Chapter Sixty: Industrial Construction (Part 1)
Mao Yikai was dissatisfied after reading it and had someone convey a message saying that Chairman Chiang's inability to achieve results was due to internal troubles and external threats, as well as too many difficulties. Although the central government has abundant resources, its burdens are also great, so it cannot be concluded that Chiang is inferior to Yan.
"I'll make a bet with the gentleman, if we can manufacture a rifle better than the Type 56 within a month, will the gentleman work for the people from then on?" wrote Hu Weidong.
"If so, I, a humble man, would have no complaints even if I were just a small craftsman, but I fear that you, General, are exaggerating."
After that, Mao Wei was very calm and did not make any radical moves. Hu Weidong did not send anyone to force him in, and he patiently stayed inside, accepting the food and daily necessities sent by Hu Weidong without any worries about Hu Weidong sabotaging him. Some people suggested to Hu Weidong that they should put some anesthetic in the food, but Hu Weidong shook his head and refused, saying "Trust is hard to establish but easy to destroy, we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture for a small gain. Moreover, Mr. Mao is familiar with the factory situation and is an expert in firearms, if he can join the revolution, it will be of great help to our party's military industry."
To fulfill the bet with Mao Yike, Hu Weidong put aside his military duties and personally oversaw the development of the new gun. Liu Ding and other technical backbones from the arsenal also worked day and night, while young Wu Yunzheng would not let go of this rare learning opportunity. He was like a dry sponge, greedily absorbing the knowledge and experience of his seniors, making astonishing progress in both skill and vision.
Hu Weidong initially wanted to produce the most classic AK47, and with the equipment conditions of the Hengxian Ordnance Factory, it should not have been a problem. However, considering China's poor bullet production capacity at that time, Hu Weidong ultimately chose the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, which was improved from the Soviet SKS semi-automatic rifle during the early days of the People's Republic of China. This type of gun has been used since the founding of the country until the Sino-Vietnamese War, and it even squeezed out the Type 63 automatic rifle that replaced it and re-equipped the regular PLA. The classic nature of this gun is self-evident. Although Hu Weidong was not as familiar with firearms as he was with artillery and ammunition, he still knew the structure of this classic gun type like the back of his hand. With the help of Liu Ding, a renowned military expert in history, and many excellent technicians, Hu Weidong spent only three days creating the first prototype. Initially, Hu Weidong also wanted to install a tactical rail on it, but soon discovered that adding this design would require adjustments to the overall design of the gun, which might not be feasible given the time constraint. Moreover, it was still the 1930s, and China's science and technology industry was extremely backward, making even a scope very expensive. The significance of tactical rails was limited, and if it fell into enemy hands, it would cause trouble. Therefore, Hu Weidong decisively abandoned this design, which had little significance at that time, until the Type 81 assault rifle produced years later began to apply it...
But the 7.62mm×39mm intermediate power bullet that this rifle is equipped with has not yet been born, and Hu Weidong had to lead everyone to work overtime to modify the bullet production line. Fortunately, they managed to trial-produce usable ammunition half a day before the scheduled date, so Mao Yi finally had nothing to say and left the arsenal obediently to await Hu Weidong's instructions. However, his face was full of joy and excitement, because after returning to China for so many years, he finally saw the hope of China's military industry rising, so he could only say "sorry" to Chiang Kai-shek, who had always valued him highly...
Although a prototype was made, Hu Weidong found that mass production was not as simple as he had thought. Although the quality of German special steel is no worse than the Soviet 50AE and 50AZ special steels, 30GrNi2MoVA alloy steel (receiver) and domestic substitutes 50BA gun steel and 30GrMnMoTiA alloy steel (receiver), the problem is that it cannot be produced domestically and must rely on imports. The price is high, and it is difficult to purchase and transport to the Soviet area. To avoid the situation where the arsenal runs out of German special steel, Hu Weidong decided to build a special steel plant and find a way to purchase chromium ingots to meet the needs of some parts for chrome plating, in order to achieve complete domestic production of the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle as soon as possible.
In addition, Hu Weidong also proposed the idea of building a "dragon" military-industrial system. In addition to vigorously developing basic industries with relatively low technical difficulties such as mining, quarrying, non-ferrous metallurgy (mainly copper, lead and zinc), lime, cement, refractory materials, and ordinary glass, it is also necessary to solve the problem of supplying explosives, steel and electricity.
Among the chemical raw materials needed to manufacture explosives, sulfuric acid is crucial, and although a new factory in Gongxian Arsenal's chemical plant has started building a sulfuric acid factory using pyrite as a raw material, it is expensive and requires large-scale external procurement. Hu Weidong remembered that this area is rich in pyrrhotite, which can be used to replace pyrite as a raw material for manufacturing sulfuric acid, making it completely self-sufficient and greatly reducing costs. However, using pyrrhotite as a raw material requires the use of advanced boiling calcination technology, but fortunately, this technology is not only advanced but also has a low degree of difficulty, and China was able to independently develop it successfully in the 1950s. With Gongxian Arsenal's conditions and Hu Weidong's guidance, it can be implemented immediately. In addition to using cheap sulfur-containing minerals such as pyrrhotite as raw materials for sulfuric acid production, boiling calcination furnaces also have extremely low fuel requirements, and even coal gangue, which is almost useless in general situations, can be fully burned in the furnace, further greatly reducing costs. This has been widely used in the construction of thermal power plants later on.
It is worth mentioning that in the process of building the fluidized bed boiler, Hu Weidong's understanding of fluidization technology for future generations has been further deepened, and it has been applied to a wider range of fields, making operations continuous, production strengthened, processes simplified, and making outstanding contributions to the development of many industrial sectors such as Chinese chemistry, petroleum, metallurgy, atomic energy and so on.
Note 1: The material process is relatively easy to keep secret, making it possible for advanced countries to maintain their advantage for a long time. For latecomer countries (excluding Germany and the United States in their early stages of development, as they already had high levels of technological expertise from the start), unless they receive large-scale technology transfers, it is almost impossible to significantly narrow the gap with advanced countries in terms of materials science. China has caught up with the world's advanced level in many fields in the 21st century, but still lags far behind the West in materials science (the poor performance of Chinese engines is ultimately a material problem), with an average gap of half a century. Germany has always been the leader in materials science, and even before World War II, it was stronger than China in many aspects, which would later become the world's factory. It is normal that the 56-type semi-automatic rifle, a product of the wartime era, is inferior to German products in terms of material quality, but its price-performance ratio is another matter...
