Not only the weight of large-caliber shells, but also the total combat weight of a 64 heavy howitzer reaches five tons, and although it has wheels, it also needs four horses to pull it, which is still a normal road, and if it hits a mountain road, it may be difficult for four horses to pull it.

In the face of the logistics aspect, Li Weiguo just calmed them down, saying that it would not be long before they would solve the problem.

Of course, this is not casual perfunctory, but Li Weiguo can indeed solve this problem.

Whether logistics and transportation can keep up is related to the success or failure of a campaign or even a war.

You don't see how the Huaihai Campaign was won, it was a victory that 300,000 ordinary people used small carts to load ammunition, and in the same way, Li Weiguo could not have mobilized 300,000 ordinary people to be responsible for transportation in a single campaign, because the situation between the two was different, during the Huaihai Campaign, the common people were poor and had no food to eat, and they could discard their homes and businesses without distress, and then go to help the Red Army do transportation. Not to mention conscripting 300,000 ordinary people to work, even if 1 million people are conscripted, there is no problem, because the economy has collapsed, and it is impossible to collapse again.

On the other hand, the situation of Li Weiguo is different, the common people under his rule live and work in peace and contentment, the economy in the area under his rule is prosperous, and the common people have their own work to do. Once 300,000 ordinary people are called up to participate in logistics and transportation, not only will they have to pay their salaries, but they will also delay the normal work of 300,000 ordinary people, and the losses will be even greater.

This is the fundamental difference between the two, so Li Weiguo has to pay attention to logistics and transportation, but also has to consider his own economic losses.

At present, the logistics and transportation tools of the Nanyang Army basically rely on trains and oxen and horse-drawn carts to carry out military transportation, and the trains are naturally powerful, and many materials can be transported quickly, but the problem is that the railways are only available in Jiangnan Province and Zhejiang Province, although from 1861, Li Weiguo ordered all eight provinces south of the Yangtze River to start construction of railways, but the territory is too large, and only 10,000 kilometers of railways have been built in four years. Because Jiangxi and Yunnan-Guizhou regions are mountainous, it is difficult to build railways, not to mention the total mileage of 10,000 kilometers, in fact, the railway lines are built independently and separately in each province, and cannot be connected together, and most of them have not been completed.

In this way, once the war broke out, in the two provinces of Jiangnan and Zhejiang, because there were railways extending in all directions, the logistical supply pressure of the Nanyang Army would not be great. But the war will certainly not be confined to the two provinces of Jiangnan and Zhejiang. Obviously, this is a nationwide war of reunification and a patriotic war to resist foreign aggression, and the flames of war will burn all over the country, but there is not a single railway in the eight provinces north of the Yangtze River and the areas under the jurisdiction of the five generals.

In response to this situation, the pressure on the logistics and transportation of the Nanyang Army has become very great, so the coping strategy formulated by Li Weiguo is to quickly build a car transport team to solve the logistics and transportation problems.

The idea began a long time ago, dating back five years. At that time, Barnett and Huygens were under the guidance of Li Weiguo. There is a great interest in petrochemical industry. After three years of painstaking research and experimentation, there is now a petrochemical plant in Jiangwan Industrial Zone, which has realized the industrial production of petrochemical industry, and is also the first and only petrochemical plant in the world. This is more than 30 years before the Dutch Shell petrochemical company, which first appeared in history.

This is all the butterfly effect brought about by Li Weiguo, and the Jiangwan Petrochemical Plant produces 500 barrels of purified crude oil, 50 barrels of gasoline, and 300 barrels of diesel fuel per day. The oil was all shipped back from the Persian Empire. At the beginning, Li Weiguo sent Rong Hong to the Persian Gulf and purchased a piece of oil-rich land in the Gulf region from the Persian Empire, and then drilled wells there to extract oil. It can produce 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and the collected oil is transported back to Shanghai by sea once a month, processed at the Jiangwan Petrochemical Plant, and 500 barrels of purified crude oil are obtained by primary filtration of impurities on the basis of crude oil, and then smelt gasoline and diesel.

Although the production is not high, it is enough to meet the needs of the Nanyang Army. A small portion of the gasoline was used to fill high-pressure flamethrowers, which were used in the flamethrowers of the Nanyang Army, and most of it was used in strategic reserves, waiting for a new consumer to be born.

This new consumer is diesel locomotives, both cars and trucks.

Regarding the basic principles of internal combustion engines, such as four-stroke work, fuel injector principle, compression ignition and other key elements, Li Weiguo has told Barnett and Huygens five years ago, a year ago, the two have successfully developed a diesel engine with a thermal efficiency of 28% power and 150 horsepower, and a gasoline engine with a thermal efficiency of 32% and a power of 85 horsepower, of which the diesel engine is named Huygens diesel engine, and the gasoline engine is named Barnet gasoline engine.

