Chapter 526

Alexei was shocked, and he said to Li Xiao dumbfounded: "You can't do it like this, can you? They are all volunteers, so you can't favor one over another!"

But Li Xiao snorted and retorted: "This is not called favoritism. Although they are all volunteers, can Leonid's 10,000 people listen to us? Can they help us defend Wallachia?"

This is not wrong. Duke Mikhail's meaning is very clear. Those 10,000 people are actually called volunteers, and they just borrowed their skins. They will definitely not be given command. To put it bluntly, these troops are Leonid's private army, and have nothing to do with Wallachia.

But Alexey still thinks that the distinction is a bit too much. After all, we are good friends. Although there are conflicts and differences, we can't do it too much.

"I'm not going too far!" Li Xiao snorted contemptuously, "You have forgotten, what was Leonid's attitude when we changed our outfits before? He completely dismissed our new equipment and said Some weapons and equipment are good enough, but you also said that a bayonet is a good man, have you forgotten?"

Alexey was stunned for a moment. It was indeed Leonid who said this, and he really had no interest in new weapons. He thought the new copper-cased bullets were a waste of money and should be banned firmly. He also said that he and Li Xiao were the same Prodigal son.

"Even so, that's not too good!"

But Li Xiao waved his hand and said, "There's nothing wrong with it. He doesn't appreciate you giving him the new equipment! Maybe he'll be furious and ask you to return the old equipment, not to mention..."

"Not to mention what?" Alexey asked.

"What's more, it's not necessarily a good thing for him to equip too advanced weapons, and logistics supplies are particularly troublesome!"

Speaking of this, Alexei suddenly remembered that Leonid would definitely participate in the offensive, and it was impossible for him to stay in Wallachia with them. And the main force of Prince Mikhail said that the weapons and equipment were not ordinary. In 1812, they were not much stronger.

Not to mention breech-loading rifles, their sufficient supply of ammunition may be dangerous. If Leonid's troops are equipped with new-style rifles, they may not be able to supply enough ammunition after they leave Wallachia. At that time, his new equipment turned into a fire stick instead!

Dmitry also said: "The new rifles you are equipped with are really good, but they are completely incompatible with my army's logistics system. You can use them in Wallachia and make a living. After entering Bulgaria, I am afraid it will be very troublesome. Why not use them?" Give them old equipment, and at least enough ammunition in stock to supply."

Dmitry's words are reasonable. Although Wallachia has begun to popularize metal-cased breech-loading rifles, the supply of bullets is indeed not a small problem. Russia cannot produce this new type of ammunition at all. It all depends on the production of a factory in Wallachia that has just started production, and its production capacity and output are very limited.

Unstable, at least temporarily.

However, the stock of paper shell ammunition equipped in Wallachia was not small, and it was not a big problem to meet the needs of Leonid's 10,000 people.

Speaking of this, Alexei suddenly interrupted and asked, "Has the problem with the ammunition factory been solved?"

Speaking of this, Li Xiao's egg hurts. A bullet with a metal casing looks inconspicuous, but it involves too many problems. The copper-clad warhead alone is enough to give you a headache for a few days, and there are a lot of problems in the stamping and forming of the rear shell and the process of the flash cap.

It has been about a year since the Wallachia ammunition factory was built and put into production, but it has always been stumbling and unsatisfactory.

He sighed and said: "Problems of craftsmanship and machinery have been almost solved in sevens and eighties, but there is a problem with the supply of brass. Our demand is too large and we can only import it from China. It's also very tense!"

Alexey and Dmitry looked at each other. They didn't have a good solution to this problem. First of all, it was a problem of industrial foundation. Secondly, Russia was busy preparing for war, and copper mines were the most important strategic resources. It is necessary to make guns and cannons. It is impossible to let the country stick to your use, no.

"Can it be imported from abroad?" Alexey asked.

Li Xiao sighed again: "It is possible, but one is expensive, and it is easy to be slaughtered now. The other is that the supply chain is unstable. After all, Austria is unreliable. They can cut off the supply at any time. The impact is too great!"

This matter is indeed more troublesome, and we must not bet on foreigners. Whether it is Britain, France, Austria or Prussia, it is not reliable, and even Russia is not reliable.

Even if the Austrians abide by the commercial contract, Wallachia does not have enough financial resources to be a pig. The price of this pawn copper was frighteningly high. No wonder Leonid despised the copper-cased bullets before, calling them prodigal sons. Because it is really expensive!

"Let the troops be sure to recycle the shell casings!" Dmitry sighed, "Try to recycle all the shell casings to reduce loss!"

This is the only advantage of copper shell bullets. It is relatively simple to reload and use. Replace the primer with a new one, and load the gunpowder and warhead. If troops could actually recycle every spent cartridge case, that wouldn't be too much of an issue.

Li Xiao sighed and said, "Let's do this first, at least there will be no problem during training."

Indeed, the battlefield environment is absolutely different from the training environment. It is difficult for you to ask soldiers to fire a shot and recover a bullet casing in the battlefield environment. Who cares when you are really desperate!

The three of them discussed for a while, and could only deal with this problem temporarily, because compared with this trouble, the advantages of copper-cased bullets are particularly obvious. First, it has good accuracy, second, it is easy to load, and finally it is moisture-proof.

Don't underestimate these three points, this is a key factor on the battlefield. The simple reloading alone greatly simplifies the difficulty of training recruits. The tedious reloading process of the muzzle gun a long time ago, even well-trained veterans will inevitably make mistakes in the real battlefield environment.

Li Xiao once inspected the actual use of weapons by Russian soldiers on the battlefield, and found that many soldiers reloaded ammunition by mistake more than once. The gun barrel is blocked.

Once such a mistake occurs in the front-loading musket, it is really a fire stick, not to mention that this phenomenon is very common. After all, any low-level mistakes may happen when people are nervous and afraid.

The breech-loaded copper-cased fixed-load ammunition can fundamentally solve this problem. Except for the misfiring of the bullet itself due to quality problems or firing pin problems, it is impossible to be wrongly loaded.

Coupled with its high-quality moisture resistance, this makes it more secure to fight in wet winter environments or rainy and snowy environments. Anyway, people who have used new rifles really don't miss those old antiques!