The turbulent year of 1919 finally passed, but the land of China was also shrouded in the dark clouds of war. The two major warlord forces in the north and south began to stare at the Central Plains, with a serious situation.

It is now February 1920. Fortunately, in Guangzhou, far away from the heart of the Central Plains, in addition to the students and workers who occasionally come out to make trouble, they are still calm. Zhong Yang has also devoted himself to the research and development of military technology. With the efforts of German technicians and some Chinese students, Zhong Yang's military technology has now reached the peak of this era. In addition to the lack of sufficient development of the navy and the air force, the army's weapons and equipment have no secrets in front of Zhong Yang. Even in some key technologies, the laboratory of the underground base has already had standards that are ahead of this era.

"This is a part we just made. Please accept it by Mr. Zhong."

The person speaking was a middle-aged German with golden wire-edged eyes, with a medium figure, and may have been a little bald on his head due to long-term excessive use of his brain. He pointed to a bunch of Maxim water-cooled heavy machine gun parts that were still in the same state, and said to Zhong Yang with a calm expression.

"Okay, I'll take a look."

Since these German researchers came here, Zhong Yang moved all the mechanical servants and moved to another underground base. However, due to the lack of helpers, Zhong Yang had to find some reliable young students from the school to be apprentices. Not only did he do it, but he also tried to learn more basic knowledge from these Germans. Because the underground base is a secret experimental research base, Zhong Yang strictly monitors everyone who comes here.

Every Chinese student who comes here will have their family situation clearly investigated and recorded in the archives. Once abnormalities occur, they can quickly control the situation. The intelligence department of the underground palace is still very immature, but adheres to Zhong Yang's careful style of doing things and serious learning attitude, but it has been constantly improving and improving. I believe that one day, it can become a qualified intelligence agency.

While fiddling with the parts of the Maxim water-cooled heavy machine gun, Zhong Yang occasionally raised some technical questions. In fact, Zhong Yang was not satisfied with the performance of the water-cooled heavy machine gun, because the barrel of the water-cooled heavy machine gun was cooled by water. Breading this layer of metal sleeve outside the barrel was to achieve the purpose of using water to cool the overheated barrel. But the problem arises. What should I do if there is no water during the war?

Although there are abundant water resources in Guangdong, you cannot guarantee that you have water in your hands at all times. Wars always have many unexpected and uncertainties, and Zhong Yang wants to overcome these difficulties with the general-purpose weapon function. Therefore, water-cooled heavy machine guns do not meet Zhong Yang's needs. Of course, using urine can also cool the barrel, but the problem is that the barrel will easily be corroded and damaged.

Light machine guns naturally entered the sight of Zhong Yang and these German technical researchers. Light machine guns were developed from heavy-tube automatic rifles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly because the earliest machine guns were very bulky and only suitable for positional warfare and defense operations, and were inconvenient to use during mobile operations and offenses. Each team urgently needed a light machine gun that could follow the infantry's firepower support during marching. Light machine guns developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

During World War I, Louis machine guns and other machines were originally designed as medium machine guns. After practice, they were able to accompany infantry assaults, and produced a small-scale machine gun, which used chains or large drums to supply ammunition and could be installed on a tripod. The first successful light machine gun design was the Denmark Maderson machine gun. Danish artillery Captain W.O.H. Maderson began to develop light machine guns shortly after Maxim invented the heavy machine gun. In the 1890s, Maderson designed and manufactured a machine gun that could use ordinary rifle bullets, named the Maderson light machine gun. The machine gun was equipped with a bipod and could shoot with shoulders, weighing less than 10 kilograms. The Medellin machine gun was very reliable in its performance, with a variable caliber and structure that could adapt to different user requirements, so it was a popular product in the arms market at that time.

Although light machine guns have various advantages and can even adapt to complex combat needs, heavy machine guns are still the leader in the machine gun family. Because light machine guns are difficult to compare with heavy machine guns in terms of specific power and sustained vitality.

