Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 348



Only Noblemtl

#2-6. New Age, New Gun (2)

“Should I ask my father-in-law… … .”

The development budget could be obtained by engaging with several private companies, as was done with the production of grenades and grenade launchers just before the war. Or, with Roha at the forefront, they could shamelessly approach their father-in-law and try to obtain the necessary development funds.

But even if they were to create a new bullet like that, whether they could officially supply it to the military was a completely different matter.

If the Accounting Department or the Finance Department of the Marshal’s Office had issued the order, “Lock the Budget!”, there was nothing I could do. No matter how much I was the head of the Operations Department, which could be called the flower of the Marshal’s Office, it was not like they were lawbreakers who did not violate military law.

“I don’t think your father would lend you money easily just because of a little talk, right?”

“Oh, my gosh, that’s surprising. When did you wake up?”

“From the moment you started making breakfast.”

When I turned around in surprise, Roha, who looked like she was no different than usual, yawned and approached me. Then she sat down at the table and continued talking while eating the breakfast I had made.

“I bet you’re having trouble raising funds to expand your business these days. I heard you’re investing quite aggressively in state-led projects like the Northwest Railway and the South Manchuria Railway.”

“Well… you wouldn’t miss that.”

Even without that, the railroad construction business was booming in the country. As a lesson from the last war, ‘fast movement’ and ‘fast supply’ were engraved in everyone’s mind. It was proven that it was difficult to feed the troops on the front line and the numerous civilians with the existing carriages and manpower, so three elements were prepared to solve this problem at once.

One was the railroad, the next was the development of roads, and the last was the expansion of shipping. In the case of roads and shipping, since the opening of the ports, they had naturally expanded gradually out of necessity, but the desire for railroads was so great that the entire public, government, and military were almost mad.

‘If only there had been a railroad, we could have defeated the Japanese army at the end of the war and drowned them in the sea. What a pity, what a pity.’

This is actually what Director of the National Railroad Bureau and Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Yong-ik said at a drinking party with the cabinet members last time.

‘It’s a pity that if we had a railroad, we could have continuously sent ammunition, supplies, and supplementary troops to the front lines and completely wiped out the handful of Japanese in the three southern provinces.’

This is what Army General Lee Gyu-tae, who was currently serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when he came to my wedding.

Thanks to this, most of the military budget was intertwined with the construction of these railways, and it was barely maintained with just the plan to expand the naval fleet and expand the army’s nine divisions to 200,000 troops.

Well… Along with industrialization, there was a lot of money to be made by transporting large-scale agricultural products produced in the Samnam region to ports for export, so the desire for railroads among the private sector was bound to be quite strong.

And this is quite obvious, but it was also a problem connected to the maintenance and survival of the Korean Empire.

This railroad was not simply a means of connecting the light industrial complex under construction in the northern region with the agricultural areas of the three southern provinces.

It was also a point where the country’s products, especially the most important food, could be redistributed throughout the 13 provinces, from the central Hanseongbu and Pyongyangbu to the very remote Kanggye and Haenam.

One of the reasons why Joseon was struggling immediately after opening its ports was because this redistribution of materials was not carried out. If the rice from the three southern provinces was not redistributed to the central government, it would have accumulated and led to rising prices and social unrest.

The thing that solved this problem at once was the steamship that was introduced at the time of the opening of the country. However, it is also true that steamships alone were now reaching their limits. In order to transport supplies from the port to deep inland, especially to South Manchuria, they had to go even deeper, but with the current road conditions, it was difficult.

If things continued this way, we could face numerous civil unrest and social chaos just before the opening of the country. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry and the Ministry of Finance believed that food prices could not be stabilized without reorganizing the distribution network within the Korean Empire.

And the solution was to solve it through the development of railways, roads, and shipping. Of course, since the population growth and food production were not increasing in direct proportion, but rather irregularly, this was only enough to buy time for a while, but it was significant.

Thanks to this, a huge amount of budget and time was being spent on establishing a system, such as joining hands with countries such as the United States and France to build domestic railroads, improve roads, and greatly develop the shipping industry.

Additionally, thanks to Japan’s establishment of the Oriental Development Company, the burden of managing South Manchuria was somewhat reduced, which could be considered an advantage.

“So it won’t be easy to take money out of your father’s pocket. Hehe, by the way, this tastes good. You’re more talented at cooking than I thought.”

“Okay. It’s a recipe I learned from soldiers on the front lines. Like seasoning it with gunpowder… .”

“Huh? What did you say?!”

“I’m joking, I’m joking.”

She smiled mysteriously at my joke. Whenever I would play such a mischievous prank, her reaction would be very ‘wise’. There were times when I would deliberately play a prank just to see her reaction. Anyway, she glared at me playfully, and then, as if she had seen through my worries, she said something quite important.

“… Anyway, it’s better not to be obsessed with just one thing. Brother… No, your greatest strength is that you don’t get too caught up in anything other than your family. Just like you did when you defeated the Japanese on our land. Try resolving your worries that way. Who knows? You might create something that will be remembered in history.”

I felt like something was passing me by here. It was really out of the blue, but the one thing she said, not to be tied down to one thing, led to a change in thinking. It was also a really simple answer.

