In the golden autumn of September, the sun is shining, the rice ears in the south of the Yangtze River are yellow, the wheat in Liaodong is ripe, the Central Plains is a festive place, and the northwest arid area has also entered the harvest season.

First of all, the large-scale experimental field established by Song Yingxing was put into operation, and a breakthrough was made in petroleum refining, and then Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua came together to report to Zhu Cijiong that the samples of armored combat vehicles had been made!

Armored fighting vehicles, or primitive tanks, are the key to the Siberian war in the coming year, in order to speed up the progress, Zhu Cijiong even did not hesitate to let other projects stop first, so that everyone came to assist Sun Yuanhua, and now, the sample has finally been made, he naturally wants to visit and see what the world's first tank looks like.

Although the person in charge of the research and development of armored combat vehicles is Sun Yuanhua, the secretary of the Ministry of War, the armored combat vehicles are not carried out in the Wang Gong Factory or the Dongdaying Artillery Foundry Factory directly under the imperial court, because these places do not have the conditions for manufacturing armored combat vehicles.

The development of Daming Royal Machinery Industry Group in recent years is quite amazing, although its main products trains and rails used to be free for the Ministry of Industry to use, but in other aspects they have obtained amazing profits, such as steel and cement, the previous materials are free, as long as there is a little labor cost on the line, its profits are high, can be imagined.

With the support of huge profits, the rapid development of Daming Royal Machinery Industry Group is beyond Zhu Cijiong's imagination, and when he enters the workshop of Daming Royal Machinery Industry Group in Xicheng District, Beijing, he really has the illusion of returning to the later generations.

There are neat dormitories, huge workshops, smooth cement roads, rows of green trees, flower circles, and the staff who are all dressed in standard Chongzheng clothes, as well as the street lamps, and the iron railings, where is this like in the Ming Dynasty, is it clearly a common arsenal in later generations!

This time, Zhu Cijiong still went out on patrol in micro-clothes, but there were a lot of accompanying people, in addition to Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Sun Yuanhua, the secretary of the Ministry of War, as well as Sun Zhixin, the head of the Daming Royal Machinery Group, and several of his brothers, the group entered a huge workshop in such a mighty way, and the masters of Jinyiwei and the East Factory were also spread throughout the workshop.

The area of this workshop, calculated by the standards of later generations, is about 10,000 square meters, and there is naturally more than one armored combat vehicle parked in it, but Zhu Cijiong saw the goal of this trip at a glance, and the long barrel told him that this should be the world's first tank.

This tank, how to say it, the structure is a bit like the tank of later generations, the same wide tracked chassis, the same front sticking out of a barrel, but the main frame is a bit exaggerated, it is like a boxy iron house, and the volume is even more exaggerated, it is three or four times as big as the tank of later generations!

Looking at this behemoth in front of him, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but feel a little proud in his heart, because this was the world's first tank, and at the same time a little embarrassed, because this appearance was too ugly, for him, who was used to seeing advanced tanks in later generations, this really made him blush.

In any case, this is the most powerful land combat equipment of the Ming Dynasty, so he naturally wants to take a good look.

At this time, the staff in the workshop had already been emptied, except for the accompanying personnel were the masters of Jinyiwei and Dongchang, almost all of whom were his cronies, Zhu Cijiong didn't have to worry about losing his majesty as an emperor in front of outsiders, he actually stepped on the small stairs next to the tank and climbed directly into the tank.

At this time, the escorts were instantly dumbfounded, the emperor's move was really a bit unexpected to them, so that no one had time to dissuade them.

What now? Naturally, no one dares to follow the emperor up, it can be seen from the shape of the tank, the space inside must be very small, and if one person is squeezed in, the emperor will definitely be blocked inside, who dares to block the emperor, everyone has to stand respectfully on both sides of the stairs, waiting for the emperor to come down.

Zhu Cijiong climbed in, and he was a little confused in an instant, judging from the position, the first thing he entered should be the cockpit of the tank, and he also climbed into the cockpit of the later generations, but the one in front of him is too different from the cab of the later generations, it doesn't seem like the same thing.

Except for the same driver's seat and something similar to a steering wheel, this tank cab has no resemblance to the tank cabs of later generations, there is no touch screen, no display, no buttons, no knobs, no display meters, and the whole cab is full of handwheels that adjust valves!

These are nothing, the steam engine at this stage was originally controlled by valves, but he searched for a long time, but he didn't find anything to observe the outside, there was no observation mirror or external camera, and there was not even a hole, how to see the situation outside?

This is a big problem, walking blindfolded may hit the nose and face swelling, what is the concept of driving a tank blindfolded, that is not even the direction, don't make the wrong direction and crush your own people to death!

Sun Yuanhua is not a novice, he has also designed a lot of things, would he make such a low-level mistake?

Zhu Cijiong was a little unconvinced, he searched carefully for a long time, and finally found that there seemed to be a crack in the front of the cab, because he was a cat with a waist, so he didn't notice it.

He simply sat directly in the driver's seat, and now, he finally saw clearly, there was a finger-wide slit in front of him, and the scene within one hundred and eighty degrees outside could be seen clearly!

Well, this idea is really good, the musket bullets at this stage seem to be larger than this slit, they can't get in at all, the cannonballs have no splashing effect, it seems that the slit will not bring any danger to the driver, and it is simple and practical.

Zhu Cijiong silently praised Sun Yuanhua, and then, got up, moved to the back with his waist bent, he couldn't understand the control handwheel in front at all, so he could only look at the situation in the back.

The structure behind it is simple, it is a relatively wide space, separated by a movable iron plate in the middle, one side is the steam room, the coal and water, and the other side is the ammunition room, which is loaded with shells and gunpowder, and the tank artillery is naturally similar to the kind of rear-loading with flintlock device on the battleship, and it is not very troublesome to load.

Zhu Cijiong took a turn inside, and felt that there was no big problem in the structure, but he didn't know what the actual combat effect was.

With doubts, he climbed out of the tank, and looked around, this workshop does not seem to be very suitable for testing the performance of the tank, there are machine tools everywhere, the space for the tank to move is very small, and there are walls all around, here, the tank can't fire at all, if it is hard to open, a cannon will be blasted out, and a big hole will definitely be blasted out of the wall!