Arc of Gunfire

Chapter 311 Butterfly flapping its wings (Silver Alliance update 2/10)

Things remained calm in February.

Wang Zhong remembered that the Soviet army launched the first Battle of Rzhev in January of the second year on earth, and then suffered a bloody blow on the fortification zone of the elite San Dezi.

It's February here, and Ant's army hasn't launched a large-scale attack.

Wang Zhong speculated that there were two reasons. The first was that most of the quick-victory faction had lost power, and the moderate faction represented by Wang Zhong now occupied the dominant position.

The reason why it is called Moderate School is because Wang Zhong read a lot of Gou Daoliu's online articles before traveling through time, and thought that the term Moderate School was good, so he used it.

The second reason is that Proson retreated more completely this time.

After the failure of the Santoku Typhoon operation on Earth, there was no such complete defeat. They still held a salient and could threaten Maozi's capital at any time.

This led to Maozi trying desperately to "smooth" this protruding part.

Therefore, Maozi launched a large-scale offensive war when his personnel training and commander level were far inferior to San Dezi, and he paid a lot of sacrifices in vain.

Here, Prosen has all retreated to the launch line in October. The threat to Yebao is indeed still there, but it is not as big as the Rzhev salient on the earth.

Although the Rzhev Bulge is named after this city, this place is actually only the northern apex of the Bulge. The Bulge also has an eastern apex, which is only more than 100 kilometers away from Maozi's capital.

Rzhev itself is only about two hundred kilometers away from the capital.

So this huge protrusion is like a sharp knife stuck in the battle line, which can make Maozi's blood splash three feet at any time.

But there is no such salient when looking at the central front of the Ant Empire.

If you ignore the curvature of the ground and simply describe it based on the situation on the map, the entire front is now a diagonal line, starting from the northernmost Fort St. Andrew and drawing all the way to the southern coastal fortress - Borsk.

If you think of the Ant Europa part as a pistol drumstick, then the battle line is a cut at the crook of the leg.

The reason for this situation is easy to understand. To the south is the Great Plains, and the infrastructure is relatively good, so Proson pushed farther.

There are swamps, lakes, and a lot of forests to the north, so the battle for the Prosen army will be a bit harder.

Because of this, the supplies of the Plosen people in the north are actually better. On the one hand, the road is short, and on the other hand, they rely on the sea and have shipping support.

The Prossen people in the south have also invested in battleships, but after all, the Prossen people cannot support large ships in the port here. It will not be long before the battleship will be withdrawn through the strait controlled by the neutral country to the port of the Prossen Empire allies for overhaul. .

Such a large ship will need major repairs after one or two years of operation.

There is almost the same diagonal line on the earth, and then there is a Rzhev protrusion in the middle.

This is almost as simple as looking at the map and you will know why Maozi is trying so hard to take back this protruding part.

But there is no such protrusion here.

Wang Zhong took the time to check the timeline these days and found that this change may have a great connection with himself.

The first was the defensive operation in Shostka. Wang Zhong's troops, as well as the army group led by his superior Kirinenko, and Kashuch's army, firmly blocked the Duwa River defense line.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of troops who were surrounded and annihilated on Earth escaped from the encirclement for this reason.

This allowed the Ant Empire to mobilize its troops to launch a counterattack when Prosin was most depleted, and annihilated 100,000 people of Prosin in one fell swoop.

And this was also achieved by Wang Zhong personally leading the team.

This victory greatly boosted the morale of Ante's soldiers and civilians, and probably affected the judgments of Prosen commanders at all levels. Therefore, they simply retreated to a place where they could stabilize their defense line, leaving no super-large tanks that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. Large protrusions.

Yes, the Rzhev salient of the earth is very huge. Although there is only one Ninth Army stationed there, this army is about the same size as Paulus's Sixth Army.

The Zhelev salient is even large enough to accommodate troops who have been removed from the front line for rest and recuperation. During Maozi's first attack, there happened to be an armored division that had been replaced and rested near the breakthrough. Then the commander of the armored division showed amazing qualities and gathered at the group army headquarters. When Chaos was unable to issue effective instructions, he judged the direction of the enemy's attack on his own and launched a counterattack.

It is precisely because the Zhelev protrusion is so huge that Santoku can implement elastic defense here - it can only bounce when it has depth. When the steel plate is knocked, it will only make a bang bang, and will not make people feel elastic.

