Canteen System Assistance Notes

However, Huang Jingzhai, who was in charge of the Central Industrial Commission, discovered that this "consultant" with many foreign exchange resources purchased mining and ore processing equipment according to the upper limit of the production capacity of Huinong Steel Plant, arranged imported air separation equipment, and even planned the general route of the railway in Ning Province in advance and prepared the materials and devices needed for the assembly of the train locomotive in advance, but installed power generation equipment "seriously in excess".

These power plants consume vast quantities of high-quality thermal coal from the Shizuishan region, generating significant power. This power supports the massive energy consumption of the air separation units, alloy mixing furnaces, acid converters, LD oxygen top-blown converters, LF argon-protected refining furnaces, and VD vacuum degassing furnaces at Huinong Phase I and II. They also supply numerous other factories in the Huinong region, enabling them to carry out coal chemical processing, machining, chemical synthesis, and other activities.

Therefore, the Huinong Iron and Steel Consortium boasted a level of technology that even Soviet experts exclaimed was miraculous, as well as a 30-ton steel production capacity and a 100 million-ton iron production capacity that even they felt wasted. Yet, even in this situation, the American-made coal-fired units purchased by Comrade Xiao Liu were still underloaded, allowing several units to be operated alternately for maintenance, and a number of operation and maintenance engineers were trained.

Huang Jingzhai has never understood this. Today's large coal-fired power turbine units are all imported, and most of the components cannot be produced domestically. The transportation team on the Northwest Channel needs to move like ants, using imported heavy-duty trailers with a maximum load capacity of 35 tons to pull them in bit by bit, and then slowly assemble and splice them together. It is extremely extravagant and costly.

Moreover, after the second phase of construction, the main production capacity of Huinong Steel Plant has been basically fully utilized. What remains is to add two specialized "special steel furnaces" - the electric slag remelting furnace and the electric arc refining furnace. Although the increase in electricity consumption is significant, it is still a calculable number: wouldn't it be better to use the foreign exchange, manpower and material costs spent on the power system to import other necessary equipment and materials?

"I didn't realize at the time that Liu Helian was setting an ambush for Mr. Hou!

"You've already prepared the materials for something Mr. Hou Qirong hasn't even fully proposed yet? The Yongli factory's equipment is still under construction, yet you've already planned the power capacity." Huang Jingzhai retorted. "Liu Banxian, you're so clueless! I don't believe it. Mr. Hou, please give us your opinion. Is this true?"

"I actually hope that Mr. Liu Helian is really a demigod," Hou Qirong said with a smile on the other side, "In this way, when I encounter problems I don't understand when studying urea nitrogen fertilizer technology, I can come directly to Mr. Liu." "Mr. Hou, I'm not a treasure trove of knowledge, you can't be so unkind!" Liu Helian spread his hands helplessly, "I can only point out some directions at most.

Regarding opinions and specific research, I really can’t help much.”

"Mr. Liu, please don't underestimate yourself. In the chemical industry, having guidance is truly a tremendous help. Back then, when I was exploring the Soxhlet process for alkali production, all I had to draw on were a few cursory newspaper reports." Hou Qirong patted his chest. "Now that I have such strong support from the organization, if I don't come up with something, I'll destroy the Yongli brand myself."

As a leading figure in China's national chemical industry at the time, Hou Qirong was invited by the Yellow Sea Chemical Society to the border region in 39. Under the coordination of the Industrial Committee, a portion of the nitrogen source from the newly established coal-based ammonia synthesis phase II project at Huinong was allocated to Hou's Yongli to experiment with a new alkali production process. However, Liu Helian soon applied to the central government and approached the Yongli factory.

After listening to Hou Qirong's introduction to the "combined alkali production method", he put forward his own opinion: the advantage of Hou's alkali production method over the Soxhlet process already in the border area is that it saves salt, shortens the production process, and can produce a by-product of ammonium chloride, which is a type of nitrogen fertilizer.

However, ammonium chloride is ineffective as a fertilizer and can lead to soil acidification, making it difficult to increase wheat and corn yields even after continuous use. More importantly, the combined alkali process consumes more ammonia than the Soxhlet process because it doesn't adequately recycle nitrogen sources. Currently, synthetic ammonia production capacity in border areas is limited, so it should be used sparingly.

