Qijiang County on January 1, 1941
"Do you need to import your nitrated starch?" Admiral Chen is more concerned about the source of explosives. The mountain city government also has many explosives factories in the rear area. However, due to backward technology and shortage of raw materials, the output is also appalling. Hearing that Li Yunlong and the others actually used high explosives to produce grenades, he was more concerned about the source of the explosives.
"Import? Where do we have the money? We produce digested starch ourselves." Li Yunlong said with a smile. The production technology of digested starch is still very proud. It was developed by the Eighth Route Army itself. Wang Yue only provided it. Just some parts and a small amount of raw materials.
"You can also produce high explosives?" General Chen's eyes almost bulged out. The military commander had also received wind of the Eighth Route Army's ability to produce small quantities of explosives, but both he and Director Dai believed that the Eighth Route Army's explosives production It is intermittent and unsustainable, and the so-called self-produced explosives may even be taken out of spent bombs, but now it seems that this should have formed a complete explosive production system.
"Yes, the most important thing in producing digestible starch is to produce concentrated nitric acid. The key to producing concentrated nitric acid is to produce concentrated sulfuric acid. We already have mature and simple concentrated sulfuric acid production technology, which can continuously produce low-cost concentrated sulfuric acid. Our The cost of nitrated starch is a little lower than that of black powder." Li Yunlong said with a smile. Northern Shaanxi studied and judged the current anti-war situation and the international situation, and finally made the decision to spread digested starch manufacturing technology. All Li Yunlong is doing now is It was just to attract General Chen's attention.
"Can you take me to visit?" General Chen looked forward to it. Today, Qijiang County has solved the domestic steel problem. It would be better if it can also solve the problem of explosive production. Nitrostarch can be produced, and nitrocellulose can naturally be produced. To be able to produce it, with concentrated nitric acid, what is needed is starch and cotton. Starch and cotton can be grown from the ground, just like the biofuel technology developed by Li Yunlong before.
Afterwards, General Chen, led by Li Yunlong, went to Li Yunlong's concentrated sulfuric acid plant, which claimed to have invested tens of thousands of dollars. However, when he saw the rows of huge water tanks and ceramic pipes in front of him, General Chen couldn't help it anyway. I felt a wave of unreality.
After Li Yunlong's introduction, General Chen finally believed that this was a serious concentrated sulfuric acid factory.
In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the military technicians of the Eighth Route Army, without lead chambers or stainless steel materials, adapted to local conditions and used local materials. They used large water tanks with acid and corrosion resistance to make one into a "male" and the other into a "female". "Pairs are buckled up and down, stacked to form a cylinder tower, holes are drilled in the cylinder, and each cylinder tower is connected with a lead pipe. There are two devices installed in front of the front tower: one is a triangular copper sulfur box, which is filled with sulfur, ignites the sulfur, and uses a bellows instead of a fan to blow the air to produce sulfur dioxide gas; the other is a fire nitrate tank, which is filled with fire nitrate and sulfuric acid. , generating nitrogen oxide gas after heating. All the generated sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide gas and oxygen enter the cylinder tower together and evaporate through multi-stage circulation to form sulfuric acid.
The Eighth Route Army improved while producing, and gradually formed mass production of sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and then produced nitroglycerin through the "pot nitrification method", which caused the production of gunpowder and explosives in the North China base to shift from black explosives to high explosives, and gradually extended from gun propellants to The propellant of artillery shells greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army.
When Wang Yue came to Liangjian Spacetime, the Eighth Route Army's explosives industry was still in its infancy. Wang Yue saw that this was not going to work, and immediately guided Li Yunlong to upgrade the Eighth Route Army's explosives production technology to the final version, which is now displayed in Chen What the admiral is facing is the final version of the sulfuric acid production process. From the current point of view, this thing is the optimal version under large-scale modern production. The efficiency and cost are even better than the state's modern factories.
Admiral Chen looked at these things in front of him, and his eyes were filled with little stars. This was all money. One day's output was equal to the entire production capacity of the Ordnance Industry Administration. What's the price of sulfuric acid? It's more expensive than imported sulfuric acid. If the freight wasn't so expensive now, he would have wanted to shut down the concentrated sulfuric acid factory of the Ordnance Industry Department. It was really annoying.
That is to say, he still wants to be shameless, otherwise now he wants to directly requisition this sulfuric acid factory. But just because it can't be requisitioned doesn't mean it can't be purchased. It's not possible to buy concentrated sulfuric acid. If you buy it back and let the people below operate it, it's estimated that the explosives produced won't be the same. It’s cheap, why not just buy nitrostarch?
