Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

The secret shooting range is a rectangular building with a small bullet factory inside, which is used to produce different types of ceramic steel bullet casings. There is also a small furnace for producing steel bullets. Because ceramic steel is too light, it is not qualified to be used to make bullets. It can only be used to make bullet casings, so a small furnace is needed to make bullets.

When Li Qinwu entered the shooting range, he saw several clones sitting next to the ballistic guns, smoking and playing cards. Li Qinwu approached and asked, "Where is Hu Xiaoming?"

"He's on leave at home. He hasn't come to work these few days."

Li Qinwu felt something was wrong.

"What's going on? Is his old, shabby father causing trouble again?"

"I guess so. The Chongqing government is recruiting civil servants, and his father asked him to take the exam. The old officials don't think highly of our makeshift team. They didn't plan to work here for a long time, but his son is a potential official."

Li Qinwu took a deep breath. Hu Xiaoming's father was causing trouble for him again. However, he couldn't say anything about the other person's pursuit. He wanted to hear Hu Xiaoming's attitude. If Hu Xiaoming insisted on becoming an official, he would not stop him and would give him a very generous salary as a reward for his research on intermediate-power rifle bullets.

Li Qinwu looked at the pile of shells on the shooting range and asked, "How is it? Have you found a suitable intermediate-power rifle bullet?"

The clone nodded, took out a document and handed it to Li Qinwu.

"This is our research report. Hu Xiaoming has studied bullets of many calibers, from 5.1mm, 5.2mm, 5.3mm, all the way to 9mm. In practice, the performance of all of them is quite average. The best performance is still the ones you gave him. They are the old three, 5.56x45mm, 5.8x42mm, and 7.62x39mm, which were used by various countries in the past."

This result was not unexpected by Li Qinwu. The later generations were so developed and invested much more in the research of bullet calibers than now. However, the bullets used by major countries were only of these calibers, which proved that these calibers were the most powerful.

Li Qinwu was flipping through the documents when suddenly his eyes lit up as he saw the data for the 6.8x43mm bullet.

"Huh, the 6.8 bullet has pretty good ballistic performance. This caliber, as I remember it, was a new bullet developed by the Americans in their previous life, right? They were hyped up to the sky, saying it would replace the 556 and become the new generation of rifle bullets."

The clone shook his head and said, "I suggest not to choose this bullet as our standard ammunition. In the last life, this thing was praised by Remington Company. They said that its performance was completely superior to the 556. But the gimmick is greater than the reality. No force has equipped it on a large scale, and many problems have not been exposed. Our small workshop can't afford to be tossed around. It's better to be conservative."

Li Qinwu agreed. In his previous life, the 6.8mm bullet was still at the stage of bragging. The hype was great, but no country's army had equipped it on a large scale. Now that he had only this little money, he dared not take any risks.

He turned his attention back to 5.56, 5.8, and 7.62. These three bullets have been enduring and have always dominated the main ammunition calibers of various countries. He was suffering from decision-making difficulties, so he had no choice but to use the method of elimination.

7.62 was ruled out first. This is an old bullet, a transitional product from full-power rifle bullet to intermediate-power rifle bullet. The bullet is still too large, with a large warhead and a large amount of powder, resulting in soldiers carrying less, making the weapon difficult to operate and increasing training time.

The 7.62 bullet has a too large warhead, so its range is not very far. The effective range of the AK47 is only more than 300 meters. The Russians also discovered this problem at the time, and quickly replaced the AK5.45 with the AK39 that fires 74x47mm. The bullet caliber became smaller, but the effective range was increased to 500 meters.

The 5.56 bullet was also ruled out. The warhead of this caliber bullet is too small. Although the effective range is an incredible 600 meters, the power is too small. For real small jelly beans, the infantry combat distance is only about 300 meters. 600 meters is too much, and sacrificing power for range is not worth it.

Finally, the 5.8mm bullet stood out.

The effective range of the 5.8mm bullet is 400 meters. The projectile is much lighter than the 7.62. It is easier to control than the 7.62 during continuous shooting and has greater power than the 5.56. The range of 400 meters is completely sufficient. The accurate shooting distance of the Japanese infantry is only about 300 meters, which still leaves 100 meters in reserve, which is enough to compete with the Japanese.

