I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 29 The Road in the Mist
"Hey Lao Liu, are you trying to take over someone else's place?" Lao Liu said when he heard that he wanted to move the ammunition factory over.

Chen Changzai couldn't help but laugh.

"I've put in all my effort and risked my life to get the production line up and running for you."

You, Lao Liu, are doing well.

Instead of thanking me, they wanted to seize our property.

I think you, Old Liu, are almost turning into a local tyrant, hahaha.

"Director Chen, what makes you say that?"

If we come, it's to seek refuge, not to seek it out.

Furthermore, the quality of our workers is indeed incomparable to that of your workers, Director Chen.

This is mainly because my abilities and skills are limited.

Because I am a short general, my soldiers will not grow tall.

To build a team like yours, Director Chen, you need someone with your skill level.

To be honest, Director Chen, I was thinking about something while I was looking at it just now.

If this production line were transported to our location, we would need to build a factory and reinstall the equipment.

The workers will need to be retrained.

This back-and-forth trip will waste a lot of time.

I think it would be better if we moved here with Director Chen first.

Here, we can use your facilities and equipment to train our workers first.

It can also continuously produce ammunition.

Of course, we can't just take advantage of this opportunity for free.

We'll provide manpower, resources, and food to build another workshop for you.

It was built entirely according to this standard.

We also built one on our own side according to this standard.

Once we've finished setting it up on our end, could we set up another production line like this here?

At that time, we had the venue, and we could train our staff to be as skilled as you are.

We'll move back once the equipment is installed and successfully debugged.

How about this?

Chen Changzai listened as Director Liu spoke in a low voice, as if he were begging for help.

Also laughed.

He said, "Hey Lao Liu, when you talk to me, stop using all those 'you' and 'you' to me, okay?"

You're thirteen or fourteen years older than me.

You keep using "yours" all the time, aren't you shortening my lifespan?

We have already considered all of the things you mentioned.

The front lines need ammunition, and once this line is running, it's impossible to stop it.

So for this line, all you need to do is bring the people over for training.

The second production line has now started preparing materials.

As long as this line operates without major problems for three days.

Then we will immediately open a second line.

If there are any major problems, those three days of high-intensity operation will also reveal them.

I have already discussed this matter with Political Commissar He.

Political Commissar He shared this opinion.

Moreover, your thoughts coincide with ours.

Our idea is for you to start production here first, and then we'll help you build a new factory and production line at headquarters.

After all, it would be very difficult for this production line to meet all the needs of the troops.

We didn't have this ability before, there was nothing we could do about it.

We now have this capability.

If we still can't let our comrades on the front lines fire freely in battle, we still have to count our ammunition every day.

That would be a dereliction of duty on our part.

After hearing Chen Changzai's words, Director Liu burst into laughter.

"You, Chen Changzai, were you just teasing me on purpose?"

No, tonight you absolutely have to be punished by drinking two more glasses.

Let me tell you, I brought two bottles of good wine with me this time.

They must be eliminated tonight.

"That's great! Political Commissar He and Deputy Factory Director Xu are practically craving alcohol."

Looks like their drinking bugs will be able to improve their lives tonight.

While Chen Changzai was talking to Director Liu and the others, the spent cartridge cases had already been removed from the oven.

Factory Director Liu looked at the bright yellow, gleaming bullet casings.

With its neat shape and smooth lines, it felt no less impressive than the foreign goods they had seized.

After the cartridge case is in the heat dissipation area, it is cooled by the air blown out by a large fan.

Factory Director Liu picked up a bullet casing, held it in his hand, and examined it closely, looking at it repeatedly.

"Good stuff, good stuff, this is really good stuff."

The overall shape is smooth and rounded, and the copper-plated surface is extremely smooth without any burrs.

Such a bullet casing would ensure a very smooth feeding and ejection process.

Okay, okay.

Chen Changzai also picked up a shell casing, looked at it, and said, "This is alright, I guess."

It works now.

We are currently researching a type of paint.

However, it hasn't been successful yet; some chemical additives haven't been synthesized.

Once this paint is synthesized, we won't need to plate our bullet casings with copper anymore.

You can just apply the paint directly.

This way we can save a lot of copper.

"Is there really such a good way? That would be wonderful if it were true."

The copper used in the cartridge case of this bullet accounts for nearly 70%.

If there were something that could replace copper, we could save a huge amount of copper.

"I can't believe it," said Director Liu in surprise.

Chen Changzai replied, "Although it hasn't been successful yet, it should be soon."

At least the chemistry lab has figured things out, and they should be able to get it done in a while.

In Chen Changzai's chemistry laboratory, besides his first five senior disciples...

In the past six months, Chen Changzai has discovered more than a dozen promising young talents who are very gifted in chemistry.

Besides the chemistry lab, Chen Changzai had several other labs under his command.

It involves physics, metallurgy, metal chemistry, mechanics, and other fields.

Some of their subjects overlap, while others are relatively independent.

There's an old saying that goes, "A fine horse is easy to find, but a discerning eye is rare."

In fact, the world is not lacking in geniuses.

Some people simply haven't found their way, and others haven't been discovered, thus remaining forgotten.

In the natural sciences, or rather, in the sciences, it requires an exceptionally high level of talent.

Some people excel in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, or other related fields.

They grasp things instantly and can apply their knowledge to other situations.

Sometimes, without any prompting, things that have never appeared before will spontaneously flash into their minds.

There's no way to compare them.

For example, some people are very diligent, but they just can't find the door that can help them take another step forward.

To some talented people, this door is nothing more than a series of simple, trivial matters.

For example, Qian Xuesen once said: "Even if a person is not very smart, can they still not learn calculus by the age of fourteen?"

(Qian Lao was still too out of touch with reality; at least, he had never seen an ape like me ^O^.)
The steel cartridge case painting process was something that Chen Changzai had to learn when he was working on ammunition.

However, this seemingly simple paint on bullet casings is actually a very complicated process to produce.

Some of the chemical compounds required here were known even to Chen Changzai, but not to the reasons behind them.

He knew this was the path he should take in this direction.

However, Chen Changzai could not answer what difficulties might be encountered in this direction.

These all require the geniuses in the laboratory to conduct experiments one by one.

Only through continuous experimentation can we successfully navigate the path pointed out by Chen Changzai.

Even so, this is already equivalent to having a super powerful cheat code.

It's important to know that many compounds in this world appear suddenly under extremely coincidental circumstances.

It's like fate, something that's hard to fathom.

Chen Changzai had already pointed out the way for his students in the fog.

They were also told when and where to turn, and then which way to go next.

However, on this path hidden in the mist, there are stumbling blocks and large puddles.

These are things the students will have to figure out on their own.

　Thank you to all my friends who have supported me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)