Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

Huangyadong was very dusty in late March, with people building factories and repairing hydroelectric power stations.

Especially in the blast furnace area, the workers who smash the ore are covered in dust all day long.

"This is not a big deal. We don't have many people. How can we let most of them go to smash the ore?"

Zhao Tianyang, who was passing by, waved his hand and played the role of section chief, assigning Comrade Liu Ding a task to develop an ore crusher.

"Yes, I'll tell Comrade Liu Ding right away!"

Li Yuncai nodded, turned around and went to find Liu Ding to convey to him the task that Zhao Tianyang had just given.

"Chief, you're here!"

At the engine factory, Yu Xiaping warmly welcomed Zhao Tianyang in.

"Stop talking nonsense and bring the blackboard over here!"

Zhao Tianyang came to the engine factory this time to avenge his previous humiliation, not to chat.

"Okay, bring it over here."

Yu Xiaping immediately had a large blackboard brought to Zhao Tianyang, and at the same time called the 70 workers who had just arrived in the factory to come for a meeting.

"Cough cough..."

Looking at the many workers with crew cuts, Zhao Tianyang coughed tactically and began to draw on the blackboard.

“Is this another armored vehicle?”

Looking at the figure gradually taking shape on the blackboard, the old worker asked in confusion.

“Armored vehicle!!!”

The crew-haired worker next to the old worker immediately became excited: "Brother, can our factory produce armored vehicles?"

"What!"

The old worker was speechless and said, "Last time, we worked for a week and ended up with nothing. I didn't expect the section chief to come again this time!"

"Hey, weapons research and development, there are successes and failures, that's normal!"

The crew-haired worker was quite optimistic: "If we can really develop this, it will definitely hit the Japanese devils hard!"

"Yes! Yes! If we really had armored vehicles, we could definitely teach the Japanese a lesson!"

The crew-haired workers nearby echoed this.

Upon hearing this, the old workers present looked at each other, not really understanding the meaning.

Those who have never been to the front line and fought against the Japanese will never understand the hardships that the soldiers endured while carrying explosives to blow up armored vehicles and Japanese tanks.

"Okay, be quiet!"

After Zhao Tianyang finished drawing the picture, he turned around and said, "I believe you have also seen that this time we are still going to make an armored vehicle."

"But unlike last time, this time we use a replica, 950-horsepower, double-row 14-cylinder radial air-cooled engine as the power source."

"This engine is much more powerful than the 20-horsepower pot-carrying machine we used last time!"

"It's powerful enough to lift an airplane into the sky, let alone a mere armored vehicle!"

"Do you have confidence?"

"Have!"

When they heard that an engine with such high horsepower was needed, both the old workers and the workers with crew cuts became full of confidence.

"Section Chief, you should have used this engine earlier. Our armored vehicles might have come out earlier!"

Yu Xiaping on the side said in a low voice.

"When I first started, I just wanted to save some gasoline or something!"

Zhao Tianyang was a little embarrassed, and quickly looked at everyone and said seriously: "Okay, everyone, I'll tell you."

"Since this armored vehicle uses a high-horsepower engine, the original armored vehicle blueprint cannot be used."

"I don't care about three-ton or two-ton vehicles anymore. This time I'm going to build a 12-ton armored vehicle."

"Wow, 12 tons! With this weight, it can directly knock over the Japanese tanks!"

"Why bother with armored vehicles? Why not just get tanks?"

"To build a tank, you need a tank gun. The only cannon our arsenal is currently producing is the Taihang 70mm cannon."

Listening to the discussion below, Zhao Tianyang smiled and said, "The reason why I didn't go directly to tanks, in addition to the artillery, is because tanks are more difficult to manufacture than armored vehicles."

"At present, our factory has no experience in manufacturing tanks, so manufacturing armored vehicles with lower manufacturing difficulty is our best choice at present!"

Those who have experience in manufacturing tanks have now become factory managers, so when Zhao Tianyang told the employees of the engine factory that they had no experience in manufacturing tanks, it was not considered a lie.

"Well, that makes sense!"

"You have to take it step by step. If you take too big a step, you may get hurt!"

Everyone nodded.

After unifying his thoughts, Zhao Tianyang began to issue orders.

First, 60 workers were assigned to be responsible for the manufacturing of chassis and transmission system, tracks, road wheels, and armor.

These were done when steam engine armored vehicles were manufactured.

Zhao Tianyang believed that under the leadership of those veteran workers, there should be no problem for the workers to copy the drawings he drew.

He took Yu Xiaping and the remaining ten people to start manufacturing the gearbox. This thing was a bit complicated and was generally divided into seven parts.

1. Gear transmission system: includes gears with different numbers of teeth and sizes, and different transmission ratios are achieved through the meshing of gears.

Of course, Zhao Tianyang was sure that the manufacturing of this gear could only be entrusted to the seventh-level workers in the arsenal, as the workers in their engine factory did not have that ability.

Two-shaft system: such as input shaft, output shaft and intermediate shaft, used to support and transmit torque.

Triple synchronizer: helps the gears mesh smoothly when shifting, reducing impact and noise.

Four operating mechanisms: including shift lever, shift cable or connecting rod, etc., used by the driver to control the gear switching.

5. Shell: used to accommodate and protect internal parts and provide installation and support.

Six bearings: support the rotation of the shaft, reducing friction and wear.

7. Oil seals and sealing parts: prevent lubricating oil leakage and prevent foreign matter from entering.

The materials used are case-hardened steel, spring steel and cast iron.

When it comes to oil seals and the required seals, Zhao Tianyang gets a headache. These things all require rubber! The rubber he found last time was used to make sealants.

But it seems that the rubber purchased from the Soviet Union should have arrived as well!

Thinking of this, Zhao Tianyang handed the gearbox drawings to Yu Xiaping and asked him to lead the workers to work on it first.

He quickly ran back to the tent and called the headquarters.

"Hello, hello, I'm Zhao Tianyang, looking for the deputy director of the Political Department."

"Okay, Chief Zhao! Please wait a moment!"

A moment later, the voice of the deputy director of the Political Department rang out.

"What's the matter, Chief Zhao?"

"It's nothing big, I just want to ask, has the rubber arrived?"

"rubber?"

The deputy director of the Political Department thought for a moment and said, "It seems to have arrived, but it may take some time to get it here from Yan'an."

"time?"

Zhao Tianyang was anxious and immediately said: "I am developing a new armored vehicle."

"As long as we succeed, we can definitely defeat all the Japanese tanks and armored vehicles. Now we just need rubber to seal the gearbox!"

"What kind of armored vehicle is so powerful?"

The deputy director of the political department was a little bit unconvinced.

"Believe me! This armored vehicle is the one I worked so hard to develop after my last failure. It is a groundbreaking armored vehicle that will definitely shock everyone!"

Listening to Zhao Tianyang's sincere voice in the microphone, the deputy director of the Political Department thought about it and made up his mind.

"One week, give me one week, and the rubber will definitely be delivered to you."