Descending On France 1780
Chapter 190 - 183 Mr. Paul Balas from Paris

Chapter 190: 183 Mr. Paul Balas from Paris

As the global situation was rapidly changing, Anning was also actively making preparations.

This time, Lazar Kano came to Milan specifically to personally supervise the delivery of the factory’s new product.

It was a new type of rifle with rifling added to the bore, having been improved after changes to the production process. Based on the rear-loading rifles provided by the UK, rifling was added to the interior of the barrel.

Rifled firearms already existed in this era, but the problem with front-loading rifles was that they had a very slow rate of fire.

To fully utilize the effects of rifling, the bullet had to fit tightly against the barrel walls, which made loading front-loading rifles extremely cumbersome. To push the bullet down the barrel, a ramrod and mallet were used, hammering it down like driving in a nail, to seat the bullet at the very bottom of the bore.

Therefore, the rate of fire for such front-loading rifles was only a tenth of that of standard smoothbore guns, and loading was especially laborious.

Hammering down the ramrod was a task that required significant physical strength.

Moreover, rifled guns were difficult to produce. At that time, there were no machine tools available, so all the rifling inside the barrels had to be cut by hand, which was very time-consuming.

Due to these limitations, when Anning set out for Italy, his troops weren’t equipped with many rear-loading guns or even rifles with rifling, as they all carried regular smoothbore guns.

However, Anning had assigned Lazar Kano, who stayed at home, the task of overseeing the artisans in his employ to devise a manual machine that could conveniently and rapidly cut rifle grooves, and at the same time to improve the design of the rear-loading guns, enhancing production capability and implementing assembly line production methods devised by Anning.

Lazar Kano’s visit this time was precisely to deliver the results of Anning’s instructions.

Indeed, after two years of effort, Anning finally had the first batch of five hundred rear-loading rifled guns.

The combination of rear-loading guns and rifles could perfectly solve the slow loading issue of previous front-loading rifles.

After all, loading from the rear meant there was no need for the bullet to pass through the rifled barrel during loading. It merely needed to be inserted directly into the back end of the barrel.

The rest was left to the gunpowder.

Thus, a weapon with long-range, high accuracy, and a high rate of fire was born.

The only problem with these guns was that they were too complex to produce, and the output was worryingly low. It was only by employing assembly line methods to greatly improve production efficiency that Anning managed to obtain this capacity, spending so long to produce just five hundred guns.

Not to mention the cost, producing one such gun was equivalent to the cost of manufacturing more than ten smoothbore guns.

If not for Anning, the transmigrator, who vigorously promoted the practical application of these devices, they would have certainly waited until productive forces developed enough to mass-produce them like cabbages before replacing smoothbore guns on a large scale.

As a transmigrator, Anning leveraged his personal power to advance the practical use of this technology in the military ahead of its time.

After Lazar Kano arrived in Milan with these five hundred guns, Anning was very pleased to test them outside Milan, finding all aspects of the guns satisfying.

There were mixed reactions to this new rifle among Anning’s officers. Napoleon was a staunch advocate of adopting this new technology, Lasalle considered the new gun a mere accessory, believing his cavalry could win the war alone, Davout expressed cautious optimism, whereas Bertier believed that this weapon would increase ammunition consumption without having any substantial effect.

But Anning disregarded his officers’ opinions; he decided on the spot to form a precision shooters company, selecting 250 soldiers with a hunter background, and issued them each one of these new rifles, keeping the remaining 250 as spares.

Anning was very much looking forward to seeing the performance of this precision shooters company in the upcoming war, visiting them daily to observe their practice with the new rifles.

Meanwhile, his officers were more interested in the ten thousand reinforcements that Lazar Kano brought with him.

These reinforcements were recruited with the wealth plundered by Anning from Italy, all being progressive youths supportive of the revolution.

The courage and morale exhibited by an army of progressive youths in combat had already received widespread recognition among the officers, some even believing that these reinforcements could be worth as much as twenty thousand soldiers from the royal army.

However, the overall number of Anning’s troops was still far fewer than the enemy forces he was expected to face once the war began.

In response, Anning’s initiative was to massively form Italian Redwood regiments, planning to use the Redwood forces to defend various strategic points and handle logistical transport, leaving the French Army concentrated for field operations.

Of course, the defense of the line from Nice to Savona, which was the lifeline for communication with the mainland, still had to be carried out by the French troops.

With the regiments stationed in these areas accounted for, the French Army would have more than forty thousand troops for field operations.

The Austrian and Sardinian Kingdom forces that the French Army would face had a combined strength of one hundred thousand men.

Fortunately, since the French troops were used to winning against greater numbers, they didn’t regard the difference in forces as an issue; their morale was extremely high, as if General Frost merely needed to wave his hand to annihilate the enemy that far outnumbered them.

By the end of November, the latest orders from Paris arrived, with the Jacobin-controlled newly elected National Assembly promoting all of Anning’s officers.

Davout and Bertier both received the rank of Lieutenant General, while Laharpe, who went away to recover, and Lana, were both granted the rank of Colonel—just as Massena, who had been reorganizing the original Italian Legion units in the rear, was promoted to Colonel.

The only one dissatisfied with the promotions was Lasalle, the young Cavalry officer, who was only awarded the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, prompting him to bitterly complain.

Lasalle: "Why am I ranked below Lana? Just because I only commanded a cavalry brigade? Lana was only promoted to acting brigade commander because Laharpe fell off his horse!"

To appease his disgruntled officer, Anning had no choice but to commission the painter David to create a special painting for him, titled "General Lasalle Charges into the Enemy Ranks at Diego," highlighting his great achievements at Diego.

A week later, the painting was completed and delivered to Lasalle’s camp, along with a Dorman coat specially tailored for Lasalle by Milan’s most expensive tailor. This coat was embroidered with even more gold lace than the usual Dorman coats.

Since cavalrymen were generally fond of finery, Lasalle was overjoyed at the sight of the beautiful coat, and he stopped grumbling about his rank.

Along with the promotion orders from Paris came a man.

Theoretically, Anning did not know this man, but he was aware of him because in the original history, he was quite a prominent figure.

This man was Paul Barras, the same Special Commissioner who, in history, appointed Napoleon as the Commander of Toulon Artillery—the same Paul Barras.

In history, this man was also the lover of Napoleon’s wife Josephine, having cuckolded Napoleon.