On Weapons

“When choosing weapons, we must first look at the environment around us and our adversaries.” Xi Yazhou paused and gathered his thoughts, “We have three main enemy types. Mixed infantry armies equipped with Han Chinese firearms and cold weapons, representing Ming Dynasty armies but also including roving bandits like Li Chuang whose forces are mostly composed of deserters from Ming armies and whose strategies and equipment are basically the same as the Ming. Secondly we have cavalry, such as the Manchurian Qing armies who had few firearms. Finally we have the mixed firearm forces of pirates that are particularly active along the coasts of China.

“We not only have few people, but also none of us have any real combat experience. Our mental fortitude would not be able to match the ancients. As such, our weapons must meet two points:

“Sufficiently long range. We must be able to suppress and repel enemy assaults at as long a range as possible. This has the additional advantage of being able to target enemy artillerymen and officers. The 8 and 12-pounder cannons of the Napoleonic era had an effective range not exceeding 900 metres. Since cannons of the 17th century were worse than this, I estimate their range at 400 metres at most. As such, any rifles we get should have at least be able to match this range.

“Two of our enemies will use cavalry as a breakthrough force during battles. So our weapons must also be able to deliver a large amount of ammunition down range very quickly in order to suppress cavalry charges. It would be best to use machine guns, but of course this appears to be currently impossible. As we just heard, I’m afraid our North American branch may not be able to get machine guns or fully automatic rifles.”

“So why doesn’t the SKS meet these requirements? From what I can see we have everything we want: 400 metres range, 10 round magazine, and a maximum fire rate of 40 rounds per minute. Although the performance isn’t outstanding, it has the benefit of a simple construction and usage familiarity.”

“I don’t have a good impression of the 7.62x39 M43 round.” Xi Yazhou mischievously laughed, “This sort of bullet uses a corrosive primer, leading to corrosion of the barrel and requiring frequent cleaning and maintenance. Hainan has a very harsh environment, and most people don’t have any military experience or knowledge about guns. As such, it is very likely the rifles will rust due to a lack of frequent maintenance and soon become unusable.

“Good-for-nothings that don’t even wipe down their rifles, can they even become soldiers? This reasoning is far too groundless.”

Xi Yazhou ignored the comment: “Corrosive primers also ruin the cartridge itself, thus strongly impacting on the reusability of ammunition. “

“That’s a point that we need to carefully think about. Reusing spent cartridges is the only way of replenishing ammunition in the early days.”

“Warsaw Pact weapons such as the SKS are designed to be easy to use and manufacture. In other words, they had the ability to make individual weapons better, but their goal was to reduce cost as much as possible. From this perspective, a weapon that has a long life-time but is expensive to make does not sit well with their doctrine.

“Of course, this isn’t a problem in the modern day. If a gun breaks we can just get a new one. However, on the other side, there is no way of replacing such modern weaponry. So we must carefully consider the longevity of the weapon.”

“Are you saying that the SKS’s lifetime is too short?”

“That’s right, and not just the SKS. It’s a problem of the entire AK-type.” He stretched out his numb legs. “Apart from this, the SKS is an archetypal semi-automatic rifle.“ Xi Yazhou emphasised this phrase. “It’s an archetypal semi-automatic, meaning that there’s no way of converting it into a full auto rifle.”

The people in the room suddenly understood, and even the people who disapproved of Yazhou’s words also raised their brows.

That’s right, although there aren’t any full auto weapons on the American civilian gun market, the AK/AR semi-auto rifles that were made from military-use blueprints could actually still be modified into full-auto weapons. Of course, this was illegal, and carried a hefty penalty. But the FBI had no jurisdiction over the Great Ming!

In everyone’s minds there were now the familiar words such as AK47, M16, and so on. Everyone was dreaming of heroically wielding an AK or M16 into battle.

“Then let’s just buy a large quantity of civilian-grade AKs!” Shi Niaoren was also excited, “after 2004 there have been a lot of these guns entering the market. And with our manufacturing base, it shouldn't be a problem to modify them all.”

“Why get AKs, I want an M16!”

“What are you talking about, they’re called AR15s.”

“Once we make it full-auto they’ll become M16s though.”

“Ah, but I still have the same thing to say: we should avoid the M43.” Xi Yazhou was very satisfied with the result of his previous argument. “Similarly, I don’t recommend using small-calibre rifles such as the M16. It not only lacks stopping power, but also damage at higher ranges. Small-calibre bullets are also more demanding on our manufacturing technology. I recommend sticking to semi-auto rifles chambered in 7.62 mm NATO rounds. For example, civilian versions of the M14 and FN-FAL. Converting these rifles to full-auto would reduce our need for actual machine guns.

“M14? I heard that it has remarkable precision, but suffers from over-penetration and is also very heavy.”

“Isn’t the build of this gun a bit too complicated? All NATO weapons are complicated to build and maintain.”

The debate about guns lasted for half an hour. Towards the end of it Shi Niaoren was bored to death, and seeing how little headway had been made, he proposed to talk to Xiao Rui directly on the internet. After all, Xiao Rui was far more familiar with the civilian gun market in the US, unlike everyone here in China.

