North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 113 I Don't Mind Twisting Off My Head with My Own Hands! (5,000 words)

That night, Lieutenant Colonel Walton and four officers had an absolutely wonderful night!

The meticulous and warm hospitality shown to them by Huamei Industrial Company left a very deep impression on them.

The five-member officer delegation, having fully sobered up the following afternoon and left the pleasure quarters, finally appeared at the militia's training ground.

All five officers looked exhausted.

They were so exhausted last night that they were still not fully refreshed by the afternoon of the next day.

At this moment, in front of them were twenty neatly arranged new HM50 rifles.

"Gentlemen, how was last night? Were you satisfied?"

Azu, along with Jason and the others, appeared at the training ground and walked towards them with smiles on their faces.

The five men, including Lieutenant Colonel Wharton, exchanged glances and smiled knowingly.

"I had a wonderful time last night! Mr. Li, thank you for your hospitality!"

Azu winked at them: "I think you should be more grateful to those girls, right?"

"Hahaha……!"

Both sides burst into cheerful laughter.

These two short sentences made the atmosphere exceptionally harmonious.

Azu then picked up a brand-new HM50 rifle in front of him, skillfully loaded the ammunition, pulled the trigger, and aimed at the target a hundred yards away.

"boom……!"

Azu took a quick aim and pulled the trigger without hesitation!
The high-speed spinning lead-tin alloy projectile hit the target precisely after flying more than 100 yards!
The wooden human-shaped target fell over instantly!
"Wow...this rifle is so accurate?"

In the era when they were accustomed to smoothbore guns, the range of rifles generally did not exceed two hundred yards, and their accuracy was very limited.

Therefore, they adopted dense line infantry tactics to compensate for the lack of accuracy with concentrated firepower.

But the HM50, this revolutionary rifled Minié rifle, had a range and accuracy that far exceeded their expectations.

Azu handed the rifle in his hand to Lieutenant Colonel Walton.

"Lieutenant Colonel, you can give it a try too!"

"Our Huamei Industrial's HM50 rifle is a revolutionary rifle that will absolutely overturn all your perceptions!"

Hearing Azu boast like this, the five officers didn't hold back and each picked up a rifle and began loading the prepared ammunition.

As soon as they started loading ammunition, they noticed the difference!

In the past, to prevent the leakage of high-speed gases generated by gunpowder in rifles, the bullets needed to be manufactured to fit tightly and seamlessly into the barrel.

Otherwise, leakage of gunpowder gases would severely affect the range and power.

But this rifle is different. The bullets are noticeably smaller than the barrel, and there's a cork at the end of the bullet. I don't know what it's for.

If the bullet fits tightly against the barrel, it will cause loading difficulties, which in turn will affect the rate of fire.

But the bullets in front of us are slightly smaller than the barrel, making them much easier to load and significantly increasing the rate of fire.

The rifles were loaded quickly, and the five officers raised their rifles almost simultaneously, aiming at the wooden target a hundred yards away.

"Bang bang bang...!"

Five crisp gunshots rang out, and four of the wooden targets a hundred yards away fell down, while the last one swayed but stubbornly held on!
Four out of five, and one of them even grazed the edge of the wooden target!
This is an exceptionally outstanding achievement; it would have been almost impossible for rifles in the past!

"Is it really that accurate?"

Looking at their shooting scores, the five officers were utterly astonished!

"No rush, let's try again!" Azu ordered, "Place the wooden target two hundred yards away!"

Militiamen immediately stepped forward and placed the wooden target at twice the distance.

"Two hundred yards? Can you still maintain accuracy?"

This is already the firing limit of a traditional smoothbore rifle, and it is completely inaccurate!

"Bang bang bang...!"

A moment later, five more gunshots rang out.

Five wooden targets, three of them fell down!

"Wow! That's incredibly accurate at a range of 200 yards!!!"

The five officers were truly astonished!
Ah Zu's expression was calm and collected as he said, "No rush! Place the target at 300 yards!"

"Mr. Li, this rifle's effective range can actually reach three hundred yards?"

"Hehe, let's give it a try!"