"Mr. Hou, soda ash is the backbone of the chemical industry, but the chemical industry is also the backbone of agriculture. While agriculture provides capital and labor for industrial development, China's industry should also contribute to the development of agriculture, promoting the common progress of industry and agriculture.

"I don't want to sound too harsh, but food has been the primary concern of the Chinese people for thousands of years. I'd like to invite Mr. Hou's Yongli Plant to take over the production of nitrogen fertilizer."

Hou Qirong's heart surged as he recalled what Liu He and he had said. Born into a peasant family, Hou Qirong naturally understood the role of chemical fertilizers in increasing crop yields. The base's production capacity for phosphate and potash fertilizers had been relatively low in recent years. Carbonation-based ammonium phosphate production was slightly better, but still far from sufficient. He agreed to Liu Helian's request and inquired about the central government's desire for a new nitrogen fertilizer plant: continued expansion of ammonium phosphate production, ammonium sulfate, or the more effective ammonium nitrate.

As a result, this "treasure box" comrade blurted out a word: "urea".

"Now Yongli Factory has become Mr. Liu's 'pirate ship'!"

Looking at the two fully circulated aqueous solution experimental devices currently laying their foundations, Hou Qirong sighed, "Yongli was originally an alkali plant, with nitrogen fertilizer being a sideline. With future organizational arrangements, perhaps it will become a chemical plant producing both soda ash and nitrogen fertilizer." "Two paths, moving forward in parallel. Although this experimental device is slightly smaller in scale, it's built to the standards of large-scale industrial production. If the trial run is successful, in two years we'll have an annual urea production capacity of 10,000 tons from the experimental devices alone." Huang Jingzhai muttered to himself, "Liu Helian, Liu Helian, what was our estimated ratio of nitrogen fertilizer to grain output?"

"去年的实验结果:对于之前不施肥或者只有腐熟肥的农田，1公斤有效氮对于水稻、小麦、玉米的增产分别是54公斤、43公斤和51公斤，作物的吸收率在试验田里测得是35%-38%，实际的话，可能在27、28%左右吧。”

刘贺连想了想数据，迅速地做了一点儿心算:"咱们现在产量最高的碳铵含氮量是17%，实际使用中会降低;尿素是45%，只要不受潮，问题就不大….这样折算一下，差不多是1公斤碳铵提升2.5公斤的水稻、2公斤的小麦、2.4公斤的玉米;1公斤尿素则变为6.8公斤、5.4公斤和6.4公斤.

"Not counting the ammonium urea already produced, the urea in the experimental unit alone could increase wheat production by 20,000 tons... I think if the director of the 6th Artillery Factory knew this, he wouldn't be so angry about us stealing their gun barrels."

Huang Jingzhai shook his head, recalling the time he went to the 6th Cannon Factory, which was producing 12-gun cannons, to beg for alms. He couldn't help but laugh. Finally, he turned to Hou Qirong and Liu Helian and asked, "If this works, Liu Helian, how much capacity do you want to reserve for the urea this time?"

Um.......

Liu Helian turned his head away, pretending not to hear. Hou Qirong glanced around, then secretly held out his index fingers, placing them perpendicular to each other. "Here, that's about it."

Chapter 519: Xinsi Fruitful Achievements (2) Guan Zhonghua Ceremony

More than a year ago, Shanghai Shaodun Electric Motor Factory opened a branch in Haojing.

However, rather than saying that Shanghai Shaodun Motor Factory invested in a branch factory in Guanzhong, it is better to say that Shanghai Shaodun Motor Factory made a classic "escape plan" by leaving its main factory in the concession.

With the help of a friendly Chinese foreign-funded enterprise "Moyu Investment Company", Shanghai Shaodun Motor Factory, Radio Factory and Neon Light Factory were relocated due to market fluctuations.

Either they become insolvent due to poor management, or they face financial ruin due to failure to complete orders.

In order to avoid paying the liquidated damages, or being unable to afford the costs due to the ever-increasing factory rents, they have to dispose of their assets, sell their shares or accept capital injection from this foreign-funded enterprise.

Soon, after retaining many equipment and skilled workers, the investment company took away a large number of the original workers, leaving only some local engineers to organize the production of the company within the concession. "After reducing staff and increasing efficiency and technological transformation, the company's assets were successfully revitalized and the efficiency of capital operation was improved."

