Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 570 Annihilation of Pirates, Supernatural Abilities and Industrial Equipment Modification, New Weapon Production Technology
The pirate fleet sped toward the two cargo ships.

Their ships were old and varied in size; they would certainly be no match for regular warships, but they were more than enough to attack merchant ships.

Before they even arrived, the pirates were already brandishing their weapons and shouting, while the Black Dragon Society members were preparing to board the ship.

They didn't notice that a plane was falling from the sky.

The shadow in the sky startled the pirates, and they looked up at the sky.

The roar grew louder as the aircraft drew closer, its silhouette becoming larger.

Even the firing ports on the sides of the fuselage and the rocket launchers mounted on the wings can be seen with the naked eye.

The Black Dragon Society members knew what this meant, but they never expected that Taishan Airlines would send escort aircraft.

They shouted loudly, urging the pirates to fight.

But how could this possibly be a match for the gunboats and aircraft that could directly confront the Japanese ground forces on the main battlefield?

As the pirates raised their old Lee-Enfield rifles, Fang Wen piloted his gunboat and circled sideways.

With the precise firing order given, the gunner immediately adjusted the firing angle and conducted aerial firing.

Flames erupted from the firing ports on the left side of the fuselage as 12.7mm machine gun rounds poured out, heading down at the pirate fleet below.

With a sharp whistling sound, white sprays of water rose in front of the pirate fleet before hitting the pirate ships.

Bullets plowed through the ship's hull and deck, leaving trails of bullet holes. Pirates hit by the bullets were struck, their limbs severed, blood splattering as they screamed in agony.

The pirates were stunned by the sudden and fierce attack, and many of them decided to abandon the attack and choose to take cover.

Meanwhile, the Black Dragon Society members were still trying to put up a last-ditch resistance, taking out Japanese Type 100 submachine guns and firing them into the air.

This submachine gun, which uses 8mm pistol bullets, poses no threat to gunboats or aircraft, and cannot even reach the aircraft's firing altitude.

Fang Wen did not let these Black Dragon Society members off the hook because of this.

This organization has done things just as heinous as the invading Japanese army.

In 1928, during the Huanggutun Incident, and in 1931, during the September 18 Incident, he colluded with the Japanese army in Shanghai, and his ronin were arrogant and domineering throughout China.

They used every means at their disposal, from assassinations and incitement to the massacre of civilians. They also cultivated and sold large quantities of opium in Northeast China, contributing huge sums of money to the Japanese army.

To the Chinese people, none of the people associated with this organization are good.

Therefore, none of them need to go back.

Fang Wen activated the mechanical sensing system, connected to the television fire control device, and locked onto the target below using a human-guided approach.

He then quickly operated the launch pod control lever to adjust the firing direction, and then pressed the launch button.

Five rockets were launched from the left launch pod, hurtling rapidly toward the largest pirate ship.

Five rockets, trailing orange-red flames, left long contrails in the sky above the sea.

The first rocket hit the mast, and the mast collapsed in the explosion.

The second shot hit the middle of the ship precisely, and the eight-kilogram high-explosive warhead instantly tore through the wooden outer shell, revealing a large hole. The pirates hiding in the cabin below suffered heavy casualties.

The explosion also threw the Black Dragon Society members on the deck, along with their Type 100 submachine guns, into the air.

The other three shots hit the side of the ship. The continuous explosions created three large holes in the side of the ship, and seawater quickly poured in, causing the old, dilapidated steamship to list and sink.

At the same time, Fang Wen locked onto the other three pirate ships and fired all the remaining rockets.

After an explosion, the pirate ship below suffered heavy damage and was basically unable to move.

The attack did not stop; gunboats continued to circle and strafed the targets below.

It wasn't until half an hour later that Fang Wen ordered a halt.

The air attack by gunboats was very effective, and all these pirate ships would sink in this area.

Those members of the Black Dragon Society will also be buried here.

Fang Wen picked up the microphone: "The pirate attack has been dealt with. Continue sailing."

Two cargo ships that had been watching from a distance sounded their horns, bringing the battle to a perfect close.

The Japanese-planned attack in the Gulf of Aden was thwarted by Fang Wen, and no further problems arose during the subsequent voyage.

The two cargo ships then sailed from the Gulf of Aden, crossed the Arabian Sea, passed the Maldives south of the Indian peninsula, Sri Lanka, and then crossed the Bay of Bengal to reach Yangon Port.

Two cargo ships and the gunboat piloted by Fang Wen arrived in Yangon, and Taishan Aviation headquarters immediately organized the unloading.

