Zhong Mars and Ying Qianmo are a pair of extremely good friends, graduated from Shandong University of Technology at the same time, and were trained in the army at the same time. Zhong Mars was recruited into the 203 Research Institute of the Ordnance Industry Administration, and Ying Qianmo officially joined the army and was assigned to the 501 Institute directly under the General Staff.

Their graduates are absolutely delicious. In the end, 15 percent of them were recruited into the military system, 35 percent were poached by the General Administration of Ordnance Industry, and the rest were taken over by the Economic Bureau.

Zhong Martian is the second batch of graduates of Shandong University of Technology, and it is the first time that the country has tasted the taste of "contracting" employment. However, no one said that it was bad, on the contrary, most of the graduates were eager to enter the army or the General Administration of Ordnance Industry, not only for the treatment (in fact, the treatment of entering Huayuan and other industrial groups was more lucrative), but because of a strong patriotic enthusiasm for the founding of New China. When the heroic model report group organized by the former General Political Department made a tour report at the university, the heroic deeds of the heroic model who fought bloody battles for the overthrow of the imperial system and the establishment of the republic easily aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the young students.

Different from the first batch of graduates, this batch of 600 graduates after graduation, no matter which position they went to, they carried out a two-month basic military training, and after the military training, these graduates took up their own jobs.

203 are in Jinan, while 501 are in Beijing. On the occasion of separation, Zhong Mars took the salary he had just received and entertained his friends to have a "separate meal" at Xianlaiju on the shore of Daming Lake

"Qianmo, now I don't envy you for wearing a military uniform. My institute is the Firearms Research Institute. Haha, that's the right way to go. Yesterday I inquired with the leader. I want to ask you what the 501 is about. I was taught a lesson, and I only said that your institution was more advanced than ours. ”

"Senior or not, I don't care. It is probably an arms research institute directly under the jurisdiction of the army. Well, isn't this our dream job? Ying Qianmo solemnly, "I'm afraid I won't be able to go home often in the future, and I have the opportunity to go home for me." ”

The two of them are fellow villagers, the village is separated by more than ten miles, and they have visited the door many times during school, and they are very familiar, Zhong Martian patted his chest and said, "Don't worry." I'm at home. ”

"It was really exciting to listen to the speech of the instructor of the training team." Ying Qianmo lit the table with chopsticks. "Build our own weapons! And it's a world-class weapon! Only by overthrowing the Manchu Qing can this possibility! It's exciting to think about! Come, let's have a toast, for this good era! ”

"That's right! I hope we can become masters in different fields! I don't believe it, we Chinese are really inferior to foreigners? Bah! ”

The next day. Zhong Mars officially reported to work. 203 were built in the southern suburbs. It is about 15 miles away from the city. A gray fence encloses the institute, with troops standing guard, and access checks are extremely strict. Marks the mystery of the nature of its work. Zhong Mars, who had interned at Huayuan Gun Factory for three months, was extremely excited.

A total of 17 people were "assigned" to the institute with him, 14 in mechanical engineering, and 3 in chemical engineering. After obtaining permits, receiving work clothes and arranging accommodation, the new university students were gathered in the newly built conference room and staff cafeteria, where they received routine confidentiality education and took the oath ceremony.

In fact, their graduates already know their workplaces. From the second year onwards, students of the University of Technology have been given a stipend by the Jinan government, which exceeds the standard of the Normal University. In addition to the degree of food and clothing, it can even subsidize the family. The school made it very clear that because everyone was given generous treatment, everyone had to fulfill their obligations. These funds are all targeted donations from Huayuan and ZTE, and you will definitely go to Huayuan and ZTE in the future.

This is exactly what the students want, looking at Shandong, that is, these two industrial groups are the most advanced.

After completing their basic studies, they carried out a three-month internship in the third year, adjusted their majors according to their table, and after entering the fourth grade, they were completely oriented to study, Zhong Mars's class was actually a small arms class, learning the general principles of firearms, and the counterpart was arranged to the corresponding workshop for internship. Students know exactly what they want to do after graduation.

"Comrades," the young Director Wei admonished the graduates of the 203 Institute, "on behalf of the 203 Institute, I welcome you. Although we are not a formal army establishment, we are part of the Ordnance Industry Administration, and we are an organization that serves the army, and we have the same requirements for you as the army. Please remember the content of the oath and remember the strict discipline of the office. What you see and hear, you are not allowed to flow a word without permission! ”

"Yes." The new employee replied loudly. They all received strict military training, and although the time was shorter, each of them already had a little military temperament.

