Chapter 10: The Kingdom of Guns
Dara, Pakistan.
Located 40 kilometers south of Peshawar, on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, this is a small village that cannot be found on the map. Although it is small, it is famous because about 50,000 guns are shipped to all parts of the world every year.
No matter what kind of gun it is, the craftsmen in the village can imitate it: the American M16, the German G3, the Belgian FAL... But the most famous imitation gun is the AK47 automatic rifle, and its imitation craftsmanship is almost identical to the original.
There are more than 50 stone houses on both sides of the 500-meter-long street in the village. These houses are gun-making workshops with shops in front and factories in the back. Imitation AK47 automatic rifles are hung in each store. At nine o'clock every morning, people wearing different clothes gather on the street to buy guns. At the same time, the piercing sound of gunfire can be heard continuously, single shots, bursts, and continuous shots. The air is always filled with a thick smell of gun smoke.
Zhao Ziyang, pretending to be a guest with Angel, walked on the streets of the village, looking left and right at the shops of all sizes with disbelief in his eyes. He even saw imitations of the domestically produced Type 95 assault rifles in several shops.
In addition to pistols, rifles, submachine guns, and heavy machine guns, there were also various individual rocket launchers for sale, which made him amazed.
"Angel, isn't there anyone here asking? For example, the Pakistani government. As far as I know, the Pakistani government has very strict management of civilian firearms and ammunition." Zhao Ziyang asked Angel.
Angel had a headscarf on her head and a veil on her face, dressed like a Middle Eastern woman. There was no way, if her appearance appeared in this place, she would definitely become the focus in an instant, and it would be inconvenient for her to go anywhere.
"Dara Village is located in the autonomous area of the Pashtun tribe. Here, the power of the Pakistani government police is not accepted. The power here is exercised by their own tribal police. In the 19th century, Afghanistan was invaded by Britain. The British army encountered tenacious resistance from the Pashtuns living across Afghanistan and Pakistan. The gun-making technology has been passed down since then.
The autonomous regions of the Pashtun people have had their own laws since ancient times - customary law and police. After Pakistan's independence, all of this was recognized by the government and has continued to this day. Most importantly, the Pakistani government needs the help of the Pashtuns to a large extent in replacing the military's guns, because their gun craftsmanship is better than the government's. "
Great place! This is a great place!
Walking into a shop, Zhao Ziyang looked at the rifles hanging on the wall with great interest. When the shop owner saw Zhao Ziyang and Angel coming in, he immediately stood up enthusiastically and accepted all kinds of guns from Zhao Ziyang with a smile on his face.
"Dear guests from afar, welcome to Dara, welcome to the land of guns, you can call me Carl." The shop owner smiled widely, reached out to take down an AK-47 from the wall, and pulled the bolt skillfully, allowing Zhao Ziyang to see the internal structure of the bolt. He said proudly, "My AK rifle is the best in the world. The bolt handle, gas ring, piston, piston rod, gas tube, recoil mechanism, bolt, hammer, trigger... All the parts of the whole gun abandoned the usual stamping manufacturing and were all made by hand. You can try it."
Taking the AK rifle from the store owner, Zhao Ziyang weighed it, pulled the trigger repeatedly, and listened to the sound of the bolt with his ears.
"It's very cheap, only one thousand US dollars. This purely handmade AK-47 rifle will become a sharp weapon that you must have at home and when traveling..." The owner saw that Zhao Ziyang was fiddling with the gun with great interest, and immediately told him the price of the gun.
When he said the price, Zhao Ziyang almost laughed out loud: One thousand US dollars? You are fooling a fool. No businessman is honest. They will always let you cut the price in half first before they can bargain.
This gun is indeed a good replica, but it is definitely not as exaggerated as the store owner said. Except for the hammer, firing pin and other precision parts that are hand-made, the rest are stamped and then polished manually. The most important thing is the barrel. The rifle of this gun is pressed and made by a small stamping machine, which is definitely a common product.
