afterglow

Chapter 216 Finalizing the Chariot; Sudden Natural Disaster

Luo Fu, who has read countless cars, kept asking professional questions one after another that can make ordinary people confused. The technicians of Xunjie Company seemed to have a well-thought-out plan and answered them one by one.

After a while, the satisfied Luo Fu climbed out from under the car, his hands covered with dust and black engine oil.

He picked up a bottle of rural local method shochu from the side, washed his hands and said, "At least, I think the design is pretty good, but it depends on the actual test, whether it is a mule or a horse."

In fact, the requirements of the Ming army are not harsh. Although some dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty are bragging, they are still very clear about the actual level of their country. Therefore, the first thing to solve in terms of heavy trucks is whether there is any problem. .

This type of three-axle, ten-wheel, nine-ton heavy truck trial-produced by Xunjie is equipped with a six-cylinder diesel engine with a maximum output of 110 horsepower, but it is recommended to limit it to 100 horsepower.

If there is a heavy-duty trailer, it can be loaded with a Sany-type light tank, and then tow the trailer for another tank, which is equivalent to transferring two tanks at a time.

And if it is used to transport goods, its transport capacity can also be called strong, almost one can top three.

From the middle of the month to the end of the month, for more than ten days in a row, the two tanks and heavy trucks finally completed all the measurements, and dozens of military officers and technicians who participated in the evaluation also submitted their evaluations and opinions.

In the end, several officials sent by the Ordnance Bureau decided to adopt the first type of car, which was the design of Yangyue Company, after considering the opinions of the army and the manufacturer.

However, a series of improvement requirements were also given, including:
The inclination angle of the front armor of the car body was changed from 50° to 60° to increase the space inside the car, and the equivalent thickness was reduced. As compensation, the armor thickness was increased from 48mm to 64mm.The front of the turret and the gun mantlet remain unchanged at 64mm;
The field of vision of the commander and gunner is not satisfactory and must be improved as much as possible;
After several hours of continuous driving, the reliability of the differential and gearbox has dropped significantly, which must be improved;
The fuel tank capacity will be expanded by at least [-]%;
The layout of the ammunition rack is unreasonable, and it is very difficult for the loader to take the shells;

The main gun does not use the Type 80 mountain gun, it is recommended to change it to the Type [-] [-]mm field gun, and shorten the barrel length as appropriate;

The [-]-type field gun is an old thing of more than [-] years, but it can be said to be old and strong.Although replacing the Type [-] mountain cannon with this old thing seems to be a step backward, the armor penetration depth is almost doubled, and there are a lot of stocks.

The three-inch-level cannon has become useless in this time period-it is inconvenient to be deployed at the regiment level, and it weighs almost a ton; it is too powerful to be deployed at the division level.

Therefore, the Ming army did not purchase new cannons, but continued to use some old cannons.

It was a rare occasion for the army to be straightforward. The major general of the supply corps should have the authority to speak directly and place an order for [-] vehicles.

The purchase price of a bicycle is 23 yuan, which is roughly equivalent to more than 3000 months' salary for a middle school teacher like Xia Xiaoshi, while 600 heavy tanks cost more than [-] million yuan at once.

Although the Navy assigned Zhou Changfeng and Yan Chenwu to come, the opinions of the generals were not unified, and they had to refer to their feedback before making a decision.

"In my opinion, it is definitely necessary." Yan Chenwu said with piercing eyes: "Although special large landing craft are needed to send them ashore, these heavy tanks must be extremely useful, even if there are only a few of them, they can significantly Help the landing force hold their ground."

Zhou Changfeng said "hmm", "I think so too, let's write the report truthfully, if the superior is not happy, let's think of another way."

The so-called "other way" is to go through the back door. Zhou Changfeng can go to Yang Zhen or Zhan Ming, or Zhu Lingjing if it is not good enough; and Yan Chenwu is Yan Zhong, the chief officer of the first battle fleet of the Eastern Fleet. Big talker.

On July [-]th, Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu embarked on their return journey.

Since there is only one one-way railway between Laizhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture, and it is often occupied by military trains, it will be canceled or postponed at every turn, so the railway company simply reduced the frequency here to once every five days.

That night they stayed in Jinan until Yinshi, and then boarded the train bound for the capital in the dark, but this was destined to be an extraordinary trip.

An hour later, Caozhou, more than [-] kilometers southwest of Jinan...

Penglou Township is no different from many inland towns in Daming today. Except for a telephone pole painted with orange paint every 30 meters on the side of the main street that runs through the middle of the town, most of the rest of the town still remains. The style of ancient times.

