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

Chapter 302 Considering Relocating the Factory
"Alright, that's settled then. Go back and communicate with your subordinates."

Li Muzhi's meeting lasted only five minutes in total before it adjourned. He told them, "Doing your job well is the best support you can give to the troops."

"Yes, factory manager." Old He and the management staff quickly dispersed.

Li Muzhi also left the meeting room, preparing to go to the warehouse.

The dismantling team brought back the locomotive parts, which are now in the warehouse.

These parts definitely need to be assembled immediately.

Li Muzhi didn't need to personally assemble and convert the locomotive into a power source.

He has written down a detailed procedure, and the skilled craftsmen who participated in the assembly will follow the procedure written by Li Muzhi to install it.

If any problems arise along the way that cannot be resolved, then Li Muzhi can be sent over to handle them.

Of course, now that the locomotive parts have been disassembled and brought back, Li Muzhi still has to go and take a look.

Only after confirming that there are no assembly problems will he return to his own lab to do his work.

As soon as he opened the door, Zhang Wanhe rushed over: "Xiao Li, I'm back."

Zhang Wanhe's tone was not negative, only excited, indicating that Comrade Zhang's operation had gone smoothly.

Li Muzhi turned to look at Zhang Wanhe: "Where's the equipment? Did you bring it back?"

“No.” Zhang Wanhe shook his head and explained, “I was worried they might try something, so I didn’t have the equipment brought here immediately. I was going to leave it outside for a while.”

The Japanese once had a wicked trick: they would sprinkle tracking powder on objects and then track them by smell.

Even those bastards from the Military Intelligence Bureau had to be on guard.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Wanhe took out a set of photos and handed them to Li Muzhi: "Xiao Li, these are all the photos I took. Take a look at them first."

“Okay.” Li Muzhi took the photo and examined it immediately.

Upon seeing the first photo, Li Muzhi frowned but remained silent.

Li Muzhi continued flipping through the pages, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

Zhang Wanhe frowned as he watched Li Muzhi's expression. Judging from Li's condition, the equipment was probably even worse than he had imagined.

Only after Li Muzhi finished looking through them did Zhang Wanhe cautiously ask, "Little Li, how are they? Are they all broken?"

“There are no direct signs of damage to the equipment, but it’s in worse condition than I imagined,” Li Muzhi said truthfully. “Although this is the first time I’ve seen this equipment, I figure it will take some time to repair it. Also, there aren’t enough raw materials; there are too few.”

Li Muzhi had certainly seen these devices before, but he still had to say it the same way.

Activated carbon is not the only material needed to produce gas masks.

There are many other raw materials, such as face masks, glass, plastic pipes, and so on.

"We can find another way to get the raw materials," Zhang Wanhe said after listening, then looked at Li Muzhi, "So, how long will it take you to repair it?"

“I can’t guarantee the exact time,” Li Muzhi said. “After all, I’ve never seen these machines before. If we try to fix them and then resume production, it will take at least a month.”

Normally, if you've never seen this equipment before, figuring out how to repair it, and then resuming production, it could take two or three months.

Li Muzhi has seen it and knows how to repair it; if all goes well, it should be done in half a month.

Of course, Li Mu's words cannot be said in this way.

"At least a month?" Zhang Wanhe's eyes widened. "Xiao Li, are you kidding me? Does it really need to take that long?"

Half a month is enough time for a lot to happen.

For example, the Kumamoto Division, under the protection of aircraft, received supplies from military trains and then launched another sweep against us.

For example, Li Yunlong's side, they were causing trouble behind Japanese lines in Taiyuan, and they couldn't even get a supply of gas masks for a month. By then, it was probably too late.

“Minister Zhang, I’ve never seen this equipment before,” Li Muzhi replied. “I’m trying to fix it, but I don’t know if something else might happen along the way. Anyway, I’ll try to do it as quickly as possible.”

"As fast as possible, how fast is that?"

“Minister Zhang, I understand your feelings,” Li Muzhi said tactfully. “You should put aside the equipment repair for now and get me the necessary materials. See if you can also get the glass and plastic production equipment from the Military Intelligence Bureau.”

This gas mask requires glass as the lens.

Both the tubes and the mask require plastic.

These raw materials also include glass lenses and plastic tubes.

But the most important thing is to be able to replace the equipment used for producing glass and plastics, so that we can produce them ourselves.

"I'm afraid they might not be willing to give us these things," Zhang Wanhe pondered.

“There’s plenty of time. You can communicate with them slowly,” Li Muzhi said. “They must be eyeing our Hell Cannons and Hell Missiles. I’m sure we can find a way.”

“You haven’t finished working on the Hell Cannon and Hell Missiles yet, and now you have to repair the machinery. I’m afraid you won’t have time to work on the devices.” Zhang Wanhe looked at Li Muzhi. “Those students are very smart, and they are growing very quickly.” Li Muzhi said solemnly, “After another week of training, they will be able to share a lot of the burden with me.”

