Chapter 166: Being Head Of Logistics Is No Easy Job
Border Region Arsenal
“Factory Director, these are the bullets made again after readjusting the machines according to your requirements. Take a look.”
Lao He brought over a dozen newly made bullets to Li Muzhi’s office.
This time, Lao He’s expression was full of confidence.
Because he had already measured all these bullets in advance, and they all met Li Muzhi’s requirements.
Lao He felt relieved in his heart.
The previous batch of bullets had three that barely qualified.
But the Factory Director deemed them unqualified and asked to readjust the machines.
The Factory Director’s requirements were really too high.
Of course, Lao He understood.
The reason the Factory Director was striving for perfection was to clear the stigma of the previous poor quality Border Region Manufacturing bullets!
Moreover, making good bullets would ensure that the combat troops had reliable ammunition for killing Japanese invaders.
If the quality of even one bullet was substandard, causing trajectory deviation or insufficient range, it could allow an enemy to survive.
“Lao He, from your expression, these bullets should all be qualified this time.” Li Muzhi saw the answer from Lao He’s expression, but still picked up the measuring tools and carefully measured them.
Soon, Li Muzhi finished measuring, and a smile appeared on his face: “Good, all fifteen bullets this time are qualified. You’ve worked hard.”
Hearing Li Muzhi’s praise, Lao He also smiled: “Factory Director, no trouble at all. It’s all worth it.”
Immediately after, Lao He eagerly said: “Then I’ll start maximum production right away.”
“What’s the rush? These dozen bullets still need to be tested. Only after testing confirms no issues will we produce.” Li Muzhi said.
“How to test?” Lao He asked. “We can’t just shoot these dozen bullets at rocks, right.”
Although there weren’t many of these dozen bullets, shooting at rocks for testing would still be a waste.
“Calculate the time; the targets Minister Zhang arranged should have arrived…” Sure enough, before Li Muzhi finished speaking, he saw Zhang Wanhe walk in excitedly.
“Xiao Li, I’ve brought all the targets you wanted.” Zhang Wanhe looked at the dozen bullets in front of Li Muzhi and smiled: “This time, the bullets are all qualified, right?”
“Only after testing and confirming no issues are they truly qualified.” Li Muzhi said.
“Let’s go, we’ll test them right away.”
Li Muzhi and Lao He followed Zhang Wanhe to a secluded spot outside the arsenal.
Here, Zhang Wanhe had brought over a dozen targets, all kneeling on the ground with hands bound and bags over their heads.
These were traitors who had been publicly tried by civilians and were to be executed by firing squad, extremely hated by the people.
Zhang Wanhe also handed Li Muzhi a stack of dossiers and said to him: “Xiao Li, do you want to first look at the evil deeds of these major traitors?”
Li Muzhi casually took the top dossier, glanced at the first few lines, closed it without reading the rest: “Since it’s the result of the civilians’ public trial, we should respect the civilians’ wishes.”
When the Japanese invaders came, the land was shattered, and the people suffered.
The most hateful were the traitors.
They knew best how to deal with their own people, helping the Japanese invaders do evil.
From the first few lines of this traitor’s dossier that Li Muzhi read, this dog traitor had led Japanese invaders to find the hiding place of over a hundred Eighth Route wounded soldiers, not only killing over a hundred wounded soldiers but also massacring most of the villagers from several villages who protected them. If the rest hadn’t run fast, they would all have been killed.
For such traitors, there was no need for public trial; they could be executed immediately upon capture.
“Let’s begin.” Zhang Wanhe put away the dossiers, handed the dozen bullets to the Guard Captain, and let the Guard Captain test them.
The rifle in the Guard Captain’s hands had always been carried with him, and he had killed three Japanese invaders with it on the battlefield.
Now, the gun barrel of this rifle was worn out, and the rifling was almost ground flat.
But the Guard Captain still couldn’t bear to replace this old partner.
