Episode 121 Half tracked truck

Chongqing is only about one thousand kilometers away from Nanjing. Junker-52 can fly directly and there is no need to land in the middle to refuel.

At 8 o'clock in the morning on June 24, Xiang Xiaoqiang took five experts led by Wang Hexiang, six guards led by Hu Jiong, and three confidential female soldiers led by Qiu Qiu. Xiang Xiaoqiang himself had a total of fifteen people, and boarded a Junker-52 at Xianlin Airport and flew to Chongqing.

At around 11:00 a.m., the plane landed at the Yubei Shiping Military Airport in northeastern Chongqing.

Shiping Airport is about fifteen kilometers away from Chongqing city. But Xiang Xiaoqiang is not Chongqing City, but Taiping Ji Company headquarters. The area around Shiping Airport is the production base of Taiping Ji Military Industry Company. Taiping Ji's production base and Lianfenghao, and the light weapons companies like Qishunfa are not of the same level. Here, factories are all next to each other, with chimneys, railroad tracks, mother factories, sub-factories, shooting ranges, test yards... forming a huge heavy industry city.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a bus out of the airport and looked at the majestic factories passing by on both sides of the highway. He felt like this was not Chongqing or Sichuan, but the Ruhr Industrial Zone in Germany, and Krupp's production base.

The Ming Dynasty had three main rear strategic heavy industrial zones in the country, namely the Southwest Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Yun, Guizhou, Sichuan), the South Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Guangdong, Guangxi), and the Southeast Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Fujian). These large industrial zones are responsible for the most life-and-death industrial production of the Ming Empire, such as steel (southwest), machinery (southwest), military industry (southwest), automobile (southwest), shipbuilding (southeast), and oil refining (south). It can also be said that once a war begins, these strategic industrial zones are the empire's hematopoietic system.

The reason why these areas are regarded as strategic heavy industrial zones is mainly because they are located in the rear and are far away from the borders of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In particular, the two strategic industrial zones in the southwest and southeast are surrounded by high mountains and ridges, easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the possibility of being captured by the Qing army from land is very small. In this way, even if the Qing army crosses the river and the Ming Dynasty loses the political, economic and cultural centers of Jiangnan, it can still persist in the war.

However, the territory of the Ming Dynasty itself is not vast and its depth is not very large. Even in the "rear" strategic industrial zone, some parts are still within the voyage of long-range bombers, such as the Sichuan Basin, which is where the Taipingji Company's production base is located. Because the western border of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was divided by the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains. The Sichuan Basin is Daba Mountains to the north, and Qinling Mountains to the north. The Qinling Mountains are controlled by the Qing Dynasty, and Daba Mountains are controlled by the Ming Dynasty. The north of the Qinling Mountains are Shaanxi and Gansu in the Northern Qing Dynasty.

Long-range bombers taking off from Shaanxi and Gansu have only a voyage of 300 kilometers into the Sichuan Basin, and to Chongqing in the southern part of the Sichuan Basin, it is only more than 400 kilometers, completely within the flight radius of the twin-engine bomber. The Yangtze River defense line has been changed from west of Anqing to a land defense line. Although it is still called the "Yangtze River Defense Line", the defense line is no longer based on the Yangtze River, but on the mountains and hills. Daba Mountain on the north side of the Sichuan Basin is a section of the Yangtze River defense line. The fortifications on the mountains are extremely strong, and it is basically impossible for the Qing army to break through from land. Therefore, the only danger in the Sichuan Basin comes from the air.

Therefore, this place has become one of the two key air defense zones of the Ming Empire. The so-called two key air defense zones are the first one is the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain, and the second one is the Sichuan Basin. The Sichuan Basin also has unique air defense conditions. It has a vast area and relatively flat terrain. There are many places where airports can be built. Therefore, this is the area where the Ming airports are the densest in addition to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain. In the north of the basin, almost all the defending fighter brigade airports are mainly used. These fighter airports form a large air defense network to protect the Sichuan Basin strategic industrial zone. Chongqing Shiping Airport, which lands towards Xiaoqiang, is in the southern part of the basin, is a bomber brigade airport.

