Tang Yufeng shook his head: "The other problems in producing shells have been solved, but the problems in shell bodies have not been solved."

"Mortar shells are different from grenades. They need to be cut and processed before they can be formed. The pig iron we use to make grenades is too brittle, and everything will be broken if it is cut and processed!"

"Although using rails to produce shells can be cut, they are too hard. With a limited loading, it is difficult to blow out enough pieces of the bullet body, resulting in a greatly reduced power of the shell!"

After hearing the questions raised by Tang Yufeng, Zhou Cheng laughed on the spot.

If it were the past, it would be difficult for the National Salvation Army to deal with this problem.

Because there is almost no other scrap steel available except for the pig iron smelted by itself and the railway tracks on the National Salvation Military Defense Zone.

It’s different now. The Japanese will send four cars of scrap steel every month, all of which are more than 100,000 kilograms. There are all kinds of materials that make up steel, and there are definitely suitable for making shells.

I immediately made a decision: "Tomorrow I will go to the arsenal myself and send all the scrap steel that the Japanese gave us to the arsenal!"

Speaking of this, Zhou Cheng suddenly thought in his mind that two months later, the Eighth Route Army would launch a large-scale counterattack in the entire North China region: a battle of Hundred Regiments!

Due to various reasons, the National Salvation Army will definitely not be able to participate directly in this attack.

But the National Salvation Army can secretly support the Eighth Route Army to fight, allowing them to achieve the greatest results with the lowest cost.

They are not short of soldiers, combat power, and commanders, but they lack weapons and ammunition, especially heavy weapons that can be used to attack.

In order to win over the National Rescue Army, the Japanese would definitely not attack the National Rescue Army defense zone at will. If they make good use of this period, the arsenal will take the opportunity to produce a large number of weapons and ammunition.

In addition, the blockade line of the Japanese and puppet troops around the National Salvation Army’s defense zone is useless, and the troops can take advantage of this opportunity to deliver the weapons and ammunition just produced by the arsenal to the Eighth Route Army, which is urgent...

It was precisely because of this idea that suddenly popped up in his mind that Zhou Chengcai decided to go to the arsenal in person.

In order to welcome the upcoming Hundred Regiments Battle, he had to slightly adjust the arsenal production plan.

At five o'clock the next afternoon, Zhou Cheng appeared in the ammunition production workshop of the arsenal.

His eyes were staring motionless at the worker pouring molten iron into the mold.

These molten irons were all scrap steel that had been heated for more than an hour, and Zhou Cheng spent a full five hours in the morning.

After pouring the red molten iron, everyone around him, including Zhou Cheng, was in his throat.

Although the arsenal had reached meal time and many people were already roaring hungry, no one left.

I don’t know how long it took, the mold was opened, and the bullet body with the same appearance as the mortar shell appeared in front of everyone.

"Go to cut and process immediately to see if there is an elastic body available!" Kong Dewen, the director of the arsenal, was even more anxious than Zhou Cheng and ordered it nervously.

The research and development of mortar shells has been going on for almost two months, and other problems have been solved, that is, the production of qualified shell shell shells cannot be produced.

In order to think of a solution and live up to the trust of the group leader in his trust, Kong Dewen couldn't sleep even at night, so he racked his brains to think about solutions to the raw materials.

However, the smelting level of the arsenal is too backward, and it will only smel the most primitive pig iron. There are no talents in smelting. Everyone is engaged in research and development with their eyes closed, and there is almost no progress.

There is no way to develop steel that can produce cannonballs by themselves. They can only settle for the second best and find ready-made materials to experiment, hoping that they can kill mice and find a steel that can be used to produce cannonballs.

Iron pots, pig iron, iron farm tools, rails, and even steel plates removed from cars... They have almost all the things that can be found in the defense zone, but the test results have disappointed them.

Just as he walked into a dead end and could not think of any other solution, the group leader came.

This just fits the saying that the world is boundless.

Because the group leader brought the scrap steel from the top ten trucks, there were more than sixty trucks of steel on the road behind it, and there were a lot of steel inside that he had never tried before.

After receiving the steel, Kong Dewen immediately classified the steel according to their materials, selected steel that had not been tested, and then began to melt them and cast thirty shell shells of different materials at one time.

Seeing the workers moving the cooled shell shell shell to the cutting workshop and preparing for cutting, Kong Dewen's heart immediately raised to his throat, staring at the shell shell shell fixed to the machine without blinking.

The shell of the first shell was too brittle and treated as cracked.

The second shell shell did not escape the fate of rupturing on the spot...

The disappointed expression on Kong Dewen's face became stronger and stronger. Fortunately, good news came from the third shell shell, and it did not crack during the processing...

After more than an hour of busyness, the turning result appeared in Kong Dewen's hands.

