The last ten days of June in Shanghai were spent in peace.

Both Britain and Japan were busy preparing for war and courting allies. In South China, the British and Japanese sent a batch of weapons and ammunition to Chen Jitang in Guangdong and the Gui family in Guangxi, and then wrote a bunch of empty checks in a vain attempt to win over these two warlords to join the ranks of the "intervention army" against the Red Army.

Chen Jitang once again accepted a large amount of "military aid" and "promotion fees" from Britain and Japan on the surface, as he did when he dealt with the Japanese in the past, but in fact he did not take any military action in the substantive sense, and in private, he openly told his subordinates that he would never be Wu Sangui of the Republic of China.

And the Gui family under the leadership of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi is even more treacherous. He also took the benefit money sent by Britain and Japan in line with the principle of not taking it for nothing, and then secretly discussed it with the upper echelons of the Red Army, and then the artillery and firecrackers of both sides "faked a fight" at the junction of each other's control areas, which can be regarded as a response to Britain and Japan.

In northern China, the Japanese are also making great efforts, but Zhang Xueliang, Yan Xishan, and Han Fuyu, these powerful warlords, have all maintained the bottom line of the nation. However, under the pressure of Britain and Japan, they, like Chen Jitang and Li Zongren, did not join the "anti-Japanese national united front" advocated by the Red Army. The only problem is that Sun Chuanfang and Shi Yousan, the two military leaders who temporarily belong to the command of Zhang Xueliang, these two famous traitor generals in the history of the Anti-Japanese War, once the Japanese invade China from the northeast, their rebellion and defection to the enemy are almost ironclad.

In the last ten days of June, the Red Army was also making the final preparations before the big battle.

During this time, several freighters from the Soviet Far East. Landing in Shanghai, a new round of equipment was transported: a batch of Soviet-made T26 tanks and I16 fighters, as well as fighter pilots in the name of an international column. On the German side, Hannah sent more FW90 fighters and 150mm heavy guns. Only this time, the "aid" of both sides was to ask the Red Army to buy it with real money. On the other hand, the United States is clamoring for support for British and Japanese intervention in China, while on the other hand, it is speeding up its actions to do business with the Red Army. Although they announced an arms embargo on China, the supply of military chemical products such as aviation fuel and sulfuric acid used to make explosives has not been interrupted, but has increased sales.

The Soviets originally wanted to sell the newly produced I16 fighters to the Red Army, but they were rejected by the Red Army upper echelons on the pretext of not intending to increase the logistical burden. The main reason is that the I16 and FW90 are borrowed from each other. But the Germans had much better manufacturing processes than the USSR. Pilots who had been secretly trained in Germany and the Soviet Union, after flying both aircraft, agreed that the FW90 performed much better.

Flying the I-16 for takeoff and landing was not easy, except for the fact that the handle had to be used to stow the landing gear during takeoff, and when landing, the I-16's landing gear was poorly absorbed. Constantly bouncing on the runway. He has the nickname of the father of the unstable dìng. The I-16's control wing surfaces are not trimmed. If the fuselage is found to be unbalanced during the flight, the pilot can only use his own strength to balance the fuselage, and only after landing can the ground crew be informed of the adjustment - it does not pay attention to ergonomics and is not friendly to the operator. This is the biggest problem with Soviet-style weapons.

In the past two years, relations between the Soviet Union and Germany have warmed, and in secret exchanges between the two sides, each has obtained samples of aircraft designed by the other. The engines of these two aircraft are the products of the same type of Pratt & Whitney engine technology introduced from the United States, but the Germans have redeveloped and improved the same technology based on the same technology to create better aero engines.

Compared with the prototype engine, the FW90 is improved in that the engine cylinders can be made thinner and lighter thanks to the advantages of material science, and the air-cooled heat sink can also be thinner and lighter thanks to the advantages of the Germans in machining. In the case of no change in the volume and weight of the engine, its power was increased from the initial 700 horsepower to 750 horsepower, and the working time of the maximum power was extended.

In the same way, Hannah was not afraid that the Soviets would copy the FW90, because they did not have the German manufacturing process and better material formula, and forcibly copying the FW90 would lose the unique advantages and advantages of Soviet-style weapons -- again, the performance characteristics of any country's weapons and equipment are targeted designs adopted by designers according to their own national conditions and use tactics, and it is extremely undesirable to blindly imitate other countries.

Compared with the naval version, the biggest improvement of the FW90 fighter sold to the Red Army for land use was the truncation of the wings, at the cost of increasing the wing load and reducing maneuverability in exchange for higher speed -- in 1935, the air forces of various countries were subject to the influence of the way of thinking, in the era of biplanes, the design of fighters of various countries, the wing load of 150 kilograms was considered extremely heavy, and the wing load of about 100 kilograms was only considered "so-so" at that time.