Within a dozen kilometers from the airport to Taipingji headquarters, Xiang Xiaoqiang saw two anti-aircraft artillery units stations in the car, and kept hearing the roar of engines passing by overhead. The representative of Taipingji who came to pick up the plane said that this was the training of the Land Airlines aircraft. Since the Ming and Qing Wars at the beginning of this year, the Land Airlines aircraft have been training day and night for the past six months, and have never stopped. As long as it is during the day, a "buzzing" sound can always be heard above the head.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was very satisfied. Li Guoliang was really working very hard, and it also shows that the Ming Empire, both the army and the government, attached great importance to air strength. Otherwise, the high-intensity training day after day, would be a big number of fuel burned every day. The Ming Dynasty did not produce its own oil, but had to transport it from the Southeast Asian country. Therefore, it would be impossible without the attention and support of the entire country.

...

When he arrived at the headquarters of Taiping Ji Company, Xiang Xiaoqiang met the current boss of Taiping Ji Military Industry Company - Zhang Shaoheng. Mr. Zhang is the second-generation head of the Taiping Ji Military Industry Empire. His father is Zhang Taiping, the founder of Taiping Ji. Zhang Taiping has long passed away, but in the words of later generations, he is the "spiritual leader" of Taiping Ji. Mr. Zhang Shaoheng, the current chairman, not only inherited Taiping Ji, but also inherited the legacy of his father, which is quite like Zhang Taiping at that time.

Mr. Zhang Shaoheng is in his sixties. He is wearing simple Chinese outfit and snow-white hair hanging from behind his head to his shoulders. He is energetic and has a fairy-like look. Behind him are more than a dozen senior executives from Taipingji, all of whom are straight suits and ties, which contrasts Zhang Shaoheng's supreme and transcendent status.

When Zhang Shaoheng saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, he smiled and shook hands with him very strongly, with a very big entrepreneurial style. However, Xiang Xiaoqiang was more knowledgeable and chatted with him very casually.

At noon, Mr. Zhang treated Xiang Xiaoqiang and his group to welcome Xiang Xiaoqiang and his group. Xiang Xiaoqiang originally thought that Chongqing was a big stove and would definitely be very hot, but since he got off the plane, he has never thought of this. Now when it comes to going to have dinner, Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly remembered that Chongqing does not seem to be as hot as the legendary one. He suddenly realized that he came from Nanjing. Nanjing is also a big stove, not inferior to Chongqing at all, and he has adapted. There may be another reason. This era is not as strong as the greenhouse effect as in later generations, and the annual average temperature is much lower. Winter is colder than later generations, and summer is cooler than later generations.

Considering that Xiang Xiaoqiang and his group are all public officials, in order to avoid the suspicion of bribery, Boss Zhang's welcome banquet is not extravagant. Although the dishes are exquisitely cooked, there are no expensive things. This is also the characteristic of Sichuan cuisine. But there is one thing that makes Xiang Xiaoqiang very comfortable. There are several kinds of iced foods on the table. Ice fruits, iced sour plum soup, iced bamboo leaf green wine, and iced Coca-Cola after the meal...

In this era, in this era when refrigerators just appeared, it is absolutely luxurious to eat iced fruits and drink iced drinks in the summer. Because even most wealthy people in this era do not have refrigerators. If you want to eat iced food in summer, you have to rely on the ice cubes stored in the ice cellar in winter. Ice cubes are very expensive in summer. There is an ice cellar in Xiang Xiaoqiang's official residence. After June, Qiu Qiu often lets people take out the ice cubes and put them in the room to cool down.

And at present, after eating the hot Sichuan cuisine and drinking the iced sour plum soup, it was so refreshing...

...

After lunch, Xiang Xiaoqiang touched his mouth after about 1:00 in the afternoon. He didn't have a rest and directly asked Boss Zhang to prepare the car and go to the test site to see the sample car.

The group took a car out of the administrative living area and entered the factory area. There were railway rails that were well connected and walked through the factory area. They came to a train garage and got out of the car.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and the others were a little puzzled because they were talking about going to the test site. Why did they get off in front of the train garage?

