Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 152 Pretending to be Honorable is Not as Good as Pretending to Be Money

"When I went to test the bounding mines for you, I originally planned to just find an enemy stronghold, but I ran into the 217th Regiment, a direct force of the enemy."

Kong Jie explained, “The 217th Regiment of the elite troops was being chased by the Japanese. I used a company of Japanese soldiers chasing the 217th Regiment to test it. The regimental commander of the 217th Regiment, Feng Zhihui, thought our grenades and bounding mines were quite powerful and wanted to buy them.”

The elite forces want to buy our weapons?

Upon hearing this, Li Muzhi became very interested in the matter.

The rocket launcher is almost ready.

By then, the combat troops will have heavy artillery such as the Hellfire Cannon and light tactical artillery such as rocket launchers, but the troops will still lack medium artillery.

For this medium-sized artillery, Li Muzhi decided to use our 107mm rockets.

The 107mm rocket is considered a guerrilla weapon mainly because it is very easy to carry. Unlike the Hellfire cannon, it does not require mules to pull it, nor does it need a barrel to fire. Soldiers can simply carry the rockets.

If there's no launch pad, just dig a pit.

If there are no dry cell batteries, use a match to ignite them.

Convenient and easy to use, its mobility is not much inferior to that of a rocket launcher.

It still has enough power.

Of course, the border region's arsenal still lacks crucial mechanical equipment to produce the 107mm rocket.

After Commander Yan lost the Taiyuan Arsenal, he became petty and narrow-minded.

It would certainly be difficult to get more equipment and machinery from Commander Yan.

But it's different for the bald guy.

When the Japanese invaded, he had already moved the arsenal to the rear of the mountain city.

In other words, the bald man's arsenal did not suffer any damage.

Baldy's family is very wealthy and powerful; getting goods from him would definitely be much easier than getting them from Commander Yan.

what?
Feng Zhihui, the commander of the 217th Regiment, was just a regimental commander. Was it realistic to expect him to obtain mechanical equipment?
Although Feng Zhihui is just a small regimental commander, he has direct subordinate brigade commanders, division commanders, and even army group commanders above him.

Li Muzhi believed that with such corruption within the elite faction, even military communications required payment, adding equipment to their arsenal wouldn't be difficult if they put in a little effort.

Li Muzhi then said to Kong Jie, "Go and report this matter to Minister Zhang, and have Minister Zhang communicate with Feng Zhihui. Tell Minister Zhang that we can sell hand grenades, but we won't sell bounding mines."

Li Muzhi was too busy to handle this matter, so he asked Comrade Zhang, a professional, to negotiate.

Hand grenades don't require much technology; at most, the explosives inside have been replaced.

Even if the direct descendants took it and analyzed its components, they would only find ammonium nitrate.

They do that too.

Bounding mines won't work.

This involves several key technologies, especially the special device to prevent disassembly, which cannot be leaked.

Moreover, our army has now grown stronger. On the surface, it has three divisions, but in reality, its strength has exceeded 300,000 men.

Let's leave the bounding mines to our own troops.

"Okay, sure." Kong Jie nodded.

These bounding mines are so useful that even Kong Jie wouldn't be willing to sell them.

Kong Jie left, and Li Muzhi continued eating with his head down.

Kong Jie ate his meal in the canteen. Halfway through, he saw Comrade Lao Zhang coming over.

Comrade Zhang, holding a commendation, was overjoyed and headed to Li Muzhi's office.

The first pot was sent to headquarters, and Comrade Zhang received a reward from the headquarters leaders. Of course, the credit still went to Li Muzhi.

The person commended in this document is Li Muzhi.

"Minister Zhang," Kong Jie called out to Zhang Wanhe hurriedly.

"Commander Kong, is something the matter?" Zhang Wanhe approached Kong Jie.

"Here's the thing, Commander Feng Zhihui of the 217th Regiment wants to buy our grenades and bounding mines. Director Li said you should contact Feng Zhihui; he can sell grenades, but not bounding mines," Kong Jie said.

"Why would this elite unit suddenly want to buy our weapons?" Zhang Wanhe asked suspiciously.

Because we were poor, the direct descendants always looked down on us.

It's a bit strange that they're now actively trying to buy our weapons.

"The main reason is that I used bounding mines and grenades on the battlefield, and they happened to see it," Kong Jie explained.

"I see." Zhang Wanhe nodded, looking at Kong Jie. "Did Xiao Li mention a price?"

"No, not at all," Kong Jie said, shaking his head. "I think Director Li meant for you to set the price."

Kong Jie thought to himself: After all, when it comes to doing business, you are the most ruthless... cough cough, you are the most professional.

"Okay, I understand." Zhang Wanhe nodded and headed towards Li Muzhi's office.

Kong Jie added, "Minister Zhang, there's something else I need to tell you beforehand, but please don't swear at me."

Although Li Muzhi was going to give Kong Jie a hundred bouncing mines, it still had to go through Zhang Wanhe's accounts. In other words, it still had to be distributed through Zhang Wanhe, the logistics minister, so how could he not inform Comrade Zhang in advance?

"What's the matter?" Zhang Wanhe asked.

"Director Li promised to give me a hundred of these mines, Minister Zhang, you..." Kong Jie didn't finish his sentence.

Zhang Wanhe glared at him and said, "You, Kong Jie, did you poison Li's mind again? A hundred bombs! You're too greedy. You're even more outrageous than a landlord!"

I tolerated Li Muzhi giving you fifty boxes of hand grenades before.

