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

Inside the stone kiln experimental shed, eight short blanks were arranged on an iron frame.

Black, rough, with hammer marks all over the surface.

The low-magnification section next to it has already been stamped with the first red seal. The absence of large pores and inclusions in the microstructure only proves that this batch of steel is qualified to continue processing.

On the night of December 24th, the first short billet was fed into the forging furnace.

The forgers wrote the furnace number, billet number, and heating time on the blackboard. Zhao Tieshan forbade anyone to report the temperature by color; temperature measurement, heat preservation, and unloading were all verified by two people. The coal fire was unstable, and the hammer had to be dropped on the billet as soon as it came out of the furnace before the temperature dropped.

The nineteenth hammer blow, and the first one cracked.

The crack extended axially from the surface, only the length of a fingernail. The forger wanted to press it again to see if he could close the crack, but Zhao Tieshan stopped him.

"Number it, cut it open. Don't hide it underneath."

A red sign was hung next to the crack.

Duan Peng poked half his body in from the doorway.

"It's cracked?"

"It's cracked."

"So this one's useless?"

"It's ruined." Zhao Tieshan slammed the hammer down on the anvil. "What the hell are you doing here again?"

"I heard you make gun barrels, so I came to check it out."

"What are you looking at? Scrap metal?"

"Let's see how you turn scrap metal into a gun barrel."

Zhao Tieshan leaned the fire tongs against the stove.

"Turning scrap metal into gun barrels isn't something that can be done in a single hammer blow. Eight blanks, two cracked, six remain. You just wait and see."

Duan Peng picked up the straw and leaned it against the door frame.

"Okay. I'll be waiting."

The second billet also cracked towards the end of the forging process, but in a different location than the first one. Neither of the two scrap billets were immediately returned to the furnace. Instead, samples were cut to check for uneven heating, forging ratio, and raw material segregation.

Only six remain out of eight.

After cutting the two cracked billets apart, one had fine inclusions beneath the crack, while the other looked more like it hadn't been heated evenly after leaving the furnace. Zhao Tieshan didn't combine the reasons into a single sentence: "The forger was too heavy-handed." The raw materials, furnace temperature, and hammering records were sealed separately, and the adjustments for the next batch would also be done separately; otherwise, correcting one problem might create another.

Heat treatment is slower.

The six billets were divided into three groups and fed into the furnace. A separate table was used for each of the normalizing, quenching, and tempering processes. The temperature differed between the inner and outer parts of the furnace door, so workers rotated positions at fixed intervals. One heat treatment worker's glove broke while clamping the billet, and a red blister formed on the back of his hand from the hot iron edge.

He only released his grip after he had secured the clamp.

The medical staff rinsed the burn with cool water, applied medication, and registered it as a minor burn. There was no death, and the injury wasn't written as "nothing serious." The worker left his post at the furnace that day, and another person took over the records; both signed the handover form.

After heat treatment, the two pieces showed uneven hardness distribution.

The same short billet showed significant differences in the measuring points before and after. One could not be salvaged even with additional firing, and the other remained unstable after being cut open. Two red tags were then attached.

The heat treatment worker redraws the three furnace positions on paper. The group closest to the furnace door cools down quickly, while the group inside is overheated. The next furnace will require more repositioning, and the order of billet loading will also be staggered. A worker with a burn on the back of his hand sits to the side, rewriting his shift schedule with his uninjured hand.

Four left.

Impact tests should be performed on specimens from the same furnace first.

The first set of blanks showed normal fracture surfaces. One blank in the second set had low absorption energy, and repeated tests failed to meet the required standards. The corresponding short blank was withdrawn from barrel trial production and downgraded for observation.

Three left.

Before installing the three gauge blocks, the measuring tool group first calibrates the fixtures and guide sleeves. The reference gauge blocks are taken out of the reference room and signed by two people. The lathe lead screw is worn, so the machinist repeatedly measures it along the entire stroke, and cannot just calibrate it at one end.

The calibration took half a day. The machinist made marks at three points on the machine bed, compensating for each point as the tool entered the machine at different positions. This method was slow and relied on experienced operators; if someone else was used, the error might recur. Zhao Tieshan listed "total error of the leadscrew" as a separate bottleneck, leaving it for subsequent process planning.

The first piece was processed to the middle section, and the inner hole was deviated.

The deviation was not visible to the naked eye, but it had already exceeded the process control limits. Someone suggested thinning the outer circle further to force the hole back in place.

Zhao Tieshan pushed the scale over.

How much wall thickness will be left after shaving?

No one answered.

That team has a red card.

Two left.

Another one, upon re-inspection, was found to still have unstable dimensional changes after heat treatment, so it was given a yellow card and reworked for observation. It wasn't deemed a failure, nor could it be tested along with the last one.

Eight short blanks were used, but in the end only one remained.