Zhao Ziyang held up two fingers, smiled at the shop owner and said, "Two hundred dollars!"
"Oh my God, you want to buy this gun for two hundred dollars? You are dreaming! You should know that someone once offered two thousand dollars for this purely handmade rifle, but I didn't sell it to you. If I hadn't seen that you are an Oriental, I would not have sold it to you at all!" The owner said loudly to Zhao Ziyang with an unwilling look on his face, as if he had suffered a great loss.
The two bills were handed over to the shop owner, and Zhao Ziyang swiftly put the rifle on his back.
"If the barrel of your rifle is made by hook-knife broaching or combined ring broaching, or the rifling is made by hydraulic press, I can give you one thousand dollars. But yours is made by stamping machine, which not only does not change the disadvantage of the barrel thickness, but also reduces the life of the barrel. If my estimate is correct, this rifle will be scrapped after 5,000! 8,000 rounds of bullets, so the two hundred dollars is worth it."
The shopkeeper held the two hundred dollars Zhao Ziyang threw at him in his hand, was stunned for a while, and then reluctantly put the money away. However, he immediately smiled again and introduced other guns to Zhao Ziyang.
The base has Pandora, who was once the chief firearms consultant of Remington, which is enough for Zhao Ziyang to judge the pros and cons of various firearms in a short time. The market price of such an AK rifle is about 300 US dollars, but as a manufacturer, 200 US dollars is still profitable.
Now Zhao Ziyang understood why Angel brought him out of the base without equipping him with any weapons. It turned out that any firearm could be bought in this place.
"PM sniper rifle." Angel's cold voice came out.
"Yes!" The boss responded readily, walked to the innermost part, took down a PM sniper rifle from the wall and threw it to Zhao Ziyang.
However, as soon as the sniper rifle reached Zhao Ziyang's hand, he took a quick look at it and threw it back, shaking his head at the owner.
"Don't give me these inferior products sold to child soldiers in the Middle East or Africa. I want the best, understand? The real quality."
The shop owner looked at Zhao Ziyang and smiled. He knew that the man in front of him was definitely an expert and ordinary goods would not satisfy him.
“There are fine products, but…”
"Money is not a problem!" Zhao Ziyang quickly took out a stack of colorful US dollars from his pocket and said to the store owner, "Don't fool me with inferior products anymore."
“Hahahaha…how could that be? Follow me!” Seeing the US dollars in Zhao Ziyang’s hand, the owner laughed, waved at the two of them and asked them to follow him, and walked towards the workshop behind the store.
There were three workers making rifles in the workshop, with semi-finished products and various parts scattered around. When they saw the owner bringing Zhao Ziyang and Angel in, they just glanced at them and continued to work, as if they were used to it.
"Very few people buy PM sniper rifles, because those who come here to buy guns are basically armed forces buying in bulk. There are also those who buy individually or make custom orders, but they are usually laymen and not very interested in the manual-shooting PM sniper rifle." As the shop owner spoke, he rummaged around in the corner and took out a gun barrel and some accessories.
"There is no finished PM sniper rifle, but this barrel is enough." The owner threw the barrel to Zhao Ziyang and motioned him to take a look.
The rifling of the gun barrel was visually inspected and found to have been broached about 70 times, so the precision was quite good. After Angel nodded, Zhao Ziyang handed the gun barrel and the money to the shop owner, signaling him to start work immediately and complete the production of this PM sniper rifle.
After receiving a thick stack of US dollars, the owner drove out several workers without saying a word and started making the gun.
In a short period of time, a sniper rifle specially designed for SAS snipers was assembled, displayed in front of the two men, and stamped with the Accuracy International company label.
The gun is 1.124 to 1.194 meters long, the barrel is 655 mm long, the weight is 6.5 kg, and it fires 7.62 mm NATO. It has an aluminum alloy receiver, 10 rounds of ammunition, and an adjustable bipod, which is almost exactly the same as the real thing.
