Chapter Ten: The Steps of Progress

  "Dad, I want to discuss something with you." After dinner, Lin Hongfei didn't return to his own bedroom as usual to mess around with those things that Lin Weiguo considered "unproductive", but instead came to Lin Weiguo's side.

  "Huh? What's up?" Lin Weiguo responded with a voice, his eyes still not moving away from the news broadcast, and casually replied, "Is it that you don't have money again? I'm telling you, kid, you've been spending too much lately..."

  Although Lin Weiguo was just a soldier, according to those government officials, he only needed to focus on training and improving his combat skills, without worrying about national affairs. However, as an ambitious young high-ranking military officer, Lin Weiguo took Lin Hongfei's advice and watched the news broadcast every day, recording it with his home VCR... Some VHS players at that time had audio and video recording functions, so as long as the TV supported audio and video output, you could record important TV programs onto blank tapes using the VCR's recording function. After watching the news broadcast, he would repeatedly review it several times, analyzing the national affairs revealed in the news.

  This time, Lin Weiguo miscalculated. Lin Hongfei wasn't short of money. Before Lin Weiguo could finish speaking, Lin Hongfei interrupted him, "Dad, it's not that I'm short of money. I want to discuss something with you. Can I borrow an 81 automatic rifle from the armory tomorrow?"

  "What?! Lin Weiguo, who had never thought that his own son would make such a request, was shocked and widened his eyes. His face suddenly sank, and he refused without thinking, "No way! What do you want to do, you little brat?"

  Lin Hongfei had long anticipated his father's possible reaction. It was normal for his father to disagree, but abnormal if he agreed. As the son of a military district leader, Lin naturally knew the rules of the troops. Family members and children playing with guns were not forbidden, and Lin had played with all sorts of firearms since childhood, including the 81-style automatic rifle. However, there were rules to be followed when playing with guns. Even if his father was the deputy chief of staff of the military district, it wasn't possible for him to simply hand over an automatic rifle to his son to play with. If Lin wanted to play with guns, he would have to wait until the troops conducted target practice training and then fire a couple of shots after the training ended. In ordinary circumstances, taking an automatic rifle out of the armory? That was asking for trouble! Not even the child of the military district commander dared to do such a thing, lest they bring disaster upon their own family.

  No wonder Lin Weiguo's reaction was so big, this stinky kid in his own family was originally not a worry-free master, and today he actually wanted him to help him get a gun? Wanting to rebel?

  Duan Yuzhen's reaction was not much better, her face slightly pale, hands shaking, but as a mother she thought further ahead, while rummaging through Lin Hongfei's clothes, she asked anxiously, "Hongfei, were you bullied outside and couldn't take it? But even if you were bullied, you can't do stupid things, taking a gun out is going to..."

  "Alright, Lin Hongfei had discovered it. If he didn't quickly explain his thoughts, his parents would probably really give him a three-court trial. He couldn't help but laugh and cry as he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Lin Weiguo. "Dad, Mom, what are you talking about? What's this about me being bullied? Nothing like that happened. Dad, don't be anxious, I borrowed the gun to do something. Look, it's this thing."

  Isn't the son planning to do something bad? Hearing Lin Hongfei say this, Lin Weiguo finally put his mind at ease and took over the paper handed over by Lin Hongfei with a mixture of trust and doubt.

  At this glance, Lin Weiguo's eyes widened instantly. With his more than 20 years of military experience, he could see at a glance that the paper handed to him by his son was an accurate scale drawing of our People's Liberation Army's current-issue Type 81 automatic rifle. It wasn't strange that his son knew the exact dimensions of the Type 81 rifle; what surprised Lin Weiguo was that this drawing was different from the Type 81 rifle he could disassemble and reassemble with his eyes closed. On the magazine of the rifle drawn by his son, there was an extra thing in front, which extended all the way to the forewood of the clip. With this thing, the Type 81 rifle looked much more beautiful than before.

  It's not just about being aesthetically pleasing, of course. What matters in battle is practicality and reliability. Those fancy things can only bring trouble to oneself. What surprised Lin Weiguo was the huge change this thing could bring to the People's Army's combat capabilities. "Hongfei, what is this..."

  "This is a tactical rail, basically all NATO countries' current main infantry firearms are equipped with Picatinny tactical rails," Lin Hongfei nodded, "This is the tactical rail system I designed based on our own 81-style automatic rifle, after installing this tactical rail system, combined with individual aiming mirrors, laser aiming devices, small handles, tactical gun lights, small bipods and possible gun-mounted grenade launchers, our 81-style automatic rifle will change its current status of only being used for daytime close-range shooting, can become an all-weather, all-purpose single-soldier combat weapon equipment, and even temporarily serve as a sniper rifle."

  "It's the gift I prepared for you to give to Uncle Xu. Do you think if Uncle Xu saw this thing, he would be very satisfied with the gift you brought through the back door?" Lin Hongfei asked with a smile, and seeing the expression on his family's old master's face, Lin Hongfei was already certain that this matter had become 99% settled.

  No mistake, a few days ago Lin Hongfei looked for hardware stores everywhere, looking for aviation aluminum materials, what he wanted to make was to install a tactical rail system on the 81-style automatic rifle currently used most in China.

  In terms of materials suitable for tactical rail systems, the most suitable one should be high-strength engineering plastics. This stuff is lightweight, high-strength, and has good toughness. However, Lin Hongfei does not have much confidence in whether domestically-made high-strength engineering plastics can meet his requirements given the country's level of organic chemistry.

  Reluctantly, it's worth settling for second best and choosing the expensive aviation aluminum. Unfortunately, at this stage, aviation aluminum is still a state-controlled material, and civilians can't get their hands on it. Lin Hongfei was initially disappointed, but soon realized that all he needed to do was create a temporary prototype, and whether or not it was actually made of aviation aluminum wasn't that important... as long as the military leaders liked it, they would naturally arrange for the aviation aluminum to be provided.