Zhang Shaoheng stood beside Xiang Xiaoqiang, pointed to the tall train garage and said with a smile:

"Don't you understand, do you? Haha, that's right, from this moment on, the product display for you has begun...it starts here."

He made a gesture. Two workers slowly pushed open the two huge warehouse doors with force, and a black locomotive appeared inside. It could be seen that the locomotive was already full of air and panting from time to time. The chimney above his head was gently floating with white air, and the boiler dripped water down. A driver got up and pulled a whistle. The front of the car was sprayed out steam high, and the steps were heavy.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and his group still didn't understand it. However, Xiang Xiaoqiang was very patient. He had already had a premonition of the exciting things he was about to see from behind this motorcycle that was ready to go.

The locomotive was completely driven out. At this time, Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that this was not a separate front. There was a passenger carriage behind the front and a flatbed carriage behind it.

The motorcycle sighed and stopped. He looked at Zhang Shaoheng inquiringly. Zhang Shaoheng smiled and made another gesture. The door of a smaller warehouse next to the train garage opened.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and his group's eyes lit up. They saw what they wanted to see. Two armored vehicles were parked in the dark warehouse. From the front, they were about one person tall, wheeled, and a woodpecker machine gun with a baffle was mounted on the roof.

With the familiar sound of the engine, the two armored vehicles started at the same time. They drove out of the garage almost at the same time, turned neatly, revealing their whole body. Behind the tires on the front of the car were tracks.

This is a half-track car, the legendary half-track car.

This kind of car is a bit like the World War II German semi-tracked car that Xiang Xiaoqiang is familiar with, but it is different in many places. The body is not that high, it looks only 1.8 meters tall, and it is only the height of an adult man. The car is about five or six meters long, and there is also an inclined armor plate at the front.

One of the two cars seemed to be empty, it was a simple transport vehicle, and the other had a short gun barrel extending upward at the rear. The gun barrel was very thick, so Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at it, it was about 105 or 120 mm caliber. He understood. The first one was a basic model, and the second one was a modified variant, that is, a self-propelled mortar.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's breathing became rapid and stared at the two half-track armored vehicles. The engines of the two vehicles were shaking and driving under the flatbed truck, then jumped out of the first personnel carrier, took off the large wooden board from the flatbed truck and set it up obliquely. One person stood on the flatbed truck to direct. So another scene of Xiang Xiaoqiang being dumbfounded happened.

The first half-track truck roared with blue smoke, showing that the pair of tires in front had been driven on the inclined wooden board, and then the tracks behind were pushed on the flatbed truck at once.

Several workers took out wooden blocks and stuffed them in front and back of the tires and tracks of the armored vehicle, and then quickly fixed the armored vehicle to the flatbed vehicle with steel cables.

Then, the second self-propelled mortar was also done and drove up quickly.

...

In Xiang Xiaoqiang's feeling, the climbing ability of the half-crawler is far less than that of the full track. Because the front of it is wheeled, this is a natural deficit. However, the half-crawler is currently on the flatbed truck along the wooden board, which is like a playful thing. It seems that only tanks can do this. If a half-crawler truck wants to get on the train, it must be like a car. It either relies on a crane to lift it up or the slope of the wooden board is very small.

The current wooden board is very sloped, and it seems that only tanks can get up.

"Haha, to adults," Zhang Shaoheng said with a smile, "You have also seen that although the Qifeng 36 is a semi-tracked vehicle, it can do movements that can only be done by tanks and full-tracked vehicles. It has good climbing ability. This means that it has better off-road ability and ability to climb over trenches. It also has very low requirements for train transfers. It does not require a large field and long boards, and it can easily get on the train. You know, the main chariot has good railway transportation adaptability, which is an important condition for winning the war."

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and nodded, but kept staring at the two "Rapid-36" on the flatbed car. His heart was mostly moved by the two beautiful guys. Zhang Shaoheng and his Taipingji products made a beautiful start as soon as they appeared.

The group boarded the bus car in front of the flatbed car and took the train to the test site with the prototype car.
Chapter completed!