"Bang bang bang...!"

After five more shots rang out, two of the five targets fell!

"Oh my God! It really does have an effective range of 300 yards!"

The five officers almost simultaneously gasped in surprise!
"No rush! Place the target at 400 yards!"

"What? Four hundred yards? That's impossible!"

"Try it!"

"Bang bang bang...!"

After five shots, only one target fell!

And what fell down was Lieutenant Colonel Walton's wooden target!

"Oh my God! Oh my God! To maintain such accuracy at 400 yards, we absolutely must buy this rifle!"

"Don't rush!" Azu smiled. "Lieutenant Colonel Walton, your marksmanship is quite good!"

Walton looked relaxed: "At West Point, I was the school's shooting champion!"

“Yes!” another young officer chimed in, “Lieutenant Colonel Walton’s shooting record is still displayed on West Point’s wall of honor!”

Ah Zu laughed and said, "Then, Lieutenant Colonel, would you dare to take on the challenge of 500 yards?"

"Try?"

"Let's give it a try! Someone, place the lieutenant colonel's target at 500 yards!"

Soon, the militia placed Lieutenant Colonel Walton's wooden target at a distance of 500 yards!
Five hundred yards is roughly four hundred and fifty meters.

At such a distance, the human-shaped wooden target is just a tiny black dot!
Lieutenant Colonel Walton loads, chambers, and aims...!
"boom……!"

After a gunshot, the wooden target 500 yards away did not react at all!
"Missed the target, what a pity...!"

"Don't rush, let the bullets fly for a while...!"

"Snapped……!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the human-shaped wooden target swayed and finally fell to the ground!

"Oh my God! You hit it! Haha, you hit it! Lieutenant Colonel, your marksmanship is amazing!"

“No!” Lieutenant Colonel Walton shook his head slightly: “It’s not that my marksmanship is good, but that this new rifle is too accurate!”

"Not only is it accurate, but it also reloads very quickly. With a little training, it can fire about three bullets per minute!"

After a series of tests, five officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Walton, fell in love with the rifle, which was named the HM50!

"Mr. Li, although it has not yet undergone durability and reliability testing in harsh environments, we believe that your new rifle is a revolutionary rifle, capable of overturning current line infantry tactics!"

"On behalf of the Southwest Command of the United States Army, we formally express our strong desire to purchase these HM50 rifles from you and Huamei Industrial Company!"

"At the same time, we will formally recommend your HM50 rifle to the U.S. Army!"

"Perhaps, it won't be long before the U.S. Army places a procurement order with Huamei Industrial!"

"I hope that Huamei Industrial can make all the necessary preparations and expand its production capacity as soon as possible to meet the order requirements of the United States Army!"

“Of course, we will take some of these samples back for further durability and reliability testing. If there are any problems, we will make improvement requests to you!” Azu smiled and spread his hands: “Of course, everything will be as you wish!”

"Now, I think we can have a proper discussion about the purchase price of the HM50 rifle!"

After some "intense" bargaining, the unit price for the HM50 rifles was set at $42 each.

If the U.S. Army purchases more than 20,000 units, the price per unit can be reduced to $38.

If the purchase quantity exceeds 50,000 units, the unit price can be further reduced to thirty-five US dollars!
The price of the accompanying ammunition has also been preliminarily agreed upon, at eight US dollars per hundred rounds.

If a single order exceeds one million rounds, the price per hundred rounds of ammunition drops to $7.50.

If a single order exceeds three million rounds, the price per hundred rounds will be further reduced to seven US dollars.

Rifle purchases are one-off transactions; the real money is in the continuous purchase of ammunition!

The arms deal was finalized in just one afternoon.

In the evening, Azu hosted the five officers with the same lavish feast.

This time, five beautiful and charming ladies also accompanied the guests at the dinner table.

This includes Adele, Azu's top dancer!

When the five officers left San Francisco with a wealth of achievements and a sense of reluctance, Ah Zu also prepared generous gifts for each of them!
Before parting, Ah Zu gave each of them two small tote bags: "These are some humble local specialties from San Francisco. I hope you won't mind!"

