Chapter 119: An Inch Longer, An Inch Stronger!
“Factory Director, this is the part made according to your requirements. Take a look, is it qualified?”
Lao He held a part and came to Li Muzhi’s office.
This part is the limit rod of the rocket launcher, used to control the rocket launcher safety.
Although the arsenal’s power has not been solved yet, some parts can be made in advance first.
Li Muzhi made the diagram and asked Lao He to take it to the workers to make a sample.
Li Muzhi took it over and first looked at the appearance.
Since it was handmade, this appearance definitely cannot compare to industrial machinery.
Although it was a bit rough, it was still exquisite.
Li Muzhi weighed it again, and it was not overweight.
Finally, he took the ruler and carefully measured it, nodding satisfactorily: “Not bad, this time it’s qualified.”
This part was not made for the first time, but had already been tried several times, none of which met Li Muzhi’s requirements.
Upon hearing Li Muzhi say it was qualified, Lao He smiled and said, “Factory Director, your requirements are really not easy to meet.”
“How did it get qualified all of a sudden this time?” Li Muzhi asked.
This was not because Li Muzhi had high requirements; this was the device controlling the rocket launcher safety, and no sloppiness was allowed.
Otherwise, if this thing misfired on the battlefield, that would be terrible.
“It was mainly Old Qi from Huangyadong Arsenal who helped make it; our masters couldn’t make it.” Lao He explained, then leaned close to Li Muzhi: “Factory Director, why not talk to Minister Zhang and poach this Old Qi over. As for Huangyadong Arsenal, give them more compensation.”
This Old Qi was a high-level skilled worker from the original Taiyuan Arsenal, a very precious technical talent.
Although Border Region Arsenal had Factory Director Li Muzhi leading it, not every part could be made by the Factory Director himself; he alone couldn’t handle it all.
Many things required skilled workers to assist, especially high-level technicians like Old Qi.
“We’ll talk about this after the arsenal’s power is solved.” Not just Old Qi, but the other high-level talents from Huangyadong Arsenal, Li Muzhi wanted to poach them all.
But haste makes waste; after all, these are the high-level pillars of their arsenal.
Borrowing them for a bit and keeping them would still be somewhat inappropriate no matter what.
“Factory Director, actually I have a way.” Lao He said.
“Oh?” Li Muzhi responded, looking at Lao He: “Let’s hear it.”
“I’ll find a way to make them stay on their own. If they are willing to stay themselves, then Minister Zhang’s side would be much easier to talk to, right?” Lao He said.
“Make them stay on their own?” Li Muzhi looked at Lao He suspiciously.
Although Li Muzhi had considerable expertise in military industry, personnel management was his weak point; the arsenal mainly relied on Lao He and others to help manage.
“Factory Director, you’re not good at personnel management, so leave this to me.” Lao He said, “As long as you give the nod, I’ll get to work.”
“Well, alright then.” Li Muzhi nodded, “When Minister Zhang returns, I still need to mention it to him in advance.”
Minister Zhang had taken the transportation team to help move the iron smelting plant equipment; when he returned, it still needed to be communicated with him.
After all, this was high-level talent from Huangyadong Arsenal, so Minister Zhang needed to be prepared in advance.
Originally, Li Muzhi planned to poach only a few targeted workers; this really wasn’t Li Muzhi shamelessly trying to poach Huangyadong Arsenal’s high-level cornerstones, but Border Region Arsenal truly lacked such high-level talent.
“Mm, good, good, good.” After getting Li Muzhi’s permission, Lao He happily left.
As long as these big shots could be retained, under the Factory Director’s leadership, Border Region Arsenal’s development would become even more promising.
After Lao He left, Li Muzhi lowered his head and continued drawing the jumping mine structure diagram.
With the iron smelting plant, and sugar delivering another four thousand catties, explosives could be made sufficiently. Besides hell cannon shells and rockets, more auxiliary weapons could be provided to the troops: jumping mines!
Jumping mine, this is a landmine that, after being stepped on by infantry, bounces up to one or two meters off the ground and explodes.
