My Italy

The Bourke Small Arms Testing Ground is the closest small arms testing ground to Rome. It is only five kilometers away from the city of Rome and is one of the eight weapons testing sites designated by the Ministry of War.

As a weapons testing ground just outside Rome, the Bourque Proving Ground has always been responsible for the main testing tasks of the Army's small weapons.

This time the inspection of the new rifle was also conducted at the testing ground.

"Your Majesty, this is a weapons testing ground established by our army in 1871. It was formerly a military camp in the Papal States. After the unification of Italy, considering that the environment here was very suitable for weapons testing, it was converted into a weapons testing ground. "

In the test site, General Saraget, who is the Minister of War, is explaining the origin of the test site to Carlo. Beside the two people, a group of old men wearing military uniforms and general rank surrounded them, of course mainly around Carlo, who was the king.

It is pitiful to say that a group of old generals wanted to use political means to resist Carlo's attempt to intervene in the army, but after searching for a long time, they could not find a significant ally. If you don't take this post, you will disappoint the generals.

Since they could not find a significant ally, they had two choices. They would not have the courage to change the monarch, so releasing their goodwill to Carlo became a reasonable choice. However, even if they showed good intentions, these generals also had a sense of Italian pettiness, and they all used trivial things to fool Carlo.

As for the vital military power, these old guys hold it tightly. Even the expired agreement to allow the Imperial Guard to exceed the size of 10,000 people has not been let go until now.

You must know that the Marine Corps has expanded to 15,000 people. These old guys are like ostriches, burying their heads in the soil and pretending not to know.

No matter how much he was fooled by things like inspecting weapons or inspecting the army, Carlo didn't say a word about the practices of these military leaders. Since the old guy dared to fool him, he didn't know who was fooling whom.

Of course, he is also very concerned about the next stage of the Italian army's standard rifle, after all, it is related to the army's combat effectiveness.

As for why Carlo was not brought back from Germany, the predecessor of the Committee 1888 rifle (also called Mauser 1888, Mauser Company) made in Hanyang, which was famous in later generations, has nothing to do with me. If you hadn't been trying to fool people, you would have Dare it be a rifle that is not from our company, prefixed with Mauser).

On the one hand, Germany has not yet produced a prototype gun, and on the other hand, Italy does not like this German emergency standard rifle.

Why do I say this? Because this gun is really a German emergency product.

The bolt action was improved from the Austrian "M1888 Mannlicher Rifle" by the Spandau Arsenal. The magazine and the 5-round clip (bullets must be loaded with the clip, the clip remains in the magazine and cannot be reloaded until it is fired) are also improved from the "M1888 Mannlicher Rifle". The barrel rifling is basically an imitation of the French "Lebel 1886", and the new smokeless bullet is improved from the Swiss 7.92mm rimless bottleneck bullet.

The reason Germany is so anxious is because France has developed the world's first small-caliber military rifle using smokeless gunpowder. This rifle is far superior to the Mauser 71/84 rifle currently equipped in Germany in terms of lethality and ballistic performance. This will bring great tactical advantages to French infantry in terms of accuracy and range.

Faced with France's suppression of itself on rifles, this immediately attracted great attention from the German military department. Under tremendous pressure, Germany immediately established a rifle testing committee.

GPK's initial plan was just to improve the existing Mauser 71/84 rifle and replace the original 11mm black powder rifle cartridge with new smokeless powder and reduce the warhead. However, it was not until December 1887 that GPK suddenly realized that such modifications did not bring much progress and advantages, so they decided to combine the most advanced rifle designs available at the time.

This hodgepodge of advanced designs is the Committee 1888 rifle.

When the group of people arrived at the shooting range, a table had been prepared, with several unseen guns placed on it, and a very distinctive middle-aged man stood beside the table. Why do I say this? Because at first glance, I thought this person looked a bit like a yellow man. But after a closer look, I realized that he didn't look like that.

Before Carlo could ask, General Saraguet, the Minister of War, introduced him. "Your Majesty, this is the chief firearms designer of our Turin Arsenal, His Excellency Salvador Carcano. He is also the most outstanding firearms designer in our country."

Following General Saraget's words, Carlo had an idea. It seemed that this man was the designer of the new rifle.

Carlo did not wait for Carcano to come forward to greet him, but walked to him in two or three steps. "Hello, Lord Carcano, I look forward enthusiastically to your work appearing in the hands of military soldiers."

Facing Carlo's first words, Carcano obviously didn't react in time. "Hello, Your Majesty, I am very willing to see this day."

Seeing that Carcano was a little nervous, Admiral Tapea, who was the equipment director, spoke. "Carcano, let's introduce the new rifle first."

Facing Admiral Tapea's general words of relief, Carcano immediately focused his energy on the state he was most familiar with. I saw him holding a rifle from the table and starting to explain.

"Your Majesty, please see, this is the new rifle I designed. The gun has a total length of 980 mm and a weight of 3.2 kg. It uses a 550 mm barrel and can fire rimless round-nose rifle bullets. The effective range of the bullet is 600 meters, which allows soldiers to have sufficient shooting range. In addition, the gun uses a six-round leakage clip, which can ensure that our soldiers have one more bullet firing time."

It can be seen that this rifle is designed to cater to the Italian physique, so the weight and length have been reasonably divided.

With Carcano's introduction, even Carlo, who was not a soldier, became interested.

"Let the soldiers try it."

Facing Carlo's words, Admiral Saraget behind him nodded slightly, and several soldiers came over. They picked up their rifles and started shooting at the shooting target outside. On their side, several technicians holding notebooks and pens were taking various notes.

"Pah, pah, pah~~"

Bursts of gunfire made the test site lively. The soldiers not only shot while standing, kneeling, or lying down, but sometimes they rolled their rifles on the ground, or threw them in the dirt and then shot them. Pick it up and shoot to simulate the battlefield situation.

There are good and bad aspects to these experiments, but they are all realistic representations of the various environments soldiers use them in.

Carlo and the others waited until the shooting was completed before looking at the recorder.

"The report states that there were five new guns tested this time, and a total of 500 rounds of ammunition were fired. Three of them jammed, and one was to activate the primer. In the shooting situation, the gun is better than the current one in our army. The Vitri rifle currently used meets the standards we have set, both in terms of rate of fire and accuracy."

Facing the recorder's report, everyone, including Carlo, had smiles on their faces.

"Since this gun is good, how about equipping it on a small scale?"

This is what Carlo is saying, because judging from the use of the gun by the soldiers, they have already adapted to this gun. It seems that this gun has been tested many times. In this case, what else is there to say? I just went along with the flow and my favor was better.

When facing Carlo, the generals on the scene also nodded in agreement.

"Your Majesty, you are wise."

"Your Majesty, that makes sense."

"Then do as Your Majesty wishes."

As the generals agreed one by one, it seemed that Carlo was the leader of the army.

So amid all the compliments, Italy's new standard rifle was decided. According to past practice, the gun is called the M88 rifle, but conventionally, it is called the Carcano M88 rifle.

There is another chapter before 12 o'clock, I will code it out