I want to be emperor

Chapter 774 The Important Hantian Arsenal
When Luo Zhixue's special train arrived in Changchun, the next morning he received a group of senior officials from Liaobei Province as usual, and in the afternoon he received senior officials from Heishui Province.

Because the Northeast Railway is currently only built to Changchun, and has not yet continued to extend northward to Shuangjiang City, the provincial capital of Heishui Province, Luo Zhixue's imperial train cannot go to Shuangjiang City, nor can he inspect most of Heishui Province further north.

But since they all came to the Northeast region, they couldn't see the local officials and military representatives from Heishui Province.

Therefore, senior officials and generals from Heishui Province were sent to Changchun to have an audience.

A similar situation also happened in Mobei Province and Xiaobeihai Province. Because the Grassland Railway only extended to Fengzhou City in Monan Province, the imperial special train did not continue to go north, but let the officials and generals of the two provinces further north go to Fengzhou. State audience.

On the second day after arriving in Changchun, Luo Zhixue met with officials from Liaobei and Heishui provinces, and listened to the local economic reports of the two provinces.

The report of Northern Liaoning Province is not bad. Through these years of intensive reclamation, some areas of the Songnen Plain have been developed, so the agricultural output value is good. Although the industry and commerce are not good, they have also developed several minerals near the river. In addition, the local Forestry and fur industry are not bad.

In addition, the port fishery is barely enough. The area of ​​Liaobei Province in the Great Chu Empire is still quite large, including the northeast part of the Koryo Peninsula, going east to the sea, and there are several port cities on the east coast, which have developed to a certain extent. Fishing, commerce and trade industries, but the overall scale is not large.

Economically, Northern Liaoning Province is far inferior to Eastern Liaodong Province, but its potential for follow-up development is very large. After all, the Songnen Plain in the western region is a very good arable land. Once fully developed, the grain output will be very high.

Moreover, there are also many mineral resources and forestry resources.

As for Heishui Province, the economy is worse than that of Liaobei Province. The main reason is that this place has not been developed for a long time. Although the Great Chu Empire continued to immigrate to this area for more than 20 years, because this place is too cold, It belongs to a serious and bitterly cold place, so there are very few immigrants who voluntarily go there, most of them are official immigrants or even exiled criminals...

At present, the combined population of Heishui Province is only 80 million, and most of them live in the Songhua River and Nen River basins, mainly in the area of ​​Shuangjiang Prefecture where the Songjiang River and Nen River meet.

In other places, some immigrant settlements were established along the river, ranging from hundreds to thousands of people.

With a small number of people, it is difficult to carry out agricultural development or mineral resource development.

Therefore, the economic aggregate is relatively poor!
But... the per capita economy is actually not bad. After all, there are fewer people and more land. This limited population is also concentrated in the Songhua River and Nen River basins with very good agricultural conditions. The fertile black land has given this place great potential for agricultural production. .

Therefore, horse plowing and even mechanized farming are widely used in this place, and the per capita grain output is very large.

So despite the fact that Heishui Province only has a population of 80 million people, it is a serious place where grains flow out. The local people can get a lot of economic income by selling grains every year. Therefore, the per capita income level is actually higher than that of many cities in the customs. Come higher.

When meeting officials from Heishui Province, Luo Zhixue heard about the development of local agriculture, forestry resources, fur resources, and mineral resources, etc., and focused on the development of the Sanjiang Plain that is about to start.

Luo Zhixue said that the next step for the empire would be to gradually migrate to the Sanjiang Plain, and develop the local plain area, making it a new grain production base in the Northeast.

The development of Northeast China mainly revolves around the three major plains, namely Liaohe Plain, Songnen Plain and Sanjiang Plain.

Therefore, whether it is Liaodong Province, Liaobei Province or Heishui Province, they are all included.

On the third day after arriving in Changchun, Luo Zhixue inspected the Liaohua Agricultural Company not far from Changchun City.

This place has a larger grain planting area, more horses, and a very high degree of modernization. The agricultural planting is basically mechanized planting, and there is even less horse farming.

After finishing the inspection of the Liaohua Agricultural Company, Luo Zhixue's inspection of the three northeastern provinces basically ended.

Then Luo Zhixue's imperial train began to return south, passed through Shenyang, and continued southward to Lushun. The reason why it did not go east to the Koryo Peninsula was because the Northeast Railway had only reached the mouth of the Yalu River to the east, and had not yet entered the Koryo Peninsula.

Therefore, it is not very convenient to go to the Koryo Peninsula, and it is impossible for Luo Zhixue not to take the imperial special train, and then take more than 2 people to the Koryo Peninsula on foot.

So this time I will not go to the Koryo Peninsula, but to Lushun.

