Chapter 80: Aren’t You So Tough?
Masked and stooped over, holding an Stg in his hand, he stealthily approached several puppet government special agents.
The Stg44 assault rifle, in July 1942, had fifty prototype guns manufactured by Germany’s Hanel company, with the name at the time being MKB42.
In November of the same year, Hanel company mass-produced a batch of prototypes and delivered them to the German Waffen-SS 5th Viking Armored Division on the Eastern Front for actual combat testing.
It was not until April 1944 this year that the gun was officially renamed Sturmgewehr44, abbreviated as STG44, and began priority production.
The gun has a caliber of 7.92 mm, magazine capacity of 30 rounds, rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, and effective range of 300 meters.
It can be said that as long as you hold down the trigger, in the blink of an eye’s kung fu, you can empty the magazine.
Although Cao Weida had not systematically learned shooting, that didn’t mean he knew nothing about firearms shooting.
After all, he was a modern transmigrator, and in the era of information explosion, the degree of information access was incomparable to this era.
It’s just like many Chinese people traveling abroad who, clearly going to a shooting range to shoot fake guns for the first time, can still shoot quite realistically.
Perhaps the accuracy is a bit off, but as long as you’re not an idiot, you know the three-points-in-line shooting technique, and as long as you control the recoil during shooting, and as long as the distance is close enough, after one burst, it’s impossible for all shots to miss the target, right?
For Cao Weida, who had top physical fitness, the recoil of an assault rifle was child’s play.
Beiping’s architectural structure gave Cao Weida the chance for close approach; those special agents had just reached near the car when Cao Weida had already snuck to the alley next to them, only about ten meters away.
Cao Weida narrowed his eyes, aimed the gun muzzle at the leading special agent, and silently mouthed ‘bye-bye’ under his mask, then unhesitatingly pulled the trigger.
Da-da-da-da-da~~~
In the instant the gunfire rang out, the special agents’ faces changed drastically, wanting to dodge but already too late.
Puff puff puff~~
Bullets burrowed into the leading special agent’s body one by one; the leader hadn’t even made an evasive move before being riddled by several bullets, collapsing to the ground with a face full of unwillingness.
At the same time, another special agent nearby also took three bullets: two hit the shoulder and arm, not fatal, but the last one directly shot through his neck.
The special agent was terrified, his survival instinct making him desperately clutch his throat, as if trying to hold back the blood pressure, but could the penetration and cavity from a 7.92 mm bullet be stopped by hands?
“Enemy attack!!”
The remaining two special agents were horrified, hurriedly ducking to the side and drawing pistols to fire back toward Cao Weida’s direction.
“Holy shit!”
Cao Weida grimaced, his mouth twitching wildly under the mask, nearly throwing away the gun.
It wasn’t that he was hit, but that he was scalded by the gun barrel.
That’s right, he was scalded.
Just firing one burst of bullets, the area near the all-metal gun barrel was scorchingly hot; although Cao Weida’s physical fitness was top-notch, he was still flesh and blood, and got scalded into grimacing.
“Is this damn thing still an assault rifle? This is a roasting skewer!”
Seeing that the special agents had reacted and the objective achieved, he could only regretfully put away the gun and quickly withdraw from the alley entrance while cursing.
The remaining three puppet government special agents, scared out of their wits, huddled behind the car, not daring to chase at all; Cao Weida withdrew calmly.
Such a big commotion here naturally alerted the military police team; two patrol teams quickly ran over, and only then did those three puppet government special agents dare to poke their heads out.
Looking at their captain dead with eyes wide open on the ground and their former colleagues, looking at the dense gun muzzles on their bodies, they felt both anger and lingering fear, with a thing called fear surging wildly in their hearts.
“What happened!” A little devil sergeant angrily asked.
One of the puppet government special agents didn’t dare conceal it and recounted the events.
The little devil sergeant felt a chill in his heart, glanced at the wounds on the dead, and said with a gloomy face: “Carry the corpses back and have the technical section come inspect!”
“Hai! Sergeant, should we blockade the surroundings?”
“Blockade my ass!” The little devil sergeant angrily rebuked: “These three wastes didn’t even dare to pursue; is the culprit an idiot who would stay put for you to catch?!”
“Spread out, watch all the alley entrances!”
One thing he didn’t say: from the three special agents’ descriptions and the gun muzzles on the dead, he suspected they were all from an assault rifle.
Little devils were after all allies with Germany and could get some intelligence, like the STG44 assault rifle.
If the opponent really had an assault rifle, at close range it was nearly invincible; if the opponent hadn’t left and was hiding in the dark preparing to ambush them, rushing into the alleys rashly—enemy in dark, them in light—wouldn’t they become live targets?
On the other side, Cao Weida, who escaped under cover of night, took out the STG44 assault rifle again, looked at the gun barrel still steaming hot, and cursed inwardly again.
