Chapter 38: A Small Trick (Part 2)

Jingshiji was a person with rapidly changing moods. He immediately became enthusiastic: “Right, let me show you my new skill?”
New skill? I’m afraid you’ll mess it up again and bring shame to the Black Flag Army. Sima Tai really wanted to see Jingshiji fail, but then he grabbed Wu Fengdian’s hand and said, “Hey, I think the pigs in the kitchen are ready. Let’s go and smell the aroma.”
But Wu Fengdian refused to budge at all. Liu Yongfu, standing beside him, said, “Wait! Wait!”
Jingshiji carefully opened his palm. Five standard Remington rifle bullets gleamed in his small hand. Jieken quickly handed him a balance scale. “It’s your turn. Show us that skill you used last night again.”
What skill? Seeing Jingshiji spread a tablecloth on the ground and place on it the balance scale, strange tweezers, primers, funnels, and granulated black powder, everyone understood what he was doing.
Liu Yongfu and the others still didn’t get it. They watched Jingshiji’s actions in confusion—what was he trying to do?
Liu Yongfu gave his adopted son a subtle signal, and Liu Chengliang quietly asked, “What is he doing?”
“What else could it be besides reloading?” Sima Tai wasn’t very interested in this skill. After all, in the Xiliu Camp, Liu Yu had already successfully reloaded several Remington rifle bullets with Jieken’s help.
He increasingly saw his commander as a military genius—skilled in everything, capable of handling anything with ease. Too strong.
In comparison, Jingshiji seemed like a clown in his eyes. “It’s nothing special.”
Someone nodded in agreement with Sima Tai’s view. “It’s just a small trick.”
The Xiliu Camp had always had a tradition: whatever skill Liu Yu mastered would soon become a common skill for everyone. Liu Yu taught these highly practical techniques to everyone personally.
Things like the first rifle training exercise, which was once considered an incredible skill, now had a pass rate of nearly 90%, a good rate of 20%, and an excellent rate of 50%. Even for the second rifle training exercise, everyone thought it would soon be widely adopted throughout the camp.
Jingshiji was still carefully reloading bullets, handling various tools quite skillfully. This was also a skill that Western cowboys must master in the wild.
Everyone’s attention increased, as this “small trick” wasn’t yet widespread. It was inevitable to run out of bullets, so learning the skill of reloading shells, primers, and black powder was important.
But they only watched for a while. After all, the main firearms in the Xiliu Camp were Spencer revolving guns, which used pistol bullets that couldn’t be reloaded. Remington rifle bullets, though powerful, had a slow rate of fire, so there wasn’t much need for reloading. Someone said, “It would be great if we could reload Spencer gun bullets too.”
Sima Tai agreed with this view. Seeing that it took Jingshiji about ten minutes to finally reload the first bullet, he decided to end it. Unexpectedly, Liu Yongfu tightly grabbed his hand and asked, “Can we test-fire these reloaded bullets?”
Jingshiji immediately jumped up. It was rare to find such interested audiences. He nodded and said, “No problem at all!”

This time, Jieken had to run dozens of meters to reinstall the chest target. But this time he took it easy—he ran fifty meters to set up the target and then turned back. “OK! Fifty meters, lying position, with a support.”
“Bang!” The loud gunshot made Wu Fengdian almost jump up. “It really works!”
Over there, Liu Yongfu had already grabbed Sima Tai’s hand. “Sima squad leader, could we borrow this young man from the Black Flag Army for a few days?”
His earnest gaze almost melted Sima Tai. Nearby, Liu Chengliang was slapping his thigh in regret. “Damn it! Why didn’t I collect some cartridge casings earlier? We’re short by at least a thousand rounds!”
Yang Zhenen was even more exaggerated. He stared intently at Jing Shiyi, unable to believe that this young man possessed so many amazing skills.
Before Sima Tai could respond, Liu Chengliang rushed over and grabbed Jing Shiyi’s hand, saying, “Young Jing, come and give it a try.”
They couldn’t help but be excited.
The Black Flag Army was still a force composed of muskets and old-fashioned artillery. Out of three thousand soldiers, they only had a little over a hundred Remington rifles and a very small number of captured French breechloaders.
The over a hundred Remington rifles were almost their only breechloaders, but securing ammunition was always a major problem.
Liu Yu found it extremely difficult to obtain breechloaders and ammunition in Haiyang along the coast, let alone for the Black Flag Army deep in the interior.
In history, after great efforts, it took four years—by the start of the Sino-French War—before they managed to equip themselves with two hundred Remington rifles, and ammunition was still hard to come by.
Although a small amount could be smuggled in, the Black Flag Army engaged in over a dozen battles each year. As the backbone of their forces, the Remington rifles consumed more bullets than could be purchased, not to mention their extravagant practice sessions for rifle shooting.
They had thought that using primers, black powder, cartridge casings, and a set of special tools would allow them to remanufacture Remington rifle bullets, but none of the arms dealers who sold them weapons had mentioned this.
Thinking about the thousands of cartridge casings wasted over the years, Liu Chengliang was so regretful it made his guts turn green. Meanwhile, Wu Fengdian was proud. “I’m the one who thought of this. Our left camp has over three thousand cartridge casings. What about primers?”
He glanced at Liu Yongfu, who calmed down and said, “Baosheng still has ten thousand primers. They’re very small, so getting a few more ten thousand isn’t a problem.”
Compared to the conspicuous rifles and bullets, primers were less noticeable and easier to smuggle. Even if discovered, it would be easy to gloss over.
The set of special tools didn’t seem complicated either; they could probably find a way to get a few sets.
In front of Liu Yongfu, it seemed as though countless golden rifle bullets were waving at him. Several high-ranking Black Flag Army officers gathered together, watching every move of Jing Shiyi intently.
Sima Tai still didn’t understand. He said to Liu Yongfu, “This is just a small trick. Food is more important. I’ve asked the kitchen—they’ll serve it soon. I even killed a fat pig.”

Liu Yongfu didn’t turn around. The few of them were watching every slight movement of Jing Shiyi. Finally, Liu Yongfu said, “I am Liu Yuanting of the Black Flag Army.” Yuanting was Liu Yongfu’s courtesy name. Sima Tai was shocked. Just as he was about to speak, Liu Yongfu continued, “Could you please inform Commander Liu of your unit that this young man, Jing, could stay with our Black Flag Army for a while? If there are any difficulties, I will take care of them.” He then turned to Jing Shiyi and asked, “Young man Jing, what other special skills do you have?”