More importantly, the 5.8mm bullet is the type of bullet that my country has prepared for a total war. It has super adaptability. To use the Baidu entry, its attributes are very average. It may not have any outstanding advantages, but it also has no shortcomings. It is definitely not the best type of bullet, but it must be one of the most suitable types of bullets for rolling out production and conducting large-scale operations!

The range is sufficient, the power is sufficient, and it is customized for the Chinese baby system. It has super adaptability to the terrain against personnel, plus the sentimental points. Li Qinwu will have to choose the 5.8mm bullet!

After the bullet is determined, the next step is easy. Just redefine the barrel length and gas hole position of the automatic rifle according to the gunpowder gas produced by this type of bullet.

But before that, he planned to talk to Hu Xiaoming. It would be a shame to let this ammunition expert go. Without Hu Xiaoming, it would take him and his clone forever to verify the appropriate caliber of bullets. In the future, there would be more types of bullets that needed Hu Xiaoming's research, so Li Qinwu wanted to try his best.

Be an official? What kind of official! What's the point of being an official in the Republic of China? After climbing up, they just plunder the people's blood and sweat. It's better to help him make bullets to fight the Japanese and become the father of intermediate-power rifle bullets!

Li Qinwu got in his car and went to Niujia Village to find Hu Xiaoming. A circle of bungalows were built outside Niujia Village. These bungalows were specially for the families of the workers of the Julong Company to live in. They had sewerage and tap water systems, as well as electricity. The villagers envied these bungalows and wanted to be workers of the Julong Steel Plant.

Li Qinwu did not find Hu Xiaoming here, so he went to ask the village chief Niu and found out that Hu Xiaoming was the only one living in the bungalow in Niujia Village. Hu Xiaoming's parents went to Chongqing and bought a large courtyard for themselves.

There was no choice but Li Qinwu could only drive into the city and find Hu Xiaoming's home in the wealthy area according to the address given by Village Chief Niu.

It must be said that Hu Xiaoming's house is really magnificent. It has a large courtyard surrounded by blue bricks. You can see the jujube trees in the courtyard. He estimated that the area surrounded by the wall is about 700 to 800 square meters. There are only two such courtyards on this street, and it looks like a prince's residence.

This made Li Qinwu envious. He wanted to build such a luxurious residence! However, thinking that his brothers in the island space were still living in the dormitory, he gave up the idea. We are all brothers. If we want to live in a big house, we must live together!

Li Qinwu followed the courtyard wall to find the mahogany gate. He walked forward and knocked on the door. After waiting for a while, the door opened. A girl dressed as a servant half-closed the door and looked at Li Qinwu vigilantly.

"Who are you looking for?"

Li Qinwu smiled at her.

"Girl, I'm Hu Xiaoming's boss, and I'm here to talk to Hu Xiaoming about some work."

When the girl heard that he was looking for Hu Xiaoming, the vigilance on her face faded a lot, but she still had a lingering sense of pride.

"Wait."

After she said this, she turned and went into the yard. Li Qinwu was about to follow her in when the door was closed with a bang and his face was almost hit by it.

Li Qinwu's eyelids twitched wildly. Why the hell did he feel looked down upon? I am your master's boss, and you, a servant, have this attitude? This is how you treat guests? Aren't you afraid that I will make things difficult for your master?

He felt looked down upon, but there was nothing he could do but wait. After a long while, no one came to open the door and he ran out of patience.

Just as Li Qinwu was about to knock on the door again, the maid made a noise from inside. This time, she didn't even open the door, but said directly through the door: "The young master is not here."

Li Qinwu was completely furious, but he was only angry for a moment. If he wasn't there, then what else could he do? Could he still break down the door? Li was not a bandit, so he could only return home in frustration and wait until Hu Xiaoming got to work before talking to him again.

He turned and walked along the blue brick road towards the main road, but before he had gone far, he heard Hu Xiaoming's voice.

"Director Li! Director Li!"

"Xiao Ming?"

Li Qinwu looked around and saw moss-covered blue brick walls on both sides, but no one was in sight.

"Director, upstairs!"

Li Qinwu looked up and saw Hu Xiaoming struggling to lie on the wall.

(ps: The characteristics and range data of the three bullets in this chapter are all from the Internet, and may be inaccurate. For example, I checked several entries for 556, and they all said that the effective range is 600 meters. To be honest, I was shocked. This effective range can even compete with the full-power bullet.)