January 1, 1941, mountainous area of Li County, Shanxi Province
The Eighth Route Army quietly built a steel industrial city in Qijiang County, which almost met the steel needs of the mountain city government in one fell swoop. Many people believed that this was because the Eighth Route Army had an overall view of the overall situation and was wholeheartedly maintaining the united front regardless of past grudges. However, In fact, while Qijiang was being built, the Eighth Route Army's construction planning in Jin Province was already underway.
After the armistice with Kazuki Yamamoto, the Eighth Route Army began to raise supplies as planned. Then some of the construction workers who completed the construction of Qijiang County secretly moved to Shanxi Province and began to guide the construction. Up to now, the construction of Qijiang has basically been completed, and most of the construction The personnel also arrived in Shanxi Province, and worked with local people to open thousands of construction sites at once.
There are construction sites everywhere in the Taihang Mountains and Luliang Mountains. The Eighth Route Army Headquarters has launched 10,000 small factories at one time according to the plan, and some factories with simple technologies have begun trial production. Just like that simple wooden handle grenade, the price is very cheap. In addition to being open to the guerrillas, it is also supplied to the troops in the World War II zone and the First War zone. Because the border tickets are used for settlement, the currency value of the border tickets has increased. .
Compared with Qijiang County, which focuses on the development of the steel industry, the Eighth Route Army troops in Jin Province not only develop the steel industry, but also use local abundant bauxite resources to engage in simple indigenous aluminum smelting.
It is not that complicated to skip electrolysis to produce aluminum. First, bauxite is added to soda and lime, and then smelted at a high temperature of 1,200 degrees to make a semi-finished product of aluminum metal - alumina.
To smelt metallic aluminum, the oxygen in the alumina must be removed. However, alumina requires a high temperature of 2,050 degrees to melt. The highest temperature of the furnace in the smelting workshop is only 1,240 degrees, which cannot melt alumina.
At this time, it is necessary to try to reduce the melting degree of alumina, turn the alumina into aluminum sulfide, and then refine the aluminum metal. Because aluminum sulfide only needs a temperature of 1,100 degrees to melt. Aluminum sulfide is made by adding iron sulfide and coke to aluminum oxide and burning it to about a thousand degrees.
Finally, by adding zinc chloride to aluminum sulfide and roasting them together, elemental aluminum can be smelted.
Now, the war in Europe has a tendency to further expand, and the price of aluminum is also rising. Especially when there is no domestic production capacity, the price of aluminum is more expensive than the price in the international market, and aluminum products are also more expensive. These local Although the performance of aluminum ingots made by French methods is not as good as that of aluminum alloys, there is still no problem in processing ordinary aluminum products and currency.
The aluminum coins produced in the border area are very popular. They are basically the kind that cannot be seen after they are put on the market. The experts at the border bank are not sure when the aluminum coins will become silver coins. The same hard currency, but no matter what, this is a good thing for the Eighth Route Army.
In the past few days, Li Yunlong even saw the five-cent coins of the Border Bank in the market in Qijiang. The merchants took out the rolls one by one and used them directly during settlement. Like Dayang, Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang were both dumbfounded by this. Damn, this thing is used directly as an ocean to make up for the lack of currency in the market.
Wang Yue also saw this situation. In his opinion, this is just the beginning. With a large number of coins being put into the market, things are better in the Kuomintang-controlled areas. In the occupied areas, border tickets are likely to replace central reserve bonds and border tickets. The situation is that compared to the proliferation of banknotes, people in this era prefer metal currencies, just like the fifty copper coins that can be seen everywhere on the market, even the fifty copper coins privately minted by bandits are still very popular.
Of course, these are all things for later. The current Eighth Route Army is still working hard to increase its production capacity. More than 500 aluminum smelting furnaces have been erected. This is due to the limitation of transportation capacity. Otherwise, the deputy commander-in-chief would even think about it. Sex on a thousand stoves.
Those factories with relatively high technical content that require "imported equipment" have also started preliminary infrastructure construction and personnel training after obtaining the equipment parameters. In order to help the Eighth Route Army with training, in addition to instructions for use in traditional Chinese characters with pictures, there are also specially made The cost of the black and white teaching film is almost as much as that of the equipment.
It's not cheap. We need to find suitable old factories and sets, find foreign actors, train them, translate and proofread the scripts, organize shooting, and then transcribe the narrow black and white film. Just like the small and simple equipment Wang Yue ordered, some of them only cost a few dollars. One hundred yuan, but the cost of making an instructional film is five figures.
According to the estimates of the Eighth Route Army staff department, it will only take three months for these 10,000 factories in Shanxi Province to be put into production. Although Li Yunlong's plan for the mountain city government included 100,000 factories, it can be said that in terms of the organization and operation of the national government Capacity, even if these factories are built, it will take a long time to reach the optimal state, and it may even never reach it.
