Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 322 Radio direction finding is a part of radar
When Li Muzhi walked out of the interrogation room, Zhang Wanhe, the logistics minister, was no longer there.

Another batch of wounded soldiers were brought down from the battlefield, and Comrade Zhang was busy with that.

Seeing Li Muzhi come out with a good expression, Wu Yaohan immediately asked, "Director Li, how was it? Did you have a great harvest?"

"Yes, it's huge, a pleasant surprise." Li Muzhi nodded and solemnly said to Wu Yaohan, "The knowledge in Takahashi Konosuke's head is of great significance to our military industry. You can't resort to violence again later."

“Of course, of course.” Wu Yaohan nodded repeatedly. “It seems that Takahashi Konosuke has caught your eye, Director Li. I can even sense that you want to use him later, so of course I won’t mess with him easily anymore.”

Previously, Takahashi Konosuke was stubborn and foul-mouthed, and very uncooperative, so naturally some methods had to be used.

Now that they've behaved themselves, they're no longer needed.

“Alright, I’ll head back now,” Li Muzhi said. “What Takahashi Konosuke revealed is very useful. I need to organize it and also make sure the dismantling team is ready again.”

Dismantling those specialized equipment, while not as dangerous as dismantling a natural gas plant, is still challenging.

Li Muzhi had to get the other dismantling team ready in advance.

When the combat troops need to move out, send the dismantling team over quickly.

"Director Li, could I trouble you for a moment?" Wu Yaohan politely stopped Li Muzhi.

“Section Chief Wu, just say what you need to say directly, there’s no need to be so tactful.” Li Muzhi stopped in his tracks.

The other party is the head of the intelligence department; whatever he has to do must be no small matter.

“There must be some captured broken radios and electrical equipment in the logistics warehouse,” Wu Yaohan said to Li Muzhi with a smile. “Director Li, do you think you could put together something that our intelligence department could use? Like something that can decipher Japanese telegrams.”

"The main difficulty in deciphering the Japanese military telegrams lies in breaking their codes, which I cannot do," Li Muzhi said, shaking his head.

Cracking codes is something that only top-tier cryptography experts can do, regardless of the country.

The Japanese naval commander, Yamamoto Shichihachi, was killed by US warplanes because his code was cracked by the US military, which led to his whereabouts being exposed.

Even in the Battle of Midway, a major reason for the Japanese navy's defeat was that their codes were broken by the US military, and their operations were known to the US military.

Li Muzhi mainly works in military industry; codebreaking is not within his area of ​​expertise.

"If we can't decipher the content, can we use radio wave direction finding?" Wu Yaohan pointed out. "The Japanese have radio wave direction finding equipment that can pinpoint the direction and location based on the other side's radio waves."

Using this radio wave direction finding technology, the Japanese could pinpoint the location of the enemy's command post on the battlefield and then launch a precision strike. This move was like a trump card and was extremely powerful.

Many times, our army had successfully broken through the encirclement, but soon after, it was surrounded by the Japanese again.

Wu Yaohan finally found the reason: the Japanese must have used this radio wave direction finding technology to locate the position of our troops' radio station.

Since the Japanese can use this tactic, if we can develop radio wave direction finding, we can turn the tables on them.

"I'll try my best," Li Muzhi nodded. "I'll definitely get it for you when the conditions are right."

In fact, while the border region's arsenal was manufacturing parts for anti-aircraft weapons, Li Muzhi was also rummaging through the damaged radios, radios, and other electronic equipment in the logistics department for spare parts.

He wasn't looking for these parts to make a radio direction finder; he was working on radar.

After all, having anti-aircraft weapons alone is not enough.

We needed to know in advance where the Japanese planes were coming from and how far away they were.

Ground-based air defense weapons are prepared in advance so that they can strike in time.

Otherwise, without radar warning, if Japanese aircraft suddenly enter the field of view, the air defense weapons will not have enough time to prepare, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

The principle of radar is very simple: first, it sends out radio waves, and the transmitter can be directly salvaged from parts of a damaged radio.

