At 10:20 a.m. on May 24, on the outskirts of the western district of the city of Vosur, Chen Dao and Guderian stood side by side, smoking a cosmic cigarette while watching the engineers of the Ordnance Bureau test the performance of weapons.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the investigation team headed by Major General Thomas, director of the Army Ordnance Bureau, arrived in the city of Vosule on time, and after a brief exchange of greetings with Guderian, they rushed to the western outskirts of the city of Vosul to test the weapons performance of the Herman Goerin Regiment on the field prepared for them by Guderian.

Since the beginning of the French campaign, Guderian can be said to have been with Herman Goering's regiment day and night, and he has long been clear about the performance of those equipment, so naturally he will not be interested in watching the process of testing, and will instead discuss the construction of armored troops with Chen Dao.

"What do you think is the biggest problem facing our equipment right now?" Guderian asked.

Chen Dao raised his right hand, rubbed his thumb on his index and middle fingers a few times, and made a gesture of counting money.

"You mean lack of money?" Guderian asked.

"The lack of money is not only the biggest problem facing the construction of the armored forces, but also the biggest problem facing the German army, navy and air force. However, after the victory of the French campaign, our pressure on military spending can be greatly relieved. There is a proverb that says that when a cannon goes off, it costs ten thousand taels. This proverb has two meanings, once a war breaks out, a huge amount of money will be invested, if the war fails, these investments will be lost, but if the war is won, the benefits will also be huge. After the victory of the French campaign, the French will certainly pay us hundreds of millions of war reparations, and then we will have the money to produce enough technical equipment. Chen Dao said.

"What do you think about the performance and matching of the equipment?" Guderian then asked.

"The development of weapons should be forward-looking, and the problem of logistics support should also be taken into account, but the Army Ordnance Bureau has not done enough in these two tasks."

"Colonel Rosen, can you specifically say what problems we have with the prospect and logistics of weapons development?" A voice sounded beside Chen Dao.

Chen Dao turned his head to look, and a bald man about forty years old walked to his side at some point.

Chen Dao recalled carefully for a while. I remembered the identity of this bald man, who was the chief engineer of the 6th Division of the Army Ordnance Bureau, which was responsible for the design and development of combat vehicles. Knikamp.

Chen Dao pretended not to see the dissatisfaction in Knikamp's eyes, and explained to him: "Mr. Knikamp. By forward-looking, I mean that a tank's artillery should be able to destroy the armor of the enemy's new tank two years after the outbreak of war, and the front armor of the tank should be able to withstand the shells fired by the enemy's new tank two years after the outbreak of war. Guided by this thinking. I asked the engineers at the Skoda Arsenal to rebuild the G IV you see, and it was with the G IV that we were able to deal with the French B1 tank and the British Matilda 2 tank calmly, avoiding a lot of casualties, and that's the benefit of foresight. ”

Chen Dao paused for a few seconds, considered his words and continued: "However, the Army Ordnance Bureau not only did not show foresight in the design of weapons, but there was a serious lag. If I'm not mistaken, the No. 3 tank was built in 1936 and was built until this year. For four years, it was still using a 46.5x-diameter 37mm tank gun, which was definitely not worthy of its weight of nearly twenty tons.

"Four years, you haven't developed a proper gun for tank No. 3 in four years, don't you think your work has seriously lagged behind?" Chen Dao stretched out four fingers and shook them at Knikamp.

"The new tank gun for the No. 3 tank has been developed, but because of the time constraints, we have only completed the modification of about 50 No. 3 tanks, which have already participated in the French campaign." Knikamp argued.

"Tank No. 3 has been replaced with a new tank gun? Let me guess, is it a 60-mm gun with a 50 times diameter? Chen Dao asked suspiciously.

"It's a 42-mm gun with a 50x diameter." Guderian said.

