Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Because the arsenal was too dependent on water, every winter when the ground froze, some workers would be idle and have nothing to do. In fact, after several years of development, the number of workers in the Liangjia Village Arsenal has increased year by year. Not only is Liangjia Village full, but the houses built outside are also full.

As for workers, especially those in the arsenal, there are many more men than women, after all, many of them do heavy physical work. With more men, they have to consider starting a family, after all, workers are not soldiers, and there is no hard requirement for marriage. So, in the past two years, the widows in Liangjia Village have gradually started families, and some grown-up girls have also found partners.

The detachment supports the workers to start families and build careers. After all, increasing the population can also calm the workers. Of course, there are also workers who do not want to start a family, or who already have families but cannot go home during the Chinese New Year. For these people, the detachment also has considerations, that is, to increase the workers' learning level, so that the workers have room for improvement after work.

In addition to these, the workers in the arsenal also have to undergo military training, and the training intensity is not low! That's right, workers, holding a hammer in one hand, must also be able to pick up weapons and fight at any time!

The workers in the arsenal had an advantage in undergoing military training, which was that they knew the performance of the weapons in their hands better than anyone else, after all, they made them themselves! This was true even for the workers in the ammunition group, because they understood the performance of the ammunition better, and even the bullets they fired were loaded by themselves...

In the month before the New Year, the idle workers had a new job after training, which was to go to the forging workshop to pull the sledgehammer! That's right, they pulled the rope, raised the hammer to a high place, positioned it with a ratchet, and waited for it to fall at any time.

Pulling a sledgehammer is not an easy job. It requires strength, patience, eyesight and the ability to coordinate with others. The most important thing is that you don’t pull it once a day, but hundreds or even thousands of times.

Well, this kind of labor intensity is much lighter than that of the trackers on the Yangtze River. After all, they just stay by the stove and the hammer and don't have to worry about food and clothing.

These days, Li Yuexuan spent the most time at these forging hammers. Why? Because the material of the 60 mortars needs to be partially changed! In the current raw material warehouse, although you still have a train axle for free, one train axle can be used to build seven or eight 60 mortars, but how many train axles can you have? Sooner or later, they will run out.

Well, we can continue to attack train stations and trains. After all, we are guarding the Zhengtai Line, Jinpu Line, Tongpu Line, Pinghan Line, Shide Line, Xinbian Line and other railway lines. We can always intercept some trains and get train axles.

But it is a bit troublesome to do so. After all, if you intercept a train, you have to remove the train axle, which is not a small task. And if you attack the train station, no one knows whether the train axle is stored as a spare.

Although the Eighth Route Army didn't mind having a meal of dumplings just because of a train axle, they still had to save costs if they could!

At present, the biggest problem that Li Yuexuan and his team are facing is the difficulty of processing! To turn a train axle into a rough blank for a mortar, you only need to burn the same round train axle red, then forge it into a cylinder of appropriate thickness, and then cut it according to the length. Even if there is a sawing machine, it is not a problem to directly saw the train axle and drill it, after all, the finished train axle has been processed.

Although the rails are used on the railway, the processing of the rails is much more difficult! This is not a problem of hardness, but a problem of shape!

The axle of a train is a cylinder. You just need to use a sledgehammer and a mold to make it thinner one hammer at a time! The rails are I-shaped, and their shapes are too irregular. If the diameter or length of an I-shaped rail is smaller than the caliber required by the mortar, the processing difficulty will be even greater! Well, the rails can simulate the manufacturing method of a grenade launcher. The rails are beaten into long steel bars, and then spirally wound into a cylinder for welding and forging... But the problem is, the grenade launcher's propellant is only the point in the tail tube, how high is the chamber pressure? And what about the 60 mortar? Although the caliber has increased by 10mm, the propellant bag can only hang 4 at most, and the chamber pressure is too high!

There is also another difficulty problem, that is, if the irregular I-beam is forged into a cylindrical shape, it is very likely or certain that the workpiece will be burred during the forging process. After all, when the hammer is hit, some places will be burred, and some embedded wounds will be formed on the surface of the workpiece during the forging process...

In short, Li Yuexuan often stayed in front of the forging hammer these days, working with the workers to find solutions.

"Director, this is the last method of our experiment!" Chen Mo has been thinking about it during this period, and now he is reporting to Li Yuexuan.

"What do you mean?" Li Yuexuan asked.

"Although this rail is an I-shaped rail, its upper and lower sizes are different. The part that contacts the train wheels is roughly cylindrical when viewed from the side. So, we selected a rail, cut off the part below the rail head, and only forged the cut rail head part."

"We cut it first, then forge it, and try to keep its shape as cylindrical as possible. Then, we use the upper mold to continue forging the two ends, making the cylinder gradually thicker and finally taking shape!"

"We can also make use of the remaining part. We can forge it directly downwards and make it into a base plate for the mortar or a bracket. It will always be useful!"

Listening to Chen Mo's words, Li Yuexuan knew that this was the right way! Although there was no sawing machine, no wire cutting, no spray gun cutting, the workers could only use the dumbest way to cut, but they could finally use the rails! If they could use it, it would be a success! When there is large-scale production of gun barrel steel, whoever wants to use the rails can use it. Anyway, the Liangjia Village Arsenal doesn't like it.

"Okay, let's continue. I also hope to succeed! The New Year is coming soon. If we can use steel rails to make a batch of qualified mortars before the New Year, we can celebrate the Spring Festival with peace of mind!" Li Yuexuan said.

"Don't worry, Director. I guarantee we'll have a good New Year! We're not used to the fact that the Japanese didn't come out to make trouble this year!" Xiao Fengyun, who had been silent, said at this time.

"Don't worry, the devils don't have many troops to attack us..." (End of this chapter)