Chapter 78: The Regiment Commander Is Furious!
A non-commissioned officer carried a large box onto the stage, and Chen Jun, Cheng Cai, and the other 30 competitors each drew a number, arranging the competition according to the numbers.
Cheng Cai drew number seventeen in the middle, while Chen Jun drew the last number thirty.
Cheng Cai drew quite well, while Chen Jun drew poorly.
In the grand competition, being at the very front or the very back required bearing extra psychological pressure; only in the middle was it relatively more relaxed.
The pistol competition was conducted in groups of five, with the second group collecting ammunition in the waiting area, and the rest in the preparation area.
The five competitors who drew numbers one and five first collected five bullets and headed to the shooting position, while those who drew numbers six and ten stayed in the waiting area.
At this moment, the spectator area was already packed with people, and Regiment Commander Wang and others had already taken their seats on the grandstand.
“Pistol shooting at 50 meters is already very difficult; normally warriors train at 25 meters, but this time the division set it to 80 meters, which is probably no small challenge for the competitors.”
The political commissar sat in a chair, gazing into the distance, and chatted smilingly with the regiment commander beside him.
“80 meters is one thing, but they also made it precision shooting; the difficulty is indeed quite high. I’m just afraid that some competitors won’t even hit the target,” the chief of staff also said.
“It has to have difficulty; without difficulty, anyone could score full points, so what’s the point? We’re not here to watch a performance match. Difficulty can temper the warriors and improve training results, right?”
Regiment Commander Wang had a completely different view; he was quite satisfied with this 80-meter distance.
He himself liked challenges.
He also hoped the soldiers under him could withstand the challenge.
“Regiment commander, training is training, but exceeding too much is unnecessary; the pistol’s range is only 50 meters. In the previous competition, no one scored full points, and now raising it to 80 meters, I feel even hitting the target is difficult, let alone ring counts,” the chief of staff expressed his view again.
“Old Li, you don’t need to be so pessimistic; the competition hasn’t started yet. We should believe in our warriors,” Regiment Commander Wang said optimistically.
As the group of regiment leaders on the grandstand smiled and each expressed their opinions.
The five competitors on the field had already begun shooting at the target.
This time, the pistol used for shooting at the target was the Type 54, commonly known as the “Big Black Star,” which had been in service for over forty years yet still retained its former prowess.
The Type 54 pistol weighed about 850 grams unloaded, and around 1 kilogram in combat weight.
Relatively speaking.
It was still quite heavy.
Because it used 62x25mm pistol bullets, which had very high chamber pressure, muzzle velocity of about 430 meters per second, longer range than 9mm caliber, and greater lethality.
At 25 meters, it could penetrate 3mm thick steel plate, and when firing steel core bullets, it could still cause damage to targets wearing soft bulletproof vests.
Effective range up to 50 meters, with a relatively stable trajectory even beyond 100 meters.
Even at 600 meters, as long as the bullet contacted the target, the remaining kinetic energy could still cause effective damage to personnel.
However, it was precisely this excessive power that made the Type 54 pistol’s barrel life far shorter than ordinary pistols.
Only about 3000 rounds.
80 meters was fully within range, and since the competition used kneeling posture shooting, there was some stability assurance; scoring full rings was not absolutely impossible.
It was just that the probability was very low, and the technical requirements were extremely high.
However, every shooting competitor participating in the competition aimed for full rings.
The first group of five competitors who went up first, after a period of adjustment and aiming, successively fired at the target 80 meters away.
“Pa pa pa pa…”
The pistol’s single-shot sound was quite crisp.
The five competitors knew the difficulty was high, so they shot very cautiously, fully preparing for each shot and only firing the next with full confidence.
This led to all competitors taking nearly two minutes to finish despite only five bullets each.
After all competitors finished shooting and stood up to inspect the gun, they pulled the holster with muzzle upward, pulled the trigger, closed the safety, holstered the gun, and returned to the preparation area to rest.
The target inspector from the target pit ran out and began announcing the results for each target one by one.
“Number one target, four shots, 32 rings…”
The first result announced by the target inspector was broadcast throughout the entire competition field via amplifier; one shot had missed the target, yet it didn’t cause much stir.
Everyone seemed to have already made psychological preparation that pistol 80-meter results would be extremely poor.
After all, those who came to the competition were all veteran soldiers who knew the weapon’s effective range and maximum range, and how terrifying the hit gap between them was.
Don’t think that the pistol only added thirty meters; the difficulty it brought exceeded that of a rifle adding two hundred meters.
From the chief of staff and political commissar and other leaders up top, to the vast majority of competitors participating below, all believed that anyone hitting five shots had the strength to compete for first place in the individual event; four shots was completely within normal range.
As long as they didn’t hit only three shots or two shots on target, the result couldn’t be called bad at all.
Looking at the hundreds of people in the spectator area, only Gao Cheng, Wu Liu Yi, and the other competitors were smiling more happily the more they heard the announced results.
Because among the remaining four competitors in the first group, not a single one hit five shots.
If competitors from other companies were all like this, then Chen Jun from the Seventh Company who had shot 49 rings, and Cheng Cai who tested at 47, would surely take first and second.
They could already lock in victory in the pistol event ahead of time; how could the people from the Seventh Company not grin from ear to ear.
However.
While laughing happily in their hearts, Gao Cheng, Wu Liu Yi, and the others couldn’t help but feel worried and anxious: “Is this shooting range hard to hit? That’s why the first group’s results were so poor. If that’s really the case, the ending won’t be good.”
With this mix of anxiety and excitement, the group from the Seventh Company could only patiently continue watching.
Second group…
Third group…
The next two groups finished shooting at the target; out of ten people, only one hit five shots, but didn’t even break 40 rings, only a pitiful 39 rings.
The remaining nine were similar to the first group, all below four shots, and even two with three shots.
With three groups from the First Company all so poor, the chief of staff who already felt the difficulty was a bit high immediately felt his judgment was correct and began his various commentaries again.
The political commissar was indeed dissatisfied with these results, but he also knew the difficulty was truly high, so he didn’t say anything.
Only Regiment Commander Wang frowned.
Regiment Commander Wang was a person who wouldn’t admit defeat, and even more so a stubborn-tempered person; back in the original drama, he was a tough character who dared to throw shade at the division commander.
He knew pistol at 80 meters was difficult, but he more hoped his soldiers could perform outstandingly.
That way they could go to the division and win honor for the regiment.
But with the results from these three groups, if the final first place was just like this, even if they could go to the division, Regiment Commander Wang would feel it was embarrassing.
Thinking of this.
A fire rose in Regiment Commander Wang’s heart, and his face grew increasingly dark.
In this atmosphere of low and oppressive mood across the whole audience, like being covered by a thick layer of dark clouds, Cheng Cai who drew number seventeen took the field in the fourth group.
