Episode 121 Half-track

Chongqing is only about a thousand kilometers away from Nanjing, and the Junkers-52 can fly directly and directly.

At eight o'clock in the morning of June 24, Xiang Xiaoqiang took five experts led by Wang Hexiang, six guards led by Hu Jiong, and three confidential female soldiers led by Qiu Qiu, plus Xiang Xiaoqiang himself, a total of 15 people, took a car to Xianlin Airport to board a Junkers-52 and flew to Chongqing.

At around 11 a.m., the plane landed at the Shiping military airfield in Yubei, northeast of Chongqing.

Shiping Airport is located about 15 kilometers from downtown Chongqing. But Xiang Xiaoqiang is not going to Chongqing, but to the headquarters of Taiping Ji. The area around Shiping Airport is the production base of Tai Ping Kee Military Industrial Company. The production base of Taiping Ji is not at the same level as the light weapons companies like Lian Feng and Qi Shunfa. Here large and small factories are next to each other, chimneys are lined up, rails are staggered, and the mother factory, the child factory, the shooting range, and the test ground are ...... Forming a huge heavy industrial city.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a car out of the airport and looked at the majestic factories passing by on both sides of the road, and had a feeling as if this was not Chongqing, not Sichuan, but the Ruhr industrial zone in Germany and the production base of Krupp.

Daming has three major rear strategic heavy industry zones in the country, namely the Southwest Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan), the Southern Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Guangdong, Guangxi), and the Southeast Strategic Heavy Industry Zone (Fujian). These large industrial zones are responsible for the most life-and-death industrial production of the Ming Empire, such as steel (southwest), machinery (southwest), military industry (southwest), automobile (south), shipbuilding (southeast), and oil refining (south). It can also be said that once a war starts, these strategic industrial zones are the hematopoietic system of the empire.

The main reason why these areas are regarded as strategic heavy industry zones is that they are located in the rear, far from the border of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In particular, the two strategic industrial zones in the southwest and southeast, surrounded by lofty mountains and mountains, are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the possibility of being captured by the Qing army from the land is very small. In this way, even after the Qing army crossed the river and the Ming lost the political, economic, and cultural center of Jiangnan, they could still persist in the war.

But the territory of the Ming Dynasty itself is not vast, and the depth is not very large. Even though it is a "rear" strategic industrial zone, there are still some parts that are within the range of long-range bombers, such as the Sichuan Basin, where the production base of Tai Ping Kee is located. Because the western border of the Ming and Qing dynasties was divided by the Qinling Mountains and the Daba Mountains. To the north of the Sichuan Basin is Daba Mountain, and further north is Qin. The Qinling Mountains were controlled by the Qing, and the Daba Mountains were controlled by the Ming. To the north of the Qinling Mountains is Shaanxi and Gansu in the Northern Qing Dynasty.

The long-range bomber taking off from Shaanxi and Gansu had a range of only 300 kilometers into the Sichuan Basin, and to Chongqing in the southern part of the Sichuan Basin, it was only more than 400 kilometers, which was completely within the flight radius of the twin-engine bomber. The Yangtze River defense line has been changed from the west of Anqing to the land defense line, although it is still called the "Yangtze River defense line", but the defense line is no longer relying on the Yangtze River, but relying on the mountains and mountains. Daba Mountain on the north side of the Sichuan Basin is a section of the Yangtze River defense line, and the fortifications on the mountain range are extremely strong, and it is basically impossible for the Qing army to break through from the land, so the only danger in the Sichuan Basin comes from the air.

Therefore, it has also become one of the two key air defense areas of the Ming Empire. The so-called two key air defense zones, the first is the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain, and the second is the Sichuan Basin. The Sichuan Basin also has unique air defense conditions. It has a large area and relatively flat terrain, and there are many places where airports can be built. Therefore, this is the most densely populated area of Daming's airport except for the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain. The northern part of the basin is almost entirely dominated by defensive fighter group airfields. These fighter airfields form a large air defense network to protect the strategic industrial zone in the Sichuan Basin. The Chongqing Shiping Airport, where the Xiaoqiang landing, is a bomber group airport because it is in the south of the basin.