Then the receiver picks up the reflected radio waves. This receiver can be removed from the radio station or the radio receiver.

Then, based on the time difference between the transmitted and received radio waves, the distance is calculated and finally displayed on the screen.

Of course, there were no display screens at all in the logistics department.

This is also the most difficult part.

Li Muzhi is trying to find a way to overcome the problem.

This so-called radio direction finding is part of radar.

After all, radar needs to show not only the target's distance but also its direction.

“Okay, Director Li, I’ll wait.” Wu Yaohan nodded, without urging him.

Although he didn't understand military industry, Wu Yaohan could tell that this thing was quite difficult to make, even though the Japanese had deployed a lot of radio wave direction finding equipment.

However, the results were not ideal, and misjudgments were frequent.

If the Japanese army had such a hard time, then it's even more difficult for Director Li to start from scratch.

"Section Chief Wu, I'll head back now."

"I send you."

"no need."

Li Muzhi returned to the office of the border region's arsenal, picked up paper and pen, and prepared to first draw up the blueprints of the special equipment in Secret Site No. 9.

To ensure the dismantling team can dismantle the equipment in an orderly manner, the first step is to ensure they understand the blueprints and structure.

As a result, just as he picked up the pen, Zhang Wanhe rushed over in a hurry.

Before the person even reached Li Muzhi's side, the voice arrived first: "Little Li, how many modified shells for the Hell Cannon have you made?"

"What's wrong, Minister Zhang? Why are you asking this?" Li Muzhi asked, but he was probably implying that the Jin-Sui Army was in a hurry for artillery shells.

Otherwise, Minister Zhang wouldn't have come in such a hurry; he still had to deal with the wounded soldiers.

“A group of Japanese troops infiltrated the territory of the Jin-Sui Army and replenished their supplies there,” Zhang Wanhe said. “Half of the Jin-Sui Army’s forces are still in Taiyuan and have not yet withdrawn. The other half are struggling to hold on and urgently need heavy artillery fire to stop the Japanese advance.”

Zhang Wanhe was referring to Kawashima's troops. After Kawashima led his troops away from the natural gas plant, he did not choose the territory of his elite troops because the elite troops were stronger than the Jin-Sui Army.

The Jin-Sui Army was weaker than the elite troops, and many of its units had gone to the Taiyuan area, further weakening its fighting strength.

Therefore, the elderly lady of the Kawashima Brigade, by picking the softest persimmons, had a higher success rate in replenishing supplies.

"We'll have to ask Lao He about that," Li Muzhi immediately called out towards the door. "Xiao Gu, go and call Lao He over here."

Xiao Gu was a guard outside Li Muzhi's door, and also served as Li Muzhi's messenger.

Sometimes when Li Muzhi couldn't go to the workshop, he would ask Xiao Gu to relay messages.

"Yes, factory manager." Xiao Gu's reply came from outside the door, along with the sound of footsteps rushing towards the workshop.

Then, Li Muzhi solemnly said to Zhang Wanhe, "Minister Zhang, the condition for giving these modified Hell Cannon shells to the Jin-Sui Army is that we must first obtain the equipment we need."

Although the enemy Jin-Sui Army is at a critical juncture right now, what we are doing is somewhat suspected of taking advantage of their misfortune.

However, it's still important to prevent the other party from defaulting on their debts.

Otherwise, we could give them the cannonballs from the Hell Cannon first, and then once they've weathered the crisis, they might deny everything, which would be a real headache.

"Yan Kai said he'd consider any equipment you need." This was the most important reason why Comrade Zhang came to Li Muzhi's place so quickly.

"Can he consider any equipment I need?" Li Muzhi paused for a moment, sensing that the Jin-Sui Army was in dire straits.

But thinking about it carefully, it makes sense.

The Jin-Sui Army was no match for the Japanese to begin with, and with a large number of its troops being transferred away, its combat effectiveness had decreased significantly, making it even more difficult for it to withstand the Japanese.

"Take this over." Li Muzhi had already prepared for this and took a book out of the desk drawer.

Open the book; there's a note tucked inside.

On the note, Li Muzhi had already written down the equipment he wanted.

