Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

On December 12, with the help of Ivan Petrov, the Taiyuan Arsenal successfully resumed production.

"So far, the Taiyuan Arsenal has been adjusted and a total of five factories have been established."

"They are Northwest Manufacturing Plant, Northwest Repair Plant, Northwest Machine Tool Plant, Northwest Yucai Steelmaking Machinery Plant, and Northwest Chemical Plant."

Liu Ding held up a document and told Zhao Tianyang: "There are more than 5 employees in the five factories and more than 2000 pieces of equipment."

"We estimate that after another month of adjustment, we will be able to restore the Taiyuan Arsenal's peak production capacity."

"More than ten thousand people!"

Zhao Tianyang was a little surprised: "How did you find so many people?"

"Just take the list and go door to door!"

Liu Ding shrugged and said, "I asked Brigade Commander Chen for help and asked him to mobilize his troops to look for people throughout Taiyuan."

"In order to find enough workers, I sent a telegram to the commander-in-chief, asking him to use the telegraph to send telegrams to government units throughout Shanxi, asking them to find workers with military experience."

"We were busy like this for two months, and we only found more than 10,000 people!"

"No wonder!"

After a long time, they gathered the strength of the entire army and plundered all the military and industrial talents in Shanxi.

"Okay, then I won't disturb you."

After saying that, Zhao Tianyang wanted to get up and leave.

"Wait!"

Liu Ding grabbed Zhao Tianyang who was trying to escape and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Go back to Shaanxi!"

Zhao Tianyang blinked and said innocently.

"Are you going back to Shaanxi?"

Liu Ding's voice became a little higher: "There are more than 10,000 people working in Taiyuan Arsenal now, most of them are workers and technicians."

"There are so few managers. Are you just going to leave them all to me?"

"Hey, with great power comes great responsibility!"

Zhao Tianyang patted Liu Ding on the shoulder and consoled him: "Look, we are the only two ministers and vice ministers in the Ministry of Military Industry."

"You are in Shanxi, so shouldn't I be in charge of the business in Shaanxi?"

"The arsenals in Shaanxi are very mature and have a complete management team. It doesn't matter whether you are there or not!"

Liu Ding looked at Zhao Tianyang suspiciously. He now seriously suspected that Zhao Tianyang just didn't want to take care of the trivial matters in the early days of the arsenal's establishment!

"Oh, you don't understand!"

Zhao Tianyang explained in a grand manner: "There are still many top-secret technologies that we are researching in Shaanxi, and they all depend on me!"

"this....."

Liu Ding hesitated for a moment: "Well, you'd better not let me catch you wandering around outside!"

"See you later then!"

Zhao Tianyang opened the door, got on a transport plane and returned to Yan'an. It was after returning to Yan'an that Zhao Tianyang learned a piece of news.

"The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor!"

Today is only December 12st, and it seems that the Japanese army has taken action in advance. Historically, after the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor, they immediately invaded Southeast Asia.

However, regarding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Zhao Tianyang is more concerned about what will happen in Henan next year!

"Are there any people fleeing famine from Henan this year?"

"flee from famine?"

Although he didn't quite understand why they were just talking about the Japanese army and suddenly jumped to Henan, Li Yuncai still replied honestly.

"There are many. Ever since the Yellow River burst its banks, people from Henan have been fleeing famine."

"If we don't count the tens of thousands of people the Nationalist government sent to us at the beginning."

"Since 1939, we have received a total of people fleeing famine from counties in Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu!"

"Find someone who's here recently. I have something to ask you!"

Zhao Tianyang was a little worried. In his previous life, the famine clearly started in 1942, but from what he said, it seemed like the country hadn't had a good time in recent years either!

You have to know that more than 30,000 people were able to escape to Yan'an alive, which means that at least 50,000 to 60,000 people died on the way. This is not a small number. How come there is no news at all?

"The minister is here!"

At this time, Li Yun came over with a strong young man.

"He is from Henan. He came to Yan'an in November and is now working as a foundry worker in a steel factory in Yan'an."

"Ok!"

Zhao Tianyang nodded and looked at the somewhat reserved young man kindly: "Don't be nervous, I just want to ask you a few questions!"

Hearing this, the young man first glanced at Li Yuncai, and then said to Zhao Tianyang: "Minister, you ask!"

"You came here to escape the famine, so life must be hard at home!"

"That's right!"

The young man showed a painful expression: "Since the Yellow River burst its banks, a lot of land in our area has been flooded."

"Originally, our family could barely survive with the three mu of land we rented and the remaining two mu of mountain land we owned."

"But since this summer, Henan has not seen a single rain, and the crops in the fields have dried up."

"Even the sweet potatoes planted in the mountains only had 30% survival, plus the landlords took the opportunity to raise the rent, and the officials came to collect taxes."

"We had no choice but to leave the village overnight and rely on sweet potatoes and begging to get here."

"It seems that the situation is more serious than expected!"

In the next few days, Zhao Tianyang not only stayed in Yan'an and looked for the victims from Henan to inquire about the situation.

He also sent a special telegram asking the guerrillas in Henan to report the specific situation in the local area.

Finally, three days later, Zhao Tianyang found the elegant man with the information he had collected.

"The troops in Shanxi need to be reorganized. Our next target is the Northeast, Inner Mongolia and Hebei."

The elegant man took out a report and handed it to the political officer in front of him: "Send all this information to the commander-in-chief!"

"Chief!"

Seeing that the elegant man had finished his job, Zhao Tianyang knocked on the door and walked in.

"Minister Zhao?"

The elegant man asked in confusion: "How come you have time to come to my place?"

"Deputy Minister Liu has been sending me telegrams frequently these days, asking for people!"

"Hehe, don't worry, Liu Ding is with me regarding Shanxi's affairs!"

Zhao Tianyang handed the information in his hand to the elegant man: "You should take a look at this first!"

"What is that? The disaster situation in Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu this year, and the disaster forecast for next year?"

The elegant man flipped through the information in his hand, his expression becoming more and more solemn. In the end, he simply put the information down and asked Zhao Tianyang directly.

“Is this report true?”

“It’s all true!”

Zhao Tianyang pointed at the report and said, "The data on it were all obtained from local people I asked."

"After the Yellow River burst its banks, the Kuomintang not only did not take any remedial measures, but also did not implement the most basic tax exemption policy!"

"This summer, Henan has not seen a drop of rain."

At this point, Zhao Tianyang stared closely into the elegant man's eyes and said, "After a flood, there will be a major epidemic, and after a drought, there will be a major disaster."

"If Henan doesn't even have much snow this year, their grain production will definitely decrease in the first half of next year."

"When that time comes, Henan will surely suffer a large-scale famine!"

"I know about this!"

The elegant man nodded with a heavy heart: "I will ask the local special forces comrades to collect the local disaster situation as soon as possible!"

"After the central government has finished discussing it, it will send leaders to conduct on-site inspections. Once the data is confirmed to be true, the central government will definitely not ignore the tens of millions of people in Henan!"