Rise From Eight Hundred

In early July, under the cover of the 80th Army, Tang Dao and his four men spent nearly five days to successfully reach a famous coal mine in the north.

It is located in the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain, at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces. However, this large coal mine, which will be called Fengfeng Coal Mine in the future, is famous not because of its geographical location, but because of its rich raw coal reserves, up to billions of tons of reserves, and its shallow coal seams and high quality. It is a large enterprise on the list even in the future China.

However, during this period, the production rights belonged to the Germans, and even the Japanese who had occupied most of North China could only drool and watch the Germans transport these "black gold" to the port with special trains and then load them on ships and ship them thousands of miles away.

Tang Dao also met a great doctor here who received a telegram from the general manager of his Far East branch and was waiting for him in advance.

Dr. Grunoff, who was wearing a one-piece engineer suit and glasses, was not as strong as an ordinary German and looked a little weak. He stared at Tang Dao for a long time, but could not find any memory related to Tang Dao. Anger flashed in his gray beard.

"Have we met?"

"To be honest, no, but I have known Dr. Grunoff for a long time!" Tang Dao was very honest this time and did not use any memory breakpoints or other tricks.

The Germans hated being deceived the most. Whether Rostav deceived him or Tang Dao deceived Rostav, for this doctor, it was obviously a blasphemy against the precious character of honesty.

Frowning fiercely and snorting coldly, Grunoff, who felt deceived, did not even have the hypocritical courtesy of Rostav who deliberately told him to pay attention to, and turned around and left.

"Doctor, I can invest in the design and manufacture of the metal stamping process machine gun you proposed!" Tang Dao, who was standing in place, was not embarrassed and directly threw out the biggest temptation for straight men in science and engineering.

"You? How much money can a Chinese with his country in the midst of war have? Do you know how much a stamping machine costs?" Grunov stopped and turned his head, his eyes full of contempt.

This is the greatest restraint of an engineer. Otherwise, his original words should be that you Chinese are all stray dogs, so what qualifications do you have to invest money shamelessly.

"I will invest 8 million US dollars to build a steel plant with an annual output of one million tons of steel here. This is the agreement that Mr. Rostav, the general manager of your company's Far East branch, and I have preliminarily drafted. If you don't believe it, you can call Mr. Rostav at any time." Tang Dao's face was calm and calm.

"In addition, I will add another 5 million US dollars as funds for your laboratory construction. All the equipment and raw materials you need to purchase, including the recruitment of various personnel, are up to you. If the funds are not enough, I can continue to add, and all the finished designs will be signed by you as the first author."

Grunov's slightly gray Tong Kong shrank fiercely, and he stayed where he was, staring at the Chinese young man he had seen for the first time.

It's not that Grunov has never seen money. The weapons and equipment designed by his design department have sold hundreds of millions of US dollars, but that was the sales of a large arms manufacturing company with tens of thousands of employees.

But a young man like Tang Dao, who came from a war-torn country, asked for an investment of 8 million US dollars to build a factory and 5 million US dollars to build a laboratory, and he was in full control. This still shocked him.

"Your salary is tentatively set at 5,000 US dollars a month. If you design a finished product that can be mass-produced, the bonus will be one year's salary, and the patent royalties will be calculated separately. What do you think?" Tang Dao continued to increase the price. "Also, please don't question my ability to pay. I will start the first batch of funds after you agree. I believe you know Mr. Rostav of your company very well."

Are you moral? If Rostav were here, he would definitely blurt out this.

You know, he is the general manager of the Far East branch of Krupp Company, and his salary at this time is only 1,500 US dollars a month, which is 20 times that of ordinary German employees.

As a result, Tang Dao opened his mouth and said that he was the general manager of three and a half Far East companies, and the bonus was based on 12 months' monthly salary.

If I had known this, I would not have cooperated with you. I would rather work for you.

If the Tang Dao that Rostav met more than half a month ago was full of the rotten smell of money, then Tang Dao, who now has 800,000 taels of gold from Gong Shaoxun as a backing, is almost full of the label of a rich man from head to toe, just like the future coal bosses in Shanxi Province, who buy houses by the building, and they are not picky.

"No, you know what I want to design? My concept is actually not accepted by most people, otherwise I would not be exiled to the damn East, no, don't get me wrong, I mean..." Dr. Grunov was obviously also shocked by the temperament of a Chinese rich man who spent money, and even subconsciously became more cautious when speaking.

This is the magic of money, which is universal in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad.

Especially when there are so many that people can only look up, just like in the future, I don't know how many people will call the boss of a certain Baba "Papa Ma".

"Haha, Dr. Grunoff, I remember that your country's philosopher Schopenhauer said: Genius is always lonely. If your metal stamping process production design is accepted by those mediocre people who claim to be experts, it means that your concept is just in line with the aesthetics and needs of mediocre people. What is worth hiring you with a monthly salary of 5,000 US dollars? 200 US dollars may be more in line with your doctoral worth. After all, you have studied for so many more years, right?" Tang Dao replied with a smile.

