"This Liguschkov, if you can build a steam engine for me in one night, I think I... I will have to apply for a medal for you!"
That man may not be a good village leader, but he is definitely a good factory director. That man played an indispensable role in ensuring the combat effectiveness of the guerrilla republic.
After putting away Liguschkov's telegram, Yang Mingzhi walked out of the tent again and continued walking to the excavation site with his hands behind his back.
A large number of bonfires were lit around the pit, and there were also a large number of fireworks next to the forest not far away.
In the past day, the refugees from Lilchuch Town who came here have built a large number of wooden houses. According to the building standards, the so-called houses are a large number of wooden sheds. Fortunately, the refugees do not have high requirements for accommodation.
Everyone just hopes to have a small shelter that can protect them from wind and rain during the war. The days to come will be long, and the improvement of the houses will continue.
All this has to be doubtful. Yang Mingzhi estimates that due to the war, the long-standing no-man's land of Pripet Swamp has finally been developed. The salt village built today will continue to exist after peace. I'm afraid these
The refugees didn't bother to return to the war-torn Lilchurchi, but instead turned it into a new Lilchurchi.
By concentrating human resources, a new town is rising!
In the same way, the soldiers of the 1st Guerrilla Brigade and hundreds of civilians who supported the excavation, the earth and rocks they excavated have piled up into hills. Yang Mingzhi even had the illusion that these people could dig a hole as deep as 20 meters in a short time.
The six-meter "crater", ventilation problems, and steam engine problems were all solved violently by the Slavs' shovels and axes.
Given their national character, given such an order, they would happily risk their lives to complete it.
No! The lives and strength of these guys must be preserved. Due to the heavy casualties after the battle, the 1st Guerrilla Brigade has to become the mainstay of future military operations.
Yang Mingzhi returned to his tent, and everything no longer mattered.
He lay on a "camp bed" made of tree trunks, wrapped in a blanket, and soon fell asleep.
…
This night, all the colleagues in the arsenal worked hard. They watched the molten iron in the blast furnace pour into the mold, and personally knocked out the large amount of molding sand attached to the cast parts. Various small parts of the steam engine were either cast or stamped. As for the
The piston has a leather pad, which is made from an old tire.
The Guerrilla Republic has no shortage of materials to produce small steam engines. The problem is simply that the horsepower of the products is relatively poor.
Small mining machinery does not require excessive horsepower, as long as it is economical and practical.
After sweating too much, Liguschkov's eyes were red and bloodshot. He was excited and exhausted. The arsenal under his leadership completed the task assigned by Yang Mingzhi in just ten hours.
A telegram signed by the Arsenal was sent to the excavation site in the south at dawn.
Now it was the turn of Yang Mingzhi, who had just woken up, to be excited. He clutched the telegram and trembled with excitement: "Liguschkov, you bastard really succeeded!"
In accordance with Yang Mingzhi's minimum standards, three steam engines came off the production line, and a total of 60 meters of patchwork ventilation ducts exceeded the task.
To produce these equipment, a lot of metal investment is required.
Scrap metals all come from battlefield seizures. The German army lost a large number of armored vehicles in the just-ended battle. Like ants gnawing at insects, the remains of armored vehicles were dismantled into small pieces and transported to the arsenal. Even some old guns that were really unusable were recycled.
Serve.
Three steam engines invested enough metal to make twenty Catfish rocket launcher fairings. Liguschkov did not feel distressed at all. To this day, there are still a large number of debris on the battlefield, including in the soil of the battlefield. Just grab a handful of soil and it will be done.
You can find shrapnel and bullets inside!
He promised Yang Mingzhi that he would organize vehicles after dawn and transport all the machinery to the construction site as soon as possible.
Everything was carried out according to the plan. The five war-torn trucks were filled with precious fuel, and the spare parts constituting the steam engine were efficiently packed into the carriages through the arsenal's only small gantry crane.
The truck loaded with goods drove cautiously on the winding road. Liguschkov selected another fifty people. He will personally lead the team to the excavation site to install the equipment, but everyone will not enjoy the treatment of riding in a truck.
.A group of people carried a large number of screws and a large number of tools in eight carriages, and followed the truck that was not intending to go fast in the first place.
At nine o'clock in the morning, all the machinery and equipment arrived at the excavation site. After the truck parked on a flat ground, the soldiers who came after hearing the news unloaded the goods on trolleys.
With the work style of an arsenal, the professional workers who came along did not want to waste time at all. They drank some water and immediately asked to get back to work.
Now, a huge pit appeared in front of Liguschkov. He was a little confused because of exhaustion.
