Merchant with a Conscience
The pig iron promised by Mardi soon arrived. This pig iron was said to be pig iron, but in fact it was scrap iron. There were some rusty and thick robot parts from the goblins, which needed to be sorted out and then returned to the furnace. But overall, in terms of weight, San La still made a profit. ➷➷➷➷➷
After receiving the pig iron, Zul'ra delivered the three hundred muskets and three thousand rounds of ammunition as promised. However, after the delivery, he was a little worried. First of all, these muskets were made for Orcs, and it seemed a bit inappropriate to give them to Goblins. Would such muskets affect his arms business?
As a first-time arms dealer, Zul'ra inevitably had many ideas. However, after delivering the muskets, another group of customers arrived. Following Mardi of the Steamwheedle Cartel, representatives from the Bilgewater Cartel also came.
The person from the Bilgewater Cartel was not Trade Prince Gallywix, but rather Druz, the Bilgewater Cartel's chief law enforcement officer. His purpose was the same as Mardi's: to buy arms.
It was no coincidence that two Goblins groups were buying weapons at the same time, especially since Zul'ra had indirectly participated in the power transition within this Goblins group. This experience told him that something big might be about to happen within the Goblins. They were not inexperienced in fighting for trade interests, and they were always quite fierce, which was a bit frightening. He wanted to sell some weapons to calm his nerves first.
The chief law enforcement officer of the Bilgewater Cartel was a bit more generous than Mardi. He ordered 500 guns and, in addition to the 3,000 rounds of ammunition that were given as a gift, purchased an extra 2,000 rounds. At 50 gold coins per gun and 1 Almond Coin per bullet, the total came to 25,040 gold coins.
The Bilgewater Cartel also paid with more than 50,000 tons of scrap iron, which Zul'ra readily accepted. At the same time as shipping the goods, he sent someone to inform Mardi in Gadgetzan of the deal.
Unsurprisingly, upon learning that the Bilgewater Cartel was also purchasing arms, Mardi immediately sent people to place an additional order for 300 guns and 6,000 rounds of ammunition, and tried to persuade Zul'ra not to sell arms to the Bilgewater Cartel anymore.
To be honest, the Horde has a deep relationship with the Steamwheedle Cartel and currently owes them a large sum of money. However, given that Mardi's actions are currently a personal matter, Zul'ra declined his request, but indicated that the Horde's support for his arms would definitely be a priority.
Through trade with the Goblins, Zul'ra sold off all of his stockpiled breech-loading muskets in one go, and then began to manufacture new types of muskets. The old-style muskets were folding rifled guns that used flint to start fires and used paper-coated gunpowder and lead Minié bullets. They were designed to shoot down flying Harpies and highly mobile Centaur.
The old-style muskets were created using imperfect manufacturing processes and were rather crude and rudimentary. They performed well in combating Harpies and Centaur, so more were produced. The production of new muskets was delayed for a long time, not only due to cost and funding issues, but also due to bullet compatibility problems. But now things are different.
The Goblins helped the Horde dispose of the old firearms, allowing the new firearms to be quickly deployed. Zul'ra ordered the new factories to operate at full capacity to begin producing the new firearms, and then began to collect the firearms that had been distributed to the tribe.
The new type of musket was mainly due to the evolution of metallurgical technology. With the emergence of new copper-cased cartridges with new primers, the original folding design of the musket was abandoned, and a bolt-action mechanism with impact ignition was adopted. Although this type of musket was more technologically advanced and simplified the loading and firing process, the user had to familiarize himself with the musket first.
While Zul'ra distributed the new muskets to various places to familiarize his men with them and collected the old ones, he also had Gaodier send out spies to gather intelligence Goblins the goblins' use of muskets and Goblins possible attempts to imitate them.
The Bilgewater Cartel is headquartered on the the Lost Isles, where there are few rivals besides wild beasts. However, Gadgetzan, where Mardi is located, is backed by Zul'Farrak, and the Desert Trolls are not friendly to outsiders, so they naturally became the target of the attack.
Mardi assembled his Goblins musketeer squad, chose a Desert Trolls settlement in the wilderness, and succeeded in one fell swoop. Those muskets were old-fashioned compared to the Horde's new muskets and had many shortcomings, but they were much more advanced than the crude muskets of this world.
Rifling and Minié rounds increased the rate of fire and firing range, allowing Goblins musketeers to easily hit Trolls from a great distance. They could also reload and fire before the Desert Trolls got close. As long as the gunners didn't panic, such battles, apart from the high ammunition consumption, were easier than catching chickens when it came to killing unarmored Desert Trolls.
After testing its immense power, the Goblins naturally thought of replicating the musket. After all, buying guns from others, even if it only required paying for iron ore and oil, was not a big deal. However, the difference between handmade and machine-made guns was enormous.
The caliber of the gun, the caliber of the bullet, the seamless barrel, and the folding receiver— the Horde firearms embody the wisdom and hard work of the artisans, including Zul'ra, the Sin'dorei, Gnomes, and Goblins. They are not easy to imitate. However, the Goblins artisans used their ingenuity: if they couldn't imitate them, they would modify them!
The muskets of the Horde were intended for use by Orcs. Compared to the short Goblins the goblins, the original rifles were almost like cumbersome lances, requiring two Goblins to operate. Therefore, unable to manufacture suitable barrels, the Goblins craftsmen disassembled the original muskets, sawed the barrels in half, and then reassembled them, so that one gun could be used as two guns.
The Goblins's idea of modifying a musket, with its folding mechanism and semi-rifled barrel, was undoubtedly a failure. However, when this reached Zul'ra's ears, it certainly made him a little uneasy; the Goblins ' imaginations were indeed extraordinary.
Unable to replicate or modify them, the Goblins had no choice but to buy guns from Zul'ra. Fortunately, Zul'ra currently accepted payments in the form of iron ore and oil, which made them feel somewhat better, so they quickly bought as many as possible while the prices were cheap.
Orders poured into Zul'ra's hands like snowflakes. Zul'ra ordered the factory to work overtime at full capacity, and soon they sold 5,000 muskets and 300,000 rounds of paper bullets at a price of 40 gold coins per gun and 1 Almond Coin for two bullets. In return, they received 70,000 tons of scrap iron, 180,000 tons of iron ore, and 600 barrels of oil.
The Goblins originally wanted to buy heavy weapons like cannons, but Zul'ra flatly refused. He was a conscientious arms dealer; the world's population couldn't be reduced drastically in a short period, otherwise he would be essentially working for the Legion and the the Scourge.
To maintain his conscience, Zul'ra modified some of the cardboard bullets he sold, reducing the amount of gunpowder in more than half of them. Although the bullets still hit the same person, their lethality was greatly reduced when they came into contact with certain armor.