In July 1916, the Germans fired crazily at 14 British divisions on the front of the attack with an average fire density of one Maxim mg08 machine gun per 100 meters. Within one day, 60,000 British soldiers were killed and killed. The lethality and bloody smell of the machine gun reached its peak on this day.

Take the Versailles Contract for example. The Allies once unanimously demanded that Germany prohibit the production of water-cooled heavy machine guns be prohibited from light machine guns because of the excessive firepower of water-cooled heavy machine guns. However, in terms of light machine guns, there were no restrictions. From this, it is not difficult to see the status gap between light machine guns during this period.

Zhong Yang knew that in this era, tanks were just "water cabinets", and their technology was not much better than agricultural tractors. The real king of land warfare was still machine guns. By the end of World War I, machine guns had truly become the mainstream on the battlefield. On average, each infantry division in France was equipped with 684 machine guns, including 576 light machine guns; 400 in Britain, including 336 light machine guns; 324 in Germany, including 216 light machine guns. These situations far exceeded the number of 24 machine guns per division at the outbreak of the war. The United States developed the fastest, from 18 in each division before the war to 1,000, including 775 light machine guns.

Looking at the main person in charge of the German machine gun research team in front of him, Zhong Yang asked in a calm tone: "Benyamin, how is the research on general machine guns?"

Hearing Zhong Yang's question, the researcher named Ben Yaming pushed his eyes and replied expressionlessly: "If you use an air-cooled machine gun, metal processing technology is always a big problem. Because of the poor metal heat dissipation ability and the service life of the barrel, frequent replacement of the barrel will be difficult to ensure continuous firepower output."

"How are the research on alloy formulas and metal processing technology development going? Is there any progress?"

"It has made good progress in corrosion resistance and toughness, but the air-cooled heat dissipation effect is always not very good. In the continuous high temperature state, the barrel will soften and cause performance degradation."

"Then continue to study the problem of alloy formulas. Research on general machine guns must achieve the expected results."

"Yes, I get it."

After all, he is a time traveler. Although Zhong Yang has only a few understandings on many things, he still knows a little about the development direction of many weapons and equipment with great influence. Moreover, German researchers led by Benjamin are also very supportive of Zhong Yang's persistence in the research of general machine guns.

The general machine gun that Zhong Yang wanted to make was originally borrowed from the mg-42 general machine gun developed by Germany during World War II in time and space. The so-called general machine gun can also be called a light and heavy dual-purpose machine gun. According to Zhong Yang's requirements for it, German technicians must design a machine gun that has the advantages of heavy machine guns with long range, great power, and long continuous shooting time, as well as light machine guns are easy to carry and flexible to use, and follows the advantages of infantry fire support during marching, and this will surely become a rising star in the machine gun family.

For the Germans, this technology is undoubtedly very meaningful. Germany failed in World War I. According to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, the defeated Germany could not make heavy machine guns. Since World War I, the strength of the German country is now rapidly recovering. With the recovery of national strength, the German army, which once had the title of "the strongest army in Europe", was naturally unwilling to be restricted by the treaty and would always become a semi-security force with only 100,000 people and cannot be equipped with advanced weapons. In fact, almost since the end of the war, Germany's various scientific research activities have been moved underground. Although the pace of development has sometimes slowed down, it has never stopped.

Zhong Yang's proposal is undoubtedly an important reminder to the members of the German technical development team. Germany has always been a defeated country in World War I. If it blatantly violates the Treaty of Versailles, it will be severely punished by Western allies. Therefore, this red line is not a threat to touch, and it is both hidden and developed, which seems to be difficult. However, Zhong Yang pointed out a path for them to move forward at this time. The general machine gun envisioned by Zhong Yang is not a heavy machine gun at all, but if the research is really completed, then this general machine gun will also have the power of a heavy machine gun.

In addition to cooperating in these aspects, Zhong Yang also conducted research and cooperation with the German side on military technologies such as tanks and armor-piercing bombs.

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