The Beacon of Laiyang Metal

Chapter 54 Arms Procurement

From the South to Harbin, Weiyuan went directly from spring to cold winter in just a few hours. It was so cold that he spent several thousand yuan to buy a down jacket, a complete set of thermal underwear and snow equipment before even leaving the airport. After putting it on, I felt a little warmer.

Then we arrived at the international departure terminal non-stop, and after another toss-up, we finally arrived at Khabarovsk International Airport before dinner.

"Hey, Fatty, I'm your brother Yuan. I've just landed at Maozi Airport. How can I meet you there?" Wei Yuan got off the plane and turned on the phone and first called Fatty Wang.

"Brother Yuan, are you here? Just keep walking along the exit of the station. That's right... come out of Gate 1 of the exit. The convoy that picks you up and I will be waiting outside Gate 1!"

"Meet my convoy?"

After hanging up the phone, Wei Yuan didn't know what Fatty Wang was doing. He shook his head and didn't think much about it. Under the guidance of the airport staff, he successfully found exit No. 1. As soon as he left, Weiyuan understood what Fatty Wang was talking about. That makes sense.

I saw Fatty Wang, who was wrapped up like a bear and looked at me with a proud look on his face. Behind him there were several fat and round soldiers. From the military rank, it could be seen that the leader was a Major, and Parked behind them were three camouflage-painted "Tank 3" vehicles with flashers installed on the front.

Seeing Wei Yuan coming out, Fatty Wang first stepped forward and gave him a big hug. Later, through Fatty Wang's introduction, he learned that the few soldiers who greeted him were all affiliated to the munitions department of the Russian Far East Military Region. The major in the team is named Andre, and he is the adjutant of a powerful person in charge of the munitions department. Major Andre is fully responsible for this transaction, and the funds for the transaction will be transferred into a private account provided by the other party.

Wei Yuan nodded and said nothing more. As long as he bought what he wanted, he didn't care who the seller was or whose pocket the money went into.

Then he, Fatty Wang and the major got into the car in the middle, and drove quickly to their destination under the leadership of the "Tank 500" with a flash headlight.

Even in the urban area, the vehicle speed was not less than 80 kilometers per hour. After driving for more than half an hour, the city buildings became increasingly sparse, until no buildings could be seen. The team then turned onto an exclusive highway. The vegetation is dense, densely planted with poplars, pine and other trees unique to the cold zone, which are basically as thick as one person's arms. Coupled with the thick snow on the ground, Weiyuan feels like he has entered a primeval forest. Finally, the vehicle drove another After many hours, we stopped in front of a large building.

Through the cold moon in the sky and the lights lit up by the stars in the building area, the first impression Weiyuan had of this building was that it was huge, giving people a feeling that he could not see his head at a glance, except for the warning in front of the gate. In addition to the watchtower, the entire building complex is basically composed of independent warehouses. Each warehouse has a height of 3 floors. The architectural style of the warehouses is uniformly made of heavy concrete and steel structures, with a kind of It has a strong Soviet style and is surrounded by barbed wire fences and trees. There are tall watchtowers every few hundred meters.

The second feeling that Weiyuan gave Weiyuan was that it was old and desolate. The warehouse was located directly in the primeval forest. There was nothing but soldiers staying behind and the howling of wolves in the distance for dozens of kilometers. Judging from the huge rusty iron gate and the buildings behind the gate, this building complex is quite old. It is conservatively estimated to be at least 30 years old.

After the leading vehicle showed its ID to the guard at the door, the warehouse door opened and the three cars drove directly into the warehouse and stopped in front of a warehouse with a number starting with K. As for what this number meant, Wei Yuan couldn't understand it, so it was probably They make internal distinctions to distinguish different storage materials.

Accompanied by the creaking sound of the two soldiers pushing open the warehouse door, Wei Yuan finally saw the highlight of the transaction, the SET-72 torpedo. Unlike the dim lights outside, the interior of the thousands-square-meter warehouse was completely It can be described as brightly lit. You can easily see the inside of the warehouse. What's even more difficult is that it is stored at a constant temperature. You can see torpedoes of different types in the ammunition boxes, placed layer by layer on the huge There is a cold murderous aura hidden on the steel storage racks.

The SET-72 torpedo is a light anti-ship electric-guided torpedo with a length of 7.8 meters, a weight of 1.35 tons, a warhead weighing 240 kilograms, a speed of 40 knots, and a range of 15 kilometers. It can be launched by air-launching, ship-launching, or submarine-launching. Way.

For Weiyuan, it doesn't matter whether it is guided or not. He only needs the drone to covertly approach the Japanese warship at night, then activate it within the minimum starting distance of the torpedo and drop the torpedo to wait for it to hit the target and explode.

To deal with a large target of hundreds of meters like the Japanese cruiser, and to hit fixed targets while the Japanese cruiser is parked at night, there is basically no possibility of hitting an empty target. The reason why we chose torpedoes instead of UAV air-launched anti-ship missiles is really The air-launched anti-ship missile is too big, and the load-bearing weight of the drone cannot carry it.

There is another reason why warships in this period pursued giant ships and huge guns. Even if a cruiser was fully loaded, the displacement was more than 10,000 tons. The attack position of light air-launched anti-ship missiles was generally on the upper half of the ship's side. One or two light anti-ship missiles were very easy to attack. It is difficult to cause fatal damage to this steel giant.

