Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 65 Military Industry Relies on Imitation

While Cardil Bruno was working tirelessly for Carlo's orders, Carlo, far away in Madrid, also ended his leisure life.

After a long wait, Carlo's Royal Arsenal was finally completed. It recruited some workers from Spanish weapons workshops and recruited a large number of rifle design experts from France, Italy and other countries.

Starting this year, rifles will enter a new era, the era of bolt-action rifles.

The bolt-action rifle would flourish until World War II, when it would be replaced by semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles.

As the main equipment of the Spanish army for the next hundred years, Carlo attached great importance to the research and development of the bolt-action rifle.

In fact, as early as last year, the Swiss had developed the first practical bolt-action rifle, named the Vitali rifle.

This rifle was not only purchased in large quantities by the Swiss army, but was also exported to Italy. This is all Carlo knows so far.

In addition to Italy, other countries are also constantly trying to research bolt-action rifles. In the next few years or decades, a large number of famous guns will continue to be born and will be used in many wars.

The first task Carlo gave to the Royal Arsenal was to go to Switzerland to purchase a batch of Vitali rifles, and design Spain's first bolt-action rifle based on the advantages of the Vitali rifles.

It is still very difficult for the Royal Arsenal to independently develop a bolt-action rifle. It is not that it cannot be developed, but that the developed bolt-action rifle will have many shortcomings, and the safety and stability cannot be guaranteed.

The rifle is the most important weapon for soldiers. If its safety and stability cannot be guaranteed, how can soldiers feel at ease taking such weapons to the battlefield?
Therefore, before independently developing our own bolt-action rifle, it is very necessary to learn the ideas of foreign military factories on bolt-action rifles and absorb their advantages.

At least the Swiss rifles have been approved by both Switzerland and Italy, so their safety and stability are guaranteed.

Now that he had come to the Royal Arsenal, Carlo would naturally not only deal with issues related to rifles.

Currently, there are two most important weapons in the army, namely rifles as light weapons and artillery as heavy weapons.

The good news is that after the Franco-Prussian War, Germany and France eliminated a large number of artillery.

It’s not that there is something wrong with these artillery pieces, but that Germany and France in peacetime do not need to be armed with so many cannons.

What should be done with these second-hand cannons that were only used in the Franco-Prussian War? Of course, they should be sold to other European countries at a lower price to reduce the huge amount of money invested by the country in the war.

Compared with French artillery, Carlo actually wanted to buy Prussian Krupp cannons.

The reason is simple. The Germans taught the French a lesson with Krupp cannons in the Franco-Prussian War. At present, the Germans are undoubtedly leading in artillery.

Although French artillery was at the highest level in Europe, it was slightly inferior to the more advanced Krupp cannon.

The current Royal Arsenal is divided into a rifle design group and an artillery design group.

Carlo also gave the artillery design team a new task, which was to go to Germany to purchase a batch of Krupp cannons and imitate them as much as possible to ensure that Spain had the technology to produce Krupp cannons.

It is more cost-effective to produce it yourself than to buy it from Germany, although Krupp's production volume is larger and the production cost may be lower.

However, the export of this kind of heavy firepower will be much more expensive, and it will not be more cost-effective than Spain producing it itself.

In addition, artillery is also a very important technology. In addition to being used in the army as an important firepower to support infantry, artillery can also be installed on warships, becoming the main firepower output method of warships.

The current artillery technology can only be considered to be in its infancy. Learning the German artillery technology can at least ensure that Spain will not lag behind other powers in terms of artillery.

The current mission of the entire Royal Arsenal is to purchase a batch of weapons and equipment from countries with excellent designs, and then continue to research and imitate these purchased weapons and equipment.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Although Carlo had invested a lot in the military factory, as a newly established military factory, it was difficult for it to have the ability to fully develop weapons independently.

Compared with independently developing and producing weapons, it is more cost-effective and more reliable to purchase excellent weapons and imitate them.

And there is no shame in imitating weapons because other countries do the same.

Even in later generations, when exporting one's own weapons, one must be prepared for the weapons to be extensively studied and imitated by other countries.

This is also the reason why there is a saying in weapons research that one generation is eliminated, one generation is exported, one generation is equipped, and one generation is developed.

Generally, more advanced weapons are not exported. Those that can be exported are those products that are almost obsolete in the country. The purpose is to exchange a certain amount of income to pave the way for the research and development of more powerful weapons.

After investing a new budget in the Royal Arsenal, Carlo could only hope that the factory would be able to quickly master the technology and imitate it after purchasing new rifles and cannons.

This may take several years, but the benefits will definitely outweigh the disadvantages. However, this is only the first step, and the task is still arduous for the Royal Arsenal.

Independently producing weapons and equipment is nothing to the great powers. What the Royal Arsenal needs to do in the future is to continuously research and develop new weapons and equipment, and always keep its weapons at the world's top level.

Among all of Carlo’s industries, the military factory is the most money-consuming one.

If it hadn't taken over more than a dozen factories, the income from those newspapers alone would not have been enough to support the military factories.

After all, those who can buy newspapers are not illiterate, and they must be able to understand the content of the newspaper first.

The illiteracy rate in Spain is as high as 70%, which is one of the reasons why newspapers cannot develop at present.

Fortunately, there are many nobles around Madrid, as well as factory owners, the middle class and some higher-income skilled workers, which allow Carlo's Sun to have stable daily sales.

Compared to the newspaper that has already reached a bottleneck period, the several steel factories in Carlo are undoubtedly more profitable.

Whether for the expansion of Spanish industry or to make his own wallet fatter, Carlo ordered the steel mills to continue to expand and increase steel production in the next few years.

Anyway, with the Royal United Bank as a financial guarantee, the expansion of these industries will basically not be a big problem as long as it is not too aggressive.

Expanding industry will not result in losses in Spain at present, because Spain's future development plans will involve a large amount of infrastructure construction, and the railway alone will ensure that steel mills will not lose money.

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(End of this chapter)