September 29th, early morning.
This day is the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the traditional lunisolar calendar, which is also the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even in a place like a prison, indispensable customs are not absent.
"Hey, where are the mooncakes?"
As soon as Zhou Changfeng and Mu Yu entered the cafeteria, they heard someone asking the military policeman next to them for moon cakes.
The military police sergeant on duty replied with a straight face: "It's still hanging to dry, and will be distributed in the evening."
"Why bother? We don't always eat the same food? Just bring it up."
"Yeah, I'm not short of enough food."
Many people started cheering, and the scene was a little chaotic, but soon it became quiet amidst the "bang bang" sound of sticks hitting the table.
Yuan Huai, who learned about this, didn't care at first, but suddenly he had a plan in mind.
"Bold! How dare you be so bold during the festival? Aren't they going to eat moon cakes? They took away the breakfast of the guys who started the heckles and gave them the moon cakes baked last night."
"Got the order!"
Half an hour later.
Dozens of people in the cafeteria had just queued up to receive breakfast. Before they could get their chopsticks back to their seats, several military policemen rushed in from outside the door.
After a while of muttering, the three people who had taken the lead in the booing had their rice bowls and chopsticks confiscated in public.
"What are you doing? What do you mean by taking away your job?"
"Aren't you guys clamoring for mooncakes? I'll put away this breakfast."
Someone strode forward with a bamboo basket, took out a moon cake and placed it heavily on the table.
The two collided and made a crisp sound.
? ? ?
Is there something wrong with this sound?
While everyone present was stunned, several military police officers had already given two pieces of cake to each of the three people, and then turned around and left.
One of them picked up the mooncake and wanted to eat it, but immediately froze because it didn't feel right.
He hesitated and tried to take a bite. However, the hard mooncake did not move at all, as hard as a brick.
Zhou Changfeng, who was very interested, also reached out and took one. He looked around and found that there was nothing to smash, because the tables and chairs were all made of mortise and tenon structure.
Finally, he found a small bench with nails and the nail heads tilted up. He smashed it down hard, and the nails were knocked off, but only a mark was left on the mooncake.
"Mooncakes that haven't been reoiled yet can't be chewed even by iron or bronze teeth." Mu Yu sneered.
"Hahahaha——" Everyone present burst into laughter.
Zhou Changfeng sat back in his seat, and Mu Yu next to him stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a salted duck egg, and explained casually: "This kind of Cantonese-style mooncake is very hard after it comes out of the oven. It usually takes a night or two to wait for the inside to be filled." The oil in the filling oozes out, which makes the crust soft.”
There is no need to hide it, Zhou Changfeng really doesn't know the reason, or maybe there are only a few of the big men around him who cook by themselves, and there are even less people who make mooncakes.
A fat man at the next table asked curiously: "Brother Mu, do you know all this? Are you good at cooking?"
Mu Yu, who looked embarrassed, coughed twice and said leisurely: "My wife is tough. When she came home from Qinfen Pavilion on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, she smashed her head with a mooncake and required four stitches."
hiss……
Everyone bared their teeth and marveled.
"You deserve it." Zhou Changfeng scooped up a spoonful of white porridge and said scornfully: "Since you dare to steal fish, you must be prepared to be beaten."
Unconvinced, Mu Yu immediately replied: "Brother Zhou, according to the past experience you mentioned, I am far behind you in terms of romance."
"That was all in the past."
"Oh, Brother Zhou, your nature is hard to change. At least I don't believe you can keep your integrity like a jade in the future!"
"Who taught you to use words like this?" Zhou Changfeng glanced at him and said nonchalantly: "If I misbehave after marriage, my wife can hang me up and beat me."
"I'll remember it for you. Hey, everyone present will bear witness to what Brother Zhou said."
At this time, it happened to be Chen time, and the morning news broadcast on the official radio station began.
"... After more than five years, the first self-made 10,000-ton heavy machine was completed and put into production. The large-scale hydraulic press manufactured by Yanjing No. 1 Heavy Machinery Group has been built recently. It has been in good trial operation and the pressure can reach 10,000 tons. These and other An important military weapon..."
Aha? A 10,000-ton hydraulic press?
Zhou Changfeng naturally didn't know much about the history of the development of heavy industry. He had thought that this thing should be the standard equipment of industrial countries. He was too embarrassed to go out if he didn't have more than a dozen units at home. Unexpectedly, it was the first one produced by Daming?
"The first self-produced one? How many are there in total in the country now?"
"I don't know." Mu Yu also didn't know.
A small middle-aged man diagonally in front probably heard the conversation between the two of them, so he answered: "This is the only one with 10,000 tons, there are four more with 5,000 tons, and one with 8,000 tons."
