The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

After the meeting.

Liu Tao soon understood why he made this decision.

After basically completing the downsizing of one million troops, leaders are now planning a new round of downsizing to make the troops slim down again.

The goal of streamlining the troops this time is still to reduce the number of millions of troops.

That is to say, the current total number of military personnel will be reduced from 4.3 million to 3.3 million.

In addition to cutting 1 million posts, agencies will also be streamlined. The three headquarters and major military region agencies have been streamlined by nearly half based on their original quotas. The Navy, Air Force, Second Artillery and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense will also be significantly streamlined. .

The next step is to adjust the military regions, streamline millions of troops, and streamline agencies. The current number of 11 major military regions will appear to be too many, so the major military regions will be merged, and only five or six major military regions will remain. The adjusted military region has expanded the scope of the theater, sufficient manpower, strong material resources, and increased battle depth, thereby improving the independent combat capabilities of the large military region and being able to take charge of important strategic directions independently.

There is also the reorganization of the Army Corps into a group army. The firepower, assault power and mobile combat capabilities of the various arms in the group army greatly exceed the original Army Corps, and mules and horses are eliminated, thereby achieving motorization and semi-mechanization.

The final step is to adjust the structure of the Army's arms. The number of professional arms in the Army must exceed that of infantry. Artillery must become the first arm of the Army, and armored forces must become the main assault force of the Army. At the same time, Army Aviation, Army Air Defense Missile Forces, and Electronic Countermeasures Forces must be established. Waiting for a large number of new troops.

Liu Tao was secretly shocked by the leader's courage.

You must know that streamlining the army requires facing great resistance, and it is something that offends people.

In just a few years, the army was streamlined twice to nearly two million people.

Now comes the third round of streamlining the troops, which will definitely cause dissatisfaction among many people.

The 'Beijing-Kowloon Railway' project, a century-old project, can consume a large part of the job placement of retired soldiers, making this streamlining of the troops appear calm and effective.

In other words, this ‘Beijing-Kowloon Railway’ project has multiple meanings.

Later, Liu Tao went to the Ministry of Railways.

Here at Tie Boss, although he had dealt with Tie Boss a few years ago, whether it was a factory building a railway to connect to the railway network, or a port connecting to the railway network, he had many interactions with him. But this was Liu Tao’s first visit to the Tie Boss headquarters.

This time we are specifically discussing the ‘Beijing-Kowloon Railway’ project.

"In 1987, there were only four years to complete the construction. It was unrealistic. We could first build the double line and open it to traffic. After 1987, we would start construction of the double line. It would take another two or three years to complete the double line, thus realizing The entire project is completed!" the person in charge of Tie Boss said: "It's just a technical problem, I need to trouble you, Comrade Liu Tao!"

Liu Tao waved his hand, "This is what I should do. In the past few months, I will first adjust and design the line, complete the design work, and organize geological drilling along the line."

For such a large project, topographic surveying and geological drilling are both huge workloads.

These two tasks determine whether the design is reasonable or not.

"This is not a big deal. It only takes half a year to complete all the surveying, mapping and geological drilling work." The person in charge said with confidence.

The Ministry of Railways has a closed management, with a complete set of operating mechanisms. Even talents are trained in schools managed by it, and it has its own railway police, railway courts, etc.

Completely equivalent to a society.

"In terms of technology, I will also solve it within this six months." Liu Tao nodded. "In terms of funds, we will set up a special account for the project. Our Panshan Group will first transfer 1 billion for preliminary work needs."

Dalian Shipyard.

The first Type 054 frigate and the first Type 052 destroyer are under construction in full swing.

In an open space, Liu Tao held a model train and was testing it.

Liu Tao naturally does not have technologies such as electrification, rail tracks, and trains.

But it doesn't stop him from conducting research.

There are many technologies he has to solve, such as track structure technology, railway construction technology, train manufacturing technology, information collection technology, dispatch control technology, operation management technology, repair and maintenance technology, etc.

Such a high-standard railway undoubtedly belongs to the category of high-speed rail in this era, and only France and Japan in the world have mastered high-speed rail technology.

Japan's Shinkansen high-speed railway was officially put into operation in 1964, with an operating speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour; France's TGV high-speed railway achieved a high-speed wheel-rail speed of 318 kilometers per hour during its test operation in 1972.

High-speed rail technology, like aviation technology, is a very large and complex engineering system.

It would take Liu Tao almost half a year to conquer these core technologies and form a complete high-speed rail technology.

The rails, trains, etc. currently on the open space are made of 1:10 models. Liu Tao is conducting experimental tests. The rail length is 1 kilometer and the train has 16 carriages.

He now spends part of his time on the construction of the first Type 054 frigate and the first Type 052 destroyer, and the other part of his time and energy is on the research and development of high-speed rail technology.

"This track structure technology is indeed one of the key core technologies of high-speed railways!" Liu Tao secretly exclaimed.

The requirements for track structure of high-speed railways are high reliability, high smoothness, high stability and high durability. Track structure technology directly affects the speed, safety and comfort of high-speed train operation.

So don’t underestimate the track structure technology because it is traditional and inconspicuous. It is actually high-tech and one of the key core technologies of high-speed railways.

Traditional railway tracks are usually composed of two parallel rails, which are fixed on sleepers and covered with ballast made of small gravel. Both ballast and sleepers increase the load-bearing surface, disperse the pressure of trains, and help the rails bear the load, preventing the rails from sinking into the soil due to excessive pressure. In addition, ballast has several other functions: reducing noise, absorbing heat, reducing shock, and increasing water permeability. This is the ballasted track. The ballastless track is composed of rails, fasteners, and unit plates, which play a role in shock absorption and pressure reduction.

However, when the speed is getting faster and faster, especially when the speed exceeds 250 kilometers per hour, the ballast powdering is aggravated, the ballast splashes, the stability of the roadbed is reduced, and it is difficult to maintain the track geometry.

Liu Tao thought of ballastless track. The sleepers of ballastless track are made of concrete, and the roadbed does not need gravel. The rails and sleepers are laid directly on the concrete road.

Ballasted track and ballastless track have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Ballasted track is the traditional structure of railway. It has the advantages of good elasticity, low price, convenient replacement and maintenance, and good noise absorption.

Ballastless track has the advantages of low maintenance cost, long service life, good line condition, not easy to rise track runway, and no ballast splashing when driving at high speed.

It can be said that as the speed continues to increase, ballastless track is more suitable and its application will become more and more extensive.

The design speed of the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" is 250 kilometers per hour, but it does not mean that it will have to be rebuilt if it is to be increased to 300 kilometers per hour in the future.