September 10, 1941, Taiyuan, the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army

"It's really interesting, we haven't cracked their copper-clad steel technology yet, but their products have been upgraded, and now they don't even want to throw that shoddy pistol into our occupation zone." Kazuki Yamamoto smiled bitterly, the first time he saw that kind of copper-clad steel, he realized the value of that kind of thing to the empire.

Don't look at just a small bullet, but you can't stand the large amount of bullets, the production of bullets in a serious country, which one is not hundreds of millions, the cost of accumulation, it is definitely an amazing number, not only bullets, small-caliber shells, metal cartridges, these can be used copper-clad steel to reduce costs.

But in terms of reducing costs, he seems to always be behind others, tinplate bullets, that kind of bullets he has seen, very soft, very good ductility, can be molded into a bullet shell at one time, but also maintain a certain toughness, this hardness will definitely affect the shell, but it is enough to make a disposable weapon, even if it is enough to supply the kind of single-shot pistol, automatic shelling is not good, pump hard. As for the cast-iron warhead, that's because it wasn't fired from a gun at all.

"They're not going to throw these bullets and mines in the future, are they?" Ichiro Hirata felt a chill on the back of his neck, this thing was more scary and unguardable than that pistol, you can't equip every soldier with a mine detector, right? Besides, as far as the Empire's mine detector is concerned, the sensitivity is really not enough.

Although he doesn't know the cost of the opponent's "bullet mine", judging from the shoddy appearance of this thing, the cost is definitely quite low, and the pistol can be thrown in the tens of millions, not to mention this thing, and the thought that this thing may be everywhere in the occupied area in the future, Hirata Ichiro feels that the whole person is not good.

"Can the power of black powder be guaranteed?" Kazuki Yamamoto was more interested in whether this thing had any use value.

"Compared with rifle bullets and bullet mines made of ordinary pistol bullets, the power of this bullet will be much weaker, and if it is buried a little deeper, it will not even be able to shoot through the leather shoes with steel plates, but even if it cannot be shot through, it is enough to injure the soldier's footsteps, and combat attrition is unavoidable." Ichiro Hirata is a little frustrated, this thing is very powerful, but you can't ignore its lethality.

"The Empire will never equip all its soldiers with leather shoes with steel plates, and for the vast majority of soldiers who wear rubber shoes, the power is enough, with a 60% chance of being disabled, which is more troublesome than anti-personnel mines." Kazuki Yamamoto has only recently figured out that this wounding weapon is more effective than a lethal weapon, and a wounded person will not only not be able to continue fighting for the empire, but also consume a lot of valuable resources, which is far more harmful to the empire than directly killing the opponent.

"The use of warheads soaked in feces and urine will cause wound infection in 100%, and the effect of sulfonamides is not obvious, and the statistics released by the base camp should still be conservative." He didn't believe in the casualty statistics of the base camp at all, when did the officers of the locust army truthfully report the losses, he, the chief of staff, in order to grasp the actual situation of the troops, needs to be counted by county, otherwise you can't get the actual situation at all, just like in Pingyao, there should have been a squadron stationed, but in fact there was only a little more than a squad, and only one of the two Taisho 11-year infantry guns reinforced to them remained, and this one has become a copy of Fengzhu.

As for the situation of the puppet army, it is even worse, generally only 30%-40% of the troops, as for the weapons, it is even worse, on average a battalion is only a light machine gun, I don't know if it can be fired, as for the vast majority of the bullet bags are also cut straw, and the few bullets that can be excited have also been replaced with gunsmiths' reloading bullets, the reason is also very simple, the price of original bullets and original grenades is very high, and it is an open secret that soldiers are allowed to sell part of the bullets to supplement their salaries.

"It's hard to return, this will affect the commander's judgment very much, and once there is a big battle, I'm afraid there will be a full-scale avalanche." Yamamoto Kazuki went to Beiping some time ago to visit General Yoshio Shinozuka, who was in a depressed mood, and he understood that his old superiors had done everything he could, but in the face of the Chinese army that was blooming everywhere, the mobile force in the hands of the North China Dispatch Army was really insufficient.

