The arrival of new recruits made everyone in the mercenary group even busier. Although the captain of the guard is Zeng Erniu, the chief instructor is Xu Dacheng. Then assign him ten team members as instructors. Although Xu Dacheng still shows off from time to time, he is much more stable and reliable than before. Now that the mercenary group Gao Xiaoshan and Miaohua have stood alone, the next leader Zhou Wen wants to cultivate is Xu Dacheng. After all, in future wars, Zhou Wen is prepared to hand over all artillery power to his command. In other words, Xu Dacheng was the artilleryman when the mercenary group was fighting in small groups, and he was the artillery commander when the whole group was participating in the battle.
Zhou Wen's plan is to spend three months cultivating these recruits' basic military qualities and cultural studies. Three months later, we will start training according to different arms, and strive to bring them all to the Songhu battlefield in January next year for the baptism of war. Therefore, time is tight and the tasks are heavy, not to mention that what Zhou Wen wants to train must be elite soldiers.
The entire guard team, including captain Zeng Erniu, must participate in training and must also be assessed. If it doesn't fit, replace it. Now Lishi has fully recruited people and started training. In half a year, the two sides will be brought together for a test to see who is better, the hunters in the mountains of Lishi, or the elite soldiers selected from tens of thousands of people in Taiyuan. The machine gun team and the artillery team were divided into two, and they served as instructors for the two units respectively.
The competition half a year later was not only a test for the soldiers, but also a competition for the two chief instructors, Miaohua and Xu Dacheng. Naturally, both of them are unwilling to lag behind and will come up with various means and methods to improve the quality of training.
Lishi County has also added an engineering team of 50 people, and Zhou Wen will personally go over to provide guidance when the troops are training. A communications team of 50 people has been added to Taiyuan, and Zhou Yongbin will train them at that time. Of course, the two brothers Zhao Yi, Zhao Shun and Zhang Jie, who had been trained to death by Gao Xiaoshan, are now continuing their training with the guard. Zhou Wen wants to cultivate their military style and discipline, and there will naturally be other plans for the future.
It was busy like this for a few days. Gao Xiaoshan was in charge of the party headquarters, Xu Dacheng and Uncle Ma were responsible for the training of new recruits, and Uncle Wu continued his old business, and the logistics and food were provided. Zhou Wen dove into the arsenal and started the research and development of semi-automatic rifles with Hobert...
Time passed quickly for more than half a month. This day is January 17, 1931, a memorable day - the prototype of the semi-automatic rifle designed by Zhou Wen left the factory.
In a shooting range next to the arsenal's gun test station, German consultant Hobert, Northeastern Army Commissioner Huang Yisheng, uncle Wang Wenzhao and foreman Li Bin were all looking at the rifle held by Zhou Wen not far away. My heart is full of excitement, prayer, and gratitude...
Zhou Wen was also looking at the gun in his hand, as if looking at a newborn baby. At this moment, my heart is ups and downs, and I have mixed feelings. It's not easy. Although various technical data have been produced that have proven to be feasible in later generations, many changes have also been made. This is a gun jointly produced by the advanced design concepts of later generations, the rigorous review and technical control of German firearms engineers, the best equipment currently available in Taiyuan Arsenal, and the operation of the most skilled workers.
The total length of the gun is 1.2 meters, which is much longer than the later 56 semi-automatic. This is mainly because the 6.5 mm caliber barrel must be maintained at a certain length to ensure range and reduce recoil. With a 10-round magazine, the total weight reaches 4 kilograms, and the weight fully meets the design requirements. The barrel is designed with a bayonet bayonet, but Zhou Wen is not yet ready to equip it with a bayonet. The automatic mode adopts a barrel gas guide that is very mature and reliable in later generations. There are two ways to load ammunition, one is to press the bullet directly into the barrel, and the other is to use a spare magazine to load the bullet from the lower slot.
Zhou Wen tried it just now. Both loading methods are easy to operate. Of course, using the magazine is definitely faster. The barrel of this gun took Li Bin several days of work and more than a dozen barrels, and was carefully polished by hand. Only then were four rifled barrels produced that met Hobert's requirements. The six rifling lines proposed by Zhou Wen had been modified by Hobert. You must know that six riflings are not necessarily better than four rifling barrels, but because the riflings become thinner, the wear on the riflings will be greater, and the requirements for bullets are also different. The bullets in the current arsenal are not suitable, and the bullets are not suitable. Fitting will not only not increase accuracy, but will also make it easier to wear out the barrel. Therefore, semi-automatic rifles still use four rifled barrels, but the quality requirements are higher.
Of course, you can also use special alloy steels that are much harder and tougher than ordinary steel, such as chromium-nickel steel. But the high cost is not suitable for large-scale equipment for troops. Even the United States in later generations cannot afford to equip it.
The gun in Zhou Wen's hand was used to obtain initial test data. Naturally, the wear and tear of the barrel did not need to be considered for the time being. But why did he plan to equip the mercenary group with semi-automatic rifles made in Germany? It requires chromium-nickel steel to make the barrel. In addition, Germany's rifling technology and equipment are the most advanced and sophisticated, so the rifles produced must be high-quality. Moreover, Zhou Wen also plans to install a suppressor on every high-quality rifle, which can only be made in Germany at present. As for the price, Zhou Wen doesn't need large-scale equipment. Dozens or hundreds of them are still affordable, not to mention that Zhou Wen is still thinking of free of charge.
He designed this gun. Although Hobert also participated in part of the work, he has the patent rights as the project leader and funder. If he sells the patent to the German Mauser Company...hehe!
After all, the final success must be that the gun can meet the design requirements.
Zhou Wen turned on the safety on the trigger, pulled the gun, and heard a crisp "click" sound as the bullet was loaded. Raise the gun to your shoulder and pull the trigger continuously at the target 100 meters away. "Pah - pah - pah!" In the clear and sweet sound, ten bullets were fired instantly. The moment the rifle magazine was empty, it automatically released with a soft sound. Zhou Wen immediately took it off and inserted the spare magazine, and continued shooting...
After firing fifty rounds in a row, Zhang Xiaoping, who reported the target, came over with the target. Everyone gathered around to take a look, and saw that a big hole had been punched in the 10-ring part of the target.
Hobert shouted excitedly: "Zhou, the 100-meter scatter is very small. Your 50-fire rate just now is less than one minute. If you are an ordinary soldier, you should be able to reach 30 rounds per minute. If you are a veteran, then It can reach a rate of fire of 40 rounds. It’s amazing. With such a high rate of fire and such a small scatter, it’s already half the battle.”
Then Zhou Wen and the others test-fired 200-meter and 300-meter targets, and the results were shocking. The accuracy completely met or exceeded the expected standards and requirements. Everyone went up and fired a few bullets, and they were all amazed. Even a novice like Wang Wenzhao, who had rarely touched a gun, could hit the target at a distance of 100 meters with a standing shot. The recoil is very small, the force of pulling the trigger is moderate, and there is Zhou Wen’s unique short position prompt design. Everyone felt that the shot was a success.
Huang Yisheng was so excited that he could not stop talking and danced with joy. He held the gun and never let go, kept shooting and praising.
Zhou Wen was also inexplicably excited. He succeeded. It was already considered a success. A famous gun was born...