Within a distance of more than 10 kilometers from the airport to the headquarters of Taiping Kee, Xiang Xiaoqiang saw two antiaircraft artillery units in the car, and he kept hearing the roar of engines passing overhead. A representative from Tai Ping Kee who came to pick up the plane said that this was a training for an army airline plane. Since the Ming and Qing wars began at the beginning of this year, in the past six months, the planes of the Army Airlines have been training day and night, without interruption. As long as it's daytime, you can always hear a "buzzing" sound overhead.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was very satisfied. Li Guoliang is really very hard-working, and it also shows that the Ming Empire, whether it is the army or the government, attaches great importance to air power. Otherwise, if you train at such a high intensity day after day, the amount of fuel burned every day alone is not a small number. Daming does not produce its own oil, and it has to be transported from the South Seas. Therefore, without the attention and support of the whole country, it would not be possible.

……

When he arrived at the headquarters of Taiping Ji Company, Xiang Xiaoqiang met the current big boss of Taiping Ji Military Industry Company - Zhang Shaoheng. Mr. Zhang is the second-generation head of the Taiping Ji Military Industrial Empire. His father was Zhang Taiping, the founder of Tai Ping Ji. Zhang Taiping has long since passed away, but in the words of later generations, he is the "spiritual leader" of Taiping Ji. The current chairman of the board of directors, Zhang Shaoheng, not only inherited Taipingji, but also inherited his father's legacy, which is quite the taste of Zhang Taiping back then.

Mr. Zhang Shaoheng is over sixty years old, dressed in simple Han clothes, with snow-white hair hanging down from the back of his head to his shoulders, and he is in good spirits, with a taste of fairy wind and bones. Behind him are more than a dozen executives of Taipingji, all of whom are in straight suits and leather shoes, which contrasts Zhang Shaoheng's supreme and transcendent status.

When Zhang Shaoheng saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, he greeted him with a smile and shook hands with him very strongly, with the demeanor of a big entrepreneur. However, Xiang Xiaoqiang is even more experienced in the world, and he also smiled and greeted him very chicly.

At noon, Mr. Zhang invited guests to wash the dust in order to pick up the wind and wash the dust to Xiaoqiang and his party. Xiang Xiaoqiang originally thought that Chongqing was a big stove and it would definitely be very hot, but he never thought about it since he got off the plane. Now when it comes to going to eat, Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly remembered that Chongqing doesn't seem to be as hot as the legend says. It dawned on him that he was from Nanjing. Nanjing is also a big furnace, not inferior to Chongqing at all, and I have adapted to it. And there may also be a reason why this era did not have the strong greenhouse effect as later generations, and the average annual temperature was much lower. Winter is colder than the Hereafter, and summer is cooler than the Hereafter.

Considering that Xiang Xiaoqiang and his entourage are all public officials, in order to avoid the suspicion of bribery, Boss Zhang's reception banquet is still not extravagant. Although the dishes are exquisitely made, there are nothing precious. This is also a characteristic of Sichuan cuisine. But there is one thing that makes Xiang Xiaoqiang very comfortable, there are several kinds of cold food on the dinner table. Chilled fruits, chilled plum soup, chilled bamboo leaf wine, and chilled Coca-Cola after the meal......

In this era, in this era when refrigerators have just appeared, it is an absolute luxury to want to eat chilled fruits and drink chilled drinks in the summer. Because in this day and age, even most of the rich people don't have refrigerators. If you want to eat something cold in the summer, you have to rely on ice cubes stored in the ice cellar in the winter. And ice cubes are very expensive in the summer. There is an ice cellar in Xiang Xiaoqiang's official residence. After entering June, Qiu Yu has often asked people to take out the ice cubes and put them in the room to cool off.

And right now, after eating the hot and spicy Sichuan food, and then drinking the iced sour plum soup, it is called a refreshing......

……

After lunch, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Xiang Xiaoqiang touched his mouth, did not rest, and directly asked Boss Zhang to prepare the car and go to the test site to see the sample car.

The group took the car out of the administrative living area and entered the factory area. There are railway rails that extend in all directions and run through the factory area. They came to a train garage and got out of the car.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and the others were a little puzzled, because they were talking about going to the test site. How to get off in front of the train garage.

