Empire Conquest-Chapter 802 - 72: The Final Shot (Part 2)

At that time, the Eastern Luosha Army had already noticed the flaws in the first generation of 7.92mm intermediate cartridges, and similarly solved it by lengthening the cartridge case.

Performance-wise, the 8mm intermediate cartridge developed by Eastern Luosha was slightly better than the second generation 7.92mm intermediate cartridge of the Western Continental Group, meeting all the performance indicators proposed by the Eastern Group, and was the most outstanding among several candidate ammunitions in many aspects.

Unfortunately, the Eastern Group ultimately chose the Liangxia Empire’s 8mm full-size rifle cartridge.

The reason for choosing the 8mm rifle cartridge, besides its longer range and better terminal ballistics, was also related to unifying rifle and machine gun ammunition.

Don’t forget, the 8mm intermediate cartridge can at most serve as a bullet for squad machine guns and certainly cannot replace the 8mm full-size rifle cartridge as heavy machine gun ammunition. Moreover, the concept of a general-purpose machine gun had already emerged and was tending to replace the heavy machine gun.

Additionally, general-purpose machine guns were at least allocated to infantry platoons and might even be reinforced to infantry squads.

If the intermediate cartridges submitted by Eastern Luosha were chosen, the infantry forces would have to be equipped with two types of cartridges, which would undoubtedly increase the logistical burden.

With the use of an 8mm full-size cartridge, this problem wouldn’t exist.

Of course, the direct result of this choice forced the Eastern Group to start developing small caliber cartridges after the Boi War.

Although throughout the Boi War, 8mm full-size cartridges, such powerful rifles had very impressive performances, especially in the western mountainous region battles, where their powerful rounds ensured potency during long-range engagements, allowing infantry to fire from longer distances, the problems with full-size cartridges were equally exposed, most notably the heavy logistical burden.

Simply put, the cartridges were too heavy.

In this war, the Empire Army used a total of 7.5 trillion cartridges of all kinds, requiring 500,000 bullets to kill one enemy.

Obviously, transporting ammunition to the front lines was a massive hassle.

In times of intense combat, the primary task of transport helicopters was to deliver ammunition to the front lines!

Furthermore, the bulk of the cartridges inevitably reduced the number that infantry could carry, significantly diminishing the troops’ sustained combat capability.

At that time, an infantry soldier of the Empire Army, under normal circumstances, could carry five 20-round magazines, plus one box of 100 loose bullets, totaling 200 rounds.

This was the combat standard.

In comparison, Boi soldiers using 7.92mm intermediate cartridges could carry 300 to 350 rounds in a combat state.

In almost all battles, the infantry of the Empire Army encountered issues with insufficient ammunition.

Furthermore, before the Boi War ended, the Newland Republic had already introduced the 5.56mm small caliber cartridge, with outstanding performance.

Even within the Western Continental Group, Belgium’s FN company had developed a 5.56mm small caliber cartridge targeting exports.

Against this backdrop, the Liangxia Empire initiated the second round of standard-caliber cartridge selection, similarly requiring uniform caliber within the Eastern Group.

The eventual winner was the 6mm small caliber cartridge preferred by the Empire Army.

In the past ten years, all member countries of the Eastern Group have gradually replaced rifles firing 8mm full-size cartridges with ones firing 6mm small caliber cartridges.

The same goes for the Eastern Luosha Army.

Although some old rifles were kept, they were either provided to militiamen or converted into semi-automatic sniper rifles.

All units equipped for combat received small caliber rifles.

Actually, the 6mm small caliber cartridge is quite good.

After the Empire Army firstly procured squad machine guns firing 6mm small caliber cartridges, other member countries of the Eastern Group including Eastern Luosha gradually purchased and equipped squad machine guns, many of which were imported from the Liangxia Empire or produced under license.

It must be said that the proliferation of squad machine guns greatly enhanced infantry combat power.

In the previous decades, the direct support firepower that Empire Army infantry could rely on was always the heavy machine guns and general-purpose machine guns allocated at the platoon level.

Although general-purpose machine guns are very powerful and have a longer range, they are simply too heavy for infantry.

