Rise From Eight Hundred

Everything develops slowly from nothing to something.

All strengths are inseparable from time and people, and the Shanxi Arsenal is no exception.

The history of the Shanxi Arsenal in China is not short. Forty years ago, during the reign of the Great Braid Dynasty, that is, in the 24th year of Guangxu, Hu Pinzhi, then the governor of Shanxi Province, founded the Shanxi Machinery Bureau, which mainly manufactures arms, on a piece of temple land in the Thousand Buddha Temple in Cypress Garden outside the Xiaobei Gate of the original city.

It was this simple machinery bureau with only five lathes, two drilling machines, one planer, and a 35-horsepower horizontal steam engine that not only pioneered the self-made weapons for Shanxi Province, but also opened the beginning of modern machinery industry for the impoverished and closed Shanxi Province.

However, because it could not get more support, this mechanical bureau could only focus on repairing firearms and producing some simple rifles. It was not until the revolution broke out that the old man from Shanxi became the governor of Jin Province and took over Jin Province. He spent six years making a profit of 2 million yuan by manufacturing Jin Province copper coins, and used all the 2 million yuan to expand the production of arms. This small workshop, formerly the mechanical bureau, became a real arsenal.

But at this time, the Yuancheng Arsenal was still mainly imitation, and there was no systematic design of its own. The biggest reason was not the lack of mechanical equipment or raw materials, but the high cost. Imitations were more expensive than imported ones.

This is like the future car market. Pure imports are cheaper than domestic ones, and domestic ones have only been produced for a few years, and the product quality cannot be guaranteed. If you were a consumer, what would you choose? It is estimated that 99% of consumers will vote with their feet!

And this magical male silver just came out of nowhere!

Of course, the man named Zhang Kai did not jump out of a stone. He was a top student in the Department of Chemistry of Kyushu Imperial University in Japan. He was hired by the old man from Shanxi to work as a technician in the arsenal with a high salary.

Generally speaking, the chosen ones are very arrogant, but Zhang Kai is different from most geniuses. Not only does he have a good foundation, but he is also extremely low-key, so low-key that almost everyone can ignore him and just immerse themselves in his research.

Here I have to praise the old man from Shanxi who has no bottom line. Although the old man is black-hearted and thick-faced when he is trying to make money, and he is also lustful, even his aunt is not spared. In the future, calling him a scumbag is a compliment to him, but this man is indeed a wise man who is extremely good at discovering talents.

The old man from Shanxi analyzed that Zhang Kai was a talent through the report submitted by his confidants, so he entrusted him with an important task and asked him to study the formula of ammonium nitrate explosives.

Of course, there is also a little thought of the old man from Shanxi. Before this, the Yuancheng Arsenal, which was already quite prosperous, had a technical master who developed the formula of ammonium nitrate explosives.

That technical master was no ordinary person. He used to be the translator of the German engineers in Hanyang Arsenal. Later, because he did not understand many professional terms at work, he taught himself chemistry and became a chemical expert. After being poached by the old man from Shanxi to work at Yuancheng Arsenal with a high salary, he also served as the head of the bullet department and other important positions.

The high cost of explosives in Yuancheng Arsenal has always been a concern for the old man from Shanxi, and it is also the main reason that restricts its ammunition production. Therefore, the old man from Shanxi invested heavily to let him develop the formula of explosives.

Finally, after more than a year, this person succeeded. Shouldn't the old man from Shanxi laugh?

But the old man from Shanxi is not an ordinary person. He is more or less a hero of his generation. There is a couplet hanging next to his couch: "Treat people as gentlemen, guard against people as villains!" This is also his motto.

In order to control the materials and costs and prevent the factory from reporting less than the amount, he asked the technical master to estimate the price and contract the production. As a result, he thought that no one knew the formula for making explosives, so he could enjoy the benefits alone, so he quoted a price of eight cents per pound of labor and materials.

The old man from Shanxi should have been overjoyed when he heard that the offer was half the price of Pickering's explosives, but he was wary of everyone and always felt that he might be fooled, so he did not start full-scale production. Instead, he found Zhang Kai, who was still unknown at the time, and gave him the explosives to let him do reverse research and development.

Thus, the nationally famous "Kai Zi Explosives" was born in Yuancheng Arsenal.

