Zheng Weiguo looked at Zhang Wenbai and said sincerely: "Brother Wenbai, I want to ask you to make a statement to the chairman of the committee on my behalf and allow me to directly purchase weapons from the Soviet Union in the war zone. ”

Zhang Wenbai was stunned for a moment and said, "Why is this?" If there is a shortage of weapons, I can think of a way. The commander-in-chief may not know that Lanzhou has just received a batch of Soviet-aided weapons, so how about we jointly apply to the chairman of the committee and allocate a batch from here? The chairman of the committee is ashamed of you, and he will definitely agree at this time. ”

Zheng Weiguo understood what he meant, Chang Kaishen now has the handle in his hands (that is, the assassination incident), as long as the request is not too excessive, the possibility of passing is still very high. However, Zheng Weiguo still shook his head and said with a smile: "If I do this, I am afraid that the chairman will misunderstand me even more." Moreover, what we urgently need now is anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, and the batch of arms in Lanzhou may not be applicable. ”

Now the "North China Raid Campaign" has just begun, but the situation in Baotou is even more critical. The Japanese also knew that the longer the battle dragged on, the more unfavorable it would be to them, so the attack was more urgent day and night. Because the Japanese army occupied an absolute airspace advantage and had a large number of tanks and armored vehicles, it caused great casualties and pressure on the defenders. Chief Fu Zuoyi has called many times, asking for reinforcements of a batch of weapons for air defense and anti-combat vehicles as soon as possible, otherwise Baotou will not be able to see it!

However, the Germans did not agree to send weapons again, so Zheng Weiguo had no choice but to negotiate with the Soviets, hoping to buy a batch of weapons from them for emergencies. Unexpectedly, the Soviets were unwilling to offend Chang Kaishen and demanded that the consent of the Nationalist Government must be obtained.

Zhang Wenbai nodded. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Oh, where does that money come from?" ”

Zheng Weiguo said with a smile: "Of course, we raised it ourselves, and the chairman of the committee will definitely not give it!" The Soviets said that the required weapons were ready, and they could ship them as soon as the Nationalist Government approved them. ”

Zhang Wenbai questioned: "Commander-in-chief, I'm afraid that this is not good!" If the chairman of the committee had known that you had money, he would have demanded that the Soviet Union be paid in unison. If each theater buys its own arms, wouldn't that be a mess? ”

Zheng Weiguo shook his head and said with a smile: "The Nationalist Government still owes the Soviet Union a lot of money." How to pay in one place? This money should be provided by the Ministry of Military Affairs. Even if there is no one in the middle who is greedy for ink, I am afraid that I will not be able to buy new weapons from the Soviet Union. Moreover, the military situation in Baotou is like fire, and when the Ministry of Military Affairs buys the weapons back, the daylilies are cold! ”

Zhang Wenbai listened and nodded repeatedly. Suddenly said in surprise: "Baotou? It took a long time. The commander-in-chief, this batch of weapons was bought for Chief Fu Zuoyi? ”

Zheng Weiguo explained: "Hmm. Suiyuan is an important material channel for our army, and Baotou is the gateway of Suiyuan, so it has to be saved. But Suiyuan is too far away. It is definitely too late to send troops to reinforce it, and if a batch of weapons can be provided, it is undoubtedly the best choice. ”

Zhang Wenbai said with emotion: "Alas, the commander-in-chief still has a broad vision. He added: "Please rest assured, commander-in-chief, I will definitely present my case to the chairman." ”

Zheng Weiguo said gratefully: "Well, then there is Brother Lao Wenbai!" ”

……

Huangshan, Chongqing, the official residence of the chairman. Chang Kaishen took the telegram sent by Zhang Wenbai and read it several times, but he didn't understand it, whether Baotou could be kept or not, what happened to Guan Zheng's beard? Your hand is too long! But when I think about it, I don't suffer a loss. So he immediately called back to agree, but put forward three conditions:

First, arms procurement must be led by the Ministry of Military Affairs;

Second, the weapons and equipment procured must be uniformly distributed by the Ministry of Military Affairs;

Third, it is not allowed to flow into illegal armed forces (alluding to the Eighth Road, etc.).

These three conditions are too harsh, and Zheng Weiguo certainly can't agree to them. So he called back and said, first, the procurement must be carried out independently by the Jicha Theater, but the Ministry of Military Affairs can send personnel to supervise it; Second, the weapons and equipment purchased can be distributed to all units in North China according to their achievements and needs, but the specific distribution must be completed by the Jicha Theater, and the Ministry of Military Affairs may send personnel to supervise it, but it cannot directly intervene; Third, with reference to the second point, if the Ministry of Military Affairs explicitly orders that it is not allowed to allocate funds to a certain unit, it may not be allocated. Then he made a small threat to Chang Kaishen, saying that if the Military Commission did not agree, he would get rid of the national government and cooperate directly with Lao Maozi.

