The Courtyard House: The Little Red Devil Returning from the Peninsula

Just as Zhao Weiguo finished writing the word "nine thousand" on the report, he got up to close the door. The door hinge was dry and made a long, dragging sound.

In May, more than 900 people from the three counties signed up. After checking their physical condition, experience, and family background, 614 were selected. After 20 days of training, another 107 were eliminated, leaving 507 qualified. The seven people who died in the first eight weeks were also removed from the roster. With these additions and subtractions, the net increase was 500.

There are 9,000 officially employed staff.

Zhao Gang stamped the last page, the ink still wet.

"The local armed forces number 4,300, and the support teams number over 600, to be accounted for separately."

"Will anyone dare to add more this time?"

"Nobody dares."

Zhao Weiguo glanced at him.

Zhao Gang wiped the seal clean on the cloth.

"I'm afraid you'll be so happy to see 9,000 that you'll forget how you worked your way up to 8,500."

The reports were pushed to the corner of the table, while three booklets sat in the center: test records, materials catalog, and scrap ledger. The system interface was above these booklets, but there were no guns, no cannons, and no crates for supplies.

After the independent research and development phase began, only three more paths emerged.

The first item is alloy smelting. The interface lists the effects of carbon, chromium, manganese, and nickel on hardness and toughness, and also gives the temperature range that can be tested; however, it does not mention where to find the raw materials, how to stabilize the furnace temperature, or how to remove impurities.

The second point is the accuracy of the barrel. The key values ​​for rifling error, coaxiality, and heat treatment deformation are all there, but the gauges are missing, the steel is missing, and the craftsman's knife will not be any faster as a result.

The third point concerns the stamping process. The stress points and mold lifespan have only a testable range, with no complete drawings or ready-made formulas.

Zhao Weiguo looked at it for half an hour, then closed the interface.

Zhao Tieshan waited outside the door, stubbing out a cigarette butt at his feet.

"What did you give me?"

"Three roads."

"Where are the things?"

"They didn't give it to me."

"drawing?"

"Incomplete".

Zhao Tieshan pushed open the door and came in, first flipping through the catalog of materials. He looked through each page, and finally pressed a button in a blank space.

"That's right this time."

"Nothing here, right?"

"The ones we provided before were too uniform. The craftsmen would copy them, and if they broke, they wouldn't know why. This time, we'll only provide the hardness and temperature; the rest we'll have to figure out ourselves."

Zhao Weiguo's hand was still on the door bolt.

"It will hurt people."

"There's no such thing as making artillery shells without any risk."

"Establish the rules first."

That night, Xigou held its first research and development meeting.

Zhao Tieshan brought six veteran craftsmen. Chen An brought a process recorder. Zhao Gang led the security, sanitation, and accident registration personnel. Lao Zhou and Duan Peng sat near the door, only responsible for reporting what was lacking at the front and what items were breaking the most.

Old Zhou threw a deformed mortar firing pin onto the table. The metal struck the wooden board with a clang.

"This is the most critical."

Zhao Tieshan picked it up and looked at it.

"You're fighting too hastily."

"If a war breaks out, who will wait until it's too late?"

"Make two sets, and use them alternately."

"I don't want it to break."

"You want someone who won't die?"

Old Zhou's lips moved, but he didn't respond.

Zhao Gang spread out the four sheets of paper.

Research and development should focus on verifying principles and materials, and should not be sent to the military.

For each trial production, a number, the person in charge of production, and the source of materials must be recorded.

Acceptance testing involves testing the equipment a specified number of times at a fixed location, and registering all faults.

The final design must be signed by Zhao Tieshan, the user unit, and the logistics department. Mass production is prohibited if any one of these three parties is missing.

Chen An added a line below the fourth sheet of paper.

Each process relies solely on gauges, not the craftsman's touch.

An old craftsman looked displeased upon hearing this.

"I can file to the correct size even with my eyes closed."

Chen An didn't argue. He took two firing pins that the man had made and placed them into the gauge one after the other.

The first one passed smoothly.

The second one is stuck in the middle.

