Canteen System Assistance Notes

These field guns no longer had the planned splayed carriages, but instead had single-leg carriages. The rubber tires, designed for easier field traction, had also disappeared, replaced by large wooden wheels. Even on some parts of the guns, you could see bilingual inscriptions in French and English.

Yes, these were four original "Miss 75" guns imported from the United States. However, this did not make Chiang Kai-shek happy. He observed the gun test and named it the "Dingguo Field Gun."

Unfortunately, after Chiang Kai-shek's approval and designation, the Nationalist Army's enthusiasm for the improved Miss 75 dwindled significantly. Whether it was because the 1.5-ton field gun was difficult to tow and too heavy, or because Chiang Kai-shek's mission had been accomplished, over 800 of these guns were received throughout the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. However, only about 30 of these were effectively deployed—organized into approximately 13 artillery regiments, distributed across the First, Eighth, Ninth, and Sixth War Zones, as well as the remaining attacking armies. They kept a close eye on the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese, and thus achieved some effectiveness.

The remaining 400-odd guns were dumped into Spring City via the Burma Road in the final year of the war, freeing up American transport capacity. This vast quantity of artillery, far exceeding the Nationalist Army's capacity to accept, was hastily stored in a warehouse along with other aid supplies, never to be fired, ultimately becoming the sole beneficiary of the People's Liberation Army.

Chapter 298 Military History (5) Ammunition Detective

Compared with the National Army's efforts to develop guns and artillery, the Eighth Route Army's military industrial construction was more methodical.

At the 1940 node, the Eighth Route Army, based on the basic situation of having a canteen system as a future aid channel, set a set of development goals that "can be reached by a jump"

And did not blindly pursue speed - after all, those who have food and soldiers

The Eighth Route Army can be more calm, more uncompromising, and more stable and balanced when facing many historical changes. They no longer need to make sacrifices to survive in situations where death is almost certain.

Therefore, after the Eighth Route Army had three Lao Mo production lines in parallel and started a Mauser production line using equipment transferred from the Soviet Union, they decided to temporarily slow down their development of rifles.

The production capacity of submachine guns and light and heavy machine guns has been expanded, and the main focus has been on improving

The production capacity of ammunition.

Compared to firearm production capacity, ammunition consumption, to a certain extent, better reflects a country's ability to withstand the intensity of war. During World War II, during the most intense Soviet-German battlefield, for example, the two sides exchanged 20 to 30 billion rounds of ammunition and hundreds of thousands of tons of artillery shells annually. Historically, the ammunition consumed by the Chinese army and the Nationalist army during the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was probably enough to fight a major battle between the Soviet Union and Germany.

By 40, the Eighth Route Army's military industrial system was able to produce almost all the ammunition in use. The industrial centers of the border area and Huinong could produce various types of artillery shells, such as the widely used MTL mountain artillery ammunition, 82mm recoilless artillery shells, three types of mortar ammunition, grenades, rifle grenades and other explosive ammunition; two types of Mauser bullets, Soviet three-line bullets, Japanese Yusaka bullets and Parabellum pistol bullets and other light and heavy machine gun bullets; in addition, the border area can also produce 25-pound artillery shells except for fuses, as well as a small amount of .50BMG and 40*331 ammunition, which, together with imported ammunition, are supplied to the purchased anti-aircraft machine guns, aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

Base areas further from the border regions have now largely achieved widespread production of 60mm and 82mm mortar ammunition and hand grenades, enabling the production of small quantities of new rounds and the reloading of large quantities of ammunition. Although some base areas lack sufficient production capacity for fuses and percussion caps, requiring transport from border base areas, this provides sufficient supplies for daily guerrilla warfare. Furthermore, base areas with better conditions, such as those in Taihang, Bohai, northern Jiangsu, and Huainan, can even produce some Japanese-style 75mm shells to supply captured Japanese mountain artillery.

However, just after the incident ended in February 1940, the Eighth Route Army discovered some strange "quality problems" with their bullets.

During the February Incident, our army's medical system reported a strange phenomenon.

When treating wounded Kuomintang prisoners of war, the death rate of some Kuomintang prisoners of war in combat was abnormally high compared to other units. These prisoners did not die immediately after being shot, but showed some different symptoms during the subsequent treatment process.

