Munitions Empire

"I’ve never seen such parts before; they look very complex, and the requirements seem a bit too demanding," Mathews said, looking at the drawings Tang Mo handed him, his brow furrowed and his voice resonant. "To handcraft these parts, it would take several days."

Seeing Tang Mo’s drawings again, he even began to deeply doubt his own skills: Had he strayed too far from mainstream industrial production, to the point of not understanding anything at all?

Watching Dwarf Mathews looking somewhat perplexed, Tang Mo rubbed his sore eyes and said, somewhat wearily, "I need you to make this as soon as possible because we’ll need to use it very soon."

He had spent the previous night drawing under the damned gaslight until his eyes ached. The lighting in this era was truly dreadful, and Tang Mo’s chair was nothing like the comfort of an ergonomic chair.

But his efforts were not in vain; on the contrary, he had achieved a lot—the dozens of drawings were complete, and today they had been distributed to the workers below.

The most difficult piece among them was the one prepared for Mathews, who needed to exhibit his superb skills to create it.

Unfortunately, Mathews was clearly not one of those workers who had gotten used to Tang Mo’s methods. He was more like a scholar who liked to clarify things he didn’t understand immediately.

Moreover, he was a highly capable, experienced worker who possessed manufacturing experience that Tang Mo could not match. His experience had even reached the point where it could compensate for his own lack of insight, which Tang Mo found somewhat terrifying.

Yesterday, Mathews understood the working principle of a small machine tool that Tang Mo had improved at a glance and guessed the working precision of this man-powered machine tool.

Then, he helped Tang Mo make two small parts, which improved the machining precision of the machine tool a bit more. In Tang Mo’s eyes, this was all skill, the capability that the talent he desperately needed should have!

Sure enough, after scrutinizing the drawings in his hands once more, Mathews offered his opinion, "No problem from my end, but if you intend to install a torsion bar here, you should increase the thickness of the stressed part a bit more."

"Are you afraid it’s going to break?" Tang Mo blinked, staring at Mathews curiously—the drawings were copied down from the ones in his mind, and the design should have had no flaws.

However, at that moment, Mathews nodded. He pointed to the part on the drawing and told Tang Mo, "The existing materials are not up to standard, sir. Your design is very innovative, but I doubt our iron resources can meet the design specifications."

"Can you tell the specific purpose of what I’ve designed?" This time, it was Tang Mo’s turn to be surprised, because he hadn’t yet told Mathews what the part was for.

"It’s just a linkage device, sir. I’m not a fool! However, I am puzzled about what you plan to use to drive such a... heavy part," Mathews asked, seemingly unconcerned.

"I like you! Mathews! I like you! Hahaha!" Upon hearing Mathews’s question, Tang Mo was first taken aback, then suddenly burst into uproarious laughter, patting Mathews’s shoulder as if he were patting an ASML lithography machine jubilantly.

Mathews looked quite annoyed at Tang Mo patting his shoulder, and somewhat dissatisfiedly reminded him, "You still haven’t shown me your needle-fire gun, sir."

One of the reasons he left Northern Ridge and came here was to see the new type of rifle that Lord Earl had mentioned.

But until now, he still had not seen that kind of rifle—Tang Mo had only made ten K1 Quick Guns, and three were left in Northern Ridge when he brought them there.

The remaining seven K1 Quick Guns were given to the departing caravan, allowing Lord Earl’s troops who had departed to bring them back to Northern Ridge.

So, there are only ten K1 Quick Guns in the world now, and all are in Northern Ridge. Therefore, Tang Mo truly didn’t have a spare rifle to satisfy the curiosity of the Dwarf artisan before him.

Tang Mo smiled awkwardly, withdrew his hand, and finally told Mathews, "Come on then! Since I can’t show you the actual new rifle, I ought to at least show you the drawings, right?"

"Alright, but I’d still prefer to see the real thing... I’ve seen too many drawings in my lifetime..." Mathews rolled up the drawing he was holding into a tube, held it in his hand, and followed behind Tang Mo to where Tang Mo worked.

The tools he had used for drawing the previous night were still messily left on the table, with some finished drawings scattered beneath these tools. Tang Mo had been working all night, and after just going out to distribute the drawings, he didn’t have time to tidy up his own desk.

Dwarf Mathews glanced at the drawings on the table and didn’t comment—truth be told, he had never seen such complicated steam engine structures, so for a moment, he couldn’t guess what Tang Mo was aiming to make.

