The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 517 Preparations Before Transmigration (Two-in-One Chapter)

(A few transitional chapters, then the next time travel begins)

Time: Day 18 of the rest period, a little after 11 a.m.

Location: A live-fire shooting club in the western suburbs of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

After Xinhu fired the last bullet from the chamber, a shooting instructor next to him immediately clapped his hands vigorously and said in a very amazed tone:
"Boss Xin, you're a natural-born sharpshooter! You've only practiced for half a month and you've already reached such a high level."

"If we didn't know your family was already quite wealthy, our boss would have hired you as a coach."

Unfortunately, when faced with such praise, Xinhuo only said polite things like "Oh, thank you," "You taught well."

But I felt unusually calm, without the slightest sense of accomplishment.

No other reason than that! Anyone who spends this much money at a shooting range in just over two weeks can become a big customer here.

No matter how badly they played, it's still good to receive such praise from these coaches.

Moreover, after so much training, his marksmanship is indeed quite good; he can hit the target with every shot at 200 meters with a rifle and 50 meters with a pistol, most of which are above the eight-ring.

Unfortunately, there is a prerequisite: using one of the club's preferred firearms.

More specific details about Xinhuo are as follows:
Having been resigned to his fate during his previous time travel, this young man, who had been lying low in the modern world, felt increasingly dissatisfied with his performance ever since he successfully returned to the modern world.

Especially when they met a fellow villager while fetching water, they waited for a long time only to find that the village had been massacred by the Japanese.

The immense sense of powerlessness I felt back then was so intense that I would even wake up from nightmares at night.

In short! This young man from the modern world, who used to rely on his family's good conditions and just coasted along, has finally pulled himself together and decided to make some changes.

On the one hand, it is natural to set aside some time each morning and evening for exercise to improve one's physical fitness.

The main idea is that even if you can't beat the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat, you can still run away, draw your pistol, and fire.

On the other hand, he also wanted to improve his marksmanship; it was because of this idea that he had been spending more than half a month at this shooting club.

After all this time and effort, my marksmanship has improved significantly, but there are still many problems.

Firstly, although he knew that live-fire shooting clubs in China were expensive before this, he never imagined they could be this ridiculously expensive.

For example, in this club, 10 rounds of 7.62*39mm intermediate-power cartridges used in AK47 rifles are sold for 350 yuan.

The bullets for several types of handguns are slightly cheaper, but a set of 10 still costs 260 yuan.

Moreover, bullets are not sold individually, and there are no group purchase prices or discounts; for big customers like him, at most they get some cheap target paper as a gift, and the instructors will be more attentive when giving guidance during shooting.

So this isn't shooting, it's completely spending RMB, okay?

Each gunshot meant that roughly thirty dollars were gone.

In a typical day, Xinhuo fires at least 300 rounds of various bullets, and sometimes as many as 500 when he's in good form, which is really expensive.

Secondly, although this club already has the most diverse selection of firearms in the Dalian area, Xin Huo still feels that it has too few.

Bolt-action rifles are available, but only the EM332A model, which is a domestically produced 5.6mm caliber hunting rifle.

It has very little power and is not very satisfying to fire, making it a completely different concept from bolt-action rifles of World War II.

Other weapons included AK rifles, Alpha revolvers, Czech CZ pistols, and Eagle 105A double-barreled shotguns, but not even a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle.

This is also the fundamental reason why Xin Huo said it's hard to say whether other firearms could achieve the same results.

This is just the situation in shooting clubs in the Dalian area. Other places in the country may be a little better, but not by much. Xinhuo can only keep practicing and see what happens.

They continue to be taken advantage of and slaughtered like pigs.

Sure enough! After picking up the binoculars to observe the landing point, Xinhuo raised his wrist to check the time.

Realizing it was still early and there was plenty of time to practice before lunch, he immediately said to the coach beside him:
“麻烦钱教练再给我领20发5.6毫米子弹，还有30发7.62*39毫米口径子弹过来，我上午还要练一会。”

As he spoke, Xinhuo also took out his phone.

After recognizing a QR code for a shooting range in the photo library, I prepared to transfer the money for 50 bullets, totaling 1750.

This place is such a rip-off; you can only get bullets after you pay, and even regular customers can't get credit.

After entering his password, Xin Huo was notified that his bank account balance was insufficient. He then discovered that he had spent all of his money on a bank card that originally had more than 18 yuan in the past two weeks.

So what do you call this? It's like fighting the Japanese at your own expense.

Fortunately, Xinhuo had more than one bank card with money. After switching to another bank card, he still managed to pay for the bullets and showed it to the coach.

Watching the coach's retreating figure as he went to collect the bullets, I couldn't help but mentally complain:

"If I had known it would be this bad, I would have gone to North America to find Uncle Bo, or to South America to practice shooting with the warehouse manager, or even Zanana if all else failed."

They have all kinds of guns over there, and the bullets are cheap too.

