Chapter 452 The Great Attempt - Smokeless Gunpowder
Jérôme Bonaparte relied on his advantage of being the only traveler in this time and space and understanding the development trend of future wars to reorganize the Rifle Research Institute.
Led by the Mauser family (the main members Paul Mauser and Wilhelm Mauser), let's call them members of the Oberndorf faction, they continued to research bolt-action rifles (Jérôme Bonaparte decided that the research direction would be the company)
Bolt-action breech-loading gun) and metal fixed-loading ammunition.
Members of the local faction headed by Alfonso Xacepo changed their research topics and devoted all their efforts to researching multi-barreled rapid-fire weapons.
There are advantages and disadvantages to such grouping. The advantage is that it helps to cultivate a sense of competition between groups and speed up the research process. The disadvantage is naturally related to competition. If the competition between two groups is too strong, it is easy to stimulate conflicts between the two groups.
conflicts, thereby slowing down the progress of research.
Therefore, Jerome Bonaparte also deliberately set a red line to allow healthy competition between the two groups. If any member of the group dared to use dirty tricks or stumble, Jerome Bonaparte would
Invite him to take a seat at the West Ice House Hotel under the Aircraft Maintenance Command (during the construction of the Aircraft Maintenance Headquarters, the West Ice House Hotel was also introduced to France).
Jérôme Bonaparte's calm face, coupled with his cold words, sounded an alarm in the hearts of the staff in the institute. No one dared to disobey a monarch who spoke of the Constitution of Heaven.
"Please rest assured that I will strictly supervise them to prevent them from doing something extraordinary!" Anderson Mauser assured Jérôme Bonaparte.
"That's good!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded and said to Anderson Mauser: "I don't want any of you to cause friction because of a trivial matter, thus affecting the progress of the entire team!"
Later, Jérôme Bonaparte once again encouraged everyone in the institute and assured them that everything they did would be generously rewarded.
Accompanied by Anderson Mauser, Jerome Bonaparte left the institute.
Although it was already the cold winter season, the weather was unusually hot. The sun at three o'clock at noon shone through the thin, continuous light white clouds on the earth. Jérôme Bonaparte and Anderson Mauser
The two of them were walking on the cement road under the scorching sun. The coats that originally protected them from the cold had now become "sweating agents." Beads of sweat as big as soybeans slipped from their temples to their cheeks, and their cheeks and ears were covered under the rays of the sun.
A layer of crimson.
Jerome Bonaparte and Anderson Mauser kept walking along the concrete road until they reached a crossroads. Jerome Bonaparte stopped and said to Anderson Mauser: "Just
Send it here!"
"Yes! Your Majesty!" Anderson Mauser bowed slightly to Jerome Bonaparte, then turned and left.
Jerome Bonaparte stood alone at the crossroads, seemingly waiting for someone. Ten minutes later, the person he was waiting for appeared on the road to the left of Jerome Bonaparte—
—Basilio.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being late!" Basilio bowed to Jerome Bonaparte and apologized for being late.
"Nothing!" Jérôme Bonaparte smiled and responded lightly: "Everyone will get entangled in various trivial matters and miss appointments. By the way, where is Professor Wu Ci's laboratory?
I didn’t see Wu Ci’s laboratory along the way!”
"Your Majesty, please come with me!" Basilio immediately responded to Jerome Bonaparte.
Basilio and Jérôme Bonaparte first set off westward, then moved northward after reaching the second crossroads, and soon arrived in front of a house.
This is a two-story small villa, an independent residence located in the northwest supervisory area of the North Industrial Park, away from the employee residential area.
The owner of this villa is Professor Wu Ci who discovered methylamine.
Just when Jérôme Bonaparte and Basilio were about to step through the door of the villa and enter the interior of the villa, a deafening explosion came from inside the villa.
The expressions of Jerome Bonaparte and Basilio suddenly changed, and Basilio immediately escorted Jerome Bonaparte behind them.
"Quick! Go in and save people!" Upon seeing this, Jérôme Bonaparte pushed Basilio away and ran straight into the villa.
No one knew better than him what the explosion represented.
Basilio, who saw Jérôme Bonaparte put aside his wealth and entered the villa, could only follow Jérôme Bonaparte into the villa.
When Jérôme Bonaparte and Basilio stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor, a choking smell caused by the explosion of gunpowder floated from the second floor to the first floor.
Upon seeing this, Jérôme Bonaparte and Basilio immediately ran up and soon arrived at the laboratory corridor. The two people standing in the corridor immediately saw the black smoke wafting from the laboratory.
