Munitions Empire

In the shooting range of Brunas, Tang Mo watched with interest as Wes emptied a handgun magazine and then continued to reload.

Good marksmanship is cultivated with bullets; without extensive live-fire practice, talent alone is useless.

One must shoot year after year, day after day, to maintain their feel for the gun and preserve muscle memory, ensuring the most accurate shooting action in the shortest time possible.

Wes was Tang Mo's personal guard. Until he found a successor he could trust, Wes was the last line of defense by Tang Mo's side.

Such a person must always maintain the best combat readiness, so Wes always seized every opportunity to train his combat skills.

His proficiency with the handgun was nearly divine, with almost every shot hitting the bullseye. And his drawing speed was unbelievably fast, like lightning.

"Bang!" With the last shot fired, Wes placed the test model of the PPK handgun on the tray and turned back to Tang Mo with a hint of reluctance: "You always manage to create weapons that people love."

To be frank, the PPK handgun is a very portable weapon with decent power, and in the hands of Wes, it's nothing short of a divine tool.

Compared to the much larger M1911 handgun, the PPK seems more suitable for bodyguards or spies.

However, the PPK handgun also has its drawbacks, the foremost being that its firepower is relatively small.

The M1911 handgun has a larger caliber and uses ammunition that is far more powerful than the 7.65 mm rounds used by the PPK, naturally offering much greater stopping power.

Thus, in the hands of an expert like Wes, the M1911 handgun, which can resolve issues with one shot, actually has a greater impact.

With the same 7-round capacity, the PPK's seven bullets may not resolve the problem, but the M1911 is much more reliable.

Therefore, Wes still prefers the powerful M1911 handgun and, after experimenting with many types of handguns, he favors the M1911 and "bolt-action rifles."

If allowed to carry, Wes would rather carry a bolt-action rifle, or the Mauser automatic pistol, which has great firepower and can also serve as an automatic weapon in a pinch.

Although it is greatly lacking in accuracy, Wes prefers such powerful automatic weapons, especially since compared to the old Shireck flintlock pistols, all the pistols currently involved in the Great Tang Group's handgun bidding trials could be considered top-quality.

Luger pistols were also fabricated as prototypes, but Wes does not like these unstable firearms when firing.

Despite their high price and the use of many new technologies, Luger pistols have many intrinsic flaws and struggle to compete with the more stable PPK and M1911.

In fact, even during the San Dezi era, not many Prussian nobility officers carried Lugers; most were provided to the police and second-line troops... after all, the harsh battlefield conditions made such precious pistols unsuitable.

In the world before Tang Mo crossed over, around 1910, many excellent handguns emerged.

Both Jack and Belgium had decent designs; the Browning high-power pistol and Jack's CZ pistol were well-known.

And in Tang Mo's laboratory, these handguns were also replicated by skilled craftsmen to test the limits of each model.

Ultimately, the M1911 and PPK handguns became Tang Mo's preferred semi-automatic pistols, and older guns like the Mauser bolt-action rifle were deemed heretical and sent elsewhere to fool Shireck's idiots.

After all, what Tang Mo really wanted to develop was not the automatic pistols that never became widely popular through the 21st century but more reasonable submachine guns that used pistol ammunition!

He definitely didn't want something the size of a Uzi that only performed moderately in close combat situations.

The Mauser pistol's only highlight is its power at medium range—it has a much longer effective range than standard pistols, especially when equipped with a holster that doubles as an improvised stock, significantly improving accuracy.

But with the stock attached, the automatic pistol basically becomes the same size as a submachine gun and is no longer a handgun...

This is also why the Mauser automatic pistol, which would be considered overpowered among handguns, only shone brightly on the Huaxia battlefield—there were no submachine guns!

So, Huaxia was the natural advantaged battlefield for the Mauser automatic pistol, a result of the environment, not because the weapon itself was outstanding.

Therefore, this weapon is not irreplaceable; on the contrary, it is very easy to replace: just produce proper submachine guns.

"To be honest, I haven't yet decided how to name this type of handgun, S4 or S5?" Tang Mo, feeling the comfortable sunshine on him, asked Wes.

After some thought, Wes responded to Tang Mo's question, "Actually, I prefer the larger one that can solve problems."

"Hmm, men, they all like the bigger ones," Tang Mo teased with a hint of mischief.

Wes chuckled mischievously and then said, "Then consider this gun named by me."

