Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 251: The Beginning of Converter Steelmaking and New Armament Upgrades
"Success! We succeeded!" In a workshop of Northwest Iron and Steel Plant, Xu Jiucheng couldn't help but burst into tears of joy after testing the latest batch of molten steel.

As the former director of the Yangcun Iron and Steel Plant, which produces 100,000 tons of steel annually, Xu Jiucheng is an old man who shouldered heavy responsibilities in the early days of industrialization.

He has been organizing the production and development of the steel industry in Yangcun and Heyuan, and teaching steel smelting technology. He is the actual person in charge of Yangcun Technical College.

After Taiyuan was liberated, Ren Zhong remembered the former deputy chief designer of Taiyuan Iron and Steel Plant and directly transferred him back to serve as chief designer of Northwest Iron and Steel Plant.

Because Ren Zhong had a new smelting technology that required the help of Xu Jiucheng to perfect and industrialize it.

This is the research work on oxygen top-blown converter.

According to the technical information provided by Ren Zhong, Xu Jiucheng needed to transform a small side-blown converter into an oxygen top-blown converter. The oxygen blowing pipe is the key equipment of the top-blown converter steelmaking technology. Ren Zhong provided relevant design reference materials. Xu Jiucheng needed to organize people to overcome the welding barrier, trial-produce the first oxygen spray gun, and then improve the converter structure and spraying process.

Thanks to the complete reference process, Xu Jiucheng lived up to expectations and converted the No. 2 1-ton air side-blown alkaline small converter on the production line into a 3-ton oxygen top-blown converter for process test research in just less than 3 months. The result was a success and the first furnace of qualified molten steel was produced.

In terms of time, it’s less than 40 minutes!

You should know that the main steelmaking method at that time was open-hearth steelmaking. Even in the mainstream steelmaking in the main world, 20% of the world's steel production came from open-hearth steelmaking in the 50s. The real change did not begin until 85 when Voestalpine developed the oxygen top-blown converter steelmaking method (LD method).

It takes nearly 8 hours to make one furnace of steel in an open-hearth furnace. Now, with the improved converter steelmaking method under the guidance of Ren Zhong, it only takes about 40 minutes. This efficiency improvement is amazing.

For Xu Jiucheng, a veteran in the steelmaking industry, this is something that will go down in history. How could he not be excited?
"The 3-ton furnace was a success. Once the six 6-ton furnaces in the current steel plant have been renovated, we will transform into converter steelmaking and use technology to improve efficiency.

As for your next step, take a bigger step and make a 30-ton converter. Now we have the conditions, so don't be afraid of failure. Success is certainly gratifying, but failure is nothing great. You can succeed after summarizing your experience and trying it a few more times. With the experience of the 3-ton converter, I think you can make a 30-ton converter without any problem. "After listening to Xu Jiucheng's test report, Ren Zhong directly suggested that the improved converter can basically produce stably.

In the historical time and space he looked up, Shougang also developed in this way.

Ren Zhong had this information, so he directly increased the capacity of the converter tenfold, which made Xu Jiucheng gasp.

But in a moment he became excited again. Who doesn't want to do something big that can be written into family genealogy and history books? Now the 3-ton converter has created history. When the 30-ton converter comes out, that will be new history!
"No problem, Mr. Ren. With your technical guidance, we have absolute confidence and can complete this task with 100% effort." Xu Jiuchen said loudly like a soldier.

After staying in Yangcun for a long time, Xu Jiucheng's originally lukewarm temper has been honed to become sharp.

The steel plant's original open-hearth steelmaking system had a capacity of 3 tons per day with two 6-ton small furnaces at most. Excluding maintenance, the capacity was about 300 days a year, and at most 320 days. That means the capacity of the six furnaces was just over 6 tons. Now that they have been converted into converters, the capacity has been increased to at least 10000 furnaces a day, which is an 16-fold increase!
This means that with little change to manual equipment, the Northwest Steel Plant can increase its annual output to more than 8 tons.

If the 30-ton converter test is successful, then a 30-ton converter can produce more than 300 tons in 14 days of stable production. If it produces steadily for 320 days, the production capacity will be nearly 16 tons! This seems to be very close to the million-ton steel production capacity mentioned by Ren Zhong.

As long as six sets of 6-ton converters are developed, a million-ton production capacity can be achieved. For an old-school figure like Xu Jiucheng, if he can really bring Northwest Steel Plant to an industry with a million-ton production capacity, it would be worth dying for!
So, holding the latest 30-ton converter information provided by Ren Zhong, Xu Jiucheng was full of fighting spirit as if he had been injected with chicken blood.