Just as Shanghai residents lamented the fall of several Chinese industrial enterprises to the tyranny of foreign capital, those workers who were willing to leave experienced a strange journey:

They inexplicably became employees of a trading company affiliated with Siming Bank's Shanghai branch. They were then tasked with escorting a shipment of supplies, boarding a ship in Shanghai and heading south to Wanzai Island in Guangdong Province. There, the new controlling shareholder, Moyu Investment, sold the old, third-hand production equipment to a local Vietnamese freight forwarder, transforming the entire escort team into a "tour group" consisting of only a few personnel.

Next, the workers boarded another ship and headed for Yangcheng Bay (now the Guangdong G area) - here, they received assistance from a "strange and mysterious kind-hearted person" and boarded a truck carrying imported supplies from the Nationalist government. They swayed all the way north, passing through Bagui, Lincheng, and Shancheng, and finally arrived in Guanzhong.

The factory's engineers, garnering greater attention, boarded a plane, first bound for Nagasaki, Japan. From this Far Eastern transportation hub, they sailed south again, bound for Yangon, Burma, and then flew back to Gaojing. With this journey, the entire Shanghai Shaotun Electric Motor Factory finally completed its inland relocation in June 1941, reuniting in Guanzhong.

Finally, these workers and engineers who had experienced a long journey discovered that many of the equipment used for production had already arrived here before them. In the recently renovated factory, second-hand and new equipment were arranged in a regular pattern, waiting for their unsealing and use.

Soon, a new electromechanical factory called "Shaodun Electric Motor Factory Guanzhong Branch" resumed production in Guanzhong and began to export high-tech electromechanical products at that time - of course, in another system, it was also called "Huarun Shaodun Haojing Instrument Electronics Factory", abbreviated as "Huayi Factory".

During its time on the isolated island of the Shanghai Concession, the Shaodun Electric Motor Factory boasted exceptional production capabilities. It was one of the few companies in China capable of producing electronic products such as radio frequency components for telegraphs, electric motors, and neon lights. It even produced high-end electromechanical components such as high-frequency fluorescent tubes, high-voltage ballasts, and high-frequency oscillator components.

However, like many other factories in the Shanghai Concession, the Shaodun Motor Factory relied on both imports for raw materials and exports for its products. Consequently, the ongoing war, the ever-changing international situation, and even underground incidents within the concession would impact their normal operations. Consequently, the factory's efficiency and production capacity remained low, often forcing them to halt production.

Now, with the factory director and chief engineer Cai Suhou's relationship shifting from the Soviet Communist Party to the Chinese Communist Party, and with the injection of technology from the China Resources system, Shaodun Electromechanical, reborn as the "Huayi Factory," began to make rapid progress on the technological level.

After replacing the inland glass workers from Beique and Suyu who had gone bankrupt due to the large-scale peddling of northern and foreign goods, the Shaodun Factory began producing a relatively comprehensive range of traditional electron tubes. It also devoted considerable effort to technical verification and development of medium- and low-voltage miniature electron tubes known as "finger tubes."

This is a modified version of the electron tube developed by the American Raytheon Electronics Company in 1940. It can transform an electron tube as big as a light bulb into the size of a pencil head. It is mainly used in the medium and low power fields - this is also the working range of most military radio stations. The "finger tube" produced by the Shaodun factory using the technology route transferred from the future "Shuguang Factory" is slightly larger in size than the Raytheon, but the cost is much lower, which is convenient for mass production.

Finally, after a year of debugging and production line running-in, although there were still things such as ultra-fine tungsten filaments that needed to be imported from Europe and the United States, the Shaodun Factory successfully achieved smooth operation of the production line in the middle of 41, and had the ability to produce about 10 to 15 various types of electronic tubes annually (depending on the product).

However, due to future supply chains, the Eighth Route Army already heavily utilizes RF components, such as transistors and integrated circuits, and has little demand for electron tubes. Furthermore, the Shaodun factory doesn't plan to fully expand electron tube production, but instead plans to work with the Eighth Route Army's "Black Technology Group" to meet the requirements for next-generation electronic components. However, the workers already producing electron tubes and electromechanical equipment can't sit idle. Who should these products be sold to?

"Hello? Hello! oMH, ABa, TpM, one, two, three, oAVH, ABa, Tpm, one, two, three..."