Once they were truly far from San Francisco, the five officers were stunned when they opened their briefcases!

Inside each handbag was a gleaming, heavy gold brick!
"This...this...this is a local specialty of San Francisco?"

Lieutenant Colonel Wharton, who had anticipated this, looked at the gold bars in the bag and calmly asked, "What do you think San Francisco is famous for?"

He was, of course, very calm!
Lieutenant Colonel Wharton's suitcase contained a full $300,000 in cash!

Compared to that, these two 100-ounce gold bars, worth more than four thousand dollars, seem insignificant!

"Uh...it seems to be the most abundant source of gold?"

"That's right! People say it's a local specialty, what's wrong with that?"

"Hmm, it seems there's really nothing wrong with it! This Mr. Li is truly a warm and generous person!"

Apart from Lieutenant Colonel Walton, the other four officers had not participated in the battle at Elephant Mountain and had no idea what kind of person Mr. Li was!

The warm hospitality and generosity shown to them over the past few days have left an extremely deep impression on them.

They have never been treated similarly anywhere else.

It can only be said that when it comes to building relationships, no one in the world can compare with the Chinese! Whether in this era or in future generations.

Lieutenant Colonel Walton said in a deep voice, "Go back and keep your mouths shut! Aside from the rifles, you'd better not say anything else!"

"Hehe! Don't worry, Lieutenant Colonel, we absolutely won't reveal a single word!"

"These two gold bars are worth more than two years' salary from the American government!" Lieutenant Colonel Walton continued, "Now that you've accepted their gold bars, you all know how to report on the new rifle when you get back, right?"

"Of course we know! This new rifle from Huamei Industry is indeed a revolutionary weapon, and we will definitely praise it to the skies!"

"good, very good!"

Throughout the rest of the journey, Lieutenant Colonel Wharton appeared preoccupied and taciturn.

As the head of the intelligence office of the U.S. Army Southwest Command, Lieutenant Colonel Walton's own identity was that of a semi-public spy.

But he never imagined that one day he would become a double agent!
Perhaps the term "double agent" isn't accurate. Doing things for that young Chinese man and Huamei Industries doesn't really qualify as espionage, does it?

After all, whether from a legal or official standpoint, that Chinese man and Huamei Industrial Co., Ltd. were by no means hostile forces; in fact, they made significant contributions to the prosperity of San Francisco and the entire state of California.

Therefore, even if one's actions are exposed one day, it is merely because one did something for a "friend," which does not constitute "espionage" at all, let alone "treason"!
Having figured this out, Lieutenant Colonel Wharton felt much more relaxed.

Upon returning to White Sands Army Base in New Mexico, Lieutenant Colonel Walton immediately reported everything that had happened to Brigadier General George Phillips.

Of course, apart from what happened that night at the Rosewood Hotel!

After listening to the report, Brigadier General George Phillips pondered for a moment and then said, "That treacherous old man Brosnan, it's amazing that he could come up with such a vicious plan!"

Lieutenant Colonel Walton chimed in, "Perhaps Colonel Brosnan was truly driven to desperation by that Chinese guy! He had no choice but to resort to such an exceptionally dangerous and insidious plan!"

Brigadier General George nodded slightly: "That's why I've never liked that old bastard Brosnan! Working with him, you never know when he'll stab you in the back!"

Lieutenant Colonel Walton hesitated for a moment and said, "General, there's something I'm not sure if I should say!"

"Speak!" Brigadier General George said impatiently, "You're a soldier, don't be like that old man, keeping all your bad ideas to yourself."

“Yes, General!” Lieutenant Colonel Walton said, “Colonel Brosnan’s plan is far too dangerous and vicious. If it is exposed, it will be a very serious crime! Therefore, our military should not get too involved. At most, we should make all preparations to deal with the situation that may get completely out of control.”

Brigadier General George paused for a moment, then nodded again: "Lieutenant Colonel, you're right! Although I also very much want to take down that damned Chinaman and his Huamei Industrial Company!"

"However, this does not mean that we should lose ourselves as well!"

