Ten minutes after the shelling stopped, one or two tracked armored combat vehicles drove up at the entrance of the range, and finally stopped under the commander's stand for Gong Liangxiu to watch.

"It's ...... Iron car, you actually wrapped iron in the car! ”

Gongliangxiu was very shocked, he had also led the army to fight, he had seen vehicles such as ironclad cars that required brute force to promote, but he had never seen one that relied on mechanical force to drive itself.

At this time, Bai Liyan said proudly

"This is a tank, also an ironclad combat vehicle, which is an improvement on the basis of the harvester, and it is still being improved, and it will be produced in large quantities next year or the year after. With this car, in the future, you will not be afraid of armpit attacks, and you will drive directly over it. ”

"I really didn't expect you to build such a chariot, I'm afraid it is difficult to drive it by manpower."

"Yes, it is absolutely impossible to drive it by manpower, even a few horses are very laborious, and the power machinery is used in it, which can be easily driven, and it can be carried out for a hundred miles per hour, and it is no problem to break through the enemy formation head-on."

The tank in front of him was only a tracked armored vehicle, with four pairs of load-bearing wheels, mechanical suspension [Note 1], a top speed of less than 55 miles per hour (about 25 kilometers) per hour, and a deflagration six-cylinder diesel engine to drive.

The turret can do 360 degrees of rotation, but it needs to be cranked by hand, and it is not possible to achieve electric rotation, and the manganese steel armor with molybdenum element is installed, the thickest part is 22 millimeters, the thinnest is 15 millimeters, and the front and turret use a 35-degree inclined design, and the actual armor thickness is much higher.

Eighty percent riveting, 20 percent welding, equipped with a turret, equipped with a Type 654 155 twin heavy machine gun, the right side of the hull is a Type 651 vehicle-mounted light and heavy machine gun, if necessary, it can be shelled externally with a grenade launcher.

When the crawler harvester was developed, the ultimate goal of Bailiyan was to develop a universal crawler chassis for the research and development of construction machinery and tanks.

At present, the prototype of the light tank based on the crawler site of the harvester is still in the testing stage, and the reliability is not good, and the most important thing is that the mechanical suspension brings almost unbearable metal noise, which seriously damages hearing. Bailiyan considered improving the suspension system and using a milder rubber and spring suspension instead of mechanical suspension.

Due to the very tight production scheduling and man-hour allocation, it is very reluctant to produce in the second half of next year, and Bailiyan hopes that the first battle of the alliance next year can stabilize the situation and let him take a breath before it is put into production next year.

Although tanks are available, the problem of wireless communication has not yet been solved, and if the problem of wireless communication is not solved, tank swarm operations will become very problematic, and the strategic value of tanks is bound to be greatly reduced, and they can only be used for partial breakthrough operations.

The use of tanks will greatly change the current mode of warfare, and once the tactical change is achieved, the balance of victory will completely tilt in favor of mankind, and Gongliang Xiu soon realized that this war may really be over in five years.

While the two were talking, the military attache of the Xian Army in the distance hurriedly stepped forward to report

"Lord Qi Si Nong, Mr. Su is here."

"Oh, please come here."

"No."

In this meeting, Xiao Gongyi was in Liang State to supervise the battle, and did not personally participate, and Su Fangyi attended on his behalf.

In the past few hundred years, as the vanguard of resisting the invasion of Jin Xuedi, under the condition of relatively limited financial resources and manpower, the alliance led the alliance to a draw or even a crushing victory with the Jin Xuedi people.

This time, the technical conditions and the form of the war have changed greatly, and the royal guest has neither strong financial resources nor technical strength, and it is not suitable to meet the alliance as the guest of honor, so this time the imperial speed order was not issued.

This is nominally the Liang National Alliance, but in essence, as a sect, there is no reason for the royal guest to dominate. After all, not everyone can be in the limelight this time, and whoever is in the limelight has to come up with real money and ammunition spots.

After a short while, Su Fangyi arrived in a hurry, but his eyes were looking at the tank under the commander's platform, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised. He said

"This car is definitely an ironclad chariot."

"What Mr. said is good, this is a newly developed ironclad chariot, which is still being tested and cannot be produced for the time being."

The five words "temporarily unable to produce" are very important, and they are also the mantra that Bailiyan often hangs on his lips now, and Yuke now has to open his mouth and stretch out his hand as long as he sees it, regardless of whether you have it or not.

Hearing that there was no one for the time being, Su Fangyi changed his strategy and continued to ask

"If it is produced in the future, how many years will these ironclad chariots be made?"

"With the current situation, it is not a big problem to build 100 vehicles a year, and no matter how much, it is bound to free up the production hours of other vehicles."

"If it can be used, the more cars the better."

Guan Su Fangyi's expression seemed to be crazy, and he was a little hungry.

At present, the vehicle factory can build more than 1,000 crawler chassis a year, half of which is used to produce harvesters, and half is used for excavators, loaders, and crushers.

Of course, wheeled excavators and loaders can also be developed, but the chassis structure and crawler are very different, they need to be redesigned and demonstrated, the production line must also be adjusted, and the allocation of human resources and industrial resources is not cost-effective.

At present, there is no road to go in the field, and the crawler is more suitable for the complex road operation in the field, while the adaptability of wheeled vehicles is too poor.

On the basis of the current production capacity, the transfer of more than 100 production capacity for the production of tank chassis is the bottom line indicator of Bailiyan, and any more will affect agriculture and engineering construction, and then reflect on the economic level.

Even if the third phase of the vehicle factory project can be successfully completed and put into operation next year, Bailiyan will not produce a large number of tanks, and the theory of armored warfare is almost blank at present, and it still needs to be explored and cultivated, and the rash production and investment of a large number of tanks may outweigh the losses, such as being captured by a large number of armpits, or even imitated in the future, the consequences are unimaginable, and he does not want to take this risk.

