Yang Mingzhi already understood that the root of their doubts was the ambiguity about the nature of the new gun. In fact, this is not surprising, because the concept of the world's first assault rifle was born in the 19th century.
The Russians themselves are pioneers in this regard. Fedorov, another man with the same surname as the director of the rifle factory, was the man who developed the first automatic rifle produced in Russia at the end of the Tsarist era.
However, in 1942, Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov was already a 69-year-old man. He retired with the honor given to him by the Soviet government, and he almost no longer paid attention to the production of automatic firearms.
Ask.
However, he had a group of outstanding students. In another time and space, it was he who personally inspired Kalashnikov to create the famous Аk47.
The old man is not only alive but also living very comfortably. During the Great Patriotic War, supplies were in short supply. Because of his outstanding contribution to the country, he is still fed and fed every day with good food and drink.
Although both have the same surname: Fedorov, the director of the Novosibirsk Rifle Factory, Fedorov, has nothing to do with the old Fedorov, because in the Soviet Union, the surname "Fedorov" is not uncommon.
The director of the rifle factory was not a relative of the old Fedorov. He did not even know this person, nor did he understand that he had spent his entire life opening the door to the "Russian assault rifle" in the early stages of his retirement.
Several factory directors present had strong doubts about the new gun simply because they knew too little about it.
The most questionable among them is none other than Nikolaevsky.
"We were all soldiers, and I was a glorious old Bolshevik. I had been a deer hunter when I was young. When Lenin led the people against the Tsarist Guarantee, I became a glorious Red Army soldier. Comrade General, don't look at what you are doing now.
I am a bit old, but my shooting skills are very strong. When I was young, I used a Mosin Nagant and could hunt reindeer over 800 meters without a scope. To this day, my eyesight is still good."
"Oh? So you were also an elite warrior when you were young."
"Of course. I was able to kill a deer eight hundred meters away because I used the right bullets. If my bullets were smaller, I wouldn't be able to achieve such results. I saw your drawings and you clearly planned to use a
A shortened bullet. This kind of bullet is destined to have a low charge, and its power is also weakened. It flies a thousand meters, and I am afraid that at that speed... it cannot even penetrate the bark of a tree."
"Ha!" Yang Mingzhi slapped his thigh. He just felt that this statement was too ridiculous. "Can't it penetrate the bark? It's certain that it can't penetrate the enemy's helmet. So, this is the source of your doubts? Are you questioning it?
Is the new gun not powerful enough?”
"No! To be precise, it's neither fish nor fowl." Nikolayevsky's attitude remained firm, "My position is very clear. We currently use the most common ordinary rifle ammunition, and there is no need to improve it. Our country itself has automatic rifles.
It is also mass-producing submachine guns."
Next, Nikolayevsky knew that his remarks would definitely irritate the general. He hesitated for a while but still said: "I admit that your research and development project is very interesting, but I feel that our country has no more during the war.
It is necessary to research and develop new types of firearms. A large amount of human resources should be used to produce tanks and artillery. For example, you have made great achievements in the field of rocket launchers. You should develop more powerful rocket launchers instead of spending time on developing new guns.
You should be aware of the current situation, right?! A large number of newspapers are publishing reports. The street fighting in Stalingrad is very stalemate. A large number of soldiers entered the battlefield on the first day and turned into corpses the next day. The country needs some powerful weapons.
To turn the tide of the war in a short time, shouldn’t you go deep into the research and development of rocket launchers?”
Today's meeting was basically held to discuss the new gun project.
Suddenly Nikolayevsky actually stood up and openly sang the opposite, not taking the general with great military achievements in his eyes at all. Even though the general was only in his early thirties, he looked like a young man. But he was a general after all, just a factory.
Factory director, how can you be so rude?
At this scene, the other factory managers were dumbfounded, and the venue fell into silence.
Who wants to listen to bad words? What’s more, they are pessimistic remarks.
Yang Mingzhi is a person who listens to opinions. He did not immediately jump up to refute, but fell into calm thinking, trying to figure out Nikolayevsky's words.
Seeing that the general remained quiet, Nikolayevsky quickly made a remedial speech in order to break the embarrassment.
"General, I'm sorry, my words are a bit extreme. Here, I think I need to give an example. At the end of 1940 before the war broke out, I received a plan from my superiors. Even the gun manufacturing factories in the entire city
I received a similar proposal.
