Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 176 What is the name of the gun? (Monthly ticket +1)

After arriving at Erlang Mountain, Chen Chengxing had just walked into the arsenal when Wen Ying saw him, then he took a gun and ran over excitedly.

"Captain, look!"

"This is the semi-automatic rifle produced according to the parameters I designed!"

The more Wen Ying looks at it now, the better. What were those previous changes of tone like? They were so weird.

I am indeed a genius. I was able to design a gun in just one night, and it is so perfect.

Taking the gun from Wen Ying, Chen Chengxing took a look and found that it was almost the same as the 56 and a half rifle in his memory, except that the bayonet was not yet installed.

Seeing Chen Chengxing touching the gap in the handguard, Wen Ying said, "In April this year, the headquarters arsenal developed a horse rifle, which was exhibited at the first industrial exhibition in Yan'an in May. I read the newspaper and borrowed the installation method of the bayonet."

The installation method Wen Ying mentioned is the same as the installation method of the 56 semi-triangular bayonet, which adopts a folding mechanism and has a snap self-locking device.

By pressing the button and swinging the gun, the bayonet can be thrown out and then automatically and firmly buckled on the muzzle.

"But there is a problem here. The overall length of the gun is only 1.26 meters, which is much shorter than the Japanese Type rifle. It may not be advantageous in a bayonet fight." Wen Ying said hesitantly. She was afraid that Chen Chengxing would veto the production of the gun.

After all, hand-to-hand combat is the Eighth Route Army's forte, and they would never give it up during a battle.

"It doesn't matter." Chen Chengxing didn't care at all.

Although hand-to-hand combat is the glorious tradition of the Eighth Route Army, if you give them enough ammunition, they will immediately forget about hand-to-hand combat and big bombing will become their dream.

Tradition is tradition, but no one can stop me from covering the firepower.

Seeing that Chen Chengxing didn't care about the length of the gun, Wen Ying breathed a sigh of relief, and then said excitedly: "The mold of this bullet was completed in one go today, as if by divine intervention! I have arranged for manual production, and we will test the gun in a moment!"

It is very difficult to rub the bullet mold by hand, and even taking a breath may affect the accuracy.

Wen Ying had thought about conducting the experiment dozens or hundreds of times, but he didn't expect that it would suddenly succeed in just a few days.

If this had not really happened to her, Wen Ying would never have believed it. In Wen Ying's opinion, this was not God's favor, but it was as if God was her father.

After more than ten minutes, Wen Ying came back with 10 bullets.

"This gun can hold 10 rounds of bullets, but since there is no stamping equipment, it is impossible to make a clip. We can only load them one by one by hand." Wen Ying said as he picked up the rifle and began to load bullets.

After loading, Wen Ying walked out of the workshop with the gun, ready to go to the mountains to shoot a few shots.

However, Chen Chengxing grabbed Wen Ying's hand and snatched the gun from her.

"Monk, you try it." Chen Chengxing handed the gun to Wei Dayong.

This gun has just been produced and has not been tried yet, so we don’t know whether it will work.

If the barrel exploded and injured Wen Ying, Chen Chengxing would cry to death, as such a talent is rare.

If Erlangdong hadn't had its own equipment, Wen Ying would have probably been transferred to the headquarters arsenal long ago.

The gun was snatched away from Chen Chengxing. Wen Ying didn't say much, just looked at him twice.

Wei Dayong didn't feel like a little white mouse at all at this moment. Instead, he looked at the gun in his hand with joy.

The weight of this gun is about the same as the Japanese Type 38 rifle, but its appearance is very beautiful.

"Director Wen, where is the safety of this gun?" Wei Dayong asked.

"Can't you see it so obviously? Isn't it on the trigger? Do you want me to teach you how to aim?" Wen Ying didn't have a good face towards Wei Dayong.

"No, no, I can do it, I can do it!"

Seeing that Ying was about to jump up and hit him, Wei Dayong didn't dare to say anything. He quickly walked a few steps to the side and then started shooting at some rocks in the distance.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!".
Wei Dayong's shooting speed became faster and faster, and the last two shots were almost fired in succession.

Chen Chengxing could see very clearly through the telescope. He might not be used to it at first, but his hit rate in the last few shots was very good, which showed that Wen Ying's gun was well made.

After Wei Dayong had fired all 10 bullets, Wen Ying snatched the gun from his hand and disassembled it for inspection.

Looking at Wen Ying, who was as fierce as a tiger, Wei Dayong dared not say a word. He could only stand silently behind Chen Chengxing, ready to let the commander absorb the firepower.

After checking for a while, Wen Ying finally reassembled it and breathed a sigh of relief, "Captain, it was a success. There is no problem with the parts!"

When testing the gun, Wen Ying was unsure. Although the light machine gun arsenal can now manufacture it, this was after all a design made by him in a rush. Who knows if the mechanical properties of each component are the optimal solution? But now it seems that he did not make any mistakes.

"However, based on our experience in producing light machine guns, the barrel of this gun may only be able to fire 2 rounds before wear and tear seriously affects the shooting accuracy," Wen Ying added.
This problem is not obvious for the ZB26 because the barrel is thicker and can be easily replaced. However, the barrel of this gun cannot be replaced, so it may only be disassembled and used as parts.

