VII — Made in China in the Late "Twenty-Year Armistice" and During WWII (Part 5): The Three Divine Weapons (3)

While the PF Group and the Armored Group were locked in their heated dispute — drawing the intense attention of both the military and the Central Military Commission — another group was quietly working away on its own project. They nursed a collective grudge: not only had their requests for funding from the leadership and their efforts to market their products to the military been rejected, but — well, admittedly, what they had designed looked rather unimpressive. Still, the resentment burned: why did the PF and Armored groups get all the attention? Was it because their group had been around too long? Did the military think their research was "mature enough" and could be put out to pasture? The aviation group, founded at the same time, still received full support. And the PF Group in particular — they were the ones who had split off from HERE!

Indeed, this was the "Dongfeng" (East Wind) Group under the Shenyang Precision Instruments Research Institute — the group behind the towed and vehicle-mounted multiple-launch rocket systems. Their proposal to develop a large-scale rocket with "a flight range of one hundred kilometers and an accuracy of 500 meters" had been rejected. Compounding the frustration, the PF Group — their very own offshoot — was thriving. So the Dongfeng Group had been quietly preparing to independently develop something that would astonish everyone.

No one could have imagined just how deep, how far, and how wide the influence of this product — born of frustration — would reach in the ages to come. At a time when the military's and the Commission's attention was focused entirely on rocket launchers and armored vehicles, no one was watching this group.

Although the Dongfeng Group was determined to develop a new type of rocket, the lion's share of defense funding at the time went to the Navy and Air Force. The small remainder was mostly allocated to armored vehicle and man-portable rocket launcher research. Funding for a new rocket was essentially impossible to obtain. In the words of the leadership at that time: "Rocket artillery is already mature enough. There is no need for further development at present."

Outrageous! Had the military forgotten the contributions that rocket munitions had made in the revolution's early days, when they had no suppression artillery?

Without funding, the Dongfeng Group saved up bit by bit. As the old saying goes, "A gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years." If they could not make a splash right now, then they would lay the groundwork so that when the opportunity came, their ascent to the heavens would be instantaneous. Formal development of the new rocket system did not begin until 1938, but the preparatory work had started as early as 1927.

The new rocket was a multi-tube, towed design that could draw on the Dongfeng Group's earlier work. The only issues requiring attention were certain design details and — most critically — propulsion: the rocket engine. Hence the delayed start of formal development was inevitable.

To attract the military's attention, the foremost design requirement for the new rocket was that it be light enough. The man-portable rocket launcher could be carried by individual soldiers? Very well — their rockets would also be man-portable. After repeated deliberations, the final design weight for each rocket round was set at 18.8 kilograms — light enough for one person to carry exactly one round on their shoulder, sustainable even over long marches across difficult terrain.

The second requirement was rapid disassembly and reassembly. This was considerably more complex. First, no individual component after breakdown could exceed 30 kilograms. Second, to accommodate human portability, each component had to meet the following dimensional specifications: not higher than the neck (to permit looking up); not lower than the buttocks (to permit full strides); not wider than the shoulders (to permit passage through gaps); and the center of gravity close to the body (to prevent back strain).

Ten years of preparation forged an immortal legend. (During this entire period, the Dongfeng Group never abandoned its earlier "fantasy" — the large-scale ballistic rocket research that everyone had dismissed as pie in the sky.) In 1938, research on the new rocket artillery system received Army support (the military had finally recognized its need for a rapid-deployment suppression weapon) and was formally approved. By 1939, the Dongfeng Group delivered results. After more than six months of rigorous testing, the military decided to adopt the new system. In 1940, the new rocket artillery officially entered service, receiving its formal designation: the Type 40 107mm Rocket Artillery System.

A brief addendum: after the Type 40 107mm rocket artillery entered service, another Dongfeng Group research achievement caught the military's eye and received its support. Ten years later, another immortal legend was unveiled to the world.

In early 1947, the Dongfeng Group completed the full set of blueprints and prototype testing. After the commercialization of general-purpose integrated circuits, on October 1, 1949, at Xichang, China once again shocked the world. The Dongfeng Group's decade of sharpening a single sword culminated in that sword pointing toward the stars. Their work secured China's commanding lead in the space race.