Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

"One, two, three, let go... pull it up... one, two, three, let go..."

In the open space outside the blast furnace area, an iron block weighing five or six hundred kilograms was hung on a wooden tripod.

The three workers on the side listened to Zhao Tianyang's instructions, constantly pulling up the iron blocks and then quickly putting them down.

"Director, why don't you ask Director Shen to make a wire drawing machine? It will take forever to knock with iron blocks!"

Li Yuncai suggested, looking at the olive-shaped steel column stuck in the barrel.

"That's nice to say."

Zhao Tianyang said unhappily: "The purpose of our manufacturing this flat-fire cannon is to enable all the arsenals below to manufacture it with simple equipment."

"Wire drawing machine, we can make it, can they also make it?"

"That's right!"

Li Yuncai scratched his head in embarrassment. After working under Zhao Tianyang for so long, he almost forgot that the conditions in other arsenals were not as good as theirs.

At this time, Zhao Tianyang asked: "Where is the shell I asked you to make?"

"At this."

Li Yuncai took out a somewhat strange shell from a wooden box beside him.

"According to what you said, the warhead of the shell is made of cast iron, and the propellant is made of paper-wrapped gunpowder."

"Ah, very good."

Zhao Tianyang took the shell, looked at it, and felt there was no problem, so he put it aside and continued to direct the workers to smash the rifling.

As we all know, the process of launching a cannonball is to load a cannonball into the barrel.

Then close the breech valve, pull the rope, the firing pin ignites the primer, the propellant is ignited, pressure is generated, and the warhead is fired.

Finally, open the breech valve and after the shell falls out, you can reload it.

Zhao Tianyang considered that it might be difficult for the arsenal below to obtain enough brass to make artillery shells.

So he simply changed to paper shells, wrapped the propellant with paper, and fired cast iron warheads, which would drop costs sharply.

It will also be much simpler to manufacture.

Three days later, in a specially prepared experimental site in Huangya Cave.

Zhao Tianyang brought Li Yuncai and others and brought the newly made 36mm caliber flat-fire cannon here.

"Load the shells!"

Zhao Tianyang ordered.

"Yes."

Li Yuncai agreed, took out a shell from the wooden box next to him, and opened the breech valve.

He first stuffed the cast iron projectile head into the barrel, then put the paper-wrapped propellant in, and finally closed the breech valve.

"Ready, please give instructions."

After completing these tasks, Li Yun saluted Zhao Tianyang with a serious face.

"fire!"

Zhao Tianyang said simply.

A worker who had been prepared for this immediately pulled the trigger upon hearing the order.

In an instant, there was a loud "bang" and a cannonball flew out from the muzzle and hit the specially built earth wall not far away.

"boom……"

There was another loud noise, and the earth wall, which was originally more than two meters thick, was blown away by half and became shaky.

"Oh my god, it looks quite powerful!"

"Nonsense, it's a 36mm shell after all, and it contains a pound of TNT explosives!"

Seeing the powerful artillery, everyone present began to discuss it happily.

Li Yuncai even patted the gun mount made of poplar wood and excitedly spoke to Zhao Tianyang.

"Section Chief, this little cannon is too powerful!"

"The structure is simple, the cost is low, and the whole thing weighs only over 300 kilograms."

"One person can pull it at a critical moment. The most important thing is that the manufacturing time is short. Five or six people can make one in a week."

Zhao Tianyang knocked on the barrel with a small hammer, listened to the sound, and after feeling no change, he gave instructions to Li Yuncai.

"Don't be too happy too soon. Test the range again. If the distance is too close, it will be useless."

"Hey, good!"

Li Yuncai agreed and immediately got busy with his work with great interest.

He felt that even if this small cannon was at a close range, it could still shoot farther than their Dinglong grenade launcher.

Facts have proved that what Li Yuncai thought was correct. After several rounds of testing, this small flat-fire cannon can fire at a maximum distance of one thousand meters, and its effective range is 600 meters.

"Chief, does this mean that this is a success?"

Li Yuncai looked at Zhao Tianyang expectantly and asked.

"more or less!"

Zhao Tianyang stroked his chin and thought for a while: "Let's try other calibers after we go back. I always feel that this thing still has potential to be explored."

"Okay, let's go back and give it a try!"

Li Yuncai led his men, pulled up the flat-firing cannon and walked down the mountain. He was already a little impatient.

After returning, Zhao Tianyang used rail steel and gray cast iron to make several flat-fire gun barrels with calibers of 38mm, 40mm, 45mm, 48mm and 50mm respectively.

Finally, after testing, it was found that the flat-fire cannon forged by heating rail steel had better performance.

With the same amount of explosives, a flat-fire cannon made of rail steel can often shoot one or two hundred meters farther than a flat-fire cannon cast from gray cast iron.

Of course, this flat-fire cannon made of steel is not without its shortcomings.