The fragments and iron beads inside this mine can fly in all directions without blind spots, with particularly significant killing effect on crowds.
Didn’t those Japanese invaders love group charges the most? Jumping mines specially cure this crazy Bushido spirit.
Some might question, since explosives can be made sufficiently, why not make grenades for the troops.
The previous grenades’ quality was too poor after all.
In fact, the arsenal was already starting to work on new style grenades.
This new style grenade had no technical content; it mainly involved changing the explosives inside.
Li Muzhi didn’t need to worry about this at all; Lao He and they had handled it themselves. By then, Li Muzhi would check the test results, and if no problem, production could start.
After drawing for over ten minutes, Li Muzhi put down the pen and stretched his wrist.
The overall diagram of the jumping mine was finally finished, but that wasn’t all.
The parts diagrams still needed to be drawn in detail, and the proportions couldn’t be off by a bit.
He had just drawn one part when Zhang Wanhe’s extremely excited shout came from outside: “Xiao Li, come out quick, the iron smelting plant equipment has arrived, come out and take a look!”
Hearing this, Li Muzhi immediately put down his work and hurried out.
Outside the arsenal, the Brigade Commander and Old Zhou were still arguing.
Although the Brigade Commander and Old Zhou were willing to negotiate, on the allocation ratio, both felt they should get a bit more.
“This won’t do. Without my subordinate Li Yunlong blasting open the iron smelting plant’s defenses with cannons, your 120th Division wouldn’t have had a chance to touch it, so we should get seventy percent!” The Brigade Commander argued reasonably.
Old Zhou also argued reasonably: “It should be us getting seventy percent. Without Gao Liujin attacking into the Third Regiment and discovering this combat opportunity, your 129th Division wouldn’t have had a chance at all. So, this combat opportunity is the most important; you taking thirty percent is already enough, after all your Li Yunlong came to rob, which isn’t glorious.”
“What do you mean glorious or not, if it weren’t for Li Yunlong…”
……
The Brigade Commander and Old Zhou had been arguing all the way; Zhang Wanhe was too lazy to care.
Anyway, this iron smelting plant belonged to our logistics; your combat troops’ bickering, we won’t get involved in.
Seeing Li Muzhi come out, Zhang Wanhe quickly smiled and said, “Xiao Li, come take a quick look at this equipment.”
“Minister Zhang, they…” Li Muzhi pointed at the Brigade Commander and Old Zhou.
“Ignore them, first check and store the items, then communicate with them.” Zhang Wanhe said.
“Well, alright then.” Li Muzhi was indeed attracted by the iron smelting plant equipment; he immediately went up and checked each piece.
The smile on his face grew brighter: “This is the vibrating screen, this is the feed bin, this is the small melting furnace, this is the blower…”
“How about it, Xiao Li? With these things, can we smelt iron?” Seeing the smile on Li Muzhi’s face growing, Zhang Wanhe already knew the result but still asked with a smile.
“The items are very complete. As long as our power is solved, with this equipment, we will have the conditions to smelt iron.” Li Muzhi gave an affirmative answer.
“Hahaha.” Hearing this, Zhang Wanhe immediately burst into laughter, “Then our logistics won’t have to worry about no iron pots anymore; the troops can also be equipped with bayonets and steel helmets.”
Our iron was not much, which also led to few ironware in logistics, like iron pots.
Many guerrilla teams below shared one iron pot, taking turns to eat.
When iron pots leaked, they were patched and continued to use; some iron pots even had over a dozen patches.
Sometimes when enemies attacked, soldiers bled and got injured to protect the iron pot, just to let the troops have a pot to cook.
On the troops’ side, bayonets all relied on captures, and the quantity was small.
As for steel helmets, even more so.
Now that we have the conditions to smelt iron, if we find iron ore, we can smelt our own iron.
By then, troops and logistics would have enough iron pots, could fight with bayonets themselves, and even equip the troops with steel helmets.
On the field hospital side, many soldiers were injured because of no steel helmet protection, and there were quite a few.
If there were steel helmets, these people wouldn’t have been injured originally.
