Chapter 365: A steel plant with an annual output of tens of millions of tons?
No wonder the Japanese military's combat staff said it was too late.

If the first line of defense is still there, the reinforcements will still be useful at that time.

You can even launch a counterattack.

Now?

The third line of defense is about to collapse, and the Chinese army is almost reaching the headquarters.

And launch a counterattack?
How many people can be organized to defend now?
As for reinforcements?

The purpose of the reinforcements coming would probably be to give the other side heads.

"Did we lose?" Lieutenant General Iikawa Genshichi looked sad and angry.

Are we really going to consider retreating?
Especially since they lost the air battle, it meant that they would not receive any reinforcements from the Army Aviation.

They couldn't withstand the enemy's bombardment and were almost defeated.

"Your Excellency the Division Commander, I suggest that the Commander notify the Naval Aviation to come to our rescue. Otherwise, we can only passively take the bombing and may not be able to withdraw." The combat staff officer next to him took a look at the situation, thought for a while and said.

Upon hearing this, Lieutenant General Iikawa Genshichi felt that what the other party said made sense.

"Well, call the Southern Army Headquarters immediately and ask them to send naval aviation support."

"Hay."

.........

Hanoi was originally just a very shabby little city. If it weren't for the French Governor's Palace here, I'm afraid no one would have cared about it.

Of course, the only advantage here is that there are a lot of fertile fields.

So agriculture is very developed.

It’s just that industry is the symbol of strength.

So in addition to developing agriculture, Cun Yunsheng is also working hard to develop industry.

Since we were stationed in Hanoi, things here have changed almost every day.

The original dilapidated houses were basically demolished and rebuilt.

Of course, Cun Yunsheng would not let those whose houses were demolished suffer any loss.

Everyone received compensation, enough for them to rebuild a beautiful house.

The reason for spending such a huge amount of money is to concentrate the industrial equipment obtained from Germany and build an industrial park.

So it is naturally impossible to let these dilapidated houses affect the aesthetics.

It can be said that the fighting on the front line was in full swing during this period, and the construction of Hanoi was also in full swing.

The entire city turned into a huge construction site, with tens of thousands of people building various houses here.

Including various types of residences, as well as factories, railway stations, roads and so on.

Hanoi, which had been somewhat lifeless, now became extremely lively.

Some immigrants from the north couldn't stand the hardship of farming and began to think about starting some small business.

When they saw tens of thousands of people busy at the construction site, they decided to set up a mobile sales point outside the site to sell various snacks.

We also made a lot of money from the consumption of these workers.

Many people even got married and built houses.

As long as there is money to be made, people will naturally follow suit. Before long, many people knew that Hanoi was full of huge business opportunities.

Countless traveling merchants, big businessmen, and capitalists came in droves.

Unfortunately, Cun Yunsheng directly locked up the land in Hanoi and prohibited any transaction. All those who wanted to build a factory needed approval and could only set up the factory after approval.

On November 20th, 1943, after finishing his work, Cun Yunsheng decided to go out of the city to the north to check on the progress of the industrial park.

After all, it has been a month since the construction started, and it is time to take a look at the progress.

After all, the development of the industrial park is extremely important to him, and he paid a huge price to obtain these equipments, so he absolutely cannot afford to lose them.

So he didn't dare to be negligent at all and kept it in mind all the time.

Drive about 100 kilometers north of the city and you will reach the industrial park.

Highway construction has begun on this section of road. Of course, it is not completely connected, but many sections have been paved with concrete and cars can run at high speed on it.

However, some sections are still dirt roads.

After all, the cement production is not enough, so we can only use dirt roads as a substitute first, and then continue to build cement roads when the cement production increases.

Along the way, Cun Yunsheng saw many merchants driving horse-drawn carriages piled with goods. It seemed that they wanted to make some money in the industrial park.

Cun Yunsheng has only one evaluation for these traveling merchants: they are wherever there are business opportunities. Fortunately, Cun Yunsheng knows that it is not easy for these traveling merchants to make money, and the taxes collected are also very low. The purpose is to promote economic development. It would be too slow for him to regulate it alone.

Some small details require spontaneous mediation by these merchants. It must be said that Cun Yunsheng's low taxes and the lack of any exploitation have made the economic circulation very fast.

Especially those workers who were building the industrial park, who received high salaries, immediately bought houses and then purchased additional items, making the merchants earn a lot of money in a short time.

