"The outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the victory of the "Jiao'ao Incident" enabled China to gain valuable development space. Longhai Industrial Group, which had fully expanded and developed in the two years before the war, was defeated by the "Jiao'ao Incident".

"After that, it immediately put its full production capacity into large-scale industrial production. Facing the unprecedentedly huge domestic and foreign markets and huge profits, domestic politicians, military leaders, landlords and gentry all devoted themselves to industrial production, and the machines of Longhai Industrial Group followed.

It was sold all over China. By January 1916, more than 30 large-scale enterprises were put into production every day, and the number of workshop-style factories reached 100. After that, China's financial industry took full advantage of the opportunity of the war to rapidly develop the domestic economy. By the 1915 war,

Entering its second year, China's real gross national product expanded by 100% (non-book value). As of the first half of 1916, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, industrial output exceeded agricultural output for the first time. As a result,

China has transformed from a backward agricultural country into an emerging industrial country..."

"A Centenary History of the Oriental World" - Shi Tiange, December 2013

China began to enter a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society after the Opium War. In the following 60 years, its degree of semi-colonialization continued to deepen. In the face of increasingly severe crises, under the advocacy of Han ministers and the pressing power of reality, the Qing government carried out three reforms

movement, and the "New Deal" that began in the late Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century can be said to be the most thorough and comprehensive "New Deal" measure.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government launched the "New Deal" in the face of increasingly severe internal and external troubles. For the first time, it implemented policies and measures to encourage industry and commerce. The encouragement of industry and commerce was centered on revitalizing industry, which was also the purpose of the "New Deal" reform movement.

The goal was to enrich the country and strengthen the people. Therefore, with the strong advocacy and support of the central government of the Qing Dynasty, provincial and local governments launched an industrial movement to revitalize their hometowns.

In the last ten years of the Qing Dynasty, under the leadership of Yuan Shikai and others, the Qing government did a lot of work in the industrial field, such as establishing functional agencies, formulating a series of economic regulations, improving the social status of businessmen, setting up chambers of commerce, organizing associations to develop industry and commerce, etc.

.This formed the first industrial and commercial development center in modern China. The development of industry and mining advanced by leaps and bounds. Textile, food, mining, water, electricity, metal processing, cigarette, paper, glass and other factories were established one after another.

In the process of Yuan Shikai presiding over the "New Deal", a huge Beiyang bureaucratic industrial group was formed in North China, especially Hebei, with it as its core. In the tide of China's industrial and commercial development after the European War,

, gradually formed the "North China Consortium" and became an important industrial group in the country.

But despite this, in China, as we all know, the real industrial leader is Longhai Industrial Group, headed by ** Company. This industrial group spread along the Longhai Railway has the largest number of workers and the largest number of machines in China.

, also has unimaginable privileges for other companies. In addition to the many industrial preferential treatment in the railway affiliated areas, more importantly, Longhai Industrial Group has other privileges that even directly promote this company-centered industry.

The group is developing at a faster pace.

Ordnance industry!

In China, from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, the arms industry had been monopolized by the government, at least by local governments. However, this monopoly was broken in the third year of the Republic of China with the gunfire of the "Jiao'ao Incident". As early as

In the early 2000s of the Republic of China, the ** company in its early stage began to use relatively complete mechanical equipment to start producing weapons by modifying the mother machine and rebuilding fixtures. However, it was in a secret state at the time.

It was not until Li Zicheng took office as the Economic and Strategic Envoy to Huaihai that he returned the Jinling Machinery Bureau to the Ministry of War on the grounds of "public security needs". At the same time, in the name of the Economic and Strategic Envoy's Office, he petitioned for "the weapons to be repaired by the ** company to meet the needs of the military."

Jiangsu Army's equipment repair needs and appropriate additional weapons were produced." This is how "Lianyun Made" came into being.

After the "Jiao'ao Incident", the Economic and Strategic Envoy's Office signed a decree allowing the Jiangsu Army to purchase "military supplies" including weapons from the private sector, citing the urgent need for battlefield supplies. This was followed by a large number of "companies"

"Yunmade" emerged in front of the world, and during this process, "Lianyun Made" was renamed "Longhai Made" due to subcontracting the production of weapon parts to factories along the line.

After the "Jiao'ao Incident" ended, while the Chinese people were rejoicing, the Ministry of War unexpectedly discovered that they could no longer do without "Made in Longhai". "Made in Longhai" covered a wide variety of products, from pistols to heavy artillery.

All kinds of weapons can be produced, and military supplies such as helmets, water bottles, engineer shovels, military uniforms, and military boots are even more affordable and high-quality. Therefore, although there have always been voices against private enterprises getting involved in military production, in the end, faced with "

There is no prohibition, especially after Li Zicheng became Prime Minister. With the issuance of the "Ordnance Manufacturing License", "Made in Longhai" has a "legal status".

