In fact, the change of weapons in the ceremonial guard at the presidential inauguration ceremony is only the beginning.

Cui Zhengyuan's plan has already had an overall plan.

The day after the end of the line battle within the New GJ Party, a Chinese special envoy to the presidential inauguration ceremony came to Seoul.

In this large procession, two unnoticed retinues quickly broke away from the group and entered an unnoticed mansion.

And the person waiting for them here is naturally Cui Zhengyuan.

"Brother Xiaoguang, welcome, welcome." As soon as they met, Cui Zhengyuan happily expressed his welcome.

The young man standing in front of him was Yu Xiaoguang, who was the friend of the world.

And unlike the elegant and handsome Yu Xiaoguang, the man in his thirties standing next to him, with a standard Chinese face and a faint heroic aura in his expression, still exposed his military identity.

Seeing that there were no outsiders indoors, Yu Xiaoguang introduced: "This is Major General Chen Shaoguang, deputy director of the Equipment Coordination Bureau of the General ZB Department of the People's Liberation Army. ”

Cui Zhengyuan's eyes froze, and he felt a little bit in his heart.

It seems that the Chinese side is also very interested in his proposal, and actually sent a deputy director at the level of major general.

Chen Shaoguang has the character of a soldier who is resolute and resolute, and as soon as the two sides sat down, he went straight to the point. "On the matter of military-industrial cooperation proposed by Deputy Cui Zhengyuan, our side is very sincere. I just don't know what you want to cooperate with, please make it clear. ”

Cui Zhengyuan took matters into his own hands, serving tea and pouring water for the two distinguished guests, and at the same time thinking about his own plan in his heart.

In fact, as early as three years ago, when Choi Jung-won first got involved in politics, he had already intended to change the face of South Korea's military industry.

South Korea's military equipment system has always been inherited from the United States.

The Navy, Army, and Air Force are no exception, and they are also under the military supervision and command of the United States.

The outside world does not know, but in fact, the South Korean military has long been dissatisfied with the US approach.

Because the weapons and equipment provided by the United States are basically things that have been eliminated from the main battle sequence of the United States.

Among the allies of the United States. There is a clear distinction between levels.

The first of these is, of course, Israel.

This country is not only able to receive the latest and most advanced weapons and equipment from the United States, but also fully participates in the research and development of new weapons in the United States.

After that, the countries of Europe are allies of the second rank.

Further behind are Australia, New Zealand and Canada, among others.

South Korea, on the other hand, is the lowest-grade ally of the United States. In other words, the United States simply does not value this ally. Naturally, there are good things that will not be given priority to South Korea.

The problem is that South Korea has always held on to the idea of national reunification, and has dreamed of obtaining powerful weapons and equipment, so as to form an advantage over the north and create conditions for reunification.

Since this desire is not fulfilled from the United States. Choi decided to find another way.

His choice also has the impact of changes in the international situation.

With the rise of China and the decline of the United States, there has been a fundamental shift in power between the countries that have influence on the situation in the Northeast Asian region.

According to his analysis, it is already good that the United States will be able to hold on to the Japanese archipelago in the future.

Perhaps in the future, the United States will shrink even more and retreat into the eastern Pacific to prevent China from crossing Midway. It's their final bottom line.

The United States is in decline, Russia is not able to get out of the economic crisis, and Japan continues to face pressure from China.

By that time, the factors that could determine the unification of the peninsula. It's all on China.

Perhaps most South Koreans think that China will be more supportive of North Korea in a political showdown on the peninsula. But only Cui Zhengyuan deeply understands that the real situation may not be so.

As long as there is no intervention from other powers such as the United States, Russia, etc. Then China is actually more biased towards South Korea.

This conclusion is based on several factors.

The first is at the leadership level.

Compared with the hereditary Kim dynasty in the north, the Korean government is more open. He is also good at communicating with the outside world.

In order to avoid the influence of external forces, the Jin family has always been committed to blocking internal and external contacts, and it has a deep mind for China.

Especially in the year of cleaning extension. Anpai and other incidents have created an irreparable rift between China and North Korea.

So if there is a choice between North and South Korea, the Chinese government will definitely favor the better-spoken South Korean government.

The second is at the economic level.

If the comparison between the two Koreas is concerned, there is no doubt that South Korea is more economically powerful.

Moreover, there is a lot of economic cooperation between China and South Korea, and it is also more diversified. In many areas, the two sides are already too complex to separate.

On the other hand, China has nothing to gain from North Korea, except for occasional support.

In addition, as China's economic aggregate continues to grow, the export of foreign capital is an urgent and urgent issue.

Cui Zhengyuan knows what kind of efforts China will make in order to export foreign capital in the near future.

