Chapter 141 Look out for business opportunities everywhere

The father and son smiled knowingly and left immediately.

After leaving the workshop, Joseph was about to walk towards the marble courtyard, but saw Louis XVI turning around and going to the tea room.

He hurriedly followed and said in surprise: "Father, aren't we going to the shooting range?"

"Yes." Shiliu nodded, "While they are preparing the carriage, they can have a cup of tea, eat some snacks, and change clothes at the same time."

Joseph then remembered that Louis XVI's super luxurious carriage weighing 5 tons, plus all his travel equipment, could not be prepared in less than 40 minutes.

He hurriedly grabbed Shilidao and said, "Dear father, this time you are going to test your work as a firearms master, so you don't have to worry about the etiquette. Why don't you just take my carriage."

Louis XVI blinked, um, gun master? It seems interesting and stylish.

He obeyed the advice and simply changed his clothes, then left the Palace of Versailles and got into his son's gray-black carriage.

When the men of the King's Guard saw His Majesty's carriage starting to move, they looked at each other in surprise, hurriedly mounted their horses, and chased after him.

Not far after the motorcade had gone, Louis XVI complained: "Joseph, your carriage is too bumpy... If I had known better, I should have waited until my carriage was ready before leaving."

Joseph asked a little strangely: "Isn't your carriage bumpy?"

"Yes, there are more than ten sets of springs installed on the chassis of my car." "Technical Controller" Sixteen also gave a general explanation of the structure of his car.

"Spring shock absorber?!" Joseph was greatly surprised. He had always been thinking about inventing this thing, but he didn't expect that someone had already made it. "Who made your carriage?"

"It's the same workshop that built carriages for the palace."

Joseph hurriedly inquired in detail, and then he learned that carriages with spring shock absorbers had existed decades ago.

It's just that the current springs are rolled out bit by bit by hand, the output is low, and the quality is difficult to guarantee. The springs used in carriages cost 30 livres each, and they broke from time to time and had to be replaced every two or three months at most.

This resulted in the price of a carriage equipped with spring shock absorbers easily reaching thousands of livres. The King's special edition was much more expensive.

Of course, people are reluctant to use this kind of carriage. In addition to being expensive, they are also easy to break and troublesome to maintain.

The price is so high? There was a smile on Joseph's lips. There were business opportunities everywhere.

Why do we have to use springs when a problem can be easily solved with leaf spring suspension? It seems that I can develop a horse-drawn carriage business again.

If he had known how valuable this thing was, he should have done it sooner and made his ass suffer for a few more months.

Southern suburbs of Paris.

In the police academy training ground, all the instructors and trainees were in excitement because His Majesty the King suddenly arrived.

Accompanied by senior officers of the police academy, Louis XVI smiled and nodded kindly to the trainees. Suddenly he turned his head and asked Joseph in a low voice: "I can't believe you actually built such a big military academy!"

Joseph quickly corrected with a smile: "Ah, it's the police academy, where police officers are trained."

Louis XVI gestured towards Berthier's regiment, which was lined up in the distance: "Aren't those all soldiers?"

Joseph didn't hide it from his father: "Actually, I trained an army to test some military reform ideas. They sometimes come here for training."

"Military reform?" Louis XVI said with a smile, "Is it like what the Marquis de Louvoir did?"

The Marquis de Louvoir was Louis XIV's minister of war and led the military reforms at that time, which significantly improved the French army's combat effectiveness. It can be said that the Sun King's reputation was achieved through Loufoy's army.

However, Louis XVI did not really think that the fourteen-year-old crown prince could really carry out decent military reforms.

Joseph could only vaguely say: "Ah, it's somewhat similar."

"I'm so proud of you, my son!"

Just as Louis XVI was talking, he saw the shooting range not far away. His eyes suddenly lit up and his feet sped up a bit.

When he arrived behind a row of earth walls hundreds of meters wide, instructors had already placed more than a dozen human-shaped wooden boards 40 steps away.

5 steps is about 1 meter. 40 steps is about 26 meters.

The instructor knew that it was His Majesty the King who was doing target shooting, so he naturally had to move closer to avoid the embarrassment of His Majesty's continued failure to hit the target.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Louis XVI eagerly took the percussion gun and ammunition bag from the attendant's hand, immediately took out the gunpowder, loaded it, and stamped it, inserted lead bullets, stamped it, then pulled the trigger and touched the gun. Take out a flash cap and put it on the fire door.

The whole set of actions is extremely skillful, which shows that he has done the loading and firing action too many times recently in order to build this gun.

With a bang, the bullet shot out and hit the shoulder of a wooden target.

The surrounding instructors and followers immediately burst into admiration, but Friant, Dubois and others were all focused on the weird musket.

Joseph looked at the hesitant expressions of several people and smiled at Dubois: "Major Dubois, do you want to compare your shooting speed with His Majesty?"

Dubois has served for more than ten years and is one of the fastest shooters in the police academy.

Seeing that Louis XVI was also eager to give it a try, Dubois immediately touched his chest and nodded: "As you wish, Your Highness."

He took a Charleville 1776 flintlock gun and hung the ammunition bag on his waist.

Joseph then shouted: "Start!"

The two contestants immediately started moving. Dubois was obviously faster, pouring in the gunpowder, pulling out the rod and pestle, and loading the gun. At this time, Louis XVI had just installed the gunpowder.

Dubois was leading the way. When he picked up the gunpowder jar and poured it into the ignition chamber, Louis XVI had just filled the gun with bullets.

However, when Dubois pulled the trigger and raised the gun to aim, he heard the "click" sound of the king pulling the trigger.

He was suddenly shocked. In other words, His Majesty the King was only less than two seconds slower than him!

He has been practicing reloading and shooting since he entered the military academy. He has been doing a set of actions for more than ten years, and he can complete it even with his eyes closed. And His Majesty the King only knows how to use a gun when hunting, and even has servants to help load the ammunition, but now he is only so much slower than him!

The two guns fired two seconds apart, and everyone present except the king and his son opened their eyes in surprise.

Dubois saluted Louis XVI with his breasts pressed against his chest. He stared at the percussion gun in the latter's hand and said, "Your Majesty, with all due respect, may I have the honor to see your gun?"

"Of course." Sixteen handed him the gun and thoughtfully gave him a flash cap, "I want to use this to fire."

Joseph then picked up another flash cap gun and told Dubois how to operate it.

When the latter learned that this gun omitted the step of pouring igniting gunpowder and required three fewer movements than operating a flintlock gun, he was immediately so excited that his breathing became short of breath: "Your Majesty, I can try firing it once." ?"

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