In a small village at the foot of Taihang Mountain, the mountain beam was accompanied by the sound of shouting, and the leading horse stopped, and the dozen or so horses behind also stopped.

As soon as the leader stopped, the men immediately looked down the hill with binoculars.

"I don't like that!"

Li Shaoqiu said calmly with binoculars in his hand.

"I don't like it either!"

Fang Wenyue agreed, looking through the six-fold Zeiss binoculars, his field of vision was less wide, but more concentrated. From the telescope, you can clearly see the village in the twilight to the north, the relatively rich compound, that is their goal.

"Like it or not, we're going to get those things!"

Although he also doesn't like it, it doesn't mean that Fang Wenyue doesn't know what he should do, just like now, he recognizes that what he is doing is actually helping the great cause of national recovery, so as the head of the Zhili Liaison Station, he will personally lead the subordinates of the twelve action groups to rush here from Baoding at night.

With a wave of his hand, the twelve scouts who had been trained on Hell Island quickly dispersed in two teams of four and rode in the other two directions, all of them wearing black or gray short cotton jackets, black cloth scarves tied around their heads, and even carrying large knives behind their backs, looking no different from the bandits in the Taihang Mountains.

When he put down the binoculars, Fang Wenyue said calmly, and then turned his head to look at Li Shaoqiu.

"It's a war, isn't it?"

"We can do whatever it takes to win the war!"

Li Shaoqiu's face was a little difficult, and the training he received told him that as a soldier, sometimes he had to learn to make trade-offs.

"By the way, you're going to ......"

As he spoke, he was interrupted by a scout who rode up next to him, and the long and short lights on the ridge to the west flashed.

"Sir, there's movement from the west, but I can't confirm the identity of the figure!"

The scout on the horse asked.

"The light is not good, ask if you want to disarm the target."

"Forget it!"

Fang Wenyue shook his head.

"We're not here to kill!"

As soon as he heard this, the telescope in Li Shaoqiu's hand almost fell off, and he looked at Fang Wenyue in surprise, as if he was surprised that he would make such a decision.

"Look, I'm not a butcher! It's just a task! ”

As soon as the words fell, Fang Wenyue waved his hand, and the six horsemen rushed down towards the village below the mountain.

It was late at night, and the cold moonlight cast some white light on the snow. The farmer family of Tianjiazhuang will be sleeping soundly, this busy year, seeing that it is almost spring, the men who are holding the old woman in their arms still have a smile on the corner of their mouths, smacking in their dreams to have a good harvest next year, and the daughter-in-law has a beautiful dream of giving birth to a big fat boy.

At this moment, several masked men touched the high wall of the Tian family's compound, and successively threw the eagle claws tied with ropes on the high wall, and then lightly climbed over the wall, bowed and quietly touched the back of Zhuang Ding on the corner tower sentry, and Zhuang Ding, who was holding a single foreign gun, was knocked unconscious with a few muffled snorts.

It was only a quarter of an hour's work, and Zhuang Ding was removed from the four corner towers of the Tian family compound, and as soon as the gate of the Tian family compound opened, a string of hooves wrapped in cotton cloth horses gently entered the courtyard.

In front of the door of the house in the side yard, one of the men stepped forward to take a single knife and said goodbye, and the door was pried open with a creak. Tian Pengju, who was frightened in the capital during the Gengzi years, although he fled back to his hometown from the capital, but he fell into trouble sleeping in the capital, heard the door ringing, and was about to get up, but found that he had been pointed to the forehead with a knife.

"Woo ......"

His daughter-in-law was restrained just by snorting. This kind of bandit in the countryside, Tian Pengju has heard a lot, after all, he can be regarded as a seven-grade official, this will be quite calm, and he knows that this Zhuang Ding must have been removed.

"Guys, let's say we have been wronged?"

One of the sturdy men whispered roughly.

"No injustice."

Tian Pengju asked again.

"You're here for money?"

Who doesn't know that the old man has been a member of the military department in the past, when the old man was alive in the past, no one dared to come to fight the autumn wind, and now these bandits are on the door, naturally they are here to fight the autumn wind, when the Tian family repairs this house, there is naturally a secret cellar Liang Library, naturally they go to the door, and the things in the Liang Library must not be saved.