In September 1941, beside a cotton field that had just been harvested in Guanzhong, Chuikov was driving a GAZ car accompanied by Eighth Route Army soldiers. After seemingly finding a satisfactory parking spot, the Russian general pulled off a "Bakelite brick" from the middle of the car seat, held it in his hand, turned the switch, and then jumped out of the seat without even waiting for the car to stop.

"Dmitri! Dmitri! It's Vasily! Can you hear me?" He pressed the call button on the bakelite brick and asked, "I'm speaking to you from Baofeng No. 1." The bakelite brick hissed with a hum of electricity, and then the voice of Dmitri Anatolyevich "Belsky" Midivedevsky came out:

"Varisi...hiss hiss hiss...Varisi, I can hear you, a little blurry, but

Yes, I can hear you clearly, over."

Chuikov frowned and listened carefully for a while before he could distinguish Belsky's fat voice. He said with a bit of regret, "It seems that this distance is almost the limit. Dmitri - where are you now?" "Squeaky hissing... I'm in a place called the Kiln Shop, on the...hissing hissing... road. Oh... hello! Davarishi, have you eaten...

Ignoring Belkov, who was chatting away, the soldier on the vehicle expertly brought over a map and spread it out on a stump by the roadside. "Comrade Chuikov, we should be here now," he pointed to a spot on the map. "We've been running all along the road. The kiln shop Comrade Xiongsky mentioned is roughly here, northeast of our direction."

"Thank you, comrade. Kiln shop, kiln shop..." Chuikov didn't care; he squatted down and began to study the map. But as he squatted, the electrical noise in Baofeng No. 1 grew louder, and Belsky's voice was almost inaudible over the crackling sound. It wasn't until Chuikov was able to extend the whip antenna, hold the machine high, and point it west that the call quality recovered slightly.

"The call range is approximately... 4.8 kilometers."

"Yes, General Cui, in mountainous areas the range might be reduced by more than 60%. Our test results show a maximum of a little over one kilometer," a factory technician added. "That's 48 kilometers on plains. Our Huayi Factory's recommended operating distance is also around 4-5 kilometers."

"No, no, no, this is already very good. I have no complaints."

Chuikov shook his head and raised his hand to examine the "Bakelite brick" - a portable, individual walkie-talkie, like a telephone receiver. Chuikov passed his hand through the fabric strap on the back of the walkie-talkie and weighed it. After filling it with batteries, it weighed a full five pounds, like a barbell for exercise.

The front control panel contained only a few buttons: an on/off switch, a volume knob, and an eight-position frequency knob. This function allowed the operator to select any of the eight variable AM ​​transmission ranges at any time, unlike the SCR-536 currently being produced by Motorola, which required adjusting the circuit board at a repair station to change the frequency. However, this also meant that the Baofeng No. 1 radio used one more tube than the SCR-536, bringing the total number of tubes to six.

"How convenient! Much lighter than a radio, I can carry it with me." He thought, and then asked the technician, "Comrade, how long can this radio be used?"

"In our tests, a single dry cell battery pack lasted about six hours under continuous, intense phone calls," the technician explained. "Under normal use, the Baofeng 1 should last about 20 hours—though if the weather is too cold, the battery life will be reduced, and the expected lifespan is around 16 hours."

"That's great, comrade. Now I only have one question."

Cuikov put down the intercom. "How many Baofeng No. 1s can Huayi Factory produce per month now? After deducting the needs of the Eighth Route Army comrades, how many can be supplied to the Soviets?" "I don't have a precise number for that. If we continue to produce at this rate, it would be around a thousand per month..."

The technician scratched his head in confusion. Faced with such a problem, he could only approach it from a technical perspective. "General Cui, we're still improving the Baofeng-1. Its current six-tube configuration only allows for adjustment to eight frequency bands. We plan to upgrade it to an eight-tube configuration. This will not only increase the number of frequency bands to 64, but also further reduce the failure rate and improve the robustness of the system. You can wait..."

"No, no, no, my dear comrade, dear comrade, listen to me."

Chuikov shook his head and turned off the squeaking radio: "Baofeng No. 1 is more than enough in its current form. It may be difficult for you to imagine the battles on the Soviet-German front, where hundreds of tanks, planes, and artillery pieces could be completely destroyed in a single day. The same goes for this wonderful little radio - can you understand? The soldiers on the front lines of the Soviet Red Army were losing their lives every minute under Nazi artillery fire...