In fact, Ren Zhong still retained some data for Xu Jiucheng. According to Shougang's experience, in the main world's historical time and space, Shougang designed and built my country's first 1962-ton oxygen top-blown converter steelmaking equipment based on the basic process research, equipment process flow, basic operating system, technical and economic indicators and other parameters of my country's first 3-ton oxygen top-blown converter industrial production test in 30. The production capacity reached more than 10 times that of the open-hearth workshop!
After Shougang's 30-ton oxygen top-blown converter steelmaking was realized, the annual production capacity reached 20 tons. Immediately afterwards, in 1965 and 1967, the second and third 30-ton oxygen top-blown converters were put into production successively, and Shougang's converter steelmaking plant with an annual output of 60 tons of steel was completed.

In a wartime state, Ren Zhong's method of copying homework can greatly shorten the process.

In no more than one year, the 30-ton converter will complete research and trials and go into production.

However, Ren Zhong will not wait for Xu Jiucheng to complete his research before investing.

On the basis of the 3-ton converter, the 6-ton small converter can be expanded and constructed directly to continue to increase the production capacity of the Northwest Steel Plant.

After a year, when the 30-ton converter is developed, in addition to installing 5 sets in Northwest Steel, 3 sets will be directly installed in Jiuyuan and 2 sets in Lu'an, thus creating a new production capacity of 200 million!

If you think about it this way, the steel production capacity of 2 million tons in two years and 300 million tons in three years doesn't seem to be too bad.

However, the mining, transportation, and smelting of crude iron all need to be planned now. Such a huge smelting scale, upstream mining of more than tens of millions of tons, transportation and preliminary smelting, all require massive manpower and material resources. It is not easy, but not impossible.

This is just a place that is developing down to earth. Ren Zhong thought about the current expansion speed of the base. By next year, it will not only be a corner of Jin.

I just don't know to what extent they can do it.

Next year, if we take over the Northeast
Ren Zhong's heart surged, because that was the Northeast, which was richer in resources. The change of ownership of Hedong intensified the friction between the border area and the preserved fruits. Commander Hu was ordered to prepare for a surprise attack on the border area.

The 130,000-strong army was eager to try.

The Border Region, which had deciphered the telegrams of the Eighth War Zone and was fully aware of the movements of the Guofu troops, issued a solemn statement, exposing Guofu's conspiracy and warning of the consequences of invading the Border Region.

In order to dispel Guo Fu's idea of ​​​​the border area, the 2th Guard Regiment, which had been guarding the Dawn Research Institute for a long time, was ordered to be reorganized into the 2th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Border Area (lacking companies of the tank battalion) because of its comprehensive weapons and mechanical training foundation, and went to Heshui and Qingyang for guard; the th Guard Regiment was reorganized into the th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Border Area (lacking companies of the tank battalion) and went to Fuxian area for guard.

原关中警备司令部（辖保安第1、第3团乙种团）升级为两个甲种团，另外配属1个坦克连和1个107火炮兵营。

Seven days later, a division of Hu's army entered the Guanzhong garrison area to cause friction. The 107st Security Regiment was ordered to counterattack. With the assistance of the tank company and the th Artillery Battalion, it defeated the friction division in one fell swoop. Almost at the same time, a cavalry brigade of Ma's army entered Qingyang. The th Mechanized Infantry Brigade counterattacked, and the tank company and jeep machine gun company wiped out the cavalry brigade!
The two battles were clean and efficient, shocking Guofu. All the frictional troops that had emerged since then retreated to their original positions. The border area exposed the conspiracy with detailed pictures, and won the anti-bandit victory in a polite and orderly manner. Guofu was under great pressure from the Allied forces, especially General Shi, and all walks of life strongly called for unity to fight the enemy.

This allowed the border area to resolve an unprecedented friction.

According to the border area deployment, the three regiments under the Security Command were also upgraded to Type A regiments, with a tank company and a 3th artillery battalion assigned to the Security Command to ensure the security and defense of the southern part of the border area.

Of the nine border garrison regiments, the remaining seven were upgraded to Type A regiments, the original 7st Garrison Brigade was abolished, the Special Service Regiment was upgraded to a Mechanized Infantry Guard Brigade, and 1 Type B regiments were reorganized in 23 counties in the border area, forming three mechanized infantry brigades, 23 Type A regiments and 3 Type B regiments, a border garrison force of more than 12 people.

