Chapter 10: Are The Japanese Invaders Idiots?
“We still need to continue the experiment.”
Li Muzhi pointed at Zhang Dabiao’s troops to Lao He and said, “You saw it too. Battalion Commander Zhang’s troops still have some people holding cold weapons, and ammunition is also scarce. Sunjiabao was attacked, so the enemy’s reinforcements probably won’t be few. Battalion Commander Zhang’s troops lack guns and ammunition, so their combat power will definitely be affected. As for the arsenal delivery mission, once we take down the enemy reinforcements, are you still worried about not capturing more ammunition?”
In the battle of Lijia Po, Li Yunlong’s Independent Regiment became famous in one battle.
But the Independent Regiment’s consumption was also heavy; grenades were used up, and ammunition was almost depleted.
Zhang Dabiao was the Battalion Commander of Li Yunlong’s First Battalion, with the most weapons and ammunition.
Even the First Battalion lacked ammunition and firearms, let alone the Independent Regiment’s Second and Third Battalions.
Dealing with Japanese reinforcements, although we have our Hell Cannon support, basic ammunition is still indispensable.
“Mm.” Lao He hummed, understanding Li Muzhi’s meaning.
Our cannon experiment mainly relies on combat troops for protection.
If the combat troops lack guns and ammunition and can’t hold off the enemy reinforcements, we’ll be the ones who suffer in the end.
The Factory Director is right. Taking down the enemy reinforcements means more ammunition, overcompleting the arsenal delivery mission without any problem.
Seeing that all these weapons and ammunition were left for him, Zhang Dabiao looked at Li Muzhi with considerable excitement: “Factory Director Li, this is really too polite, too thankful.”
Zhang Dabiao said on the surface not to split Sunjiabao’s profits, but he was still very envious in his heart.
After all, in the battle of Lijia Po, the Independent Regiment’s ammunition consumption was too great, and it hadn’t been replenished yet; it was almost at a breaking point.
He didn’t expect that this newly appointed arsenal Factory Director Li Muzhi was truly a considerate person.
“Battalion Commander Zhang, how many enemies came? Have you scouted clearly?” Li Muzhi asked.
Li Muzhi had seen it; while cleaning up Sunjiabao, Zhang Dabiao had sent people to monitor the enemy’s movements.
“My people haven’t returned yet, but we can basically judge that from the three nearby enemy strongholds, the reinforcements coming are at most five or six hundred people. As long as our Regiment Commander arrives, taking them down is no problem.” Zhang Dabiao said lightly.
Alright, just as Zhang Dabiao finished speaking, an eyes and ears ran over and reported to Zhang Dabiao: “Report Battalion Commander, the enemy came in three groups; they’ve merged together, total troops over five hundred, including one Japanese Squadron.”
“You scouted clearly, confirmed one Japanese Squadron came?” Zhang Dabiao’s expression was serious.
A few hundred puppet soldiers, Zhang Dabiao didn’t take them seriously at all.
But these Japanese soldiers weren’t made of clay.
After the battle of Lijia Po, the Independent Regiment’s casualties weren’t low either; now, the able-bodied soldiers numbered only over six hundred.
Even though they’d replenished nearly two thousand bullets and two hundred grenades here at Sunjiabao, going head-to-head with this Japanese Squadron still put pressure on them.
“Yes.” The eyes and ears nodded, looking at Zhang Dabiao, “Battalion Commander, do we still fight this battle?”
“Nonsense, of course we fight!” Zhang Dabiao said firmly, “The Regiment Commander said it: whenever our Independent Regiment wants meat, it’s when we encounter Japanese invaders.”
Li Muzhi looked at this eyes and ears and asked: “What is the enemy’s marching formation like?”
The eyes and ears answered: “Puppet soldiers in front, Japanese in the back.”
“When the Japanese advance, are they clustered together, or spaced apart?” Li Muzhi asked again.
“Except for the vanguard at the back, the Japanese troop formation is tightly packed.” The eyes and ears answered.
Li Muzhi listened and smiled: “Perfect, just perfect.”
Our Hell Cannon shells are loaded with a large amount of nails and iron beads, perfect to test the explosion effect in a crowd of Japanese.
