Although the Mentor did not say it explicitly, the meaning was clear, and he did not support Kuusinen in launching a counteroffensive. Of course, he said it very tactfully, and did not explicitly disagree with the counteroffensive, but only said that Kuusinen could counterattack if he wanted to, but he could only use the Finnish Red Guards to counterattack, and the volunteers were not allowed to move.

However, everyone on the earth knows that the Finnish Red Guards have a Mao counterattack ability, with no more than 20,000 people in full combat, and their weapons and equipment are the worst among the light infantry. To put it mildly, the Finnish Red Guards may have acted as armed police to maintain public order, and they would have been beaten on the battlefield, especially against the German Expeditionary Force.

Kusinen said shamelessly before, let the volunteers cooperate with the Red Guards to carry out a counteroffensive, in fact, his Red Guards are the real supporting roles, and they can only play soy sauce. Naturally, Li Xiaofeng would not use the salary of a supporting role to do the work of the protagonist, and in fact Lenin would not agree to it, only the demonic Trotsky would do so.

With the final rejection of the counteroffensive plans, Kuusinen's prestige in the Vyborg region and his grip on the SRP gradually declined. To put it bluntly, Li Xiaofeng is now the master of the Vyborg region, where everything is under his absolute control.

"The first production versions of the Deshka machine gun have rolled off the assembly line, a total of 24 units, and after trial by the troops, they can be mass-produced."

Federov finally brought Li Xiaofeng good news, and after three months of delay, Deshka finally stepped off the drawing board. However, this kind of anti-aircraft machine gun came a little late, and the large-scale air battle over Finland has become a thing of the past, and the German Expeditionary Force, which has no intention of attacking, and the Volunteer Air Force, which is unable to attack, shamelessly began to play tacit ball. The water from the wells on both sides does not interfere with the water of the river, so much so that the whining of the mustache Sukhoi is getting stronger every day this month. This technique may be too idle.

On the contrary, the PTRD-18 anti-materiel rifle received praise among the troops. This long, large and cumbersome weapon is not only used against tanks and light armored vehicles. It is also quite effective when used to attack general fortifications.

In the words of a volunteer soldier: "In the past, the White Army could sit back and relax by piling up a few sandbags or hiding behind a brick wall, but the 7.62×54R shells could not help them at all." But with PTRD-18, we can easily pierce through several layers of sandbags, or directly cut holes in the brick wall, so that the white dogs hiding behind them will be terrified. ”

Of course, the PTRD-18 is not without problems, first of all, the accuracy is slightly worse. Not suitable for accurate shooting. The second is that the recoil is still relatively large, and the 14.5×114 rounds are shells for a 23 mm warhead. For a weapon that shoots shoulder-to-shoulder, the recoil is really unpleasant. Then there is the question of weight, this weapon turned out to weigh 18 kilograms, which is really too heavy for the fighters. Unlike PTRS-41, which is semi-automatic, the PTRD-18 with a rotating bolt is quite slow, especially the bolt is quite difficult to pull away, so many fighters miss the best time to shoot.

Even if there are a lot of unsatisfactory places. But the volunteers still welcome the PTRD-18, which is better than Andrea's cocktail! A digression. The famous Molotov cocktail was affectionately known as the Andrei cocktail by the warriors, and although a certain immortal did not like the nickname at all, the warriors still enjoyed it.

In terms of light weapons, the volunteers were generally very satisfied and received rave reviews. But when it comes to heavy weapons, the situation is less rosy. The artillerymen complained that the howitzers and cannons at hand were too difficult to serve and had limited performance. Every time the position is transferred, it is considered to be the life of the artillerymen, and the banner steel wheel cannot be pushed in the muddy Finland, and after a toss, everyone will become mud monkeys.

And according to the reaction of the infantry brothers, except for the 122 howitzer, the power is a little stronger, and the other shells are not satisfactory against the solid workmanship, fortunately, the volunteers still have the heavy artillery support of the navy in Vyborg, otherwise they really can't beat the German expeditionary force on the opposite side.

