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.
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.