"Why should we be with us?" After Sickert finished asking, he realized that he had asked a very silly question.

Contini blinked, and said with a serious nonsense: "Germany has a large amount ......of production, it is easy to import, and there are so many reparations, and it is okay to pay with bullets if you can't pay in the future."

Sickert smiled, no longer dwelling on the matter. He knew very well that despite Contini's political support for the National Society, he had a good impression of Germany in other respects, not only could he speak German fluently, but he was also very fond of German armaments and armaments, German officers and mercenaries, German industry and products, and even German engineers and technicians.

In fact, Contini thought a little more than him, the Italian Army's 6.5mm caliber must be changed, as for changing 7mm, 7.62mm or 7.92mm, there is no particularly obvious difference, but once it is changed to 7.92mm and reunification with Germany, it will be much more convenient for the steel axis in the future, and the bullet will at least be universal. As for the other possibility - Germany and Italy jointly replace the caliber of bullets, it is absolutely impossible, not to mention that the German conservative forces are so great that the stocks and old goods in the field of German armaments alone cannot be ignored.

You must know that in order to solve the problem of 98K production, Mauser also did the matter of cutting the barrel of the G98 short - this method seems to meet the standard on the surface, but the actual performance is quite different, because the ruler, center of gravity, rifling and structure are still old, if it is as simple as making a new gun as long as the barrel can be truncated, it will be too easy to become a military power.

As for the small and medium-caliber rifles of later generations, what 5.56mm rifles, Contini never thought about it, and now it is not even the era of intermediate power bullets, how can it be possible to use these? If he dares to give the army these ammunition, the army will probably go crazy.

The 98K was not a huge innovation, nor was it particularly good, it was nothing more than a logical improvement, and Sickert and others quickly set their sights on the second rifle, which was much more creative and special.

"This is a rifle that I took in during my visit to the United States last year, the designer is called John Garland, who works at the Springfield Arsenal in the United States, and he worked on a semi-automatic rifle, which I think is very good...... Tentatively named the Model 1926 Test Rifle, you can also call it the Garand Rifle. ”

Sickert raised his eyebrows: "The US Army intends to use this weapon?" ”

Contini shook his head: "The U.S. Army has ideas for improvement, but at the moment they don't know what they really need, and they are turning around every day, leaving designers at a loss...... Mr. Garland was very distressed by this, and as soon as he heard that I was going to make a new rifle and was interested in his product, he immediately came - this product is not yet an official military rifle in the United States, so there is no technical control or anything, and we signed a clause to buy out the right to license production in Europe at a one-time price of 100,000 dollars, and we can not only produce it ourselves, but also entrust the production to other factories for a second time. At our request, he changed the caliber from the American standard of 7.62mm to 7.92mm, and now more than 50 guns have been produced and are undergoing various tests. ”

Sickert handed the rifle to his men: "Go and try it!" A few more shots! ”

The Garand rifle that has just come from the United States uses a special gas guide device, there is no air guide hole in the barrel, but a sleeve-type gun mask is installed in the muzzle, when the bullet is pushed out of the muzzle, part of the gunpowder gas enters the piston barrel through the gap between the end face of the barrel and the gun mask and pushes the piston backwards. This method of gas conduction had an obvious disadvantage - the piston barrel was not firmly connected to the gun mask, the bayonet assembly was unstable, and the movement of the front sight affected the accuracy.

Garland accepted this suggestion and made improvements, and found that the results were much better than they actually were - this improvement appeared more than 10 years earlier, and because of some technical suggestions and suggestions from Contini, Garland, who was deeply inspired, generously sold the secondary patent rights in Europe for $100,000, which was not cheap, but at least the wishes of both parties were suitable.

"Bang bang", Sickert had just chatted with Contini for a few words, and several of his men had already left the shooting range with their guns in their arms and returned.

"So fast? Didn't I ask you to do a few more shots? Sickert reprimanded his subordinates with some dissatisfaction, "The experiment must be serious, don't be perfunctory, if you are careless now, you will suffer on the battlefield in the future." ”

"Uh...... Sir, we shot 20 magazines each, 160 rounds. ”

"What?" Sickert's mouth opened wide and became an O-shape, "160 rounds? Just ten minutes? Only 9 minutes to be exact. ”

"If you really fight, you can finish it in 5-6 minutes, and a skilled shooter can fire 30-40 rounds a minute, and we took a minute to shoot 20 rounds at the beginning, and then we hit faster and faster!"

Sickert nodded thoughtfully: 98K, G98, a skilled shooter can shoot a maximum of 10 rounds a minute, 160 rounds of ammunition is almost all the ammunition of a battle, he was shocked by the rate of fire of the Garand rifle, but he still maintained a very calm posture on his face, "Since you are all done, let's talk about the advantages and disadvantages." ”

"Disadvantage or pro first?"