The tank project had been kept secret before this, and Su Fangyi would not have known in advance, he had another purpose here, Bai Liyan immediately turned to him and asked him

"Why don't you call Mr. Su if you have something, and go around in person."

"I'm afraid I can't tell me clearly on the phone, so I have to come here in person."

Seeing that Su Fangyi was very anxious, Bailiyan said busily

"Mr. Su, please speak."

"The head of the house just called, and the armpit fleet appeared in Rongcheng Port of Yan Kingdom, and there seemed to be signs of a large-scale landing."

"Rongcheng Port ......" Bai Liyan thought about the information about Rongcheng Port, and said after a while, "Rongcheng Port is not big, it is not meaningful to only hit Rongcheng Port, and Rongcheng Port is not far from the sea route of Jinye Port, what is it doing to hit Rongcheng Port." Come on, take the map of Yan Kingdom. ”

"No!"

The guards took the map of Yan and spread it on the table, Baili Yan looked at the coastal and inland terrain where Rongcheng was located, from a geographical point of view, Rongcheng did not have great strategic value, and secondly, after the Xian army dispatched the empty boat, the armpit judged that the high-altitude vision of the Xian army was more broad, and this time the westward march completely went to the open sea, avoiding the lookout field of view of the airboat.

Therefore, it is not a random move to suddenly appear in the coastal waters of Rongcheng Port, and it must be to attack Rongcheng.

"Ran, what do you suggest?"

Bai Liyan asked, noncommittal

"These maps are only strategic geographical concepts, not tactical references, and it is difficult for me to provide valuable advice."

"Then what is there to say."

"What do you think?"

"I don't think the strategic significance of Rongcheng Port is huge. They have already obtained the two large ports of Jinye and Tianyun, and are stockpiling a large number of ammunition and troops for a breakthrough to the west, and it is unlikely that they will carry out a large-scale landing in order to capture a port.

Judging from the distance, Rongcheng should be the breakthrough point for them to carry out an inland invasion. However, the throughput of Rongcheng Port is too small, which is not conducive to their supply after landing, and what will happen to their logistics if they want to tear a gap in Rongcheng and invade on a large scale. ”

"But you can't think about their logic from the situation you have mastered, they don't know as much about the inland situation in the southern hemisphere as you do, and at the same time you don't know all their technical means and industrial technology, from your thinking point of view, they have limitations in attacking Rongcheng Port, but since they attack Rongcheng, they must have an inevitable grasp."

"You're saying they have the technology, or the geography that we haven't observed, that can facilitate them."

"It should be. You haven't been to Rongcheng, how do you know the local geomorphological features? This map is only a 1:1 million map, not a topographic map, and you can't know what is actually happening on the ground.

However, it would not be difficult to understand if they dispatched submarines to enter the inland rivers around Rongcheng Port and carried out landing reconnaissance at night to obtain the geographical information they wanted, and finally chose to land at Rongcheng Port. ”

Due to the lack of manpower and time, as of now, Baili Yan has not obtained the topographic map of the counties of Yan Province in one to fifty thousand, and he still only looks at a large-scale administrative map of one to one million, and it is impossible to know the geomorphological characteristics of Rongcheng.

From another point of view, there are certain differences between the technical path and scientific and technological development of axillary people and human beings, and some are even very different.

Ranlan guessed that the armpits sent submarines to infiltrate the inland river near Rongcheng, and it was possible that the landing reconnaissance was carried out, they had wireless communications, and the transmission of information was much faster, and once it was determined that Rongcheng was beneficial to them, the probability of landing was very high.

A few months ago, a detachment fleet was discovered in the coastal waters of Yan and Qi, and it cannot be ruled out that they carried submarines with them, and dived into inland rivers along the coast to carry out reconnaissance.

Although mines are laid at the mouth of the sea and key coastal areas, not all of them will be laid mines, but all inland river outlets with ships of less than 3,000 stone are not mined, and if they are so mine-free everywhere, the cost will be too high, and at the same time seriously affect the post-war economy and the livelihood of the local population.

Most of the people in the armpit noticed some favorable situation and sent submarines into the inland river to carry out landing reconnaissance.

At this time, Bai Liyan had been silent for a moment, Su Fangyi was a little anxious, he did not come to ask Bai Liyan's opinion, but had something else.

"The head wants to increase troops to Yan State, I don't know if I can borrow a truck from Xianguo to transport the royal soldiers."

Bai Liyan came back to his senses when he heard the news, and he said

"How many trucks does Master Xiao want?"

"Five thousand, all for troop transport."

"That is seventy or eighty thousand people, at present, the fortifications on the periphery of Jinye and Cuicheng have not yet been completed, and seventy or eighty thousand elites will be transferred, and the Xian troops stationed in the two places must be replenished into the first line, and the problem is not big. But I'm more worried that the armpit landing in Rongcheng may be a big battle, and the scale is much larger than that of Liang County, so Yuke must be prepared. ”

[Note 1] The earliest tank suspension system was a mechanical suspension system, and until the first year or two of the outbreak of World War II, even Germany's No. 3 and No. 4 tanks still used mechanical suspension systems.

Due to the huge noise and resistance and wear of parts brought by the mechanical suspension system, resulting in hearing impairment and physical exertion of members, and then the appearance of rubber and springs to meet the suspension, the overall comfort and performance have been greatly improved, and the last thing that appears is modern hydraulic suspension.

It is worth mentioning that on the eve of World War II, Germany developed a large number of armored warfare and still used mechanical suspension, while the Soviet Union used more advanced mechanical suspension earlier than Germany.

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