afterglow

Chapter 309 Chapter [-] New Handan Arsenal;
"Stealing chickens is not enough to lose rice. Instead, the 66th Brigade was wiped out on its own territory. The Russians lost face." Zhou Changfeng took a few steps forward and pointed to the small spot on the map, "Follow-up reinforcements The division of the company also lost a lot."

"It was a good fight, very neat." Zhu Lingjing picked up her teacup and took a sip. "If the battle report is true, Britain, America and Russia will be even more worried."

"On the surface, it will indeed make them more afraid (our army)," Zhou Changfeng tapped the map with sharp eyes, "but according to the message sent back, I'm afraid... no, there is no fear, it is the Russian army itself biggest problem."

Troops were hastily sent to cross the border without proper preparations. The follow-up army was not in place, and the air force did not prepare reinforcements.

Therefore, after most of the front-line aviation forces were wiped out, the Ming army firmly held the air supremacy. It is no wonder that the balance of victory is not tilted.

Perhaps the actions of the Russians are more motivated by political considerations, but from a military point of view, this is a farce like a child's play.

"Indeed." Zhu Lingjing nodded lightly, "You are neither arrogant nor arrogant, you are very objective."

After a short pause, she continued to speak leisurely: "But some people may not be ignorant of such a simple truth. Maybe they know it well, but they do it on purpose."

Ok?
To be honest, Zhou Changfeng really didn't react, and didn't know what she meant by this.

He stared into Zhu Lingjing's eyes, and compared many thoughts and guesses in his mind.

The British only hoped to use the Russian Lai to divert Ming's attention and contain its actions, so the focus was only on dispatching troops across the border, and it didn't really matter whether the fight was good or bad.

Conversely, if the Russians are defeated, it will only make the British more worried about the situation in the Far East, and they may grit their teeth and try to squeeze out some funding for Tsarist Russia.

Even if substantive funding is not provided, it would be good to reduce some debt or debt interest.

Compared with the benefits gained by the dignitaries of St. Petersburg, the life and death of an ordinary infantry brigade seems insignificant.

It has been a tradition of Tsarist Russia to borrow money everywhere during wartime, and it is also a characteristic of Tsarist Russia that it is always burdened with various foreign debts.

As early as the reign of Catherine II, Tsarist Russia borrowed a lot from the Netherlands in order to bear the huge expenses of foreign expansion and war, and it never stopped after that, borrowing money while paying back the money.

When the European War broke out, Tsarist Russia, whose annual income was only 34 billion rubles, had foreign debts as high as 63 billion rubles.During the European War, it borrowed 15 billion rubles from France and 54 billion rubles from the United Kingdom. By the end of the European War, the total wartime foreign debt of Tsarist Russia exceeded 80 billion rubles.

Huge debts have significantly hindered the economic recovery and development of Tsarist Russia. Coupled with its inefficient system, although the foundation is much better than that of Ming Dynasty and the starting point is higher, the current industrial strength of the Russian Empire is actually inferior to that of Ming Dynasty.

If there are too many lice, there is no need to worry about debts. To this day, the Russians are still working hard to repay the money.

"In that case...isn't it an act of treason?" Zhou Changfeng said helplessly: "They are in a mess now, and there was a mutiny not long ago. If they continue to do this, the rebels may storm into St. Petersburg one day."

Zhu Lingjing, who looked contemptuous, let out a "heh" and squinted at him, "You expect those people to be enlightened? The Tsar is a weak and sick man, who can restrain them?"

"..."

After talking about this matter, the two then came to the next topic.

According to the combat readiness act established at the beginning of the year, national and government-run arsenals across the country have successively started integration work. Many small factories have merged into large factories, and the existing large factories have readjusted their leadership and management.

At the same time, some old and old machines that can be replaced should be eliminated as much as possible, so as to improve production efficiency.

Because "moving" is a lot of trouble, usually no one is willing to do it. During this period, it will definitely delay time and reduce some equipment production, but in the long run, the advantages will definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

In addition to the adjustment and reorganization of existing large and small arsenals, it is also an important part to concentrate manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build new factories.

As one of the sub-projects of the combat readiness act, the special No. [-] ordnance expansion plan has already kicked off.

After the selection of the factory site in Handan Prefecture was completed, the Ministry of Industry ordered the National Railway Company to deploy manpower to lay a branch railway for it, and machine manufacturing companies or machine tool factories all over the country also received orders one after another.

It is foreseeable that this new large-scale arsenal built from scratch will be the mainstay of supplying the front line in future wars.