It is precisely because of this that companies such as Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company, Longhai Ground Defense Company, China Aircraft Manufacturing Company and Yingyoumen Shipyard, which specializes in the production of naval equipment, have become the four pillars of the Longhai Navy's industrial system.

Different from China's traditional arsenals, these enterprises are all large-scale military industrial enterprises. Their military industrial production capacity is dozens of times that of traditional enterprises. Relying on the extremely large-scale weapons production assembly lines in this era, in the past few years, a steady stream of "

"Made in Longhai" is transported to the whole country along the Longhai Railway, while more "Made in Longhai" are exported to Russia, the United Kingdom, France and other countries. During the war, military production was extremely profitable.

In this process, the reputation of "Made in Longhai" has spread all the way from China to overseas. For example, the three-year-old heavy machine gun manufactured by Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company has become the flagship product of Longhai Naval Industry, just like other equipment.

Likewise, the largest foreign purchaser is Russia.

The European War made the Maxim machine gun famous. All participating countries except France used it extensively. Within six months after the outbreak of the war, almost 75% of the casualties of the participating armies were killed by the Maxim machine gun.

The emergence of the Maxim machine gun forced all countries to reform their military systems and tactics.

The fierce war caused a sharp increase in machine gun consumption. Compared with other industrial powers, Russia's industry was relatively backward. Its machine gun consumption surged with the war. As the only factory in Russia that can produce machine guns, the Tula Arsenal was on average before the war.

The monthly output was 48 machine guns. In the first five months after the war broke out, a total of 828 machine guns were produced. But for the Russian army of 5 million people, this was just a drop in the bucket. At the same time, the Russian arsenal was producing monthly machine guns according to the number of machine guns participating in the war.

50 million rounds of ammunition were used to organize production, but the actual monthly consumption of bullets had already reached 200 million rounds. Therefore, starting from January 1915, there was an "ammunition shortage" on the Russian front line, and its domestic arsenal was even more exhausted.

Current payment.

Limited by the backward domestic industrial base and insufficient raw materials, coupled with the lack of machine gun manufacturing experience and skilled workers in other factories, the potential of Russian machine gun manufacturing has been exhausted. At the same time, ordinary workers, even technicians and engineers in the Russian arsenal believe that

There is no need to understand the British units, but on the other hand, the drawings of the Maxim machine gun that Russia obtained from the United Kingdom are all in British units. A Maxim machine gun has a total of 282 parts, the largest part is 508 mm, and the smallest part is only 12.7

Millimeter, the production process requires 2422 processes, 830 templates and 40 sets of machine tools. Russian technicians with low education levels often do not comply with measurement specifications, resulting in an excessively high defective rate. In addition, all Russian machine tools rely on imports. After the war began.

Due to the increase in the demand for machine tools in various countries, Russia can buy fewer and fewer machine tools. Therefore, let alone increasing the production of machine guns, it is difficult to meet even the basic production. Although the Russian arsenal is trying to increase production as much as possible, due to the inability of domestic supply

To meet demand, Russia had no choice but to purchase Maxim machine guns from abroad.

Subsequently, General Gilmonius, the Russian military representative in London, signed a contract with the British company Collet to order 10,000 Maxim machine guns. Each one sold for 2,362 rubles, which is equivalent to three times the price of Russian-made machine guns. Russian-made machine guns can be used.

However, it is extremely difficult for Kolite Company to complete the order. In fact, even after it completes the order, it still faces various difficulties in transporting it to Russia.

And just when Collet Company was limited by production capacity and unable to complete domestic orders, the representative of Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company in London took the initiative to find General Gilmonius after accepting an order for up to 50,000 rifles from the United Kingdom.

It said that Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company could provide 10,000 Maxim heavy machine guns to Russia within half a year. For Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company, whether it was gold pounds or gold rubles, it was extremely attractive.

Faced with the urgent domestic needs and the manufacturers who came to visit, Gilmonius did not refuse. After signing the production contract for 5,000 machine guns, Longhai Firearms Manufacturing Company immediately began to organize production and at the same time subcontracted a large number of parts to

In just one and a half months, enterprises with production capacity along the line delivered 5,000 three-year-old heavy machine guns that can fire Russian-made ammunition using German mg08 machine gun drawings to the Russian military representative in China in Lianyungang.

As a result, Long Naval Industry began to enter the world's military industry market, completely getting rid of the export of raw materials in the early days of the war, and became a well-known arms manufacturer. In the following year, it not only completed the export of rifle machine guns as well as bullets and artillery shells from the beginning

Such primary military products as these have even begun to export destroyer escorts to the UK.

The reason why they can complete so many orders is that, in addition to the company providing a large number of drawings and technical support, more importantly, during the production process, these companies propose weapons that meet the needs of different customers. Even here,

In a seller's market, it still adheres to the principle of "customer first". The research centers affiliated to each company conduct targeted improvements to weapons based on the needs of buyers.