Although some of the mobile corps of the 10 Korean divisions have been consumed, there are almost 200,000 troops, but the 200,000 troops are still insufficient, because the opponent has more newly formed troops, and the locust army has no chance of winning at all in the competition for human resources.

"Your Excellency Commander, there is one more thing, that is, the navy seems to be interested in buying the bullets and mines we have collected, what do you think should be done?" Ichiro Hirata remembered something else.

"Navy? Are they going to continue to do things in Southeast Asia? "Kazuki Yamamoto was a little surprised, the navy and army were preparing to go south, and it didn't seem to make much sense to buy bullet mines at this time.

"The navy seems to have a bigger plan, it is said that they have recruited a lot of indigenous organizations from the southern continents, which should be ready to be sent to the southern continents, and the navy also seems to have a great interest in the west coast of the Indian Ocean, and some of the single-shot pistols collected by the Kwantung Army were thrown into Africa by the navy, and it is said that the effect is very good." Ichiro Hirata explained, don't look at the navy's military spending on the surface is much less than the army, but in fact, the navy has always occupied the majority of military spending, but many times those military expenditures are not put on the surface, and the navy and the army have a lot of hidden income, which makes the navy have a lot of money to do things, of course, there are also steaks, imported steaks, after all, they have not yet large-scale breeding of Simmental cattle at this time, and there is no "Wagyu cattle".

"They have a brain, sell it to them, if it is not enough, let the Taiyuan Arsenal also produce some of it, just make it according to the cheapest tinplate bullets." YAMAMOTO IKKI SMILED AND NODDED, THE NAVY WANTED TO WALK THIS THING TO THE SOUTHERN CONTINENTS AND THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA, WHY DIDN'T HE WANT TO SPREAD THIS THING TO OUTER MONGOLIA AND CENTRAL ASIA, I BELIEVE THAT THOSE LOCAL GUYS SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCEPT THIS THING TO PAY FOR THE GOODS.

That's right, compared to the Japanese army and navy, which planted contraband on a large scale in China, Yamamoto Kazuki directly put his planting base in Central Asia, and then used TB-3 bombers to transport the finished products back for sale, although the cost was much higher, but this could effectively support the local powerful and opposition forces, which was more beneficial to the empire.

However, the high-level leaders of the locust army could not see this, and only stared at those petty profits, without strategic considerations at all.

"I'm afraid it's not so easy, whether it's the previous copper-clad steel or the current high-quality ultra-thin tinplate, we don't have the ability to produce our own tinplate, not only Taiyuan can't produce, but also the local, therefore, if we produce it ourselves, the tinplate shell will be thicker, the charge will be less, and the power may be affected." Ichiro Hirata was a little helpless, the industrial strength of the empire is second to none in Asia, but it is really not enough to look at it in the world, especially in terms of basic materials.

"It doesn't matter, just add a small amount of barium nitrate, anyway, it's not too expensive, you must know that the nitrate we collect is also not cheap." Yamamoto Kazuki smiled, the First Army collected soil nitrate in all the counties and strongholds in Jin Province, and produced a lot of black powder every day, but the consumption of the Taiyuan Arsenal was also very large, forcing them to use cheap barium nitrate to replenish, and at the same time, it could also increase its power.

Now, the bullets and grenades of the puppet army in Jin Province are all filled with black powder + barium nitrate, the price is very low, and the power is guaranteed, and there is no need to worry about the puppet army selling the original bullets to exchange for the gunsmith's reloading bullets.

As for the corrosiveness of black powder, don't be funny, this is the traditional skill of the locust army, just brush a layer of paraffin wax on the inner wall of the shell, and they brushed the paraffin in the shells they made at the beginning of the first day.

At present, they are still cracking the "Tagang method" sulfuric acid preparation process of the Eighth Route Army, and after the large-scale push, they can produce nitrocellulose cotton and nitrocellulose starch by themselves, which is necessary in terms of the current supply state of the locusts army.

"The barium nitrate production of the Taiyuan Chemical Plant is already at full capacity, is it to increase production capacity, the Eleventh Army secretly brought some chemical equipment when it retreated from Wuhan, we may be able to use it." Ichiro Hirata reminded.