Compared with that technical master, what price did Zhang Kai offer?

One pound of labor and materials cost less than 30 cents, which was only one-fifth of the foreign formula.

The old man from Shanxi was overjoyed. Not only did he let Zhang Kai contract production at 30 cents, he also merged the nitric acid factory, smokeless powder factory, black powder, pressure powder and other seven branches under the arsenal into a gunpowder factory, and made Zhang Kai the director.

Zhang Kai also lived up to the kindness of the old man from Shanxi. While developing the gunpowder factory, he continued to improve the process, tap the potential and improve production efficiency, and successively developed new products such as "fast-burning smokeless powder".

The cost of gunpowder dropped sharply, which became the basis for the increase in the output of ammunition at Yuancheng Arsenal. Machine rifle bullets, artillery shells, bombs, mines, hand grenades, etc. were all available.

Money was like a snowball. By 1926, Yuancheng Arsenal, which had been investing a lot of money, could produce rifles, machine guns, submachine guns, mountain cannons, field cannons, mortars and even heavy artillery, and it was on par with Hanyang Arsenal and Shenyang Arsenal. At its peak, the number of workers reached more than 15,000.

Jin-made weapons were recognized as one of the best equipment in China at that time.

After 15 years, the old man from Shanxi who entered Jin Province finally developed a small workshop into a large arsenal that was at the forefront of Asia at that time. While earning a steady stream of money for himself, he also had enough sense of security.

A super arsenal can naturally provide enough weapons for the Shanxi Army at that time. When other warlords were still short of guns and artillery, the Shanxi Army had at least one artillery battalion for each infantry division.

At the time of the Battle of Xinkou, the old man from Shanxi, who was forced to reveal part of his family's assets, pulled ten artillery regiments to the front line, which was more than 360 artillery pieces! The Japanese Fifth Division, known as the "Steel Army" that was facing the Chinese army at that time, was stunned by the overwhelming artillery shells.

If this was not in Shanxi Province, China, but in the three northeastern provinces, they would definitely think they were facing the bear.

These cannons are not just for show, they can really kill people. During the entire Shanxi Province War, the Chinese army lost more than 200,000 people and suffered heavy losses, but the Japanese did not say that they retreated unscathed. According to statistics after the war, just in the promotion, the Japanese North China Front suffered more than 70,000 casualties.

Don't underestimate these 70,000 people. During the entire Patriotic War, excluding the losses in the India-Burma battlefield and the Kwantung Army that was wiped out by the bear, the Japanese army only died a total of 440,000.

Of course, the bloody battles of various Chinese tribes in the mountainous areas of Shanxi Province contributed to this, but the large number of artillery equipped by the Jin army was absolutely indispensable.

Wars are fought for money, and this has been absolutely confirmed in Shanxi Province. The capital accumulated by the old man in Shanxi for twenty years is really extraordinary.

I have strayed off track, let's get back to the point!

In theory, talents like Zhang Kai who can do research and manage well, the key is not greedy, isn't this what future universities require of presidents? If the Minister of Education has such talents under his command, he will be so happy that he can't sleep at night?

No matter how stupid the old man in Shanxi is, he will not take such talents and meritorious officials, right? Besides, the birds are not gone yet, what kind of bow is hidden!

In fact, Zhang Kai accidentally touched the reverse scale of the old man in Shanxi Province.

'You can touch my women, but you can never touch my money! ' Although the old man in Jin Province did not hang these two sentences in front of the bed directly, he did so for decades.

That was before the Central Plains War. Seeing that the arsenal was growing bigger and bigger, Zhang Kai suggested that the old man from Shanxi open a second gunpowder factory, which was to expand the scale.

According to Zhang Kai's design, once this factory is built, it can produce 2 tons of smokeless gunpowder, 10 tons of contact fuming sulfuric acid, 3 tons of nitric acid, 3 tons of alcohol, etc. per day. If it really works, combined with the output of the old factory, the Yuancheng Arsenal will definitely beat the two opponents of Hanyang and Shenyang. Bullets, shells, explosive packs, grenades, and mines are all of the type that can be made.

According to Zhang Kai, as long as the old man from Shanxi wants, the mines made by the Yuancheng Arsenal can be laid around the border of Shanxi Province. Unless they have wings, no one can get in.

