Chapter 63 Marginal

  The mountains rose and fell with lush green trees densely covered, the cement highway of the single bike path was built along the riverbank, driving on the highway or passing through the dense forest without a gap, even the fierce sunlight at noon could not penetrate that density. Or drive on the cliffside path, one side is the steep mountain wall, and the other side is the turbulent river valley, the rushing river water churns up fine waves, the speeding cars cause the clear wind to swirl around the quiet roadsides, startling the small birds on the branches to fly in disarray.

  "We'll be arriving at the base in half an hour, does the commander need to send a telegram to remind them?"

  "No need, Wang Gong has never disappointed me! As long as he doesn't take the little birds in the mountains as targets to shoot, everything is fine!" Looking at the scenery outside the car window, Zhang Yu's face showed a rare smile. The beautiful nature is always the best friend of human beings, its huge tolerance can make people pour out all their unpleasantness, drive away the trivial thoughts in their minds and return to simplicity and tranquility.

  The bike path on the highway continued to wind its way forward without a single intersection, and after another half hour of driving, a fork in the road finally came into view. The car turned onto the fork and slowly drove away from the original highway, as the forest grew denser, the driver had no choice but to turn on the headlights and proceed cautiously. Before long, a roadblock appeared ahead, and two fully armed soldiers made a stopping gesture from afar. Behind the roadblock, a lieutenant saw the license plate and hurried out to greet the arrival of an important person.

  "Commander, Wang Gong is at the No. 1 weapon testing site! I heard from Lieutenant that the gunfire has been getting less frequent these days, and it's likely that the improved model gun has already passed most of its experimental stages..."

  Zhang Yu nodded in response, and the two of them rushed to Experimental Site No. 1, one after the other. The base, built on a mountain slope, had many low-rise buildings with only two floors, whether they were laboratories or residential houses. All the walls of these buildings were painted in black and green stripes, and they were all nestled among the trees. After driving for less than ten minutes along the winding road, the view suddenly opened up. A large area of gentle slope between two mountain valleys was covered with a thick layer of green grass, like a carpet covering the ground. At the mouth of the valley, there were layers upon layers of rolling hills, one after another, forming a natural shooting range surrounded by mountains. Of course, various targets stood on each hill.

  "They're over there!" After reminding Zhang Yu, Yu Ran pointed to a large pile of yellow sand that stood out on the small grassland, where several people wearing camouflage uniforms were fiddling with their guns.

  The two of them ran over, and before they even got close, someone had already noticed their arrival. "Commander, how come you came without notifying us? We're in the middle of a trial shoot!" Wang Hanmin smiled and greeted Zhang Yu as he approached.

  "I just want to see what kind of person you are, and how you can change this bunch of good-for-nothing gangsters. What's wrong, aren't I welcome?"

  After finishing, Zhang Yu took over a Type 81 automatic rifle that had just been dug out of the yellow sand pile, took over the magazine handed over by Wang Hanmin, shook out a lot of yellow sand after shaking it several times, and then pointed the rifle in a safe direction. Insert the magazine, pull the bolt to the bottom and release it to load the bullet into the chamber. After taking a standing shooting posture, he shot at the target in front of everyone. The 30-round magazine capacity was enough for him to fire single shots and bursts for a while before running out.

  "This is the first battalion's reaction, this gun arrived in Xinjiang's desert, and if you're not careful, it's easy to get stuck after getting sand in it. I think it's because the gap between the gas ring, adjusting plug, and piston isn't quite right. Of course, the sixth battalion has also had some problems recently..." Zhang Yugang finished his shooting experience, and Wang Hanmin began reporting on work. At this time, other people naturally left, including Wang Hanmin's assistant and Yu Ran.

  The 18-style rifle is a bold plagiarism by Zhang Yu and his brother, based on the actual needs of the People's Army. The entire rifle family is just an improvement on the post-81 Type Rifle, so it got such a ridiculous name from Zhang Yu, "18-style", which is simply the opposite of the rifle's name. Of course, this rifle was fully equipped with the People's Army troops in early 18, and it also matched its name.

