"Stealing chickens is not losing the rice. Instead, the Sixty-sixth Brigade was completely wiped out on their own territory. The Russians lost face." Zhou Changfeng took a few steps forward and pointed to the small spot on the map, " The subsequent reinforcement division also suffered considerable losses.”
"It was a good fight, very neat." Zhu Lingjing picked up the tea cup and took a sip. "If the battle report is true, the British, American and Russian families will be even more worried."
"On the surface, it does make them more fearful of (our army)," sharp-eyed Zhou Changfeng tapped the map, "but judging from the messages sent back, I'm afraid... No, no, I'm afraid, it's the Russian army itself. The biggest problem.”
Troops were hastily sent across the border without proper preparation. The follow-up army was not in place and the air force did not prepare reinforcement units.
So after most of the front-line aviation forces were annihilated, air superiority was firmly in the hands of the Ming army. It would be strange that the balance of victory would not tilt.
Perhaps the Russians' actions were more motivated by political considerations, but from a military perspective, this was a complete farce.
"Indeed." Zhu Lingjing nodded slightly, "You are neither arrogant nor arrogant, you are very objective."
After a brief pause, she continued: "But some people may not know such a simple truth. Maybe they know it well, but they do it deliberately."
Um?
To be honest, Zhou Changfeng really didn't react and didn't know what she meant.
He stared into Zhu Lingjing's eyes, and many thoughts and guesses flashed through his mind.
The British only hoped to use the Russians to divert Ming's attention and contain its actions, so the focus was just on dispatching troops to cross the border. It didn't matter whether the fight was good or bad.
On the other hand, 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 we don’t provide substantial funding, it would still be good even if we can reduce some debt or debt interest.
Compared with the benefits that the dignitaries of St. Petersburg gained from it, the life and death of an ordinary infantry brigade seemed insignificant.
Borrowing money during wartime has been an ancient tradition of Tsarist Russia, and it is also a characteristic of Tsarist Russia to always be saddled with various foreign debts.
As early as the reign of Catherine II, in order to afford the huge expenses of its external expansion war, Tsarist Russia borrowed a lot from the Netherlands, and it never stopped after that, borrowing money while repaying it.
When the European War broke out, Tsarist Russia, whose annual income was only 3.4 billion rubles, had foreign debts as high as 6.3 billion rubles. During the European War, it borrowed 1.5 billion rubles from France and 5.4 billion rubles from the United Kingdom. By the end of the European War, Tsarist Russia's total wartime foreign debt exceeded 8 billion rubles.
The huge debt has significantly hindered the economic recovery and development of Tsarist Russia. Coupled with its inefficient system, although the foundation is much better and the starting point is higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, the current industrial strength of the Russian Empire is inferior to the Ming Dynasty.
No matter how many lice it is, there is no need to worry about many debts. To this day, Russians are still working hard to repay their debts.
"In that case... isn't it an act of treason?" Zhou Changfeng said helplessly: "They are in a mess now. They mutinied not long ago. If they continue like this, the rebels may one day rush into St. Petersburg."
Zhu Lingjing, who looked contemptuous, said "ha" and looked at him sideways, "Do you expect those people to have consciousness? The Tsar is a weak and sick man, who can control them?"
"..."
After the conversation was over, the two of them moved on to the next topic.
In accordance with the combat readiness bill determined at the beginning of the year, national and official arsenals in the north and south of the Yangtze River have successively begun integration work. Several small factories have been merged into large factories, and existing large factories have restructured their leadership and management.
At the same time, some older machines should be eliminated as much as possible if they can be replaced, thereby improving production efficiency.
Since "moving" is a lot of trouble, no one is willing to do it. During this period, it will definitely waste time and reduce some equipment production, but in the long run, the advantages will definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
In addition to adjusting and reorganizing existing arsenals, large and small, concentrating manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build new factories is also an important step.
As one of the sub-plans of the War Readiness Act, the Special No. 3 Ordnance Industry Expansion Plan has begun.
After the factory site in Handan Prefecture was selected, the Ministry of Industry ordered the National Railway Company to allocate manpower to lay a branch line specifically for it. Machine manufacturing companies or machine tool factories across the country also received orders.
It is foreseeable that this new large-scale arsenal built from scratch will be the mainstay of supplying the front line during future wars.
