Chapter 41: Receiving New-Style Weapons

  "Clang clang——" Captain Fan handed his ID through the small window to the armory at the half-way point of Lüshi Mountain, and soon it was opened.

  As soon as Qu Mingjun entered the door, he was startled by two German black-backed dogs staring at him with their eyes fixed on him. When he first came in, he didn't hear any barking, how did this place have two half-human-high wolfhounds?

  At this time, the two German Shepherds stood side by side like soldiers in formation, half squatting and half sitting on the ground, panting with their tongues out, but their eyes stared unblinkingly at the twenty-two people who had just entered.

  Fan Shaoxia handed the rifle in his hand to a soldier who came over with a gun on his back, and then took over the registration book from another fully armed soldier next to him, starting to register the information of their 22 people.

  Qu Mingjun took this opportunity to take a closer look at the scene inside the mysterious arsenal. The arsenal was built in a mountain valley, with three rows of houses along the surrounding wall. On both sides were high and flat buildings similar to those used for storing ammunition, which were likely used to store small cannons or light combat vehicles. The two-story building facing the main gate, leaning against the cliff, looked like a primary school in some mountain village, except that it had no windows, and all its doors were made of thick metal. Along the outer slope of the surrounding wall, there was also a row of high-voltage electric fences.

  Inside and outside the walls of the armory, various types of surveillance cameras are scattered all over, carefully looking at their monitoring range, overlapping with each other, without any blind spots. On the side of the armory gate, there is also a row of bungalows, seeing soldiers passing by that side, it should be the living area for the soldiers responsible for guarding.

  Such strict security measures, plus two German Shepherds, and the armory is built on the halfway up the mountain behind the Shimmen Institute, can be said to be as solid as gold.

  Fan Shaoxiao quickly signed his name and then two old soldiers who had just come out of the dormitory led him to a small building with two floors in front.

  They followed the old soldier to a room on the second floor, left of the stairs. The two old soldiers each took out a bunch of keys, one inserted a key into a lock hole and waited for the other to insert another key into another lock hole, then both used force together, and a faint "click" was heard from inside the door, then an old soldier turned a dial-like thing on the door, this troublesome door was finally opened.

  After the door opened, Qu Mingjun's first glance was surprisingly at something similar to a counter. An old soldier was waiting outside the door, another old soldier went in and took down a registration book from the wall beside him.

  Haven't you registered at the entrance? Why do you need to register here too? Qu Mingjun was curious, and he walked over to take a look. It turned out to be an entry and exit warehouse registration book.

  Then Fan Shaoxiao took out the registration book and started calling people.

  When the old soldier in the house sent out the first gun, Qu Mingjun's eyes widened suddenly, and the other twenty people who were originally still talking in a low voice suddenly fell silent.

  ……

  "Quán Míng Jùn!"

  "Arrived!"

  Qū Míng Jùn hastily stepped forward, the old soldier inside the house handed a gun to the old soldier outside the door, the old soldier outside the door took the gun and read out the serial number, letting Fán Shào Xià register it before handing it over to Qū Míng Jùn.

  This gun was held in Qu Mingjun's hands, and Qu Mingjun was both surprised and delighted. How could it be this kind of gun?

  "Choi Jae!"

  "Arrived!"

  Soon, Choi Jae came down with a gun and approached Guk Myung-joon's side, also covering his smile.

  This is the Type 95 automatic rifle, this is actually the Type 95 automatic rifle. Everyone who plays with guns naturally knows that our country has developed its own 5.8mm gun family, and the representative is this Type 95 automatic rifle.

  This year's July 1st is the day when Hong Kong returned to the motherland, everyone watched the Hong Kong return ceremony, the whole country was jubilant, the whole army was jubilant, and all the students in the hospital also sang and danced to commemorate this great day.

  Everyone saw on TV that the troops stationed in Hong Kong used 95-style automatic rifles, and at that time they were discussing it enthusiastically, and everyone was curious and expected this kind of weapon. Unexpectedly, within a few months, the training team members also took up this new rifle.

