Chapter Fifty-Seven Grenade

  "What?!"

  "This...this is terrible!"

  As soon as Sima's voice fell, the entire conference room was in an uproar. Although people like Wang Yaqi who were present were all from Guannei and had not heard of anything like "One-line Red", they could imagine what kind of revenge would be brought about if a company like theirs killed the leader of a local gang.

  "Boss, they... will come for revenge? What shall we do then?"

  The speaker was Sun Keyi, the flour machine factory's first branch factory manager hired by Sima's company. He was a nearly fifty-year-old man who did things very solidly and steadily. Having reached this point, he couldn't help but continue to pretend to be deaf and dumb, so he opened his mouth to ask:

  "Director Sun, although we've managed to cover this up for now, there's no wall that can completely keep the wind out. Once they find out, they'll definitely come seeking revenge. So we need to make preparations ahead of time."

  Looking at everyone's panicked appearance, Sima didn't think there was anything to be terrified about. On the contrary, if ordinary people encountered such a thing and remained extremely calm, that would be what's strange.

  "Is repairing that wall what the boss meant by preparation? Is it to expand the protection of the factory team? Why are you telling us only now? Are all of us branch factory directors unreliable?"

  Although he was a bit afraid, Wang Yaqi was more angry about the big thing that happened to the company and only told himself after hiding for four days. This is obviously the boss's distrust of himself. On this point, Wang Yaqi has his own reasons for anger. He came alone to Kouwai without any conditions, but in return, he got the company's distrust of himself, which made Wang Yaqi angry.

  "After this thing happened, I didn't immediately tell everyone. It's because at that time we had to think of a way to solve the problem first. Not because I don't trust you all. If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have handed over everything in the factory for you to manage. You should know that previously the company never interfered with production."

  If it's about trust, Sima feels that he has probably never trusted the factory directors of these branches as much as he does now. The finances of these branches are all independently audited, and Sima basically doesn't interfere with their production and operation. If this isn't considered trust, then Sima really doesn't know what trust is.

  "After this thing happened, when I was discussing with Manager Gao and Worker Liu at that time, we thought of building a wall around it first. After all, who knows how long this thing can be covered up? If it can be covered up, wouldn't it be better? At that time, we didn't tell everyone, mainly because we didn't want everyone to worry about this thing."

  After seeing Wang Yaqi and others' anger dissipate, Sima continued to speak.

  "Now that this thing has happened and it's not certain if we can cover it up, I'm telling everyone to let you all know. Firstly, the factory's production has basically come to a halt, so it's time for us to give you a break. Each person will get 300 yuan in travel allowance, after all, it's been several months since you came here, and you should go back home and see your family. Take this opportunity to reunite with your loved ones."

  Sima gave them a holiday, mainly because he was worried that something might happen later, and they would be in trouble again. These people didn't need to stay here with the company and factory through thick and thin. Sima hoped that everyone's efforts could keep the company and factory safe, but at the same time, he didn't want anyone to shed blood in vain. The branch factory directors staying here wouldn't be of much help either, so it was better to let them go home and visit their relatives. They could wait until things calmed down and then notify them by telegram.

  "Boss, you mean we should abandon the factory and run away?"

  After hearing Sima's words, Wang Ya and others felt a sense of humiliation. When they heard that the company was in big trouble, everyone thought about how the company could get through this difficulty, but now the boss actually let them escape back to Guan.

  "Boss, although this factory is yours, it also has our hard work and dedication. If you think we will run away with our tails between our legs at a time like this, aren't you insulting us to our faces?"

  Sun Ke had calmed down a bit and said that Sun Ke already felt that Sima's words were like slapping himself in the face.

  "It's just..."

  "Aren't you scolding people here?"

  "Too condescending!"

  "Everyone has misunderstood me, I just don't want to add any more trouble for everyone here, or else..."

  As soon as he finished speaking, everyone was outraged. Sima hurriedly tried to calm them down. Although Old Gao had told him earlier that they wouldn't be able to leave at this time, he hadn't believed it then. Unexpectedly, the situation had turned out like this - these factory directors who had only been in the factory for a few months were now having to choose whether to go through thick and thin with the company.

  "If the boss is trying to test everyone's thoughts, I can tell you clearly that we will not leave the company at this time. This company is yours, but the factory also has our hard work."

  Sun Keyi, who has always been steady and down-to-earth in his work and life, stood up and said loudly that if he left the factory at this time, Sun Keyi would probably never forgive himself for being a person who abandoned his post in times of danger.

  "This..."

  Seeing all the factory directors sitting there expressing their views, Sima was at a loss for words for a moment. By rights, this should be the time when the trees fall and the monkeys scatter, let alone that he had already given them a good enough reason to leave.

