allonlinenovel Chapter 1124 The Japanese Military Police Headquarters was established.
Chapter 1124 The Japanese Military Police Headquarters was established.
Shen Xilin nodded slightly, continued walking, and pointed ahead: "Miss Yingzi, please look..."
After your last visit, I expanded the raw material processing area and finished product storage area according to your requirements, and added two new production lines.
"Our daily output has more than doubled compared to before." His tone was calm, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as if he were simply introducing an ordinary factory.
As the two walked to the factory gate, the Japanese military police guarding the gate immediately straightened their backs and gave a respectful military salute upon seeing Reiko.
After putting on her mask, Lingzi raised her hand slightly to signal, and Shen Xilin pushed open the door and entered, a wave of steam and heat instantly surging over.
The factory interior is divided into several areas by tall iron pillars, and the overhead lights are hung high, casting a dim yellow light that is enough to illuminate every corner.
"Let me show you the raw material processing area first." Shen Xilin stepped aside to let Lingzi go first, and followed behind her.
Most of the workers in the factory were wearing uniform blue coarse cloth overalls, with beads of sweat on their foreheads, and were busy working.
Shen Xilin's gaze lingered briefly on the crowd before he introduced in a low voice: "Most of these workers are technical workers transferred from Japan, responsible for the core extraction and purification processes."
The few nimble workers over there are Huaxia workers recruited from Tianjin. They mainly do manual labor such as sorting raw materials and cleaning up waste.
And those guys over there in gray overalls and goggles are German engineers, responsible for equipment maintenance and technical optimization. You know, German machines are impossible for outsiders to operate.”
Reiko looked in the direction he pointed and saw two Germans with high noses, blond hair, and blue eyes discussing something around a large machine. They were holding blueprints and occasionally exchanging a few words in German. The Japanese technician next to them listened respectfully and nodded in response occasionally.
The Chinese workers mostly huddled in the corners of the factory, silently sorting opium paste from piles of sacks. Their movements were mechanical, their faces expressionless. Only when the Japanese supervisors walked by would they subconsciously speed up their work.
The floor of the raw material processing area was covered with thick cement, and dozens of huge burlap sacks were piled up in the corner, with the words "Manchuria Products Co., Ltd." printed on them.
Shen Xilin walked to a large crusher. The machine was all black, with a thick steel shell and German logos printed on it.
"This is a new raw material crushing equipment we purchased from Germany," Shen Xilin explained, pointing to the machine. "The opium paste imported from Manchuria is crushed here into a fine powder."
This German-made pulverizer is highly efficient and produces very uniform particle sizes, which improves the efficiency of subsequent extraction.
When the Japanese workers next to the machine saw Shen Xilin and Lingzi, they immediately stopped what they were doing and bowed.
Lingzi waved her hand, signaling him to continue working. The roar of the machine resumed, and opium powder was transported to the next stage as the machine turned.
"After being crushed, it will enter the extraction tank." Shen Xilin led Lingzi a few steps forward and pointed to a row of cylindrical stainless steel tanks, saying, "These extraction tanks are also newly introduced and can withstand higher pressure and higher temperature than the ones made in Japan before."
We used ethyl acetate as an extractant to extract morphine alkaloids from opium powder.
The extraction process requires precise control of temperature and pressure. Too high a temperature will damage the structure of morphine, while too low a temperature will affect extraction efficiency. This part is operated by Japanese technicians, while Germans are responsible for adjusting the equipment parameters.
Reiko took a closer look and saw that the outer wall of the extraction tank was equipped with a pressure gauge and a thermometer, and the pointers fluctuated within a stable range.
The can was connected to a transparent tube, through which a pale yellow liquid was flowing.
"And then what?" she asked, her scrutiny lessening and replaced by a hint of interest in Shen Xilin's familiarity with the production process.
"After extraction, it will enter the filtration stage," Shen Xilin continued, leading her to the filtration area.
Several plate and frame filter presses are displayed here, all of which are imported from Germany.
"There will be some impurities in the extract, which need to be filtered by a plate and frame filter press."
The filter plates in these filter presses are specially designed to filter out minute impurities, resulting in a pure morphine extract.
The filtered waste residue will be removed by Huaxia workers and centrally processed. Of course, this waste residue is not entirely useless; it still contains a small amount of alkaloids, which we will extract a second time to maximize the utilization rate of the raw materials.
Lingzi nodded without saying anything and continued to follow Shen Xilin forward.
After the filtration zone comes the concentration zone, where the machines are even louder and the temperature is higher.
Several rotary evaporators are running at high speed. The transparent glass flasks contain pale yellow liquid, which gradually thickens under the action of heating and rotation.
"The concentration process is to increase the concentration of morphine," Shen Xilin explained. "Using a rotary evaporator, the solvent in the extract is evaporated to obtain a concentrated morphine solution."
This step requires even higher temperature control; a slight oversight could lead to the decomposition of morphine. Therefore, it is handled by the most experienced German technicians. However, we also have some Japanese workers learn alongside them to help them quickly become familiar with the operating procedures.
Most of the workers in the concentration zone wore goggles and masks, their faces covered in sweat, but they dared not slack off in the slightest.
Reiko noticed that each machine had a small record board next to it, on which parameters such as temperature and time were recorded in Japanese.
“These parameters are compiled and sent to the German engineer every day.” Shen Xilin seemed to see through her thoughts and said proactively, “He will personally check them to ensure that there are no problems in the production process.”
After leaving the concentration area, the two walked along the corridor to the purification area.
The environment here is relatively cleaner, and the noise from the machines is also much lower.
However, since the entire purification area needs to maintain a dust-free environment, Lingzi could only peek at the busy workers inside through a small window.
I picked up a small test tube from the workbench next to me. The test tube contained white crystals that were crystal clear.
"This is purified morphine?"
“Yes.” Shen Xilin nodded: “The purified morphine crystals will be sent to the drying area to remove moisture, and then sent to the finished product packaging area for packaging.”
He led Lingzi to the drying area, where several drying chambers were set up, where morphine crystals were dried into white powder.
Even through the mask, you could smell a faint bitter odor in the air of the dry area, which made me feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Finally, there is the finished product packaging area.
Most of the workers here are women, dressed in clean work clothes, gloves and masks, filling dried morphine powder into small glass bottles, sealing them with a sealing machine and affixing labels.
The label reads "Medical analgesic" and "Made by the Japanese Military Police Headquarters" in Japanese.