Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 614 Luger Pistol
This time, Liang En and the others found a total of [-] oil paintings, [-] of which came from the works of well-known Eastern European writers like the Hungarian oil painter Monkács or the Czech expressionist painter Bohumir Kubista.

The most famous of them should be the two prints from Mucha, but considering that Liang En has a large number of Mucha's works, and he has mastered the artistic level of this master artist, it is not too shocking to him
.As for the other six oil paintings, in addition to three Van Gogh oil paintings, there is also a Rembrandt oil painting, a Monet oil painting and a Chinese Qi Baishi Chinese painting.

"How come there are paintings of Chinese people here?" Looking at the vivid ink shrimp in the painting in front of her, Joan of Arc asked a little puzzled.

Because the Chinese traditional paintings became famous in the international market after the mid-20s, and before that, Europeans did not value these Far Eastern artworks.

In fact, Westerners are very realistic, and they are not very interested in artworks from non-native civilizations except for artworks from their own countries.

Therefore, the prices of non-Western works of art in the international market are often directly linked to the economic situation of the country, and the other side inflates the prices of those works not because of appreciation of these works of art, but purely to make money.

For example, with the development of China's economy and the recovery of Russia's economy, Chinese and Russian works of art have gradually become sky-high prices, but a few decades ago, these things might only be a few tenths of the current price.

So it seems a little strange to find a traditional Chinese painting from China in a bank safe more than half a century ago, because it was not popular at that time.

"I think this should be understandable." Liang En thought for a few seconds after hearing Joan's question, and then gave his own answer. "

After all, there will always be people who are interested in foreign cultures, and Qi Baishi was a famous commercial painter back then, so as long as the owner of this picture is willing to pay, it is not difficult to buy such a Chinese painting. "

"As for the other party's selection of Qi Baishi's works, it is also very simple. After all, Qi was one of the most famous Chinese painting masters in China at that time, so it is easy to attract those who don't know about this to buy paintings from him."

Therefore, there are many works of Qi Baishi in Europe and America, so it is not surprising that Liang En can find his works this time.

Especially when Qi Baishi was alive, the Czech painter Zitil, who was a diplomatic mission in China, was a part-time teacher at the BJ Academy of Fine Arts and got to know him. He also exhibited his paintings in Europe.

That is to say, Czechoslovakia was the first stop for Qi Baishi's paintings to enter Europe, so it is not surprising to find Qi Baishi's paintings in the Legion Bank in Tiochoslovakia.

"This painting can probably be sold for 30 to 40 euros in Huaxia." After careful inspection, Liang En found that the artistic level of this painting is indeed not low.

The only problem is that this painting is a standard commercial work, so the price is always a little lower than some high-quality works. After all, there is still some difference between real fine art and mass-produced commercial works.

After inspecting these paintings, it was also lunch time. Because many people were busy here these days, the Bundeswehr simply drove up a dining car. Lunch was much better than eating convenience food a few days ago.

For example, stewed pork knuckle with sauerkraut at noon today, although it is a bit greasy to eat with sauerkraut, but eating this capable person in the mountains in winter will warm you up quickly.

"Wipe your mouth." When everyone was about to eat, Liang En took out a handkerchief and handed it to Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc also ate a lot today. If you eat less, you can't support it at all.

"Thank you." Jeanne took the handkerchief, wiped her mouth and stuffed it into her pocket. Just as she was about to say something, she saw Fan Meng walking over with a large leather holster.

"Liang, look what this is?" Fan Meng opened the holster while talking, and then handed over the entire holster while holding the barrel.

It was only at this time that Liang En realized that this gun was different from the existing holster. There was a triangular wooden board on one side of the leather holster, which looked like a rifle butt.

"Luger P08 pistol?" After holding the handle and pulling out the pistol, Liang En pulled the bolt to make sure it was safe and said, "No, this is not an ordinary Luger pistol."

The Ruger pistol has basically become synonymous with the German pistols of World War II. Although at that time this kind of pistol had withdrawn from the front line due to the cumbersome production and maintenance difficulties, everyone in the Allied forces at that time hoped to obtain such a pistol.

And this phenomenon was also presented by various literary and film works in later generations. For example, when the 101st Airborne Division in the American drama Band of Brothers attacked a 105th howitzer position of the German army, Malachi, a soldier, rushed into the rain of bullets for a pistol, and finally picked it up. But it's just a pneumatic horn in the shape of a pistol.

To make matters worse, another soldier, Huber, was lucky enough to pick up a Luger. He liked the gun so much that he kept it in his trouser pocket.The Luger later misfired, severing an artery in his thigh and killing him.

Although it is said that this is the content of the TV series, it is actually what happened in real history.Even a poor-looking Luger pistol in the United States can sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

As for the pistol with a long barrel and a ruler on the barrel in Liang En's hand, it is a famous artillery type. It was produced in World War I, and the output was about [-]. It is considered among the mass-produced Luger pistols. Treasures.

This gun can actually be regarded as the predecessor of today's PDW (Personal Self-Defense Weapon). When the Ruger P08 first became the standard equipment of the German Army, the Germans began to think about how to arm these artillery.

The problem of heavy artillery units is easy to solve. After all, they will not be close to the front line and do not need large-scale battlefield maneuvers, so it is enough to carry short rifles.

But field artillery cannot do this. Their small and medium-caliber artillery has a short range and mainly shoots directly. Therefore, this batch of artillery is deployed in frontline positions with infantry, and they have to bring firearms for self-defense.

The standard Ruger P08 pistol only has a 100mm barrel, and the range is too short. It is generally only suitable for officers to shoot people or install X.But carrying a short rifle is a hindrance to the artillery, so it is usually piled on the side.

But the problem is that field artillery can easily encounter enemy cavalry head-on before entering the trench warfare. It is unrealistic for the cavalry to take the short rifles piled on the side as soon as they rush over.

To give the simplest example, when the British raided the German camp at the beginning of the movie War Horse, the Germans had no time to grab their rifles from the side to fight back.

So the Germans began to wonder whether it was possible to get a light weapon that was between a pistol and a short rifle, but could be carried around, and had a buttstock, and could hit at least 100 meters.

So the Ruger company shortened the barrel of the original civilian Ruger carbine to 200mm and named it the 08-style long pistol (Lange Pistole 08, or LP08), and threw it to the light field artillery, which was in the hands of Liang En. this one.

As a result, World War I became a trench warfare, and the artillery was often killed by the enemy's artillery, and these pistols were ultimately useless.

However, the subsequent trench warfare caused everyone a headache, so from 1915, the Germans tried to invest in the storm commando, an elite breach force.

And this kind of troops that rush into the trenches and fight at close range especially need to automatically load weapons, and then the artillery Luger was requisitioned by the Storm Commando a lot.

By 1916, the Stormtroopers felt that Ruger's 8-round magazine was too small, so the military department prepared a 32-round snail drum.But after the fully automatic MP1918 submachine gun came out in 18, the artillery Ruger also stopped production, and the snail drum was inherited to the MP18.

On the other hand, the Ruger Artillery was also equipped with the Air Force in the early days. After all, people did not know how to fight in air combat at the beginning of World War I. It is normal to use all kinds of weapons together, such as pistols. Historically, bricks and darts were really useful. big guy.

But after the machine gun went to the sky, the hands quickly fell out of favor, but after such a toss, there were not many Luger artillery pistols left, and they have become treasures today.

Therefore, the pistol with a full set of accessories in Liang En's hand is expensive, and more importantly, because of its rarity, there is almost no market, so he intends to keep this pistol for collection, and does not intend to exchange it for banknotes.

(End of this chapter)