Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

(Thanks to Shi Junlong for the reward and update)

These two shots were like pressing the pause button on the battlefield, silencing all the artillery fire from the Japanese warships.

The Japanese marines looked at the smoking Izumo in disbelief. This place must be 12 kilometers away from the shore, right? Does the Wusong Fort still have artillery that can reach this position? Can it hit the ship with one shot?

All the Japanese warships were frightened and began to retreat, rushing to 30 nautical miles away.

The Japanese warships actually didn't need to run so quickly, because after a round of salvos from the cannons in the island space, the automatic loaders were disabled.

No matter how Li Zhi and Li Hui fiddled with it, the turret just wouldn't turn.

They checked carefully and found that the turret support ring was cracked by the recoil of the gun and the battery pack was burned because the output power of the drive motor group was too high.

After all, this was the first time that Li Zhi and Li Hui designed large equipment, and it was something as complicated as an automatic loader and a rotating turret. In the absence of any reference, the two of them were able to make such a thing just by groping, and they even successfully fired a shot, which was already very impressive.

Now the two of them were lying beside the turret, muttering and summarizing the reasons for the failure.

"The steel wheels on the gun mount we made were of poor quality, and the ball bearings were also of poor quality. When the gun was fired, the recoil was so great that it all shattered.

If we can't improve the quality of steel, we can thicken the steel wheels of the gun mount and enlarge the ball bearings to increase strength. After all, it's just a fixed turret, so there's no requirement for flexibility. Just make it as thick as possible!"

Li Zhi said.

"Our battery pack was pieced together from various sources, and the motor was removed with a large forklift. The output power and reliability were too poor to drive such a large device.

After that, we must open our own battery and motor factories to produce larger and more reliable battery packs. We will build our own tanks in the future, and these things are indispensable!"

Li Hui added.

As the two discussed, they took out their notebooks and started writing and drawing. Finally, they wrote out a five-year development plan and slapped it in front of Li Qinwu, asking him to implement it as soon as possible.

They promised Li Qinwu that if they could follow this five-year plan, then before the Sino-Japanese war, the Punitive Army would be able to manufacture tanks on its own and improve its chemical industry level. From then on, it would not be a dream to produce 5000 million ammunition per year!

But this is a matter for the future, so we won’t discuss it now.

Li Qinwu stood under the huge turret and looked at the big guy with some regret. It ended the Japanese attack at sea with one display of power, but it was a pity that it was broken. If it could fire a few more shots, it might have ended the battle directly.

Although the Japanese navy was driven away, the Japanese on land are still attacking fiercely. It is a pity that such a ferocious cannon cannot participate in the battle.

Li Qinwu was unwilling to give up, and asked Li Zhi and Li Hui who were tinkering at the turret: "Is there no way to fire another shot?"

Li Zhi and Li Hui stopped the discussion, hesitated for a moment and said: "If we load the shells manually, we can still fire a shot, but the battery pack and the engine are burned out, the turret can't turn, and we can't aim. Now it can only fire at the position we aimed at before."

Li Qinwu's eyes lit up, and he had an idea. Although the turret couldn't rotate, he had a portal! If he opened the portal to the right position, he could hit whatever he wanted!

Li Qinwu immediately looked for a target worthy of shelling. Then he thought that there seemed to be a Japanese headquarters on Sichuan Road, so he blew it up with one shot!

He immediately ordered one of his clones to run in the opposite direction of the Japanese headquarters. He had to run in the opposite direction because the twin-mounted artillery was mounted on a turret as high as a three-story building, with the barrel raised high. He had to retreat far enough before firing so that the shells would draw an arc and fall into the Japanese headquarters.

One of the clones drove backwards, and Li Qinwu kept opening the portal to see if the shooting angle could hit the Japanese headquarters. As a result, they retreated more than 20 kilometers and directly retreated to the suburbs of Shanghai.

Li Qinwu opened and closed the door repeatedly, searching for the position more than 20 times. He exhausted all his mental energy and had a headache. Finally, he found a position where the shell could fall into the Japanese headquarters.

Li Zhi and Li Hui marked the location of the Japanese headquarters on the map, and drew the location where they would open the portal. After a series of incomprehensible artillery formula calculations, they asked Li Qinwu to fine-tune the location of the portal several times, and then the two nodded to Li Qinwu.

Li Qinwu, who was feeling dizzy, immediately asked the crane to lift two shells. With the cooperation of the heavy equipment soldiers, he loaded ammunition into the half-paralyzed twin-mounted 240mm gun. He was busy for more than 10 minutes. After the loading work was completed, everyone quickly retreated to a safe place.

Li Zhi and Li Hui climbed into the underground control room, and this time they used a mechanical structure to trigger the artillery.

There were two earth-shattering explosions and amidst the smoke and dust, two shells were fired from the deep mountains and forests 20km outside of Shanghai city, flew towards the sky and disappeared into the boundless sky.

The people who were evacuating Shanghai on the surrounding roads were shocked and looked towards the direction of the cannon with horror. However, Li Qinwu immediately closed the portal after the shell was fired. The people saw nothing and thought that the army had hidden cannons in the mountains. They felt that this was a dangerous place and quickened their pace to evacuate Shanghai.

The two shells flew in the air for more than 30 seconds. At the beginning, they flew very fast, but their speed slowly decreased after being blocked by the air. However, even though their speed decreased, the sound of them passing through the sky was still quite terrifying.

After the Battle of Shanghai, a reporter interviewed the 19th Route Army and asked how the Japanese headquarters on Sichuan Road was destroyed?

An officer of the 19th Route Army stated that he heard a rumbling sound in the sky, which sounded like a train entering a tunnel. Then two explosions were heard at the location of the Japanese headquarters. Then the Japanese attack stopped and no attacks were launched for several days.

There were rumors among the people that the Punishment Army somehow transported two super-heavy artillery pieces to the suburbs of Shanghai. The heavy artillery fired two shots. One shot hit the Guiyun, which was very powerful and destroyed the Japanese sea offensive. The other shot hit the Japanese headquarters, which also destroyed the Japanese land offensive.

As soon as the newspaper was published, some people began to pay attention to the Punitive Army. They dug up that the Punitive Army was very good at using artillery when it was fighting the Kwantung Army in the north. They once set up artillery to prevent the Kwantung Army's Second Division from making any progress. They also used artillery to block bridges, conduct night attacks, and advance and fire artillery. It was so powerful.

From then on, the Punishment Army became famous for its expertise in the use of artillery.