Warhammer: Rebuilding the Golden Age Starting with Farming

Chapter 16 Production Line, Bird-Beak Doctor

The first batch of products to roll off the production line consisted of three hundred brand-new entrenching tools.

Andy selected the blueprints for the "Colonial Guard Standard Multi-Functional Trenching Tool (Mark-IV)" from the STC database.

This thing looks ordinary, just a steel pipe with a blade welded on, but in terms of design, it represents the ultimate understanding of pragmatism in the golden age of mankind.

Its blade is made of one-piece stamping and the edges have been treated with high-frequency quenching, making it hard enough to cut through the thick skin of mutants. The sides are designed with serrations, which can cut through steel bars as thick as a wrist.

More importantly, its center of gravity is designed to be extremely reasonable, making it both a production tool and a close-combat weapon.

In places like the bottom nest, a good shovel is far more strategically valuable than a poorly maintained laser gun.

Laser guns need batteries and can't be repaired if they break, while shovels don't need bullets; as long as you have enough strength, they can keep working.

When three hundred strong male refugees received the shovel, the increase in productivity was immediate.

In the past, when scavenging teams went to the ruins to dig for treasure, they relied entirely on digging by hand or smashing with stones. When they encountered large concrete slabs, they had to go around them, which was extremely inefficient.

Now, with levers and sharp blades, large quantities of high-quality metal beams, motors, and cables that were originally buried deep in the ruins have been excavated.

The amount of resources recovered from the shelter has skyrocketed from half a ton per day to one ton per day.

Tools improve recycling efficiency, allowing more scrap iron to be recycled. This scrap iron can then be smelted into steel plates, which in turn can be used to manufacture more tools.

In this way, what was originally worthless garbage was transformed into industrial raw materials, and refugees who were originally just waiting to die were transformed into skilled industrial workers.

After resolving the issue of raw material input, Andy did not stop the stamping press.

He changed the mold and solved the problem of weaponry.

The shelter's current weapon configuration is still quite terrible, with more than a hundred armed personnel carrying dozens of different types of guns with varying calibers and incompatible parts.

In the event of intense combat, the mere act of distributing ammunition can send commanders into a frenzy.

Therefore, Andy believes that a unified standard is necessary.

Andy did not choose those complex laser rifles or bomb guns that required precision machining.

The current processing precision is insufficient, so the products manufactured will be scrap.

He chose the most unsophisticated and ugly, but most effective, solution—a stamped automatic live-fire rifle.

This firearm is codenamed "Border Defender - Simplified Version" in the STC database. Its body is made of two stamped steel plates riveted together, the bolt is a free recoil type, and the recoil spring is directly wrapped with thick steel wire.

Even if it's filled with sand, it can still fire bullets if you kick the bolt.

This design sacrifices accuracy, range, and even the user's tactile experience.

But in return, it offers extreme affordability and reliability.

Although Gamma-9 did not explicitly state it, it clearly disdains the design of such a weapon.

In the eyes of this orthodox priest, a gun without exquisite carvings, without complex machining, and without even a prayer inscription is simply a piece of fire-breathing scrap metal.

He even refused to hold a "spirit awakening ceremony" for this gun.

But the Rust Brotherhood technicians Roger brought with him were quite fond of it.

For these homeless people who have always relied on scavenging and piecing together weapons, this kind of weapon that will definitely fire as long as the trigger is pressed is the real magic weapon.

Andy attempted to establish the first true assembly line.

He broke down the production process into twenty steps.

In the past, it would take a craftsman three days to make a gun because he was responsible for every part of it, from the barrel to the trigger.

Now, Andy assigns each of Gamma-9's apprentices only one action.

They don't need to understand the principles of firearms, nor do they need to have superb skills; they just need to repeat the same action like robots.

This Ford-style assembly line production completely destroyed the low-efficiency production logic that had existed before the refuge.

In just one week.

