Chapter 39: Control Engineering Battalion Eight (Part One)

  "It's absolutely right this time, Brother Li! I know most of those people over there, and I guarantee it won't be wrong again!"

  Xiong Cheng and others sent a young soldier with the surname Liu to contact him, but seeing that everyone called him Liuzi, Li Han also followed the crowd and called out his nickname.

  "Alright then... Let's get ready and sneak in after this group of people passes by..."

  He pointed to the team moving on the highway about 100 meters away, Li Han took over the QCW05 hanging beside him, installed a silencer, and then pressed the bullets into the magazine one by one.

  The 05-style submachine gun uses a straight-in 4-row large-capacity magazine, although it has a super-large capacity of 50 rounds, the disadvantage is also very obvious. The large-capacity ammunition supply device increases the loading quantity while bringing the insufficient force of the magazine spring. Although the 05-style encountered loading problems during use in the troops, the research department specially designed a set of loading tools for use under troop conditions, and the loading problem was solved easily. However, it does not have a standard loading tool, so it can only be loaded manually with great trouble. Speaking of this QCW, although it is convenient for our soldiers to use, but for some larger or longer-armed soldiers, this 05-style is somewhat unsuitable. Because it is a free gun machine weapon, the firing action is completed by the gun machine, and to ensure reliable restriction and release of the gun machine, the trigger pull force is designed to be relatively large (generally around 30 kg, the trigger pull force of the 95-style automatic rifle is 18-28 kg), not only is it easy for fingers to become fatigued, but also makes it more difficult to improve shooting accuracy. In addition, because the grip safety is located at the tiger's mouth position, long-term pressing can easily cause hand fatigue. If the grip safety is suddenly released during continuous firing, it will cause the gun machine and bolt to jam. Moreover, although the short overall length of the 05-style silent submachine gun has a compact structure advantage, it results in a smaller distance between the grip and magazine, so when tall-armed shooters hold the gun, the magazine will press against their wrist.

  However, these shortcomings are apparently next to the little warrior - Liu Zi doesn't know, after seeing him take out his weapon, he has been curiously staying by his side, watching him fiddle with the weapon in his hand, his eyes full of envy.

  "Li Dage, where did this weapon come from? Is it also a foreign country's weapon? Why is it different from our guns?"

  "...not..." pressed the last bullet into the cartridge, "weapons made in a foreign arsenal..."

  Of course, it's not the same now. Not to mention domestically, but even globally, the firearms used by soldiers are basically all manual rifles, which are still a generation away from semi-automatic rifles, let alone the QCW05 in his hand, which belongs to a completely different series.

  "The weapon in my hand is a submachine gun, and the gun in your hand does not belong to the same series. The M1895 Steyr-Mannlicher in your hand belongs to a rifle, although its firing speed is far inferior to the weapon in my hand, but its range is much farther than the weapon in my hand..."

  Li Han patiently explained a sentence, but seeing that he was still very puzzled on his face, obviously didn't understand the difference. Since there was still some time now, he turned around and carefully explained it to him!

  "Do you know handguns?"

  Liu Zi thought for a moment, "Is it the kind of small gun that the foreign instructor and the team leader use, which can be holstered at the waist?"

  "Uh...I guess so!"

  Li Han nodded, "That small gun is called a handgun, it's a type of short-barreled firearm that can be held and aimed with one hand, generally with a range of no more than 200 steps, far inferior to the long-barreled rifle in your hand, it's a short-range weapon."

  He looked at him, still seeming to understand, Li Han thought for a moment and continued to guide: "You remember, it's when the local people touch your side ten or so meters, or even only three or four meters away. Most of the time, if people use this kind of rifle in their hands, they will feel danger and won't have time to raise their guns to counterattack. Handguns are specially designed for situations like this... However, because of the high price, it's even more expensive than rifles, so they're equipped with some officers..."

  "Oh, I see...I know what a rifle is, but what's a submachine gun?"

  "Speaking of submachine guns... Liu Zi, you know machine guns, right?"

  Liu Zi nodded slightly.

  "Submachine guns are similar to machine guns, both can fire a lot of bullets continuously, but they don't have the power of machine guns... nor do they have the range of rifles. Strictly speaking, it's actually similar in nature to handguns, but handguns are for close combat, while this is designed for use when there are many enemies at close range..."

  Li Han explained to him as simply and directly as possible, while also dividing his attention to pick up the telescope and pay attention to the situation on that side. After seeing that the team rushing to reinforce had finally all passed by, he lightly pushed the still confused Liu Zi beside him, "Don't think about it anymore, everyone has passed by, we should also prepare to leave..."

