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

The thirty gun barrels were not placed in one place.

In mid-January, ten were made in Shiyao, eight in Xigou, seven in the old Yangquan line, and five at the Beishan test site.

The same set of process cards and the same batch of standard samples are used, but the raw materials are sampled separately, the furnace temperature is recorded separately, and the measuring tools are calibrated separately. Each gun barrel is numbered from the billet stage, and the process, the person in charge, and the rework location are all written on the card.

Zhao Tieshan copied Jia Yi's record into four copies.

"Do as it says?" someone asked.

"Check according to its standards, not just copy the appearance."

What if only three out of thirty are up to standard?

"That means A1 was lucky."

Duan Peng was passing by the door when he heard this and leaned half his body inside.

"Three? What's the point of making them then?"

"Three sticks are still three sticks," Zhao Tieshan said without looking up. "Three sticks can tell you what's wrong. If all thirty are ruined, you won't even know what's wrong."

Duan Peng picked up the straw.

"The way you're saying it makes it sound like being crippled is a good thing."

"It's not a good thing if it's crippled." Zhao Tieshan leaned the fire tongs against the stove. "If it's crippled but can be detected, that's a good thing. If it can't be detected and explodes on the battlefield, that's a bad thing. You fucking got it?"

Duan Peng fell silent.

The four industrial sites each commenced operations.

At the same time, the four military command posts are also changing.

From mid-January to early March, the Independent Regiment's official strength increased from 15,500 to 17,000. The newly added 1,500 men all came from the existing training system, having completed at least six months of training, including identity verification, live-fire exercises, night marches, and first aid. They also served as road guards, ammunition transport, mine protection, or battlefield reinforcements.

Without prisoners, they were simply put into military uniform and added to the official roster.

Training and replenishment increased to 19,000. Local armed forces and county-level forces numbered 12,000. Friendly and neighboring forces numbered 22,000. The total for all four categories is 70,000.

The 70,000 people were scattered across six counties, two sections of railway, and four industrial sites, stretching approximately 180 li (about 50 kilometers) horizontally. The regimental headquarters could not see all the people; they could only rely on maps, telephone receipts, convoy schedules, and warehouse inventory.

Every evening, each county only reported the numbers needed by the regimental headquarters for its own area: available manpower, sick soldiers, road blockages, remaining food supplies, ammunition shortages, and sources of enemy intelligence. Since the reporting times differed, yesterday's neighboring troop numbers and today's regular troop numbers couldn't be combined to create a new total. Zhao Gang instructed his staff to write the date on the corner of each sheet of paper, marking outdated information with a gray pencil.

The operations section pinned maps of the six counties to the wall.

Different colored lines are used for each direction. For official main forces, the location and seven-day combat base are marked; for training forces, the training progress is marked; for local armed forces, roads, bridges, mining areas, and villages are marked; for friendly forces, only the mission, time limit, and contact point are marked, without personnel or internal battalion and company positions.

"Seventy thousand is not the main force of seventy thousand," Zhao Gang wrote in the corner of the map.

The monk poked half his body in through the doorway.

"Seventy thousand? And my two thousand five hundred are still the general reserve force?"

"Still." Zhao Gang didn't look up.

"Out of 70,000 men, my 2,500 didn't even have a unit number?"

"It has a unit designation. General Reserve."

"The General Reserve is not a unit designation."

"That's the unit number." Zhao Gang put down his pen. "What unit number do you want?"

The monk thought for a moment.

"I want a unit designation that sounds like it's in wartime."

"The general reserve is for fighting," Zhao Gang said, pressing down on the corner of the map. "It's there to plug any leaks, and it's there to fill in for any unit that suffers casualties. What else is this but fighting?"

The monk swallowed his words and muttered something.

"Okay. Blocking the hole is also a form of warfare."

Regular troops are stockpiled based on a seven-day base. Training forces are issued rations and ammunition according to training intensity. Local armed forces are partially supported by county/district grain reserves. Neighboring units report their own grain reserves and shortages; the regimental headquarters only determines wartime priorities and does not include other units' grain reserves in the independent regiment's inventory.

Communication lines cannot be laid in all areas.

Radio and telephone nodes were set up in the six counties. If the main line was lost, each direction would operate independently according to the contingency plan for half a day; if more than half a day was needed, cavalry or foot messengers had to relay the message. In one exercise, the telephone line from Beishan to the regimental headquarters was lost for two hours, but the mining area did not stop operations; coal trucks were rerouted eastward according to the backup schedule. After the telephone line was restored, the truck numbers, departure times, and fuel consumption were then entered into the master ledger.

At another radio station, the battery was damp, and the message was only half-transmitted. The duty officer didn't guess to complete it; instead, he marked it as incomplete and sent someone to check. The 70,000-person network was most afraid of a half-finished telegram being taken as a complete order, so all directions had "no execution without confirmation" clauses.

There are also limits to transportation.

