**Chapter 15**
**Military Academy (4)**
Fernando VII.
The one who was called "el deseado" (the desired) by the Spanish people during the time when he was stripped of the Spanish throne by Joseph Bonaparte of France and suffered under Napoleon's occupation.
In the early days of his return to the throne after Napoleon's era, he pretended to comply with the demands of the liberals, but he brought in France, purged the liberals on a large scale, trampled on reforms, and pursued absolute monarchy, earning him the name "el Felón" (the traitor) from the people.
Fernando VII couldn't stand Mexico's audacity any longer.
"Those colonial bastards dare to call themselves an empire and lay their hands on the royal property?"
"Those arrogant bastards also confiscated the property of our nobles!"
As the political situation in Spain stabilized somewhat, anger began to rise against the colonies in the Americas that had audaciously declared independence.
The nobles also never forgot that their vast wealth, which they hadn't been able to dispose of in Mexico, had been confiscated.
"Your Majesty, the rebellion of the liberals is also calming down, so it seems like it's time to 'educate' those colonial bastards about who their master is."
"Yes. Especially those 'Mexicans' are particularly arrogant."
"I agree with your opinions. We must punish that traitor 'Agustín' in particular, or the prestige of our Spain will fall to the ground, wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"I hear those bastards are running the government quite stably with the property they stole from us. If we're going to punish them, we have to do it right."
"Yes, I originally wanted to punish those colonial bastards without exception, but I changed my mind. We should focus on 'educating' those arrogant 'Mexicans' first."
Fernando VII, who had regained power by bringing in France, a foreign power, needed authority.
After nullifying the reforms and wiping out those liberal bastards, the people's eyes were not friendly.
"Those arrogant bastards."
Reconquering Mexico was perfect for diverting the attention of those arrogant people and restoring the royal dignity.
He devised a plan to conquer Mexico, focusing all the remaining strength of Spain.
A plan that was nothing short of gambling.
His advisors, who should have dissuaded him, were also in favor of the plan, only thinking about punishing that arrogant criollo bastard Agustín in Mexico and reclaiming the confiscated property.
"I will reconquer that arrogant Mexico and restore the dignity of the royal family and Spain, so prepare yourselves!"
"Yes!"
***
Clank! Clank!
The sound of the rifling machine cutting grooves into the barrel was chilling and noisy, but it sounded like heavenly music to me.
"...98, 99, 100!"
"We really cut 300 in three days!"
"Finally!!"
Even after increasing the steam engine's output, changing the material to British, and making it withstand pressure, the problems never ended.
We started succeeding every now and then, but it took another year to solve the heat treatment and durability problems.
"We need to be able to cut 100 a day for it to be economically viable."
Today, we finally achieved the standard I set, 100 per day. It had been two years.
"Eduardo, good work. Thank you to the technicians for your hard work as well."
"···"
Eduardo was still overwhelmed.
"Well, we were paid every day, so it wasn't hard. We were a little nervous every time we failed, haha."
"Hahaha."
I gave the technicians a bonus and let them leave early.
"Hey, Eduardo. How long are you going to keep marveling?"
"Huh? Oh, oh."
"You need to start thinking about selling this."
Tap, tap.
***
Gun demonstration.
I had been planning this event for a year, but the rifling machine took longer to complete than I expected.
I invited key figures from the military, the administration, and the parliament, including my father, to the school.
"Are you really going to demonstrate it yourself?"
"Yes. It'll be more effective if I do it."
I ignored Eduardo's worries and greeted the guests.
"Your Majesty, welcome."
"Heronimo, you made something useful? Let's see it."
My father seemed curious about what I had made.
"General Fernando, Chairman Rafael. It's been a while for both of you."
Chairman Rafael was previously the leader of the Republicans, but he couldn't become prime minister because he was attacked for failing to prevent the confiscation operation and Agustín I's dictatorship.
"You've grown a lot since then, Your Highness."
