Chapter 749-P1 Type Cannon
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
"What's your suggestion? I'm all ears."
After solving her greatest problem, Wu Ping Cheng instantly relaxed and became rather cheerful.
Ouyang Shuo asked, "I personally really support the movie industry and want to have long term cooperation with experts. Are you interested in this matter?"
Since he saw this clear and unexplored ocean in the game, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to let it go. How could simply investing in one movie fill his appetite? His goal was to control the entertainment industry and be a magnate.
The Ping Cheng Studio was the first prey that Ouyang Shuo was interested in.
Wu Ping Cheng's eyes looked like she was on guard, and she hesitated as she said, "You want to acquire my studio?" Wu Ping Cheng was not unfamiliar with such acquisition matters done by sharks in real life. Now that Ouyang Shuo held the life of Jiangshan Beauty in his hands, it was difficult to reject him.
Ping Cheng Studio was Wu Ping Cheng's life and definitely could not be tainted by others, not even Shanhai City. Wu Ping Cheng was already prepared to totally lose everything.
"Not acquisition." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "It is an investment. I would like to use my personal name to invest 200 thousand gold into the Ping Cheng Studio, taking 40% of the shares. Moreover, I will not interfere in your how you run things. In terms of movie shooting, Shanhai City can give you all areas of support. Without mentioning other things, the Four Seas Bank is willing to provide loans for the next movie. How about that, are you interested?"
Ouyang Shuo's terms were not strict. He just wanted a win-win situation and a bigger cake. He was not trying to rake in short term profits.
When Wu Ping Cheng heard his words, her heart started thumping. She noticed that a huge chance was placed in front of them.
Even in the game, the movie industry was truly a money burning industry. Wu Ping Cheng used up all she had, yet she still could not manage to support one movie and needed to find partners.
If Jiangshan Beauty could not help her get her money back, Ping Cheng Studio would have to announce their bankruptcy. The best way out was to find a huge rich shark to work with.
Shanhai City was undoubtedly the biggest shark in China. Not only did they have sufficient funds, they were the biggest shareholders of the Four Seas Bank, and they were extremely strong. More importantly, they could provide all items and resources for shooting a movie.
The key was that they were not greedy and did not want to have the bulk of the shares. Furthermore, they would not interfere in how she ran things.
It was obviously a pure investment act.
In the wilderness, there was no one more suitable for her to work with than Shanhai City. Before which, Wu Ping Cheng had fantazised about working with Shanhai City. Unfortunately, she could not even walk into the gates of the imperial city.
If it was not for his image of being a pure and loyal man who rejected the love of Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, and more, Hua Ping Cheng would have thought that Ouyang Shuo was interested in her.
"I agree."
Wu Peng Cheng did not hesitate, and she directly nodded her head. Even if it was a big hole in front of her, she was still going to jump right in.
Chances come and go quickly. Wu Ping Cheng was a really decisive person.
"Great!" Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Let the discussions end today. Someone will contact you shortly."
Ouyang Shuo did not intend to control the entertainment industry himself and wanted to let Song Jia control it. Apart from investing in Ping Cheng Studio, Ouyang Shuo would take out 800 thousand more gold to invest and hire more industry big shots.
This one time investment would reach a million gold.
With that, Ouyang Shuo only had five million gold left in his pockets.
And to truly get the entertainment industry up and running, a million gold was too little.
In order to not use up too much of his liquidated funds, the best way would be to proceed slowly, investing in two to three films at first and using the profits to increase the scale.
The matters within were rather complicated.
Ouyang Shuo believed that with Song Jia's ability, she could handle this matter well.
After Wu Ping Cheng Left, Ouyang Shuo penned a letter to Song Jia to describe in detail what happened and also sent her a million gold.
From now on, Song Jia would take charge of following the filming of Jiangshan Beauty as well as investing in the Ping Cheng Studio.
Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to a totally unexpected entertainment industry breaking out in the future two years; this would help bring huge amounts of cash into Shanhai City.
After the short interruption, Ouyang Shuo and his group set off once more.
And just as Ouyang Shuo was calming down the three prefectures in Lingnan, the Leopard Legion Corps finally acted.
10th month, 20th day, Chuannan Province Guilin Prefecture, Xuanwu Pass.
A year ago, Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State had worked together and made use of the chance where the Shanhai City Army was busy with Taiping Country to snatch food out of the tiger's mouth, taking Guilin Prefecture.
Guilin Prefecture was the north shield for Chuannan Province and had an extremely good strategic location. Only two passes connected them.
During the battle at the passes, Guiping Pass was kept by the Shanhai City and the Withered Flower Stronghold was constructed; this place became the headquarters of the Leopard Legion Corps. Xuanwu Pass, on the other hand, was occupied by the Alliance Army till date.
