Chapter 1019 The Age of Automatic Guns (Third update, please subscribe)

"beep……"

The sound of a train whistle is the most common sound in a train station.

The dormitory for single workers at Jizhou Railway Station is near the locomotive depot. Although it is some distance away from the station, you can still hear the roar of the train, especially its whistle.

The workers living in the dormitories have long been accustomed to this. Near the dormitories, along the edge of the courtyard, there are small sheds. Those sheds are not only bicycle sheds, but also places for workers to store unused furniture and sundries or do odd jobs.

Some workers will go out to take on odd jobs. Most of those odd jobs are related to metal processing and are small jobs. For the workers, this is extra income.

Xu Andong, who works as a lathe operator and milling operator in the locomotive depot, is still single, but he has opened a pretty good workshop in a small shed next to his dormitory. On one side of the wall is an authentic bench with a vise on top and a set of drawers underneath; in the corner is a small drill press painted green, which is also very good, and next to it is a large circular grinder. Files, punches, hand saws, scrapers, and hammers are placed in special grooves on the wall. All kinds of simple tools are available.

These tools were both second-hand ones that he bought from the locomotive depot and those that he purchased from the market. The railway company did not object to employees taking odd jobs in their spare time.

As usual, as soon as he got off work, Xu Andong went into his own shed. After taking out a bunch of parts from the cabinet, he fiddled with them as usual, and then studied the drawings.

Three years ago, after retiring from the army, Xu Andong joined the maintenance depot. Unlike other people who did odd jobs in a small shed to earn money, he has been engaged in his research - developing a new type of weapon!

He served in the army seven years ago. On the day he became a machine gunner, he became fascinated by the delicate machinery. Like all machine gunners, he would break the Type 6 machine gun into pieces and then reassemble it. When he saw the parts being combined into a whole, he could not help but marvel at how exquisitely designed these weapons were.

He was completely stunned as he watched the machine gun spewing flames.

From then on, as a machine gunner, he studied the weapon in his hands while training, studying its structure and its principles. He even drew some sketches himself based on the Type 6 machine gun, which included both machine guns and rifles.

After retiring from the army, his idea became stronger, and his idea came from a sudden inspiration - a new type of automatic gun.

"A light automatic gun that can fire continuously, like the Type 6 machine gun."

Anyone who has witnessed the intense fire of a machine gun will have some unique thoughts flashing through their mind - no soldier would be averse to fire.

As they say, "I wish the rifle could be turned into a fire hose."

But how could a rifle be turned into a weapon that fires continuously and automatically like a fire hose?

While chatting with his comrades, Xu Andong's thoughts became uncontrollable.

Although the Type 6 machine gun was good, it was too heavy for one person to carry. During the exercise, they had to carry the heavy machine gun, tripod, and water tank. In short, it was very tiring.

"An automatic gun should be as heavy as a rifle, or even lighter than a rifle because it fires faster and needs to fire more bullets."

In order to meet this requirement, Xu Andong directly gave up the rifle bullets and chose pistol bullets.

At the same time, he gave up the ammunition belt and chose magazines. He designed a 20-round magazine based on the 10-round magazine of the Yuan rifle. Because revolver bullets are rimmed bullets and are not suitable for use in magazines, he even cut the rifle shells into 23 mm short shells.

As the power of the bullet is reduced, the weight of the gun will naturally be reduced.

But what is the core issue?

Of course it’s the structure of the gun.

In the past year, Xu Andong has been perfecting his structural design. After repeated attempts, he developed a new structure based on the semi-free bolt of the Type 6 machine gun.

"After the bullet is fired, the gunpowder gas pushes the bullet forward, the cartridge case moves backward, the impact column bolt moves backward, compresses the spring, and then recoils..."

Holding the simple structure made by hand using a vise and a steel file, Xu Andong once again demonstrated the principles of the gun body.

“That’s about it!”

He said to himself.

"In principle, there should be no problem. The weight of the bolt and the force of the recoil spring should be able to meet basic requirements..."

At this time, even Xu Anton himself did not know that the automatic principle he had researched was the famous "free-style bolt" in later generations.

Accompanied by the whistle of the Yanqi locomotive coming from the railway and the roar of the machine tools in the nearby shed, Xu Andong, sitting in a chair, assembled the parts together, which he made in his spare time.

"Dongzi, is this the automatic gun you mentioned?"

Li Jiawang, who was drinking tea in the shed next door, glanced at the strange-looking thing in Xu Andong's hand.

It is not as long as a rifle, nor as short as a pistol. There is a thin barrel wrapped in a heat sink in front of the steel gun body, and a wooden buttstock behind the steel gun body.

"Yeah, about the same."

"Are you... loading bullets?"

Li Jiawang watched Xu Andong load short and thick bullets into the magazine.

"Are you going to try out the gun?"

Li Jiawang walked over to Xu Andong with the teacup and gave him instructions.

"Be careful when testing the gun, don't let it explode!"

"Master Li, don't worry, it won't explode..."

As he spoke, he wrapped his gun in his work clothes and walked towards the nearby railway line. When the other workers saw him, most of them just joked with him. No one thought he could succeed, and of course no one said anything.

As for inventions... everyone always has their own ideas.

The railway branch line was quiet in the evening. Looking at the oil drum in front of him, Xu Andong took a deep breath and loaded the gun with a "whoosh". At the moment the bolt was pulled by the trigger, he could even feel that the trigger suddenly became a little heavy.

Then he stared at the waste oil barrel in front of the wall, held his breath, and pulled the trigger.

Gunshots suddenly rang out.

"Bang!"

The gunshot was a bit dull!

It is completely different from the crisp sound of the Yuannian rifle.

It rang!

However, Xu Anton was not excited, as this was just the first shot.

He pulled the trigger again, and gunshots rang out on the railway again.

Unlike ordinary gunshots, these were continuous and rapid gunshots, which made Xu Anton a little excited.

"Success..."

Before this thought came to his mind, the gunshots stopped abruptly. Xu Anton pulled the trigger with some doubt, but the gun did not fire.

"Maybe the bullet shell is stuck..."

He removed the magazine and pulled the bolt back. Xu Andong took a look and found that, as expected, there was a cartridge case stuck in the chamber.

I used a screwdriver to pry it out with great effort, why did it get stuck?

There are various possibilities for this problem, but now is clearly not the time to deal with it.

All right!

More on this later...

Pull the bolt again, pull the trigger, and the gunshots rang out again...

(End of this chapter)