Battle Rifle
Battle rifle is a class of self-loadingrifles that fires full-size rifle cartridge. Since the first self-loading riflewas invented in Aldehyde, 1495 (12 years after the invention ofrecoil-operating machinegun) by Robert Turner, who was an Awoken engineerworking in Aldehyde Royal Army, those rifles have gradually gained popularityamong major military around the world. Although battle rifles are able to provideheavy firepower in the size of a repeating rifle, most modern military arestill using repeating rifles as their standard service rifle, as the structuresof most of the battle rifles are often considered too complex to be manufacturedat a reasonable cost. Most of the modern battle rifles also suffer fromrelatively low reliability comparing to repeating rifles. However, with propertraining and frequent maintenance, battle rifles can be the best individualweapon for a single infantry, as they can provide accurate and consecutive fireat medium to long range, while having a lighter weight.

中原帝国的魔改M1916
Type-96
Middleland self-loading service rifle.
The Type-96 is a semiautomaticlever-delayed blowback battle rifle that fires the standard Middleland 7.8x58mm round. It originated from the Type-71 rifle, which was a prototype simpleblowback self-loading rifle that was initially designed for dragon cavalry, butit was later modified to meet the requirements for standard infantry, mainly byadding a lever to delay its action. Finalized products come with a heavierbarrel and a more robust bolt carrier that is more resistant against dust andmud.
The Type-96’s lever-delayed mechanism is quitereliable (it is the first successful lever-delayed blowback rifle that entersmass production); however, it is also considered relatively complex, whichrequires some techniques for maintenance. Even though its core parts have beenoptimized to withstand harsh environment, this rifle is still quite sensitivetowards dust. The Type-96 is usually loaded from a 25-round magazine that ispreviously used on various Middleland’s early light machineguns; a 40-rounddrum magazine is also designed, but it does not gain popularity due to itsheavy weight and quite unreliable loading spring. The charging handle is on thetop of the receiver, which is due to the original requirement for dragoncavalry; it actually blocks the access of a long-range scope as the cases areejected to the top-right direction, and any long-range optic should be attachedto a rail offset to the left.
MiddlelandCentral Armory started the production of Type-96 in 1598, but the full-speedmass production started after the fall of Berk (Late summer 1615), as theMiddleland Army felt the pressure from the Meridian invasion. Due to its highproduction cost (it should be noted that the production standard of this riflehas never been reduced, while the production protocols for other automaticweapons have been vastly simplified during the early stage of the war), Type-96is mostly deployed in elite Middleland forces, such as mountain troops andparatroopers. It is proved to be a highly effective weapon at medium range, andit fits well in the role of a sharpshooter rifle. Another problem of this rifleis its relatively heavy weight, which is 5.2 kilograms when empty. There is anexperimental full-automatic variant, which removes the single-shot trigger andadds a bipod, but this variant is proved to be quite unpractical, as the rateof fire is around 1000 RPM, which causes excessive damage towards the boltsystem and is completely uncontrollable when firing even with a bipod deployed.