The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 122: Successful Development of the Firearm

Upon hearing Arthur’s words, Benson and Disel finally nodded assuringly, having dissolved their prior worries.

Funds were not a concern, they just hoped that their jointly invented car would go global, allowing them to leave a mark in automobile history – this was their wish too in scientific research.

A genuine scientist wasn’t simply a matter of contributing to humanity and the world while also allowing their name to last through the ages, ensuring they’d be remembered by all?

This was the case with Benson and Disel. They didn’t care about their self- interest and funds, what they cared about was whether they could produce results and whether their research career would be left without regret.

Moreover, Arthur still held the majority of stocks in the automobile factory, so after giving up a portion of the profits, the biggest loss would naturally be his.

The interest of Arthur himself were disregarded, what then would be the worry for Benson?

Anyway, the normal research funds would be provided by Arthur, and with his net-worth reaching hundreds of thousands of pounds, Benson had nothing to worry about.

Even though they had to share their technology, the inventors and owners of the technology were still Benson and Disel.

As long as the core technology of the car remained in their hands, Benson had no problems at all.

Upon his return from the Benz Car Factory, Arthur was planning for when to send delegates to the United Kingdom and Germany to negotiate directly with the local noble forces, or even the royal family about the joint car factories.

Unexpectedly, other matters came up, that being experts from the military factory in conjunction with German experts. After more than six months, they had completely grasped the technology of the M1897 automatic artillery and had independently replicated two firearms, awaiting Arthur’s inspection.

The M1897 automatic artillery was one of the best performing firearms in this era, and also one of the main firearms equipped by the Australian Army.

Being able to master and successfully replicate the M1897 automatic artillery was good news for both the German Empire and Australia.

After all, these were French creations and were also the main firearms of France. Germany being able to grasp its performance and data would be helpful for future wars.

There was no need to say much about Australia; this would become the second firearm with automatic technology mastered by Australia, and be much more potent than the CA-1 machine gun.

The CA-i machine gun was mainly used to damage soldiers and armies, and could only pose a threat to defence sites and facilities that were relatively weak.

For those fortresses reinforced with steel and concrete, the power of the CA-1 machine gun was pitifully small. Even hundreds of artillery bombardments would hardly shake a solid fortress.

The M1897 automatic artillery could make up for this shortcoming to a certain degree, causing wider and more potent damage.

Of course, the real solution to these solid fortresses was large-caliber howitzers and giant firearms produced by Germany.

Whilst these firearms weren’t good looking in terms of accuracy, they were very effective in actual potency. Unless the fortress had uncommonly strong defences, they could effectively destroy others.

Upon receiving the news, Arthur went by car to the military factory, intending to see the potency of the replicated firearms for himself.

At the entrance to the military factory, Australian and German experts were standing in two lines, having waited for a while.

The Australian experts all wore eager expressions, and the German experts also wore full smiles. Clearly, they were satisfied with the successful replication of the firearm.

After chatting briefly, Arthur led everyone to the barren hill behind the military factory.

This large mountain range had been designated as the range of the military factory, and its actual function was to test the potency and performance of the weapons produced by the military factory.

Of course, to ensure that no accidents would occur, the barren hills were patrolled before each experiment to ensure no Australians were hiding within.

As for the wild animals on the mountain, they couldn’t be managed. Anyway, Australia was sparsely populated, with abundant wildlife.

In the temporary gun position, a total of three guns stood silently on the battlefield.

In the middle was the original M1897 automatic artillery, and the two replicated versions were on either side.

An Australian expert introduced, “Your Highness, the two replicas we have created are identical to the original M1897 artillery in both appearance and all designs. Even the two types of ammunition that come with the gun, the 5.3 kg high-explosive shell and the 7.24 kg fragmentation shell have been replicated. Currently, the potency of both types of replicated shells is roughly the same, and as long as there are no issues with our replicated gunfire, we can begin production formally.”

Arthur nodded, and asked, “Has the experiment been prepared? If it’s ready, let’s begin!”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The gunners stepped forward and began to operate the gun expertly.

From their proficiency level, it was clear that before this experiment, they had thoroughly understood the operation of this gun, thus avoiding unexpected accidents from happening.

With a command, the three guns fired together, maintaining a relative balance in the artilleryman’s loading speed, frequency of shell loading, and artillery firing.

This was rare for replicated weapons, as they often resulted in performance differences, especially the first generation of replicas.

Seeing that the two far-reaching guns replicated in the military factory had the same firing frequency as the M1897 gun, it was enough to see how successful this replication was.

Arthur wouldn’t attribute this entirely to Australian experts. Even with the participation of Australian experts, at least more than half was the result of German experts.

“This is unbelievable, the replicated guns and the original guns are almost the same. You did a great job!” Arthur said to all the military’s research personnel.

“Whether it’s Australian or German research experts, your contribution to Australia has been huge. Naturally, the royal family will not let your merit go unrewarded. Later, each of you will receive a cheque from the Australian Royal Bank as a reward for your hard work over the past six months,” Arthur said with a smile.

The amount of money used to receive the good feelings of all experts and the complete M1987 automatic artillery technology would make this trade a good deal no matter how one saw it.

Moreover, Australia would directly master the production technology of this gun, which would be much quicker than researching production methods with their own technology.

Hearing Arthur’s words, smiles reappeared on everyone’s faces.

Although everyone was a researcher, money that was given for free wouldn’t be rejected. Besides, as the Duke of Australia, Arthur’s reward wouldn’t be small.

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