Volume 1: Laying the Foundation Chapter 55: Pirated Submachine Gun

  Get up at midnight! Everyone should get what they deserve! Those who should be recommended will be! I'll work hard!

  In April 1923, He Bao Wen led a group of people to Germany as military students to study army command. Lin Xiao led a geological survey team to research and learn about European mountain engineering technology. Meanwhile, Huang Zhen Shan took the majority of the "Huaxia Revival Army" and special forces members to return home in batches by ship. They would disembark at various ports such as Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Shanghai before gathering in Jinan. In the southern mountains of Jinan, Miao Handong had purchased a large area of neglected land in a valley called "Jinxiu Chuan". There, he built a large villa farm, which secretly housed a temporary military base hidden beneath the trees and greenery. The base stored enough food and basic necessities for 500 people to live for three months. Mr. Miao was unaware who would be arriving there; he only knew from Chen Xiaoqi that it would serve as a secret research base.

  After a brief correction and training there, the "Revival Army" led by Huang Zunshan will embark on the difficult journey of being bandits. Before they set off, Chen Xiaoqi repeatedly emphasized the great significance of this pioneering work. They will bear the great hope of the entire nation and ethnicity, and take the lead in blazing a trail in the darkness. Their responsibility is heavy, their difficulties are numerous, but this is an essential step. Without their sacrifice, there would be no happiness or hope for hundreds of millions of Chinese people. All of this is worthwhile.

  At the same time, Chen Xiaoqi also instilled in all the officers the basic principles of being a bandit, that is, "to be a bandit, to be the biggest, to rob money, to rob people, and to rob territory"! Bringing all the beacon fires of Qilu under their great banner.

  As they marched, a batch of firearms and mortars, grenade launchers, 75mm mountain guns, and shells were also loaded onto ships. After landing in Shanghai, the goods would be "smuggled" to Jinan, arming these bandits and making them the best-equipped and most ruthless gangsters nationwide. They would become a new generation of four-haves bandits with ideals, culture, discipline, and training. Each member had more than one nylon bulletproof vest, as well as a batch of experimental steel helmets that resembled classic German designs from World War II.

  To smuggle these military supplies to the United States, Chen Xiaoqi went to great lengths and finally had to bribe the Chicago gang with a large sum of money. The gang used their bootlegging channels to transport the goods to a port outside the US, where they were loaded onto an ocean freighter on a small boat. In addition to paying almost as much as the military supplies themselves, Chen Xiaoqi also sponsored a new batch of submachine guns for the gang. These 9mm submachine guns, modeled after the German MP44 produced in the late World War II era, had tremendous power, fast firing speed, high shooting accuracy, large magazines, and were convenient to carry. They became the gang's most intimate companions, affectionately known as "little whores", all of which were deadly weapons.

  This SMG, modeled after the MP44, has a simple structure and is made entirely of stamped steel parts. To save trouble, Chen Xiaoqi directly chose the standard 9mm Parabellum cartridge, just like his 9mm Black Star pistol. The range isn't very far, but it's extremely practical in urban warfare. The recoil is much smaller than the "Chicago Typewriter", and the rate of fire is also higher. Of course, its stopping power can't compare to the other, but that doesn't matter because they're equal in terms of killing people.

  This batch of sponsored firearms became a popular fuse, and soon Chen Xiaoqi's arsenal received a large number of orders, all of which were from licensed arms dealers. The domestic warlords also specially customized a large batch of this cheap and lethal good stuff to arm their personal guards, just like the equipment form of the German-equipped divisions in the later National Army.

  Shortly after the emergence of this fist product, two technicians from China, Liu Yubo and Li Zengwen, received a secret mission to manufacture a brand new firearm. This gun has a completely different structure than the rifles of this era. The gun body is shorter, with an overall length of 1025mm and a weight (unloaded) of 3.9kg. The barrel length is 521mm, with 4 grooves, right-hand twist, magazine capacity of 10 rounds, firing 39mm cartridges, muzzle velocity: 720m/s, combat rate of fire: 35-40 rounds/min, effective range: 400m, sight range: 1000m, maximum range: 1500m.