The reasons for starting a new one instead of expanding other existing arsenals are manifold - shortcomings and chronic diseases are intertwined, rigid leadership and management are deeply entrenched, and old machines cannot be easily modified.
Even in later generations with developed industry and advanced technology, some companies still use very old machines, which is often surprising.
For example, the company responsible for manufacturing 155mm high-explosive bombs for the US military also has many Cold War-era machines... and so on.
Every machine is an indispensable part of the entire production line. Even if it is old and inefficient, as long as it can still function normally, it usually will not be eliminated in a big way.
I replaced this old one with a new one, and that one is also very old. Do you want to replace it?
Only technicians and engineers understand the pain and suffering of debugging the production line.
Compared with arsenals such as Yingtian, Shuntian, and Wuchang, which are uneven and may still be using some antique machines from fifty years ago, the newly established Handan arsenal will basically use new models produced in recent years. Machines – Hexagonal Lathes, Vertical Lathes, Shapers, and more.
Obviously, manufacturing efficiency and processing accuracy will be qualitatively improved.
"The supply of various machines is basically sufficient. A few machines still need to wait for some time. The construction of this factory will not be slow. The Ministry of Industry said it is expected to be put into production in early autumn next year." Zhu Lingjing said casually.
"Tsk, is this the production capacity planned according to the eight-hour, ten-day off work system?" A surprised Zhou Changfeng glanced at the plan described in the memorial, "Not to mention three shifts, if there are two shifts, each person will Six divisions have been offline every 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 the production capacity is eight hours a day, eight days off and two days off.
The Handan Arsenal is divided into eleven factories, including small artillery factory, large artillery factory, anti-aircraft gun factory, flat-fire artillery factory, gun factory, equipment factory, knife factory, electrical appliance factory, gun and ammunition factory, artillery shell factory and gunpowder factory, with complete categories.
Rather than saying it is an arsenal, it would be more appropriate to call it a weapons and equipment production base.
The small artillery factory has a monthly output of more than 500 light, medium and heavy mortars, and more than 200 rocket launchers of various types;
The artillery factory produces more than 200 artillery pieces of various barrels every month, including 120 112mm howitzers and 30 144mm howitzers, which are the mainstay of division-level firepower;
The anti-aircraft gun factory produces nearly 300 light, medium and heavy anti-aircraft guns every month, of which 150 are the most commonly used 20.8mm anti-aircraft guns;
The flat-fire gun factory produces more than 400 various anti-tank guns and tank guns every month, including 120 48mm anti-tank guns;
The gun factory produces more than 40,000 guns of various types every month, including 22,000 bolt-action rifles, 13,000 submachine guns, 800 light machine guns, and 300 heavy machine guns;
The equipment factory produces more than 20,000 pieces of various optical and mechanical equipment every month, including mortar scopes, cannon scopes, rangefinders, artillery scopes, slide rules, etc.;
The knife factory produces 35,000 cold weapons of various types every month, including pilot daggers, scout daggers, bayonets, sabers, cord cutters, etc.;
The electrical appliance factory produces 30,000 units of various electronic equipment per month, including field telephones, switches, shortwave transmitters, wireless walkie-talkies, lead-acid batteries, etc.;
The gunpowder factory produces more than 500 tons of various propellants and explosives per month, including 550 tons of TNT and 20 tons of RDX.
Because its positioning focuses on the production of weapons and equipment, the Handan Arsenal's bullet factory and artillery shell factory are not large in scale. However, because they mainly use new machines, the output is also considerable, including about 12 million rounds of 7.36mm automatic ammunition. , 112㎜ explosive bombs with 200,000 rounds.
The output of these weapons and ammunition is just that of the Handan Arsenal. If other official arsenals and various private companies are included, the Ming Dynasty's ordnance output is sufficient.
At least there will be no restrictions when expanding the army, and in a war, you can confidently and boldly pour ammunition on the opponent without being stingy.
Zhou Changfeng and Zhu Lingjing talked about this for a while. After the discussion, the latter slowly asked: "Do you have any other plans in the future?"
"After?" Zhou Changfeng pondered for a few seconds and replied, "I definitely want to go to the front line."
Zhu Lingjing, who was holding the tea cup, looked up at him and asked with a half-smile: "If you can still get promoted if you stay in the capital, do you still want to go?"
"Uh... Your Majesty, this is not good. The reputation is not justified, and I don't want to be gossiped behind my back."