Assuming that South Korea can unify the north, then the more than 20 million poor people and large areas of undeveloped areas left by North Korea will be ideal investment destinations for Chinese capital.

However, with South Korea's economic strength, it will not be able to promote the development of the North Korean region alone, and it will inevitably have to turn to the outside world for help.

With this foundation in place, the Chinese government's choice is clear and understandable.

Of course, the prerequisite for all this is to let the United States go away.

In order for the United States to have no influence on the affairs of the Korean Peninsula, a relatively independent and autonomous South Korean government is an indispensable prerequisite.

In order to achieve this goal, an army that is not controlled by the United States and has a certain combat effectiveness is the first problem that needs to be solved.

An army with a weapon in its hand is called an army, otherwise it is really a guard of honor.

In order to prevent weapons and equipment from being controlled and coerced by the United States, Cui Zhengyuan chose to secretly cooperate with China to jointly develop suitable weapons and equipment.

As for South Korea's preparation to defect from the US coalition, the Chinese government naturally welcomes 120 people. That's why Yu Xiaoguang, the elite of the intelligence system, and Chen Shaoguang, a general at the level of a major general, came to negotiate.

The U.S. intelligence penetration into South Korea is pervasive, and both sides know that the contact should not be too long, so Choi Jung-won also made a long story short and went straight to the topic. "According to our vision, the first thing that needs to be addressed is the problem of light weapons. Therefore, Daewoo Precision Industries Co., Ltd. hopes to cooperate with your Ordnance Equipment Group Company to jointly develop an assault rifle sequence suitable for the equipment of the Korean army. ”

At present, there are two main types of standard assault rifles in the South Korean army, namely the M16 assault rifle and the K2 assault rifle. For special forces, they will use American-style M4 assault and assault rifles.

Since it has been decided to abandon American weapons, then the rifles of the M16 and M4 series are definitely not in the consideration.

Then only the K2 assault rifle independently developed and manufactured by South Korea remains.

But as a person who has played with all kinds of firearms, Cui Zhengyuan's evaluation of this K2 assault rifle is really not good.

And judging from the feedback within the South Korean army, this firearm has also been criticized.

According to the content of the military's feedback, this assault rifle has many serious problems such as poor heat dissipation, insufficient accuracy, frequent jamming, failure to lock and insufficient barrel durability.

If this is during the war, these problems are enough to kill the soldiers, and many combat objectives cannot be achieved.

When Choi Jung-won was a member of the National Assembly, he inspected Daewoo Precision Industries and had detailed exchanges with the engineers responsible for the development and manufacture of this firearm.

From the engineers, Choi Jung-won learned that the cause of these problems was the poor metal smelting technology in South Korea.

Because it is impossible to smelt qualified metal materials, problems such as heat dissipation and barrel durability cannot be solved.

The same problem arose in the field of artillery, which is the fundamental reason why the K-2 main battle tank and the K-9 self-propelled gun have always used foreign technology.

And if this problem is not solved well, then South Korea's weapons and equipment will always be controlled by others.

Since the United States and Western countries are reluctant to transfer relevant technology, it is natural for Cui Zhengyuan to turn his attention to China for help.

The reason why Western countries keep the manufacturing technology of these basic materials secret is that they need to sell the relevant weapons to make money.

Naturally, they do not want South Korea to be able to master this kind of technology, not only will it no longer buy their weapons, but it may also become a competitor in the international arms market.

But unlike the West, China has no such concerns.

This is because it is more beneficial to be able to participate in the economic development of the relevant regions of North Korea than to transfer related technologies.

At the same time, South Korea can also fill the gap in the Chinese military in related technical fields.

For example, the problem of rust on the surface of weapons, the problem of optical aiming, the problem of manufacturing the night sight device, the problem of plastic strength, and the problem of gunpowder composition are all strong points of the Korean manufacturing industry.

Through this military-industrial cooperation, the two sides can effectively complement each other and achieve the goal of mutual benefit.

An important reason why the South Korean military needed to develop a new infantry weapon based on the K2 assault rifle was that the design of the K2 itself was somewhat outdated.

The excessively long barrel is not suitable for the needs of today's urban close-range combat environment, and the comprehensive ability of the tactical system of the gun itself is too poor.

That is, it is not very convenient to add various sighting devices, grenade launchers and other tactical accessories to the body of the K2.

At the same time, in today's operational environment of air-ground integration and precision strikes, the requirements for infantry weapons are no longer combat-oriented. Therefore, the design of the K2 is a bit frustrated, and on the contrary, it will affect the actions of the infantry.

So when proposing the cooperation plan, Cui Zhengyuan listed the assault rifle as the first important project. (To be continued......)