CHAPTER 185: CHAPTER 183: TWIN MAXIM

Manufacturing a Maxim machine gun is not difficult; models of this antique can even be found on Taobao. Its unique knee-joint recoil mechanism is not structurally complex.

With reference to the blueprints, Chen Xin retrieved materials from the storeroom with the help of the system.

Although manufacturing a machine gun requires high-performance steel, for the system, ordinary steel is sufficient. The rest can be confidently entrusted to the system by Chen Xin.

Using the workbench’s processing capabilities to manufacture Maxim’s parts and assembling those parts bit by bit, a Maxim quickly appeared on Chen Xin’s workbench.

Even though the entire assembly is not completed and Chen Xin has only finished the barrel and bolt parts, lacking the crucial support bracket, the unpainted gun body retains its original metal color, appearing stark white. Yet it does not disguise the awe-inspiring power emanating from this fearsome killing machine.

The Maxim heavy machine gun was the world’s first truly successful automatic weapon powered by gunpowder gas, becoming the most efficient killing machine in human history upon its application.

During the war between the Japanese and Lucia, the army god Nogi Maresuke, extolled by the Japanese, led sixty thousand men to attack Lucia’s positions, employing a very mindless brutal charge tactic, resulting in five thousand deaths in just three hours.

Though eventually defeating Lucia, by the time the attack concluded, over thirty thousand of Nogi Maresuke’s sixty thousand soldiers were casualties.

And during the First World War, the Maxim’s terrifying efficiency earned it the nickname "widow maker."

In the Battle of the Somme, a deadly firepower web comprised of hundreds of Maxims resulted in over sixty thousand casualties in one day, nearly exterminating an entire generation in Europe during World War I.

This fearsome killing machine uses recoil generated by bullet shots for automatic firing, far more efficient than the Namo Gatling Bodhisattva, invented by Federation doctors to reduce soldier casualties, and simpler and more convenient to use and maintain. Thus, it quickly replaced the Gatling upon introduction.

However, the Maxim’s high rate of fire, at six hundred rounds per minute, generates substantial heat during shooting; the barrel turns red from firing in just a few minutes.

Hence, the Maxim’s barrel features a large circular sleeve, into which cooling water is injected during use to cool the barrel. As long as there’s water in the sleeve, the barrel temperature won’t exceed one hundred degrees Celsius, allowing continued firing.

Some might believe this weapon has a huge advantage in cold weather, because if the environment is cold enough, the cooling effect is surely excellent.

But actually, there are many inconveniences when using the Maxim in cold regions.

Since the Maxim uses water-cooled barrels, water instantly freezes in cold regions, requiring ice or snow to be melted into water before adding to the barrel, often causing the cooling water to freeze, hindering use.

To use in cold regions, antifreeze must be added to the cooling water, and at the time, alcohol was the widely used antifreeze.

This led to stories of Lucia soldiers drinking antifreeze, because the cooling water with added alcohol was a delicious beverage for Lucia soldiers, referred to as "grey beasts" at the time. Taking sips casually, who cares if the gun fires?

Later, to solve this problem, the Sovia learned from the Finnish and improved the fill port on the gun’s cylindrical sleeve, transforming it into a large flip cover for directly loading ice and snow, effectively solving the problem.

Of course, for Chen Xin, he wouldn’t use such cumbersome methods to cool the barrel, as he is just one person; even with Qin Lan and Ding Ning, they’re only three. Ideally, he would design it fully automatic to control remotely from inside the shelter.

As for the cooling issue, while it might have been a difficult problem for people in the Maxim’s era, for modern military engineering, using recyclable coolant in a circular system could address this problem.

Besides, the military has long replaced water-cooled machine guns with air-cooled ones, so there’s no need to struggle with water cooling.

For Chen Xin, he doesn’t need to worry much about coolant issues; simply maintaining a low firing rate and limiting prolonged use, the modern manufactured Maxim doesn’t require substantial cooling and heat dissipation, as manufacturing techniques and materials are completely different now.

Once the last part was fitted onto the gun body, and gun oil lubrication was added between the gun components, a Maxim without a support frame was completed.

Looking at this iron contraption resembling a cylindrical drum, Chen Xin reached out and tapped it, attempting to lift it with both hands.

Though somewhat heavy, it’s within Chen Xin’s ability to lift; however, it remains a weapon needing a support frame for stabilization—it’s impossible to shoot it like a light machine gun featured in films.

Thus, if Chen Xin wants to use this machine gun, he still needs to craft a support frame for it.

