Blood-Red Front

Lin Zhiyuan arrived at the seamless steel pipe factory by car as quickly as possible.

As soon as Lin Zhiyuan entered the factory, he saw a large number of workers cleaning the factory, looking like they were taking out all the valuables before moving.

Without disturbing the workers who were at work, the driver took Lin Zhiyuan straight to the factory manager's office.

Director Ma of the seamless steel pipe factory was an elder of the Lin family. Upon seeing Lin Zhiyuan, he immediately stood up to greet him.

"Young Master, you're back?"

"This is Director Ma," the driver introduced.

Lin Zhiyuan didn't waste any words and went straight to the point, "Director Ma, I'm here at the factory because it's important."

"What is it? I'll do as you say," Factory Manager Ma said, patting his chest.

What diameters of seamless steel pipes does the factory produce? Can you produce 60mm, 82mm, and 100mm pipes?

Upon hearing the caliber, Director Ma immediately realized that both 60mm and 82mm were mortar calibers.

"I can't guarantee that; only a technician can answer that," said Factory Manager Ma.

He was just a manager; the actual production in the factory was handled by professionals.

"Quickly, find them all, get everyone in production here," Lin Zhiyuan urged.

"Young master, please have a seat. I'll go and fetch him right away."

Factory Director Ma immediately went out to find people, and technicians and equipment engineers quickly came to find him.

On the way, Factory Director Ma had already informed everyone of the situation, so when Lin Zhiyuan raised the question again, Technician Tian Youfu explained:

"The diameter of seamless steel pipes is easy to determine. There was a plan when the production line was introduced. We only need to change the mold to produce seamless steel pipes of the corresponding diameter. When manufacturing mortars, we can perform precision machining."

"But the key issue now is that our materials don't meet the standards."

"The open-hearth furnaces and electric furnaces of the Jiangnan Arsenal have been dismantled and transported away. It will probably take more than six months to resume production. At present, only the Hanyang Arsenal can produce qualified gun steel."

"All of this gun steel has been used to produce replicas of Krakhotsk mountain guns and mortars, leaving no extra material for us to produce seamless steel pipes."

"I know, what I mean is, can we use ordinary carbon steel?" Lin Zhiyuan asked.

Historically, the New Fourth Army smuggled a lot of seamless steel pipes to produce mortars, which shows that ordinary seamless steel pipes should have been sufficient.

Tian Youfu shook his head. "The performance will be greatly reduced, and it will be completely unusable."

"If normal gun steel can fire 1 shells, seamless steel pipes made of carbon steel can only fire 300-800 shells. Even seamless steel pipes made of manganese steel can only fire about 2000 shells at most."

"However, only manganese steel can be used for this 100mm caliber, as carbon steel cannot withstand the chamber pressure."

The chamber pressure of a mortar is much lower than that of a cannon, but 82 mm is the limit.

Although Xia Guo does not currently have 100mm caliber mortars, Tian Youfu knows without a doubt that carbon steel pipes cannot withstand the load.

"Don't even mention 800 shots, 300 shots would be enough!" Lin Zhiyuan affirmed.

"In the Binxi battlefield, the fighting was extremely fierce. A 60mm mortar that could fire 150 rounds was considered elite, and the mortar crew would usually be destroyed by the enemy within 60 rounds."

"Not a single mortar in the entire Binxi battlefield had its barrel damaged."

Modern warfare is all about firepower. The total casualties on both sides in the Binxi battlefield exceeded 30, of which more than 70% were caused by artillery fire and bombing.

Moreover, this is because the Xia army generally lacks artillery. If the number of artillery pieces were increased, this number would increase to 80%, and the casualties of the newly promoted army would definitely increase significantly.

Given the powerful effect of artillery, it naturally became the first target of countermeasures for both sides.

In other words, Lin Zhiyuan has a cheat code that allows him to strike first before the frontline firepower of the newly promoted army can react. In the case of any other normal troops, the newly promoted army would have the advantage.

Lin Zhiyuan's words surprised everyone. They had only considered the mechanical lifespan of the mortar before, and had never thought about its lifespan on the battlefield.

Engineer Liu Ke, who was standing nearby, said, "If we don't care about the lifespan, the factory can indeed produce it. We can make up for the quality with quantity first, and then replace it later."

"That's what I mean." Lin Zhiyuan nodded.

"Should we produce 120mm and 150mm mortars?" Liu Ke asked. "The factory has molds for the relevant calibers. Using manganese steel, we should be able to fire more than 800 rounds."

"No, not 120 millimeters, it's too heavy." Lin Zhiyuan waved his hands repeatedly, "The maximum should be 100 millimeters."

Currently, the main countries equipped with 120mm mortars internationally are the Bonaparte Empire and the Rossian Empire, but the 120mm mortars of both countries weigh more than 280 kilograms, making them extremely difficult to transport by manpower alone.

而100毫米迫击炮哪怕因为材料性能的原因，可能比不上后世的71式100毫米迫击炮的77公斤，但林致远预计重量也不会超过100公斤。

This is the most suitable choice for the current regimental-level units and even some division-level units of the Xia Army that are purely manpower-based. It is not too late to switch to 120mm when mechanization is truly achieved.

"If we want to produce 100mm mortars, then the Ordnance Bureau will need to redesign them," said Factory Director Ma.

"Furthermore, we also need to obtain the blueprints for the 60mm and 82mm mortars from the Ordnance Bureau."

A mortar is indeed very simple, consisting of a barrel, a support, and a base plate. However, the length of the barrel, the weight of the shell, the amount of propellant, and how to make the base plate as light as possible all require calculation and experimentation, and cannot be decided on a whim.

"Then let's switch to producing 60mm and 82mm seamless steel pipes first. I'll figure out the blueprints."

"But we must be fast. It would be best to produce a batch before the factory is relocated."

Tomorrow, Lin Zhiyuan will take over as commander of the 404th Division, and he is very concerned about the equipment of the troops.

The 404th Division will likely participate in the Battle of Kyoto next. Before that, the 404th Division must be equipped with a large number of mortars, even if the quality of these mortars is not very good.

"I will adjust the plan and allocate workers to prepare. Production is expected to begin in half a day."

"By the time the blueprints arrive, the seamless steel pipes should already be in production."

"As for mortar shells, the Lin family's steel mill produces them. As long as the master intervenes, they can definitely be allocated to the young master first."

Mortar shells are made of cast iron, making them much simpler to produce than shells for artillery.

"Okay, that's settled then. You all start preparing immediately. I'll head back right away."

Lin Zhiyuan hurriedly took a car back home.

At this point, he was only a junior colonel, so Lin Xing had to step in to handle this matter.

Lin Xing did not refuse Lin Zhiyuan's request.

Firstly, it was indeed a small matter, and secondly, he wanted to see if mortars made from civilian seamless steel pipes could be used.

If it can be used on the battlefield, even if the effect is not very good, it would be a great thing for the Xia army.

The production volume of ordinary carbon steel and manganese steel is hundreds of times that of gun steel, while the production volume of cast iron for mortar shells is dozens of times that of ordinary steel.

Most importantly, the raw materials for producing carbon steel and manganese steel are available domestically, so there is no need to import them and there is no fear of blockade.

Chromium and nickel, essential for the production of gun steel, are the metals that Xia Kingdom lacks most and must import.

……