Chapter Thirty-Four: Searching for Someone

  Wang Chuanming processed it quickly, and the barrel was made the next day. Then, he brought explosives with Yang Feng out of the city and found a desolate mountain valley. The explosives were packaged according to the recoilless gun's ignition charge, divided into packets from small to large, and tested one by one.

  The final result is self-evident, even with the maximum charge it was nothing, Wang Chuanming steeled himself and continued to add more, adding nearly twice the amount of explosives before finally blasting open the steel pipe.

  "What a great thing! This is even more solid than the original French Brandt mortar, and with the current 82mm shells plus additional propellant packets, it can shoot over three kilometers without any issues. Not to mention dealing with mortars, it's also effective against Japanese infantry guns." He said with a sigh of emotion.

  "So we can sell mortars outside without any problem?" Yang Feng smiled very slyly.

  "It's useless, unless you sell the cannonballs together, otherwise no one will buy them." Wang Chuanming shook his head.

  "What if we make our own shells?"

  The government will not allow it, secretly manufacturing cannons is one thing, but cannonballs are another matter altogether. Procuring large quantities of explosives in secret is impossible, let alone the various tests we must conduct, and with our financial resources, it's simply unaffordable.

  Besides, who would you sell to? The Central Army doesn't need them, they have their own munitions factories, involving countless interest chains, we can't even get involved.

  Sell to those warlords?

  "That's asking for trouble, Director Chiang's first move would be to get rid of you." Wang Chuanming said.

  Yang Feng didn't take his words to heart, and thought that at worst he could go to Chahar and then have Song Zheyuan give him some sort of title, such as the 29th Army's Arsenal Repair Department or something like that, which wasn't a big deal.

  "Have you really prepared five hundred sets of mortar parts?" Wang Chuanming asked incredulously.

  "Yes, I made it abroad in the name of mechanical parts, a complete imitation of Jinling Factory's 82mm mortar. The barrel can't be made, after all, this thing is obviously a mortar at first glance, but other parts are exactly the same, and with the barrel, it can be used. At most, I will bring the steel pipe and accessories together within ten days."

  It won't be long before the Japanese start attacking Rehe, don't count on the Northeastern Army, they've lost their spirit a long time ago, it's still going to be a case of one touch and they'll collapse, if my guess is correct, the real battle will unfold at the Great Wall, by then, I'm afraid the Northwestern Army, Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, and even the Central Yangtze Army will all have to take the stage, and then we can take advantage of the situation to make a profit, and incidentally give the Japanese some trouble.

  "Nowadays, whenever I see a Japanese person, I want to beat them up," Yang Feng said with a scowl.

  The 29th Army can give it to them, and in fact, it's not that they can't say it's a gift. They brought antiques and ginseng medicinal materials, Yang Feng estimated the total value to be around 40 million or more. After deducting the military uniforms worth over 10 million, there were still sulfonamide and Wigo for exchanging weapons. Yang Feng still had half of the profit.

  But for the Central Army, it's not possible to give them away for free. The mortars bought from Jinling Factory cost over 2,000 each and are of poor quality, with a short range. Selling them for 1,000 is still reasonable, which would be equivalent to about 400 grams of gold, or around 100,000 yuan at the exchange rate of 250 per gram.

  "I've earned too much!" Yang Feng muttered to himself there.

  "If it's five hundred, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it here. If not, we can divide some of them out." Wang Chuanming didn't hear his muttering and frowned on the side.

  "Is there anyone who can be trusted?" Yang Feng asked.

  Most of the machinery factories in Beiping were owned by foreigners, and some were even Japanese-funded. Yang Feng didn't want to stir up trouble all over the city, he trusted Wang Chuanming because he had heard about him from Xin'er.

  Wang Chuanming was a returned student from Germany in 1914, who had worked as a civil servant in the Ordnance Department of the Beiyang Government's Ministry of War. After Yuan Shikai became emperor, he resigned in anger.

  Then he devoted himself to industry and developed a small diesel engine. At first, it sold several units, which were used on some small inland ships, but later Japanese goods flooded into China, suddenly bankrupting him.

  Later, he restarted the stove and made water pumps. As a result, in less than two years, he was squeezed out of business by the Japanese again. In the end, he had no choice but to set up a small machinery factory, relying on processing some spare parts for other factories to make a living.

  After the September 18th Incident, he donated a full 10,000 yuan to Ma Zhanshan. To know that his machinery factory's total assets were only 100,000 yuan, Yang Feng still trusted him relatively.

  Yang Feng asked this way, and Wang Chuanming also hesitated.

  "Are there still workers who can do this?" Yang Feng asked again.

  "I count as one, Old Zhang the master counts as one, and right, a few days ago there were three skilled workers from Northeast China who came to me looking for work, their skills are okay, but I didn't keep them because I wasn't short on people, however they left me an address, but in that case the machines won't be enough." Wang Chuanming said.

  "Machines are easy to handle, as long as you have people. What machine do you want? I have them all." Yang Feng said immediately. If there is no machine, that's not a problem. Five-axis CNC machining centers can't be used here, but old-fashioned machine tools are available in large quantities, just tens of thousands of yuan per unit, worth over a million.

  "Come on, let's go find someone!" He immediately became spirited.

  After returning to the city, the two of them went to the factory and found the address left by those Northeasterners. Yang Feng drove over, turning into countless small alleys and asking for directions numerous times before finally finding a dilapidated little courtyard in front of a broken-down gate.

  "Who are you two looking for?" The door was opened by a young girl, eighteen or nineteen years old, who looked quite good, but was dressed simply in a thin cotton-padded jacket with patches on top of patches. As she spoke, a yellow dog's head stretched out from behind her back, a standard Chinese rural dog, although it was skinny and bony, its frame was not small, and it glared at Yang Feng with its teeth bared, looking ill-intentioned.

  "My name is Wang Chuanming, director of Yongxin Machinery Factory. Excuse me, is this the home of Master Liu Jianping?" asked Wang Chuanming.

  "My dad has gone out." The little girl said apologetically.

  "When can he come back?" Wang Chuanming asked.

  "It was this little hoof, she let the dog bite me, hurry up, don't let her run away!" A shrill and harsh voice suddenly came from the alley entrance not far away.

  The little girl's face changed immediately, and she hastily retreated and closed the door.

  Yang Feng turned his head in distaste, only to see a young master-like chubby kid, using a strange posture, hobbling over on his two short legs, directing four thugs to wield clubs and start smashing the old broken door.

  "Hey! What's up!" Yang Feng jerked his neck and suddenly turned his head around.

  "Hey, what's wrong with you guys? Can't find anything?" Little Fatty glared and looked up at Yang Feng.

  "Damn! I think you're looking for trouble!" Yang Feng laughed and directly stuffed the silencer into his mouth.