According to the 1941 production plan given to the factory by superiors, the main manpower and material resources were used to produce semi-automatic rifles. After spring, most of the equipment was in place and large-scale production officially began.
The war broke out very suddenly. As the war broke out in full force, we received new orders. All original production tasks were cancelled, and my factory was asked to produce submachine guns. Fedorov's factory was responsible for producing old-fashioned bolt-action rifles.
Why do you think the superiors suddenly made such an arrangement? Semi-automatic rifles can obviously improve the combat effectiveness of the troops based on the soldiers' stronger firepower. Why did the production task suddenly come to a standstill?"
"What is it?"
"It's the cost!" Nikolayevsky emphasized. "I don't know if you understand how to manage a factory. Maybe it's like commanding a war? I obey the orders of my superiors. What the factory produces is determined by the superiors."
Now, based on my personal opinion, I understand the attitude of my superiors, so the time it takes to produce a semi-automatic rifle is enough to produce two to three bolt-action rifles. There are millions of newly formed armies, and they need weapons that can be mass-produced quickly.
To arm the army.
Superiors definitely don’t want to take risks. The most basic light weapons are bolt-action rifles and submachine guns. We have very sufficient production experience in this area!"
After hearing so much, Yang Mingzhi nodded deeply: "After all, you just want to say three things. First, the arsenal should not take risks in producing new guns. All production must be safe. Second, the current firearms production
, cost control and production efficiency have reached their optimal state, and it is not appropriate to make sudden changes. Third, you have strong doubts about the performance of my new gun. Is that so?"
"Yes...that's basically it."
Yang Mingzhi nodded again, he was ready to show off his tactics.
"Comrade Nikolaevsky, to be fair, you have two questions, which I think are very reasonable. The alliance's material supply is very tight. As a producer, we really don't have many resources to squander. Even using limited resources
Resources, we still have reason to further simplify production, and even ensure the quality and performance of firearms while minimizing costs and man-hours. Do you think this is the truth?"
The general had such a kind attitude, and he was not displeased. Nikolayevsky breathed a sigh of relief: "Yes! After all, this is war time, and semi-automatic rifles consume too many man-hours because of their complicated structure.
Production was urgently suspended. If..."
"No! My new gun is definitely not a monster that consumes man-hours." Yang Mingzhi's answer was decisive, even scaring his wife who was sitting quietly next to him.
At this moment, Yang Tao was really in a depressed mood. A group of bearded men were sitting together, talking to each other about the professional issues of weapons production. She wanted to leave, but her husband wouldn't let her. It was entirely her husband's order, and she couldn't.
I won't stay here. Fortunately, these men are smart enough not to smoke.
Yang Mingzhi knocked on the table hard and raised his chest confidently. Liguschkov looked at such a general. The general could have such a firm attitude. It was obvious that his plan would definitely work.
"I have considered the production cost issue, so you should look at the drawings with confidence, especially the attached process cards. You should find that if you strictly follow the process, the production of a part really does not take much time. Okay,
Put this aside for now. We should discuss the most critical issue! What is its performance?"
Regarding the ordnance of various countries during World War II, everyone made the best plan based on their country's national conditions in terms of cost, production time, equipment volume, and performance.
As far as the current world is concerned, the United States is the only one. Relying on its huge productivity, it can not only achieve overwhelming numbers, but a single piece of equipment often not only has superior performance, but is also extremely technological.
Germany's scientific and technological level is unique in some fields, but their wartime national policy has undergone major deviations. It is already 1942, and Germany still has not implemented a wartime system. Each arsenal is still producing according to orders from the Ministry of Defense, and it is time to get off work.
, the workers went home to drink French champagne.
It is because the German workers have not yet entered the wartime system, and the German workers who strive for excellence have a very rigorous attitude and rigorously hope that their products will be perfect.
Therefore, in German tanks, the driver sits on a soft leather cushion.
Especially the "Ferdinand Self-Propelled Cannon" launched by Dr. Boscher, whose mustache is favorite, its existence itself is simply a collection of high technologies. Especially the electric transmission system, although this system has been used in World War I
On the Saint-Chamont tank, Boscher still uses a complex electric transmission. Regardless of the advantages of the system based on the "Ferdinand", the cost of producing a vehicle is huge.
Mustache happened to be a fan of Dr. Boscher. The imperial finance, which was already under increasing pressure, had to spend huge sums of money to order a bunch of "Ferdinands" that were said to be extremely powerful but actually proved to be useless snacks on the battlefield. Of course.