For example, a small cannon can only be fired one hundred to two hundred times at most. If it is fired more than two hundred times, there will be a risk of explosion.

The caliber of the artillery can only be maintained below 45 mm. If it exceeds 45 mm, the barrel will explode even if it is fired once, let alone a hundred times.

If Zhao Tianyang had not chosen to make the pull cord very long in every test, he might have died when testing the 45mm caliber flat-fire cannon.

..........

"Chief, everything has been packed."

Blast furnace area.

Li Yuncai directed the workers to put the small cannons and rifle grenades manufactured in the past two weeks into the 20-horsepower tractor, and then came to Zhao Tianyang to report.

"Ah."

Zhao Tianyang nodded, climbed onto the driver's seat of the tractor, and said to Li Yuncai: "Take good care of the house, I'll be back soon!"

"Don't worry, Chief, you don't know me yet!"

Li Yuncai patted his chest and made the promise.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Tianyang pulled the steam valve and started the tractor towards Dongyadi Town.

Unlike the last time when the deputy director of the Political Department didn't want to see Zhao Tianyang, this time after receiving the news, the deputy director of the Political Department came to the outside of the town early to greet Zhao Tianyang.

"You've worked hard all the way. Take a rest and leave the rest to me!"

The deputy director of the Political Department pulled Zhao Tianyang off the tractor and climbed up himself.

"Commander, can you drive a tractor?"

Zhao Tianyang asked curiously.

"What words!"

The deputy director of the political department said sternly, "Let me tell you, let alone a tractor, I can even drive a tank once or twice!"

"awesome!"

What can Zhao Tianyang do? He can only give a thumbs up and praise him.

Soon, Zhao Tianyang was taken to a remote place outside the town on a tractor driven by the deputy director of the political department.

"This place is quite remote, so it won't affect others when we test the guns!"

"Is it just the two of us?"

Zhao Tianyang glanced around and found that there was no one else except some soldiers who had arrived early and were on guard.

Logically speaking, for such a major event as the test of the flat-fire cannon, all those leaders should come to watch the fun.

"Why, having me by your side isn't enough!"

The deputy director of the Political Department joked.

"Hey, that's enough!"

Zhao Tianyang smiled and said, "Since the leaders are not here, let's get started right away! After the test, I have to go back and make a light machine gun!"

"Row."

The deputy director of the political department nodded and ordered the soldiers to take out all the artillery on the tractor.

"I made a total of six flat-firing cannons, each with a caliber of 6 mm. They can fire at a distance of up to 36 meters, and the effective firing range is 600 meters."

"38mm caliber, can fire at a maximum distance of meters, effective range is meters."

"40mm caliber, can fire at a maximum distance of meters, effective range is meters."

"45mm caliber, can fire at a maximum distance of meters, effective range is meters."

“The materials used are grey iron and rail steel.”

Zhao Tianyang pointed to the six cannons neatly placed on the ground and introduced them.

After saying that, he took out the manufacturing methods and process specifications of these artillery pieces from his arms and handed them to the deputy director of the political department.

"Great! Well done."

The deputy director of the Political Department smiled and said, "This thing came just in time. You have done a great service!"

"It's not bad!"

Zhao Tianyang was a little embarrassed: "Actually, these small cannons also have shortcomings, that is, they generally cannot be fired more than 200 times, and it is easy to explode after that!"

"It's okay. Two hundred times is enough for us to fight for a long time."

The deputy director of the political department waved his hand nonchalantly: "The most important thing is that these small cannons are very cheap and easy to manufacture."

Zhao Tianyang then added: "There is another problem, that is, the shells of these small cannons will not be too powerful."

"Even for the largest caliber cannon, the shell can only hold a little over 4 kilograms of TNT explosives."

"Okay."

The deputy director of the Political Department showed no dissatisfaction: "Four kilograms of explosives are more than enough to blow down some simple bunkers."

"And this thing can also be used to attack Japanese tanks. I think that's pretty good."

"really?"

Zhao Tianyang was delighted: "Well, since the task is completed, when will the worker be sent to me?"

"finished?"

The deputy director of the Political Department looked at Zhao Tianyang in confusion: "Where's the rifle grenade? I haven't even seen this thing yet."

“That thing was so simple, I just made one!”

Zhao Tianyang returned to the tractor, took out a black rifle grenade from an inconspicuous wooden box, and handed it to the deputy director of the political department.

"Gray iron or white iron is fine. It can launch small grenades or hand grenades. The shooting distance is one hundred to two hundred meters!"

Then he took out a blueprint from his pocket: "This is the design drawing and process specification."

"Row."

When the deputy director of the political department saw that everything was in hand, he waved his hand.

"You can go back to your light machine gun. Leave the weapon here for now. I'll test it myself later."

"If it's okay, I'll send the person over to you in two days."

"Okay, I'll go first then."

Zhao Tianyang nodded and agreed.