Chapter 220 Confidence

Cai Ye, who came to Hanyang for the first time, walked into the factory and was quickly attracted by it, although he had heard that there had been great changes here, but he felt that the change could not be described by a big word.

The Hubei Industrial Company, which was the first to complete the transformation, has nearly tripled the scale of the refining equipment after incorporating the refining equipment, and together with the workers who are interning here and preparing for the future assignment to Chongqing and other factories, a total of 20,000 workers work 24 hours a day, making it noisy and lively all the time.

There are nearly 1,000 technical experts and senior technicians from Austria-Hungary and Russia, including about 400 people from Hanyang, who are mainly engaged in the manufacture of precision parts and machinery and equipment, and a small number of them are teachers in technical schools. After they drove and adopted the new three-shift assembly line production method, the quality and output of both military products and simple civilian machinery began to climb steadily. Although the adjacent steel company is still renovating and still cannot provide high-quality steel within a year, the raw material problem has been initially solved after the arrival of 200,000 tons of scrap purchased from Germany and the United States, and the factory prefers to use this scrap because the technician says that this steel is better than domestic steel after refining.

Hubei Industrial Company is divided into three phases, the first phase is a mixture of the old Hanyang factory and new equipment, the second phase is completely new, and the third phase is currently under construction (). The first and second phases of equipment have all been put into production, and are divided into 12 branch factories such as rifles, pistols, machine guns, cannon factories, ammunition casting, and civil machinery manufacturing.

After Su Hongsheng was promoted to the head of the factory, things were busy, Yang Qiu didn't bother him, and Liu Qingen went to Germany for acceptance last month because the machine ordered from Germany for the second time at the beginning of the year was delivered. Zhang Wenjing and Shen Shukai both went to Nanjing with Tang Shaoyi to take up their posts, so it was the new chief of logistics of the National Defense Forces who led the way for the three of them, and it was also Qiu Heng who went to Zhejiang on behalf of Yang Qiu and exchanged a brigade general Jiang Fangzhen for Jiang Fangzhen.

At the age of 27, he was a graduate of the eighth Japanese army, and he was a junior brother of Cai Yi and others, and later went to the National Defense University to study logistics management in the crash course for officers, and briefly joined the society before the uprising, and also entered the guard company after the uprising. Because of his delicate mind and clear work, he was recommended to the logistics department, and he was promoted to adjutant by Zhang Wenjing for his outstanding performance in logistics during the Hubei War.

He is not a technical expert, so he also pulled the director of the gun factory Wang Jinhai over as a docent, 47-year-old Wang Jinhai is one of the technical experts who went to Germany with Su Hongsheng to learn military engineering design and manufacturing, and has been working as a design supervisor in the gun factory of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, after the revolution, Jinling Manufacturing Bureau was suspended for a long time, and many skilled workers like him suddenly lost their livelihoods.

"What is the yield now?"

Wang Jinhai has been seeing military representatives come recently, and he vaguely knows that there may be a big war, and when he saw Yang Qiu, he affirmed this, and hurriedly said: "Commander Hui, now the gun factory can produce 200 Type 12 rifles and 50 pistol factories day and night. Because the barrels of the guns are ready-made, the gun factory can produce 50 mortars, 15 seven-life infantry guns, 5 heavy seven-life and five-field guns per month, and the drawings of the new Shisheng five howitzers you got are being studied, and at present we can only imitate the 1909-type Shisheng five howitzers provided by Krupp, and the workers have not yet figured it out, so at most 2 per month, and the new guns will not be able to produce samples at least at the end of the year. ”

"Where's the machine gun?" Seeing that he walked to the gate of the machine gun factory, Yang Qiu stopped and walked in with Cai Yi and the others.

"The Han II light machine gun (renamed according to the improved Bren type) can produce 100 units per month, the new light Han Type 3 heavy machine gun can produce 6 units per month, and the submachine gun is simple and easy to build, and you can get 100 units per day ()." Wang Jinhai took everyone to the innermost small heavy machine gun workshop, there was a heavy machine gun with a strange style but some familiarity to Cai Ye on the central long table, the tripod was changed to a thick bipod, the water-cooled sleeve was also reduced a lot, and the receiver was obviously improved and reduced in size.