"If you are a liar, you must be the most talented liar in the world. Even our philosophers know it. I feel that I am almost convinced by you." Grunoff was stunned for a while before shaking his head and sighing.

"Haha! I can also promise you that I will never use the weapons you design against your motherland. In fact, if you can't build a 10,000-ton giant ship for me, I can't let my soldiers swim across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans." Tang Dao laughed and continued to make promises.

"I know why Mr. Rostav cooperated with you. You really understand people's hearts and know what I am worried about." Grunov answered bluntly with a flash of surprise in his eyes.

Although Grunov is an engineer who is not very good at communicating with people, he can become a top talent in a certain industry. His IQ is definitely higher than most people, or much higher.

When Tang Dao said that he would cooperate with Krupp to build a steel plant and invest a lot of money to build a laboratory for him, Grunov understood that the laboratory was just an excuse. In fact, Tang Dao wanted to use the Krupp steel plant as a cover to build a military factory.

Yes, although Tang Dao was wearing ordinary clothes, full of local tyrant temperament, and spoke with great humor, Grunov's sixth sense told him that Tang Dao was a soldier, a Chinese soldier who had experienced the battlefield.

Because, in Tang Dao's eyes, there was a temperament that only Grunov and his peers had-arrogance.

Grunov's pride comes from his scientific research talent in his own field. He is already the top talent in metal stamping technology in Germany. This is also the reason why he crosses fields to improve the MG34 machine gun. Although he is disliked by the top leaders, he still has no reason to kick him away.

And Tang Dao's pride does not come from money, but from the battlefield. He must have killed many of his enemies!

Tang Dao has always been very gentle, but Grunov still perceives Tang Dao's indifference to life and death through his own keen intuition. If he becomes his enemy, he will definitely have nightmares.

Such a terrible soldier wants to invest huge sums of money to build a weapons laboratory. The purpose is obvious. A military factory hidden under the control of the German Arms Company can continuously supply weapons to the Chinese army entrenched in the Taihang Mountains. I believe that no Chinese can resist this temptation.

However, for a man like Grunov, helping the Chinese doesn't matter, but he is still very clear about the performance of the machine gun he wants to design. If one day the Chinese point that machine gun at the Empire, how many Germans will fall under the flying bullets? This is the picture that Grunov does not expect to see.

But Tang Dao completely dispelled Grunov's concerns with a very humorous remark. Yes! The Chinese don't even have warships, how can they cross the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, by swimming?

"But I am now an employee of Krupp." Grunov still wants to make a final struggle.

After all, no matter how high the power and salary are, for a patriotic scientific researcher, it is not as important as serving his motherland.

"I agree to invest in the construction of the steel plant and only own 40% of the shares. The most important condition is that Dr. Grunov will become the owner of Laboratory No. 1. Your personnel relationship will no longer belong to Krupp Far East Branch, but to this joint venture steel plant. Without my permission, even Mr. Rostav cannot give you instructions."

"But I have nothing to show for my machine gun design except a machine gun design whose design concept is not mature enough. I am afraid that..." Grunov has been tempted.

"In my opinion, your immature design is a genius-level invention. I believe that when this machine gun comes out, the Japanese will tremble in front of it." Tang Dao said seriously. "Moreover, you not only need to continue to improve and speed up the time to come up with a sample gun, I still have several gun designs here that you need to realize."

"You are also proficient in gun design?" Grunov's eyes flashed with surprise, and more of it was disbelief.

Whether the local tyrant atmosphere shown by Tang Dao's appearance or the military temperament shown by its core, it seems that they have nothing to do with gun design.

"This is the design of a weapon expert under my command. Dr. Grunoff can take a look at it and give some suggestions." Tang Dao took out a few design drawings from his bag.

This is the last trump card Tang Dao prepared to fool this genius of gun design. When money and power can't fool him, then he can only use academic masters to fight academic masters. People of the same kind always have the same topics.

"Is this an anti-tank gun?" Grunoff recognized the gun with a long enough barrel on the first piece of paper at a glance.

Where there is a spear, there is a shield. This is an eternal truth since the beginning of war. From ancient times to the present, every new weapon has a targeted cracking technique.

When steel behemoths like tanks appeared on the battlefield, the Germans were also frightened by them at first and could only watch the tanks rampaging on the battlefield. However, in the following days, professional "anti-tank" weapons appeared, changing the fact that tanks dominated the battlefield. Anti-tank rifles were one of them.

For example, Finland's L39 Lahti anti-tank rifle can knock down an elephant with one shot, and is also called the elephant gun. The gun has a total length of 224CM and a total weight of 49.5 kg. It can penetrate 12mm steel plates at a distance of 1,000 meters and can deal with the T26 tanks of neighboring fighting nations.

Another example is the German Empire's 20mm caliber S-18 series anti-tank gun, which can penetrate 30mm armor at a distance of 500 meters, and can be called an anti-tank gun.

