Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Chapter 144 Chapter 143, Bullet Reloading, Live-Ammunition Testing

"The gun and the bullet are a system. The ultimate goal is to give the warhead a forward kinetic energy so that it can fly to the target at the fastest speed and cause damage."

"Then the question is, which is more important, the gun or the bullet? If we have to be serious, the bullet is a little more important. Why? Because many gun designs are based on the performance data of the bullet. For example, the Type 6.5 rifle, which is the most common in our guerrillas, including the early models, are designed based on the mm Arisaka bullet."

"Speaking of bullets, we have to mention one question, that is, the ignition of bullets! This is a very basic question. In a firearm, a bullet is fired by the firing pin hitting the primer, igniting the ignition powder, and then igniting the propellant powder, generating high-pressure gas to shoot out the bullet. Please note that ignition powder and propellant powder are not the same thing."

"Initiator powder, also called primer powder, is an extremely sensitive drug. It is very sensitive to impact, which ensures that it will ignite when the firing pin hits the primer. The initiator powder we are all familiar with is fulminate of mercury. Just like the ones in this glass dish in my hand, this is the fulminate of mercury I prepared these days. The amount is not much, only about 100 grams."

"As for propellant, its performance is relatively stable. It needs the flame generated by the pyrotechnic powder to ignite it, and then burn rapidly. The most familiar one is nitrocellulose, which is the tablets in this basin over here. I made them these days using the bottles and jars in the laboratory. There is not much, only about 10 kilograms!"

"Why? Not enough? Here, look at this percussion cap. It's punched out with a punch press. Just fill it with primer, add a layer of cover foil, and finally press it into the primer chamber at the bottom of the cartridge case! The amount... well, how many grams are in it? I'll have to use decimals to calculate it later."

"Let me put it this way! Look at this 6.5mm bullet shell. The standard charge inside is 2.1 grams. We can put less, just 2 grams. Then the 10 kilograms of propellant I made is enough for 5000 rounds of bullets! Isn't it amazing?"

"Don't be stunned. Although this data won't have much impact on the work you are about to do, it is very important. At least it should let you know what bullets are!"

"There are two main ways to fire bullets, one is called rimfire and the other is called centerfire. We don't need to worry about rimfire, because the bullets we encounter are all centerfire bullets, and the mark is the primer at the bottom of the bullet. The structure of the primer is also different. The most commonly used one is the Berdan primer."

"This primer style is used for the bullets used by the Mosin-Nagant and the Type 38 rifle. Its characteristic is that it does not have a firing block. The firing block, which serves as the "anvil" when firing, is directly processed in the center of the primer chamber and is a fixed protrusion. Here, this protrusion at the bottom of the cartridge case is the anvil. The two holes on both sides are the firing holes for the primer powder..."

In the north room of the front yard, Li Yuexuan explained the knowledge he had about bullets to the men and women who were involved in the reloading work, which made everyone's originally high enthusiasm for work become a little dull.

Hmm... I don't understand! Although Li Yuexuan was using real objects to demonstrate, everyone was still confused.

Seeing that no one was willing to listen to his explanation, Li Yuexuan had to shut up, then stretched out his hand to test the temperature in the room, and then said, "Okay, the work of reloading bullets will start now! In the past few days, Comrade Zou Ming and his team have made several sets of manual stamping dies for bullet heads. Together with the ones sent by the headquarters, we have a full 6 sets of dies ready to start."

"Comrade Zou Ming, you can lead the comrades to start!" Li Yuexuan said, pointing at Zou Ming in front of the north window.

"Understood! Just follow the steps I told you, step by step!" Zou Ming said, and then he placed a thin copper plate on a mold, aimed the punch at the copper plate, and swung the hammer to hit the punch. After a few hits, the copper plate had deformed into the shape of a bullet, but the center was empty.

Next to him, another soldier was also holding a punch and a mold, punching a piece of lead into the shape of a bullet head, just enough to fit into the copper plate bullet casing.

Then, the two hollow bullet shells were taken out and put together, with the copper outside and the lead inside. Then, a solid pointed steel core in the shape of a steel bullet was stuffed into the two shells.

The next step is to hammer and compact it, and then press the excess copper shell cover plate onto the bottom of the warhead, so that it finally becomes a qualified warhead.

The specific workflow is a bit more complicated, and this is just a simple step to make a bullet. Of course, if you want to make it even simpler, you can use brass to directly make the shape of the bullet, but it is a bit expensive and resource-intensive.