The man shook his head again.

"Not for money."

This time it was Tian Pengju's turn to wonder, no injustice and no money.

"Why is that?"

"To live!"

Hearing this, Tian Pengju almost didn't laugh.

"Strongman, this is strange, the road faces west, our well water does not interfere with the river water, although my father once served in the military department, but he didn't want your life."

"If there is no money or food in these years, my life will be gone! Today, my brother came to your mansion just to borrow silver and food for his life, and I also invited Young Master Tian to be strange, the secret cellar is there, my brother is not interested, and the natural Tian family in the Liang library can't stay! ”

"Well said, well said!"

Tian Pengju can only breathe a sigh of relief at this time, this person still has some rules, it seems that he came down from the nearby mountains, he doesn't rush to kill them all, he just wants to accept them when he sees them. Just when he opened his mouth to tell the location of Liangku, a Henan accent came from outside the house.

"Big brother! Stuff in hand."

"Excuse me!"

The man with the knife hugged his fist, Tian Pengju only felt a pain in the back of his head, and fainted as soon as it was dark in front of him.

At night, the mountain wind blowing through the valley was blowing, and occasionally the dry branches that were blown off by the wind made a creaking sound, on the mountain road in the Taihang Mountains, a team of horses drove two carts to the night road, looking at the big box of copper nails pushed on the two carts, the box was in the box of the Ministry of War, and the head was full of copper plates in the card slot, turning his head to see Li Shaoqiu's face with some different colors, Fang Wenyue smiled softly.

"You think I'm going to kill them?"

"Didn't you plan that in the first place?"

"If I hadn't found the boxes, I might have had to do that."

Fang Wenyue didn't hide his thoughts, the original plan was to control the people of the Tian family, if he didn't find the box, even if he didn't want to do it, he would have to do it, but these plates were thrown directly into the utility room, and it was even easier than finding the Ming library.

"The eldest young master of the Tian family is also a little bold, if he has the opportunity in the future, he may be able to become a character!"

Thinking about the calmness of the Tian family's eldest young master's knife on his neck a few hours ago, Fang Wenyue couldn't help but praise it.

"Aren't you worried about getting into trouble if you keep it alive?"

"Trouble?"

Fang Wenyue shook his head and looked up at the stars in the sky.

"We're just bandits, we robbed the silver and food, but we can put thousands of catties of copper plates there, if we don't rob them, then we are not bandits, these copper plates, no matter what, they are worth at least a thousand taels!"

"Do you think they really believe that the bandits did this work?"

"Didn't I leave a thread? Believe it or not...... Hmph, 100,000 taels of silver! ”

"My 100,000 taels of silver!"

Looking at the empty miscellaneous room, Tian Pengju was so shocked that he almost vomited blood, the copper plate of the map in the thirty-two large boxes stored in this room, which was exchanged for the old man's life, originally refers to relying on the map in this box, from Yuan Shikai's exchange for 100,000 taels of silver, so as to exchange for a fortune.

He didn't want to be an official, he didn't want to be an official anymore, he lost the idea of being an official in his heart, if the foreign devil called again, maybe he would really lose his life at that time, and he would all point to the things in the box for silver, but at the moment, it was good, but this thing was robbed by bandits.

"bandits! You have to think about the life of the master! ”

He had already "dedicated" the map plate to Yuan Shikai, but now he let the bandits rob it, if Yuan Shikai came to ask for the map, then what would it be.

When he saw his own big bolt approaching, he raised his leg and kicked it.

"A bunch of useless waste, it's all your bunch of rice buckets, and I have nothing left of the young master!"

Tian Dazhuan, who pretended to be in pain and knelt on the ground, hurriedly cried out.

"Less...... Young master, this, it's no wonder to me! That group of bandits started too fast, I have never seen a bandit so neat in my life, it is to tie a knot, and it is a knot that cannot be untied! ”

As if to prove that what he said was true, Tian Dazhuan even deliberately took out a cut rope.

"Young master, look! This knot is so weird! This group of people must not be an easy angle! ”

"Bullshit......"