“Lieutenant Colonel, tell that treacherous old man that since this was his idea, he has to do all the dirty work himself.”

"Our military will only intervene when the situation is likely to spiral out of control."

"Yes Sir!"

Brigadier General George Phillips then changed the subject, asking, "How are your negotiations with that damned Chinaman about the new rifles going?"

"Very smoothly!"

With that, Lieutenant Colonel Walton ordered towards the door of the general's office, "Bring the stuff in!"

"Yes Sir!"

Accompanied by the sound outside the door, two soldiers carrying two brand-new rifles marched into the office in neat steps.

Lieutenant Colonel Walton took a new rifle and handed it to Brigadier General George Phillips with both hands: "General, this is the same new rifle we encountered last time at Elephant Mountain! At China Industries, they call this new rifle the HM50!"

Brigadier General George took the new rifle, examined it carefully, and then performed another set of operations.

"Is this really the kind of rifle we've encountered that can fire rapidly and has an extremely long range and high accuracy?" Brigadier General George, a veteran of several decades, found after handling it himself that this rifle wasn't as sharp as he had imagined.

Lieutenant Colonel Walton remained unfazed: "Yes, General! This HM50 rifle has an effective range of over 500 yards. A skilled soldier can fire at least three to four rounds per minute with exceptional accuracy!"

In the U.S. Army, only Lieutenant Colonel Walton had ever actually observed the HM49 rifle up close.

Upon seeing the HM50 rifle, Lieutenant Colonel Walton, a sharpshooter, keenly noticed that it was quite different from the HM49 rifle he had seen at Elephant Mountain.

However, even if you put a gun to his head, Lieutenant Colonel Walton would never admit that there was any difference between the two rifles he had seen with his own eyes!
"Is it really that amazing?" Brigadier General George was a little incredulous, but he was also successfully intrigued. "Let's go to the firing range!"

“Bang…bang…bang…!”

Half an hour later, Brigadier General George Phillips, who had personally test-fired the HM50 rifle, finally witnessed the power of this new rifle.

"Oh my God!" After trying it out himself, George Phillips immediately fell in love with the rifle in his hand, the smoke of which had not yet dissipated.

"No wonder we suffered such a crushing defeat at Elephant Mountain!" Brigadier General George exclaimed excitedly. "The HM50 is simply amazing!"

"To maintain such high accuracy and lethality at a distance of four or five hundred yards, this rifle is simply unheard of!"

"If we had equipped ourselves with these rifles earlier, how could we have possibly lost at Giant Elephant Mountain?"

Brigadier General George Phillips remarked with considerable emotion, "We, the United States Army, must procure and equip ourselves with such powerful rifles as quickly as possible!"

Lieutenant Colonel Walton replied, "General, while this rifle is powerful, it is also very expensive...!"

As he spoke, Walton repeated the price agreement he and Azu had reached verbatim.

“Thirty or forty dollars a rifle?” Brigadier General George Phillips frowned slightly. “That’s twice as expensive as the Springfield M1841 rifles we’re currently using!”

Lieutenant Colonel Walton added, "Yes! But this HM50 is more than twice as powerful as the M1841! One soldier equipped with an HM50 rifle can at least hold off three soldiers equipped with M1841 rifles!"

Upon hearing Lieutenant Colonel Wharton's words, Brigadier General George Phillips immediately felt relieved, gritting his teeth slightly: "Lieutenant Colonel, you're right! I will personally and strongly recommend to the War Department that we purchase these HM50s as soon as possible!"

"By the way, can this rifle be copied by other arsenals? For example, by the Springfield Armory?" Brigadier General George asked.

Lieutenant Colonel Walton shook his head: "I think that's unrealistic! All the patents for this rifle and ammunition are held by Huamei Industrial. Any other arms factory that tries to copy it without authorization will inevitably face unimaginable patent infringement damages!"

"Damn it!" Brigadier General George Phillips muttered under his breath.

Then, our brigadier general said with great resentment, "Make that damned Chinese man prepare to expand production! If his HM50 rifles can't meet the needs of the U.S. Army, I don't mind twisting his head off with my own hands!"

(End of this chapter)