"Try a gun?" suggested the shopkeeper.
"Okay." Zhao Ziyang nodded.
Led by the shop owner, the two men walked towards the mountainside about 1,000 meters behind the village, where there was a large rock used as a target for testing guns.
It was almost noon at this time, and many shop owners who were buying and selling guns gathered in front of the shooting range and were taking the final step of testing the guns.
“Da da da…” “Bang! Bang! Bang!…”
The sound of bursts, single shots, and bursts of gunfire continued, as lively as the battlefield in Afghanistan. The huge rock was full of small craters, and it was unknown how many bullets it had endured.
Most of the people who try out guns come in groups of three or five, but there are also dozens of people together. These are usually large buyers who make bulk purchases and have established a certain friendly and cooperative relationship here. Otherwise, so many people would never be allowed in with guns.
The most conspicuous group of people were located to the right front of Zhao Ziyang and his team. Judging from their facial features, they were obviously Muslim Pashtuns. Judging from their words and deeds, they were very friendly with the Pashtuns in this village and obviously bought guns here frequently.
"There has been a pro-American rebellion among the anti-government forces in southern Afghanistan, and these people are the rebels." Angel stood behind Zhao Ziyang and whispered in his ear, "They support the US government and the Afghan government supported by the US, and are not tolerated by the southern anti-government forces."
"Oh?" Zhao Ziyang frowned and looked at the group of anti-government armed members.
"They are Pashtuns. They have always been on good terms with the Pashtuns in this village. You will face being hunted down by this group of Pashtuns." Angel continued in a low voice: "The southern anti-government armed forces hired us to strangle this group of rebels. Remember, in such a mountainous area, use a sniper rifle..."
"What?" Zhao Ziyang was a little confused, but he had a bad feeling in his heart.
"boom!"
The dull sound of a sniper rifle rang out, and the head of the Afghan who was at the innermost part of the rebel group was pierced. The explosive bullet blew off half of his head, and blood, flesh, and brain matter splattered in the air. The whole person fell to the side under the powerful penetration of the bullet and fell heavily to the ground.
At the same time, Zhao Ziyang felt something extra in his hand. He looked down and saw that it was the PM sniper rifle he bought for Angel. The barrel was hot.
As the Afghan rebel was killed, the entire shooting range suddenly became chaotic. Everyone had a gun in their hands, and they immediately turned their eyes to the direction where the gunshots came from.
"Angel!" Zhao Ziyang called out to Angel loudly, but found that Angel had disappeared in the chaos.
"Fuck!" Zhao Ziyang cursed angrily, and in a hurry he pulled out a magazine from his waist, threw it into the crowd and shouted: "Fire in the hole!"
With a loud bang, the crowd of people with guns fell to the ground to avoid the explosion of the grenade.
At this time, Zhao Ziyang ran desperately towards the valley thirty meters away: Angel had tricked him!
He never thought that Angel would use this method to retaliate against him, but it was useless to think about it now. He had to save his life first.
"Da da da da..." The sound of explosive gunfire rang out the moment Zhao Ziyang crossed the valley. Hundreds of guns fired at him at the same time, and the entire valley immediately turned into a fierce battlefield.
The villagers who heard the gunshots immediately rushed out, regardless of gender, age or status, each with a gun in hand, shouting and chasing after Zhao Ziyang.
The extremely tough Pashtuns have their own rules. They will never allow anyone to kill people with guns in their territory, otherwise they will be hunted down and killed. Guns are the commodities they survive on. When commodities become murder weapons, no one will dare to buy guns because there is no safety and no guarantee.
Zhao Ziyang was being chased by hundreds of people, the sound of gunfire continued, and the bullets behind him almost drove him crazy. He finally discovered that Angel was also a pervert, even more perverted than Pandora and the others!
Run! Saving your life is the most important thing!
