Although weapons designers had designed submachine guns during World War I, both the technology and related tactics were still at a very early stage.
At that time, some British officers believed that handing such automatic weapons to new recruits would be a disaster, and it was meaningless except for wasting bullets. They stubbornly continued to use the bolt-action Lee-Enfield.
In fact, even though all the warring countries suffered great losses in World War II, automatic weapons were still widely popularized and equipped only by the Soviet Union and the United States. The
Soviets fully realized the benefits of such automatic weapons, while the Americans were wealthy and had strong enough logistics to afford them.
The British did not fully realize the power of submachine guns until after the Dunkirk evacuation, and then they made the Sten based on the German MP40.
Although the Germans themselves were the first country in the world to be equipped with submachine guns, they used submachine guns to distribute them to elite veterans or infantry squad leaders. It was not until the end of the war that they produced a large number of people's submachine guns in order to save the defeat, intending to arm a large number of people to fight against the Allies.
Of course, these things would not happen until more than ten years later during World War II. Now it was still 1925.
Even those Americans who came to "archaeology" basically carried revolvers, which were traditional American populism. Even O'Connor was no exception.
So when Ada Wang took out a submachine gun and a semi-automatic rifle from his backpack, O'Connor was very surprised.
"Is this... a submachine gun? I have never seen this type of model. Is it produced in the East?" O'Connor picked up a submachine gun, removed the magazine and took a look, then asked Ada Wang curiously.
"This is a sponsorship from a weapons research institute. My trip to Egypt is sponsored by them, and these weapons are part of the sponsorship." Seeing O'Connor's curiosity, Chen Mo suddenly got an idea and made up a lie to explain to him: "This is a very powerful weapons research institute. These automatic weapons are their main products. They believe that in future wars, automatic weapons will replace traditional bolt-action rifles on a large scale and become the new darling of the army.
So they designed these new weapons for me and my assistant to use for self-defense, and to help them test whether the new weapons are easy to use."
"But automatic weapons..." O'Connor turned the submachine gun over and over in his hand. Perhaps because he had never used it, he asked in confusion: "Does this thing have any advantages besides wasting bullets?"
In response to this question, Chen Mo just shrugged and spread his hands: "I'm not a weapons expert, I don't know how to explain it to you, I'm just a scholar."
"Well, maybe I should actually use it to find out whether this gun is good or bad." Seeing Chen Mo's answer, O'Connor knew that he was asking blind questions, so he had to thank Ada Wang and accepted a submachine gun and two magazines.
As for Ada Wang herself, she picked up a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a red dot sight and a flame mouth brake, hung a submachine gun on her waist and prepared a rocket launcher beside her.
Seeing her fully armed, Chen Mo couldn't help but pick a semi-automatic pistol from the large bag of firearms he brought as his own self-defense weapon.
After everyone had selected their weapons and armed themselves, they sat around the campfire and started to take out dinner to enjoy.
Because they were worried that the Pharaoh's guards would come back to attack, the wine that Jonathan had bought was obviously not suitable for sharing at this time. Everyone just baked some Egyptian flatbreads and paired them with dried meat boiled in water as dinner.
This kind of flatbread is the staple food of local Egyptians. In the later generations that Chen Mo knows, this flatbread even has a national subsidy from the Egyptian government. The Egyptian government imports a large amount of wheat every year and invests a lot of financial expenditures to make this flatbread as cheap as almost 20 cents a piece, maintaining the basic living security of a large number of Egyptians.
But this is unimaginable now.
On the one hand, the Egyptian government, which is still controlled by the British, is not so generous. On the other hand, it is also because Egypt's agriculture is still relatively developed. The regular flooding of the Nile River brings fertile silt to the land on both sides, allowing Egypt's agriculture to be maintained without the need for a large amount of imported food.
In fact, until the 1970s, Egypt's food has always been self-sufficient. Even after the construction of the Aswan Dam, Egypt's cultivated land area increased, and it once exported food.
However, Aswan was prosperous and destroyed. Although the construction of the dam controlled the flooding of the Nile River and added a large amount of arable land on both sides, it destroyed the ecological balance of the Nile River region for thousands of years.
Without the silt brought by the Nile's regular flooding every year, without this "gift" from the Nile, Egypt's arable land has become increasingly barren, requiring the use of huge amounts of fertilizers to maintain production. Egypt also needs a large amount of imported food to maintain its own consumption, and the important Nile Delta is also facing the danger of "sinking" into the sea.
Although these problems seem to have nothing to do with Chen Mo and will only happen in the future, if Chen Mo wants to rule Egypt, these problems are what he needs to consider.
Thinking about how he should rule Egypt and how he should govern and develop the country after driving the British to control Egypt, Chen Mo finished his dinner and chatted with Evelyn about ancient Egypt. Chen Mo gradually had a rough plan in his mind.
Just when he was about to find a notebook to write down his thoughts, Chen Mo suddenly found that someone was missing, so he asked O'Connor: "Speaking of which, where is our fat warden? Why don't I see him?"
"Uh, he seems to have encountered a little accident and has unfortunately died." O'Connor then realized that he had not told Chen Mo that the warden was dead.
Hearing what O'Connor said, Chen Mo could only helplessly express his regret.
Although Chen Mo wanted to use this warden to infiltrate Cairo City and control important figures in the city, since he was already dead, he had to give up this plan.
Although it was not impossible to use the body, it was just a warden, and it was not worth Chen Mo's effort.
While Chen Mo and O'Connor were talking, the sound of horse hooves could be heard faintly from outside the city.
O'Connor's eyes suddenly changed when he heard the sound of horse hooves. He picked up the shotgun beside him and ran towards the entrance of the ancient city.
(End of this chapter)