afterglow

Chapter 571: Future Team Tactics and Universal Machine Guns; Pure Treasures
After a long time, the moon rose above the willow branches.

"Oh? Are you planning to call it a day?"

"Only once a day is enough, how can we catch all the fish?" Xia Xiaoshi, with a blushing face, stretched and sat on an empty chair while adjusting her clothes.

"You know the long-term solution." Zhou Changfeng smiled and handed her a handkerchief, then picked up the pen.

"My mother told me that you should pay more attention to your home. At your level, you can no longer let it go."

"Ah? Why are you paying attention to your own home?"

The fact that Mr. Zhou has no heirs becomes more and more obvious as time goes by, which makes people uneasy no matter how you look at it.

Putting aside traditional concepts and considering more realistic issues of interest, Zhou must have an heir.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong, all the famous generals and their families will be left alone are orphans and widowers. There is no shortage of people in this world who would add insult to injury and would rather harm others than benefit themselves...

Xia Xiaoshi didn't take this matter to heart before, and it wasn't until recently that she realized that she couldn't let it go.

This extreme measure resulted in all members of the German infantry squad being responsible for the machine gun, and everyone was required to carry bullets for this high-rate general-purpose machine gun.

When talking about the machine guns used by infantry units, in this era, the two brothers MG34 and MG42 cannot be avoided.

Today, the exploration phase has ended, and the latter has still become the mainstream. It can be said that it reaches the same destination as the original plane by different routes.

Zhou Changfeng stood up and started the gramophone in the corner of the room, and started writing under the soft music...

Gao Lingling criticized her for being too pampered and too well-protected. She was simply heartless and far from being a mature and stable general's wife.

"Ah? Stop joking, Xiaoshi."

Secondly, it can ensure basic combat effectiveness when reducing personnel. Anyway, the core output source is my MG34/42. As long as the machine gunner is fine, it will not matter if there are a few riflemen missing or a few dead.

Why! Xiaoshi still doesn’t think deeply enough. So he thought.

Don’t forget that under the Constitution of the Ming Dynasty, there was no distinction in status among wives and concubines as in ancient times. Nowadays, the lover who enters the palace can really rebel against the original wife like the romance novels of later generations.

The clouds gradually gathered, covering the bright moon and stars.

Among rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and shotguns, the most critical one is undoubtedly the machine gun.

In any case, machine guns are the main source of firepower for an infantry squad. Take the Bren light machine gun team as an example. A team of three people can pour hundreds of bullets into the enemy in a minute. The remaining soldiers using rifles are just foil.

"It's too late!" Xia Xiaoshi clenched her fists and said seriously: "Victory is based on quantity!"

Whether a weapon is suitable for field installation depends on many factors, including not only the production capacity of the country, but also whether it fits the tactics of the country's army.

Tactically, using firepower to suppress the enemy is the first priority. Only in this way can follow-up operations be facilitated. Otherwise, you will be at a disadvantage.

Now that the day's work is done and the evening household chores have been hastily finished, I have time to do whatever I want to do.

"No, I'm not interested in most women right now."

The white noise of nature does not disturb the mind, but sometimes it can make people concentrate more.

Another huge price is...the fault tolerance rate is greatly reduced.

However, everything has pros and cons.

The German People's Army was different from its history. They followed two parallel paths during the exploration phase - some infantry divisions followed the A version of the doctrine and were equipped with light machine guns, emphasizing flexible team coordination in combat; some divisions followed the B version of the doctrine and were equipped with general-purpose machine guns. Emphasize that everything is based on machine guns.

But the biggest threat that the Ming army needs to face is not like this - the US military has installed a large number of semi-automatic rifles.

Seeing her very serious look, Zhou Changfeng had no choice but to politely refuse: "Now is a critical period. I want to focus on the military."

Zhou Changfeng refused to let go, and Xia Xiaoshi was unable to defeat him for the time being.

The German army uniquely deployed the high-rate MG34/42 general-purpose machine gun to infantry squads. This was essentially a radical and extreme pursuit of firepower——

Putting himself in his shoes and thinking about such a scene, Zhou Changfeng felt overwhelmed.

However, Xia Xiaoshi ignored this excuse and said bluntly: "You are messing around again! Only half an hour?"

When chatting with many generals and dignitaries over dinner and drinks all over the world, there will always be complaints about this - when there are more women, they will scheming, testing, ridiculing, and saying bad things overtly and covertly, which is very irritating.

After she left, a rather helpless Zhou Changfeng muttered to himself: "Why are they all more anxious than me..."

