Liang Jian: Lao Li, I'm really not a military expert

Chapter 494 I still say the same old thing, solve the existing problems first, and never throw the b

Lin Zhenhua ate all the food in his hand in one breath, and then replied with a serious face: "Lao Zhao, regarding the ammunition and fuel, I have already contacted the base and asked them to send a transport plane this evening to help us replenish fuel and ammunition."

"In order to avoid being detected by the Japanese, the transport planes will not be dispatched in large numbers, but in small groups to supply us with supplies. According to my calculations, to complete a supply, our transport plane formation needs to be dispatched 2 to 3 times."

"We could have replenished the supplies in batches, little by little, but the weather is going to change tomorrow. Once it really starts to rain, our transport planes won't be able to take off. We can only find a way to complete the supply operation tonight."

"I will lead the soldiers of the three battalions to level the open ground. I will have the transport planes depart at four o'clock and arrive here around six o'clock. This way, we can make one more trip tonight. If the speed is faster, we may be able to complete the supply operation."

"It's very dangerous to resupply at night, and the fire can't spread too far, which is a headache for me. I hope there will be a bright moon tonight, so that only a little light guidance will be needed for the transport plane to land successfully."

Lin Zhenhua was very confused about tonight's supply operation. He just hoped that the moonlight tonight would be brighter so that he would not be easily discovered by the Japanese during the night supply operation.

Li Yunlong did not speak as usual. He was thinking about night defense. After Lin Zhenhua finished speaking, he immediately spoke: "Lao Zhao, for the night supply, we just need to cooperate with the college students. I will arrange three battalions of soldiers to be responsible for night guard in advance to ensure that the supply operation tonight is foolproof."

"Old Ding and Old Kong have returned to the regiment headquarters. They will go to Maoershan Airport tonight to help us transport supplies. The plague in our base has not been completely eradicated. There are still sporadic cases of people infected with the plague. After being discovered, they were promptly sent to the Second Field Hospital for treatment."

"According to the telegram sent by Lao Ding, as of noon today, a total of 106 people have been cured. They were not sent home, but were asked to stay in the hospital to help."

"The Japanese bombings over the past two days have also caused a lot of trouble to our base. Many of our three major fortresses have been destroyed, including anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, and sporadic fortresses. The only good news is that there are no problems with the twenty fortress guns, and the Japanese ground forces have not launched an attack. The defense of the base can be said to be impregnable."

"But the intelligence sent by the reconnaissance plane is not very good. The Japanese are determined to dig trenches this time, destroying some of the original roads and directly interrupting traffic in some areas. Trenches have also been dug near the Japanese strongholds and cities. These trenches are still tortuous, filled with wooden boards, and use manpower to supply materials."

"It will be two to three times more difficult for our armored regiment to capture the enemy stronghold as easily as before. Yesterday we were planning to march towards Fu'an County, but now it seems we have to give up this idea, otherwise we will be trapped to death by the enemy."

"Our main attack direction now is only Taiyuan City. As long as we can reach Taiyuan City within ten days, it will cause a huge shock in the entire Jin Province. I contacted Chu Yunfei last night, hoping to get his help to attract the attention of the devils."

"But I don't know why, and I still haven't been able to get in touch with him. The original plan to trade materials on the 22nd was also forced to stop. I still don't understand what Chu Yunfei is up to. Why did he suddenly disappear?"

Lin Zhenhua and Zhao Gang really didn't know about this. Today was already the 22nd, but Chu Yunfei had lost contact for two or three days. It was really confusing. Could it be that something big had happened to Chu Yunfei? Both of them had this thought in their minds, but they really couldn't think of anything about Chu Yunfei that was worth the devil's attention.

"Old Li, let's not talk about Chu Yunfei for now. As long as the 358th Regiment does not withdraw from northwest Shanxi, we will be able to contact Chu Yunfei in a few days at the latest. It is almost four o'clock in the afternoon now. We have to act quickly and must prepare in advance for tonight's supply operations." Zhao Gang said anxiously.