When Zhao Weiguo arrived at the test shed, there were more red and yellow tags than white tags on the iron rack. About two hundred kilograms of furnace charge had already been divided into cut samples, burnt waste, scrap, downgraded material, and a sample tube awaiting testing. No one could possibly include the original weight entirely in the finished product.

"Just one?" he asked.

Just one.

"Can that be considered acceptable?"

"Hardness, impact resistance, and dimensions are currently within acceptable limits. Testing hasn't been conducted yet."

Zhao Tieshan spread out the first record. Names were listed in each column: forging worker, heat treatment worker, machinist, and measuring tool group. Some people couldn't write their full names, so they pressed their fingerprints, and the clerk filled in the missing characters next to them.

"Give it a number," Zhao Weiguo said.

"Seven were ruined before, this one is the eighth."

"Not in order."

Zhao Tieshan looked up.

"What's that called?"

"A1."

The two characters are engraved at the end of the sample tube, taking up very little space.

Duan Peng watched from the side, taking the straw out of his mouth.

"A1. Sounds like the top name."

"Not first place," Zhao Tieshan put down his carving knife. "It's the first one. We'll have to wait until all thirty are finished to see who's the most reliable."

"What if Jia Yi is the worst of the thirty?"

"Then it's also Grade A." Zhao Tieshan wiped the sample tube clean. "The first one is the first one. If it rots, it's the first one to rot. Did you fucking remember that?"

Duan Peng picked up the straw again but didn't reply.

The test firing crater is behind the mountain.

The test tube was mounted on a re-inspected bolt carrier, the gun was fixed in a rack, and the trigger was pulled behind an earthen wall by a rope. The test firing team fired one shot, stopped to check the locking mechanism, case back, and barrel appearance. After confirming there were no dangerous cracks, they proceeded in stages of ten or fifty shots.

A bucket of sand and two buckets of water were placed beside the pit, used only for extinguishing the fire, not for pouring onto the hot barrel. Each time firing ceased, the inspector would first check the muzzle and receiver before allowing anyone to approach. The four procedures of ammunition issuance, live firing, misfire detection, and spent cartridge case recovery must be completed in a closed manner.

Three hundred rounds of ammunition are typically loaded.

Stop every fifty rounds. The spent cartridge cases are laid out in groups, and the primer, shoulder, and extraction marks are examined one by one. If the barrel temperature is high, do not pour cold water on it; allow it to cool naturally according to the procedure. The shooter and inspector take turns, and neither is allowed to skip inspections to save time.

After firing 250 rounds, seven cartridge cases showed deep scratches.

The test firing team ceased firing.

Some said there was a problem with the bore of the Type 1 rifle, others said it was due to wear and tear on the old bolt. Zhao Tieshan denied both possibilities.

"Cross-testing."

The same breechblock was replaced with an old, qualified barrel, and another fifty rounds were fired. The cartridge case was then transferred to another breechblock and fired another fifty rounds. The two sets of cartridge cases were numbered separately to prevent mixing.

The results showed that the scratches were mainly from wear on the locking surface of the old bolt. After the replacement, the scratches lessened, but didn't disappear completely. Inspection of the throat showed that the wear was slightly faster than the old, qualified barrel.

Write the two questions separately.

The bolt action doesn't excuse the barrel's wear and tear, and the barrel can't hide its wear and tear through the bolt action.

After the standard charge passes, there are still twenty high-explosive charges.

Everyone outside the test firing crater retreated behind the earthen wall. When the first shot fired, a layer of loose soil fell from the top of the crater. The tenth shot fired, and the locking mechanism functioned normally. The fifteenth shot resulted in slightly tight ejection. After the twentieth shot, the propellant tube showed no dangerous cracks, and the outer diameter, rifling, and throat were remeasured.

After the high-explosive charge was completed, the propellant tube was left to cool on the rack overnight. Measurements were taken the next day, and no dangerous changes in dimensions were observed. No one was injured in the test firing pit. The firing rack and earthen walls also needed to be inspected to prevent a misdiagnosis of an equipment problem as a propellant tube issue.

Zhao Tieshan held the report and studied it for a long time.

"First application approved."

No one in the shed shouted immediately.

Six red tags and one yellow tag were still hanging on the iron frame. The scalded worker, his hand wrapped in gauze, stood at the door listening to the results. Three hundred rounds of standard charge, twenty rounds of high charge, and two sets of cross-fire tests—all the ammunition used was on the tent.

Zhao Weiguo asked, "Can it be mass-produced?"

"cannot."

Zhao Tieshan laid out the eight records.

"Two pieces cracked during forging, two had uneven heat treatment, one failed impact testing, one was machined incorrectly, one needed rework and observation, and only the last one was successful. If we dare to increase production with this low pass rate, steel, coal, machine tools, and manpower will all be wasted."

"What's the next step?"

"Thirty small batches."

Why thirty?