He weighed the M1911 in his hand and named this other-worldly pistol the S4, while the PPK pistol logically became the S5 type semi-automatic handgun.

Instantly, he grew even fonder of the S4 handgun, since it was a pistol he had named, and the more he looked, the more he liked it.

Tang Mo, however, with a sly smile, waved to a servant holding a tray nearby, "Bring that thing over!"

The attendant hurried over and handed the tray covered with a white cloth to Tang Mo. Tang Mo did not lift the cloth immediately but looked at Wes and asked, "Do you remember the joke I told you?"

"Which one?" Wes tried hard to recall the various risqué jokes Tang Mo had told him.

"The one about being quick with fists within ten steps…" Tang Mo knew Wes had probably gotten the wrong idea, so he provided a prompt.

Wes was taken aback, then nodded pretentiously, "Remember, you once said to me, 'Beyond ten steps, the quicker gun… and within ten steps, the gun is both quick and accurate.'"

"That was just a joke," Tang Mo said with a smile as he unveiled the tray, revealing its contents to Wes, "Now, whether it's accurate or not doesn't really matter anymore."

Tang Mo didn't choose the German MP series submachine guns for his troops because he favored another type—the American Thompson submachine gun.

This was a somewhat complex but decently performing submachine gun; however, Tang Mo liked it for another reason—it had repeatedly appeared in gangster movies.

The Chicago Typewriter, concealed in a violin case and carried around by hitmen in black suits, had an impressive aura.

Of course, what Tang Mo directly manufactured was its modified version—the US military version without a foregrip but with a horizontal forend instead.

This weapon was conceived around 1928, so there were no technical difficulties involved. Compared to this, the superior German MP-38 submachine gun came quite a bit later.

In fact, in terms of performance and compatibility, Tang Mo would have preferred to choose the MP-38 submachine gun because its manufacturing technology was more advanced, its accuracy was higher, and it performed better in other aspects as well.

Not to mention just the fact that the German submachine gun could be folded was very appealing to him: Tang Mo highly valued weapons that were easy to carry.

However, while Tang Mo hesitated over which weapon to choose, another factor influenced his decision: bullets!

Tang Mo had already decided to mass produce the M1911 pistol, or rather the improved M1911A1 pistol, which used bullets of 11.43-mm caliber.

Another pistol Tang Mo liked, the PPK, used 7.65-mm caliber bullets—yes, yet another new type of bullet.

Meanwhile, the rifle bullets used by the security troops of the Great Tang Group were 8-mm caliber, which was again a completely different type of metal cartridge.

At the same time, the caliber of the Maxim heavy machine guns produced by the Great Tang Group was also 11.43 mm ammunition.

This left Tang Mo entangled in a rather awkward dilemma: the caliber of his bullets was too numerous and too varied.

If he were to produce the MP-38 submachine gun, which used 9-mm caliber pistol bullets, he would have to start another production line for 9-mm caliber pistol bullets.

With the existing bullet production lines, the Great Tang Group would have to produce 6 different calibers and types of bullets: .45 caliber (11.43) pistol bullets, .32 caliber (7.65) pistol bullets, 9-mm caliber pistol bullets, 8-mm (7.92) caliber rifle bullets, .45 caliber (11.43) machine gun bullets, and paper cartridges for needle guns…

This was something Tang Mo, or the Great Tang Group, was unwilling to accept.

Therefore, Tang Mo had to consciously reduce the number of bullet types in order to streamline his production lines and simplify the logistics of troop resupply.

In fact, weapon development has a certain continuity. Tang Mo chose the more advanced Colt Left-Wheel Handgun, thus setting the bullet caliber at .45 (11.43).

Consequently, the M1911 pistol's bullets were also .45 caliber, which greatly simplified Tang Mo's bullet production.

Therefore, when it came to choosing a submachine gun, Tang Mo had no choice but to make some compromises, giving up the MP-38 submachine gun he favored more and turning instead to the Chicago Typewriter, the Thompson submachine gun.

Although the weapon was not entirely satisfactory, it was still a very mature and effective weapon. If the downside of this weapon was that it was bulky and expensive, in this era, that was not a problem at all.

This weapon was only to equip Tang Mo's security troops, so he was more willing to simplify things and have the new submachine gun use existing bullets.

So, when Tang Mo unveiled the white cloth, what Wes saw was a beautifully crafted Thompson submachine gun.