This is a copy of the Han-III heavy machine gun based on the MG815 drawings taken out by Yang Qiu, which is mainly used to comprehensively replace the 7.92 mm Makqin currently used by various units. Liu Qingen and Yang Qiu made major modifications after studying together, not only lighter than the prototype but also more flexible, changed to the standard 7.62 mm bullet, canceled the automatic mode, added the fast and slow machine, retained the water-cooled sleeve but reduced the volume in order to maintain a stable rate of fire for a long time, and used a small ammunition box of 100 rounds to feed the ammunition, instead of carrying the ammunition box of 250 rounds every time instead of running around every time, although the Wehrmacht could not be equipped with a large number of heavy machine guns like Europe, but in order to train the manufacturing team still retained the heavy machine gun production line.

"In terms of ammunition, it can now produce 76 bullets and 60,000 rounds day and night, 4,000 shells of various types, 5,000 fuses, 2,500 grenades, and the raw materials that the Hanchuan Explosives Factory bought from Germany and the United States. Now our workers are not very familiar with the new machine, and can only reach 50% of the design capacity, if there is another year. Wang Jinhai said that in the end, he also smiled proudly, the current Hanyang is the scale of a domestic military factory in Europe, as long as the workers train for a few more years, it is possible to double the output or even comparable to Japan.

Jiang Fangzhen was already familiar with this place, and understood that the reason for this output was that Yang Qiu was strategic, for example, he quietly purchased thousands of four-meter-long high-strength steel pipes from the United States for mortars, as well as two batches of 400 70-millimeter infantry gun barrels purchased from Germany, which greatly reduced the process of the artillery factory. The second is the use of completely new production methods and a large number of Austro-Hungarian skilled workers. Thirdly, it is estimated that the money spent on hoarding raw materials is more than building factories, and the purchase of copper ingots and Swedish mild steel from the United States alone is tens of thousands of tons each.

After more than a year of frenzied renovation, expansion, and hoarding of raw materials, the Wehrmacht already has a relatively solid material foundation, and its speed is not weaker than that of the Beiyang in purchasing ordnance in large quantities, and it is even far superior in terms of new equipment, and the cost is the financial resources that have been almost exhausted.

But these are exaggerated in Cai Yi's ears, fifty percent of the production capacity will reach this number, if the workers are skilled, what kind of situation should it be? What's more, there is a new factory in Chongqing that is not much smaller than here, so it is no wonder that he is confident that he will start the battle of unification of the Northern Expedition early.

"Is there any data over there in Chongqing?" Yang Qiu didn't seem to be satisfied with the production capacity and looked at Qiu Heng.

Qiu Heng said: "Chongqing is completely newly built so the progress is slow, after the relocation of the Jiangnan factory's military equipment and workers, trial production has begun, and the current focus is mainly on submachine guns, grenadiers and ammunition, of which the grenadier is the fastest, can provide more than 1,000 per month." The rest of the production is about 30% of what is here. The second phase of the project is expected to be completed by April next year, and the training of workers has already begun, most of whom are also interning here. ”

In addition to the main ordnance, the trio also visited the stamping workshop, where more than a dozen small stamping machines mainly made some stamping parts such as submachine gun butts, sapper shovels, water bottles and helmets. Seeing this, Cai Ye and Jiang Fangzhen both felt that Yang Qiu was like Santa Claus, and it seemed that there were always endless gifts in their pockets.

If you count the rifles alone, the Hubei side can basically arm an infantry brigade every month. In addition, after all the 100,000 rifles, artillery, and ammunition purchased from Germany and the United States at the beginning of last year arrived, the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 4th Divisions and two newly built guard divisions took the lead in completing the rearmament, and the combat effectiveness of the troops has taken a big leap forward.

Cai Ye is most interested in light machine guns and grenadiers, especially the latter completely makes up for the 300-meter gap between grenades and mortars, not to mention the simplicity and ease of construction, and the 50 mm caliber also ensures that the power is sufficient, so he also went to visit the soldiers who are training in the use of grenadiers at the shooting range, so as to have an intuitive impression of this new weapon.

After watching the live firing, Cai Yi sighed and admired: "Cai now knows that he used to sit in a well and watch the sky, and the commander really exhausted his efforts for industrial construction, but I almost made a mistake in Yunnan." ”

Yang Qiu understood that he was blaming himself for the events of Tang Jiyao and the later Kunming riots, because these two events delayed the pace of reunification of the southwest, and also consumed about five million funds for reconstruction, which was almost equivalent to the cost of rebuilding an old Hanyang, so he comforted: "Brother Songpo, why should you mind the past, people always have to look forward." ”

Cai Yi nodded and asked, "With such a large factory, I'm afraid there is a lot of investment every year, right?" Financially (). ”

Before Yang Qiu could answer, Qiu Heng took the lead and introduced: "General Cai is wrong, Hubei and Chongqing are not using the official model of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the past, but here they use state holding and private investment, of which the private sector has a relatively large proportion, which is the commander's money. ”

"Is this your money?" Cai Ye was surprised, even people who don't understand industry understand that if two industrial companies of this scale want to build, they need to invest at least tens of millions of funds!