  No matter what, this Type 81 rifle is the first batch of rifles used by the People's Liberation Army and the whole China, as well as the whole world. The later Type 81 was an improved version based on the famous AK rifle and the Type 56 rifle, which means that the Type 56 did not improve the AK very well, while the Type 81 completely inherited the advantages of both, so it also has the reputation of "the best AK improvement in the world".

  "I just felt it and took a closer look. The changes aren't big or many, but the single-shot accuracy is slightly worse than before. However, reducing the complexity and precision of the firearm makes it more suitable for use in various regions and harsh weather conditions. A slight decrease in accuracy isn't a bad thing; after withstanding harsh environments, it can still fire and eliminate enemies, which is what matters most to soldiers." As he spoke, Zhang Yu pointed the muzzle downwards, removed the magazine, pulled back the bolt to eject the chambered round, released the bolt, and handed the gun back to Wang Hanmin. He himself took the magazine and walked back to base while examining it repeatedly.

  "The 30-round magazine capacity is widely accepted by the troops! The squad's machine gun drum, they also said it's pretty good!" Wang Hanmin stroked the rifle in his hand, looking at Zhang Yu playing with the magazine clip, half-closing his eyes and smiling. "This gun still uses the original bullets after improvement, our previous single-shot rifle based on the Lee-Enfield rifle can be officially eliminated..."

  "Who said that rifle is going to be eliminated?" Zhang Yu suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at Wang Hanmin with a mischievous grin. "You don't know what I was just looking at? This magazine holds 30 rounds, and soldiers carry five magazines each, which is 150 rounds. Old soldiers can use them sparingly, but new recruits probably won't let go of the trigger even in secret, and one magazine will be used up quickly. What a huge pressure this puts on logistics!" After complaining, Zhang Yu started playing with the magazine again, while Wang Hanmin's smile disappeared, and he fell into deep thought.

  The 18-style gun family includes squad light machine guns and automatic rifles. The German-made squad light machine guns had already been ravaged on the battlefield, and the reaction gun's effect was very good, which led to the emergence of automatic rifles.

  The latter uses a fixed wooden stock, but the climate varies greatly in different parts of the west. Guangxi and Yunnan have high temperatures and heavy rainfall during certain seasons, while Gansu and Xinjiang are dry and rainless. The wooden stock is not suitable for these conditions, so some improved versions use folding metal stocks, still referred to as Type 18, issued to troops stationed in areas with frequent rainy weather.

  The gun uses a gas-operated automatic principle; the locking method is a rotating bolt. It adopts a hammer-rotating firing mechanism, which can fire semi-automatic single shots and bursts. In addition, the muzzle is equipped with a fixed grenade launcher that has the functions of silencing, flame extinguishing, and recoil reduction, and is also equipped with a detachable bayonet, which can be used as a dagger after disassembly.

  The fixed gun grenade launcher can fire 40mm gun grenade series, which can fire mature fragment killing grenades, high-explosive grenades, incendiary grenades, smoke grenades and illuminating grenades, enabling individual soldiers to have point-to-face killing capabilities, filling the firepower gap between hand grenades and light mortars within 300 meters. Of course, the excellent first-shot capability of the Type 18 is also commendable. In addition, the degree of commonality between automatic rifles and light machine guns is high, combined with the excellent performance of individual guns, taking a solid step forward in the development plan of "one gun for multiple uses", "gun family series" and "ammunition commonality" for the People's Army.

  The gun uses steel magazines or drums, with the rifle typically supplied with five 30-round magazines and the machine gun with four 75-round drums; the rifle and machine gun feed systems are completely interchangeable.

  "We used to sell the most 75-round drum magazines for military exports, Germans liked them, British and French people liked them too. They thought 30 rounds were not enough, the bullets were too few, not conducive to sustained firepower! But loading and unloading clips was very convenient......" Wang Hanmin couldn't think of anything else, so he decided to change the subject, not wanting to get stuck on the issue of rapid bullet consumption.

  All firearms of the Type 18 series have a bolt catch mechanism, when the magazine is empty, the bolt automatically stops at the rear, allowing the shooter to quickly replace the magazine and reload. When shooting with a magazine, it can play the role of an empty chamber catch; when shooting with a drum, it does not play the role of an empty chamber catch, but the machine gun has strong sustained firepower and high barrel heating, so light machine guns can use combat intervals to manually catch the bolt, accelerate barrel cooling, and make up for the lack of rapid barrel replacement. When firing, simply pull the bolt back once to reload and continue firing.