  Qiu Mingjun held the gun in his hand, weighing it slightly up and down, feeling much lighter than the 81-style automatic rifle, with a more compact structure, and the buttstock was integrated with the receiver. This is what they called the "no-butt" structure in military magazines. Moreover, the entire gun made extensive use of engineering plastics, emitting a metallic black luster from the receiver, making the 95-style automatic rifle look more modern and mechanical than the 81-style automatic rifle.

  Chui Ze picked up the gun and aimed at the empty space in the yard, then said: "This new guy's sight is different from our Type 81."

  The other brothers picked up their guns and took aim, nodding in agreement.

  "This is a peep sight, our previous ones including the Type 81 rifle are all open sights. The accuracy of peep sights is much higher than that of open sights. According to the data, the M1 carbine with a peep sight can easily hit a bottle at a distance of over 100 meters, while the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, which has an advantage in initial velocity and barrel length over the M1 carbine, finds it difficult to do so. There was once a highway sniper terror incident in the United States. The gunman used an ordinary AR15 rifle without a scope from the Colt company to shoot pedestrians at a distance of 100 to 200 meters, almost every shot hit its target, which also proves how high the accuracy of peep sights is."

  Everyone present, including Captain Fan and Lieutenant Li, looked at Qu Mingjun in surprise. The two of them exchanged a surprised glance, seemingly not expecting that Qu Mingjun would be so familiar with the sighting device of this latest rifle of our army.

  "Is there anything else?" Fang Shaojie suddenly asked.

  "Huh? Is this a test for me?" Qu Mingjun composed himself and continued, "The peep sight has another advantage, which is that the shooter doesn't need to focus on the relationship between the notch and the front sight. After aligning the eye with the peep hole, you only need to use the front sight to aim at the target, making it easier on the eyes and reducing fatigue. Additionally, the peep sight won't produce glare like the notch sight's scale does when worn down by sunlight. You see, during aiming, if the front sight or notch deviates by even a millimeter due to this glare, the bullet impact point will be off by 20-30 centimeters at 100 meters. In precision shooting, that's undoubtedly fatal."

  "Hmm, not bad. There are some things I haven't heard of before." Fan Shaoxia rubbed his chin and asked: "So, compared to the open sight, the peephole sight doesn't have any drawbacks?"

  "Of course." Qu Mingjun was very interested in the comparison between the 95-style rifle and the 81-style rifle when he first saw that military magazine. Moreover, he had personally touched the US-made M16A1 and the Soviet-made AK47 at a local shooting range, which happened to be respectively equipped with aperture sights and notch sights.

  The field of view of the open sight is wider than that of the peephole and most optical sights, which is beneficial for capturing moving targets and rough shooting. Moreover, shooters who are familiar with the characteristics of firearms can also aim with both eyes open, and their reaction speed is relatively fast in actual combat. The small diameter peephole is only suitable for high-precision shooting under good lighting conditions, but it will be at a disadvantage in twilight or dark conditions. For example, during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, the US military had difficulty aiming with their M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles at night and were forced to use pistols or even cold weapons to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Japanese troops who broke into their positions. In 1995, a sensational shooting incident known as the "Deer Hunter" occurred in North America (Note 1), in which the perpetrator used an SKS semi-automatic rifle equipped with an open sight to shoot and wound multiple local hunters. Interestingly, there was another detail in this incident: before opening fire, the perpetrator deliberately removed the optical sight mounted on the SKS semi-automatic rifle so that he could use the mechanical sight for quick aiming.

  This time, the 20 people gathered for the training session were all top-notch students in the entire college, each with a proud and arrogant attitude, giving off a sense of "who else can match me?" Knowledge is also power, and this time in the ammunition depot, it can be said that everyone was collectively shocked by Qu Mingjun. Everyone's gaze towards Qu Mingjun was different from before. Among them, Feng Shaojun, Guo Xiangyang, and Cui Ze, apart from being shocked and admiring, also had a sense of pride as Qu Mingjun's teammate.

