The Army participated in the exercise. The scale of the exercise was expanded. The number of participating troops was expanded from four divisions to eight divisions. The exercise area was also expanded more than twice, from the original Yangtze River in the west and Maoshan in the east to the Yangtze River in the west and Taihu Lake in the east.

.The east-west span has expanded from the original fifty kilometers to more than one hundred kilometers.

Geographical expansion is also what Xiang Xiaoqiang, Zhang Zhaoxian and Tang Yunsheng hope for. Only by making the front as long as possible can we test the role of air superiority and mobility advantage as much as possible. In addition, it can also simulate to a greater extent. Whether it is Xiang Xiaoqiang or

Zhang Zhaoxian, they all knew that if they really fought against the Qing Dynasty, the front line would not be the more than 100 kilometers now, but thousands of kilometers of the North China Plain.

The reason why this area was selected for the exercise was entirely to imitate the terrain of the North China Plain. In terms of simulation, this area can only be said to be okay. There are some small rivers, but they cannot be called water networks; there are no vast tracts of mountains.

, the main large hills are all around, and the occasional small hills do not have much impact; there is a Maoshan Mountain Range in the middle, and there are some small lakes on both sides, but there is nothing we can do about it. The delta in Shanghai is quite flat, but that

The dense water network cannot stand it.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was also very depressed when he chose the training area. He had no choice but to do it. Nanming has this geographical condition: six mountains, three rivers and one farmland. This area is the most like the North China Plain that can be found in Nanming.

This exercise involves real troops but not live ammunition, that is to say, infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft, etc. are dispatched as they should, but real ammunition is not used, and blank ammunition and training ammunition are mainly used, so the risk of accidental injury is very small. Therefore,

It is only necessary to delineate areas for both sides, specify purposes, and give victory and defeat criteria... these are the most basic things. It does not need to be like a live-fire exercise, where in order to avoid accidental injuries, the positions of each step of both sides must be strictly designed in advance. Therefore, the exercise is

The design phase can be very short.

The main preparation is to rush to produce and distribute a large number of blank ammunition. During the week from May 23 to June 1, several small arsenals in the plains of the Yangtze River Delta and two in the Tianmu Mountains of Zhejiang

The large arsenals are all rushing to produce blank bullets and artillery shells for exercises. These small arms arsenals belong to Lianfeng and Qishunfa respectively.

The Ming Dynasty also had arms companies that specialized in manufacturing ammunition, but they were relatively far away, either in the mountainous areas of Fujian or in the southwest rear area. The two factories of Lianfeng and Qishunfa happened to be in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so they got the ammunition for this exercise.

Orders. Lianfenghao and Qishunfa each divided half of the order. With this relatively large order, Qishunfa's stock price improved a little and no longer fell so ugly.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that blank bullets are simply bullets and artillery shells without warheads. But after all, they are not as familiar with these things as ordinary bullets. On the 25th, the first batch of blank bullets arrived, and Wang Hexiang was leading people in Xiaoling.

In order to give him a sensory impression, the guard company commander Hu Jiong accompanied Xiang Xiaoqiang to the shooting range of the Xiaoling Guard Camp to experience the feeling of a blank round.

…

On the shooting range, Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at a rifle blank in his palm.

This bullet only has a shell and no warhead. There is a small white thing stuffed in the neck of the shell. Hu Jiong told him that this is a plug made of paper and cotton fiber. It plugs the propellant in the shell to prevent leakage.

Come out. The neck of the cartridge case has also been closed, making the mouth smaller and blocking the fiber plug. When firing, the fiber plug will completely burn and decompose within 3-5 meters of exiting the chamber. So even though it is

It is a blank bullet, but it still cannot be fired at people within five meters. Otherwise, it may still cause casualties.

However, during the exercise, there was little chance of firing at the enemy at such a close distance.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took the rifle loaded with blank ammunition, aimed at the target in the distance, and pulled the trigger.

"Snapped!!!"

Flames flashed across the muzzle of the gun, the gun body was lifted up in the hand, and with a random "ding" sound, the empty cartridge case popped out and fell to the concrete floor at his feet, making a pleasant copper sound.

Very good, it feels no different from ordinary bullets. The only difference is that there is no eye on the target in the distance.

But... Xiang Xiaoqiang laughed in his heart: Even if it is a real bullet, as long as I shoot it, there will be no holes in the target in the distance...

Blank ammunition, which is why he dared to shoot a rifle in public.

Then, Xiang Xiaoqiang received another Thompson submachine gun loaded with blank ammunition. He first pulled out the 30-round magazine and weighed it in his hand.

"A lot lighter."

He turned around and smiled at Hu Jiong.

Hu Jiong also smiled and said:

"Your Majesty is right, the main weight of the bullet is on the warhead. Now that it is replaced with blank bullets, the weight of the live magazine is also nearly half lighter."

He nodded to Xiaoqiang, inserted the magazine, pulled the gun, and "click, click, click" was half a shuttle in the distance.

...that's a lot of fun...

Xiang Xiaoqiang has never shot Thomson with his own hands before. The only close contact was when he went to Beijing to rob a train. But he didn't fire a gun that time. Now that he has experienced it, he can feel the dazzling flames from the muzzle of the gun, which is deafening.

The sound of gunshots and the high-frequency strong vibration in the hand are not comparable to the cheap L-36.

...The old American stuff is really good! If it wasn’t too heavy and too expensive, this would be a really good thing.

…

Xiang Xiaoqiang took Hu Jiong to another shooting range a few hundred meters away. This was a machine gun shooting range, where Wang Hexiang and several officers were inspecting a batch of blank ammunition.