, its trashy snack nature was revealed exactly a year later, in September 1942, when it had just begun production.
Like many of Germany's new equipment, Mustache increasingly hopes that high-tech weapons can give the German army stronger combat effectiveness to make up for their relative lack of strength on a thousand-kilometer front.
However, the Soviet Army has no urgent requirements in this regard for the time being.
Of course, the Soviet Union also attaches great importance to the research and development of cutting-edge weapons, but the Soviets have a leader who understands current affairs, Stalin. After several major failures, Stalin decided not to "micromanage" the country and the people. However, the Soviet Union's new cutting-edge weapons at this stage are not large enough.
Part of it is still based on the improvement of existing weapons. For example, the combat effectiveness must be faster, the tank must be stronger, and so on.
Yang Mingzhi, he is a small exception.
Of course Stalin himself attached great importance to Yang Mingzhi's new invention, just as Mustache liked Dr. Boscher.
Unlike Dr. Boscher, a somewhat romantic engineer, Yang Mingzhi's ideas have always been very pragmatic, and his research and development is even more urgent.
However, would those who do not understand his mental journey regard his "pragmatism" as an "adventure"?
Now, Yang Mingzhi felt that he had reason to persuade Nikolayevsky as much as possible with his words.
"Dear comrade, shortening the bullet and reducing the charge also means that the warhead becomes smaller, and its power is naturally smaller. Compared with ordinary full-power rifle bullets, its range will inevitably be reduced. Count on what I call the middle
A powerful bullet can kill an enemy a thousand meters away. Isn't it too extreme to ask?
Taking a step back, what is the role of rifles in modern warfare?
Why do we require all rifles to be able to hit targets one thousand meters away? Do we require all soldiers to be snipers? All rifles have sniper level accuracy? How is this possible!
Among ten thousand Mosin Nagants, it would be great to have a dozen with sniper-level high accuracy!
Besides, in modern warfare, is it common for soldiers to shoot at each other from a distance of one thousand meters? No! I fought in Belarus for more than a year and commanded troops to win many wars. The troops killed more than 30,000 enemies in total. Among them,
How many were killed by long-distance rifle fire? Most of them were shot by various types of artillery or even rocket launchers, leaving only broken corpses.
Therefore, based on my long-term battlefield experience, gun battles often break out violently within a distance of four hundred meters."
Through some valuable remarks made by the general, and regarding weapons production, he actually casually mentioned a few professional terms. Now Nikolaevsky looked serious and was willing to listen to someone who was twenty years younger than him.
The young general preached.
It is said that the general came up with a very interesting conclusion: gunfights often occur within a distance of four hundred meters.
No one had made statistics on this before. He felt that the general suddenly climbed from a soldier to the rank of lieutenant general by relying on genuine military merit. This general was not the kind of mediocre person who was promoted by rockets, even if the articles in "Pravda" often exaggerated
The statement that the general has rich battlefield experience should be true.
For now, just listen to his conclusion and respect it without denying it outright.
Yang Mingzhi continued: "The most ordinary soldier has very normal eyesight. So when he aims and shoots, the enemy is only a little bigger than an ant when he is standing four hundred meters away. At a distance of one thousand meters, I am afraid he does not need a scope.
, only soldiers who are born with farsightedness can be lucky enough to complete the shooting. Besides, when soldiers shoot, their arms or even fingers will shake a little and they will miss. What's more, in a battlefield with constant artillery fire, young soldiers are expected to not care about their surroundings.
It is also very unrealistic to ignore the corpses of fallen comrades and the wails of the injured in the bloody mess, and to be able to calm down and shoot steadily.
Therefore, I can conclude that general rifle combat is within a distance of four hundred meters, and our shooting of firearms should be highly targeted.
In other words, do we require submachine guns to hit targets one thousand meters away? Submachine guns are very good weapons in street fighting, and can even quickly clear out the remaining enemies when breaking through enemy trenches. We never require it to be very powerful, as long as it can kill an enemy.
Enemies within a hundred meters will be fine.
Like the submachine gun, the new gun I am shooting is highly targeted. It is aimed at shooting operations within 400 meters. We don’t have to worry about enemies 400 meters away. Beyond this distance, we use mortars and field artillery.
For bombing, use water-cooled Maxim to pour heavy machine gun bullets, or ask the snipers in the team to shoot accurately.
Well, regarding shooting operations, I happen to have an experienced sniper here.