Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

“... That's the situation. Now, Dazhi, let Brother Ren see if there's a good way to take down the arrow tower of the Liu Family Compound first. If we can knock down the arrow tower, then taking the Liu Family Compound won't be too difficult.”

Inside the Independent Regiment headquarters, Ren Zhong was invited to Li Yunlong's war council for the first time.

Although from a disciplinary standpoint, Li Yunlong's actions were a bit presumptuous, considering Ren Zhong had taken on the Independent Regiment's entire military production, effectively becoming the head of the Independent Regiment's arms production, he was actually more important than any other company or battalion commander at this stage.

Therefore, no one had any objections to his participation in this military meeting. Besides, there weren't many people in the regiment headquarters right now. Apart from Li Yunlong, there was Kong Jie, and then Zhang Dabiao, who had been transferred to serve as the first battalion commander. Ren Zhong was the fourth person.

Li Yunlong could make decisions on his own.

After listening to Li Yunlong's words, a thought suddenly flashed in Ren Zhong's mind – the 'heartless cannon'!

It seemed tailor-made for Li Yunlong's situation.

“Ahem, Old Li, if you simply want to take down that arrow tower, I might have an idea,” Ren Zhong cleared his throat.

“Can you find gasoline barrels? If we have gasoline barrels, I can figure out a way to modify them, and then launch a ten-kilogram explosive package more than a hundred meters away. We have no shortage of explosives now, so taking down this arrow tower shouldn't be a big problem.”

“Brother Ren, is there really such a good thing? Don't worry, I'll go find gasoline barrels right away. Even if I can't find them at headquarters, I, Old Li, will go to Yuping, or even Quanyang, to find them for you. Today's meeting ends here. Dabiao, you take people to search through the nearby guerrilla areas and try to collect gasoline barrels near the base. Old Kong, you stay at home to organize continued training, focusing on practicing street fighting tactics inside the courtyard. I'll go to headquarters to ask Zhang Wanhe for gasoline barrels,” Li Yunlong said, his mouth splitting into a grin upon hearing Ren Zhong's words. He slapped his thigh and gave a series of instructions.

“Yes! Regiment Commander!”

“Yes! Old Li!”

Zhang Dabiao and Kong Jie responded almost in unison.

Old Li didn't even consider whether Ren Zhong could do it or not. Now, in Old Li's eyes, as long as Ren Zhong said it, he believed it and began to execute it without question.

“Hey, Old Li, we don't need that many gasoline barrels. Just find two or three, that's enough,” Ren Zhong didn't expect Li Yunlong to be so swift and decisive. It seemed like he was going to sweep up all the gasoline barrels near the base. Ren Zhong didn't understand for a moment what Old Li wanted to do with so many gasoline barrels.

“Brother Ren, don't worry about that. Anyway, after you get the gasoline barrels, just modify them into weapons that can launch explosive packages, and leave the rest to us,” Li Yunlong said with a smile.

Obviously, this guy had his own plans, and it was definitely not just about the Liu Family Compound.

The technical difficulty of the heartless cannon was much lower for Ren Zhong than other weapons. There was basically no mechanical processing involved. What he needed to do was find the original data for the heartless cannon. The principle was very simple. The key was to calculate the trajectory of the launch and simplify it into a method that could be manually calculated and adjusted in the world of '亮剑' (Bright Sword).

Back in the main plane, Ren Zhong plunged into the digital library to search for information in this area. Sure enough, there was a lot of information, but very little was useful.

Fortunately, Ren Zhong already had a good filtering mechanism for junk information. He skipped all self-media gossip and began searching for real historical records and papers provided by professional researchers. After a day of effort, he finally pieced together a complete set of information on the manufacturing and launch adjustment of the heartless cannon.

However, there was no universal calculation formula to apply to the adjustment of the heartless cannon.

Because several key factors were involved—the shape and size of the explosive package, the amount of propellant, and the angle of the gasoline barrel—all of which were difficult to measure accurately. Therefore, after some research, Ren Zhong gave up the idea of giving Li Yunlong a simple reference table of angles and distances similar to mountain gun firing.

Instead, he planned to bring in Wang Chengzhu, the local artillery god of the Independent Regiment at this time, and let Zhu Zi gain true knowledge through a lot of practice.

Three miles outside Yang Village.

“Boss Ren, this is the first launch. Our explosive package weighs 5 kilograms. If there are no other precautions, should I light the fuse?” Wang Chengzhu shouted loudly to Ren Zhong, lying near the gasoline barrel buried in the ground.

“It's okay, Zhu Zi, light the fire boldly. For the first time, we'll just fire a sample. Anyway, we'll adjust it next. Don't be afraid,” Ren Zhong shouted to the uneasy Zhu Zi.

Wang Chengzhu was actually a little resistant in his heart.

He was from a regular artillery background. Now, the heartless cannon that Ren Zhong had created for him was, to be honest, too crude. It was just a gasoline barrel filled with some propellant to push the explosive package out. It couldn't even be called a cannon.

However, Ren Zhong was not only his savior but also a guest of the regiment commander and the first director of the Independent Regiment's Ordnance Department. Any one of these three identities would make Wang Chengzhu wholeheartedly assist Ren Zhong in creating the heartless cannon.

Moreover, Wang Chengzhu knew that this thing could really be used. Even if the reputation was not good, the effect was good. It would be of great use to the Independent Regiment in attacking strong fortifications in the future.

“Zzzzzz…” After the fuse was lit, it burned forward quickly. Wang Chengzhu covered his ears tightly and buried his head. With a loud “bang,” the gasoline barrel buried in the ground instantly launched the simulated explosive package quickly!

Ren Zhong, watching from a distance, saw the explosive package flying steadily in the air towards more than a hundred meters away and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. This first shot didn't fail, and the distance matched what was written in the data.

On the other side, Wang Chengzhu got up after the sound, watching the simulated explosive package thrown more than a hundred meters away, and was shocked. Although Ren Zhong had introduced the relevant information to him before, Wang Chengzhu still didn't believe that such an explosive package could be thrown so far without practice.

“Zhu Zi, mark the position of the simulated explosive package and measure the distance of this launch. Next, we will immediately conduct the second test, launch again with the same propellant, and measure how much the error is,” Ren Zhong shouted to Wang Chengzhu as he ran towards the landing point.

Without him shouting, the excited Wang Chengzhu also knew what to do.

The result of this first launch had completely dispelled Wang Chengzhu's doubts.

As an artilleryman, with only a few grenade launchers at his disposal, Wang Chengzhu had long been unable to restrain himself. He had originally planned to pester Li Yunlong in a few days to get a mortar, after all, the New First Regiment had a 60mm mortar.

Unexpectedly, Ren Zhong directly gave him a surprise. According to today's test, he would soon have a new cannon that was much stronger than the 60mm mortar!

Moreover, thanks to Li Yunlong's efforts, he had found 3 gasoline barrels in just one day!

This meant that Wang Chengzhu truly had a great weapon to attack the enemy!

“Hahaha, I will have heavy artillery in the future. With this thing, the little devils' blockhouses can't rest easy,” Li Yunlong grinned aside.

Upon hearing this, Ren Zhong realized that Old Li had already connected this thing to the little devils' blockhouses in his mind.

In comparison, the arrow tower of the Liu Family Compound was just an extra!