The first thing Xiao Yimin did when he returned to Chengdu was to go to the Phoenix Mountain Martyrs' Cemetery, which was built in the Army Aviation Training Base, to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of brothers who had died in the past 10 years in front of the newly completed Heroes Monument.

The 800 officers and men who stayed behind at the Chengdu headquarters, the 4,500 officers and men of the Army Aviation Training Base, the 800 instructors and 3,600 cadets of the Sichuan Army Military Academy, the 3,000 officers and men of the Chengdu Engineer Training Base in the eastern suburbs of Chengdu, and the 2,200 officers and men of the Chengdu Garrison Division, a total of 15,000 officers and men and 300 representatives of the families of the martyrs, lined up in a neat line, and watched with tears as the respected commander-in-chief Xiao Yimin took turns embracing and weeping with the disabled brothers and the 15 elite generals and colonels who had returned from studying in Germany.

In the suppressed cry, the ashes of burning paper money swayed up with the wind, and the originally clear sky suddenly gathered clouds, and the grass and trees above and below the mountain swayed in the sudden strong wind, and finally let out a low whining sound.

The light rain soon fell, and tens of thousands of people watching from afar around the base were amazed, some said that Xiao Dashuai's true feelings and the heroic inspiration of the soldiers moved the earth, and some said that Dashuai was the true son of heaven, otherwise it would be impossible to have this wonder of heaven and man.

Almost in just one morning, the events and rumors that happened at the memorial ceremony spread all over Chengdu City, and all the topics talked about in the teahouses and restaurants were all Xiao Yimin, who existed like heaven and man and brought happiness and tranquility to tens of millions of people in Bashu.

In the courtyard of the Xiao family, elites gather, and the stars gathered.

More than 30 tables of banquets were placed from the main hall to the backyard, the old brothers and comrades-in-arms who had been reunited for a long time raised their glasses and drank bitterly, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying in a low voice, Xiao Yimin, who had drunk more than 50 glasses of Wuliangye, staggered, and finally hugged Yu Chengjie, the little junior brother who came back from Germany and was missing a left leg, crying silently, tears like springs, and suddenly fell down without saying a word.

Luo Laosi, Wu San, Zeng Chaoran and Zhong Ying, who were closest to Xiao Yimin, were so frightened that they hurriedly pounced, lifted Xiao Yimin and sent him to the study, Zhong Ying hurriedly stood up and reported loudly under the command of Bao Jiqing, that the commander was drunk, brothers, drink as much as you want!

At four o'clock in the morning, Xiao Yimin finally opened his eyes and saw several rubber tubes connected to his arm, and couldn't help but whisper, two familiar German doctors soon came to Xiao Yimin's side to check, and more than a dozen old brothers guarding the door heard the movement and all rushed in to visit.

The German doctor solemnly admonished: "Xiao, please don't move, you need to rest well now, because you drank too much alcohol last night, vomited four times after falling into a coma, and vomited at least five hundred milliliters of blood, so I suspect that your stomach blood vessels have ruptured, and maybe your esophagus has also suffered great damage, so you must stay in bed." ”

Xiao Yimin felt a terrible sore throat at this time, maybe it was because of using morphine, but he didn't feel anything in his abdomen, but his hands and feet were soft and he couldn't exert his strength, and he couldn't even stand up his neck, so he had no choice but to lie down quietly, looking at his concerned faces, and could only sigh.

Luo Laosi squeezed to the head of the bed and squatted down: "Little brother, don't worry, your father-in-law and mother-in-law have returned to the back room to rest after knowing that you are not in danger, we haven't told the news to the two sisters-in-law in Nanjing so far, you don't have to worry too much, let's talk about it when you recuperate." ”

Xiao Yimin reluctantly agreed, and after talking to the brothers for a while, he motioned for everyone to go back and rest. When the brothers saw that Xiao Yimin was in good spirits and there was no danger to his life, they all warned him and left one after another.

At noon, Xiao Yimin, who opened his eyes again, struggled up, pulled out the infusion tube despite the doctor's warning, apologized in a hoarse voice and slowly got out of bed, took a hot bath under the service of the two maids sent by the old father-in-law, and ordered the inseparable Wu San to bring the military uniform, put it on and then stood up and moved for a long time, cheered up and went out to apologize to the two angry doctors again and again, and then express sincere gratitude.

The doctor saw that Xiao Yimin was so stubborn, so he had to let him take a handful of Western medicine, and then he had to check his heart rate and abdominal sensation, so he allowed Xiao Yimin to go to the weapons research institute at the back of the front compound, but asked Xiao Yimin to stay there for two hours at most.

Dean Max, who had just finished eating, and more than a dozen subject leaders were smoking in the lounge, and when they saw Xiao Yimin, Bao Jiqing, and Zeng Chaoran appearing at the gate, they were so surprised that they quickly stood up, walked quickly to meet them, and asked about Xiao Yimin's health with concern.

Xiao Yimin pretended to explain it lightly, and then directly requested that a seminar on the finalization of the newly developed new gas-conducting light machine gun and air-cooled heavy machine gun that had been successfully developed and integrated the design advantages of machine guns in Europe and the United States be held on time.

Max, who has been working in Chengdu for eight years, and more than a dozen branch leaders knew Xiao Yimin's temper, and soon summoned more than 60 Chinese and foreign technical experts involved in the research work of related projects to the conference room, and more than 20 design drawings have been neatly hung on the two walls of the conference room, and the design and experiment reports with a thickness of more than 100 pages were placed in front of the responsible persons.