Both internal combustion engines had already met the requirements of industrialization, and Li Weiguo established an automobile factory in Jiangwan Industrial Zone, which was a full 15 years earlier than the world's earliest automobile factory.

Automobile factories mainly produce trucks and a small number of cars, where trucks are powered by diesel engines and cars are powered by gasoline engines. However, the practicality of the car is not high, because the cost is too high, the appearance is not good-looking, and the user group is small, even Li Weiguo did not take a fancy to it, so only a small number of cars were produced for research and testing.

Li Weiguo focused on the production of trucks, although the cost of trucks was also very high and the appearance was equally ugly, Li Weiguo still made a large number of purchases, mainly to help solve the logistics and transportation problems of the Nanyang Army, because this was an imminent big thing, so Li Weiguo did not care about the cost.

Today, 2,000 Huygens trucks have been produced, each capable of carrying eight tons of cargo at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour, which is more advanced than horse-drawn wagons in terms of cargo capacity and speed. In particular, the 64 heavy howitzer can only be pulled by trucks.

However, 2,000 trucks is a drop in the bucket for the logistics of the huge Nanyang Army. This is also something that cannot be helped, the car company has just been established for a year, and the production line is insufficient, resulting in insufficient production capacity. Now Li Weiguo can only urge the car company to speed up the expansion of the production line, and strive to increase the number of trucks as much as possible within three months to fill the pressure of logistics and transportation.

When leaving the gun factory, Li Yang, the supervisor in charge of gun supervision, presented Li Weiguo with a gift.

Li Weiguo frowned suddenly, he does not accept gifts, the entire Nanyang officialdom pursues a policy of high salaries and honesty, as long as you have the ability, you can be reused, strictly put an end to the so-called "courtesy exchanges", and maintain the clarity of officialdom.

"What is this?"

Li Yang sensed Li Weiguo's displeasure, and hurriedly explained: "This is a wish of the technicians of the firearms division, I heard that the king likes to collect firearms. The gunsmiths didn't have anything to get their hands on, and by chance they saw a pistol design drawing from Lord Shen, and knew that the king liked it, so the gunsmiths tried to develop one, and hereby dedicated it to the king. ”

Shen Baozhen also hurriedly said: "That's true, the king still remembers that two years ago, you once gave your subordinates a blueprint of a pistol, you called it the Desert Eagle at that time, and instructed your subordinates to try to develop it." Now that the Desert Eagle pistol has been developed, he is about to surrender to the king. ”

Desert Eagle?

Li Weiguo's eyes lit up when he heard this, this was his favorite pistol. A must-have weapon for pretending to be cool.

Zhuang Jiuxia immediately stepped forward to take the gift box, opened it and presented it to Li Weiguo.

Sure enough, it's the Desert Eagle!

Li Weiguo recognized the pistol in the gift box at a glance, which was exactly the same as the Desert Eagle of later generations.

And the whole gun is gold-plated, and the gun handle is made of precious ivory, whether it is a gold-plated gun body or an ivory handle, there are inscriptions engraved on it, which is a traditional Chinese custom, making this Desert Eagle pistol look more exquisite and precious.

At the beginning, Li Weiguo wanted a desert eagle, so he drew a drawing and handed it to Shen Baozhen. asked him to try to develop it, but later Li Weiguo forgot about it, and now he got what he wanted, and Li Weiguo was immediately very happy.

I saw Li Weiguo playing with the Desert Eagle pistol lovingly. Li Yang immediately explained: "Your Majesty, according to your request, this Desert Eagle adopts a gas-guided retraction mechanism, and the barrel is short and the recoil is semi-automatic. The use of point 50 caliber high-power short pistol cartridges, with a magazine capacity of seven rounds, and six left-handed rifling lines of the barrel. It can accurately hit a silver coin within 30 meters, and still has enough kinetic energy to penetrate a 3 mm steel plate at 100 meters. ”

It can penetrate 3 mm steel plate within 100 meters, and as the name suggests, in layman's terms, it is a distance of 100 meters that can directly blow the head.

This is a point 50 caliber high-power pistol, Li Weiguo is good at this, and he can't wait to test the gun.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the test room, Li Weiguo opened fire with a gun, and shot from the 10-meter target to the 100-meter target, and he was so happy that he forgot that he still had something to do.

After Li Yang saw the target paper, he saw that the gun was on target, and he was immediately amazed: "I never thought that the king's marksmanship was so accurate, but unfortunately this desert eagle has only one shortcoming, that is, this gun is too heavy, two kilograms, and it is difficult for ordinary people to control!" ”

Li Weiguo stopped, and his entourage maid stepped forward to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

I only heard him laugh and said: "It may be too heavy for others, but this king likes this weight pistol!" ”

Since Li Weiguo likes it, there is no problem.