Some of the injured still had severe internal bleeding after emergency hemostasis and died before being sent to a higher-level hospital; another part, often after surgery to remove the bullet and taking sulfa drugs and proper treatment, still developed inexplicable symptoms such as inflammation, subcutaneous fluid accumulation, and long-term wound healing. Some people even suffered metal poisoning reactions and died.

The medical system was deeply concerned about this issue. They sent some patients back to the rear hospital, where X-rays revealed numerous irregular fragments of broken metal in the tissue surrounding the wound site. Consequently, the remaining patients were collectively sent back to the rear hospital for shrapnel removal surgery, assisted by X-rays. After removing as much shrapnel as possible from the tissue, the prisoners were finally saved.

After examining these shrapnel, the Eighth Route Army discovered that these small metal fragments were actually copper sheets - and they were obviously rifle bullets fired by our army.

The strange thing is that almost all of these cases where large amounts of copper fragments were removed from the body

All of them were concentrated among the prisoners of the 28th Division of the 90th Army of the National Army. Such situations were rarely seen among other prisoners.

A joint investigation report was submitted to the Military Commission. While an internal military investigation was underway, the situation was also forwarded to Huang Jingzhai (surname Wang) of the Industrial Commission, who was asked to assist in investigating the cause. A clue soon emerged from the electronic records.

The troops attacking the 28th Division were basically armed with Soviet weapons, and they used a batch of stockpile ammunition produced by the Fushi Ordnance System - the production batch was the batch produced in 39 when it was still in the trial production stage after the switch to surface propellant.

After replacing the "macaroni" propellant in 1939, the Eighth Route Army imported a copper-clad mild steel ammunition from the Soviet Union and tried to produce it. In addition to using a copper-plated steel case, the core material of the bullet was mostly replaced by cheaper mild steel instead of lead alloy. The firing rate was basically the same as the old "L-type" ordinary round.

In the Soviet Union, the Soviet army did not like this bullet very much because it caused great wear and tear on the gun barrel. However, for the Eighth Route Army, if it could be successfully produced, it would be enough to save the relatively scarce lead for the Eighth Route Army.

This is a rather difficult technology, requiring soft steel of a specific steel grade to be processed at a specific speed, combined with a small amount of lead, and then entering a heated rolling mill together with copper sheets to form a tight bonding layer. In the early stages of trial production, the Eighth Route Army had not yet determined the production parameters of this new type of ammunition, such as steel grade, lead addition ratio, and processing speed. The products produced had more or less some quality problems, and often had problems such as unqualified bullet eccentricity, projectile expansion, and excessive nutation, which required constant adjustments.

But among them, there will obviously be some qualified things - the Eighth Route Army is not rich enough to destroy them all.

The military industry quickly located the ammunition factory in Fushi and recovered some remaining "experimental bullets" from the warehouse. They teamed up with the unit's test shooters, brought large bars of soap from the store, set up their rifles on the test range, and began test firing.

The shooter fixed the rifle on a stand, aimed it at the distant bar of soap, pulled the string, and fired the trigger. With a bang, the Old Mo, like countless other normal rifles, successfully discharged the bullet. The bar of soap on the wooden table jumped, and a shower of soapy debris erupted. The powerful 7.62x54R bullet quickly penetrated the thick soap and embedded itself in the log behind the target.

Afterwards, the soldiers checked their guns and put them away, then used thread to cut open the large piece of soap layer by layer. The sight inside the soap made them gasp in shock.

At the entrance to the trajectory, a filthy flower exploded. A string of tiny trajectory paths, like petals, extended from the blast point, leaving a tiny scrap of copper at the end. And the main trajectory, which should have been a single path through the passage, also rapidly expanded after the "explosion," becoming several times wider than before.

They then conducted several test firings, and the results were very similar: the bullet first "exploded" and then flew out either unstable or unsteadily.

This kind of explosion after hitting the target should be a patent of explosive warhead, and should not appear on this ordinary bullet. The arsenal had to find a grinder.

The bullet was ground off in half for analysis.

At this point, everyone had a preliminary understanding of the reason.

At the tip of this bullet, at the interface where the soft steel core meets the copper casing, imperfections in the manufacturing process caused a flaw in the otherwise seamless layered structure, leaving a small cavity behind the copper casing. When the bullet exits the chamber and strikes a person, the soft steel core inside the bullet continues forward due to inertia, continuously squeezing the cavity and eventually rupturing the copper casing, causing the bullet to "explode" and sending debris flying.

