Jérôme Bonaparte turned to look at Logistics Director Niel and the Director of the Ordnance Department. On this issue, Jérôme Bonaparte did not want to impose his ideas on the War Department.
In the eyes of Jérôme Bonaparte, the effective (service) life of this big Napoleon cannon is only 7-8 years. It is entirely to meet France's "insufficient firepower" during the Crimean War.
As a stopgap measure, France's future development direction is not on expensive bronze smoothbore cannons.
But on top of the more durable large-caliber steel rifled gun, there is a breech gun with qualified air tightness.
Jerome Bonaparte has decided that after the end of Crimea, the French army will carry out a gradual replacement plan, and breech-loading guns will gradually replace front-loading guns.
If the French logistics department has not yet developed a suitable breech-loading gun, the worst possible outcome is to imitate some Dresser striker guns for the French army to use first.
Only if the French army uses breech-loading guns earlier can it summarize the formation of breech-loading guns earlier.
Otherwise, there will be a formation of holding breech-loading guns and using muzzle-loading guns, which will make people laugh.
If the War Department was unwilling to buy it because it was too expensive, Jérôme Bonaparte would naturally not force anything because it was his factory.
At worst, they could be secretly sold to Sardinia and Naples, but if that didn't work, slave owners in the New World on the other side of the ocean would also be a good choice.
As time goes by, the slave owners in the South will surely find that there is no possibility of reconciliation with the North.
When the time comes, we will inevitably seek outside assistance.
France will then be able to export Napoleon cannons to them.
As long as the southern slave owners were rich enough, they could achieve a more glorious record than in history.
It would be possible for General Robert E. Lee to march into Philadelphia.
Of course, all this is just a beautiful future imagined by Jérôme Bonaparte.
The most important thing at the moment is whether the War Department purchasing group is willing to pay for the Grand Napoleon Cannon.
After Niel thought for a moment, he subconsciously glanced at Jérôme Bonaparte.
"Don't worry about my opinion! If you think this will help the war, then feel free to buy it boldly!" Jérôme Bonaparte used words to relieve Niel's worries.
After Niel pondered again for a long time, he said: "Mr. Basilio, can you guarantee the delivery of 300 artillery pieces within three months?"
"This?" Basilio hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "If the Ministry of War is willing to assist me in overall planning, I can deliver 300 artillery pieces in March!"
"Yes! However, your company may have to authorize a group of artillery manufacturers!" Niel nodded and agreed to Basilio's request.
"No problem!" Basilio decisively agreed to Niel's conditions.
Afterwards, several people present personally tried firing before leaving the shooting test site.
Basilio and Niel, who returned to the Norinco headquarters park, signed a treaty to purchase Norinco's artillery under the witness of Jérôme Bonaparte.
The Ministry of War purchased a total of 1,200 12-pound field guns from Norinco, with the price of each field gun being 2,380 francs (Basilio cut the price again), for a total of 2.856 million francs.
Moreover, the first batch of 300 artillery pieces must meet within a month, and there can be no continuation.
Next, Niel signed an order with Basilio for 3 million francs for artillery peripherals, including standard custom flames, solid shells, grape bullets, etc.
This order of nearly 6 million francs is enough to support Norinco and all arsenals in the upstream and downstream industry chains of the industrial group.
"When the cannon goes off, there is ten thousand taels of gold!" Jérôme Bonaparte couldn't help but sigh as he watched the 6 million francs being completed under his nose.
The Crimean War has not yet begun, and tens of millions of francs have already been spent on the early stage mobilization alone.
Although these tens of millions of francs were the country's money, Jérôme Bonaparte still felt a little distressed.
However, Jérôme Bonaparte felt a little better when he thought about ensuring employment.
"Your Majesty, all our efforts will be repaid by Russia!" Niel comforted Jérôme Bonaparte.
"Yes!" Basilio also supported: "As long as the empire defeats the Russian Empire, then all our losses can be made up for!"
"I hope so!" Jérôme Bonaparte shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly.
Nières, who signed the agreement, did not stay too long. He hurriedly said goodbye to Jérôme Bonaparte. He immediately returned to the Ministry of War with the Director of the Ordnance Department, and informed Minister Couzin-Montauban of the purchase news.
Jerome Bonaparte showed no sign of wanting to leave. He ordered Basilio to call all the staff responsible for the development of artillery here, and he was going to hold a small meeting for them.
