Phoenix Mountain Base.

In the weapon laboratory with a bright and clean window, Wu Ming looked at the manual in his hand, and then looked at the two cylindrical iron bumps in front of him, one large and one small, and was dumbfounded.

Seeing that Wu Ming didn't react for a long time, Robert Goddard was a little worried, after all, the weapons on the table were too advanced for an ignorant and backward China.

Robert Goddard knew very well that the boss in front of him was a high-ranking general, and he had a great favor to him, not only sending someone to bring him from the United States to China to stabilize his condition, but also offering him an extremely generous remuneration to develop weapons, if the design did not meet the requirements, it would be too sorry

His expression became more and more solemn, and Robert Goddard said apologetically: "Dear Wu, I don't want to justify anything, I can only say that I have done my best......"

Schlinth Wilber, another weapons expert in the laboratory, was saddened that the weapons he had worked so hard to develop were not recognized, which was a great blow to his self-confidence.

Faced with Wu Ming's long silence, Shulins Wilber spread his hands helplessly: "Boss, if you are not satisfied with anything, just bring it up, maybe we can continue to improve, and we will not disappoint you."

Wu Ming came back to his senses at this time, and hurriedly said: "I'm sorry, I deserted your design is great, perfectly integrated my requirements, I really thank you so much, please forgive me for the shock just now"

Robert Goddard and Schlins Wilber both breathed a long sigh of relief, and then realized that Wu Ming was not unhappy with his design.

Shulins Wilber patted his chest and complained: "Boss, your performance just now really scared us, we thought we had to rework again, but it would be an exaggeration to say that this weapon is perfect, there are still many things that can be improved, and I believe it will be more perfect in the future." ”

Wu Ming ignored Schlins Wilber's nagging, picked up the round iron pillar with a small diameter of the barrel mouth on the left, loaded the 40mm rocket warhead handed by Bao Yaoyuan, the director of the Ordnance Institute, and then carried it on his shoulder, turned his head sideways and tried to aim at the big tree outside the window - for Wu Ming at this time, this was a weapon that opened the era.

That's right, this is a weapon that is ahead of its time, it does not have a rocket engine in the modern sense, and its mass is only five kilograms, which is many times better than the original bazooka that Wu Ming wanted to get.

Wu Ming excitedly touched the cold steel surface, kept praising in his mouth, and was excited for a while before taking it off his shoulder, taking off the rocket warhead and looking at it carefully, while asking the two military experts how they designed such a perfect weapon.

Robert Goddard's face was proud, and Schlins Wilbur was also excited, chattering about his merits.

It turned out that after the two went back, they immediately gathered the relevant personnel of the arsenal and set up a weapons laboratory to tackle key problems, and because of the samples drawn by Wu Ming, they quickly designed a bazooka with a rocket machine according to Wu Ming's requirements, that is, the larger UU mm rocket launcher on the desktop.

This UU mm rocket launcher is similar to the Bazooka bazooka known to Wu Ming, which uses a solid rocket as a thruster, and has a metal launch tube, a wooden buttstock, a handle and sights, to fire UU mm rockets. Trailing leads are inserted into the rear of the rocket, and two batteries on the wooden shoulder will ignite the rocket leads when the soldier pulls the trigger, and after a single launch, the wires will be connected to the original two contacts by the assist loader.

The rockets fired by this UU mm rocket launcher are very powerful, and they can easily penetrate l mm steel plates at a distance of 150 meters, which can basically meet Wu Ming's requirements for killing tanks, armored vehicles and strong bunkers.

However, when the sample was designed, Robert Goddard and they soon found a fatal problem: the rockets launched by the UU mm rocket launcher have high requirements for industrialization, and the rocket machine manufacturing has strict requirements for material technology and electronic technology.

In this case, the weapons laboratory had to consider changing its thinking and redesigning, and although Robert Goddard and Shulins Wilber were annoyed, the good work ethic still made them calm down, first inspecting the industrial level of the Maoliangwu Arsenal, and then comprehensively considering it according to the actual production capacity of the arsenal.

Robert Goddard summed up his experience in developing rockets for many years, and after repeated thinking, he finally decided that instead of spending a lot of effort to consider how to mass-produce rocket machines, it is better to use the reaction impulse of the jet gas after gunpowder combustion to provide flight energy for the warhead according to the principle of rocket jets, so that the rocket engine becomes the launcher itself.

During the design, Robert Goddard and Schlins Wilber repeatedly studied, and finally decided to fix the gunpowder bag at the tail of the bullet, insert the bazooka from the barrel mouth, and burn the gunpowder after firing, and the gunpowder gas was sprayed out from the tail of the gun at high speed, and its reaction impulse made the missile gain flight energy, and the head of the rocket was a hollow charge shaped warhead, and the tail rod was equipped with a stabilizing wing made of spring sheets, which could ensure the stable flight of the rocket.

