Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

The 107mm rocket launcher, which was easy to transport and durable, was also very famous. A single round of firing could wipe out most of the Japanese army, and it could be easily moved, whether in the mountains or on the plains. The barrel could be directly dismantled to become a heavy artillery. For the current 389th Brigade, it was an absolute weapon to suppress the Japanese artillery fire.

Moreover, once the entire cannon is disassembled, one person can carry the 60-pound gun all over the mountain, making it a perfect guerrilla weapon.

After Zeng Jiwen returned to the brigade headquarters, he immediately ordered the troops in western Hebei to dismantle all the Japanese army's tracks along the railway line and send them to the military factory. At the same time, in order to ensure the quality of steel, he took advantage of his harmonious relationship with the person in Shanxi during this period, took out 50 silver dollars, and went to Changzhi to purchase sufficient steel and other raw materials for the production of weapons and ammunition.

A week later, Zeng Jiwen rushed to the military factory with a large amount of raw materials for weapons manufacturing. To be honest, this trip to Changzhi was beyond Zeng Jiwen's expectations.

When Zeng Jiwen contacted that person through the headquarters, that person immediately became interested in Zeng Jiwen. As the commander of one of the three vanguard regiments of the Northern Expedition of the Great Revolution, Zeng Jiwen was the first to capture the Tingsi Bridge in the Battle of Tingsi Bridge on the Guangdong-Hankou Railway. He then captured the Hesheng Bridge in one go, forcing Wu Xiucai to retreat to Wuhan in a hurry without having time to deploy his troops. In September, he successively broke through Hanyang and Hankou and captured Wuchang, which directly destroyed Wu Xiucai's morale in one breath.

The man from Shanxi greatly admired such talent, but it was a pity that he wasn't from Shanxi, otherwise he would have definitely won him over. So he personally rushed to Changzhi and hosted a banquet for him. He also knew a little about Zeng Jiwen's trip, but he only thought that they had intercepted a small part of the equipment. After all, given the character of the Japanese army, the fact that they didn't recover it meant that the equipment was not much.

So he immediately made a decision and ordered his subordinates to make things easier for him. After all, he was about to lose Shanxi and needed to cooperate sincerely with the Eighth Route Army to preserve his capital. Nothing else mattered.

At the same time, it would also enable the Eighth Route Army to work harder against the Japanese, killing two birds with one stone. As for restrictions, that would be a later matter, and it was not certain that the Eighth Route Army could grow and develop with just those few machines.

Seeing that the trip was going so smoothly, Zeng Jiwen immediately decided to use the money he had seized before, and then collect 70 silver dollars from the headquarters and his home, to buy out all the materials near Changzhi. He also immediately sent people to bring them back to the base to avoid any further complications and to prevent the person from regretting his decision after knowing the huge demand.

Therefore, Zeng Jiwen also used a little trick. Each time he sent people to transport, only a small number of people were sent. At the same time, he bribed the purchasing staff from various factories. As a result, when Zeng Jiwen returned to the base, there were as many as 2,000 tons of steel, and more than 200 tons each of copper, lead, tungsten sand and other important resources, almost clearing out all the raw materials around Changzhi.

After Zeng Jiwen brought the supplies back, the local factory in Changzhi reported to the person that they were running out of raw materials to start production. Only then did they learn that Zeng Jiwen had bought up all the raw materials in the surrounding area of ​​Changzhi. Their faces lit up, and they immediately regretted it. He wasn't stupid. Zeng Jiwen's ability to buy so many raw materials showed that he had made preparations.

After the transportation was completed, the purchase was counted and it was found that 270,000 silver dollars were spent on steel, 160,000 on tungsten ore, 160,000 on copper, and 160,000 on lead ore. With so many raw materials, there was enough to produce 20 million rounds of bullets, tens of thousands of artillery shells, and a large number of light and heavy weapons and artillery, which was enough to last until the summer.

About a week later, someone from the military factory came to inform Zeng Jiwen that the military factory already had prototypes of the two weapons Zeng Jiwen requested, and asked Zeng Jiwen to go over and see if they met his requirements.