Shotguns and Bolt-Action Rifles

Developing firearms was not something Luo Chong had done on a whim. He needed to maintain the Central Army's absolute strength to ensure that the Local Defense Force would not rebel. Since ancient times, the title of Central Army had meant that its duties within the country outweighed those beyond its borders: guarding against coups and suppressing rebellions. Unless an enemy reached the capital's doorstep, the Central Army generally would not mobilize.

There was also the matter of future campaigns against the giant cannibal apes. The Han Tribe needed a weapon this powerful. Creatures like the giant apes, whose combat power was off the charts but whose movements were incredibly agile, were unlikely to face the Han Tribe in a conventional battle formation. In that case, cold weapons and artillery—large-scale weapons—would lose much of their effectiveness. The proper path was to raise the damage output of individual soldiers.

With that strategic purpose in mind, Luo Chong naturally proposed two famous firearms: a pump-action shotgun combining Browning's "Trench Broom" with the Remington 870, and the Mauser G98 bolt-action rifle that established the basic structure of modern rifles—in other words, the grandfather of the Kar98k.

Both firearms had their own distinctive features. First was the shotgun. Because it had a large caliber and a relatively short range, its chamber pressure was fairly low, so it did not place great demands on the barrel. Even though the Han Tribe did not yet have a steam lathe, a barrel hammered out by hand would still meet the shotgun's needs.

The firearm least likely to suffer a barrel explosion in the world was probably the shotgun.

At the same time, Luo Chong had adopted the 870's mature overall design and its advantage of a large ammunition capacity, then added the external-hammer firing mechanism characteristic of