Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 491 History of Submachine Guns
"Your Majesty, my colleagues, this is the report on the Luzon Campaign. Overall, it would be an exaggeration to say that our army has made little progress, but our daily progress can really only be described as a smidgen of progress."
On November 15, 1621, the battle reports from Cao Wenzhao, Liu Zhaosun and others were delivered to Beijing. At the State Council meeting that day, this matter was naturally the first thing to be discussed.
After listening to Ma Chengzhao's explanation, Zhu Youdong, who was sitting in the main seat, tapped the table slowly and rhythmically with his fingers and fell into deep thought.
In this dimension, because the traversers are racing against each other to climb the technology tree, the weapons are replaced too quickly, at least in the military field. This puts extremely high demands and challenges on the commanders in terms of tactics.
Simply put, when Zhu Youdong personally led the expedition to Jianzhou Guard nine years ago, although the top flintlock rifles of Henghai Guard played a decisive role on the battlefield at that time, it must be admitted that the mainstream at that time was still heavy infantry fighting each other. And when it came to the Eastern Expedition to the Tokugawa Shogunate three years ago, it was a typical line-up shooting. And now? Machine guns have been invented, and the line-up shooting tactics that were just born in the Ming Dynasty and were only used two or three times in actual combat have naturally been eliminated.
Facing machine guns and trenches, it was natural for skirmish line tactics to emerge. In fact, relying on the teacher-student relationship at Fangshan School, Luo Xiong's privately written battle report was also handed over to Zhu Youdong. This student, who was extremely talented in land warfare, even proposed that in the face of the opponent's tight defense, our army should form a combat group of three to five soldiers. The method of three to five combat groups alternately covering each other and advancing - isn't this the prototype of the three-three system?
Zhu Youdong did not quite agree with Cao Wenzhao's treatment of Luo Xiong: after all, this commander had been a lowly military household for twenty years in his early years, and his fear of civil officials was deep in his bones, so his reaction was a bit excessive.
However, since Cao Wenzhao had already been dealt with, he, as the emperor, could not say anything more: if Cao Wenzhao's decision was overturned, it would seriously undermine the prestige of the generals in command, and would also lead to the students of the Fangshan faction being lawless in the face of their superiors in the future - isn't this the same as the Huangpu faction of Peanuts in later generations?
Therefore, even if Cao Wenzhao overreacted a little more and shot Luo Xiong on the spot, he could only snort a few words and at most give Cao Wenzhao a warning afterwards, not to mention that he was only temporarily dismissed from his post now.
In short, it is okay for students of Fangshan School to report him, so that he can more easily control the army and civil officials. But the matter ends here, and it is absolutely not allowed to bypass the superiors and directly give orders to students of Fangshan School. Chiang Kai-shek's lesson is not far away, and it is really worth a warning.
As a monarch, you must never think of controlling all the details, because that is simply impossible! Forcing yourself to do so will only make your subordinates at a loss, and eventually the monarch and his subjects will be alienated and the country will fall apart.
But then again, as a time traveler, isn't the biggest advantage the ability to see farther and more clearly than contemporary people?
According to the development of history, the line-up shooting tactic was actually finished in World War I. But on the Western Front, Britain, France and Germany faced the enemy's defense line organized with barbed wire, trenches, machine guns and artillery. Even with the help of early tanks and aircraft, the skirmish line tactic was already very mature. But the attackers wanted to drive straight in, but basically couldn't do it. Why is this?
There were many reasons, such as the tanks were still too primitive, the aircraft were still slow wooden-framed biplanes, etc. But there was one very important reason: the individual firepower was seriously insufficient!
Imagine facing the enemy's dense and strict defense line, the soldiers of our side endured the enemy's artillery bombardment and the crazy rain of bullets from machine guns. After paying a heavy price, they finally cut through the enemy's barbed wire and rushed to the enemy, but the rifles in their hands could only fire bullets one by one. How much casualties could this cause to the enemy's soldiers who were waiting in the trenches? If we can't effectively kill the enemy, how can we occupy the enemy's trenches and advance the front line?
So, what kind of firearms can allow a single soldier to charge easily and unleash a large amount of firepower in a short period of time after reaching the enemy's front line? The answer is submachine guns and automatic rifles.
Well, the most famous early submachine gun should be the Thompson submachine gun nicknamed the Chicago Typewriter, right?
This thing was born at the end of World War I. Before it could show its prowess on the battlefield, the war ended, and Otto Arms, which produced it, almost went bankrupt. After much difficulty in 1920, the United States enacted a stupid prohibition law, which led to the smuggling of alcohol. And the smuggling business was naturally controlled by the gangs. In order to compete for territory, the gangs inevitably launched a bloody fight: Otto's epoch-making product was actually first promoted by the gangs.
Because the smuggling channels at the time were mainly from Canada through the Great Lakes to Chicago, gangsters fought in Chicago with Thompson submachine guns - the name Chicago Typewriter came into being.
The accuracy of this first-generation submachine gun is not to be expected, and the range is not as long as that of ordinary rifles. But you can't resist the ability to fire a hundred bullets in ten seconds - in a narrow trench or house, what's the use of your rifle's high accuracy? As long as the first bullet doesn't hit the opponent's head, you will be swept into a hornet's nest by the opponent! In fact, throughout the 1920s, the Chicago police and Illinois National Guard with pistols and rifles were no match for the Chicago gangsters with submachine guns!
