Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 156 A Long Journey

It is more than a thousand miles from Ansai to Wuyuan. The calluses on Ren Zhong's buttocks from riding a horse last year have just disappeared, but it seems that they are about to grow again this time.

In this era without high-speed trains, airplanes, and even scarce roads, there is no choice but horses are almost the only fast means of transportation.

When the first day of the journey ended, Ren Zhong decisively included the research and development of the transport aircraft in his notebook!

He traveled back to the main world, and after searching and researching, he gave Zhao Lidong an order to get the technical drawings of the C-47 transport aircraft and even purchase the antique prototype. This was the best transport aircraft from the 40s that Ren Zhong had found. In terms of technical difficulty, it was also the ceiling that he could barely reach in the world of Bright Sword!

The only difference is that the C-47's engine is the R-1830-90C 14-cylinder radial engine, which is not much different from the Merlin V1650. The R-1830-90C 14-cylinder radial engine has 1200 horsepower, while the Merlin V1650 has 1290 horsepower in normal conditions. It can only reach 1565 horsepower when the first stage of supercharging is started, and 1580 horsepower under the second stage of supercharging. For a fighter, such supercharging is necessary, but for a transport aircraft, these acceleration states are almost unnecessary. Therefore, during conventional cruising, the Merlin V1650 is not inferior to the R-1830-90C, and the fuel consumption of a single-machine cruise is 136L/hour.

Placed under the 47L fuel tank of the C-3044 transport aircraft, the theoretical cruising range with two engines is over 2800 kilometers, and there should be no problem in reaching an actual range of 2600 kilometers.

If the R-1830-90C is replaced with the Merlin V1650, there will not be much difference in power and few structural changes. The C-47 can basically maintain most of the original design.

In this way, Ren Zhong could use the same engine for the 51D and C-47 transport aircraft, directly reducing the research time by at least half, allowing him to focus on airframe design and avionics.

In fact, the avionics of aircraft during this period were relatively simple. There was no satellite navigation, and basically there were some mechanical instruments for speed, altitude, attitude and heading. In addition, it was also equipped with some electronic instruments, such as an electric artificial horizon, compass and altimeter.

In fact, if the Sword World couldn't handle it, it wouldn't be a big problem for Ren Zhong to bring goods from the main world, after all, these things didn't take up much weight. So the core technology was the manufacture of the engine and the body.

In order to obtain this technology, Ren Zhong purchased the old C-47 manufacturing process at a high price through underground channels in the main world, and gave it to the professors at the Aviation Research Center to study and digest.

However, Ren Zhong didn't know when they would be able to break through the technical barriers and replicate this transport plane.

Staff Officer Ye and Jiang Chongjing had no idea that so many new stories had happened behind this journey. For them, this kind of marching days were commonplace and were child's play compared to the long-distance battles they had fought in the past.

The three men rode side by side on horseback.

"Mr. Ren, tell me frankly, why are you so sure that the Seventh Route and a Half will trade with us for the iron ore and steel plant?" Staff Officer Ye asked casually.

"My reason is very simple. Based on my understanding of Qiluban, I think he is a tyrant who is unwilling to be outdone. Even though Qiluban is close to us now, in fact, unless he is forced into an irreversible desperate situation, Qiluban will never give up the idea of ​​seeking independence." Ren Zhong slowly expressed the views he had gained from the main world.

"You can tell clearly from his relationship with the Second War Zone that since Suiyuan got the opportunity to become independent, the Seventh Route and a Half have been drifting further and further away from the Second War Zone. There are certainly external reasons for this, but the main reason is that the Seventh Route and a Half themselves are unwilling to be under the thumb of Commander Yan for a long time, so once there is external instigation, the Seventh Route and a Half will become the king outside the Great Wall."

Staff Officer Ye nodded. He was naturally aware of the history of Qiluban's rise. Ren Zhong was right. Qiluban had struggled in the first half of his life, and he would abandon his former employer without hesitation if given the chance.

