The Fifth Member of the North American Branch

On the next day Shi Niaoren returned to the USA. The final choice of weapons to purchase could not be confirmed yet due to differences of opinion. The Americans said that they would wait for the Committee’s news before taking any action. Either way, it wouldn’t be advisable to hold onto their purchased weapons for too long, so it would be more than enough to buy them a few months before departure.

The Executive Committee members were not satisfied with the discussions so far. Many people felt there was something stuck in their throats, but they couldn’t explain why. It felt as if all the options were not quite in line with what they wanted. Although they had never really used guns, they all knew a lot about them and could hold their own in discussions. However, civilian weapons were confusing to the vast majority of the city otakus. None of them had a strong theoretical basis on this topic.

These days Jiang Ye had been keeping a close eye on the Executive Committee members as well as Xi Yazhou, mostly lobbying and promoting his own package of weapons: semi-automatic rifles combined with bolt-action Mosin-Nagants. Chief Wen had been moved by his words and even looked up information on the Type 38 rifle–equipped with a bayonet they could make for a gorgeous infantry formation. However, the Sports group did not want to continue the bolt-action tradition as used in the revolutionary era. This idea didn’t receive much support from everyone else either–most people preferred weapons that could ‘sweep’ and lay down fire across a large area. They didn’t care much if it was by using automatic rifles or submachine guns, but they definitely did not want bolt-action rifles; such weapons made them feel insecure.

Unexpectedly, within a few days, they received a call from Dr. Shi, who said that there would be a new member of the North American division and that he would be returning to China soon. This new member had played with guns more than Xiao Rui, and knew the US civilian weapons market very well. He had even played with cannons in the ground and flown planes in the sky.^[1] This experience drew much respect from everyone, even though they didn't know him yet. Most people thought that he must be some big, muscular strongman.

However, when he arrived at the Guangzhou base, what they saw was a handsome young man with a slightly greasy face. Everyone was somewhat disappointed by this, to the point of even doubting Dr. Shi’s reliability.

The visitor said his name was Lin Shenhe, and introduced himself succinctly as a gun hobbyist. He had lived in the US for many years. Thanks to the decadent and free American world, he had not only played with countless guns both famous and niche, but had even made Nordenfelt machine guns and Napoleonic 12-pound bronze cannons (that is, he took part in their manufacturing). Hearing this self-introduction, the group of military nerds around him was almost drooling. After listening to the Executive Committee’s summary of the current armaments situation, he smiled leisurely.

Xiao Zishan, seeing this smile, couldn’t help but think of the smile of Tang Guoqiang’s portrayal of Zhuge Liang. Unfortunately, no one around said the famous follow up, “Why is our military advisor laughing?”^[2]

“No one here knows much about the civilian weapons market in the US right?” Lin Shenhe spoke in a husky voice, but his words were very clear. “In fact, the difference between civilian-grade and military-grade weapons is huge, and with significant variance from factory to factory.” He paused before continuing to explain.

“Let’s take the AR-15 as an example. Everyone knows that it’s a civilian version of the M-16, and that it cannot fire continuously and is a semi-automatic. However, the sellers on the US civilian market are very unscrupulous in producing civilian weapons, much unlike those held by actual soldiers. Just taking the barrel of the AR-15, apart from precision barrels built for competitions, ordinary ones on the market don’t even have chrome-plated bores.^[3]

“As another example, the M14 civilian version of the M1A recommended by Xi Yazhou is manufactured by the famous Springfield company. Many people like it. Its receiver is precision cast,^[4] unlike the M14 which has a hammer-forged receiver. In contrast, the M14 produced by Norinco also has a hammer-forged receiver, but of a worse quality.”^[5]

“So the American profiteers make money by contracting with the US military then deceive the working class with fake products?”

“It can’t be described as deception. The civilian market in the US is enormous, with a huge variety of demand due to clients of differing social and economic status. This is very different from military contracts. So, there are companies that cut corners to reduce cost, but there are also companies that make high-price, high-quality weapons. For example, LRBArms makes an M14 with a forged receiver that is much more expensive than the Springfield version. So in summary, the result is that people of any income can find a cost-effective firearm.”

After Lin Shenhe’s introduction, everyone realised the complexity and depth of the civilian gun scene. They couldn’t help but be awed.