"After the highway is repaired, inter-city buses must also be built. This will promote exchanges between cities and enable the economy to take off better." Looking at the few vehicles on the road, Cun Yunsheng said with a smile.

Everything was developing beautifully, which made Cun Yunsheng smile. After the bus came out, the economy would develop even faster.

But it is not easy to keep all of this.

Cun Yunsheng put a lot of thought into preventing the industrial park from being bombed.

An anti-aircraft artillery regiment was stationed there, and a battalion of fighter planes was required to provide support at any time.

Not only that, there is also an infantry regiment to guard it.

They have no worries about food and clothing and can earn high salaries, so people in the north who can't make a living come here to make a living.

When you are about ten kilometers away from the industrial park, you can see dozens of huge chimneys in the distance.

In this era, chimneys represent the power of industry, and chimneys represent steel mills.

It means that the other party can make steel.

There are many more things that can be made with steel.

Airplanes, cannons, tanks, battleships and so on.

And these are representatives of military power.

"Ten, fifteen, twenty..." Cun Yunsheng squinted his eyes and counted roughly.

After counting for a while, Cun Yunsheng had a rough idea in his mind, there were about 60 chimneys, of course, these chimneys were exhaust gas, and the iron was smelted in blast furnaces. After all, the steel smelted in blast furnaces met the requirements, even so, Cun Yunsheng couldn't help but sigh, no wonder heavy industry is so expensive.

No wonder the North is reluctant to develop heavy industry.

Even to produce a rifle, the production capacity is so tight.

It really costs money.

If it weren't for the wealth accumulated from selling arms, there would also be industrial equipment obtained in exchange for intelligence.

Even if he killed Cun Yunsheng, he still couldn't afford these things.

You should know that these steel mills all use German industrial equipment.

Like the Anshan Iron and Steel Plant controlled by the Kwantung Army, the parts were provided by the German Demag company.

The steelmaking technology at that time could be divided into separate steelmaking and combined steelmaking according to the equipment.

The individual steelmaking methods are divided into the open-hearth method (including the acid open-hearth method and the alkaline open-hearth method), the converter method, the electric furnace method, and the crucible furnace method.

The combined steelmaking process is divided into two types: acid converter and preliminary refining furnace, which are combined with fixed open hearth, tilting open hearth and Talbot open hearth, for a total of six types.

Due to the grade of Anshan iron ore, only the combined method of preliminary refining furnace and tilting open hearth furnace can be used.

According to the supply of raw materials, it can be divided into three types: pig iron + scrap steel, pig iron + ore, and scrap steel.

Anshan Iron and Steel Works uses the pig iron ore method.

Because Cun Yunsheng didn't have much idea about the structure of a steel plant, he simply referred directly to the scale of the Anshan Steel Plant controlled by the Kwantung Army.

第一炼钢厂：600吨混铁炉25座、300吨精炼炉10座、150吨平炉50座、100吨平炉100座，年产能力钢锭200万吨。

第二炼钢厂：600吨混铁炉10座、300吨精炼炉20座、150吨平炉100座，年产能力钢锭300万吨。

第三炼钢厂：600吨混铁炉20座、300吨精炼炉40座、150吨平炉200座，年产能力钢锭500万吨。

Ingots need to be processed into steel.

同时炼钢厂的配套工厂包括两个初轧厂（年产钢材能力106万吨）、大型厂（年产钢材能力20万吨，包括铁轨、特殊型钢）、两个小型厂（年产钢材能力17万吨，主要是钢管和线材）、薄板厂（年产能力4万吨）、中板厂（年产能力7万吨）。

In addition, there are 8 gas generators.

The main equipment is produced by Krupp, AEG and Demag of Germany.

This is why the Germans hesitated after William handed over the list. There were simply too many things.

These devices can easily create a powerful country with an annual output of one million tons of steel.

This is already a terrifying statistic.

Fortunately, the Germans finally surrendered.

Promise to send these equipment.

In just one and a half months, the speed of development of the industrial zone exceeded his imagination. More importantly, these steel mills all used original German equipment. It can be said that the output is very high, and they can produce at least 3,000 tons of steel every day.

Such figures are only equivalent to the daily output of a slightly larger steel plant in later generations. The annual output scale in later generations reached hundreds of millions of tons, far exceeding that of other plants.

Of course, that is just an average level. If it is operating at full capacity, it may be higher, but no one knows how much.

