A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

At West Point, Song Hongfei often got the urge to draw guns.

However, he was also careful not to draw guns from future generations indiscriminately anymore, because you certainly can't tell others that this is an AK47 from the 40s, a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle from the 50s, or a Type 81 rifle from the 80s, that would be too shocking.

He then turned to drawing old guns, including the Mauser 98K, Springfield M1903, British 77, Maxim, Browning M1918, Czech ZB26, and other famous guns from various countries. Song Hongfei claimed that he was just exercising his fingers and relaxing his mind, and over time, people became aware of his peculiar hobby.

At the time, the U.S. Army was seeking a semi-automatic rifle. The Springfield Armory's 7mm Garand semi-automatic rifle had just been finalized; it was a semi-automatic rifle with a very high reputation in the history of firearms. Later, at the request of then-U.S. Army Chief of Staff MacArthur, the caliber was changed to 7.62mm.

Song Hongfei knew that China's industrial level was low at this time, its weaponry was extremely backward, and it had virtually no independent research and development capabilities. Since the late Qing Dynasty, China had suffered greatly from its outdated weaponry in numerous foreign conflicts and wars.

He then thought that a few years later, when the full-scale War of Resistance against Japan broke out, the vast number of patriotic soldiers, armed with outdated equipment, were fighting desperately against the Japanese invaders, paying a heavy price in casualties. Heavy weapons were even less of a concern; ordinary troops rarely even had mortars, and they were essentially fighting against the enemy's planes and artillery with their bare flesh and blood.

It was so tragic and brutal. Every time I think of Song Hongfei, I can't help but shed tears. The brave soldiers of China made too many unnecessary sacrifices. The warriors who fought and died for their country deserve to be equipped with the best weapons!

Song Hongfei felt he could do something, and a plan he had been thinking about for a long time gradually took shape.

He had thought it through carefully. At that time, what China lacked most was artillery. But even if he drew out the structural schematics of the Type 54 122mm howitzer and the Type 65 82mm recoilless rifle completely, it would be impossible to manufacture them with the industrial capacity and metallurgical materials available at the time.

Let alone artillery, even the high-quality steel used to manufacture qualified gun barrels, recoil springs, and magazine springs were things that China could not produce on its own at that time.

The 60mm and 82mm mortars could be improved in terms of structure and performance, and reduced in weight, by referring to future advanced models, in order to improve the weak accompanying firepower of Chinese troops below the regimental level. "However, this is not the most urgent task, but it can be a goal for the next stage," he thought to himself.

Song Hongfei believes that the most practical solution at present is to refer to the light weapons of later generations and create China's own advanced rifles and machine guns to suppress the Japanese army in terms of firepower at the infantry unit level.

After careful comparison and analysis, Song Hongfei decided to use the structural principle of the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle as a blueprint and make improvements.

The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle is based on the Soviet SKS rifle developed during World War II, using 7.62x39mm intermediate-power cartridges. It employs a gas-operated, short-stroke piston system and a tilting bolt locking mechanism. The receiver is machined from a single piece after forging. This rifle boasts advantages such as simple structure, high accuracy, good reliability, and ease of maintenance.

The reason for choosing the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle is that its prototype appeared more than a decade later, and the generational gap in industrial technology was not that large. If the Type 03 automatic rifle were used, the "generational gap" would be too great and too shocking. Moreover, given the industrial capabilities and metallurgical materials available at the time, it would not be possible to produce it.

Song Hongfei knew that the tilting bolt locking mechanism was simple in structure and relatively easy to manufacture, but its disadvantage was significant vibration, which naturally affected shooting accuracy. The rotating bolt locking mechanism, while requiring more sophisticated parts manufacturing and incurring higher costs, offered greater precision and more advantages. Later automatic weapons often adopted rotating bolt locking, including the newly designed and finalized Garand rifle at the time.

Considering his vision of a "family of guns" design, he decided to adopt a rotating bolt locking mechanism. At the time, 7.92mm or 7.62mm full-power bullets were commonly used, and intermediate-power ammunition had not yet been developed, so the ammunition also needed to be changed to full-power, and the caliber also needed to be changed to the 7.92mm used domestically.

However, the deeper he delved into the subject, the more he discovered the vast and complex field of knowledge required: internal ballistics, external ballistics, bullet matching calculations, structural mechanics, thermodynamics, and dynamics of moving parts in firearms... It all involved a great deal of profound and complex knowledge.

Song Hongfei couldn't help but scratch his head. It's easy to say and simple to do, but it's really difficult to do. That's a true truth.