One hundred and fifty brand-new automatic stamping guns, exuding the smell of blued rust-preventing oil, were neatly stacked in the warehouse.

The entire armed force of the shelter underwent a complete transformation.

The guards who used to carry spears and homemade guns were transformed into a regular army with uniform clothing and weapons.

But behind this bustling scene of production, a new bottleneck has emerged.

Andy stood in the warehouse, looking at the shelves full of guns, and then at the empty ammunition box next to him.

The guns were made, but the bullets couldn't keep up.

The gun is chambered for Andy's standard 8mm cartridge. The cartridge case can be made using a stamping machine, and the bullet can be cast from lead and scrap copper.

The only missing element is the propellant, which consists of the primer and gunpowder.

In the bottom nest of Casting Furnace-7, physical waste is everywhere; you can easily pick up scrap iron and copper wire. However, chemical raw materials are extremely scarce.

The manufacture of smokeless gunpowder requires nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and starch.

Andy has starch; his hydroponic farm produces as many starch balls as he wants.

But Andy didn't have any acids, especially high-purity industrial acids.

Without acid, nitrocellulose cannot be made, and therefore there is no propellant.

You can't expect soldiers to go around hitting people with empty guns, can you?

Andy sighed and fiddled with a bullet model in his hand that only had a casing and a bullet head, and was empty inside.

"Trying to block my tech tree, huh? Sigh! The growing pains of farming are real..."

The tech tree is interconnected; if you unlock metallurgy but not chemical engineering, the gun manufacturing section will be grayed out.

"Bauer".

Andy called over Bauer, who was debugging the production line.

With a new stamped pistol specially approved for him by Andy tucked into his waistband, Bauer looked much more energetic.

This Bauer was one of the three technicians Roger had sent earlier, and now he has become Andy's capable assistant in machining.

In fact, the relationship between Andy and Roger's Rust Brotherhood is quite delicate. They are nominally partners, but in reality, it's a technology takeover.

Since Andy demonstrated the production capacity of this assembly line, morale on Roger's side has begun to decline.

The three technicians didn't want to go back after they arrived, because here they could access real industrial blueprints and build machines that could work without prayer. This sense of accomplishment was irresistible to techies.

Now, the shelter's engineering department is basically controlled by these outsiders, while Gamma-9 and the apprentices are responsible for assisting.

Andy not only failed to stop this trend, but secretly fueled it.

"Besides you, who else around here has chemical raw materials?"

Andy got straight to the point.

Bauer paused for a moment, clearly not expecting Andy to ask that.

His red prosthetic eye spun around a few times, as if searching his memory bank.

"Chemical raw materials... those are all controlled materials."

Bauer's tone was somewhat hesitant.

"Most gangs only have finished drugs or low-quality explosives."

"If we were to have a large-scale supply of acid and chemical reagents..."

Bauer paused, his expression turning somewhat unpleasant, even showing a hint of disgust.

"Only 'bird-beak doctor'."

"A bird-beak doctor?"

"Yes, a bunch of lunatics living on the edge of an acid swamp, 200 kilometers away."

Bauer explained.

"They are doctors in name only, but in reality they are a group of illegal bio-engineers and chemical traffickers."

"They collect toxic gases and acids from the swamps and refine them into various medicines, toxins, and of course, raw materials for explosives."

"80% of the black market drugs in the entire underground nest come from them."

It sounds like a perfect trading partner.

But what Bauer said next dampened Andy's spirits.

"But, Andy, I don't recommend going to them."

Why?

"Because those people are even harder to deal with than the skinners."

Bauer shook his head.

"The skinners are just bad, but these pharmacists are perverts."

"They are obsessed with human experimentation and often use living people to test their new drugs."

"Moreover, they are extremely xenophobic; anyone who gets close to their territory is usually turned into some kind of tentacle-covered flesh."

"Last time, a gang tried to steal their medicine, but when the gang leader came back, he had a face on his stomach and was singing hymns to his men."

Andy imagined the scene, and...