Chapter Fifty-Three: Very Sweet Candy Bullet
Wang De said: "Commander, this kid is growing up, in our security army, we have enough food and meat to eat every day. If he doesn't grow strong, it would be strange! This kid is only 18 years old, in two more years, he will definitely become a big man from Shandong Province." Our battalion commander said that he wants to send this kid to the training team for further study. This time, this kid handed over his submachine gun and jumped onto the high ground with joy, but fell down and sat on a shell fragment.
Song Zhe Wu heard Wang De's words and also laughed, saying: "Good you, Er Gou Zi (Second Dog), others are avoiding shell fragments, but you go to sit on them!" Song Zhe Wu's words brought out a burst of laughter.
Song Zhe Wu asked with a smile: "What is your full name? Calling you Er Gou Zi doesn't sound good." Er Gou Zi said embarrassedly: "My family is poor and I don't have a full name, my surname is Tian, everyone calls me Tian Er Gou."
"You are now a soldier of the security army, maybe you will become an officer in the future. Er Gou Zi doesn't sound good, let me give you a full name." As soon as Song Zhe Wu finished speaking, Wang De immediately called out: "Er Gou Zi, don't you hurry to thank the commander for giving you a full name!"
Song Zhe Wu waved his hand to stop Er Gou Zi and thought for a moment before saying: "Your surname is Tian. The first time I saw you, you were dark and thin. The second time I saw you, you grew tall and strong. Let's call you Tian Zhuang (Tian Strong) from now on."
The two dogs were excited and their faces turned red, tears streaming down as they nodded. Wang De slapped the second dog on the head: "You little fool, hurry up and thank Commander Song!" Tian Zhuang got up, ignoring Song Zhe Wu's obstruction, and respectfully kowtowed to Song Zhe Wu. Song Zhe Wu hastily said: "Tian Zhuang, you are a soldier of my security army, your knees can only kneel to heaven and earth, and to your parents, never to others, including me. Not just you, but all the people in our security brigade, must be men who stand tall and upright."
Tian Zhuang choked back a sob and remained kneeling on the bed, giving Song Zhe Wu another military salute from the bottom of his heart!
On the way to Baoding Arsenal, Xiao Guodong sent someone to tell Song Zhiwu that Zhao Daiwen, the chairman of Chahar Province, had arrived. Song Zhiwu knew that Zhao Daiwen was Yan Xishan's trusted aide and this must be Yan Xishan who couldn't help but send Zhao Daiwen to win him over.
Song Zhe Wu thought for a moment and decided to go to the repair shop, letting his deputy Liang Bi return to tell Xiao Guo Zheng, first probing Zhao Dai Wen's tone, that night he was talking with him
There are over 200 people in this arsenal now, with two workshops and two research rooms. The two workshops are for repairing damaged guns and cannons. However, Song Zhe Wu values the two laboratories the most. These two laboratories, one is a gun research room; the other is a cannon research room, both of which are currently doing imitation work. Song Zhe Wu is not in a hurry to get them to produce results now, mainly because he wants to train personnel, and another reason is that he does not have a large-scale production base yet.
The director of the arsenal is named Zhou Liqun, over 40 years old, an old military engineer. He had been working in Tianjin Arsenal since the Beiyang era and was very knowledgeable about artillery. During the Beiyang era, he successfully reverse-engineered the Krupp 75mm mountain gun.
Zhou Ligun took Song Zhe-wu to inspect the repair shop while reporting on the recent work of the repair shop. The repair shop is currently repairing and replicating cannons with a caliber of 75mm or less, and there are no technical problems. The main problem lies in the materials, one of the biggest problems with cannons is the chamber pressure, the larger the caliber, the higher the chamber pressure, high-pressure cannon steel is not available domestically, all need to be imported. If possible, according to Zhou Ligun's words, he can produce 155mm howitzers. Another issue is the optical sighting device, and a factory for optical instruments should be set up in the future if conditions permit.
