Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

There is nothing much to say about automatic rifles, let’s just go with AK, which is the answer to the next 100 years. Military fans brag that one day when humans go into space, AK will be modified with space version ammunition and can continue to be used.

AK has too many advantages that are already widely known, such as strong reliability, good gun quality, and adaptability to various climate environments. It is the most produced automatic weapon in the world.

Of course, someone may say at this time that the advantages of AK are all due to the materials used. For example, the Soviet Union and some countries authorized to produce AK use the highest grade materials, and the AK they produce is sturdy. However, the quality of the 56 and a half in Egypt, Peshawar, and my country's early days is very problematic.

But Li Qinwu deeply understood that the reason why AK became famous all over the world was not because of the exquisite materials used, but because of the structure of the gun and the piston-operated gas principle.

AK uses the long-stroke gas-operated principle, which is to open a hole on the barrel. When shooting, the gas enters the gas tube through the hole, and then pushes the gas piston. The piston moves back and presses the gun to complete the action of ejecting the shell and loading the chamber.

The advantage of this structure is that the firearm has high reliability, because the gas piston and the bolt are a very large structure, and this large structure is pushed by the gas. It has a large weight and thrust, so it is not easy to have problems.

The disadvantages are also quite obvious. There are too many moving parts during firing, which causes the accuracy of the gun to drop sharply when firing continuously and the recoil is high. This is vividly demonstrated in video games.

However, for automatic rifles, a higher first-shot hit rate is enough. When it comes to automatic shooting scenarios, the accuracy requirements are not that high.

By the way, the M16, like its contemporary rival the AK, uses the direct-blowing gas principle.

There is still a hole in the barrel to collect gunpowder gas, but there is no piston in the gas tube. The gas will blow directly to the bolt along the long gas tube, and then the bolt will recoil to complete the ejection and loading of the shell.

The benefits of doing this are obvious. During the M16's ejection and recoil process, only the gun's gun moves. Unlike the AK, both the piston and the bolt are moving, and the amplitude of movement is large. In this way, the M16's recoil is relatively small and its controllability is improved.

As for the cost, it is unreliable to work in complex environments!

The AK's gas tube is blocked by a gas piston. It is easy to imagine that it is difficult for debris to get in. But the M16 has no gas piston, only a thin and long gas tube, which is not easy to clean. If something gets stuck in it, it will directly become a bolt-action rifle.

In addition, the gunpowder gas of the M16 blows directly onto the bolt, which is the most sophisticated component of the entire gun. Once it is blown by the gunpowder gas, it is very easy to cause problems.

The materials used by Li Qinwu to produce the bolt are not as good as those in later generations. If the direct-blowing recoil principle was adopted, the gun would probably be scrapped before firing 1000 rounds.

Oh yes, speaking of bolts, AK has another advantage. The recoil of AK relies on the piston, so the strength of its bolt does not need to be too high, it only needs to maintain its own quality, which is quite in line with Li Qinwu’s current situation where he is unable to produce high-quality steel.

So, no matter from which aspect, AK is the first choice of automatic weapon for time travelers, which leads to the AK being written to death in major time-travel novels, and even makes readers feel disgusted and want to quit reading as soon as they see the AK.

Li Qinwu had drawn the drawings of the AK before, so there was no need to draw them again here. He just changed some weight-reducing structures on the gun to make them more suitable for ceramic steel. Soon, 9% of the design drawings of the AK were completed.

The remaining 1% will have to wait until the intermediate-power rifle bullets are developed, and then choose where to open the gas holes in the barrel based on the ammunition situation.

This is a delicate job. If the gas hole is set too far from the muzzle, too much gas will be collected, the bolt will be damaged, and the recoil spring will become disabled.

The gas hole is too close to the muzzle, so less gas is collected, the gas piston cannot be pushed, and the shell cannot be ejected and loaded normally.

Fortunately, after such a long time, Hu Xiaoming should have developed a suitable intermediate-power rifle bullet. Li Qinwu planned to go to Hu Xiaoming to check the results after he finished drawing the blueprint.