This made the old man from Shanxi very happy. He has been "doing business" for so many years. He is not afraid of losing money, but he is afraid of making too much money and being remembered by others. Old Chen from Guangdong Province, Old Li from Guangxi Province, and Old Zhang from Feng Clique, which one is not a culprit?

If we can make so much, why should we be afraid of those old gangsters!

Even if the construction cost is as high as millions of dollars, the old man from Shanxi waved his hand and did it for such a beautiful blueprint!

The old man from Shanxi attaches great importance to it. He holds a big meeting every three days and a small meeting every day. He almost uses the efficiency of the top leader to control production to pour into this modern gunpowder factory. The early stage was very smooth. The factory buildings and office areas have been built, and they are just waiting for the equipment imported from Germany to move in.

If nothing unexpected happens, an accident will happen soon.

The Central Plains War has begun.

The warlords are fighting in a mess. How can the old man from Shanxi, who is the boss of Jin Province, stay out of it? Even if you don’t stand in a team, you have to choose a camp! What’s more, who said that the old man from Shanxi just wants to farm quietly without a heart to compete for the Central Plains?

‘Kings, princes, generals, and ministers, would rather forgive the seeds! ’ The old man from Shanxi also has the ambition to develop farming to the whole of China!

So, the old man from Shanxi is ready to fight with the Jin army that he has spent a lot of money to build.

Everyone knows the final outcome. The principal had a protagonist-like aura at that moment. Old Chen, Old Li, Old Zhang, Old Feng, and Old Yan were just supporting roles.

It didn't matter if he lost. As long as the base was still there, we could develop it for another 20 years. I didn't believe that we couldn't win. The old man from Shanxi was still very strong.

However, reality was cruel.

The German company that accepted the equipment deposit ran away for some reason!

It didn't matter if the company ran away, but the deposit that was taken away was half of the equipment money! This was the death of the old man from Shanxi.

He couldn't chase the treacherous bastard to the other side of the ocean and bring him back to skin him, but he could catch the hot guy who came up with the idea and was in charge of the project.

The furious old man from Shanxi didn't cherish his talent at all at that time, and directly put his best explosives engineer and factory director into jail.

The reason why he didn't chop off his head on the spot was probably because the old man from Shanxi was still fantasizing that the German would appear one day. Whether he could get the equipment was another matter, but half of the money would be returned! Zhang Kai, the guy who was responsible for contacting him, had to keep his head for the time being.

Unexpectedly, he was put in prison for more than ten years. The old man from Shanxi, with the basic idea of ​​squeezing out the last bit of value to repay his losses, built a chemical laboratory for Zhang Kai in prison, letting him research during the day and continue to sleep on the floor in the prison at night, without paying him a salary.

The only thing that gave Zhang Kai some hope was that his family was allowed to enter the cell and reunite with him for one day every month.

For this rare day, Zhang Kai could only bury his head in the laboratory to do research, but perhaps because of his depression, his scientific research output was very low. In the past ten years, he has only provided a limited number of inventions on artillery fuses, which are far inferior to his nationally famous "Kaizi Explosives".

Of course, Tang Dao learned some detailed past of this famous gunpowder engineer in Shanxi Province from the unlucky director who was punished to stand for a day.

Tang Dao only vaguely remembered that there was such a person who was persecuted and imprisoned by the old man in Shanxi because of the failure of building a factory. Now the Dakouzidong Arsenal has no shortage of leaders and talents in mechanical forging and processing, but there are no great talents in chemistry, which has led to Tang Dao's idea of ​​incendiary bombs that can be used for mortars and mountain artillery, which has not even stayed on paper until now.

Such a chemistry master with a solid chemical foundation and management skills is exactly the talent that the Dakouzidong Arsenal needs most.

The unlucky director was really enlightened that afternoon.

Having been with the old man in Shanxi for so many years, he had seen local tyrants, but Tang Dao, a small regiment commander, was the first to be so local and rich.

This time, Tang Dao spent a lot of money to buy arms from the Shanxi Provincial Armaments Department. Not to mention expensive weapons such as mountain cannons and mortars, just talking about various bullets, Tang Dao's order was as high as 2 million rounds. Calculated at 7 cents per round, the total price was as high as 140,000 oceans, which sold nearly half of the 5 million rounds of bullets in the Armaments Department.

