novelden #168 - Advance Northward
#168 - Advance Northward
However, this was only Ren Zhong's first wave of action. Next, Ren Zhong started running the machine tool factory at full capacity, preparing to double the weapons production capacity of the border region in the short term!
The trade with Seventh Road Half had already begun to steadily transport grain back. Thanks to Ren Zhong's efforts, this precious grain was prioritized for the front lines of military production, ensuring that even with twice the number of personnel, the military workers could still eat their fill. As a result, the expansion of the armaments factory was extremely rapid.
Because the skilled workers trained earlier could now take on new apprentices, the scale quickly expanded from several thousand to over ten thousand.
The entire border region's monthly production capacity more than doubled! In particular, the production of the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, the 82mm mortar, and the Type 56 machine gun exploded. The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle exceeded a monthly production of 10,000, the 82mm mortar exceeded a monthly production of 300, and the Type 56 machine gun also exceeded a monthly production of 300!
The newly developed 107mm rocket launcher was also starting to ramp up production, exceeding a monthly output of 10 units.
After an all-night discussion with Staff Officer Ye, the two main regiments of the border region's garrison directly replaced their weapons and headed north, then seamlessly transformed into the newly expanded Independent Guerrilla Detachment One and Independent Guerrilla Detachment Two of the Provisional Third Division. They confronted the Japanese devils of Jiuyuan across the river in the area within a hundred li radius south of the Yellow River in the Ordos League.
At the same time, a survey team of over a hundred people headed north, carrying Ren Zhong's hopes, to begin searching for that mysterious mining area. He also decided to develop strategic minerals such as aluminum, copper, zinc, and rare earths in the Ordos League ahead of schedule, even if large-scale development posed significant risks.
Ren Zhong couldn't afford to worry too much now. At worst, everyone would fight to the death in this place.
The current exploding weapons production capacity could equip 10 main regiments in the border region every month. Nearly half of a main regiment was equipped with Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, plus an increase of 3 mortars, 3 Type 56 machine guns, and 1 107mm rocket launcher, enough to form another powerful firepower company.
Adding to the original 6 82mm mortars and 9 Type 56 machine guns, and 27 Type 11 light machine guns or ZB vz. 26 machine guns, the equipment of such a main regiment in terms of light weapons could already overwhelm a Japanese battalion.
As for heavy firepower, with 9 82mm mortars and 1 107mm rocket launcher, the main regiment had completely overwhelmed the Japanese battalion's infantry gun platoon and 90mm mortar platoon.
What Ren Zhong was very worried about now was the air. The base area currently had no means of fighting back.
The Japanese army's aviation still had hundreds of such aerial forces in the north, while Ren Zhong was still working hard on that Merlin V-1650 engine. Even if the engine was developed, it was unknown how long it would take for the P-51D to take to the skies.
After all, there was still the hurdle of airframe processing and the raw material hurdle of aluminum alloy production to overcome.
The current basic conditions were still too poor for Ren Zhong. Ren Zhong could only bite the bullet and move forward.
Aluminum was not an easy thing to produce. The energy required for electrolytic aluminum, before the thermal power station equipment was developed, Ren Zhong could not start large-scale production. Even in the main world, one ton of aluminum would consume 13,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. According to the electrolytic aluminum technology that could be developed in the Bright Sword world, this number would probably have to increase by at least 50%, which is at least 20,000 kilowatt-hours!
In the Ordos League, this was obviously another unsolvable problem!
Therefore, Ren Zhong had expanded the power research center and started to simultaneously carry out research on thermal power generator sets. He planned to simplify the design of a 30,000 kilowatt unit to see if he could develop a 10,000 kilowatt unit.
Now, the steel industry already had the conditions to build steam turbine units, and a complete set of data was available. In theory, the miniaturization process should be very fast.
However, unfortunately, even if they were copying homework, the basics of these experts were too poor. Just learning these designs, they often couldn't understand them. The high temperature and high pressure of the steam turbine were more complicated than the water turbine. A 500KW experimental model could run, running through the entire process from boiling water to generating electricity.
However, larger generators also required larger transmission and transformation equipment. The 35KV complete set of transmission and transformation equipment had not yet been completed. One link was connected to another, making Ren Zhong anxious but helpless.
With the current transportation conditions, Ren Zhong had no way to transport ore from such a distant place as the Ordos League to the border region for smelting. His steel mills and copper mills would basically not be located more than 30 kilometers away from the mining area, and they also had to be close to coal-producing areas for fuel supply.
Therefore, if the problem of thermal power generation could not be solved, then the next step of electrolytic aluminum smelting would be a big problem.
That is, ironmaking can be done with native methods and does not rely on electricity for the time being.
The vigorous Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain ended with the Nationalist army's full retreat, at the cost of losing nearly 40% of its troops. The remaining 100,000 troops were divided into three parts: more than 40,000 troops entered the Taihang Mountains, more than 40,000 retreated to the south bank of the Yellow River, and more than 30,000 marched west to the Lüliang Mountains.
Although the Japanese devils occupied Zhongtiao Mountain, the headquarters of the Japanese North China Command was not happy. Commander Wei's mobile warfare and counterattacks, coupled with the Eighth Route Army's frantic sabotage, caused the Japanese devils to suffer more than 15,000 casualties, equivalent to losing an Class B division!
This was a direct loss. If Zhongtiao Mountain was to be occupied, with the current unstable situation, at least 2 more independent brigades would have to be filled in to achieve effective occupation.
In one move, the Japanese appeared to have achieved their goal of occupying Zhongtiao Mountain and breaking through the Eighth Route Army headquarters, but the magnitude of the losses was also difficult to predict in advance. It was originally thought that by encircling and suppressing the main force of the Nationalist army in Zhongtiao Mountain, the 4 divisions besieging here could be released.
But now, they had directly lost the strength of one division and filled in two independent brigades. There were still nearly 100,000 troops watching around, and those 4 divisions were unable to move, not to mention that they seemed to have sent two divisions in vain.
This deal was a big loss.
Ren Zhong didn't know that because he had participated in it, the situation in North China, although collapsing, was not completely broken, and it was already much stronger than in the historical timeline. At least, the Japanese devils' plan to concentrate their forces to repeatedly sweep the Taihang Mountains could not be implemented now.
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Because now, in addition to the Eighth Route Army, there are nearly 40,000 Nationalist troops in the Taihang Mountains. Even if they are currently short of food and ammunition, they are still 40,000 strong after all.
Therefore, after an extremely brutal battle, the situation in North China became very strangely stable again, and each side began to heal and develop.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was autumn harvest. The 100,000 mu of newly reclaimed land gave the border region a great surprise. Ren Zhong's 30,000 mu of improved seed fields, with a yield of more than 600 jin per mu, proudly surpassed the current domestic high-yield fields. The remaining 70,000 mu of local wheat also achieved a good harvest of more than 400 jin per mu due to intensive cultivation and the use of farm manure.
Suddenly harvesting nearly 50 million jin of grain could solve the food problem for nearly 100,000 people in the border region!
More importantly, Ren Zhong proved the superiority of his planting model, which made the border region determined to fully promote it.
On the side of the border region's armaments factory, Jiang Chongjing was even more ambitious and made a grand plan to double the production capacity again.
Second update! Still coding the third update, but it will be later.