The reason for going to Lushun is not for anything else, it is purely because this place is also a relatively important naval port of the Great Chu Empire Navy, and it is also a new type of port, industrial and commercial city in the Liaodong area.

With the opening of the railway from Shenyang to Hekou, Lushun has gradually robbed some of the resources of Hekou because of its superior geographical location. Especially in recent years, the new soybean processing and trading industries have developed quite well in Lushun.

In addition, Lushun was originally an important port for the navy, and it was the supporting port for the navy of the Great Chu Empire to fully control the Bohai Sea, the northern part of the Yellow Sea, and even the west coast of the Koryo Peninsula.

There are not only a large number of warships moored in the local area, but also a large number of naval soldiers stationed there, as well as several shipyards and corresponding supporting enterprises.

The combination of these factors has allowed Lushun to develop fairly well, with great potential, and threatened Hekou, an old coastal processing trade city.

After the inspection in Lushun, Luo Zhixue's imperial train began to return south, passing through Jinzhou, Shanhaiguan, Tianjin, and Jinan all the way back to Xuzhou.

But after returning to Xuzhou, he did not continue south to Jinling City, but turned west and entered the Henan jurisdiction.

This time, Luo Zhixue's northern tour plan is very large, and his route basically follows several main railway lines.

I used to go north, but now I mainly inspect Henan and Shaanxi provinces to the west. Later, I will enter Chubei along the Huguang railway network and arrive at Hantianfu. I will also go to Changsha in the south of Chu to take a look.

After the inspection of Changsha is over, we will really return east, then go to Jiujiang, Nanchang, and finally return to Jinling City.

Starting from Xuzhou's westward march, the formation of Luo Zhixue lasted for more than a month. During this period, he also went to Funiu Mountain, the land of Longxing in the Great Chu Empire, and took a group of military and political officials into Funiu Mountain on foot.

It's just that the Funiu Mountain now is different from the Funiu Mountain in Luo Zhixue's memory.

The winding path before has disappeared, replaced by a flat road all the way to the west of Lushan County, which can accommodate four carriages at the same time, and the road paved with cinders is very flat and fast.

Cinder road, this is also a new road construction plan in the Great Chu Empire in the past ten years. It is better than gravel road, and there are many sources of cinder, and the price is very cheap, so it is a good way to pave roads. choose.

Of course, there are also cities that lay waterways and roads, but cement is still relatively expensive these days, so it can only be seen in a small amount in cities, but even in big cities like Songjiang, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Jinling City, most of the roads are still just cinder roads.

As for boardwalks, there are even fewer stone pavements. They are usually in commercial streets and main roads in cities with strong political meanings. The overall proportion is still very small.

Walking on this kind of flat road paved with cinders, Luo Zhixue couldn't feel the hardships of fighting in Funiu Mountain...

The follow-up formation was similar, and I saw many buildings along the way, but they were all magnificent buildings built by the local government to commemorate this place of Longxing, without the feeling of a mountain at all.

Not to mention the bitterness and sweetness.

This is Luo Zhixue's feeling of coming here in high spirits, but returning in disappointment, but he didn't say anything. After all, the local government spent a lot of effort to build roads in the Funiu Mountain area, support the local people's livelihood, and make the local mountain people come out of poverty. Anyway, it's a good thing.

Luo Zhixue will not dampen the enthusiasm of local officials.

After completing the inspection of the Funiu Mountain area, Luo Zhixue continued to head south to Nanyang, then Xiangyang, and finally arrived at Hantianfu.

When I was in Hantianfu, I also experienced taking a train ferry.

The imperial special train directly boarded the huge train ferry, and then crossed the Yangtze River, not to mention it felt quite fresh.

After passing the Yangtze River, the imperial special train continued to head south to Changsha. After staying for two days, it did not continue to go south, then turned around and returned east.

This is the earliest large-scale industrial base integrating mining, smelting, machinery, national defense, and chemical industry in the Great Chu Empire. Even now, the base can still enter the top three in the field of heavy industry, second only to Dangtu Industrial Zone, Songjiang Industrial Zone.

Whether it is Tianjin or Guangzhou, they are still inferior to Hantian Daye Industrial Zone in the field of heavy industry.

When you come to Daye Industrial Zone, you have to look at Daye Iron and Steel Company. This is the earliest comprehensive iron and steel enterprise in the Great Chu Empire, and it is also the first iron and steel factory to develop the mass production process of steel.

This steel factory can be said to be the cradle of the steel industry of the Great Chu Empire. It not only supported the steel industry in the early and middle stages of the Great Chu Empire, but also trained a large number of technicians and skilled workers for the steel industry of the Great Chu Empire.

In addition to Daye Iron and Steel Company, there are many other well-known and extremely important enterprises in the Daye Industrial Zone.