Sometimes such explosions disrupt the bullet's trajectory, causing it to become unstable within the body, but sometimes they don't. Even if there's no instability, the shattered copper foil can greatly complicate battlefield surgery and reduce the chances of recovery. And once instability occurs, the already long three-line bullet's warhead can tumble, nutate, or curve within the body, potentially causing severe blood loss and rapid death.

"So, Comrade Xiao Liu, do you think this type of bullet can be widely used?"

Huang Jingzhai from the Central Working Committee found Liu Helian, the "gun designer", and consulted him about the situation.

Liu Helian fiddled with the half-worn bullet in his hand, feeling a bit amused. This technique of utilizing bullet fragmentation and tumbling to increase lethality was the principle behind the high damage caused by small-caliber ammunition in later generations. Yet, without his intervention, the Eighth Route Army had discovered a small part of this trick by accident.

He thought about it carefully, considered it, and shook his head.

"This was, after all, a coincidence during the trial production process. Essentially, it wasn't a designed lethality," Liu Helian said, carefully recalling the information in his mind. "The holes at the tips of these bullets are irregular and non-uniform, indicating a substandard product. If we truly want to increase lethality, we can't rely on blasting copper foil; we have to strive for tumbling and shattering. Besides, full-strength bullets are already quite lethal, so there's no need to rely on these enhancements."

"Rather, this bullet with an irregular center of gravity and a copper shell that explodes will weaken the bullet's penetration and affect its accuracy..."

"Is that so? That's a pity indeed," Huang Jingzhai shook his head in frustration. "I was thinking we should just switch to this type of bullet in the future and give the Japanese a taste of explosives." "Alas, I haven't finished yet."

Liu Helian hastily waved his hand, not intending to pour cold water on his senior. "So, I think we should continue to adjust the bullet manufacturing process based on this idea. Instead of relying on metaphysics and luck to create 'explosive bullets', why not design them so that small bullets can have the lethality of large ones?"

He encouraged, "Designing a bullet is not easy, but we can try more. It doesn't matter if we can't make it, we can still learn from the experience.

"We can hit more soap bars and test the external ballistics. I have some information here for reference. At worst, we can buy some bullets from the Soviet Union or the United States and learn from them."

Both military and civilian bullets are acceptable... Um, no, wait, civilian hunting bullets,

The bullets rolled, shattered, and spread... small and medium-power bullets... "

Suddenly he had an idea.

Chapter 299 Military History (6) Three Eighty-Two

While the exploration of ammunition might be a vision for the future, the improvement of heavy firepower is a more practical matter. Besides the already well-regarded "Turtle Fist" rifle, the Eighth Route Army's three R82 rifles also played a significant role in this battle.

Among them, the most numerous and widely used equipment is the 82mm mortar.

Compared to more numerous and heavier weapons, the 82mm mortar was one of the heaviest weapons an infantryman could carry. While normal deployment requirements dictated that even 60mm mortars be deployed on animal-drawn carts to ensure sufficient ammunition, the Eighth Route Army didn't want their mortars to be unable to fire even a basic amount of ammunition.

However, this was unavoidable in many cases. The 82 mortar, which was disassembled into three parts: barrel, bracket and seat, was divided into three parts by the soldiers and transported to some tricky places to control the area around about 3 kilometers, providing firepower for the running infantry to knock down aircraft guns and enemy mortars.

Of course, at this time, all the soldiers who were close had to help carry a round of ammunition.

The second is the 82mm recoilless rifle, nicknamed "Big Turtle Fist".

This type of artillery had a relatively mature design in history, making it relatively easy for the Eighth Route Army to "time machine-copy" Liu Helian's information. However, during the design process, this type of artillery received assistance from a Soviet recoilless rifle expert: he designed a gun carriage for this type of artillery that weighed only 7 kilograms and adjusted the production process so that part of the barrel processing process could borrow equipment from the 82 ramming production line.

This greatly accelerated the production of this new type of equipment, making it possible to have products available for trial use by the end of 39.

Similar to the "Turtle Fist," nicknamed "a single-person artillery piece," the Eighth Route Army's 82mm recoilless rifle was also a lightweight recoilless rifle utilizing a Laval tube and the recoilless principle. It lacked rifling, and its projectile was stabilized by fins. It had an effective range of approximately 300-400 meters, resulting in a combat weight of approximately 32 kilograms.

