Wang Zhong carefully observed the gun and then asked the question he was most concerned about, “Does this thing meet the weight requirement I established in the design specifications?”
The reason he asked was that the gun Tokarev had in his hands didn’t look light at all.
Tokarev: “It is indeed one kilogram heavier than the full-load weight of 4.5 kilograms that you requested, but I believe the excellent performance of this gun could offset that disadvantage. I have a chart here with data from tests we conducted at the design institute’s firing range.”
Wang Zhong made a gesture, and the secretary in the room immediately brought the chart from the designer’s hand to him.
The chart primarily displayed data on accuracy and reliability during continuous fire, showing that the gun was quite precise even at a distance of 400 meters.
Wang Zhong shook his head, “Mr. Designer, do you know why the frontline troops all like to use submachine guns? Because most of the time, the firefight happens within 200 meters. Plus, our soldiers have short training periods, poor design skills, so a gun that performs well at a 400-meter distance is meaningless for them.”
The designer was shocked, “Is having good accuracy a disadvantage?”
Wang Zhong: “No, of course not. But the reality is that our troops can’t shoot that accurately. My guards, who mostly use Tokarev—your design of the semi-automatic rifle—also prefer to use submachine guns in combat.”
“You haven’t understood my requirements. What I actually need is a submachine gun with sufficient range. Whether it’s ours or the enemy’s, the hit probability of submachine guns at a distance of 200 meters can only rely on faith. I hope to get a submachine gun that can still hit targets within 200 meters.”
In fact, when Ceres first introduced the AK, they treated it as a submachine gun and called it the ’56 rush’, firing it while holding the magazine, just like when using a submachine gun.
Only later did some troops realize that it was actually different from a submachine gun, so they held the foregrip according to the rifle usage habits.
As a result, both shooting methods are present in the military.
Wang Zhong stood up, walked directly to the designer, took the gun from his hand, and while gesturing said, “The usage scenario I envision for this type of weapon is this: A soldier holds this gun, and he’s very nervous—which is common, even old soldiers get nervous when they encounter the enemy due to a surge of adrenaline.
“The moment he sees the enemy, he pulls the trigger, rat-tat-tat goes the 15 bullets, he didn’t aim carefully, didn’t measure the distance or adjust the sight, but all the bullets landed within a one-meter radius of the enemy.”
Tokarev was startled, “Within a one-meter radius?”
Wang Zhong: “Yes, at a distance of 200 meters, it’s already good enough to land within a one-meter radius under such crude aiming conditions.”
Tokarev: “But, shouldn’t we aim to kill the enemy?”
Wang Zhong: “That’s the job of a precision shooter. My vision is to distribute soldiers with shooting experience and good marksmanship across the infantry squads, giving them Tokarev semi-autos or even bolt-action rifles. And the standard infantry would be armed with the weapon I’m envisioning.
“Hitting the enemy isn’t the most important thing. What’s crucial is being able to splash half a magazine of ammo around the enemy in a flash. Then the enemy will stop attacking, take cover, and get down.”
“Prussians are afraid of dying too. Suddenly having so many bullets splash around them, with the sounds of bullets hitting concrete everywhere, they’ll cower behind cover and dare not show their heads.”
Tokarev: “But how do we eliminate the enemy? Just rely on precision shooters?”
Wang Zhong: “Have you ever been on a battlefield?”
Tokarev shook his head: “No. Um, I know you have ordered designers who refused to modify their designs to experience combat with their own weapons firsthand, it was an aircraft designer if I remember correctly? But…”
Wang Zhong: “Don’t worry, I won’t force you to the battlefield to experience life. Let me describe to you what the battlefield is like.”
As someone who has personally returned from hell several times, Wang Zhong was all too familiar with what a battlefield was like, so he vividly depicted, “On the battlefield, most of the time you can’t see where the enemy is at all, what you see is the flash of enemy gunfire.
“All you can do is keep firing, suppressing the enemy with firepower. As for whether or not you can kill the enemy, you have no control over it, because you can’t see them.”
Wang Zhong, being able to see because of a cheat code, knew that the cheat didn’t work in a first-person view, only an overhead perspective, so he was even more aware of how difficult it is to confirm if an enemy is killed on the battlefield.
Wang Zhong: “And on the battlefield, the main cause of enemy casualties has never been bullets but artillery. The best way for an infantry unit to eliminate the enemy is always to call for artillery strikes. When you can see the enemy’s face clearly, you’re about at the distance where it’s a race to pull the trigger first.”
In fact, this part was not only Wang Zhong’s personal experience on the battlefield but also a synthesis of some first-person videos he saw before the transmigration.
Those videos really show that you can’t see what you’re hitting; compared to real battlefields, even games like Tarkov are considered close-quarter combat.
So for the average grunt, rifle accuracy is adequate. Precision shooters need high-precision rifles—Tokarev is good enough.
The designer Tokarev, thoughtful, nodded his head, “A submachine gun with higher accuracy and longer effective range? I understand now.”
Wang Zhong: “Your gun is actually not bad, it has decent accuracy at 400 meters. But it only needs to have that accuracy at 200 meters to meet my requirements. See if you can make adjustments to reduce the weight a bit and improve reliability while relaxing the accuracy requirements.
“Have the new prototype ready by next February.”
