"Squeak..." A thick mask with dark lenses was in front of his face. A welder was kneeling on one knee, leaning over a steel plate, working on the welding joints.
The electric welder in his hand gave off a dazzling light, and sparks shot out around him, illuminating a row of neatly arranged semi-finished tank bodies nearby.
This is the production base of the No. 4 tank chassis in the Tongcheng Industrial Zone. Next to the welders, a group of apprentices wearing sunglasses are learning how to operate the welding and splice two pieces of steel together.
In fact, the craftsmanship of the No. 4 tank is not advanced. If you look closely, there are many rivets on its chassis.
And due to design reasons, there are many holes in the tank chassis, including tank manholes and lower escape hatches for crew escape.
A huge gantry crane is on the top of the workshop, transporting a newly produced semi-finished chassis to the corresponding location. The other side of the workshop is where the fuel tank and other parts are installed.
These chassis will then be transported to a distant location, where the engine and gearbox will be hoisted, and the intermediate drive shaft will be installed.
It was more lively there, and there were a lot of workers waiting there. They had to use wrenches to fix the screws. In the 21st century, these tasks are almost all performed by robots.
"Buzz..." When the crane is moving, the huge sound of the motor echoes in the workshop, interspersed with the crackling sound of electric welding, which sounds like a symphony.
Every process is very rigorous and complex, and sometimes anti-rust paint must be sprayed in advance to ensure the service life of internal parts.
Such a huge factory is in full production every day. As long as there is no problem with the supply of raw materials, all links will not stop.
In the corner of the noisy production workshop is an iron staircase. Going up the stairs is the management office of the production workshop.
At this moment, the person in charge of the workshop was smoking a cigarette, looking down at the drawings that had just been sent, and looking at the engineer who came to send the new drawings with confusion on his face: "Changed it again?"
They just modified the drawings a few days ago to further increase the thickness of the front armor of the car body. The previously produced batch of "cut corners" version of the chassis: the front armor thickness is 30 mm, which is thinner than the previous version.
The chassis of this batch of No. 4 tanks were specially used for artillery units to install a 155 mm caliber howitzer to make a Hornet self-propelled artillery.
Anyway, it is a self-propelled artillery, so it does not need such a thick front armor, so it can be saved and it can also reduce weight. As the saying goes, kill two birds with one stone.
"Yes, the frontline troops suffered a serious loss. An assault gun ran over a mine. All the crew members were killed, and five nearby infantrymen also died." The engineer who sent the drawing explained with some heartache.
He pointed to the bottom escape hole that was canceled on the drawing and several inspection openings and said: "The military's requirement."
In actual combat, most of these bottom openings are actually useless. Except for a few necessary access openings, the rest of the openings are not often used.
However, these openings will reduce the bottom defense, so a few should be eliminated to simplify the process, increase production speed, and reduce production costs.
"Okay, I will hold a meeting after get off work to ask the workers to make modifications according to the new production requirements." The person in charge of the workshop said, "However, changing the production process may affect the production speed, and there is no way around it."
"I understand." The engineer nodded and adjusted his glasses: "Our enemies are becoming more and more powerful. They actually use the method of planting large-charge mines to cause us trouble."
"Landmine?" The person in charge of production obviously didn't know the name of the military's weapon. Even though he produces tanks, he knows very little about landmines.
"It's okay, I'm just complaining." The engineer didn't intend to introduce another kind of weapons and equipment to a production worker. He waved his hand, grabbed his briefcase, and walked out of the office of the workshop leader.
The work in the workshop is still going on, everyone is very busy, busy with the work in their hands. Through precise cooperation, these dexterous workers sent the chassis of the No. 4 tanks one by one out of their production workshop.
Farther away, chimneys kept emitting thick smoke, and in the distance the white smoke formed a continuous patch, as if the clouds in the entire world were produced here.
Sitting in a car and driving on a smooth road, the engineer can still recall the scene when he first arrived here.
Although there were already many factories here at that time, compared with now, they were nothing. If the factories here were just a few bags of rice at that time, then Copper City now is like a huge granary!
Countless workers work here, and the air around them is filled with the smell of steel. Even though there are plants growing in every corner that can be seen, just touching the leaves here can smear the black ash on your fingertips.