  After finishing speaking, he carefully put on the thick bulletproof vest that had been taken off his body. At this time, the anesthetic effect of the medicine on his left arm had worn off, and the wound was slightly painful from time to time, which slightly affected his performance.

  "Alright, Brother Li, come with me!"

  Liu Zi was clearly more aware of what to do at this time, after Li Han reminded the two teams that had come to assist in defense and passed by, he immediately picked up the gun placed aside and got off the vehicle.

  Li Handai put on a bulletproof helmet, then locked the car and nodded to him before following him quickly through the woods to the camp.

  "Sixth son, haven't we taken a wrong direction?"

  Look, Liuzi is taking him in the opposite direction to a dense forest, Li Han was puzzled, didn't they come out from this side just now?

  Liu Zi used his gun to part the lush weeds beside him, turned around and said: "Brother Li, we are going to sneak into the northwest of the camp's martial arts arena, I know there is a shortcut... it's almost here, look, see that abandoned old house over there..."

  "This Chuwangtai arsenal is near a military stronghold, and the current barracks of the 8th Regiment are on the slightly prominent part of the entire Meiting Mountain. They were all flattened by the engineers from that country in the west. Although there are some trees and buildings nearby, there isn't even half a place to hide or store things. However, there is one place they didn't touch, which is this abandoned village in the southwest mountain valley with an unclean reputation. There are several official mansions from the bandit uprising period, with cellars and barracks galore. The shortcut I'm talking about is here, and last time we came to hang out with a few brothers, we actually discovered a secret passage that leads directly to the outside of the northern corner of the training grounds. Walking this way will be much safer..."

  "Oh?"

  Following Liu Zi, they walked further into a large courtyard that had been overgrown with lush weeds. Looking around at the faintly visible green bricks and stone tiles, it was not hard to imagine its former glory, evoking feelings of nostalgia. On top of some mud walls surrounding the rooms, weeds grew in profusion, while above the beams inside the houses were nothing but spider webs. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dust. Liu Zi led them quickly to an open area that had been cleared and trimmed.

  "It's said that in the early days, engineers from Thailand wanted to flatten this place, but a bloody incident occurred nearby and they stopped work in panic. Although it was later proven to be the doing of a homeless beggar, few people dared to come here again. There are more wild chickens around here, usually after training, we often run out to hunt them..."

  Liu Zi was a straightforward person, although he had only known Li Han for a short time, they were already quite familiar with each other. He awkwardly rubbed his head and lifted the heavy stone pot on a nearby abandoned stove, revealing a straight ladder leading down. Climbing down, one could see a narrow passageway that could barely accommodate two people walking shoulder to shoulder.

  Li Han took the torch from Liu Zi, who had retrieved it from a hidden place beside him, and followed him down. Perhaps due to the urgent construction period, at least, under the light of the torch, he clearly saw that the secret passage was only reinforced with wooden pillars near the entrance, and after walking for a while, the remaining places were obviously not yet reinforced, and some places were quite wide, even allowing two or three people to pass through at the same time. As they went deeper towards the camp, the passage became increasingly narrow and crowded. Li Han touched the mud on the wall and found that it had hardened like stone, indicating that the passage had been excavated for many years. A layer of quicklime was sprinkled on the ground, so the air inside the secret passage was not very humid.

  "This secret passage was unexpectedly discovered by one of our revolutionary comrades and should have been built during the early years of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to prevent any unexpected accidents that may occur before the uprising, after we found it, we didn't report it upwards and just kept it as an emergency measure. However, I'm afraid it won't be usable for much longer because some places have already shown signs of exposure and we don't have time to reinforce it specially, so there is a danger of collapse at any time..."

  Liu Zi walked ahead, explaining that although he was familiar with the secret passage, he was also being extremely cautious, just as he had said. Because it had been neglected for many years, the soil in Wuchang, which relied on the Yangtze River, was not only damp but also very loose. If they hadn't discovered it and taken some precautions, it would have probably collapsed already!

  "Arrived..."

  The secret passage wasn't long, and Li Han followed closely behind him. After about three to five minutes of walking, Liu Zi suddenly stopped in front of him. Li Han looked up to see that they had already reached the end of the secret passage. Liu Zi felt around on the ground for a wooden board, stepped on it, and used force to move aside the huge well cover above his head. Suddenly, a burst of soft mud fell down. After the two quickly climbed up, Li Han found that they were now in a hidden thicket.

  After putting the wooden well cover back, Li Han and others became much more cautious, after all, this place already belonged to the Eighth Camp's warning zone, in other words... they might run into patrolling soldiers at any time.