"So, now I hope you can speed up production and increase the quantity as soon as possible. Increasing the number of tubes from 6 to 8 does seem to increase the reliability of the radio, but doesn't it also reduce production capacity by one-third?"

"Ah... General Cui, you might need to talk to our factory director and the military representative..."

"That's no problem. I'll contact them when I get back. But right now, the Soviet Red Army really needs to get as many Baofeng radios as possible, as quickly as possible." Chuikov shook the technician's hand and said sincerely, even a little anxiously, "If you have any difficulties, you can tell me, or you can go to contact Berkov. When I go back this time, I will do my best to promote this matter."

Chapter 520: Fruitful Achievements of the Xinsi Year (3) Shaanxi and Gansu Wheel and Track

"Wherever imperialist railways are laid, the clutches of imperialist aggression extend."

This depicts a bloody episode in China's modern history, when it became a semi-colony. Imperial powers exploited the opportunity offered by railway construction in China to seize road rights, exploit Chinese labor and raw materials, and dump their goods. Even after the Japanese invaded and occupied the three northeastern provinces, the Manchurian Railway played a key role in subsequent colonial rule.

But just as weapons aren't good or bad, only who wields them, so too are railways themselves. While the Eighth Route Army, nicknamed the "railway-ripping army," actively sabotaged railroads in enemy-occupied territory, they also understood the immense value of this contraption comprised of two steel rails, countless sleepers, and road ties, and the locomotives that ran on it.

It is the artery for the exchange of materials between regions, the channel for the transportation of industrial raw materials and products, the means of personnel exchange, and the key to military transportation. After all, no matter how bad a train is, it can always carry thousands of tons of cargo! If all this tonnage of materials had to be transported by car, how many vehicles would it take?

You see, during the Suiyuan Campaign, wasn't the vast majority of the Eighth Route Army's logistics transported by rail?

The Eighth Route Army's desire for railways dates back much earlier than the Suiyuan Campaign. In this era, the border region was no longer the backward region that relied on rail steel to manufacture guns as it had been in history. It now had three major industrial centers.

These industrial zones are all small and medium-sized industrial clusters born out of the ferrous metal industry: the Ning Province United Industrial Center, located in Huinong area, with Ning Province's minerals and the Yellow River water as its core; the Fushi Industrial Zone, located in Fushi, relying on the Guanzhong materials, Yanchang Oilfield, "Material Center" supply and Fushi Special Steel in the Kuomintang-controlled area; and the Tuocheng Industrial Zone, located in Tuocheng, based on the Shenfu and Fugu minerals and established with the introduction of national capitalists from the Kuomintang-controlled area.

The products they produce, along with various imported materials, support the most basic construction needs of the border region. In addition, there are industrial clusters such as the cement complexes in Fuxian and Yaoxian, the chemical complexes in Ding and Yan, and the aircraft complex and new chemical complex in Guanzhong, which are still under construction and development.

These industrial clusters are dispersed due to geographical, political, and military factors, and can only be connected by road, which is very inconvenient. Every year, the border region government has to spend a lot of money to mobilize raw materials and transport finished products through the border region's internal transportation system, which is very costly.

It would be nice if there was a railway.

Civil affairs officials in the border region have always dreamed of building a railway: if a ""-shaped railway could be built within the border region, connecting several major industrial zones, it would not only facilitate the transportation of materials and personnel, but also free up a large amount of internal transportation capacity within the border region. This capacity could be invested in the transportation lines of the Northwest Passage, or supplement the field army units that are in urgent need of trucks and drivers. The benefits are numerous.

But how can building a railway just happen? It's no easy task. From exploration, route selection, and surveying to actual construction, construction, and trial operation, a railway involves numerous steps and requires the coordinated efforts of all parties. Even if the initial exploration and route selection work can be done with data from some strange sources, at least the verification and construction steps cannot be skipped. The Nanjing Nationalist Government spent nearly 10 years, from 28 to 37, recruiting Western powers and conscripting civilian labor, to build a total of 3600 kilometers of railway.

How many railroad tracks, how many sleepers, and how many hundreds of meters of railway could you, a Communist Party "provincial government" that has remained "impoverished and blank" for 37 years, build?

