The Seventh Militia Brigade comes from Yizhou and nearby Fei County, Linshu, Cangshan, Yinan and other places, and is mostly composed of local farmers and tenants.
The Eighth Militia Brigade came from various garrison posts in Jiaodong Province, and many of them were even former garrison soldiers.
As for the decayed and degenerate guard troops that are unfit for use, Zuo Mengeng has a different opinion.
In Zuo Mengeng's view, whether these guardsmen can be transformed into powerful warriors does not depend on what they have experienced or done, but on the intensity of ideological transformation.
In future generations, will our army still have few soldiers converted from KMT?
What were these people like when they were in KMT, and what would they be like after they were transformed into commanders and fighters of our army?
Aren’t the 60th Army made of clay and the 50th Army made of iron the same people?
Why are the combat capabilities so different?
Facts have proved that his judgment was correct.
The new warriors who were transformed from the guards received full respect and sufficient pay from their new family, and then had a change in their thinking and quickly transformed into the most determined warriors.
After receiving the order from the headquarters, the 7th and 8th militia brigades quickly moved to Jiaozhou Bay to form the 1st Marine Division.
Looking at the army of more than 10,000 people, Tang Wenhuan and Bai Dasheng were really happy.
They took the "Marine Corps Drill Code" created by Zuo Menggeng and began to explore and build it.
Zuo Mengeng didn't dare to leave for a while, for fear that these two idiots would distract the good Marines.
This stay lasted for more than a month.
But it's not without surprises.
Zuo Dai came to him for inspection with his newly built rocket launcher, and there were two models.
"This thing has no technical content at all. Let alone an arsenal, it can be made by just a few workers in a steel factory."
The manufacture of rocket launchers is really simple.
It is a cast iron shell and a warhead, with gunpowder stuffed in each, then combined into one, stuffed into an iron cylinder, and fired.
The two rocket launchers produced by the Equipment Department are almost the same in appearance.
They are all placed on two-wheeled wooden carts, with three rows and four barrels and twelve rounds, and the size and length are the same.
"The difference mainly lies in the missile body and launch tube. There are two kinds of rockets we make, one has a fixed balance wing, and the other has a pop-up type designed by you."
When Zuo Dai brought the two types of rockets in front of Zuo Mengeng, the difference came out.
Fixed balance wing rockets, as the name implies, the balance wing at the end of the shell is fixed and cannot be disassembled or moved.
As for the pop-up balance wing, four small grooves are dug out at the tail end of the cartridge case, and clockwork springs are installed inside.
When a rocket is stuffed into the launch tube, the balance wing will retract into the cartridge case through the squeeze of the launch tube wall.
When the rocket is launched and breaks away from the launch tube, because it loses the suppression of the tube wall, the balance wing will pop out driven by the clockwork spring to stabilize flight.
"What's the difference between the two balance wings?"
"Accuracy and failure rates, and launch tube manufacturing."
Zuo Dai first introduced the fixed balance wing rocket.
"This kind of rocket has higher accuracy and the error is very small..."
Zuo Mengeng was worried and asked: "How big is the error?"
"The range is 1,200 meters, and the error is only 13 meters."
"What about the killing range?"
"Diameter 21.31 meters."
Zuo Mengeng couldn't help but grin.
Well, the killing range is only a little over 20 meters, and the error reaches 13 meters, and this is a model with higher accuracy.
But he also knew that the purpose of rockets was not accuracy, but ground cleaning.
If you want to improve the accuracy of rockets, you must wait until the craftsmanship level reaches a certain level.
For example, the shell and warhead of the rocket in front of you are all made of pig iron.
There is no doubt that the surface is very rough.
valley steps
This brings great air resistance, which affects both accuracy and range.
The best way is to smooth the surface of the projectile.
But the question is, how long does it take to process a rocket body with a manual grinding wheel?
Another thing is, if it is done by hand, how can we ensure that the standards are uniform every time.
What?
Use machinery?
Well, the rocket body is round, and the warhead is conical. If the mechanical grinding wheel is smoothing, how to solve the trajectory and rotation of the robotic arm?
Not to mention whether it can be done in terms of materials, just calculating the rotation angle of a twisting arm can kill everyone in the mathematics school.
So at the current level, the rocket body can only have this virtue.
If you want to achieve a killing effect with impressive accuracy, just use the amount.
A rocket launcher truck can carry twelve rockets, and if there are dozens of them, the accuracy won't matter.
"Another advantage of fixed balance wings is that after the rocket is ejected from the chamber, you don't have to worry about the balance wings not being able to fly up, causing the shells to fly around."
The accuracy of rockets depends entirely on the balance wings, but pop-up rockets cannot be precise due to their craftsmanship, so sometimes the rocket launches but the balance wings do not unfold.
Then the rockets started flying around, quite like Asan.
"But one of the great advantages of pop-up rockets is that it saves the manufacturing cost of the launch tube."
Because the balance wing can be compressed into the missile body, the launch tube does not need to be deliberately designed, it is just a simple iron pipe.
"In Uncle Tu's words, I just throw this thing away after beating it, and I don't feel bad at all."
The same cannot be said for fixed-wing rocket launchers.
From the outside, it is still a round iron pipe. But inside, a card slot module is installed.
Only in this way can the rocket be stably placed in the launch tube and achieve smooth launch.
Because the card slot module is installed, the card slot needs to meet a certain precision standard and have sufficient lubrication, so the manufacturing cost has skyrocketed.
These are the pros and cons of the two rockets.
There was endless debate at the arsenal, each saying his own preference. Zuo Dai couldn't make up his mind, so he simply asked each to produce one and brought it to Zuo Mengeng to make a decision.
"Of course you have to speak with facts."
Zuo Mengeng did not come to a conclusion easily, but asked people to take two rocket launchers to the shooting range for on-the-spot testing.
First test the pop-up rocket.
The artilleryman opened the wooden box, took out the rockets, and began loading them into the launch tube one by one.
The overall length of the rocket is 1.3 meters, and the weight when loaded is 35 kilograms.
Twelve rockets were loaded, and the artilleryman brought the fuse.
The fuse is very thick, and the front end is divided into twelve smaller fuse strands. At the end is a hollow iron pipe as long as a finger.
The fuse was stuffed into the iron pipe and held tightly.
The front end of the iron pipe is not flat, but has a sharp angle like a needle.
The artilleryman pointed the sharp corner at the butt of the rocket, where there was a thick layer of kraft paper. But because the iron pipe had sharp corners, it was easy to insert it.
After the fuse was installed, the artilleryman took out a lighter.
A lighter worthy of its name, exactly the same as the kerosene lighter seen in later generations.
Metal case with a cover on top.
After opening, you can see the gear and oil-soaked cotton thread, and underneath the gear is flint.
Just rub the gear with your thumb, the flint will rub and produce sparks, and then ignite the cotton thread.
As long as you know the principle, it is not difficult to make this thing with the technology of this era. As a result, it has become a new flagship product in the industrial field.
The New Army alone has ordered more than 10,000 of them, and the acceptance among the people is also very high.
After all, it is much easier to use than fire folding bags, it can be used repeatedly, and it is not expensive.