Even including airfare, I'm afraid I haven't even spent half of what I've spent so far.

While complaining, Xinhuo felt increasingly guilty about his recent actions; he couldn't help but take out his phone again and complain in the team group chat.

I also tagged Uncle Bo, Warehouse Manager, and Zana once.

He expressed his intention to let it go during this rest period, but said that during the next rest period, he would definitely go to one of the three of them and practice shooting for a month.

He even made a few jokes because Zanana is a girl; for example, whether she was afraid of thunder at night, and whether she needed someone to accompany her.

Before long, the three people mentioned above had different reactions...

******
At the same time, but the location is changed to South America, northeastern Argentina, at the edge of the Atlantic Forest.

Because the time in China is 11 hours ahead of here, it is still a little past midnight here.

With a loud "Achoo!", Zanana sneezed loudly, wiped her nose, and couldn't help but mutter a curse:
"It must be some guy on the team who's bored out of his mind and is talking about me behind my back again."

After saying that, he didn't dwell on the matter anymore and instead focused all his energy back on the large pot in front of him.

Because in the pot, a rifle that looks like a small cannon was being stewed: the Solothurn anti-tank rifle.

With this thing having a 20mm caliber, and considering the international standard that weapons with a caliber of less than 20mm are considered guns, while those with a caliber of more than 20mm are considered cannons.

The Solothurn anti-tank rifle can indeed be described as a small cannon.

It should be noted that this anti-tank rifle was brought back to the modern world by Zanana after her death in battle during her time traveling to the Pingxi base area.

After dying in battle, he didn't know when he would be able to regain the right to time travel.

Zanana first used a gun brush to clean the dirt on the surface of the sniper rifle, and cleaned the inside of the barrel and the guide tube; then she applied her most commonly used gun oil, namely lithium ester No. 2, to the moving parts and metal contact surfaces of the gun.

This can be considered a thorough maintenance for this oversized anti-tank rifle.

After the maintenance was completed, a thick layer of grease was applied to the gun, and finally it was carefully wrapped in an oilcloth; once the whole process was finished, the gun was essentially sealed away.

More than two months later, Zanana took out her gun again, of course, intending to use it in battle.

Everything was in the midst of this rest period. As the time for the next time travel drew closer, Zanana inexplicably had an inexplicable intuition:
In this new time travel, I should be able to make a comeback.

Therefore, she took out this 20mm Solothurn anti-tank rifle again. As for boiling it in a pot, it was just a way to quickly remove the stored gun oil; this method is commonly used by PLA soldiers, while regular soldiers use a specially formulated gun oil cleaning solution.

In comparison, it's clear that boiling in a pot is more convenient and yields excellent results, so Zanana naturally opted for the boiling method.

After another fifty or sixty minutes, Zanana finally brought the Solothurn anti-tank rifle to a ready-to-use state.

At this point, she also began her essential bedtime routine:

Drinking two bottles of strong whiskey can help calm the nerves and promote sleep.

Without even using a bottle opener, Zanana simply pulled out the wooden stopper with brute force, then brought the bottle to her lips and chugged down about half of it before finally picking up her phone.

It was only at this point that I saw Xin Huo's post about his situation and his few teasing remarks.

Immediately, a look of delight, as if she had spotted prey delivered to her door, appeared on the girl's face. She typed "@鑫火" and then said in the group:
"Xinhuo, you want to come to Athens to practice shooting? No problem."

Just come over. Not only will you have plenty of WWII firearms and ammunition, but we'll also take you hunting in the rainforest instead of a fixed target at a shooting range.

Want to come into my room? Not necessarily.

"Both requirements, you only need to meet either one."

At this moment, Xin Huo had just finished firing the fifty rounds of his newly purchased ammunition. He was planning to have lunch and then take a short nap for an hour to recover his energy so he could continue practicing shooting.

Then I saw Zanana's reply, and I immediately got excited.

How so? For a girl like Zana, who is 187 cm tall, weighs 93 kg, has muscles all over her body, but has a beautiful face, she is like a female bodybuilder.

There aren't many Chinese men who can bring themselves to eat this, but those who truly love it absolutely adore it.

It just so happens that Xinhuo studied in Japan for many years and, after seeing so many petite Japanese girls, he just happened to fall in love with Zanana, who is relatively tall.

Besides! Now that one of them is unmarried and the other is single, what's wrong with him pursuing her?
Overwhelmed with excitement, he couldn't wait to ask, "What are the conditions? Tell me quickly!"

“Either you drink my water, or you can take two punches from me and not fall down,” Zanana replied.

Upon hearing this, Xin Huo couldn't help but be overjoyed, even wondering if Zanana had fallen for him after seeing his WeChat Moments.

Otherwise, why would they offer such a condition that's practically free?

Putting everything else aside, just in terms of drinking capacity, do you think a guy from Northeast China like me can't outdrink a girl like Zanana?
Under normal circumstances, he can drink 1.2 jin of 50-proof liquor, and when he's in good condition, he can drink 1.5 to 2 jin, which is definitely enough to knock out Zanana.

