Chapter Thirteen: Hard Times Are Not Easy to Get Through

  Sleeping soundly for a whole night, without dreams or worries.

  Long-distance raid battles are not something that everyone can withstand, let alone having been shot in the head. Even if the helmet was strong enough to save his life, a slight concussion would be unavoidable. I wonder if the Emperor's quick temper is related to the injury he sustained after being shot in the head! ——《Days with the Emperor》

  Zhong Yi was awakened by the Heavenly Bird, sat in front of the control panel, and through the holographic screen discovered that this night's time had not only completed the logistics factory but also enclosed the perimeter wall outside the base. He gave a thumbs up, "Bird, good job!"

  "Sir, I'm not tired, I don't need sleep, but actually, I'm very lonely every night."

  "Hey, don't you know that using a female anchor's voice to say this kind of thing will make people very excited?" Zhong Yi was considering whether or not to change the bird's voice.

  The logistics factory on the construction interface has been completed, and the icon has returned to its original color. Without hesitation, click on the gun factory to start construction. Although Lieutenant Zhang had stared at the tank factory for a long time, reason told him that Jiang Yunzhi was right, and they must first equip the soldiers before anything else. After selecting a location and confirming, Zhong Yi hastily switched the interface to the logistics page, which is an option that only appeared after the completion of the logistics factory construction.

  The interface opened, and Commander Zhong couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow!" This was too surprising, "The sky in the liberated zone is a bright sky, the liberated zone..."

  In the logistics interface, various types of bullets and shells are all available, military rations and uniforms can't be missing... Colorful icons are everywhere, and there are already appeared but still gray and white unactivated units, such as military trucks, Beijing Jeep, "This is a combination of General Logistics and General Equipment!" Zhong Yile has started talking nonsense, "Bird, can you build warehouses? Yes, good, start building, after it's built, stockpile supplies for me, bullets, shells, uniforms... Hmm, don't get too many compressed biscuits, that stuff is hard to eat. Other supplies don't need to be too much, first come up with one division."

  At this moment, the commander comrade is like Patton and Guderian, with great ambition, but the next sentence immediately brings him back to reality: "Cough, poor days are not easy to pass!"

  For several days, the base was filled with dust and noise as it underwent large-scale construction. At the same time, Tian Tang reminded Zhong Yi that in recent days, there had been several attempts by people to approach the base, but they were all taken care of by the military dogs and patrolling Red Guards. Zhong Yi knew that while the development prospects for the base were excellent, its safety situation was not good. It seemed that someone had already set their sights on them. The fact that there were few people around did not mean that no one was present, especially since the locals at least knew of the base's existence and considered themselves enemies due to the excavation of Ares Rock, although they also viewed white people as enemies.

  The gun factory and tank factory have been built, and no other building icons have appeared, which is expected. New buildings will definitely appear with the upgrade of permissions. Zhong Yi was not disappointed, it's enough for now.

  The arsenal can produce the Type 56 assault rifle, which is currently useless as the recruited soldiers brought their own. However, every subsequent item made Zhong Yi feel a little excited: the Type 56 light machine gun with a disc magazine; the Type 58 heavy machine gun that uses a belt or box to feed ammunition and can also use the universal light rifle disc magazine; 100mm wheeled recoilless rifle; 60mm portable recoilless rifle. It's just that the large-caliber mortars and cannons are not very complete, Zhong Yi guessed it should be due to insufficient technological strength or authority. There is also a fire tube, the Type 56 40mm rocket launcher. In Zhong Yi's eyes, this weapon is far inferior to the famous RPG, but thinking again, the RPG was only popular in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and this Type 56 would be considered quite advanced even in World War II, let alone in Australia, where the Australian army may not have had armor.

  Each light machine gun requires 300 funds, not expensive, make ten; heavy machine guns cost 700, not expensive, make five; 60mm mortars are 1000, the same price as recruiting a soldier, get five; 100mm is vehicle-mounted, we currently have fewer people and no siege warfare, this thing is for blasting buildings, put it aside for now; 40mm rocket launchers, this thing is not bad, with a production cost of 200 which is not high, make ten, keep them as backup. Unfortunately, the pistol series still only has the 54, shattering someone's idea of getting a 92-style gold-plated one.

  The armored vehicles that the chariot factory can provide are not many, and the 59-style medium tank is just mediocre. It's only 1934 now, and the Soviet T34 has just been designed, and the drawings haven't even entered the factory yet! The 59-style is based on the Soviet T54A medium tank, with a combat weight of 34 tons, a crew of 4, a maximum speed of 50 km/h, and a maximum range of 560 km. The main armament includes one 100mm rifled gun, with a firing rate of 4 rounds per minute, one 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun, and two 7.62mm machine guns. It is equipped with infrared night vision devices, allowing for nighttime driving. The armor on the front and sides of the vehicle is thicker, and the turret has a streamlined shape, providing good resistance to projectiles. This tank was the main armored equipment of the PLA before the 1990s, and compared to various medium tanks during World War II, it had an absolute leading advantage. As for those so-called "medium tanks" used by the Japanese devils, they were like withered branches that could be crushed at will. In fact, when Zhong Yi was at the Armored Academy, he had driven this old-style tank before, and its performance was not a problem. What's called "old-style" in this world is almost as good as alien weapons. What made Zhong Yi want to mock was the 59-style turret that was beautified as streamlined, plus the green paint job of our army's tanks, which often made the trainees describe it as the shell of a certain reptile. For a while, male students who had been dumped by their girlfriends in the academy were all called "streamlined turrets".

  In fact, this is purely a joke. The armor technology of later generations has been advancing day by day, but in a world that does not yet have reactive armor, with the 59-style's thirty-odd tons of body, this streamlined design greatly increases the tank's defensive capabilities.

  Zhong Yi clicked his tongue a few times, no need to rush this one either. The sixty armored troops he had prepared would be enough with just fifteen vehicles, each costing 13,000 funds. Even Zhong Yi felt a pang of pain at the cost. The construction time was six hours, and only four could be produced per day, which also made people quite frustrated. However, Commander Comrade's bias towards armored troops still made him click to build fifteen without hesitation. One more company would be in line with Lieutenant Colonel Comrade's identity.

  The second type of war car provided by the War Car Factory is a wheeled armored personnel carrier. This thing doesn't have any domestic model, it's a universal infantry combat vehicle for all countries in Red Alert, which can be equipped with different accessories according to needs, and can become anti-aircraft, transport, and reconnaissance types. It's very practical, and the price isn't high either, 3,000 per unit. Zhong Yi ordered five units, but they're not of much use for now. Sitting in it isn't as comfortable as a Beijing Jeep, and its protection isn't as safe as a tank. Two units were converted into reconnaissance types, letting soldiers use them for patrols. Three units were converted into defensive types, equipped with a bunch of anti-aircraft machine guns. Doesn't the Australian army have an air force? Let's play a game of shooting down planes.

  Zhong Yi's excitement was short-lived, as Tian Tang's words poured cold water on his enthusiasm. "Sir, I suggest you control the scale of vehicles and exploration within the base's detection range. There are no oil resources available, and we cannot provide sufficient fuel supplies."

  "Ah-ha...” I finally understand why during WWII, the Japanese were so desperate to fight in Southeast Asia. It turns out that our northeastern provinces didn't have any oil, and Daqing did, but the enemy's technology at the time couldn't find it. Without oil, no matter how many armored vehicles they had, they would all become targets. But Zhong Yi thought about it over and over again, and still couldn't remember where there were oil fields in the Australian outback, or whether their base had the technology for offshore drilling.

  "Ah, being poor is really tough!"

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