Chang Kaishen did not realize his position at this time (that is, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States were worried that his surrender would lead to the explosion of Japan's strength and had to win him over), and Zheng Weiguo's three conditions were also beneficial to him, so he agreed with a twist. He also quickly asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send a letter to the Soviet government, agreeing that the Jicha Theater would purchase weapons on its own, which would not be included in the materials for aiding China, and that it would be settled independently in a single transaction and paid on delivery.

As soon as the diplomatic address arrived, the Soviets also behaved cheerfully. The first batch of equipment that had been negotiated quickly was shipped from Ulaanbaatar, Outer Mongolia, and arrived in Suiyuan as quickly as possible. From Zheng Weiguo talking to Zhang Wenbai about this matter, to the first batch of delivery, it took less than a week in total.

With the completion of this deal, the relationship between Chang Kaishen and Zheng Weiguo has also improved. After Zhang Wenbai learned that the weapons had arrived in Suiyuan, he was very happy and immediately rushed to report the good news to Zheng Weiguo.

Zheng Weiguo said with a smile: "Ha Luha, Brother Wen Bai is a step late, I already know the way!" ”

Zhang Wenbai said with some excitement: "I didn't think the Soviets were so interesting this time, I heard that in order to transport weapons to Suiyuan in time, even the horses were tired to death!" ”

Zheng Weiguo laughed and said: "Money can make ghosts grind!" ”

Zhang Wenbai was stunned for a moment, and said strangely: "Commander-in-chief, how do you say this?" ”

Zheng Weiguo explained the details to him. It turned out that according to the original agreement, the morning and evening of the transportation time was also directly linked to money. The shorter the transportation time, the more money, otherwise how could Lao Maozi be so enthusiastic? Moreover, according to the agreement, the "transportation cost" is also borne by the buyer, and the tired horses and pack horses will naturally have to be paid by Zheng Huzi. In addition, they are all horses of the pseudo-Mongolian army, so Lao Maozi will not feel distressed.

"Ahh After listening to the explanation, Zhang Wenbai couldn't cry or laugh, and scolded with a smile: "I said that why did this group of old hairmen change their sex, it turned out that they fell into the eyes of money!" As he spoke, he picked up the list of supplies on the table and looked at it, and saw that there was only a M193812.7mm large-caliber machine gun on it, and he couldn't help but wonder: "Why is this one weapon?" Something else Lao Maozi refuses to sell? ”

Zheng Weiguo shook his head. Explained: "That's not it! Lao Maozi provided a lot of things, flying in the sky and running on the ground. Hehe, I can't wait to sell my father. But I chose it, and I fell in love with this one! ”

Since Zheng Weiguo paid with real money, Lao Maozi was naturally very interested, and specially sent someone to negotiate, saying that as long as the price was right, anything could be sold. Like what Il-16 fighter, 40,000 dollars; Il-15 fighter. $35,000; T26 tank. $22,000; 76.2mm anti-aircraft gun, $20,000; 45 mm anti-tank gun, $ 7000...... Anyway, planes, tanks, artillery, there is nothing that cannot be sold.

Except for weapons. What accessories, parts, consumables can also be sold. For example, the spare chamber of an anti-aircraft gun is $1,500 a piece. Large quantities are preferred. However, Zheng Weiguo picked and chosen, but he didn't like it, and only bought a thousand Deshka heavy machine guns in the end. $1,000 each, bullets, etc. are counted separately. Each machine gun came with 10,000 rounds of ammunition, plus spare parts such as spare barrels and maintenance equipment, and cost a total of $2,000,000 worth of gold and silver.

The dollar was worth more than it is now, and one dollar was equivalent to three oceans, or 0.89 grams of gold. This was also the result of President Roosevelt ordering the dollar to depreciate by 41% in 1934. So the Soviets sold the heavy shka for $1,000 a piece, which was definitely a black price. Fortunately, it is cash on delivery, and the first batch is only about 100, otherwise this transaction can make Jizhong go bankrupt directly!

Zhang Wenbai questioned: "Didn't the commander-in-chief want to deal with planes and tanks?" I think I should buy some more anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft guns, etc.? The power of large-caliber machine guns is still a little small! ”

Zheng Weiguo waved his hand and said, "Brother Wen Bai is also an old soldier, don't you understand?" Anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft artillery all need to be strictly trained, where is the time now? ”

At that time, the cultural quality of the Chinese military was so low that it was unimaginably poor. On page 135 of the book "Silhouette of the Youth Expeditionary Force" published in 1945, the Kuomintang Intellectual Youth Volunteer Training Directorate Department mentioned that "for new recruits, ordinary troops must carry out military training on the one hand, and on the other hand, they must make up for national education, such as teaching an ordinary soldier to recognize Arabic numerals, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to recognize the meter ruler (gauge), it takes up to 3 weeks to teach ballistic line throwing, and it often takes 2 to 3 months to teach him how to shoot." ”

It takes two or three weeks to learn how to count, which seems to be nonsense now, but at that time, due to the poor cultural quality of the people, these problems really existed. It is so difficult to learn to count and shoot guns, isn't it fatal for soldiers to learn to operate anti-aircraft artillery and battle defense artillery on the line of fire? I'm afraid that Baotou has already been lost before he learns it, so after thinking about it, Zheng Weiguo still decided to support Baotou with some weapons that are relatively simple to operate.