  Fan Shao and Li Shang exchanged a glance again, their eyes communicating a mixture of puzzlement and astonished gaze.

  "Where did you learn all this?" Captain Li asked, his voice full of surprise. He was indeed astonished that Qu Mingjun knew the difference between a peep sight and an open sight, something he himself knew as a good soldier, but the examples Qu Mingjun gave were not entirely clear to him.

  "Reporting officer, I read it from a magazine." Qu Mingjun stood at attention and replied.

  "What magazine? What magazine?" Fan Shao also wondered, could there be a military magazine that none of them had ever seen before?

  "There's Jianfang Defense Weekly, there's Bingqi, there's Light Weapons Review, and..." Qu Mingjun rattled off seven or eight military magazines, including both domestic and foreign ones.

  "Do you read these magazines every issue?" Fang Shaoxiao asked curiously.

  "Reporting officer, some magazines are sometimes unavailable, so we can't read them continuously. We can only see the ones that are available." Qu Mingjun's face showed a disappointed expression.

  This kid is really something. To be honest, being able to read magazines isn't anything special, the key is that Qu Mingjun can connect these scattered pieces of information together after reading them, forming new knowledge, this is a very useful ability. Fan Shao and Li Shang looked at each other again.

  "Alright, everyone gather downstairs and get ready to head back." Captain Li said after making sure everyone had received their guns.

  Twenty team members walking on the road, everyone wearing new camouflage uniforms and high-waisted combat boots, carrying 95-style guns that were only issued to troops stationed in Hong Kong, attracted countless amazed and envious glances along the way. When passing by the stadium, even the students playing basketball were stunned and let the ball hit their heads.

  "Come on, Qu Mingjun, over here." Fan Shaoxia called out from the back of the team.

  Qu Mingjun ran out of line and walked shoulder to shoulder with Fan Shaojie.

  "Hmm, where's home?" Fang Shaojie asked casually.

  "Reporting officer, I'm from Jianghai City." Qu Mingjun didn't mention his family's old mansion.

  "Oh, no need to report to the instructor, let's just chat." Fan Shao shook his head, "Southerners, not bad, it's a historic city, a place of outstanding people and scenic beauty."

  "Hehe." Qu Mingjun smiled foolishly.

  "Do you like military affairs?" asked Captain Fan.

  "Hmm, I suppose so." Qu Mingjun hesitated for a moment.

  "What's going on?" asked Captain Fan curiously.

  "I actually quite liked various firearms back then, but at that time it was just a pure interest, just looking and playing around. Later I joined the army, how to say, it's my own profession now, can't be ignorant of everything, right? When I went back home on leave, my local friends asked me again, that would be too embarrassing." Qu Mingjun scratched the back of his head.

  "Haha, so it was for this reason." Fan Shaoxiao laughed.

  ……

  After returning to the training team, an instructor from the shooting teaching and research office had been waiting for everyone for a long time. After being introduced by Captain Fan, everyone only knew that this unassuming older shooting instructor was actually a member of the 95-style gun family experimental group and had participated in the 95-style gun family argumentation seminar. Suddenly, everyone looked at this old instructor with reverence.

  The rest of the afternoon was spent with the old instructor lecturing on the 95-style automatic rifle's mechanics, maintenance, shooting and aiming techniques. To Qu Mingjun, this afternoon's lesson was a force-feeding education that didn't care whether anyone could keep up, just pouring everything in all at once.

  In the end, Qu Mingjun's head was aching. There were too many things to learn, and even taking notes couldn't keep up. The 95-style automatic rifle was still a new thing, and there wasn't even any teaching materials, relying solely on the instructor's oral teachings. Moreover, they required them to master everything within two hours, it was really difficult.

  Looking out at the sky outside, for some reason, Qu Mingjun suddenly remembered a sentence that Fan Shaojie had said, "Get a good rest tonight, this will be the only comfortable night's sleep you'll have in this dorm."

  Tonight, is it...