Before entering the conference room, Weiss had been thinking about a very serious question: he had been in contact with "Heinz" twice, and he was trying to encourage himself to join the Norman Empire, and judging from the content of the conversation, the Norman Empire deliberately collected intelligence information related to him, which showed that he must have something that interested the Normans.

It could be the Dragon sniper rifle and the firearm design capabilities that this design shows, or it could be the potential it has shown in the military field, or both.

During the morning meeting, Weiss felt that the Normans, under the guise of the Calombis Group, were trying to obtain one or more weapons technology from the Grumman Group, including the Dragon sniper rifles, which had been purchased by the Grumman Group at a high price. But then I thought about it, twenty years ago, the Norman Empire, which set off a raging wave and almost defeated the Ulster Free Federation to dominate the world, was too superficial and imbecile to let go of its past suspicions and take the initiative to make friends with the Federation with such fanfare. As for what their strategic intentions are, if they can fully understand the military, political, and social conditions of the three major powers today - the Norman Empire, the Kingdom of Wessex and the Ulster Free Commonwealth, they should be able to make more accurate inferences, but this is obviously not something that Weiss's level can do.

……

After Weiss entered the conference room, someone at the long oval table spoke in an emotionless voice: "Mr. Clumber-Heisen, we invite you to hear your objective evaluation of this weapon as the designer of the PM1.4 rifle. ”

The PM1.4 rifle is the Dragon sniper rifle originally designed by Weiss. After losing the bid for the standard sniper rifle, the Grumman Group recommended this new rifle with semi-automatic shooting function to the Federal Army in the name of an alternative model of the standard rifle in service, although the Federal Army's Ordnance Technical Committee showed great interest in this new rifle and was very satisfied with its performance, but the proposed procurement plan was "stranded" in the Army Planning and Budget Committee, because the Federal Defense Committee in order to ensure the construction of a new generation of capital ships, The Army's military budget was reduced when the Federal Congress refused to increase the military budget. Without funding, the Army's standard rifle refitting program had to be postponed again and again. As a result, the Army Ordnance Committee put the repeating rifle into the technical reserve and gave it the technical number of PM1.4 - P for Reserve Sequence, M for Standard Weapon, and 1.4 for Firearm Caliber (the federal metric unit is PIR, which is 9mm when converted).

Prior to this, Weiss had already learned some information from Vice President Fat: Although it failed to obtain funds for mass production and large-scale installation, the Army's Ordnance Technical Committee still facilitated a small batch trial production of the PM1.4 rifle through their own means, and some of the samples were handed over to the weapons test site for technical testing, and some were provided to the special service group specializing in special tasks. It is said that the firearms testers at the weapons test site and the users of the special service team have rated the weapon highly - this feedback is not surprising at all, because his semi-automatic rifle is a copy of the Soviet-made SKS semi-automatic rifle, which is a time-proven classic.

On an occasion like today, when Milas, the technical director of the Grumman Group, asked such a question, Weiss naturally connected his design of the rifle with the Normans' proposal for cooperation this morning, and thought to himself: the technical performance of this semi-automatic rifle is not to be said, but it is not enough to be an epoch-making weapon, that is, its impact is mainly at the tactical level, and it does not reach the strategic level. If the Normans' vehicle-mounted rapid-fire weapon was indeed a more mature and successful design, then it would be a win-win deal to trade this semi-automatic rifle for the Normans' technology sharing.

After a moment's thought, Weiss replied briefly: "Objectively speaking, this is a very good design. A qualified infantryman, with such a repeating rifle, can increase the combat efficiency by at least half. However, the construction of this rifle is not complicated, as long as you get a sample gun, the enemy can easily copy it, so it is difficult for us to achieve absolute technical secrecy. ”

Milas then asked: "So, according to your estimates, how many years is the technical advantage of the repeating rifle?" ”

Weiss replied: "Sorry, from the point of view of the gunsmith, I cannot make such an estimate. As I said earlier, the construction of this rifle is not complicated, and maybe in a few years, other designers will come up with similar equipment, or in the Norman Empire or the Kingdom of Wessex, similar designs will already be available, but we don't know about it yet. ”

Milas was speechless as he turned his gaze to the directors present, but no one spoke.

After a while, the official sent by the federal government coughed twice, and then said: "Due to some objective reasons, Congress did not approve the reloading plan of the army's standard rifle, so the PM1.4 rifle can only be temporarily stored in the military's technical reserve." If we share the technology of this rifle with the Norman Empire, the Norman army may be significantly ahead of us in terms of equipment. In that case, will the Federal Army be in a very passive position in the face of the Norman army? ”

Weiss had already said that the combat efficiency of the repeating rifle was at least half that of the bolt rifle, so he gave his judgment bluntly: "Yes." ”

The official frowned: "Can the vehicle-mounted rapid-fire weapon technology we obtained from the Norman Empire offset this passivity?" ”

Before answering this question, an idea suddenly popped into Weiss's head: vehicle-mounted rapid-fire weapons, to put it bluntly, are machine guns or machine guns, which can not only be combined with existing combat platforms, but also be the key equipment of combat aircraft. At this stage, although the federal military does not attach importance to the development of aircraft technology or the role of rapid-fire weapons, resulting in a lack of enthusiasm in the research and development of aircraft and rapid-fire weapons in military enterprises, thanks to the efforts of civilian flying enthusiasts, flight technology is still constantly advancing. As for rapid-fire weapon technology, whether Weiss led the technical team of the Clumber-Haysom family to research and develop key problems, or obtained ready-made technology from the Norman Empire in a cooperative way, it will eventually mature after a while.