Zhang Wanhe took the note and glanced at it. There were quite a few pieces of equipment, most of which were precision instruments.

Zhang Wanhe couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, "Xiao Li, what are you planning to do with all this stuff?"

Although Zhang Wanhe didn't know much about these things, he knew that these precision instruments and equipment were more valuable.

These were all imported by Commander Yan from countries such as Germany and Britain in the past.

It probably won't be that easy to switch back.

But the Jin-Sui Army is currently in a precarious situation, so there's still a chance.

“These devices are needed for some of the delicate parts of air defense weapons, and we will also need them if we want to manufacture guns later,” Li Muzhi replied. “Even if I want to manufacture radar, I will need them.”

Li Muzhi needed these precision instruments and equipment to overcome the radar problem.

In the past, when Commander Yan retreated hastily, he must have taken some precision instruments and equipment with him.

After the Taiyuan Arsenal was occupied by the Japanese army, most of the equipment inside was transported back to Japan by the Japanese.

The remaining precision instruments and equipment were most likely transported to Japanese territory as well.

In other words, even if Li Yunlong manages to acquire the equipment from the Taiyuan Arsenal, his chances of obtaining precision instruments and equipment from within it are slim.

"Building radar?" Comrade Zhang was no stranger to the concepts of air defense weapons and guns.

This was the first time he had ever heard the word "radar," so he asked with a puzzled look, "What exactly is radar?"

"It's mainly used to detect Japanese planes," Li Muzhi explained. "This is an auxiliary device for air defense weapons. When our air defense weapons are built, if we can know in advance that the Japanese are coming, then the air defense weapons can make corresponding combat preparations in advance. In this way, the combat effectiveness of the air defense weapons can be maximized."

Zhang Wanhe listened thoughtfully: "So, in that case, the radar can detect the Japanese planes in advance?"

If we could detect the Japanese planes in advance, that would be of great significance.

The Japanese planes were fast and often suddenly appeared from the other side of the mountain, catching ground personnel off guard and leaving them no time to hide or conceal supplies.

The Japanese planes bombed the ground relentlessly, causing heavy losses to our logistics and combat troops.

If we could detect the Japanese planes in advance, we could avoid the risks and prevent them from being discovered by the Japanese planes.

This significance is immense.

“Yes.” Li Muzhi nodded. “When this radar is built, it will be able to detect Japanese planes as soon as they take off from the airport.”

"Slap!" Zhang Wanhe excitedly slapped Li Muzhi hard on the shoulder: "Little Li, you've given me such a big surprise! Don't worry, I'll have Yan Kai hand over all the equipment here."

Li Muzhi's shoulder hurt a little from Zhang Wanhe's pat, and he flinched, saying, "Minister Zhang, you're too strong."

"Oh dear, look at me, I'm so happy! I'm so sorry, Xiao Li, I'm so sorry." Zhang Wanhe realized he had been too excited and had overdone it. "It's alright, Minister Zhang, I understand how you feel," Li Muzhi said, indicating he didn't mind.

In military operations, logistics are arguably the most crucial factor.

Meanwhile, Japanese planes frequently targeted our logistics and caused trouble.

As the logistics minister, Zhang Wanhe was greatly affected by the logistical losses caused by the aircraft.

For Zhang Wanhe, the creation of this radar was even more significant than that of air defense weapons.

Risks can be mitigated in advance, and logistical support can prevent losses.

"When will your radar be ready?" Zhang Wanhe asked eagerly.

"That's hard to say, I can't give you a precise timeframe," Li Muzhi shook his head. "The technical difficulties are quite significant."

"No rush, no rush, take your time. Just continue with your normal work and don't overwork yourself," Zhang Wanhe said, indicating that there was no need to rush.

Of course, even if they say they're not in a hurry, they're probably incredibly anxious inside.

Once the Kumamoto Division's army joins up with the ground troops transporting supplies, it will inevitably make a comeback once it has been resurrected.

At that time, with the support of aircraft, the Kumamoto Division's large army will be a tough opponent.