Just about to scold, Tian Pengju stared at the rope on Tian Da's bolt's hand, and snatched it over, the rope is a kenny rope that cannot be seen at all in Taihang Mountain, this kind of kenaf rope can only be seen in big places like Tianjin and Baoding, and it is also common in the new army in Beiyang, and the knot is also the kind of knot used by foreigners and sailors, not to mention in Taihang Mountain, even if there are a few people in the whole Shanxi who will tie this knot and use this kind of kenaf string.

"Dog, young master, I'll let people play!"

Looking at the rope in his hand, Tian Pengju only felt cold sweat coming out of his back.

Linen rope, foreigner knot, I don't want to think about it anymore, he knows who did this, the whole of Hebei, except for foreign devils, I'm afraid that Yuan Shikai has built a new army, Zhuang Ding in Zhuangzi let people touch the whistle and tie it up silently, there must be only the new army.

"You pig brain, that Yuan Shikai is worrying about silver in training, you fucking take the things of the court to ask for silver, isn't your mother looking for death?"

When he hated and scolded himself in his heart, Tian Pengju remembered that he still had a crime against Yuan Shikai, but his own father hid the map printing plate when he broke the city, if the printing plate was in his hand, even if Yuan Shikai took the official certificate to ask for it, he could fool him with dozens of yuan, but now, he ...... A small tonic seven-rank official blackmailed the first product of the dynasty, the more he thought about it, the more cold he felt, Tian Pengju finally knew that when his father was alive, why did he always scold him for being a fool, and now it is not just the old man's chopsticks and dung looking for death!

"No! You have to run away quickly, and escape as far as you can before Yuan Shikai sends someone to get people! ”

In a ravine in the jurisdiction of the iron ore mine in Ma'anshan, this winding ravine is a shooting range carefully selected by Shi Si on the map for more than a week, the first fifteen kilometers of the mountain are all iron ore jurisdictions, only 1 km away from the iron mine, where the artillery test firing is carried out, the sound of cannons and explosions will be hidden in the sound of artillery during iron ore mining, and the surrounding ravines provide cover for artillery.

In the deepest part of the ravine, on a field artillery position that conformed to the specifications, a three-fingered field gun lay quietly in the fortification, and there was even a fishing net with withered grass hanging above the fortification, and the muzzle of the gun pointed directly to the southwest, which was the MJ type 88 mm field gun developed by Shi Si according to the drawings and part of the schematic diagram of the ЗиС-3 cannon provided by Chen Moran.

"88mm sharp grenade!"

Pointing to the shells in the ammunition box, Shi Si said unexpectedly, in his impression, this should probably be the only sharp grenade in the world, and the rifle pointed bullet designed by Chen Moran gave him the inspiration to design this shell.

"The grenade projectile weighs 12.5 kilograms, the projectile weighs twice as much as a 75-mm shell, and the charge is almost three times that of a 75-mm shell!"

Shi Si's pride, Chen Moran didn't look at it, but he stared at the field gun with a good feeling, the appearance of the gun was no different from the ЗиС-3 cannon he had seen in magazines, at least Chen Moran didn't see any difference.

"His muzzle brake efficiency should be around 40 percent, and it reduces the average recoil resistance of the gun from 7,510 kgf without the brake to 4,500 kgf. In this way, the force on the gun mount is greatly reduced when the gun is fired, which makes it possible to use a light two-legged gun mount, and the gun mount is directly made of seamless steel tubes, which reduces the production difficulty to the maximum bottom. ”

When Shi Si said this, the smugness on his face turned into admiration, and when this cannon was test-fired, the urge in his mind to open Chen Moran's mind to take a look was even stronger.

"The hydraulic aid and the liquid-gas retractor, because of the use of the new semi-automatic vertical wedge impact bolt, as well as the artillery fire directly made by the sighter, further increased the rate of fire, and during the test firing, the maximum rate of fire reached a rate of fire of 28 rounds at a time, I mean one minute."

Seeing that Chen Moran didn't seem surprised, Shi Si deliberately accentuated the kiss, the new gun bolt, Chen Moran did not give him a specific diagram, but told the working principle of the semi-automatic bolt with the standing wedge impact in the form of words, if there was no text introduction to his simple diagram of the bolt and the working principle, even with this hydraulic and liquid gas artillery anti-recoil device, it would never be possible to reach the current rate of fire.