For Shen Baozhen, Li Yang and others, they just gave Li Weiguo a gift to please him.

For Zhuang Jiuxia and other guards, this desert eagle is just an ornament, basically a "useless place for heroes", because every guard is a master, it is impossible to let the enemy get close to Li Weiguo, and it is impossible to let Li Weiguo go into battle to kill the enemy.

Li Weiguo accepted the Desert Eagle and the remaining boxes of bullets. These bullets are all point 50 caliber, very special, each bullet is all artificially made, belongs to the special supply, the number is not much, the cost is extremely high, only Li Weiguo is qualified to use.

However, Li Weiguo still had an idea, and ordered Li Yang to supervise the creation of two hundred desert eagles, of the same specifications, to reward meritorious soldiers.

This is an honor, and every soldier wants to get such a good pistol, and he will inevitably work hard for this honor.

After inspecting the gun factory, Li Weiguo went to the ammunition factory accompanied by Shen Baozhen.

The production workshop of the huge ammunition factory was busy, and the copper plates were cut into round copper sheets, and then turned into rifle shells and shells under the squeeze of the hydraulic press, and then filled with propellant charges, loaded with primers, and then buckled with bullets, which became rifle shells and shells, packed into boxes, packed and sent to the war readiness warehouse.

Li Weiguo inspected the entire assembly line, and was still very satisfied on the whole, through the forging process and assembly line production, its production capacity has been greatly improved, which is enough to support the ammunition consumption of a million army.

"Your Majesty, this is an ammunition production order."

Shen Baozhen brought over a list of the production quantities of various types of ammunition.

"There are already 1.25 billion rounds of ammunition for 9-mm rifles, 12,000 rounds of shells for 75-mm infantry guns, including 4,500 armor-piercing rounds, 7,000 rounds of blasting shells, 500 rounds of projectiles, 7,000 rounds of shells for 125-mm howitzers, of which ......"

Li Weiguo suddenly interrupted: "Okay, you don't need to read this, send it to Wu Yong in a while!" ”

Shen Baozhen was still ready to show off his achievements, but he didn't know why Li Weiguo didn't listen to it, so he had to give up.

The two of them immediately walked out of the ammunition production workshop, and when they passed by the door, Li Weiguo suddenly glanced at a worker who was cleaning at the door, and happened to meet the worker who was looking at Li Weiguo sneakily.

The four eyes met, and the worker instantly withdrew his gaze.

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, didn't say anything, and walked straight out.

It all happened in a flash of light, and no one noticed it except the person involved.

That's right, that worker is a spy lurking in the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the China S.H.I.E.L.D. has already mastered this person's background, and it is Li Hongzhang's person. However, Li Weiguo did not move this person, because sometimes using enemy spies to pass on information would have unexpected results.

After Li Weiguo left, the worker was suddenly frightened into a cold sweat, and thought that he had not been exposed and had obtained useful information, so he immediately left the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and went to ask his upline for credit.

After walking a distance, Li Weiguo said to Zhuang Jiuxia: "Quickly send someone to inform Wu Yong, and say that you can act according to the plan." ”

Zhuang Jiuxia received the order and immediately arranged for someone to notify Wu Yong.

Li Weiguo continued to inspect the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, conducting random inspections and guiding the production of various weapons and equipment, and ensuring that after the start of the war, the Nanyang Army would have sufficient military supplies.

In addition to guns and ammunition, Li Weiguo also focused on inspecting the auxiliary weapons and equipment production workshops, for example, 12 million radiums have been produced, and the average number of millions of troops can be equipped with 12 each, which will play a huge role in the battle.

In addition, the production of water radium and ground radium has also not fallen, after all, the enemy is current, on the whole, Li Weiguo's Nanyang Army is still in a defensive state, in the face of the attack of a strong enemy, water radium and ground radium are still a powerful defensive weapon.

When he saw water radium, Li Weiguo suddenly remembered his navy.

It's been a long time since I've been inspecting the East China Sea Fleet, and I don't know if the East China Sea Fleet at this time will be able to shoulder the burden of coastal defense.

You must know that during the Second Yapian War five years ago, Li Weiguo did not have the confidence to let the East China Sea Fleet take the initiative to meet the combined fleet of Britain and France. Today, the East China Sea Fleet has been equipped with a large number of new steam warships, and it has the strength to fight against the invasion of the British and French navies.

Li Weiguo was very practical, he did not ask the navy to defeat the powerful British and French navies immediately, because that was unrealistic, but at least he had to achieve results in coastal defense operations, so that the British and French navies would not dare to approach China's coastal waters.

Thinking of this, Li Weiguo immediately decided to go to Jiangnan Shipyard. (To be continued.) )