Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 43 Kong Jie is dismissed and Li Yunlong disobeys (Seeking follow-up reading)
Outside Yangcun.

Yamamoto Ikki heard continuous gunfire from the village. There were gunshots from his own side's MP38 submachine guns and Type light machine guns, as well as the enemy's Hanyang-type, Zhongzheng-type and Type rifles, one after another, with no sign of stopping.

"Damn it, we haven't captured that idiot Fujita for such a long time. We have missed the chance for a surprise attack and allowed the Eighth Route Army Headquarters to receive the alarm in advance. Order! Fire the retreat signal flares and everyone retreat in turns!" Yamamoto Ikki said with determination.

Originally, the sentry fired a warning shot, which led to a skirmish between the two sides. Yamamoto Kazuki had already considered retreating. Now there was a trend of a stalemate between the two sides, and Yamamoto Kazuki didn't want to wait any longer.

After all, this was the heartland of the Eighth Route Army's base, and the reinforcements of the Locust Army were at least dozens of kilometers away. He could not launch a sneak attack on the base's headquarters, and he thought it would be reckless to fight a tough battle against the large and powerful guerrillas.

Two flares shot straight into the sky. When the Japanese saw the signal, they immediately began to retreat in turns to cover each other.

There is no regret at all.

When the company commander saw the enemy retreating, he commanded more than a dozen soldiers to chase them out. Unexpectedly, there were still two Japanese soldiers left hiding behind rocks. Under the crossfire of two submachine guns, more than a dozen soldiers were caught off guard and knocked to the ground. The company commander was also hit in the thigh and fell to the ground with a scream!

This little ambush by the Japanese made Kong Jie's eyes blaze again, and he shouted loudly: "Don't chase! Be careful to hide!"

Up to now in the battle, the first company has suffered more than two-thirds casualties!
The elite company of the independent regiment had been severely damaged by these elusive Japanese invaders. Kong Jie carefully cleaned up the mess and led the machine gun platoon to slowly search forward to the top of the mountain, only to find that the Japanese invaders had long disappeared.

After cleaning up the battlefield for a long time, he only picked up a pile of bullet shells and a helmet!
Ren Zhong didn't know that even with his reminder, Kong Jie still suffered a major defeat, which seriously damaged the independent regiment. The first company was crippled and Captain Zhang was seriously injured. Even though the second company, led by Changshanhe, fully utilized its flexible combat characteristics, it still suffered more than a platoon of casualties.

The total number of casualties was over one hundred, of which over one hundred were direct deaths!

Despite such a devastating defeat, Kong Jie knew nothing about it and reported the news to the headquarters.

When the chief saw the battle report, his eyebrows raised and he became furious: "What main force regiment? I think it's just a bunch of dough! This is a completely stupid command!" He immediately ordered the dismissal of Regiment Commander Kong Jie!
Seeing that the leader was angry, the chief of staff and the division commander remained silent.

A regiment was almost crippled by a group of Japanese devils at the cost of an entire battalion. Despite such a disastrous defeat, the commander was shown mercy by not executing him!
Two days later, it was the day when the earthen kiln was opened.

In front of the earthen kiln on the back hill outside the clothing factory.

A group of people gathered around the earthen kiln. Ren Zhong and Li Yunlong were both a little excited as they watched the kiln worker, Old Li, holding a shovel and preparing to open the kiln.

After more than 30 hours of firing and nearly ten hours of cooling, when a corner of the earthen kiln was opened, strong heat came out from inside, bringing a heat wave to everyone in this cold early spring season.

Kiln worker Old Li carefully opened the earthen door that sealed the kiln. A large amount of cold air poured in, and the temperature of the kiln began to drop sharply. Gradually, people could try to enter.

"Boss, this kiln is done!" Old Li, a kiln worker, said happily after taking a look at the colors of the eight custom-made large vats in the earthen kiln.

Ren Zhong followed the sight of Old Li and saw that the colors of four large vats had turned into dark glaze, but the colors of the other four vats were different shades, probably because they failed. It was unknown how Old Li judged the success. "Boss, look at the four dark-colored vats, they are completely successful. The other two with lighter colors are basically unsuccessful and failed. The other two with darker colors are basically successful, but the fire is not high enough, so they are much less durable than the four darker ones."

So that's how it is. Ren Zhong understood and continued the topic that Old Li had been talking about: "Master Li, how do we judge whether a kiln is successful?"

"Boss, look, these ones have a darker color and are more uniform, which proves that the coal and coke placed around them during firing are all appropriate, so that the color of the entire vat can be uniform. Look at the one next to it, half of it is dark and the other half is light, which is caused by the different amounts of coal and coke placed around it."

"This is what I expected. I tried to figure out how much coal and coke would be needed to make a qualified pottery vat. I used different ratios of coal and coke next to different vats. Although not all the finished products are good, they are basically consistent with my previous kiln-firing experience. After I successfully adjust the ratio of coal and coke next to these vats, I should be able to make all qualified vats."

After listening to Old Li's explanation, Ren Zhong suddenly understood.

This kiln is of an experimental nature. It seems that the folk wisdom of this era should not be underestimated.

"Hahaha, Brother Ren, do you think these big vats are enough for you? If not, we can continue to burn new ones." Li Yunlong grinned as he watched the kiln burn successfully. All this was worth his hard work for nearly a month.

Ren Dian nodded: "With six large vats, we can barely form a simple sulfuric acid production line. Next, we will wait for the large vats to cool down slowly, and then we can start to build the sulfuric acid production line."

After evaluation, the net value of Lisai Battery was discounted to about 350 million, and Ren Zhong has already acquired Lisai Battery.

After several shipments, the concentrated sulfuric acid has accumulated to nearly 40 kilograms, which should be enough for the new sulfuric acid production line to initially absorb sulfur trioxide.

If nothing goes wrong, Ren Zhong and his team will be able to produce new sulfuric acid on their own in two days.

When Li Yunlong heard Ren Zhong's confident words, he began to imagine the wonderful prospect of turning the clothing factory into a military propellant production plant.

However, just as Li Yunlong was daydreaming, a staff officer from the headquarters came hurriedly on horseback.

Seeing Li Yunlong, the staff officer dismounted, walked to Li Yunlong and whispered:

"Captain Li, the commander has ordered that you take over as the commander of the independent regiment from today onwards and immediately leave for Yangcun to hand over military duties to Captain Kong Jie!"

Li Yunlong was stunned for a moment, then said, "No! I won't go! Everything needs to be clarified. Why did they remove me as the main leader in the first place?"

The staff officer who delivered the order did not expect Li Yunlong to disobey orders, and said unhappily: "Hey, Captain Li, this is the order from the boss himself!"

Li Yunlong slapped his thigh and raised his voice, saying: "Even if you are the king of heaven, you have to distinguish right from wrong!"

I beg you to read on!
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(End of this chapter)