It happened that the Soviet army was preparing to equip the improved DShK heavy machine gun at that time, so Zheng Weiguo was advised to purchase it. Because this game is easy to operate, as long as you can call a heavy machine gun, you can use it, and you don't need to need additional training. Basically, let the veteran bring it with you at night, and you will use it with two more shots during the day. This is also one of the advantages of Russian-style weapons, so that they can be durable! Unlike the delicate British goods, I am afraid that the soldiers will break them.

The DShK heavy machine gun was first designed by the famous Soviet light weapons designer Deg Galev in 1930, with a caliber of 12.7mm, and was originally named DK machine gun, that is, "Deka".

The DK heavy machine gun is a gas-operated weapon, and the whole system is basically a large DP-27 light machine gun (i.e., a turntable machine gun), but it fires a high-power 12.7X108mm bullet. The DK machine gun was fed with drum-shaped magazines, each drum could hold only 30 rounds of ammunition, and the volume of the drum was too large and heavy, so the combat rate of fire was not high, and thus it was not satisfactory. In 1931 the DK large-caliber machine gun was officially adopted by the Red Army, but it was produced only in small quantities, and after 35 years it was completely discontinued.

It was not until April 1938 that Sparkin, another well-known Soviet light weapons designer, designed a drum-shaped chain feeding mechanism, which could be easily mounted on the DK machine gun to replace the original magazine feeding mechanism. This made it possible to increase the actual rate of fire of the machine gun. In February 1939, the improved Degalev large-caliber machine gun was officially adopted by the Soviet Red Army and renamed DShK-38, or simply DShK, which is an abbreviation for "Degalev-Sparkin large-caliber machine gun". Domestic is usually transliterated as "Deshka" machine gun.

The performance of this machine gun is quite good. The maximum effective range is 3500m, the maximum anti-air height is 2500m, and the 15mm thick steel plate can penetrate at a distance of 500m when firing armor-piercing projectiles, which can not only resist low-flying enemy aircraft, but also effectively deal with lightly armored targets or infantry bunkers, so it is an excellent weapon to support infantry ground combat. Later, it was copied by China and called the Type 54 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun, and the subsequent Type 77 and Type 85 were all improved on this basis.

Of course, the reason why the Soviets suggested that Zheng Huzi purchase this weapon was not because it was good. Nor for the sake of the Chinese. Rather, their army was also ready to be equipped with Deshka heavy machine guns. But the cost is high, and I am reluctant to build more (at the beginning of World War II, the Soviet army only had 9 divisions per division), so I wanted to find a Kaizi to share it. Because for weapons, the greater the amount produced. The lower the cost. What's more, you can also make a lot of money from Zheng Huzi. One comes and goes. Quite a lot of equipment earned in vain. Zheng Weiguo knows this, but now he has to ask for others, and he can only pay for it quickly. As for Lao Maozi. Naturally, there were Germans to clean them up.

Zhang Wenbai said with admiration: "So that's the case, or the commander-in-chief is thoughtful." ”

Zheng Weiguo sighed, shook his head and smiled bitterly: "It's not okay if it's not thoughtful!" The situation in Suiyuan is getting worse and worse, and I hope that this batch of weapons will improve the situation. If Baotou falls, then we will be cut off a foot. The strategic situation in North China will deteriorate, and the harvest in Zhengtai Road will be greatly reduced. ”

Zhang Wenbai saw that there was no one around, so he asked quietly: "It is true that the effect of just hitting a Zhengtai Road is not obvious, when does the commander-in-chief plan to do it again on the Pinghan Line?" ”

While negotiating with Chang Kaishen and purchasing weapons from the Soviet Union, the war on the Zhengtai Line was also in full swing. As Master Liu said before, the attack on Niangzi Pass, Jingcheng Pass, and Jingcheng Coal Mine is only the first step. Subsequently, the Eighth Route Army and the soldiers and civilians in the base areas carried out complete destruction of road and mine facilities.