In fact, you can also buy finished weapons. It seems that the production process cost of the Ordnance Industry Administration is not low. Instead of spending limited military expenses at the Ordnance Industry Administration, it is better to buy more weapons, just like the wooden handle grenades that we got from the Eighth Route Army. The same, low price, huge power, and the little Japs were screaming. The Ninth War Zone even used cluster grenades to destroy the Japs' light tanks many times. Although there have been such battles before, they were basically imported m24s. Caused by a grenade.
Can m24 and Gongzao grenades be the same? The charge of M24 is 170 grams, but the Gongzao grenade only has 50 grams. In fact, due to various reasons, the charge of the grenade is only a little more than 40 grams, and sometimes it is mixed with a lot of Black powder and maroon gunpowder are only as powerful as each other.
After seeing the concentrated sulfuric acid plant, General Chen visited the nitric acid plant and the explosives factory. When he saw the mountains of cornstarch piled up in Li Yunlong's place, he broke his guard again. These were all high-quality imported starches. The Eighth Route Army actually It's really such a waste to use it directly to make explosives.
How did he know that the starch here is made from aged corn and is a specially customized export product by Wang Yue. As a native product of Libi, many of them are smuggled to the north of the Mediterranean and served directly on the dining table. Of course, this is only the private behavior of those Libi people, because these starches have been declared to be industrial starches when they are sold.
Next was the nitrocellulose factory. General Chen felt even more distressed when he saw a large amount of cotton wool made from old clothes. The most scarce thing in the rear area was cloth, but these Eighth Route Army soldiers did not use cotton as raw material, but used clothing and cloth to make cotton. Crushing it into raw materials is simply a waste of resources, okay?
When Wang Yue commissioned Chen Xi to collect old clothes, he also received a large part of pure cotton clothes that were not suitable for transportation to the Liangjian Spacetime. However, it was not easy to export all these clothes abroad, so he simply made them into cotton wool. Then clean, screen, and pack them into huge packages, and then they can be transported to the time and space of the sword. In addition to the raw material for making nitrocellulose, it can also be used to produce some coarse cloth and fill bedding. You can get as much of this stuff as you want, but it is really worthless.
The nitrocellulose here is made into various shapes according to needs, and then sorted into different grades. High-grade ones are sent to large factories, while those with lower grades are sent to some small workshops with only a few people, and then mixed. Black powder and celluloid are used to reload bullets.
The reloading bullets here in Qijiang are very detailed. As long as they are of the caliber of bullets that can be found in China, they can be found here. Super caliber, full caliber, small caliber, pointed, round, Admiral Chen It feels a bit embarrassing to see it. It is simply unimaginable that the army of a big country has so many caliber bullets.
Some of Li Yunlong's bullet casings were collected during the anti-bandit campaign, some were purchased from the market, and some were even shipped from the north by his superiors. Despite the mountain city government's strict blockade of materials transported into the base area, it can still There was no problem at all in transporting things from the base area. Not to mention bullet casings, even weapons and ammunition were no problem. The North China Eighth Route Army underwent a major overhaul, and many weapons were simply sold directly to Commander Hu's troops.
During the Eighth Route Army's reloading, they came down with a lot of unpopular firearms. These firearms were collected in categories, and then rerifled, rusted, oiled, and equipped with some reloading bullets. Whether they were kept in reserve at that time It is also a good thing to sell to other military leaders.
Hand grenades, bullets, and mines are okay, but mortars and aerial bombs are different, especially the 120mm mortar shells and 500 kilogram aerial bombs. General Chen still remembers it. Not long ago, Li Yunlong also asked the military and government The Ministry of Defense has applied for an aerial bomb, but now it can produce it on its own. Although the technical content of this aerial bomb does not seem to be high, it is still a 500-kilogram aerial bomb. It is just that the Eighth Route Army does not seem to be able to carry such a heavy bomb. It must be a bombing aircraft. He has learned about the parameters of the P-39 fighter jet. The largest single bomb it can carry is only 227 kilograms. Could it be that the Eighth Route Army upgraded its fighter jets?
Admiral Chen visited many more factories. They were similar to the factories he had seen before. They were all factories with only a few people and investments of tens to hundreds of yuan. There were no technical highlights, and many of the equipment were even better than the original ones. The "seven-man back" is even cruder, but it covers many aspects such as food, clothing, housing and transportation. It can not only meet the needs of the temporary 68th Division and the people of Qijiang County, but also supply the needs of the entire rear area. According to estimates, it only needs In three months, the entire investment can be recovered.
Envy, excitement, worry, jealousy, anger, disappointment, all kinds of emotions were intertwined together. General Chen felt that he could no longer control his mood. With such an industrial form, he still needed to worry about weapons and supplies in the rear area. Supply? As long as these things in Qijiang can be promoted, the government will definitely gain an advantage over the Japanese quickly.
Recalling the previous instructions from the highest authorities, General Chen felt that it was time to make up his mind.