“Lin Shenhe, so what’s your opinion on our choice of armament?”

“Well it depends on what kind of weapon we need. Regarding the choice of semi-automatic rifles, I agree with the opinion of group leader Xi Yazhou: it would be better to have semi-automatic rifles given our prospective threat environment. 200 semi-automatic rifles are more than enough to deal with any military situation at the start.”

“We haven’t had many disagreements on this overall idea. The difficult problem is in choosing the right kind of semi-auto rifle.”

“If we want to maximise the price-to-performance ratio, the SKS is indeed a very good option. The retail price is only 400 dollars, and its M43 ammunition is very cheap. There are also a lot of them in stock and they are easy to acquire in bulk. These factors make the SKS a suitable weapon for equipping big groups such as ours.”

“Didn’t Xiao Rui say that we could get a Mosin-Nagant for 80 dollars? For the same price of 400 dollars for an SKS we could get 5 Mosins!” The bolt-action rifle party insisted. “And the bullets are also cheaper.”

“But who amongst you has actually used a Mosin?” Lin Shenhe smiled “Among the bolt-actions, the Mosin-Nagant is perhaps the hardest to cycle. It is said that you need to kick it with your feet! Also, all bolt-actions require a lot of practice to make them effective in combat.”

“We could still go with something else…like the Lee-Enfield.”

“We could. But in my opinion, bolt-actions are only good for equipping indigenous troops in the future. We time travellers should stick with better equipment to ensure our safety.

“I am still against Warsaw Pact weapons.” Xi Yazhou insisted. “Their lifetimes are simply too poor.”

“Oh, that’s actually something of an urban myth. There are indeed some particularly bad specimens from the Warsaw Pact, but just like here in the US, the crucial thing is to check where they were made. As far as I know, the AK-type rifles on the US civilian market that are made by the Russian Izhmash and other such factories are all made with cold hammer forged barrels with chrome-plated bores, with a total lifetime of at least 80,000 rounds. For comparison, Bulgaria’s Arsenal AD AK rifles have a barrel life of around 15,000 rounds. On the other hand, the only AR series rifle with similar barrel quality is the HK416. This is information I got from an American Arsenal AD representative.”

“Then let’s just buy a lot of AKs! They can also be converted to be fully automatic.” The supporters of the AK option began to be arrogant.

“I agree with Xi Yazhou’s overall idea however. We should keep some semi-automatic rifles that use full-power cartridges.” Lin Shenhe slowly outlined. “Considering our needs, Group Leader Xi’s overview is quite comprehensive. It’s not just about range, but such full-power ammunition has a potent penetrative power against old buildings, and is also very useful for dealing with enemies taking cover behind dense shrubbery. We will need this when fighting in heavily forested areas like in the centre of Hainan.”

---

After being thoroughly brainwashed by Lin Shenhe, the Executive Committee finally landed upon a mixed plan: they would acquire a small number of Russian-made semi-automatic Saiga-308s chambered in 7.62 NATO, and save them for dedicated military personnel. Then, they would equip the militia with semi-automatic SKSs firing M43 bullets. Although the SKS has some deficiencies in performance, it has the overall benefit of very cheap ammunition, unlike the 7.62 NATO round. Fundamentally, the fiscal considerations were important.

The specific SKS variant proposed by Lin Shenhe was the SKS-D. The advantage of this model is that it had native compatibility with AK magazines, and so was no longer limited to the standard 10-round magazine of other SKS derivatives. This greatly improved the firepower output they could sustain in any fight.

“As for pistols, the M9 is only good as a showpiece. Just go with a glock. They’re all cheap and available in bulk. The American police all love it, and per unit they go for less than 50 dollars.”^[6]

Lin Shenhe took advantage of his rhetorical momentum and decided to change the minds of the Executive Committee. Although the M9 was indeed quite cool to use, the glock was still fine, so there weren’t too many objections. However, the purchase ratio of self-cycling pistols to revolvers dropped from the majority and to the minority. Self-cycling pistols would only be equipped in small quantities to their standing army, and most people would be using S&W revolvers instead. Revolvers were after all more suitable when they inevitably had to start using inferior, recycled cartridges.