  If you're a military enthusiast, you might be able to tell that this is a replica of the Soviet SKS carbine rifle, which later became the Chinese Type 56 semi-automatic rifle. The triangular bayonet used on this gun became standard equipment for low-ranking gang members in later years, used for stabbing people's Achilles' tendons and vital organs, with extremely strong killing power. The ultra-hard alloy-treated bayonet can easily pierce through the steel plate of a car roof. It also gained fame due to Jet Li's movie "The Bodyguard", and replicas have been selling well for decades.

  After being equipped for decades, a war made this rifle thoroughly retired and replaced by the Type 81 rifle, only to be seen in the color guard and ceremonial guards. However, the reliability of this rifle has been proven over several decades in many countries. This rifle is a type that uses an ordinary structure gas operated automatic principle, with an automatic way belonging to piston short stroke. The adopted bolt action tilting breech mechanism has good rigidity, simple structure, easy production and better maintainability.

  Chen Xiaoqi had all the parameters of this gun in his mind, and the relevant structure had been made with drawings and lead models, but when it came to actual production, he was not a professional. However, these fine details were not needed for him, so after he brought out all the parameter indicators, Liu Yubo and Li Zengwen led several young people who had passed the strict examination of the "Zhuque Department" - the confidentiality department - to conduct further manufacturing work, especially the trial production and testing of bullets. Specifically, Chen Xiaoqi was not very clear about the type and quantity of propellant used for firing, which required repeated experimentation. Additionally, the steel material model of the gun barrel was not exactly the same, so he had to select a suitable alloy steel from existing gun steels to manufacture it. As a result, the sample gun produced after comprehensive consideration of various conditions had some minor differences in indicators compared to the original historical version, but these could be basically ignored.

  This rapid-firing gun, capable of firing ten rounds in a row, was destined to change the course of history. In World War II, the high rate of fire and firepower suppression capability of the M1 semi-automatic rifle equipped by the Americans far surpassed that of single-shot rifles, especially when facing the Japanese who were slow to reload their Type 38 Arisaka rifles. Later wars have made it increasingly clear that victory often goes to the side that pours the most bullets on its opponent.

  So Chen Xiaoqi didn't even think about waiting for the 98K or M1 to be produced, let alone researching the specific parameters of these guns, including the Lee-Enfield. He didn't know when he would finish studying them, and it was better to produce familiar products like the SKS, AK47, or light machine guns from the same family. These were simple in structure and easy to maintain firearms. As for accuracy, that could be considered later. Anyway, he hadn't planned to equip snipers with this gun. The existing M1903, 98K, or German Lee-Enfield could all serve as excellent sniper rifles, as long as they were equipped with a 4x scope. At least the conditions would be much better than Zhang Taofang's.

  Besides, Chen Xiaoqi is not a novice, he at least knows that the simpler the sniper rifle's structure is, the better. The barrel and bullets need to be specially made, limited by the gun's range, a 6x scope is already sufficient. What a sniper needs is pre-shot training, not being discovered by the opponent before pulling the trigger. This point, after watching countless videos, he naturally knows the basic rules. As for how to train, sorry, he has only seen the video version of the German sniper training materials, which are still unclear, and were downloaded from a torrent site.

  With this mainstay rifle, related series firearms are easy to produce. For a long time in the future, he doesn't plan to produce AK47. He has plenty of time to improve better submachine guns, such as the Type 81, or even improved versions of it. It's too early to push war technology forward too quickly, and the one who will suffer is himself. In this era, among the great powers, only Little Japan doesn't have the capital to equip itself with rapidly consumable ammunition submachine guns. The steel output, gunpowder output, and copper output of other old imperial powers are sufficient to support their wars.

  Apart from producing his own main firearms, Chen Xiaoqi also conducted a large number of imitation and mapping work on existing main firearms, which would be convenient for pirating in the future. The modification drawings and technical indicators of related machine tools and production equipment were all included, and as long as the opportunity was ripe, they could be manufactured continuously through his own machine tool factory. These include Browning light machine guns, 12.7mm heavy machine guns, M1903 rifles, 75 mountain cannons, 105mm heavy artillery, wooden-handled grenades, egg-shaped grenades, 60mm mortars, 81mm mortars and grenade launchers, etc.