On the Great Gobi in the northwest, countless Wehrmacht soldiers are wearing gray training uniforms and conducting assassination training with wooden guns under the protection of protective gear.

Face-to-face...

White-knuckle combat...

In later generations, that is, in the Second World War in history, white-knuckle warfare was extremely rare. Basically, except on the Asian battlefield, only on the Eastern Front in Europe did large-scale white-knuckle battles take place.

But in World War I, white-knuckle warfare was still one of the dominant tactics on the battlefield.

No way, although machine guns have been widely equipped on the battlefield, soldiers still use ordinary rifles. In positional warfare, there is nothing to machine guns, but if it is a close encounter, the density of rifle fire is still too bad after all.

So large-scale white-knuckle warfare has become a matter of course.

The reason why the German sapper shovel on the battlefield was famous for its flexibility in trenches, making it easier to use than bayonets that were too long to use.

The widespread occurrence of white-knuckle warfare has also made the Wehrmacht attach great importance to it.

However, unlike individual assassinations, the Wehrmacht usually conducts white-knuckle warfare in small groups, with about three or four men in each team, working in concert with each other...

It is definitely better to fight in this way than for the soldiers to fight alone, and this has been confirmed on the Western Front in Europe. Although they were inferior to the Germans in terms of physical fitness, the Germans never won favor with the expeditionary force when it came to white-knuckle warfare.

This. It is the 'group operation' that has been widely used by the Wehrmacht.

However, if the casualties of the group are too large during the battle, the director will not be able to cooperate. It will then merge with a nearby group―――――― considering that casualties on the battlefield are usually not small, it is quite possible to combine two small groups with the same casualties into a new group.

"Good!" Standing not far away, looking at the Great Gobi, where the soldiers were training desperately, Cai Yi bowed slightly. "In this way, I believe it won't be long before the training will come to an end..."

"yes!" Stand aside. Wu Peifu nodded in agreement. "It seems that it is indeed a wise choice to bring them all to this big Gobi for training, at least. It can help them calm down and train well, instead of always trying to run out and fool around while they are on vacation..."

As soon as Wu Peifu's words came out, the officers next to him laughed one by one, and even the corners of Cai Yi's mouth couldn't help but curl slightly.

This time, the Kuomintang government has greatly expanded its army. In one fell swoop, the size of the Wehrmacht was expanded to 2,550,000. One can imagine how many of them are recruited. Most of these soldiers have only undergone the most basic training, and it may not be necessary to use them as cannon fodder, but if you want to fight seriously, I am afraid that it will be ......... And they have no experience in attacking, and this westward advance is an offensive operation, and directly pulling them to the battlefield is tantamount to sending them to death.

Fortunately, there is still some time before the official dispatch of troops to Kazakhstan and Siberia, and there is time for training.

However, Cai Ye and Wu Peifu are very clear that if they leave people in place for training, if something really happens. I'm afraid it's too late to get people to Xinjiang. Moreover, compared with Xinjiang, most places in the interior can be called gentle townships. If you stay where you are, you won't be able to train much.

Moreover, the Wehrmacht, even if it is only a recruit who is training, has one or two or three days off a month. And whether it is a recruit or a veteran, as long as it is time to take a vacation, he will definitely sneak out of the barracks, either to find a place to drink, or to run to the brothel to vent his excess energy or something, if it is in peacetime, of course, it is nothing, but right now it is facing a big battle...

Therefore, Cai Yi and Wu Peifu dragged them to Xinjiang, on the one hand, so that they could be put into the battlefield at any time, and on the other hand, they were allowed to concentrate on training, so as not to lose their lives on the battlefield in the future.

Although the current civil strife in Russia, Soviet Russia should not be able to draw up any strength to deal with them for the time being, but who dares to guarantee that there will be no accidents? What's more, the difficulty of going north this time is so great...

The good intentions of Cai Ye and others, of course, the soldiers below did not understand. When they first arrived in Xinjiang, these soldiers were still full of curiosity, but when they were already a little tired of the vast Gobi outside, they finally waited for the holiday and wanted to vent, but found that there was nothing outside except the Great Gobi...

Alcohol?

No!

Restaurant?

No!

A brothel?

Not even more!

Nothing but the Great Gobi ...

Walking out of the barracks, after being dumbfounded for a long time in the face of the vast Gobi, in the end, all they could do was to obediently return to the barracks and vent all their energy on the training ground.

As a result, a few months in the Great Gobi seem to be more effective for these recruits than staying in the mainland for half a year.

Of course, Cai Ye and Wu Peifu are also well aware of this, but for them, as long as these recruits can be trained well before going west, this is enough.

――――――――――――――――――――

After watching on the training ground for a while, Cai Ye and Wu Peifu nodded slightly.

Although the soldiers on the field are still a little immature, they can at least be used. After that, Cai asked about the casualties of the training, and whether the protective gear was enough.