In terms of firearms, Song Zhiwu required not only the ability to imitate, but also the ability to independently develop and design a semi-automatic rifle. Currently, all rifles in the country are manual, including the Type 38, which means that every shot requires pulling the bolt back to eject the shell and load a new round. This rifle should have a magazine capacity of around 10 rounds, and the length of the bayonet cannot be less than that of the Type 38. Song Zhiwu now realizes that his initial choice of the Type 38 as the infantry weapon for the security forces was a mistake. At the time, he only considered the problem of close combat in future wars, while ignoring its other performance characteristics. The Type 38 rifle has a simple structure, adopting an improved Mauser-style rotating bolt-action mechanism, with a recoil-operated closed-bolt firing mechanism, firing 6.5mm caliber cartridges, with low recoil and easy control during shooting, possessing high reliability and accuracy. However, the 6.5x50mm cartridge has insufficient killing power, with stable flight of the bullet head and good penetration effect. The Type 38's ballistic performance is very good, almost too good, which is both its greatest advantage and disadvantage. Its trajectory is overly flat, with excellent penetrability. This time, many of the Northwestern Army's wounded were lightly injured, one important reason being that they were all through-and-through wounds, which are easy to treat as long as they do not hit vital areas. While this is very effective in domestic warfare, it would be too merciful when fighting against the devils (Japanese), so he needs a new rifle.
As a military enthusiast from his previous life, Song Zhe Wu knew that the 35th year Henan Gongxian Arsenal imitated the Mauser 98 and later improved it into the famous Zhongzheng, which was a pretty good rifle. It had once shot 500 more rounds than German rifles in an international shooting competition. If he could develop a semi-automatic rifle based on the Zhongzheng, that would be great. Song Zhe Wu thought to himself, if there's a chance, he must "poach" some of their talents over.
Zhou Ligun didn't notice Song Zhe Wu's distraction and continued to introduce: "After their research, they believed that in order to improve the German Mauser rifle, now the gun parts have been mapped out, but are still exploring the working principle and layout of the gas system."
Song Zhe Wu, this fake military enthusiast is not very familiar with the specific data of firearms, let alone pneumatic principles. He only knows that it's a replica of the Mark X pneumatic principle, but he doesn't know how to do it specifically. So after encouraging Zhou Liqun and several engineers in the research room, he hurried back to the temple.
It wasn't until they met Xiao Guodong that Zhao Dawen only told him that he wanted to purchase flour and cloth here, but didn't mention whether it was for Shanxi or Chahar, or the quantity. Song Zhewu knew that Zhao Dawen wouldn't show his true self and wouldn't come out in person, and Zhao Dawen wouldn't say anything about it.
Here is the translation:
Indeed, at a banquet hosted by Song Zhiwu that evening, after a few rounds of toasting, Zhao Daiwen stopped being evasive and directly asked Song Zhiwu: "Now, if we surrender to Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, there are two major disadvantages. First, this round of troop reductions is aimed at weakening the local warlords' power, and ultimately, all power will be concentrated in the central government. The latest order has abolished the military and political councils in various regions, and the largest unit is now the division, with division commanders not only recommended by local authorities but also directly under the command of the Military Affairs Department. If this is really done, the leaders of the local warlords will have no power to speak of. Chiang Kai-shek's first priority is to deal with the Guangxi clique, the Northwestern Army, and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army. As long as these three factions are defeated, other local factions are not worth mentioning. The representative from Nanjing, Huang Da, is now in Taiyuan, promising Chairman Yan that if we support Nanjing in dealing with the Guangxi clique, they will give us Henan Province. This is clearly a divisive and disintegrating strategy. Preparations for attacking the Guangxi clique are already underway, and even calculations have begun to be made about Feng Yuxiang and Chairman Yan. The recent appointments of Feng Yuxiang as Minister of Military Affairs and Chairman Yan as Minister of Internal Affairs are clearly aimed at removing them from their troops. Chairman Yan will not fall for this trick and has ordered me to act on his behalf in Nanjing. I estimate that Feng Yuxiang will also appoint someone to act on his behalf. Chiang Kai-shek's goal is to make everyone hand over their military power, of course, including the Security Forces. Second, even if you, Song Zhiwu, truly surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, he will not reuse you. Chiang Kai-shek's principle for using people is based on four characters: Huang, Lu, Zhe, and Yi, which means that only those who graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, studied at the Army University, are from Zhejiang Province, or were originally from the First Army can gain his trust and be reused."