Someone inside couldn't help but chuckle. The old craftsman's ears turned red, and he reached out to pull the stuck firing pin back in.

"Redo it tomorrow."

Zhao Tieshan did not laugh.

"Leave the scrap."

Old Zhou asked, "Does something bad take up space?"

"If we don't keep them, someone else will make the same mistake in two months."

Soon, a row of wooden racks appeared outside the factory. Cracked shells, bent firing pins, deflected gun barrels, and chipped molds were all hung on them, with small wooden signs next to them indicating the date, process, and whether anyone had been injured.

The wooden frame wasn't pretty. The splinters were sharp, and it smelled strongly of rust. But people passing by always took a second look.

The first trial production project focused on mortar shell casings. They didn't touch the new mortars or test more powerful explosives; instead, they replenished the empty shell casings that were most needed at the front lines.

Zhao Tieshan selected four types of steel according to the strength range given by the system. The first batch consisted of twelve pieces, but three cracked during stamping, five were uneven in thickness, and only four were ultimately sent to the testing site.

The cannon was fixed on the earthen platform. The tester hid behind a bunker and pulled the fuse through a hole in the wall.

The first shot was normal, the second shot was normal, but the people behind the bunker still didn't come out.

After the third shot fired, the rear of the cannon cracked open. Shrapnel grazed the earthen platform, injuring two people. One had his arm pierced, blood dripping from his fingers; the other had two gashes on his face, which the medic applied with gauze, but they quickly bled.

The notebook lay open on the ground, a few drops of hot blood falling onto half a line of text.

Zhao Tieshan went to check on the wounded first, and only after confirming that they had all been carried away did he turn back to look at the artillery.

"All spent cartridge cases from the same batch have been sealed up."

Someone looked at the remaining three and muttered, "Maybe we can find out the reason after we finish hitting them."

Zhao Tieshan closed the wooden box.

"No one is allowed to touch the cannon until the cause is found."

Zhao Weiguo stood outside the bunker, not urging a fourth shot.

After the injured were taken away, Zhao Gang spread the accident report on the table.

Which step?

The craftsman who performed the heat treatment stood up.

"The furnace temperature dropped once."

"Where are the records?"

"It fell for a while, I didn't remember."

"How long is 'a while'?"

The person couldn't answer.

Three untested cartridge cases were sawed open. Sawdust fell onto the tarpaulin, and the room was filled with the metallic smell. The crystalline patterns on the bottom of the cartridge cases were a darker color than those on the qualified samples.

The temperature range provided by the system is correct; the problem lies in the fact that Xigou lacks tools for continuous temperature measurement and can only rely on the color of the furnace fire and the craftsmen's eyesight to judge.

The first batch of twelve were all scrapped.

The experiment was suspended for six days. We first made a rudimentary temperature measuring cone, and then re-prepared the materials.

Of the second batch of twenty rounds, nineteen passed the size inspection, but one had a misaligned primer hole and was put on the scrap rack; the remaining nineteen rounds were fired continuously on the fixed gun mount without any barrel explosions, but Zhao Tieshan still refused to sign off on the design.

The third batch consisted of fifty pieces. They were tested with different methods: high temperature, low temperature, and bumpy loading. Zhao Tieshan didn't pick up his pen until all fifty pieces were made.

Chen An signed the procedures, the artillery test group signed for use, and Zhao Gang finally stamped the seal for safekeeping.

This was the first complete acceptance form for self-produced military supplies issued by the Independent Regiment. Zhao Gang had three copies made: one to be hung at the testing range, one to be sent to the warehouse, and one to be kept at the regimental headquarters. The back of the original also contained treatment records for two wounded soldiers, detailing who bandaged them, who evacuated them, and when the follow-up examination would take place.

Two drops of brownish blood remained next to the "third shot that exploded."

Zhao Tieshan marked out a section of wall next to the scrap rack and nailed the original parts to it. He tapped the hammer a few times, but no one in the room spoke.

That piece of paper wasn't an award certificate.

It only explains how these shell casings were made, and how two lives were almost lost.