In order to master the assassination training as much as possible, these recruits are all using face-to-face assassination, so that they can also master the skills required for assassination quickly, rather than just training on straw men, which seems to be very good, and when they get to the battlefield, they will all be over...

Of course, it will definitely be easier to get injured by doing this, which is also the meaning of the protective gear.

"Please rest assured..."A colonel regiment commander standing next to him heard Cai Ye's words and hurriedly stepped forward. Not long ago, the regiment just sent a batch of protective gear, so there is no shortage of protective gear, and in addition, some recruits will be injured if they do so. However, our regiment has made full medical preparations, so there are no major problems so far."

Hearing the head of the regiment say this, Cai Yi nodded with satisfaction.

But just when he wanted to say something. Cai Yi's adjutant in the distance suddenly walked over, and then said to Cai Yi. "Commander, there's news from the Chief of Staff that something has arrived..."

"Oh?" Hearing the adjutant say this, Cai Ye was stunned for a moment, and then turned his head to Wu Peifu and said. "The new equipment that the president said seems to have arrived, go. Let's go over and see? ”

"Did the president mention the new equipment?" Wu Peifu was stunned for a moment, and then showed an interested expression. "Okay, let's go. Let's go check it out..."

After saying that, the two of them said some words of encouragement and praise to the regiment commander, and then left the regiment station with the others, leaving only the regiment commander still curious about what equipment Yan Shao had sent.

Actually, it's not just him. Even Cai Ye and Wu Peifu are curious in their hearts.

After all, when I was in Europe. They had seen the effect of the equipment sent by Yan Shao with their own eyes. Just like the tank, which has now become the main battle equipment in Europe and has brought many benefits to the country, especially the domestic arsenals, this equipment once made the Wehrmacht famous in Europe.

There was also the 'Type 15 pump-action shotgun', which was called the 'trench sweeper' by the Allied officers and soldiers on the Western Front, and was almost one of the most feared weapons of the German army. Some time ago, the German government even issued a document hoping that the expeditionary force would stop using this 'anti-human' weapon...

These two weapons can be said to be solemnly recommended to them by Yan Shao.

Now Yan Shao mysteriously sent a weapon over. To say that they are not curious is absolutely false.

After leaving the regiment's station, the two men returned to the headquarters in Dihua in a military vehicle. Not long after returning to the headquarters. Cai Ye and Wu Peifu met the officer who sent the equipment, and the so-called 'new equipment' he was holding in his hand―――――― a strange-looking equipment.

The back half of this weapon is fairly normal, it looks like a normal rifle, the problem is the front half. Unlike ordinary rifles with long barrels and shafts, the front half of this weapon is very short, as if a rifle was sawed off in front of the trigger. There are also 'heat dissipation holes' on the short sleeve, and this kind of weapon is very strange in the eyes of Cai Yi and others.

"This is the equipment that the president asked me to send to the two of you...", and the officer wearing the rank of colonel in front of him took out the equipment and explained.

"What is this?" After fiddling with it, Cai Ye asked a little strangely.

"Submachine guns," the officer said with a smile. Can you arrange a place for you, two chiefs, and I can show you personally..."

Of course, Cai Ye and Wu Peifu would not refuse this request, and soon they arranged a position for the guard company outside the headquarters. At the same time, this colonel loaded something in front of Cai Ye and Wu Peifu and others, in front of the strange-looking 'submachine gun', and then aimed the muzzle of the gun at the target that had just been made not far away―――――― by the way, both Cai Ye and Wu Peifu recognized it, it was a drum commonly used for machine guns...

As the colonel aimed the muzzle of the gun at the target, and then pulled the trigger, the muzzle of the gun burst into flames, and a large number of bullets were sprayed out from the muzzle, accompanied by a deafening gunshot, but in ten seconds, the colonel had already used up all the bullets in the entire drum, and when the gunfire was over, he looked at the target on the opposite side, and the target was like a hornet's nest.

"What kind of weapon is this..."Looking at the weapon in the colonel's hand, Cai Yi asked with some surprise in his heart.

"Submachine guns," the colonel said with a laugh. More precisely, the Type 18 submachine gun, which was specially designed for trench warfare and street fighting, and as soon as it was mass-produced, the president asked us to bring you the first batch of products ..."

As he spoke, the colonel explained.

Submachine guns, which should have appeared in the European theater at the earliest, began to develop this weapon in 17 years, and in 18 years, the first submachine gun MP-18 began to appear in the European theater.

