Chapter 8

PS: Thank you, Tianhai Xiangyun, for the generous reward of two 1888 coins, and thank you, Tianxia Zongheng You, for your generous reward.

During the new book period, I'm seeking recommendations and collections! With everyone's support, I will be more motivated!

"What's called theft? We can directly borrow guns from the warehouse for experiments! Although we are the lowest-level staff, we do wear uniforms with four pockets, don't we?" Qin Huaibao said disdainfully.

The base has a rule that large equipment cannot even be approached, but researchers can study some light weapon technologies on their own. For experiments, they can either make guns themselves or borrow them from the warehouse, and then test them at the guard camp's shooting range.

Most of the old researchers are not interested in shooting, but Qin Huaibao, who has been here for over a year, has done this quite a few times! His shooting skills are also quite good.

"Xiao Jiu'er, the gun issue is resolved. Is there any problem on your side?" Qin Huaibao looked down on Yang Shan, who always hesitated before doing anything.

"Don't worry. As long as there are materials, it will take only one or two hours to solve the problem." Liu Yijiu, now eager for meat, didn't care about breaking the rules. If he had been honest, he wouldn't have caused such a loss to Huaguo, which is about to enter the 22nd century, by losing a young strategic weapon designer.

"Shall we act now? We can't sleep anyway..." Qin Huaibao was always a man of action.

In the base, apart from the necessary political study every night, there is usually nothing to do. Of course, this doesn't apply if there is a production plan from above.

This is just a technical reserve base.

Recently, there hasn't even been basic political study in the base. Most of the time, everyone is told to stay at home, except for meal times.

"Brother, you're planning to do it yourself?" Seeing Liu Yijiu drawing a simple diagram with a fountain pen under the dim flashlight, the few people gathered around were surprised.

"Or what? If someone finds out, we might run into trouble before we even get to eat the meat." Liu Yijiu rolled his eyes.

The diagram showed a cylindrical object with many standards and codes, which they couldn't recognize. This was very different from the Soviet technical standards they had learned.

The workers, although skilled, often needed technical personnel to help analyze the drawings! Now, the base is managed by the Revolutionary Committee, and those people are not good. Apart from doing it ourselves, finding someone else to do it is impossible.

If someone eager to make a name slanders us, we won't be able to explain ourselves. After all, we haven't followed the procedures, and it's not in compliance with the rules!

Technical staff must get approval from their superiors to conduct experiments.

Technical staff usually just look at drawings. However, since they were recommended to university by workers, peasants, and soldiers, they have no foundation. How much could they learn in university? The teachers mainly taught them the basics.

They can't even understand complex drawings, let alone operate machinery. Don't think that having the title of technical staff means they have the skills. They always need to find a master. If we ask someone to make the silencer, it would be troublesome!

More importantly, due to the chaos in the base, they were assigned here without even a master!

Without a master, there's no one to speak up for them if something goes wrong!

"Besides, this thing isn't too complicated. Just find some scrap in the workshop, bore the inner hole, turn the outer surface, and process a thread at the end to fix it on the gun barrel..." Liu Yijiu looked down on these guys who didn't even understand simple processes. "Do you want to ask the workers? Do you want to die faster?"

This is a simple silencer design. It doesn't require complex processing, just two steps on a lathe and a drill. If the tools are complete, it can be done in an hour. And it doesn't require high precision; it just needs to reduce the sound when shooting rabbits...

"Xiao Jiu'er, what is this thing? What are the small holes for?" The few people couldn't understand Liu Yijiu's design.

A silencer is rarely seen in the domestic military, let alone in the base.

"This is a simple silencer design. The small holes are to disperse the high-speed gas from the gun barrel, reducing the pressure and the sound. For extra insurance, there are four layers. The sound should be inaudible within twenty meters... It should take about two hours to manufacture..."

"Can you operate a lathe?" Everyone was really surprised.

Hearing their questions, Liu Yijiu was frustrated: "Brothers, don't you know the most basic operations?"

"We are technical staff! We wear uniforms with four pockets! We get a salary of 45 yuan..." Lu Tong answered seriously.

They are technical personnel, not former soldiers or apprentices hired from the countryside, who would receive an apprentice salary of 18.5 yuan for three years. Even at the lowest level, they are cadres, not workers. Otherwise, why would they go to university? The time they spent in university could have been enough to get a job.