"Quick!" Jerome Bonaparte ran into the laboratory.
At this time, the laboratory was in a mess, and the smell of gunpowder and burnt feathers filled the laboratory.
In the laboratory, Dr. Wu Ci was hurriedly waving his clothes in an attempt to extinguish the flames caused by the new explosion.
Upon seeing this, Jérôme Bonaparte and Basilio also took off their clothes to help Dr. Wu Ci put out the flames.
After five minutes of "torturing", the three finally put out the flames completely.
However, the faces of the three people were inevitably blackened by the thick smoke.
The three people who had completely extinguished the gunpowder slumped on the ground gasping for breath. After a while, Jérôme Bonaparte became concerned about Professor Wu Ci's physical condition. He turned his head and asked with concern.
Said: "Professor Wu Ci, are you okay? The explosion just now didn't hurt you, right?"
"Thanks to God's blessing! There is nothing serious about my body!" Wu Ci responded to Jérôme Bonaparte while tilting his body back to face the sky, supporting the ground with his hands and breathing heavily.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Jérôme Bonaparte breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Professor Wu Ci was fine.
After a short rest, the three stood up again. Looking at the devastated laboratory in front of them, Wu Ci shook his head with lingering fear and said: "Alas! I still underestimated the instability and power of nitrocellulose!"
"Everything has two sides! Nitrocellulose is like an untamed beast. A little carelessness will cause huge harm to the people who study it!" Jerome Bonaparte also lamented.
He said something, and then changed the topic: "However, the more ferocious this beast is, the more it proves the value of its own existence! I believe that as long as we can tame this crazy beast, then we will usher in a new era."
era!"
"Yes!" Dr. Wu Ci wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand and said excitedly: "If we can use this energy, which is more powerful than black gunpowder, to cut mountains and roads on buildings, it will definitely be possible.
You can do twice the result with half the effort.”
"That's right!" Jérôme Bonaparte echoed.
However, Jérôme Bonaparte did not have the idea of contributing to architecture like Dr. Wu Ci. He was willing to work on nitrocellulose for only one purpose, and that was to find smokeless gunpowder in the shortest possible time, even if
At the expense of some people's lives.
From paper-cased fixed-loading ammunition to metal fixed-loading ammunition is a project of accumulation of quantitative changes, and from black powder to smokeless powder is also the result of qualitative changes.
In the original time and space, the Maxim heavy machine gun, which was originally called useless, immediately became the darling of the times after the invention of smokeless gunpowder, and later became the famous widow maker in the First World War.
By.
It can be said that smokeless gunpowder created a large number of weapons such as Maxim, making the war an assembly-line massacre when the national strength of both sides was equal.
"Your Majesty, the purpose of your ordering me to study nitrocellulose is really to benefit France as a whole, rather than to let it serve the war?" Just when Jérôme Bonaparte was thinking about the application of smokeless gunpowder in war,
Wu Ci's voice reached Jerome Bonaparte's ears and brought Jerome Bonaparte back to reality.
Seeing the professor in front of him who was about the same age as him (Wu Ci was 36 years old and Jérôme Bonaparte was 31 years old) asking seriously, Jerome Bonaparte touched his nose and fell into silence.
I don’t want to deceive Wu Ci, but I also can’t bluntly say that nitrocellulose is for war.
Indeed, Jérôme Bonaparte's silence represented acquiescence in the eyes of Dr. Wu Ci.
"Your Majesty, I am very glad that you can tell me this frankly! If my invention can save French soldiers from dying and prevent my motherland from being invaded by the Tsar, then I am willing to do my best in my life to use it
Develop it!" Professor Wu Ci responded to Jérôme Bonaparte from the perspective of a simple patriot.
"Professor Wu Ci, nitrocellulose is like a sharp blade. You can use it to defend yourself, and you can also use it to kill people! A knife is a knife. There is no such thing as justice or evil. The key is what kind of person the knife wielder is.
mentality to use this knife! I am a patriot like you, and my dream is to make France great again! Let every Frenchman involuntarily hold up his chest when he says "I am French"!
From 1815 to now, we have lost too many things, the dignity of the nation, the dignity of the country, and the glory of the army! I must try my best to get back everything France has lost!
I hope that my soldiers can use more powerful weapons to dedicate themselves to the country, instead of having to risk a hail of bullets to charge." Jérôme Bonaparte did not deny his "simple" values as an imperialist, and at the same time