Jiang Fangzhen knew that he would be shocked, in fact, as long as anyone who had heard of it would be surprised, and said with a smile: "Songpo is really going to lose his old vision, most of the investment here is indeed privately funded by the commander, and the state holding only accounts for a small part, mainly to carry out the necessary supervision of the military industry, so the usual operation is completely in accordance with the European industrial model." ”

Qiu Heng continued: "The European industrial model has advantages and disadvantages compared with the previous government, the disadvantage is that there will be some losses in product procurement, because the factory needs to make a profit, such as our current light machine gun, the cost is about 200 yuan, the purchase price of the domestic army is 300, and 65 yuan of profit is used for wages, taxes and daily consumption, and the remaining 35 yuan is profit, if it is exported to foreign countries, the quotation is at least 500 yuan." The advantage of this is that the factory can make a profit, and the money can be used for the purchase and upgrading of new equipment. ”

"The profit of 35 yuan is not high, and 100 pieces per month is only 3,500."

Wang Jinhai next to him heard him calculate like this, and said with a smile: "General, this account is not calculated like this!" The bulk of the profit of the military industry is not equipment but ammunition, and the net profit is two cents per ten bullets, which is 1,200 per day, which is nearly 36,000 in a month. What's more, this is not a pure arsenal, although the military industry is currently the most profitable, but in the future we will also engage in civilian machinery manufacturing. And. He glanced at Yang Qiu, and when he saw him nodding, he continued to introduce with confidence: "We still have foreign profits, such as the five new seven-five heavy field guns that we are cooperating with Krupp to manufacture every month, because this kind of cannon technology is very advanced, it can fire 15 shells per minute, so Germany not only takes 100 five-hundred-five howitzers to exchange drawings, but also purchases 100 from us according to the contract."

This cannon alone can earn 5,000 each, and they also took a fancy to our Han III heavy machine gun last month, because we couldn't meet the order due to our small output, they simply spent 500,000 yuan to buy the drawings, which alone can maintain the factory's entire salary expenses for three months (). In the past few days, they have taken a fancy to the grenadier again, but the price has not yet been negotiated, our offer is to purchase 10,000 plus 300,000 technology transfer fees, if it can be achieved, half a year's wages are back, how to calculate this year, the factory can make a net profit of 3 million, and you can add about 100 machines if you buy equipment. ”

Cai Yi gradually understood the meaning, but he couldn't see through Yang Qiu, especially when he heard that he actually took out a new technology that even Germany was envious of, and he was willing to exchange 100 cannons for a new technology, and he felt that he was unfathomable. As for Germany ordering 100 doors here, it must have been his idea, both to make money and to train the workers, otherwise with Germany's industrial capacity, how would it be willing to order here.

What is confidence? That's confidence!

He completely understood this time that an infantry brigade armed in January had not yet entered the flow in Europe and the United States, even if it was several steps behind Japan, but the gap with Beiyang was too great, and you must know that Beiyang almost relied on foreign purchases except for the Dagu Machinery Bureau, which could barely produce some ammunition and guns. It is conceivable that if it is really dragged into a stalemate, it will definitely not be the Wehrmacht who will be unlucky.

Yang Qiu waved his hand to let Wang Jinhai go down first, and said, "Don't hide it from Brother Songpo, I will also make a deal with you here." Although we can initially produce our own ordnance, but the financial pressure is still very great, for this battle Zhang Wenjing has a total budget of only about 40 million, which can be consumed by the troops for about half a year, so within half a year is the bottom line that we can bear, not that I can't fight for more than half a year, but once this time limit is exceeded, we have to suspend many projects, such as. He glanced at the third phase of the project under construction, and said heavily: "Industrial construction, railway construction and free education!" ”

After saying these few words, even Jiang Fangzhen got up solemnly, and Cai Ye understood the responsibility on his shoulders even more, and solemnly saluted: "Commander, rest assured, Cai Ye assures you that Beiyang will never have a chance to drag into a stalemate." ”

Yang Qiu was waiting for this sentence, and smiled with satisfaction: "Let's go, I'll take you to the Hankou Special Zone to have a look, where the tractor and bicycle factory have been in full swing recently." ”。

……