Industry began in 1937

The victory at Xiaonanshan did not make the villagers of Gouzi Village lose their heads.

The Red Spear Society's influence extends into the mountains and is present in many villages.

After the governments of the plains cities were driven out by the Japanese army, the western mountains were left without administration.

The scattered and disorganized soldiers demonstrate the harm that such disorder can cause to mountain villages.

The Red Spear Society arose simply because everyone needed a pretext to protect their villages and individuals.

This is the power with roots.

Wen Shizhou analyzed the situation for everyone.

"We repelled them this time, but will someone like Zhang Juejiu be satisfied? Our Gouzi Village is a tough nut to crack, and he might not dare to take on us again next time."

But what if he resorts to underhanded tactics, colluding with bandits from other regions, or sowing discord to block our trade routes and cut off our supply of salt and grain? Can our village alone defend against that?

These words made everyone, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, tense up again.

Yes, the Red Spear Society's influence is deeply entrenched. This time they suffered a loss through open warfare, but what about next time?

"Mr. Wen is right." Third Master stroked his beard, his face grave. "We can't just focus on our own problems. We need to communicate with the surrounding villages and join forces."

"Right, joint defense!" Zhao Dachui slammed his fist into his palm. "Liujia Taizi and Wangjia Yu both sent us messages this time, so they're trustworthy. We can get them and those villages in Heishigou involved too. We can agree that if any family is in trouble, they can signal with gongs, drums, and firecrackers, and the neighboring villages can at least send someone to check or help spread the word, making it harder for criminals to target any family!"

This joint defense proposal of "watching out for each other and sharing information" received unanimous approval.

The specific charter was gradually discussed by Wen Shizhou and the elders and representatives of several villages, but the principles were set: information sharing, emergency mutual assistance, jointly maintaining the peace of this mountainous area, and resisting external oppression like the Red Spear Society.

Joint defense means that more armed forces are needed.

Each village needed decent weapons, especially firearms that had proven effective in narrow terrain and surprise attacks after the Battle of Xiaonanshan.

The village protection team in Gouzi Village also needs to replenish its supplies and strengthen its training.

More importantly, Chen Yuan also privately agreed to Zhang Xian's request to try to create a standard bayonet for the Eighth Route Army.

All of this points to the same source—Chen Yuan's blacksmith shop needs to produce more ironware.

However, the increase in production capacity has encountered a bottleneck.

Chen Yuan knew that there were two real bottlenecks: enough high-quality iron and sufficient electricity to drive the "Flint" platform for complex processing.

"And producing bayonets requires a drilling machine, even the simplest manual drilling machine," Chen Yuan realized.

Moreover, this drilling machine could be designed to be manually driven, just like a blower and a grinding machine, thus providing processing capabilities while quietly adding a "human-powered power generation" job.

In this way, he would have three parallel human-powered generators (blower, grinder, and future drill), which would significantly increase the total power output, enough to support longer and more complex platform manufacturing tasks, such as... trying to manufacture the core components of those bullet reloading tools.

But then a problem arose: manufacturing a third human-powered machine would require additional high-quality iron, copper, and hardwood, which would be another considerable expense.

However, the iron he had stockpiled was no longer plentiful after the depletion during the Battle of Xiaonanshan and daily production.

Expanding the sources of raw materials is imperative.

That day, Chen Yuan approached Wen Shizhou and Third Master and proposed an idea.

"Third Master, Mr. Wen, our village now has this craft, and the surrounding villages have this demand. Relying solely on my piecemeal collection of scrap iron is not a long-term solution. I was thinking, could we open a proper ironware shop in the village? Not only selling finished knives, guns, and farm tools, but also buying large quantities of all kinds of scrap iron and copperware, priced according to quality."

He counted on his fingers: "We have the skills to smelt the scrap iron we collect into good steel, forge it into good tools, and then sell them. With this buying and selling, we earn money from our skills and can also steadily stockpile iron and copper for emergencies. The shop is run by the village, and the profits go to the public treasury to equip the village protection team, provide subsidies to the young men who come to help, or exchange for grain and salt for reserves. As for me, I just focus on forging iron in the back to ensure the quality and supply of the goods. In this way, our Gouzi Village can help our neighbors, have a stable source of income, and also legitimately collect what we need."

This idea caught the attention of Third Master and Wen Shizhou.

