Luo Fu, who has read countless cars, kept asking professional questions one after another that would make ordinary people confused. The technical staff of Xunjie Company seemed to be confident 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 shochu from the side and said while washing his hands: "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 Ming dignitaries brag and boast, they still know very well how high the country's actual level is. Therefore, the first thing to solve in terms of heavy trucks is whether there are any problems. .
This three-axle, ten-wheel, nine-ton heavy truck trial-produced by Xunjie Company 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 transport a Trinity light tank and then tow a trailer transporting another tank, which is equivalent to transferring two tanks at one time.
And when used to transport cargo, its transport capacity is also very powerful, almost one of the three.
From the middle to the end of the month, for more than ten days, the two tanks and heavy trucks finally completed all the measurements. Dozens of officers and technicians who participated in the evaluation also submitted their own evaluations and opinions.
In the end, several officials sent by the Ordnance Bureau, after considering the opinions of the army and manufacturers, decided to adopt a vehicle, which was the design of Yangyue Company.
However, a series of improvement requirements were also given, including:
The inclination angle of the front armor of the vehicle body was changed from 50° to 60° to increase the space inside the vehicle, and the equivalent thickness was reduced. To compensate, the armor thickness was increased from 48mm to 64mm. The turret front and 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 driving for several hours, the working reliability of the differential and gearbox drops significantly and needs to be improved;
The fuel tank capacity needs to be expanded by at least another 10%;
The layout of the ammunition rack is unreasonable, making it difficult for the loader to retrieve the shells;
Instead of using the Type 33 mountain gun as the main gun, it is recommended to change it to the Type 13 80mm field gun, and shorten the barrel length as appropriate;
The Type 13 field artillery is more than 20 years old, but it can be said that it is getting stronger with age. Although replacing the Type 33 mountain cannon with this old thing may seem like a step back, the armor penetration depth is nearly doubled, and there is a lot of stock.
Three-inch cannons are useless at this time - when deployed at the regiment level, it is inconvenient and weighs almost a ton; when deployed at the division level, the power is too small.
Therefore, the Ming army did not purchase new artillery, but continued to use some old artillery.
The Army was rarely happy. The Major General of the Troops must have the authority to directly place an order for 70 vehicles in advance.
The purchase price of the bicycle is 230,000 yuan, which is roughly equivalent to more than 3,000 months' salary of a middle school teacher like Xia Xiaoshi, while the 70 heavy tanks cost more than 16 million yuan in one go.
Although the navy assigned Zhou Changfeng and Yan Chenwu to come, the generals' opinions were not unanimous, and they would need to refer to their feedback before making decisions.
"In my opinion, they must be necessary." Yan Chenwu, with bright eyes, said: "Although special large landing craft are needed to send them ashore, the effectiveness of these heavy tanks must be excellent. Even if there are only a few of them, they can make a significant difference. Help the landing troops stabilize their position."
Zhou Changfeng said "Yeah" and said, "I think so too. Write the report truthfully. If the boss is not happy, we will find other ways."
The so-called "other way" is to go through the back door. Zhou Changfeng can go to Yang Zhen or Zhan Ming. If not, he can go to Zhu Lingjing; and Yan Chenwu is Yan Zhong, the commander-in-chief of the first battle fleet of the Dongyang Fleet, and Yan Zhong can also be considered. A well-spoken boss.
On July 30th, Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu embarked on their return journey.
Since there is only one one-way railway between Laizhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture, which is often occupied by military trains and frequently canceled or postponed, the railway company simply reduced the frequency of trains 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 200 kilometers southwest of Jinan...
Penglou Town is a place that is no different from many inland towns in the Ming Dynasty today. Except for the main street that runs through the middle of the town, there is a telegraph pole painted with orange paint every thirty meters. Most of the rest of the place still remains. With the style of ancient times.
It was still dark, half an hour before Mao hour, and most of the people who were accustomed to getting up early to go to work and farm did not get up.
"Oh, it's so damn annoying. That dog keeps barking and needs to be taken care of!"
"Whose dog is barking non-stop!"
"There are dogs barking everywhere..."