Director Wei nodded with satisfaction, "Comrades, first of all, let me introduce the history of our institute. The predecessor of our institute was the Ordnance Research Institute under the direct jurisdiction of the Joint Logistics Headquarters, which specialized in the study of light weapons. It can be traced back to the period of the Mengshan Army, and it is the earliest weapons research institute established by our army. This ancestor of Wu Lie, he is our adviser, is one of the veterans of the ordnance group at the beginning, when Mengshan established the ordnance group, the senior of the martial arts is the leader of the ordnance group personally appointed by the commander-in-chief! ”

Zhong Mars cast a reverent gaze on Wu Lie, who was gray-haired and wrinkled. During the training team, he studied the military history of the Mengshan Army, and was full of reverence for Long Qian and a group of famous founding fathers under him. When I heard that this inconspicuous old man turned out to be the head of the ordnance team when Mengshan was reorganized, the reverence was from the heart.

"The commander-in-chief is very concerned about the development of light weapons, limited to the conditions, our army has basically used captured or purchased foreign firearms for more than ten years, but our army's weapons development work has always been carried out hard, our predecessors have designed world-class light weapons under extremely difficult conditions, transformed the standard rifles that the Germans are proud of, won high praise from German weapons experts, and designed the world's best light machine guns, The Huayuan 2 light machine gun played an extremely important role in various battlefields in which the Mengshan Army won national victories. Our predecessors used this machine gun to exchange a large number of machines and funds for the military industry of the Mengshan Army, and now. It has become the standard weapon of the German army. It was because of these achievements that the arrogant German munitions experts recognized our level, and thus formed a close cooperation with Germany in the field of weapons......"

During his internship at Huayuan Gun Factory, Zhong Mars was arranged to intern in a rifle assembly workshop, which was exactly his professional direction. Although I didn't work in the production workshop of the Huayuan 2 light machine gun, I knew that this machine gun was still in mass production, and I didn't expect this weapon that was still in mass production to be so famous.

Director Wei continued, "Our mission is to design the best firearms for the military, including light and heavy machine guns, general-purpose rifles, and variants. And pistols...... We must study and design the light weapons that the troops need. Then it was handed over to the military factory to manufacture and equip the troops. The company chief of the General Administration has put forward a very high demand, that is, we must do our best to get rid of the status quo of using the weapons of the great powers, let the troops use the weapons we design and manufacture ourselves, and also export them to make money. It's like a Huayuan light machine gun. Of course. The weapons we design and build must be the best. This requires us to devote ourselves to study and research, to understand the principles of light weapons, and also to understand our current level of manufacturing. Drive each other, use advanced design to force military factories to improve their manufacturing level, and use advanced manufacturing technology to ensure the realization of design results......"

Zhong Mars felt that Director Wei spoke quite level, Director Wei noticed the manufacturing process, and the three-month internship made him understand the difference between theory and practice, and the mechanical manufacturing theory learned in the classroom may not be practical in the factory, because the factory is limited by factors such as machines, raw materials and workers. Originally, I thought that Huayuan could even build a car, and it was natural to make a gun, but in fact it was not the case at all, and the difficulty of manufacturing firearms definitely exceeded that of other parts of the car except for key components, and the requirements for technology, equipment and materials were extremely high.

Zhong Mars was assigned to a section, and a rifle section. The section chief's surname is Yu, and he is also very young, he was originally an engineer at the Huayuan Research Institute, and has been engaged in the research and design of rifles.

Section Chief Yu brought the three college students who were divided into a section into a secret room, which was filled with various rifles, "This is all the guns we have collected that are currently equipped with the armies of various countries, including the Russian Mosinagan Gun, the Austrian Manlisha, the Japanese Golden Hook Rifle and the latest Type 38, the British Lee Enfield, the German Mauser, and the American Springfield...... They differ in caliber, bolt principle and ammunition supply, each with its own merits...... One of our tasks was to understand the principles of these rifles, to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and then to design a new rifle that would surpass them. ”

Section Chief Yu saw the surprise in the eyes of the new students, "That's right, it's not easy to design a new gun, but why can't we?!" Well?! At present, our troops mainly use two kinds of rifles, the imitation of the German-made Mauser and the Russian water bead, which are of different calibers, which have brought logistical trouble, and we must do everything possible to achieve unification. The joint logistics headquarters tended to unify to 7.92 caliber, but the troops reported many problems, such as large recoil, and even those who broke the shoulder bone, and the accuracy was not good, and the accuracy index was much worse than the new guns that the Japanese were equipping. And due to the large caliber of the bullets, it caused a waste of raw materials and an increase in the load of soldiers, and more importantly, the effective range was shorter! Sniper tactics that are not conducive to the vigorous training of troops. The Joint Logistics Headquarters and the Ordnance Industry Administration have noticed these problems, and the needs of the troops are our job, so a long time ago, the superiors set out to design a completely new rifle, which is completely new in principle and completely breaks through the existing framework! Section Chief Yu's tone became excited, "According to the company director, the original designer of this gun was Commander Long!" Huayuan Research Institute has verified the design principle, which is completely feasible! Prototype guns were also made, although there are still some problems, but they are not design problems but material and process problems. Now the relevant business of Huayuan Research Institute has been transferred to our section, and the task is to complete the design of this new rifle with the internal code name of Zhonghua I. and transfer it to production! The task given to us by the General Administration is 18 months, which is very urgent, so the institute will ask you college students to come and strengthen our strength. The work of our section for the next period of time will be to make every effort to solve the problems exposed by the new guns. Let's do it. ”