Zhang Shaoheng stood beside Xiang Xiaoqiang, pointed to the tall train garage and said with a smile:

"Lord Xiang doesn't understand, does he? Oh, that's right, from this moment on, our product presentation for you has begun...... Start here. ”

He made a gesture. Two workers slowly pushed open the two huge warehouse doors, revealing a black locomotive inside. It can be seen that the locomotive has burned enough gas, and from time to time it is panting, the chimney above the head is gently floating white gas, and the boiler is dripping water. A driver stepped aboard, pulled a whistle, and the front of the car spewed steam high and drove out with heavy steps.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and his party still didn't understand. However, Xiang Xiaoqiang is very patient. He already had a premonition of what he was going to see from behind the locomotive that was ready to go.

The locomotive was completely out of the way. At this time, Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that this was not a separate front car, there was a passenger car hanging behind the front of the car, and there was a flatbed car behind it.

The locomotive let out a long sigh and stopped. Xiang Xiaoqiang glanced at Zhang Shaoheng inquiringly. Zhang Shaoheng smiled and made another gesture. The door to a smaller warehouse next to the train garage opened.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's and his party's eyes lit up, and they saw what they wanted to see. In the dark warehouse, two armored vehicles were parked. From the front, they were about a man tall, wheeled, and had a woodpecker machine gun with a baffle mounted on the roof.

With the familiar sound of engines, two armored vehicles started at the same time. They drove out of the garage almost at the same time, making a neat turn, revealing their whole bodies. Behind the tires at the front of the car, there are tracks.

This is a half-track, the legendary half-track.

This kind of car is a bit like the German half-track of World War II that Xiang Xiaoqiang is familiar with, but it is different in many places. The body is not that tall, this one is only one meter eight tall, and it is only the height of an adult man. The length of the car was about five or six meters, and there were also inclined armor plates in the front.

One of the two vehicles seemed to be empty, a simple transporter, and the other had a short cannon tube sticking out of the back. The barrel of the cannon is very thick, and after a visual inspection of Xiaoqiang, it is about 105 or 120 mm caliber. He understood. The first is a basic model, and the second is a modified variant, that is, a self-propelled mortar.

Xiang Xiaoqiang breathed rapidly, staring intently at the two half-track armored vehicles. The engines of the two cars vibrated and drove under the flatbed, and then four workers jumped down from the first troop carrier, took off the large plank from the flatbed and set it up diagonally, and one person stood on the flatbed to command, so another scene of Xiaoqiang's jaw-dropping happened.

The first half-track roared with green smoke, showing that a pair of tires in front of it had been driven up on the inclined planks, and then the tracks behind it were pushing, and at once it was on the flatbed.

Several workers took out wooden blocks and stuffed them in front and behind the tires and tracks of the armored car, and then quickly fixed the armored car to the flatbed with steel cables.

Then, the second self-propelled mortar was also concocted in the same way and drove up with great speed.

……

In Xiang Xiaoqiang's feeling, the climbing ability of the half-track is far less than that of the full-track. Because its front part is wheeled, which is congenitally deficient. But the current half-track is flatbed along the plank, and it's like play. It seems that only tanks can do this, and the half-track to get on the train has to be lifted by a crane, just like a car, or the slope of the planks has to be very small.

The planks are very steep at the moment, and it seems that only tanks can climb them.

"Hehe, Lord Xiang," Zhang Shaoheng said with a smile, "You have also seen that although the Hurricane 36 is a half-tracked vehicle, it can do the actions that only tanks and full-tracked vehicles can do. It has good climbing ability. This means that he has better off-road ability and the ability to climb over trenches. And the requirements for train transshipment are low. It doesn't require a large site and a long plank, and it can also be easily boarded on the train. As you know, the main chariot has good adaptability to railway transportation, which is an important condition for winning the war. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and nodded, but kept staring intently at the two "Hurricane-36" on the flatbed. His heart had been touched by those two beautiful cars. Zhang Shaoheng and his Tai Ping Ji products got off to a good start as soon as they appeared.

The group boarded the passenger car in front of the flatbed car and took the train with the prototype to the test site.