Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

After exiting the island space, Li Qinwu came to the flamethrower submachine gun workshop of the Xiaoyi Arsenal. The workshop operated very quickly. Almost as soon as the machines were in place, the workers started production within two days of becoming familiar with them.

The main reason for the fast speed is that the flamethrower submachine gun is easy to produce, and there are also two senior technicians in charge.

One was an old fireman who came to help, and the other was a senior technician who followed the workers south. This senior technician was called Zhou Guoqing, and everyone called him Lao Zhou. He was a man of few words. In Li Qinwu's impression, Lao Zhou always stood silently in the crowd, neither happy nor sad, and did not say a word.

When he was at the Fengtian Arsenal, Lao Huotou helped Li Qinwu manage the flamethrower submachine gun workshop. Now that he has come to the Xiaoyi Arsenal, he is also providing technical guidance.

He first taught Lao Zhou all the production details, and Lao Zhou then taught other intermediate technicians. The intermediate technicians supervised each production line, and on the first day, 1 flamethrower submachine guns were manufactured.

These 10 flamethrower submachine guns were taken to the shooting range by Factory Director Huang and military representatives for testing. When Li Qinwu arrived at the workshop, he was stopped by Factory Director Huang's men and asked to go to the shooting range.

At this time, there was a burst of gunfire in the shooting range. Several veterans of the machine gun company were holding flamethrower submachine guns and aiming their fire at targets in the distance. Military representatives and a series of leaders including Factory Director Huang were watching on the side.

When Director Huang saw Li Qinwu coming, he pulled him to the military officer representative to introduce him.

"Captain Li Xiaoshan, this is Director Li. He was the one who developed and designed the flamethrower submachine gun!"

Several officers looked at him in unison. Li Qinwu glanced at the officers' ranks. All of them were school officers, and the highest-ranking one was colonel, who should be the regimental commander Li Xiaoshan.

Captain Li Xiaoshan had a resolute expression on his face. He looked at Li Qinwu and a look of admiration appeared on his face.

"Hello, Director Li. I'm Captain Li Xiaoshan. I heard that our arsenal has developed a new submachine gun. I didn't dare to delay for a second and came to the arsenal to test the gun!"

Li Qinwu smiled and shook hands with Li Xiaoshan.

"Captain Li, it's a pleasure to meet you. In your opinion, is there anything good about the firearms I designed?"

Li Xiaoshan shouted, and replied excitedly: "It is more than just a good thing! It is truly a national treasure!

This gun has excellent performance and a fast rate of fire. I estimate that this type of firearm will have great advantages in jungle and urban warfare.

As far as I know, the Japanese infantry sequence does not have short-range weapons such as submachine guns. If we can drag the Japanese into urban warfare, our soldiers equipped with flamethrower submachine guns will have a great advantage.

Director Li, I heard that the submachine gun you designed is cheap. If we can equip it in large quantities, we will have more tactical options! I just don't know how much this gun costs? "

Li Qinwu was about to say 40 oceans, but he suddenly remembered that this was the Xiaoyi Arsenal, not the Fengtian Arsenal. The submachine gun production line of the Xiaoyi Arsenal had just been built, the workers were unskilled, and the supply of materials was unstable. All these problems would lead to higher prices.

What's more, Director Huang, the person in charge of the arsenal, is right next to him, so it's better for a small director like him not to act on his own.

He turned his eyes to Director Huang, who was very satisfied with his performance. He thought that this guy was somewhat self-aware. He said, "Based on the material, manpower and machine losses of our factory, the price of the flamethrower submachine gun is 95 dollars a piece!"

Li Qinwu's pupils shrank. 95 dollars? This is more than twice the price quoted by Fengtian Arsenal! Even if the cost of setting up the production line is slightly higher, it shouldn't be so outrageous, right?

He was a little confused, but he forgot that the Fengtian Arsenal was Zhang's private factory, and the arsenal's quotation was really just the cost price, while the Xiaoyi Arsenal was essentially state property. It was ridiculous to say that this so-called state property was also profitable in nature.

It is naturally impossible for Director Huang to set the price of the submachine gun at cost price, as he needs to make a profit.

After hearing the offer, Li Xiaoshan nodded.

"It's OK. It's not expensive. The American Thompson submachine gun costs three hundred dollars. The money for a Thompson is enough to buy three Spitfire submachine guns."

Then he shook his head again.

"But it's still too expensive. An infantry squad must be equipped with at least two of these guns to form combat effectiveness and improve the soldiers' combat capabilities in narrow terrain. This is too expensive, too expensive..."

His face was full of regret. He was the head of a troop with more than 4 men under his command. To equip each infantry squad with two submachine guns would cost at least oceans.

How could the Nationalist government possibly pay this money? You have to know that at least 20% of his troops have no weapons. He has heard about the corruption within the Nationalist government. Moreover, the officials discriminate against the soldiers. They think they are a bunch of poor people. They just give you similar weapons. How could they provide the soldiers with such good weapons? Only the direct descendants of someone in the Central Army could be equipped with such weapons.

"It's too expensive, too expensive. It would be better if it could be cheaper."

Li Xiaoshan muttered to himself. Li Qinwu heard what he said, touched his chin and said, "It's not impossible."

Li Xiaoshan was stunned for a moment.

"Director Li, what did you just say?"

Li Qinwu said loudly: "What I just said is not impossible.

I used to be the deputy director of the weapons design department at the Fengtian Arsenal, and now I am the director of the weapons design department at the Xiaoyi Arsenal.

