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

The workshop manager's surname is Guo, he is in his forties and was a technical backbone of the former Jinsui Army Artillery Factory. Most people like to call him Lao Guo.

Previously he was deputy director of the Mauser pistol production line, but his expertise was not suitable for the job. Now we also have our own artillery production line, so we transferred him over to be the person in charge, which is a good way to make the best use of his talents.

Kong Hao smiled and responded, "Old Guo, let's not talk about this for now. Today we are here to check the production status of mortars and grenade launchers. I will come back in two days to solve any problems we encounter."

"I will probably stay in the Arsenal for some time and won't go anywhere else."

"Okay, okay, that's great. Leaders, follow me."

Director Guo was delighted to hear that the chief consultant would stay in the arsenal for a long time. As a student of Kong Hao, he always believed that professional talents like the chief consultant should stay in the arsenal to develop various weapons and equipment, which is much better than going out to fight.

Besides, if a technician is sent to the battlefield and if he is injured or killed, it will be a heavy blow to the military industry of the army.

Of course, this is also his personal opinion. After all, at his level, he does not have the authority to know Kong Hao's other identity.

After arriving at the workshop, Director Guo gave everyone a detailed introduction:

"Three leaders, the mortar production line of our arsenal has been assembled and is already producing relevant samples for testing."

"After many comparative tests, the performance of our mortars seems to be slightly higher than that of the Japanese originals, but not much. Both the range and accuracy are only about 10% higher. The same is true for the grenade launchers. This is what has always puzzled me."

"And we also found that there is still room for improvement in this performance. After all, this is the first time we have produced this kind of thing. Once the technology matures, the performance can be improved a lot. It's really amazing."

Kong Hao has the most say in this matter. After all, these production lines were exchanged by him from the system. All the parts are of the most standard and the matching accuracy is also the highest. It is reasonable that the mortars and grenade launchers produced are of higher quality than those of the Japanese.

But there is no way to explain this kind of thing. We can only attribute it to our good luck and the high level of our technical staff.

The brigade commander didn't care about these details. He just asked excitedly: "How many mortars and grenade launchers can our artillery factory produce in a month? How many stocks does the arsenal have now?"

"Commander, as for mortars, we can produce about fifty per month, with 11,000 shells. As for grenade launchers, there are more, about 300, with 30,000 grenades."

"So far this month, we have produced 36 mortars, more than 8,000 shells, 226 grenade launchers, and 22,000 high-explosive grenades."

"In fact, if there are enough detonators, we can produce more shells, but the arsenal does not have enough detonators, so we can only produce this much for now."

Upon hearing this, Director Ren hurriedly explained, "Fulminate mercury is needed to make detonators, but our base lacks mercury, the raw material for mercury."

"The logistics department can only get that much every month. In addition to producing various artillery shells, we also need new grenades, especially the defensive ones, which are well received by the front-line combat troops."

"Now many commanders of the main regiments have sent telegrams, all of which specifically request defensive grenades, saying that this type of grenade is powerful enough."

The brigade commander was also aware of this matter. Ever since the defensive grenades from the arsenal came out, their enormous power made them the best portable heavy weapons for the Eighth Route Army soldiers.

Especially for the front-line infantry companies, it is not so easy to obtain support from mortars and grenade launchers. It is normal that they are sometimes available and sometimes not. Only the defensive grenades in hand are the safest. They can be thrown out according to the needs of the battlefield to deal a heavy blow to the enemy.

As for the problem that the defensive grenades are too heavy and cannot be thrown far, this is also easy to solve. Just find some strong soldiers and train them to be sharp shooters.

Kong Hao also understood the current predicament of the Arsenal, and immediately said with a smile: "I know about this matter. I will set up a special project later to study substitutes for mercury."

Hearing the chief consultant say this, the three people present felt relieved. With Kong Hao taking action, there was nothing that could not be done.

However, the brigade commander continued, "Old Ren, I have an unwelcome request. I wonder if I should say it or not?"

Director Ren was such a shrewd man that the brigade commander guessed what he wanted the moment he opened his mouth, so he quickly said:

"I can only give you ten of these mortars and fifty grenade launchers. The others must be handed over to the logistics department. But I can give you more shells, so let's say 10,000 shells in total."

After hearing this, the brigade commander hurriedly expressed his gratitude. This was a pleasant surprise and he thought he had made the right decision by coming today.

Ten 10mm mortars are enough to form an artillery company, or they can be used to equip each regiment of the newly formed front-line basic troops with a mortar.

You know, it is a completely different concept for a unit to have a mortar and not have a mortar. If there is a mortar, it can completely contain the Japanese grenade launchers. Otherwise, it can only be beaten and cannot fight back. This scene is too frustrating.

As for the fifty grenade launchers, they are also rare and valuable items. In the hands of the Japanese devils, they are powerful weapons of attack, and in the hands of our soldiers, they are also powerful weapons of attack.

It’s just that we had too little ammunition before, and all of it had to be captured, which led to the low technical level of our soldiers. Now that we can produce ammunition ourselves, we will let the Japanese taste the power of grenade launchers in the future.

At this time, Kong Hao thought of something and said with a smile: "Brigade Commander, Factory Director, the artillery training abroad uses training bullets. This time I came back and got some related equipment. I plan to spend the next period of time studying various training ammunition, including bullets and artillery shells."

"This will not only improve our soldiers' shooting skills, but also save a lot of corresponding resources. It's really killing two birds with one stone."

"Xiao Kong, if this is true, it would be great. I never thought that our troops would be able to enjoy such treatment one day."

Regarding the early stages of recruit training, it is best to use training bullets. The brigade commander is very clear about this, and he used it frequently when he was in Huangpu. There are many benefits to doing so.

However, the Eighth Route Army did not have the conditions at all. They did not even organize large-scale shooting training for new recruits. Everything had to be explored on their own or learned on the battlefield. This also led to heavy casualties among our new recruits when they first went to the battlefield.

There is no way around it. Now if the arsenal can produce training bullets on its own, it also means that we have more bullets to improve our soldiers' marksmanship.

Moreover, training bullets can be reloaded with propellant from used cartridge cases, which does not take up the production capacity of the bullet production line, thus adding a lot of extra ammunition for training.