However, these relatively famous anti-tank guns have a great flaw while having considerable power-too heavy.

The S-18 anti-tank gun that Grunov is familiar with weighs 53 kg. Without a combat team, who can carry this heavy gun around on the battlefield? To put it bluntly, this thing is like a heavy machine gun, with weak mobile firepower, and it is easy to be captured by the enemy's mortars and tank guns, and its survivability on the battlefield is too poor.

But as Grunov carefully read the drawings and various parameter designs, his eyes were filled with horror. If this anti-tank rifle still on the drawings can really be realized, it will definitely be an epoch-making masterpiece of anti-tank guns.

Because the total weight of this anti-tank rifle with a barrel length of 1.277 meters and a total length of 2 meters is only 17.3 kilograms. Only a stronger soldier can easily carry this gun and move.

The terrible thing is that the gun has become lighter, but the power is not weak at all. The anti-tank gun using steel core bullets can reach an initial velocity of 1020 meters/second, and can penetrate 20mm armor with an angle of 60 degrees or a vertical 30mm steel plate at a distance of 500 meters. If a special armor-piercing bullet is used, it can even penetrate a 40mm steel plate at a distance of 300 meters.

"This gun can be designed, but can it really be made?" Grunov asked in disbelief.

"Of course, in fact, we have already produced a sample gun. Although the power is not as great as in theory due to material and mechanical processing issues, it can reach more than 70%." Tang Dao nodded confidently.

Although this was outright bragging, this design was rushed out by him in Linfen during that week, but it was completely copied from the PTRD-41 anti-tank gun developed by the Fighting Nation several years later, which has proven itself in the war.

At the beginning of the war, the front armor of the Type 3 tank, the main equipment of the German Empire Army that invaded the Fighting Nation, was 37 mm thick, but it was still penetrated by the PTRD-41 anti-tank equipped by the Fighting Nation at a distance of 200 meters. The rest of the lightly armed targets such as half-track armored vehicles and armored reconnaissance vehicles were as fragile as white paper under the 14.5 mm caliber bullets.

The frontal armor of the Japanese Type 89 main battle tank on the Sino-Japanese battlefield was less than 30 mm. If the Four-Line Regiment had this anti-tank rifle, the Japanese would really be beaten to tears.

The 37mm anti-tank gun weighs more than 200 kilograms and is a large target. Once it is targeted by an infantry gun or a grenade launcher, the chance of casualties is very high. However, this anti-tank gun team of only two people can sneak attack a tank hundreds of meters away in a foxhole. It would be strange if the Japanese did not cry.

Even if it is not an armored target, it is a fortification made of bricks and logs. If you take this gun, you can't shoot a hole with one shot?

The weight of 17.3 kilograms can even support long-distance marches, and it is a walking machine gun.

Moreover, for a sniper like Tang Dao, he knows better that this so-called anti-tank rifle is actually the ancestor of the future anti-material sniper rifle. With a scope, it is a super sniper rifle.

From then on, killing the Japanese at 1,000 meters is not a dream! Moreover, it is the kind that can be cut in half with one shot.

"Genius, the one who designed this weapon is really a genius." Grunov was almost fascinated by the anti-tank rifle design on the drawing.

The German Empire military department was not unaware that the anti-tank rifles currently equipped by the army were too heavy, and had already proposed improvements. At present, the more radical opinions have temporarily gained a complete upper hand, but the anti-tank rifle that directly reduced the caliber to 7.92 mm is lighter, but the armor-piercing ability is extremely weakened. Grunov thinks that it is simply putting the cart before the horse and stupid.

An anti-tank gun, no matter how lightweight, can only penetrate 20 mm armor at a distance of 300 meters. What's the use of it?

And the anti-tank rifle like the one on the drawing, which maintains such a balance between armor-piercing ability and its own weight, is a truly genius design.

"Hehe, that designer is a famous genius in China. When you become the head of the laboratory, I will introduce you to him." Tang Dao continued to fool with a smile.

"Okay! I will learn seriously from this genius gun designer." Grunov nodded very seriously.

At this moment, the German genius designer even began to be grateful to those brainless experts in China. If it weren't for their blindness, how could he have the opportunity to come to the East, which is considered an industrial desert, and how could he have the opportunity to meet such a talented designer?

But if he knew that these drawings were actually made by the smiling man in front of him, perhaps...

Anyway, Tang Dao will never admit that he copied the fighting nation. Aren’t those big guys with hairy chests still drawing on the drawings? Now that he didn’t take out the AK47 design drawings, he was already doing them a great favor.

“This is a heavy machine gun, and it’s quite big.” Grunov, who turned over the next drawing, commented on the familiar gun.

To be honest, in this era, the heavy machine guns designed by various countries are similar, and they are nothing more than working hard on the firing rate and power.

However, for Grunov, who has made up his mind to develop a new generation of metal stamping process design, this traditional design is rubbish.

But soon, his eyes froze.

The gun on the drawing seems to be different from what he imagined, and it takes another path.