Lin Zhenhua and Li Yunlong acted quickly, cleared a large open space, and sent out armored vehicles to patrol nearby. After confirming that it was safe, at 5:48 pm, three light transport planes first arrived over the Black Stone Forest. After circling at low altitude for a few minutes, they found an open space on the ground and quickly began to land.

After the three transport planes landed successfully, Zhao Gang immediately arranged for people to unload the cargo from the transport planes. Without stopping, the three transport planes immediately took off from the open space and returned to the base. Soon after, more and more transport planes landed from the sky, and a large amount of supplies were unloaded and transported to the shacks. This operation lasted until about three o'clock in the morning of the next day.

After two and a half transfers, the armored regiment's supplies reached 80%, basically meeting the needs of combat. The soldiers were busy all night, and after a quick breakfast at five in the morning, they immediately ran into the shack and fell asleep.

The sky was very gloomy at this time, and it started to drizzle in less than an hour. The Japanese air force that was about to send out to bomb the Zhaojiayu base had to cancel today's bombing operation. The armored regiment in the Black Stone Forest finally had a chance to rest. They took advantage of the rain and slept until three o'clock in the afternoon. After lunch, they immediately started to get busy.

Maintenance personnel began to replace the engines of the armored vehicles first. Under the illumination of flashlights, they worked for more than three hours and replaced 222 engines. The armored vehicles with replaced engines had sufficient power again. After adding fuel and testing, no problems were found, which made Lin Zhenhua, who had been paying attention to this matter, feel relieved.

"Lao Li, Lao Zhao, the engine replacement went smoothly. In two days, we will be able to replace all the engines on the vehicles. Now there is a problem that worries me, and that is how to deal with these replaced engines. We can't just throw them away, it would be a pity. But if we send a transport plane to transport them back, the cost will be too high. Do you two have any good ideas?" Lin Zhenhua asked with a sharp eye.

Zhao Gang said helplessly: "College student, to be honest, these discarded engines are really useless to us. If we carry them away, they will be a complete burden and will increase our load and fuel consumption. I think it is better to just discard them."

"If we send transport planes to send these engines back to the base, not only will it be risky, but it will also be very costly. I just did a quick calculation and found that the cost of transporting these recovered engines back to the base by air is higher than producing a new engine ourselves."

"We still have plenty of raw materials, so there is no need to save too much. We should use precious transportation capacity and fuel in more critical places. These old engines, even after refurbishment, will have very poor performance and a very high failure rate, which is really not worth the cost for us."

"We previously refurbished all the discarded engines and used them for transportation within the base, but it turns out that the fuel consumption of the refurbished engines has doubled, and the failure time has increased six times compared to before. This is the fundamental reason why I advocated discarding them. For us, it is really not cost-effective."

Li Yunlong had a different opinion on this. He stubbornly retorted, "Old Zhao, the performance of these discarded engines is indeed very poor, but it is better to have them than not. The engine production capacity of our base has begun to weaken in recent days, mainly due to the relocation of the factory, which has made our power supply not as sufficient as before."

"I think these engines can be used as spare engines after a second refurbishment. If we really have to fight the Japanese to a loss, we may have to rely on these discarded engines to save the situation. I am not exaggerating. This is definitely based on the current situation of the war."

"Since our armored regiment launched the attack, we have replaced the engine twice. This is the third time. According to my calculations, we have to replace the engine every five days. This frequency of replacement is already very frequent. From this, we can see how poor the performance of our engine is."

"After the second overhaul, these abandoned engines can work safely for up to six hours, which is enough for us. When it comes to the most critical moment, we will not consider the so-called fuel consumption, but whether we can equip more armored vehicles and tanks to deal with the threat of the Japanese."

"If the most critical moment really comes, we can completely produce some crudely made armored vehicles. As long as we can cause huge casualties to the Japanese, we should not consider how many armored vehicles will be lost. We should win by quantity, not by quality."

"I still say the same old thing. Solve the existing problems first, then solve the good ones. We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We must consider our own reality. Overhauling the engine is the fastest and most advantageous option for us. Transporting it back to the base will only benefit us!"