After hearing what the brigade commander said, Huang He was not surprised.

If someone asks what is most important to the Eighth Route Army at this stage, it is undoubtedly bullets and grenades.

The former is the foundation of the army's combat effectiveness, and the latter is the best choice for dealing with the enemy's sudden attack tactics.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Eighth Route Army was plagued by insufficient ammunition.

The nickname "Three Guns and Eight Routes" comes from the fact that veterans in the army always emphasize that three rounds of bullets are needed to destroy an enemy, and a charge must be launched after the attack.

All the old Japanese know that fighting the Eighth Route Army is very difficult and dangerous. They don't have many bullets, so they are rich in sharpshooters.

However, no matter how much you save ammunition, the consumption of bullets is inevitable. Without purchasing channels and your own military factory, it will only be water without roots.

In the early days of the war, our troops mainly focused on raids, ambush and blocking operations.

In the process, destroy the enemy's transportation, cut off the enemy's supply lines, and strive to achieve maximum results with minimum consumption.

But even so, our combat discipline still requires that the troops cannot fight for too long.

There was a surprise attack on a Japanese airport, and the battle ended in just one hour. In addition, 24 Japanese fighter jets were bombed, which became headline news in the Chinese and foreign media.

Therefore, at that time, the ammunition of our troops was generally maintainable.

However, with the continuous expansion of base areas and the increase in the frequency and scale of battles, the troops' demand for weapons and ammunition has increased sharply.

The demand is expanding, but the supply is increasingly insufficient. Faced with this situation, the troops can only work more on seizures.

Combat seizures can be said to be an important source of ammunition for the Eighth Route Army, but two conditions need to be met for this.

Not only does it need to be an organized unit to eat up the Japanese, but it also needs to be fast.

The Japanese today are very stubborn, and they often fight to the end and would rather die than surrender.

This caused the Japanese to consume a lot of ammunition when resisting, and once the defeat was determined, these beasts would directly destroy the supplies, which would lead to a loss of money if they were not careful.

For many units, seizures do not replenish consumption, or simply balance the situation.

Especially ammunition, which is often consumed more than captured, is really hard to make ends meet.

Therefore, every shot and bullet are hard-won, and soldiers often have to pay the price with their blood and even their lives.

In addition, due to long-term funding constraints, the amount of money that can be used to purchase weapons and ammunition is very limited.

The base area has been blocked and embargoed, so there is no way to buy it.

When fighting the Japanese, the most common thing the troop commanders said was to aim and hit at a close range, and never fire until the enemy is killed.

By various coincidences, the cavalry, which should have withdrawn from the stage of the times long ago, ushered in a second spring in this land.

Because of the above reasons, reloading bullets has become a top priority for various military factories in the rear.

Reloading, in layman's terms, means recycling cartridge casings.

Then clean and reshape the cartridge case, install the primer, load the ammunition, and load the warhead.

When it comes to black powder, we are ancestors. A large number of people in the base area are mobilized to boil salt and make gunpowder. Reloadable bullets are not as simple as imagined.

There are many processes involved, the first is to collect used bullet casings.

We all know that the troops have shooting discipline, and the soldiers will recycle the shells as much as possible and bring them back to the logistics department arsenal for screening and repair after the battle.

Only those cartridge cases that are not deformed or cracked can be used to avoid accidents such as explosion or mismatch.

But this is not a long-term solution after all.

After soldiers use reloaded bullets, their already battle-scarred weapons will be more or less prone to explosions.

Zhang Wanhe hears many complaints from frontline commanders every month.

The second step is to recreate the primer.

Comrades usually cut copper sheets from broken brass cartridge cases and stamp them into copper bowls.

After adding mercury fulminate, it is re-embedded into the bottom of the cartridge case, and then the granulated gunpowder is loaded into the cartridge case according to the specified weight.

Finally add the warhead.

The usual method is to make a mold for the bullet head, stamp a copper plate into the mold to form a jacket, and then pour molten lead into it.

Bullets reloaded through the above methods have many shortcomings. For example, the gunpowder is easily affected by moisture due to poor sealing performance, there are many shooting residues, the range is short, the accuracy is poor, the muzzle velocity is low, and the warhead shape is also unsatisfactory.

And currently the arsenal can only produce round-nose warheads.

Sometimes the copper plate is not stamped well, resulting in cracks and exposing the lead core.

But it could also be a blessing in disguise and become a disguised dum bomb.

