Speaking of the weapons and equipment of the People’s Army,
You may immediately think of the National Day military parade,
That row of "behemoths" with magnificent exhaust.
Data map: The picture shows the special warfare equipment team that was read at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Data map: The picture shows the early warning radar team being reviewed at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Data map: The picture shows the amphibious assault vehicle team that was read at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Data map: The picture shows the unmanned combat team 1 that was read at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Data map: The picture shows the Dongfeng-26 nuclear and missile team that was read at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
But it’s hard to imagine,
Less than 100 years ago,
It is the critical period of the revolution,
The Chinese Communist Party engages in armed struggle
Spears and earthen cannons were used.
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
From the soil guns and guns,
To the mechanization, informatization, and intelligence of weapons and equipment.
The great changes in the weapons and equipment of the People’s Army are sighing.
And to go back to the source, the story must start from it——
Guantian Central Arsenal.
Recognize the importance of weapons and equipment from a pool of blood
Where did the gun come from? Where did the gun come from?
After the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, the Chinese Communist Party realized the importance of weapons from a pool of blood, but where did the gun come from when resources were so scarce?
Where did the gun come from?
The picture shows the exhibits displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
At this time, the Central Red Army is not only in a situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, but also in a disadvantageous position in terms of weaponry and equipment.
But even so, the brave Red Army soldiers armed with rifles, machine guns, broadswords, spears and other inferior equipment, from November 1930 to September 1931, successfully carried out the first, second, and third anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations.
In the three anti-"encirclement and suppression" wars, the First Red Army seized a total of 53,000 guns of various kinds, and the results of 10 radio stations, and the Red Army's strength continued to grow.
The picture shows the weapons displayed in the former site of the Guantian Central Arsenal.
Photo by Ding Baoxiu
Since the seized guns were mostly damaged or missing parts, in order to be able to repair them in time and to establish the Red Army’s own military industry, in October 1931, our party and our army’s first large-scale comprehensive arsenal—the Guantian Central Arsenal Born in time.
The Guantian Central Arsenal was located in Guantian Village, Xingguo County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. Its establishment marked the birth of the People's Ordnance Industry.
However, all the belongings of the arsenal at that time only had 4 ironing furnaces, more than 200 files and more than 100 pliers. Zhu De once said with emotion: "All the belongings are not as complete as Wang Ermazi's scissors shop."
At first, the Guantian Central Arsenal mainly repaired firearms and reloaded bullets by hand.
Faced with the difficulties of the enemy’s heavy blockade, lack of raw materials, and primitive equipment, ordnance soldiers were self-reliant and started from scratch. In two years and eight months, they prepared more than 40,000 rifles, more than 400,000 bullets, and repaired more than 100 doors. The guns, two mountain cannons, more than 2,000 machine guns, more than 60,000 grenades and more than 5,000 landmines were produced, which strongly supported the struggle against "encirclement and suppression".
From repair to manufacturing
Innovate through exploration
Due to the failure of the Central Red Army’s fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Guantian Arsenal was forced to follow the Red Army on the arduous Long March.
In 1937, the ordnance personnel of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army began an attempt from repairing weapons to manufacturing weapons.
Since there was no deep-hole processing equipment for the barrel at that time, soldiers used deep-hole drills on a lathe to process them; there was no machine for pulling the "rifle", they used the technology of the German Mauser gun to pull the rifling... April 25, 1939 In Japan, the first new horse rifle was born.
On August 1, 1940, it was officially named the "August One" horse rifle.
Source: CCTV "National Memory"
In the field of weapons and ammunition, soldiers started from scratch. Due to lack of raw materials, the pots and pans of fellow villagers can be used in ordnance research. Soldiers combined folk wisdom with scientific research and achieved three major creations:
In 1939, to manufacture nitric acid in the Jizhong base area, soldiers used large water tanks in mountainous areas to replace lead chambers. After special treatment and repeated tests, they successfully produced qualified nitric acid. This method is called the "cylinder tower method".
"Cylinder-tower method" makes a graph of sulfuric acid.
Photo courtesy of China North Industries Group
In 1941, the technicians and workers of the Military Industry Department of the Eighth Route Army used crude conditions to build a flame reflex heating furnace in order to toughen the white pig iron used to make shells, which is called the "kiln brazing method."
"Kiln Simmering Method" Toughened Shell Body Drawing.
Photo courtesy of China North Industries Group
In 1942, in order to increase the strength of the copper material for making bullet shells, the ordnance personnel in the Jinchaji base area proposed a "zinc brass plan" composed of pure copper and zinc. In order to collect zinc raw materials, they collected higher zinc content in the countryside. The old money is put into a self-made crucible and heated, melted, vaporized and condensed to form pure zinc, which is further smelted with pure copper to produce zinc brass.
This method is called "Crucible Copper and Zinc".
Picture of "Crucible Smelting Copper and Zinc".
Photo courtesy of China North Industries Group
During this period, there were also a large number of people’s soldiers, who wrote legends for the development of the people’s army.
Among them, under extremely difficult conditions during the War of Resistance Against Japan, in order to develop rifle grenades, landmines and hand grenades, militia worker Wu Yunduo was injured three times in the test. He not only lost his left eye, left hand, and right leg, but there were more than 20 others in his body. The shrapnel taken out was praised by Premier Zhou Enlai as China's "Paul Kochakin".
He once said: "If I have an afterlife, I will choose the Communist Party of China, always follow the party, and dedicate everything to the party!"
Wu Yunduo.
Photo courtesy of China North Industries Group
A set of comparison charts
Look at the changes in the weapons of the People's Army
In the years that followed, the People’s Ordnance Industry continued to fill the gaps in the ordnance industry in less than 100 years with the spirit of hard work and continuous innovation.
The 99A main battle tank developed and produced by the Ordnance Industry Group participated in the military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.
Photo courtesy of China North Industries Group
Technologies such as tanks, anti-tank missiles, explosives, extreme equipment manufacturing, and satellite navigation systems have been conquered one after another, and batches of advanced weapons and equipment have been built.
Nowadays, the weapons and equipment of the People's Army "can go up to nine days to capture the moon, and down to five oceans to catch turtles." After nearly a hundred years of hard work, the weapon industry has reached a new level.
Part of the picture is from China North Industries Group
Thanks to the soldiers who have devoted their wisdom and hard work to the equipment industry of the People's Army over the past century, the development of China's ordnance industry is far from stopping. In the future, we will see stronger weapons and equipment and a stronger national defense force!
Reporter: Ding Baoxiu