"Didn't you say that you can't demolish industrial facilities? Ishihara-senpai is our predecessor after all, can't they produce it themselves? As far as I know, my predecessors built a lot of bullet and grenade workshops in Nanchang. Kazuki Yamamoto smiled, the old fox is always the old fox, no matter when he can exploit the loophole, this is the train axle and chemical equipment, and the other party can't find fault, I really wonder how he did it.

"The Military Command Bureau has always been very active in the operation of the 11th Army, and the target of large military factories is too large, so Chief Ishihara has no plans to build large-scale chemical plants, and has turned to large-scale construction of small factories, which have low construction costs, no technical thresholds, and are easier to conceal and protect, even if they are destroyed, it is nothing." Hirata Ichiro said that it was the Eleventh Army, but in fact they also faced the same problem in Jin Province, except for the Taiyuan Basin, they also couldn't stop the agents of the Eighth Route Army from sabotaging, so until now they have arranged some small factories such as black powder, small steelmaking, and small coking in the county below, and even the bullet clothing and grenade workshops are not daring to put them, for fear that those factories will be destroyed in an instant after the armistice agreement expires.

"Then let's do it, we can still control the Taiyuan Basin, and the batch of axles of the Eleventh Army must also be processed quickly, regardless of whether they want to make mortars or not, and strive for some of them, we will make mortars, the alliance's 120 mm mortars perform very well on the European battlefield, and they are very suitable as a brigade firepower!" Kazuki Yamamoto quickly decided.

"Okay, Your Excellency, I will connect as soon as possible, I believe that it is not a big problem, after all, there are not many things in their hands that can be used to pay." Hirata Ichiro is also relieved in his heart, his hometown actually wants to use part of the axle and equipment to offset the processing costs, there is no way, the locust army that is poor out of the sky is almost the same.

"How's our fortress plan going?" Yamamoto Kazuki continued to ask, although the First Army was building the Taiyuan Iron Wall, but they did not want to give up the rest of Jin Province, so they built ten strong fortresses in the dangerous areas along the railway, all of which were built with steel rails and concrete relying on the mountain, in addition to conventional firepower, a lot of large-caliber naval guns and intensive anti-aircraft firepower were also deployed, and the construction standards of the project even surpassed the Maginot Line.

"The main building is basically completed, and the weapons are now being commissioned, however, our advisers of Country F believe that they may not be able to block the 600mm heavy mortar guns of the Eighth Route Army, and hope to strengthen the non-core area of the fortress." Hirata Ichiro is a little entangled, the cost of these ten fortresses is about the same as the Taiyuan Iron Wall, if it is to be strengthened, I am afraid that the capital reserves of the First Army will not be able to bear it.

"It doesn't matter, it's just some peripheral buildings, according to our judgment, the opponent's 600mm heavy mortars can't be produced by themselves, so they shouldn't have many in their hands, what happened to our armored trains?" Kazuki Yamamoto smiled, enlarging the Type 98 320mm heavy mortar to 600mm is not just as simple as modifying the drawings, from the shell material to the propellant needs to be readjusted, and even the seemingly least important cast steel launch tube needs to be redesigned and manufactured.

Although the scale of the Taiyuan Arsenal may not be as frantic as the Eighth Route Army, both the number of technicians and advanced equipment far exceed that of the Eighth Route Army, and even so, he is only able to manufacture Type 98 320mm heavy mortars in batches.

"The Manchurian Railway helped us design two armored trains, both of which are made according to Krupp's drawings, which can be immune to all the anti-tank firepower that the Eighth Route Army currently has, and in addition, we also have two armored trains of the former Northeast Army's country F armored trains, which should be enough at present." Ichiro Hirata walked over to the wall and pulled the curtain, revealing a drawing of an armored train.

This is the latest product of the Manchurian Railway, which uses the same new armored steel as the Yamato, with an Asian locomotive in the front and rear, in addition, there are two 178 mm naval guns with a range of more than 20 kilometers, with other firepower on the train, it can form a strike circle with a radius of 20 kilometers with the train as the center, and the powerful anti-aircraft firepower can deal with four dive bombardment fighters that enter the attack range at the same time.

In order to enhance the range of the armored trains, each train is also equipped with eight Type 95 tanks, which can leave the train for a mission at any time if necessary, and hide in the armored compartment when not on duty.

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