Together with the three Type A regiments and five Type B regiments of the Saibei Military Region in Ikh Ju League and Jiuyuan, and the three Type A regiments and seven Type B regiments of the Suimeng Autonomous Army, the border areas and the areas outside the Great Wall can take care of each other and are able to deal with any unexpected situations.

Ensure that border bases and research institutes are safe and free from external interference.

Turn a storm into nothingness.

As for Shanxi, now that it has been connected, the Eighth Route Army Headquarters has been reorganized. After the original northwestern Shanxi troops were integrated, the target was reorganized into two mechanized infantry brigades (Lüliang and Fenyang), 2 Type A regiments and 9 local Type B regiments, responsible for Lüliang and Fenyang, strategically supporting the development and security of the border area and Saibei;

The goal of Wutai is to reorganize a mechanized infantry brigade (Yunzhong) and 1 Type A regiments, 7 local Type B regiments, responsible for Wutai and Yunzhong areas, and strategically support the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region in Zhangbei area;

In the Taihang area, 5 mechanized infantry brigades, 13 Type A regiments, and 21 Type B regiments were responsible for the defense line from Taiyuan, Jinzhong to Shimen and the development of the Taihang Mountain area;
In the southeast of Taiyue Shanxi, the brigade commander requested 5 mechanized infantry brigades, 15 Type A regiments, and 30 Type B regiments, responsible for Hedong, Henei, Shangdang and Weiguo areas, and strategically supporting the development of Jizhong.

Although the mechanized infantry brigade is now facing a serious shortage of tanks, according to the headquarters' plan, the base has already drawn troops to build a mechanized infantry brigade based on the framework of Li Yunlong's mechanized infantry independent brigade, and has begun large-scale training for car drivers and special technical arms such as tank combat teams and artillery combat teams.

This is the field force. The Type C regiment that was originally reorganized into a local garrison force in each county is now gradually increasing the firepower of a 107 artillery company. On the basis of the 120mm mortar, it will strengthen the mobile firepower of the local counterattack and enhance the mobility of the local garrison.

According to this new reorganization plan, once the equipment is in place, an elite team that is ready to fight and win can be formed immediately.

The current reorganization plan for the 15 mechanized infantry brigades basically meets the requirements for the initial preparations for the heavy attack on the Northeast.

The production of just 900 tanks will probably take some time.

The success of converter steelmaking can shorten this time. After all, the production capacity of special steels has increased several times at once.

Following the successful experience of Taiyuan Northwest Iron and Steel Plant, the steel plants in the border area and Jiuyuan Iron and Steel Plant carried out the transformation of converters almost simultaneously, increasing the production capacity several times at once!
The production capacity of tanks has been brought forward. After all, a T34 tank weighs more than 30 tons, and the original daily production capacity of Northwest Steel was more than 30 tons. A part of it needs to be used for mechanical equipment, machine tools and other rigid needs. The maximum capacity is 20 tanks a month. Now, after several times the explosion, the daily production capacity of special steel has reached about 300 tons, which is enough for the production of seven or eight tanks a day, even for a large consumable like the T34 tank.

如果按照一辆T34配2辆M3坦克的配置来生产，一天最多可以分配200吨钢铁支撑9辆坦克的原材料供应。

Of course, a certain share must be allocated to automobile production, according to the ratio of 1 truck to 3 jeeps. 50 tons of steel can be allocated a day to support the raw materials of 60 automobiles.

In this way, several major heavy machinery factories in Shanxi could produce tanks and cars at full capacity, greatly shortening the time to accumulate 15 tank battalions, and the initial mechanized main force could be completed in more than three months.

When the summer of 1944 arrived, the reorganized Eighth Route Army was bound to surge to a new level of strength.

Not only will there be a fully mechanized mechanized infantry brigade, but in the Type A regiment, the heavy weapons such as the 107mm rifle and mountain artillery will also be towed by jeeps, and the baggage transport will also be carried out by trucks, thus freeing the Type A regiment's mobility from the limitations of mules and horses.

Compared with the current level, the mobility will also reach a new level.

Of course, all this will make oil extraction very important, but all this is within Ren Zhong's expectations. When the refining equipment and extraction equipment were produced, it was anticipated that 10 tons would be prepared as the first phase of construction. With the increase in the strength of the border area, the first phase of 10 tons of extraction and refining construction has been basically completed, and the second phase of 30 tons of project has begun.
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(End of this chapter)