"That's it, I understand." Zhou Changfeng nodded, then tilted his head and asked in a low voice, "Who is this person?"
"He, from the Jinzhou Naval Arsenal, embezzled more than 100,000 yuan without permission. With luck, he recovered most of it, so he was only sentenced to five years." Mu Yu replied.
The hydraulic press is one of the core processing tools in heavy industry, and it is in the same category as the hydraulic press.
After metal workpieces undergo high-pressure forging processing, due to plastic deformation and secondary crystallization, the metal structure becomes denser and the mechanical properties will be significantly improved.
The hydraulic press is divided into two types: free and die forging:
To put it simply, the free-style hydraulic press means that there are no constraints around it. A piece of red-hot forging is directly placed on it, and then the pressure is applied hard. It is usually used to forge large high-strength components, such as the crankshaft of a ship propeller and the gun barrel of a battleship, which can easily weigh several hundred tons.
The die forging hydraulic press, as the name suggests, has a mold, into which the blank material is placed, and then the mold is closed. After applying pressure, the blank material can be pressed into the desired shape. It is generally suitable for processing parts that are smaller in weight and require a larger quantity, such as alloy steel plates, aircraft parts, steam turbine parts, etc., because the mold that is finally made cannot be used only a few times.
Historically, in order to build Yamato-class battleships, the Japanese island nation not only expanded the length of the dock and slipway, but also purchased a large amount of new equipment for the shipbuilding industry - it purchased a 15,000-ton hydraulic press and three 70-ton open-hearth furnaces from Germany to manufacture 460mm naval guns. and high-quality armor steel.
The Germans were even more aggressive. In order to expand the aviation industry, the demand for aluminum alloy forgings for manufacturing aircraft was very high, so they developed a 7,000-ton die forging hydraulic press, and then built an unprecedented 30,000-ton hydraulic press. Three 15,000-ton die forging hydraulic presses.
In addition, only the United Kingdom built a 12,000-ton die forging hydraulic press before the war, and other countries only had 10,000-ton free-style hydraulic presses at most.
The Americans, who win by quantity, have built more than a hundred medium and small die forging hydraulic presses in just a few years, but the largest of them is only 5,000 tons.
The little middle-aged man sighed: "It is not easy to build giant presses, and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you want to improve the overall industrial strength, you must seize the time and build a few more."
Decades ago in Qiyuan 7893, the first 10,000-ton free-style hydraulic press in human history was completed at Bethlehem Steel Company in the United States.
This kind of pressure machine with huge pressure, stable pressure process and high production efficiency soon replaced the old-fashioned steam hammer and became a key equipment for Western industry to manufacture high-quality large and medium-sized components. It is also a reflection of a country's industrial strength.
Today, there are only about forty large hydraulic presses larger than 5,000 tons in the world, and there are even fewer 10,000-ton hydraulic presses.
In order to have this capability, Daming introduced the first 4,000-ton hydraulic press thirty years ago, and soon acquired the independent production capacity of free-style hydraulic presses of 4,000 tons and below. In order to meet the demand, several heavy machinery companies have successively built more than 30 medium and small hydraulic and hydraulic presses of 4000 tons, 2500 tons and 1000 tons.
The introduction of the 10,000-ton hydraulic press was in the 22nd year of Zhichang. The Ministry of Industry instructed the government-run Taipingfu Iron and Steel Works (Ma'anshan) to order one from the French Auber-Dewar company. It took four years to build it. By the time Wanli It has been twenty-seven years since it was shipped and put into production.
Next, the Ministry of Industry proposed to self-research and manufacture. After the announcement, the Ministry of Industry lobbied in many ways and obtained huge funds from the Consultative Council. The wealthy people chose to walk on two legs - ordering another one while developing it.
However, due to its own limited scale and production capacity, Czech Skoda Company's delivery speed is very slow; in the 32nd year of Changchang, the "10,000-ton" hydraulic press independently developed by Ming Dynasty has been tested and put into production, and the Czechs are still worried. How to dismantle the big thing into parts and transport them to the port for shipment.
But in fact, because the rush for quick success and instant gain was very common at that time, the R&D team hungry for limelight and rewards was also subject to multiple external and internal pressures.
This resulted in many flaws in the "10,000-ton" hydraulic press. The design of the beams and columns was unreasonable, and the pressure application process was unstable at full power output. During the second trial run, an accident occurred where the high-pressure valve was damaged, and high-pressure water spurted out, killing two and injuring seven. Later, people restored it and continued to use it, but they could only limit it to 8,000 tons.
The emperor was very unhappy and thought this was a serious dereliction of duty and a disguised form of bullying.
