It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 202 | The Old Commander's Congratulatory Gift
Seeing that Shang Ke was stunned, Ding Shu deliberately said, "Why don't you sit down? Commander Shang of the 8th Infantry Division."

Upon hearing this, Shang Ke immediately stood at attention, gave a standard military salute, and said solemnly, "Old sir, you flatter me. No matter what, you are a senior. Even young officers in the army have to show great respect to senior sergeants, let alone you and me."

Seeing that Mr. Shang looked serious and that what he said was no exaggeration, Ding Shu laughed heartily.

"Many people become arrogant and conceited once they achieve success, which easily leads to their downfall. You are talented, and you have a long road ahead of you to rise higher. The only concern is that you might go astray," he said.

"What the old commander said is absolutely right." Shang Ke nodded in agreement.

Ding Shu lit a cigarette and calmly said, "The 20th Division Plan is a major national event. Only the most talented people can be selected for any position. Look at you, you're not even 29 years old, yet you've been promoted from major to colonel and are acting commander of a division, and not just any ordinary infantry division. What does that mean? It's unprecedented!"

Somewhat unconvinced, Shang Ke argued, "I majored in tank warfare, and I 'coincidentally' fought quite a few battles in Hungary, so my real combat experience is quite extensive..."

"Even so, it is unprecedented. If it weren't for the joint guarantee from Regiment Commander Zhang and Dean Liu, the colonel would not have been qualified to act as division commander, not even brigadier general."

"Well, you're right."

Ding Shu nodded slightly and said meaningfully, "Don't let everyone's expectations down. You are now the youngest field division commander in the Federal National Defense Force. There are only twenty positions in a mechanized infantry division. Each position is filled by a specific person, and countless eyes are watching you."

Ding Shu only mentioned that Zhang and Liu jointly supported him, omitting his own efforts.

Seeing Shang Ke nod silently, Ding Shu smiled and asked, "You still don't know about the personnel arrangements for the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division, do you?"

After saying that, he handed a note to Mr. Shang.

The note lists the provisional principal officers of the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division.

Chief of Staff - Brigadier General Huang Chen
| Zhang Anyuan, Deputy Division Commander and Artillery Commander, Colonel
| Colonel Lin Zhen, Commander of the 22nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
| Lieutenant Colonel Wu Zhouhua, Commander of the 23rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
| Lieutenant Colonel Shen Tao, Commander of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Regiment
| Yang Ye, Lieutenant Colonel, Commander of the 8th Armored Artillery Regiment
what?
Why are they all colonels?

Shang Ke's eyes widened in surprise, but the look of astonishment quickly turned into seriousness.

"Who...who are these people? My rank is too low...I might not be able to control them."

Upon seeing the personnel arrangements, he immediately felt increased pressure and worries arose spontaneously.

Ding Shu, with a calm expression, selectively ignored the second half of his sentence and only answered the first half.

“Each of them has quite a background. Let me tell you, Huang Chen is a top student from the Staff Academy. He has been moving back and forth between the war zones and the General Staff Headquarters. He has a high level of theoretical knowledge and is a very refined person.”

“Zhang Anyuan has an excellent resume. He participated in the suppression of the Sumudala rebellion and fought against the Taliban invasion in Ethiopia in 1935. He was in the volunteer artillery regiment we sent and performed very well, killing and wounding more than a thousand enemies.”

"Lin Zhen is also a conscientious and hardworking person. He was originally the military attaché at the embassy in Portugal. During the civil war, he did not evacuate with the troops but was transferred to the observer group. He was one of the earliest members of the observer group and only returned to China last year."

Ding Shu gave a general overview of the core leadership of the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division.

Shang Ke breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, because although none of these people were easy to deal with, their resumes weren't exceptionally impressive. Simply put, their resumes were indeed good—quite remarkable compared to ordinary people—but still considerably inferior to his own.

For example, Huang Chen is a typical academic general who has served in command units for many years. He lacks experience in leading troops on the front line. His theoretical level may be highly praised, but he does not have the skills and experience to command a tactical corps.

Back in Budapest, Major General Zhang from the advisory group mentioned the differences between several promotion paths—people like Huang Chen are relatively 'superficial,' they get promoted quickly, but lack follow-up strength and are unable to take on major responsibilities on their own.

Shang Ke pretended to be in a difficult position and complained, "Old sir, the chief of staff's rank is higher than mine. What if he doesn't listen to orders? A military commander must be respected by his troops. If someone goes against the grain, we can't fight this battle. Do you think I have a chance to get the rank of brigadier general?"

"How about I give you mine?" Ding Shu could tell at a glance that this guy was deliberately complaining, so he pointed to his shoulder and said, "Or, to go all the way, I'll go and get you a general's rank, how about that?"

Shang Ke waved his hands repeatedly and said with an awkward laugh, "No need, no need."

"Do what you are capable of. If you can't handle things, it means you're not capable, so we'll find someone more capable."

"really."

"The tallest tree in the forest is bound to be felled by the wind." Ding Shu smiled calmly and said, "Since you've already stood out from the crowd, there's nothing we can do about it. Stand tall and be strong. I won't say anything more. I came empty-handed this time without any gifts, but I brought you some good things."

The "good stuff" Ding Shu mentioned was weapons and equipment, which was actually a congratulatory gift for Shang's new appointment, and also served as a statement of support.

Unaware of the situation, Mr. Shang browsed through the 'gift list' details and discovered that these valuable items were all relatively scarce new equipment—they had only recently gone into production, were in limited quantities, and were highly sought after by various military units, such as anti-tank guns and walkie-talkies.

What intrigued him was the mention of "Liu's trial production of 500 lightweight long automatic rifles".

What is this?
Ding Shu said he didn't know either, only that it was a batch of experimental rifles in stock, very few in number, and he chose it as a congratulatory gift because he thought it was interesting.

His attendant, who had accompanied him, had diligently ascertained the nature of the gift and thus helped explain:

"This happened quite a while ago, right after the end of the European war. One of the officers in our observation group, surnamed Liu, happened to be knowledgeable in arms manufacturing. Based on what he had seen and heard, he designed a gun after returning to China. The actual test was quite good. However, the bullets used in this gun were foreign-made. After producing a few hundred of them, nothing more came of it."

Liu discovered that although the automatic rifles appearing on the battlefield had fierce firepower, they generally suffered from excessive recoil.

To achieve the best of both worlds, he spent a long time selecting from a wide variety of bullet types, found a suitable one, and then designed an automatic rifle based on that bullet.

This bullet is the 6.5×54mm rifle cartridge exported by the Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher Company. The round-nosed bullet weighs 9 grams, has a muzzle velocity of 770 m/s, and a muzzle energy of 2640 joules.

As for the rifle itself, it surprisingly uses a semi-free bolt mechanism, which is quite unique. It is fed by a 20-round magazine and weighs only 10 pounds when empty, much lighter than the Browning Automatic Rifle. It truly deserves the title of "lightweight".

This looks a bit like the Fedorov automatic rifle? Quite a groundbreaking design.

Shang Ke clicked his tongue in amazement and exclaimed, "It can be used by the armored reconnaissance battalion. The old commander has connections everywhere; he was able to find this."

(End of this chapter)