  "Yes, I'm talking about this iron shell. Inside this iron shell, install explosives and a detonator tube, then attach a hollow wooden handle with a pull ring installed inside the handle, and that's it, you've got a hand grenade."

  Simar held the newly cast hand grenade shell from the foundry and said to Li Weizhang, the director of the foundry: "This hand grenade is a clever device that I have been thinking about for several days. The marksmanship of our own guards is terrible. If they were to use rifles to block a line of red bandits, it would be completely useless."

  After thinking for several days, Sima suddenly remembered the old war movies he had seen in the past, where grenades were thrown around casually. He believed that as long as they threw it with a rough aim, it would be fine. Sima thought to himself that even if they couldn't shoot accurately, they must have at least thrown bricks when they were kids, so throwing this thing should be manageable.

  The cast iron shell now in Sima's hand has a surface casting with a prefabricated fragment, using prefabricated fragments can greatly improve the lethality of the grenade, making it more effective.

  Producing hand grenades is not a technical activity, as long as the cast iron shell, wooden handle, and pull ring can be made, the rest is just assembly. Assembling hand grenades has almost no technical requirements, whether it's men, women or children, they can easily assemble batches of hand grenades in an open area.

  It was precisely because hand grenades were easy to manufacture that during the War of Resistance against Japan 22 years later, many rural areas widely manufactured hand grenades for military use, most of which used black powder as the explosive, and a small portion used potassium chlorate mixed with plant oil to make chloro-oil explosives. Their production conditions compared to Sima can be said to be worlds apart.

  The structure of the hand grenade is very simple, with ready-made foundries to produce cast iron shells, woodworking workshops to produce wooden handles, and a simple wax tank for dipping the finished wooden handle in wax. The explosive is ready-made ammonium nitrate explosive, and the detonator tube is also ready-made fuse, only a pull ring takes some effort.

  Simma didn't even know what a fuse was, originally intending to light it like a firecracker with a fuse cord. Unexpectedly, there was an old master in the factory who had worked at the Beiyang Machinery Bureau in Tianjin over ten years ago. The principle of this hand grenade's fuse was not much different from that of the large cannons he used to make (at that time many old-fashioned cannons were fired with fuses).

  Then this master named Zhang Wanfu made a fire pipe by himself, which consists of paper tube, reverse thorn, metal wire for firing, friction medicine, fire cap and firing handle. The outer shell of the fire pipe is made of rolled paper, about the size of a cigarette. The most important part of the fire pipe is the firing device, which consists of friction medicine, ignition medicine, firing line and firing handle. The ignition medicine is made from potassium chlorate, realgar and glass powder, while the friction medicine on the firing line is made from red phosphorus, antimony sulfide and glass powder. The firing line is just a cotton thread.

  Zhang Wanfu added a paper-made slow-burning fuse between the pull-rod and the detonator after making the pull-rod, so that as long as the pull-rod was pulled hard, the pull-rod would ignite the slow-burning fuse, which would explode in a few seconds, and the grenade would be detonated.

  When Sima saw this hand grenade made by Zhang Wanfu, Sima had a feeling of being in a different world. This hand grenade looked like the one used by the Germans during World War II. To ensure its lethality, it was filled with 150 grams of ammonium nitrate explosive (equivalent to the German M24 hand grenade), and the extended wooden handle ensured an effective throwing distance.

  The original pull ring was changed by Sima See to an iron wire pull ring with a diameter of about 1 cm. When throwing the grenade, just put the pull ring on the little finger and throw it out. At the moment when the hand grenade is thrown out, press the wrist, and the pull ring on the little finger will be pulled out along with the pull wire, so that the hand grenade can be ignited at the same time as it is thrown out.

  "Weizhang, how many of these cast iron shells can we produce in a day now?"

  The most important thing now is to produce enough hand grenades, and the quantity of hand grenade production depends entirely on how many such cast iron shells can be produced by the foundry. After all, the entire hand grenade only counts this cast iron shell as slightly difficult to produce.

  "Boss, we can now produce over 5,000 pieces a day, but after removing the defective products, it's already good if we have 3,000 good ones. Because we use pig iron to cast shells, there is no way to rework the defective products, and they can only be returned to the furnace."

  It is already known that the casting factory's production of this thing relates to the life and death of the factory. Although Li Weizhang wants to increase the factory's output very much, he is limited by the problem of raw materials, and the output cannot be increased after all.

  "Come on, three thousand a day! Saying less won't make it any less! Just do your best! If you can make one more, then make one more, heaven knows if it'll be enough when the time comes."

  Simar mentally calculated for a moment, producing several thousand hand grenades in one day was not a small number. After all, this thing is not like others, if you can give yourself a few days of work, by then you can accumulate more than 10,000 hand grenades, and when the time comes to face that red line, you can just throw hand grenades to kill him, and don't believe that at that time ten hand grenades won't be enough to take down one person.