Just as I was about to say something in the group chat, I saw Hu Biao send a facepalm emoji.

Sensing something was amiss, he immediately sent a private message to Hu Biao: "Damn it, wait, Lao Hu, how much can Zanana actually drink?"

Faced with this question, Hu Biao gave Xin Huo a despairing answer:
"I don't know! I've never seen her drunk. Once, when we were slaughtering a pig for a feast in the Pingxi base area, she drank more than three catties of Fenjiu by herself and then stopped because she ran out of alcohol."

I don't know how much more she could drink, but she seemed perfectly fine; her face didn't even turn red.

Even so, Xinhuo was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

After all, there's another condition that can be met. Although Zanana is taller and stronger than him, men still have a certain advantage in terms of physical fitness.

If he continues to train hard and his physical abilities are enhanced once or twice more by the mysterious being, he should be able to withstand two punches from Zanana.

Seemingly sensing Xin Huo's thoughts, Hu Biao first sent over a picture; then he said aloud:
“This was sent to me by Zanana a week ago; it’s a recent example of her actual skill level.”

The image shows the display of a punching power tester, with a value of '731' displayed on the screen, indicating that Zanana's punching power has reached 731 kilograms.

Damn! With such terrifying punching power, he could probably kill a bull with one blow.

From this moment on, Xin Huo's plan to pursue Zanana was completely over, even before it had begun...

About twenty minutes later, Uncle Bo replied in the group. He didn't say anything at first, but simply sent a lot of pictures to the group one by one.

Those were some equipment he had recently purchased using funds from the team's shared account.

Among them, the MG34 general-purpose machine gun, MP28 submachine gun, M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, Browning M1911 pistol, and grenade launcher are essential firepower for every journey, so there's no need to say more.

The applicability and necessity of these weapons had already been proven during previous time travels.

However, the last time they traveled through time was at the end of 1930, when more weapons had been developed and produced, meaning they could bring more equipment with them.

Therefore, the weapons carried during the next time travel have also been adjusted in some ways, specifically:
Firstly, the number of MP28 submachine guns was reduced, while the number of M1 Garand rifles was increased.

This adjustment is a lesson learned from the last time we traveled through time. The MP28 submachine gun is indeed powerful, but it consumes bullets too quickly.

Pull the trigger all the way down, and in the blink of an eye, you can empty about thirty bullets.

If, like last time, ammunition cannot be replenished behind enemy lines, this weapon will be rendered useless.

It would be better to carry more M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles. Although their rate of fire is not as good as that of submachine guns, they can hold eight bullets at a time. Two of these rifles can suppress an entire Japanese squad, and their range and accuracy are also better.

This means that while it saves bullets, the suppression effect is actually quite good.

Secondly, two bazooka rocket launchers were procured, along with 10 spare rounds of ammunition.

The emergence of this weapon is also a result of learning from the lessons of the previous time travel.

It's best to bring this kind of weapon, which can both penetrate armor and destroy pillboxes, in advance, lest you find yourself without the time or opportunity to manufacture it once you arrive.

Thirdly, the quantity of ammunition of various calibers is more than double that of the last time.

The main objective is to bring as much ammunition as possible. If there's an opportunity to replenish it, that's even better. If there's no way to replenish it, it will allow you to survive longer.

Anyway, the Japanese soldiers have had enough of those crappy Type 38 rifles.

After sending the images of the weapons and ammunition one by one, Uncle Bo typed out a crucial question:

"I can't carry all this stuff by myself. Besides, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to participate in the next time travel. I need at least three people to help me carry it."

Xinhuo, count me in, because after you've traveled through time, you'll be able to practice your marksmanship in Los Angeles.

We need two more people. Who wants to come to Los Angeles?

Soon after, two team members took over the task. Van Gogh said, "I'll do it. According to the weather forecast, the sea conditions won't be very good in the last few days of the month, so I'll take a couple of days off."

Huang Yizhi: "Count me in! I've time-traveled several times already, so I should be eligible to participate this time, right?"

At this point, the weapons and ammunition for the next time travel, as well as how to bring them back to the past, were basically settled.

Having finally put his mind at ease, Uncle Bo quickly washed up and went to bed, showing no intention of going out for a stroll.

The main reason is that he signed up for a week-long wilderness survival training course, which starts tomorrow.

The goal of this training course is to improve skills in capturing prey using traps and other methods when firearms are unavailable.

To put it bluntly, although the time travel last time was very short, it left some extremely deep psychological scars on all of them.

They not only suffered from a phobia of insufficient firepower and lack of bullets, but they were also terrified of hunger.

As for the warehouse manager, after seeing Xin Huo's message to him, he simply typed "hehe" in the group and then fell silent, appearing quite dejected.

There was no way around it! He already had a vague feeling that he probably wouldn't be involved in the next time travel...

(End of this chapter)