I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 61 These red clouds are so beautiful!

The Lantern Festival, which just passed, was very lively.

The people in the controlled area lit lanterns in every household.

The procession even set off fireworks, and those fireworks were absolutely beautiful.

Many people have never seen such beautiful fireworks in their entire lives.

The past year, though not exactly smooth sailing.

However, the harvest was much better than the year before.

These newly arrived troops in northern Shaanxi sent out a number of large iron oxen at the beginning of spring.

Wherever they can reach, they help the people till and harrow the land.

Where it couldn't climb up by itself, the team carried it to the loess plateau to till the soil.

That giant iron ox was incredibly strong.

The ground was turned up extremely deep; it was so deep that even an ox-drawn plow couldn't turn it up that deep.

And the huge iron ox pulling the connected rake could smash the large clods of earth that were turned up into tiny pieces.

It's the kind of stuff that leaks out between your fingers when you grab it.

Land like this doesn't even need oxen; even raising the ridges by hand is effortless.

Water has always been scarce on this vast Loess Plateau.

Farmers can only rely on the weather for their livelihood.

If God is in a good mood, He'll send you some rain; but if He's in a bad mood...

Either it won't rain at all, or it will rain non-stop and just won't stop until it washes you away.

But ever since a group of people started using horse-drawn carts to pull some large iron objects and began digging wells for the villagers everywhere.

The villagers will no longer lack water for drinking and irrigation.

Those big iron contraptions make a whirring sound once they swallow coal.

Then they used an iron pipe from a large wooden frame to drill a hole in the ground.

The water underground then gushed out with a gurgling sound.

When they left, they left behind a small, coal-eating iron gadget.

Once it starts moving, it can make something called a water pump send the water from the well to the wooden or clay trough.

The wooden or earthenware trough was used to deliver the water from the well to the fields.

The people of northern Shaanxi have lived for thousands of years and have never seen anything so wonderful.

For thousands of years, digging wells has always been a deadly task.

The saying goes, "When you drink water, don't forget the well-digger." Because if things go wrong, the well-digger might end up buried in the well.

And now, the people from these teams have dug the well in no time at all.

This really opened the eyes of all the villagers.

But the people in those teams also said that their factory director, Chen, said that the big iron pipe for drilling the well was not working properly.

They say that riveted pipes are not as good as seamless steel pipes.

Unable to penetrate hard ground, they can only bully soft soil.

Once we have seamless steel pipes, we'll be able to pump water out even from under rocks.

Now the village has wells for irrigation, as well as hand-pumped wells that can provide drinking water for the entire village.

The villagers' lives are getting better and better.

Although the well that the team drilled was used for irrigation.

At the end of the year, during the autumn harvest, we should provide more grain to cover the cost of digging the well.

But isn't that how it should be?

In places like this, even if you wanted to hire well diggers, none of them would be willing to come.

Not to mention that some villages are lucky enough to find sweet water wells.

The water from that well tastes so good; you can't taste any bitterness at all.

In villages with sweet water wells, girls are more willing to marry into those villages.

However, there is one downside.

In the village, they kept a close watch on that little guy who ate coal, nicknamed "Steam Engine."

We also don't want it to bring the water up every day.

They said the team had said to conserve water and not waste it.
The water underground is also limited; we must leave some for our children and grandchildren and use it sparingly.

There should be enough water for irrigation, and people should also manually irrigate the land; it cannot be just haphazardly flooded.

The villagers also wanted to be lazy and let the water just flow into the fields.

But after hearing the village chief relay the team's message...

Knowing that this water is for future generations, they stopped thinking about being lazy.

Isn't the purpose of life to live for our children and grandchildren?
As a result, after a year, the land that had never been truly turned over in thousands of years was turned over and allowed to breathe.

They gave us plenty of water.

The manure in the saltpeter pit is also well composted.

Although there hasn't been much rain this year.

But the grain harvest was still quite good.

Besides the whole family having a full meal, there's still quite a bit left over.

This is a year of good harvest that many people may only see once in their entire lives.

