Chapter 548 - Revolver

The proposal to arm native cadres sparked immediate controversy. Was it safe to distribute weapons so broadly? The centralized nature of the military kept its arsenal under strict transmigrator control, minimizing the risk of proliferation. But placing firearms in the hands of dispersed native officials was a different matter entirely; once issued, these weapons would be difficult to track and harder to retrieve.

However, the reality of the security situation silenced the dissenters. The Planning Council eventually approved the manufacture of a standard-issue self-defense sidearm for native personnel.

The project fell to the First Weapons Design Group. Unlike their counterparts in the Second Group, who focused on "retro" black powder weaponry, the First Group specialized in "modern" designs. The driving force behind this team was Li Yiwo.

Li Yiwo was a quiet, rotund man whose unassuming appearance belied a dangerous mastery of mechanics. A master fitter by trade, his true passion lay in the clandestine art of gunsmithing. In the old world, he had manufactured firearms as a hobby—highly illegal, but executed with the precision of a master craftsman. He could replicate a Type 64 pistol with his eyes closed and had even built shotguns and rifles from scratch. To prove his bona fides, he had brought two of his creations through the wormhole: a 9mm Makarov and an M1911.

Upon arrival, Li Yiwo donated his entire workshop—a treasure trove of custom tools and molds—to the collective. With these, he claimed he could build an AK-47 from scrap iron, although he admitted that manufacturing the ammunition was the real bottleneck.

For Li Yiwo, transmigration was a liberation. No longer forced to hide his passion in the shadows, he could now build guns in broad daylight, discussing rifling twists and trigger pulls with like-minded enthusiasts. He and his wife, Li Yuanyuan, a clerk for the Executive Committee, had found a happiness in Lingao that the old world had denied them.

Initially, however, his skills were underutilized. The transmigrators' own armory was well-stocked with modern firearms, and the mass production of Minié rifles for the native army was an industrial process that didn't require his artisanal touch. Instead, he was assigned to the Machinery Factory to reload ammunition, primarily the 7.62×54mm rounds for the SKS rifles, which were being consumed at an alarming rate.

It was tedious work. The days of reloading a few dozen rounds for a weekend range trip were over; now, he faced mountains of thousands of spent brass casings daily. But Li Yiwo was resourceful. With support from Zhan Wuya, he scaled up his operation, turning his personal reloading bench into a semi-automated production line. This efficiency bought him the time to return to his true calling: design.

While he turned his nose up at the clumsy Derringers, the new mandate for a native service pistol piqued his interest. The First Weapons Design Group gathered at the Machinery Factory to break down the problem.

The group's intellectual core was Bai Yu, an armor officer with formal training in weapons engineering. While Li Yiwo had the hands of a master smith, Bai Yu provided the theoretical framework for mass production.

They reviewed the Planning Council's requirements: 1. Economical: Cheap materials, easy to manufacture, capable of rapid mass production. 2. Controlled Lethality: Ideally using ammunition that natives could not replicate or scavenge, preventing the weapons from being turned against the creators. 3. Usability: Simple operation, high reliability. Performance was secondary; an effective range of 25 meters was deemed sufficient.

"To meet these specs, it has to be a revolver," Li Yiwo said, scanning the document. "Unless we want to mass-produce 13mm single-shot pistols—basically sawed-off Miniés."

"Forget the single-shot," Bai Yu said dismissively. "Fire once, reload once? It's good for suicide and not much else."

The team agreed. Revolvers were robust, required less precision metallury than semi-automatics—no slide springs or complex extractors—and offered sustained fire.

"So, what are we cloning? Webley or Smith & Wesson?" Li Yiwo asked. He had the schematics for almost every major handgun in history memorized. "The Webley has better performance."

"I vote Smith & Wesson," Wang Ruixiang chimed in. He had a romantic attachment to the classic American design. In the other timeline, he had carried a 4-inch barrel S&W in 9mm, paired with a police holster he'd bought at a surplus store. It was more fashion statement than sidearm, but he loved it.

"The Webley reloads faster," Li Yiwo countered. "Top-break action. You snap it open, the ejector star clears the cylinder, you drop in a fresh moon clip. It's elegant."

"And complex," Bai Yu noted. "Top-break frames take a lot of stress. Our steel might not hold up. Plus, without metal cartridges, the ejection mechanism is useless."

"Smith & Wesson it is, then," Wang Ruixiang said, hopeful.

"Still too complicated," Bai Yu shook his head. "The Council wants simple. Swing-out cylinders require tight tolerances. If we fuck up the crane alignment, the timing goes off, and the gun explodes."

"So... a solid frame?" Li Yiwo asked. "Western style?"

"Western style," Bai Yu confirmed. "Single Action Army style. Fixed cylinder, loading gate on the right. One round in, rotate, one round in. It's slow to load, but it's indestructible and easy to build."

Wang Ruixiang proposed using 13mm seamless steel tubing for the barrels to share supply lines with the Minié rifle production.

Bai Yu shot that down immediately. "13mm is massive. That's a .50 caliber handicap. To drive a slug that heavy, you need a lot of powder. In a revolver with no recoil system? It would break the shooter's wrist."

He explained further, "Revolvers vent gas through the cylinder gap. A massive charge for a 13mm slug would turn that gap into a flamethrower. It's dangerous and wasteful. We need a smaller caliber. Less powder, less recoil, thinner barrel walls. It solves the material problem and the handling problem."

"Besides," Bai Yu added, "a 13mm revolver would be a hand-cannon. It would be huge, heavy, and hold maybe four or five shots. We want a sidearm, not field artillery."

The decision was made: a rugged, simple, solid-frame revolver. It wouldn't win beauty contests, but it would work.

(End of Chapter)