In the era of monoplanes, a wing load of 150 kg would be called a fighter with "excellent maneuverability" - such as the Spitfire (the Spitfire continued to increase with the introduction of improved models), compared to the Zero (about 120 kg). The P52 Mustang, known as the No. 2 best fighter, has a wing load of between 180 kg and 200 kg.

Lin Han and Hannah, who are traversers, know that increasing the wing load is the development direction of the future fighter, and under the requirements of Lin Han's pursuit of speed, Dr. Tan Ke boldly truncated the wing to increase the wing load in exchange for higher speed. The land-based version of the FW90 sold to the Red Army, with the addition of bulletproof seats and radio stations, has a wing load of up to 170 kg in standard combat conditions. (The biggest difference between the naval version of the aircraft and the land-based type is that it is necessary to take into account the difficulty of landing on an aircraft carrier, so the ordinary wing load of the navy aircraft is lower to reduce the distance of the aircraft taking off and landing)

The Soviet Union's I-16 originally planned to introduce the same model of SR-1820-F3 "Whirlwind" air-cooled engine (700 horsepower) from the United States, but the Shvetsov Engine Design Bureau had not yet reached a consensus on authorization, so it could only be replaced by the M-22 engine (the authorized version of the Bristol Jupiter engine in the United Kingdom, with an output of 480 horsepower), although the performance was not outstanding enough, but it also achieved a top speed of more than 300 kilometers. Barely satisfactory. The engine problem was not solved until 1935, when the I-16-5 was introduced in July, when the R-1820 was officially installed with the licensed version of the M-25A engine, and the I-16-5 reached a record speed of 395 kilometers per hour in a test flight at that time. But it is obviously too late to participate in the next air battle.

Compared to the FW90, the I-16 had two fewer machine guns and half less firepower, and although it was more maneuverable, it was only a little over 300 kilometers away due to the use of outdated engines. So now I16. The performance is really not impressive. Even worse than the Hawker II of the Chinese Air Force.

Although the I16 recommendation failed, Stalin sent a batch of I16 fighters to China, equipped with relevant pilots and ground crew. For the Soviets, money was just a trifle. More importantly, you can take advantage of this to get valuable practical opportunities.

Compared to the I16's unwelcome. Thirty T37 tanks sent by the Soviets were more popular with the Red officers and soldiers. Stalin originally wanted to sell the T26 tank, which had better performance. But the Red Army took a fancy to the T37, a tank that was not very famous in history, and the reason was that it was "light" enough, only 3.2 tons.

The waters of the Yangtze River are covered with a dense water network. In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Province is the most. And the bridges here are all old-fashioned stone bridges, and the bearing capacity is extremely poor. Even the Vickers tank, which is about six tons, has to be frightened and cautious. Historically, when Japan invaded China, the famous "bean tank" also took this factor into account, so the weight was limited to five tons when designed.

The use of any weapon must take into account the battlefield environment and the ability of the army to bridge the boat. Even during the War of Liberation, after the PLA captured a large number of artillery tanks, the most popular and highest-rated tanks in the PLA were not the M24 and M5 with better performance, but the Japanese 97 Qiha tank, because it was the lightest in weight and the best in road accessibility, which was also suitable for China's national conditions. (PS Spit it out, as for the Republic of China through the novel, what kind of tiger and 59 tanks are sent to China, it's all, not to mention that these two tanks have a surplus of armor, it's purely a waste, and the tanks are mixed indiscriminately without considering the roads and bridges, which is really speechless.) ）

The T37 tank can be used both on land and water, which is very suitable for the special battlefield of the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Before the tanks ordered in advance from the Soviet Union were sold to China, according to Linhan's request, a larger turret was installed so that a 13 mm tank machine gun imported from Germany could be installed to enhance anti-tank capabilities. Of course, these tanks were all purchased from the USSR with real money. After knowing that the Red Army had money in Shanghai, Stalin, like Hannah, became stingy, in fact, these two guys were never generous.

For the thin tanks that the Japanese were equipped with at this time, the armor-piercing capabilities of the 13-mm tank machine gun were sufficient. In response to the problem of weak armor of the T37 tank, Lin Han ordered a batch of 15 to 20 mm thick armor plates from the Soviet Union to be shipped with the ship, which could be temporarily screwed or welded to the tank body according to the needs of the battlefield, and this batch of armor plates will also be used to improve the existing Vickers six-ton tank.

The reason why they did not order more tanks from Soviet Germany was that both the Red Army and Lin Han believed that the main force of the army should be mainly light infantry in China's current national conditions, and excessive mechanized equipment was not suitable for China's national conditions, especially now that China is not an oil-producing country and all oil products must be imported, and it is even more impractical to equip too many oil tiger tanks.