There was a strong demand from the top and bottom of the troops for a "heavy artillery" with a sufficiently large and light projectile weight to replace the not very powerful guy at hand. However, in the eyes of the General Armament Department of the Red Army, such a request was simply whimsical. How is it possible to have a powerful projectile and a light weight of the artillery? Lao Tzu doesn't have the technology of the Zenith, how can he be satisfied.

What Li Xiaofeng wants to say is, how can he not be satisfied? In his opinion, what the soldiers want is rocket artillery, how simple it is!

Is it simple? It's not simple at all, maybe in the eyes of a certain immortal, rocket artillery is just a few seamless steel pipes put together, and then the "Drill Monkey" is enlarged and stuffed into it. Of course, Russia has long had so-called rocket artillery of this level, isn't it Congreve rockets. In fact, this weapon was actually used on the battlefield in Finland, but the effect was quite poor.

Fortunately, a certain immortal quickly came to his senses and hurried back to the right path, and under his funding, Dykhomirov made a rudimentary version of the "Katyusha", which is a 76 mm caliber large-headed ammunition stabilized by cross-shaped wings, with a maximum range of 3 kilometers, and a power roughly equivalent to that of a 105 mm howitzer.

"This is our new weapon?"

Ubolevich was very unimpressed by this new weapon, which was spliced together with several steel bars, because it was outrageously rudimentary, and he, a veteran artilleryman, had never seen such a cannon that did not look like artillery.

Li Xiaofeng also felt faceless, and the semi-finished product in front of him now was more similar to the Katyusha, using a guide-rail directional device and a rocket with a cruciform tail, which was indeed far from the rocket artillery he imagined.

"The performance looks pretty unsatisfactory!"

Ubolevich added, because right in front of him, this crappy weapon fell from the shelf twice, fortunately this was an imitation shell without explosives, otherwise the new weapon would have killed its own artillery in the first place.

Tikhomirov wiped his sweat, judging from the performance just now, it was indeed not ideal, but there was a reason for this, because a certain immortal was in too much of a hurry, and everything was simple because of ugliness. If you give him enough time. Solving these problems is a piece of cake.

Fortunately, Ubolevich did not continue to complain. After dozens of minutes, the sweaty artillerymen finally loaded the rockets onto the launcher, and soon the time came to really test the new weapon!

"Ready! Put! ”

With the order of the artillery commander holding the small red flag, the rocket was ignited, and the yellow smoke sprayed out from the tail of the bullet, and with a long whistle, the ammunition of the big head and small ass rushed forward along the guide rail. Break free and soar into the sky!

There is a reason why the word "channeling" is used, because a certain immortal and Ubolevich were horrified to see that a rocket, like a drunken drunk, staggered into the sky and then suddenly turned, turned and swooped in their direction, plunging headlong into the soil less than ten meters in front of them, and if the warhead had a charge, it is estimated that tomorrow's front page headline would be about their obituary.

Ubolevich and Li Xiaofeng glanced at each other, and then looked at Tikhomirov, who was full of waterfall Khan. The latter would have almost been stupid if the weapons he invented took out the deputy commander and commissar of the Volunteer Army. It is estimated that soon Cheka will treat him to tea and send him to shoot at the target.

"It was just an accident!" Tikhomirov stammered as he explained.

In fact, he didn't have to be so nervous, because Ubolevich and Li Xiaofeng both knew that this was indeed just an accident, because one of the wings of this rocket fell off before it left the launch pad, and it was strange that it didn't change to the sky.

In fact, the launch failed far more than this one, and one was directly stuck on the launch frame, the engine spewed out a high-temperature flame to bake the entire shelf red, and another fell off the shelf during launch, thanks to certain protective measures before, otherwise this one is more likely to fly all over the ground.

Of course, many of them were successfully launched, and many more shoddy rockets flew to their intended targets and landed on a wasteland three kilometers away.