However, a top student is a top student, and a genius is a genius. This is no challenge for Song Hongfei. Moreover, before he transmigrated, he was a doctor at the G Military Academy and a top student. He was practically a combination of two top students.

"At worst, I'll just start all over again myself!" Song Hongfei made up his mind; he had the confidence and the means to do so.

As a doctoral graduate of the G Military Academy in later generations, Song Hongfei had a significant advantage, as his mind contained the research of countless experts and scholars and the achievements of human technological progress over the past decades.

So, in addition to the arduous classroom learning and military training at West Point, Song Hongfei, just like he did at the G Military Academy in later years, spent all his time in the library, searching for information, learning one thing at a time, designing and experimenting with every bullet and every shot, and working tirelessly on research and design.

As a comprehensive university with a full range of disciplines, West Point Military Academy also has a complete set of experimental instruments and equipment for various science, engineering, metalworking, and ordnance, which greatly facilitated Song Hongfei's research and development work.

Before the actual gun was even built, Song Hongfei had already published several research papers on ballistics, aerodynamics, and thermodynamics in top journals in the relevant disciplines.

This sudden emergence caused a huge stir in the American academic community, drawing widespread attention and prominence. Song Hongfei had become a rising superstar in academia and science. Many renowned experts and scholars inquired: Who exactly is this 20-year-old Song Hongfei who suddenly rose to prominence at West Point?

For a long time, West Point Military Academy had been looked down upon academically by the prestigious Ivy League universities. Now, Superintendent Smith was beaming with pride. From then on, he became much more assertive in his interactions with Ivy League presidents, boasting to everyone that West Point also had academic geniuses!

It's no wonder that experts and scholars were astonished. At that time, there was no theoretical guidance for precise quantitative calculations and design in basic research areas such as weapon mechanics and thermodynamics. The design of small arms was still in a rudimentary system of drawing blueprints, manufacturing prototypes, conducting firing tests to expose problems, revising blueprints, and then iterating multiple times before finally freezing the design.

This method was used domestically, even during the development of the Type 95 assault rifle. It wasn't until the 90s that papers emerged that could solve the second-order differential equation of radial vibration for the transient response (stress, strain, velocity, acceleration) at any point on the barrel.

Song Hongfei's tireless work resulted in several groundbreaking research papers, including "Mechanical Vibration and Second-Order Linear Ordinary Differential Equation Model," "Radial Vibration of Weapon Tubes under the Pressure of Gunpowder Gas," and "Analysis of Coupled Field of Tubes under the Influence of Temperature and Pressure Fields."

His research yielded the second-order partial differential equation for the radial vibration of gun barrels under high temperature and high pressure, and obtained the radial transient response of stress, strain, velocity and acceleration at any point on the barrel. Through fast Fourier transform, he obtained the amplitude-frequency response curve, as well as the distribution law of temperature and stress field.

This is of great significance for the design, life prediction and improvement of weapon barrels, and provides theoretical guidance for the precise dynamic research, calculation and design of firearms.

Song Hongfei's research findings were groundbreaking, fundamentally changing the long-standing "drawing plus firing" model of weapon design. By first conducting precise quantitative calculations and designs, the cyclical iterations of drawing, prototyping, testing, and revising drawings were greatly reduced, significantly improving efficiency, accuracy, and quality, while also saving time, effort, and materials.

When publishing his paper, Song Hongfei was careful and took meticulous measures to ensure its confidentiality. He only briefly mentioned the core technologies and kept the most critical secrets to himself, and even applied for patent protection.

He was truly farsighted; all of this was so that China would have solid bargaining chips when dealing with and trading with the great powers!

More importantly, Japan, the most brutal and ruthless enemy, was preparing for war, and its trump cards had to be strictly sealed off from Japan. It was absolutely unacceptable for the enemy to easily learn them. To sacrifice oneself to feed the enemy, only to have it turn around and attack oneself, would be incredibly foolish.

Song Hongfei knew that, according to the course of history, a full-scale war of resistance against Japan would break out within a few years. World War II was a reshuffling of the great powers, a reshaping of the world order, and a redivision of spheres of influence. China, which had been weak and impoverished for a century, absolutely could not afford to miss this golden opportunity!

Of course, this is something that cannot be explained to a second person.

Now that he has traveled to this place, and history has given him this opportunity, he vowed without hesitation to fight for the survival and development of the Chinese nation, the country, and future generations, and to create a situation where China can rise again and stand among the great powers!