Bright Sword: I am an undercover agent in the puppet army

Chapter 18: The cunning Xu Baopi: Doing business requires a long-term approach, so that the traitors will be willing to be cheated

The artillery tower is a military facility unique to the Chinese battlefield, which was tailor-made by the Japanese to deal with the Chinese anti-Japanese guerrillas.

It is built of bricks, stones and wood, and is not reinforced with reinforced concrete.

Fortifications of this strength are enough to withstand bullet attacks, but they cannot withstand the bombardment of 10-kilogram explosive packs.

If the explosive pack can hit the target accurately, then just one shot will be enough to blow down the turret.

Before this, the Eighth Route Army lacked heavy firepower weapons, so they usually launched night raids to attack the enemy's artillery towers.

Even if they could capture the turret, they would suffer heavy casualties.

Because the Japanese artillery tower does not exist alone.

In order to prevent the artillery tower from being attacked by the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese not only built a circle of walls on the outside, but also dug a circle of trenches outside. If there was sufficient water source nearby, they would even fill the water to form a moat.

Outside the trench, there will be obstacles such as barbed wire walls about 5 to 15 meters thick, and semi-explosive mines deployed inside, which will cause a huge explosion when touching the barbed wire.

Outside the barbed wire fence, all obstacles will be cleared, the earth will be flattened, the stones will be moved away, and the trees, grass, etc. will be cut down and burned to form an open area.

This area is 200 meters wide and has been designated as a military alert zone. Normally, the Japanese soldiers stationed there would conduct shooting angle training on the surrounding terrain and know the surroundings very well. At night, as long as they heard a sound, they would estimate the approximate location and fire a shot, and they were very accurate.

The range of the Flying Thunder Cannon is over 300 meters, which is enough to cross an open area 200 meters wide to attack the Japanese artillery tower.

As long as the problem of accuracy can be solved, the Japanese artillery towers will become living targets for the Eighth Route Army, and their material warehouses will be at their mercy.

Of course, this does not mean that the Eighth Route Army does not have artillery that can destroy the Japanese artillery towers. It’s just that every artillery piece is a strategic weapon for the Eighth Route Army. They are generally not used easily, let alone used against targets such as artillery towers that do not have much strategic value.

The Eighth Route Army was basically unable to manufacture artillery shells. Every time one was used, there was one less. So they had to be very careful with their calculations and use them sparingly, didn't they?
But the production process of explosive packs is very simple. As long as there is explosives, almost anyone can make it.

After mastering the secret of using fertilizer powder to make high explosives, the Eighth Route Army now has a relatively sufficient supply of explosives.

Thinking of this, the brigade commander asked the weapons engineer beside him: "Comrade Liu Qiang, can you find a way to improve the accuracy of the flying thunder cannon and reduce its error to 10 meters, or even within 5 meters?"

Liu Qiang said with some regret: "I'm afraid this cannot be done, unless the shells are replaced with copper shells, but in that case, the huge friction between the shells and the barrel when firing will cause damage to the barrel, greatly reducing the service life of the barrel. It won't be long before it is scrapped or even exploded.

Moreover, with our existing materials and equipment, we cannot manufacture copper shells."

After a pause, Liu Qiang changed the subject and continued, "However, our explosive packs can be further optimized and designed to be as symmetrical as possible, so that the ballistic trajectory of the shells can also be relatively optimized.

Coupled with the gunners’ accumulated combat experience, the subsequent error should be able to be reduced by another 5 to 10 meters.”

The brigade commander asked, "In other words, the error of the Flying Thunder Cannon can be controlled within 15 meters?"

Liu Qiang: "15 meters is not necessarily the limit, but within 20 meters there should be no problem."

The error of 20 meters is enough to deal with the Japanese infantry, but it is still not easy to accurately destroy the Japanese artillery tower.

However, if multiple artillery pieces are assembled, there will be no problem of insufficient accuracy, but there will be some waste of shells.

The brigade commander temporarily gave up the idea of ​​using flying thunder cannons to deal with the Japanese artillery towers on a large scale, and planned to wait for the right opportunity to give the Japanese a heavy blow.

Anyway, the Japanese artillery tower is there, and you can't run away unless you retreat.

Li Yunlong was completely overwhelmed by the charm of the Flying Thunder Cannon. He asked the brigade commander, "Brigade Commander, we got the materials for this Flying Thunder Cannon back, the design drawings, and even the shells. So, it is reasonable for our independent regiment to get half of this Flying Thunder Cannon, right?"

The brigade commander said sternly, "This batch of materials can make about 80 flying thunder cannons. You want 40 for an independent regiment? Then I want 400 for a brigade, right?"

Li Yunlong smiled awkwardly, "Hehe! Of course, of course. Just based on your reputation as a brigade commander, it would be reasonable to equip 400 guns, not to mention 4000."

Brigade Commander: "Don't fool me. We have dozens of regiments in the Eighth Route Army. If you want to take half of one of your regiments, what about the other regiments?"

Li Yunlong: "Those who are capable can eat meat, those who are not capable deserve to eat shit! What does it have to do with me if they can't get the materials and design drawings?"

Brigade Commander: "Stop talking nonsense. I will give your regiment 5 guns at most. This is just because of your meritorious service!"

Li Yunlong was furious: "Why? At least we should be given 10 subjects!"

Brigade Commander: "Just five, take it or leave it!"

"Yes, yes, yes. A higher-ranking official can crush a person to death."

Li Yunlong could only lower his head and admit defeat.

……

Liuzhuang stronghold.

Ma Tong found Xu Yang and asked, "Captain, we have sold out all the Feitian powder we have. When are we going to go and get some from the devils?"

Xu Yang picked up the teacup in front of him, took a sip leisurely, and said, "Don't worry, let other puppet soldiers help us purchase goods."

The third squad leader, Niu Dazhuang, was impatient. He interrupted and said, "Captain, we don't have to worry about sales right now. Why not buy the goods early and make money early?"

Xu Yang: "How much profit can we make if we attack the devils directly? Let other puppet troops help us purchase goods. Isn't it great to earn three and a half tons of fertilizer powder for one ton?"

"Captain, you are such a business genius!" Ma Tong's eyes lit up, and he flattered Xu Yang loudly, and then said, "I will go and settle all the accounts of those puppet soldiers now so that they can buy goods for us as soon as possible."

Xu Yang: "Don't be in a hurry. If we settle all the bills at once, those guys will definitely get suspicious and do something behind your back.

We need to settle accounts slowly and steadily, so that they are willing to earn money for us.

Let’s settle Jia Renyi’s bill first today and send the money to him.

Remember, you must be high-profile and let other puppet troops know that we are working hard to sell them Feitian Powder and have already started placing orders. "

Ma Tong wondered, "But if this happens, won't our speed of making money also slow down?"

Xu Yang: "We have almost sold out the fertilizer powder in Yangquan County, and it will take some time to transfer it from the neighboring county.

We can take this opportunity to calm down and step up our training to improve our combat effectiveness."

"Yes!"

Shi Yibiao, Ma Tong, and Niu Dazhuang stood up to salute, then turned around and left, each carrying out the order...

(End of this chapter)