Munitions Empire

If Tang Mo knew that in the distant Poplar Kingdom, a group of weapon designers had unwittingly headed down the wrong path, he would have been very amused.

After all, such a prank-like conclusion is quite laughable, and although he greatly admired their courage to strive and experiment, he naturally would not forget the large sum of money the Elf Race owed him.

This left him with little sympathy for the plight of the Poplar Kingdom, and he might even feel secretly pleased.

Unfortunately, he was not aware that the elves of the Poplar Kingdom were stitching together his two outdated weapons.

Because while the Poplar Kingdom was developing its own characteristic weapons, Tang Mo had not ceased advancing in the realm of weaponry.

Although he had allocated most of his steel to that colossal steel warship, the remaining steel still supported him in producing limited quantities of epoch-making automatic weapons.

This weapon was the legendary Maxim machine gun, also known as the harbinger of slaughter in World War I, the scythe of the Grim Reaper, the automatic typewriter of the King of Hell...

In any event, as soon as this weapon was introduced, it completely overturned the mode of warfare, sweeping traditional tactics into the historical rubbish bin.

The Maxim machine gun was designed by someone not particularly specialized in the field, whose name was Maxim, which was translated into Chinese as "Maxim" for the name of this heavy machine gun.

Before designing this weapon, he actually began working with mechanics through windmills, which on one hand proved his genius, and on the other, showed that the design of such a machine gun was not overly complex.

Indeed, the construction of this machine gun was not overly intricate, which led to it being rarely prone to malfunctions and convenient to repair.

Even the Great Qing Dynasty, a backward era by comparison, could replicate it, and even after a century, there were still ancient Maxim machine guns in operation, which all indirectly emphasized the simplicity and directness of this contraption.

The design concept of this weapon was simple, utilizing the waste gases generated by the firing of the ammunition as the power to drive the mechanism, completing the loading of a new bullet.

This energy allowed the firearm to cycle through its actions, thereby theoretically achieving automatic loading and firing of weapons, that is, true automation of weaponry!

In Tang Mo's Maxim factory, the simplest form of gas-operated machinery was produced and named the Propellant Blow-back System.

This automated firing mechanism's bolt was held tightly against a spring, without a locking lever or a bolt lock.

At the moment when the powder in the bullet casing was ignited, the bolt was still in a restricted state until the gas pressure in the chamber overcame the mass of the bolt, causing it to move rapidly backward, then cycling through a similar deceleration process as with recoil-operated firearms.

Clearly, mechanically speaking, this method was simpler than a recoil-operated system; therefore, the costs of manufacturing and maintenance were relatively lower, and it was also more convenient to produce and maintain.

In terms of delaying or hindering this blow-back system, there have been some successful attempts, the simplest of which required overcoming a mechanically established barrier before the bolt was released to cycle.

Maxim's automatic system featured a barrel locking device, similar to a bolt plug, which consisted of two interacting parts that were combined to work simultaneously, much like human joints.

After the barrel and bolt moved back a distance together, the plug "split apart" downward when passing over a cam surface on the receiver; from this position, the bolt acted independently on a helical spring that continued moving back under force, re-engaging the bolt plug and securing the position of the barrel and bolt on the machine gun after its return.

This action actually completed the loading of the bullet in two steps: one bullet was pulled from the cartridge belt by a bullet extractor, while at the same time, the spent cartridge was ejected from the chamber.

The edges of these bullets, both spent and unused, were caught in a vertical slot. Before the bolt began its forward strike, the bullet extractor moved downward, ejecting the spent cartridge and pulling out a new bullet to align it straight behind the chamber.

While loading the bullet, the bullet extractor returned to the upper position with its lower end now gripping the edge of the newly chambered bullet, locking the main parts, the barrel and the bolt.

In summary, this system was precise and efficient, providing the Maxim machine gun with continuous firing capability, only pausing when the heated barrel boiled the cooling water in front of it.

This intricate mechanical structure had already been produced in Tang Mo's factory and assembled together.

The weapon utilized the propellant gases emitted during firing to perform a series of actions—unlocking, ejecting the casing, feeding a new round, and relocking—achieving continuous automatic firing for a single-barrel gun and reducing its recoil.