"Building a railway is not forbidden by God. It is scientifically permitted. It is just a little more troublesome. Foreigners have long gills, so we have them too, and we should grow them even longer.

Gao Chongde, then chairman of the Civil Defense and Civil Affairs Committee of Huinong District, Ningxia Province, once said this.

The civil affairs system of the Eighth Route Army and the infrastructure engineering corps under the military system started a huge

The railway construction work is going on.

Due to the unique circumstances of northern Shaanxi, the Eighth Route Army couldn't mobilize 15 troops, as they had in another time and space to build the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway. Instead, trained members of the Construction Corps became the primary force. Operating a variety of equipment, they worked alongside the mobilized masses, who used hand tools, to consolidate the roadbed, construct bridges and tunnels, lay rails, and build ancillary facilities.

Supported by imported equipment and future-proof construction materials, the systematic construction corps made rapid progress. Because the Eighth Route Army kept their word, the construction site never delayed wages and even provided lunch. The enthusiasm of the people involved grew year by year. Including the mainline, sidings, and turnarounds, the railway, totaling over 900 kilometers, gradually took shape thanks to the massive investment of steel and eventually moved toward completion.

Now, after nearly five years of verification surveying and route selection, a project that began in 1937, has finally borne fruit. In October 1941, the Eighth Route Army's first internal railway was successfully completed and entered formal operation.

One by one—one by one—one

This railway was divided into two main lines. One of them ran northwest from Fushi, passing through Ganguyi, Wen'anyi, Yanchuan, Xiaerlipu, Zhejiaping, and then through Tianzhuang, Suide, Mizhi, and Yuhe, ultimately reaching Tuocheng. Beyond this main line, the "Oilfield Branch Line" extended to Yanchang; the "Mining Branch Line" continued north from Tuocheng, turning toward Shenfu and Fugu; and the "Cement Branch Line" continued southward toward the cement complexes of Fuxian and Yaoxian, virtually covering the Eighth Route Army's core industrial areas in Shaanxi Province.

The other main line turns west north of Suide, passing through Madai, Jingbian, Dingyan, and arrives at Yinnan area of ​​Ning Province. It is across the river from the railway that goes south from Huinong District, passing through Shizuishan and Xingqing Prefecture. Because this part of the work was only started after the February Incident, the Yellow River Railway Bridge in Yinnan area is still under construction, so the goods here still need to be transferred by railway pontoon or 25-ton flat-bottomed boat.

During construction, the Eighth Route Army's construction teams and the mobilized masses, with support from three steel centers and the Fushe and Huinong "material centers," maintained acceptable standards. The railway adhered to the construction standards inherited from the era of the Great President, using standard top-weight rails—43 kilograms per meter—and standard gauge.

Even though the railway chose a single-track route that skirted the valley, with a minimum curve radius of 300 meters in difficult sections, barely meeting mountain railway standards, the diligent construction workers installed road signs and wall-plate signals, achieving interlocking. Furthermore, the construction workers used wireless and landline telephones to establish a "telephone dispatch system" to direct the locomotives.

As for the locomotives themselves, the new locomotives added to the border area now come from a variety of sources. There are a small number of "Pacific-type" locomotives that purchase drawings from the United States, import key parts, and produce large parts in the border area. There are also "Guanzhong-type KF-1" locomotives that are assembled in the border area in the same way as the "KF-1" type of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway ordered from the United Kingdom, and the parts are newly produced. There are even some old locomotives that have been in service in the Guanzhong area since the Qing Dynasty.

In this way, on this newly built railway, freight cars can reach a maximum running speed of 60km/h, and passenger cars can reach 8km/h in some sections; while the travel speed of trains can reach 3km/h, and some direct passenger cars can even achieve a travel speed close to 50km/h.

What kind of speed is this? Although this speed is far inferior to the high-speed railways of the future, looking at the current situation, apart from the South Manchuria Line, the face of the Manchuria Railway, and the Beijing-Shanghai Line under the Ministry of Railways of the Wang Puppet Republic of China, looking at the war-torn and devastated China, this is actually the top-notch line that cannot be compared!

"Now, on behalf of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government, I officially announce that the Yanyu Line and Yanwu Line, the first people's railway in the border region, are officially open for operation!"

