Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

Li Qinwu stood there watching the engine, which attracted the attention of others. A middle-aged foreign man in overalls walked up to him and asked with a smile, "Sir, how can I help you?"

Someone came up to chat with him, and Li Qinwu walked up and shook hands with the other person.

"Sir, I'm Li Qinwu, Director of the Weapon Design Department. May I ask who you are?"

"Oh, sir, are you the new weapons designer? Your reputation has spread throughout the factory. I heard that you designed a submachine gun with excellent performance. This is really amazing.

Let me introduce myself. I am Colin Dawson, an American mechanical engineer. I am currently working as a mechanical factory consultant at the Xiaoyi Arsenal. You can just call me Colin.

After the two men shook hands politely, Li Qinwu pointed to the running generator and asked, "Mr. Colin, I see that our factory can already produce generators. Do you think our factory can go a step further and directly produce cars?"

Colin's eyes widened slightly.

"Sir, you have to know that cars are the result of modern technology. To manufacture them, you need a lot of capital investment, a centralized industrial chain, and centralized worker participation. Each car has hundreds or even thousands of parts, which means you need to open thousands of production lines and thousands of parts factories."

Li Qinwu asked back: "So Mr. Colin doesn't think we can make our own cars?"

Colin hesitated and shook his head.

"It's very difficult, but there's an old Chinese saying that everything is difficult at the beginning. As long as we are willing to do it, with our factory's existing production capacity and government support, we should be able to produce results after a few years of hard work."

Seeing that the foreigner seemed to know a lot about machines, Li Qinwu asked a few more questions.

"Mr. Colin, do you know a lot about cars?"

Colin nodded, a look of pride on his face.

"I used to work for Buick and I know a lot about automobile manufacturing."

Li Qinwu's heart moved, and his gaze towards the old white man became much more passionate. He was about to say something else when Director Huang caught up with him, panting.

This guy wanted to pull Li Qinwu away and talk to him directly about the annual fee, but when he saw Colin was there, he temporarily gave up the idea.

Factory Director Huang put on a fake smile and walked up to the two of them and asked, "What are you two talking about? It seems like you are already familiar with each other. There is no need for me to introduce you."

Colin smiled and nodded: "Yes, Director Huang, Director Li and I already know each other. We are discussing something about cars. Well, I like this topic very much. After all, this is my old profession. It reminds me of my youth when I was struggling in Buick Company."

After exchanging greetings with Director Huang, he continued to look at Li Qinwu.

"Director Li, I think the most difficult part of automobile development is the quality of the engine and transmission structure. As long as we can overcome these two difficulties, it won't be too difficult to manufacture a car."

Li Qinwu asked: "Mr. Colin, if our factory wants to produce qualified engines, what should we do?"

"Oh, this, then it must be to solve the material problem. For industrial matters, as long as the material problem is solved, even gods can make it. Perhaps we can start with producing alloys.

Ah~ alloys, fascinating things, adding different metals together can produce so many changes, industry is so fascinating. "

Then the two of them put Director Huang aside and began to have a heated discussion. This was a tacit understanding between the technical personnel. After all, how to develop industry in a backward country was a very fascinating topic. Every chemical practitioner would be addicted to this kind of discussion, just like online literature fans would unconsciously want to travel to another world to learn magic or something.

Factory Director Huang was left aside by the two men and felt a little awkward. Although he knew some technology, it was not much, and he could not interrupt the two people's topic at all. He knew more about politics, so he could only interrupt them with a smile and said, "Oh, in fact, our factory once had a plan to manufacture cars by ourselves. The plan was ready, but it was not implemented because of the warlords' melee."

Li Qinwu asked doubtfully: "Director Huang, did our factory have plans to produce cars before? Are those planning materials still there?"

Seeing that he had finally taken the lead in the conversation, Director Huang said with a smile, "Yes, yes, it's in the archives room. The archives room is not far away. How about I take you two to have a look?"

The two naturally agreed and followed Director Huang to the archives room.

The three of them came to a room where a large number of documents were stored. Director Huang took out a dusty cardboard box from the innermost part of the archive room, which contained several documents.

Li Qinwu picked up a document, dusted it off and started flipping through it. Then he had a deeper understanding of China's automobile industry taking this difficult first step.

This document contains a very detailed plan on how to achieve domestic automobile manufacturing. The person who made this plan hopes that the government will allocate 10 US dollars every year for three years.