The flat front with no protrusions meant that if Proson wanted to launch an attack on Yebao, he would have to take another 300-kilometer advance.

But the absence of a salient also means that Proson's headquarters only needs fewer troops to fill the defense line, and he has more power in his hands to do other things.

After the enemy resumes his offensive, the pressure on the southern front will increase sharply.

On the other side of the earth, precisely because of the existence of the Rhelov Salient, Santoku had to deploy hundreds of thousands of troops to defend the salient. When Maozi attacked it, he continued to ask for reinforcements. A large number of troops were dragged behind the Rhelov Salient. department.

There should be no such good thing this time.

Wang Zhong, this little butterfly, finally distorted the direction of history.

Maybe the Prosen Empire, which has more mobile power, will really push towards Kuba, and then Ant will continue to fight the Prosen Empire despite being short of oil and heating fuel.

Wang Zhong could imagine that the battle would become very difficult.

No matter what, the enemy's intention to occupy Kuba must be defeated.

But this is not what Wang Zhong has to worry about now.

The Prossens can attack as early as April, after the mud has completely improved.

There are still three months for Wang Zhong to prepare.

On February 10, the review committee held its second new equipment review. This time, the vortex-type 100mm gun carrier that had been tested for more than a month was also added to the approval list and was placed on the penultimate stage.

The penultimate one is regarded as the finale.

Before the final 100mm artillery carrier debuts, there are still 17 improved weapons waiting for approval.

Most improvements are based on feedback from the battlefield.

Only three weapons had innovative production processes, so the design drawings were modified to adapt to the new process.

Only five of the 17 improved weapons were judged to be qualified and were handed over to the Ordnance Bureau to start organizing manual production.

Then it was the turn of Wang Zhong's favorite work, the "Vortex" tank destroyer.

Chief Engineer Kejing walked into the review hall in high spirits and asked his assistant to hang the drawings of the vortex tank destroyer on the blackboard.

Wang Zhong could see that this drawing was much more detailed than before.

When the drawings were hung up, the Army representative on the review committee widened his eyes.

"What is this?" he asked, looking at Ke Jing at first, but then turned to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "Tank destroyers have to adopt a turret-less design because they need to be equipped with larger artillery. Once the machine tools imported from the United States are in place, we can build a tank equipped with such a powerful main weapon! With a turret That kind of thing!”

The committee members all showed "I see" expressions and nodded repeatedly, seemingly voting to approve the design.

No one even asked questions.

Wang Zhong originally thought that he would have to fight with the Confucian scholars before the Whirlpool plan could be passed. Unexpectedly, it was passed calmly, as if it was a matter of course.

After sending away the chief engineer of Kejing, the last review item appeared.

Tokarev took his masterpiece and entered the review room.

Facing the judges sitting behind the long table, he looked directly at Wang Zhong alone: ​​"General Rokossov, I made a new prototype gun according to your instructions. Tell me this It is a submachine gun that can still hit people at a distance of 200 meters. I think I have made a weapon that meets your requirements. "

As he spoke, Tokarev walked directly towards Wang Zhong with a sample gun. As a result, several inquisitors immediately opened the side door of the room and rushed in, pressing him to the ground.

Wang Zhong: "Let him come over, but how can he hand me the gun?"

As a result, one of the inquisitors took away the sample gun from Tokarev's hand, and then respectfully raised it to Wang Zhong with both hands.

While Wang Zhong was playing with the gun, Tokarev was also freed from the clutches of the judges.

He hurriedly explained: "I further shortened the length of the bullet and reduced the amount of powder. As a result, the weight of the rifle when fully loaded was greatly reduced.

"Shrinking the bullet has brought about a decrease in range and power. We tested it many times and finally adjusted the amount of propellant in each bullet to the appropriate level.

"If there is less propellant, the trajectory will be significantly curved and it will not be able to achieve the 200-meter shooting accuracy you require.

"If you add more propellant, the accuracy will increase, but according to you, this increase in accuracy doesn't mean much."

"Very good!" Wang Zhong praised, "Tokarev Davarisi, you have understood what I meant."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and looked carefully at the sample gun in his hand.

Looks a bit like a VSS "thread cutter" silent rifle.

The biggest feature of the thread cutter rifle is the very thick silenced barrel. Wang Zhong didn't know why this gun had such a thick barrel.