He simply disliked the trouble and was worried that the family would be in trouble in the future.

Improve the performance of the machine gun to the extreme! Let the infantry squad have much stronger firepower than other army infantry squads! Squad tactics are entirely centered around machine guns!
This brings two major benefits:

The German army did this based on the fact that bolt-action rifles were still widely used by the armies of all major powers at the same time, and the results were good.

It is necessary to formally start studying the tactics of future infantry units, and the development of small arms should also begin.

She snorted coldly and walked away, ready to think of a better solution.

To be fair, Zhou Changfeng really didn't expect that he would have to face this problem now - why did it become a must-do main task?
After listening to his wife's serious explanation, he pointed at her belly and said, "No matter what happens, I will only give birth to one baby a year. Let's wait until next year to find out."

Whether attacking or retreating, strong firepower gives you a natural advantage.

The first is to defeat ten enemies with one force. The terrifying machine gun firepower gives the German infantry units a natural advantage in battles of comparable scale. No matter what fancy tricks you use, as long as my MG34/42 is still there, you will be helpless. It’s just so helpless. Be reasonable.

If the three machine gunners are killed, the German infantry squad will almost collapse, and its combat effectiveness will be worse than nothing.

"No, whether it's for Jian Jian or for me, we can't avoid this important matter."

"Ha... just wait!"

Not long after, the drizzle of early winter rain fell from the sky.

The U.S. infantry squad that also pursues firepower first may even be equipped with two Browning automatic rifles and the rest use semi-automatic rifles. Therefore, the advantages of bolt-action rifles paired with high-rate general-purpose machine guns are somewhat reduced.

The benefits are reduced, but the disadvantages remain - lower error tolerance.

What's more, our own side has already equipped automatic rifles in small batches and has better tools, so Zhou Changfeng naturally looks down upon the German army's extreme measures.

大明陆军当前的步兵班编制为十一人，分为四人机枪组（1挺轻机枪和3支步枪）和七人步枪组（2支自动枪、4支步枪、1支附带枪榴弹的步枪）。

His idea is roughly as follows: the infantry squad will remain unchanged at eleven people, and the machine gun team will be reduced to three people, commanded by the squad leader, and equipped with a better light machine gun; the remaining eight-man rifle team will all be equipped with automatic rifles or submachine guns instead.

This better light machine gun has better firepower sustainability than the current 7.36-type light machine gun that uses a thirty-round magazine, and it needs to fire 40×mm intermediate-power bullets, so it can use the same bullets as automatic rifles. .

In this way, the light machine gun will not become a burden on the infantry squad.

Even if all the machine gun crews were injured or killed, the remaining infantry squads would still have a strong combat effectiveness - even the eight-man rifle crews would be enough to fight against the US infantry squads. This is the confidence that a large number of equipped automatic rifles bring!

The tactical advantages this brings don't stop there. Because of the abundant firepower, the eight-man rifle team can act very boldly, dividing it into two or even four!
Even if a two-man combat team alternately covers the leap forward, the U.S. military will be unable to do anything, because each of them can suppress two or three U.S. riflemen using Garand semi-automatic rifles, or fight against one U.S. machine gunner using a Browning automatic rifle.

Zhou Changfeng is also considering reducing one or two automatic rifles and replacing them with sniper rifles or ordinary bolt-action rifles for launching rifle grenades.

In theory, such a move would not cause much trouble to logistics, and under the current conditions, it is almost the optimal solution.

Four magazines with 120 rounds of intermediate-power bullets are enough for a day of medium-intensity combat. These bullets only weigh 2.2kg. In comparison, one artillery shell weighs 21kg (105㎜ high-explosive bomb)!
The difference between the two is ten times, which is not an order of magnitude at all.

Therefore, the consumption of bullets caused by a large number of automatic rifles is not a big problem. The heavy artillery shells are the bulk of the material transportation capacity.

In addition, based on the calculation that each division requires 2,500 automatic rifles, the number required for five to seven "Prospect Method Divisions" is less than 20,000.

It is definitely a fantasy for millions of troops to collectively equip automatic rifles, but it is only a few divisions... It is not a problem for the Ming Dynasty's military industry department.

In addition to adjustments to the squad level, Zhou Changfeng also envisions making minor changes to the company level.

The Ming Army Infantry Corps has three infantry platoons, a heavy firearms platoon, a cooking squad, and a transport squad.

Among them, the heavy machine gun squad of the heavy firearms platoon is equipped with two Type 37 heavy machine guns as the backbone of firepower - the domestically produced version of the Czech VZ..