A large amount of equipment was unloaded from the ship, registered one by one, and smaller items were transported directly to the base in northern Myanmar by seaplane.

Large pieces of equipment, especially the Creusot 400 stamping press, weigh over 10 tons, which even the Taishan No. 1, which is currently undergoing renovation, cannot transport.

Therefore, all of this equipment was transported by water, loaded onto ships of a British inland waterway company, and shipped north via the Irrawaddy River.

This road was used when the base in northern Myanmar was built, but the last part of the journey requires passing through the dense forests of northern Myanmar, which is still very difficult for transporting large equipment.

In order to complete this final leg of the journey, Taishan Airlines personnel negotiated with the local tribal chiefs. After paying a considerable freight fee, the local tribes provided a large number of people and used elephants as transport to move the equipment.

May 10th,

The convoy of transport equipment finally emerged from the edge of the dense forest.

On the muddy dirt road, elephants and locals dragged each other along, the ropes they were pulling connected to a raft made of huge logs, on which were placed huge wooden boxes.

In this way, the most advanced industrial machinery and equipment of the era were transported to the outskirts of the base in northern Myanmar using human and animal power.

Immediately, the base organized a large number of people to help complete the last small part of the journey.

It took a whole day to finally get this batch of heavy equipment into the base.

Now, the infrastructure of the rocket factory has been completed, the original warehouse has been transformed into a factory, and the equipment that was airlifted in has been placed in the pre-planned workshop.

Now that the equipment is complete, it's time to start mass production of rockets.

At this point, it was Fang Wen's turn to design the complete industrial production process.

Therefore, he convened a pre-opening meeting with all the managers of the rocket factory. Upon receiving the order, the managers gathered in the factory's conference room.

After everyone had arrived, Fang Wen presided over the ceremony.

"The equipment has arrived, but there's still a long way to go before we can start production. After all, we lack rocket production technology and experience, and our equipment isn't even professional. So, we're essentially feeling our way across the river, and every step is an experiment. There will be many problems and difficulties ahead, and the domestic situation constantly reminds us that we must produce the weapons as soon as possible. Everyone should be mentally prepared for the difficulties involved."

He started by laying out all the bad things, so that the managers of the rocket factory would take it seriously.

Fang Wen then continued, "Alright, now let's talk about the factory's plan. First, we need to clarify the tactical positioning of the first batch of rockets: In view of the current battlefield needs, our goal is to fight tanks, destroy Japanese fortifications, and suppress cluster targets. Therefore, in the initial stage, we should focus on 60-100 mm caliber lightweight rockets, while also producing suitable vehicle-mounted, airborne, or portable launchers, pursuing the three production indicators of 'low cost, easy production, and meeting the power requirements'."

At this point, Fang Wen paused and looked at the managers below.

He continued, "Now we will be assigning management positions. If you feel that the assigned management positions are not suitable, you can raise your concerns, and I will consider making adjustments accordingly."

The production workshop has been set up.

Different departments were established according to different production and manufacturing stages.

This includes: a stamping and forging workshop (stamping to form projectile blanks), a conventional lathe machining workshop (outer diameter, tail fin grooves), a welding workshop (connecting the tail fins to the projectile body), a propellant manufacturing workshop, a fuse manufacturing workshop, and a propellant loading workshop, etc.

With the managers assigned to so many workshops, no one had any objections to their work.

Next, Fang Wen explained how the follow-up work would proceed.

He drew on his industrial experience in aircraft manufacturing, first using the equipment to completely manufacture the first generation of homemade rockets. Then, he transformed the entire production process into a standardized one. Once the production process was established, he handed it over to different departments for collaborative production, jointly producing various rocket components and forming a complete production process.

After the meeting concluded, managers from various departments began organizing their employees to learn how to operate the equipment from the technicians sent by Schneider Electric.

Fang Wenze began to test-produce rockets and study the production process.

Although he had never seen a Soviet rocket production workshop, he designed the production process based on his own understanding.

Aside from entrusting the propellant production to Huo Duanyang's specialized chemistry team, he decided to personally handle the production of all other components.

The first thing to be made is the rocket body.

He disassembled the 82mm Soviet-made rocket body, recreated it one-to-one, and then made a stamping die.

This requires the use of a Creusot 400 hydraulic press, which is very difficult to operate. If Fang Wen does not operate it himself, it will be difficult for other operators to achieve the stamping effect that Fang Wen wants.