He asked Tokarev: "Why is the barrel of the gun so thick?"

Tokarev: "In order to ensure better stability, we set up a gas guide device in the barrel to guide part of the gunpowder gas generated during shooting out of the gun and reduce the recoil. Surprisingly, this design makes this gun The muzzle flash and smoke when the gun is fired are relatively small, especially the sound, which is much smaller.

"We speculate that part of the energy of the gunpowder gas is dispersed by the gas guide device, causing the bullet to exit the muzzle at a speed of only 320 meters per second, which is lower than the speed of sound, so the bullet will not make a huge sound when it breaks the sound barrier.

"Similarly because the gas guide structure disperses the gunpowder gas, the sound waves generated by the gunpowder gas impact around the bullet when it leaves the barrel are also smaller."

Good guy, in order to improve the stability of shooting, I accidentally created a silent rifle.

At this time, the Army representative asked: "Wait a minute, are the bullets fired by this gun so slow? Will the trajectory be very curved?"

Tokarev replied: "It is a little more curved than ordinary bullets, but after all, it only shoots 200 meters and reaches it in about 0.5 seconds. The total drop is actually not bad.

"If you are shooting, this drop is actually irrelevant. If you are raising it to aim accurately, we can take this drop into account on the ruler, so that the shooter will actually raise the barrel of the gun to an almost impossible level when aiming. Perception angle.”

Wang Zhong asked worriedly: "But if the speed is slow, will the bullet's lethality be insufficient?"

Tokarev replied: "We have tested it with soft rubber. When it hits directly, because the kinetic energy of this thing is relatively small, it rolls inside the soft rubber that simulates the human body, and the energy is converted into destruction. In general, most of the energy of bullets is He was taken away by the bullet that passed through from the other end.

"Of course, in terms of penetration ability, this thing is indeed inferior to high-speed bullets. You can also remove the gas guide device and use an ordinary barrel to shoot."

Tokarev gestured, and the assistant pulled out a gun that looked like a shortened version of a Dragunov sniper rifle.

Of course, there is a version without a scope and an extended magazine.

Tokarev: "Be careful, this thing jumps hard when hit."

Wang Zhong was speechless: "Which version is approved, I have to try it myself."

Immediately the committee officer replied: "Next door is the indoor shooting range of the Skitarii. It was converted from the People's Stadium. You can go there to test fire."

"Okay, let's go there."

Thirty minutes later, Wang Zhong fired thirty or forty rounds from both guns. The gun with no gas tube and fast bullet speed is really difficult to use when strafing. It makes people doubt that it is not loaded with reduced charge ammunition at all. Therefore, if you want to maintain a better hit with this gun, you need to fire in short bursts, three rounds or more at a time. Four shots.

The "thread cutter" version is very comfortable when shooting. If you pull the trigger from the waist and empty the 20-round magazine, you can still get one or two rounds on the target. This is a 200-meter target!

After the trial, Wang Zhong came to a conclusion and asked Tokarev: "Which production has the lowest man-hours?"

Tokarev replied instantly: "Of course it's the ordinary barrel type."

Wang Zhong decided: "Then mass-produce the ordinary gun barrel."

Tokarev was shocked; "I think you prefer the subsonic version!"

Wang Zhong: "Yes, I prefer it, but in the future, this thing may need to be mass-produced at six, seven, or even tens of thousands of units per day to meet demand. There is no time for such slow work and meticulous work."

Tokarev added: "However, the processing of the barrel only took half an hour longer, because I made productive modifications to the barrel gas guide to make it easier to produce."

Wang Zhong: "Half an hour is a lot! One tube is a waste of half a working hour. If you produce 10,000 tubes a day, 5,000 working hours are wasted!"

Tokarev shook his head: "General, you can't calculate it like this. Both weapons can reach a rate of 10,000 a day, but the factory workers producing the subsonic bullet version need more workers because there is an extra step of making barrels. "

Wang Zhong fiddled with the "thread cutting machine" in his hand.

Tokarev: "And the two types of gun barrels are interchangeable. We can separate the factories that make gun barrels, so that both guns can start production. Based on the output of the gun barrel factory, we can decide which one produces more. As long as there are more It’s enough to hire a few hundred workers, and the larger the scale, the lower the cost.”

Wang Zhong thought for a while and finally nodded: "We produce both types, and the troops will use whichever version is sent to them."