He ran to Zhou Cheng with excitement on his face: "Captain, the result is that there are 16 shells in total that meet the loading conditions. Now I will test their explosion power and determine how many fragments can be produced after the shell explodes?"

The shells used for the test do not need to be loaded with launching drugs or fuses, and they can be manually detonated.

Therefore, it is very simple to produce. The charge is completed in less than half an hour and sent to a valley behind the arsenal.

Hundreds of scarecrow targets have been erected here in advance, scattered in every corner of the training ground.

Sixteen shells were quickly fixed in it. Zhou Cheng and Kong Dewen hid in a bunker not far away, and the same nervous experimenter was squatting beside him, holding a lead wire in his hand. When he pulled it hard, the shells on the other end of the lead would be detonated.

"Start!" Zhou Cheng ordered seriously with anticipation.

"Boom..." As soon as the order was released, an explosion rang out among the scarecrow twenty meters away.

It was already dark, and the fireballs generated by the explosion of the shells were particularly dazzling. In the splashing flames, Zhou Cheng clearly saw that the four closest straw targets were blown over, and several scarecrows were blown upside down!

The experimenter waiting by the side rushed to the test site and counted all the shell fragments inserted into the target. The specific power of the mortar shells was judged by the number of the fragments and the depth of the plunging into the target.

Not long after, a soldier rushed over with excitement on his face: "Report to the regiment commander, factory director, the power of the shell just now has reached 70% of the shells we seized, which is the best result we have achieved since the production of shells."

"The effective killing radius exceeds five meters. The biggest problem is that the number of fragments is too small. Many fragments have not been blown up. They are connected together, greatly weakening the lethality of the shells."

Kong Dewen thought for a while and replied: "If the shells produced by this material can reach this level, then we can use this material to produce shells on a large scale. Although the power is a little smaller, it is better than none. As long as there are many, the role played on the battlefield is no worse than the captured shells!"

"Continue to test, there are several different materials in the sixteen shells. Maybe the lethality of the shell is greater than the lethality of the shell just now!"

After the three-hour trial, everyone showed a satisfied smile on their faces.

The raw material is ductile iron shells with the greatest power, perhaps because the production process is not as powerful as the Japanese large arsenals. The power of the shells can reach more than 90% of the captured shells, which fully meets the combat needs of the troops.

Kong Dewen was particularly excited. Although it was already very late, he was not sleepy at all. He immediately led people into the cave where scrap steel was piled up. He wanted to find the ductile iron in the steel overnight, specifically for the production of shells...

At six o'clock the next morning, Zhou Cheng went out and saw Kong Dewen hurriedly walking towards him, and his expression became serious again.

"Captain, although we have found the raw materials for producing shells, there are too few such raw materials." Kong Dewen said with a worried look on his face.

"I took people to search the cave last night. Although I found a lot of ductile iron, a shell requires too much cast iron."

"The ductile iron we found can only produce more than 300 shells!"

"I think the best way is to smel iron yourself and find a way to produce ductile iron yourself."

"I asked someone to study it. It is not difficult to produce this cast iron, and the technical requirements are not high. Arsenals can do it, but we do not have talents in this area."

"If you can find a few technicians who can smelify iron, they will definitely be able to smelly produce the ductile iron needed for shells!"

Self-sufficiency is the fundamental solution to the problem. Zhou Cheng certainly understands this truth.

Moreover, the ductile iron found by Kong Dewen last night was obtained from the transaction between the National Savior Army and the Japanese. If the transaction cannot continue one day, the arsenal will not have ductile iron to continue to produce shells.

Zhou Cheng quickly asked: "Where can I find the technicians who smelter steel?"

"There must be a war zone!" Kong Dewen replied.

"Most of the steel needed by Taiyuan Arsenal before was smelted by itself, with a large number of technicians inside."

"Now the Taiyuan Arsenal has been moved to southwest Shanxi, and the iron smelting plant has also been moved, but the scale of the iron smelting plant is far less than that of the time in Taiyuan. Many technical workers and engineers in iron smelting have been idle."

"If the regiment commander can persuade the war zone to support a few people, we will definitely be able to refine ductile iron by ourselves!"

Zhou Cheng immediately promised: "Okay, I promise to find you a few qualified iron technicians within two months to come back."

After saying that, Zhou Chengju began to give orders: "But our production cannot be stopped. You must use the fastest time to make all the ductile iron in your hand into mortar shells."

"In order to increase the output, during the test yesterday, the raw materials with a power of 80% of the captured shells were also used, and all of them were caused by shells, the more the number, the better."

"In addition, the production line for the arsenal's firearm production stops temporarily, and all manpower and material resources will be concentrated to repair the firearms, produce and reload ammunition."

"I have asked Deputy Leader Tang to transfer a large amount of canned food, pork, eggs, flour, and rice to improve everyone's food and give everyone enough energy and energy to put them into production."
Chapter completed!