Huayin Weapons Testing Ground, shaded by green trees and mounds, maintains a somewhat mysterious color. This testing ground was used by the company to design internal ballistics and external ballistics from German experts hired from German companies in the early days of the war.

, experts in ammunition, ground artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, light weapons and other fields came here to help prepare for the construction of this test range and guide the test work of conventional weapons and equipment for the Longhai Navy's industrial system. In the following two years, the experts did a lot of useful work

.

To build a shooting range, we must first conduct a geodetic survey of the site. The shooting range consisted of a survey team of more than 200 people. Under the guidance of experts and technicians sent by the Surveying and Mapping Bureau of the Jiangsu Army General Staff Headquarters, they overcame various difficulties and completed it in just four months.

A survey mission of 688 square kilometers was carried out.

During the construction process, tens of thousands of workers from the Labor Corps worked hard day and night. In just a few months, a laboratory, a shooting position, 9 artillery positions, and 5 watchtowers were built.

An 18-kilometer shooting range line, as well as a 28-meter high target stand, a 6-meter × 8-meter large vertical target and other test facilities; communications and traffic support conditions have been established, and the construction of a temporary shooting range has been initially completed.

In the fourth year of the Republic of China, when the weapons test site was in the early stages of construction, and the temporary shooting range was under construction, it successively received test tasks assigned by the company. At that time, the shooting range did not have the test conditions, and it successively completed 82mm mortars, 105mm howitzers and many other

Finalization test tasks, and most of the weapons tests for external exports are also completed here.

In the following year, the test area of ​​the test site was continuously improved. Although the construction of the test site continued, for various weapons companies, weapons tests must be carried out, especially for some key projects.

Longhai Ground Defense Company is a company that produces various types of artillery. In addition to artillery, it also undertakes some "additional projects", and most of these additional projects are implemented in cooperation with other companies. This may be "company integration"

"Benefits. It can fully mobilize all resources of the company and give full play to their respective advantages to jointly coordinate the development of certain key projects.

Behind a mound, the roar of the engine continued to echo in the air, and in the mud, soldiers wearing army field uniforms followed a "steel monster" moving forward in the mud from time to time.

The monster-like steel square box was moving forward in the mud, even though the ankle-deep mud on the test site made the soldiers move only slowly. Not far away, several armored vehicles transformed from Lightning cars, this will

It has already fallen into the mud. Several armored car soldiers are using wooden boards and even wheat straw to try to rescue the armored car from the mud, but that kind of rescue is in vain, and the steel square box is now a

Plunging into the half-meter-deep swamp, and then as everyone was stunned, the tail of the steel square box burst out of the half-meter-deep swamp, spewing smoke.

"How about it?"

Turning to look at Yu Siyuancuo, the former military attache stationed in the UK who had just returned from the UK, Qian Mu asked proudly. It was he who sent a top-secret telegram back from the UK half a year ago. The telegram mentioned the UK

People's "Land Cruiser". That is, "tank" - water tank, a secret name for the British.

"How does it compare to the British tank?"

How does it compare to British tanks? Faced with this question, Yu Siyuan really didn't know how to answer it for a while. As a military attache stationed in the UK, although he was aware of the importance of tanks in war with the sensitivity of a soldier,...

The British tanks just performed a show on the grass, the distance was only a few hundred meters, but the tank in front of them traveled more than ten kilometers in the mud, going uphill and into swamps, it could be said that it did everything.

Demonstrating its good passing performance, at least those seemingly "invincible" armored vehicles are far from comparable to it.

"This, this is really hard to say..."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of a machine gun that sounded like tearing cloth. The sound sounded like tearing cloth and a chainsaw. He was no stranger to this kind of machine gun. It was unique to the Jiangsu Army.

Equipment - Type 2 dual-purpose machine gun, but most of the troops going abroad have been equipped with Type 3 Maxim machine guns, and this type of machine gun has always been equipped with Lightning armored vehicles. It is not surprising that it is now used on this tank.

With the sound of the target falling, the machine gun targets in the distance fell to the ground one by one as the machine gun fired, while the small turret on the tank kept rotating as the tank moved.

"turret?"

Noticing the rotation of the tank's turret, Yu Siyuan discovered the first advantage of this compact tank compared to the British tank - the rotatable turret, which means it can have a 360-degree firing range.

"Like the Lightning armored car, it has a twin machine gun turret, but its turret is smaller, the armor is thicker, and the armor is also thicker. The front, sides, and rear of the turret are all made of 13mm armored steel. Only

However, the angle is different, the top is 8 mm, and the same is true for the car body, which is 6 mm at the top... The vehicle weight of 5.8 tons ensures that it can pass most bridges in the country. According to our intelligence, the British tank is too heavy, and

It is not suitable for China's road conditions, and the excessive tonnage will also increase the cost..."

After listening to this explanation, Yu Siyuan understood why this tank was so "compact", but looking at this tank, he still saw some limitations - it was only equipped with a machine gun.

"If there are fortifications ahead, this tank..."

"Chariot!"
To be continued...