Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

The next day, Li Qinwu went back to work as usual. He acted as if nothing had happened despite having killed two people the night before. He felt that maybe he was a guy who was unwilling to remain in peace.

He went straight to Lao Huotou's private workshop, intending to continue yesterday's work.

Pushing open the iron door, Li Qinwu was stunned. The old fireman was sleeping on a simple bed in the corner of the workshop, and a shiny PPSh submachine gun was lying on the drawing table.

Li Qinwu stepped forward, picked up the submachine gun, pulled the bolt and looked inside the chamber, released the bolt and pulled the trigger. There was a crisp click and the gun was operating normally.

Looking at this very cleanly polished gun, Li Qinwu was moved. It seemed that after he left yesterday, Lao Huotou had completed the rest of the work alone.

Historically, the production time of PPSh is less than 7 hours, but it is the result of a mature industrial chain. Lao Huotou made this gun in just one day and one night, which shows his superb technical level and his dedication to this matter.

Putting down the gun, Li Qinwu quietly left the workshop, wanting to let the old fireman get some sleep, but the old fireman was still woken up. He opened his eyes and saw Li Qinwu tiptoeing towards the door.

"Young man, where are you going?"

Li Qinwu stopped awkwardly. The old man was a light sleeper and would wake up at the slightest noise. He scratched his head sheepishly and opened the metal lunch box in his hand, revealing two big steaming buns inside.

"Hey! You still have a conscience!"

The old fireman smiled, got up, grabbed a meat bun and stuffed it into his mouth. Li Qinwu saw that he was a little listless, and said gratefully: "Master, you must have stayed up all night. I'm sorry for making you tired. Eat breakfast and go back to sleep."

The old fireman waved his hand and pointed at the Bobosha on the drawing table while eating a bun.

"It didn't take much time, but the drum magazine was a bit troublesome. The gun fires too fast, and ordinary springs can't keep up. I searched all the factories but couldn't find a suitable one.

Later, I went to the small arms exhibition hall and dismantled the Thompson drum magazine, and only then did I find the right parts. "

Li Qinwu didn't expect that Lao Huotou had done so many things last night that he actually went to dismantle the Thomson sample. He could only smile bitterly and sigh in his heart about the difficulty of producing springs.

Unlike what many time travelers imagine, the production process of springs that can be found everywhere has extremely high requirements, especially the heat treatment, which is quite complicated. A time traveler who goes to ancient times to develop industry may not be able to produce qualified springs in his entire life.

After the 50s, my country's Type 50 submachine gun, which was an imitation of the PPSh, rarely used drum magazines. One of the reasons was that the drum magazine spring was not good and had a high failure rate.

Li Qinwu was a little scared. It would be embarrassing if this gun was tested in front of the senior management of the arsenal and there was a problem with the drum magazine or it got stuck.

"Master, how about we test the gun ourselves before handing it over? It would be embarrassing if it doesn't fire in front of an official."

"Okay, let's go now."

The old fireman wiped the oil off his hands, wrapped the gun with a large piece of oil paper and walked out. Li Qinwu hurriedly stopped him.

"Master, why don't you take some sleep? There's no rush to test the gun."

The old fireman walked out of the workshop in a hurry. Li Qinwu couldn't stop him and could only follow him.

"Come back and sleep. I made this thing, and I want to see if it works!"

The two men arrived at the shooting range in a short while. There was no one in the shooting range at this time. Lao Huotou took out the gun, wiped it carefully, added some oil to the gun, opened the drum magazine and put the bullets into it one by one.

The original version of the PPSh used 7.62x25 Tokarev pistol bullets, which were not available in the factory, so Li Qinwu used 7.63x25mm Mauser pistol bullets instead. There were many of these bullets in the factory, and there were several production lines. If Li Qinwu wanted the factory to value this gun, he had to change it to a bullet caliber that was easily available.

The two bullets seem to have similar caliber, but Li Qinwu still made some modifications to the chamber and barrel. I don't know if these modifications can make the gun adapt to Mauser pistol bullets.

After loading the magazine with bullets, the old gunner pinched the revolver on the drum and turned it a few times to tighten the spring of the drum, inserted the bolt into the gun body to load the bullet, stuck the gun on a special gun testing mount, connected the trigger with a rope, and the two men retreated behind the glass protective barrier.

The old fireman handed the firing rope to Li Qinwu.

"Boy, you designed this gun, so come on."

Li Qinwu took the firing rope, wrapped it around his hand to make it taut, stared straight at the Bobosha, and pulled the trigger rope with all his strength.

With a bang, the PPSh-X completed its first firing. Li Qinwu pulled the rope three times in a row and each time it was successfully fired. The bullet also hit the wooden target 50 meters away, but he did not relax. Whether this gun could work depended on the continuous firing mode.

Li Qinwu walked out of the bunker and switched the PPSh to automatic shooting mode. While he was adjusting the gun, a man in a suit quietly entered the shooting range and looked curiously in Li Qinwu's direction.

The man in the suit just passed by the shooting range and heard gunshots inside. He was driven to come in and take a look. As a result, he saw Li Qinwu testing the gun.