Tokarev nodded, “All right, I will go back and revise the design. The current idea is to decrease the ammunition load further, shortening the bullet might significantly reduce the weight.”
Wang Zhong: “That’s the spirit! Remember, I need a submachine gun that can splash onto the enemy at 200 meters. Papasha is pretty much faith-based at that distance.”
Actually, at a distance of nearly 200 meters, firing a submachine gun at a two-story building’s exterior wall, the bullets would distribute equally over the whole surface.
Aiming or not made little difference.
The main reason is that the effective range of submachine guns firing pistol cartridges is too low.
Wang Zhong emphasized again, “Remember, a submachine gun with a range of two hundred meters!”
Having said that, he returned the prototype gun in his hand to Tokarev and patted the designer on the shoulder.
The designer continued to mutter “a submachine gun with an effective range of two hundred meters,” took the prototype gun, and left, even forgetting to take the blueprints with him.
Wang Zhong rolled up the blueprints and handed them to his secretary, “Give these to Designer Tokarev.”
After the secretary left with the blueprints, Wang Zhong shouted to the door, “Are there any more people waiting for approval outside?”
“No more, Your Excellency,” came the reply.
Wang Zhong was surprised, “Is that the only equipment for the army, just one gun?”
He began to feel what the Ceres army generals must feel when watching the navy and air force getting new equipment: At least our new shoes are nice!
Representative of the Air Force stood up, “The several new aircraft types all meet our requirements. We hope the new equipment can be delivered to the troops as soon as possible.”
Damn it, just go and be smug!
Just then, the voice of a guard suddenly rang out from outside: “Who’s there? Halt, did you register?”
“I was specially instructed by the general to design this! I just finished the design drawing yesterday! I’m not here for review, I just want to show it to the general!” The designer shouted from the outside.
Wang Zhong called out, “Let him in!”
Suddenly it became quiet outside, then the guard opened the door, “Please come in.”
A middle-aged man dressed in a Western suit came in with blueprints, indeed it was Ke Jing, the Chief Engineer.
Ke Jing announced, “Your Excellency, the first version of the design for the 100mm gun carrier you commissioned me to design is complete.”
After finishing speaking, he spread out the design on the drawing rack, “Take a look! Based on your requirements, I’ve made improvements on the T34 chassis, transversely mounted the engine to reduce the vehicle’s height, and added a larger combat room to finish this vehicle—assault gun?”
Looking at the design of the vehicle on the blueprints, Wang Zhong thought of an earth’s tank destroyer with a real model: Project 704.
But Project 704 mounted a 152mm cannon, which looked relatively stubby, while the cannon on this vehicle was clearly much slimmer.
In addition, Project 704 used the IS3 chassis, while this contraption used the T34 chassis, which appeared to be significantly lighter.
Wait a minute—Earth’s Project 704 was also designed by heavy tank designers, who seemed to be called Ke Jing as well.
Suddenly everything made sense!
Ke Jing explained excitedly, “I estimated its weight, which should be about the same as the T34, but because it lacks a turret and rotation mechanism, its armor protection is better. With this bulletproof shape at the front, coupled with 100mm thick armor, even the enemy’s 88mm cannon won’t necessarily be able to penetrate it from a distance.
“Moreover, it’s lower and more suitable for concealed ambush warfare. The only problem is, I’ve carefully examined the enemy’s scope. We can replicate its mechanical structure, including the rotating reticle, as well as the corresponding stadia for range finding on the reticle.
“But we can’t produce lenses that good; the lens has a broad view angle and a decent magnification. If we want magnification, we can’t have too broad a view angle.”
Wang Zhong replied, “We can solve the field of view issue with the commander’s periscope. The vehicle does have a commander, right?”
“Yes,” Ke Jing pointed to the position at the rear of the combat room on the blueprint, “This is the commander’s seat. I intentionally designed it higher so the commander’s head would be inside this prototype observation tower. And there’s a pedal here; the commander can just stand up on it and poke his upper body out of the hatch to observe.”
Wang Zhong nodded continuously, “Good, very good! Any problems with production?”
Ke Jing explained, “There is, because even though it uses the T34 chassis, the transverse engine requires a complete redesign of the entire chassis, essentially a new one. To shift production from the T34 line requires modifying the production line, and the workers need to get accustomed to it. Explore stories on M V L
“To resolve this, I also designed a version that uses a conventional engine layout.”
Ke Jing unfolded another blueprint.
“This version can be switched to production quickly, but the problem is, it’s much taller than the transverse engine version, necessitating a reduction in the frontal armor protection.”
Looking at this “taller” version, Wang Zhong frowned deeply, “No, the previous version was very good. Anyway, the factory scheduled for production is currently relocating and rebuilding, which is almost like starting from scratch with a new factory.
“Get this vehicle produced quickly and start testing. Mainly improve the reliability, I don’t want to hand over equipment to the troops that breaks down after driving a few dozen kilometers!”
Ke Jing said, “The factories are all working overtime producing the T34 and KV, and I previously wanted to build a prototype, but there were no hands and equipment available.”
Wang Zhong replied, “That’s simple, issue the production order under a special mission from the Royal Family. Allocate a bit of the capacity from the T34W line to build two prototypes for you. Get the testing done as soon as possible, focusing on improving reliability—I do not want to give the troops equipment that fails after just a few dozen kilometers!”