Li Muzhi then added, "With their help sharing the burden, progress will increase significantly. You'll see the gas masks in less than a month."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wanhe exclaimed with delight, "Really? That's wonderful!"

When the gas mask is finally developed, even the elite faction will be envious.

Zhang Wanhe still remembers that when he was exchanging information with the Kuomintang station chief last night, the chief asked him an extra question.

When asked why he needed to replace all that old, broken equipment, Zhang Wanhe didn't hide anything and replied that he wanted to make gas masks.

At that moment, the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau couldn't help but chuckle twice.

Although he didn't say anything, those two laughs were forever imprinted in Zhang Wanhe's mind.

You, the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau, say this is junk and you don't believe we can make it.

When Li Muzhi actually pulls it off, let's see if you'll still be laughing.

Zhang Wanhe then said, "Okay, I'll talk to them again about the glass and plastic equipment. You need to produce the rest of the flashbangs as soon as possible."

They gave me four flashbangs last night, which was only part of the deposit.

Normally, if the deposit isn't sufficient, the Military Intelligence Bureau won't deliver all the equipment.

But they gave us all the equipment, so they were still quite sincere.

“Okay.” Li Muzhi nodded, then, remembering Liu Weidong’s situation, he said, “Minister Zhang, I heard that Commander Liu’s side suffered heavy losses, is that right?”

Liu Weidong suffered such heavy losses, partly to block the enemy and partly to dismantle locomotives for the border region's arsenal, so he should be compensated.

"Don't worry, I know what to do." Zhang Wanhe nodded. "Give him all the Hellfire missiles produced today, replace the broken rocket launchers with new ones, and give him enough ammunition. Their wounded will receive the best treatment. After all, we seized a lot of medicine from the military train, so we don't lack medicine for the time being."

"Hmm." Li Muzhi nodded, then stood up and said, "Minister Zhang, I'll go to the warehouse to check on the locomotive parts now."

“Okay, no problem, I’ll get back to work.” Zhang Wanhe nodded and quickly took his leave.

When Li Muzhi arrived at the warehouse, Lao Qi, a senior staff member of the former Taiyuan Arsenal, saw Li Muzhi arrive and hurriedly ran over: "Factory Director, these parts have been disassembled very well and are all intact. I have already arranged for them to be assembled."

Then Lao Qi said, "The locomotive parts from two other Iron Turtle trains have also been disassembled and brought back. I took a look and the parts from these two Iron Turtle trains can be roughly pieced together to form a complete locomotive. After the military train locomotives are assembled, I will be responsible for assembling the locomotives from these Iron Turtle trains as well."

“No need.” Li Muzhi waved his hand and said, “You don’t need to assemble the front of the Iron Turtle. Just select the good, complete parts, load them onto the train, and send them to the Huangyadong Arsenal.”

Upon hearing this, Old Qi paused, then asked, "Director Li, are we giving it to them again? Shouldn't we keep it for ourselves?"

The iron turtle was already given, why is it being given again now?
“We’ll soon have another military train engine assembled, so the arsenal has enough power,” Li Muzhi explained. “The parts we don’t need right now can be sent to other arsenals.”

The equipment used for making seamless steel pipes has disappeared.

Without seamless steel pipes, this air defense weapon cannot be manufactured.

The Kumamoto Division launched a counterattack under the cover of aircraft, putting even more pressure on the combat troops.

No one can predict what will happen in the future.

In short, it's right not to put eggs together.

Li Muzhi was already considering whether to move some of the equipment from the local arsenal to the rear after the Kumamoto Division's sweep was over, and he was even considering relocating the factory altogether.

The Japanese have definitely set their sights on the border region's arsenal. Once its location is exposed, it will be troublesome to move so much equipment.

After all, this was a war zone, a front line.

It would be best to move military production to the rear.

but!

Moving a factory is a big job; it can't be done overnight.

The combat troops are in urgent need of more weapons and ammunition, and under these circumstances, the production of arsenals cannot be stopped.

Hopefully, the sweep by the Kumamoto Division's army can be quelled by combat troops, giving us more time to prepare.

"Okay, sure." Old Qi nodded and said, "Then, can we move some of the railway sleepers and other materials that we don't need over there?"

Although the border region's arsenal was operating at full capacity, the combat troops brought back a huge quantity of railway sleepers, so many that the warehouses couldn't hold them all.

“Yes.” Li Muzhi nodded. “Any materials that we don’t use can be transferred.”

"Yes, factory manager." Old Qi nodded.

Li Muzhi inspected the assembly of the front-end parts, and only after confirming that there were no problems did he return to his laboratory to do his work.

(End of this chapter)