“Aren’t they all saying how Germany’s weapon manufacturing process is so awesome and advanced? And they made this piece of crap?!”
What he didn’t know was that as the ancestor of assault rifles, it provided very advanced conceptual ideas for the world’s assault rifle development history.
But why was the STG44 assault rifle so obscure in later generations?
Even described as a flash in the pan?
It was because it emphasized production efficiency but fell short in human-machine ergonomics.
To put it bluntly, there were too many flaws when people used it.
For example, the dimensions were too long, making it much harder to hold level for three-points-in-line shooting, and the arm stress points were unscientific.
For example, the piston rod was too long; even a slight bend would greatly reduce shooting reliability.
For example, the rear end of the receiver housing, if bumped even a little, could greatly reduce ease of disassembly and smoothness.
For example, the front grip area of the stock was all metal; though there were heat dissipation holes, they had little effect—after a few bursts, the grip could roast meat.
And so on and so forth; compared to later generations’ rugged, durable assault rifles that could function normally in all kinds of harsh environments, it was simply a seemingly powerful but completely impractical shoddy product.
“Forget it, better use this gun less in the future; didn’t kill many enemies, but roasted my hands nicely.” Cao Weida disdainfully put the gun away again.
Though disdainful, he still couldn’t bear to throw it away.
After all, though the gun scalded hands when firing, its firepower was quite sufficient in short bursts.
“At most rotate between two guns, enough to fire two magazines; I’m not fighting positional warfare with them, totally sufficient.”
“Go back and find a craftsman to see if he can make a wooden handguard; maybe that solves the problem.”
“Tonight’s accomplishment done, go back to sleep!”
He went back to sleep in a good mood, but someone else couldn’t sleep.
“Baka yaro!”
Goto Kenji was woken from bed, both shocked and furious; someone actually carried an assault rifle under the Imperial Army’s nose to shoot puppet government special agents on the street—this was provocation against the Great Japanese Empire!!
Of course, he didn’t care about a few dogs dying; what he cared about was the consequences once the higher-ups knew!
In the Japanese Army, when in doubt, blame the Special Higher Police; for any mistake, pin it on them and you’re right.
Someone brought an assault rifle into Beiping, and the Special Higher Police got not a shred of intelligence—could the higher-ups not blame them?
And this was just one gun, and only killed puppet government special agents; if there were more guns, wouldn’t those resistance elements dare to assassinate Japanese Army high-level officials on the street, or even directly assault Japanese Army offices?
After cursing angrily, he hurriedly rushed to the hospital morgue.
Just entering, he saw two corpses laid out in the hall.
From the technical section’s autopsy report, the corpses were shot at close range by bullets; bullets and casings were also found near the corpses and the shooter’s position, matching what the three surviving special agents said.
The bullets were 7.92*33 short rounds; among currently known firearms, only Germany’s STG assault rifle matched the characteristics.
“Baka!” Goto Kenji directly tore up the report—this thing was useless; was he supposed to explain to the higher-ups with this?!
“Go, call Lin Yuanjiang and Liu Huai to me!!”
He was very annoyed now and needed someone to vent on!
Moreover, he had to shift some of the blame!
Thus, Lin Yuanjiang and Liu Huai, who were sleeping soundly hugging their young wives, were woken by the telephone ring.
At first both were very annoyed, but upon hearing it was Goto Kenji calling, they immediately scurried out the door.
Inside the Japanese consulate.
Goto Kenji slowly wiped his officer’s sword, occasionally flipping it; the light shone on the blade, refracting chilling blade light that stung others’ eyes so they dared not open them.
Lin Yuanjiang desperately wiped the sweat from his forehead, inwardly complaining endlessly; he could only blame the resistance elements for being too rampant and cunning, otherwise he wouldn’t have been summoned from the bed.
Though Goto Kenji hadn’t said a word, the intangible pressure nearly suffocated him.
Liu Huai stood woodenly, expressionless on his face, but inwardly delighted.
Where there are people, there are disputes; power institutions even more so.
Having become traitors, who didn’t want promotion and wealth?
Who wanted to be suppressed by others?
Aren’t you Lin Yuanjiang so awesome?
You forcibly took the person from my hands, and this is the result?
He inwardly snickered; with such a big incident, he didn’t believe Goto Kenji would let it slide lightly as usual.
This time, that bastard Lin Yuanjiang would at least shed a layer of skin even if he didn’t die!
Hmph, serves you right!
This old man wouldn’t be kicking you when you’re down tonight would do no justice to your damn usual suppression!
“Lin-san.” Goto Kenji finally sheathed the sword after wiping it.
“Goto officer.” Lin Yuanjiang hurriedly stepped forward, bending at the waist so much it almost seemed like it would break.
Perhaps even those who favored the dragon-yang preference didn’t have such a standard pose.