Lin Shenhe next made many other suggestions: such as acquiring a large number of russian-made 4x optical scopes. They would be indispensable if they wanted to use rifles at ranges longer than 400 metres. Alongside these scopes he also suggested getting a few high-power sniper scopes to equip specialised sharpshooters.

“We can also purchase a few light weapons to serve as blueprints for reverse engineering in the future, or at least as reference if we want to make our own weapons.”

In the course of this discussion the members of the Sports group remained mostly silent except for Xi Yazhou, who spoke for the rest. However, after the meeting, several people proposed to go to the shooting club to fire the M14 and get a feel for the effect of full-power cartridges.

“Okay, you should go arrange this.” Wen Desi said to Xiao Zishan. “If the club has a 308 you should also let everyone in the Sports Group shoot it and get a feel for it.”^[7]

The next problem became getting the money to the US. Those 200 some rifles alone cost over 100,000 USD, and it was obviously impossible to make such a large currency exchange at the bank. Fortunately, Wen Desi had recently opened up many shell companies to cover the flow of funds for the Crossing Company. One of them even had import and export licences, and so in the end he shipped several kilograms of gold disguised in electronics containers.

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“Do you really trust Dr. Shi and that Lin Shenhe?” Xiao Zishan asked Wen Desi later, as they were taking a walk across the base.

“If we don’t trust them, what can we do?” Chief Wen asked back, “We can only rely on them to get weapons. We have no alternative.”

“That’s true.” Xiao Zishan quietly ruminated.

“To be completely honest with you, our entire operation is built on complete mutual trust,” Wen Desi took a deep breath, “If you and Wang Luobin didn’t trust me, would you have gone through the wormhole with me? If all these people now gathered here didn’t believe that we have a wormhole, would they have gathered here? Not to speak of those who have left us already, if we don’t trust their promise to keep what they’ve seen under wraps…” his face turned cold, “we should really go and-”

Xiao Zishan shuddered. “Be careful with what you say!”

“En, you’re right.” Chief Wen nodded. “Anyway, how has Xi Yazhou been recently? Has he been annoyed at all?”

“From what I’ve heard, not really. In the end, his proposal wasn’t completely overturned. It turns out that he and a few others went out to drink with Lin Shenhe, and it was quite a friendly affair. They probably made up with each other after a few rounds. Lin Shenhe has a lot of practical experience; he’ll be a good talent to keep.”

“Well, what do the other people in the Sports Group think of our plan?”

“They think we are making a mountain out of a molehill, and that we’re overthinking it.” Xiao Zishan smiled bitterly. There were more and more family members of their technical workers under his care. From their gossiping he could infer much about what people thought. “In their opinion, just having a gun is good enough, and everything else isn’t important. And they don’t even have a strong opinion on what gun to use.”

“That’s good then. Everyone should be more stable and harmonious, and try to keep a peace with everyone else. To be honest it’s all going smoothly now, but I’m afraid that after we travel across…” Chief Wen didn’t finish his words.

“With weapons comes bloodthirst.”

“That’s right and especially if everyone gets a gun…”

“Do we still need to have some way of regulating firearms and ammunition?”

“Yes, we must have one. Well, at least in the long run. But making such a supervisory body is really a technical detail. In the big picture, what we actually need is a complete political system. That is, we need a government, a code of conduct, and so on.” Xiao Zishan said.

“En, so we need to build a complete system…a constitution as well?”

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1. Original says something about flying horses; I’m pretty sure meaning planes, but if you are more confident on what “天上飞过马(野马)” means then please let me know. ↩︎

2. Reference to a scene in the 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series. ↩︎

3. Chromium is electroplated on the interior bores of the rifle barrels to protect against corrosion and hot propellant gases. It increases the lifespan of the barrel. ↩︎

4. Usually called investment casting or lost-wax casting. ↩︎

5. Norinco is an abbreviation of “North Industries Corporation”, the full name of it is China North Industries Group Corporation Limited. Chinese main state owned defence contractor. ↩︎

6. I can’t find a retail glock for 50 bucks; they’re usually a few hundred. Maybe second hand? ↩︎

7. ‘308’ refers to a rifle chambered in .308 winchester. Not sure why, seeing that they’re planning to get rifles shooting 7.62mm rounds. But hey, these guys know about it than me so… ↩︎