Basilio immediately started to take action, and within a short time, he found all the members of the artillery research and development team within the Norinco Group.
The members of the R&D team showed different expressions after seeing Jerome Bonaparte for the first time. Some of their faces were filled with joy, as if they were waiting for Jerome Bonaparte's praise;
The person felt a little uneasy, as if he had done something wrong.
Looking at the group of artillery "experts" in front of him, Jérôme Bonaparte showed a smile on his face, and he said kindly: "Everyone, I asked Basilio to call you over for no other reason! First of all,
Congratulations on winning the order from the Ministry of War with your excellent design!"
After saying this, Jerome Bonaparte applauded everyone present, and Basilio also quickly applauded when he saw this.
The faces of the R&D team members present showed proud expressions, and the emperor applauded them. This was something they could never imagine in their dreams.
After the applause ended, Jerome Bonaparte spoke again: "Although your design this time is very good, and the capabilities of the field artillery have been significantly improved compared to before, but you have ignored a big problem..."
Jerome Bonaparte paused and continued: "You have ignored the cost issue! It costs more than 2,500 francs to buy one artillery, more than 25,000 francs for 10 guns, and 250,000 francs for 100 guns. This kind of artillery only costs 2,500 francs.
Only a wealthy country like France can afford it! Your artillery must not only be used in France, but also exported to all over the world! How many people are willing to spend 2,500 francs to buy this thing!"
Speaking of this, the members of the R&D team present lowered their heads and thought.
"Of course, I understand! Bronze itself is of high quality, and the cost of casting one piece is likely to be more than 2,000 francs!" Jerome Bonaparte did not criticize blindly, but said from their perspective: "So I
I hope you can use other materials, such as steel, whose price has dropped now, as materials for artillery!"
One of the R&D personnel immediately understood what Jérôme Bonaparte meant, and he quickly asked: "Your Majesty, do you want us to make a cannon that can be fired from the breech?"
"That's right!" Jérôme Bonaparte nodded to the R&D staff and said: "It is more time-saving to fire shells from the breech than from the front. The barrel made of steel can be added with rifling to make it more durable.
Stable ability.”
"However, there is a certain airtightness problem with the breech-fired shells!" the developer replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Both breech-loading guns and breech-loading guns of this era have hidden dangers of air tightness. If these problems are not solved, there will be no way to produce qualified artillery.
Regarding this problem of R&D personnel, Jerome Bonaparte naturally had a strategy to deal with it.
"Can we add a breech block to the tail of the breech-loading gun!" Jérôme Bonaparte said thoughtfully.
"Block?" The R&D personnel looked at Jérôme Bonaparte in confusion.
"That's right! The breech allows the entire artillery to form a closed environment when it is fired, reducing gas leakage!" Jérôme Bonaparte said to the research and development personnel present, and then asked Basili beside him
Ao found a blank piece of paper and pen for him.
Basilio quickly found paper and pen for Jerome Bonaparte.
Under everyone's gaze, Jérôme Bonaparte recalled the wedge-type breech block of the Krupp C73 artillery he had seen on a forum in his previous life.
As an artillery enthusiast at that time, he also made a small model of the C73 Krupp gun according to the artillery drawings.
It can be said that the original wedge-type breech block of the C73 artillery has been deeply engraved in his soul.
While Jerome Bonaparte was thinking about what the C73 breech block looked like when he was assembling a model in his previous life, he hung various structural diagrams of the C73 breech block on paper.
The surrounding R&D personnel did not even dare to take a breath, staring intently at Jérôme Bonaparte's drawings.
Jérôme Bonaparte thought about it while drawing, and it took him more than an hour to finally copy the most essential wedge-type breech block of the Krupp cannon from his mind.
"That's right! That's it!" Jérôme Bonaparte looked at the draft-like sectional view of the wedge breech block in his hand and the composition diagram of each department and nodded with satisfaction. This was all he could do, and the rest needed to be handed over to
That's it for professionals like them.
The research and development personnel present looked at the wedge-shaped breech block diagram in Jérôme Bonaparte's hand as if they were possessed. They could not believe that a politician who governed the country knew more about artillery than they did.
Their pride as artillery developers was ruthlessly defeated by Jérôme Bonaparte.
"How is it? Is it feasible?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked the R&D personnel present.
None of the researchers present spoke. Their eyes were still fixed on the wedge breech block, as if every structure of the wedge breech block was imprinted in their minds.