The plane circled and lowered its altitude and landed smoothly at Qingdao Field Airport. The cabin door opened, and Ge Yunfei stepped off the plane with his entourage and guards. On the side of the tarmac, Guo Binghui, Minister of Equipment, was greeting. The two exchanged a few words of greeting and immediately went to a mysterious factory on the east side of the Li River. The factory is surrounded by high walls, about 3 meters high, with barbed wire. Two tall iron gates stand majestically, and there are no signs in front of them except for the sentries standing guard, which further exacerbates the mystery of the factory.

The workers who come in and out of the factory every day include local city people, as well as blue-eyed foreigners with high noses, and foreigners with blue eyes and high noses actually account for the majority. Most of the people in Qingdao believe that this mysterious factory was opened by Germans, because the director of the factory is German.

Soon, the steel gate opened, and the car in which Ge Yunfei was riding entered directly. The German plant manager Erich stood in the door to greet him, a tall man in his 40s, with blonde hair, and stood outstanding.

"Mr. Erich, long time no see, how are you doing?" Ge Yunfei greeted him cordially in German. "General Ge, I'm fine. Except for the American continent, the Far East is the safest land in the world. "Mr. Ehrlich, I'm not here as a guest!" "General Ge, inviting you here is to let you witness a great weapon. The European battlefield has proven the bravery of the king of land warfare, General Ge, according to your proposal, we have designed the most advanced tank fighting vehicle in the world, and the design concept of this tank fighting vehicle is much better than that of the German domestic design. ”

"General Ge, our new design plan has been transmitted back to China, and the German Ministry of Ordnance Industry has adopted our design plan and changed the gasoline engine to a diesel engine." On the way to the final assembly hall, Erich was chattering in high spirits. Ge Yunfei looked at the workers working on the assembly line, busy nervously. The meticulous attitude of the German technicians and workers, in particular, is impressive. Entering the tank assembly workshop, engineer August excitedly stepped forward to shake hands with Ge Yunfei, obviously they were very familiar.

Augusto was the Japanese army who retreated to the Shandong Peninsula last year and came to Qingdao to join Mr. Sefort. Augusto is a 45-year-old engineer with an internal combustion engine. Later, he was recommended by Saiford to enter the tank factory that had just been completed. Augusto joined, causing the tank engine to advance by leaps and bounds. Ge Yunfei was overjoyed to learn about this situation, so he took the time to come to the Qingdao Tank Factory and worked with German engineers to develop it, and within a month, the Germans designed a new tank combat vehicle according to Ge Yunfei's suggestion. For Ge Yunfei's "whimsy", the Germans can be said to worship him.

They couldn't accept Ge Yunfei's profound expertise and bold ideas at first. Ge Yunfei proposed that the new tank weighs 15 tons, which requires agility and speed. Augusto believed that the tank as a steel fortress must have strong firepower, his original design was: the tank weighed 30 tons, in addition to the gun, set up two gasoline engines, 12 machine gunners, two gunners, a driver, a commander, a crew of 18 people. After reading the design drawings, Ge Yunfei did not immediately object, but raised many sharp questions based on the operation, and Augusto's design concept had many drawbacks.

Ge Yunfei summarized it from a professional point of view: At present, tank engines are all tractor engines, and the engines are relatively primitive, so tank combat vehicles are mainly light and not easy to be too large. In the original design, the tank was too bulky and the appropriate design speed was only 8 to 12 kilometers per hour, and Ge Yunfei required the tank to be sensitive and reach a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. Soon the Germans were persuaded and, according to Ge Yunfei's request, a new tank was designed. The turret of the tank was cast in one piece, still using the "Holt" chassis of the German tractor factory, but with modifications

The vehicle-mounted artillery is a 57 mm smoothbore gun, and a vehicle-mounted machine gun with a caliber of 7 and 92 mm, which is common to rifles and heavy machine gun cartridges. The crew is 4 people: driver, commander, gunner (sightman, lookout), loader. After the design drawings of the new tank came out, General Mel was specially invited for consultation. As a soldier, Mel immediately saw the extraordinaryness of this new tank. Mel asked Augusto to write a detailed report and send it back home along with the design drawings. Officials from the German Ministry of Ordnance saw the design drawings and, after careful study, thought that Augusto's design concept was very practical and ahead of its time.

