Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 131 Ujedinjenje ili Smrt
After the review ceremony, the training assault battalion resumed its usual intense and fulfilling daily training.

As for Morin, he also resumed his previous life of shuttling between the War Academy and the camp.

Everything seemed to be back on track.

But everyone knows that some things have quietly changed.

The most noticeable change is the status of the training assault battalion within the army system.

Following His Highness the Crown Prince's personal inspection and the subsequent widespread discussion within the army's high command, this training assault battalion is no longer the experimental unit that was previously referred to internally as the 'Crown Prince's toy'.

It has become the focus of attention for the entire Saxon army and even the entire imperial high command.

Various resources began to flow steadily toward this camp located on the outskirts of Dresden.

Furthermore, the Army Weapons and Equipment Department even dispatched a technical team to be stationed permanently at the training assault battalion.

It is specifically responsible for recording and resolving various equipment problems encountered by the troops during training, and collecting opinions from officers and soldiers on improving weapons and equipment.

This treatment was unprecedented in the entire history of the Saxon Army.

Meanwhile, Schmeisser Arms Manufacturing Co., Ltd., controlled by Morin Holdings, launched its first light machine gun.

It passed all the tests and inspections by the Army Weapons and Equipment Department without any suspense and was officially named MG14.

The Army immediately issued a formal order approving the mass production of this high-performance light machine gun and prioritizing its deployment to troops.

Of course, the first unit to be equipped with it was Morin's training assault battalion.

Time quickly passed to early May 1914.

After nearly a month of intensive preparation, the production line for the MG14 light machine gun was finally officially established in the Schmeisser family's old factory in Thuringia, which had undergone initial expansion.

Although the company's new factory in the Ruhr industrial area is still under construction, the current production capacity of this old factory is limited, with only two production lines in operation.

Regardless, the MG14 has officially begun its mass production.

The first batch of MG14s that rolled off the production line underwent rigorous factory inspections and were immediately loaded onto a train and transported to Dresden.

When the soldiers of the training assault battalion touched these brand-new killing machines, which exuded a cold metallic luster and the smell of gun oil, for the first time on the training field, their faces were filled with excited smiles.

It's obvious that no man can resist a big machine gun.

During this time, Helga, who had completed the production preparations for the MG14, also brought good news to Morin.

She told Maureen that she had sorted out and improved the precious blueprints left by her brother Hugo, and successfully created the first version of the 'submachine gun' that Maureen wanted.

When Maureen saw the design drawings Helga had laid out on the table in his studio at Falkenstein Manor, his breath caught in his throat for a moment.

He recognized the gun's 'true identity' at a glance.

The long barrel cooling sleeve, the wooden stock, and the iconic horizontally inserted drum magazine that runs from the left side of the gun.
This is basically the original design of the famous MP18 submachine gun in another timeline!
Helga told Morin that when designing the gun, her main consideration was the ease of firing from a prone or crouching position.

Therefore, she designed it with this side-insertion feeding method to prevent the long magazine from touching the ground when firing from a prone position, thus affecting the shooting posture.

Morin naturally understood this design.

However, he also offered his own opinions.

"Helja, there really isn't anything wrong with your design."

Morin pointed to the side-mounted magazine well on the drawing and expressed his concerns. "But I'm worried that doing this might cause the overall center of gravity of the firearm to deviate from its central axis."

"Especially when using such a high-capacity magazine, as the number of bullets decreases, the weight of the magazine changes, resulting in a dynamic shift in the center of gravity."

"This kind of deviation may not be noticeable when firing a single-shot weapon, but it is likely to further exacerbate muzzle jump and shooting deviation when this gun is firing continuously in full-auto mode."

Hearing Morin's analysis, Helga also fell into deep thought.

She had to admit that the question raised by Maureen was indeed a blind spot that she had not fully considered in her initial design.

The two engaged in a heated discussion about this issue.

Ultimately, Helga decided to create another traditional design, with the magazine inserted vertically from the bottom of the gun.

Then she would ask the old craftsmen in the family workshop to help manufacture prototype guns with these two different feeding methods.

When the time comes, the superiority or inferiority of one over the other will be immediately apparent through actual shooting tests.

Molin naturally wholeheartedly approves of Helga's rigorous and pragmatic scientific research attitude.

He was even somewhat looking forward to seeing what the 'modified MP18' with its under-mounted magazine design would ultimately look like.

That day, as usual, Morin arrived early at the large lecture hall of the War Academy to prepare for today's "Campaign Studies" class.

As soon as he entered the door, he noticed that the atmosphere was a bit off.

The students in the classroom were not, as usual, preparing for their studies or chatting quietly in twos and threes.

Almost all of them gathered at the front of the classroom, huddled together, and had a heated discussion.

Morin walked over curiously, wanting to see what had happened.

Seeing Morin approaching, a student who was on good terms with him enthusiastically grabbed his arm and pulled him into the crowd.

"Morin, come quick! Something terrible has happened!"

It was only then that Morin realized that what everyone was passing around was a newspaper issued internally by the military.

On a certain page of the newspaper, a headline printed in bold font instantly caught his full attention.

"The Austro-Hungarian intelligence service recently successfully dismantled a branch of an extreme nationalist organization called 'Ujedinjenje ili Smrt' in Bosnia, and arrested a large number of nationalist members involved in terrorist activities!"

At first, Morin didn't realize what kind of organization this long and difficult-to-pronounce 'United or Dead' was.

However, the relevant entries were quickly updated in the [Information] tab of his mental cheat system.

When Maureen saw the organization's more well-known alias—'The Black Hand'—she immediately understood.

This is what he knows: the nationalist organization that orchestrated the Sarajevo assassination in another timeline and ultimately triggered World War I!

At the same time, three new pieces of information, which shocked him greatly, popped up in the "Intelligence" tab of the cheat system, like a waterfall flooding the screen.

The Bosnian branch of the Greater Serbian nationalist organization known as 'Unity or Death' was wiped out by Austro-Hungarian security forces.

[Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian student, was arrested in this operation.]

Colonel Dragutin Dimitrievich, Chief of Intelligence of the General Staff of the Kingdom of Serbia and Supreme Leader of the "Black Hand," committed suicide by shooting himself in his office in Belgrade.

(End of this chapter)