The War of Resistance: From Overseas Chinese Mechanics to King of Nanyang

"I'm going to take the troops out for some training." Looking at the other person's expression, Huang Zurong told him his plan. He originally planned to lie low for a while before coming out, but on the way back, looking at the young-looking soldiers of the expeditionary force, he felt that his plan could be brought forward a little. He had to do something decent, right?

In the past, Chen Shunfa would definitely have disagreed, because he knew that Huang Zurong had put a lot of effort into building this unit, and it had only been a short time. The unit's combat effectiveness had not yet been formed, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a rabble.

Sending such a ragtag group to the battlefield, the outcome is pretty much a given: they'll collapse at the first sign of trouble.

After all, even the well-trained British army was no match for the Japanese army. What could such a unit with no combat experience possibly do?

But now Chen Shunfa's mindset has changed. Even though he knows that doing so will not yield any results, he still wants to do it.

"Ah Rong, I support you. I will persuade more Nanyang Overseas Chinese mechanics to help you," Chen Shunfa said earnestly.

Upon hearing this, Huang Zurong smiled. With the other party's support, many things would go much more smoothly. Although he now controlled a force, it hadn't been thoroughly tested, and its combat effectiveness and loyalty were questionable. So he wasn't sure what to expect. But now, with Chen Shunfa's support, things would be different.

Here I need to talk about some internal affairs of the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanics. In short, wherever there are people, there is a power struggle, so there are several factions within the organization. Huang Zurong's original influence in Dali was only average. In the temporary camp, besides his roommates, he had a few friends, but not many people scattered around.

Later, when he wanted to form an army, he gradually expanded his influence and gained the allegiance of hundreds of overseas Chinese mechanics.

Chen Shunfa is different. Because he travels between Yangon and Xiaguan frequently and is known for his generosity, he has many friends. A large part of the reason he was able to bring back so many people this time is due to his personal charm.

Now that he has expressed his support, many obstacles will disappear.

When they returned to Longchuan, it was just a small town on the border. Since the militia moved in, it had become lively, especially some of the mountains near Myanmar, which were all occupied by the militia and designated as military restricted areas, prohibiting anyone from approaching.

Actually, there's no need to do this at all, because not many people would want to come. This is a remote town, and who would want to go wandering around the mountains for no reason?

Huang Zurong had long been prepared for the development of these mountains, and had even purchased a lot of equipment for it.

Relying solely on manpower for development is far too slow, especially for leveling the land, which requires a significant amount of manpower, not to mention the construction work.

Even if these people are all very hardworking, they still need to consider some practical considerations, right?

Snakes, insects, and wild beasts in the mountains can be deadly if they bite you. If any workers are injured, that would be a real loss. Therefore, Huang Zurong demanded that Liang Huanming prevent such situations from happening and use all cement and asphalt.

Leveling the land was too inefficient, so he brought in excavators, road rollers, and so on.

So when Huang Zurong arrived at the arsenal, he had already seen the basic form of the industrial zone, but it was still far from meeting his requirements.

In terms of electricity, Huang Zurong directly bought a large number of solar panels. The production capacity of these panels is overflowing, and the price is very low. The only expensive part is energy storage. Fortunately, the arsenal does not have a high demand for electricity at present. Currently, a 100KW commercial energy storage system costs only a little over one million. Fortunately, he made a lot of money from timber during this period, so Huang Zurong made a big move and bought them without hesitation.

"It's really expensive." Huang Zurong still felt a little heartache watching the money disappear in a flash, but his mood improved a lot as he saw the arsenal growing larger and larger.

"How is it? Ah Ming, did I do everything I promised you?" Huang Zurong asked Liang Huanming beside him.

"We still need to put more effort into production capacity. The Japanese will be attacking soon, so we don't have much time left."

One of the main reasons for this inspection of the arsenal was to put pressure on the other side. The weapons they bought seemed plentiful, but they would be exhausted after just a few battles, so he had to put pressure on them and increase their production efficiency.

"Commander, don't worry. The equipment has been debugged and is in production. I can guarantee that the daily output of rifles will be no less than fifty, and it is constantly increasing. As for bullets, the output is not high for the time being because the workers are not very skilled, but it will definitely be increased soon," Liang Huanming explained immediately.

Upon hearing this, Huang Zurong nodded in satisfaction, which meant that there would be 1,500 rifles a month, and as the workers' skills became more and more proficient, the production capacity would also increase, and at that time, it would probably be enough to equip a regiment in a month.

The only thing that troubled him was artillery. Mortars were not difficult to produce because there was a large supply of seamless steel pipes available, but heavy artillery was still somewhat difficult.

Liang Huanming's solution was to recruit more workers and more engineers, especially those related to the military industry.

"I'll figure out a way to solve this." Huang Zurong could only nod to indicate that he understood. As for how to do it, he didn't have many ideas for the time being. Should he poach people from China?

It's not that it's impossible, but the technology is probably not up to par. The best artillery experts are in Germany, but we can't reach them right now, so we have to put it on hold for the time being.

"Did you manage to build that cannon I mentioned last time?" Just because we can't build a standard heavy cannon doesn't mean we can't build other heavy cannons.

For example, the gas cylinder cannon. This thing, including the gas cylinder, doesn't even weigh a ton. Two or three people can push it around, and the raw materials are readily available.

Although the range is a bit short, its effectiveness in attacking strongpoints is absolutely top-notch.

If facing a tough Japanese position, a single artillery shell would have terrifying destructive power.

"Ah, that particularly ugly cannon you mentioned?" Upon hearing about the gas cylinder cannon, Liang Huanming was clearly somewhat resistant. As a mechanical master, having him build such an ugly cannon was somewhat insulting.

"right."

"It's been built. The power is not bad, but the range is too short, only five or six hundred meters at most. Isn't that too short?" He didn't know why they had to build this, but Huang Zurong had made a special request, so he could only have twenty of them built.

If we had more manpower, we could easily build hundreds of these, since they don't require much technical skill.