There are many reasons for starting a new stove instead of expanding other existing arsenals - large and small ills and chronic diseases are intertwined, rigid leadership and management are deeply entrenched, and old machines cannot be easily adjusted.

Even in the later generations with developed industry and advanced technology, some enterprises still use very old machines, which is often surprising.

For example, the company responsible for manufacturing 155mm high-explosive bombs for the U.S. military also has many machines from the Cold War era... and so on.

Every machine is an integral part of the entire production line. Even if it is old and inefficient, as long as it is still functioning normally, it is usually not eliminated.

Replace this old one with a new one, that one is also very old, do you want to change it?
Only technicians and engineers understand the bitterness and suffering of debugging the production line.

Compared with Yingtian, Shuntian, Wuchang and other arsenals that are uneven and may still use some antique machines from their grandfathers 50 years ago, the Handan arsenal that started anew will basically use new machines produced in recent years. ——Hexagonal lathes, vertical lathes, planers, etc.

Obviously, manufacturing efficiency and machining accuracy will be qualitatively improved.

"The supply of various machines is basically sufficient, and a few machines still have to wait for some time. The construction of this factory will not be slow. The Ministry of Industry said that it is expected to start production in the early autumn of next year." Zhu Lingjing said casually.

"Tsk, this is still the production capacity planned according to the eight-hour and ten-week work system?" Zhou Changfeng looked surprised and glanced at the plan described in the notebook, "Not to mention three shifts, two shifts, each Six divisions can be offline within a month."

The production capacity of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry is based on the standard of "three first-class infantry divisions and some redundant spare parts", and it is eight hours a day, eight days off and two days off.

The Handan Arms Factory is divided into eleven factories, including the small artillery factory, the cannon factory, the anti-aircraft gun factory, the flat gun factory, the gun factory, the equipment factory, the knife factory, the electrical appliance factory, the bullet factory, the cannonball factory, and the gunpowder factory, with a complete range of categories.

Rather than saying it is an arsenal, it is more appropriate to call it a weapons and equipment production base.

The small artillery factory produces more than [-] light, medium and heavy mortars and more than [-] various rocket launchers per month;
The Cannon Factory produces more than 112 guns of various barrels per month, including 120 144mm howitzers and [-] [-]mm howitzers, which serve as division-level firepower pillars;
The anti-aircraft gun factory produces nearly 20.8 light, medium and heavy anti-aircraft guns per month, of which 150 are the most commonly used [-]mm anti-aircraft guns;

The flat gun factory produces more than 48 anti-tank guns and tank guns per month, including 120 [-]mm anti-tank guns;

The gun factory produces more than [-] various guns per month, including [-] bolt-action rifles, [-] submachine guns, [-] light machine guns, and [-] heavy machine guns;
The equipment factory produces more than 2 various optical and mechanical equipment per month, including mortar sights, cannon sights, rangefinders, artillery scopes, slide rules, etc.;

The knife factory produces [-] cold weapons of various kinds per month, including pilot daggers, scout daggers, bayonets, sabers, thread cutters, etc.;

The electrical appliance factory produces [-] sets of various electronic devices per month, including field telephones, switches, short-wave transmitters, wireless walkie-talkies, lead-acid batteries, etc.;

The gunpowder factory produces more than 550 tons of various propellants and blasting powders per month, including [-] tons of TNT and [-] tons of RDX.

Because the positioning focuses on the production of weapons and equipment, the bullet factory and shell factory of Handan Arsenal are not large in scale, but because they are mainly new-type machines, the output is also considerable. Among them, there are about 7.36 million rounds of 200mm infantry ammunition. 112 rounds of 20mm anti-explosive bombs.

The output of these weapons and ammunition is only a Handan arsenal. If other government-run arsenals and various private companies are included, the output of ordnance in Ming Dynasty is sufficient.

At least there will be no constraints when expanding the army, and you can safely and boldly dump ammunition on the opponent without being stingy during a war.

Zhou Changfeng and Zhu Lingjing talked about this for a while, and after the discussion was over, the latter asked slowly, "Do you have any other plans in the future?"

"After that?" Zhou Changfeng pondered for a few seconds before replying, "I definitely want to go to the front line."

Holding a teacup, Zhu Lingjing raised her eyes to look at him, and asked with a half-smile: "If you stay in the capital, you can still get promoted, do you still want to go?"

"Uh...Your Majesty, this is not good. I don't want to be gossiped behind my back."

In fact, he wanted to say: Your Majesty, you don't want to be gossiped in secret, do you?

