After the meeting, which Stalin personally chaired, Rokossovsky wanted to return to Yerets immediately. But as soon as he stood up, before he could walk outside, he was stopped by Stalin: "Konstantin Konstantinovich, you wait." ”

Hearing that Stalin was calling himself by his real name and patronymic again, Rokossovsky knew that the other party wanted to discuss important matters with him, and quickly stopped and stood where he was, waiting for his orders.

Not only Rokossovsky was stopped, but Zhukov and Vasilevsky were also left behind. When the others were gone, Stalin said to the three men: "I will leave you behind, and I am only going to let you visit the arsenal in the city, and tell the engineers and technicians in the factory what the front-line commanders and fighters think of our army's weapons, so that they can improve the deficiencies." ”

"Should we visit those arsenals?" On behalf of everyone, Zhukov opened his mouth and asked: "Comrade Stalin! ”

"You go to Ustinov, our youngest People's Commissar, and now a member of the People's Commissar for Weapons and Equipment, who leads the production of guns and the development of weapons." Stalin said slowly: "He will take you to the various arsenals for tours." ”

"Understood, Comrade Stalin." Zhukov said with a blank face: "Allow us to leave?" We need to find Ustinov immediately so that in the shortest possible time, we can get to the place where production is being carried out at full capacity. ”

"Yes." Stalin nodded and said reasonably: "If you have any ideas during the visit, you can only put them forward to the technicians of the factory on the spot; You can also give me a detailed report separately when you come back. ”

……

……

An hour later, Rokossovsky and the three of them, accompanied by Ustinov, arrived in a car at a small arms production plant. For the sake of secrecy, there is no label hanging at the entrance of the factory. In addition to the sentries on duty at the gate, there are also patrols composed of militia and police officers with police dogs.

Rokossovsky looked at the barbed wire fence on the wall and thought to himself: If Stalin hadn't told him in advance that he was visiting the munitions factory, he would have thought that this was a prison or a concentration camp.

The convoy of four black cars drove into the factory area after passing through the checkpoint at the gate and stopped in the open space outside the factory director's office building. The factory director, who had already received the notice, waited in front of the building with a few deputies. Seeing that the cars had stopped one after another, he hurriedly ran forward and opened the door for Ustinov, who was sitting in the car in front.

Zhukov, who was sitting in the back, saw this scene and the expression on his face did not change in any way. And Vasilevsky smiled and said to Rokossovsky: "It seems that Comrade Ustinov is a frequent visitor here, and you see, as soon as his car stopped, the director of the plant personally stepped forward to open the door for him." ”

After a brief greeting, Ustinov said to the factory director: "Comrade factory director, we still have a lot of places to go, so you can take us on a tour of your factory first." ”

The director of the factory called the senior engineer of the factory and took Rokossovsky and his party to the production workshop. On the way, the director of the factory took the initiative to introduce to everyone: "Comrades commanders, our factory is a manufacturer of small arms, and the original site of the factory was in Tula, and when the German army approached the city, the factory was divided into two. Part went to Izhevsk, while the other remained here. ”

As they spoke, the group had already arrived at the factory. In the factory, Rokossovsky saw rectangular tongs stacked with parts of various guns, and workers standing around were assembling them.

Seeing this situation, Rokossovsky couldn't help but pause for a moment, and then asked the factory director: "Comrade factory director, could it be that the guns used by the front-line fighters were assembled by you by hand?" ”

"That's right. Comrade General, many of the guns you use on the front line are produced by our factory. The director of the factory proudly said: "We can only count the branch factories here, and the production capacity of the main plant in Izhevsk is much stronger than ours." ”

Rokossovsky did not stupidly ask how many guns of all kinds could be produced by the arsenal every month, because the data was absolutely confidential, and even if he asked, the director of the factory would probably avoid answering, and he would not touch the nails.

Looking at the workers who were assembling the guns, a thought suddenly popped into Rokossovsky's head: "At this time, Kalashnikov may not have developed the famous assault rifle, right?" ”

Thinking of this, he grabbed the senior engineer next to the factory director and said: "Comrade engineer, I have an idea for a new rifle and want to talk to you. ”

Hearing Rokossovsky say this, the engineer smiled politely and said politely and distantly: "Comrade General, developing a new rifle is not as easy as it is for you to command a war. ”

From the engineer's words, Rokossovsky could hear the disdain in the other party's tone, but he did not bother with the other party, but said politely: "Comrade engineer, I don't know where your office is, I can show you the new rifle I have in mind." ”

Seeing Rokossovsky and the engineer discussing the new rifle, although Zhukov and Vasilevsky, who were standing on the side, did not speak, they did not believe that Rokossovsky could design any new rifle in their hearts, just like this engineer. Fortunately, Ustinov was a little embarrassed when he saw the scene, and hurriedly came out to play a round: "I said that Director Zuyev, since General Rokossovsky said that he would provide you with a shooting scheme for a new rifle, you should take him to the office and ask him to show you the drawings." ”

When the director of the factory, Zuyev, saw that his supervisor Ustinov said this, and it was difficult to refute it, so he could only turn his head and say to the engineer: "I said Comrade Bolev, since this general is kind enough to design a new rifle for us, then let's accompany him to the office." ”

Engineer Bolev pointed upwards and said with some displeasure: "There is an office of the technical group on the second floor, let's go there." With that, he turned around and walked towards the stairs.

Zhukov asked Rokossovsky in a low voice: "Comrade Rokossovsky, can you really design a new rifle for the arsenal?" If you're just talking, it's too late to return. ”

Rokossovsky grinned at Zhukov and said confidently: "Don't worry, Comrade Marshal, you will see me later, I will definitely not let you down." ”

Zhukov shook his head with a smile at Rokossovsky's self-confidence, although his old comrade-in-arms said it so confidently, he still couldn't believe that a front-line commander could design a new rifle.