From ingredient preparation, stamping, heat treatment to test firing, the entire process was carried out by Xigou itself. There were no seized or refurbished items, nor were there any finished products delivered by the system.

After reviewing the acceptance form, Zhao Weiguo moved the system finished product redemption to the emergency section.

Zhao Gang asked, "What constitutes an emergency response?"

"Save lives, save the factory, and the critical components we can't manufacture right now. We're no longer buying ready-made ammunition for conventional weapons."

Old Zhou looked at him.

"Are you willing to give it up?"

"Even if you're reluctant, you have to let go."

Zhao Weiguo returned the acceptance form to Zhao Tieshan.

"If we keep relying on exchanges, how many battles can nine thousand men fight?"

Over the next month, test record cabinets were erected in all three mountain valleys. The machine tool operated for a maximum of ten hours a day, stopping as soon as the temperature exceeded the limit. Coal, electricity, and steel were allocated in three separate monthly ration sheets, and research and development materials could not be diverted to the front lines for resupply.

The mobile battalion and the engineering corps each left a company in the factory area. Their duties were to guard roads and check people during peacetime, and to be the first to respond to fires or landslides.

By the third week, Lao Zhou went to Xigou with an urgent order. Two mortars at the front line were short of firing pins, and he wanted the mother machine to rush twenty pins overnight.

After reading it, Zhao Tieshan stamped the form with the word "Stop".

"On what grounds?"

"The machine ran for nine and a half hours today, and the spindle temperature exceeded the limit."

"Wait up ahead."

"If we turn it for another half hour, the whole factory will have to wait tomorrow."

Old Zhou took the list to Zhao Weiguo.

Zhao Weiguo did not change the rules.

"Zhao Tieshan has the right to veto production stoppages."

"What should we do with those two cannons?"

"First, dismantle one spare cannon and take two firing pins. Do the rest tomorrow morning."

"If we dismantle it, we'll lose one cannon."

"If the mother machine burns out, more than just one door will be lost."

Old Zhou crumpled the edge of the paper, turned around, and left.

The next day, he arrived at the factory gate before the craftsmen.

Twenty firing pins were made; eighteen were up to standard, but two were off-size and were hung on the scrap rack. Old Zhou stood there watching for a while, but didn't say anything more, saying that even if they were a little off, they could still be used.

The distribution of coal, electricity, and steel has also been debated.

The cartridge case team requested an extra 200 jin of steel, but the barrel team refused. The power room reported that the water turbine was low, meaning only two of the three power lines could be operated. Chen An called the three teams to the wall, where the front-line consumption table was hanging.

"First, repair the mortar shell casings, then make the barrel gauges. The stamping dies will only be used for prototypes, not for the entire batch."

The gun barrel crew slammed their fists on the table.

"On what grounds?"

"The gun barrel is still usable. The shell casings will only last for twelve days."

He withdrew his hand from the table.

Since then, every research and development plan has had an additional column at the end: If we don't do it, what will the front line lack first?

Gardenia also added confidentiality rules. The people in the three factories only recognized their own process, the material transport vehicles changed license plates twice en route, and they did not enter the core trench during the day. Anyone who wanted to know the complete output should first report to the security department.

These rules cannot make the enemy forget the waterwheels, chimneys, and mule cart routes in Xigou; they can only make sure they see less when they sneak in again.

At the end of the month, Zhao Tieshan brought over three plans.

In alloy smelting, the first issue to address is the purity of the materials.

For barrel accuracy, first make a gauge and a straightening frame.

For the stamping process, a life test of the cartridge mold is conducted first.

"What's the next step?"

Zhao Weiguo stood by the window. The flag on the broken section of the Zhengtai Railway was stretched straight by the wind. On both sides of the roadbed, some people were transporting coal, some were carrying steel rails, and some were pushing inspected shell casings into the warehouse.

"Let's go on all three."

"We don't have enough people."

"Priority matters, not truth or falsehood."

Zhao Weiguo signed the first plan.

Starting this spring, the Independent Regiment's weapons will no longer rely solely on captures and exchanges.