During World War I, fighting turned into trench warfare, and infantry charging in dense formations would suffer heavy casualties from machine-gun fire. In the latter part of World War I, the German army used a small detachment called the 'Storm Commando' to break the stalemate in trench warfare. At that time, the weight of machine guns was not suitable for individual soldiers, and they required fierce and light and reliable individual use of small arms at close range, and in 1917, Germany developed automatic weapons using pistol bullets to cooperate with the assault tactics of infiltrating and breaking through trenches. It was named MP18. Designed by Hugo? Schmeiser, later modified into the MP18I, was produced by the Bergman Arsenal―――――― in fact, there is also a belief that the first submachine gun in history should have been invented by Italians, not Germans. Weller? Palosha Mod.1915, this is what the Italians were equipped with submachine guns. The problem is that this submachine gun was designed as a machine gun, except for the use of pistol cartridges (although it was also a 9mm caliber, but not the 9mm Pera Belum caliber, which was popular among European submachine guns. Rather, it is the less powerful 9mm Glisenti, which is also 9x19mm, but has a muzzle velocity of only about 300 m/s. ）。 Basically, it was no different from machine guns, and it was really practical after 1920, and there was not much utility before, so even the Italians were the first to invent submachine guns. It would also be considered that the first practical submachine gun was the German MP-18 ...

Although the first inventions in history were made by the Germans. In reality, however, the Wehrmacht realized the importance of this weapon much earlier than the Germans. The reason is also very simple, because as early as the Anhui period, the Wehrmacht has begun to equip the customized version of the Madsen light machine gun ordered by Yan Shao from Denmark―――――― the so-called customized version, which refers to a small wooden handle installed under the machine gun, so that the soldier can not only use it as an ordinary machine gun, but also can be held up and charged with the troops, without worrying about the barrel burning his hands...

However, it is convenient to use it this way, but it has been used for a long time. The Wehrmacht also had some comments.

First of all, the machine gun used rifle cartridges. It is powerful, but the recoil is also large, and the operation is inconvenient.

Secondly, it was too heavy, and it was not easy to charge with a weight of almost ten kilograms.

Therefore, after the outbreak of the war in Europe, when the military found that the war had gradually evolved into 'trench warfare', and such weapons that could charge with their hands could play a great role, the military began to consider whether to purchase a new equipment.

Finally, in 1916, the military officially tendered the domestic military-industrial complex.

And in the end, the winning bid was a subordinate weapons manufacturing company of Yushi Group, as for why? The reason is very simple, when the military conducted the bidding, Yan Shao gave some small tips to his company.

The tip is to use pistol cartridges as ammunition, not rifle cartridges...

Because Yan Shao clearly remembers that the biggest difference between submachine guns and automatic rifles is that one uses pistol cartridges, while the other uses rifle cartridges. This time the military tender is a weapon similar to a submachine gun, then, of course, it is time to design a weapon that uses pistol cartridges ...

And most of the bidding arsenals have some hand-held machine guns, and even if a few use pistol cartridges, there are many defects in performance.

Of course, if Yan Shao's company's products win the bid, there will definitely be people who wonder if there are unspoken rules or something. But after they also tried the bidding weapons of Yushi, they had to admit that this was indeed a product that the military needed.

"The total length of the weapon is 840 mm, the empty gun weighs about 3.5 kg, the caliber is 11.43mm, it uses 11.43mm pistol cartridges, the theoretical rate of fire is 600 rounds / min, the effective range is 50 to 100 meters, and it can be fed in two ways, one is a double magazine type, which can use two magazines of 20 rounds or 30 rounds, and the other is a drum type, which can use a drum of 50 rounds or 100 rounds..."

The colonel here spoke carefully, and Cai Ye and the others also listened very carefully.

In the eyes of the two, this is indeed a very good weapon. First of all, this weapon is light enough, although the Madsen light machine gun equipped by the Wehrmacht is already the lightest machine gun, it also weighs more than 9 kilograms, and it is very heavy when it is brought up to charge, and this weapon, the empty gun weighs only more than 3 kilograms, and even if it carries bullets, it is only more than 4 kilograms, which is at least half lighter than Madsen.

The second is firepower, how powerful the 11.43mm bullet is, they all know very well, after all, they now carry a pistol of this caliber on their waists. Moreover, in the case of the use of 11.43mm bullets, this bullet can be perfectly combined with the pistols equipped by the Wehrmacht as one ammunition, which greatly reduces the pressure on logistics.

With the adoption of this weapon, it seems that the machine gunners in the infantry squad no longer need to follow the charge with the machine gun to provide firepower.

If you talk about the shortcomings, at least at present, the only thing that makes Cai Ye and others feel a little pity is the low range, but thinking that this weapon is mainly used for charging, and even the name is named a submachine gun, it is satisfied...

"How many of these submachine guns did the president send this time..."With a satisfied attitude, Wu Peifu asked his own question.

"The first batch of about 2,000 submachine guns was produced, and this time the president asked me to bring them all..." The president believes that this weapon can be equipped with one for each squad leader and deputy squad leader, so that each main division can be equipped with 2019 units, and the rest can be used as a backup ...

Hearing the colonel say this, Cai Ye and Wu Peifu glanced at each other, and they also felt that it was appropriate... (To be continued......)