"Ahem. It's been a while, Your Highness. This gentleman is Mr. Pablo Soto, the new Finance Minister in this government."
"Good morning, Your Highness. I'm Pablo Soto, the Finance Minister."
"Nice to meet you."
I shook hands with them and began the demonstration.
"The reason I invited you all today is to show you a demonstration of the weapon that my colleagues and I have developed."
I took out the gun I had prepared.
"This gun looks like the flintlock musket used by our Mexican army, but if you look closely at the inside of the barrel, you'll see that there are grooves. I believe you all know the advantages of grooves, so I'll skip that. Although grooves have many advantages, they haven't been used because they are expensive to manufacture and the reloading speed is slow due to the need to load the bullet into the grooves. My colleagues and I have completely solved these drawbacks."
"Oh."
"How did you solve them?"
"Look here."
I pointed to the shelf where the rifling machine was placed. As the guests' attention focused, I signaled to Eduardo.
Tap.
Eduardo received my signal, fixed the barrel to the rifling machine, and pressed a button, starting the machine.
Clank! Clank!
The loud noise made the guests frown, but I ignored them and spoke loudly.
"This device is a steam-powered rifling machine. With this device alone, you can make as many as 100 rifles a day."
"100 rifles a day! That means you can make 3,000 rifles if you run it all month."
"Yes, Your Majesty. It seems like it requires very little manpower, so the production cost will be drastically reduced."
The Emperor, a former soldier, and General Fernando, a current soldier, were looking at the rifling machine with adoration.
The Finance Minister was also impressed, but Chairman Rafael looked like his mind was in turmoil.
When one barrel was cut from the rifling machine, I turned it off and showed the result to the guests.
"Oh. It has a very intricate pattern."
"Definitely more precise than what was cut with a manual machine."
"The manufacturing cost issue will be solved with this, and next is the reloading speed issue."
I took an Eduardo bullet out of the ammunition box.
"This is a bullet designed by student Eduardo here. When fired, the two grooves on the back cause the bullet to compress, expanding the diameter on the back, and automatically engaging the bullet with the grooves."
"Oh, so you can just load the bullet without having to try to align it with the grooves."
"Yes, that's right. This solves the reloading speed problem. I'll show you directly."
***
I took the guests to the shooting range.
"If you look at the shooting range, there are three rows of targets. The first row is 100 meters, the second row is 150 meters, and the third row is 200 meters away."
I finished my explanation, took Eduardo's rifle, and went to the shooting range.
"Now I'll show you in real life. Captain Joaquin, standing next to me, is known as a sharpshooter. He will be shooting with a normal flintlock musket for comparison."
The guests were eagerly waiting for the shooting to begin with excited expressions. Eduardo shouted from behind.
"St...art!"
I immediately began reloading.
"Fire from the ready shooters!"
Bang! ... Bang!
I fired almost at the same speed as the instructor, although slightly slower. The first shot hit the center of the target.
Bang! ... Bang!
As agreed beforehand, we were shooting five shots at each target and immediately moving on to the next target.
A total of 15 shots.
The slight difference in reloading speed gradually accumulated, and by the time I fired 13 shots, the instructor had fired 15, but the retrieved targets showed the results.
The 100-meter target was 5 hits for both.
The 150-meter target was 3 hits for the instructor and 5 hits for me.
The 200-meter target was 1 hit for the instructor and 5 hits for me.
9 : 15.
"No, how did he hit 200 meters with a flintlock musket?"
"Ahem. As you can see, the two guns have a huge difference in range and accuracy. The effective range of the flintlock musket is 50-100 meters, and the maximum range is 200-300 meters. On the other hand, the effective range of the Eduardo rifle is 200-400 meters, and the maximum range is 800-1,000 meters."
"Wow!!"
"I'm tempted to shoot it myself right now."
My father and General Fernando cheered.