Under typical operational conditions, this cannon required a crew of approximately eight men and a packhorse. On weekdays, these artillery pieces served as direct units at the regimental level for training and support, while in wartime, they were deployed down to battalion and company levels to supplement grassroots firepower. In this operation, they served as accompanying firepower for the assault troops, successfully striking the earthen "bunkers" (pillhouses) that Chiang Kai-shek personally instructed them to implement in the "build bunkers and advance" tactic.

Even some strong gunners developed a method of shoulder-mounted artillery and shooting without support, which caused the "Jiquan" shooters to complain: "These comrades have too many arms and too many things to do, and they are taking over our work!"

However, some issues arose during this period of use. For example, due to the rapid advance of frontline troops, some units, in order to engage distant enemies, forced their Type 82 rifles to high elevation and fire indirect fire. While the rounds were successfully fired, the gunners were burned by the exhaust gas, disabling the gun crew. The Front Committee was forced to issue a document reaffirming the regulations for the use of recoilless rifles and prohibiting indirect fire without digging a pit to divert the flow.

When Liu Helian returned to China from the Soviet Union in early 39, he had a brief exchange with Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky at a light weapons exhibition.

This eccentric expert, who had once attempted to install recoilless guns on aircraft and destroyers, was inspired by the "turtle fist" and returned to the development of recoilless weapons. He proposed a gun that used the high-low pressure principle to launch projectiles at a distance—the 82mm high-low pressure gun. However, due to previous poor performance, his design could not be trial-produced in the Soviet Union. He had to seek help from the Eighth Route Army and try to finalize the gun by "exporting it to domestic sales."

The Eighth Route Army agreed to this request. After all, there was no such thing as too many freelance design teams. Besides assisting Kurchevsky with the design, he could at least learn the normal equipment development process. To this end, the Eighth Route Army provided him with an office in Huinong District and some equipment and materials. The old man was also very enthusiastic. In addition to finalizing the design and trial production of his own product, he also helped the Eighth Route Army improve the process design and streamline the manufacturing process for the 82mm rear-view mirror.

Soon, this device named "Kurchev-Liu 82mm high and low pressure howitzer" was successfully produced.

Original designer Kurchev utilized an existing Soviet-made 19K anti-tank gun carriage, attaching a long-barreled gun with the same wall thickness as the 82 breechblock (which also meant the two could be produced on the same production line). This kept the gun's total weight under 450 kilograms, allowing it to be disassembled into several parts for transportation. He believed that if enough time were available to design a dedicated carriage, the gun's weight could be reduced to less than 350 kilograms.

Liu Helian installed a double-chamber muzzle brake on the gun barrel to further reduce the recoil that the gun mount had to withstand. At the same time, the fixed high and low pressure chambers at the rear of the gun in the original design were removed and replaced with a disposable high and low pressure chamber composed of thin iron sheets and metal tubes, which were installed behind the grenade converted from the artillery shell. In this way, the gunner only needs to load once to fire, instead of having to load the warhead and powder bag separately like a large-caliber howitzer.

This type of artillery can fire grenades, smoke bombs, incendiary bombs improved from 82mm shells, and can also fire armor-piercing shells with metal jet warheads.

It has a maximum range of about 1000 meters for armor-piercing shells and 6000 meters for grenades.

Long range - Because of the large pitch rifling inside the barrel, the projectile has a slight spin, and the penetration depth of this armor-piercing projectile against homogeneous armor is slightly lower, only 200 mm (static armor penetration)/100 mm (dynamic armor penetration).

As the largest and longest-range member of the "32 family," the 82mm high-pressure and low-pressure guns actually occupy the position of 37mm and 45mm infantry guns in the current weapon ecosystem, capable of direct-fire support, anti-armor, and limited indirect fire capabilities as infantry guns.

Because it can share the production capacity of gun barrels with other 82 rifles, it is easy to expand production. And the 45mm 19-K infantry gun of the Eighth Route Army was recalled by the Soviet Union due to ammunition quality problems. The Eighth Route Army used this thing to replace the infantry gun in the cotton system, placed it in the direct units at the division level, and decentralized to the regiment level for use in wartime.

During the Soviet-Finnish War, due to the demand from the Soviet Union, Kurchevsky finally realized his dream - to export this artillery back to the Soviet Union. Perhaps due to the battlefield environment, this type of "Kurchev-Liu" high-pressure and low-pressure gun unexpectedly received praise from the Soviet side, and it became a "flower blooming inside the wall and fragrant outside the wall"

Initially, it was used by the Soviet Army as a replacement for regimental artillery.