When the man in the suit saw the PPSh on the fixed platform, his eyes lit up. The streamlined gun body and the under-mounted drum magazine gave a very stable center of gravity. At first glance, it looked like a very mature gun.

The man was very interested and just stood behind and watched quietly.

Li Qinwu switched the gun to automatic shooting mode, retreated to the cover and pulled the trigger rope. A series of rapid gunshots rang out. The PPSh's firing rate of 900 rounds per minute shocked the three people present. The wooden target in the distance was crackling with bullets, and more than 3 holes appeared on it in a blink of an eye.

However, an accident still happened. The Poposa, which was continuously spewing flames, made a crisp clicking sound and stopped after firing 50 bullets, without completing the firing of the remaining ammunition.

The gunshots stopped and the shooting range became unusually quiet. Li Qinwu sighed, and his heart, which had been hanging in the air, completely died. As expected, how could a gun that took a whole day to develop have smooth sailing?

To produce a qualified gun that can be mass-produced, it has to go through tens of thousands of shootings, thousands of tests, and hundreds of improvements. It would be too ideal to think that you can just draw a blueprint and hire a senior technician to make a qualified gun.

Li Qinwu sighed, but Lao Huotou had a different opinion.

He became very excited and ran to check the gun. He turned around and shouted excitedly to Li Qinwu: "Young man! Your gun is good. There is no problem with the gun. The problem is the magazine! As long as we replace it with a qualified magazine, this gun will definitely be able to..."

He stopped talking before finishing his sentence, his expression changed from excitement to gloomy, and he stared straight behind Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu looked back and found that a man in a suit had stood behind him at some point, staring at the gun in Lao Huotou's hand with burning eyes.

When this guy saw two people looking at him at the same time, his old face turned red. He was too engrossed in peeping and was discovered. He could only applaud and change the subject.

"Oh my! Excuse me, this gun is so powerful that I am fascinated by it. Let me introduce myself. My name is Chen Hao, and I am the section chief of the weapons research and development design department."

The old man's face turned serious and he snorted coldly: "Oh, Chief Chen, if you hadn't said anything, I would have thought it was a cat. How can a grown man walk without making any sound?"

This remark was full of sarcasm, and the fake smile on Chen Hao's face became even faker. He didn't know how to respond, so he could only change the subject.

"Is this a new gun from abroad? It fires really fast. Is it a free-style bolt action? Is there something wrong? It must be a drum magazine, right? Do you want to try the magazine?"

He kept on muttering a series of words, but the two ignored him. Li Qinwu felt that this man was not very decent as he would actually do something like peeking, and the new gun had to be hidden. The two men tacitly put away their guns and planned to leave first, and go back to get a few magazines before trying again.

As soon as they left, Section Chief Chen became anxious and kept asking them questions like a fly.

"Hey, don't leave, why don't you continue testing the gun? I've read a lot of foreign gun magazines, but I've never seen this gun. Did you design this gun yourself?

Are you going to hand it over to the factory? Why don't we sit down and talk? Sell me this gun for five thousand! I'll buy it for 5000 dollars! Hey, don't leave!"

Li Qinwu was initially tempted when he heard that the other party was willing to pay for it, but when he heard that the offer was only 5000, he thought, “Are you fucking sending away a beggar?”

Lao Huotou told him that if the gun was handed over to the factory, the minimum price would be 10 yuan, and 20 yuan would be no problem. However, this man had no sincerity at all and treated him as a country bumpkin who didn't know the value of the gun.

Li Qinwu and Lao Huotou returned to the private workshop together. This guy kept following them and chattering. Later, he even wanted to grab Li Qinwu's sleeve, but was pushed away by Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu glared at the other person fiercely, and the guy didn't dare to make any move. But he didn't give up either. He followed the two of them from a distance and left only after seeing them enter the private workshop.

Li Qinwu narrowed his eyes as he watched the man running away in a hurry.

"Master, what is this guy's ability? Will he come to cause trouble again?"

A trace of worry flashed across the old man's face, and he cursed himself in his heart for being old and confused and not keeping it a secret, so that he was caught by someone who knew the business.

He was very clear about the officials' style of doing things at that time. Threats, kidnapping, murder, and all kinds of despicable means were common.

But then he thought again, he was a senior technician, a high-level talent who had even been personally visited by the Young Marshal. What big trouble could a small section chief stir up?

"Humph, old man, I have some connections in the factory. A small section chief like him can't cause any trouble for me!

The guy called Chen Hao is from the light weapons department. Over the years, the light weapons department hasn't produced any results. The guns they designed have a lot of problems. Either they don't fire or they have a high failure rate. Even if they have qualified guns, their performance is not as good as foreign products. This is the least valued department in our factory.

Okay, young man, let's not worry about those trivial matters, and quickly figure out how to improve firearms. "

As he said this, Lao Huotou gave up the drawing table and made a gesture of invitation.

"Come on, my dear disciple, forget about playing the drum, think about what kind of magazine is suitable?"

Li Qinwu smiled bitterly, sat down, picked up a pen and began to draw the blueprint of the PPSh magazine. Ah, the drum magazine he had been thinking about.