May 12, 1917. He Rui walked into the Party Committee meeting room in Siping. The comrades waiting inside immediately stopped their discussion. Cheng Ruofan saluted immediately and followed up by saying, "Chairman, on behalf of the comrades, I would like to ask a question. Since Tsarist Russia has already fallen, why must we wait until winter to make our move to recover the Chinese Eastern Railway?"

He Rui was very satisfied with this question. Waving for the comrades to sit down, He Rui asked, "For us to recover the Chinese Eastern Railway, we need a specific external environment. What kind of external environment do you think that should be?"

The comrades hadn't expected He Rui to ask such a question. Some frowned, some stroked their chins. While everyone was thinking, Xu Chengfeng answered, "We need the Allied Powers to acknowledge our actions."

He Rui knew Xu Chengfeng's answer was correct, but he saw that the other comrades might not necessarily understand Xu Chengfeng's point of view. He Rui decided to remain silent for the moment, waiting for the comrades to raise their doubts first.

Sure enough, some comrades raised questions based on the knowledge they had learned, "If we make a move against Russia, according to the principle of 'Allied Unity' among the Great Powers, how could they possibly acknowledge us?"

Xu Chengfeng immediately expressed his opposition, "For the Great Powers to be united, their principal contradictions must be aligned. We aren't making a move now because Russia is still a member of the Allied Powers. But what if Russia breaks away from the Allied Powers?"

Quite a few newly joined comrades were left dumbfounded by Xu Chengfeng's judgment. "Will Russia really break away from the Allied Powers?"

He Rui looked at those 'old comrades'. Well, the 'old comrades' were also only in their twenties, having joined the revolution just two years ago. Although the 'old comrades' clearly agreed with Xu Chengfeng's view, they still had many doubts and uncertainties. Finally, all eyes fell on He Rui.

"Comrades, why did the revolution break out in Russia? I made an analysis in the relevant report." He Rui began to question them, to see how well these comrades had prepared.

As expected, someone recalled the content of the report and suddenly realized, "Russia suffered too many losses in the war, so the soldiers wanted revolution."

"Seeing no possibility of victory in the war, although the Russian army still wanted to defend their country, they lost interest in continuing the war."

These were all points He Rui had written in the report, but they weren't the complete picture. He Rui waited until everyone had said their piece before offering his analysis, "The Tsar has fallen. In order to gain recognition from the Allied Powers, the new Russian government will continue the war. But the Russian army is no longer willing to fight, so the new government that insists on war will also fall. However, before the new government falls, and before Russia withdraws from the war, we cannot recover the Chinese Eastern Railway, because the Allied Powers cannot accept such a thing..."

"Why must we be considerate of the foreigners?" A comrade raised a question.

He Rui looked at the comrades. Only a few were unmoved by such a question. For instance, Xu Chengfeng only sighed slightly, showing regret in his expression, but not a trace of wavering.

He Rui then answered, "We must seek truth from facts when analyzing problems. Even if we are in a disadvantaged position, we must realistically recognize our current reality, otherwise we will be influenced by wishful thinking. The Central Government will join the Allied Powers before long. After the new Russian government falls, the next government to take the stage will inevitably be one that responds to the Russian people's will to withdraw from the war. At that time, Russia will have abandoned its obligations as a member of the Allied Powers. If we recover the Chinese Eastern Railway then, we can obtain the recognition of the Allied Powers."

Seeing He Rui's firm attitude, everyone was unwilling to argue further. Someone tried to smooth things over, "Since the Chairman predicts it can be done in winter, it's actually not that long away."

He Rui sighed in his heart. If possible, He Rui hoped the comrades could understand international politics. Although international society is a jungle society, a jungle society is not without its internal order. For the sake of using power more effectively, some basic rules will still be observed.

However, He Rui hadn't prepared to discuss these matters when he came to Siping. Since the topic had ended, He Rui began the work arrangements he had prepared.

"From now on, Fengtian, Changchun, and Harbin must start establishing local arsenals and begin producing weapons. Once the current Russian government falls, Britain and France will have no choice but to support local powers within Russia, and their orders for weapons will decrease. By the end of this year, our weapons production will shift to primarily producing our own weapons. We still have half a year..."

This was a plan He Rui formulated based on existing resources, covering mechanical processing, weapon trial production and finalization, conscription, and retirement systems. Just summarizing it took a long time.

After listening to this, different departments had to discuss and study the tasks assigned to them to clarify their own work.

During the break, Cheng Ruofan found Xu Chengfeng, "Chengfeng, who suggested adjusting the timeline? Didn't we say December before?"

Xu Chengfeng shook his head, "I don't know either, but listening to the content the Chairman described, the plan must have undergone significant changes. Whether it's developing in a good direction or a bad direction, I can't be sure either."

Cheng Ruofan couldn't be sure either, "Before, we considered using the Mosin-Nagant rifles we produced to arm the troops, now we have to use our own weapons. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?"

Xu Chengfeng thought for a moment before answering, "Let's ask Youping."

As the Mayor of Siping and the person in charge of the largest industrial center in the Northeast, Wu Youping couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed hearing Xu Chengfeng and Cheng Ruofan's question. "Using our own guns, how has that become a bad thing?"

Xu Chengfeng didn't hide anything and frankly gave the answer: "It takes a long time for the troops to adapt when new guns are distributed. Have you seen the parameters of the new guns?"