"really?"

"Sure, I don't want to lie to you, that's deceiving the king."

Hehe, with your "brilliant" resume, do you really care about bullying the king?
Zhu Lingjing nodded slightly, and said earnestly: "The only variable now is Europe. They are early, we are early, they are late, and we are late. If (they) officially fight in these few months, then our dynasty should be next year." Send troops in early spring."

She glanced out the window and said half-jokingly: "Your little wife's delivery date is probably around that time, I won't show mercy, how about you? Are you willing?"

Zhou Changfeng with a calm expression also replied seriously: "Your Majesty, loyalty and filial piety are difficult to balance, and this is the same. I must fulfill my duty, and no matter how much I miss you, I have to hide it in my heart, right? As for her, I want to marry you when she is determined to marry her." I’ve been aware of this situation since that day.”

Zhu Lingjing smiled lightly and said nothing.

No matter what, someone will have to face this situation.

Even if it happened that Zhou did not meet someone, hundreds of thousands of soldiers must have missed the opportunity to accompany their relatives and family members.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the brutality of war.

Later, Zhou Changfeng resigned and left. He had to go to the southern suburbs of the city to inspect the training situation of the [-]st Marine Brigade.

It was roughly at the same time, in northern Xinjiang thousands of miles away...

"Wow!"

"Huh - finally poked it!"

Zhao Xuwu breathed a sigh of relief, stepped on the stream and picked up the harpoon, a struggling Siberian whitefish was pierced by the fork.

Most of the boxes of toffee and chocolates that were used as emergency food were eaten, so I couldn't last long without getting in and out, and the feeling of being hungry was really uncomfortable.

Because he was worried that shooting would attract pursuers, and his attempt to catch hares failed, Zhao Xuwu found a forked tree branch and sharpened it with a pilot's dagger to make an earthen harpoon.

Excited, he brought the fish to a low-lying place, and impatiently lit a bonfire. Then he used a dagger to remove the scales and guts of the fish, and roasted the four-pound white fish on the bonfire. stand up.

The flames were roasting the fish, and the burning dead branches and the grilled fish made a slight crackling sound, and a faint scent drifted into Zhao Xuwu's nose.

He stared straight at the fish, only to feel that his mouth had reacted, drooling crazily, and his stomach was growling.

There were a few times when he felt that he could not resist the temptation, but at the thought of potential germs or parasites that might kill him, he couldn't help swallowing and tried to suppress the desire to eat directly.

The skydiving was safe and sound, and the pursuers hunted and escaped. If the result was an infection caused by eating raw fish, it would make people laugh.

I don't know how long it took, when the white fish was finished grilling, he started to gobble it up regardless of the burning of his mouth.

The food treatment in the past can be called pampering, but this time he was hungry for two and a half days, and he was very moved by eating such a poorly grilled fish.

[Grilled fish -1, San value +30, HP value +5]

Zhao Xuwu breathed a sigh of relief as he grilled fish while boiling water, but now he ate and drank. He only felt that his belief in returning to the motherland, which had been a little shaken, had once again stabilized.

He took a look at the compass, looked up at the sun, and continued walking south.

Three hours later, at 17:49 in the afternoon.

Zhao Xuwu, with disheveled hair and unshaven beard, trekked in the undulating wilderness with a simple crutch made of a branch.

Suddenly, the sound of engines came from the sky, getting louder and louder, and a fleet of more than a dozen fighter jets and bombers was flying by at a lower altitude.

Familiar blue-gray painting, familiar fuselage shape, familiar eccentric circular aircraft emblem - this is undoubtedly the formation of the Ming Air Force.

God!Lucky you!
With the mentality of giving it a try, Zhao Xuwu didn't care about the risk of being discovered by the pursuers. He knew that the shop would disappear after passing this village, so he took out a signal gun and fired a red signal flare into the sky.

Then came the second shot, the third shot...

Sensing something strange, one of the Type [-] fighters broke away from the formation, then turned sideways, slowly descended and began to circle.

At the lowest point, the fighter jet flew over Zhao Xuwu's head at an ultra-low altitude of only 40 meters.

Oh?Can you still find your comrades in distress here?
The smiling pilot took a pen and wrote a few words in the flight log, then tore off the paper, spit out chewing gum to wrap it up, and finally opened the hatch and threw it down.

Overjoyed, Zhao Xuwu hurried over to find the ball of paper, but the scrawled handwriting was like the pen of a Bodhisattva - "I have seen it, the open space to the west, hide well, and I will save you later."

(End of this chapter)