Chapter 8: The Last Glory of Black Powder and Future Plans

After hearing the brigade commander's words, Zhang Qian was not surprised; for the current Eighth Route Army, timely replenishment of ammunition is the most important matter.

In the early stage of the War of National Defense, our troops mainly conducted raids, ambushes, and blocking actions, destroying enemy transportation and cutting off supply lines. Even so, our combat discipline required that battle time not be too long; for example, a surprise attack on Yangmingbao Airport was resolved in just one hour, and 24 aircraft were destroyed. Thus, in the early war our unit's ammunition supply was generally adequate.

But as the base area continuously expanded and troops grew, and combat frequency and scale increased, demand for weapons and ammunition surged. Demand rose while supply became increasingly insufficient. Battlefield captures were also not easy; although the Eighth Route Army's captures led the nation, for many units captures could not offset consumption, or only broke even. Especially ammunition, consumption often exceeded capture, truly a case of outgo exceeding income. Moreover, the Japanese are now very tenacious, often fighting to the death in last-ditch resistance, making every bullet and round hard-won, often requiring Eighth Route Army soldiers to pay with blood and even life. Furthermore, due to long-term financial strain, funds available for purchasing weapons and ammunition are very limited, and the base area is under blockade and embargo, making procurement ever more difficult.

When fighting the Japanese, unit commanders often said things like "aim and fire, fire at close range, never shoot unless you kill the enemy." It is precisely for these reasons that cavalry, which should have long exited the historical stage, has enjoyed a second spring on this land.

For these reasons, reloading ammunition has become the top priority work.

Reloading, colloquially speaking, means recovering cartridge cases, then cleaning, reshaping, installing primers, loading propellant, and seating bullets. Speaking of black powder, we are old hands at it; after mobilizing the masses in the base area to extensively produce niter and make gunpowder, reloading bullets is far from as simple as one might imagine.

This process involves many steps; first is collecting spent cartridge cases. The troops have firing discipline, and soldiers will try to recover as many cases as possible. After battle, they bring them back to the logistics department arsenal for screening and repair; only those without deformation or rupture can be used, to avoid barrel bursts or misfires. But manpower is always limited; after using reloaded ammunition, weapons already scarred from combat will sometimes experience barrel bulging, and Zhang Wanhe hears many complaints from frontline commanders each month,

Next is remaking the primer; usually one cuts copper from damaged brass cases, presses it into a copper cup, adds mercury fulminate, and firmly inserts it into the case base; only then is the granulated propellant loaded into the case at the prescribed weight.

Finally, the bullet tip is added. The usual method is to make a bullet mold, press a copper sheet into the mold to form a jacket, then pour in molten lead. Such reloaded bullets have many drawbacks: poor sealing makes powder prone to moisture, fouling is heavy, range is short, accuracy poor, muzzle velocity low, and the bullet shape is far from ideal.

Moreover, the arsenal can currently only produce round-nose bullet tips; sometimes the copper sheet stamping is poor, causing a rupture that exposes the lead core, but this may also fortuitously turn into a de facto dumdum bullet.

When using this ammunition, troops generally do not engage enemies beyond 100 meters. Even though this bullet is considered substandard even by Japanese standards, given the industrial level of the base area at the time, it can be regarded as a great achievement of the base arsenal; troops relying on reloaded ammunition have greatly alleviated the ammunition shortage—this may be the last glory of black powder in the world.

"Regarding ammunition, I think we should still mainly rely on reloaded bullets. Besides material shortages, the base also faces the problem of non-uniform bullet calibers. The weapons we have are far too many: the Type 38 rifle and the crooked-handle rifle use 6.5×50mm Arisaka rifle ammunition, while the Type 92 heavy machine gun uses 7.7×58mm Arisaka rifle ammunition. The Hanyang-made rifle and the Czech light machine gun use 7.92×57mm rifle ammunition.

"Adding all the various miscellaneous foreign-brand weapons, if we were to specially build a dedicated bullet factory, the logistical burden would be too great, and Old Zhang and I would surely drop dead from overwork." Zhang Qian said embarrassedly under the brigade commander's expectant gaze.

"Ah, I was imagining things too simply; you're not omnipotent either."

"But I can obtain copper, and I can also increase the lethality of bullets, whether newly produced or reloaded."

Upon hearing that bullet lethality could be increased, the originally well-behaved Li Yunlong suddenly became spirited and hurriedly asked Zhang Qian how to do it.

"Brigade Commander, Old Zhang, you should know what the biggest difference is between our bullets and the Japanese bullets, right? Exactly, it's the propellant. Because of our technical limitations we use black powder, but modern weapons cannot do without smokeless powder. Black powder's inherent power is limited; bullets made with it can indeed wound the enemy, but the effect is mediocre. The first smokeless powders were developed by the French; I studied them specially in school, so I knew they'd be useful someday. Over the past month I've been thinking about how to produce smokeless powder under our limited conditions, and I've now reached a rough conclusion. Since you're not specialists in chemical engineering, I won't go into the detailed steps for you."

Zhang Qian's words left Li Yunlong bewildered; as a rough-and-tumble fellow who had seen black powder, he had no idea what smokeless powder was.

But since the brigade commander is right beside him, he also doesn't want to act rashly, so he can only patiently ask: "Section Chief Zhang, when can we use the smokeless powder you mentioned?"

"The method I just described is a makeshift production; the yield of finished product is not high, and it also carries some danger. But this is a step we must take; in the coming days I will find suitable people to pass on the method, and if things go quickly we could see it by year's end, at the latest early next year, our bullets will undergo a noticeable change."

Zhang Qian stroked his chin, pondering, unsure how to phrase the upcoming words.

Seeing Zhang Qian obviously hesitant, the brigade commander took the initiative to ask: "Kid, just say what's on your mind, and I'll do my best to help you handle it."

"My personal abilities are ultimately limited; I hope to establish a school in the rear base, where I can teach everything I know to talented people. Moreover, my friends will also return to the country one after another, and they too wish to contribute to the War of Resistance against Japan. Victory is founded on weapons production; we will surely one day drive the enemy into the sea."

"------Author's idle talk

This section has popped up again; today's writing process feels like writing a thesis again. I chatter on about this bit. Back then, although we were poor, it wasn't truly utter misery. Although the arsenal's equipment was few, it wasn't nonexistent. These few pieces of equipment were partly purchased, but mainly obtained through requisition and capture; how could it be that we only had awls, furnaces, and a few big hammers?

As for this makeshift chemical engineering, you might find it a bit toxic; some readers might say, "Hey, you have a system, just swap it out directly." But this is my finicky point: I want to enable some cheats while also staying plausible. So I decided to limit the number of exchangeable products, sigh—my pig brain is overloaded; really, I say whatever comes to mind, please bear with me.