Of course, in many cases, such strong suppressive firepower wasn’t needed.

According to Empire Army statistics, in the vast majority of instances, the enemies that infantry face are actually within 600 meters, at most only 800 meters, so the infantry squads only need suppressive fire over 600 to 800 meters, much closer than the general-purpose machine guns’ range exceeding 1000 meters.

This necessity led the Empire Army to equip the largest small caliber cartridge size.

The key is that squad machine guns using rifle bullets need to have at least an 800-meter range, and preferably suppress group personnel from 1000 meters away.

According to tests by the Empire Army, the effective range of the Beigu Group’s 5.56mm cartridges and the Western Continental Group’s 5.45mm cartridges both struggle to reach 800 meters, not to mention 1000 meters. Even when using the latest technology, like better materials for bullet construction to increase range, it would inevitably cause the cartridge price to skyrocket. As ammunition is consumed in large quantities, cost is obviously very sensitive.

To improve range while preserving the advantages of small caliber cartridges, the only way is to appropriately increase caliber.

This equipment system of small caliber rifles and squad machine guns sharing ammunition is a significant feature of the Eastern Group.

Of course, their performance in battle is also very outstanding.

Currently, the reserve forces of the Eastern Luosha Army can rely on an understrength infantry battalion to withstand an attack from a Luosha Army armored brigade. Besides the support provided by Situ Lin and others, including the pivotal role of the ZT-99B in anti-armor combat, the key is the Eastern Luosha infantry squads having fiercer close-range suppressive fire, often relying on suppressive firepower to repel enemy attacks.

In positional defense battles, the numerous squad machine guns have irreplaceable value.

Put simply, the Western Luosha Army probably has never encountered a situation where defensive positions are filled with machine guns.

Unfortunately, the round of bombardment before the attack had already shattered the defending forces.

"Boss!"

"Once aimed, fire!"

As he said this, Situ Lin had already turned the general-purpose machine gun mounted on the ring mount, directing the muzzle towards the direction the gunfire came from.

Actually, the enemy’s losses were also very heavy.

"Boom——"

Dazzling light appeared, followed immediately by a deafening artillery noise as Wu Qitie fired the last multi-purpose grenade.

The target was a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle over a 1000 meters away.

Actually, Situ Lin didn’t see the shell hit the target.

The dazzling gun muzzle flash temporarily blinded him.

Then, the tank started speeding up.

"Boom boom boom——"

Hearing the sounds coming from nearby, Situ Lin knew Wu Qitie had climbed out of the turret and was firing the 35mm automatic grenade launcher.

The tank was violently jostling and speeding fast.

After a few more seconds, Situ Lin’s vision fully returned.

Tracer bullets flew past nearby continuously, mainly cartridges, but also some small caliber shells.

"Da da da——"

Though he couldn’t see the enemy, firing in the direction of the flashes couldn’t be wrong.

The rain of enemy bullets grew more concentrated, as if this ZT-99B was the sole target.

Perhaps it really was the only target!

"Don’t stop, don’t go in a straight line!"

Shouting instructions to Tang Xuebing, Situ Lin also quickly glanced around.

He was searching for friendly forces, but instead saw no allies.

"Sweet Dumpling, 3 o’clock, charge straight!"

That was a T-72M already breaking through to the rear, turning its gun barrel around to take out the ZT-99B charging south.

The defense line had long been breached, so it wasn’t surprising to see enemy tanks at the rear.

After receiving Situ Lin’s command, Tang Xuebing immediately steered the tank in a different direction.

The hull tilted noticeably, mainly because the directional change was too fast.

Unfortunately, it still wasn’t fast enough.

The enemy tank was about 100 meters away, and Situ Lin saw with his own eyes that the 125mm smoothbore cannon barrel had already turned, just about to fire.

For armor-piercing rounds, this distance is really too close.

However, for tanks, 100 meters is too far.

It’s over!

When the blinding flame appeared, Situ Lin tightened his grip on the machine gun handle.

But it was merely a futile instinctive reaction; after being hit by an armor-piercing round, gripping anything wouldn’t help at all.