During these three years, the automobile manufacturing team will first purchase cars from abroad, disassemble them and perform reverse engineering, and then purchase parts from abroad to assemble the cars themselves, cultivating and learning design and manufacturing capabilities.

Then we will build production lines, tackle problems one part at a time, and gradually increase the localization rate of auto parts. Ultimately, within 3 to 5 years, we will increase the localization rate of auto parts to more than 80%, and achieve relative self-production of automobiles.

This document details the development plan, various international automobile development technologies, manufacturing companies, which parts production lines can be produced independently, which companies should be purchased from for those that cannot be produced independently, estimates of the purchase price, etc.

Unfortunately, due to the infighting among warlords in China at that time, it was impossible to concentrate national resources to implement this plan, which resulted in the plan gathering dust here and then being lost in the torrent of history.

Li Qinwu closed the document and was amazed. He felt that this document was very interesting.

"Director Huang, can I take these documents back to study?"

He was very restless. He wanted to pick up the stall of domestic automobiles. 25 years was too long. China could not wait that long. China's development needed automobiles to speed up. We had to seize the day! We had to seize the day!

Li Qinwu's words made Director Huang's eyebrows twitch. He reached out and scratched his neck unconsciously. He instinctively felt uncomfortable being with Li Qinwu. The fundamental reason was that they were two different kinds of people.

Li Qinwu is full of energy and drive and wants to work hard, but his factory director Huang just wants to slack off and does not want to make any mistakes during his term of office.

If you do things, you will make mistakes; if you don’t do anything, you won’t make mistakes. This is his life creed.

Li Qinwu wanted to pick up the car manufacturing business, but the huge risks involved even caused Director Huang to feel physically uncomfortable, and he began to itch all over.

He was about to speak perfunctorily, but before he could get the words out, Colin next to him exclaimed.

"Oh my god! Mr. Li Qinwu, are you serious? I thought our conversation just now was just a fairy tale between adults!"

Li Qinwu smiled and said to Colin: "Mr. Colin, this is not a fairy tale. My country needs to develop and needs cars to help it become stronger?

You know, war is threatening my country, and the Japanese are always trying to annex my country. I must do something for this country!"

When Colin heard this, he stepped forward again and shook hands solemnly with Li Qinwu.

"Director Li Qinwu, you are a patriot. Please let me join your team. I can provide some technical guidance!"

Li Qinwu acted as if he was very grateful.

"Mr. Colin, thank you. This is exactly what I urgently need. With your help, China's truck manufacturing will take a big step forward!"

The two men held hands tightly together, unwilling to let go for a long time. They stared at each other, looking as if they had met too late.

But in fact, they were just talking big. Colin wanted to join Li Qinwu's team not because he was moved by Li Qinwu's patriotism, but because he was just interested in having fun.

Imagine how difficult it is for a backward agricultural country to embark on industrialization, especially when this agricultural country is in a terrible situation of being divided by warlords and surrounded by foreign enemies.

What's more, their officials are a group of short-sighted feudal bureaucrats who attach less importance to technology than factional struggles. In this situation, they still want to build cars? That's a joke.

But who cares? What if Director Li really makes something? Maybe I can make a profit from it.

Not to mention anything else, if the other party wants to purchase a car production line, I can act as a go-between for my old employer and the benefits I will gain will be innumerable.

Let's take a step back and say that if the other party really built a car, would I, who provided help, be able to leave a significant mark in the history of automobile development in this country? Perhaps hundreds of years later, someone would dig up this history and my name would be mentioned countless times.

"Director Li, I hope you won't forget your job!"

Director Huang's face looked a little unhappy. This guy is going to cause trouble!

Li Qinwu said with a smile: "Don't worry, Director Huang, I will not forget my job, and I will supervise the production of the flamethrower submachine gun.

Oh, by the way, regarding the 2000 guns ordered by Director Huang Xiansheng, should we talk about how to pay for them? "

Director Huang's eyes lit up. Yes, this big order has not been discussed in detail yet. This is a business worth nearly 20 yuan! He doesn't even know how much profit he can make from it!

Now he was no longer concerned about the car, his mind was full of Mane, so he let the two men carry the documents out of the archive room.

(I got a fever from being caught in the rain. I’m going to take a day off tomorrow.)