Following the announcement by Border Region Government Chairman Lin Zuhan, colorful flags fluttered, gongs and drums roared, and firecrackers blared throughout the venue. Standing on the stage, representing the Eighth Route Army, the Construction Corps, and the Border Region Government, were General Zhu, Xiao Wuyi, Gao Shengfan, and Li Fenggong; Gao Chongde and Ma Ziyin from Ning Province; and Gao Liqing, representing the "preserved fruit" of Tuocheng. Together, amidst the festive gongs and drums, they cut a red string with scissors, effectively marking the railway's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“Woo—”

Inside the station, a newly decorated locomotive, decked out in red flags, slogans, and plastic flowers, spewed white steam and blew its whistle. Amidst the cheers of the crowd, the locomotive driver pushed the handle forward to the floor. Four pairs of bright red driving wheels, propelled by rockers and connecting rods, slowly turned, grunting and pulling the long train, which gradually accelerated forward.

At this moment, no matter how many difficulties and obstacles the construction of this railway has encountered, they will all turn into happiness as sweet as honey.

This railway is like a steel bloodline. While liberating the restrictions on industrial development in the border areas, it will also further promote social changes in the border areas and even subtly promote changes in thinking: from resisting warlords and organizing railway workers' movements to the first independent construction of railway trunk lines and the opening of operations with locomotives and vehicles... Time flies, and everything is so different.

“Woo———-—”

The train whistle blew again, and a long column of smoke drifted into the distance.

Chapter 521: Xinsi Fruitful Achievements (End) The Deviation of Orthodoxy

(Update: This chapter is a bit theoretical)

From the beginning of 1937 to the end of 1941, a period of nearly five years, a lot of things happened in China and in the world.

There is no need to say much about the international situation. The course of World War II has not yet undergone any major changes other than quantitative changes. Britain and Germany are bombing each other, engaging in air battles, and sifting sand in the desert. The Soviet Union is fighting a fierce battle with the German army on the increasingly cold plains, and is temporarily repeating the situation of its troops being crushed by the pincers.

The domestic anti-Japanese war situation was reversed in the north and entered a stalemate in the south. The Japanese army's second Star City Battle was launched as scheduled, but under the hint of the headquarters and the advice of the former commander of the 11th Army, General Okamura Yasuji, the current commander of the 11th Army of the Central China Front Army referred to the deciphered telegrams between the 9th War Zone of the National Army and re-formulated the combat objectives to focus on destroying the National Army's combat units and deterring Chiang Kai-shek's army to "force Wang and Chiang to merge", rather than continuing to expand the occupied areas.

Thus, after days of fighting, the Japanese, seizing the Ninth War Zone's lack of intelligence and erratic deployments, destroyed over 7 troops there (according to Nationalist statistics), at a cost of no more than 6000 casualties (according to their own claims). Meanwhile, the Eighth Route Army recaptured a province, pursued and annihilated an entire Japanese garrison across hundreds of kilometers, and subsequently annihilated several enemy battalions in the rear, retaking heavily defended cities.

In this way, even though the Nationalist army "recaptured" Xingcheng, the capital of Hunan Province, at the end of the Second Battle of Xingcheng, following the Japanese retreat, and widely publicized it, a strange voice still began to spread throughout the country:

Who is the main force in the anti-Japanese war now? Who is the backbone of the entire nation's war of resistance? Or, who is the orthodox representative of China now?

Unlike tangible industrial capacity and military size, "legitimacy" has always been an invisible and intangible concept that is difficult to quantify.

Some say it originated in the era of Gun and Yu's flood control, and was perfected during the Zhou Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It has evolved through the interpretation of myths and historical stories, and has continued to this day through the changes of dynasties, which have always seen long periods of division and reunion.

Some people say that it actually developed and extended from the intergenerational inheritance of school doctrines, becoming an organic combination of the "legitimate succession" of the dynasty and the "great unification" of military struggle. It has different standards in different eras and also symbolizes the continuity of culture. Of course, some people would say that this is just a psychological and sociological phenomenon similar to group consciousness, a final conclusion made after the event, and there is nothing to worship or specialize.

Putting these aside, a key manifestation of "legitimacy" in the modern international arena is international recognition by other nations. In diplomatic settings, this meant being able to engage in more or less communication with most countries, conducting trade transactions and personnel exchanges. In this regard, the Nationalist government in Shancheng enjoyed, for the time being, an undeniable "righteous position," representing China's legitimate international representation.