Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 249 New Difficulties in Industrial Upgrading
Ren Zhong became excited when he heard the news of the recovery of Hedong. The mineral resources here are quite rich. According to the exploration of the main world, the reserve table includes metal mineral resources such as coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, cobalt, and molybdenum. Among them, aluminum, zinc, lead, cobalt, and molybdenum are urgently needed metal varieties, and many alloys require them.

In addition, Hedong has many mountains, a well-developed river system, and a large drop in elevation, providing good conditions for developing small hydropower, and power facilities can be built on site for smelting.

Compared with thermal power plants, small hydropower plants can be built faster.

Ren Zhong was not worried that Li Yunlong and his men would not be able to defend this place.

Now in Shanxi, the industrial base of the Eighth Route Army is becoming increasingly powerful, and the production capacity of various military products is increasing day by day. The strength of the Eighth Route Army is growing at an unprecedented rate. It can be said that every month, at least one more powerful mechanized infantry brigade emerges.

With the raid and attack capabilities demonstrated by Li Yunlong, the Japanese ordinary divisions are no longer comparable to the mechanized infantry brigades.

The firepower intensity has completely formed an overwhelming advantage.

It can be said that such field battles were undoubtedly the result of a great victory for the mechanized infantry brigade.

Under such external conditions, the Eighth Route Army is not afraid of the Japanese attack, nor is it afraid of the preserved fruits having any ideas. They can only endure the time, and they can't endure the heavy workload with the knowledge hack.

It's just that Ren Zhong is now fighting for time for the decisive battle in Northeast China, so he seems extremely urgent. He hopes to quickly turn all the resources in his hands into the combat power of the Eighth Route Army. As long as he is equipped with 15 mechanized infantry brigades, Ren Zhong dares to promote the liberation of Northeast China.

For this goal, Ren Zhong could even allow the Japanese devils in North China to live a few more days.

Therefore, the acquisition of Hedong is another important weight for Ren Zhong.

Soon, Ren Zhong sorted out the resource situation obtained from the main world and a new Hedong industrial development plan, and handed it over to Staff Officer Ye. Now he had to gather the manpower and material resources of the entire base to turn the resources into combat power as soon as possible.

Staff Officer Ye had no questions. It had always been like this. After occupying a new place, they would immediately start large-scale construction work there.

In the Hedong region, which now has no shortage of manpower and a relatively more abundant population, this plan was decided upon and developed without much discussion.

While the fight against the Japanese was still going on at the front, the construction plan was finalized in the rear, and the relevant working groups and technical support teams were quickly established and headed for Hedong.

On the other side, Kong Jie stayed in Hedong to reorganize the city. Li Yunlong led most of the infantry battalions of the two brigades and the 107th Fire and Mountain Artillery Battalion. After a bloody battle, they wiped out the two infantry battalions left behind by the Japanese. After rushing to Pinglu at night, they intercepted two Japanese regiments that had not had time to retreat, the Engineer Regiment and the Supply Regiment.

After swallowing up the reserve troops of the 41st Division in one gulp, Li Yunlong could only sigh to the sky while looking at the Yellow River. When the Japanese left, they had already collected all the surrounding boats and crossed the river to the south bank. Seeing that the logistics troops had no time to escape, Goro Mano was so cruel that he destroyed all the boats by the river.

Then he led the remaining two infantry regiments and one mountain artillery regiment to flee eastward. The battle of crossing the river and the rear guard had consumed an infantry regiment of the Japanese, and now only the 2th Infantry Regiment and the 1th Infantry Regiment were left, plus the 238st Mountain Artillery Regiment that was preserved with great effort. Although the 239st Division was now seriously injured, it was relatively like a wounded lone wolf, which was even more terrifying for the preserved fruit army along the way.

Goro Mano gathered up the remnants of his troops, which still had more than 8,000 people. After looting seven days' worth of food in Shanzhou, he left Shanzhou at night and headed eastward. Along the way, the Japanese had food in their hands and did not attack the city, so they advanced very quickly, marching more than 100 miles in a day and arriving near Mianchi.

Guosu deployed two divisions in Mianchi and were ready for battle.

Mano Goro turned and crossed about ten kilometers south of Mianchi County, which made the two division commanders of Guosu very entangled, but they hesitated for a long time and did not dare to pursue.

It was not until the Japanese reached Xin'an that two divisions of Guofu rushed up to intercept them. However, the Japanese did not pursue them and, while Guofu had not yet opened the encirclement, they went directly south to Yiyang, shook off their pursuers, and then headed east.

Commander Chen, who was furious, sent five divisions to encircle the remnants of the 41st Division near Luoyi. However, Goro Mano went south again through Yichuan to Dengfeng, where he joined the main force of the Japanese army. He managed to escape from the enemy's trap, which became a false miracle of the Japanese army's retreat.

In comparison, Ando Nijisan's luck was not so good. After escaping from the east of the river, he headed east along the river bank and did not catch up with Mano Goro's last boat, but instead encountered Li Yunlong's troops who had chased him here.

Although Anda 23 relied on the speed of his cavalry to escape Li Yunlong's pursuit and fled eastward into the mountains, the entire east was the base of the Eighth Route Army, and the fate of Anda 23's cavalry regiment was already doomed. Even if this old devil eventually dispersed his troops and tried to disguise himself and sneak out of the base, he was eventually captured by the alert Yanqu guerrillas. At that time, this old devil had been wandering in the mountains for more than ten days before he got out to Yanqu County.

However, the guerrillas did not know that they had caught a big fish at that time. They just heard that the old Japanese had a very strange accent. When they sent him to the county for interrogation, they found out that he was a high-ranking Japanese official.