The villagers had a good New Year.

Chen Changzai, along with Regiment Commander Chen, Political Commissar Liu, Political Commissar He, and Deputy Factory Director Xu, also spent a lively Lantern Festival.

That night, Chen Changzai unusually drank a few more sips of wine.

Then, with his eyes half-closed from drunkenness, he began to fantasize about how powerful the country would be in the future.

"At that time, our skies will be filled with the most advanced aircraft in the world, manufactured by ourselves."

It's the kind of plane that no country can beat.

Back then, the tanks running on our ground were all produced by ourselves and were the most advanced in the world.

In our oceans, those guarding our maritime borders must be the most advanced warships in the world, manufactured by ourselves.

At that time, let's see who dares to bully us.

Anyone who dares to come, kill them.

"Yes, kill them."

Several men, their blood boiling from the alcohol, shouted in unison.

Chen Changzai slept soundly that night.

It's as if he's returned to the day of the September 9.3rd military parade.

But he no longer watches it on television.

He seemed to be standing at a very, very high place, watching the war eagles flying overhead and the rolling torrent of iron on the ground.

Look at those mighty warriors and the people singing joyfully.

Gradually, everything before my eyes faded away.

Chen Changzai slowly opened his eyes.

He returned to the cave dwelling.

"Teacher, the weather is sunny and there's a light breeze. Is it okay to release the balloons?"

Chen Changzai looked up at the sky.

Today is a rare day with beautiful weather.

The weather was clear and cloudless, with little wind—a perfect time for an experiment.

"Let it fly, and remember to record the data," Chen Changzai said.

"Yes, teacher." Upon receiving the order, the student in charge of releasing the balloons ran towards the launch site.

They are now going to release an orange-yellow hydrogen balloon with a diameter of five meters.

The hydrogen balloons are woven from fine hemp fibers and coated with a thin layer of rubber both inside and out.

There was a thin hemp rope woven with several fine steel wires underneath the hydrogen balloon.

There is a counting tag every 100 meters on the rope.

The entire rope is 2,500 meters long.

This is its maximum elevation.

However, today's elevation is two thousand meters.

As the balloon's securing latches were opened.

The hydrogen balloon began to rise rapidly.

When the hydrogen balloon rose to about two thousand meters, its speed began to slow down.

That's because the rope's weight and buoyancy are insufficient, coupled with the high-altitude winds and thin air.

That's why the balloon rose slowly.

"Teacher, we're already at two thousand meters!" a student ran over and reported.

"Okay, fix the height."

"Yes, fixed height."

Through the telescope, the orange hydrogen balloon drifted back and forth in the air.

"Anti-aircraft machine gun, prepare to fire."

"Yes, anti-aircraft machine gun, prepare to fire!" the anti-aircraft machine gunner shouted back.

At this moment, the five-meter-diameter hydrogen balloon was colored orange, a high-resolution color.

So to the naked eye, it appears as a small bright spot in the sky.

"Fire!" Chen Changzai issued the order to fire.

"Yes, fire." After the anti-aircraft machine gunner returned the order, he began firing at the bright spot that was fitted into the ring sight.

Three bursts of fire, "da da da".

On the anti-aircraft machine gun tripod, the large muzzle brake on the 12.7mm machine gun, which was almost identical to the DShK anti-aircraft and anti-ground machine gun, instantly spewed out a muzzle flash nearly a meter long.

Three 12.7×108mm bullets, constrained by the barrel, propelled the fifty-gram bullets into the air in the blink of an eye due to the immense explosive pressure.

No hits.

Although the hydrogen balloon was tethered by ropes and didn't travel very far in the high altitude due to the wind, it was not stationary after all.

It is moving, and it is moving erratically.

The machine gunner's face was expressionless; he simply tracked the bright spot through the ring sight, searching for its possible movement.

"Da da da"

I didn't win again.

"Isn't it too high?"

Commander Chen, who was standing next to Chen, asked.

At this moment, on the test firing range.

Apart from Commander Chen and a few others.

Even several headquarters leaders came.

None of them spoke.