After all, we have enough sugar for now, enough to make a lot of hand grenades.

And now!
Li Muzhi gave Kong Jie a hundred of these "thunderbolts," Kong Jie, you really don't consider yourself an outsider.

Do you know how much explosive charge is in this bounding mine?
We probably only produce one or two thousand bounding mines, but you, Kong Jie, want to take a hundred of them. Don't you think that's too much to handle?
Kong Jie knew what kind of person Comrade Zhang was, so he didn't want to waste his breath arguing with him.

Anyway, I've already told you this beforehand. If you have any objections, go find Director Li.

"Minister Zhang, I've finished my meal. I have to hurry up and go dig the coal. I'm off." Comrade Old Kong quickly finished the remaining half of his meal, then slipped away without a trace.

"This Kong Jie looks honest and kind, but he's so cunning!" Zhang Wanhe couldn't help but curse as he watched Kong Jie's back. "Li Yunlong is a cunning bastard. Everyone who got into the same class as him is a cunning person."

However, Comrade Zhang quickly suppressed the matter.

Since Li Muzhi has already spoken, the die is cast, and there's no point in saying anything more.

Then there is.

If the arsenal ever needs Kong Jie someday, giving him more weapons and ammunition will be a guarantee.

Zhang Wanhe walked into Li Muzhi's office. Li Muzhi had just finished eating quickly. When he saw Zhang Wanhe come in, Li Muzhi asked suspiciously, "Minister Zhang, judging from your expression, has someone made you angry?"

“Little Li, if you ever want to give Commander Kong anything in the future, you should discuss it with me beforehand,” Zhang Wanhe said. “Giving him a hundred bounding mines is a lot; you could give him fifty. You know we can only produce a limited number of bounding mines.”

"Hehe." Li Muzhi chuckled and said, "Minister Zhang, you should think a little further ahead. Maybe the combat troops below will seize a lot more sugar, and we'll produce even more mines. Then you'll think we didn't give Kong Jie enough."

Now that the rocket launcher is out, isn't Gao Liujin going to steal the Japanese army train?

If Gao Liujin were to get incredibly lucky and this military train were to be loaded with a carload or two of sugar, then Comrade Zhang would be laughing in his dreams every night.

"Haha, that's true, that's true." Zhang Wanhe nodded with a laugh.

We have rocket launchers now, and we'll add a hell cannon.

Needless to say, the troops below will soon get their hands on even more sugar.

If we argue with Kong Jie now, it does seem a bit petty of us.

Zhang Wanhe took out a written commendation and handed it to Li Muzhi: "Little Li, take a look, this is a commendation order personally signed by the headquarters leader, it's for you."

"Minister Zhang, I've already told you, you don't need to give me these things anymore. Manufacturing weapons for our army is my job." Although Li Muzhi said this, he still accepted the commendation order.

This was issued by the head of headquarters after all, so we couldn't refuse it.

"You will still receive the honors and recognition you deserve," Zhang Wanhe said with a smile. "I'm even preparing to get you a big box to hold all the honors."

“Minister Zhang, we have a big box now. You should use it to store money,” Li Muzhi said. “The 217th Regiment, our elite unit, wants to buy our weapons. You’d better make sure this deal goes well.”

“It’s definitely better to invest in equipment than to just put money in the way,” Zhang Wanhe said, looking at Li Muzhi. “Little Li, aren’t you planning to use grenades to trade for equipment?”

“Of course I want to,” Li Muzhi nodded, then said patiently, “The 217th Regiment is just a regimental-level unit. We can’t take too big a step at once.”

Li Muzhi naturally wanted to get his hands on the bald man's equipment as soon as possible, but haste makes waste.

This is just a grenade, after all; they can make those over there too.

Our main goal is to establish initial contact with the core group through Feng Zhihui.

Later, through him, they connected with their core high-level clients.

“Yes, yes.” Zhang Wanhe nodded and said, “That’s fine then. Let’s make some money from him first and then use it to buy the raw materials that the military factory needs.”

After finishing the conversation, Zhang Wanhe noticed the bullet casings on the table. He picked one up, examined it, and chuckled, "So fast, you can even get bullet casings?"

"The defect rate is still a bit high, and the machine needs some adjustments," Li Muzhi explained.

"We definitely need to produce bullets, but we can't let that affect the shoulder-mounted artillery," Zhang Wanhe said solemnly.

Bullets are indeed very important to the troops.

But now the most important weapon for the troops is the shoulder-mounted artillery.

The guy who weighs six jin is waiting for the pot to boil.

And Li Yunlong and his men are all waiting for dinner.

"Minister Zhang, don't worry, it definitely won't affect the manufacturing of rocket launchers and rockets," Li Muzhi nodded.

Bazooka?
Rocket?
Upon hearing this, Zhang Wanhe was taken aback: "Did you name the cannons and shells on this shoulder?"

"In ancient times, people would attach a gunpowder cartridge to the arrow, ignite the gunpowder, and the burning gunpowder would provide the energy to propel the arrow forward; this was called a rocket. My cannonball works on a similar principle. It's not an arrow, but a cannonball, so it's called a rocket shell," Li Muzhi explained. "I think the device for launching rocket shells is most appropriately called a rocket launcher. Minister Zhang, do you perhaps have a better one...?"

Before Li Muzhi could finish speaking, Zhang Wanhe waved his hand and interrupted, "You've chosen a very suitable name. From now on, we'll call him Rocket Launcher!"

(End of this chapter)