Episode 3 Best Weapon

Xiang Xiaoqiang gently flipped through the drawings of the L-36 submachine gun and looked at the familiar figure on the side view.

In appearance, it looks a bit like the German MP-38/40 submachine gun. It just feels a little slimmer than it is. In other words, the MP-40 is slender enough, and this one is even more slender. It feels like the barrel ratio is a little longer than the MP-40.

The lines of the whole gun are very simple, the barrel is full-naked-exposed, there is no round-hole heat sheath like **sand, and there is no wooden guard like Thomson. The magazine is a straight handle and is inserted, which makes it look very elongated.

"How many rounds are in the magazine?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang asked.

Xiuxiu smiled:

"30 rounds, 9 mm pistol rounds. Drums cannot be attached. ”

Well, Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded with satisfaction. That's fine, thirty rounds, not "compatible" with drums, so that the structure can be simpler. Although the drum has a large ammunition load and is very enjoyable, the first is that it is too heavy, the second is that the drum is basically miserable once it is jammed, and the third is that the task of the submachine gun does not need to do continuous shooting. That kind of mission is done with a machine gun.

Looking back again, there is a small grip on the rear. An indicator line stretched out from the grip part, imitating the words marked in Song style, and looked closer to Xiaoqiang, what kind of plastic.

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded:

"Plastic grips?"

Xiuxiu smiled again:

"It's not just the grips, it's plastic in several places. According to the adult's will, plastic is used wherever it can be used without affecting reliability. A large amount of aluminum parts was also used. ”

"Very good. What about reliability? Will this not be able to withstand the brutal operation? ”

Xiuxiu's eyes rolled: "The person from the Lian Feng said that he would guarantee not." They abused the guns in front of us, smashed, smashed, stepped on, and let a car slowly run over them, picked them up and wiped them. ”

"Hehe, such an exaggeration? Great, I'm going to try it out for myself anyway. ”

Further back, there was the folding butt. The butt is also very simple, consisting of two poles and a flap.

"How much does the gun weigh?"

Xiuxiu smiled: "It's only 3.02 kilograms, not including the magazine." With the addition of the live magazine, the whole gun weighs 3.67 kg. ”

"It's so light! It's good, it's good...... Thomson 4.9 kg and ours only 3.02 kg. On the battlefield, a soldier's physical strength is life. Our army needs to run long distances, and every light or tael of weapons will help to maintain morale and combat effectiveness. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a preliminary look at the whole picture and felt very satisfied. In terms of general appearance, the Lianfeng was faithfully designed to its own requirements. So from the appearance, it is very similar to the "first submachine gun in the modern sense" - MP-38/40.

With his own intervention, the first submachine gun independently designed by Daming achieved several firsts: the first all-metal/plastic, the first all-stamped parts, the first folding stock, and the first all-naked-exposed barrel.

Xiang Xiaoqiang is now asking the key question. He closed his eyes and asked after a few seconds:

"How much is one?"

Xiuxiu smiled and said:

"The representative of Lian Feng said that if the order is not less than 10,000 pieces, the unit price is 35 yuan and 5 pieces, and if the order is not less than 50,000 pieces, the unit price can be 34 yuan."

Xiang Xiaoqiang still had his eyes closed, silently comparing his mind with several famous submachine guns.

The cost of Thomson is $70, and it costs $85 to sell to Daming, and it is 122 yuan when exchanged for Mingyang.

The Finnish Sumi M31, known as the most sophisticated submachine gun before the war, cost 47.2 US dollars and 67 Mingyang.

The cost of a German MP-38 is 29.1 US dollars, and it also costs 41.6 Mingyang.

And now the self-produced L-36 costs only 35.5 Mingyang.

All stamping parts take advantage of the cost advantage.

…… It's good, that's how it feels. That's what a light weapon should feel like: simple, lightweight, and cheap.

"Rate of fire?"

"The theoretical rate of fire is 500 rounds per minute." Xiuxiu replied.