Designing firearms is my job. Since the military cannot accept the high price of the flamethrower submachine gun, I will design a cheaper automatic weapon!"

Li Xiaoshan was stunned for a moment. Reason told him that flamethrower submachine guns were already very cheap, so how could there be even cheaper automatic weapons?

But he looked at Li Qinwu's confident look and asked with some expectation: "Director Li, are you serious? Can you design a cheaper automatic weapon?"

Li Qinwu nodded seriously.

Director Huang interrupted and asked, "Director Li, you have just arrived at the Xiaoyi Arsenal a few days ago. The production of flamethrower submachine guns has not yet increased, and the workshop still needs you to supervise. Isn't it a bit too early to start designing new weapons now?"

Li Qinwu glanced at him and felt that this guy must be stingy with money. After all, in their impression, the funds needed to develop and design weapons are in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. This guy obviously didn't want to allocate funds to him.

Li Qinwu was disdainful in his heart. Why would the Weapon Design Department design weapons if they don't design them? He had just planned to design weapons, but they were so stingy and didn't want to allocate funds. What would happen in the future?

He replied stiffly, "Please rest assured, Director Huang. I am confident in the design of weapons and do not need funding from the factory. It's just that during the design and testing, I accidentally made a scrap part. The director will not ask me to pay for the loss, right?"

Director Huang smiled awkwardly, knowing that his little thoughts had been seen through by Li Qinwu, so he stepped back and said nothing.

He felt dissatisfied with Li Qinwu. Damn, I am your superior. Isn’t it a bit too much for you to bully me in front of outsiders?

The fake smile on his face was seen by Li Qinwu. Li Qinwu snorted. As a time traveler, how could he accept the anger of these people when he came to this world? If this guy makes him uncomfortable in the future, the worst that can happen is that he beats him up and quits his job. If all else fails, he can find a place to open a factory and start his own business.

As for his own style of doing things, he provoked the leaders at the Fengtian Arsenal and also provoked the leaders at the Xiaoyi Arsenal. Isn't this not good?

Li Qinwu just wants to say, is he the only one who is wrong? Is there nothing wrong with the system of the Republic of China government? Are there nothing wrong with these feudal bureaucrats? Are there nothing wrong with everyone in front of the screen?

Li Xiaoshan glanced at the two men and he also saw that the two seemed to be at odds with each other, but as a soldier, he was not interested in the struggles within these units. He only cared about the cheap submachine gun that Li Qinwu mentioned.

"Director Li, is there any actual submachine gun of the type you mentioned? What do you estimate its price to be?"

Li Qinwu thought about how much a few broken pipes and iron plates welded together could be worth, so he casually replied: "There is no real thing for now, but I started designing this gun a long time ago, and I should be able to make a real thing within a week.

As for the price, I don’t know the exact price, but it should be lower than ordinary bolt-action rifles.”

Li Xiaoshan's eyes widened. An automatic weapon, the price was lower than that of a bolt-action rifle. This...

Li Qinwu saw his incredulous expression and shrugged, saying, “Captain Li, if you want to pursue the ultimate advantage, you must make sacrifices in other places.

The quality, firing rate, and reliability of the submachine gun will be reduced, and its performance cannot be compared with that of the flamethrower submachine gun, but I can guarantee that the price will be lower than that of the bolt-action rifle!"

At this point, anyone who knows a little about guns knows what Li Qinwu is going to do, which is to lower the price to the lowest possible level and purchase the famous British weapon, the Sten submachine gun.

The reliability of this gun is quite poor. For the front-line soldiers, fighting with the Sten submachine gun is simply a thrilling battle.

But from 1941 to the end of World War II, the production of Sten submachine guns reached a terrifying 450 million. When production capacity was fully utilized, the cost was as low as US$5. The fact that weapons could be produced on such a large scale to equip the troops was so great that the British officials would laugh their asses off in Parliament.

But it was obvious that Director Huang and Li Xiaoshan did not believe a word Li Qinwu said. How could the cost of an automatic weapon be lower than that of a rifle? Was this a lie?

In their impression, automatic firepower is synonymous with high-end. The price of Thompson submachine gun, a high-end product, is about 300 US dollars. Even the MP18, a submachine gun that has been domestically produced, is priced at around 200 US dollars. These data tell them that they are not worthy of the noble automatic firepower.

But now Li Qinwu says that he can design a submachine gun that is cheaper than the bolt-action rifle. Most of the bolt-action rifles produced by their factory are old-style rifles. Because of the war, the price has been fluctuating. The highest price was 36 oceans, the lowest was 20 oceans, and it has been stable at 25 oceans until now.

The cost of a submachine gun can be kept below 25 dollars. Wow, what kind of thing can this be?

Li Xiaoshan shook his head, feeling that Li Qinwu was bragging. He looked down on this man a little, but then the contempt disappeared.

No matter what, the flamethrower submachine gun was indeed made by someone, and after the test just now, it is undoubtedly a good gun, which is enough for him as a soldier to respect.

Li Xiaoshan said to Director Huang, "Director Huang, I plan to privately purchase 100 flamethrower submachine guns for the guard company. I wonder if Director Huang can help me?"

Director Huang didn't expect that business would come in on the first day the production line was set up. 100 flamethrower submachine guns, that's 9500 oceans. The quantity was not large, so he could make the decision on his own without asking his superiors. His old face almost smiled like a chrysanthemum.

"Yes! Of course I can!"