In a lively and joyful atmosphere, the three-day preliminary round came to an end. In view of the fact that the jury still has to evaluate, deliberate and finally score, the results of the preliminary round were announced a little later than two days, and most of the participating teams did not leave, especially those who completed all the tests, and were still full of expectations for whether they could be selected for the semi-finals.

In the evening, the organizers prepared a grand banquet for all the participants and guests from all walks of life, which was not inferior to the welcome dinner. Different from the party before the start of the preliminary competition, because the projects that should be carried out have been completed, the participants put down the biggest psychological baggage and focused on food, all kinds of drinks and various communication between peers, bragging, and fart, and the atmosphere was particularly warm.

Weiss came to the dinner to not only communicate with the teams that performed particularly well in the preliminary round, but also to comfort and encourage those who regretted not being able to complete all the events. In the preliminary round, in addition to the entries from the Lorraine Agriculture and Forestry Machinery Factory, three other teams also stood out, one of which was the Laureus Vehicle Factory, led by Sir Laureus's former die-hard partner, Dr. Glar Spee. After joining the Grumman Group, they continued to use the brand of Lawrence Vehicle Manufacturing, and the official name of the factory was changed to Grumman Lawrence Pace Vehicle Manufacturing Plant. As the earliest and most influential car manufacturers in the West, they wouldn't mind participating in such a race that could be both a show of strength and a potential for a big reward, and Weiss never saw them as spoilers – the last time he went to Aocheng, he sent an invitation to Grumman Group executive Egweed, after all, they have both competition and partnership, and to expand the influence of this race, Grumman Group cannot be excluded in any way.

However, perhaps because of official duties, or for some other reason, Egweed did not come to the scene. He wrote a handwritten letter to Weiss, thanking him for the invitation and appointing Grumman Group's Chief Technology Directors, Padeles and Glar Pace, to lead the team. Sir Lawrence also sent a team to participate, and the two "Lawrence" teams broke up peacefully before, leaving no deep contradictions, and the brothers met again, and they could greet each other before the game and have a drink after the game.

In addition to the Lawrence Automobile Factory, which is backed by the Grumman Group, the other two standout teams, the Taigu Vehicle Factory in the Midgargar Federal State, were formed by two aspiring young people, Temur and Gusten, whose entry was a spring-sustained, full-tracked transport vehicle with a payload of 20,000 pounds, which was twice the reference value released by the organizers. The other team is the Chipk Maschinenbau from the federal state of Gravel, and its owner is a middle-aged man named Cheek, who sent a team to compete in a half-track vehicle, i.e. front wheels and rear tracks. This construction is not new, and despite the mechanical complexity, it is quite good in terms of off-road and weight-bearing capacity, and it is quite competitive in the scoring system of this competition.

In the preliminary round, the organizers found that the dual-track and half-track vehicles were slightly disputed in terms of group ownership. The contestants preferred to be included in the wheeled vehicles, which would give them a technical advantage, but after deliberation between the judges and the organizers, it was finally announced that all vehicles with track components would be included in the tracked group, and the wheeled group would be limited to vehicles that used all tires.

In this race of power, transmission and suspension system is crucial, the suspension system is a key focus of Weiss. One of the entries promoted by Lorraine Agriculture and Forestry Machinery Factory uses an independent spring suspension system and the other uses a leaf spring suspension system.

Taking the mechanization of the earth's civilization as a mirror, leaf spring suspension and spring suspension have their own characteristics, and even in the 21st century, these two suspension methods are still widely used. In general, leaf spring suspension is relatively simple and effective, but it is not suitable for heavy vehicles that are too heavy, and spring suspension, especially various derivative methods, such as torsion bar suspension, is the most common configuration of the main vehicle. Of course, with the development of technology, hydraulic suspension began to become the configuration of new combat vehicles, but compared with the traditional suspension method, it is too expensive and too elaborate in construction, at least for a long time, not to completely replace the mechanical suspension system.

The significance of this agricultural and forestry machinery (design) competition is for technology and products in people's eyes, but in Weiss's eyes, holding such an event, spending such a huge amount of money, attracting talents, recruiting talents, and using talents may be more meaningful than the products and technologies themselves. In order to achieve this goal, he asked the Lorraine Industrialists Union and the state government to send personnel to form a special observation group to pay attention to those whose works are not very good in the preliminary competition, but are very skilled in mechanical technology, have a certain degree of divergent and forward-looking thinking, or have obvious expertise in a certain field of mechanical manufacturing, record their names and situations, communicate with them in an appropriate way, and see if they are willing to stay in Lorraine after the competition to start a business. Or join the Lorraine Industrialists Alliance.

In order to participate in this highly rewarding competition, some contestants have all their savings, and some are also burdened with foreign debts, and if they lose any hope of qualifying, they may fall into difficulties, and such people are very easily attracted by the favorable conditions offered by the Lorraine. In just three days, nearly 100 participants were interested in joining Lorraine's mechanical production system. In addition, a number of mechanics and workers who were skilled in mechanical engineering, as well as engineers who came to watch the games, were noticed by the special observation group of the Lorrainians, and then made friendly contacts. For those teams who have the strength to advance to the semi-finals, Weiss personally went out to discuss the possibility of further cooperation with them, after all, some teams need more investment to be able to challenge for the final crown.