Zhao Dawen knew that everyone was aware of Yan Xishan's habit of reusing Shanxi people, and he guaranteed to Song Zhiwu: "Chairman Yan has already recognized the disadvantages of this problem, such as the matter with Qi Yu. Chairman Yan now deeply regrets it! Now we have started to vigorously promote non-Shanxi generals. As long as Commander Song turns to Chairman Yan, Chairman Yan promised that after his appointment, he will recommend you to take over as the chairman of Henan Province, and the weapons and ammunition of the Security Guard Army will all be provided by Chairman Yan."
Yan Xishan is now in urgent need of Song Zheyu's security forces. The Guangxi clique has over 30 million people, the Northwest Army has over 40 million at most, and only Yan's forces are the smallest with just over 20 million people. If he can add Song Zheyu's more than 10 million people, he will also have the capital to contend with Chiang Kai-shek. The price offered by Yan Xishan is not low, if Song Zheyu does not know the direction of history, he will definitely be moved.
Song Zhiwu, after some "thought", solemnly agreed to accept Yan Xishan's command. Zhao Daiwen was very happy to see Song Zhiwu agree and immediately took out a list of materials for procurement: 10 million jin of flour; 20,000 bolts of blue cloth for the Shanxi-Suiyuan army uniform. The current market price of flour is 2.2 yuan per jin, but Yan Xishan bought it at 3 yuan per jin. Song Zhiwu's good quality blue cloth was originally higher than the market price, now at 2.5 yuan per chi, but Yan Xishan also bought it at 3 yuan per chi. The total cost of these two items is 3.6 million yuan, and because they were purchased at a high price, it is equivalent to giving Song Zhiwu tens of thousands of yuan. Additionally, every month, provide the security army with 500,000 rounds of 65mm pointed bullets; 1,000 rounds each of 60mm and 80mm mortar shells; and 1,000 rounds of 75mm three-inch shells. If there is a battle, they will be increased accordingly. There was also another condition: Song Zhiwu must not send troops to Jingxing, but instead exchange them for Tang County. Song Zhiwu immediately agreed to obey Yan Xishan's command.
Song Zhe-wu asked Zhao Dai-wen to express gratitude to Yan Xishan, and at the same time requested to set up two flour sales and transshipment stations in Taiyuan and Datong, which can directly supply various troops. Zhao Dai-wen thought this was more convenient, saving Shanxi from having to transport to Liyuan, so he agreed.
After seeing off Zhao Daiwen, Song Zhiwu sent a telegram to Shang Zhen, stating that the coal mine in Jingxing was owned by Japanese people and it was easy to have conflicts, requesting to move to Tang County. One day later, Shang Zhen replied with a telegram agreeing to let Song Zhiwu send Gao Zongbao's Second Division to Tang County. At the same time, he dispersed more than 3,000 captured Northwestern Army soldiers among newly recruited troops and the Second and Third Divisions, reorganizing them into two regiments. The remaining personnel were incorporated into the Artillery Brigade. Meanwhile, orders were issued for the entire army to strengthen training.
Song Zhe-wu knew that from April 1929 until the Central Plains War, domestic turmoil had hardly stopped. It can be said that 1929 was the year when the Central Plains War began. Whether he could become a dazzling star in the Chinese sky depends on his performance.