Xiao Rui proposed another gun: the Saiga-308 that no one had even heard of. This was a Russian-made civilian semi-automatic chambered in 7.62 mm NATO.

AK’s that can fire 5.56 bullets were not rare. Even factories in northern China had exported Type-56 assault rifles chambered in 5.56mm. However, the Saiga semi-auto was an AK-type weapon that used full-power US cartridges, which was relatively rare.

The Saiga-308 was a civilian sports and hunting rifle developed by the Izhmash factory, the main manufacturer of Kalashnikov firearms. It was made specifically for international fans of AK-type rifles. As such, it retains almost all the aesthetics of AK rifles, and even the internal parts are all from the AKM and AK74. The muzzle was designed to attach the SVDS sniper suppressor, and the side rails allowed for the mounting of various Soviet and Russian optics. The Saiga-308 also had good accuracy: at 100m range the dispersion would only be a circle of radius 40 to 45mm. The weapon was also more reliable than an ordinary AK rifle. Also, in order to mitigate the recoil of the 7.62mm round, a special buffer pad was also installed behind the stock. This worked well enough that even inexperienced shooters could handle the gun just fine.

“The Saiga has good comprehensive performance: high accuracy, more than sufficient stopping power, and a long effective range. The empty gun weighs 3.6kg, and by default comes with an 8-round magazine, which can be optionally swapped out for a 20-round extended mag or a high-capacity drum magazine.” Shi Niaoren relayed Xiao Rui’s messages. “It’s also fairly inexpensive, with a unit price of 500 USD, and if we buy in bulk we may even get a discount. Of course, we can also buy the M1A–the civilian version of the M14–but that would be much more expensive, usually at 1000 USD or more on the market.

“So is Xiao Rui suggesting that we choose the Saiga-308?”

“No, no, he didn’t say that.” Shi Niaoren was a person who had long dealt with office politics and was not afraid of backpedalling. The issue of selecting weapons was of utmost importance. If the choice was good it would only be seen as a rational guess. If it wasn’t and problems cropped up later, the fault would always land on the head of the suggestee. Even if the higher-ups understood, everyone else wouldn’t. “It’s just a suggestion. The final decision still depends on the Executive Committee.”

This was just kicking the ball back over to the Committee. Everyone had talked about it already, but the Committee still couldn’t come to a decision. Compared to the passionate discussion of the amateurs, the Sports group was actually pretty disinterested in the topic, save for Xi Yazhou. In the Sports group members’ opinion, a Type-56 semi-auto would be more than enough, and there was no need to bring up so many random weapons.

“Are bolt-action rifles not an option?” Chief Wen remembered the gun fair he had attended when he went to the US in the past. He had seen so many cool antique rifles there, including Masers, Springfields, Mosins… And they were also very cheap. It would be a spectacular sight if they could get soldiers dressed in black high hats and bright uniforms marching slowly forward in lines, each wielding these long bolt-action rifles.

Of course, he knew that it would be impossible to get the time-travellers to do this, so he didn’t bring up this little dream.

In the end, no consensus was reached on the 7.62 NATO versus the 7.62 Warsaw bullets. However, six different options were noted down: SKS semi-auto; M1A (M-14) semi-auto; Saiga-308; civilian version of AK47/AK74 or M16, then modify to full-auto (there were differing opinions on AK or M16); have both a high-power sniper rifle and an intermediate-power rifle or small-calibre SMG; use bolt-actions.

Unsurprisingly, each plan had its own supporters and detractors. As the discussion began to develop into an unfriendly direction, Wen Desi turned the topic to personal defence weapons.

The plan the Sports team originally prepared was to just equip everyone with a dagger, but now with the help of the North American branch they could afford to splurge a little. Pistols were very popular on the American market, and there were a plethora of options. However, to simplify acquisition, repair and maintenance, they could only pick a single model.

There weren’t any strong objections to using 9mm parabellum as their baseline ammunition; after all, this was the mainstream pistol cartridge. As for the pistol itself, most people preferred the M9–the reason being that it looked handsome and was well-known, especially the heroic pose of Xiao Ma Ge. That was a sight unforgettable for their generation. There were also a few people who supported the M1911, but it was on the heavier side and not liked by the majority. There were also supporters for PPK, S&W revolvers, as well as the Glock series.

The Executive Committee originally intended to choose S&W’s 9mm revolver, as it was easy to use and maintain and very lightweight. However, it also had all the disadvantages of a revolver: air leakage, short range, small ammunition capacity, and slow reload. In the point of view of the Executive Committee, these downsides weren’t significant, as they were only meant to be used for close-range self-defence within 20 to 30 metres. The key was to be simple and durable.

The controversy was that the Sports group obviously did not like this suggestion. The PLA had never had a tradition of using revolvers. No one was confident with them, and the aesthetics were also less cool. The image that the revolver evoked in most people was that of the Royal Hong Kong Police, which never managed to catch criminals in all the movies they’d watched.

The final result of the discussion was that both the M9 and S&W’s M337 was tentatively included in the acquisitions list.