In the month between the preliminary round and the semi-finals, the Clumber-Heisen plant or other plants of the Lorraine Industrialists Union can act as follow-on investors to inject capital and technology into them, and share in a share of the potential benefits, which is also a common way to cooperate in the business sector.

The people of Lorraine attached great importance to this competition, and the Grumman Group, the Star Group, the Sky Group, and other powerful industrial enterprises also sent personnel to observe here. Grumman is still so arrogant, for products with great potential, they tend to buy the patent rights as a whole, and then rely on the strength of the Grumman Group to digest and upgrade them. After discovering the intention of the Lorraine people to recruit talents, they also realized that this was an ideal channel to tap and recruit excellent mechanical talents, so they joined the ranks of grabbing talents. For example, there is also a young engineer named Nordi in the preliminary competition, although his work was reluctantly completed the tests several times because of engine problems, and his results did not rank in the forefront at all, but his work has a very good overall design, and the problem is likely to be that the component materials are not up to par, and his technical advantages and thinking ability in this area are more valuable than the technology itself. The Lorraine Agricultural and Forestry Machinery Factory, a subsidiary of the Klumber-Heisen family, offered him the position of senior engineer and a very favorable salary, and he himself was very satisfied after the initial negotiations, and he was only about to officially sign a contract to become a member of the Lorraine Agricultural and Forestry Machinery Factory. However, after the Grumman Group intervened, his position was also shaken, after all, the conditions of the Grumman people are more favorable, and the working environment of Okushi is more attractive than that of Lorraine. Under such circumstances, the Lorraine Agricultural and Forestry Machinery Factory had to raise the conditions of the salary package and promised to provide a suitable placement for his family, and all the benefits were greatly improved, in order to keep the promising young mechanical engineer, but it was still unknown whether it could win Grumman.

After the preliminary competition, Luolin Agriculture and Forestry Machinery Factory also reasonably borrowed the designs of others to improve. If these designs are not patented, then they will be borrowed in a relatively small and fair way of compensation, and if the other party has applied for a patent, then it will be negotiated with the other party in a bright way. Although it was difficult to make significant adjustments to a mechanical vehicle in a month's time, relying on complete production equipment and relatively sufficient technical resources, Weiss made two directions clear for them: one was to use a full-track agricultural tractor with a leaf spring suspension system, which was the chassis for future light and medium combat vehicles; The second is the agricultural and forestry transport vehicle with an independent spring suspension system, which is a technical chassis for large and heavy combat vehicles in the future. Of course, these are still the embryonic forms of technology, and they do not yet have the potential to be used out of the box.

During the rematch, Nikolai, who came to Lorraine with the title of Power Specialist, participated in the whole process, but these ugly guys crawling slowly on the ground did not seem to interest her. She also doesn't have much interest in the drivetrain of tracked or wheeled vehicles. When the preliminary round was finally over, she complained to Weiss about why she couldn't hold an agricultural and forestry flying machine competition. Even if you don't need such a high prize money, it can attract many young people who love flying to participate in the competition.

This was an idea that Weiss had considered, and the reason why it was not possible for the time being was because the aircraft were more closely related to the military and more likely to attract the attention of the Normans. At the moment, it is already a state of rumors, and if a federal or even cross-border flying competition is really held at this time, it will definitely achieve very good results, but it will definitely attract the eyes of the Normans, and some unforeseen things will happen on the way to the competition. In this way, it may be worth the loss. In addition, he explained to Nikolai that he felt that the Star Group already had a very technical advantage in this regard, and although there may be some whimsical ideas in the hands of other non-professionals, these ideas will not have much reference significance for the technology of aircraft that have been highly militarized, so it is no longer of great practical significance to hold air races in the Federation. If you really want to make a breakthrough in this area, after the international situation stabilizes, you can hold international air racing competitions on a regular basis.

Nicolas reluctantly accepted Weiss's explanation, and she went on to mention a hypothesis, a hypothesis that may bring the development of agricultural and forestry machinery to a dead end - that is, if the artificial star source stone technology has made a breakthrough, and the star source stone using artificial synthesis technology is close to or reaches the efficiency of the natural star source stone, then the number of large flying ships will be very considerable in the future, so as to quickly realize the popularization of flying ships for civilian use. In that case, people could transport timber from forest farms and lumberyards, transport grain from densely populated areas, and spread pesticides and fertilizers over large areas of farmland, all using flying ships instead of these low-power, slow-moving ground vehicles.

This logical bug is indeed an aspect that Weiss has always been concerned about, but he has also thought about it deeply. Even if the artificial star source stone makes a breakthrough, it is impossible to use flying ships for farming, and it is impossible to use flying ships for logging, they only solve part of the auxiliary functions of transportation and early warning. In some places where a small number of transport vehicles are used, ground vehicles are still needed, and in the military aspect, even if there are more Star Source Stones, flying ships cannot completely replace the ground combat effectiveness. Even in the interstellar age. In complex battles, it is still necessary to invest in ground combat units, so whether the artificial star source stone will make a breakthrough does not essentially prevent them from investing in the mechanical technology of ground combat vehicles.