And right now, here, with a daily output of 3,000 tons of steel, it is definitely a world-class steel plant.

It can be regarded as entering the club of million-ton steel plants. If someone familiar comes here, he will definitely be amazed. When did such a behemoth appear in the barren and backward Indochina Peninsula? Such an amazing behemoth, it is simply so terrifying.

"Sir, many of these chimneys have not yet been put into production. Due to the shortage of workers, they can only produce at a low load. If there are enough workers, the output will be even greater. There will be absolutely no problem in producing 10,000 tons a day." The person in charge of the industrial park is Wu Jian, who was formerly the head of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works.

When Cun Yunsheng was planning to build a steel plant, he was directly recruited and entrusted with important tasks. At this moment, Wu Jian was explaining things to Cun Yunsheng.

Hearing this, Cun Yunsheng nodded calmly. With a daily output of 10,000 tons, it is only 9 million tons per year. Even if they work harder, it can only be 10 million tons per year, which is barely more than the island countries. If they want to compete with the first-class powers, they still have a little bit to go.

"How is the production of rails going?" Cun Yunsheng asked again.

"Sir, seeing is believing." Wu Jian did not explain much and immediately took him to a steel rail factory.

A steel plant is not just a steelmaking workshop. Although the steelmaking workshop is the largest, the supporting ironmaking workshop, crushing workshop, coke workshop and many other factories are all together.

After all, steelmaking requires a lot of raw materials. More importantly, Cun Yunsheng doesn't want the steel plant to only produce low-grade steel. He wants to make the best steel.

The steelmaking process involves carefully selecting the ore first and then sending it to a special workshop. Of course, the process is very fast, and the steel produced has a very low content of impurities such as sulfur, plus some trace elements. Its strength far exceeds that of ordinary steel, forming a series of steel products, such as rebar, steel plates, rebars, plates, ordinary steel, and even rail steel.

Since railway construction is classified as a key project, basically all ordinary steel is used to produce rails, which means that nearly 500,000 tons of steel are used to produce rails every year. No one knows how long the railway needs to be built.

The workshop at this time operated in three shifts, but because there were too few skilled workers, the operation was still at low load and had not reached its limit. Of course, it was still recruiting a large number of workers, and not only did it provide dormitories, but it also offered high wages, which attracted quite a few people.

Once this group of personnel arrives, perhaps the steel plant's production will be upgraded to another level.

"Sir, this batch of steel is about to come out." The person in charge of the factory said immediately when he saw the workers in the distance skillfully arranging the molds in an orderly manner.

"Steel producing?" Upon hearing this, Cun Yunsheng stopped and walked over. He also wanted to see how steel was produced.

Soon, the red lights in the workshop kept flashing, and then the bell rang. Everyone became nervous. After a while, the gate of the blast furnace opened, and the liquefied steel, with hot air, began to flow into different workshops through various pipes.

The workers, with calm faces and determined eyes, follow the procedures in an orderly manner without any chaos, pouring the molten steel into the prepared molds. After coming into contact with the air, the liquid steel slowly solidifies.

"Not bad, very skilled." Cun Yunsheng praised, and then he observed the other workshops again. After watching, he couldn't help but sighed: "You have made great contributions, I will reward you."

"Thank you, Sir. This is part of our job." The people behind him responded in unison.

After learning about the cost of the steel rails, Cun Yunsheng became even more excited, as it meant that it would not cost too much to build a railway from Hanoi to Liuzhou.

At that time, there was no railway from Liuzhou to Nanning.

Therefore, if Cun Yunsheng wanted to connect the railway to Liuzhou, he had to build a railway from Hanoi to Liuzhou.

"It seems that our plan is still a bit slow. We need to speed up." Cun Yunsheng said confidently as he looked at the steel rails piled up like a hill in the distance.

"Ah? Speed ​​up further?" Upon hearing this, Wu Jian looked bitter.

"I'm not talking about you. As for steel, it will not be able to be improved in a short time if we leave it like this. We need to control the quality. I'm talking about other aspects, especially railways. The construction speed is too slow. I'm very dissatisfied." Cun Yunsheng shook his head.

The original plan is obviously outdated and cannot keep up with the current steel production.

So it has to be modified.

With the guarantee of steel, construction of shipyards, for example, can begin.

A 10,000-ton hydraulic press.

This is one of the important equipment for building a 10,000-ton warship.

(End of this chapter)