Therefore, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry who was ordered to supervise this matter is still in prison, with two years left on his sentence.
Counting those that have just been put into production in recent days, there are currently three 10,000-ton free-style hydraulic presses standing in the north and south of the country; the 11,000-ton die forging hydraulic press ordered from the German Demag Machinery Company has also been shipped at the Port of Hamburg and is ready to be shipped. .
As an experimental ship integrating many advanced technologies, the Longshuo battleship has verified the maturity and reasonableness of many technologies. The Ming Navy's specifications for the next level of battleships have been roughly drafted.
However, there are great differences within the navy as to what level of main guns the new battleships should carry.
One group proposed to go directly to 14 inches (448㎜), but the opponents believed that this would greatly increase the drainage volume and soar the cost, making it uneconomical; the other group believed that 13 inches (416㎜) was enough, very powerful, and not too expensive. ; There are also a few people who think that the existing twelve-and-a-half-inch (400mm) main gun can be slightly improved, and the performance is not weak. Overall, it is the most cost-effective.
Although the Ming Dynasty's navy is still fighting internally, the Ming Dynasty's industrial sector has made full preparations and is waiting for Party A's requests.
Fourteen inches is not the limit, and a fifteen-inch (480㎜) main gun is theoretically feasible.
That day, afternoon.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival can be regarded as a series of good things for Zhou Changfeng.
Maybe the people at the bottom don't care about the important weapons of the country, but for the meat-eaters whose own interests are bound to the country's strength, this is indeed good news worth celebrating.
It was also on this day that after nearly ten days of waiting, the Air Force Department finally replied.
With an excited heart and trembling hands, Zhou Changfeng tore open the envelope and took out the letter paper and scanned the lines. The corners of his mouth raised and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
The gist of this reply is roughly this:
Lieutenant Colonel Zhou Changfeng, your ideas are very forward-looking and have detailed and effective theoretical arguments and practical basis. The light weapons equipped by our paratrooper units today are mainly semi-automatic rifles, submachine guns, and light machine guns. However, semi-automatic rifles are not easy to carry. If only a submachine gun is paired with a light machine gun, there will be a fire gap a few hundred meters in the middle. Intermediate-power ammunition and corresponding guns seem to be able to effectively solve the current problems. Therefore, the Air Force decided to adopt this proposal after preliminary discussions.
"Brother Zhou, why are you so excited? Do you agree?" Mu Yu rolled the newspaper into a cylinder, threw it on the bed, and then came over.
"Yes, I originally thought that if it didn't work out, I would go to the navy bosses and give it a try," Zhou Changfeng, who looked relaxed, sighed, "I didn't expect that the air force is very open-minded."
"Paratroopers are so valuable, no matter how pedantic an old fogy is, they have to weigh them carefully. They are not ordinary consumables."
"..."
However, the Air Force is not trying to make a big pie, it is obviously a well-thought-out decision.
They have no intention of changing the existing production line, and stated that they will issue requirements to the Ming Dynasty National Arsenal and Weapons Companies in the form of a tender that can be used by both government-owned and private companies. The caliber should preferably be consistent with the currently used 23 centimeters.
After testing and evaluation, the design with the best performance or sufficient advantages in other aspects will be adopted.
Because Zhou Changfeng's report not only mentioned semi-automatic rifles firing intermediate-power ammunition, but also automatic rifles, the Air Force was very interested in it.
It's not like automatic rifles can't fire in single bursts. They can fire bursts at a distance or continuous fire at close range. Well-trained elite soldiers can use them with ease, instead of wasting ammunition by firing randomly in a panic.
As a result, this weapon can replace the position of semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, and the flexibility of team tactics will also be greatly improved.
Moreover, the labor hours and cost of automatic rifles are actually similar to those of semi-automatic rifles, and the number of elite paratrooper units does not need to be large. Therefore, the Air Force is considering whether all personnel can be equipped with automatic rifles and light machine guns that fire intermediate-power ammunition.
Such an idea is not unadvanced, and in Zhou Changfeng's opinion, it is worth boasting about.
His joy faded slowly and remained so until dinner.
"Hey? Is there only osmanthus wine tonight?" Zhou Changfeng asked in surprise when he came to the cafeteria.
"That's good. If you don't want to drink, I will drink." Mu Yu looked him up and down, "Why are you so happy today? It's not like this if the idea is approved."
"Uh... you are an aviation commander and don't understand this." Zhou Changfeng stared at him and thought for a few seconds, then said metaphorically: "This is just like a new type of fighter aircraft with extraordinary performance that you proposed was adopted. How can you be unhappy? ?”
"Oh, nothing."
"You kid, are you tough-talking?"
"Ahem, don't dare."
(End of chapter)
