Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 227 requires two locomotives
Li Muzhi led his students to the woods outside the arsenal.

Because of concerns about Japanese aircraft, the equipment and supplies were not directly transported to the arsenal.

Sure enough, in the woods, Liu Weidong's troops brought back a large number of equipment and machinery.

This time, the scale is larger than ever before.

This time, there is more equipment than ever before.

Upon seeing Li Muzhi emerge, Liu Weidong immediately smiled and said, "Director Li, this is the next large Japanese arsenal under the Cuicun Arsenal, and we've taken it over."

The next large-scale arsenal after the Cuicun Arsenal?

Li Muzhi was quite familiar with what he heard.

The managers of the Cuicun Arsenal are being interrogated by Brigade Commander Chen. Judging from the situation, it seems that the managers of the Cuicun Arsenal have confessed.

Liu Weidong followed Li Yunlong and his men out of the encirclement; their priority was to capture this large arsenal.

Li Muzhi couldn't help but speak up: "Commander Liu, isn't this arrangement of yours drawing the Japanese encirclement and suppression army to your side?"

The construction of this large-scale arsenal will definitely hit the Japanese with a sore spot.

Your few regiments are no match for the 60,000 to 70,000 Japanese troops.

"Hehe." Liu Weidong chuckled and said, "If the Japanese army really marches towards Li Yunlong and his men, that would actually be a good thing. As long as the Japanese don't put pressure on this side, your border arsenal won't need to stop production and can continue producing weapons and ammunition."

Immediately afterwards, Liu Weidong said, "Didn't you say that once this large arsenal is taken over, there's a high chance that it will contain equipment that you can use to manufacture new types of rockets? Hurry up and take a look to see if there's any equipment you need."

"Okay, I'll take a look right away."

Li Muzhi nodded and immediately began to examine the area.

The students followed behind Li Muzhi.

"This is a machine that punches copper sheets into small round pieces."

"This is a machine that presses small copper discs into bullet casings."

"This is the equipment used to make mortar firing pins."

"This is the mold for the melon grenade."

……

Li Muzhi led his students, pointing out the machines to them as if they were his own treasures, and briefly explaining their uses.

As time went on, Li Muzhi's expression grew increasingly surprised and delighted.

There are five bullet production lines, four grenade launcher production lines, three mortar production lines, and seven or eight production lines for melon grenades and other types of artillery shells. It's all very complete.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a large-scale arsenal. With all these machines running at full capacity, the production of our army's light artillery and ammunition will increase significantly.

Of course!
This is just an ideal scenario.

There are three problems to solve.

Firstly, the Japanese are currently conducting a sweep, so these facilities cannot be put into production immediately.

Debugging the machine takes time, and once the machine is deployed, it cannot be moved easily.

If things don't go well for Li Yunlong, and the Japanese sweeps in this direction again, the border region's arsenal will be forced to relocate, making things even more difficult.

The second issue is the raw materials.

Although Liu Weidong brought back a complete set of equipment, the raw materials and supplies were clearly scarce.

It's clear that they were in a rush and couldn't bring back all the raw materials and supplies.

Finally.

With so many new machines and equipment added, the arsenal's power supply is insufficient again, so we have to steal those Japanese locomotives.

If the Japanese sweep is not stopped, we will not be able to seize this locomotive.

Without power, all these machines and equipment will just sit idle.

But there is good news.

With some modifications by Li Muzhi, the equipment here could be considered barely complete for manufacturing 107mm rockets.

Seeing the smile on Li Muzhi's face, Liu Weidong asked with a smile, "Director Li, is the equipment for this new type of rocket projectile already here?"

"Hmm." Li Muzhi nodded and said, "If I modify a few of the machines here, they can be used to manufacture the remaining parts for the new type of rocket."

"That's great, that's really great!" Liu Weidong was overjoyed. "Then you'd better hurry up, your new rockets are indispensable if we want to break the Japanese mopping-up operation."

"Commander Liu, don't worry, I will build the new rockets for you as quickly as possible." Li Muzhi nodded emphatically. With the new rockets developed, the chances of disrupting the Japanese mopping-up operations would be much greater.

Only then will these machines have the opportunity to be deployed and operational.

"Director Li, let's leave these machines here for now. You can send someone to move them when it gets dark. I need to go back and report to my work," Liu Weidong said.

With Yan Kai in Li Yunlong's hands, the Jin-Sui Army will definitely be drawn in.

If they can attack the Japanese army's logistics and supplies, the success rate of this counter-offensive will greatly increase. Liu Weidong needs to hurry up and report it.

"Commander Liu, do you still want to go back and rejoin Li Yunlong and the others?" Li Muzhi asked.

