In the early years of the Republic of China, Liu Qingen returned to China to serve as the Hanyang Arsenal and produced China's first automatic rifle, which could fire five rounds in a row. Later, he personally made a cannon and named it "Qing'en Cannon". During his tenure at the Hanyang Arsenal, he encountered the biggest suffering in the Chinese industry, that is, there was no money, and he approached the government many times, but both the North and the South were willing to ask for guns and artillery from the arsenal, but they were unwilling to pay. So Liu Qingen resigned from the post of the general office of the Hanyang Arsenal in a fit of anger, and he went to Beijing to work in the Army Ordnance Department, during which he met Han Linchun.

When Han Linchun was the general office of the First Military Factory in Northeast China, he always hoped to invite Liu Qingen out of the mountain, but Liu Qingen was arrogant and unwilling to give people a deputy, so he went to Beijing to ask Liu Qingen to go out again before Han Linchun was transferred to the army. Han Linchun assured Liu Qingen that he could produce the automatic rifle he developed, and Liu Qingen saw that his wish had been fulfilled and he was in charge of the general office, so he happily went to the appointment.

Wang Maoru heard Han Linchun's report that the successor was the general office of the Hanyang Arsenal, so he agreed to the candidate to take his place, and then because he was too busy to see him, it was the first time he saw Liu Qingen himself. After the two met, Liu Qingen's humble and arrogant attitude was very appreciated by Wang Maoru, and he took Wang Maoru to inspect the arsenal again.

The First Military Factory in Northeast China can now be said to be the largest arsenal in China, its scale has long surpassed the Hanyang Arsenal, employing more than 20,000 workers, half of whom are male and female workers, and Wang Maoru's Second Guards Regiment is stationed in the arsenal to protect it, and there are also workers and armed workers in the factory, and a large number of military intelligence agents are arranged around to protect it at any time.

The Northeast Arsenal relied on two steel mills and two copper smelters in Hulunbuir to supply raw materials, and gunpowder was also supplied at a chemical plant built with the help of the Japanese. Therefore, the Northeast First Military Factory can be fully self-sufficient with local governments at this time, and no longer need to rely on imported materials. Of course, in order to expand manufacturing, it was necessary to import many materials from the Japanese side, such as the production of mortars.

Now the arsenal produces the Type E1 rifle, the Type E1S rifle, the Type S1 drum universal machine gun. Type C1 submachine gun, long-handled grenade, 37 mm shoulder rocket launcher. Japanese 50 mm infantry gun, Japanese 65 mm mortar run, Japanese imitation Krupp 75 mm field gun. These guns are all lightweight, suitable for company and platoon level, as for the corps level, only the Japanese-style imitation Krupp 75 mm field gun, for the first worker, rash research and development of artillery is not cost-effective. Just like the reform and opening up in later generations, first imitate products, and then develop them when they have mature technology and technology.

Now the Russian-style 122-mm howitzer is being imitated, but due to the poor quality of the steel, waiting for the steel to be qualified is being manufactured on a large scale, and two are actually manufactured. At the same time, because a large number of Russian intellectuals came to the Northeast to seek refuge, including Russian first-class industrial experts, chemical experts, and machinery manufacturing experts. It also allowed the arsenal to develop further. In particular, the artillery shell technology, with the assistance of Russian experts, shells below 75 mm caliber have basically become self-sufficient.

After visiting the workshop that had already taken shape, Liu Qingen took Wang Maoru to another workshop, which was a research and development workshop. He took out a rifle and said seriously: "Xiushuai, please look at this rifle, you can see what is different about it." ”

Wang Maoru took a closer look, and there was no difference in appearance, but the built-in magazine was different from the E1 rifle, so he expressed his opinion. Liu Qingen said with a smile: "Please also ask Xiushuai to test the gun." Wang Maoru took the gun, came to a rifle range in the workshop, pulled the bolt to shoot, bang a bullet hit the bull's-eye, everyone shouted hello, Wang Maoru said proudly: "The craft is not rusty, there is no rustiness." He was about to pull the bolt again, but Liu Qingen stopped: "Xiushuai doesn't have to pull the bolt, because the bullet is already loaded." ”

Wang Maoru blurted out: "Automatic rifle? ”

Liu Qingen smiled proudly and said, "Exactly, automatic rifle." ”

Wang Maoru hurriedly tried to fire the remaining four bullets in the gun in a row, and it was really an automatic rifle, and there was no need to pull the bolt again. Although the E1 rifle was made using the same principle as the Lee Enfield rifle, it was not an automatic rifle after all, and the bolt had to be pulled every shot, but the automatic rifle was an epoch-making product. Wang Maoru remembered that automatic rifles were produced in the United States, but he did not expect that there were people in China who could produce and develop them.

Wang Maoru immediately said: "Who invented this, I want to commend him." ”

Liu Qingen said with a smile: "Far away in the sky, close in front of you." ”

"Is that you?"

"Exactly, the ministers have come to invite merit." Liu Qingen is really a person with a special personality as the legend.

Then Liu Qingen disassembled the automatic rifle to Wang Maoru to explain, and analyzed the structure and components of the automatic rifle one by one, and Wang Maoru listened carefully to his explanation. In the end, Wang Maoru felt strange in his heart, so he asked: "Since automatic rifles are much more advanced than manual rifles, why doesn't the Beiyang Ordnance Division produce them?" ”

Liu Qingen smiled bitterly and took out the evaluation report of the Ordnance Division: 1. The gun weighs slightly more than a regular rifle. Two. Steel must be outsourced. Three. The value of raw materials does not exceed the binary of ordinary guns. Four. Whether the muzzle bundle dust and sand will invade the muzzle hole, and whether there is any inconvenience in turning, should be decided when the army is practical. Five. How many rounds will change the caliber? For example, about 5,000 rounds of German steel. Six. Whether the gun will overheat. Seven. The rear of the bolt is slightly longer, does it affect aiming?