In fact, he also wanted to say: Your Majesty, you don’t want to be gossiped about in secret, right?
"really?"
"Of course, I can't lie to you. That would be deceiving you."
Haha, with your "glorious" resume, do you really care about deceiving the emperor?
Zhu Lingjing nodded slightly and said seriously: "The only variable now is Europe. They are early and we are early. They are late and we are late. If (they) officially go to war in these few months, then our country should be at war next year Send troops in early spring."
She glanced out the window and said half-jokingly: "Your little wife is probably due to give birth at that time. I won't show mercy. What about you? Are you willing to give up?"
Zhou Changfeng, who looked calm, replied equally seriously: "Your Majesty, it's hard to have both loyalty and filial piety, and this is the same. I have to fulfill my vocation, and I have to hide my nostalgia in my heart, right? As for her, I think she is determined to marry From that day on, I had the awareness to face this situation.”
Zhu Lingjing smiled lightly and said nothing.
No matter what, someone will have to face this situation.
Even if Zhou didn't happen to meet him, there must have been hundreds or even thousands of millions of soldiers who had to miss the opportunity to accompany their relatives and family members.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the cruelty 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 1st Marine Brigade.
At roughly the same time, thousands of miles away in Northern Xinjiang...
"Wow!"
"Phew - finally poked!"
Zhao Xuwu breathed a long sigh of relief and stepped into the stream to pick up the harpoon. There was a struggling Siberian white fish stuck in the fork.
Most of the boxes of milk candies and chocolates that were used as emergency food were eaten. I would not be able to last long with nothing to go out, and the feeling of being hungry was really uncomfortable.
Because he was worried that shooting would attract pursuers, and his attempt to catch the hare failed, Zhao Xuwu found a forked branch and sharpened it with a pilot's dagger to make a homemade harpoon.
He was so excited that he took the fish to a low-lying area, and then he couldn't wait to light a bonfire. Then he used a dagger to remove the scales and internal organs of the fish, and then grilled 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 fragrance floated into Zhao Xuwu's nose.
He stared straight at the fish and felt that his mouth was already reacting, drooling crazily, and his stomach was growling.
There were times when he felt that he could hardly resist the temptation, but when he thought about the potential germs or parasites that might kill him, he kept swallowing and tried to suppress the desire to eat directly.
He survived the parachute jump without incident, and escaped being hunted by the pursuers. But it would be ridiculous if he got an infection caused by eating raw fish.
After an unknown amount of time, when the white fish was grilled, he started to devour it without bothering to burn his mouth.
In the past, the food treatment was completely pampering, but this time he had been hungry for two and a half days, and he was deeply moved to eat such a poorly grilled fish.
[Grilled fish -1, SAN value +30, HP value +5]
Previously he was grilling fish and boiling water, but now he was eating and drinking. Zhao Xuwu, who was full and full, breathed a long sigh of relief and felt that his originally somewhat shaken belief in returning to his motherland had stabilized again.
He picked up the compass and looked at it, looked up at the sun, and then continued walking south.
Three hours later, 17:49 pm.
Zhao Xuwu, with disheveled hair and unkempt beard, trudged through the undulating wilderness, leaning on a simple crutch made of tree branches.
Suddenly, the sound of engines came from the sky, getting louder and louder, and a group of more than a dozen fighter jets and bombers were flying over at a lower altitude.
The familiar blue-gray paint, the familiar fuselage shape, and the familiar eccentric circle emblem—this is undoubtedly the Ming Dynasty Air Force formation.
Oh my God! Good luck!
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 there would be no such store after passing this village, so he took out his flare gun and fired a red flare into the sky.
Then came the second shot, the third shot...
Sensing something strange, one of the Type 36 fighter jets broke away from the formation, then rolled sideways and turned, slowly dropped in altitude and began to circle.
At its lowest point, the fighter jet passed over Zhao Xuwu's head at an ultra-low altitude of only more than 40 meters.
Oh? Can we still find comrades in distress here?
The smiling pilot took a pen and wrote a few words on the flight log, then tore off the paper, spit out gum, wrapped it up, and finally opened the hatch cover and threw it down.
Zhao Xuwu, who was ecstatic, ran over and found the paper ball. The scrawled writing was like the pen of a Bodhisattva - "I have seen it, in the open space to the west, hide and I will save you later."
(End of chapter)
