My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Jiang Li didn't say much when he saw this and acquiesced to his behavior. Upon receiving the signal, Ah San pulled the bolt and loaded the gun, aiming at a bird on a branch in the distance and shooting.

There was a loud bang of a gunshot, and the bird fell to the ground, scaring away many birds that were resting on other branches, but no one went to pick them up.

Because Asan's experiment was still going on, after testing a total of 100 rounds fired, the dud rate reached 26%. Many of the successful firing sounds were also different, obviously due to differences in the amount of gunpowder.

Jiang Li was quite shocked when he saw this situation. After all, it was impossible to equip it directly with such a high probability, otherwise he would suffer a great loss if a fight really broke out.

After putting away the gun, Jiang Li led his men back to the workshop. Looking at the people waiting for the experimental results, Jiang Li shook his head and said lovingly that this batch of bullets was unqualified.

The workers all seemed a little nervous. After all, these things were not cheap, and wasting them like this would be a big deal. If Jiang Li was really unhappy, they would have to bear it no matter how he punished them.

But Jiang Li did not pursue these issues. Instead, he studied the reasons for the failure with them and reflected on everything from materials to craftsmanship.

Finally, the problem was found: the workers were not skilled enough, the shell casings and bullets were polished to different degrees, and there were no sufficiently accurate weighing tools.

After finding the problem, Jiang Li solved it in a targeted manner. The only way to improve proficiency was to practice more. He also assigned a group of people to be responsible for polishing it, hoping that they would become proficient with practice. He also produced a batch of precision measuring equipment.

Finally, another inspection step was added to screen out unqualified cartridge cases, bullets and gunpowder as much as possible before entering assembly.

This change lasted for three days, and when Asan started experimenting with this batch of bullets again, his worries were still there.

But with the end of the experiment, he put his mind at ease. In this experiment, only 6% of the bullets misfired, and there was basically no situation where the sound and power of the bullets were different due to different amounts of gunpowder.

Jiang Li picked up the bullets and observed them, and found that most of them had obvious marks on them. Most of them were duds caused by the workers' unskilled operation and mistakes that resulted in poor sealing.

He felt relieved when he saw this. In this way, as long as the workers became skilled, the failure rate would be further reduced. By then, he would be able to be completely self-sufficient in terms of rifle bullets.

As for the rest, we are still trying to find a way. I heard from the purchasing staff that the stamping and casting equipment for pistol bullets has been purchased, and we can start work as long as it is shipped back.

When he went back and told the workers the news of the successful experiment, they immediately danced with joy.

As to why they were so happy, it turned out that Jiang Li had promised that if they could produce qualified bullets, the arsenal could officially start operations, and everyone's wages would be more than twice that of other factories.

The key point is that they had already inquired about it a long time ago. The wages in the factory opened by Jiang Li were 30% higher than those elsewhere, and now their wages were more than doubled.

This job would be incredible. There are warlords everywhere these days. As long as they can produce qualified bullets, no matter who owns the arsenal in the future, they will not be fired. This is a stable job!

After the production officially started, Jiang Li roughly calculated the production speed, "Today, a total of 1,263 bullets were produced."

"If our proficiency improves and the supply of raw materials is sufficient, we should be able to produce 1,500 to 2,000 rounds of ammunition every day."

"So, these bullets are not enough for daily training. It seems that we need to increase manpower and get a few more smelting furnaces and molds."

After having an idea of ​​the situation in his mind, he led his men away from here and went to Youlin Town. When the mayor saw Jiang Li coming, he ran over to greet him.

Jiang Li didn't say anything when he saw this, but instead started talking to him about the local output. He knew that Youlin Town was backed by mountains and had extremely rich forest resources, and there were also a wide variety of medicinal herbs in the mountains.

"My Lord, the County Governor is so honored to be here. I am so sorry for not coming out to greet you. I hope you will forgive me."

Jiang Li looked at this old man in his forties, who was flattering him with a fawning face. He felt very uncomfortable, but he did not show it on his face.

Instead, he said a few polite words to him, and then got to the point, "Mayor, you also know that there is not much land in Youlin Town and the people live very poorly."

"So I plan to make full use of these mountains to allow the people of this town to live a prosperous life. Do you think this is feasible?"

The mayor's face was full of flattery when he heard this. "What the county magistrate said is true. The people in our town are indeed suffering a lot. It is really a blessing for the people that you can think about them."

"But you also know that there are few people in this town. It may be difficult to develop these mountains. Whether it is collecting herbs, hunting or logging, it will require a lot of manpower."

Jiang Li nodded. "That's true, but don't worry. I will make an investment here to form several professional herb-collecting and hunting teams, and mobilize a group of livestock to transport timber."

"As for manpower, I can also release a message and use high wages to attract villagers from the surrounding areas. Then, we won't have to worry about a lack of manpower."

The mayor naturally exclaimed that he was wise when he heard this, but then he said, "But you don't know, my Lord County Mayor, there is still a group of bandits entrenched in this mountain, who often rob the surrounding people and people who come into the mountain. This is why our town has no mountain products to sell even though it is backed by the mountain."

Jiang Li frowned upon hearing this and thought to himself, "I was wondering why I seemed to have forgotten something. It turns out that there was no bandit suppression. Fortunately, there has been no activity from bandits in the surrounding areas during this period of time, otherwise this would have directly affected my reputation."

He nodded to the mayor and asked him to organize people to form a team to collect herbs and hunt. After a few days, when he had cleared out the bandits around, they could go into the mountains.

Then he asked the company commander stationed here, "There are bandits here, why didn't you report it?"

"Report to the county magistrate, I didn't know there were bandits here. We usually train in the military camp. We seldom come into contact with the townspeople for fear of causing conflicts!"

"Didn't the mayor tell you about this?" Jiang Li frowned.

"Report to the county magistrate, no!"

Jiang Li had a guess in his mind when he heard this. Most likely, the mayor was not familiar with these soldiers and was afraid that they would be like other warlords who would collect various taxes repeatedly to suppress bandits, so he did not mention this matter.

Thinking of this, he did not ask any more questions about this matter, but instead asked, "How many people are there in your company now? Are your weapons and equipment complete?"

"Reporting to the county governor, you left me sixty people last time, and I recruited another fifty. Now, including me, there are a total of 111 people."

"As for weapons, the county sent us 20 rifles after our last application. We now have two Czech light machine guns, 70 rifles, five pistols, and 80 grenades."

"The second batch has just been applied for, and I think it will be delivered in a while."