Although Lin Han knew that there was an oil field in the Guanghua area of Qianjiang City, Hubei Province, the Red Army simply did not have the ability to exploit it under the current war situation, and second, Lin Han himself did not know the specific location of the oil well. Third, China also lacked supporting refineries at this time.

In the last days of June, the Red Army's important replenishment from abroad continued to be petroleum products and large quantities of machinery imported from Germany. Hannah prefers to sell obsolete equipment to the "enemy country" of the Soviet Union, and Hannah prefers to sell it to China, which is not a threat. The Red Army's high-level pursuit of the country's industrialization and military industrial construction was even more in harmony with each other.

The freighters from Germany came loaded with equipment, and when they left they were loaded with gold and silver stolen from foreign banks, and China was supported by precious machines and German technicians, while Hannah was given the money and minerals needed for armaments, and both sides were happy.

The German technicians who were willing to teach the industrialized workers in China, which was still a rural country, were more valuable than the machines. This. However, Hannah saw Lin Han's face, and at the same time, he also considered that he had to add a blockade to the east of the Soviet Union in the future, so that he could be willing to order the engineers sent to China to teach "real kung fu".

(PS: Historically, when the Soviet Union helped China carry out the initial industrialization construction, it was really kind. This kind of hand-to-hand teaching you and teaching a full set is extremely rare and precious. No one will teach you some details, and many times even if you are given the machine and teaching materials, you will not be able to produce qualified products. ）

In contrast, the Soviet Union, which was struggling to industrialize and was also in need of a large number of machines, could only watch with gloom but could not interfere in this big business.

These machines were shipped from Germany. In the end, they were installed in the area of Hanyang and Anyuan as a new industrial belt. Before the launch of the June offensive by the Red Army. Most of the relevant factories have been built, as long as the machine is delivered, the installation and commissioning are completed, and the operation can start immediately. Hannah came to understand the importance of the human heart. At this time, a large number of German experts were also sent to help commission the machine and maintain the operation of the new plant. She didn't say it, though. Psychologically, she has gradually accepted the lobbying that Lin Han had given her when she was in Kiel: to help backward China industrialize. The profits made in the process were enough to keep 68 million Germany alive for decades.

The only problem is that Hannah still can't get rid of her belligerent mind. Still bent on starting a world war.

After conquering Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the Red Army took over all the military enterprises left by the Nanjing government. Before September 1934, the Nanking government ordered a batch of machines from Germany for the production of Mauser 1924 rifles and cartridges, and the cash had been paid in advance. After the Red Army's autumn offensive in September, Germany's covert aid to the Communists could no longer be concealed, and relations between the two sides quickly turned cold, and Hannah also took the opportunity to delay the delivery of these machines, which were not sent to Shanghai until March, and in April they were installed and debugged at the Jinling Arsenal in Nanjing, and the first batch of rifles had just been made in May, and the Red Army had already killed Nanjing and completely seized the entire arsenal and captured all the equipment.

Soon the Red Army, which occupied the arsenal, began to produce rifles, only this time the arsenal produced not Mauser rifles, but Mosinnagan rifles with 7.92 mm Mauser rounds.

The most important reason why the Red Army chose Mosinagan over the traditional Mauser rifle was that the gun was made in a small number of man-hours (it is said that only two-thirds or even half of the man-hours of bolt-action rifles in various countries) were produced, and the only difficulty in production was that the bolt was more troublesome to manufacture - the most labor-intensive part of the gun. However, with the new high-precision machine tools provided by Hannah, this qiē is not a problem.

In addition, Lin Han also took into account a factor, even if the production of Mocinagan bolts was troublesome, once the war was urgent, the production could be completely smuggled into China by air or through other channels, ordering and manufacturing in large quantities from the Soviet Union and even Germany. A bolt can hold up hundreds of grams, which is small in size and light in weight, and is extremely convenient for smuggling or air transportation. -- In fact, after taking over the Hanyang Arsenal in September 1934 and the factory began to produce Mauser-caliber Moscinagan rifles, Lin Han ordered more than 100,000 Mocinagan bolts through the Soviet Union, and the total cost was only a few hundred thousand dollars. Nowadays, the warehouses of the Red Army have long been stocked with a large number of bolts imported from the Soviet Union, and the Jinling Arsenal converted to Mosin Nagan, which is the most efficient mode of production.

The main reason why the Red Army set the Chinese version of Mosinagan caliber as 7.92 mm Mauser caliber instead of Soviet-style 7.62 mm was that the number of Mauser rifles in the hands of the Red Army now exceeded 600,000, while the Soviet-style rifles were less than 100,000, and the bullet production lines of the Jinling Arsenal and the Hanyang Arsenal were all equipped with 7.92 mm.