Not fast. Even as a submachine gun, it's slow. At this point, the soldiers of the People's Guard, who are accustomed to the Thomson submachine gun, may find it uncomfortable. Thomson is 900 rounds per minute!

"If my guess is correct...... Xiang Xiaoqiang muttered, "it's much more accurate than Thomson, right?" ”

Xiuxiu smiled: "My lord is very right. The representative of the Lianfeng also kept saying that the L-36 was very accurate, and that at a distance of 100 meters to 150 meters, the radius of the L-36 bullet was only 56% of that of Thomson, and at a distance of 200 meters, the radius of the L-36 bullet was only 33% of that of Thomson. ”

"Let me guess," Xiang Xiaoqiang happily closed his mouth, "First, our rate of fire is slow and our aim is easy; second, we have longer barrels than theirs; Thirdly, we are 9 mm bullets, they are 11 mm. We have less recoil. ”

Xiuxiu nodded and smiled:

"It's all right for adults. That's what the people of the Blade told us the same thing. ”

"Good, good."

……

Needless to say, the L-36 was much inferior to Thomson in firepower. But it has two more important advantages: it is lightweight and cheap. As a light weapon, nothing could be more important.

Light weapons are divided into military, police, and civilian use. Among them, the biggest requirement of the military is to be able to produce and install a large number of products quickly. Civilian and police guns are just a few at a time, dozens, or at most hundreds, and they can be made a little more elaborate and expensive, and nothing is fine. However, military guns are often tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions. Even if the unit price is only a dime or a penny, it is an extremely heavy burden on the state finances.

The simple structure can reduce costs and speed up production in the first place, and the second can make the weapon reliable and durable, and not prone to failure.

The famous Soviet firearms designer Sparkin famously said: "It is a very simple thing to design a weapon to be complex, and it is an extremely complex thing to design a very simple weapon." And his masterpiece ** sand submachine gun is recognized as the best submachine gun in World War II. It is because he perfectly combines the "power" of weapons with "low cost, simple and reliable".

Of course, now it seems that the L-36 is not very good in terms of power, but with Thomson with 1 soldier, with the L-36 you can with 3 soldiers. The combined firepower and combat effectiveness of the three soldiers armed with the L-36 were incomparable to those of a soldier armed with Thomson.

What is needed now is to quickly and massively equip the troops, so that the Ming army will have the highest proportion of submachine guns in the world. As long as you can do that, it's a good gun.

Xiang Xiaoqiang is not asking too much for submachine gun firepower now, and there is another important reason - the main opponent of the Ming army basically does not have submachine guns. The Qing army was not equipped with submachine guns, all rifles. The same was true of the Japanese army, a potential enemy. So the low rate of fire doesn't matter.

The effective range of this L-36 is 240 meters, which is considered long and accurate among submachine guns. This is also one of Xiang Xiaoqiang's original requirements. Now there are no automatic rifles, and there is a gap in firepower between submachine guns and rifles and machine guns, so the newly designed submachine guns have a longer range and higher accuracy, which can properly make up for this gap. At least your submachine gunners won't suffer too much when firing at a distance of two or three hundred meters from enemy riflemen. As long as the other party is not a sharpshooter.

……

Qiu Yu kept staring at the drawings, and only then did he raise his head, let out a long breath, and sighed:

"Xiaoqiang, you keep saying it's good, why don't I feel what's good? I think this gun is weird. …… Anyway, if I were a soldier, I'd rather be Thomson. …… How safe it feels! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Xiuxiu glanced at each other and laughed.

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Thomson, of course, but you know what? If it were Thomson, you would be useless as a soldier, and most likely you would only be able to carry a rifle. Now it's the L-36, which can only be used by you, a soldier, understand? ”

Qiu Yu nodded, and shook his head again. Then he laughed:

"I see, don't you just say this gun is cheap."

"Hehe, silly girl," Xiang Xiaoqiang patted her head and complimented, "That's smart." ”

……

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Xiang Xiaoqiang took Xiuxiu, Li Gensheng, Wang Hexiang, and representatives of Lian Feng to drive to the People's Guard barracks of Xiaolingwei outside the city. They're going to test the gun at the shooting range here.

