The weather around the Jindong detachment was not at all friendly to the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who were in difficult conditions.

It's better in the summer, it's bearable, but it's hard to endure in the winter!

In the winter, the weather starts to cool down before October, snow starts to fall in late November, and it doesn't start to warm up until March or April......

The cold weather lasted for four or five months, often with heavy snow and temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees......

In such weather, most of the villagers can still stay at home to avoid the cold in the winter when there is nothing to do, but those soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who insist on fighting behind enemy lines and little devils cannot......

When there is no war, they need to train, they need to collect and hoard all the combat materials they need, and when they fight, they have to climb mountains and wade through rivers in this cold weather, and fight for their lives with the little devils!

If you have enough food and warm clothing, it's easy to say.

But in many cases, whether these soldiers of the Eighth Route Army are well fed or warmly clothed, it is a luxury......

After a lot of exploitation, the food that the villagers supported the Eighth Route Army was squeezed out of their teeth, and it was impossible for the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army to say that they would levy more harsh taxes on the villagers when the villagers were not enough to eat, so they could only suffer by themselves!

This is true for eating, and even more so for wearing!

After all, in winter, whether it is the Eighth Route Army or the villagers, they basically rely on cotton clothes, cotton pants, and cotton boots.

But in the case of war, the cotton that was supposed to be used to make cotton clothes and pants had to be used first to make ammunition - the most important ingredient of smokeless gunpowder that filled ammunition was nitrocellulose!

Nitrocellulose cotton is made of high-quality cotton after nitration!

In this case, if the soldiers don't want to encounter the devil and can't even shoot three guns, and directly fight the devil with a bayonet, they can only contribute a small amount of cotton and endure the cold in exchange for more ammunition......

In history, the Eighth Route Army in the base areas behind enemy lines persevered under such harsh conditions!

Now, because of Zhang Ran's arrival, the aspect of food, whether it is the Jindong base area or the division headquarters in the Longyuan Mountain Area, seems to have greatly improved, but in the preparation of winter clothes, the current difficulties are even more severe than in history!

As for why this is the case, it's very simple!

Historically, it took almost a year or two for the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army to stably produce sulfuric acid and replace black powder with high explosives to fight against devils!

Black powder, on the other hand, does not need to use nitrocellulose.

But now, because of Zhang Ran's arrival, not only did he prepare sulfuric acid early, but also promoted the technology of preparing sulfuric acid to many base areas behind enemy lines through the technicians trained by the detachment.

At this stage, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army have been greatly enriched in terms of ammunition compared with history, and the damage caused to the devils in the face of the Japanese army has also been greatly enhanced......

But the side effect is also extremely obvious, that is, a large amount of cotton is used to make nitrocellulose, and the cotton used to make winter clothes is very small......

For such a situation, Zhang Ran has been prepared for a long time, and since last year, he has begun to experiment with chicken feathers and a small amount of cotton to make down jackets as winter clothes.

In normal times, the warmth effect of chicken down winter clothes is not bad, but once they are fighting, the winter clothes are soaked with sweat, or wet by blood and rain, and this chicken down winter clothes are worn on the body, it is uncomfortable......

Because chicken down is not duck down after all, although it can also play a role in keeping warm, once it is wet, it is difficult to dry!

Last winter, although the detachment and guerrillas like Sun Hongzhong and Tu Jinjun survived the difficult winter by relying on chicken down winter clothes, whether it was the detachment or the guerrillas, the frostbite was extremely serious, and even some soldiers were unable to run fast because of frostbite, and the shooting was not sharp enough, and finally died tragically under the guns of the little devils......

Therefore, Zhang Ran had to find a way to improve his winter clothes.

Cotton is still not available.

But fortunately, after more than a year of development, the artificial breeding rabbits in the base area have gradually become a scale, and the remaining rabbit skins after eating meat have all been preserved.

Now, a few winter clothes and winter boots are placed in front of Zhang Ran.

"We've reduced the amount of chicken down in our winter clothes, and we've added a little more cotton, and we've added more rabbit fur!"

Because of Lu Yan's pregnancy and the need to preside over more work in the county, the work of the quilt factory has been carried out by Zhao Lirong, the wife of a martyr, and now she is showing Zhang Ran the winter clothes made by the quilt factory using a new process.

In addition to the change of filling, the new winter clothes have also been improved in terms of fabrics.

The outer layer is still the standard military uniform fabric of Baye Gray, but the inner layer, chest and back, are directly replaced with nitrate-tanned rabbit skin with rabbit fur.

"Replacing part of the inner fabric with rabbit skin not only saves a lot of fabric, but the most important thing is that even if the winter clothes are wet, these rabbit skin parts can also play an excellent role in keeping warm, I believe that even in the ice and snow, the soldiers will not be too cold!" Zhao Lirong swore solemnly.