It simultaneously carried out anti-tank and fire support missions. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the German army used armored forces to advance rapidly. The surge in anti-armor pressure necessitated the use of a large number of armor-piercing shells on this high- and low-pressure gun. Together with the 45mm anti-tank gun, it formed an independent anti-tank unit and was assigned to group units in key areas to supplement the anti-armor force.

In this situation of severe attrition, the "Kurchev-Liu"'s strong productivity began to burst out: it was low-cost and could be mass-produced in factories producing 82mm mortars after adding some equipment; it was easy to operate, similar to ordinary infantry guns, and did not require additional training; it even allowed the firing of modified 82mm mortar shells in an emergency at the cost of about half the direct-fire range.

The Soviets even optimized the breech of the gun, installing it on numerous light tanks, originally equipped with small-caliber 45mm guns, and sent them to the front lines to engage German armor. Because the 100mm dynamic armor-piercing range could even threaten the frontal armor of heavy tanks before the Germans developed the "skirt spaced armor" tech tree, these light tanks, while suffering heavy losses, achieved numerous victories with their small size. Later, this lightweight and adaptable tank gun primarily provided direct fire support for infantry, playing a significant role in urban fighting.

Faced with such a significant victory, the Soviet Artillery General Directorate finally decided not to use the traditional naming method, but to name the artillery "KL-82" (Kurchev-Lau-82 mm) to commemorate its designer.

Chapter 300: More Than Just a Canteen System (Part 2)

Back in early May 1940, Liu Helian was sitting in the cafeteria's office, at a small table, holding a cup of hot water.

Ever since his identity as a time traveler was unlocked and he had come clean with his seniors, his work and life within the organization had undergone tremendous changes. Although he was now nominally the deputy director of the Eighth Route Army's Logistics Committee and concurrently served as a central advisor, he didn't have a specific day-to-day responsibilities. All he had to do was regularly write internal reports for the organization and regularly attend the Anti-Japanese University to teach tactical and campaign courses from the future.

Once there are other tasks or plans, Liu Helian has to play many other roles - the behind-the-scenes agent of the "Huarun System", chairman, talented firearms designer, industrial designer, coordinator of multiple organizational systems, radio instructor, special pilot...

When chatting with Chief of Staff Zuo, he jokingly complained that if he was really a Monkey King as the Chairman said, and could transform into millions of forms by plucking a handful of hair, he would just work for himself.

Comrade Xiao Liu, we haven't oppressed you to this extent, have we? Did Political Commissar Wang criticize you again? "Chief of Staff Zuo laughed heartily. Like Liu Helian, he was a teacher in the staff class of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and was also the chief of staff of the Central Military Commission.

In addition, he is also the person in charge of Liu Helian's political work, which means he reports directly to the Premier. "You have been very busy and dedicated in your work recently. We have all seen it."

"Hey! Political Commissar Wang is really merciless when he scolds people. A few days ago, I was helping the military industry test bullets and researching a batch of ammunition that had some quality issues. As a result, I didn't write down the diary entries for those two days, so I added them later. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention when writing the date and wrote the same day.

"So Political Commissar Wang found out and criticized me."

puff!

Chief of Staff Zuo couldn't help but burst out laughing. Liu Helian spread his hands helplessly and said, "Chief of Staff Zuo, laugh if you want. This isn't a diary, it's a work log. I wrote down everything I did that day and what I learned, so why did I get criticized for it?... It's just a personal diary. I'm not Chiang Kai-shek, so why would I write it?"

"Hahahaha... Hey! Xiao Liu, please don't interrupt me. Chiang Kai-shek's diary is his secret diary. The diaries of us Communists are not just work logs.

It is also a tool for self-summary and self-reflection!

"Even if you finish writing a few hundred words on the same day, you still have to record your freshest and most sincere feelings and share them with everyone at our democratic life meeting!

"If you really need to write it for work reasons, why not just state it directly and clearly state the reason? We can all see it."

"oh, I understand now."

According to the Central Committee's assessment of him, Liu Helian is the type who speaks his mind, finds ways to complete tasks with absolute quality and quantity; but if he is asked to take the initiative to add burdens to himself, it is probably only when he is called "making trouble" that he will have unceasing enthusiasm and more creative thinking.

In other aspects, he can basically meet the standards of an excellent comrade. Except that he likes to eat more than other comrades, there is no major problem.