Putting down the binoculars, Ubolevich changed his words: "It seems to be a little interesting!" ”

Li Xiaofeng also said: "At least the firepower density is good." One such launcher can fire 12 rockets. And the cost of the launcher is almost negligible. ”

Ubolevich nodded and said: "Indeed, it's just that the accuracy is too poor, and the dispersion is so large that it is speechless, and it is impossible to achieve a precise strike." ”

Li Xiaofeng said with a smile: "The requirements can't be too high, after all, this is just a test product for demonstration, and if there are more than a dozen or more launchers, firing hundreds of ammunition in one go, it is enough to make up for the shortcomings of poor accuracy." ”

As he spoke, he turned to the somewhat complacent Tikhomirov and asked: "Why don't you use rotation to stabilize, but to stabilize with a tail?" Isn't rotation stabilization better for accuracy? ”

Tikhomirov replied with a bitter face: "Your request is too eager, and the process requirements for the engine nozzle for rotational stability are relatively high, and it will not be possible to do it for a while." And the tail wing stabilization is much simpler, and the cost is lower! ”

Li Xiaofeng thought about it, it is indeed not easy to come up with a finished product in such a short time, and the requirements cannot be too high. However, he still thinks that the rotation is better and that it is better to have the rear wing folded, and he really doesn't like the I-frame orientation.

In this regard, Tikhomirov argued with reason: "The I-frame orientator is simpler, and an ordinary worker can produce it." The tubular orientator you require is much more complex. ”

Although Ubolevich did not like the humble shelf, he understood that Russia's industrial base and economic strength could be cheaper, and if it could be simpler, it would not be complicated.

"The I-frame is good, but the range of the weapon is very unsatisfactory." He pointed to the drop point in the distance, "The range is only 3 kilometers at most, which is too short, and when your weapon fires fire, the fireworks are obvious, and the enemy's mortars can quickly react and blast you to pieces." ”

Tikhomirov said: "That's because the ammunition now still uses black powder as a propellant, and the energy and specific impulse are too low. If I switch to a new propellant, I can be sure that I will be able to increase the range to about 5 km! ”

Although the figure of five kilometers is still disappointing, Ubolevich nodded approvingly. And a certain immortal interjected and asked, "How about switching to liquid propellant?" That should be big enough, right? ”

Tikhomirov shook his head repeatedly, he strongly opposed the use of liquid propellants on rockets, although liquid propellants have advantages in energy and specific impulse, but the use of liquid propellants will increase the complexity and cost of the engine. Solid propellants, on the other hand, are a little inferior in performance, but have a low cost. And it's easy to use and maintain. In particular, the reliability is higher than that of liquid propellants. For the low-quality Russian GIs. The latter is extremely important!

"Okay, you're the expert, and it's up to you to decide!" Li Xiaofeng is still very generous in this regard, and from the perspective of the trend of the development of rocket artillery in the world, solid propellant is the king, and there is no need to take a detour.

After the "success" of the experiment, a certain immortal generously allocated another sum of money for Tikhomirov to start improving the rockets, and asked him to come up with the rocket launchers and ammunition for publication no later than the first quarter of 1919.

After the problem of rockets has been concluded. Li Xiaofeng made another trip to the newly established Moscow Central Fluid Research Institute. Two months ago, he commissioned the agency to develop a torpedo machine, and now that such a long time has passed, there is no news at all, it is really unreasonable!

"Comrade Andrei, it's not that we don't carry out research work, but that the Central Committee has given us more urgent tasks. The priority of the torpedo machine was postponed! ”

Li Xiaofeng frowned and asked, "What are the more urgent research tasks?" ”

"The central government has asked us to give priority to the development of cavalry attack aircraft, and the troops on the front line urgently need a weapon that can deal with the Cossack cavalry, and all research will focus on dealing with cavalry!"

This news made Li Xiaofeng cry and laugh, and some painful peculiarities on the battlefield of the civil war finally came out. Because the combat area is vast, the battle front is quite long. The cavalry has become completely outdated. The arms that were destined to be eliminated turned out to have a second spring on the battlefield of the Russian Civil War.

