Chapter 7: Reloading Bullets
With more ammunition, Hu Weidong immediately expanded the army without hesitation, recruiting all the young people who had joined the militia but were brushed down by him before. As a result, the militia's strength surged to over 70 people. Not only new recruits, but even the so-called "veterans" of the militia generally lacked training. Although Hu Weidong had strict requirements, it would still take a lot of time to train them into shape...
With the joint efforts of Hu Weidong and the militiamen, in the following three days, the militia team further expanded its activity range, incorporating areas exceeding two towns into the joint defense system. The total population under its jurisdiction broke through 10,000 for the first time. During this period, the militia team eliminated five reactionary armed groups, killing or capturing 266 people. It rapidly developed into a powerful (relatively speaking) armed force with 374 militiamen (plus 56 wounded soldiers and 82 prisoners of war who had not yet been converted), 12 handguns, 286 rifles, and four light machine guns. With everyone's support, it was reorganized into a more formal militia battalion, consisting of three platoons and nine squads, greatly increasing its strength.
More importantly, after each victory in battle, the cohesion of the entire army was greatly enhanced. Even those soldiers who had been converted from prisoners of war began to take pride in being part of the militia battalion. The villagers also started to truly regard them as a force to rely on, rather than just a spiritual sustenance because they needed one, as could be seen from everyone starting to call Hu Weidong "Hu Lianzhang" (Battalion Commander Hu) instead of "Special Commissioner Comrade" as before...
After the militia platoon was expanded into a militia company, the equipment buried by the Red Army's ordnance factory that Liu Hai had mentioned earlier suddenly became important, but as hopes grew, so did disappointment. Hu Weidong couldn't help but be speechless when he saw that pile of high-end junk. First, those so-called heavy artillery were just a few old 75mm field howitzers, which was tolerable. The most fatal thing was that they didn't even have any shells...
According to Liu Hai, this "heavy artillery" was captured in the fourth counter-encirclement campaign, but when the main force of the Red Army began its Long March, it really couldn't think of a way to bring this two-thousand-plus-pound behemoth along with the troops. In the end, they could only abandon it. If not for the fact that the ordnance factory's cadres and employees were reluctant to destroy this cannon, which was the most powerful in the Red Army artillery corps since its establishment, it would now be nothing but a pile of scrap iron...
"But a cannon without shells is just scrap metal, no matter how powerful it is!" Hu Weidong said bluntly.
Liu Hai explained that the Red Army's arsenal was actually capable of producing shells (although the production efficiency and quality were terrible), but there were no shells here because this field gun's shells could be used in common with mountain guns, so naturally they had all been taken away for use by those mountain guns that could move with the army. Hu Weidong listened to this and was initially delighted, but Liu Hai immediately added that it was a former arsenal, and now most of the equipment was gone, either taken away by the Red Army or destroyed, and relying on the little equipment left here, wanting to produce 75mm shells was almost impossible...
"So it's still scrap iron...", Hu Weidong couldn't help but frown, indeed just like what his grandfather said back then, the old generation of military industry workers were all stingy, having been poor for so long that they wouldn't even throw away broken things.
But Hu Weidong is after all a world-class military industry genius, and he is also very familiar with the development history of our party's military industry. After spending half a day inspecting and testing those remaining military equipment, Hu Weidong found that they were not completely worthless. At least he could use these devices to cobble together a production line for reloading bullets using empty bullet shells, with a production efficiency of over 1,000 rounds per worker per month. If he could get another more powerful engine and obtain stable energy and raw material supplies, in the future, they might even be able to completely independently produce bullets...
"1,000 rounds per person per month? At least? Don't be kidding me, Little Li. Our munitions factory had several hundred people back then, and in two years, we only managed to reload more than 400,000 rounds..." Liu Hai said disbelievingly.
"I can make a military order, as long as Old Liu you can get me the materials I need. Moreover, this production line is very convenient to disassemble, transport and assemble, even if the enemy comes to attack, it can be quickly transferred and will not fall into the enemy's hands." Hu Weidong said confidently with a smile.
Actually, Hu Weidong thought of a method that was similar to the bullet reloading production line created by Wu Yundong, also known as "China's Paul", in the Second Division of the New Fourth Army's arsenal. Due to his family background and profession, Hu Weidong was very familiar with the details of Wu Yundong's production line, and it would not be difficult to set up a similar one with the existing equipment. Moreover, earlier, in order not to scare Liu Hai, Hu Weidong had actually understated the numbers, as the bullet reloading production line designed by Wu Yundong could allow a production team of eight workers to reload 600,000 rounds per year. Although in reality, due to the shortage of bullet shells and propellant, and the frequent relocation of the arsenal due to enemy threats, they were only able to produce tens of millions of rounds per year on average, after being assigned to manufacture mortar shells, flat-shooting cannons and other tasks that required breakthroughs, which occupied a large number of personnel. However, just by greatly reducing labor costs and making equipment easy to disassemble and transport, it would be enough to surpass the Central Red Army's Guantian Arsenal where Liu Hai used to work...
"Bullet casings aren't hard to come by, mobilize the villagers to go to the old battlefield to pick some up, I reckon we can collect a few tens of thousands, it's just the gunpowder that's a bit of a hassle, unless we lower our standards and use black powder......", Liu Hai said with a frown.
"Gunpowder won't do, it damages the gun barrel too much, and its range is short, power is small, accuracy is poor, and the worst part is that after firing, you still have to clean the gun barrel...", Hu Weidong couldn't help but shake his head, changing his original plan. "I'll think of a way to capture explosives from the enemy, before that, let's try to make something like this..."
"This is... a bayonet? Hmm, not bad, it looks a bit strange, but it's indeed a deadly weapon...", Liu Hai said in admiration as he looked at the rough sketch drawn by Hu Weidong.
For the militia regiment with insufficient bullets, close combat was unavoidable. Considering that most of the National Army feared bayonet fighting, sometimes the militia regiment even had to take the initiative to engage in bayonet fighting. However, the rifles captured from the bandits were basically not equipped with bayonets, so they had to make their own. But this wasn't necessarily a bad thing - the triangular military dagger's lethality was much greater than the sword-shaped bayonets commonly used during that era, and it was also less prone to damage. If they could be equipped in large quantities, they would certainly play a significant role. Additionally, considering that bayonet fighting was still very common on Chinese battlefields during this era, and the Japanese army's Type 38 rifle and its accompanying sword-shaped bayonet were particularly long, giving them an advantage in close combat, Hu Weidong specially extended the original triangular military dagger by quite a bit. This proved to be highly effective in later battles against the Japanese...