This kind of heavy machine gun is not satisfactory, and its actual combat performance can be said to be excellent, but Zhou Changfeng wants to pursue the ultimate.

The Type 36.5 heavy machine gun has abundant firepower, good accuracy, and a rate of fire that can be fast or slow. However, it is heavy, with a tripod weighing a full kilograms, which slows down the company's first-level operations.

Ever since, general-purpose machine guns have come into play in this situation. For example, the MG-34 with a tripod is only 19.2kg.

Replacing the two Type 37 heavy machine guns in the heavy firearms platoon's machine gun squad with lighter general-purpose machine guns is a very worthwhile trade-off for flexibility at the cost of no or a small loss of firepower.

The Ming Dynasty military inspection team also brought back two MG34s and 6000 rounds of ammunition from their trip to Europe, which have been handed over to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War for testing.

In line with the principle of borrowing, Zhou Changfeng thought that he might as well just copy the MG34 and avoid going to a lot of trouble to design it himself.

"It's an assault rifle, a general-purpose machine gun, and a bulletproof blade device. Oh my god... I don't know what the Americans will come up with if they are so anxious!"

When he thought of such a scene, he became very excited.

Unconsciously, the drizzle of rain had stopped, and he realized that it was almost Haishi.

After leaving the study, he tiptoed to the door of the living room and looked around.

Xia Xiaoshi was seen leaning against the bedside, concentrating on reading under the lamp, without even noticing her approach.

"Cough cough!"

Upon discovering that someone Zhou suddenly appeared, Xia Xiaoshi immediately put down the book in her hand, then lay down forward, stretching out her arms and legs in a large shape to occupy the entire bed.

"What are you doing?"

"Zhou Kexing, don't even think about getting into this bed until you agree!" Her tone was very solemn, but her current posture had nothing to do with solemnity.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't laugh or cry.

The wife asked her husband to take concubines in order to have more children, but the latter disagreed, and the two ended up in conflict?
This, this, this...this is simply speechless! Others may be confused after hearing this.

He took two steps forward, grabbed her clothes with one hand and lifted her up.

"Look, I'm coming up right now?"

"Let go, let go!"

Xia Xiaoshi struggled for a few times, and the silk clothes were torn with a "sizzle", revealing a tender white color in an instant.

She panicked: "Huh? Wait, wait, the clothes are torn!"

Zhou Changfeng lay down neatly, then put his arms around her waist, and deliberately provoked: "You are disrespectful to your husband, and I will punish you by sleeping naked tonight!"

The latter also resisted twice symbolically, but to no avail. Instead, someone from Zhou pulled his lower body down.

"That's too much!" she shouted.

"Sleep honestly." Zhou Changfeng yawned, reached out and turned off the lamp, and the room suddenly became dark.

A quiet and peaceful night passed quietly in my sleep...

Xia Xiaoshi still refused to admit defeat, claiming that she would definitely find a way to get Zhou to agree.

The latter didn't take it seriously and went straight out.

Not to mention, now that I am the staff officer of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, equivalent to the deputy chief of staff, I am indeed quite fresh and very motivated.

He did not go to the Governor's Mansion, but went straight to the Ministry of War's official office.

It's been less than half a month since then, and the Ordnance Bureau's test of the MG34 is almost over.

"With the great presence of General Staff Officer Qianshi, the Ordnance Bureau is in full bloom."

The officials who came to greet him smiled and saluted, and then served tea and water and delivered cakes.

"I called you this morning to tell you how it went. What about the machine gun evaluation report?"

"Okay, we've summarized everything. Come here and bring us the German-style 'precious things' report!"

Professional and technical personnel from the Ming Dynasty Ordnance Bureau conducted detailed tests on two MG34 general-purpose machine guns, and everyone received mixed reviews.

First of all, the bolts of the two machine guns are interchangeable, and the tolerances of the parts are extremely well controlled.

Secondly, the quick barrel change is well designed and can be completed in just six seconds.

Next, although it is not difficult to control stably during continuous shooting, the shooting accuracy is average and the dispersion is large.

In addition, the semi-automatic function of the gun is of unclear significance, and its accuracy is average. It cannot meet the task of long-distance semi-automatic burst shooting, which increases the structural complexity in vain.

Finally, the processing of the gun is complex, with a large number of parts that require fine milling, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

All things considered, this is a pure gem - good performance, but flashy.

"You don't know, the tripod of this thing is also surprisingly complicated. The Germans said that the gun itself is worth more than 300 marks, but where is the tripod? It costs 400 marks! It's unheard of." An engineer sighed.

(End of this chapter)