Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 123 Becoming Bigger and Stronger
A month later, the Heyuan base began to operate at high speed. The first copper smelting reverberatory furnace was completed, and it smelted 20 tons of copper ore on the first day, producing 100 kilograms of copper in one day!
Although this number seems insignificant, it is the first time in history for Ren Zhong and the base.

According to the amount of copper used in the 6.5mm bullet of the Type 1.7 rifle, after these pure copper are processed into brass, they can only make about bullets, which is not enough for a battalion of the Japanese to carry in one battle.

But that was directed at the Japanese devils.

If it were the Eighth Route Army, each person could carry 50 bullets, which would be considered a war of abundance. Then the bullets produced by the copper production in one day would be enough for a fully equipped main force regiment to fight a battle.

For Ren Zhong, he no longer needs to bring copper coins to this world. He only needs to bring one-third of zinc to make the brass (copper-zinc alloy) needed for bullets. This is equivalent to reducing the amount of carry-on by two-thirds to achieve the same effect as before.

As for the zinc mine, Ren Zhong also discovered a zinc mine in the main world, just a few dozen miles away from Heyuan. However, he does not have the strength to open up a new base there for the time being. For Zhang Dabiao, it will take a long time just to build Heyuan into a stable base.

Now the situation in Heyuan has gradually evolved from the confrontation between the Japanese and the 358th Regiment to the independent regiment's armed work team occupying the vast rural areas, rapidly developing armed forces, and starting to form an encirclement of the Japanese with the 358th Regiment.

Although the 358th Regiment is now the strongest and most powerful, and is fully capable of taking over Heyuan County, it is constrained by the command of their superiors. Yan Laoxi is in a dilemma and is now flirting with the Japanese, showing the intention of compromising in order to survive.

The remaining forces of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, instead of competing with the Japanese, created internal frictions from time to time.

Therefore, Ren Zhong left Heyuan untouched, not only because he considered that the Japanese would not be willing to lose the city and would definitely counterattack, but he also had to consider the movements of the 358th Regiment. If Heyuan fell into the hands of the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese did not react, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army would certainly react immediately and demand that the Eighth Route Army hand over the city.

During this sensitive period, Yan Laoxi held the majority and the reputation, and the base could not withstand such pressure at all.

Therefore, it is extremely uneconomical to do so, as it is easy to make things difficult for others.

The three parties formed a delicate balance, resolutely cutting off the Japanese devils' attempts to extend their black hands and trapping them in the city. This was the plan that Ren Zhong gave to Zhang Dabiao.

Now the last link in this plan is to increase the strength of the guerrilla team.

After Ren Zhong became ruthless, the weapons and equipment of the First Guerrilla Brigade were completely transformed. What they lacked now was proficiency, especially the proficiency of the 56 semi-gunners and the familiarity of the artillery platoon that integrated mortars and grenade launchers.

This reliable armed force allowed Ren Zhong to relax a little and develop.

However, Ren Zhong still put the most core part into the deep mountains. This time he chose to go upstream along the river. The Nangou River, which now mainly flows through the source of the river, has a small flow in the dry season, only a few meters. The section in Nangou is relatively flat, but the water is less than one meter shallow. Five or six kilometers upstream along the river, the river suddenly becomes narrower and steeper, forming a mountain stream with a drop of more than 300 meters. There are caves on both sides, some of which are seven or eight hundred square meters, and some are two or three hundred square meters. It is the best place for mechanical processing chosen by Ren Zhong.

But there are mountains all around here, and there is no mountain road. The only way is to climb over the mountains with a slope of up to 40 to 50 degrees. It takes a normal person at least two to three hours to cross these four or five kilometers.

But this is exactly what Ren Zhong values. If the arsenal is built inside the cave, it will become a natural barrier that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Even a platoon of Hu Zi can hold off a battalion of Japanese invaders for a long time.

