Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Qin Yang didn't even turn his head: "Let's go, let's go eat!"

"I say, aren't you guys being a bit too ruthless?" Lin Heping caught up from behind, his tone filled with excitement.

"Brother Lin, that's just your guess, I didn't say anything," Qin Yang said. "If you still consider me your brother, forget everything you just heard."

"Alright." Lin Heping gave up on continuing the topic. Being brothers was secondary. The key was that if they weren't brothers, Qin Yang definitely wouldn't continue explaining gun technology to him, and he was very interested in that.

"The quality of a gun mainly depends on the barrel, and the material of the barrel is extremely important." Sitting in the cafeteria, looking at the tofu pudding and fried dough sticks in front of him, Lin Heping couldn't help but speak up again.

"That's not necessarily true." Qin Yang glanced at him. "I actually think bullets are more important than guns."

Bullets?

Lin Heping shook his head. What was so special about bullets?

"Brother Lin, hurry up and eat. After we eat, we'll go to the 955 factory, and you'll understand. I guarantee it'll be an eye-opener for you."

"Okay, then let's go now."

"Now? Wait until you finish eating… Huh, you're already done?"

Lin Heping smiled: "That's the skill of a reconnaissance soldier. The mouth is only responsible for swallowing, and the rest is left to the stomach."

If you couldn't quickly finish your food silently, what kind of reconnaissance soldier would you be?

"Since you're a reconnaissance soldier, then we don't need to take the small path. Let's just climb over Cuotou Mountain directly."

The Second Capital Agricultural Tool Factory was even more rudimentary, so rudimentary that it only had workshops and factory buildings deep in the mountains. It didn't even have a factory gate installed, only a door frame. Of course, there was no need to worry about anyone accidentally wandering in. To enter the Second Capital Agricultural Tool Factory, you had to go through the First Capital Agricultural Tool Factory first.

The two factories were brother factories and visited each other frequently. Usually, they would take the small path under Cuotou Mountain to bypass the mountain peak, but some young people would choose to climb directly over the mountain. Qin Yang used to be a good-for-nothing second-generation factory kid and had climbed Cuotou Mountain many times. He was as nimble as a monkey.

However, compared to Lin Heping, he was just a small fry. While Qin Yang was still halfway up the mountain, Lin Heping had already swiftly climbed to the top.

By the time Qin Yang arrived, panting, Lin Heping had been looking at the factory buildings below for a long time.

"Not bad, this factory is built even more hidden than the 960 factory," Lin Heping said.

"What's the use of being hidden? Now they want to convert to civilian production, and their factory is in even worse shape than ours," Qin Yang said. "We can still transform and produce air guns, but they can only produce fireworks at most, and they can't even sell as well as those handmade workshops. Let's go, let's go down. The closest building to us is Workshop 103, which is responsible for assembling bullets."

This factory was not large. The main workshops were three: Workshop 101, codenamed, produced bullet heads; Workshop 102, codenamed, produced bullet casings; and Workshop 103, codenamed, was responsible for assembling the finished product. There were also tool workshops, repair workshops, and so on.

The two skillfully went down the mountain and arrived at the entrance of Workshop 103, which was hidden by green trees. Before they even walked in, they heard the conversation inside.

"Hmph, isn't this making things difficult for people? Every bullet casing has to be manually measured! The taper error can't be off by even a hair. This is simply nitpicking."

"That's right, they're actually making me use a balance to weigh the propellant, and the error can't be more than half a gram. Anyone who didn't know would think I was weighing gold!"

"Forget it, you guys only need to measure. I'm the one who has to assemble them. I have to manually press the bullet heads, and the pressure error can't exceed ten pascals. My hands are starting to shake!"

"Yeah, why don't they let us use an assembly line?"

"Alright, stop talking! If it weren't for the orders brought in by the 960 factory, our factory would have completely gone under!" Another voice rang out. "Although this batch of bullets is complicated to process, we get two yuan for each bullet. Our first batch of 20,000 bullets, that's 40,000 yuan! If you want to receive your salary normally this month, then hurry up and work!"

Back then, to fight the possible war, the country built countless new military factories, and ammunition factories were even more numerous. Now, these ammunition factories are mostly idle, and having an order is already very good.

The production equipment of small third-line factories was rudimentary, and there was no possibility of having fully automated production lines, but there was still some semi-automatic production equipment. Now, this kind of pure manual assembly requirement was really too rare.

Lin Heping walked in with great curiosity.

This assembly workshop was not large. The entire factory building was about 200 square meters. There was a row of tables around the walls, and workers in work clothes were busy in front of the tables, measuring bullet casings, weighing propellant, assembling… It was similar to the handmade workshops in Afghanistan.

"This standard is not low. Did you ask for this?" Lin Heping looked at Qin Yang beside him.

Qin Yang nodded: "This batch of bullets is specially used for sniper rifles. It must be perfect. Bullets assembled on the assembly line have no soul. We still have to assemble them manually, with strict requirements, and strive for perfection…"

Pfft!

Someone laughed.

This sound was too prominent, and everyone heard it. Zhang Guangming glared angrily, and saw the back of a worker. At this time, that person was obviously holding back their laughter, but their whole body was still shaking, and the two braids were also shaking non-stop.

"Wang Fang, what are you laughing at? Is it that funny?"

Wang Fang?

Qin Yang widened his eyes. This classmate, who was the same age as him, although not in the same compound, but had gone to school together, had also entered the factory to be a worker? It was a pity to leave such a good youth here!

The girl named Wang Fang turned her head. She had an oval face, willow-leaf eyebrows, a pair of watery eyes, long eyelashes, and cherry-like lips. It must be said that her appearance was indeed good, but her current attitude was very unsatisfactory.

"Qin Yang, I heard that you have become a gun master and became a section chief at Factory One. You are really amazing. Why didn't I find you so capable when you were in school?"

"I'm a late bloomer," Qin Yang said.

"Really? How do I feel like you're promoting superstition? These days, we've guessed all kinds of reasons, but we never thought there would be such a saying, 'Bullets assembled on the assembly line have no soul'…"

"Alright, Wang Fang, don't question the leader randomly." Zhang Guangming frowned: "Keep working, the comrades from the military are urging us, we have to produce this batch of bullets quickly!"

Qin Yang shook his head helplessly. Why didn't anyone believe in the hard work and progress of a delinquent youth?

"Xiao Yang is right." Lin Heping said: "For a marksman, they are unwilling to use bullets produced on the assembly line and prefer to modify them themselves. The saying that bullets assembled on the assembly line have no soul is too incisive!"

Brother Lin is giving me face!