Chen Dao glared at Kniekamp, raised his voice sharply and said, "Don't think I'm a layman. With the weight of the No. 3 tank, it is completely possible to install 60 times the diameter of the 50 mm tank guns, why did your Army Ordnance Bureau only install 42 times the diameter for them, and the 18 times the diameter was embezzled by you? ”

Knikamp was taken aback. It seems that he seriously underestimated the "Your Excellency Brother-in-law" in front of him, but he didn't expect him to even know this kind of detail.

Chen Dao saw Knikamp's surprised expression clearly, snorted coldly and continued: "Mr. Knikamp, don't be surprised, I not only know that the No. 3 tank can carry a 50-mm gun with a diameter of 60 times, but I also know that it can carry a 75-mm howitzer with a diameter of 24 times like the D-type tank of the No. 4 tank. Do you know why I'm telling you this? Because it involves the logistical issues that I just mentioned.

In the equipment system proposed by General Guderian, two types of tanks are needed, they are the main tank carrying a high muzzle velocity gun for anti-armor combat, and the support tank carrying a large-caliber howitzer to shoot high-explosive ammunition, and this equipment system can be achieved by equipping the No. 3 tank with 50 mm L60 guns and 75 mm L24 guns. Or, as in the case of the Hermangolin Regiment, only the Type 4G tank was used for both tasks. In short, we only need a tank chassis to meet the requirements of General Guderian. But what does your Army Ordnance do about it? You've had two companies develop their own tanks, and there's no commonality between the parts and components of the tanks developed by the two companies. In the end, it was the logistics department of the armored forces who had to pay for your dereliction of duty, and they had to repair the chassis of one more tank to make their presence felt through this extra labor. ”

Knikamp did not respond to Chen Dao's teasing, but turned his head to look at the No. 4G tank on the test site and thought deeply.

Chen Dao carried forward the spirit of Yi Yong to chase after the poor, and continued to knock on Knikamp and said: "Mr. Knikamp, have you seen the B1 tank that was used as a target vehicle?" Do you think he has any advantages in terms of appearance that we can learn from? ”

Hearing Chen Dao's words, not only Knikamp, but even Guderian looked at the B1 tank at the test site.

"I don't see anything special about the shape of the B1 tank? Well? Do you mean his front armor? Knikamp asked.

Chen Dao showed a teachable expression on his face, nodded and said, "It seems that you have also found that the front armor of the B1 tank has an oblique angle." Why didn't we design the tank with front armor with an inclination, but vertical armor? Do you need me to explain which is more defensive, 50 mm thick vertical armor or 50 mm thick armor with a 50-degree inclination? ”

Knikamp had an admiring look on his face. However, he still argued: "I also know the advantages of inclined armor, but only when bidding for the design of tanks No. 3 and No. 4." The result of our investigation of the tank firepower of the surrounding countries is that most of their tanks are using 37mm tank guns, some tanks are even only equipped with machine guns, and the existing vertical armor is enough to defend against the fire of enemy tanks, so "

Knikamp's voice became lower and lower, and when he saw Chen Dao and Guderian staring at him without squinting, he couldn't help but feel weak for a while, and finally said discouragedly: "Okay, I admit it. I was missing the forward-looking you said when designing the tank. ”

This bald man's attitude is quite correct, in that case, I'll dial you a little more.

Chen Dao made up his mind in his heart, so he raised his head behind his back and looked up at the sky at a forty-five degree angle, exuding an unfathomable aura around his body.

"If we want to improve the equipment system of General Guderian's blitzkrieg doctrine, I think the Army Ordnance Bureau will conduct at least four studies on our equipment, do you know which four?"

"What are the four studies?" Knikamp and Guderian asked in unison.

Seeing that he had succeeded in whetting Kniekamp's appetite, Chen Dao looked down at his watch viciously and exclaimed, "It's almost twelve o'clock, it's not easy to do." Well, General Guderian will treat you to dinner. I will also participate. You come to me after dinner, and I'll tell you more about the four studies. I have something to do, so I'll go first. We'll see you in the evening. ”

After Chen Dao finished speaking, he walked away without looking back, leaving Knikamp and Guderian relatively speechless.