Now, these black ash is not a harbinger of environmental disaster, but a symbol of wealth and productivity! Only with such a symbol can we prove that this place has been completely industrialized and that it has huge production capacity.
The engineer stuffed his briefcase into the front basket of his bicycle and rode out of the factory. A car drove past him and gradually disappeared at the end of the road.
The People's car that sped past the engineer sped down the road, then slowed down and finally came to a stop in front of a crossbar.
On both sides are farmland full of grain, and farmers are busy on the ridges of the fields. Like workers in the industrial zone, they must work from sunrise to sunset so that they can taste the joy of a bumper harvest in the future.
On one side of the crossbar, the red light reminding people of safety kept flashing, and the bell-like ringing also dutifully warned people not to get close.
Soon, the locomotive pulling the long carriage passed here slowly. The rails crossed the road, and different roads carrying the two modes of transportation intersected here.
Accompanied by a long whistle, the smoking locomotive passed in front of the car, followed by the coal carriage, and then the flatbed cars, one after another, as if there was no end.
On the carriage are brand new self-propelled guns that have not had time to be covered with canvas. These 155 mm caliber howitzers based on the chassis of the No. 4 tank have just been produced and have not even been sprayed with paint.
With only brown and red anti-rust paint, these self-propelled artillery do not look mighty, but they will soon be painted in camouflage colors, and a red dragon flag made of rainproof canvas will be covered on the top of the open-air combat cabin as a sign of identification between friend and foe. Then issued to armored units.
The director of the production bureau who was in charge of this area of the factory, sitting in the back row, counted the self-propelled artillery pieces passing in front of him one by one, and found that there were 60 of them in total.
It seems that several artillery regiments will receive their own weapons and equipment - at least, they can receive some of the weapons and equipment they urgently need.
There was no way, as the Tang army continued to expand, there were almost no troops equipped with all weapons and equipment.
Most armored divisions only have two-thirds of their quota of tanks to maintain their presence, and newly formed armored forces even have only one-third of their tanks to maintain training.
At the same time, there are also many shortages of cars. Many military units require 500 cars, but may only receive 300 or 400 cars in the end.
But compared to heavy equipment such as tanks, the shortage of cars is not that huge, and the replenishment speed is also very fast.
The self-propelled artillery in front of me can probably be distributed to several artillery regiments. If a regiment receives 10 similar artillery pieces, it can already make them laugh out loud.
"Minister Matthews is coming to inspect here tomorrow. I hope there won't be any problems in the area I'm responsible for." The director, who was sitting in the car, said to the secretary on the passenger seat.
He actually doesn't like People's cars very much. The shock absorption of this kind of car is very poor, the engine power is average, and the riding experience is very bad.
It is a pity that with the loss of Bunas, the production of luxury cars has been affected to a certain extent. Tang State's current production capacity of mid- to high-end cars is seriously insufficient.
If you take into account the fact that there are a large number of noble people in Chang'an and other areas waiting to use good cars, it seems so logical that government departments in other places only allocate Renmin brand cars.
"Don't worry, Director... I just checked everything yesterday. The factory is operating normally, and there are no problems with the newly built Lion wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicle factory." The secretary immediately turned back and reported: "You only need to accompany Matthew Mr. Si, just take a walk and take a look."
"Thank you for your hard work." After closing his eyes, the 23-year-old director fell asleep and looked very powerful.
And his secretary is an old official from Zheng State, who stayed on to cooperate with the work here. This secretary was a high-ranking official in Tongcheng back then, and he is forty-eight years old this year.
Due to the shortage of manpower, there are still many officials from the former Zheng State in the Tang State. The remaining ones are all those with good official reputations, capable people, and the best among the former officials of the State of Zheng.
The corrupt ones were dealt with long ago when Zheng was eliminated, and the incompetent ones were eliminated in subsequent uses.
In short, those who can make it to this day are more or less talented. It's just that these people can only hold deputy positions, or work as secretaries and clerks, and cannot be in charge of a party.
"It's not hard work! It's all what a humble job should do." The secretary, who was a few years older than the other party's father, heard the chief officer's praise and said with a smile on his face.
The train had passed, the railings were raised high, and the car bumped violently as it passed the tracks. However, the road afterwards was smooth, and soon the young director really fell asleep.
On both sides of the road, there is still endless farmland. The scenery is beautiful, but no one seems to appreciate it.
----------
Updated chapter.
