Struggle in Russia

Prince Mikhail’s mansion naturally has no shortage of gardens. In fact, his garden is so large that it can’t be seen at a glance. Under the nourishment of hot spring water, even if it is more than 20 degrees below zero, the flowers and trees are still full of vitality. .

In just a few minutes, the butler had already set up several half-body targets. It seemed that Duke Mikhail would sometimes test the gun in his garden.

"I like to hear gunshots and the smell of gunpowder smoke!" Prince Mikhail explained with a smile, "It prevents me from forgetting how to fight. The comfortable St. Petersburg is not suitable for soldiers like us!"

Standing at a distance of a hundred yards from the target, Prince Mikhail was fiddling with his rifle, skillfully installing the flint, loading the ammunition and stabbing it tightly, much faster and more efficiently than many ordinary veterans.

"Fitting a good gun is the foundation of a good soldier!" Prince Mikhail pointed his gun at the same time and said, "It's not so comfortable on the battlefield, the sound of guns and cannons, bullets and shells flying in front of you, blood Splattering and screaming, if you can't adapt, you won't be able to do the most basic reloading!"

boom!

The flint struck the ignited powder, and a cloud of black smoke burst from the barrel, followed by flames and a piercing bang.

But these didn't disturb Duke Mikhail at all, he locked the gun body firmly like a rock, and the huge recoil didn't make him feel a little shaken.

Prince Mikhail's marksmanship was very good, and he hit the upper edge of the target at a distance of one hundred yards. That's pretty impressive for a musket. Generally speaking, it is impossible to speak of the tatters of more than 50 meters.

"Your marksmanship and spear are very good!" Li Xiao praised sincerely.

Duke Mikhail laughed, and said: "Indeed, if I use our country's standard rifles, I am not sure that each shot can hit the target at such a distance. Those broken... rifles have not been maintained so carefully by me. "

Everyone, including Leonid, could hear it. In fact, what Duke Mikhail originally wanted to say was rags. The problem with Russian standard rifles is not just about maintenance. Basically, it can be said that Russian weapons are crude antiques, and a considerable part of them are still in stock in 1812, when they greeted Napoleon cordially.

Anyway, these junk things are okay to scare the sick man in Turkey, but it seems powerless to deal with the British and French powers.

"Let me see the gift you brought!" Prince Mikhail diverted from this somewhat embarrassing topic, rubbing his hands eagerly.

Li Xiao gave up his seat and signaled Boris to come and demonstrate. Among the four of them, Boris and Leonid had the best marksmanship. Obviously, Leonid belonged to the half-master on this occasion, so it was not suitable for a demonstration in person.

The long box was opened, and the rifle inside made Grand Duke Mikhail a little dazed. It wasn't that this weapon caught his eye, but that this weapon was so common.

Grand Duke Mikhail asked with some doubts: "Isn't this our standard rifle?"

"Yes, but not!" Li Xiao explained confidently, "You can also see that this is an improvement on our army's standard rifle! Boria, please demonstrate it for the Duke!"

Boris responded, quickly picked up the rifle, pointed at the muzzle and said, "The biggest problem with smoothbore guns is that their accuracy is really limited. Salvo tactics must be used to ensure the hit rate. To be honest, the limitations are too great..."

Prince Mikhail stretched his neck and glanced at the muzzle of the gun, and said in surprise: "You guys processed the barrel of the gun?!"

Before Li Xiao and Boris could answer, Prince Mikhail curled his lips and said, "But the rifle is not easy to use! It's too troublesome and slow to reload!"

Yes, don't think that rifled guns appeared very late. Rifled guns actually came out in the 16th century. The desire for precision is eternal, and private gunsmiths discovered rifling very early on.

In the eighteenth century, there were standard rifled guns in the British and French armies, and they were used by hunting soldiers as long-range precision rifles.

But the rifled guns of this era are very troublesome to load. Like smoothbore guns, gunpowder and projectiles have to be loaded from the muzzle in sequence. And because of the existence of the rifling, the loading of the projectile is very troublesome. It is necessary to use a hammer and a cleaning rod to knock the projectile in. The slow loading speed is impressive.

Moreover, this extremely complicated operation is not suitable for ordinary soldiers who are illiterate. These guys can't even handle muskets well, and they always make mistakes in the loading order on the extremely tense battlefield, and they will first load the bullets and then the gunpowder.

It is said that the highest record of this kind is that 20 rounds of unfired projectiles were found in a barrel, which can be called a miracle.

The front-loading rifled gun is probably even more unfriendly, slow and difficult to load, and has a lower error tolerance rate. Anyway, based on his rich military experience, Duke Mikhail did not take rifled guns seriously. To be honest, he is now beginning to be disappointed, feeling that he thinks too highly of these young people.

However, Li Xiao was not affected at all, and he was still full of confidence: "The old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifle is naturally very troublesome, but the one I gave you is not that kind of junk!"

Li Xiao deliberately accentuated the rags, obviously he was also teasing Duke Mikhail. But the Duke didn't care, on the contrary, he became interested in Li Xiao's next introduction, because Li Xiao said:

"It's not a muzzle-loading weapon, I converted it into a breech-loading rapid-fire weapon."

Under Li Xiao's signal, Boris showed the second half of the rifle in front of Duke Mikhail. The rear of the rifle was completely different from the service rifle, the final barrel was sawed off and replaced with a completely new firing and loading and locking mechanism.

Toggle a button, the lock is released, and the rear half of the barrel is lifted open for easy reloading. After reloading, close the latch and fire again.

The novelty of the rifle immediately attracted Grand Duke Mikhail's attention, and he kept opening and closing the loading mechanism like a child who just got a new toy.

"Let's try!"

After loading a round of ammunition according to Boris' instructions, Grand Duke Mikhail couldn't wait to aim at the target and pull the trigger.

With a bang, amidst the flames and smoke, he could vaguely see that the shot was very accurate, unlike his previous shot that would hit the target, this shot hit the center of the target. Blast a hole in the veneer.

"marvelous!"

Grand Duke Mikhail couldn't help but sighed in admiration, took another bullet without explanation, reloaded it after unlocking it, and then fired quickly, hitting the target again without accident!