Chapter 922

A faint scent of incense permeated the imperial study.

The map of Guandong in the imperial study hung silently on the wall, but the red dots marked by Xiao Ming seemed to grow larger and larger in the eyes of Niu Ben and Luo Quan.

Undoubtedly, this place would become the next powder keg of war, and this time they were facing a European power, and a nomadic tribe that was dead but unburied.

Having settled this matter, the three discussed the details of the war before the map.

In the opinion of the three, dealing with Tsarist Russia was actually not difficult. This was because the Great Yu Empire army’s firearms were already a step ahead of Tsarist Russia’s, and they were fighting on home ground, giving them a very clear advantage.

The only variable was the Golden Tent Khanate, which was lurking in the grasslands, waiting for an opportunity. These cavalry were still the real threat facing the Great Yu Empire. Moreover, the main force of Tsarist Russia’s eastward expansion was also made up of Cossack vanguards. Both they and the Golden Tent Khanate were nomadic peoples living on the grasslands.

After ten years of development, the Great Yu Empire had reached its current state. He was confident in the Great Yu Empire, but this confidence was not blind. In terms of cavalry, he admitted that they were inferior to the Golden Tent Khanate and the Cossacks.

But since cavalry was not his advantage, he had to crush the enemy’s advantage. And the weapon to crush this enemy advantage was the machine gun, which killed countless people in World War I.

Previously, he could only imagine this weapon of war, but now with electricity applied in Qingzhou, Qingzhou Province’s industry could completely leap forward, which gave him hope.

This industrial upgrade would give him the ability to manufacture more precise weapons.

After settling on the basic strategy, Xiao Ming dismissed Niu Ben and Luo Quan. He then focused on organizing 19th-century scientific and technological data. With electricity now available, he could fully unlock more technologies.

At the same time, with the increasing level of technology, the required technical knowledge also became more complex. With the advent of electricity, he needed to participate more deeply in industrial construction.

After ten years of effort, the Great Yu Empire’s industry had developed from nothing, and now had a complete foundation. It was now time to demonstrate the true advantages of the technology crystal. After all, previously, even if he wanted to implement the technologies within, he lacked the foundation, but now that was no longer a problem.

After a morning of busy work, Xiao Ming went to Bowen Academy in the afternoon.

In the two years he had been fighting, he had never stopped lecturing at Bowen Academy. Under his personal guidance, Bowen Academy had produced many technological talents in these two years. After graduating, these talents entered various industries of the Great Yu Empire, becoming technical backbones.

Among them, the elites entered various research laboratories, completing the technological tasks he assigned one by one. Overall, he was generally involved in overcoming the most cutting-edge technologies, and did not need to spend effort on ordinary technologies, because there were naturally others to do it.

Upon arriving at the academy, Xiao Ming looked at the people seated below: Lin Wentao, Lu Tong, Song Changping, Chen Qi, Zhang Liu, and others. Basically, the core personnel of the Great Yu Empire’s industry were all there.

Scanning the crowd, he went straight to the point and said, “Today, I want to talk to you about the manufacturing of metal bullets. Overall, the process of manufacturing metal bullets is very complex, requiring at least over a hundred steps. A single cartridge case alone requires twenty to thirty processes. Establishing a metal bullet production line is much more difficult than establishing a firearm production line. Therefore, the research and development of metal bullets by the military factory requires the concerted efforts of all of you.”

“Metal bullets.” Song Changping’s eyes lit up. Xiao Ming had mentioned this concept to him before, but it could not be achieved due to the lack of corresponding machinery.

Now that the Emperor brought it up, he saw hope.

Like Song Changping, everyone else’s expressions were also excited, because they knew very well that the production of metal bullets involved too many things, and they also needed to participate in it.

Xiao Ming noticed everyone’s expressions. He was very satisfied with Lin Wentao and the others’ tireless pursuit of knowledge. These years, perhaps the technology crystal’s influence on them was immense, but their own attitude was also extremely important.

It was precisely because of the combination of these two that they were able to surpass any scientific talent in Europe.

Nodding slightly, Xiao Ming activated the technology crystal. This was something he had to do before each lecture. This would allow them to remember the content he taught in more detail, and also to experience the production process and structure of a machine as if they were actually there.

In just ten short years, he had transformed the Great Yu Empire from a country with no industrial foundation to a level equivalent to the mid-to-late 18th century in contemporary times. The technology crystal was crucial.

Now, the advent of electricity would allow Xiao Ming to realize the technology in the technology crystal more easily, and this was why he was so excited after generating electricity.

“Overall, the structure of metallic cartridges is the same as paper cartridges, divided into four parts: bullet head, propellant, cartridge case, and primer. Naturally, bullet production also needs to start from these four aspects. Now, I will introduce you to the punching machine required for producing metal bullets.” Xiao Ming said slowly.

Due to the existence of the technology crystal, Xiao Ming had detailed knowledge of the essential machinery and processes for bullet production in his mind. It could be said that the production of metal bullets was a highly difficult task.

To produce metal bullets, the most basic item needed was a mechanical punch press, also called a stamping machine. The punch for metal bullet production had to use this.

Because the function of a mechanical punch press was for sheet metal. Through molds, the punch press could perform blanking, punching, forming, deep drawing, trimming, fine blanking, shaping, riveting, and extrusion. The primer part of the bullet, in particular, needed to be stamped and produced on copper sheets.

As Xiao Ming spoke, a clear image appeared in everyone’s minds: a flywheel driven by an electric motor, which, through a clutch and transmission gears, drove a crank connecting rod mechanism to make the slider move up and down.

In motion, copper plates were completed one by one by punching. Then the scene shifted, and they saw some precise molds. These molds were installed on complex lathes, and the different structures of bullets were continuously shaped by these complex lathes.

In one afternoon, Xiao Ming systematically introduced the entire bullet production process and assigned different tasks to different people.

Among them, Lu Tong was naturally responsible for primers and propellants. Lin Wentao was responsible for the production of punch presses and other machinery. Zhang Liu was responsible for mold manufacturing. Song Changping and Chen Qi collaborated with Lin Wentao to verify the caliber of the Great Yu Empire’s firearms and to confirm the fit between bullets and rifling.

“Your Majesty, are you really set on using steel casings for these metal bullets?”

After generally grasping the knowledge of metal bullets, Song Changping raised a question. From his understanding, copper casings had many more advantages.

“That’s right, steel casings. After all, the Great Yu Empire is not rich in copper,” Xiao Ming said regretfully. The Great Yu Empire was indeed not rich in copper, and he now needed to use copper for electricity.