Hearing Zhang Wanhe say that smelting iron could make iron pots, bayonets, and steel helmets, Li Muzhi did not mock him.
To normal people, now that we have conditions to smelt iron, shouldn’t we make more weapons?
For example, the jumping mines just drawn could be made more.
As long as this thing could curb the Japanese invaders’ group charges, the pressure on combat troops on the battlefield would reduce a lot.
But thinking from another angle, Zhang Wanhe’s idea was actually not wrong.
Man is iron, rice is steel; skip a meal and you’ll panic from hunger!
What war fights is actually logistics; iron pots are the most indispensable tool for eating.
They look unremarkable, but are actually extremely important!
Next are bayonets and steel helmets.
Our troops’ conditions are poor; the arsenal can’t even make bullets itself now.
Many soldiers have only two or three bullets; troops as affluent as Li Yunlong’s are not common.
In troop combat, many times bayonet fighting with Japanese soldiers is unavoidable.
The large blade’s chopping power is not weak, but it’s still too short after all.
Their Japanese Type 38 rifles probably come with long bayonets; on the battlefield, an inch longer is indeed stronger!
Three Japanese soldiers back-to-back, our dozen soldiers can’t break in.
This is because the large blade is too short, can’t reach them.
Why can people like Sun Desheng and Zhang Dabiao kill Japanese invaders with large blades and sabers? Because they have high martial prowess, close-combat masters.
Most of our soldiers are still ordinary people.
Wei Dayong has high martial prowess, right? He uses a long red-tasseled spear, not shorter than the Japanese Type 38 rifle plus bayonet.
Some might say, why was the 29th Army’s large blade team so awesome.
Chopping down so many Japanese invaders.
Li Muzhi had seen the information; the 29th Army’s large blade team indeed equipped everyone with a large blade, but!
But each person was also equipped with two machine guns.
With their conditions, even in bayonet fighting, the Japanese didn’t have the upper hand.
No matter how awesome your bayonet skills, can you match their dual guns per person?
As for the use of steel helmets, no need to say more.
Why does The Bald One’s direct line troops equip steel helmets, why do Japanese troops equip steel helmets, why does the US Military equip steel helmets.
Any troops with conditions equip steel helmets; the battlefield significance of steel helmets is beyond doubt.
On the other hand, Old Zhou and the Brigade Commander, upon hearing the arsenal had steel smelting conditions, and Zhang Wanhe shouting about making iron pots, bayonets, and steel helmets, miraculously stopped arguing and spoke in unison to Zhang Wanhe: “Old Zhang, how is your vision so short-sighted? Now that we can smelt steel, shouldn’t we make the things our troops need most? You making iron pots, bayonets, and such, can they compare to making more cannons for us!”
Facing these two’s questioning, Zhang Wanhe was not weak at all: “Do you not eat when fighting wars? Does your troop cook without pots? In close combat with Japanese invaders, do you not need bayonets? Do soldiers’ heads not need protection on the battlefield?”
“Compared to iron pots, bayonets, and steel helmets, we still want cannons!” The Brigade Commander and Old Zhou didn’t change their tone.
“You two have tasted the benefits of cannons, of course you want more cannons.” Zhang Wanhe said, “But don’t you think, there are so many troops, how can all be equipped with cannons? Most troops are still in very poor condition; shouldn’t we consider from the overall how to use iron reasonably! Besides, having steel smelting conditions means we can make cannons? To make cannons, we need equipment and processes for cannon making, which we don’t have.”
Old Zhang Comrade, although he didn’t understand military industry manufacturing, had heard Li Muzhi say it.
Making cannons is not that simple.
Smelting iron is just the first process; there are a series after.
The hardest is the cannon barrel; the cannon barrel has very high quality requirements, testing industrial foundation, and then rifling.
Without professional equipment, is this rifling to be done with hammer and file?
Hearing Zhang Wanhe say this, Old Zhou and the Brigade Commander both looked at Li Muzhi simultaneously: “Xiao Li, now that we can smelt iron, can you make cannons?”