Knikamp was an honest man and an obsessive research maniac, and since he was separated from Chen Dao at noon, he kept raising his hand to look at his watch.

Knikamp looked at his watch for the 178th time and the dinner began.

The dinner was over when the watch was looked at for the one hundred and ninety-second time.

As soon as the dinner ended, Knikamp impatiently caught up with Chen Dao and asked, "Colonel Rosen, please wait." ”

"Mr. Kniekamp. Can I help you? Chen Dao pretended to be stupid and asked.

"What exactly are those four studies you're talking about?" Knikamp asked.

"Oh," Chen Dao seemed to think about it, and he took out a piece of paper in his chest pocket and handed it to Kniekamp.

"Mr. Kniekamp. You start these four studies as soon as you return home, and there is nothing advanced about these four studies. It is difficult for you to belong to the preschool class, but it is very urgent, and I hope you will hurry up and complete them. If you encounter untouchable resistance in the process of research, you come to me and I will solve it for you. Chen Dao said.

Knikamp didn't care to answer Chen Dao, he quickly unfolded the blank paper and looked at it, and there were words in his mouth: "There is no difficulty in the two techniques of the No. 3 assault gun, it is purely a matter of time. It's not that hard to improve the second tank, hey, you even know about the heavy tank that the Henschel company is working on? ”

"Of course, I know that in order to select equipment for the Hermann Goring regiment, I visited almost all the military enterprises in Germany." Chen Dao said.

Knikamp solemnly folded the blank paper and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Colonel Rosen, please rest assured, I will start these four studies as soon as I return to China, and I will prove to you the research and development strength of our Army Ordnance Bureau."

"Mr. Knikamp, I have a kind reminder." Chen Dao stared at Knikamp and said.

"You are not doing scientific research for my sake, nor are you trying to prove your strength to anyone, you are doing research for the sake of Germany and for victory, please remember my advice."

At eleven o'clock in the morning on May 25, in a dark red two-story building on St. Martin's Road, northwest of the city of Vausure.

Chen Dao took a cigarette in his mouth and asked Mantufer: "So the trainees of the 19th Armored Army have arrived, and our training class can officially start?" ”

"Not only the 19th Armored Corps, but also the 41st Armored Corps cadets have arrived, and they are reciting weapon parameters. The cadets of the 15th Panzer Corps are still on their way and are expected to arrive here at two o'clock in the afternoon. Mandolfil said.

"So many people? Is the space sufficient? Chen Dao asked.

"The venue is adequate. Not only them, I have just received a telegram that the men of the Sixteenth Panzer Corps and the Ninth Panzer Division are also coming, and their men will arrive tonight. Mandolfer handed a telegram to Chen Dao.

"Didn't the XVI Panzer Army fight in Belgium? How did they know we were going to have a training course? Chen Dao looked at the telegram and asked suspiciously.

"I don't know." Mandolfil shook his head.

"The 16th Armored Corps has the 3rd and 4th Armored Divisions under its jurisdiction, plus the 9th Armored Division, so we are going to be developed." Chen Dao slammed the table and shouted excitedly.

Mandol was taken aback by Chen Dao's reaction and asked in surprise, "Why do you say that?" ”

"Hasuo, be a man and be a little more demanding. If you think about it carefully, first the 19th Panzer Corps, then the 41st Panzer Corps and the 15th Panzer Corps, plus the 16th Panzer Corps from afar, yes, and the 9th Panzer Division, so that all the four Panzer Corps and ten Panzer Divisions of Germany have people from us to learn how to use advanced equipment. After the disbandment of the course, the students of our Hermann Goering Regiment were present in all German panzer divisions. Think about it, one day in the future, when we pass by a certain battlefield or a certain armored division, we will be surrounded by a group of armored soldiers and say, 'Hello, Mr. Rosen. ''Hello, Mr. Mandolfer. Don't you feel a great sense of accomplishment? ”

Mandolfil's face first showed a thoughtful expression, and then his eyes lit up with a dazzling light.

"If there was a day, I think it would be great." (To be continued)