However, the dogs kept in various households were barking inexplicably, which made people irritated. From time to time, you could hear someone angrily teaching their dog a lesson.
Just at this moment, a low and loud "rumbling" sound came from a distance, which sounded like thunder.
For a moment, a flash of white light suddenly appeared on the horizon, as bright as day, but it only lasted a few seconds, like lightning.
"Mom, it's going to rain heavily, and we're going to step on mud again!"
"It's been sweltering for several days. I'm afraid it will cool down a little bit if it rains."
The half-asleep people were complaining, and almost no one noticed the strangeness - how could the thunder arrive before the flash of lightning?
Some industrious vendors got up earlier than ordinary people. They encountered an even weirder situation when they were fetching water from the wells - the well water they fetched was turbid and had a strange smell?
In such a weird atmosphere, a terrible disaster suddenly came.
A series of longitudinal waves came from the ground at a speed of more than seven kilometers per second, followed by slightly slower transverse waves of more than four kilometers per second.
In an instant, the ground shook!
The violent vibration woke people up instantly, but how could it take just a few seconds to change from a dazed state to awake?
The trembling houses made "buzzing" and "squeaking" sounds, and the screams and cries of the people could still be faintly heard.
Due to the exaggerated magnitude of the vibrations, many houses collapsed one after another within a few seconds, burying people who had not had time to escape.
The people who managed to escape were also staggering due to the violent shaking up, down, left and right, and there was a mess everywhere.
There was even a gaping hole in the wilderness, and the black cracks in the land quickly grew and expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they were going to swallow everything.
The situation in Fucheng is even more serious, as the people here are more concentrated, and the damage to some factories has caused fires, with flames and thick smoke rising into the sky.
Gasoline barrels and gas cans smashed by collapsed bricks or tiles burned fiercely or even exploded.
At this time, Zhou Changfeng, who was riding the train all the way to the south, was also awakened.
After discovering the abnormality, the driver immediately slowed down and braked to avoid derailment. The long train slowly stopped with a sharp and harsh "squeak" sound, but the shaking feeling up and down and left and right was still very obvious.
Frightened passengers rushed out of the car, and some people simply opened the windows and climbed out.
Luo Fu, still frightened, patted his chest, "Oh my God, where is the earthquake?"
Zhou Changfeng, who had calmed down a little, felt it carefully, "The amplitude of the earthquake is quite obvious. It seems that the intensity is not low, and it is very close!"
In the thirty-seventh year of Zhichang, on the first day of the eighth month of the Gregorian calendar, at the fifth quarter of Yin hour, a major earthquake occurred at 35°4' north latitude and 115°1' east longitude, with a magnitude of seven and an epicenter intensity of nine.
Of course, a severe earthquake of this magnitude affected a very wide area, with obvious earthquakes being felt as far away as Yanjing in the north, Xi'an in the west, and Yangzhou in the south.
Zhu Lingjing was woken up by being called out from her sleep. She was sleeping deeply and did not feel any vibration.
The attendants at the Princess Mansion were hesitant about whether to wake her up at first, because although the earthquake was obvious, the amplitude was not large and there should be no danger.
"It doesn't matter to this extent." She yawned, tilted her head and asked, "What time is it now?"
Su Yiyi, who was also a little sleepy, replied: "It's half past Yin Shi."
Zhu Lingjing slowly sat on the edge of the bed and sighed softly: "It's not good...it would be better if it were later."
The emperor who was recuperating in Xiyuan woke up immediately. The quality of his sleep had been poor during this period. Although the slightest movement would not interrupt his sleep, a slightly larger movement would definitely wake him up.
Such rhythmic and obvious shaking suddenly reminded him of ten years ago, when the Great Northwest Earthquake had the same feeling.
Natural disasters are expected, so there is no reason to complain to God. What makes the emperor very helpless is that this earthquake happened in the early morning. There must be countless casualties. He only hopes that the core earthquake zone is not close to a town.
Several attendants filed in, and the female officer at the head asked: "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"
"Recently, state affairs can be put on hold for a moment or two, and disaster relief should be given priority. The rest should be done step by step."