How can cadres do the work of workers? What would the workers do?

Most of the technical workers in the base are around forty years old, with skilled hands, and have been transferred after strict political reviews as senior technical workers of level six or above.

The production in the base is experimental and research-oriented.

These are seeds. If the worst happens, these seeds will quickly take root and sprout, and it won't take long to establish a large-scale production capacity. Production tasks are also to maintain the technical level of these strategic reserve personnel.

Think about how small China's military factories were before the founding of New China.

"..." Liu Yijiu was speechless.

He didn't understand the current salary levels.

To be cadres without any skills! But thinking about it, the country's production and construction are just beginning to recover. Whether one has skills or not is not important. There are few university graduates, and education has been on hold for ten years. Every unit and factory is short of people.

At this time, salaries are not important to them. In the base, they rarely use cloth coupons, food coupons, or meat coupons, especially the single men.

"Can't you do lathe work? No problem with being a fitter, right?" Liu Yijiu felt he had overestimated these guys.

"Alright, Lu Tong, while it's still quiet outside, you and the others go get the guns and wait for us outside the factory gate. I'll go to the workshop with Xiao Jiu'er." Yang Shan, the oldest, said maturely, then looked at his Shanghai watch, which he had bought with several months of school allowances. "It's 4 AM now. We'll meet at the bamboo grove by the factory gate at 6 AM. Oh, and Lu Tong, get a few steamed buns from the canteen..." Yang Shan, much older than the others, was the big brother and always took the lead.

"Carrying Type 38 rifles, how can the rabbits and pheasants in the mountains escape? Why bother with cornmeal buns?" Even though his stomach was growling, Lu Tong thought it unnecessary to get buns from the canteen.

There must be plenty of pheasants and rabbits in the mountains.

We need to save our stomachs for the meat!

"Shut up, there are hidden sentries of the guard camp within ten kilometers of the base. Do you want to die? Don't starve to death on the way..." Yang Shan gave Lu Tong a light tap on the head.

At 4 AM, the Daba Mountains were incredibly quiet, except for the dim streetlights by the three- or four-story Soviet-style buildings built into the mountain. The distant mountains, shrouded in night, looked like monsters ready to pounce under the weak moonlight.

"Xiao Liu, will there be any problems?" Yang Shan was really worried.

Although they have the right to conduct experiments, they haven't reported or been approved. And the experiment is just an excuse!

There are internal guards inside the factory, who are fixed sentries. They don't worry about being caught when they go out.

To help technical personnel accumulate more advanced skills, the entire base's processing workshops and warehouses are manned. The country's power generation is low, but the base is well-lit—thanks to a 500-megawatt nuclear power plant built a few years ago, there's no worry about energy.

The whole country is short of electricity, except for this mountain!

"No problem, we're doing an experiment. If the superiors investigate, we can say we couldn't find the leaders." Liu Yijiu felt a bit nervous after Yang Shan's words!

If they go to the workshop at night, and the internal guards think they are sabotaging the national defense industry or deliberately damaging state assets, it could be a big problem.

"There won't be any problems as long as we don't steal or damage anything. You should know better than us!" Yang Shan was skeptical of Liu Yijiu's words.

After all, the information they have suggests that Liu Yijiu lived here before university. Although he hasn't admitted it, it's possible.

"These days, who knows when the policies might change!" Liu Yijiu, hearing Yang Shan's doubts, hastily made an excuse.

"Don't say that! If someone hears, you'll end up like those stinky old nines, being taken away by the idle Revolutionary Committee members..." Hearing Liu Yijiu's words, Yang Shan quickly covered his mouth, looked around, and whispered when he saw no one.

The base has always been isolated from the outside world. Even if the outside world is in chaos, the base only experiences minor tremors. However, a few years ago, when the rebels from the neighboring aerospace base came in, the base also fell into chaos.

Responding to the national call, the base established a Revolutionary Committee.

The core members of the Revolutionary Committee are outsiders, and the main members are the new generation of the base.

Yang Shan and others have never interacted with these people. They just quietly live their lives in the base.

Liu Yijiu shut up and followed Yang Shan silently, walking towards the workshop at the bottom of the valley, which he had never been to, under the dim streetlights.

This base of the Ninth Academy is a super key project of the country's third-line construction. Responding to the leaders' call, they not only moved into the mountains but also into caves.

The workshops at the bottom of the valley are not important.