‘Then there’s no reason to be obsessed with machine guns here?’

was connected. I slapped my knee here, clearly understanding why Archimedes ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting ‘Eureka!’

“Yes! That’s right. I don’t know why I was stuck there, but… I guess I should give you a reward since you’re so special.”

“Ouch! It tickles! D-dude, you haven’t washed me yet… D-d, after I wash… … .”

“no.”

As I hugged her, who had thankfully solved my worries, and went back to the bedroom, I had a feeling that something would definitely be resolved. Just the answers that came to mind right away were things that could change something in the future.

***

… but even this did not last long. At first, I thought about making an assault rifle by proposing a completely new intermediate bullet concept instead of the existing 7.62mm bullet, which was very easy to use, and by more than 30 years, but it was too ambiguous.

That’s understandable, since the assault rifles that appeared in the mid-1940s were all extremely heavy. Even the StG44 weighed in at around 5 kg, so that goes without saying.

For reference, the K2 rifle that I carried during my military service in the central front, which was hotter than hell in the summer and colder than the polar regions in the winter, weighed 3.4 kg, so you can get an idea of ​​how heavy it was.

Moreover, even these were made with the technology of the mid-1940s, 30 years later. What does this mean? Of course, the precision processing machines needed to manufacture automatic machines are supposed to be purchased from the United States, but it is impossible to obtain the machines and technology of the 1940s, no matter how much money you have.

“Director, do you have any concerns… … .”

“Oh, no. So let’s continue the story.”

“Oh yes, in any case, the military is requesting an expansion of the command. In addition to the existing infantry, cavalry, and artillery commands, a separate command dedicated to the engineer and assault infantry-”

Oh right, it was a meeting of the entire Marshal’s Office. I looked at the conference room that had almost become a raccoon’s den while concentrating on the meeting again. The cigarette smoke was quite pungent, so I opened the outside window, and the officers present shivered in the cold winter wind.

“Why are those who used to walk the winter front with me, sweeping away the Japanese pirates, shivering in this cold?”

“The thing I feared more than the Japanese was General Dong, Director.”

“Anyway, I’ll ventilate the room, so bear with me for a moment. Let’s continue the story.”

Then, I continued to ponder in the cold air. For a moment, I thought, “Why not just bang on the press and make some assault rifles?” But I gave up.

The Soviet Union, which had a firearms industry foundation that was incomparable to that of Korea today, suffered greatly during the development of the AK47, and had to struggle until the 1960s by making it by cutting steel. Likewise, even Israel, which had experience in producing the Uzi submachine gun using the press method, made the new Galil rifle by cutting steel like the AK47.

In other words, they were not confident that they could produce a rifle lighter and more reliable than the assault rifles made in Germany in the mid-1940s using technology from the 1910s, even if they had to hit it hard.

‘If trust is shattered like when North Korea or China makes guns and then wipes out the frontline troops, it’s over. Hmm… … .’

As I was thinking about that alone, fortunately, another idea came to mind. I suddenly remembered a YouTube video that the War Memorial of Korea had uploaded some time ago, which was about the South Korean army’s methods against the North Korean army’s PPSh41.

‘Yeah, I had a carbine. Why am I just remembering that now?’

It was brainstorming. He was the eternal friend of the reserves, and the guy who sent countless North Korean and Chinese soldiers to their deaths in the Korean War. And what I had in mind was the M1, M2 carbine. At this level, the size and weight are reasonable, and although it is much more compact than an assault rifle, its power and effective range are comparable to those of a submachine gun.

If you know why the North Korean and Chinese troops were afraid of encountering the South Korean assault troops armed with carbines during the high-altitude battles during the Korean War, you can understand it. It is effective not only in short-range combat but also in mid-range shooting, and it is lighter than other rifles, so it is easy to carry and has excellent ammunition capacity, which increases the infantry’s combat endurance exponentially.

The effectiveness of the Korean divisions can be proven by the fact that, although the ratio of carbines to Garands was 1:3~4 at the beginning of the war, the number increased to 1:2 as the war progressed.

Not only that, it was also equipment that the Korean army used well during the Vietnam War, and I personally liked it very much, so I was able to draw the structure and concept, although it was simple.

Actually, I was a little nervous because I thought I might have forgotten, but when I put the pencil on the notebook and saw that it was quickly drawn, I was proud of myself for not being dead yet.

In any case, if it was a carbine… not only would there be no need to supply pistol ammunition in a dual-purpose format like a submachine gun, but it would also be a firearm that could be used on the battlefield for at least several decades, so it would also be possible to find a logic to persuade the Ministry of Finance and the Marshal’s Office.

“Director, where are you going?”

“I just thought of something urgent. Report the meeting results to me separately.”

“Director!?”

As if to say, “Pulling out the bull’s horns in one go,” I immediately got up and went out to find people who could help me with this. Now all that’s left is to scout out firearm designers and manufacturers who can make this concept and structure concrete and produce it into a real thing, and give them work.

I thought about leaving it to Hongik Precision or Choi Jae-hyung’s military supply factory, which had made a lot of money in the last war by supplying military supplies, but I gave up. As of now, they were only producing firearms such as Belgian FN or Colt under license or manufacturing military Mosin-Nagant rifles.

Besides, since this was an automatic weapon, I needed an expert in it. And if I had to name one, only one came to mind right now.