When he was proud of this epoch-making field gun, Shi Si felt a little bitter, although this cannon was finally designed by him, but it can be traced to the roots, the principle of the cannon, the gun carriage, the tooth arc high and low machine and the screw type direction machine, all of which are from Chen Moran's handwriting, he has studied gun manufacturing for more than ten years, and there are too many things in this cannon, which he never thought of.

Xiao Lie, who had worked in the Armstrong Arsenal in the factory, almost as soon as he came into contact with this artillery, immediately began to draw the "cannon" in his mind, the anti-recoil device of this kind of artillery is so efficient that it is by no means comparable to the hydraulic spring-type anti-recoil device, even the tooth arc high and low machine and the screw type steering machine can not be described as exquisite, and all of this is from the hands of Chen Moran, a layman in the ordnance industry.

"Have you completed the test launch?"

Chen Moran slapped the cannon body hard, and the biggest surprise may be that the caliber of this cannon has changed from 76 mm to 88 mm, but other than that, everything is fine.

"Test firing is underway, it is estimated that after the Spring Festival, you will be able to come up with a shooting table, two days ago, those artillery divisions you invited to shoot according to the shooting table on the map square, the effect is not bad, but to complete all the shooting tables, at least a few thousand more shells will be fired!"

Shi Si glanced at Chen Moran when he spoke, he was most afraid of people mentioning money in the past, but now he doesn't seem to be worried about money anymore, a shell costs 6 yuan and 7 cents, these thousands of shells are a dozen, but there are thousands of rifles gone.

"Let's fight! You can only shoot a qualified shooting table, even if you can hit tens of thousands of shells! ”

Although he is a military layman, Chen Moran also heard Xiao Xinren mention that the shooting table was shot out by the great powers with real money, even if the Manchu Qing Dynasty bought the shooting watch, but the shooting table was still passive, and no country would sell the shooting watch to foreigners completely after shooting and calculating it.

"Tens of thousands of ......"

Shi Si didn't rejoice in Chen Moran's generosity, but smiled bitterly.

"However, I want to shoot tens of thousands of rounds, afraid that I have to sell the company the 120 guns, draw back a dozen, in order to shoot so many shells, the company doesn't know where to receive so many orders, but our company's Siemens electric furnace is just put into production, now it can produce cannon steel, but the tungsten and nickel needed for cannon steel all need to be imported, in the past it was a test, not much, but the barrel and barrel need tungsten and nickel, these two rare metals, China does not produce at all, Most of the world's tungsten is produced in the United States and Portugal, while nickel is produced in Cuba and ......"

Shi Si's complaint only made Chen Moran surprised, for this Jianghuai Road Mining Machinery Factory, he has always been responsive, what machines and raw materials Shi Si needs has always been handed over to a list, and the company will send someone to contact a foreign bank to buy. "You mean we don't have the ingredients?" ”

Raw materials have always been a headache for industrial companies, the steelmaking furnace of Ma'anshan Steel Plant can reach 3000 degrees, which is enough to make vanadium steel for automobiles, but vanadium needs to be imported, and it has "designed" epoch-making artillery, but it has encountered the problem of tungsten and nickel.

"At least, some special raw materials are insufficient, just like the production of high-quality artillery steel needs to use Swedish low-sulfur low-sulfur high-quality iron ore, although the steel smelted from the iron ore of Ma'anshan is barely explored, but the life of the artillery barrel is not comparable to the high-quality steel smelted from Sweden's high-quality iron ore, the same cannon steel formula, our cannon barrel life is only 2,500 rounds, but the barrel made of high-quality steel produced in Sweden has a life span of at least twice as much as ours."

Shi Si shrugged his shoulders helplessly, after purchasing a 1000-ton hydraulic press, the factory could manufacture world-class artillery, but due to the limited raw materials, it could not manufacture a first-class barrel, and naturally this first-class was discounted.

"Iron ore may not be able to solve it! But tungsten ore! ”

Chen Moran smiled slightly, how many Chinese in later generations do not know that China is the country with the richest tungsten reserves in the world, is it possible that China will not have tungsten?

"I know there's a place where there should be tungsten mines, so we might as well send someone to find it."

(To be continued)