Torpedoes are different. Even light torpedoes can easily tear open a large hole as long as they hit the fragile underwater part of the ship. Under the huge pressure of the seawater, the hole created by the explosion will continue to expand, and the seawater will continue to expand. With the influx of Japanese troops, the damaged sailors cannot be repaired in a short period of time. Hitting 1-2 light torpedoes can cause heavy damage even if they fail to sink. After a soldier started a forklift to unload a torpedo, the soldiers on both sides immediately used crowbars to open the metal box in which the torpedo was packed. Major Andre also made a please inspection gesture to Wei Yuan. , Wei Yuan looked at it carefully. Although he didn't understand how to inspect this thing, there was no big problem in terms of external maintenance.

Wei Yuan nodded and said to Andre on the side: "I have no problem with the product. I will follow the quotation you gave me before for 1000 million RMB. This time I want 30, but I require an additional full set of this torpedo." English operation manual, you know we are agents for customers in Africa, without our guidance our customers can't do it at all." The translator accompanying Mao Zi also translated Wei Yuan's request to Major Andre.

Driven by profit, this request is not a requirement at all for Maozi. They don't even need to spend extra money to find a translator. They only need to find a few translators who understand Chinese and English within them, and then spend another It could be done in the evening. After learning about Weiyuan's request through a translator, Andre agreed without thinking and said that he would give Weiyuan a full set of Chinese and English operating instructions before loading the goods.

After finishing the torpedoes, several people drove to another warehouse. This was where Fatty Wang told Wei Yuan the surprise. After opening the warehouse door, Wei Yuan found that this warehouse was obviously simpler than the warehouse where the torpedoes were placed. Many, except for the door being randomly locked, there is no constant temperature device like the torpedo warehouse inside. However, the warehouse area is much larger, estimated to be tens of thousands of square meters, and some old models of artillery are placed there.

从BM-14多管无尾翼火箭炮到М-21冰雹火箭炮，从M-30式122毫米榴弹炮到M1939式37毫米高射炮，卫远甚至还看到了几十辆兔子家博物馆才能看到BM-13“喀秋莎”火箭炮，那叫一个型号繁杂。

Although I was also planning to purchase a batch of rocket launchers, the models were too complicated. I looked at Fatty Wang's excited fat face with some confusion.

"Oh, Brother Yuan, aren't you going to buy rocket launchers? They said these are going to be scrapped. If we want them, it doesn't matter what model they are. It's 5 RMB, and we will be given extra shells of no less than 3 bases. This price is cheaper than buying scrap metal. We can make a fortune by reselling it in Africa." Fatty Wang beside him was drooling at this moment.

It's really cheap, but this thing puts too much pressure on logistics. Logistics must go crazy. Wei Yuangang was about to refuse. Then he thought about it. These artillery were a rare opportunity for his military factories in the Republic of China to exercise their imitation capabilities. , there are not many opportunities to buy so many types of artillery in this village at once, and they are still at cabbage prices.

If you want it, take them all back. At worst, after the shells are burned out, they will be sent to the military factory for prevention. It is better to imitate whichever one you can, rather than leaving it in the Maozi warehouse to eat dust.

除了30枚SET-72鱼雷外，毛子那边连买带送的又买了200套BM-14多管无尾翼火箭炮，150辆М-21冰雹火箭炮，200门M-30式122毫米榴弹炮和300门37毫米高射炮，最后几十辆BM-13“喀秋莎”火箭炮，安德烈直接一摆手送给卫远了。

随后轻武器方面卫远又以单价3000元每支采购了1000支RPG-2火箭筒，火箭弹每发500元采购了2万发。

In addition to the 3 base shells that came with it, Wei Yuan transferred an additional 1 million to Andre's account and asked him to help him fill up the 6 base shells. Andre heard that Wei Yuan gave him alone After adding million, his originally serious and business-like face became friendly. He nodded happily and promised to cover it for him. Even if he rummaged through the warehouse of the Far East Military Region, he would help Weiyuan get the ammunition base he needed. The title of Wei Yuan also changed from friend to brother.

In the final calculation, including the 1 million that Wei Yuan privately gave to Andre, the total cost was more than 4 million RMB. As for the remaining fraction, Andre directly wiped it out, and waited until the entire amount was confirmed and received. After that, Andre was already smiling like a flower. He opened his mouth to Wei Yuan and Fatty Wang as friends and shut up as brothers, as if they were old friends he hadn't seen for many years. This made Wei Yuan have to lament the charm of money.

Although 4 million RMB is a drop in the arms trade, don't forget that this money goes directly into their private pockets without even paying taxes. It is a complete windfall for them.

After the transaction, Andre promised that the equipment would be packed and transported to the Vladivostok port within 3 days. Weiyuan could now notify the cargo ship to go to Vladivostok. As for the shipment, he would arrange it for Weiyuan.

In the end, I couldn't resist Andre's warm invitation, and took Wei Yuan to taste an authentic Russian meal in Khabarovsk, and Maozi's famous "Tsar Vodka". There was no accident. Wei Yuan drank too much, and almost After drinking a glass of vodka, I started to feel dizzy. I don’t know how I got back to the hotel. I just remember that I kept vomiting and vomiting, and in the end, all I vomited was sour water.

(End of this chapter)