If 70,000 men acted simultaneously, the roads would be completely clogged with food and ammunition by the end of the 12th. Zhao Gang calculated the routes by mule carts, trucks, and railway wagons separately, ensuring that the evacuation of the wounded and the transport of artillery shells could not occur at the same time. Each supply depot was only responsible for its own section of the mission; no one was carrying a complete master plan while traveling.

A single snowfall in winter can alter an entire timetable. If the northern convoy arrives three hours late, the southern supply depot will have to provide one less hot meal to make way for the following wounded vehicles. The lines on the map don't transport supplies themselves; what truly makes the dispatching of the 70,000 troops effective are the drivers, bridge repairmen, warehouse workers, and those who keep track of the route.

The 25,000 merit points were not used until problems were exposed in a small-batch trial production at 4 PM.

The redemption options are divided into four categories.

Precision lead screw grinding process. Bearing steel formulation and heat treatment parameters. Carbide cutting tool process. Gauge calibration process package.

The system provides drawings, formulas, parameters, testing methods, and limited standard samples.

Finished grinding machines, bearing steel raw materials, and cutting tool production lines were all missing from the boxes; not even a single box of qualified lead screws had made it into the factory. The four factories still had to make their own fixtures, find materials, repair machine tools, and train workers.

Before entering the reference room, the standard sample is weighed, measured, and numbered. The four points can only be borrowed in rotation according to the plan, and in normal production, self-made measuring tools calibrated with the standard sample are used. If anyone keeps the standard sample in their own factory for a long time, the inspection of the other three points will lose the same standard.

After reading the documents, Zhao Tieshan crossed out the words "immediately increase production".

"For lead screw grinding, you first need equipment that can operate stably. For bearing steel, you need to build a small furnace first. For cemented carbide, you need tungsten, cobalt, and suitable sintering conditions. Tool calibration can help reduce some costs initially, but you also need to prevent damage to standard parts."

The process package was disassembled into four sets of cards.

The stone kiln will first test the measuring tools and cutting tools. The Xigou site will check the heat treatment. The old Yangquan line will continue producing ordinary parts; the machinery repair should not be stopped for the sake of new data. The Beishan test site will be responsible for bearing steel samples and fault records.

By the end of February, thirty gun barrels were completed.

There were twenty-two white tags and eight red tags hanging on the inspection table.

Nine out of ten stones from Shiyao were qualified. Six out of eight stones from Xigou were qualified. Four out of seven stones from Yangquan were qualified. Three out of five stones from Beishan were qualified.

Twenty-two were qualified, and eight were unqualified, resulting in a qualification rate of approximately 73%.

Of the eight steel rods, three had skewed inner holes, two had uneven heat treatment hardness, one had rifling depth exceeding tolerance, and two had throat dimensions that still failed to meet tolerances after rework.

The pass rates from all four sites are compared, with the old Yangquan line having the lowest. Machine tool wear is one factor, but the fact that skilled machinists are often preoccupied with repair work is another. The Beishan site has the fewest sites, so we can't conclude that the process is the best just because three lines passed. Due to differences in samples, equipment, and personnel, the conclusions must be verified in the next batch.

Zhao Gang asked, "Can twenty-two rods fit into a gun?"

"It can be used for training, security, mining operations, and durability testing," Zhao Tieshan said. "It will be numbered first, and will not be used for mass replacement by frontline main forces."

What about monthly production?

Don't ask about monthly births.

Zhao Tieshan slammed the eight red cards on the table.

"First, ask why these eight failed. The different pass rates at four different points indicate a lack of standardization in the furnace, machine tool, personnel, and measuring instruments. What the hell are you in such a rush? The gun barrel isn't going to grow back on its own."

Jia Yi put it in the first cabinet and did not take it out to celebrate the victory.

Twenty-two uncertified barrels were loaded into the re-inspected bolt action in batches for training and durability tests. The throat, rifling, locking mechanism, and cartridge case marks were measured after each fixed number of rounds fired. Passing these tests did not guarantee the barrel's lifespan.

The Japanese army was also looking for these industrial sites.

After the four points were dispersed, enemy aircraft could not destroy all production facilities at once, but they could see coal carts, smoke, roads, and personnel movement. At the end of February, the stone kiln received an air warning. The workers followed the drill to stop the power, shut off the oil tanks, and seal the furnace openings. The main shaft, reference gauges, Class A records, and twenty-two qualified gun barrels were moved underground in batches.

The surface workshop only contained old machine frames, empty wooden crates, and forging equipment that could not be moved.

The enemy planes arrived earlier than the scheduled evacuation time.

The first round of bombs landed on the east side of the stone kiln, tearing off the roof of the old forging shed. The second round swept through the loading and unloading yard, where workers were still pushing the last cart of ordinary steel.

After the explosion, loader Han Qing collapsed next to the truck.

He was thirty-two years old and used to work as a loader at a coal mine in Yangquan. He Xiaoman was nineteen years old and worked as a driver on Beishan Road before joining the factory. He ran back to help haul people when he was hit in the chest by a second round of shrapnel.