Focusing on the thinking point of tomorrow's war, what kind of trajectory will the development of military technology take on this planet with flying warship technology and a land area larger than the ocean? In the near future, will there be a fleet of planes that obscure the sky and a torrent of steel rolling forward? These are all very worthy of scrutiny.

Seeing that Weiss seemed to be distracted, the government official faked coughing twice as a reminder.

Weiss then replied, "As a firearms designer, I can't give an answer. As a cadet of the Basston Military Academy, I think the key depends on the quantity of equipment and the quality of tactics on both sides. Imagine if a Norman army of 50,000 men was armed with 40,000 new rifles and 2,000 vehicle-mounted rapid-fire weapons, and could use these two new weapons proficiently, while a 50,000-strong federal army was armed with only 10,000 new rifles and 500 vehicle-mounted rapid-fire weapons. The two armies are facing each other, what is the situation, I don't need to say more! ”

"If you say it, you don't say it!" The officer muttered with some dissatisfaction.

This muttering reached Weiss's ears word for word. Although the words were harsh, Weiss did not become angry, but stared at the self-righteous guy with cold eyes, and said in a light tone: "In his position, seek his position." Not in his position, not in his position. ”

The official immediately blew his beard and glared, but he was irrefutable.

Weiss took a deep breath and said aloud: "I received special training at the Delefig Senior Staff Academy, and I had the privilege of listening to a senior's graduation discussion on the war of tomorrow, and I found it very inspiring. This senior believes that in a future war between the great powers, the air forces of the two belligerents will check and balance each other, so the course of the war depends on the land war, and attaching importance to the building of the land combat forces and the research and development of land weapons is the direction of our current efforts. Based on my personal superficial understanding, the reason why the Normans want to engage in technical cooperation with us is, on the one hand, to explore our current research and development capabilities for land warfare, and on the other hand, to pay attention to the importance that our country attaches to the development of the army. ”

As soon as these words came out, except for a few people, all the people present looked at each other.

According to the appearance of the seniors, Weiss added a routine sentence: "The above is purely a personal opinion, if there is anything inappropriate, please correct it!" ”

Shaoqing, Octavier's father, the "face responsible" of the Grumman Group's board of directors, Henry Grumman asked: "Then in your opinion, does the Norman Empire Industry Federation really want to start technical cooperation with us?" ”

Following the train of thought he had just clarified, Weiss replied calmly: "If I were a Norman, as long as I could achieve my strategic intentions, what would it matter if I made some sacrifices economically?" ”

I saw Henry Grumman nod his head thoughtfully, as if he understood Weiss's thoughts.

At the behest of the big boss, Egweed, who is the CEO of the group, said: "Well, Mr. Klumber-Heisen, thank you very much for your help. We will use your point of view as an important reference to make a careful decision. Thank you again for your cooperation and support! ”

Hearing this, Weiss felt relieved, and after a polite response, he turned to leave.

Just then, someone spoke: "Mr. Clumber-Haysen, please wait a moment. ”

Weiss turned around and saw that it was the military intelligence officer in uniform who spoke,

Judging by the ornaments on his uniform, he was of the same rank as Major Brooks.

The officer of the Department of Military Intelligence stood up from his position, and a keen and stern gaze fell on Weiss's face.

"As far as I know, the senior of the Delefig Higher Staff Academy you are talking about is Captain Buffka-Gomi, who is on the list of missing persons. Among the current graduates of the Senior Staff College, Captain Gomi received a comprehensive evaluation in the top three, and his future is bright. Unfortunately, based on our in-depth investigation, we found that his archives, especially his family background, were suspicious, and we believe that he was most likely a foreign spy who had infiltrated the Federation, and that he had served in various positions in the Federal Army for nearly a decade, and had received a complete military education at the Advanced Staff College, which gave him insight into many of the military secrets of the Federal Army. I don't know your relationship with Captain Gomi, or whether you know his secrets, but what you have just said is clearly a sign of admiration for his military views, and it makes me feel very suspicious and worried. ”

Weiss looked at the intelligence officer with a puzzled expression, even if Captain Gomi was indeed a spy sent by the Norman Empire, why not quote some of his military views himself? This kind of thing should be talked to yourself alone, but you want to say it in public on such a special occasion, what is the intention?