Chapter 59: Scrap Yard
Fujita Ichi was hung up on by Hirata Ichiro but did not get angry.
Looking at the mess left by Hirata Ichiro, Fujita Ichi was confident.
The Gendarmerie personnel shortage is not a big problem.
When Fujita Ichi came to take office, he conveniently brought quite a few people with him.
Fujita Ichi gathered all the important Gendarmerie personnel and said at the meeting, “The Eighth Route Army coming to attack the county town twice in a row is enough to show the meaning of the threat from their heavy cannon. But to completely resolve the hidden danger, it actually does not lie with this heavy cannon.”
“Captain, then where does it lie?” someone asked.
“With the Eighth Route Army itself,” Fujita Ichi said. “The previous Gendarmerie Captain Hirata always focused his gaze on the clue of the Eighth Route Army’s heavy cannon. This was completely off track. Sending so many people to investigate, with such a high reward, and what was the result? It was completely useless, and the Eighth Route Army struck again overnight, even stealing our Gendarmerie home. It was utterly stupid!”
Immediately after, Fujita Ichi said, “So, I want to take the initiative to strike.”
“How to take the initiative?” a Japanese officer asked suspiciously. “We don’t even know where the Eighth Route Army is now.”
“That’s why they say Hirata Ichiro is stupid, and his subordinates are stupid too.” Fujita Ichi mocked Hirata Ichiro again, then said, “We can fish. First set up an ambush formation. The Ninth Brigade and Fourth Brigade have mobilized encirclement troops, right? We can directly pull those encirclement troops over to use. After setting up the ambush formation, then bait them. So, no matter if this Eighth Route Army fish is hiding in the grass or in rock crevices, as long as the bait is made fragrant, they won’t fail to bite the hook. When they come with the heavy cannon, we can catch both men and cannon in one net. Wouldn’t that directly solve the problem?”
“Captain, brilliant.”
“Captain, ingenious.”
“Our Captain Fujita is still the best.”
Most of the Japanese personnel present flattered Fujita Ichi one after another. Of course, these were all Fujita Ichi’s people.
Hirata Ichiro’s subordinates reluctantly clapped along.
You used this trick before, Captain Hirata.
If the Eighth Route Army were so easily fooled, would the rear security war still be bogged down in a quagmire!
“Captain, what to use as bait?” one of Fujita Ichi’s confidants asked.
“What does the Eighth Route Army lack most right now?” Fujita Ichi asked.
“Do I need to say? Weapons, grain, medicine, salt, and so on. They lack everything,” the confidant answered.
“There you go. Bait is everywhere; just grab any to use.” Fujita Ichi laughed. “See what things are available right now and directly use them as bait.”
“Yes.”
……
Border Region Arsenal
“Factory Director, according to your requirements, these are the newly made cannon shells: two assault type and two shrapnel type,” Lao He politely said to Li Muzhi, who was drawing diagrams.
“Wait a moment, let me finish drawing.” Li Muzhi did not look up and continued drawing the rocket launcher diagram.
Due to limited conditions, even if the power issue is solved, it is impossible to directly copy those rocket launchers from later generations.
They must be optimized as simply as possible based on the conditions here at the arsenal.
Weapons made simpler mean lower failure rates on the battlefield.
“Yes.” Lao He stood straight and did not disturb Li Muzhi.
Lao He still curiously glanced at the diagram. This seemed to be: a cannon barrel with a bomb loaded in front?
Lao He was immediately very curious, since he had never seen a cannon shell loaded in front of a cannon barrel before.
In his impression, cannon shells were either loaded into the gun barrel behind or slid in from the cannon muzzle to fire.
He had truly never seen one directly loaded onto the cannon muzzle.
Even if this cannon shell could fire out, without acceleration from the cannon barrel rifling, it wouldn’t go far or accurately.
However, Lao He suppressed his doubts.
The new Factory Director Li Muzhi made a Hell Cannon using large caliber steel pipe, where the cannon barrel does not need to withstand strong chamber pressure.
Perhaps he has a way to solve the trajectory problem for this new gadget.
Five minutes later, Li Muzhi put down his pen.
Seeing Li Muzhi finish drawing, Lao He quickly asked, “Factory Director, are you preparing to make a new cannon?”
“Yes.” Li Muzhi nodded and changed the subject: “The cannon shells, take me to see them.”
“Yes, Factory Director.” Lao He was tactful; since Li Muzhi did not continue the topic, he did not ask further.
Lao He led Li Muzhi to the workshop, where the four Hell Cannon shells were quietly placed in a box.
Li Muzhi stepped forward to inspect them and, confirming no issues, said to Lao He, “Send someone to deliver the cannon shells to 386 Brigade. Have them test as soon as possible and bring back the data quickly. Once confirmed no problems, the arsenal will go full throttle to mass-produce the cannon shells.”
Testing these four cannon shells definitely could not be done by hitting rocks; that would be wasteful.
Still the old rule: use the Japanese invaders to test!
When the Hell Cannon was first made, Li Muzhi had to personally test it because the combat troops did not believe the Border Region Arsenal could make cannons, so Li Muzhi had no choice but to leave the arsenal to personally demonstrate.
Now that the Hell Cannon has convinced the combat troops, Li Muzhi no longer needs to go personally.
As military industry personnel, how could they casually go to the front-line battlefield.
In some novels, military industry personnel follow combat troops to the front-line battlefield every day to kill Japanese invaders; that’s pure nonsense.
“Yes, Factory Director.”
……
386 Brigade Headquarters
“Brigade Commander, one safe has been opened.”
The Deputy Brigade Commander held several folders, walked to the Brigade Commander, and handed them over: “These are the documents taken from the safe.”
The Brigade Commander quickly took them and tore one open to look.
“This one is useless.”
“This one is useless too.”
“This one should be useless too.”
……
The Brigade Commander flipped through quickly; these folders indeed contained important information.
However, the Japanese side definitely would not be foolish.
With the safe lost, they would surely mend the fold after the sheep is lost in time.
So, the information in these earlier folders would also become invalid.
Until the Brigade Commander opened the last folder, his expression paused: “This one probably still has some use.”
This folder contained a Japanese Army scrap yard.
It held scrapped guns, steel helmets, knives, vehicles, and so on from the battlefield.
The Japanese Army has limited resources; these things are collected to be melted down and recast into iron.
Due to fuel being precious, this scrap is only transported away uniformly at intervals.
Thus, the Brigade Commander judged that even if the Japanese knew the scrap yard intelligence had fallen into our hands, they might not transport the scrap in time.
After all, to the Japanese, fuel is far more valuable than scrap.
Supply Station No. 5 was robbed by Li Yunlong; the Japanese lost quite a bit of fuel, so they would cherish and conserve it even more.
Therefore, the scrap at this scrap yard was probably still there.
The Deputy Brigade Commander looked and said, “Brigade Commander, isn’t the profit at this scrap yard a bit too low?”
If it were all good stuff, we wouldn’t mind doing it.
But all junk and broken things—it’s barely worth it, pure chicken ribs.