At this date, Xuanwu Pass was defended by the Alliance Army like their lives depended on it. And today, Zhang Han led the 2nd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps out, bearing down on the pass.
The Leopard Legion Corps was in charge of the north border, and Han Xin led the 1st legion to guard the Withered Flower Stronghold. Zhang Han's 2nd legion built a long-term camp in charge of monitoring the Alliance Army.
In this year of standing off, the 2nd legion had many conflicts with the Alliance Army in Xuanwu Pass. Helplessly, Xuanwu Pass was a stronghold, so even with only 50 thousand Alliance Army troops defending the place it was still extremely difficult to take down.
Hence, when they saw the 2nd legion coming at them once more, the Alliance Army in the pass was not shocked. The enemy pretty much came once a month, so it was not much of a surprise.
"Look, they are back again!"
"Haha, a bunch of fools that are just looking to be humiliated."
On the city walls of the pass, the Alliance Army soldiers mocked their enemy.
Amongst the 2nd legion troops, Zhang Han was riding on his horse. His eyes narrowed as he gazed at the pass with an exceedingly complicated expression.
One year!
The 2nd legion held it in for an entire year.
"It is finally time to end it." Zhang Han muttered.
Zhang Han waved his flag, and the middle troops slowly broke away. They revealed 32 elite Qingfu Horses pulling eight cold cannons, appearing at the front of the troops.
These cannons were not the Ming Dynasty Cannons but the new type of cannons designed by the No.7 Research Institute - codename P1 Type.
Compared to the cumbersome cannons of the Ming Dynasty, the P1 Type cannons were a big improvement. First, the barrels, frame, and other parts were built with steel.
With that, not only did it greatly reduce the chances of the cannon imploding, it reduced the weight greatly while the size was decreased by 50%.
The problem with industrialization was that the production speed of the P1 Type was extremely low. At their current rate, they could only produce 10 a month.
The main problem was that the industrialization process was just starting out, and their technology level was low. Most parts did not have machines, so they could only be manually handled.
The second change would be the cannon system.
The Ming Dynasty cannons were two-wheeled, which made them hard to transport. Hence, the newest results of the No.7 Research Institute were to create a new steel four-wheeled cart for the P1 Type Cannon.
The wheels were specially designed, being two times wider than normal. At the same time, a gear system was added. Four warhorses could easily pull one cannon, greatly increasing their mobility.
Of course, as rubber tires were not invented yet, the new four-wheeled chariots still had weaknesses. Not only were their speeds slower than warhorses, it was easy for the wheels to get stuck when it was rainy or if the ground was muddy.
This was also just on paths. If it was in the wilderness, it was much worse. Any hill or drain would stop them in their tracks.
To ship these eight cannons to the 2nd legion base, the Combat Logistics Department had spent a full month, facing many difficulties.
The moment this toy fell into mud, getting it out was more difficult than ascending the heavens.
12 cannons were moved out from the city but only eight reached the front lines. The remaining four were spoilt during the transportation process.
Hence, the P1 Type Cannon did not have a chance of appearing in the Battle of Lingnan.
The third change was the essence of the P1 Type Cannon.
With the changes done by Liu Mo and the others, along with combining the strengths of the Spanish and English cannons, the P1 Type Cannon could finally shoot at a trajectory.
With that, not only was the range greatly increased, it could directly shoot at the city wall and even into the city. The cannons were no longer a weak weapon that could only shoot at the city gate.
The P1 Type Cannon became a siege weapon, and its first target was Xuanwu Pass.
At the same time, to coordinate with the trajectory shooting, the cannon also had aiming tools to increase the accuracy. It did not rely solely on the cannoneer's experience anymore.
The No.7 Research Institutes did thousands of experiments to make an aiming tool suited for the P1 Type Cannon, obtaining plenty of data before it finally took shape.
The above three aspects were the big changes when compared to the Ming Dynasty Cannons. There were also many other smaller changes, each one the hard work of the researchers.
Along with the Atlantis Mimicry Flying Device Crafting Technology being digested by the research institute and the steam engine and sewing machine, the territory industrialization standard had a chance of stepping to a new level by the year end.
At that time, they could start their research on a P2 Type Cannon.
One could foresee that the P2 Type Cannon would be the true killer weapon and could even change the way of war. This weapon could truly lead the thermal weapons era into the cold weapons era and play a crucial and defining role.
The current P1 Type Cannons was just using a butcher knife to kill a chicken.
Even so, it was enough for Xuanwu Pass. With the assistance of the cannons, Zhang Han was confident in taking down the pass in just a single day.