In fact, to be honest, even in the 1930s and 1940s of the original historical plane, Germany's tanks and aircraft in the early days of World War II were really bad! The reason why they had such a brilliant record in the early days of the war, in addition to their fighting determination far exceeding that of Britain and France, and their tactical leadership , was largely because German soldiers generally had an MP38 (upgraded to MP40 after the Battle of France) in their hands - with this, plus the commando tactics that the Germans had already used very skillfully in the late stage of World War I, the trenches of Britain and France were really vulnerable.
In fact, before World War II, the Chinese had already made submachine guns shine: during the land war, our party was a little poor, but we still had some submachine guns. When our party faced the Kuomintang's defense line with artillery and machine guns, we often concentrated all the submachine guns to destroy the enemy at one point, and then break through the entire line.
Therefore, the submachine gun, a weapon that amplifies the firepower of a single soldier countless times, is the real terminator of trench tactics.
Well, submachine guns, it seems that this will be the main research direction of Fangshan Firearms Laboratory in the future.
Although he is not a military fan, Zhu Youdong was at least an amateur history enthusiast before he traveled through time, so he still knows: in the historical plane, not long after the MP40 became popular, the Thompson submachine gun, which was previously supported by gangs, also received a large number of orders and was revived.
However, of these two submachine guns, the Thompson has too much recoil and is difficult to control. The MP40 is not durable enough and is difficult to process. Although it is mass-produced, the production speed is really slow. Even if it is produced, it is very troublesome to repair and maintain because the parts are too delicate... If we really want to talk about the pinnacle of submachine guns, it has to be the Soviet Union's PPSh submachine gun.
In 1939, after Hitler invaded Poland, the Soviet Union, which had temporarily relieved its border pressure, took the opportunity to launch the Soviet-Finnish War. As a result, the huge Soviet army of 1.2 million troops was killed by 200,000 Finnish troops, and only won a miserable victory in the end.
Among the many reasons for this situation, one very important factor is that when Soviet soldiers were still using slender, single-shot old-fashioned rifles to launch the Ura charge, the Finns had already used the Suomi submachine gun.
The Suomi submachine gun can be said to have the highest processing precision in the submachine gun family. All of them are produced according to the precision of sniper rifles, which makes its durability extremely reliable: the highest record is constantly changing magazines, continuously firing 3,000 rounds, and killing more than 100 Soviet soldiers!
For Comrade Steel, the technology of our great Soviet Union is not as good as that of the United States and Germany for the time being, but how come it is not as good as that of the Finns? Soviet scientists must develop a submachine gun that is more powerful than the Suomi submachine gun of the other side, with a larger magazine, more beautiful appearance, and higher durability than the other side.
Under the pressure of being sent to a concentration camp if he failed to develop a new weapon, Soviet firearms designer Spakin came up with his masterpiece: the PPSh submachine gun.
This is really the pinnacle of submachine guns. In the Soviet-German battlefield of World War II, German soldiers would throw away their MP40s after picking up the PPSh submachine gun, which fully demonstrated the success of this submachine gun (later, when faced with a large number of their own soldiers using PPSh, the Germans had to open a special bullet line to equip their own PPShs). And this submachine gun also completely suppressed the American Thompson submachine gun in the Korean battlefield in the 1950s. (There is a song called "Take Over Lei Feng's Gun", and Uncle Lei Feng was holding a PPSh submachine gun)
The advantages of this gun are very prominent: simple structure, 87 parts, most of which are stamped steel plates - easy to manufacture and maintain. In the middle and late stages of the Soviet-German War, when Soviet men were on the front line, the elderly, women and children in the rear could still produce PPShs quickly and with stable quality. Large number of magazines - 71 rounds. Super strong firepower - can quickly cover an area of 3 to 5 square meters. Strong and durable, stable performance - the consistent quality of the Russian bear.
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong knows that when a country faces a total war, the refinement of weapons is secondary. Ease of production and stable quality are king. During World War II, only 1.2 million MP40s were produced. And what about the PPSh? 6 million!
Therefore, facing the innovation of Spanish military industry and tactics, Ming Dynasty needs to start the development of submachine guns as soon as possible. But the direction of this development can only follow the path of PPS!
Of course, as a non-military professional, Zhu Youdong could only think of this much. The rest was beyond his ability.
The rhythmic tapping of fingers on the table stopped, and Zhu Youdong stood up: "My Lords, I know about the tense situation of the war. Write back to Cao Wenzhao and Liu Zhaosun, tell them that I trust them, and tell them not to be anxious. Advancing inch by inch is still advancing after all. Although Luzon Island is large, it only has Manila, a strong city, and it will be taken sooner or later. As for our navy, we must pay attention to monitoring the sea area and be alert to the enemy's fleet and reinforcements."
"Yes, I accept your order. I will convey the emperor's order in the name of the Privy Council later."
"Well. Then, today's meeting is suspended. Fang Zhenghua, arrange a car. I want to go to Fangshan!"