The entire 37th Division was thus completely wiped out, without leaving a single hair behind with the Japanese. Anda Twenty-three's idea of ​​"rising up" to prepare new equipment for the Locust Army could only be recorded in the interrogation record book.

After the Battle of Hedong, the brigade commander replaced the 10 Type C regiments of Taiyuan with Li Yunlong and stationed them in various counties, replacing the three main forces of Li Yunlong and returning to Zezhou for rest and replenishment. After the actual combat test, the brigade commander had a better understanding of the application of mechanized infantry brigades and the experimental plan proposed by Ren Zhong. After bargaining at the headquarters, the brigade commander prepared to reorganize the 771st and 772nd regiments according to Li Yunlong's mechanized infantry independent brigade model.

However, the brigade commander had to produce all the equipment himself at the Fourth Heavy Machinery Factory in Lu'an Prefecture.

There are now heavy machinery factories that can produce both tanks and automobiles. The first heavy machinery factory is in the border area, the second heavy machinery factory is in Jiuyuan, the third heavy machinery factory is in Taiyuan, and the fourth heavy machinery factory is being built in Lu'an.

The Fifth Heavy Machinery Factory was built in Yunzhong. Now the production capacity of the First Heavy Machinery Factory in the Border Region has reached more than 20 tanks, but the production of core components of tanks has exceeded 300 sets, 200 tank main guns, and the automobile production capacity is outstanding, with a monthly output of 100 trucks and 200 jeeps.

The Second Heavy Machinery Plant, except for core components such as generators and communications, has now completed the construction of armor, tracks, various gears and tank main gun production lines, with monthly output exceeding 20 vehicles. The automobile production line has also produced 50 vehicles and the number is increasing.

In addition, other heavy machinery factories can only produce armor, tracks and large structural parts for assembly. In total, the tank production capacity has exceeded 100 vehicles per month, the car and truck production capacity has exceeded 200 vehicles, and the jeep production capacity has exceeded 500 vehicles. The production capacity is rapidly increasing. The production capacity of special steels of the newly built Northwest Steel Plant will soon meet the rapid growth needs of tanks and automobiles.

According to the plan, in half a year, the tank production capacity will exceed 500 units per month, the truck production capacity will exceed 1000 units per month, and the jeep production capacity will exceed 2000 units per month.

The arduous Steel Tide Project would have produced more than 1944 tanks, 1000 trucks and 3000 jeeps before the winter of 6000.

Perhaps the more territory the brigade commander and his men conquer, the further this plan will be accomplished.

For example, in Hedong, tank production may be difficult, but truck and jeep assembly production can still be done. In the border area, key components such as engines, gearboxes, and tires are produced, and other heavy machinery factories produce common parts such as carriages, load-bearing steel plates, etc. according to molds.

Then it is assembled into shape. The technology is much simpler than engine production and does not require much mechanical equipment.

Due to the unified production standards and sizes, the parts produced by factories in various bases can now be used interchangeably, which is also a huge advantage for battlefield maintenance.

Although the concept of military standards proposed by Ren Zhong in advance is not perfect yet, every basic product will be produced only after it has standards. This allows all localities to join the system spontaneously. Ren Zhong is unable to control the new components produced by the localities themselves. However, in terms of steel, the steel for important structural parts can only be sourced from the three steel mills that have electric furnaces: Border Area Steel Plant, Jiuyuan Steel Plant and Northwest Steel Plant.

Now that he has taken control of the grassland, Ren Zhong has begun to release a certain amount of production capacity and upgraded the Jiuyuan-Baiyun Obo mineral smelting plan to a million-ton level.

Now production capacity expansion can be freely pursued. For Jiuyuan and Bayan Obo, the biggest limitation is the support of human resources.

Not many workers are willing to go to the bitter and cold land outside the Great Wall.

However, now is a special period. Relying on excellent mobilization capabilities, the border area organizations in Shanxi and the border areas continue to mobilize and organize young workers to go north. According to Ren Zhong, it will be a good place for young people to make achievements. If they don’t go now, they will regret it later.

For that era, it was a huge mineral resource, much larger than all the mines in Jin.

Several thermal power plants have been built now, and Jiuyuan's power supply has reached 50MW, which can support a steel plant with an annual output of four or five hundred thousand. If the construction goes smoothly, Jiuyuan Steel will complete its plan within three years and become the second largest steel plant in the base.

However, Jiuyuan's power construction has not slowed down, because more high-energy-consuming industries will be invested in it in the future, such as the refining of rare earths.

At present, the laboratory is still studying the rare earth refining technology route provided by Ren Zhong. Once the design of the Liangjian World production line is completed, the electricity consumption in this area will be considerable.

The role of rare earth elements in modern industry is unquestionable, and this is definitely an emerging industry in the future.

However, it seems that the current progress is still relatively slow. The chemical method of concentrated sulfuric acid roasting and caustic soda process are relatively simple to achieve, but the metal thermal reduction process for more refined extraction is quite complicated.

It requires the use of inert gas at high temperature under near-vacuum conditions to extract medium-heavy rare metals, such as samarium Sm (for manufacturing laser materials, microwave and infrared equipment, and atomic energy industry), europium Eu (phosphor for color TVs, laser materials, and atomic energy industry applications), terbium Tb (terbium is required for X-ray photography), and dysprosium Dy (used as an additive to NdFeB permanent magnets in motors).

These rare metals are extremely difficult to prepare, requiring the preparation of commercial-grade rare earth compounds and metal-related fine chemicals together. Moreover, valuable rare earth ores are usually complexes of multiple rare metals, such as niobium, tantalum, indium and nickel, which increases the complexity of refining and separation.

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