Originally, the best shooting range in Nanjing was at the Tangshan Sniper School, and it was only necessary to drive about ten kilometers east along the road. There are shooting ranges in various environments, plains, hills, woodlands, shrublands, simulated villages, and imitation urban ruins...... And there are few people, not too ideal. But this was Xiang Xiaoqiang's first day back in Nanjing, and he knew that he had to inspect the People's Guards and appear in front of the soldiers. This is very important and is necessary to consolidate the soldier's support for himself.

The convoy drove into the long-lost Xiaoling Wei military camp, and the soldiers on both sides began to cheer, and gradually, the sound spread to both sides, and soon the entire military camp cheered. The windows of the office buildings and dormitories were opened, and the officers and men stuck their heads out, cheered and whistled towards the convoy below.

Xiang Xiaoqiang heard the deafening cheers in the car, and he couldn't suppress the excitement in his chest and rolled down the window.

The cheers rushed into the ears more clearly.

Very good...... When they came before, the soldiers had never been like this......

"Stop," Xiang Xiaoqiang instructed, "I'm going to get out of the car." ”

The driver was stunned:

"Your Excellency?"

"I'm going to get out of the car and walk. Let's walk over. ”

The driver hesitated, rolled down the window as well, stretched out his arm, waved a few times at the car in front of him, and made a stop gesture.

The driver in front saw the gesture in the rearview mirror and also slowed down to stop. The entire convoy of four cars stopped.

Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't wait, so he had to push the car door himself. The driver hurriedly and skillfully jumped out of the car, rushed to his side, bent down to pull the door open for him, and at the same time stood upright.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stepped out of the car and looked around, the cheers around him suddenly boiled, and the frenzied atmosphere of the entire barracks reached a white heat.

Xiang Xiaoqiang made an astonishing move: he stepped on the tires of the car, climbed onto the roof of the car at once, and then took off his hat and waved it at the windows of the buildings on both sides and the officers and soldiers surrounding him in front and behind.

The cheers around them gradually converged:

“…… Xiang Xiaoqiang! …… Xiang Xiaoqiang! …… Xiang Xiaoqiang! ……”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was also so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, he took a deep breath, put his hands to his mouth, and shouted long:

"Brethren—! I'm back to Xiaoqiang!! Today, I ......"

The cheers of the barracks immediately increased tenfold, completely dragging out his voice.

At the beginning, a few people under the car, Li Gensheng, Wang Hexiang and others wanted to stop him and let him get down, but when they saw the current scene, they all knew that they didn't need to say anything more.

They were all grinning and saying something to each other, but they couldn't hear it, completely drowned out in cheers.

Xiuxiu in the car leaned on the door, her face against the glass window, looking at the scene outside where her husband was frantically embraced by the soldiers, her heart was beating wildly, excited, and happy.

After Wang Hexiang followed Xiang Xiaoqiang, it was the first time he came to the People's Guard. He was the most shocked. He only knew that Xiang Xiaoqiang had done a few big things before, which established his reputation in the hearts of the people, but he didn't expect his prestige among his soldiers to reach such a level.

Is it wise to follow such a general, or is it ......

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood on the roof of the car, waited for the cheers to ease down a little, and continued to shout:

"Today, brethren, I have brought you a good thing!! …… I'm going to make you the most powerful army in the Ming Dynasty! …… Become the most powerful army in the world!! ”

He beckoned to the bottom of the car, called the representative of the Lian Feng, bent down and said a few words. The representative hesitated for a moment, glared at Xiaoqiang, and he immediately got into the second car, took out a long box, and placed it on the roof.

At this time, there was silence all around, and the officers and soldiers were all watching the box.

Xiang Xiaoqiang opened the box and pulled out an L-36 submachine gun.

The first "coaxing" around, the voice rose again.

Xiang Xiaoqiang picked up the magazine again, inserted it into the gun body, and then pulled the bolt, raised it with one hand, and pulled the trigger towards the sky, with a crisp explosion:

"Dada......"