Therefore, the first step is to modify the stamping machine to make it suitable for production.

During those days, Fang Wen used his mechanical perception to understand the stamping machine and, after many stamping experiments, found the problem with the Creusot400 stamping machine.

This is mainly because it uses a single pump for constant pressure oil supply, and the pressure fluctuates drastically with the load (such as a sudden increase in pressure during stamping and a sudden drop during return), resulting in poor workpiece accuracy and easy fatigue of the equipment.

This kind of technical problem is very challenging for engineers and technicians in this era.

However, for Fang Wen, there are future memories that can be drawn upon.

Using his deep-seated engineering knowledge, he came up with a solution.

First, the variable displacement hydraulic pump must be replaced: replace the piston pump with an axial variable displacement piston pump, and adjust the flow rate by adjusting the angle of the swashplate inside the pump body to achieve dynamic matching of "pressure-flow" - automatically increase the displacement to provide high pressure during stamping, and reduce the displacement to reduce energy consumption during return, and the pressure fluctuation can be controlled within ±5%.

Bosch in Germany has a device that can be used in this technology, and Fang Wen immediately instructed the Paris branch to purchase it.

Fortunately, Bosch has not yet fully adopted military applications, and its sales channels are still open. As a result, the Paris branch was able to purchase the parts that Fang Wen wanted.

The second modification is to add an accumulator buffer: connect 1-2 bladder-type accumulators in series in the main oil circuit (the capacity is matched according to the stamping tonnage, such as a 10L accumulator for a 50-ton stamping press), and use the compression characteristics of nitrogen to absorb the pressure peak during the stamping, so as to prevent the pipeline from bursting due to impact, and at the same time reduce the number of motor starts (the accumulator can store energy, and the motor does not need to run at full load for short-term oil supply).

Bladder accumulators are commonly used energy storage and buffering devices in future hydraulic systems, and are widely used due to their compact structure and rapid response.

Its structure is not complicated, consisting of a bladder, a shell, and a valve assembly.

Fang Wen created the design drawings for the bladder-type accumulator based on his memory, and then personally made the device.

The third modification is to add a pressure compensation valve: a pilot-operated relief valve is installed in the oil inlet line, and the maximum working pressure is set. When the system pressure exceeds the threshold, the valve will automatically unload to prevent overload damage to the pump body and cylinder.

The three renovation designs were carried out under Fang Wen's guidance.

The original hydraulic press was disassembled, all the parts that needed to be replaced were replaced, and no parts with potential hazards were left behind.

The new hydraulic system significantly improves both efficiency and stability without increasing its size.

In this way, Fang Wen completed the modification of the Creusot400 hydraulic stamping press and conducted stamping trials using the modified Creusot400.

The effect is very good. The pressure changes are much smaller than before, and the stability has been greatly improved. It has reached a level that allows ordinary workers to perform low-difficulty operations.

Thus, the stamping process for the projectile components was solved.

Once Fang Wen passed the most difficult part of the transformation, the other parts were even less challenging.

Time passed slowly, and Fang Wen personally made the rocket's body, warhead, fuse, and other components, then assembled, welded, and loaded the propellant.
A rocket that he personally built from start to finish was born.

After test firing, the effect was comparable to that of the Soviet-made 82mm rocket.

Afterwards, Fang Wen produced two more missiles following the same production process as the first one, and after test firing, the usability of this production process was confirmed.

He digitized the entire production process and further subdivided each step, creating a replicable industrial production line process.

With this technology in hand, Fang Wen immediately convened all production workshops to prepare for production process training.

Everyone in the workshop, including managers, participated in the training.

During the 10-day production process training, Fang Wen served as the main lecturer for multiple training courses, imparting the technological processes of each production step to workers in different workshops.

Among those receiving training, the engineering teams from several aircraft manufacturing plants showed the strongest ability to learn.

They had become accustomed to Fang Wen's industrial manufacturing experience and quickly mastered it using similar processes.

Subsequently, other workers also learned these techniques.

Their task is not complicated; they produce a single, specific component in a simple, repetitive manner, but the requirements are very strict, with no error exceeding specified values.

Therefore, each workshop started trial production. One by one, the trial products were produced and then strictly tested by the factory's quality inspectors. If any problems were found, the products were immediately scrapped and required to be remade.

Through repeated production processes, the workers fully absorbed their own part of the manufacturing process, and the parts they produced became increasingly compliant with the requirements.

When the yield rate reached 90%, Fang Wen decided to begin mass production of the first batch of rockets.

(End of this chapter)