"One slip might be luck. Thirty slips can show whether the process is stable, and whether the four points are made the same."

Thirty barrels cannot be made in the same furnace, on the same machine, or by the same group of workers. Because of this, if any standard is unclear, four points will result in four different types of barrels. The A-level record needs to be copied, the standard samples need to be allocated, but the key measuring tools cannot be obtained at every point, and the calibration order must be arranged separately.

The mechanic added from the side.

"The existing cutting tools can only support a maximum of two more batches. The wear of the leadscrew, bearing clearance, and the inability to properly calibrate the measuring tools are also problematic. Making thirty blanks isn't difficult, but making thirty blanks is equally difficult."

The 25,000 merit points that were previously credited have not yet been used.

Zhao Weiguo did not immediately exchange the documents after passing the first-round test. He needed to wait until the thirty small-batch trial productions exposed the real bottlenecks. If he only obtained a bunch of impressive data because the first piece passed, he might still be stuck on the lead screw, bearings, cutting tools, or measuring instruments in the end.

The first item was locked into the cabinet.

The cabinet door had two locks, and two people had to sign to retrieve it. It wasn't issued to the troops, nor was it used for celebratory displays. Every subsequent batch of gun barrels had to be compared with its dimensions, hardness, rifling, and test firing records.

The seven failed short billets were not recycled or removed. The red and yellow labels, along with the slices, were placed in the failure rack for comparison when similar defects occurred in the next batch. The first successful piece was only one, but the evidence of failure took up most of the rack.

On January 3, 1944, the first record was officially sealed.

On the next page, Zhao Tieshan wrote down four production points.

Shiyao. Xigou. Yangquan Old Line. Beishan Experimental Site.

"Thirty pieces, make them separately," he said. "Let's see if A-yi gets lucky, or if this path is actually viable."

The small batch of plans was not produced on the same day.

Zhao Tieshan first replaced each loss of the eight short billets with the requirements of the next batch of processes. The forging group added billet reversal and crack inspection; the heat treatment group re-marked the furnace positions and specified the reversal time; the impact test strips had to be in the same furnace and batch as the short billets; before drilling, the error of the screw rod was measured throughout the machining process, so that the hole deviation could not be discovered halfway through machining.

The raw materials for all thirty pieces were not delivered at once. Each of the four locations received a portion of the steel billets and quotas, and the first two pieces were made. After the inspection results were shared, the process continued. If the same defect occurred repeatedly at two locations, the remaining billets were suspended, and it was forbidden to continue piling them onto the scrap rack in order to meet the required quantity.

Measuring tools are even more difficult to distinguish.

The reference gauge blocks are still locked in the stone kiln; it's impossible to distribute a set to each location. The working gauges from each point are first sent for calibration, labeled with the expiration date, and then returned with the process card. Expired, damaged, or abnormally temperature-related gauges must be recalibrated; you can't guarantee yesterday's correct gauge will still be correct today.

Zhao Gang categorized coal, steel, ammunition, and man-hours separately. Bullets used in the initial test firing were recorded in the trial production record, not removed from the training camp's ammunition requisition log. Scrap blanks that could be downgraded for ordinary parts were set aside; only those with unsuitable composition and defects were included in the remelting plan.

After reviewing the approval form, Zhao Weiguo only made one change.

"Thirty pieces is the trial production quantity, not the delivery quantity."

The clerk crossed out the word "deliver" and replaced it with "feed".

In the first cabinet, item A lay quietly.

The seven signs outside the counter were not removed.

Zhao Tieshan locked both locks on the first cabinet, put one key in his pocket, and handed the other to Chen An. He stood in front of the cabinet for a while, looking at the two characters, and then reached out to wipe away the iron filings from the engraving on the tail of the first item.

"Wait," he whispered. "After all thirty are out, we'll see if you're first or last."

Duan Peng was passing by the door when he heard this, and picked up the straw stick.

"Old Zhao, are you talking to a gun barrel?"

"What's wrong with talking to a gun barrel?" Zhao Tieshan didn't even turn his head. "A gun barrel is more obedient than a person. If you give it steel, it'll work. If you don't give it steel, it'll crack."

Duan Peng laughed: "Then I'll go find you some steel."

"Can you find it?"

"I can't find him, so I'm cursing Zhao Gang."

Zhao Tieshan turned around this time and glanced at Duan Peng.

"You insult Zhao Gang, and Zhao Gang insults you. You've both finished insulting each other, but Gang is still nowhere to be seen."

Duan Peng cursed, spat out the straw, and turned to leave.

The experimental shed fell silent. The furnace fire still burned, and the red and yellow plaques on the iron rack flickered in the firelight. Jia Yi was locked in the cabinet, the two characters facing the door.

Seven failure plaques, one success barrel.

Seven to one.

This deal isn't profitable, but it's not a loss either.

Because those seven signs showed how to make the next gun barrel.