  So the Type 18 light machine gun is a big killer that people can't help but like. Compared to heavy machine guns mounted on tripods and general-purpose machine guns supported by bipods, both of which have fierce firepower and are very practical for sweeping away swarms of enemy soldiers, they just aren't as simple and convenient as light machine guns. Especially when it comes to being lightweight and easy to move around the battlefield, when general-purpose or heavy machine guns overheat and jam, a few Type 18s can still take care of the swarming enemy, and can even be picked up and fired directly, making them an important pillar of mobile firepower for infantrymen, and a lifesaver in critical moments.

  "You say that if this bullet didn't use a copper shell, didn't have such a large caliber, and didn't have so much propellant... you say that this bullet would definitely be able to reduce its weight and size by quite a bit, and the amount of ammunition a single soldier can carry would naturally increase by a lot. In today's world, which has already entered an era of escalating firepower, whoever has more fierce, effective, and sustained firepower is the king! A small-caliber rifle is inevitable."

  After sighing, Zhang Yu returned the magazine to Wang Hanmin, of course, not forgetting to smile. "How? Don't you agree with what I just said? Do you think small caliber doesn't work?" Seeing Wang Hanmin's disbelieving expression, Zhang Yu raised an eyebrow in surprise at this so-called gifted weapon expert.

  "I..." Wang Hanmin hesitated for a few seconds before thinking of an appropriate way to explain what was on his mind. "Without practical verification, I don't know if it's feasible with small caliber!" As he spoke, Wang Hanmin picked up a shell from the ground at random, and the shiny shell sparkled like gold. "But I believe this shell must not necessarily use copper as its raw material."

  "No matter what, war is about overall strength, good weapons are like a giant's fist, powerful fists can have a better attack effect, but the premise is that this giant has the power to swing his fists, no matter how many times until the enemy falls."

  Zhang Yu also picked up a shell casing. The sample guns all need to go through tens of thousands of rounds of testing, and even if they didn't do the lifespan test today, there are at least several thousand "test results" on this land. Copper is a precious resource, and our country's copper ore resources are not rich. Ah, Wang Gong, if you're interested, you can try researching small-caliber rifle development or alternative ammunition for existing firearms. In short, you need to think of ways to reduce the hardware costs of these military equipment.

  "Yes, our troops have high quality requirements. On average, a sniper uses up at least 5,000 rounds of ammunition per year, and an ordinary soldier needs around 2,000 rounds... We have six regular divisions, three reserve divisions, and one instructional brigade, with over a million personnel. The annual consumption of ammunition for shooting training alone is in the tens of millions, if we really want to launch a large-scale trench warfare like the great powers, it would involve hundreds of thousands of troops fighting, just the cost of bullets would be enough to exhaust people..."

  Looking at the submachine gun in Wang Hanmin's hand, Zhang Yu suddenly couldn't help but burst out laughing, which made Wang Hanmin very puzzled. "Commander, you just said that replenishing ammunition is so difficult and troublesome, why are you laughing now?" Wang Hanmin emphasized the word "laugh" particularly heavily.

  "I'm not complaining about the difficulty of ammunition, but in peacetime, more sweat is shed and less blood is spilled. Quick and accurate marksmanship doesn't rely on a large amount of ammunition as capital. How can one possess superior shooting skills?" Zhang Yu took an 18-style rifle from Wang Hanmin's hand, carefully examined it for a while, nodded his head and said: "The gun is indeed a good gun, it will become a world-influencing generation of famous guns, but it is also a double-edged sword. If used well, it can achieve self-realization; if used badly, it will ruin one's prospects..."

  "So..."

  "So we need to have a generation of troops equipped, a generation of military research and development, and a generation of expert design. No matter when or where, we must always take into account the advancement and practicality of our weapons, and not let others know all our cards." Zhang Yu returned the 18-style gun to Wang Hanmin, smiling and saying: "Believe me, small caliber, no cartridge case, multi-power, this is definitely the future development direction of bullets; lightweight, simple, multi-functional composite, emphasizing human-machine efficiency, maybe that's where gun development will go. But in any case, it's worth a try!"