"Merit first!"

"The first and biggest advantage, the rate of fire is fast! I think that in the absence of machine guns on both sides, 3-4 such rifles will be enough to suppress a squad on the opposite side! ”

"The second advantage is that the structure is relatively simple and the decomposition performance is good...... We have also seen semi-automatic rifles in Mexico and France, and it is much more troublesome to disassemble. ”

"The third advantage is that the accuracy is not bad, and I think the accuracy is not much different from 98K within 300-400 meters."

Sickett nodded: "What about the shortcomings?" ”

"The weight is a little heavier, nearly 500 grams heavier than the 98K, and more than 200 grams heavier than the G98, which will increase the burden."

"The second disadvantage is that the range and accuracy of medium and long distances are not good, beyond 400 meters, the accuracy begins to decline, and after 600 meters, it is almost impossible to see, and I heard the engineers say that the lethality is almost disappeared at 800 meters, so they only do 800 at the highest level, and it is actually only recommended to 400."

"The third disadvantage is that the magazine is a little more troublesome to load the bullet, due to the fast rate of fire, although the magazine has 8 bullets more than 98K 5 rounds, but it is still consumed quickly, unless it is always used to use the magazine that has been loaded for a long time, and the temporary pressure of the bullet loading will slow down the speed......"

As soon as the connoisseurs made a move, the officers of the German Weapons Bureau basically figured out the advantages and disadvantages of the Garand rifle with only 20 magazines - this is a rifle with very distinct advantages and disadvantages.

"What do you mean, Your Excellency?" Sickert asked Contini.

"I won't add the advantages, there are some other disadvantages I will mention by the way, one is that the production is slightly more difficult, and the cost will be greater than 98K; The other is that there is a dinging sound when the magazine is withdrawn, and sometimes the position is exposed in close combat. "But I think the main thing about choosing a weapon is the merits...... Personally, I think that in the future, there will be almost no rifle firefights above 400 meters, which is the domain of machine guns, and submachine guns may be used within 200 meters, so the rifle focuses on solving the problem between 200 and 400 meters, and in this regard, the Garand will be more suitable than the 98K - the ammunition is the same power but the rate of fire is much more fierce! ”

"But this cost ......"

"Attrition is definitely a problem...... I didn't think about a world war, but I think that the current conventional and local wars can be dealt with, and it's a big deal to ration the front line with 3 times the ammunition of traditional rifles......" Contini smiled, "I hope that this rifle will be further improved, and then verified in North Africa, and after obtaining reliable results, it will be recommended to become the official equipment of the Italian Army, so that we still have a lot of leeway." If you're really worried about attrition, I think it's okay to do a compromise - why should all the rifles in a squad be the same? You can use 2 Garand + 8-10 98K, like artillery, baggage, logistics and other non-front-line troops, it is enough to use 98K or even shorter rifles. ”

Sickett nodded: If the bullet is universal, it really doesn't matter the ratio of 2+8, and it can be mobile and flexible, 3+7, 4+6 is also okay.

"You mean, you would recommend this Garand rifle and 98K to be the standard preparation in your country?"

"I basically think so, if they can overwhelm Carcano's new rifles...... Contini suddenly lowered his voice, "Actually, it doesn't matter if they can't be overpowered, as long as it's about the same, I can guarantee success, after all, these two rifles are about to be reviewed in actual combat, and other rifles don't have this opportunity." You have to believe that in Italy, I still have the weight of this talk! ”

Sickett paused for a moment, and then smiled dumbly: Isn't this the benefit and power of the three-flag theory? What are so many discordant noises? He is really full of envy of the Italians now - people dare to do whatever they want, how can they sneak around and not say anything, and there are still a bunch of people in the country who are dragging their feet!

After reading the rifle, it was a machine gun, and as soon as he walked to the project site, Sickert heard a complaint, it was the designer Halik complaining about Contini: "Your Excellency, I have tried many times for your request for 48-50 rounds of drums, and the only solution is to put it flat on it to become a cartridge, but you said that this cross-section is too large, which is not conducive to carrying ......"

"Stop! I understand your complaints, so how much is the right amount of drumming? ”

"41 rounds! This is the most appropriate number for performance, capacity, and portability. ”

"Okay, let's get 41 rounds...... "I said 48-50 rounds, but if it doesn't work, you can be flexible, you have to be flexible......

"Great, great, I can finally get a good night's sleep......"

"Now take your machine gun and test it...... There's a general to see. ”

"Oh, good ......" Halik instructed his entourage to take out the samples, and suddenly found Sickert and his entourage staring intently, paused for a moment, and subconsciously blurted out, "Germans? ”