But the Eighth Route Army side is different. There are 10,000 factories, which are not many in number, but they can guarantee full capacity operation in three shifts a day, which is enough to be worth the 20,000 to 30,000 factories in the mountain city government. At present, the Eighth Route Army In terms of size, it is definitely enough.
And this is only the first phase of the project. Now that the war has ceased, the financial situation of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi Province has been greatly improved. As time goes by, the Eighth Route Army will definitely have more funds to carry out the second phase of construction. Although they have Funds for the first phase of construction have not yet been secured, but the staff department’s plan has already reached the third phase.
"Lao Zhang, the quality of this is really good!" Brigadier Chen picked up an aluminum cutlery box. It is a beautiful one-time molded cutlery box with a smooth surface and a smooth cross-section. There is not even a burr. If it were not suppressed by the top " "Li County Aluminum Products Factory", Brigadier Chen thought it was an imported product.
"The quality of the imitation Hans M1915 field cutlery box is better than the original Hans products in the late war. Hans technicians said that our aluminum ingots are of good quality." Logistics Minister Zhang Wanhe said with a smile, accompanied by the large-scale As the construction progressed, he, the logistics minister, finally began to feel a little better. In the past, Wang Yue provided various weapons to help him support the situation, but now this situation is changing little by little. The proportion of self-produced weapons and equipment is increasing. Little by little increase.
"Old Zhang, can you give us Taiyue Military Region equipment first?" Brigadier Chen said with burning eyes. All units of the Eighth Route Army have been issued new military uniforms and are also equipped with the latest tableware, but the Eighth Route Army is really too poor. Not treating the bits and pieces inside as imported goods to free up some, which resulted in many Eighth Route Army soldiers not being equipped with tableware and kettles.
"Don't worry, this batch is customized for the First World War Zone. You have to wait until next month." Zhang Wanhe quickly handed the cutlery box in Brigadier Chen's hand to the packaging worker on the side. The First War Zone paid the bill with the wheat of the season. , with these wheat reserves, the food situation of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi Province will further improve.
"Old Zhang, you are really blind to money. That boy Li Yunlong is right. You have really changed. You really can't see." Brigadier Chen curled his lips. Old Zhang said so. It’s definitely out of the question. As for the next batch, just listen. After the first war zone, there will be a second war zone, and there may be the Central Army behind it. There are millions of troops in the country. In addition to normal equipment, there is also wear and tear. In addition, there is really no shortage of sales for this thing. As long as it can be sold, let alone Zhang Wanhe, even the Eighth Route Army headquarters will give priority to selling it. There is no way, the Eighth Route Army is really too poor.
"Old Chen, I don't like hearing what you are saying. Don't think I don't know. All your main troops have complete sets of tableware and kettles. That is to say, the basic regiment is a little bit worse, but the basic regiment is the basic regiment, and the whole army has it." Aren't all the basic regiments the same? Last year, the deputy commander-in-chief proposed to expand the main force to 500,000. Now, the people in northern Shaanxi have proposed to consider expanding the force to 1 million. Where can I find weapons and equipment for you? Ah!" Zhang Wanhe complained endlessly. Under Wang Yue's instigation, the deputy commander shouted the slogans of revolution, regularization and modernization, determined to build Asia's first-class powerful army and cooperate with the mountain city government to counterattack the Japanese army.
It is said that the headquarters is still searching for naval talents everywhere, and it is said that it wants to choose a secret naval training base on the coast of Shandong Province. That is to say, the Shancheng government does not know about this, otherwise the highest authorities are afraid that they will make some small moves again. .
But it is just a small move. The superiors have a clear view of the conditions for domestic peace, which is strength. As long as the Eighth Route Army continues to grow in strength and can independently resist the Japanese military pressure, it can deter the military threat of the Yamashiro government. It's like two people of almost equal strength can't fight, unless one of them is stupid.
"One million, Lao Zhang, who did you listen to?" Hearing Zhang Wanhe's words, he was also surprised. The harvest in the base area in recent years has been average. The superiors have repeatedly issued orders to control the size of the army. The deputy commander-in-chief said He received a lot of criticism when he announced the 500,000 yuan preparation plan, but it has only been a few days and the troop training has not been completed. Why is it necessary to expand the army again? One million regular troops, how much material and equipment will be needed? , there are one million regular troops, will the local armed forces attached to them be increased accordingly? Will the recruitment of so many young people into the army affect local production? This is a series of questions.
"The deputy chief of staff asked me to count the material reserves in the base area, so he mentioned that whether this can be finally implemented depends on the material reserves in the base area. At the very least, there must be enough food. Just the tableware you see, But they are all used to exchange food with the First War Zone." Zhang Wanhe explained in a low voice that even if the food is currently insufficient, the army expansion plan will still go ahead, but it will be delayed for a while. After all, they still have Wang Yue's support, and they can put it together. Minato, there will always be.