When Tang Mo experimented with this new weapon, Luff and Redman finally came to a realization and understood why Tang Mo required all soldiers to learn to crawl.

Charging forward in regular steps in front of such a weapon is no different from seeking death itself, and forming squares in front of it is as good as choosing one's own demise.

It was only after seeing this weapon that everyone understood why Tang Mo so confidently claimed that if the enemy sent 20,000 men, it wouldn't be enough for him to kill.

Indeed, Shireck's Troops, not knowing of Tang Mo's superweapon, would probably lose a thousand men in a single charge if they continued with traditional attack methods.

Combined with artillery, once the enemy attacked Tang Mo's defensive line, they could pretty much abandon any expectation of victory. In the face of Tang Mo's weapons, begging for peace was the only way out.

Theoretically, this new weapon had only one drawback, which was its extreme consumption of bullets. Now, it was still a very difficult task for Tang Mo to produce a cartridge, yet this weapon could use up a platoon's reserve ammunition in just one minute!

Supplying such a weapon with horse-drawn wagons was a logistical nightmare, and even at the lowest demand, it was simply impossible to sustain the consumption of the Maxim with manpower and animal power.

Therefore, after developing this weapon, Tang Mo only produced a limited quantity, and he did not even equip his own troops on a large scale.

Really, there was no way around it. He simply couldn't afford it! Now, Tang Mo was much like the first time Li Hongzhang, a senior official from the Great Qing Dynasty, saw the Maxim, full of regret that production capacity was insufficient to play along.

Tang Mo's limited bullet production capacity, plus his desperate expansion of logistical supply units, only allowed his machine gun company near Brunas to barely qualify for using the Maxim.

In order to make these nearly perfect preset machine gun positions operational when the war arrived, Tang Mo even constructed roads leading to these positions.

These roads extended to less than 200 meters from the position, where a concealed armory for temporary ammunition storage was also constructed.

At the same time, Tang Mo had also dug trenches around these machine gun positions. After the outbreak of war, he could immediately deploy troops into these defensive positions to protect his machine gun emplacements, allowing his guns to slaughter the enemy more effectively.

"Now I finally understand why you dismissed lever-action rifles," Mathews said, filled with awe as he gazed at the third Maxim heavy machine gun that had just been assembled.

He had to be in awe, for he had fabricated a weapon that could truly fire continuously.

This was the dream of his lifetime, and Tang Mo had easily made it a reality. He had never dreamed that the waste gases produced by ammunition could be harnessed as the power for continuous firing!

Even more unimaginable to him was the fact that Tang Mo's automatic weapons featured an impressively mature feeding mechanism; just by continuously pushing the ammo belt into the side of the machine gun, it could almost sweep fire endlessly.

Who else could break through a defensive line guarded by such a weapon? It could slaughter a battalion of Soldiers in merely a few minutes!

Mathews had even naturally used the word "slaughter," because he felt facing these troops wasn't a battle; it was a massacre!

Moreover, after seeing and understanding this weapon, he immediately realized why Tang Mo kept expanding his ammunition production workshops.

Tang Mo had long known this thing was a monster that devoured lives, and was all too aware of how insatiable its hunger was. It devoured lives for energy, and bullets were its energy!

"Lever-action rifles are still pretty good, at least now I use one when I go hunting," Tang Mo said to Mathews with a smile.

In fact, Tang Mo had produced many lever-action rifles, some equipped his own guard, and others - the guards of the Northern Ridge Earl.

This weapon might not be so useful on the battlefield, but it was quite effective in close combat.

Especially in the well-maintained urban environment, where some elite units, using lever-action rifles, actually had no problem.

"I'm not worried about Shireck anymore, I even feel a bit worried for them," Mathews shook his head: "Honestly, I hope they realize their mistake soon and not send so many young men here to die."

"I hope so too," Tang Mo nodded earnestly in agreement: "I also hope that in the future when people bring up Brunas, they'll remember it as a fun place, not a graveyard for foreigners."

He sighed as if lamenting the future fate of the Shireck private army: "Sadly the cost of growth is just too heavy to bear..."