A professor's rebirth: I entered Tsinghua University in 1977.

"Teacher, I have a question for you. Compared with other military powers, do you think we have a firepower advantage in close-quarters combat with frontline infantry?"

Tan Dexi shook his head.

Although he was not the leader of the troops, as the chief engineer of the military factory, he was very familiar with the equipment situation of the army.

"So I thought, if we could develop a weapon that a single soldier could carry, that could provide powerful firepower suppression within 500 meters, and add a 40mm rocket launcher, then our army's front-line infantry firepower configuration would have no weaknesses."

"Hmm, that's a good idea..."

Tan Dexi nodded and began to look through the information Liu Hongyi gave him. The more he read, the more shocked and excited he became.

"Oh, it's a drum magazine, with two modes: light mode with 6 rounds, heavy mode with 15 rounds... Oh, and there's also a belt-fed mode..."

"Yes, sir, when there is a vehicle, you can use belt feeding."

Liu Hongyi explained.

For example, on vehicles, light ships and armed helicopters, belt-fed ammunition can be used to increase the sustainability of firepower output.

Of course, the weight will also increase a lot.

But if there is a vehicle, the grenade launcher is a little heavier, so it’s not a big problem.

"Then tell me, why are there three feeding modes?"

Tan Dexi raised his head, looked at him seriously and asked.

"The main consideration is combat in jungle areas, where vehicles have difficulty passing through. Also, at this stage, we don't have attack helicopters, so the main thing is to ensure the convenience of individual soldiers carrying it."

"According to my design, when using a bipod in lightweight mode, the total weight should be less than 14 kilograms. When using a tripod, the total weight should not exceed 22 kilograms."

"The belt-fed system is a backup design, so we don't need to consider it in the early stages. Let's work out the drum-fed system first."

"Wait a minute, 14 kilograms, 22 kilograms, is it really possible?"

Tan Dexi interrupted Liu Hongyi's description and asked anxiously, with disbelief in his eyes.

"Did you know that the Eagle's MK19 weighs over 60 kilograms?"

Eagle's MK19 is a 40mm grenade launcher with a caliber slightly larger than the one designed by Liu Hongyi.

At over 60 kilograms, it is no longer suitable for a single soldier to carry.

This is probably one of the reasons why our army has not developed this weapon before.

It is too heavy. It is difficult for two people to carry it, not to mention its maneuverability. It is just a burden.

However, if the total weight is reduced to 14 kg, and that is with the bipod installed, the weight will be further reduced if the bipod is removed. At this weight, a soldier can carry it around without affecting combat mobility.

Liu Hongyi smiled slightly and said, "Teacher, what the eagle can't do, we may be able to do."

There is a widely circulated joke on the Internet in later generations: the Eagle is responsible for bragging, and the Rabbit is responsible for implementation.

This is related to the blackmail propaganda model of the Eagle Sauce.

In order to intimidate the world, the Eagle Sauce will occasionally throw out some new weapon ideas, pretending that they have already developed them. Anyway, their technology is indeed advanced, and other countries do not know the details, so they think the Eagle Sauce is super powerful.

Then the threatened rabbits would quietly hide away and work on the problem, come up with the Eagle Sauce's new idea, and put it into practice. When the Flower Planting Family began to equip their troops, the Eagle Sauce was shocked: "Wow, the rabbits actually came up with the thing we boasted about?"

Away from the big spectrum!

For example, the Type 89 heavy machine gun, the lightest domestically produced machine gun in the world.

It originated from a "beautiful misunderstanding".

When Damuo said that their heavy machine gun weighed only 25 kilograms, the rabbit immediately became anxious and worked hard to develop it. In the end, they produced the Type 26 heavy machine gun with a total weight of 89 kilograms. The designers were quite frustrated because the last kilogram could not be reduced no matter what.

Later we found out that the 25 kilograms of Russia's NSV heavy machine gun was only the weight of the gun body. With the bipod, the total weight reached 47 kilograms.

Rabbit managed to reduce the total weight to almost half of the heavy machine gun.

Why are you so eager to lose weight?

The main reason was that our army was not mechanized enough at that time, there were too few vehicles, and the weapons were too heavy, making it inconvenient for individual soldiers to carry them, which greatly affected their mobility.

"14 kilograms, 14 kilograms... If we can really do this, Hongyi, do you know how amazing your invention is?"

Tan Dexi's eyes began to shine, and his excitement was beyond words.

In fact, the QLZ87 35mm automatic grenade launcher weighs 12 kg (light version) and 20 kg (heavy version). Liu Hongyi was unsure whether the current production technology could achieve this, so he left a margin of safety.

"Teacher, I can't guarantee whether I can do it or not. I have to try it to know."

Liu Hongyi said this very calmly and confidently.

"Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely. This must be tested, it must be tested, and we must find a way to produce a sample..."

"Hongyi, if we can actually produce a prototype according to your design and pass inspection, do you know how valuable this weapon will be? It will fill a gap in the field, and you deserve a special merit award..."

Tan Dexi was so excited that his hands began to tremble slightly.

This is his student, Tan Dexi.

Let’s just say whether Old Tan should be proud!

Unexpectedly, Liu Hongyi smiled again and said steadily: "Teacher, this is not my design, it is your design!"