As for the transportation route, Ren Zhong did not take the mountain road, but chose to form a waterway underneath!
A 10-meter-high dam was built at Nangou to raise the water level, forming a navigable river with a depth of 2 meters near Nangou and nearly 3 meters near the cave. It was at least 10 meters wide and 300-meter-long boats could pass through without any problems. Although the carrying capacity of such boats was not large, about to tons, one or two boats with this capacity were enough for the mechanical processing plant of weapons and ammunition. At the -meter distance from the big cave, a two-meter-wide step was dug out of the mountain. Except for the difficulty of lifting the machine tool base, the rest were not big items, such as transporting mortars or shells, which was not difficult at all.

A waterway was built and cleared on the steep mountain stream, where the drop is large enough to install 3 to 5 50-kilowatt hydroelectric generators.

There is a flat river channel above the mountain stream. After building a river channel of about ten meters on it to intercept the water, it can ensure that the stored water can be released to generate electricity during the dry season.

According to Ren Zhong's plan, the cascade of small power stations formed by the mountain stream will provide sufficient electricity supply for the new arsenal.

In the future, a large-scale machining plant with 10 multifunctional machine tools, seven or eight stamping machines and several milling machines can be built here.

In addition to barreled cannons, the Nangou Arsenal will be able to produce ammunition for light weapons ranging from mortars, machine guns to rifles.

With the help of sulfuric acid, steel plants and copper smelters in the surrounding areas, Ren Zhong believed that it would not be long before the headquarters arsenal would be replaced, and various weapons to fight against the Japanese would be continuously produced here.

The blueprint was drawn in Ren Zhong's mind, and he began to build this place step by step. The first one was the dam in Nangou Village. There was no shortage of stones in Taihang Mountains, so he just had to mine the stone slabs and pile them up layer by layer. A ten-meter dam required almost no technical content, so he just had to find a few experienced workers in the local area.

Building two or three wooden boats is not a problem. The people in the mountains have never seen them. Ren Zhong can find detailed instructions for making wooden boats and just follow the drawings. It's just that the process of processing some wood may not be so perfect, which makes the service life of the wooden boats short. They may only be used for a few years and may leak. These are not problems for Ren Zhong at all.

The Japanese can't stay in China for more than a few years. As long as they can survive for 5 years, things will get better. By then, Ren Zhong won't have to stay in this place and do things secretly. He can move the arsenal to the county town.

Then the No. 20 and No. blast furnaces successfully smelted iron, and the pig iron output was slightly higher than expected, reaching tons per single blast furnace. Ren Zhong took the iron ore here back to the main world and gave it to Professor Hu for inspection. He found that the iron ore grade in Heyuan was much higher than that in Yangcun, which gave Ren Zhong a pleasant surprise.

Of course, the change in the composition of iron ore also led to further optimization and adjustment of the production processes of gray cast iron and carbon steel, allowing Ren Zhong to issue a new bonus once again.

As for special steels such as manganese steel and nickel steel, Ren Zhong has not yet found reliable manganese and nickel mines for mining nearby. The manganese mines that Ren Zhong found in Jin are recorded in Lingqiu in the north.

However, given the current transportation conditions and environment, it is too far away, and it is unrealistic to mine and transport it from there.

For the time being, Ren Zhong still focuses on the production of gray cast iron and carbon steel. Fortunately, it is barely enough for current demand. After all, mortars and gun barrels are all high-quality seamless steel pipes selected from the main world. Only grenade launchers choose to use locally produced carbon steel that is forged and then rolled into tubes. There is no problem in making mass-produced carbon steel thicker to manufacture grenade launchers.

The duplication of these conventional products was not difficult for Ren Zhong, but for the students of chemical engineering, it was no less than an opportunity for great brainwashing, as they could see the things in the booklet become reality in a short period of time!
This greatly stimulated their passion for learning. They worked at the construction site during the day and studied until 12 o'clock at night. If it weren't for the LED lighting provided by Ren Zhong, these talented people would have gone blind in a short time. Although Nangou Village did not have any eye-catching industries, as Ren Zhong's main living camp, Ren Zhong had installed a simple 5KW small hydroelectric generator to power the camp.

Second update
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(End of this chapter)