But when Chen Xin was preparing to make the stand, he suddenly remembered a picture he had seen before, and after thinking for a moment, he decided to make another one.

Since making the Maxim only required steel, soon the second Maxim also appeared on the workbench.

Looking at the two identical Maxim heavy machine guns laid on his workbench, Chen Xin nodded in satisfaction and began to make the support frame.

Compared to the Maxim machine gun itself, its stand is actually more complex in structure, because aside from serving as support, the Maxim’s stand has many different functions.

Some have added shields to stop stray bullets and shrapnel splashes; some have installed seats, allowing one to sit on the stand to shoot; some directly integrated spare barrels into the stand, which can be detached and replaced when necessary...

What Chen Xin made, however, was a parallel stand that could mount two Maxims together, transforming an original single Maxim into a double-linked setup.

Because he had the original stand structure as a reference, making the double-linked stand wasn’t difficult. Chen Xin only spent a little time to make a stand that could mount two Maxims.

Although the structure was somewhat unreasonable and a bit rudimentary, almost unable to adjust shooting angles and trajectories, it was still a complete stand.

Mounting the two Maxims onto it changed their name on the system interface from Maxim Water-cooled Machine Gun to Double-linked Maxim Water-cooled Machine Gun, and only then did Chen Xin press upgrade.

The familiar green light, consuming a hundred survival points and some steel materials, made the originally rough and rudimentary double-linked Maxim instantly different as the green light swept over it.

The originally stark white metallic outer color turned black, parts of the structure were replaced by engineering plastics, the thick water-cooling sleeve diameter was narrowed, but the length was stretched, where the longer sleeve and longer barrel improved heat dissipation while also enhancing the power of bullets fired from the chamber.

The rudimentary support frame was also upgraded from originally simple three supporting legs to a complete supporting structure. The active connection structure that Chen Xin originally hadn’t made was also added. Upon removing the fixation, the gun body could rotate within a certain range, achieving multi-angle shooting.

The trigger section was also modified, changing from two triggers for two guns to one trigger for both guns, merging the structure while reducing operational complexity.

As for the loading port, it was adjusted from originally facing the same side to one on each side, and according to Chen Xin’s design, a large-capacity magazine was installed at the loading port.

This large-capacity magazine still used a belt feed, or to simply put, the magazine was just a bullet container, but due to system upgrades, an ammunition feed mechanism was added onto the magazine, which, once mounted onto the machine gun, could directly feed bullets into the loading port.

Having completed the machine gun production, as long as this double-linked Maxim is mounted at the shelter’s entrance, Chen Xin believed that without heavy vehicles or heavy weapons, no one could break in forcefully.

However, a single machine gun had shooting angle limitations. After considering for a while, Chen Xin decided it would be more appropriate to mount two.

Thus, he made another identical double-linked Maxim machine gun, and then prepared to install them onto the entrance of his shelter.

The two machine guns were separately installed by Chen Xin on the left and right sides of the door. Since the terrain outside the shelter door presented an inverted L-shape, although snow accumulated around, the terrain was still flat. To enter Chen Xin’s shelter, one must stand in front of the door, which was within the coverage of the firepower of the two double-linked Maxim guns.

In this range, without sufficient protection, however many people would just become sieve-like under the gunfire.

Furthermore, Chen Xin mounted these two machine guns inside the wall, only opening a very small firing port, making it exceedingly difficult to destroy these two guns without heavy firepower. Even using human wave attacks would merely be a futile waste of Chen Xin’s ammunition.

And the large-capacity magazine held two hundred rounds, two double-linked guns, equating to eight hundred bullets.

Even in a sweep fire mode, a single machine gun firing two hundred rounds was enough for roughly a minute. If in a short burst fire, it might take several hundred human lives to exhaust these bullets.

Especially since, after installing the machine guns, Chen Xin harshly invested a thousand survival points and numerous materials to upgrade, reinforcing the door’s strength, changing manual push-pull opening to electric hydraulic lift opening, and also added automatic aiming functions for the two machine guns, along with infrared night vision monitor and motion sensors installed on the door.

The infrared night vision monitor and motion sensors were directly connected to the computer in Chen Xin’s bedroom, also linked with the two machine guns, allowing Chen Xin to operate them from inside his bedroom.

As soon as suspicious individuals appear and trigger the motion sensors, Chen Xin would be awakened by the alarm sound in his bedroom and could observe the situation outside the door through the computer screen.

If someone harbors malicious intent... the crossfire of four curving streams, even on the battlefield, would be a nightmare.