Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

Shotguns, as firearms, have a long history.

The fire lance invented in China can be traced back to the Song Dynasty in 1259. It is a bamboo smoothbore gun and also the earliest shotgun in the world.

It was not until 1690 that the West invented the muzzle-loading flintlock rifle, which was the earliest shotgun in the West.

As time came to the early 1880s, the American Winchester Company began to design and manufacture 12-caliber repeating shotguns.

A lever-action shotgun was introduced, and the shotgun began to improve.

At the same time, as a firearm, compared to other weapons, the manufacturing requirements of a shotgun can be said to be that only hands are required.

In his previous life, some big guys could even make their own way on their own, so Zhao Tianyang didn't understand why Chang San (promoted to the director of the arsenal) asked him to come to the arsenal.

"What's wrong? I remember the requirements for making a shotgun. It should be simple, right?"

Facing Chang San who was a little embarrassed, Zhao Tianyang asked straight to the point.

"It's quite simple, but we are missing something now!"

Chang San scratched his head. The mechanical structure of the shotgun was clear at a glance, but even a good cook cannot cook without the right ingredients!

"what?"

"spring!"

Chang San said helplessly: "Compared to firing bullets from a rifle, it can be done with a mechanical structure, but the shotgun you designed must have a spring to participate in the reloading."

"Unless the structure is changed so that the shotgun can be loaded with a bullet after firing a round, then there will be no need for a spring."

"It's okay. We can already make qualified springs. I'll go find Li Tie later and ask him to make some small springs specifically for shotguns."

Zhao Tianyang was full of confidence. It didn't make sense that he had already developed the springs for cannons, but couldn't do anything with the springs for shotguns, right?

"This is easy. Director, don't mention that we have special spring steel now. Even when we didn't have it before, if you didn't require high performance, I could have hammered it out with thin iron sheets."

Facts proved that what Zhao Tianyang thought was right. When he saw Li Tie patting his chest and making the promise, he knew that the Eighth Route Army would also have its own trench broom.

"Then leave it to you."

"Just wait and see."

After talking with Li Tie, Zhao Tianyang left the arsenal and prepared to go to the paper mill.

Chang San's incident reminded him that in order to make a usable shotgun, there were still many problems to be solved, including the problem of bullets.

There are two kinds of bullets for shotguns, single-barreled bullets and shotgun shells. He didn't consider single-barreled bullets as he was not going to hunt large wild animals.

So now we have to consider shotgun shells. The Americans are rich and use brass for the bullet shell and base (it is also possible to use iron for the base).

Zhao Tianyang was poor and could only use iron-bottomed paper shells. He first went to the paper mill, gave them a drawing, and asked them to make hundreds of 20-gauge shotgun paper shells.

[No. 8, No. 10, No. 16, No. 20 shotgun shells. The larger the number, the lighter the shotgun shell and the smaller the caliber.]

Then he went on without stopping and came to Li Mutou and others who were making smokeless propellant.

"How is it? How much propellant do we have now?"

"Yes, Director. We have been making it since you left! It has grown to 50 kilograms now."

Li Mutou wiped the sweat from his head and answered.

"Very good. Put all the gunpowder in clay pots and keep them away from moisture. You will need them in a few days."

Since there was no problem with the propellant, Zhao Tianyang prepared to leave.

Before leaving, he told them to work hard and that a smokeless propellant factory would be built in two days, and the director and deputy director would be selected from among them.

This made Li Mutou and his colleagues very excited. Even the ordinary employees were happy. Although the hope of running for factory director was slim, what if?

Even if they are not elected, they can be regarded as veterans of the smokeless propellant factory, and their welfare benefits will continue to increase!

While Li Mutou and others were daydreaming, Zhao Tianyang had already returned to the arsenal.

He gave the shotgun primer and primer anvil data he had just designed to Chang San and asked him to knock some out of iron sheet.

"Okay, now everything is ready, all we have to do is wait."

Looking at the busy arsenal, Zhao Tianyang muttered to himself.

..............

At the same time, somewhere in Taihang Mountains, inside the Eighth Route Army’s base.

"Oh, Lao Zhang, you are such a dishonest person!"

Li Yunlong sat carelessly on a stone pier, drank a sip of tea, and began to accuse Zhang Wanhe.

"I'm telling you, kid, you quietly took the arsenal that I worked so hard to build and put it under the control of the logistics department."

Hearing this, Zhang Wanhe knew he was in the wrong, but he still spoke firmly.

"Li Yunlong, you really don't know right from wrong. Tell me yourself, have I taken care of the Arsenal's affairs so far?"

"That's not true."

Li Yunlong scratched his head, feeling something was wrong.

"Oh~ That's right!"

Zhang Wanhe smiled and said, "Look, I'm not in charge of the arsenal, so the arsenal still belongs to your New 1st Regiment, right?"

“Ah… is that so?”

Li Yunlong hesitated for a moment, but when he saw the smile on Zhang Wanhe's face, he immediately reacted.

"I don't care. Anyway, the higher-ups have given the order. You robbed my arsenal, so you have to compensate me, or I won't leave today!"

"You, you...are really a bandit."

Zhang Wanhe pointed at Li Yunlong and said helplessly: "Forget it. Don't say anything like the arsenal is yours or mine anymore. The arsenal belongs to the organization, not to individuals!"

Li Yunlong rolled his eyes and said nothing. He didn't care about all that. He had worked hard to build the arsenal, and no one else could help.

Zhang Wanhe smiled bitterly. He felt that Li Yunlong's character would cause trouble sooner or later. "Tell me, how do you want me to compensate you?"

"hey-hey."

Seeing that Zhang Wanhe had compromised, Li Yunlong held up five fingers in a servile manner: "My request is not high. Just give me 500 skilled craftsmen."

"What!"

Zhang Wanhe was so angry that he stood up from the stone pier: "Go, go, go... Go back to where you came from."

"Hey, hey... Old Zhang, why are you still so angry? How about a hundred?"

Li Yunlong held Zhang Wanhe's clothes and refused to let go: "I know you are in charge of logistics. You know how many craftsmen there are in the Eighth Route Army."

Then he held up another finger and said, "I don't want more, how about just a hundred people?"

Looking at the shameless Li Yunlong, Zhang Wanhe knew that he had to bleed today.

"Okay, a hundred people is a hundred people, but let me be frank, these people are borrowed from me, and I have to pay them back in the future."

"Yes, yes, definitely."

Li Yunlong agreed casually. As long as the people came to the territory of his new regiment, it would be just a matter of his word whether to return them or not.

"Okay, then you go back first. I'll have them go directly to the New 1st Regiment to look for you in three days."

"Okay, then I'll leave first."

Li Yunlong left happily.

Fortunately, he didn't look back, otherwise he would have found that Zhang Wanhe, who seemed to have suffered a loss just now, had already started humming a song and was leisurely going to assign craftsmen to him.