The work of making the bullet head was slow at first, but it became fast after getting familiar with it. At the same time, the work of removing the percussion cap of the old bullet shell was carried out.

The bullet shell cap has a circle of sealing paint, which needs to be removed in advance. Then, the bullet shell will be placed bottom down in a steel mold, and then the mold will be filled with water in a basin full of water, and then a steel plug will be inserted into the upper mouth of the mold, and a hammer will be used to hit it hard to use the water pressure to press out the primer.

The shell without the primer will be quickly dried on the warm iron plate on the stove. When it is completely dry, it will be taken to the workbench, and a new primer cap will be added, and sealing wax will be added. Then a small punch will be used to punch the place where the primer and the shell meet to form a barrier. During this process, pay attention to the strength, so as not to explode the gunpowder hammer. Of course, it is okay not to do it, and add more sealing paint.

After the bullet shells were primed, Xu Hongying and some other girls, including Hong Niang, used special wooden spoons and funnels to load the shells with propellant. Only a flat spoon was needed to weigh exactly 2 grams, which was the data specification calculated by Li Yuexuan using the auxiliary panel.

The bullet shell has a primer and propellant, and then the bullet processed by Zou Ming and his team is pressed into it with tools, and a layer of sealing wax is added to fix the seal, and the new bullet is ready. Well, the specific process is a little simplified, so don't imitate it.

Inside the room, near the south window, a coal-burning stove was whirring. There was a layer of iron plate behind the stove lid to help dissipate the heat and also dry the shell casings fished out of the water.

In the middle of the room was a long table. Li Yuexuan led a dozen guerrillas, both men and women, to work together in a division of labor. Some were responsible for removing old primers, some were responsible for drying cartridge cases, some were responsible for adding powder and foil to the primers, some were responsible for installing primers, and some were responsible for adding propellant... In short, everything was arranged clearly by him.

On the east side of the room was the manual punching machine, where two soldiers worked together to turn copper plates into primers and caps. Together with the soldiers hammering bullets in front of the north window, the room became a small workshop for reloading bullets.

Li Yuexuan was temporarily in charge of this small workshop and took charge of the most important task of configuring gunpowder and propellant.

The room was busy and warm. Outside the room, the soldiers of the vanguard squad were patrolling back and forth, and there was a small figure standing at the door. Yes, it was Comrade Cai Xiaotian, who was standing at the door of the north room dutifully, protecting Comrade Li Yuexuan.

In the east wing, Zhao Danian pushed the door and walked out, followed by Zhu Xingyu and Xing Weiguo.

"It's been a whole morning of hammering and banging. I wonder how many bullets can be loaded in a day?" Zhao Danian glanced at the soldiers who were patrolling and said. "I don't know. We have never done it before. It depends on Comrade Youshun!" Zhu Xingyu said.

"Comrade Peregrine is a capable man! He can save people, fight the Japanese, and do all these things! I have confidence in him! Even if he can load 100 bullets a day, we can have 100 more bullets out of thin air! It's just that it's too dangerous for Comrade Peregrine to prepare the medicine by himself. I hope the headquarters can build a chemical pharmaceutical factory as soon as possible!" Xing Weiguo said.

"It will happen sooner or later! Didn't Peregrine Falcon already hand in a clear description of how to prepare the medicine? It will happen sooner or later!" Zhao Danian used affirmative tone twice to strengthen his confidence.

"I've seen the comic strip about the processing process drawn by Comrade Youshun. It turns out that you can use the Japanese bicycle pump to press it down? I don't know how they came up with this idea..." Zhu Xingyu said with a smile.

"Well... it's noon, let's have someone deliver food! How much pig offal is left? We've been eating it for a few days in a row, so today we'll change the taste and have pig's trotters and pig's heads! By the way, those wild boar stomachs have to be put away. They're good stuff. Anyone with a bad stomach can use this!" said Zhao Danian.

"Comrade Chen Jue'an has taken care of it. There won't be any problem! It's a pity that we can't sell it for money. If we can, we can buy more food! This time the superiors gave us 2000 kilograms of beans. This thing...how about we make tofu? The tofu dregs can also be used to feed pigs!" Xing Weiguo suggested.