Wu Youping naturally had seen them and knew them by heart, so he answered unhappily: "Among the standard weapons, individual weapons are divided into three types: semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and submachine guns. The semi-automatic rifle uses 7*45mm ammunition, while the pistol and submachine gun use 9*25mm ammunition. The machine gun is 11mm. Is there any problem with this? I heard the Chairman say we don't want full-power ammunition."

Xu Chengfeng felt that Wu Youping was truly a military layman. In the entire Northeast, only He Rui had considered the issue of full-power ammunition. Even military academy graduates like Xu Chengfeng and Cheng Ruofan, who graduated from Baoding Military Academy, hadn't thought of this issue. Even Zhou Yinshan, a former instructor at Baoding Military Academy, hadn't thought about it.

The problem now wasn't the power of the firearms, but that the troops needed time to familiarize themselves with the new rifles. Although the basic tactics had been completed, the basic tactics would also have to be adjusted according to the different weapons. Such adjustments required time, perhaps even a relatively long time.

Just as he was considering how to make Wu Youping understand military knowledge, Xu Chengfeng heard Cheng Ruofan say, "I'll just ask one question. How long will it take to deliver the first ten thousand guns to the troops?"

Xu Chengfeng immediately felt that Cheng Ruofan had spoken well. Even if Wu Youping understood military affairs, it actually wouldn't mean much. The ones responsible for the troops were soldiers like Xu Chengfeng and Cheng Ruofan; right now, the army had to consider the equipment delivery time.

Wu Youping pondered for a while, "November at the latest."

"Another half a year?" Cheng Ruofan frowned. "Then when can the first one thousand rifles be delivered?"

"Early October at the earliest," Wu Youping answered very crisply this time.

Now Cheng Ruofan stopped talking. He could now determine that the time to recover the Chinese Eastern Railway would definitely be in 1918, not the end of 1917. Unless He Rui changed his thinking now and let the troops be equipped with Mosin-Nagant rifles on a large scale according to the original plan. But it was obvious that He Rui had made up his mind to use the new self-produced rifles.

Xu Chengfeng broke the brief silence, "We understand. Goodbye."

Cheng Ruofan felt he could understand He Rui's thinking; using self-produced rifles for combat was of course a good thing. But in comparison, recovering the Chinese Eastern Railway sooner was an even better thing. So before leaving, Cheng Ruofan couldn't help but ask one more question, "Is the manufacturing cost of the new rifle cheaper than the Mosin-Nagant?"

Wu Youping shook his head, "The Chairman and I discussed this issue. We both believe that selling those weapons directly to the Russians would be cheaper. Second-hand rifles can't fetch a good price!"

Leaving Wu Youping's place, Cheng Ruofan sighed, "I really hadn't thought about the issue of second-hand rifles. Thinking about it the way Youping said, he's not wrong."

Xu Chengfeng gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but in his heart, he actually didn't quite agree. It wasn't that he disagreed with Wu Youping's view, but he felt that Wu Youping's train of thought didn't conform to common military sense at all. The 'profit' in the military mindset is minimizing the chaos caused by changing equipment.

If those Mosin-Nagant rifles were just a transitional state, then there was indeed no need to equip them. Switching through three types of rifles would only increase the confusion of the troops' re-equipment.

Wu Youping naturally didn't know what the comrades in the army were thinking. At this moment, his attention was focused on the industrial field. Even if he didn't understand military affairs, Wu Youping understood industry. The cartridge case used for the new gun's bullets was made of common brass, but the warhead was a copper-jacketed steel core.

The benefit of this design was undoubted: cheap!

Whether it was a pure copper warhead or a lead core warhead, they were very easy to process, but the price of copper and lead was much more expensive than steel. There was also a supply issue.

However, cheap did not mean simple. According to the bullet design, the manufacture of every single steel core had to be processed by a lathe. Cutting the steel column into the specified dimensions. In addition to this, the outer copper jacket part required a stamping machine to stamp the copper into a suitable copper cap. The steel core also had to be well combined with the copper cap.

Just considering these things already made Wu Youping feel a headache. As for the equipment time, it was completely not within Wu Youping's priority items to consider.

Because the use was singular and the quantity of bullets needed was large enough, Wu Youping's side had already started the research and development of special equipment. And with the efforts of engineers and technicians, they successfully produced three steel-core processing prototype machines. But this was, after all, the Northeast Machine Tool Plant's first true fully self-developed equipment. What Wu Youping cared about was whether the machine tool could produce products as designed.

Once the product was compliant, they would have to start large-scale production of this warhead processing equipment. This pressure was really not generally big!

Wu Youping felt uneasy in his heart, so he went to find the person he had to find at this time. Statistics Bureau Chief Xu Jia, after listening to Wu Youping's words, smiled slightly and answered in his pleasant baritone voice, "Mayor Wu, do you know how many cadres we have now, and how many people have already established files?"

Wu Youping was a bit surprised by Xu Jia's answer, so he followed Xu Jia's words and asked, "How many?"

"Under the rotation training system, we now have more than 64,000 rural and land reform cadres. The personnel with established files exceeds 500,000. How many people does the arsenal need?"

Wu Youping really hadn't expected that the Statistics Bureau, responsible for personnel files, had completed such a massive task, and was stunned for a moment. However, looking at Xu Jia's earnest gaze, Wu Youping forced himself to think and recalled the number, "At this stage, we need 5,000 people."

Xu Jia smiled slightly, "Choosing 5,000 out of 500,000. One in a hundred, I think it's not a big problem."