If we cannot provide early warning of Japanese aircraft, both combat troops and logistics will be at great risk.

"Factory manager, you wanted to see me?" Old He walked in at this moment, and seeing that Zhang Wanhe was also there, he also greeted Zhang Wanhe: "Hello, Minister Zhang."

Zhang Wanhe asked Lao He on behalf of Li Muzhi: "Lao He, how many modified shells for the Hell Cannon have you made?"

"Not many, only twelve in total," the old man replied.

The shells from this hell cannon are also of great significance to our army, and Lao He could not possibly delay the production of his own shells.

Therefore, these modified shells were basically done haphazardly in spare time.

"Give me these twelve modified shells first, and then hurry up and make two hundred more," Zhang Wanhe ordered directly. "Also, get me two more Hell Cannons."

The arsenal has run out of large-caliber steel pipes; they've all been used to build hell cannons.

The hell cannons that were built were distributed to the combat troops below.

However, there are still two gates at the border region arsenal that are in the final stages of completion.

If we want to exchange a considerable number of sophisticated instruments and equipment from the Jin-Sui Army, we should also contribute something in return.

Moreover, there's another account involved here.

That means the Jin-Sui Army now possesses three Hellfire Cannons, which greatly enhances the firepower of these heavy cannons and allows them to contain the Japanese army to the greatest extent possible on the battlefield.

Of course.

Most importantly!

With more cannons, the rate at which shells are consumed is even faster.

The Jin-Sui Army quickly ran out of shells, and since they couldn't produce them themselves, they had to come to us to trade.

Although they didn't move a lot of equipment, there were still more than a thousand pieces, and raw materials amounted to twenty or thirty thousand tons.

In Comrade Lao Zhang's eyes, this is our food.

"Okay, no problem." Old He nodded and immediately went out to make arrangements.

Li Muzhi asked, "Have you finished making the two prototype Hellball missiles that I asked you to make?"

"It's the last step, just getting the lead wire in," Lao He replied. "Give me a few more minutes."

Li Muzhi then said to Lao He, "Once these two Hell Missiles are ready, pack them together with the Hell Cannon shells."

Then, Li Muzhi turned to Zhang Wanhe and said, "This Hell Missile also needs to be tested. Let the Jin-Sui Army use it; it's like a sales pitch. Minister Zhang, what do you think?"

This Hellfire missile proved to be of paramount importance on the battlefield.

However, if the Jin-Sui Army were to use it themselves, the effect would definitely be even better.

In the future, this transaction will definitely be able to proceed more smoothly.

“Sure, no problem.” Zhang Wanhe quickly understood what Li Muzhi meant.

The Hell Cannon and its shells alone were not enough to deplete the Jin-Sui Army's equipment and raw materials.

This Hellfire missile is the real trump card.

When we contact Yan Kai, we can generously say: "These two Hellfire missiles are for you."

In this way, when they brought out sophisticated instruments and equipment to exchange with us, Yan Kai's heartache was somewhat soothed.

“Minister Zhang, if there’s nothing else, I need to get back to work.” Li Muzhi said, “From Takahashi Konosuke, I learned that there is important special equipment in Secret Site No. 9 that needs to be dismantled and brought back. I need to draw up the blueprints first, and then explain to the dismantling team how to dismantle it.”

"Alright, alright, you're busy, you're busy, I won't bother you anymore." Although Zhang Wanhe was very curious about what the important special equipment in this No. 9 secret area was, he still controlled his curiosity.

We'll know once the equipment is disassembled and brought back.

Zhang Wanhe and Lao He went outside, and Li Muzhi immediately lowered his head to draw blueprints.

……

A secret transaction point

Yan Kai paced back and forth like an ant on a hot pan, muttering to himself, "Would this Eighth Route Army's Minister Zhang really give me the cannonballs from the Hell Cannon?"

Yan Kai was in a hurry for two reasons. First, the Jin-Sui Army needed the deterrent effect of the Hell Cannon in its operations.

With heavy artillery as a deterrent, the Japanese no longer dared to fight so recklessly.

Secondly, Yan Kai was also eager to obtain the cannonballs from the Hell Cannon and quickly cracked the code.