The Red Army, which did not pay much attention to cavalry at first, suffered a lot after fighting the Cossack cavalry of the White Army. At one point, he was beaten quite embarrassed. In order to deal with the cavalry, the center has already gone a little crazy.

On the one hand, quite a lot of cavalry brigades, cavalry divisions and even cavalry corps were formed, and on the other hand, a death order was issued to the scientific research department that practical weapons against cavalry must be come up with! For example, the army pirated Makhno's machine-gun carriages, and the Air Force naturally had to find a way to deal with the cavalry.

Li Xiaofeng thinks that this is brain-dead, is it necessary to develop some aircraft to deal with cavalry? Both fighters and bombers can deal with cavalry, and even a single dive of the plane can scare the cavalry into disarray.

In 1919, in the face of the intervention of the Royal Navy, it was simply unrealistic to expect the Baltic Fleet to overthrow the powerful Royal Navy.

It is a pity that a certain immortal is not the chairman of the Military Commission and does not have the right to decide what weapons the Red Army needs most. And Trotsky did not think at all that what was most needed at the moment was a torpedo machine, and could a torpedo hit a cavalryman? Obviously, no! So, the Red Army did not need torpedo machines for the time being!

When he angrily asked why he didn't inform him earlier that the torpedo machine had been shelved for development, the bureaucratic General Armament Department replied very awesomely: "Equipment research and development belongs to the top secret of the Red Army, and it has no right to disclose it to the outside world!" ”

Of course, this is not too annoying for the bureaucratic Russian authorities. What really made Li Xiaofeng angry was that these grandsons actually embezzled the research funds he had advanced for administrative expenses.

Now Li Xiaofeng flipped the table, it didn't matter if he didn't develop the plane he wanted, and didn't notify him of the cancellation of the project. And you grandsons dare to embezzle his money, it's simply unbearable!

"Comrade Trotsky, what the hell is going on, you have to give me a reasonable explanation!"

Trotsky was actually a little speechless, the following group of grandsons is indeed too out of line, even he does not want to provoke someone, and these fools are repeatedly teasing, you are doing death!

However, Lao Tuo can't turn his elbow outward, after all, he is the chairman of the Military Commission, the boss of the Red Army, and he must always maintain his authority.

"That's right, it's been a bit tight lately. When the funds are sufficient, they will naturally be returned. ”

Li Xiaofeng did not relent: "Without this statement, it is understandable that funds are tight, and it is not impossible to embezzle funds." But only if those funds belong to the General Armament Department! And now, these funds do not belong to the General Armament Department, and after the misappropriation of funds, not a single person has informed me! What kind of behavior is this, this is the theft of Chiguoguo, it is the act of robbers! ”

Trotsky sighed in his heart, and was genuinely very unhappy. In his opinion, he, the chairman of the Central Military Commission, had already given an explanation and promised that the funds would be returned, and the matter would be over. Even if you Li Xiaofeng don't give face to the general assembly, you have to give me, the chairman of the Military Commission, a little face, right? What does it mean to be so unrelenting?

"I mean it very simply! Funds must be returned immediately! ”

Trotsky also ignited the fire, and said coldly: "What if the final assembly does not return the funds?" ”

Li Xiaofeng glanced at him and said categorically: "It is natural to repay debts!" ”

Once again, Trotsky emphasized: "There is no money for the final assembly!" ”

Li Xiaofeng took a deep breath and asked coldly: "In other words, the final assembly is ready to pay the bills, right?" ”

Trotsky, of course, did not give the word to anyone, and emphasized: "We admit the debt and promise to pay it back." But I can't take it out for the time being, it's as simple as that! ”

Li Xiaofeng nodded, and seemed to soften his tone: "Okay, I understand your difficulties, can you pay it back next month?" ”

Trotsky immediately shook his head: "No! ”

Li Xiaofeng asked again: "What about the end of the year?" ”

Trotsky said directly: "Wait for next year, we will have a meeting to study and study, and try to pay back some of them first!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you Pig Chic 2, Juventus, Fat Lu Fei, A Piece of Snow 1 and Comrade hzwangdd!