"We can make tofu, but forget about feeding pigs with the tofu dregs. Apart from wild boars, where else can we find pigs in our village? But next year we have to get some piglets back so that we can raise pigs for meat!" said Zhao Danian.

"Well...how about eating tofu residue tonight? The radish berries we harvested from the field are a little wilted, and there are also cabbage leaves. Let's make tofu residue!" Zhu Xingyu said.

"Ahem... we've also learned bad habits! Why is it that food always pops out of our mouths these past few days? No, no, we have to intensify our training! So... in addition to reloading bullets and normal patrols, let's also practice together! With so much meat to provide, we must strengthen it. Starting tomorrow, the veterans from Beiyue District will also participate in physical training!"

"Okay, it's 12 o'clock, let's stop. I just want to know the production of these reloaded bullets. If it is feasible, then let's start intensified shooting training!" Zhao Danian said.

"Comrade Youshun, it's noon, time to eat, let's stop working!" Zhu Xingyu put his hands to his mouth and shouted towards the north room.

"Okay, stop now!" Li Yuexuan responded from inside the room and asked everyone who was working to stop.

After everyone stopped working, Li Yuexuan looked at the basket on the westernmost side of the table, which contained the results of this morning's work.

"How much is this?" When Li Yuexuan appeared outside the door holding a basket, Zhao Danian, Xing Weiguo and Zhu Xingyu quickly surrounded him.

"I just counted it, there are 208 bullets in total!" Li Yuexuan said with a smile.

"So many? Can all of this be used?" Xing Weiguo jumped up when he heard the number, and asked happily.

"Without live-fire testing, I can't say it's 100% usable! So, we need to test it with live-fire! So, we'll spend the afternoon preparing it, and then shoot it at the shooting range tomorrow. If there are no misfires, it means we've done it!" said Li Yuexuan.

"This is possible! If we can reload 500 rounds of bullets a day, then in 10 days that will be 5000 rounds, enough for us to fight a large-scale battle!" said Zhao Danian.

"Yes, when the bullets are used up, we can pick up the shells and continue to use them! But we have to find a way to get more copper coins to use!" Xing Weiguo sighed.

The copper coin that Xing Weiguo mentioned is not the copper coin mentioned earlier, but a copper coin made of brass. Don't get it wrong, this is not a rare copper coin.

"Report, lunch is ready!" Yan Jinghuai's report interrupted everyone's sighs, and then it was time to eat.

With the familiarization process in the morning, the work this afternoon was faster. Li Yuexuan also followed up the whole process, fearing that there would be any mistakes. The work results that afternoon also made everyone very satisfied. A total of 307 rounds of ammunition were reloaded. Together with the 208 rounds in the morning, there were exactly 515 rounds of ammunition, which was the daily production capacity.

Of course, if we get familiar with the process, prepare the warheads in advance, remove the primers, and so on, we can increase the production capacity. Today, it is just an experimental production.

In the information that Li Yuexuan gave to the headquarters, his opinion was also included. That is, the headquarters should set up scattered workshops for the production of primers and propellants in several sub-districts, or the headquarters should set up a large production factory to specialize in the production of primers and propellants.

Then, the reloading technology was dispersed to various divisions, and even each regiment had a few soldiers who could reload bullets, and they were stationed at the regiment headquarters with a set of reloading machines.

In this way, each regiment can reload its own ammunition, and only needs to bring back propellant and ignition powder from the headquarters from time to time. As we have calculated before, 10 kilograms of propellant can guarantee the use of 5000 rounds of ammunition. Each regiment starts with 50 kilograms of propellant, which is the amount of reloading 25000 rounds of ammunition. This amount is enough to guarantee the use of a regiment that is not in long-term combat.

Of course, Li Yuexuan had no say in the headquarters' decision. He could only try his best to ensure that the guerrillas had enough ability to reload bullets and that there was no shortage of training bullets. Then, he wrote the data he had summarized into a report and submitted it to the headquarters for evaluation. In addition to reloading bullets, he also had to help Comrade Liu Feixu use experimental equipment to make sulfanilamide, and then simulate the industrial process on a small scale.

Once Liu Feixu has mastered the situation, she will return to the headquarters and arrange for her to go elsewhere. Do you really think she will stay in the guerrillas? Forget it.

The next day, the bullet reloading workshop that had just been working for a day stopped working! Then, all the soldiers who participated in the reloading came to the shooting range and waited for the results of the target shooting test.

(End of this chapter)