"Yes, I will give the order immediately."
About a few minutes after the earthquake occurred, seismographs at universities and government offices such as Suncheon Polytechnic University, Yeongcheon Imperial University, and the Department of Geosciences all clearly felt and recorded seismic waveforms.
Si Di Jian is actually a new official office established only ten years ago, corresponding to Si Tian Jian. 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 the constitutional government.
The concept of "magnitude" was proposed only the year before last and has been widely used around the world. Countries have determined empirical formulas suitable for their own national conditions based on their own research.
As a result, not long after the application, there was a big earthquake.
The imperial court completely lost contact with the region, and no one responded to wired and wireless communications without exception.
Caozhou, Dingtao County, Cao County, Chengwu County, and Dongming County seemed to have disappeared from the world. Phone calls could not be made and telegrams were not returned.
After tens of minutes of tossing, Guide Prefecture and Jining Prefecture finally responded, claiming that the earthquake was severe and that countless houses in their areas were also damaged and collapsed.
However, until the sun went up, the imperial court still had not contacted the epicenter area.
By now, even the slowest people can realize how serious the disaster is.
"We can't delay it for a moment. It's not clear what the truth is. How to deal with it properly?"
In the Wenhua Hall, Zou Zhuoyun seemed to be sitting firmly at the table, but his right hand kept tapping the table rapidly.
Seeing Lin Xi coming in a hurry, he said bluntly: "I still can't contact him after an hour. 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 the 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.
At the base airports in the two places, the Navy's Third Search Team and the Air Force's Seventh Reconnaissance Team immediately dispatched aircraft to set off, and more than a dozen seaplanes and reconnaissance aircraft took off one after another.
The pilots with complicated eyes did not know what kind of mood they had when they took off into the sky - the cutting-edge aircraft and their pilots were actually used for the first time when they were scouting disaster areas in their own countries.
After more than an hour of flight, two Type 36 reconnaissance aircraft of the Air Force were the first to arrive over Caozhou.
They first took a few photos at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, then descended and hovered over the city at an ultra-low altitude of less than 100 meters.
Looking around, except for some reinforced concrete buildings and parts of the ancient city walls that are still strong, most of the other houses have collapsed, leaving only ruins. There were at least a dozen fire spots in the huge city, and plumes of black smoke shot straight into the sky.
Facing the devastated and almost razed city, the photographer in the back seat could not help but shake his hands when he pressed the shutter.
However, God was not good at it, or God shed tears when he saw this scene. The sky was filled with dark clouds and heavy rain poured down.
At this time, the Division Supervisor called the military headquarters and suggested trying to remind the disaster area that there would be aftershocks after the major earthquake, so be careful and stay away from dangerous buildings.
So the Kaifeng Air Force Base rushed to print hundreds of thousands of notices, and then dispatched fighter jets to perform "bombing" missions—flying over the affected states and counties at high speed and spreading notices evenly.
"It's not far, only a few miles left."
"It's finally here!"
Due to broken sleepers and deformed rails, the train could easily derail if forced to move, so people who got off the train had to form groups and walk to the nearest Yanzhou Prefecture.
After walking for several hours in the heavy rain, with their bodies soaked and their feet covered in mud, the team finally arrived at Fucheng.
Everyone dispersed and went to find an inn or hotel where they could stay. They also 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 of them rinsed them briefly and put on clean clothes.
At this time, there was another roar of engines in the sky, and Luo Fu walked to the window and took a look.
I saw groups of planes flying continuously in the sky. Single-engine fighter jets, two-engine torpedo bombers, and four-engine seaplanes were all a dazzling array.
"From east to west, these should be naval aircraft taking off from Fushan Naval Base." Zhou Changfeng said with his head raised.
Fushan, also known as Qingdao.
Seeing this, Luo Fu couldn't help but exclaimed: "In just half an hour, dozens of them flew over. This is serious."
The expressionless Zhou Changfeng said quietly: "You might as well think about why such a large fleet of aircraft was dispatched..."
The atmosphere in the small guest room suddenly became grim.
(End of chapter)
