I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 65 General Purpose Machine Gun Discussion

"No, no, no, Changzai, the guy you designed, according to the data you provided..."

Even if we had a mountain of gold in our house, it still wouldn't be enough for it to eat.

It consumes too many bullets; it can use up 1,500 bullets in just one minute.

My God.

That would give each member of my rifle platoon fifty rounds of ammunition.

This amount of ammunition would be more than enough for them to fight a medium-sized battle.

After reviewing the blueprints and data provided by Chen Changzai for the new general-purpose machine gun that was a copy of the MG42, Commander Chen...

His head was shaking like a rattle drum.

The meeting currently underway is a demonstration and discussion session on a new type of general-purpose machine gun.

In the cave dwelling, besides Chen Changzai, there were also Regiment Commander Chen, Political Commissar Liu, Political Commissar He, Deputy Factory Director Xu, as well as Master Liu from the machining factory and Master Wu from the precision parts factory.

And Director Zhao, who came all the way from the headquarters ordnance factory.

A gun needs to be transformed from blueprints into reality.

It requires the consent of the actual user of the gun.

Furthermore, it requires the actual producers to confirm, based on the actual production situation, whether the gun is suitable for the current production conditions.

That's why we had this discussion and demonstration meeting on the new general-purpose machine gun.

After listening to Commander Chen's opinion, Chen Changzai said, "Commander Chen, actually this gun doesn't maintain such a high rate of fire throughout the entire process; the rate of fire can be adjusted."

We can also adjust it to a firing rate of one thousand rounds per minute.

If the rate of fire is too low, it will be very difficult to suppress the enemy.

This is a more formal meeting, so Chen Changzai can no longer call him Uncle Chen Regiment Commander; he can only address him by his title.

He still wanted to fight for his choice.

At this moment, Political Commissar Liu said, "Changzai, you have never fought on the front lines, so you may not be very clear about this."

When war breaks out on the front lines, people's minds are stimulated by the hail of bullets on the battlefield.

People at that time would feel their blood boil.

During combat, they don't even think about adjusting their rate of fire.

All they could think about was how to fire all the bullets from the machine gun as quickly as possible.

Go and eliminate more enemies.

As for bullet rate of fire and ammunition supply...

That's something the frontline soldiers couldn't even imagine.

If this gun really has that high a rate of fire.

Then the soldiers would find that before the battle was even over, they were already out of ammunition.

If that were the case, let alone suppressing the enemy.

We may all lose our fire support.

Looking at this gun, I think if it were made, it would definitely be a good gun.

But we really can't afford it right now.

Political Commissar Liu's words made everyone in the cave nod repeatedly.

Apart from Chen Changzai, the people here are all here.

They were all veterans who had fought many battles on the battlefield.

They are the ones who have the most say in what happens on the battlefield.

The battlefield is not just a contest of weapons.

The main competition is between people.

And a person's psychological qualities are a key factor here.

No general could train all his men to be perpetually calm like robots.

The battlefield was filled with deafening gunfire and massive blast shockwaves, and everywhere there were mangled limbs and torn pieces of flesh flying everywhere.

The lifeless corpses of their comrades lay in such an environment.

It's virtually impossible to keep soldiers on the battlefield calm and control their rate of fire.

Although Chen Changzai of later generations also served as a soldier, he never actually went to the battlefield.

At that time, he was in the reserve force preparing to go to the battlefield.

The first battle was already over.

As a member of the reserve force, he never got the chance to go to the battlefield.

He retired not long afterward.

He missed the ten-year rotation of troops. Now, these veterans who have been through countless battles are questioning the rate of fire of this gun.

Chen Changzai could only reluctantly give up.

"Oh, this is my problem."

I didn't take into account the actual situation of the soldiers on the battlefield.

We assumed that our soldiers would be able to control the rate of fire of this gun.

I will learn from this experience and will never make this mistake again.

Seeing Chen Changzai's somewhat dejected expression.

Political Commissar Liu said, "Changzai, this is not your fault."

For someone who has never fought on the battlefield, your understanding of the battlefield is already very deep.

This is already quite remarkable.

Don't let these small setbacks put you under any psychological burden.

Cheer up! We're still waiting for you to design even better guns and cannons for us.

"Yes, Changzai, don't be discouraged by this little thing. You know how our soldiers are now."

How rare were our rifles, which were officially designated as the Red Type 1 and the submachine guns, which were designated as the Charge Type 1?

Every soldier was truly captivated by the gun once they received it.

I wish I could sleep with them.

In other words, none of these guys have wives.

If they had wives, they'd all be kicked off the bed by their wives and forced to live with guns.

So, Changzai, don't overthink it.

Do what you're supposed to do.

Once you've created something new, we'll be responsible for finding flaws, offering suggestions, and then you can see how to fix it.

As long as everyone pools their wisdom.

Then we'll definitely be able to develop the best general-purpose machine gun.

Seeing that Chen Changzai was in a bad mood, Commander Chen jokingly comforted him.

As soon as Commander Chen said that, the entire cave dwelling burst into laughter.

Chen Changzai also said with a smile, "I'm fine. I was just thinking about how to redesign a better general-purpose machine gun."

Since this gun is not currently applicable, it will have to be temporarily shelved, which can be considered as a form of technological accumulation for the future.

Although the gun did not pass the discussion.

However, everyone still offered their opinions and thoughts on the gun from various perspectives.

In particular, Master Liu, Master Wu, and Factory Director Zhao also recognized the superiority of this general-purpose machine gun from the perspective of gun manufacturing.

However, suggestions were made regarding some of the gun's finer details, suggesting that they could be simplified further.

To prevent increased failure rates in harsh battlefield environments.

for these questions.

Chen Changzai wrote all of it down in his notebook.

After the meeting.

Chen Chang didn't go anywhere.

He then went back into his cave dwelling, which served as both his bedroom and studio.

His cave dwelling was not very big, and the number of boxes containing books and blueprints kept increasing.

The space is also smaller.

So meetings are usually held in a cave dwelling that was specially set aside for him next door.

At his workbench, Chen Chang looked at the notes he had just taken, constantly recalling these veterans.

When discussing battles on the battlefield, we need to consider the psychological changes of the soldiers, the various situations that may arise, and the demands of the external natural environment.

As he pondered this, he began to organize and analyze the consistency of this information in his notebook.

And some inherent, tangible, interconnected, vague patterns.

He had to sort all of this out.

Only then can we design a real, universal machine gun that meets current conditions and can serve its purpose on the battlefield rather than be a burden.

He himself also needs to break free from the constraints of his own experience and find more ways that are suitable for the current situation.

　Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.

　　Thank you to all my friends for your valuable feedback on the MG42. I've taken it all in and redesigned a new general-purpose machine gun. This time, I'm going to do something different.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)