Chairman Rafael, who had been looking at the target with a sullen expression, said,
"Ahem... Isn't the instructor's condition a bit off today? It's a bit strange that there's such a big difference just because you changed the grooves and bullets."
"···"
I said.
"Then, let's compare it here directly."
"Good. My advisors are also former soldiers, so they can compare it."
Chairman Rafael, ignoring the fact that the atmosphere had suddenly turned cold, ordered his advisors.
"Both of you, shoot your best."
This time, I controlled it.
"Start!"
"Fire from the ready shooters!"
Bang! ... Bang!
Bang! ... Bang!
Both were slower than me and the instructor, but the difference in reloading speed between them wasn't that big.
Bang! ... Bang!
"Retrieve the targets!"
The results of the targets were similar.
The 100-meter target was 5 hits for both.
The 150-meter target was 2 hits for the musket and 5 hits for the rifle.
The 200-meter target was 0 hits for the musket and 3 hits for the rifle.
7 : 13.
"It seems the instructor was the one who shot well."
"Are you convinced now?"
"Ahem... It's not that I wasn't convinced, I just wanted to carefully check it. It's not bad to be careful."
"···Yes."
"I think this is enough verification. I want to introduce it to the Mexican army right away. General Fernando, what do you think?"
"I agree. I think it will drastically improve our army's power."
The Emperor and General Fernando were quite positive after the verification was complete.
"Hold on. As Finance Minister, there's something I want to confirm first. So, how much is this rifling machine? It looks expensive just by looking at it."
Ahem.
You're getting to the point.
"···It's 20,000 pesos per unit."
"20,000 pesos!?"
Chairman Rafael, who had been shrinking, shouted.
"Isn't 20,000 pesos too expensive!"
"It's true, 20,000 pesos per unit is a bit burdensome given the current government's financial situation."
"The material is British steel, and the more guns we make, the more profit we make, so it's not an expensive price."
"Your Highness's confiscation of the property of the peninsulares prevented the national finances from collapsing, but since then, Britain and France have been pressuring us to pay the interest on the money they lent us, so the government's finances are tight. Of course, the government doesn't lack 20,000 pesos, but it's obvious that one unit won't be enough, and even if we buy the rifling machine, we can only make rifles cheaper than before, not the production cost itself. Considering that it doesn't decrease compared to the existing flintlock musket, it's quite burdensome."
The Finance Minister emphasized the burden, pouring out a flood of words.
"Damn it. Britain and France."
The Mexican Empire has a huge debt of 45 million pesos. This is the debt accumulated during the War of Independence. In the original history, Mexico also faced a fate of endless external invasions because of this debt, but in fact, this amount is believed to be greatly inflated.
In the original history, when it seemed that Mexico would never be able to repay this debt, the creditor countries got together and adjusted the debt. In the case of the United States, it was adjusted to 15% of the original amount claimed. It wasn't a 15% discount, it was changed to 15%.
According to Mexican records, this amount was not a case of the creditor countries giving up the amount they should have received at a loss, but rather a reduction of the interest that had been severely inflated.
That's how ruthless the international community was at that time. In this world, it seems like they're trying to take advantage of us because it seems like our Mexican Empire has money.
"Those bastards are like illegal loan sharks. Ugh."
I felt a fire burning in my stomach because of the actions of those powerful countries, who were no different from thugs, but I had to do what I had to do.
"Then, I'll invest. I'll make the rifling machine with my own money and supply rifles and ammunition to the government in the quantity they order."
"Well, I'm fine with that condition."
The Finance Minister backed down when I presented the condition I had already thought of.
Chairman Rafael tackled again.
"Hold on, guns should be manufactured at the state-owned arsenal. If we let private companies own gun manufacturing facilities, who knows what will happen!"
"Are you saying that my son, the Crown Prince, will do something strange? That's ridiculous."
"···"
"Let's introduce it in the form of placing an order with the arsenal run by the Crown Prince."
Agustín I neatly resolved it.
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