Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

That day, Li Qinwu was hiding in the drawing room again, thinking about copying the 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

During the urban battle of Songhu, the Liao-made Maxim rifle exposed many problems. It was too large, too heavy, and had a slow rate of fire. Especially when used on the Type 89 tank, it was a disaster.

When fighting against Japanese tanks, using this thing to break tracks and capture prisoners is pretty good, but space inside a tank is extremely limited, and if you stuff such a large machine gun into the tank, it will be very crowded.

Moreover, the 12.7mm bullet is too large, and only four or five hundred rounds can be carried in the vehicle. The firepower sustainability is as short as it can be, which is really deadly.

As for replacement options, Li Qinwu directly looked for templates from my country's independently developed heavy machine guns. In the field of 12.7mm heavy machine guns, my country has always been at the leading level in the world. The main advantage is lightweight, which is quite impressive.

The 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun is large in size, and other countries need mechanized platforms to transport it, but my country has taken its own path and achieved the ultimate in lightweighting.

For example, the latest QJZ171 heavy machine gun has a combat weight of only 18.5kg. After the gun mount and the gun body are separated, two soldiers can carry it and maneuver. The infantry squad can carry this advanced firepower into jungles, plateaus and other difficult-to-access places, while the enemy is equipped with 12.7mm heavy machine guns weighing nearly kilograms but cannot get there.

It's a pity that Li Qinwu couldn't copy this heavy machine gun even if he wanted to. QJZ171 used a new weight-reducing alloy material and a two-stage spring-type floating machine and other recoil-reducing structures!

This structure is a bit complicated to explain, but it can be simply understood as the anti-shake function of the camera. This function is really amazing. It can reduce the recoil of the heavy machine gun by 80%, making the shooting accuracy of the heavy machine gun comparable to that of a precision marksman rifle.

But just by listening you can tell how complicated this thing is and how high the craftsmanship requirements are. Li Qinwu can't even make a magazine spring now, but he wants to make a two-stage spring floating machine. What a pipe dream!

Fortunately, he found a heavy machine gun that was very suitable for him in the history of development of my country's 12.7mm heavy machine gun, the Type 85 heavy machine gun, or more precisely the Type 85 anti-aircraft machine gun.

The Type 85 anti-aircraft machine gun weighs 18.6 kg and the gun mount weighs 17.55 kg. The effective range is 1600 meters for anti-aircraft fire and 1500 meters for horizontal fire. The theoretical rate of fire is 750 rounds per minute and the entire gun is 2150 mm long.

There are two reasons why Li Qinwu took a fancy to this gun. One is that this gun was finalized and mass-produced in 1985. At that time, the materials used to produce guns were still relatively traditional, without a bunch of outrageous weight-reducing alloys. Li Qinwu could barely produce monkey boards according to it.

The second is that the Type 85 anti-aircraft gun is extremely versatile. It can not only attack infantry and armored vehicles on the ground, but can also be mounted on an anti-aircraft gun mount to attack low-altitude targets. What's more amazing is that this gun has been experimented with being mounted on tanks and armed helicopter weapon pods!

Anyone who has seen the Type 85 anti-aircraft machine gun will be amazed. This thing has an extremely compact structure. It is basically a tube that fires bullets. This compactness naturally enables it to be mounted on various firepower platforms.

Li Qinwu had wanted to make something similar to an aerial gunboat as air fire support a long time ago, but up to now, this group of people don't even know how to fly a plane. The plane they pulled from Fengtian Airport is still rotting in the warehouse. There is no way, they can't find anyone to teach them how to fly a plane, and they don't dare to actually do it themselves for fear of accidents.

But now one of his clones has gone to the United States and is learning flying skills in a civilian aviation club. It won’t be long before the Punishment Army will establish an air force, and aerial gunboats will inevitably appear among the Punishment Army’s flying units.

In the narrow space of an airplane, where every inch of space is valuable, the compactness of the Type 85 is very advantageous. As long as a parallel gun mount is designed, the position that can hold an M3 machine gun can hold at least 4 Type 85 anti-aircraft machine guns in parallel! At that time, two 4-mounted machine guns can be placed directly in the air gunboat, directly raining fire on you!

A heavy machine gun can meet the needs of both infantry squads and vehicle-mounted aviation. Who else would Li Qinwu choose if not it?

After choosing the research and development direction, Li Qinwu locked himself in the drawing room to work. However, his personal time did not last for a few days before he was called out by Li Xin through mind sharing.

"Fuck! Master, stop thinking about your broken gun! A big guy has come to us for help! Tang Zhongming, it's Tang Zhongming! He's in the substitute class room, come here quickly!"

Li Jin's voice roared in Li Qinwu's mind, almost shaking him to the point of losing his mind. He did not have time to think about it, so he threw down his pen and quickly ran out the door. Although he had not yet realized who Tang Zhongming was, he knew that the person who could make Li Jin lose his composure like this must be a big shot.

As he ran, he used mind sharing to ask, "Who is it? Who came to join us? Why are you so excited?"

His words made Li Jin roar again.

"Tang Zhongming! He saw that we were working on a car in the Dragon Daily, so he came to us with the charcoal car blueprints!"

Li Qinwu didn't remember who this person was at first, but when he heard the word "charcoal car", a bolt of lightning exploded in his mind and he remembered that this person was really a big shot!

Tang Zhongming, a native of Meng County, Henan Province, studied in France and obtained a position as an engineer.

While he was studying and working in France, there was a boom in coal engine research in Europe. After the European War, European countries all realized the role of mechanized transportation. However, due to the low oil production at the time, it was impossible to equip oil trucks on a large scale, so they wanted to develop charcoal engines.

However, due to the development of oil by major powers around the world and the limitations of charcoal carts themselves, this research direction was quickly abandoned and not promoted in Europe.

Tang Zhongming felt that charcoal carts were quite suitable for China. At that time, it cost 40 copper coins to buy a liter of gasoline in Ming Dynasty, which was too expensive and unaffordable. But wasn't charcoal everywhere?

He immediately returned to China and began to independently develop the charcoal car.

After returning to China, Tang Zhongming found a very good job as an engineer. He used his generous salary to rent a house and bought a car that had been used for many years. He used this car as a model to study coal trucks.

After more than three years of hard work, in 1931, he finally made a charcoal car that could reach a speed of 40km per hour!