It was not dawn, and there was still half an hour before Mao time, and most of the people who were used to getting up early to do farming and work did not get up.

"Oh, it's so fucking annoying, that dog keeps barking and needs to be cleaned up!"

"Whose dog is barking non-stop!"

"There are dogs barking everywhere..."

However, the dogs raised by each family are barking and barking inexplicably, which makes people irritated. From time to time, they can hear someone angrily teaching their dogs.

Just at this time, a deep and loud "rumbling" sound came from a distance, which sounded like thunder.

In a moment, a group of shining white light appeared on the horizon, as bright as day, but only lasted for a few seconds, like lightning.

"Damn, it's going to rain heavily, and I'm going to step on the mud again!"

"It's been sweltering for several days. I'm afraid it will cool down when it rains next."

People who are half asleep and half awake are complaining, and almost no one has noticed the weirdness of this-how could the thunder come before the flash of lightning?

Some hardworking hawkers got up earlier than ordinary people, and they encountered even weirder situations when they were drawing water from the well—the well water was muddy and had a strange smell?

In such a strange atmosphere everywhere, a terrifying catastrophe came suddenly.

A series of longitudinal waves travel from the ground at speeds of more than 7000 meters per second, followed by slightly slower transverse waves at more than 4000 meters per second.

In an instant, the ground shook!

Violent vibrations make people wake up instantly, but how can it be done in a few seconds from a dazed state to sober?

The trembling houses made sounds of "咵啦" and "咵啦", and the screams and cries of the people could be faintly heard.

Due to the exaggerated magnitude of the shock, many houses collapsed one after another without holding on for a few seconds, burying those who hadn't had time to escape.

The people who escaped by chance were also staggered due to the violent shaking up and down, left and right, and there was a mess everywhere.

There was even a gap in the field, and the black crack in the ground grew and expanded at a speed that could be seen by the naked eye, as if to swallow everything.

The situation in Fucheng was even more serious. The people here were more concentrated, and the damage to some factory buildings caused fires, and the flames and thick smoke rose into the sky.

Gasoline barrels and gas tanks smashed by collapsed bricks or tiles burned blazingly, and even exploded.

At this time, Zhou Changfeng, who was traveling south by train, was also awakened.

After realizing the abnormality, the driver immediately decelerated and braked to avoid derailment. The long train came to a stop slowly with a sharp and piercing "squeak" sound, but the shaking up, down, left, and right was still very obvious.

Panicked passengers scrambled down, and some simply opened the window and jumped out.

With lingering fear, Luo Fu patted his chest, "God, where did the earthquake happen?"

Zhou Changfeng, who had calmed down a little bit, felt it carefully, "The amplitude of this shock is quite obvious. It seems that the intensity is not low, and it is very close!"

On the first day of August in the Gregorian calendar in the 37th year of Zhichang, at five quarters of Yin time, a large earthquake occurred at 35°4' north latitude and 115°1' east longitude. The magnitude was seven and the epicentral intensity was nine degrees.

Of course, a severe earthquake of this magnitude affected a very wide area, with obvious tremors felt as far as Yanjing in the north, Xi'an in the west, and Yangzhou in the south.

Zhu Lingjing was woken up in her sleep. She was in a deep sleep and didn't feel the vibration.

At first, the attendants of the princess mansion were quite confused about whether to wake her up, because although the shock was obvious, the amplitude was not large, so there should be no danger.

"It doesn't matter to this extent." She yawned and asked with her head tilted, "What time is it?"

Su Yiyi, who was also somewhat sleepy, replied: "It's half past Yinshi."

Zhu Lingjing slowly sat down on the edge of the bed, and sighed softly: "It's not good... It would be better if it was later."

The emperor, who was recuperating in Xiyuan, woke up immediately. His sleep quality has been poor since this period of time. Although the slightest movement will not interrupt his sleep, any larger movement will definitely wake him up.

Such rhythmic and obvious shaking reminded him of ten years ago, when the Great Northwest Earthquake also had the same feeling.

Naturally, there is no reason to complain about the natural disaster. What makes the emperor very helpless is that the earthquake occurred in the early hours of the morning, and there must be countless casualties. I just hope that the core earthquake area will not be close to the town.

Several attendants filed in, and the leading female officer asked, "What is your Majesty's order?"

"The recent state affairs can be postponed for one or two days, and the disaster relief is the first. The rest, step by step."

"Yes, I will send an order immediately."