After the AK was arranged, Li Qinwu started to work on the machine gun.

Machine Gun Li Qinwu had no reason to hesitate and directly finalized the PKM. It was the most powerful general-purpose machine gun on Blue Star and no objections would be accepted!

It has to be said that the Russians are not only good at using tanks, but also good at using machine guns.

When general-purpose machine guns were still in the exploratory stage in various countries, the Russians had already launched RPK, RPD, PKM and other machine guns. These machine guns were far superior to Western machine guns in terms of firepower sustainability, reliability and portability.

The only Western competitor of the time was the M60. Although this crappy gun used a belt, which was the correct answer, it was extremely heavy! The empty gun weighed more than 10 kg! Is this something that an infantryman can lift and run with?

Moreover, this crappy gun has two problems: it can't fire and it can't fire by itself. It's so annoying that it can't even lose 20 HP with one shot in Cross Fire.

In comparison, PKM is much more beautiful. The empty gun weighs only 7.5kg. The whole gun is designed to be very compact. Like PPS43, there is no hole in the gun body, and the inside and outside are almost isolated. This greatly reduces the chance of dust entering the barrel and also improves the reliability of the gun.

But this gun also has its flaws. For example, its non-disintegrating bullet chain will cause a long bullet chain to drag under the gun while it is firing, which is extremely troublesome.

The quick-release function is unreliable because of thermal expansion and contraction. Once the barrel is heated up, it is difficult to pull it off if you want to replace it.

The gun is too long, and it is difficult to raise and shoot.

The bipod is too light, making it unstable when shooting.

The barrel life is not good, it will be broken after firing.

Li Qinwu made the following improvements to address these shortcomings:

The barrel life is not good? It doesn't matter. The quality of ceramic steel barrels is not good. They will be thrown away after firing 1 rounds. At most, the factory will give away or barrels for each gun.

Is it difficult to change the barrel due to thermal expansion and contraction? Ceramic steel is inherently heat-resistant.

The gun is too long to lift and shoot? No problem, the physique of the soldiers is stronger than that of ordinary soldiers.

As for selling it to ordinary troops, Li Qinwu will equip it with a heavy tripod so that ordinary troops can use it as a heavy machine gun, and they can also get an anti-aircraft tripod.

The non-dispersible ammunition chain has been changed to a semi-dispersible one, which means that the chain will break after 10 rounds of bullets. If someone wants to recycle the chain, they can just pick up one. In the future, this machine gun may be sold to guerrillas, and they should value this thrifty and frugal ability.

Li Qinwu also plans to design a multi-caliber version of this gun, so that it can be used to fire the Japanese's companion rifle bullets or Mauser rifle bullets by simply replacing the barrel and a few parts.

He planned to sell the version of the Mauser rifle bullet to the army of the Nationalist government, which was the most commonly equipped type of bullet by the Nationalist government.

The version with plate rifle bullets is for your own use. The most common bullets obtained by the Punishment Army in the battle against the Japanese are plate rifle bullets, which are convenient for replenishment.

In addition, the version that fires plate rifle bullets cannot be leaked, so we have to keep a close eye on it. Otherwise, the Japanese will just capture it and use it directly, which would be a problem for us.

After that, Li Qinwu spent a few more days to come up with a PKM vehicle-mounted machine gun version, which mainly consisted of removing the machine gun buttstock, lengthening the heavy barrel, and adding a vehicle-mounted gun mount.

There is also a special version for heavy grenadiers, with a longer heavy barrel, larger pistol grip and trigger guard, and a large 250-round ammunition box.

As usual, the drawings were sent to Hutoushan and Julong Steel Plants, and 100 units were produced first for testing.

Finally, the weapon blueprint was completed. Li Qinwu felt like a fairy. He ate something and went to sleep, otherwise he might die suddenly and travel back in time.

He slept for two days. After two days, Li Qinwu regained his energy. He cleaned himself up, put on a suit, and planned to find Hu Xiaoming to see how the intermediate power rifle bullet was doing.