Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

Outside Yang Village.

Yamamoto Ichiki heard the constant gunfire from the village, the sounds of his own MP38 submachine guns and Type 11 light machine guns mixed with the enemy's Hanyang rifles, Zhong Zheng rifles, and Arisaka rifles, without any sign of stopping.

"Baga! Fujita, that idiot, hasn't taken it down after so long. We've already missed the opportunity for a sneak attack, allowing the Eighth Route Army headquarters to receive an early warning. Order! Fire the retreat signal flare! Everyone, retreat in alternating cover!" Yamamoto Ichiki decided.

Originally, the sentry's warning shot had turned the situation into an encounter battle, and Yamamoto Ichiki had already considered retreating. Now that the two sides seemed to be in a stalemate, Yamamoto Ichiki didn't want to wait any longer.

After all, this was the hinterland of the Eighth Route Army's base area, and the Japanese army's reinforcements were at least tens of kilometers away. Unable to achieve a sneak attack on the base headquarters, fighting a hard battle against the numerous guerrillas was, in his view, an act of recklessness.

Two signal flares shot straight into the sky. Seeing the signal, the little devils immediately began to retreat, providing alternating cover.

Without the slightest hesitation.

When the company commander of the First Company saw the enemy retreating, he led more than a dozen soldiers in pursuit. Unexpectedly, the little devils had left two behind, hiding behind rocks. Under the crossfire of two submachine guns, more than a dozen soldiers were caught off guard and fell to the ground. The company commander was also shot in the thigh, screaming as he fell!

This small ambush by the little devils made Kong Jie's eyes bloodshot again. He shouted loudly, "Don't chase! Take cover!"

By now, the First Company had suffered casualties exceeding two-thirds!

The elite First Company of the Independent Regiment had been crippled by this elusive group of little devils. Kong Jie cautiously cleaned up the mess, leading the machine gun platoon to slowly search and advance to the top of the mountain, only to find that the little devils had long disappeared without a trace.

After searching the battlefield for a long time, he only found a pile of bullet casings and a steel helmet!

Ren Zhong didn't know that despite his warning, Kong Jie had still suffered a major defeat, severely damaging the Independent Regiment's strength. The First Company's organization was shattered, Company Commander Zhang was seriously injured, and even with Chang Shanhe's leadership and full use of flexible tactics, the Second Company still suffered casualties exceeding a platoon.

In total, there were more than 100 casualties, with over 100 direct deaths!

Despite such a disastrous defeat, Kong Jie knew nothing. When the news was reported to headquarters.

The commander raised his eyebrows when he saw the battle report and roared in anger, "What main force regiment? I think he's a dough regiment! Completely pig-headed command!" He immediately ordered Kong Jie's dismissal as regimental commander!

Seeing the commander in a rage, the chief of staff and division commander remained silent.

A regiment almost crippled a battalion's worth of men by a squad of little devils. Such a disastrous defeat, not executing the regimental commander was already the commander showing leniency outside the law!

Two days later. It was the day the earthen kiln was opened.

Outside the clothing factory, in front of the earthen kiln behind the mountain.

A group of people surrounded the earthen kiln, Ren Zhong and Li Yunlong watching with some excitement as the kiln worker, Old Li, prepared to open the kiln with a shovel.

After more than 30 hours of firing and nearly a dozen hours of cooling, when a corner of the earthen kiln was opened, a strong heat emanated from inside, bringing a wave of heat to the crowd in this cold early spring.

Kiln worker Old Li carefully opened the earthen door sealing the kiln, and a large amount of cold air poured in. The temperature of the earthen kiln began to drop sharply, gradually allowing people to slowly and tentatively enter.

So that's how it was. Ren Zhong understood, and then continued Old Li's topic, saying, "Master Li, how do we judge whether a kiln is successful?"

"Boss, you see, those with a deep and relatively uniform color prove that the coal and coke placed around them during firing were very suitable, which is why the entire vat has a consistent color. Look at the one next to it, half of it is dark and half of it still has some light color, that's because the amount of coal and coke placed around it was different."

"Speaking of which, this is what I expected. To try to fire this kind of large vat, you need to consume a certain ratio of coal and coke to fire a qualified ceramic vat. I used different amounts of coal and coke around the different large vats. Now, although the finished products coming out of the kiln aren't all perfect, they are basically consistent with my previous kiln firing experience. Next, I'll re-allocate the ratio of coal and coke next to these successful large vats, and I should be able to fire all qualified large vats."

After listening to Old Li's explanation, Ren Zhong suddenly understood.

This kiln was equivalent to an experiment. It seemed that the wisdom of the people in this era should not be underestimated.

"Hahaha, Old Brother Ren, do you think these large vats are enough for you? If not, we'll continue to fire new ones." Li Yunlong said with a grin, watching the kiln firing succeed. All this hard work for nearly a month had not been in vain.

Ren Zhong nodded: "With six large vats, it's barely enough to assemble a simple sulfuric acid production line. Next, we'll wait for the large vats to cool down slowly, then we can get started and start building the sulfuric acid production line."

After evaluation, the Lisai Battery's net worth was discounted to around 3.5 million, and Ren Zhong had already acquired the Lisai Battery.

After several shipments, nearly 40 kilograms of this concentrated sulfuric acid had been accumulated, which should be enough for the initial absorption of sulfur trioxide in the new sulfuric acid production line.

If nothing unexpected happened, in another two days, Ren Zhong and the others would be able to produce new sulfuric acid themselves.

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Hearing Ren Zhong speak so confidently, Li Yunlong couldn't help but begin to imagine the wonderful prospect of turning his clothing factory into a military propellant production factory.

However, just as Li Yunlong was lost in thought, a staff officer relaying orders from headquarters rushed over on horseback.

Seeing Li Yunlong, the staff officer dismounted and walked to Li Yunlong's side, saying in a low voice:

"Regimental Commander Li, the commander has ordered that you assume the position of Regimental Commander of the Independent Regiment from today onwards, and set off immediately to Yang Village to hand over military affairs with Regimental Commander Kong Jie!"

Li Yunlong was stunned for a moment, and then said, "I'm not going! I'm not going! Everything has to be clarified. Why did they remove me, the commander of the main force regiment, in the first place?"

The staff officer relaying the order didn't expect Li Yunlong to dare to defy the order, and said somewhat displeased, "Hey, Regimental Commander Li, this is the order of the commander himself!"

Li Yunlong slapped his thigh and raised his voice, saying, "Even the Heavenly King Laozi has to distinguish between right and wrong!"

Begging for continued reading!