Chapter 13

In the base's hot and bustling production, a month passed.

During this period, the base's chemical factory, cooperating with the border region's arsenal, produced ten thousand rounds of bullets and one thousand two hundred grenades, and reloaded thirty thousand rounds of bullets.

Moreover, today the national policy "Aid from France" has been completed to unlock, and now the brand-new weapons and equipment ammunition are being stored.

With the copper obtained from trade by the workers' factory and the confirmation of copper mines in the rear, Zhang Qian finally decided to put the expansion of the bullet factory on the agenda, striving to let the entire army and all divisions get rid of the troublesome reloaded bullets as soon as possible.

"The copper reserves in Shaanxi and Shanxi are not bad."

However, the collection of mineral resources is also a problem; the Eighth Route Army's arsenal lacks smelting equipment and technical conditions, and the copper currently used mainly comes from cutting telephone lines from the Japanese army, as well as copper coins (money) donated by the people, and copper utensils such as incense burners and candlesticks.

To encourage the people to actively donate war materials, at the time the general approach was paid procurement, and the headquarters' logistics department specifically set clear purchase prices for nineteen kinds of war materials.

While Zhang Qian was still thinking about how to handle the problem of raw material extraction, a voice came from outside the door: Wang Dexing's.

"Minister, the three regiment commanders of the 386th Brigade have come, and they are currently chatting with Minister Zhang; do you think it's convenient to come over now?"

Zhang Qian pondered, thinking that these three must have learned about the weapons and equipment, so he followed Wang Dexing to Zhang Wanhe's office.

Before seeing the person, Zhang Qian heard Li Yunlong's voice from afar.

"Let me tell you, Kong Er lengzi, the brigade commander said about this batch of war materiel that he only wants half, and the rest belongs to us three; look at how capable my fellow townsman is, hahaha."

Zhang Qian pushed open the door and entered the office, seeing four people talking. Besides his two fellow townsmen, a man who looked honest and simple, a slightly chubby round-faced man, was on the heated brick bed watching Li Yunlong boast; another man who looked very upright, smoking a pipe, said to Li Yunlong: "You keep saying the same few things over and over; those who don't know might think you, Li Yunlong, have taken a fancy to some family's yellow-flowered maiden."

Everyone's gaze gathered on Zhang Qian with the sound of the opening door, and Zhang Wanhe spoke first to introduce Zhang Qian: "These two are the independent regiment commander Kong Jie of our 386th Brigade and the regiment commander Cheng of the nd Regiment; they three regiment commanders came today for that batch of war materiel that arrived at our logistics department today."

After Zhang Wanhe finished the introduction, Cheng Xiazi stood up, shook Zhang Qian's hand, and expressed his gratitude.

Kong Jie looked at Zhang Qian and said: "I've long heard that Comrade Zhang Qian of our logistics department is a handsome talent; meeting you today is truly a great fortune."

"Haha, Regiment Commander Kong, you overpraise me; we are all comrades resisting Japan and saving the nation, and your saying this makes me feel embarrassed."

Seeing the two chatting happily, Li Yunlong, unable to sit still, interjected: "You, Kong Er lengzi, what are you pretending to be by putting a scallion in your pig's nose? You just met and already started sucking up? That Lao Zhang over there is from our Dabie Mountains, a scholar. What kinship do you, an outsider, have with us? You don't even know a single character of a dou (measure), you can't tell which way is up when a carrying pole falls over; after going to Yan'an you still pretended to be refined. You, Zhu Bajie wearing glasses, pretending to be a college student!"

Watching the two quarreling, Zhang Qian showed a smile he hadn't had in a while; this period's work had kept his nerves constantly tense.

Cheng Xiazi interrupted the conversation between Kong and Li toward Zhang Qian, saying: "Minister Zhang, I don't know where this batch of weapons and equipment is now, what its condition is, can we go take a look first?"

"Sure, no problem, I'll take you to see them. Except for the mortars being a bit old, the rifles and machine guns are still about ninety percent new."

Everyone followed Zhang Qian to the warehouse, where neat rows of weapon boxes came into view.

Li Yunlong, who had never encountered French goods before, was the first to open a box, and he brought out a nearly brand-new Chauchat light machine gun.

He first removed the sickle-shaped magazine to examine it, then looked at the sight composed of a plate-shaped front sight and a U-notch rear sight, and finally felt the bipod.