The current Red Army has long been aware of the trouble caused by the "Wanguo" rifle to logistical supply, and has long begun to consciously unify and redistribute rifles of different calibers in the army. The vintage Mauser 1888 Hanyang-made rifle was discontinued immediately after the Hanyang Arsenal was taken.

In view of the fact that he had a large number of Hanyang-made rifles, Linhans asked the German gunsmiths to redesign the improvement scheme with Chinese-made rifles.

Hanyang-made rifles have a long history of production in the Republic of China, with caliber models ranging from 11 mm in the early days to 7.92 mm in the later period.

For the 11mm Hanyang-made rifles of the "grandfather" level produced in the early days, most of them were dilapidated due to their age, and the Red Army directly gave up the transformation. Later, the 7.92 caliber Hanyang-made was produced in the middle and later stages, and the existing Hanyang-made was remanufactured so that it could fire the common pointed bullets of the Mauser 1898 rifle instead of the old round-nosed bullets with extremely low power.

Since last year, more than 60,000 7.92 mm Hanyang-made rifles have been remodeled.

The Red Army had more than 100,000 Hanyang-made pieces, so only more than 60,000 were remodeled, mainly because Hanyang-made ones were not changed to 7.92 mm caliber until the end of World War I. If you want to change to 7.92 mm caliber, there are too many parts that need to be replaced and transformed, and the cost is high and the transformation is time-consuming, and the gains outweigh the losses, so these 11 mm caliber Hanyang-made are all withdrawn from the front-line troops and handed over to the local militia and reserve forces. (Note: According to the records of China's modern weapons industry, from 1912 to 1927, the Hanyang Arsenal produced a total of 577982 rifles, and in 1932, the production of the Hanyang Arsenal was as high as 4,700 rifles per month.) The main factor limiting the increase in the production of this gun is the issue of raw materials for firearms. ）

Considering the physique of the Orientals, in fact, Lin Han is more interested in a caliber of 6.5 mm, but this is simply impossible under the current situation of war. As for the British-made 7.7 mm Lee Enfield rifles, the Red Army seized a lot of them in the concession after taking Shanghai, plus the salvage from the sunken British warships and the Lee Enfeld rifles obtained from various channels in the past, the total number has exceeded 4,000. Lin Han had discussed with the upper echelons of the Red Army about these rifles, and now they were temporarily used by the Red Army, and after the war in China subsided, they would pack them up and send them to Lin Han to be smuggled to Southeast Asia for the use of overseas Chinese armed forces there. It is an area dominated by British calibers, and it will be more convenient to replenish the capture in future wars.

As for the 6.5 mm caliber of the Japanese armament, considering that there will be a long war with Japan in the future, the Red Army did not make changes to the rifle of this caliber.

At the end of June and the beginning of July 1935, the Red Army and Britain and Japan were in full swing preparing for war.

If the Japanese and the British invaded southern China by means of a landing, in addition to fighting a difficult landing battle, another factor they could not fail to consider was the typhoon that raged in the south every summer.

British warships are designed for the harsh sea conditions of the North Atlantic, so as long as the typhoon is not too strong, there is no need to worry about this problem. As for the Japanese warships, after signing the Washington Naval Treaty, in order to meet the requirements of such design indicators as "torpedo boats can confront destroyers" and "destroyers can confront cruisers," the Japanese desperately piled up large-caliber guns on their warships and played the trick of small ships resisting cannons, but the evil result was that the center of gravity of the ships was too high, and once they encountered a typhoon or even a strong wind, they would have a good show. (Such as the famous Fourth Fleet incident in history)

The area around Shanghai includes Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and it is interesting to note that June and August are the months with the most typhoon landfalls. When the British and Japanese warships were carrying out air defense modifications in Japan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces experienced a typhoon. Judging by the usual situation, July is a month with relatively few typhoons -- when the typhoons all run to Fujian and Guangdong in the south. In August, the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang will enter a month of many typhoons.

Considering the weather and the situation of the British and Japanese ships, Lin Han estimated that Britain and Japan were most likely to send troops in July, and if the time dragged on until August, then the typhoon would become the biggest variable, and it is believed that Britain and Japan, who are familiar with the climate of the Great Plains, will not delay until August.

In consideration of the British factor, most of the German planes and pilots sent by Hannah to China were now stationed in Fujian and Zhejiang to defend against the Japanese air force in Taiwan, while Soviet pilots assisted in air defense in the Shanghai area. The two sides were resettled in pieces, and the language barrier of the multinational coalition forces such as rabbits caused confusion in command and coordination operations. (To be continued......)