spare rounds.

For a rifle that needs to go through the tests of the battlefield environment, such a flaw is intolerable. Hence, for the safety of the users, lever-action rifles generally only use flat-nosed bullets.

This then leads to another issue: the range and stability of flat-nosed bullets cannot compare with pointed bullets.

What actually restricted the range of the lever-action rifle was also an issue with the gunpowder. Because of sealing issues in the chamber structure of the lever-action rifle, the chamber pressure could not be designed too high or it would easily burst.

Therefore, the bullets for the lever-action rifle could not use the more advanced smokeless powder that came later, which severely restricted the rifle's range.

In the few years after the birth of the lever-action rifle, the standard rifles equipped by various countries generally had a range of over 800 meters, while the effective range of the lever-action rifle was essentially only around a hundred meters, which was unbearable.

After all, once automatic weapons began to spread in the future, submachine guns would obviously be the better choice at the ideal engagement distance for a lever-action rifle.

So, it's not that the lever-action rifle was not good, but that it was born in an era when the development of human weaponry was advancing rapidly.

In this period, the development of artillery was progressing rapidly, and ultimately, it only took a decade or so to completely crush the individual infantry rifle into scraps.

There's no helping it; the age of the cannon was ultimately coming. Automatic weapons also began to appear in conjunction with artillery, and the trench system was ultimately going to replace the traditional line formation. Everything was changing, and tactics were evolving with it.

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