Zhang Dabiao was somewhat puzzled, looking at Li Muzhi: “Factory Director Li, what’s perfect?”
“With the Japanese troop formation tightly packed, if our Hell Cannon blasts into the crowd, Battalion Commander Zhang, the pressure on your combat troops will…” Li Muzhi didn’t finish his words.
Zhang Dabiao immediately slapped his forehead, beaming with joy, pressure greatly reduced: “Right right right, I almost forgot, we have artillery fire reinforcement. Your shells have such great power; once we blast the Japanese into a daze, it’ll be much easier for us to clean them up.”
But how could Zhang Dabiao know that he had only just seen the explosive power of the Hell Cannon’s ordinary shells.
These shells mixed with a large amount of iron beads and iron nails were the real heavy hitters!
While talking, Li Yunlong and Zhang Wanhe came over.
Both men’s gazes converged on this Hell Cannon, their expressions immediately excited.
“My God, are my eyes seeing wrong?” Zhang Wanhe couldn’t believe it; from the arsenal’s pile of junk, Li Muzhi really made a cannon.
“Old Zhang, I told you, you have to believe in your arsenal. See, they really made a cannon.” Li Yunlong’s tone had none of the previous questioning, as if he had never questioned the arsenal, his thick skin refined to perfection.
Zhang Wanhe didn’t even look at Li Yunlong: Weren’t you Li Yunlong just joking about our arsenal earlier, saying we couldn’t make a cannon, and now acting like nothing happened!
Suppressing the mutter in his heart, Zhang Wanhe ran toward the Hell Cannon, while Li Yunlong ran toward Li Muzhi.
“Minister Zhang!”
“Minister Zhang!”
“Minister Zhang!”
…
The arsenal’s people saw Zhang Wanhe and hurriedly saluted him.
Lao He excitedly said to Zhang Wanhe: “Minister Zhang, Factory Director Li led us to make the cannon; one shot took down Sunjiabao. Look, we also captured quite a few supplies.”
Zhang Wanhe’s attention was entirely on the cannon, as if he hadn’t heard the arsenal workers’ greetings or Lao He’s words; he reached out a trembling hand to touch the cannon barrel.
It felt ice-cold to the touch; this was a real iron beast!
But why did this cannon barrel look somewhat familiar?
Zhang Wanhe rubbed his eyes, then looked at Lao He: “This cannon barrel seems to be the large caliber steel pipe that Li Yunlong turned in to the arsenal, right? Can this steel pipe withstand the chamber pressure of firing cannonballs?”
Traditional artillery firing relies on huge chamber pressure to propel the cannonball out.
So, the requirements for the cannon barrel are extremely high.
If the cannon barrel quality is poor, it will burst barrel on the spot.
And this large caliber steel pipe clearly couldn’t withstand huge chamber pressure.
Lao He nodded and answered: “Yes, this cannon barrel was cut from the large caliber steel pipe Li Yunlong turned in. The Factory Director’s firing method is different from traditional artillery and doesn’t require withstanding huge chamber pressure.”
“So that’s how it is.” Zhang Wanhe nodded; he also noticed the cannonballs were different from traditional ones.
Zhang Wanhe remembered something and asked: “With such great power in these cannonballs, how did your arsenal make the explosives?”
One shot taking out three gun towers, black powder definitely couldn’t do it.
“Factory Director, speaking of this, you really can’t help but admire our Factory Director.” Lao He still seemed incredulous: “This was made by the Factory Director using fertilizer and sugar.”
“Fertilizer and sugar can make explosives?” Zhang Wanhe was stunned.
Never mind sugar; isn’t this fertilizer the fertilizer powder the Japanese sold us for farming?
Can this farming fertilizer powder make explosives?
It sounds so unbelievable.
Are the Japanese fools?
“Minister Zhang, this fertilizer contains a large amount of ammonium nitrate.” Lao He explained.
“Fertilizer contains a large amount of ammonium nitrate?” Zhang Wanhe reacted like he’d heard the world’s biggest joke.
Zhang Wanhe certainly knew what ammonium nitrate was; it’s the main component of ammonium nitrate explosives.
And the fertilizer sold by the Japanese contains a large amount of ammonium nitrate; this, this, this… is it really no joke?