"Comrade Commander, the one night you are here to supervise is to direct the soldiers to dig a huge lake?"
"Lake? Are you kidding me? But your statement is very novel. They intend to dig an open-pit mine. My plan to dig a mine does not require so much effort. Obviously I underestimated their power of action."
"Now that the machine parts have been shipped, I will assemble it on site immediately."
"Okay, it would be best if they were put into use today."
All the mechanical parts were transported to the pit, and the workers quickly started working.
Yang Mingzhi stood next to the pit, carefully examining the equipment drawings submitted by Liguschkov. There were no obvious flaws in the drawings, but due to the limitations of time and materials, the arsenal did not have the ability to produce high-end goods.
If you can use it, don't complain. Being able to dig mechanically is better than pure human power.
Starting at ten o'clock in the morning, the construction of two steam-powered winch systems began. The workers completed the splicing of combustion chambers, boilers, cylinders, and other parts in just half an hour. The first steam engine was permanently fixed on the soil.
Next to the pit, its mechanical arm controls the rotation of a winch. A hemp rope is coiled on the winch, and the other end of the hemp rope is placed on a human-powered wooden crane that has been built long ago.
The steam winch equipment is not only used to transport ore from the inside of the future mine. In the current excavation stage, its existence also allows the lowest level diggers to transport soil out more efficiently.
The first steam engine began to boil water at eleven o'clock in the morning, and half an hour later, the steam power provided by a pot of boiling water officially began to work.
What the arsenal did was basically a replica of the steam engine technology of the first half of the 19th century. Originally, steam engines were primarily used for mining, so the excavation of salt mines began to be mechanized on the morning of August 14th.
The unique sound of the steam engine whistle attracted a large number of soldiers and workers, and the pit was crowded with people. Everyone opened their blue and green eyes and watched the ropes pulling up the soil from the bottom of the pit.
After a night of hard work, two hundred soldiers dug until the sun rose. They were exhausted and fast asleep in their tents.
The soldiers' efforts have achieved excellent results. The first step has been completed as planned, and the second step has been excavated down to a full three meters. As long as they continue to dig downward, they are faced with some hard putrefaction mud. They are very strong and are prone to collapse.
The risk was much smaller, and the soldiers had to swing their axes harder to dig out the soil.
The so-called wooden manual crane's boom is basically a thick tree trunk that is fifteen meters long. Although it is a pine tree, it is thick and strong enough. The boom that has been modified by surprise extends to the second step of the mine, and the end of the crane
There was a hemp rope, and now there are more than ten baskets tied up with the hemp rope.
This was unimaginable before the steam engine was added to the work, because the crane that relied on human power required a lot of manpower to lift three or four baskets.
Nowadays, a mere steam engine provides 30 horsepower and can lift nearly a ton of soil.
The efficiency of digging increased by more than five times. More than 800 onlookers, soldiers, workers, and even women and children from nearby settlements who were ordered to deliver lunch and drinking water to the excavation site all saw this exciting scene.
"Hey! You fools, be careful and pull the rope slowly!" The nervous brigade commander Fyodorov couldn't help but swear. He figured that this was the only way to make his subordinates take notice.
To be honest, the performance of the steam engine that suddenly started working was amazing. While Yang Mingzhi was shocked, he also noticed that the new problem was the crane arm.
Liguschkov looked proud. He pinched his waist and said to the commander: "Comrade commander, this is the first basket of soil. I will transport a ton of soil after just one look!"
"Yes, I feel now that our wooden boom is relatively fragile. You see, our current method is very similar to the unloading of goods at the port hundreds of years ago. Workers have to use ropes to pull the goods on the boom to the shore. Once
There is too much cargo and the wooden boom breaks. It would be crazy if it hits the people below!"
"Ah! I see what you mean. We need to make a metal boom!"
"Not only that, the new boom must have a pulley system. There is also the hemp rope you used. I remember that we still have remnants of the high-grade parachute rope from the last airdrop. We have modified the rope so that it can pull heavier.
goods.”
"Yes! I will start this matter immediately, then look at our work now..."
"Continue to work. The boom is not fragile. I am very satisfied with your results. I also saw that you transported a large number of metal pipes. Are they ventilation pipes?"
"Yes, please come with me."
Yang Mingzhi squatted down and inspected the seamed steel pipes stacked on the ground. From their appearance, he knew very well how the steel pipes were processed.
"Casting, stamping, hot welding, turning, tapping, you did a great job! Comrade Liguschkov, you are really unqualified to stay in this swamp."
