Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 113: Opening Arsenal

After half a year of torment, they successfully finished the wedding of Knyaz Ferdinand and Knyaginya Xenia in the Sofia Palace, which ended the wedding of the century.

Ferdinand, who was too busy to enjoy his 'happy' married life, put his energy into domestic projects.

In the 19th century, as human development changed rapidly, weapons and equipment were also changing forever. By the mid to late 19th century, front-loading weapons had gradually withdrawn from the world's mainstream and were replaced by breech-loading weapons!

Since the building of the Bulgarian Arsenal, for decades, weapons production lines have been adopted from Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, adequately made in all countries.

The Balkans has always been highly prone to war. Each country attaches great importance to the renewal of weapons. People are buying almost as long as the Great Powers have new technology installed, so the Balkans are also a kind of testing ground for new weapons of various countries.

Of course, Ottoman Turkish was an exception. The aristocratic lords were always slow to react. The breech-loading weapon became the standard in the Bulgarian army as early as 1885, after the period of the Bulgarian-Serbian War.

However, up to now, a large part of the Ottoman army was still equipped with front-loading rifles, not to mention artillery.

Perhaps the aristocratic lords feel that the older the weapons, the better it is, more in line with the heritage of their old empire!

In the Balkan Wars of 1912 on the space-time parallel, the front-loading rifle and artillery were present on the battlefield. It's nothing impossible to accept that they haven't changed now!

In order to unify the caliber of ammunition, they unified the whole army to change, and the military council has now made a lot of noise, making Ferdinand also have a headache.

After all, he is only an amateur military fan, although he knows that many weapons are famous in future years, after all, he just listened to the insights of the experts in future years! Whether this is involved in many personal feelings, how true it is, is a big question mark.

When it comes to weapons and equipment, anyone in the military council is much more professional than he is. At least from the first line troops come from, the parameters of weapons performance not described as backward, said out is also an eight or nine not far from it.

After all, it is best to be the most suitable. Ultimately, in this dispute, but also with the personal concepts of the military high command, there is no absolute right or wrong!!!

The German system is the world's leading army today. In the Franco-Prussian War, the excellent performance of the German army, together with German armaments, became the object of replication in the world, and the use of German armaments was the most widespread in the army equipment.

In contrast, Russian-made weapons, which have the benefit of being cheaper and more lightweight, simple to operate, and withstand the cold, have previously been the norm in the Balkan countries.

Another part favors a big blend, where the best matches of weapons are selected from the equipment of the world's great powers.

The last idea is good in theory, but there is a doubt about its feasibility. The compatibility of weapons is a serious problem, logistical pressure, and the literary demands on soldiers are very high!

It is a good reason that Bulgarians' level of basic education, which is ranked among the top in all of Europe, can meet these needs. As for the later problems, the big railroad and highway plans just solve the transport problem!

Of course, this is limited to defensive operations. If it is a cross-border operation, it will be tragic unless the logistics are mounted or hard enough!!!

At last, Ferdinand still vetoed the mass importation of weapons and decided to be self-reliant! First, get the finished product from the hands of the great powers, let the engineers copy, and then make their refit, or spend a lot of money to poach the talent from European countries, it would not be a waste of time.

It was already three years ago. It has been delayed until now, and the renewal of the equipment of the Bulgarian army!

The arsenal, which had burned money for several years in a row, finally made a stage to achieve a breakthrough after the engineers' relentless efforts.

As early as two years ago, the arsenal completed the dissembling of the rifle technology. Whether it is the German Mauser, the Russian Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant (Shui Lianzhu/China Version in Warlord Era), the British Lee-Metford, or the American Martini-Henry, etc., there is no pressure to imitate!

On this basis, the designers also developed a bold idea to design a rifle belonging to Bulgaria's own, which is simple to operate, resistant, and maintainable, and has been well received by the majority of officers and soldiers!

Of course, it looks slightly different in design and slightly lighter in weight, similar in performance to the Shui Lianzhu (which is its copy) was shamelessly named 'Bulgarian Model 1889 rifle' by Ferdinand!

Due to Ferdinand's foresight, once the Russian Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle was born, the secret service paid to get one, brought it back, and then quickly copied it by the arsenal. The result was that the Bulgarian Army had more priority in installing it than the Russian!

Of course, there are no more royalties. It can only be a clash of ideas! Ferdinand was too afraid to collect royalties anyway, although, in this day and age, weapons and equipment manufacturers don't take royalties seriously either!

For example, the Martini-Henry rifle: "All the rifles of the nineteenth century must look like me!"

Even if everyone imitated, no, borrowed his idea, there is none and have not seen a few give a royalty!

Like the Turkish Martini-Henry rifle, which used Henry breeching, there is no Henry on the rifle despite what the name implies, not to mention any royalties!!!

In fact, as early as 1874, after the Martini-Peabody rifle had begun production, Alexander Henry went to the United States to bargain with Providence to ask them to pay royalties but was refused. The Scotsman was angry and went home. And then there was no more.

So in the areas of weapons production, if you want to receive royalties, you can only hope that they will be the other party's saving grace!

Artillery technology has been a breakthrough, with the successful copying of the French M1897 75mm gun (commonly known as Mademoiselle Soixante-Quinze), which marks a breakthrough across the ages for Bulgaria in the field of rapid-fire artillery!

Don't get it wrong, the M1897 type gun, not that it was only born in 1897, but rather that it was listed. In fact, as early as 1891, the French began to design, when exactly how long they completed it, Ferdinand does not remember!

Ferdinand initially did not have the idea of doing it now. After all, it is still in the design! But two years ago, a Paris secret service agent, Legoff, accessed the design sketch of Mademoiselle Soixante-Quinze by accident. At that time, he did not bother to care, submitted it as ordinary information, and then passed it back to Bulgaria.

Ferdinand also ignored it and threw it directly into the arsenal. Still, he did not expect to attract the attention of the artillery designer Gustav. The latter thought it was a major breakthrough in the history of artillery and reported it to Ferdinand along the way.