For example, Hantian Arsenal, which is the largest arsenal in the Great Chu Empire, is also the only remaining comprehensive arsenal in the country. Its products range from various cold weapons to armor, to rifles, artillery, ammunition and so on.

Its product line is very rich, and it can produce almost all the equipment of the army, and the output is generally not small, and most of them retain the ability to increase production capacity.

The factory is also the main manufacturer of a series of main rifles currently in service in the Great Chu Empire, that is, the main manufacturer of the 23-year-style rifles, the main factory of the army's 115mm series field guns, 150 series howitzers and other artillery.

With a complete product line and a large scale, the Hantian Arsenal, relying on themselves alone, is enough to provide all kinds of weapons and ammunition for the ground troops of the Great Chu Empire in the war.

How should I put it, even if Guangzhou in South China, Songjiang on the Jiang’an River, Dangtu, Tianjin in North China, and Northeast China all fell, leaving only Huguang and the inland areas, the Great Chu Empire would be able to arm millions of people just by relying on a Hantian Arsenal army to fight against the enemy.

This is the importance of Hantian Arsenal!
It's just that although the scale is huge and there are many product lines, it is precisely because of the large number of product lines that the design and development of Hantian Armory is limited to a certain extent... There are too many projects, and the research and development funds allocated to each project are not enough. up.

It is also a breech-loading rifle. The Tianjin Firearms Factory under Hebei Weapons Company has made great progress in the field of breech-loading rifles by relying on more professional and concentrated R&D funds and personnel. The [-]-type breech-loading rifle The rifle has been confirmed to start small-scale production, and it is planned to equip the Guards, and the Army will also start small-scale procurement.

However, the research and development of breech-loading rifles at Hantian Armory is not doing very well. They have not even solved the problem of air leakage, but their thinking is not to rely on the gun itself to solve the problem of air leakage, but to Rely on metal bullets to solve the air leak problem.

It's just that the research and development of metal bullets is not easy. I have been working hard on all-metal bullets for these years. The progress is not bad, but it has not reached a practical level.

Moreover, the structure of their breech-loading rifles is not the same as that of the Tianjin Firearms Factory. Their bolts are self-developed lifting bolts. It is very simple to implement the bolt action, with few operating steps and simple movements, which leads to a faster rate of fire.

When Luo Zhixue watched them shoot live ammunition, he found that the experimenters fired more than ten rounds in just one minute, and the rate of fire was quite fast, much faster than the Type 1 rifles of Tianjin Firearms Factory.

Moreover, they use brass all-metal bullets developed by themselves, which are powerful and have a long range.

But it is not without flaws. The bullets they developed have not yet solved many technical problems. They have great flaws, and they are easy to explode. At the same time, there are other problems, such as deformation, jamming, etc., and the recoil is also very large.

In terms of overall practicality, it is actually not as good as the Type [-] rifle of the Tianjin Firearms Factory.

But it also has unique advantages, that is, fast rate of fire and long range.

Many people in the army still appreciate this rifle. They think that after some defects have been improved, a batch of test equipment can be purchased on a small scale. The actual use is actual combat to compare with other rear-loading rifles. .

In other words, for the Great Chu Empire, there are already two types of breech-loading rifles as candidate models, and it is estimated that there will be more types in the future.

After all, there are not only two weapon companies in the Great Chu Empire, but five. The other three weapon companies are also developing breech-loading rifles. At that time, they will definitely come up with their own design of breech-loading rifles. To compete for the order of the army and navy's new generation of main standard rifles.

After visiting the Hantian Arsenal, Luo Zhixue went to the next door to the Hantian Machinery Factory.

This Hantian Machinery Factory is well-known, the most powerful machine tool equipment R&D and production factory in the Great Chu Empire, almost monopolizing the domestic high-end finishing market.

Luo Zhixue is actually not very interested in their machine tools, what Luo Zhixue is interested in is their research on a series of special steel materials.

Although Hantian Machinery Factory is only a manufacturer of machine tools, it is actually the most technologically advanced special steel research and development and production enterprise in the Great Chu Empire, but they do not sell special steel raw materials.

Generally, they are directly integrated into their own machine tools and other equipment for sale.

The second is to supply some high-performance components for others, such as bearings... Hantian Machinery Company is also the largest bearing manufacturer in China, and the performance of the bearings they produce is very good. Of course, the price is also very expensive.

Therefore, although it is a special steel production enterprise, Hantian Machinery Company is the same as a raw material supply enterprise such as Tianjin Iron and Steel Company.

People do not sell raw materials to make money, but to make money by selling high-performance equipment and parts, and they make a lot of money, and the gross profit is very high.

(End of this chapter)