“It’s daytime now, and the Japanese planes are out. I can’t go over there.” Liu Weidong shook his head. “Besides, Li Yunlong and the others are definitely hiding now. If I go to contact them rashly, I might expose them. I’ll stay here and find an opportunity to attack the Japanese army’s logistics transport later.”

"Alright, I'm not going to worry about the war anymore." Li Muzhi nodded. "I'd better hurry up and develop the new rocket."

Li Muzhi asked these questions to find out how confident Li Yunlong and his team were this time.

Those were, after all, sixty or seventy thousand Japanese devils and traitors, not just a pipe of tobacco.

If they are confident, we can still deploy some of these machines; at worst, we can use the backup power of the iron tortoise locomotive.

Forget it.

I'd better start the backup power first.

Let's make as much ammunition as possible.

In case the Japanese army comes again, the troops will have more ammunition, and the pressure will be less.

Of course, if the Japanese army could be repelled, the extra ammunition produced would still be of significance.

After all, an army of 300,000 requires a huge amount of ammunition.

"Director Li, let me put it this way, we are very confident in this sweep, especially with the new rockets you've developed." Liu Weidong saw through Li Muzhi's thoughts and said directly, "Now that we've brought these machines back, just do what you need to do and don't have so many worries."

Hearing Liu Weidong say this, Li Muzhi couldn't help but ask, "Commander Liu, are you really that confident?"

There are sixty or seventy thousand Japanese devils and traitors, and you only have a few regiments.

"Director Li, judging from your tone, do you have some other requests?" Liu Weidong asked suspiciously.

“Commander Liu, I’m not trying to create problems for your combat troops,” Li Muzhi said, no longer hiding his intentions. Pointing to the machinery in front of them, he continued, “Look, your combat troops have brought back so much equipment and machinery. Once it’s up and running, the power requirements will be even greater, so…”

Before Li Muzhi could finish speaking, Liu Weidong understood: "Director Li, what are you saying! The weapons and ammunition production of your arsenal is the foundation of our combat troops. As long as your machines keep running and can continuously produce weapons and ammunition for our combat troops, we will have enough confidence when fighting the Japanese. Since you still need power, wait for my good news. I'll get you some Japanese locomotives later. By the way, how many of these Japanese locomotives do you need?"

"two."

“Okay, no problem, I’ll get you two.” Liu Weidong agreed immediately.

The logistics and supplies for these 60,000 to 70,000 Japanese soldiers and traitors could not be transported by truck alone; they still had to be transported by military trains.

Anyway, I'm going to attack the Japanese military train anyway. When I attack the train, I can bring along the dismantling team from the arsenal and take the locomotives back.

What, you want to ask me what to do when Japanese reinforcements arrive during an attack on a Japanese military train?

Should we even consider this issue?
The Japanese heavy troops will definitely be drawn to Li Yunlong and his men. When the attack on the military train happens, even if the Japanese heavy troops send reinforcements, they won't be able to get there in a short time.

“Alright, Commander Liu, let me know when you need to dismantle the locomotive, and I’ll have the dismantling team from the arsenal go with you.” Li Muzhi nodded.

"Hmm." Liu Weidong nodded and said, "Director Li, you go ahead with your work, I'm going back now."

"Take care, I won't see you off." Li Muzhi nodded, and Liu Weidong led his men away quickly.

"Captain of the Guard, could you please send someone to inform Minister Zhang to come over immediately?" Li Muzhi said, turning to the captain of the guard.

With such a large amount of equipment here, and Liu Weidong's troops having left, the guard captain would definitely have assigned someone to watch over it.

“I’ll go and call him myself,” the guard captain said happily. “Commander Liu has brought back a large arsenal with so many production lines. When Minister Zhang finds out, he’ll be overjoyed, haha.”

The captain of the guard laughed heartily and ran off as fast as he could.

The students crowded around Li Muzhi: "Teacher, what is the new type of rocket you were talking about with Commander Liu? Don't we already have shoulder-mounted rocket launchers? Could this new rocket be an improved version of the rocket launcher?"

Commander Liu said that with the new type of rocket, the chances of breaking the Japanese counter-offensive were much greater.

The students were naturally very curious. This new type of rocket could affect the success rate of counter-sweeping operations. What kind of weapon was it? Would it be more powerful than the Hell Cannon?

“This new type of rocket is not an improved version of the rocket launcher,” Li Muzhi explained patiently. “Rocket launchers are light tactical artillery. The equipment that has been brought back is mainly used to manufacture light tactical artillery. The Hell Cannon is a heavy artillery, and our army is still lacking medium artillery. This new type of rocket is used to fill the gap in medium artillery.”

"Teacher, what is the working principle of this new type of rocket, and how powerful is it?"

"The principle of the new type of rocket is the same as that of the rockets launched by the rocket launcher. Both of them use the ammunition they carry to provide the propulsion for flight..." Li Muzhi taught him everything he knew.

(End of this chapter)