As soon as Xiao Yimin entered the conference room, he was immediately attracted by the six sample guns placed on the central long table, and after a brief greeting to everyone, Xiao Yimin came to the side of a sample gun, and happily stroked a light and heavy machine gun that exuded a cold luster, so excited that he couldn't help himself, and it took a while before he came back to his senses in the laughter of Max and others: "Thank you, thank you!" This is the machine gun I want to have, the best machine gun in the world! ”

Everyone laughed happily, the chief machine gun designer Weiss, who was hired from the German Rheinland Group with a high salary three years ago. Clem was even more amused: "Xiao, I've never seen you so excited, like a child who sees delicious candy." ”

There was another burst of laughter, and the whole atmosphere became extraordinarily relaxed, and the previous silence and rigor did not know where to fly.

Xiao Yimin didn't care, picked up the 9.5 kilogram air-guided light machine gun, looked at it carefully, then pulled the bolt, removed the empty magazine that was stamped and welded with a thin steel plate and then polished to a very delicate level, and quickly disassembled it after a few strokes, and neatly placed the parts and components on the flannel cloth spread on the tabletop, and after careful observation, he walked to the wall to watch the design drawing, and finally held the exquisite receiver processed from a whole piece of steel and then treated with blue, sighed and praised sincerely:

"Max, Weiss, dear gentlemen, this is a masterpiece comparable to a work of art, both the materials and the processing technology are incomparable, far more refined and concise than any light machine gun I have seen before, whether it is design or processing technology, it completely surpasses the American Browning Model 1918 machine gun, I am very happy and excited, thank you!"

There was a cheer in the conference room, and then a round of applause, which went on for a long time, at this moment, what could be happier than the unremitting efforts of more than 300 people for two years and the recognition of the supreme governor Xiao Yimin?

The applause stopped, and Max stepped forward to explain apologetically: "Xiao, due to problems such as materials and equipment, we have carried out more than 100 repeated trials and improvements in the development of light and heavy machine guns, but we still cannot use the stamping production method with simpler technology and lower cost.

"I have to admit that this is a huge regret, but I believe that in the near future, with the advancement of materials and processing technology, it is completely possible to produce light weapons by stamping production methods."

Xiao Yimin shook his head again and again: "No, no! It's me who is too radical and doesn't consider the factors comprehensively, which has caused a lot of trouble to everyone, please forgive me! ”

"Don't say that, dear Xiao, your thinking is completely correct, at least our submachine gun development team has benefited a lot from this, after more than four months of trial and error, we have successfully used the stamping production method to produce most of the spare parts of the Bergman MP18 submachine gun, and we have secretly transferred the Bergman MP18 model gun and design drawings on the basis of the greatly improved submachine gun, in terms of range and accuracy, has surpassed the Bergman MP18 submachine gun." Chief designer Weiss said proudly.

Xiao Yimin was overjoyed: "Really? Where is it? Take me to see it now! ”

"No, no! No! ”

Max shouted angrily: "Weiss, Xiao, now is the final meeting of the new light and heavy machine gun, not the imitation and improvement of the Bergman MP18 submachine gun, please pay attention to this!" ”

Xiao Yimin said "ahh

Under the strong chairmanship of Max, the special meeting was successfully held, and first the German designer Heimer and the Chinese assistant Zhang Tingfa of the light machine gun development group stood up, and Haimer, who was nearly 50 years old, pointed to the various parts of the machine gun and gave a detailed introduction to the design purpose, improvement process, technical points, production procedures, inspection standards, and a large number of experimental data.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Tingfa had completely disassembled the entire gun with Haimo's explanation, and by the time Haimer's explanation was completed, Zhang Tingfa had already reassembled the whole gun.

Heimer finally concluded: "According to the use of the army and the requirements of the general, in addition to using the same fast and slow rate of fire adjustment mechanism as the Browning light machine gun, we also abandoned the original design of the two rate of fire conversion devices, and by adding the gas adjustment mechanism, effectively ensured the medium rate of fire of the new machine gun of 500 rounds per minute, and basically solved the common fire failure caused by the accumulation of gunpowder residues in the recoiled light machine gun of the previous mass-produced equipment."

"Secondly, because of the improved design of the slightly tapered thickened barrel and the new barrel quick-release design, the barrel replacement frequency of this new light machine gun is lower than that of all existing light machine guns in Europe and the United States, and the range and accuracy are very satisfactory.

"Third, in terms of the reliability of the ammunition supply system and the convenience of production, it is also far superior to the Browning M1918 light machine gun produced in the United States, and has been fully recognized by the Ya'an military training base that participated in the experiment. If you want to talk about the shortcomings, one is that we have not been able to solve the problem of stamping production, and then the processing technology requirements are relatively high, the production cost is difficult to compress, the preliminary estimate, if mass production, the unit cost is not less than three hundred and twenty Chinese silver dollars.

"Finally, the existing equipment of the Ya'an factory and the Chengdu factory can fully meet the needs of mass production of this new type of light machine gun, but the highly efficient automatic rifling machine and a series of knives and rotors need to be purchased again, and if we can take advantage of the opportunity of the victorious countries to sell the equipment of the German [***] industrial enterprises, we can order a series of equipment from the German Rheinland, Krupp and other military industrial groups, or from the American [***] industrial enterprises that had to sell part of the weapons production line to cash out due to the decline in orders at the end of the war, or simply order a series of equipment from the American machinery manufacturing plantsIt will be more beneficial to the improvement of production efficiency and product quality. More detailed experimental reports and data are in the document in front of you, my report is finished, thank you! ”

Xiao Yimin was the first to applaud and stood up to express his sincere thanks to Haimo and his research team, and the audience burst into applause, with proud smiles on everyone's faces.

(To be continued)