Bright Sword: Follow Kong's fun and build the strongest military industry

"Political Commissar, there is a puppet army's 8th Mixed Brigade near our independent regiment's base. These traitors are getting mad now. They even dared to cause trouble for a cavalry battalion."

"It would be a waste if we don't eat this fat meat that has come to our mouths. I will let Lao Kong lead the Second Battalion, and with the assistance of the special operations team, bring all these precious war horses back intact."

So that's how it is. After listening, the brigade commander and the political commissar understood the whole story. This is very Li Yunlong. He will definitely take action as long as there are benefits.

The current independent regiments have very strong autonomy, and the brigade commanders basically do not impose too many restrictions in order to allow them to give full play to their subjective initiative, win more battles, and seize more supplies to develop the troops.

However, the brigade commander still joked curiously: "Li Yunlong, you have changed your personality this time."

"Usually, if there's any good stuff, you always try to get it into the independent regiment. Why are you so generous this time? You seized a battalion's worth of cavalry equipment and were willing to hand it over to the brigade for two companies. This is not like your usual style."

Hearing the brigade commander's sarcastic remarks, Li Yunlong did not get angry, but instead said with a sad face:

"Brigade Commander, Political Commissar, the consumption of these cavalry is really a bottomless pit."

"Since our regiment seized a cavalry battalion's war horses, there were 350 of them, so we can be considered to have brought back a group of great men."

"This person eats a lot of food and consumes a lot of supplies every day. In addition, our regiment also has to support a special operations team. Supplies are already tight, and we really can't afford to support them."

"That's why I chose to keep one cavalry company as a mobile force, and hand over the rest to the old leaders to deal with."

After listening to this, the brigade commander and the political commissar looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Of course, this gift must be accepted, it is a rare and good thing.

After Kong Hao finished the training, he devoted all his energy to the process of bullet production.

Now the most important thing for the entire Eighth Route Army is to get the bullet production line up and running as quickly as possible. Only in this way will the leaders have the confidence to face all future challenges.

This morning, Kong Hao was preparing to test the initial velocity and chamber pressure of the newly made smokeless propellant.

The so-called barrel pressure test is to test how much gunpowder should be loaded in the bullets produced by the company so that the barrel will not explode. This is a very rigorous scientific issue.

If the bullet is loaded with less propellant, it will affect the initial velocity of the bullet and the accuracy of the firearm, and the range will not meet expectations. This is also the reason why the reloaded bullets in the arsenal could not shoot far before;

If too much propellant is loaded in the bullet, it will be even more troublesome. Not only will the hard-earned gunpowder be wasted, but the life of the gun will be shortened because the chamber pressure is too high. In serious cases, it may even explode directly.

If these two problems are not solved, the soldiers would not dare to hand over bullets to them. Otherwise, if the bullets explode as soon as they are fired, it would be a great help to the enemy.

Although the bullets produced by this production line are also 6.5mm, the Japanese have tested the amount of powder in their bullets for a long time, and they already have relevant detailed data to support it.

However, the process of producing the smokeless propellant we produced was completely different from that produced by the Japanese military factories, which also led to a considerable degree of deviation in performance.

Kong Hao’s most important task now is to find this deviation and determine the weight of the bullet charge that is suitable for our own production line.

Because this matter is so important, it requires a lot of precision measuring instruments to collect the most complete data.

First, he borrowed a small scale from the pharmacy, the kind that was very sensitive and could measure down to units below gram.

Originally, it would be best to use a Western balance for this kind of thing, but unfortunately this kind of precision measuring instrument is hard to find and is expensive, so Kong Hao is a little reluctant.

Besides, the things left by the Chinese ancestors are also good and completely sufficient.

The initial velocity of the bullet is very simple. Just make a lead box, fill it with sand, weigh it, and hang it on a wooden beam with four parallel ropes.

Then five people were transferred from the special forces team. All of them were sharpshooters and were very familiar with the Type 38 rifle and could detect some subtle differences.

Then we used the same rifle and two bullets to shoot, one was loaded with the propellant we produced, and the other was loaded with the Japanese propellant. We took turns shooting with the same propellant.

The technicians on the side would record the amplitude of the lead box's shaking after each shot, and then determine the increase or decrease in the amount of gunpowder based on the records to achieve an initial bullet velocity similar to that of the bullets produced by the Japanese.

As for the chamber pressure test, Kong Hao modified several scrap guns from the arsenal into a special chamber pressure test gun based on the experience of later generations.

He used a device to drill a standard hole in the shoulder of the bullet shell inside the rifle's chamber, then installed a piston and a ruler on it.

The bullet used for testing also has a hole in the corresponding position, so that after loading, the bullet will correspond exactly with the piston.

After the bullet is fired, the high-pressure gas in the barrel passes through the small hole of the piston and pushes the scale. As long as the data on the scale is recorded, the chamber pressure data can be obtained.

Kong Hao's requirements were also very simple. The bullets he produced and the Japanese's original bullets had the same data in these two aspects, so they could be considered relatively qualified bullets.

The performance of such bullets is comparable to those produced by the enemy, so they can be safely handed over to our front-line soldiers, allowing them to kill the enemy with all their strength. They no longer have to use reloaded bullets, using the Japanese's at long distances and our own reloaded bullets at close distances.

To be honest, what soldiers on the battlefield should think about is to fire the most bullets as quickly as possible and kill the most enemies.

Instead of calculating the distance to the enemy in his mind and considering whether to push the good bullets out of the barrel and load them with inferior bullets produced by himself.

This test continued for several days, and all the data was collected, improvements were made to any deficiencies, and even operating instructions were prepared for all processes.

After hearing the news, Minister Zhang was also very excited and decided to go to the scene in person to cheer up everyone at the arsenal.

If the deputy commander-in-chief wasn't too busy, he would probably want to attend in person.

After all, this is the Eighth Route Army's first large-scale bullet production line, and it cannot be overemphasized.

In addition to Minister Zhang, Brigade Commander Chen of the 386th Brigade, which is closest to the arsenal, was also invited to attend as a representative of the troops.

Brigade Commander Chen led a cavalry platoon to the arsenal one day in advance.

Thanks to all the equipment of the two cavalry companies surrendered by Li Yunlong this time, the 386th Brigade has finally formed two cavalry battalions, and its mobility has been greatly enhanced.

The independent regiment cannot afford a battalion of cavalry, but with such a large territory as the Taiyue Military Region, it is easy to support two cavalry battalions.

If cavalry equipment were not so hard to find, it would be reasonable for the 386th Brigade to set up a cavalry regiment.