The two groups met and exchanged greetings. Xiang Xiaoqiang saw a box of 7.97mm standard rifle ammunition lying on the ground. Of course, they were also blank ammunition.

A machine gun team stood guard next to a Woodpecker machine gun. Next to it was an aluminum machine gun magazine. A magazine chain protruded from the magazine and was connected to the machine gun receiver.

Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that none of the bullets on the bullet belt had warheads.

Wang Hexiang took out several boxes of bullets from the box, randomly checked a few rounds in each box, removed the fiber plugs, poured out the propellant, and then compared them with the propellant of ordinary bullets.

Sure enough, the propellant charges of several bullets were not cut corners.

The representative of the Lianfeng was standing next to him, talking confidently, ensuring that their blank ammunition was absolutely safe and would not cause any harm to people beyond 5 meters. Then he took the initiative to stand in front of the machine gun muzzle.

5 meters away, personally help test.

Wang Hexiang hesitated and looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang. Xiang Xiaoqiang had exactly what he wanted, and nodded in approval with a smile.

Wang Hexiang had no choice but to whisper to the machine gun team:

"Hit where you are wearing clothes, don't aim at the face, don't aim at the hands."

At a distance of five meters, even if a blank bullet is unsafe, it will at best set clothes on fire and will not hurt anyone.

The representative of the Lianfeng stood arrogantly five meters in front of the muzzle, with his head held high. But looking at the dark muzzle in front of him, he was still nervous and sweating a little.

The machine gun team checked the blanks on the ammunition chain again to make sure they were correct, then pressed the receiver and aimed at the guy on the Lianfeng.

Nodding to Xiaoqiang, the deputy shooter shouted:

"beat!"

Amidst the deafening cry of the "woodpecker", the huge flame at the muzzle of the gun danced. Xiang Xiaoqiang blocked his ears and watched the scene of "shooting the living people with guns" with great pleasure.

The guy on the Lianfeng stood straight in front of the gun, his eyes closed tightly, his face turned pale, and he kept spitting. Several beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. Xiang Xiaoqiang estimated that this was the first time in his life.

Alas, running a business is not easy! It’s the same at all times.

Nearly a hundred rounds of bullets were knocked out, and the gunfire stopped. The representative of the Lianfeng opened his eyes, staggered, and almost fell to the ground. However, he still stood firm, holding his waist and laughing tremblingly:

"Haha, give me more, it's so short..."

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Wang Hexiang hurried over to check. Not to mention, he was really fine. It was just that the white shirt on his chest was a little gray from the gunpowder smoke, and there were no traces of being burned by the flames or high-temperature residue.

Very good, these blank ammunition are pretty good and very safe for practice use.

…

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Wang Hexiang and others inspected the ongoing experiments at several shooting ranges. These experiments and training were all conducted for the exercises in a few days. They were mainly to familiarize themselves with and explore some special rules and combat methods.

For example, on a training ground, two groups of soldiers were practicing drill grenades that were sent to them in unison.

A group of soldiers were holding guns and pretending to be walking, when a few grenades were suddenly thrown out of the bushes on the roadside.

"Lie down————"

Just as a sergeant shouted, several grenades exploded in the middle of the queue, and a group of soldiers fell down in response.

Xiang Xiaoqiang subconsciously crouched down, but saw that the grenades did not explode loudly. They just went off like firecrackers and sprayed out several plumes of smoke. There were no shock waves or fragments like real grenades.

A junior officer wearing an armband emerged from the bushes nearby. He took a notebook and came to the soldiers who were lying in confusion. He looked at it for a few times, wrote a few words in the notebook, and then said:

"Okay, you, you, you, and you. If you lie down in time, you are considered alive. Get up. If you are too close to the explosion point, you are considered killed. You, you, and you are considered seriously injured...

…Okay, the rest will all be considered dead!”

The soldiers laughed for a while. Most of the "corpses" lying on the ground, laughing and joking, took out a sign with "killed in action" and put it on, and lay it on the ground.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Wang Hexiang looked at each other, smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

…

A few people drove for a while in the car, arrived at a larger training ground, and got off the car next to an observation fortification.

It was almost like a real battlefield. The sky was filled with smoke and the sound of gunfire was deafening. As soon as Xiang Xiaoqiang got out of the car, he was almost shaken to the point of being unable to stand.

There is a "tank battle" going on around.

This is mainly to test the feasibility of artillery shells, aerial bombs, and methods for determining battle results for exercises. Problems that arise now will be rectified in the next few days so that they can be used in exercises.

This observation fortification was on a small high ground and was temporarily built with sandbags and wooden boards, with a camouflage net on top. The surrounding field of vision was relatively good. Xiang Xiaoqiang took a helmet and put it on, then picked up a telescope and watched the tank battle below.

Dive bombers roared overhead, and dozens of tanks on the ground rushed forward in formation. The machine guns in front kept firing, and the main guns fired from time to time.

Behind them are more open armored personnel carriers, and you can see the shining helmets of the soldiers sitting inside.

On the other side's position, there were more than a dozen anti-tank guns lined up, firing one after another.

Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that whether it was a tank gun or an anti-tank gun, the fire was the same as on the battlefield. The fire was shining, the sound was loud, and the smoke was floating, but there was no sign of being hit by the shells on the other side.

The effect of this blank ammunition exercise was really good.

There were several officers sitting at the small table next to them. Some were observing the battlefield with telescopes and reporting the location and firing frequency. Others were immersed in probability calculations quickly. One of the officers, wearing a radio headset, was looking at the battlefield with a telescope.

From time to time he shouted:
To be continued...