"Good!"

Zhang Ran nodded, and asked again if the waterproof effect of the chicken down military uniform had improved compared to before after adding rabbit fur!

"It's been tested, and it's much better than just adding chicken down and cotton!"

Zhao Lirong took out a notebook and flipped to the comparison of the old and new military uniforms to show Zhang Ran - under the same condition that they were all soaked, the drying time of the newly made military uniforms was at least a few hours shorter than that of the old chicken down military uniforms!

This effect is still in the process of drying the old winter clothes, turned over many times, and the new winter clothes only turned over once to achieve the effect!

With this effect, it is enough to show that after the addition of rabbit fur, the permeability of the new winter clothes has been greatly improved, unlike the old winter clothes that are full of chicken down and cotton, which are hard to dry out when they encounter water.

After reading the records in the small book, Zhang Ran was very satisfied with the new winter clothes, and he believed that wearing this new winter clothes, even if the soldiers of the detachment would definitely face the encirclement and interception of devils this winter, they would usher in the most difficult test of the detachment since its establishment, and the detachment would definitely be able to successfully overcome the difficulties!

In addition to cotton clothes and pants, winter clothes also have cotton shoes and gloves.

"The gloves and shoes are made of leftover scraps from making clothes and pants, which can save a lot of rabbit skin!"

Zhao Lirong pointed to the dense layers of joints on the leather on the gloves and shoes and said to Zhang Ran, with a proud look in her eyes - it was obvious that she was proud of her work results!

"Thank you for your hard work!"

Looking at Zhao Lirong and looking at the dense calluses on the fingers of the dozens of female workers, Zhang Ran said movingly.

The female workers all laughed, although they did not say anything grandiose, but from their expressions, Zhang Ran felt the satisfaction of wanting to do something for the detachment and the soldiers from the bottom of their hearts.

He seemed to be able to imagine that the female workers could laugh out loud in their dreams when they thought of the soldiers wearing their own military uniforms, shoes and gloves, running in the wind and snow without feeling cold at all, being able to kill the enemy to their heart's content when facing the devils, and when they died a lot less......

"Captain, the new winter clothes have passed the test now, right?"

When sending Zhang Ran out, Zhao Lirong said: "Now, the more than 1,000 rabbit skins that the detachment usually accumulates by eating rabbit meat, even if all of them are used to make winter clothes, it is estimated that more than 470 sets can be made, which is still far from the equipment of all staff...... Even though it's only August, we should have prepared early, and if we really wait until it's cold to start preparing winter clothes, it won't be too late......"

Zhang Ran understood Zhao Lirong's worries.

Using rabbit skin to make winter clothes is indeed warmer and more economical in fabric, but no matter how good the leather tanning is, it is not as good as the cloth after all, and it is very cumbersome to make.

Only now, the time is not ripe at all.

Because of the rabbits, the detachment wants not only the fur of these rabbits, but also the meat of them.

In this era, there is no refrigerator cold storage......

If you start killing rabbits and collecting fur to make winter clothes, you won't be able to save rabbit meat at all!

Therefore, it is necessary to wait until October when the weather starts to cool down, and the rabbit meat can be made by air-dried, pickled rabbit meat and the like before the rabbits can be slaughtered in large quantities, and it is also necessary to wait until then to make winter clothes in large quantities.

"By that point, time is too tight!"

Zhao Lirong said embarrassedly.

"That's it!"

Zhang Ran thought for a while: "The more than 1,000 rabbit skins you have in your hands now, you don't have to make them all yourself, but scatter them to the women of various villages, and let them help sew them into pieces, and your quilt factory is only responsible for sewing them into ready-made garments, so that the workload of the quilt factory will be reduced a lot......

"Isn't that our quilt factory having to be idle right now?"

Hearing this, Zhao Lirong was a little unhappy, feeling that if it was distributed like this, the detachment would have to pay more work for the same set of winter clothes.

But she also understood that there was no way out, so she finally agreed.

Zhang Ran thought for a while: "The more than 1,000 rabbit skins you have in your hands now, you don't have to make them all yourself, but scatter them to the women of various villages, and let them help sew them into pieces, and your quilt factory is only responsible for sewing them into ready-made garments, so that the workload of the quilt factory will be reduced a lot......

"Isn't that our quilt factory having to be idle right now?"

Hearing this, Zhao Lirong was a little unhappy, feeling that if it was distributed like this, the detachment would have to pay more work for the same set of winter clothes.

But she also understood that there was no way out, so she finally agreed. Hearing this, Zhao Lirong was a little unhappy, feeling that if it was distributed like this, the detachment would have to pay more work for the same set of winter clothes.

But she also understood that there was no way out, so she finally agreed.

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