There were also some heavyweight ones. The Shanxi-made 75 mountain cannon cost 8,000 oceans each, and Tang Dao ordered 24 at a time, with a total price of 192,000 oceans; the mountain cannon shells cost 20 oceans each, and Tang Dao frantically ordered 10,000 shells, with a total price of 200,000 oceans;

The Oerlikon 20mm machine gun was an imported product. Not to mention that the two branches could not manufacture it now, even the original factory could not make it, but it didn't matter. As long as you pay, you can take it from the existing troops and sell it.

The original investment of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army was very high. Almost every infantry regiment was equipped with Oerlikon 20mm machine guns. Now that the army has been downsized, many machine guns are vacant. What's wrong with turning them into cash?

However, they only bought them at the same price as they were bought before, and they don't accept bargaining.

So, they have wasted several years! The old man from Shanxi is really good at business.

The rich man Tang Dao agreed without blinking an eyelid. Just these 24 Oerlikon 20mm machine guns cost another 160,800 yuan, plus 24,000 rounds of shells, another 240,000 yuan is gone.

The moment Tang Dao agreed, the unlucky director felt heartbroken for him.

Finally, including the 100,000 yuan for the packaging of the old equipment and the 16,000 yuan for the 200 tons of raw materials, the total value of the entire transaction was as high as 1.96 million yuan. The reason why it was an integer was that the unlucky director saw that the rich man was too "rustic" and made the decision to erase it for him.

Such a big deal, the profit earned is no less than hundreds of thousands of dollars. How could the unlucky director not tell Tang Dao everything about such a "useless person"?

Even when Tang Dao made further unreasonable requests and asked for money to redeem him, he patted his chest and agreed.

Seeing that there was no more oil to be squeezed out, wouldn't it be great to make 10,000 dollars by recycling waste again?

So, with the operation of the unlucky director and the nod of the Shanxi old man, Tang Dao met the engineer in a cell that was not strict and even a little shabby.

When Tang Dao explained his purpose, the uncle with some gray hair on his temples only put forward one condition: "If you rescue my family, my life is yours."

Before the failure of the defense of Yuancheng, the various departments of Yuancheng had already begun a large-scale retreat, and did not forget to take this "useless person" with them, because this person could at least squeeze some oil, but his family was not so indispensable.

Therefore, Zhang Kai knew that his family was trapped in the Japanese-occupied area on the way.

However, this man had been in prison for more than ten years, and his mind had been tempered to be as hard as steel. After learning the news, he did not cry out to the sky and seek death, but buried it in his heart until Tang Dao asked him for something, and after he asked Tang Dao's identity, he was at least the head of a regiment, so he took this as a condition of exchange.

Yuancheng is the largest city in Shanxi Province. The Four-line Regiment wants to live comfortably in the enemy-occupied battlefield of Shanxi Province. Sooner or later, an intelligence agency will be built there. After Tang Dao was silent for a moment to calculate the pros and cons, he agreed to this only condition.

However, because the Japanese army suffered huge losses in Yuancheng, they also ravaged the people of Yuancheng for a while after conquering Yuancheng. Tang Dao also explained to this man that even if he sent someone, he could not guarantee that he could pick up the people alive.

"Don't worry, Captain Tang. Because of me, my wife and my son are more alert than ordinary people in this regard. They must still be alive. Captain Tang, your people will find them according to the address I gave them." The gray-haired uncle was extremely confident.

Xia Dayu, who was standing by, just wanted to curl his lips. It was because of you. How could you be so awesome and be locked up in the prison for more than ten years?

"Well, as long as the person is still alive, Tang Dao guarantees with his military honor that he will bring the person alive to you." Tang Dao nodded.

"I believe in the character of Captain Tang!" The uncle also nodded solemnly.

He was in the prison, but he was not an ordinary prisoner. He would have newspapers to read every few days. There was nothing else to do in the prison. It was common for him to read a newspaper over and over again for more than ten times. He knew the story of Tang Dao better than many of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

At this time, Tang Dao didn't know how much of a surprise his ten thousand dollars had brought him.

How terrible it was for a chemical engineer to stay in prison for more than ten years, or to work silently in a laboratory with relatively complete equipment for more than ten years!

You know, his dream over the years was to use very little explosives to blow up a prison with heavy guards and high walls.