"Old Li today has really broadened his horizons; I originally thought the Japanese's crooked gun was already ugly enough, but what the heck is this Chauchat? This magazine is so thin and flimsy, it feels like it would easily deform, wouldn't that cause feeding problems? And it's even see-through—what's the use of that, it just lets stuff get in; in my view, firing it will definitely cause jams."

Li Yunlong held the light machine gun with some disdain, shaking the bipod.

"This bipod feels like it was raised by a stepmother; the quality feels really poor."

Hearing this, Zhang Qian's face darkened a bit. He knew the problems with the Chauchat light machine gun, but he didn't expect Li Yunlong's eyes to be so sharp that he could spot so many issues just by observation, without even test-firing.

At this moment, Kong Jie opened a box; inside lay five rifles. He took one out, examined it carefully, aimed it at a large tree outside the warehouse, then put it down.

"This box contains mortars; come help me, I can't carry it alone." Zhang Qian said to the four: "Don't test these mortars in the logistics department—there aren't many shells. Wait until you go with the transport team to the brigade headquarters to test-fire them. But I'll say up front, these three weapons are outdated old junk; after testing, don't complain."

"Old Zhang, where are the bullets? Let me try this foreign gadget to see if it works." Li Yunlong asked with a grin, holding the light machine gun.

Zhang Qian took out the bullets, and everyone went together to the logistics department's weapons testing range.

After loading the bullets one by one into the sickle-shaped magazine and inserting it into the gun, Li Yunlong placed the gun on the table, left hand supporting the stock against his shoulder, right hand gripping the trigger, standing in a bow-and-arrow stance.

He took a deep breath, aligned his sight through the mechanical sights, lining up the three points on the distant cover, and the barrel steadily aimed at the sandbag on the cover.

"You try firing a magazine first."

Zhang Qian, while loading bullets into the new magazine, instructed.

To demonstrate the effect of this light machine gun, at least two magazines of bullets must be fired this time.

"Okay."

Nodding his head, Li Yunlong pulled the trigger.

Rat-tat-tat... rat-tat-tat

With the vibration of the gun body, a series of crisp gunshots rang out.

Under Li Yunlong's control, the light machine gun emitted a series of short bursts, fully demonstrating that his shooting skill was indeed not bad.

This made Kong Jie and Cheng Xiazi a bit disappointed; they had still planned to mock Li Yunlong's shooting skill, and then take their turn to test the gun.

Everyone followed the muzzle to look at the sandbag behind the distant cover; the bullets hitting the sandbag didn't make much noise, but the power of the bullets was clearly seen by all.

"This gun is not bad." Li Yunlong set the gun down, rubbed his shoulder. "But the recoil is too strong, and the bipod lacks strength, shaking like sifting chaff."

Seeing that the situation turned out better than expected, Zhang Qian also imitated Li Yunlong's posture, inserting both ends of the magazine into the gun and aiming at the distant sandbag.

"Click"

The scene became a bit embarrassing; Zhang Qian's test shot misfired on the first round, jamming right at the start.

He adjusted his mindset, pulled the bolt again, and inserted his finger into the ejection port to adjust the bullet's position.

"Rat, click"

Zhang Qian adjusted without changing his expression, thinking: "Another jam—this is just how bolt-action machine guns are; love it, love it—how did the French army hold on until 1941? This gun raises blood pressure!"

Whether or not it was due to Zhang Qian's shooting skill, twenty bullets jammed three times in a row. He told the three regiment commanders, "You've also seen the pros and cons of this light machine gun, but I believe you'll find a solution."

Next, Kong Jie tested the rifle; the MLE 1886 rifle doesn't have many problems—just because of its loading method, there's a certain chance of accidental discharge, reloading is slow, and ejection is weak.

"Milk method! Milk method!"

After instructing that the new mortar's range was only 450 meters, the three regiment commanders, with expressions unreadable by anyone, set out with the logistics department's transport team toward the brigade headquarters.

Zhang Qian watched their retreating backs, wearing a constipated-looking embarrassment. "Black cat, white cat—as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat; the troops will surely find a way to use these weapons!"

Suddenly he stomped his foot!

"Damn it, I forgot to ask what Cheng Xiazi's real name is, and he's not even blind!"