Neither of them were taken to the health clinic.

Seven others were injured.

The medical staff first distributed the injured according to their severity, registering even those with minor injuries. The two deceased were ordnance workers; their deaths were not entered into the army's death toll register but were instead recorded in the ordnance district's permanent death register.

After the air raid ended, Zhao Weiguo went to the loading and unloading yard first.

Half of the old forging press had collapsed, an old hammer was rendered unusable, and all the wiring and ventilation systems needed to be reconnected. A broken lunchbox lay on the ground, its contents now mixed with dust and dirt.

The workers first took a headcount of personnel, then of equipment. The power room was confirmed to be powered off, the oil tanks were not on fire, and the underground entrance was not exposed. Some of the surface steel was buried; it could not be directly returned to the gun barrel steel furnace before its composition was determined.

Zhao Gang brought over two death registration forms.

Han Qing has a wife and two children; the grain and money were delivered directly to their home. He Xiaoman's parents live in another county; the courier, carrying county and district certificates, traveled two days through mountainous terrain, forbidding anyone from simply handing over the compensation to village officials and considering it done.

Zhao Tieshan wrote the two people's names on the first page of the production stoppage record.

"How many days will it be suspended?" Zhao Weiguo asked.

"Three days in the stone kiln. The measuring tools and core equipment are undamaged, but the old hammer is gone. Some processes have been moved to Xigou and Beishan; we can't keep the kiln open in the open."

"Twenty-two?"

"Inside the cave."

Where are the workers?

"Seven injuries will be rotated according to severity. Vacancies will be filled by transferring personnel from other locations; inexperienced personnel will not be temporarily assigned."

Three days later, the stone kiln branch line was restored.

The entire process has not been restored to what it was before the air raid. The forging section has been moved out, the tool room has been opened first, and the machine tools are being checked for level and spindles one by one. The floor tiles of the workshop have not yet been replaced, but the underground lights have already been turned on again.

The resumption order lists when each process will reopen. Gauge calibration will resume on the first day, machining will resume on a small-batch trial run on the second day, and forging will remain suspended. Of the seven injured workers, those capable of light work did not immediately return to their posts; those absent were replaced by experienced workers from other locations.

The network of 70,000 people did not completely stop due to damage to a single point.

But it was not entirely unharmed either.

Han Qing and He Xiaoman's names were recorded on the production stoppage log. Seven wounded soldiers occupied hospital beds. The old hammers were scrapped, resulting in three days of zero production, and the transportation of supplies consumed an additional batch of oil and horse feed.

In early March, the regimental headquarters received orders from higher authorities.

The submission of a unified operational plan for a force of 100,000 in the spring is required. The plan must first report the source of the troops, 12 days' worth of rations and ammunition, artillery, engineers, communications, transportation, medical services, and border defenses with neighboring countries. Do not submit a figure of 100,000 first and then fill in the numbers and rations in reverse order.

During the same period, Okamura remained within the North China Area Army system. The Japanese army began to propose transfer plans to the Kwantung Army, Central China troops, and air force, and paper discussions increased, but formal reinforcements and transfers had not yet been fully implemented.

Zhao Weiguo stood in front of the map of the six counties.

The lights of 70,000 people were lit up everywhere.

Some were guarding the road, some were transporting coal, some were training soldiers, and some were measuring a gun barrel underground.

The stone kiln site was closed for three days.

It's lit up again now.

Zhao Weiguo turned his gaze to the stone kiln and lingered there for a long time. Just three days ago, it was pitch black there, and Han Qing and He Xiaoman's names were written on the first page of the production stoppage record.

He reached out and turned up the light next to that spot, then turned and went back to the operations room. The contingency plan for 100,000 troops was still spread out on the table, the first line blank, waiting for him to fill in the source of the troops.

Zhao Tieshan rushed over from the stone kiln, holding the production stoppage record in his hand.

"Han Qing, He Xiaoman." He placed the record on the table. "These two names, change them and production will be suspended for three days."

Zhao Weiguo didn't reply. He took the record, glanced at it, and put it back on the table.

"Three days later, the stove was reignited," he said.

"If it's burned, neither of them will come back."

Zhao Weiguo looked up and glanced at Zhao Tieshan.

"They won't come back," he said, "but as long as the stove is burning, their deaths weren't in vain."

Zhao Tieshan didn't say anything more. He folded the record, put it in his pocket, and turned to walk towards the stone kiln.

He turned back at the door: "Those twenty-two gun barrels, we'll start testing their durability tomorrow."

"Go ahead and fight," Zhao Weiguo said. "When you're done, call out the count."

Zhao Tieshan nodded, turned and left.

The operations room fell silent. Lights on the map illuminated one by one, with the stone kiln spot being the brightest.

A network of 70,000 people is woven from these numerous lights.

Some lights were on, and some were off.

The two lamps that went out were named Han Qing and He Xiaoman.