  The two of them walked away chatting and laughing, while several soldiers behind them began to collect the scattered shell casings with a pushcart. Today's experiment had clearly ended ahead of schedule. In fact, the improvement work on the Type 18 should have been completed long ago, and these recent experiments were just to further verify the correctness of the results. As Zhang Yu said, perhaps it was time to propose the next generation. Science and technology are endless, and military affairs are boundless. Only by constantly pursuing and exploring can we remain strong forever.

  They left the base at 5 pm and encountered rush hour traffic on the Nanqin Highway, so Zhang Yu and his group didn't arrive at the Qinzhou Municipal Party Committee's guest house until around 10 pm. Earlier, Zhang Yu had promised Zhou Qin that they would have a few drinks together, and indeed the two of them slowly sipped their wine for over three hours before going to bed. They were waiting for the next day when they would rush to Xie Yi's wedding ceremony. What exactly they talked about during this time, only the two of them knew, but it couldn't be denied that after experiencing major events and Zhang Yu's teachings, Zhou Qin had become much more mature.

  The early bird gets the worm, and the early worm is eaten by the bird. When the first ray of sunlight shines on the earth in the morning, Zhang Yu and his friends have already set off, with a big red flower pinned to their chest, without any decoration on the car, they set off quickly.

  "I heard that the woman is a well-known big shot in Nanning, with a thriving business and a fortune rolling in. And this man is just from an ordinary fishing family, when bad weather hits, it's really 'three days of fishing and two days of drying nets', their income and social status are definitely not comparable. In short, I don't know what good deed this Xiao Ye did in his past life, but he's managed to accumulate such a fortune?"

  "He's really caught up with the times!" Zhou Qin nodded and responded, shaking his head. Logically speaking, those who struggled in the US and returned home should already be considered to have made significant contributions and have a high status, and they should have been qualified to start a family long ago. But they didn't have that opportunity. As a result, people with even higher official positions and greater power are often still single, like Zhang Yu beside him. After looking at Zhang Yu a few more times, he still agreed with his inner thoughts and said: "If this kind of family status difference were in the past, it would definitely not have worked out! Isn't that right?"

  Zhang Yu didn't respond, only smiled faintly and turned to look out the car window. "A great undertaking is not yet accomplished, how can one have a home?" He thought of his older brother Zhang Yusheng, who had gone to the United States to deal with troubles. In the blink of an eye, ten years had quietly passed. Although they had achieved great things, when they would be successful was still a big question. Originally, he had thought that everything would go according to plan and step by step towards success, but the explosion of the "officials protecting each other" incident made both him and his brother realize the cruelty of reality.

  "Is the fleet of cars in front also going to attend the wedding banquet?"

  Zhou Qin's reminder woke Zhang Yu up from his drowsiness. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the slow-moving fleet outside the car window, which consisted of 12 identical sedans, eleven of which were sleek and black, exuding a sense of solemnity, while the one in the middle was a bright rose-red wedding car. The words "eternal love" and "hundred years of harmony" might not be visible, but the vibrant roses and the large red auspicious characters stuck on the car window were quite eye-catching.

  "Every time I come out, I meet many people who are getting married. The wedding procession hasn't appeared in a luxury car fleet yet, but the welcoming vehicle fleet composed of tractors, trucks, and three-wheeled vehicles is quite common. It's really rare to see a welcoming vehicle fleet composed of luxury cars!" Zhang Yu pointed at those long queues of slow-moving wedding processions and chuckled: "This family is really rich! If they were all Rolls-Royces, that would be even more impressive!"

  "Just imagine! If every household could afford a Volkswagen as a wedding car, that would be great. Some families being richer is just their own business. But the gap between rich and poor is too big, it will only bring more misfortune, there's no good to talk about!" After finishing speaking, Zhou Qin withdrew her gaze, half-closing her eyes to rest well.

  "The matter of officials protecting each other hasn't been cleared up yet, and now there's this wealth gap! If things keep developing like this, won't we really see the emergence of official second generations and rich second generations in the future? My god." After muttering to himself, Zhang Yu also turned his head away and stopped looking at that grand motorcade. Squinting his eyes, he felt that in the dark world, it was impossible to find any boundaries.