Chapter 353: Sniper Rifle
Dominique seemed to have seen through Charles's thoughts, and he was somewhat discontented: "I know I'm not quite suited for this, but every soldier who goes to the battlefield has to go through this phase. Everyone has to adapt, going from being unfit to getting used to it..."
Charles interrupted Dominique's words: "You're right, but many people end up as corpses before they ever adapt."
Dominique was rendered speechless.
What Charles said was the truth. Aside from his knowledge of guns, Dominique had no other strengths. His plump body made him a liability on the battlefield.
It was not just about whether he could run fast; his nearly twice the size of an average person made it easier for the enemy to spot him.
"Everyone has his place, Dominique." Charles said, "Your place is to get better, more accurate, and more suitable rifles to the front-line soldiers. This is far more useful than you going to the battlefield yourself."
Dominique agreed with what Charles said, but he didn't care much for it.
"I don’t care about that, General." Dominique responded, "I know this may disappoint you, but..."
Charles nodded. This was Dominique's persistence. His mind was occupied with guns, and as for whether his contribution to the country was big or small, that wasn’t his concern.
He didn’t want to go to the battlefield for France; he wanted to improve his mental toughness and his control over firearms.
At that moment, a thought suddenly popped into Charles's mind: "Perhaps, you don’t need to go to the battlefield to improve yourself."
Dominique gave a bitter smile: "Thank you, General. But I don’t think such a good thing will happen."
These words almost sounded like he had given up. He insisted that the next challenge could only be found on the battlefield; it was just a matter of whether he would go or not.
Charles didn’t say anything. He stood up and walked in front of Dominique, extending his hand to indicate the rifle in Dominique’s hand.
Dominique understood what Charles meant. He hesitated before handing the rifle to Charles.
Charles took the rifle, then retrieved a monocular from his waist, placed its barrel onto the rifle, and handed it back to Dominique.
Dominique, confused, took the rifle back, not understanding what this meant.
But at Charles’s indication, he stood up, raised the rifle, and looked into the distance. He then quickly turned his head to look at Charles and exclaimed, "My God, you mean to combine the monocular with the rifle?"
"Why not?" Charles said, "This way, you can see distant targets more clearly. Your shooting skills will instantly improve several levels."
Dominique was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He tried again and said with excitement, "An amazing idea, General. It’s even easy to implement, all we need is to add a monocular."
"We should add a rail to the rifle." Charles said.
"A rail?" Dominique didn’t quite understand.
But soon, he understood and nodded vigorously. "Yes, add a rail to make it detachable. Sometimes it will be needed, sometimes not, like when charging towards the enemy. Also, the rail makes it easier to replace."
The more Dominique thought about it, the more he agreed. His breath became more rapid. "Wonderful, General. I—I can't wait to see it. I should start producing it right away..."
Actually, he just wanted to see how far he could shoot with this new weapon.
But Charles didn’t let him go. Since they were talking about this, Charles thought it was time to introduce the submachine gun.
"We should discuss another issue." Charles raised his head toward the direction of Shen Billy.
Shen Billy was practicing on the shooting range, wearing a gas mask. He was trying to figure out the refraction angle of the gas mask, hoping that, if the battlefield environment forced him to fight in such a situation again, he wouldn’t miss his target like last time.
This was Shen Billy’s strength—his purpose and focus were strong. He could overcome obstacles and adapt to new environments in the shortest time possible.
He knew that if he didn’t do this, the next battle might be his last.
"Do you mean equipping this rifle with a monocular for the sniper squad?" Dominique guessed.
"Yes." Charles replied, "That way, they can hit distant targets with greater precision."
Dominique muttered a thoughtful "Hmm" but looked somewhat confused. "You only want to equip the elite units with it? I thought you were planning to convert all rifles to this configuration."
"No, Dominique." Charles said with a smile, shaking his head. "Ordinary soldiers don’t need this. Their combat environment and their abilities mean that it won’t be of much use."
This was not about cost, but on the front line, ordinary soldiers prioritized rate of fire. They needed to shoot as many bullets as quickly as possible to block the tide of enemies charging at them. Adding a scope to emphasize accuracy wouldn’t be very meaningful, unless human wave tactics completely disappeared.
"No problem, General." Dominique nodded. "I’ll have this rifle produced soon, it won’t take long."
He was about to leave in a hurry to start production of the new rifle.
"I’m not talking about that." Charles stopped him again. "We need another kind of gun. A gun that can provide cover for the rifles, a gun for the observers."
As the instructor at the police training base and someone with an interest in firearms, Dominique naturally knew about the two-man sniper team.
"I’ve heard of it." Dominique said. "Shen Billy told me that observers need a gun. He thinks it should have a short barrel but a high rate of fire, to provide cover for the shooter when the enemy charges in mass."
Charles was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t told Shen Billy this; it was something Shen Billy figured out on his own, and it was spot-on.
From this perspective, Shen Billy really was an impressive talent.
Then Dominique reluctantly said, "But unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of gun. I considered the Saint-Étienne Mle 2 light machine gun, but after testing, we all agreed that it’s too long and requires a second gunner, which obviously isn’t suitable for observers."
"Have you considered using pistol rounds?" Charles asked calmly.
"Pistol rounds?" Dominique looked at Charles, then immediately realized. "You mean developing a high rate-of-fire gun using pistol rounds? A new kind of gun?"
"Yes." Charles nodded. "Pistol rounds have less recoil due to the smaller powder charge. Using them to develop a machine-gun-like gun to meet the requirements of a short barrel and high rate of fire shouldn’t be too difficult, right?"
Dominique’s eyes instantly widened, staring blankly at Charles for a long while before he could react.
This indeed wasn’t difficult. If they used pistol rounds, they could even shorten the barrel of the Saint-Étienne Mle 2 to achieve this.
But no one had thought of this!