NIP #187 - The fledgling automobile industry
#187 - The fledgling automobile industry
Ren Zhong wasn't sure if three-wheeled vehicles could run on the grasslands, but it wasn't important. He could have someone investigate it later.
However, in the vast wilderness beyond the Great Wall, without horses or vehicles, it would be impossible to fight the Japanese devils on foot. Ren Zhong was very clear about this. The grasslands were endless plains, and once discovered, two legs couldn't outrun four.
Therefore, Ren Zhong couldn't allow the main force of the border region to be so passive in the upcoming battle of the northern grasslands.
Even if Tiger's idea of mechanization still had some flaws, such as vehicle maintenance, fuel supply, driver replacements, and so on, there were still many problems to be solved. But they could work hard to overcome and make up for them in the future.
The pilot project would naturally start with the Eighth Regiment of the Garrison. After the Red Star Hercules vehicles were produced one after another, Ren Zhong would have them running transportation and mining during the day. At night, he would also reserve two hours near Haojiaping Highway for the Eighth Regiment of the Garrison to start training drivers. Even if not everyone was a driver, Ren Zhong required at least one-third of them to learn how to drive these three-wheeled vehicles.
According to Ren Zhong's plan, the deployed troops would have to consist of at least four main regiments, plus the Provisional Third Division and the early two regiments, to encircle the Japanese devils in Jiuyuan and swallow them in one bite!
Therefore, once the oil refinery started operating, it would be necessary to raise fuel and transport it to the front line of the Yikezhao League to stockpile a batch. When it was time to attack, the convoy would be fully loaded with weapons, ammunition, and the core components needed for the new aluminum plant, steel plant, and uranium plant, and head north to start large-scale engineering construction.
It wasn't necessary to completely mechanize all four main regiments. As long as one mechanized main regiment was completed, the combat effectiveness of the troops would increase exponentially. Then, with lightning speed, they would occupy the key points for the Japanese devils to escape, and cooperate with the main force to go north and steadily take Jiuyuan, occupying the Baiyun Ebo mining area.
For Ren Zhong, now that smelting and military industrial technology had begun to blossom in all directions, the next step was to compete for resources and logistics. The Japanese devils in Jin Province were still very strong, and the main force of the Japanese devils in North China still numbered more than 200,000. Even if the Japanese devils in Jin Province were unable to cope, they would desperately support them. The main forces in Taihang and Taiyue were not developing as fast in military industry as the border region.
They simply couldn't withstand the Japanese devils' three-dimensional attacks from the air and ground, even if half of the Japanese devils' warplanes in the sky were scrapped, and the three-dimensional attacks were a bit weak.
However, the Kwantung Army had not been abolished, and with the continuous supply of resources from the Northeast, the Japanese devils were not short of weapons and ammunition.
The production capacity of pig iron in Anshan, Manchukuo, reached 1.18 million tons in 1941, and would reach 1.309 million tons in 1942. Now, Ren Zhong had worked hard for more than a year, almost two years, and hadn't even reached a fraction of that. The huge gap was conceivable.
The strongest thing about the main forces in the Taihang and Taiyue base areas was that they could produce a few 107 rockets a month. Now, they couldn't even replicate the S41 mountain gun and the G20 anti-aircraft gun. If they faced hundreds or thousands of 105mm and 150mm heavy artillery pieces of the Kwantung Army, they would have no chance of winning at all.
Although the restoration of the Heyuan and Yangcun bases had given the Taiyue base area a fairly stable base for the supply of light weapons and ammunition, it was still a drop in the bucket for more than 100,000 main force troops. At least, it would take a long time to equip a main regiment with a 107 rocket, let alone take Jin Province in one fell swoop, which was still unrealistic.
Even if they were lucky enough to take it, they wouldn't be able to hold it.
This was due to strength. Ren Zhong had no other way to think about it in the short term. He could only stare at the resources and Japanese devils in the north.
Relatively speaking, if the border region hadn't been under pressure from the Kuomintang, making it impossible to transfer the main force, the Japanese devils' main cavalry group and several puppet army divisions in Jiuyuan could have been taken down by sending two main brigades from the border region.
But Ren Zhong wasn't in a hurry. Now, more than 100 kilometers of the road leading to the Yikezhao League hadn't been widened, and there weren't nearly enough Hercules three-wheeled vehicles. It wasn't too difficult to take Jiuyuan, but it wouldn't be easy to hold it. He had to be prepared for a protracted war.
Therefore, for the border region, it was still best to invest in the hot and bustling wave of construction.
In early May, the oil refinery was put into trial operation, starting large-scale oil refining. The olefins that Ren Zhong had been thinking about also began to be produced in batches, and the synthetic rubber production line started operating accordingly. Although it only had a daily output of a few tons, producing at most 200 tires per ton, this production capacity had already exceeded the production capacity of the Hercules three-wheeled vehicles several times over.
Immediately following, the second set of 1.8L single-cylinder diesel engines was successfully developed, with a maximum output power of 35 horsepower. Ren Zhong obtained a hydraulic self-unloading four-wheeled tractor mining truck from the main world. It looked very ugly, and was nicknamed 'four-not-alike', but its rated load could reach 3 tons. Ren Zhong enlarged the carriage to 3 meters, the whole vehicle was 4.2 meters long, the maximum climbing slope reached 40 degrees, and the speed was 45 kilometers per hour.
Compared to the Hercules, this 'four-not-alike' looked ugly, but it weighed 1.5 tons, supported self-unloading, and was more practical in mining. It used a diesel engine, and could start calmly even in an environment of minus ten degrees Celsius.
The main selling points were simplicity, cheapness, ease of production, durability, and wide range of uses!
As for the 'high speed' of 45 kilometers per hour, it seemed a bit touching, but it should be known that this was already several times faster than running on foot, and the key was that it was durable!
Ren Zhong wouldn't aim too high and pursue those heavy trucks developed in the 1970s and 1980s. For him, it wasn't that he couldn't afford heavy trucks, but that under the current production conditions, the all-round high basic technical requirements of heavy truck production were really not cost-effective!
Unlike this kind of tractor, basically, you could just take the design drawings, modify them, and directly produce them, without requiring much technical content at all!
Moreover, heavy trucks also required better roads to match them, and there were no conditions to build that kind of crushed stone and soil-level road.
Even with such vehicles, after the Hercules came out, Staff Officer Ye brought people to test drive it, and then took a vehicle back to the border region's capital.
Now that the Victory I had come out, it would inevitably be exploited again!
Ren Zhong's automobile industry started from such a starting point.
Third update! Seeking recommendations and monthly tickets!