Speaking of which, several disadvantages of this automatic rifle are that the weight is too heavy, the requirements for steel are too high, the gun length is too long, and how to ensure that it is resistant to sand and dust.

The more Wang Maoru listened, his brows furrowed deeper, and finally sighed and said, "What is the range of Mr. Liu's rifle?" ”

Liu Qingen said: "The ruler has a range of two thousand meters, and an effective range of nine hundred meters. ”

Wang Maoru said again: "General Manager Liu, I think so, I have said to Han Linchun before, human vision is limited, under normal circumstances, the distance between people's naked eyes cannot reach two thousand meters, and the range of the gun does not need to reach two kilometers, so reducing the ammunition capacity, shortening the shooting distance, reducing the logistical pressure, and there is no need to cause trouble." At the same time, we will produce two types of rifles. A kind of rifle is the ordinary rifle we use, the effective shooting distance is 400 to 500 meters, and the ruler can be set at 1,200 meters, because the real lethality of the rifle is still within 300 meters. Another rifle was specially prepared for sharpshooters in the barracks, with an effective firing distance of 1,500 meters, a scale of more than 2,500 meters, and a sniper rifle made of monoculars. Now our army has these two types of guns. Both are based on the principle of the Lee Enfield rifle and the E1 rifle and the Type E sniper rifle produced with reference to some structures of the Japanese Type 38 rifle. However, neither of these two is perfect. Mr. Liu, I hope you can refer to the advantages of these two firearms to produce semi-automatic standard rifles and sniper rifles. ”

Liu Qingen said: "But." As a result, bullets are consumed...... Can our army afford it? He smiled bitterly: "One of the most important reasons why the automatic rifle I developed was vetoed by the Government Ordnance Department is that the Ordnance Department believes that our government army cannot afford to consume bullets. ”

Wang Maoru said: "The life of a soldier is far more than the value of 10,000 rounds of bullets, I would rather exchange 10,000 rounds of bullets for the life of a soldier, so, General Manager Liu, you can use your talent here to create a zào, I will not limit you." I hope you will produce a standard automatic rifle suitable for our army as soon as possible. ”

Liu Qingen didn't have the kind of protagonist to say, so he knelt on the ground excitedly and kowtowed to recognize the boss, but asked lightly: "Is it suitable for our army?" Please show it clearly. ”

Wang Maoru said: "Our army is fighting in the north, especially in the northeast. Mongolia, these places have a dry climate, dusty climate, longer winters, and lower temperatures. These constraints are taken into account. To give an example, the best heavy machine gun is a water-cooled Maxim machine gun, but our army is equipped with an S1 air-cooled light machine gun, and it would rather be equipped with three barrels than produce a water-cooled one. It is because it is absolutely impossible to cool the barrel with water cooling in winter. Of course, I admit that air-cooled machine guns are nowhere near as powerful as water-cooled machine guns. But this is also the reason why it is necessary to equip shoulder-fired rockets and sniper rifles, sniper rifles kill enemy heavy machine gunners, rockets kill enemy heavy machine guns and other equipment. ”

"What if the enemy is in the bunker?" Liu Qingen thought of this question and asked.

Wang Maoru thought for a while and said, "Use poison gas bombs." ”

"What if the enemy is equipped with gas masks?" Liu Qingen seemed to be breaking the spirit of the casserole and asked again.

"Molotov cocktails."

"Molotov cocktails?" Liu Qingen was surprised, "What is an incendiary bomb?" ”

Wang Maoru then thought that the incendiary bomb had not yet been invented in this era, since the incendiary bomb had not been invented, then we could be the first to invent it, especially the Japanese are extremely afraid of the incendiary bomb, because a large number of houses in Japan are wooden. If you have incendiary bombs and send planes to Japan from time to time to drop a few incendiary bombs when there is a conflict between China and Japan, it will definitely bring great damage to Japan's rear. Thinking of this, Wang Maoru couldn't help but say excitedly: "Incendiary bombs are artillery shells that aim to burn, set fire to enemy targets, and do not aim to blast damage. It can be made into rockets, mortar shells, aerial bombs, and kill and injure each other in a high-temperature manner. For example, the bunker you mentioned, when it is difficult to conquer with ordinary shells and explosives, it is burned with incendiary bombs, and the incendiary bombs instantly release the oxygen in the high-temperature burning bunker, causing the enemy in the bunker to suffocate or heat up, and have to escape from the bunker. ”

Liu Qingen's eyes widened, and he said half-loudly: "There is still such ammunition?" ”

"Yes."

"Where?" Liu Qingen showed his fascination with new weapons, and he was worthy of being a military expert, and he immediately wanted to learn about this weapon.

Wang Maoru spread his hands and said: "This is exactly the task I want to give you, and your No. 1 Arsenal in Northeast China will be responsible for research and development, which is one of the tasks I have given you." ”

Liu Qingen opened his mouth wide, and finally smiled bitterly: "You are so handsome, you are here to give me an order." ”

Wang Maoru laughed and said, "Minister, thank you for your hard work." ”

Liu Qingen shook his head and said: "I'm not afraid of hard work, what I'm afraid of is hard work but no results, this incendiary bomb is indeed a problem." ”

Later, Liu Qingen found his military experts to work together to formulate a plan to develop the second-generation standard rifle of the Northeast Frontier Army, including the E2 semi-automatic rifle, sniper rifle, light machine gun, and incendiary grenades. In order to save manpower, material and financial resources, Liu Qingen changed the direction of the R&D center from multi-party development to focus on overcoming difficulties, and conducted a multi-faceted evaluation and test of the new gun, which is still being tested at this stage. rs