Within a few minutes after the earthquake, the seismographs at the Polytechnic University in Suncheon, the Imperial Gezhi University in Yingcheon, the Sidijian, and other institutions and government offices clearly felt and recorded the seismic waveform.

Sidijian is actually a new government office that was established only ten years ago, corresponding to Sitianjian.As for why the "Qin Tian Jian" was changed back to the "Si Tian Jian" in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was the result of a series of subtle influences brought about by constitutionalism.

The concept of "magnitude" was only proposed the year before last, and it has been widely used all over the world. All countries have determined empirical formulas suitable for their own national conditions based on their own research.

As a result, not long after it was applied, there was a big earthquake.

The imperial court completely lost contact with the area, and no one responded to wired or wireless communications without exception.

Caozhou, Dingtao County, Cao County, Chengwu County, and Dongming County seemed to have evaporated from the world. They couldn't make calls, and no one answered their telegrams.

After tossing for 10 minutes, Guide Mansion and Jining Prefecture finally responded, claiming that the earthquake was severe, and countless houses there were also damaged and collapsed.

However, until the sun rose three poles, the imperial court still did not get in touch with the epicenter area.

Now, no matter how slow the reaction is, people can realize how serious the disaster situation is.

"It can't be delayed for a moment, the truth is not clear, how to deal with it properly?"

In the Wenhua Palace, Zou Zhuoyun seemed to be sitting firmly at the table, but his right hand kept knocking on the table rapidly.

Seeing Lin Xi coming in a hurry, he said bluntly: "It's been an hour and I still can't get in touch, I can't wait any longer! He Zhong, ask the Air Force to send a plane to take a look."

"We still have to bring people and the radio station in..."

"Of course, I want the truth!"

So about a quarter of an hour later, several telegrams were sent to Fushan Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion respectively.

At the base airports in the two places, the Navy's Third Search Team and the Air Force's Seventh Reconnaissance Team immediately dispatched planes to set off, and more than a dozen seaplanes and reconnaissance planes took off one after another.

The complex-eyed pilots didn't know what kind of mood they had to fly into the sky—the cutting-edge aircraft and these pilots came in handy for the first time when scouting disaster areas in their own country.

After more than an hour of flight, two Type [-] reconnaissance planes of the Air Force first flew over Caozhou.

They first took a few photos at an altitude of more than 1000 meters, then descended and hovered over the urban area at an ultra-low altitude of less than [-] meters.

Looking around, except for some reinforced concrete buildings and some ancient city walls that are still strong, most of the rest of the houses have collapsed, leaving only ruins.There were at least a dozen fire points in the huge urban area, and plumes of black smoke shot straight into the sky.

Facing the devastated and nearly razed urban area, the cameraman in the back seat trembled involuntarily when he pressed the shutter.

However, the sky is not beautiful, or God also shed tears when he saw this scene, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and heavy rain poured down like cats and dogs.

At this time, the district supervisor called the military headquarters and suggested trying to remind the disaster area that there will be aftershocks after the earthquake, and they should be careful and stay away from dangerous buildings.

Therefore, the Kaifeng Air Force Base rushed to print 10,000+ notices, and then dispatched fighter jets to carry out the "bombing" mission - flying over the affected states and counties at high speed, evenly spreading the notices.

"It's not far away, there are only a few miles left."

"It's finally here!"

Due to broken sleepers and deformed steel rails, the train was easily derailed when it was forced to drive, so people who got off the train had to walk in groups to the nearest Yanzhou government.

The team braved the heavy rain and walked for several hours, with their bodies wet and their feet covered with mud, and finally came to Fucheng.

Everyone dispersed, looking for an inn or hotel where they could stay, and at least changed their clothes and shoes first.

Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu also hurriedly found an inn.

Fortunately, the clothes in the suitcase were not wet, so the two rinsed them briefly and changed into clean clothes.

At this time, the roar of the engine came from the sky again, Luo Fu went to the window and took a look.

I saw fleets of planes constantly flying by in the sky, including single-engine fighter jets, twin-engine torpedo bombers, and four-engine seaplanes.

"From east to west, these should be naval planes taking off from Fushan Naval Base." Zhou Changfeng said with his head up.

Fushan, that is, Qingdao.

Seeing this, Luo Fu couldn't help exclaiming: "In just half an hour, dozens of planes flew over, this is really serious."

The expressionless Zhou Changfeng said quietly: "You might as well think about it, why such a large-scale fleet is dispatched..."

In the small guest room, the atmosphere suddenly became grim.

(End of this chapter)