Tang Mo twisted his neck a couple of times, then went behind the table, opened a drawer, and took out several finished drawings.

He spread out these blueprints and laid them on the table, gesturing for Mathews to come over and take a look for himself. Mathews didn’t stand on ceremony and walked over to the table to carefully examine Tang Mo’s blueprints.

"Exquisite design... not complicated at all, I even think this thing is very mature," Mathews was quickly drawn to the blueprints, staring at the lines on the paper, imagining just how beautiful the real K1 Quick Gun must be.

"Actually, the design of these things isn’t the difficult part, the difficulty lies here," Mathews quickly discovered the trick, pointing to the real core technology of the pin-fire gun as he spoke to Tang Mo.

He was pointing to the place where the gun’s firing pin pierced the cap, "This little device can ignite the gunpowder, it’s the foundation of the new rifle’s design! You’ve actually created such a small ignition device! Incredible!"

As the saying goes, laymen watch the show while experts examine the technique, and Mathews had recognized at first glance that Tang Mo’s entire firearm design revolved around the new fulminate of mercury ignition device.

Indeed, it was precisely because of this reliable ignition device that a series of individual weapon firearms could break free from the constraints of flintlock guns and evolve into a truly modern shape!

Of course, the current caps, or rather the fulminate of mercury that formed their main body, were not the ultimate solution. There would be more alternatives later on that were safer, more reliable, more efficient, and more powerful.

"I’ve taken a look at your workshop, and in fact, apart from this new design, you virtually have nothing," Mathews said without lifting his head from the blueprints as he spoke to Tang Mo, "I even doubted for a moment that you had deceived Lord Earl."

"Unfortunately, I haven’t deceived Lord Earl," Tang Mo knew Mathews was right; if he hadn’t really had the ability to create the K1 Quick Gun, it would have been an utter scam.

Of course, the main reason Lord Earl fell for it was that he did produce a weapon like the K1 Quick Gun—nobody is a fool, nobody would be easily deceived.

Mathews nodded in agreement with what Tang Mo had said, but he continued speaking, making Tang Mo blush a bit, "I know, I’ve seen your people manufacturing these new bullets, but actually, the production speed isn’t very good."

"Compared to Shireck’s gun workshop, you have no advantage here... tell me, do you really think you have even a one in ten thousand chance of winning?" Mathews looked up at Tang Mo and asked earnestly, word by word.

"If you can help me manufacture these parts, I think I have a chance, a big one," Tang Mo pressed his hands against the blueprints and said to Marcus, "Believe me, it’s not one in ten thousand, but a hundred percent!"

Mathews stared into Tang Mo’s eyes, unyielding, "If you want to convince me, then you’re going to have to show some real skill."

In the end, Tang Mo decided to reveal his secret weapon to Mathews, after all, Wes had already seen it.

He had already decided to get himself a better handgun for protection as soon as possible, but designing a new Left-Wheel Handgun also required the help of the man in front of him, Mathews.

So he sighed, pulled out the Left-Wheel Handgun in its holster from the drawer, "All right then! Come with me! I hope you’ll stay, Mathews. I need someone like you, very much so."

"If you really show me something that astounds me, I’ll stay up all night to help you make the parts!" said Mathews, following Tang Mo to the modestly sized shooting range.

Tang Mo stood at his usual firing spot, drew the Left-Wheel Handgun from its holster, then from a small pocket on the outside of the holster, he poured out several small primer caps.

He fitted each primer cap into its corresponding position, placing the Left-Wheel Handgun into a ready-to-fire state.

Mathews knew this was the special ignition device Tang Mo had developed. If this device was real, then everything Tang Mo had said could be possible.

So he watched in silence as Tang Mo fitted the caps onto the rear of the cylinder, then waited for Tang Mo to lift the handgun, aiming at the distant target.

"Bang!" Tang Mo pulled the trigger, a puff of white smoke erupted from the barrel, and the bullet hit the target about 15 paces away.

Tang Mo did not lower the handgun, but maintained his shooting pose, pulled the trigger again, the cylinder rotated following his movement, and simultaneously, the hammer swung back. And then, the device at its furthest position from the primer cap suddenly broke free of restraint, slamming forward rapidly.

"Bang!" Another gunshot resonated over the shooting range, Mathews opened his eyes wide, and without realizing it, his hands, applying force, had crumpled the rolled-up blueprints into a wrinkled tube.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" Tang Mo didn’t lower the handgun, but continued to fire, the sound of gunshots unceasing, as if knocking on the doors of history.

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