Therefore, the political work on Liu Helian was relatively easy to do. The focus was basically on his mental state and fluctuations. For example, when some comrades he knew became ill, injured or even sacrificed, the mental state of this young man from the future would always fluctuate and require timely intervention.

Liu Helian himself preferred this kind of frank conversation. Chatting and sharing his heart with Chief of Staff Zuo, a comrade he had worked with for over three years, helped him to prune away some of his unnecessary psychological ties and adjust his state of mind.

Mr. Chang's little tricks are basically just crosstalk in his pants, and everyone knows it. If he loses at the gambling table, he always thinks that if he goes all in, he'll win the next time, or if he can find gold in the card pool... and get his money back with interest.

After the conversation, it was time for the usual casual chat. Thinking that the Prime Minister was probably in Gaojing these days, concluding negotiations with Grandma He, Liu Helian couldn't help but sigh. The February Incident was something he had never seen before: "Look, we've just swung a stick at them, forced them to behave themselves, and only then will they sit down and talk properly. Alas, it's a pity we can't quickly take over the Kuomintang-controlled areas. If the Japanese invaders were gone, why not just march into the temporary capital..."

"Everything still needs to be done according to objective laws and proceed step by step. Once we have trained the troops well and taught more cadres, and the Japanese invaders are driven out, we will have a lot of good cards in our hands and will not be afraid of any tricks played by the reactionaries." Staff Officer Zuo held a notebook, and the two walked out of the room and went down the stairs of the cafeteria building.

"Comrade Xiao Liu, look at what this canteen you brought here has become—we're still short of supplies and underdeveloped!"

The first-floor lobby was once the largest area of ​​the campus cafeteria, where most students ate their fast food. As the cheapest and most generously portioned, but also the worst-tasting, dining area, it was inevitably packed and uncomfortably crowded during mealtimes at later universities.

But is it available now?

The first floor tiles had long been pried off, the tables and chairs removed, and instead, several light steel rails had been laid to push human-powered rail cars to facilitate the increasing density of shipments. The television screens and monitors attached to the walls and mounted on the pillars had all been removed. The "mini fire station" and the eight-piece riot gear set in the corner had long since disappeared, likely taken away for research shortly after they were dropped. Even the speakers used for broadcasting had not escaped the fate they had—they contained amplifier components that played a huge role.

In short, aside from items that couldn't be dismantled, would break if dismantled, or could be sold in supermarkets, all the movable and immovable property in the cafeteria fell victim to the Eighth Route Army's brutal "murderous hands," completely removed. These non-dish and non-food items were either consumables or part of the cafeteria's fixed assets, making replenishment extremely difficult and restrictive. However, the food production equipment in the cafeteria's back kitchen remained functional, and the trans-dimensional trade in goods remained operational. Xiao Liu could only silently meditate on the idea of ​​"out of sight, out of mind," consoling himself by saying, "This is helpful to the revolutionary cause."

However, his obsessive-compulsive disorder made him feel nauseous looking at this construction-site-like situation, so he could only avoid the topic and ask, "By the way, Chief of Staff Zuo, what's the current balance on our account?"

"Isn't it always available on your phone? Not to mention the daily recycling and trade, hasn't our work team been working in the Guanzhong area lately? Some reactionaries, some extremely wicked landlords, some diehards who committed crimes during this conflict, still want to continue to play the role of puppet emperors. Our team beat them up. Just the day before yesterday, when you went to the munitions factory, you brought in a lot of seized property."

Chief of Staff Zuo recalled: "You really don't know until you see it. It's shocking! The comrades put the items one by one into the recycling circle. Just the things from that old Jin merchant's home took almost a whole day to recycle. Apart from some that were donated to the museum over there, there are still many old items that have been recycled at a huge price. Now on the books, there are still tens of millions... "

Before he could finish his words, Chief of Staff Zuo suddenly became alert: "Comrade Xiao Liu, what do you want the money for? What are you planning to do?"

"How could that be! How could that be! Chief of Staff Zuo, please don't slander a good person out of thin air!" Liu Helian raised his hands in surrender, feeling wronged. "I was just asking, out of concern..."

His phone suddenly vibrated, indicating a new message—after traveling through time, it had been modified by the Danteng aliens and could now receive shortwave radio signals. "Oh, the Prime Minister has reached an agreement and sent a call to Guosu..."

Just as Liu Helian had just swiped his finger across the screen to unlock it and was about to check the new information, the entire cafeteria system rumbled and began to shake as if there was an earthquake.