The Guard Captain loaded several bullets into the chamber, pulled the bolt to chamber one, raised the gun to aim at the first target, and gently pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The gun fired, and the sound was very crisp.
The traitor aimed at by the Guard Captain took a bullet to the chest and fell headfirst to the ground.
“Factory Director Li, the accuracy of these bullets is pretty good.” The Guard Captain immediately praised.
He opened the chamber, and there was almost no gunpowder residue left inside, indicating the primer had burned very thoroughly.
Don’t underestimate this gunpowder residue.
If it remains in the chamber, it affects the gun’s lifespan.
Previous Border Region Manufacturing bullets had incomplete gunpowder combustion and severe residue.
This greatly affected the lifespan of the guns, and we didn’t have enough guns to begin with.
Now, these new bullets are accurate, have sufficient range, and burn cleanly— their quality is on par with Japanese invaders’ bullets.
Zhang Wanhe laughed on the side: “Hahaha, of course! Who do you think made these bullets? Xiao Li can even make cannons and rocket launchers; making mere bullets is nothing.”
Lao He also laughed: “From now on, none of you gun users will complain about the poor quality of our Border Region Manufacturing bullets!”
Li Muzhi smiled faintly: “We’ve only fired one bullet. After testing all dozen, Guard Captain, you can summarize.”
“Good!” The Guard Captain nodded, chambered another bullet, and aimed at a new target.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
……
The Guard Captain fired all dozen bullets one by one.
Not a single bullet misfired, or had trajectory deviation, insufficient range, or other quality issues.
The test pass rate was 100%, and all the traitors were executed.
The Guard Captain said excitedly: “These bullets are really on par with Japanese invaders’ bullets; they’re so good. In future battles against Japanese invaders, we won’t need to let them get close before firing.”
Previous Border Region Manufacturing bullets were poor quality—not to mention long range, even at medium range they weren’t accurate.
Letting Japanese invaders get close was a last resort.
After all, closer range meant slightly higher hit rate.
Of course, letting Japanese invaders get close had major drawbacks.
Japanese invaders’ marksmanship wasn’t bad; at close range exchanging fire, we suffered losses.
But there was no choice; our arsenal was weak and couldn’t produce good bullets.
Many times, when soldiers couldn’t outshoot Japanese invaders, they charged forward for bayonet fighting.
This bayonet fighting wasn’t the Japanese invaders’… Sigh, in short, military industry lag meant the army suffered the most.
Now, the Border Region Arsenal can produce good bullets.
This will greatly compensate for the troops’ lack of long-range combat capability and avoid the drawbacks of close-range fighting with Japanese invaders.
“Hahaha.” Zhang Wanhe laughed heartily again. “I said long ago, Xiao Li can even make artillery; mere bullets are no problem, haha.”
Lao He happily said to Li Muzhi on the side: “Factory Director, since the live-fire test of the bullets has no issues, I’ll go back and have people produce at maximum speed right away.”
With that, Lao He started to step away, not even waiting for Li Muzhi’s agreement.
“Wait.” Li Muzhi still stopped Lao He and instructed: “During production, still do careful spot checks. Though it’s impossible to make every bullet 100% qualified, guarantee the pass rate as much as possible.”
“Yes, Factory Director.” Lao He happily ran off.
“Guard Captain, have your men handle these corpses.” Li Muzhi said to the Guard Captain.
Though these traitors were hateful, their corpses couldn’t be left to rot carelessly.
Rotten corpses could easily spread plague and disease.
“Yes, Factory Director Li.” The Guard Captain immediately took men to dig pits.
“Xiao Li, now that bullets are sorted, next we should hurry with conventional cannonballs.” Zhang Wanhe smiled at Li Muzhi.
Large caliber steel pipes and sugar have arrived again, so Hell Cannon and its cannonballs are still in production.
Jumping mines and grenades can also increase production.
Though rocket launcher test results aren’t back, they’re definitely fine.
Now bullets are done; only conventional cannonballs remain.
