The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 382 Three Jumpers

"Engineer Liu," the technician rubbed his eyes, "is there a mistake in this blueprint? How can a gun be this thick? I've been manufacturing these weapons for years, but I at least know that a soldier's load needs to be light. With a gun this thick, plus the ammunition, how heavy will our soldiers' load be?"

"You don't need to worry about that, just make it for me."

Slow and steady wins the race. It took the craftsmen half a month to produce all the parts of the gun. While they were making it, they questioned their life choices. Their experience of working for half a lifetime did not support their belief in the quality of this gun.

The ammunition production had been underway for some time, and it was also handcrafted by skilled workers. Several hundred rounds were produced, including high-explosive rounds, armor-piercing rounds, and airburst rounds.

Liu Hua assembled the gun himself, and then carried it to the firing range. He also planned to personally fire two magazines.

Unfortunately, he was stopped by his two assistants when he was the last one to do it in person.

"Professor Liu, we have professional test gun operators, there's no need for you to test it."

Liu Hua shook his head: "I painstakingly drew the blueprints and waited patiently for the technicians to manufacture it, all so that I could fire a couple of shots myself?"

"That doesn't mean you can drive it; that's the rule."

The person who tested the gun was a top-notch marksman. As soon as he picked it up, he said, "Wow, this thing is really heavy. It looks like a cannon."

When he started loading bullets into the drum magazine, he realized what true madness meant.

“This thing is definitely not for shooting people.” The test gunner said while loading bullets, “If it’s not for shooting dinosaurs or monsters, then it can’t be called a gun.”

With a click, the bolt was pulled back to chamber a round, and the trigger was lightly pulled. Despite being mentally prepared, my shoulder still received a violent impact.

The test shooter joked, "I should get my medical expenses reimbursed. At the very least, you should buy me some ointment. My shoulder is probably quite swollen."

With a kill radius of seven meters, targets around the blast center were all destroyed.

That's it, they tested the armor-piercing projectiles in a bunker, and the armor-piercing projectiles won decisively.

Despite the pain in his shoulder, the test shooter emptied the drum magazine.

"That was exhilarating! This gun was really fun to fire, so accurate and powerful." The test shooter walked up to Liu Hua and asked, "Engineer Liu, I'd like to interview you. What were your reasons for designing this gun?"

“I went to the shooting range a few days ago to shoot the SVD,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “Equipped with a high-precision scope, under normal temperature, normal humidity, and no wind, I didn’t hit the bullseye on the first shot.”

"It's a good thing you didn't join the army. We're bad at shooting, so we work hard to improve. But you're bad at shooting, so you might as well go for a big one. Everyone says we have a fear of insufficient firepower, but I think you're the one who's most deeply poisoned by it."

Soon, Liu Hua tested the new gun, and the whole research institute knew about it. The main leaders all gathered around to watch, and after firing dozens more bullets.

The supervisor asked Liu Hua, "Engineer Liu, isn't there a problem with your design concept? What use is this gun?"

"Squad-level support firepower or squad-level supplementary firepower?"

"Do you have a misunderstanding about squad-level firepower?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "That's definitely not it, because I don't understand squad firepower at all, but I dare say that it would be absolutely impossible for someone like you who understand squad firepower to design a gun like mine." "That's right, I feel that this is the masterpiece of an amateur."

“That’s what you call a classic,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “As far as I know, the Gatling gun was invented by a dentist, and his original intention was to reduce the number of deaths in war.”

Now that the design is complete, it definitely needs to be reported to higher authorities. They have a comprehensive plan for how to use it.

After receiving the report, Sun Guangming found Liu Hua and said, "The items are definitely good, but we can't equip them at the moment. We can only equip a small number of special mission teams with them."

“A few days ago, when I was having dinner at the military region, an army leader complained to me that I was thinking of giving them a gift, but now I can’t do it.”

Sun Guangming patted Liu Hua on the shoulder: "We were wrong. We shouldn't have let you design weapons. You should design other equipment instead. Weapons should be designed according to the specific mission."

Liu Hua never expected that although the army did not equip it, it was issued to the armed police. In the next few years, this gun will shine in the counter-terrorism activities in the northwest.

Sun Guangming kindly revealed the information about the gun to Lin Weiguo, the same Lin Weiguo who had complained to Liu Hua while drinking.

After trying Liu Hua's new design, this person was both happy and sad. He was happy because the thing was very powerful and could alleviate their symptoms, but he was sad because they couldn't equip themselves with it.

However, he still invited Liu Hua to visit his unit. Liu Hua listened to his complaints and designed new weapons for him. He appreciated this favor.

During a day trip to the military camp, Liu Hua rode in a Black Hawk helicopter for the first time.

"To be honest, this American helicopter is really good, but there are just too few imported," Lin Weiguo said regretfully. "Our country's helicopters really can't compare in terms of performance. Why don't you design a new helicopter for us, Engineer Liu?"

“You really think I’m omnipotent?” Liu Hua shook his head. “I’ve participated in aircraft design, but I only designed the avionics system. It’s an extremely complex, rigorous, and high-tech system. Even if you work yourself to death, I still can’t make it work for you.”

"If it doesn't meet the Black Hawk standard, we can accept it if it's lowered a bit."

"Don't even think about it. I don't know anything about aerodynamics." Liu Hua shook his head: "It's simply not enough to support my design of a helicopter."

“I understand. You researchers are all intellectuals, and intellectuals are generally quite modest. Why don’t you give it a try?”

"This is still unclear," Liu Hua said, covering her face. "You can't just cheat like this. I can't design it."

"Don't be modest. You can design marine propulsion systems and diesel engines, so why can't you design a helicopter engine?"

"This is not the same thing."

“That’s the same thing,” Lin Weiguo said shamelessly. “Diesel engines and marine power systems are all engines, right? You can design them for land and water, so you should be able to design them for the sky as well.”

He continued, "I won't make things difficult for you. So, you only need to design the helicopter engine; for everything else, I can find other research institutes, right?"

After returning home, Liu Hua didn't take the matter seriously. However, Lin Weiguo would call every few days to ask how the engine of the domestically produced Black Hawk was doing.

Liu Hua was forced into a corner: "There's not even a trace of a domestically produced Black Hawk. I'll design a domestically produced three-wheeled vehicle for you."

(End of this chapter)