The design of the rocket is also quite painstaking, because the warhead is at the front end of the bazooka, so it can be designed beyond caliber, the most rue is shaped as a RU mm hollow charge shaped warhead, and the thickness of the broken steel plate at a distance of 100 meters reaches 0 mm, which is more powerful than the UU mm bazooka.

In this way, the Weapons Research Institute finally succeeded in developing this 40-millimeter rocket launcher, which was tested by the Maoliangwu Arsenal and could reach mass production, and Wu Ming's requirements were met.

Wu Ming was very happy after listening to the introduction, and immediately pulled the two of them towards the test launch range of the Phoenix Mountain base, he couldn't wait to see the effect of the two bazookas.

It is already late June, and judging from the intelligence gathered from all sides, the atmosphere of advocating war in Japan is getting louder and louder, the Kwantung Army and the North China Garrison Army have been frequently mobilized in the past month, and the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet has continuously conducted large-scale exercises in China's coastal waters, all of which indicate that war is imminent.

The tension of the approaching war suppressed everyone's nerves, especially for Wu Ming, he built an arsenal to build an army superior to this era, everything was to prepare for the war of resistance, if he had the rocket launcher before the war, the Japanese army's ramparts, tanks and armored vehicles would not be so terrible

"Boom-"

Wu Ming looked at the effect of the Bazooka rocket launcher, at a distance of one hundred and fifty meters, the l10 mm thick steel plate was penetrated at once, although Wu Ming listened to Robert Goddard's advice and covered his ears in time, but the huge sound of the explosion still made Wu Ming feel his ears "buzzing".

Subsequently, Wu Ming looked at the more elaborate design of the 40 mm rocket launcher with great interest, and soon a weapon experimenter conducted a test launch, and the l10 mm steel plate was easily penetrated at the same distance.

Japan is an island country, resources are extremely scarce, so the Japanese tank designers designed most of the tanks and armored vehicles are weakly armored, represented by the Type 95 light tank, which has killed all over China and Southeast Asia invincible tanks, only less than eight tons, weapons for the 94 type 37 mm guns and two 7 mm machine guns, protective armor U to millimeters, typical firepower is weak, poor protection.

Even the Type 95 heavy tank, which the Japanese army boasted of as an artifact, had a protective armor of only 35 mm, and with a 40 mm rocket launcher, it could easily penetrate its armor and inflict great damage on its tank troops.

The manufacture of 40 mm rocket launchers and rockets is quite simple, with the current industrial level of the Maoliangwu Arsenal can be produced in large quantities, its small and lightweight, can be moved at any time, is conducive to soldiers to carry around, but it can be said that it is specially tailored for the Chinese army anti-tank and attack weapons.

Since the bazooka has been studied, Wu Ming has no intention of retaining Robert Goddard, with these two original models of bazookas, the follow-up only needs to continue to research new rocket engines and propellants, and the range can be continuously increased and the lethality can be increased.

Wu Ming accompanied Robert Goddard to the apartment of the American and his family in the Maoliangwu Military Community, and Wu Ming took out the cash check for $200,000 from Citibank.

Mrs. Goddard's face was full of shock, she looked at the cash check in Wu Ming's hand in a daze, and asked, "Dear Wu, what's going on?" ”

Wu Ming replied with a smile on his face: "Madam, your family can go back to the United States now." ”

Mrs. Goddard was stunned for a moment, taking it for granted that Wu Ming had dismissed her husband, and said very sadly: "Dear Wu, is it that my husband's work is not satisfactory to you, is it?" ”

Wu Ming pulled Robert Goddard and explained with a smile: "No, of course not...... Dear Madam, I am very satisfied with the work of Mr. Robert, who has designed weapons that are excellent, even exceeding my expectations...... He's a great scientist."

Mrs. Goddard took the cash check, still a little incredulous: "Is it real?" ”

"Of course"

Robert Goddard smiled and said to his wife: "Please believe me, God can testify that what Wu said is true"

"That's great, God bless us, let's come to China and find the best boss, it's so lucky"

Mrs. Goddard cried with joy, but when she looked at the amount on the cash check, she wondered again: "Dear Wu, didn't you say that you would pay 100,000 US dollars before, why is it so much more now?" ”

Wu Ming smiled brightly, and his honest and favorable impression of Mrs. Goddard doubled, and he immediately explained the reason in detail: "The 100,000 dollars are the reward for Robert's work, and the other 100,000 dollars is to fund you to set up a direct selling company and open the sales channel of penicillin as soon as possible."