"2 rounds are barely enough," said Chen Chengxing.

After all, this gun barrel is not made of special steel, so being able to fire 2 rounds is already a pleasant surprise. Moreover, given the ammunition supply capacity of the New Second Regiment, it is estimated that it would be difficult to fire 2 rounds before the end of the War of Resistance.

"But the problem with the bridge clamp needs to be solved." Chen Chengxing explained.

Semi-automatic rifles have an extremely fast rate of fire, and reloading must also be quick. If it takes 2 minutes to reload and 10 seconds to shoot, then it's completely doomed, and the firepower advantage cannot be brought into play at all.

"I'll think of a way." Wen Ying nodded and said.

The arsenal now has a small steam engine, and can make a stamping equipment using rail steel. However, when using the steam engine for stamping, it may not be possible to generate electricity, and at that time we can only coordinate and schedule shifts.

"Then thank you for your help, Director Wen."

"I wonder what the production speed of this semi-automatic rifle is now?" Chen Chengxing asked.

Production speed is what Chen Chengxing cares most about. If he only produces a few knives a month, it will be of no use.

"We should be able to produce 10 guns in the first month, but once we become proficient, 30 guns a month will be no problem. If we give up light machine guns and focus on producing semi-automatic rifles, we can produce more than 50 guns a month." Wen Ying thought for a while and said.

The semi-automatic rifle has far fewer parts than the ZB26 and can be produced much faster.

"We cannot give up on light machine guns. We must first ensure the supply of light machine guns and replacement parts for the main force, and then produce semi-automatic rifles. As for bullets, we will first assign a small group of people to produce them manually, and then find a way to make some special manual equipment."

The production of bullets in this way is very slow, and only fifty or sixty rounds can be produced a day. But there is no other way. The 7.62mm bullets cannot be produced using the existing production line and can only be produced manually.

If there are more equipment in the future, it may be better, but Chen Chengxing estimates that the maximum monthly output can be around 5,000 rounds.

This meant that semi-automatic rifles could not be promoted in the New Second Regiment. Chen Chengxing decided to replace the guard company with new equipment first and deal with the rest later.

If we want to re-equip the entire regiment, we may have to seize a few more arsenals, and the bullet production line must also be rebuilt, but this is not an easy task.

Chen Chengxing had heard that because the arsenal had been robbed before, the Japanese had rarely provided the Locust Army with equipment to make guns, and those equipment that had already been distributed were all required to be moved to the county town.

Wen Ying was not surprised by Chen Chengxing's request. No matter how excellent this gun was, it was just a rifle. The core combat effectiveness of the New Second Regiment was the mortar and light and heavy machine guns.

"Now there is one more important thing, which is to give this gun a name." Wen Ying said.

"There's no rush for the name." Chen Chengxing thought for a moment and said, "Let's test this prototype a little more and see if there's anything that needs to be improved. I'll ask my superiors about the name when I have a chance."

This rifle was not only used during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. According to Chen Chengxing's estimation, even if he used the research institute to develop other automatic rifles in the future, the 5650 would probably be used until the 1960s, and would also be used as a militia weapon until the new century.

A weapon that will be used for decades cannot be named lightly.

"Okay." Wen Ying didn't expect that Chen Chengxing was planning to alert his superiors, so he decided to test the gun carefully and not let it down.

A few days later, the deputy commander-in-chief was somewhat surprised when he received the report.

"In addition to light machine guns, the New Second Regiment's arsenal can also produce semi-automatic rifles? And they develop their own bullets?"

The deputy commander-in-chief could never have imagined that the New Second Regiment had such ability.

"Haha. I heard that Director Wen of the New Second Regiment Arsenal was an engineer of the Taiyuan Arsenal. He should have seen the semi-automatic rifles of the Northeast Army. And this 7.62mm is most likely based on Soviet-made ammunition." The Deputy Chief of General Staff laughed.

"Really? This kid Chen Chengxing really picked up a treasure." The deputy commander said with a smile.

"But there is no rush for the naming. I estimate there will be an industrial expo next year. We can send it to Yan'an and let the Chairman and others take a look at the name then." said the deputy commander-in-chief.

The Type 81 cavalry rifle independently developed by the headquarters arsenal was named at this year's expo.

Moreover, in accordance with the requirements of industrialized production, the drawings and production processes of the Type 81 cavalry rifle had been distributed to various gun factories, and the Eighth Route Army now had its first standardized rifle.

However, this industrialized production encountered a problem. The problem was not the raw materials and equipment, but the huge gap in the quality of the workers.

Especially the blacksmiths and carpenters recruited from rural areas, who used to be engaged in single-piece production in handicraft workshops. They are not used to it and even have some resistance to the transformation into industrialized mass standard production. The Ministry of Military Industry is still organizing training for them.

Thinking of this, the deputy commander-in-chief had to admire Chen Chengxing's foresight. Erlangdong Arsenal has implemented standardized and assembly line production since its establishment, which has played a huge role in improving production efficiency.

"Then I'll send a telegram back to the New Second Regiment." The Deputy Chief of General Staff nodded and stood up to send the message.

(End of this chapter)