This is equivalent to partially transforming Chen Yuan's "private" production capacity into the village's "public" industry. This not only allows the village to leverage its technological advantages to serve the surrounding area and strengthen joint defense, but also opens up new sources of revenue for the village, stockpiles strategic materials, and provides cover for Chen Yuan's next "secret" trial production. It achieves multiple benefits in one fell swoop.

Moreover, since the event was organized openly by the village, it aligned with the call to "develop production and support the war of resistance," making it easier to gain understanding and support from all sides.

"This is a great idea!" Third Master approved. "We'll set up a 'Public Justice Blacksmith Shop' in Gouzi Village. Old Han, Big Hammer, you two take care of the arrangements. Chen, you just focus on the technical aspects. Just tell me how many people you need to help!"

Wen Shizhou also expressed his strong agreement: "This move benefits the village and the people, and it will also better utilize Brother Chen's talents to support the masses' anti-Japanese self-defense cause. I think we should get started as soon as possible. The old iron and copper we acquire should be sorted and stored, and the good materials should be reserved for Brother Chen to forge essential items."

Just as Gouzi Village began planning the "Gongyi Blacksmith Shop" and sending people to surrounding villages to post notices and arrange purchases, the first batch of "orders" and "investments" from the Eighth Route Army, filled with sincerity and expectation, arrived first.

Two young men, dressed in casual clothes but with a capable demeanor, arrived one afternoon and found Wen Shizhou carrying a heavy load.

They presented the keepsake and brief handwritten note left by Zhang Xianyue.

"Mr. Wen, Representative Zhang sent us." The young man at the head of the group said in a low voice, "Representative Zhang said that the villagers of Gouzi Village are very enthusiastic about resisting the Japanese and can make their own weapons, which is a great thing. Our troops are in trouble right now and can't come up with any cash, but we can't let the villagers work for nothing. Here are two old sockets that we picked up from the battlefield and are really unusable. Most of the parts are scattered. Let's see if Master Chen can fix them. Even if we can't repair them, we can take them apart and use them as parts or scrap metal."

He pointed to another load: "Here are two hundred catties of high-quality Shanxi iron ingots, which the army procured from elsewhere. Representative Zhang said it serves as a deposit and payment for materials and labor for a batch of rifle bayonets. The style and quantity are written on this piece of paper. We'll come back to collect them after Master Chen finishes forging them, and then settle the remaining payment with grain or other goods."

Wen Shizhou took the rough-edged paper with simple requirements and quantities written on it, then looked at the two rusty Hanyang rifles with incomplete bolts, and the bar-shaped iron ingots in the carrying pole with a bluish-gray luster and uniform texture, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart.

This is not just about buying and selling, but also about trust and support.

The Eighth Route Army did not forcibly requisition or make empty promises. Instead, they used the most tangible things they could offer—precious weapons and scarce high-quality raw materials—to express their sincerity in cooperation and to pay "wages" in advance.

This kind of fairness and respect is especially precious in today's chaotic world.

"Please tell Representative Zhang that we have received the gifts and our goodwill," Wen Shizhou said solemnly. "We will do our best to expedite the matter of the bayonets. Please also have Master Chen take a close look at these two rifles. Our Gouzi Village is united with the Eighth Route Army in the fight against the Japanese, contributing our strength and resources as needed."

After seeing off the Eighth Route Army liaison officer, Wen Shizhou immediately took his things to the blacksmith shop on the back mountain.

Chen Yuan stroked the cold, solid Shanxi iron ingot, and then carefully inspected the two almost broken "old sleeves." This really made him want to develop in the direction of military factories!

The iron was high-quality iron, far superior to the scrap iron he usually collected. Although the flint platform was not picky about the iron material, high-quality iron required far less electricity to process.

Although the gun is damaged, the core barrel seems to still be usable, and some mechanical parts may be repairable or used as prototypes.

More importantly, this "order" and "investment" came at just the right time.

It solved the most pressing need for high-quality iron for expanding production, and also gave him a legitimate opportunity to delve into the structure of rifles and attempt to repair and replicate parts.

Those two hundred pounds of iron ingots were the precious capital that started all of this.

"The bayonet is fine. I'll build it according to the blueprints; I guarantee it will work," Chen Yuan said to Wen Shizhou. "These two guns... I'll give it a try. Even if I can't repair the whole gun, some parts might be salvageable, or... it might help me understand better how to repair and maintain our guns."

What he didn't say was that by disassembling and studying these standard rifles, combined with the analysis of the "Flint" platform, he might be able to reverse engineer the manufacturing process of some key components, which would be of great significance for future, deeper-level technological support.