"Really? I think so too." Liguschkov has no humility at all. Besides, why should he be modest? He should behave well in front of the commander!
Now, after Liguschkov commanded the mass-produced rocket launchers, he used the drawings drawn by the commander and then studied the results of rocket launcher tactics after the battle. He felt that a brand new scientific door was in front of him.
The Soviet Union has been developing rocket launcher technology for a long time. Who outside the swamp knows the production technology of precision tactical rocket launchers with a range of 40 kilometers?!
"Comrade Commander, if possible, I really want to go to Moscow. I should go to the Kirov factory to produce the terrifying Exocet rocket launcher. A launch site 40 kilometers away can blow up the enemy's positions. This can save lives."
The lives of more than 100,000 warriors."
Yang Mingzhi shrugged, stood up and patted his shoulder hard: "My dear comrade, you will have a chance. Let's go, we have missed lunch time. Let's talk slowly after dinner."
Workers at the arsenal prioritized the assembly of two steam winch systems at the site, and the entire excavation site was boiling. Facts have proved that one piece of equipment can transport up to 800 kilograms of soil to the ground in just three minutes. The two pieces of equipment work together.
, its transportation efficiency is ten times that of before!
Soldiers with a little bit of mathematical experience can realize that with the high efficiency of the two machines, the soldiers who are desperately digging the second step can no longer keep up with the speed of soil transportation!
…
Yang Mingzhi was in a good mood. In the temporary excavation command post, he opened a special bottle of vodka.
"Come! My dear comrade, let's have a drink."
"Okay! For our great cause, to win the war!"
Liguschkov held up the iron cup and drank it in one gulp.
The furnishings in the tent are simple, with some makeshift wooden chairs and wooden windows, and the so-called tables are simply made of thin wooden poles. The furnishings are the same, as is the lunch.
"It's still too remote here. Even as a commander, my lunch is no different from that of the soldiers. You see, it's all boiled potatoes. The only luxury is canned beef dropped from the air."
"That's enough, you know, I particularly like potatoes."
Yang Mingzhi chuckled. Like all Belarusians, he was used to eating potatoes. He also noticed that Liguschkov's eyes were red. It was obvious that this person had stayed up all night, and maybe he had already eaten potatoes.
No rest for thirty hours.
"Dear comrade, you look tired?"
"It's okay! In order to dig out the salt earlier, it's worthwhile for our arsenal to be a little tiring."
"Okay! I heard that drinking can refresh you. Please have another drink and we can talk for a while." After that, Yang Mingzhi stood up and filled it up himself.
"Oh, thank you so much. Don't worry, anyone who thinks that our arsenal can theoretically complete it, I will do it even if I try my best."
"No, I don't want you to die of exhaustion, listen!" Yang Mingzhi leaned his head over and said seriously: "We still face the threat of air raids! The Eastern proverb says that a smart rabbit has three holes, so we have to dig three too.
Mine! I have ordered the Luoyang shovel team to dig elsewhere. Whether it is to detect salt ore layers or brine, we will dig the No. 2 mine now. So we still need new steam engine equipment."
"No problem at all, but I have to remind you."
"What?"
"Our metal materials are not inexhaustible, unless the Luoyang shovel team can discover the existence of iron ore underground. Our metals are mainly used to make weapons, especially tactical catfish and flying fish rockets. They are powerful but also consume a lot of materials.
.You may not believe it, but the metal input we put in overnight is enough to make eighty Catfish rocket embryos!"
"So much?!" The data was so shocking that Yang Mingzhi's drinking glass fell on the table, spilling a lot of precious wine.
"Although I am very tired, I am very clear-headed on this issue. Even so, you still persist and I will resolutely obey the order."
"What a troublesome thing." Yang Mingzhi patted his head, "In the settlement on the right bank of the Pripet River, there are still a bunch of armored vehicle wreckage, especially eight No. 3 assault guns that can still be used. These crazy fuel-drinking wars
We can’t control the machine, so we can either build construction machinery or make it into artillery shells. That’s it!”
"What a great idea!"
Yang Mingzhi nodded and ate four potatoes quickly. He wiped his mouth and continued: "According to the plan, tomorrow is the post-war meeting of the entire guerrilla republic. You and I will both participate. After this meal, I will end the meeting here.
Inspection and supervision, I think you should follow me back."
"This...I think I should supervise my people to complete the assembly of the equipment?"
"You must follow me! Let your people discipline themselves at work. Have a good sleep after you go back. When the meeting comes tomorrow, your speech will be indispensable. After all, how much ammunition the arsenal produces, how many firearms are repaired and modified, only you can do it best.