By the time Rokossovsky and Zhukov walked into the office of the technical group, the plant director and engineers had already cleared a desk. On the table are drawing paper, pencils, triangles, rulers and other drawing tools.

Polev pointed to the table with his hand and said coldly to Rokossovsky: "Please, Comrade General, I have prepared everything you need, you can start drawing." ”

During his years as a soldier in China, Rokossovsky was very familiar with the firearms equipped in the army, and could even easily disassemble and assemble various firearms without being blindfolded. In his unit, there happened to be several AK47s for training, and because of the lot of contact, he knew by heart the various parameters of the guns.

He picked up his pen and now drew the front, left, and top views of the AK47 on drawing paper. When Rokossovsky started to write, Bolev, who was standing next to him, watched him draw with contempt, and when the main view of the gun was drawn, the expression on his face became serious. When Rokossovsky finished drawing the three views, Bolev couldn't help but gasp, although this kind of gun had never been seen before, it seemed to be better than the weapons that the Soviet army was equipped with now.

After staring at the map for a long time, he raised his head and said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade General, I beg your pardon for the rudeness I just gave you, this rifle you drew looks fantastic. Don't know if you can draw a exploded view again? ”

"Comrade Bolev," said the director of the plant, Zuyev, without waiting for Rokossovsky to speak. Since he was a political cadre, not a technical cadre, he could not find out the advantages and disadvantages of this weapon, and he was worried that what Bolev said would cause Rokossovsky to be unhappy, so he opened his mouth to stop it: "It is not easy for Comrade General to draw such a picture, so you should not be difficult for him anymore." ”

"It's okay, Comrade Director." Rokossovsky saw that Bolev was reprimanded by the director of the plant and blushed, and hurriedly came out to play a round: "Since Comrade Engineer wants to see the exploded view, then I will draw it for him." After saying that, he started to draw on the paper again.

Fortunately, Rokossovsky has the skills of mechanical drawing, so there is not much difficulty in drawing such an exploded diagram. However, it takes a long time to draw the shapes and sizes of various parts. The people standing around noticed that Rokossovsky's drawings of guns and parts had indeed never been seen before, so no one spoke, just stood and watched quietly.

When Rokossovsky finished the final stroke, Polev immediately grabbed the picture on the table and looked at it carefully. While watching, he said to himself, "It's amazing, it's just amazing." If we can make such a weapon, we may be able to raise the combat effectiveness of our troops to a higher level. ”

If everyone was still skeptical about the new rifle that Rokossovsky said just now, after listening to the evaluation of engineer Bolev, everyone has a new idea, maybe this new rifle designed by Rokossovsky can really come in handy on the battlefield in the future.

Although Rokossovsky drew the shape of the AK47 and even provided various parameters, he did not think that such a weapon would be created quickly, let alone equip the troops. Even if the performance of the gun reaches the standard, the 7.62*39mm intermediate power rifle cartridge used in the assault rifle has not yet been developed, and it is useless to have a gun without bullets.

In order to prevent the people in the arsenal from being blindly optimistic, he poured cold water on them in time: "Factory director, engineer, this is just a new assault rifle that I have in mind, but whether it can be successfully manufactured, and whether there are matching bullets, these are still unknown, so in a short period of time, you should not think about allowing the troops to equip this rifle." ”

Polev, who was originally a little excited, suddenly had a smile on his face when he heard Rokossovsky say this. After a long time, he nodded desperately and said, "That's right, comrade general, you are right. Although we could not immediately build this new rifle based on the drawings you made, it gave us an idea to develop it. Rest assured, it will only take two months at most for us to build a prototype. ”

"What, it takes two months to build a prototype gun?" When Vasilevsky heard this, he couldn't help but interject: "Why are you moving so slowly? ”

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff, don't be in a hurry." Ustinov hurriedly defended the Arsenal side: "Although Rokossovsky drew a relatively complete new rifle, it will definitely take more time to turn the drawings into real things than you think. ”

Seeing that Ustinov was already defending himself, the director of the plant hurriedly added: "That's right, Comrade People's Commissar is right, it is not easy to turn a design drawing into a real thing, we must conduct the necessary arguments on the guns designed by General Rokossovsky to determine whether they can be turned into real objects." ”

After leaving the office of the technical team, the tour resumed. However, at this time, except for Rokossovsky, who was still looking around, the rest of the people were a little distracted.

Zhukov was thinking: Rokossovsky is not simple, the new rifle he designed has actually made the senior engineers of the arsenal applaud again and again, if only this kind of assault rifle could be equipped with the troops as soon as possible, it can make the combat effectiveness of our troops to a great level.

Vasilevsky thought: strange, haven't you heard that Rokossovsky has a study of firearms? I've seen him shoot targets before, and his shooting performance is very average, how could he suddenly design such a special assault rifle?

The director of the factory was thinking: after they left later, they would gather the technicians of the factory to study this new assault rifle designed by General Rokossovsky.

Bolev was considering: according to the parameters on the diagram, the caliber of the barrel is the same as that of the Mosin Lagan rifle, does this mean that the bullets used in the new assault rifle can be used in the same way as the bullets of the Mosin Lagan rifle?

And Ustinov was thinking: it seems that this new rifle designed by Rokossovsky is not bad, at least the senior engineers of the arsenal are very recognized. It's too late today, and tomorrow I'll take them to the artillery and tank factories to see if Rokossovsky can come up with any new ideas.