Chapter Fifty-Four Was Not Easy

  "Krupp armory? Arms expert?"

  When Sima heard Strum describe himself, he looked at the German in front of him with incredulity. After all, in Sima's eyes, Strum was just a mechanical expert and had never thought that he was an arms expert.

  Moreover, he was an armaments expert from the Krupp Armory, thanks to the information of later generations, few young people in later generations did not know the great name of the Krupp Armory. Now, there was actually someone who claimed to be an armaments expert from the Krupp Armory standing in front of him, and Sima couldn't even believe his own ears.

  "Of course, if it weren't for your government ordering a batch of machines from Germany to expand the arsenal and I, as a random expert from Krupp Arsenal, came to help your country expand the arsenal, then now I should be in Germany doing my duty as a German citizen during this war."

  Shiduomu explained to Sima that Shiduomu's story was simple, and in today's China, he didn't know how many German nationals like him were stranded in China due to the war.

  Apart from the German troops in Qingdao who were sent to prisoner-of-war camps, more Germans in China served German companies. The outbreak of war left most of these Germans unemployed, with only a few lucky ones like Staudt finding decent work in China that ensured they had enough to eat and wear, while others barely scraped by because they could not find suitable employment.

  "Are you sure we can manufacture guns in our factory?"

  If our factory can produce guns, then Sima won't have to be extorted by the Japanese anymore. In today's China, apart from Japanese firms, almost no other foreign firm is in the arms business, all because of that damned war in Europe.

  "Of course, the machines in our factory can certainly produce weapons, but some key equipment still needs to be made by hand, such as the lathe for making rifle barrels. However, the current equipment in the factory cannot produce bullets, so bullets still need to be purchased externally."

  Shih said that the reason why he mentioned that factories can manufacture weapons is because any factory with CNC machines can manufacture weapons, of course, some specialized fixtures are needed. Northwest General Machinery Company, which has hundreds of various CNC machines, certainly has the ability to manufacture weapons.

  "Shi Daomu, let's get started now. No problem if we can't make bullets, anyway we've already bought the Japanese devils' guns and bullets, and there are quite a few of them, so let's use the little devils' bullets."

  What's the big deal if we can't make bullets? Anyway, we've already bought a lot of Japanese bullets. At worst, we'll just use the Japanese bullets directly. As long as we can make the guns first, that's all that matters. At least this way, we won't be extorted by those little Japanese people anymore.

  "Ah! My boss, manufacturing weapons isn't as simple as you think. We need blueprints for the weapons, specialized fixtures, and even new working mother machines, none of which we have."

  Strom shrugged and said that his boss had made manufacturing weapons sound too simple, if it were really that simple, the Chinese wouldn't need to hire foreigners like them to help manufacture weapons.

  "Haha! Sturmm, you don't have the blueprint, but you can totally draw it yourself! Aren't you a weapons expert? And from Krupp company at that, I believe this shouldn't be difficult for you!"

  There is a weapons expert from the German Krupp company right in front of us, and if we don't use him, it would be a waste. Such a precious resource cannot be wasted.

  "Boss, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. The Krupp factory manufactures cannons, not rifles or machine guns. I don't think you need me to make cannons."

  It was obvious that Sima would give these to himself, but it was within Shidom's expectations. However, Shidom had only participated in the development of artillery, and if he were to be responsible for manufacturing mountain and field cannons, Shidom would be very competent. But drawing rifle blueprints? Shidom knew that he didn't understand rifles at all. What's the point of talking about drawing rifle blueprints?

  "It's nothing, didn't we buy the Japanese Type 38 rifle? Just refer to that one, I don't believe you, an excellent German expert, can't even make something like that."

  Although he only knew a little about the production of weapons, Sima still knew that making these weapons could be done by reverse engineering based on real objects. It seemed that many domestic weapons in later generations were made in this way, let alone the structure of rifles was not complicated at all, and it would take no more than spending some extra time.

  "You're the boss, what you say goes."

  What else could Stroud say at this time? He felt like he was talking too much just to take on this job, it was just a rifle after all. This is how Stroud consoled himself.

  Outside the factory building, there is a small house made of asbestos tiles. This small house has no windows on all sides. This is the confinement room of the security team. The security team usually calls it the "black house" because it can't see any light from day to night.

  It was unknown which of the people locked up had drilled a small hole in the asbestos wall, and sunlight shone through this small hole into the pitch-black room.

  "Big brother, look outside, it seems like everyone is digging the foundation over there. These two days have been busy from dawn till dusk, and even at night, they haven't stopped."