Zhong Martian quickly put into work, and also saw this new gun, which was still in absolute secrecy, with a rough appearance, codenames one by one, and extremely strict management. Zhong Mars was allowed to test fire eight rounds of ammunition at the institute's dedicated range. It uses not 7.92 caliber but 7.62, which is a heavy change. The magazine has been changed from five rounds to eight rounds, the continuous firepower has been enhanced, and more importantly, this gun cleverly uses the energy of gunpowder after bullet shooting, which solves the problem of soldiers manually pulling the bolt, and the rate of fire has been greatly improved. Now there are several problems, one is that the barrel is not easy to replace, and the other is that the life of the barrel is too short, and it should be a material problem. The third is that the shooting accuracy does not meet the design requirements, which is more annoying.

Zhong Mars was divided into a group, the internal code name is 102 Group, which means the second group of a section, the task of the group is to solve the problem of difficult barrel replacement, the team leader was originally an engineer from Huayuan Gun Factory, in addition to Zhong Mars, there is a technician and two technicians.

Zhong Mars sent a letter to his friend Ying Qianmo, who had already gone to Beijing, and reported his work in very brief language, but he still did not check the letter in the Guò office, and was warned once on suspicion of leaking secrets. He could only rewrite, completely slightly adjust the content of the work, and just talked about his own feelings. Soon, Ying Qianmo replied, saying that he had already devoted himself to intense work, and felt the weight of the meaning, and wanted to compare with him to see who would achieve results first...... Zhong Mars wanted to know what kind of organization the 501 Institute that Ying Qianmo worked for, but Ying's letter did not mention it.

The 501 Institute of Yingqian Mo is one of the aeronautical research institutes under the name of the General Staff Department, which is responsible for the imitation research of aero engines. The superior unit of the 501 Institute is the Aviation Bureau of the General Staff Department, and the director is Dr. Feng Ru, who returned from the United States. The Aviation Bureau, under the high attention of the Military Commission, has set up four research institutes, three of which are located in Xi'an. The related factory also broke ground in the northern suburbs of Xi'an. Unlike the 203 Institute, there are more returned overseas Chinese in the Aviation Research Institute. After Feng Ru took office, he was ordered to go to the United States and picked up more than 40 engineers and technicians recruited by Huamei Machinery in the United States, most of whom were Chinese who were looking forward to the end of the imperial system and the establishment of a republic in the motherland. With the help of Huamei Machinery, a large number of special equipment was purchased, and the first aircraft factory in Xi'an and the first aircraft engine factory in Luoyang began to be built.

It must be stated that China is not lagging behind in the field of aircraft.

When talking about airplanes, we cannot fail to mention the famous Wright brothers in the United States. The inventive brothers continued to work hard to improve their invention on December 7, 1903, when they turned thousands of years of human dreams of flying into reality, and in October 1905, the elder brother Wilbur flew for 38 minutes in an improved aircraft, the Asuka III, with a range of 39 kilometers. Convinced that the aircraft would be useful for military reconnaissance, they offered their design to the Army, but the military's response was lukewarm. They went to the British government again and were equally disappointed.

In 1906, the Wright brothers patented the aircraft and formed the Wright Flying Machine Company.

Liu Xiaoqi, an officer of the Intelligence Department who had received domestic instructions, approached Wright in his capacity as the deputy general manager of Huamei Machinery and expressed his willingness to buy the Wright brothers' aircraft patents for $100,000. It was a large amount of money, and the Wright brothers, who were scarved of funds, agreed to Huamei to use Wright's patents to build airplanes, but refused Liu's request to buy the company.

In 1907, Huamei Machinery established Huamei Aircraft Company and began to recruit troops.

In 1908, Feng Ru, a young man in the United States, was recruited into the company by Huamei Machinery and served as the technical director of the aircraft company.

In 1909, Feng Ru returned to China with three Huamei-made airplanes and held an airplane show in Guangzhou, which was a great success. Before the Mengshan Army raised troops against the Qing Dynasty, Feng Ru had already established the Huamei Guangzhou branch in Guangzhou and began to prepare for the domestic production of aircraft.

After the Mengshan Army won the national victory, Long Qian decided to put the aircraft industry under the jurisdiction of the army, established an aviation bureau in the General Staff Department, and appointed Feng Ru as the director.

Long Qian directly guided the layout and construction steps of the aviation industry. By the spring of 1910, the Aviation Bureau had more than 200 technicians and technicians, and selected the safer Xi'an as the manufacturing base and began to prepare for the construction of more than a dozen professional branches. Four research institutes with different directions have been established within the Aviation Bureau, codenamed 501~504. The design of aircraft (including engines) for different purposes was carried out, and the design of three aircraft with design performance exceeding the prototype of East American Aircraft Company was completed. (To be continued......)