Chapter 15: with translation of chapter title

Being young is great—sleep when you want, wake when you should!

Qin Miao opened his eyes and saw the breakfast placed beside him: a half lunchbox of millet porridge, steaming, with chopsticks resting on top, and on the chopsticks lay two big meat buns.

This "big meat" doesn't mean fatty meat; it's a genuine big meat bun, each the size of a fist, and the aroma must be pork and fennel!

"Awake? Come, eat quickly! I asked Old Zhou, and he said you like the meat buns from the staff cafeteria best, so I bought them back for you."

"Mm, thank you, Director Lu." Qin Miao plopped upright, picked up the meat bun, and in two or three bites it was gone into his stomach.

"Don't rush, eat slowly, don't choke, have a sip of porridge."

"Mm, it's fine."

Student Qin Miao, yesterday we tested the machine tool—what we cut out, is it a die for a pressure cooker's stamping mold?

"Yes."

This kid actually admitted it. Director Lu glanced around; good, nobody else came.

"Student Qin Miao! What we urgently need is to master the processing technology for jujube‑core shells; even if it's just a test, you could rough out a jujube‑core shape—this… isn't it a waste?"

"How is this a waste? To debug the machine tool you need the simplest shape; if we directly made jujube‑core shells we couldn't detect any error—these days everybody's been busy for ages and only produced scrap; that's the real waste!"

Director Lu turned his head toward the door; good, nobody came.

"Anyway it's just a test, I might as well make a pressure‑cooker mold; that way I finish debugging the machine tool and get a simple mold—two birds with one stone, that's saving." Qin Miao glanced at the Zhongshan suit beside him: "Director Lu, thank you for the clothes."

"It's fine, you kid—since you came to Ha Gong Da you haven't rested a day." Director Lu said: "Living and eating in the lab all day, really hard work, today…"

"By the way, today we have a class meeting!"

"The class meeting isn't important; later I'll give you a heads‑up—what matters most is getting the jujube‑core shell out as fast as we can!"

"Sigh, Director Lu… actually… it's not that I won't solve it; it's that this jujube‑core shell is just a useless thing!"

"What did you say? You jerk, you're definitely trying to screw us over? You…"

Lu Yongping's face changed; he looked toward the door—Professor Yuan had arrived, and beside him was someone in a green military uniform!

Oh no, oh no! Qin Miao is going to suffer a big loss—this kid really is plagued by misfortune…

Deng deng deng!

Professor Yuan strode in, eyes blazing; after returning late last night he hadn't slept well, keep thinking about the connection between pressure cookers and shells; this morning when military personnel came to ask for results, he could only bring along Representative Zhao; along the way he kept praising how capable Qin Miao was, saying the unit's task would surely be finished quickly—little did he expect…

What a trap!

While speaking, Professor Yuan had already rolled up his sleeves.

"Old Yuan, don't rush, kid—tell us, how is this jujube‑core shell a useless thing?" Representative Zhao spoke.

"Our ordinary high‑explosive shell is a conical shape—small in front, big in back—so the internal space is ample; take this 152 mm caliber ordinary HE shell, it can hold 5.8 kg of explosive, with a kill radius of fifty meters and coverage of eight thousand square meters—definitely a one‑shot wide area."

Representative Zhao nodded: "Exactly!"

"Now we want to make the HE shell's nose pointed at both ends; that way the internal volume will greatly shrink, less explosive can be packed, reducing power—this doesn't meet our army's equipment development goals."

"What goal? Firepower first!"

"Back in the days of millet plus rifles, we got blasted to pieces by enemy planes and guns, could only fill the gaps with lives, thus developing a fear of insufficient firepower. Over the years, which general wouldn't want more artillery for his troops? Reducing artillery power—who would like that!"

"I didn't expect your eyes to still be so sharp. Sigh." Professor Yuan wasn't as angry as before; he sighed and began to explain.

"We certainly noticed this flaw, but right now our top priority is solving the range problem; as long as we can increase range, even a bit less power is acceptable—the jujube‑core shell is the only route without altering the gun; once we solve the processing craft, we can earn great merit for the troops!"

Currently, the main weapon providing firepower coverage for the troops is the Type 66 152 mm gun‑howitzer, a copy of the Soviet D‑20 gun, equipped to military artillery and artillery divisions, used to suppress and destroy enemy personnel, demolish fortifications, knock out armored targets, etc.

This gun performs excellently; in the army it's an evergreen, still in service with the troops up until Qin Miao's rebirth. Only it can ease the army's fear of insufficient firepower.

Just last year, this gun saw its first battle—216 barrels fired together, and in less than half an hour they launched several thousand shells, turning the enemy's positions into a sea of fire.

In subsequent rotational engagements it performed just as well, once setting a record of killing three thousand people in a single day!

However, this gun has a drawback: its maximum range is only 16.8 km, so artillery can only be emplaced a dozen kilometers behind the front line; although it already leaves the enemy unable to tell north from south, it also risks enemy counter‑battery fire.

Increasing range is currently the most urgent improvement item!

Thus, the experts at Ha Gong Da turned their attention to the jujube‑core shell that had just begun to gain popularity internationally. Too bad, the processed shells have such huge test‑fire dispersion that they fly off target when launched—having range but no aim is no good!

"Sigh, this jujube‑core shell idea is a bizarre notion that only Dr. Bu'er Boshi the madman would come up with—it's long obsolete!" Qin Miao shook his head.

"Obsolete? What do you know, kid?"

"During flight, because the shell moves so fast, the air behind can't react in time to fill the tail, creating a low‑pressure zone that interacts with the high‑pressure zone at the nose, producing a rear‑pulling force on the shell; making the tail of a jujube‑core shell a cone creates a perfect fluid flow in air, reducing drag but bringing many more problems!"

"Kid, you know quite a lot!"

"Old Yuan, you don't know—this kid has done great work in Department Four; aerodynamics and such he's already studied thoroughly." Lu Yongping spoke, his own recruited talent—could it be lacking?

"Talking about this is useless; tell us how to solve it without jujube‑core shells—do you, kid, have any other way?"

"Yes!"

"What method?" Everyone looked on with anticipation.

"The simplest method: carve a pit in the rear of the shell head!"

"What did you say? Your idea is just a big pit!" Professor Yuan felt the anger rising again in waves.