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

As soon as he finished speaking, warm applause broke out in the room. In fact, the moment they saw Kong Hao, everyone's previously impetuous mood suddenly calmed down, as if all the difficulties did not exist.

After the applause stopped, Kong Hao also said with a smile:

"This time I led the special operations team out on a mission and indeed brought back two big fish for our arsenal."

"When we captured Youxian County, our troops seized a Japanese Type 89 grenade launcher from the Japanese's material warehouse. The production volume was not high, only about 500 units, and there was also a matching grenade production line, which produced 50,000 rounds a month."

"There is also a 60mm mortar production line with a monthly output of 100 mortars, and it can also produce rounds of corresponding shells per month."

Upon hearing this good news, everyone at the scene suddenly became excited. These were grenade launchers and mortars, the kind of good stuff that all armies dream of.

They were so happy before that they could make rifles, but now they have suddenly jumped to being able to make heavy weapons. This is too fast.

However, after everyone's excitement died down, Kong Hao promptly poured some cold water on them, bringing everyone back to reality.

He said seriously: "Don't be too happy too soon. Mass production of grenade launchers and mortars is a brand new challenge for our arsenal. There are many difficulties to overcome."

"First, we need to choose a location for the factory. I will draw a rough layout tomorrow. I'll trouble Political Commissar Qin for this."

"Xiao Kong, don't worry, I have no choice but to take responsibility for this matter."

"The next issue is the raw materials. The steel mills can produce the steel for grenade launchers and mortars, but we need to find a new way to produce explosives for artillery shells."

"The propellant we conquered before was a single-base smokeless propellant for bullets, while the propellant for grenade launchers and mortars requires double-base smokeless propellant, and the explosives needed for artillery shells require yellow dynamite, which our arsenal currently does not have the capacity to mass-produce."

"I will take the lead in this regard and set up a task force to overcome this obstacle as quickly as possible."

Hearing that Kong Hao took the initiative to take the responsibility, everyone felt relieved. With the chief consultant taking action, all problems would be solved.

"As for the mortar shells, they need to be cast with grey cast iron, but the arsenal currently does not have the conditions for this. The traditional method of smelting produces white cast iron, which is very hard and brittle and cannot be machined normally."

"Master Liao, you have a lot of experience in this area, so you can lead a research team to solve this problem."

Master Liao is an experienced blacksmith in his sixties. It can be said that he has been dealing with ironware for most of his life. Moreover, a good blacksmith is not unfamiliar with ironmaking, especially the knowledge of cast iron, which is passed down from ancestors and will never be forgotten by future generations.

He was a taciturn old man. After receiving his task, he just said:

"I understand. Don't worry. Leave it to me and it won't cause any trouble."

Kong Hao had long been accustomed to this mode of conversation, and continued:

"To set up a new factory, we need to transfer some management personnel from various factories, as well as a large number of technicians and skilled workers. For example, at least one-third of the personnel in the bullet production line and the firearms production line need to be transferred."

"These production lines have been running for a while, and the technology is very mature. Vacant positions can be filled by backup personnel, and more personnel should be recruited for training to familiarize themselves with all process links as soon as possible."

This is a reserve personnel training plan that Kong Hao had formulated long ago, so that when a new production line is built, it can be started up immediately, and learning and summarizing can be done while producing.

There are wars everywhere now, and the military supplies needed are so great that no matter how much the arsenals produce, it is not enough.

If the production line starts one day earlier and produces more weapons and equipment, it can reduce casualties among the troops and deal a greater blow to the enemy.

Take the mortar production line for example. Even though there are only a hundred mortars produced per month, that's only three mortars per day, which is not a large number.

However, in the current situation, many core regiments of the Eighth Route Army do not have a mortar. Even the New 1st Regiment led by Li Yunlong before only has one captured mortar, and there is a serious shortage of artillery shells.

From this we can see to what extent our army is currently short of artillery.

If there were enough talented people, the production line could be started a few days earlier, and the heavy mortars urgently needed by the troops could be produced quickly.

Being able to produce three guns a day is no small number. Not to mention Brigade Commander Chen, even the leaders at the headquarters would be happy for a long time after hearing about it.

A mortar platoon usually consists of three guns. As long as this mortar production line can go into mass production smoothly, it can produce a platoon of mortars a day, thirty a month, and three hundred a year.

According to this calculation, it will only take one year at most for each regiment of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to be assigned an artillery platoon, and the firepower of offensive operations will be greatly enhanced.

Of course, the treatment of the main force regiment will definitely be different. By then, an infantry regiment can form an artillery company with 9-12 mortars, which will greatly improve its strength.

This time there is also a mortar shell production line, which can produce 55 shells a year, which means an average of shells a day, which is a remarkable achievement.

Our troops still have quite a few captured mortars, but they are seriously short of shells, and many of them have become decorations. Now that we have an shell production line, we can make all the idle mortars active again.

In addition, the above output is only the theoretical output of the production line, but in the arsenal, theory can be completely broken.

We can fully implement three shifts of personnel, without stopping the machines, to maximize the efficiency of all machines and equipment and produce as many weapons as possible to support the troops.

One advantage of the three-shift system is that it can train as many skilled workers and technicians as possible.

As the only large-scale industrial base of the Eighth Route Army, the arsenal also shoulders the important task of training mechanized talents for the major bases.

At present, the headquarters has selected a lot of literate people from many places to come to the arsenal for training. The purpose is to train a large number of industrial workers and engineering and technical personnel in batches to make reserves for the future industrial development.

With the current strength of the arsenal, it can already produce some simple machines, such as punching machines, grinders, drilling machines, etc. To put it bluntly, this kind of basic equipment does not have much technical content.

The arsenal can fully rely on existing machinery and equipment to produce the corresponding parts, and then the technicians can assemble them.

Although it cannot catch up with those produced by foreign manufacturers in terms of performance and appearance, it is enough for the Eighth Route Army base to be able to use it.