  Lying in this small hole, Mu Bai stared at the workers outside who were constantly digging the foundation and said that these workers seemed to be working overtime for two days.

  "Xiao Bai, it seems that from the second day we were locked up, those people outside started to get busy. Could it be because of our matter?"

  Because this black room is just a thin layer of asbestos tile, even at night Wu Mantun can still hear the "thud, thud, thud" sound of cars outside, as well as the sound of shovels. Wu Mantun doesn't know why the boss would let these people work day and night, but several months ago when they first started building the factory and warehouse, it wasn't like this non-stop work all day long. The boss letting everyone work so hard is likely because something has happened.

  "Xiao Bai, it's even colder today, and it will be even colder at night. Better to add more blankets."

  Wu Mantun took off his big coat and said, "These two days are getting colder day by day. Fortunately, when we were locked up, the brothers in the team brought over the quilts for me and Xiao Bai on their way. If not, this cold would be unbearable."

  "Lao Qian, look at the sky, I think it might snow in the next two days. Tell everyone to hurry up, this place is not like inside the pass, once the weather gets cold, the cement mortar will probably freeze."

  Looking at the increasingly gloomy sky, Liu Jiyuan said with some concern that if the cement mortar were to freeze, nothing could be done at that time. Old Qian was the leader of this section, and apart from constantly urging him on, Liu Jiyuan couldn't think of any other solution for the time being.

  "Alas! Liu Gong, on such a cold day, it's already not bad that we can finish this much work. We've been working day and night without rest, everyone is exhausted and can't hold on any longer. If our boss hadn't treated us so well in the past, I reckon some people would have quit long ago."

  Although looking at the progress of this project in front of him, Old Qian himself was also anxious, but this matter couldn't be rushed. For these two days, several thousand workers from the entire factory were divided into two shifts, working day and night to excavate the foundation. After the foundation was dug, it still needed to be compacted, and the amount of work done in one day was more than what was done in the past two days, so how could they speed up?

  "Old Qian, let everyone take a look and add a bit more effort. Later, I'll have the kitchen send over a few buckets of ginger soup for everyone to warm up with, and then have them add an extra serving of rice, big bowls of rice with plenty of meat. Let everyone work harder."

  Thinking of this, let's take a look at the progress of Sima. Just in time to hear what Old Qian said, it's really too suffering to do this work on such a cold day. I estimate that if we put off doing this work, no one would be willing to do it. Now those workers are all working hard with grievances.

  "Master, you're back, I was just..."

  Lao Qian immediately turned his head and saw that it was the landlord, and he knew that the landlord must have heard what he said. He hadn't been muttering to himself with the intention of offending the landlord, but now he couldn't think of anything to say.

  "Lao Qian, don't say anything else, it's all my fault for not considering things carefully. Working two shifts a day, day and night without rest, even an iron man can't hold on. On such a cold day, it looks like snow is coming, I'm also heartbroken to see everyone working and freezing here, but there's really no other way."

  Apart from improving everyone's diet, Sima really didn't know what else he could do. He was starting to regret not getting an excavator, at least that way he wouldn't be wasting his time digging foundations here.

  These two thousand people dug the foundation day and night for two days and two nights, just to get the foundation of this wall done. If they had used excavators, it would have been finished long ago. The wall wouldn't be like this now.

  "Master, it's not that I'm complaining, but you know how it is with the master and us workers. We're all working hard for him, no one is slacking off, but we really can't go any faster. Just this foundation alone took two days and nights to dig, and now you want us to build a wall over a zhang high and a chi thick? That's not something that can be done in just a few days."

  Lao Qian himself couldn't wait to get the wall head up in a day or two, it's easy to build the wall head, but it can't be stopped because of the large quantity, this more than ten miles long wall head, can't be finished in just a few days.

  "Old Qian, let everyone try their best! See how high they can go. But those watchtowers must be covered up."

  Staring at this, Sima can only say that if anyone is to blame, it's himself. He should have built the wall a long time ago, and things wouldn't be like this now.

  Since time is not enough now, the wall can be raised by more than one meter, and it will be fine if those bandits on horseback cannot jump into the yard. However, the four-meter-high watchtower must be built, and Sima will install machine guns on these watchtowers to block the bandits from attacking. After watching the shooting training of the factory protection team several times, Sima has even less confidence in whether his own factory protection team can protect the factory.

  At this point, it can only be said that Lao Gao's ability to explain the matter of the bandits coming down from the grasslands is uncertain. If not, Sima would never dare to imagine what would happen if a group of red-haired bandits came.