Chapter 141 Pay Attention to 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 turned around and went to the tea room.

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

"Yes." Sixteen nodded, "While they are preparing the carriage, we can have a cup of tea, eat some snacks, and change clothes by the way."

Joseph then remembered Louis XVI's super luxurious carriage weighing 5 tons, plus his travel equipment, it would take at least 40 minutes to prepare.

He hurriedly pulled Sixteen and said: "Dear father, you are going to test your work as a gun master this time, so you don't have to care about those etiquette and pomp. Why don't you take my carriage?"

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

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

When the King's Guard saw the carriage started, they looked at each other in surprise, hurriedly mounted their horses, and chased after it.

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

Joseph was a little surprised and said: "Isn't your carriage bumpy?"

"Yes, there are more than ten sets of springs installed on the chassis of my carriage." The "technical control" Louis XVI also roughly explained the structure of his car.

"Spring shock absorber?!" Joseph was very surprised. He had always wanted to invent this thing, but he didn't expect that someone had already made it. "Who made your carriage?"

"It's the workshop that makes carriages for the court."

Joseph hurriedly asked about it in detail, and then he knew that carriages with spring shock absorbers had existed decades ago.

It's just that the springs now have to be rolled out little by little by hand, with low production and difficult to guarantee quality. The springs used in the carriage cost 30 livres each, and they broke from time to time, and had to be replaced at most every two or three months.

This led to the price of a carriage with spring shock absorbers easily costing thousands of livres. The king's special customized version was much more expensive.

Of course, people were reluctant to use this kind of carriage, in addition to being expensive, it was also easy to break and difficult to maintain.

The price was so high? Joseph smiled, and he really saw business opportunities everywhere.

Why use springs when the problem can be easily solved with leaf spring suspension? It seems that he can develop another carriage business.

If he knew that this thing was so valuable, he should have made it earlier, and he would have suffered a few more months.

In the southern suburbs of Paris.

In the police academy training ground, all the instructors and trainees were excited and excited because His Majesty the King suddenly came.

Accompanied by a group of senior police officers, Louis XVI smiled and nodded amiably to the students. Suddenly, he turned his head and whispered to Joseph: "I can't believe you built such a large military academy!"

Joseph hurriedly corrected with a smile: "Ah, it's a police academy, training police officers."

Louis XVI pointed to the neatly lined Berthier Regiment in the distance: "Aren't those soldiers?"

Joseph did not hide it from his father: "In fact, I trained an army to verify some military reform ideas. They sometimes come here for training."

"Military reform?" Louis XVI smiled and said, "Is it like what the Marquis de Louvois did?"

The Marquis de Louvois was Louis XIV's Minister of War. He led the military reform at the time and significantly improved the combat effectiveness of the French army. It can be said that the reputation of the Sun King was built by Louvois's army.

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

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

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

As Louis XVI was speaking, he saw the shooting range not far away, and his eyes suddenly lit up, and his steps also quickened a bit.

When he came behind a row of earth walls hundreds of meters wide, the instructor 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 shooting, so he naturally had to place them closer to avoid the embarrassment of His Majesty not being able to hit the target all the time.

Under the gaze of everyone, Louis XVI eagerly took the percussion cap gun and ammunition bag from the attendant, immediately took out the gunpowder and loaded it, pounded it, stuffed it in with lead bullets, pounded it, and then pulled the bolt, took out a percussion cap and installed it on the firing port.

The whole set of actions was extremely skillful, which showed that he had done too many loading and firing actions recently in order to build this gun.

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

The instructors and attendants around were immediately amazed, while Friente, Dubois and others focused their attention on the strange musket.

Joseph looked at the expressions of several people who wanted to say something but hesitated, and smiled at Dubois: "Major Dubois, do you want to compete with His Majesty in shooting speed?"

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 try, Dubois immediately touched his chest and nodded: "As you wish, Your Highness."

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

Joseph then shouted: "Start!"

The two players in the competition immediately started to move. Dubois was obviously faster. He poured in the gunpowder, pulled out the cleaning rod and pounded it, and loaded the bullet. At this time, Louis XVI had just loaded the gunpowder.

Dubois was leading all the way. When he picked up the gunpowder can and poured it into the ignition chamber, Louis XVI had just pounded the bullet.

However, when Dubois pulled the bolt and aimed the gun, he heard the "click" sound of the king pulling the bolt.

He was immediately shocked, that is, His Majesty the King was only less than two seconds slower than him!

He had been practicing loading and shooting since he went to military school. He had been doing a set of movements for more than ten years, and he could complete it even with his eyes closed. His Majesty the King only used the gun when hunting, and even the servants helped him load the bullets. At this time, he was only this slow!

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

Dubois saluted Louis XVI, staring at the percussion gun in his hand and said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for being so presumptuous, may I have the honor to see your gun?"

"Of course." Louis XVI handed the gun over and gave him a percussion cap, "You need to use this to fire."

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

When the latter learned that this gun omitted the step of pouring and igniting gunpowder, and that it took three fewer actions than operating a flintlock, he was immediately so excited that his breathing became a little rapid: "Your Majesty, can I fire it once and try it?"

Please give me double monthly tickets!