"Also, I am going to register a company in the United States, specifically operating in chemicals, electronics, communication equipment, petroleum, food, automobiles, machinery manufacturing, etc., please help me register, and in the name of this company to apply for the patent of the UU mm rocket launcher, this kind of rocket launcher can be named Bazooka."

"Bazooka?"

Robert Goddard asked, somewhat curiously, "How did you come up with this name?" I thought the boss would follow the Chinese tradition and choose a Chinese name."

Wu Ming smiled: "It's very simple, do you think its tubular shape is similar to a trumpet-like instrument called Bazooka?" ”

Robert Goddard suddenly realized: "Don't say it, it's really like dear Wu, why don't you register a patent for a 40mm bazooka?" Wouldn't that be more conducive to mass production and promotion? ”

Wu Ming smiled bitterly: "Everyone knows that registering a patent is a dangerous thing, which will report all the data of this invention to the patent department, if the government is trustworthy, it will be a terrible thing to say that once the contract is broken, I am very worried that with the good relationship between the US government and the Japanese government, the Japanese side will obtain the manufacturing method of the 40mm bazooka, and then my country and nation will suffer, I can't take this risk."

"I see"

Robert Goddard nodded, his heart heavy.

Seeing this, Mrs. Goddard deliberately changed the topic, pretending to be surprised, and said loudly: "Dear Wu, I thought you were joking when you funded me to open a direct selling company, so let's do it, you also own half of the shares in this company, if you don't agree, I don't dare to accept this money."

Wu Ming was very moved: "I just took out a sum of money, and you still need to work hard for the specific business, how dare you get such a high share?" In this way, I only take 30 percent, my wife takes 51 percent of the shares, and the other 19 percent is used as equity incentives and dividends for employees, so that my wife controls the company, and the employees have the motivation to make progress, and the development will be much faster than we expected

Lady Goddard's eyes were red: "Dear Wu, it is really our greatest luck to meet you"

"Dear madam, this is not only your luck, but also my luck" Speaking of this, Wu Ming said: "Now the development of science and technology is very fast, I still have a few inventions here that you may use, after you bring to the United States, all of them are registered in the name of my company, and then our direct selling company will obtain the authorization of these patents free of charge, set up a factory for production, I believe that the company will obtain rich profits by production and sales"

Subsequently, Wu Ming introduced ballpoint pens, modern women's underwear, nylon stockings, sanitary napkins with tape, steel spike high heels and instant noodles, ham sausages, puffed cakes, potato chips, chicken essence and other inventions, which is Wu Ming in Europe and the United States after reading European and American newspapers and magazines summed up this era has not yet been born but later generations see things every day, he has some of the experience and ideas all excerpted down, although there is no specific production process, but the most important thing is forward-looking.

Holding the thick stack of materials sent by Wu Ming, Mrs. Goddard was a little nervous, thought for a while and asked seriously: "Dear Wu, aren't you afraid that I will steal these things for myself?" ”

Wu Ming couldn't help but smile, and said with a smile: "Of course I'm not afraid, I believe in my eyes, you are not that kind of person" and then added in his heart, even if you see the wrong person, it's nothing, anyway, these things will be studied by someone soon, and it is better to fight than to hold it in your hand and invalidate it.

Robert Goddard was very moved and interjected: "Honey, put everything away, and we'll do our best to help Wu get things done in the future." ”

Wu Ming smiled and nodded, chatted with Robert Goddard and his wife for a while, and saw that it was not too early, and then he and the guards helped the Goddard couple pack their luggage and send them to the passenger ship specially prepared for them.

The Goddards will meet up with several English-speaking agents specially selected by Wu Ming from the intelligence system in Shanghai, and take a transoceanic passenger ship to the United States together.

After seeing off Robert Goddard's family, Wu Ming returned to the weapons laboratory at the Phoenix Mountain base and rewarded Shulins Wilber with 50,000 oceans on the spot, expressing his heartfelt gratitude for his selfless contributions.

Schlins Wilber was so happy that he wanted to kiss Wu Ming's hand to show his gratitude, but Wu Ming refused. In this regard, Shulins Wilber was very unhappy, saying that this was the etiquette of their hometown, and Wu Ming did not respect him.

Wu Ming laughed and explained that according to Chinese custom, men will be criticized for showing too much intimacy between men. As an weapons expert, Schlins Wilber is essentially a stubborn person, otherwise, he would not have become Wu Ming's chief military expert. He explained a lot of things, and felt that he should still act according to the etiquette of his hometown, and finally Wu Ming gave in, stretched out his hand, and let Shulins Wilbur gnaw all over it, Wu Ming's expression was like a young woman who was insulted, wanting to cry without tears.