When troops use this kind of bullet, they generally will not shoot at enemies 100 meters away. No one knows where the bullet will fly beyond this distance, and there is a high probability that it will have no lethality.

And even this kind of bullet, which is not even considered a defective product in the eyes of the Japanese, can be regarded as a huge achievement of the Logistics Department's arsenal based on the industrial level of the base area at that time.

The troops rely on reloading bullets, which greatly alleviates the difficulty of ammunition shortage. This can be regarded as the last glory of black powder in the world.

After sorting out his thoughts, Huang He looked at the three of them and said

"As for bullets, although I personally despise reloading bullets, we won't be able to get rid of them in a short time."

"In addition to the lack of materials in the current base area, another problem is that the caliber of bullets is not uniform."

"We have too many types of weapons on hand. The bullets used in the 38 cover and crooked handle are 6.5x50mm, and the Type 92 heavy machine gun uses 7.7x58mm. The bullets used in the Hanyang-made and Czech light machine guns are

7.92x57mm."

"Coupled with all kinds of Wanguo brand weapons. If we build a new bullet factory, the logistics pressure will be too great. Lao Zhang and I will definitely die suddenly."

Huang He looked at the brigade commander's expectant eyes and told him his recent arrangements.

Unifying bullet caliber is something that must be done, but it can only be done step by step.

This is not only to reduce logistical pressure, but also to improve battlefield survival rate.

Many of our soldiers now use weapons that captured the Japanese, and the sound of firing different guns is also different.

If it is a stalemate battle between the two sides at night, most comrades will not be able to see anything and can only rely on the sound to judge whether the Japanese are approaching.

When they hear the gunfire around them being made in Hanyang, the soldiers will feel more secure.

But if there are all the sounds of San Ba ​​Da Gai, normal people will instinctively feel scared, and it will confuse the audience.

Therefore, in order to increase the survival rate of recruits and make them more heroic in combat, sooner or later, our own weapons production line must be established.

Determining the quotas provided in the first month of "establishing the Academy of Sciences", Huanghe selected five researchers majoring in ammunition engineering and explosive technology.

Although he himself is good at chemistry, professional matters should be left to professionals.

These researchers are proficient in ammunition system analysis and design, explosion physics, ballistics, terminal effects, dynamic detection technology, impact dynamics, explosion technology, safety engineering, etc.

Moreover, they have strong hands-on skills and can make bullets by hand even under limited conditions.

These people are good at teaching and can teach students in accordance with their aptitude and pass on their skills to comrades in the base area.

"I have arranged a lot of things this month, and I specially obtained a batch of copper."

"And I can also increase the lethality of bullets, whether they are new or reloaded."

Hearing that the lethality of bullets could be increased, Li Yunlong, who was originally a good boy, suddenly became energetic and hurriedly asked Huang He what to do.

"You two should know the biggest difference between our bullets and the Japanese bullets."

Faced with this question, the brigade commander and Zhang Wanhe nodded.

"We use black powder due to technical issues, but smokeless powder is indispensable for modern weapons."

"The power of black powder itself is limited. Bullets made from black powder can indeed kill and injure enemies, but the effect is not satisfactory."

"The first batch of smokeless gunpowder in the world was invented by the French. I studied it when I was in school, and I knew it would be useful one day."

"For the past month, I have been thinking about how to produce a method of making smokeless gunpowder under limited conditions. Recently, I have come to a general conclusion."

"You are not specialized in chemical engineering, so I won't explain the specific steps to you."

Huang He's words made Li Yunlong confused. As a big boss, he had seen black powder, but he didn't know what smokeless gunpowder was.

But since the brigade commander was by his side, he couldn't be fooled, so he could only ask patiently:

"Director Huang, when can we use the smokeless gunpowder you mentioned?"

"The method I just mentioned is a local refining method. The shipment rate of the finished product is not high, and it will be dangerous to a certain extent."

"But this step is a step we must take. In the next few days, I will find the right people to teach the method. If it is soon the end of this year, or at the latest early next year, our bullets will have obvious changes."<

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Huang He touched his chin and thought. He didn't know how to word his next words.

Seeing that he was obviously worried, the brigade commander took the initiative and asked: "If you have any problems, just tell me and I will try my best to help you deal with it."

"My abilities are limited after all. I hope to set up a school in the rear area. I want to teach talented people everything I know."

"And my friends will return to China one after another. They also want to contribute to the cause of resisting Japan. Victory is based on the production of weapons."

When Huang He said this, he was trying to pave the way for researchers who would continue to come to the base area.
Chapter completed!