Then, their own arsenal can quickly produce shells.

"Deputy Factory Director, Minister Zhang from the Eighth Route Army is here." It felt like centuries had passed before someone finally came to remind Yan Kai.

Upon hearing that Zhang Wanhe had finally arrived, Yan Kai immediately composed himself and pretended to be very calm.

Zhang Wanhe appeared, smiling, and said to Yan Kai, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Yan, I've been so busy. I've kept you waiting."

“It’s alright, I just arrived too.” Yan Kai indicated that he didn’t mind, and then said directly, “Minister Zhang, we are both very busy people, so let’s skip the small talk and get straight to the point.”

"Okay, let's get straight to the point. I'm pretty busy too." Zhang Wanhe took out the note and handed it to Yan Kai: "You have everything on this, right?"

Yan Kai took it and his eyes widened immediately: "Minister Zhang, what do you mean by this?"

Yan Kai certainly had these devices.

But these are all the most treasured possessions of the Jin-Sui Army Arsenal, how could they bear to take them out?

This Eighth Route Army Minister Zhang has quite the appetite.

"It's nothing. I can give you two hell cannons and two hundred shells. What you need to give me is what's on this note," Zhang Wanhe said calmly.

Anyway, it's you who's in a hurry, not me.

Ok.

I'm actually anxious too.

These things are crucial to whether Xiao Li can develop the radar quickly.

Of course, on the surface, we're not in a hurry.

"Minister Zhang, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I cannot do it." Although Yan Kai coveted Zhang Wanhe's two hell cannons and two hundred shells, which would be a timely help for the Jin-Sui Army.

But he really couldn't make the decision regarding the sophisticated instruments and equipment listed on that note.

“It’s okay if you can’t do it. You can go back and discuss it with your factory manager and your Commander Yan,” Zhang Wanhe said calmly again. “We’ll talk again when you can make the decision.”

At this moment, someone quickly walked over and whispered something in Yan Kai's ear.

Upon hearing this, Yan Kai's expression immediately turned extremely ugly.

But soon, Yan Kai's expression returned to normal, and he said to Zhang Wanhe, "I need to make a phone call."

“Sure, no problem, please go ahead.” Zhang Wanhe indicated that he did not mind.

Yan Kai stood up and hurriedly walked out.

He asked the man who had just whispered in his ear seriously, "Are you sure? Zhang Wanhe didn't bring anything with him when he came over?"

In fact, Yan Kai also knew that Zhang Wanhe was not easy to deal with, and that his appetite for this deal was definitely not small.

The Jin-Sui Army is now in a precarious situation and cannot afford to wait.

Therefore, Yan Kai made another plan.

That means if negotiations with Zhang Wanhe break down, then they'll just rob him outright.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Wanhe, that cunning old fox, hadn't brought anything with him at all.

As a result, Yan Kai had no choice but to call and communicate with Commander Yan.

On one hand, there's the urgent need of the Jin-Sui Army; on the other, there's the need for sophisticated instruments and equipment. This difficult choice is best left to Commander Yan.

"Yes." The man nodded.

Suppressing his anger, Yan Kai went to the phone and picked up the receiver: "Connect me to Commander Yan."

The call connected, and Commander Yan's voice came through: "This is Yan X-shan."

"I just contacted Zhang Wanhe, the logistics minister of the Eighth Route Army. He promised to give us two hell cannons and two hundred shells, but he's cunning and didn't bring them. I can't just take them by force," Yan Kai said quickly upon hearing Commander Yan's voice.

"So what does he want?" Yan Kai's tone was very unpleasant. On the one hand, he couldn't forcibly seize the Eighth Route Army's equipment, and on the other hand, the Jin-Sui Army was in a really precarious situation and needed heavy artillery firepower to contain the Japanese army.

"He wants..." Yan Kai then handed all the precision equipment and instruments to Commander Yan, but they hadn't even carried half of them yet.

Commander Yan on the other end of the phone flew into a rage: "Zhang Wanhe is a damned bastard!!!"

(End of this chapter)