Though our troops captured enemy artillery, grenade launchers, mortars, and infantry guns.
But due to severe shortage of cannonballs, the captured artillery couldn’t sustain fire, greatly affecting the troops’ combat power.
“Minister Zhang, cannonballs need to be made, but now there’s another, even more important matter.” Li Muzhi turned to Zhang Wanhe and said, “As you see, the Border Region Arsenal is producing Hell Cannon and cannonballs, jumping mines and grenades are in production, rocket launcher tests are fine so we must hurry to produce rocket launchers and rockets, and now bullets have passed tests so must hurry production. This brings a very serious problem.”
“What serious problem?” Hearing Li Muzhi mention a serious problem, Zhang Wanhe immediately became solemn.
Now that the Border Region Arsenal is running, days are looking hopeful; Zhang Wanhe didn’t want any serious issues at the arsenal.
“Severe shortage of workers.” Li Muzhi said gravely. “The arsenal is now producing more types of weapons and ammunition. To guarantee output, manpower must be ensured. Minister Zhang, you need to figure out how to supply more workers here—best all skilled workers, no novices.”
Li Muzhi’s last sentence was a direct hint.
Minister Zhang, you’d better get me skilled workers from other arsenals.
This wasn’t Li Muzhi rejecting inexperienced newcomers; our machinery and equipment are precious. If novices damage something, it affects production mildly.
Worse if machines break irreparably—or even worse, if novice errors cause major accidents… So Li Muzhi hoped Zhang Wanhe would provide experienced skilled workers.
Zhang Wanhe instantly understood Li Muzhi’s hint and looked troubled: “Xiao Li, you’re really giving me a tough one.”
You wanting those specific workers isn’t a big deal; I can handle it.
Then, wanting to keep those talents from Huangyadong Arsenal, I got scolded twice by headquarters leaders, and it’s still not settled.
Now you want a large number of skilled workers from other arsenals. How about you take this Head of Logistics position?
“Minister Zhang, how about this: let’s report to headquarters, go through them…” Li Muzhi also felt directly asking Old Zhang to pull skilled workers from other arsenals put too much pressure on him.
“No!” Old Zhang decisively waved his hand: “Headquarters leaders are so busy; how can we disturb them casually? Leave this to me.”
To keep those talents from Huangyadong Arsenal, headquarters leaders scolded me twice.
This isn’t settled, and now asking headquarters leaders to transfer more skilled workers from other arsenals to Border Region Arsenal— they’d definitely… Never mind, since I’m the headquarters Head of Logistics, I should handle it.
“Minister Zhang, are you sure you can manage?” Li Muzhi asked suspiciously; this was no small matter.
Though Border Region Arsenal producing weapons and ammunition is vital for troops.
Other arsenals are important too.
Balancing this bowl of water won’t be easy.
“I’ll try first.” Old Zhang didn’t dare promise.
“It needs to be quick.” Li Muzhi said to Zhang Wanhe. “Minister Zhang, it’s not me rushing you, but getting skilled workers here soon will let our weapons and ammunition output rise earlier. I don’t deal with battlefield matters, but I can judge: our combat troops have taken so much advantage of Japanese invaders; their bloody retaliation will come soon. We must equip combat troops with weapons and ammunition ASAP. Otherwise, if our Border Region Arsenal can’t keep up output, leading to insufficient troop combat power, defeat by Japanese invaders, and forced relocation, production will have to stop.”
The current reality is Japanese invaders are still stronger; if they launch a large-scale sweep, relocating with families has huge drawbacks.
Li Muzhi hoped the troops could withstand Japanese invaders’ pressure without relocating again.
Of course, the biggest prerequisite is our arsenal providing troops with sufficient quality weapons and ammunition.
“Got it, I know.” Old Zhang was sweating profusely. Border Region Arsenal is developing better, logistics revenue generation is open, days have hope.
I thought being Head of Logistics would get easier, sigh, I overthought it.