Even the people in the border areas who had helped him gain a foothold outside the Great Wall and made important contributions were cleared out and escorted out of the country. Not only the border areas, but also the people in the rear areas were escorted out, and Suiyuan was run as a solid block.

Under normal circumstances, such people are indeed difficult to convince.

However, Ren Zhong knew that the biggest disadvantage of this King of the Frontier was that he had to be controlled by others in terms of military equipment. Because under the current conditions in the Frontier, it would be impossible to build his own military industry without his intervention.

For Qiluban, who was born rebellious, this temptation was simply beyond measure.

"Brother Ren, what conditions do you think should be offered first?" Jiang Chongjing interrupted. He did not have the hindsight that Ren Zhong had, and he could not see through all the twists and turns and was unsure about this task.

"We can first offer them a condition of building a wrought iron production plant with an annual output of 3000 tons. With the supporting bullet and grenade production lines, the basic ammunition of the Seventh Route Army can be self-sufficient in a year. This is very attractive to them." Ren Zhong thought for a while, "The Seventh Route Army has 3 troops. The bullet consumption is at most tons of wrought iron a year. With shells, grenades, etc., tons of wrought iron is basically enough."

"If that's still not enough, we can increase the production capacity appropriately. The excess wrought iron can be used for fortifications, farm tools and other livelihood purposes. We can give him a production capacity of less than 1 tons, which is enough. You know, the current annual iron production in the rear area of ​​​​Guojian is only more than 5 tons."

Staff Officer Ye raised his eyebrows but said nothing. If the border area had such a large iron output before Ren Zhong opened up the steel industry for the base and the border area, the people would have been overjoyed. But now, 2 tons is just a drop in the bucket. The earthen blast furnaces in the border area and the base are everywhere, and the steel output in the border area alone exceeds 5 tons!

"We can propose to exchange one ton of iron for three tons of grain. In terms of crude copper replacement, one ton of explosives for five tons of copper. We will handle the copper smelting technology and factory management, and they will provide the mining and transportation and grain storage. We can accept a 5% to % or % to % split in the final output. This deal must be tied to the iron-for-grain deal, and we insist on either doing both or going our separate ways!"

"Brother Ren, you said that we have solved the problem of making bullets from wrought iron, so why do we still attach so much importance to copper?" Jiang Chongjing was a little confused.

"Because we will need copper everywhere in our future development, we need to get at least one hundred tons of copper every year to quickly transform our technological research and development results in electricity, new chemical plants, steel mills, machine tool factories, etc. into products. Copper is an indispensable core raw material for motors, and motors are the key to our electrification." Ren Zhong explained simply.

In fact, copper is indispensable in many fields such as electricity, electronics, energy and petrochemicals, machinery and metallurgy, transportation, light industry, etc.

"Is that so?" Jiang Chongjing seemed to understand. "Then we really can't give up this demand. This negotiation is nominally between me and Staff Officer Ye, but in reality, you, Brother Ren, need to offer more advice and suggestions. Let's try to bring the grain and copper back to the border area smoothly."

Ren Zhong looked ahead and nodded. Yes, no matter how difficult it was, this was a task that had to be completed, otherwise it would be difficult to carry out his next plan.

The border area has no shortage of coal or iron ore (at least not at this stage), and it has oil, but there is nothing decent about copper mines. The base area in Shanxi is separated from the border area by the Japanese Tongpu Line Defense Zone. Small-scale transportation and infiltration are no problem, but large-scale transportation is very difficult.

Therefore, for Ren Zhong, getting the copper mines back from outside the Great Wall is something that must be accomplished.

Although there are copper mines in Ikh Ju League, the situation here is still unstable. Before the Seventh Route and a Half completes the attack on Jiuyuan, Ren Zhong does not want to open up copper smelting here, because copper smelting is also very attractive to the Japanese. Once the news leaks out, the strength of the newly formed Third Division will not be able to withstand the Japanese, unless the five main regiments in Ren Zhong's plan are reorganized and head north!

Second update, continue to ask for votes
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(End of this chapter)