"Do you have any?" Wang Xuexin said, pretending to be strange: "Captain, you know, what we need is not training or anything like that, we can do this ourselves!"
"Of course!" Derek replied: "We..."
At this point, Derek seemed to suddenly realize that it was not up to him as a captain to decide whether such military secrets could be traded, so he changed his words and said: "Sorry, Comrade Commander, I need to ask my superiors for instructions."
Then Derek seemed to be afraid that Wang Xuexin would regret it or have no desire to trade, so he added: "Of course, I believe there will be no big problems with this transaction!"
Wang Xuexin raised his eyebrows, tried hard to show that he didn't care, and replied calmly: "I hope so!"
Wang Xuexin knew that the less he cared about this kind of transaction, the more anxious Yingjiang, including Derek, would be, and then he would be able to get what he wanted as soon as possible.
Sure enough, after coming out of Wang Xuexin's office, Captain Derek ran back to his dormitory as fast as he could, and then immediately sent a telegram to Ridgway:
"General, do you remember the commander of the Chinese regiment? The commander of the Chinese regiment who designed the repeating rifle! He said that he would be able to design a repeating rifle for us suitable for use by our army. As a trade, what he needs is probably
An/APS-15 ground mapping radar, just like us, they need this radar to assist airborne landings!"
Derek tried his best to restrain his excitement, because he knew that Ridgway was a very independent commander. He would judge the right and wrong by himself without much advice from others. If Derek said too much in the telegram, it would be biased.
I'm afraid it will be counterproductive.
But despite this, Li Qiwei was still shocked by Derek's words.
Before this, it was difficult for Derek's telegram to even appear on Ridgway's desk, because Derek was originally an insignificant grassroots commander in the 82nd Airborne Division, and the task he performed was not a big deal, which was to help China.
The army forms airborne troops.
However, after Li Qiwei learned about the training situation of the Chinese airborne troops and even the fighting situation at Yanmen Pass, his level of concern for Derek changed... The information sent by Derek must be sent to Li Qiwei as soon as possible, and Li Qiwei
I will study it repeatedly and systematically add it to my training plan.
For example, breaking up the organization of troops and allowing them to combine freely, or strengthening the command capabilities of company-level commanders.
But there was one thing the 82nd Airborne Division had no choice about: the equipment they used was too far behind the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifles.
Ridgway said to his staff more than once: "That's the equipment we need! Airborne troops often face many more enemies than themselves, and are surrounded by enemies as soon as they land. If we use Springfield rifles or M1
, the result will only be that you will be entangled by the enemy and never be able to escape! The Eighth Route Army's repeating rifles can instantly burst out with powerful firepower to break out of the enemy's encirclement, even if the number of troops is much smaller than the enemy!"
But every time he said this, Li Qiwei felt helpless, because Li Qiwei had contacted his superiors more than once to discuss this issue, but the answer he got was: "It's not just the airborne troops who need repeating rifles, General! We must be cautious!"
Li Qiwei knew that this statement was correct. Rifles are mass-produced. Once the production is finalized, it will affect the replacement of the entire army. Therefore, we should be cautious and consider all aspects.
But……
Li Qiwei said angrily: "Has no one considered the needs of the airborne troops? They gave us a bunch of inappropriate equipment and asked us to perform the most dangerous missions!"
If Li Qiwei's words were translated into Chinese, it would be "I want the horse to run but don't give it grass to eat."
Just when Ridgway was helpless about the situation, Derek sent this telegram.
What shocked Li Qiwei about this telegram was that the Chinese regiment leader actually had the confidence to design a rifle for Yingjiang suitable for his army?
"Does he think he is God?" Li Qiwei was full of disbelief and even had a bit of disdain and anger: "How does he know what kind of rifle we need? He has never even seen our army!"
Li Qiwei believed that Wang Xuexin had the ability to design a repeating rifle, because he designed the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifle.
What Li Qiwei didn't believe was that he knew the needs of the Eagle Sauce Army. This would require a lot of experiments and a lot of questionnaires!
How can we believe that he can do it and conduct transactions based on just one word from the head of the Huaxia Group?
Could it be that this Chinese leader has the ability to read minds?
Or a psychic?
Therefore, Li Qiwei's intuition told him that the leader of the Chinese regiment was just drawing a pie, and he did not have the ability to design a suitable rifle for Yingjiang.
However, Li Qiwei was immediately slapped in the face...
When Derek conveyed Li Qiwei's statement to Wang Xuexin, Wang Xuexin did not explain too much, but only gave a few data: "The ammunition capacity is 30 rounds, the total combat weight is about 4 kilograms, and the theoretical rate of fire is about 700 rounds per minute. The effective rate is 700 rounds per minute."
Range 600 meters!”
Wang Xuexin gave the data of Yingjiang M16 assault rifle.
Didn’t Ridgway talk about demand?
The reason why Yingjiang decided to develop m16 more than ten years later is because of this demand? So, m16 should be the demand of Yingjiang, right?
(Note: Eagle Sauce began developing m16 in 1957)
Li Qiwei on the other side couldn't help being stunned after seeing these data.
Although he still did not believe that the Chinese regiment leader could design such a rifle, at least the Chinese regiment leader knew the needs of the Yingjiang Army, especially the "effective range of 600 meters"...
Ridgway knows one thing:
After the Yingjiang military got the repeating rifle from the Huaxia regiment commander, what they were most dissatisfied with was the accuracy of the repeating rifle.
The effective range is only 300 meters?
How could this play out on the battlefield?
Do we want to base the safety of soldiers' lives entirely on luck?
This is the extreme that Yingjiang went to during this period. Their requirements for equipment accuracy are exactly the opposite of Mao Xiong.
Objectively speaking, Yingjiang's range requirements for the m16 are a bit excessive, because the effective range of Yingjiang's current rifle m4a1 is only more than 400 meters, which proves that this range is reasonable and sufficient.
Of course Wang Xuexin knew this, but he didn't try to convince Yingjiang...
Why do you need to convince Yingjiang?
Wouldn't it be good to let Yingjiang continue to go in this extreme direction for a while?
For the Eighth Route Army, as long as they can do business with Yingjiang and get what they want!
Therefore, at this time, Wang Xuexin should go with Yingjiang's favor or even strengthen this extreme rather than reason with them.