Take the Jingcheng Coal Mine as an example. In parallel space, due to the rush of time, the destruction of the Eighth Route Army was not complete. Especially in terms of machines, because of the preciousness of explosives, he was reluctant to use them, but just set a fire, and was fooled by a Japanese engineer. The old devil told Balu: "After this great damage, the machine cannot be repaired, even if it is reluctantly modified, it will take half a year!" ”

In fact, those machines are ready to use after restoration. Because the Eighth Route Army only used fire at that time, and then let it cool naturally, it basically did not have much impact on the machinery. The correct and simple way is to pour a scoop of water after burning red, then it really can't be repaired, and can only be recycled as scrap iron.

It's a pity that Balu didn't bring an engineer at that time, and he was deceived by that old devil. Of course, the destruction of the Eighth Road was still effective, for example, they blew up the large chimney of the coal mine more than ten meters high, and introduced flash floods into the mine tunnel. On the whole, however, there was no fundamental damage, so much so that the Japanese occupied the mine and restarted it soon after.

This time it was different, Zheng Weiguo specially sent all kinds of engineers and geological experts to provide on-site guidance. Under the guidance of experts, the Eighth Route Army carried out an extremely thorough blasting of the coal mine. Explosives were planted at each mining site, and then all of them were blown up, and that's not enough, the water from the Hutuo River was diverted and poured into the mines, and where it could not be led, pumps were used. It's well equipped anyway.

After turning the coal mine into a large water cellar, all the coal that had been mined before was burned with kerosene and burned, and then the handling machines were dismantled. All the machines that can be moved, such as 14 mining machines, 2 large winks, 3 blowers, 3 water filtration engines, 5 wind turbines, 10 pumping machines, and dozens of large and small motors have all been moved to the Ping'an County Arsenal.

Those that cannot be moved, but can be disassembled, such as 10 boilers, several power equipment, 15 steel-making furnaces, and 5 railway bridges, are all demolished, and those that are valuable and can be transported are also transported away; Those that can't be moved, have no value, and can't be transported, such as big chimneys, cisterns, and motor rooms, are all blown up.

After the complete destruction, Xiong Dazhen, the supply minister of the Jicha Theater who led the team, also called the captured Japanese engineer and deliberately pointed to the destroyed mining area and asked: "Hino-san, how long will it take for this mine to be repaired?" As a result, the old devil fainted on the spot.

After the destruction of the mining area, the Eighth Route Army began to completely destroy the railway. It's still the old rule to remove valuable equipment first, such as power lines, bridges, signal towers, and stations, and remove everything that can be removed. At the same time, blow up some "useless" equipment, such as the water tower (note: in fact, this thing is very useful, without it the steam locomotive don't want to run, but it is really useless for the Eighth Road, it is better to blow it up as soon as possible).

After dismantling the railroad into a "single stick", the dismantling of the track began. After many sabotage actions against the railway, the current "road-breaking technique" of the Jizhong side has already reached the point of perfection.

For example, in the past, the hardest thing to get was the road spike. Each sleeper is nailed to one, and if you don't have the tools at hand, you may not be able to pull it out after half a day's work. But now, the arsenal has already made more than 10,000 "nail removers" and "crownail sticks". When using, use a "nail remover" to loosen the road spikes and leave a gap. Then the "crowstick stick" was inserted and the nail was pried out. The whole process takes less than ten seconds.

Because the road spikes are made of all-steel, the quality is good, and they can be used to build houses and repair fortifications, so they are all packed and moved. After pulling out the nails, it's time to dismantle the rails. In the parallel space, due to the lack of transportation tools of the Eighth Route Army, most of the rails could only be thrown on the side of the road, and they were picked up and used by the little devils.

This time it was different, both Jinchaji and Shanxi, Hebei, and Luyu brought in a large number of heavy carriages, and at least half of the more than 240-mile-long railroad tracks (60-mile railway, double line) were removed. Some were moved to the Ping'an County Arsenal, and some were stored in the arsenals in various base areas. There are also some who can't be moved away (in fact, it's not that they can't be moved, the main thing is that they can't be put in the warehouses of the arsenals, and they can't be used up, and they don't like to want it) so they have to put all of them into the tunnel, and then blow up the tunnel.

By the way, the Zhengtai Line has the most tunnels and bridges. Among the major railways in North China, the geological conditions are the most complex. This time, after the rails, sleepers, and roadbed have been destroyed, it will be the turn of the bridges and tunnels. Especially in the tunnel, the engineers deliberately blew up the mountain, and it was impossible to double the line at that time, so they had to re-explore. Such a complicated thing can not be completed in two or three years. It can be said that Zhengtai Road is completely ruined. At least the section from Niangzi Pass to Jingcheng Pass is not to be opened to traffic in a short period of time.

Of course, the little devil didn't just watch the Eighth Road toss the railway like this. At the same time as the Eighth Road was demolishing mines and breaking roads, the extremely angry Japanese army also launched a frantic attack on Niangzi Pass, Jingcheng Pass and other places. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you very much for the tip from hugetiger, I didn't pay attention yesterday, I'm sorry.