In February of that year, the Germans approved plans to produce the new tank, but the total weight of the tank was changed to 20 tons, and the caliber of the gun was changed to 75 mm. The turret of this tank resembles a Type 59 tank, and the lower part of the turret resembles a Tiger tank, which is very beautiful. Ge Yunfei had no scruples about giving this tank with advanced design concepts to the Germans for a purpose. Even if the Germans designed a new tank, they would not have saved the fate of defeat. After the defeat of Germany, these trained talents were used for their own use, so why not.

Walking up to the assembled tank, several soldiers uncovered the canvas, and the mysterious tank fighting vehicle revealed its face. "General Ge, it was made exactly according to your requirements, please take a look." Augusto was a little smug. Ge Yunfei walked around the tank a few times, a little disappreciative in his heart, judging from his perspective can be said to be far worse. After all, he is "well-informed", so he is naturally a little entangled. But Ge Yunfei knew in his heart that even if this tank was far from his extravagant expectations, as the originator of tank combat vehicles, it already had the prototype of a light tank in World War II.

Ge Yunfei climbed into the tank and got into the cab to check and felt very satisfied. "Mr. Augusto, I am satisfied, and thank you for your tireless efforts. I wonder, how many units of this tank can be produced before October? "General Ge, the efficiency of the assembly line you personally supervised has increased several times. If the engine production goes well, it will be possible to produce 40 tanks in October. "Good!" Ge Yunfei turned to the factory director Erich and said: "Mr. Ehrlich, how is the life of engineers and technicians, if you have difficulties, just ask them!" ”

"General Ge, the treatment you provide is twice as high as in Germany, and our people are very satisfied." After that, Erich accompanied Ge Yunfei to visit several workshops, especially in the internal combustion engine workshop, and Ge Yunfei's professional knowledge made the German technicians present admire him. On the same day, Ge Yunfei lived in the factory and carefully discussed the production process and other issues with German engineers and technicians. The rigor of the Germans is very rigorous, Ge Yunfei first affirmed the craftsmanship spirit of the Germans, but Ge Yunfei asked that in order to produce quickly, the quality can be appropriately reduced to the quantity.

There were many German engineers and technicians who did not agree with him. Ge Yunfei patiently explained that the consumption of tanks on the battlefield is huge, and the production quantity with high efficiency can ensure the needs of the battlefield. In the end, the stubborn Germans had to accept Ge Yunfei's suggestion, after all, he was the head of the family.

The next day, Ge Yunfei followed two production tanks and combat vehicles to Jimo by train. A newly formed armored regiment has been stationed in Jimo, and all the officers of this armored regiment have graduated from the engineering department of the Jinan Military Academy.

These officers who graduated from military academies were trained in tractors and tank models, and no one had ever seen a real tank fighting vehicle. The battle between the two tanks entered the barracks, and the officers and men ran out of the barracks one after another, surrounding the tanks. Soon, Ge Yunfei's special car entered the barracks, and the barracks was boiling again.

In a large war room, Lei Ming, the commander of the tank regiment, led the officers above the platoon level to sit. Amid the loud shouts of the officers on duty, Ge Yunfei walked in, and all the officers stood up and saluted. Ge Yunfei waved his hand to sit everyone down, and looked around with a smile on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today I solemnly announce the establishment of the 1st Armored Regiment of the Wehrmacht!" Warm applause rang out. "You have been training at the Jinan Military Academy for a year, and since there is no real tank, tractors are used for manipulation training, and models are used for simulated actual combat training. Tank fighting vehicles, in the Battle of the Somme in Europe, have shown great power, especially in the offensive role is extraordinary, in addition, the mobile combat ability of tank fighting vehicles, also demonstrated high efficiency. ”

"The British, who invented the tank fighting vehicle, realized that a moving steel fortress was incomparably powerful. At that time, Swinton, a major in the British army, once stumbled upon the fact that if a tractor was equipped with machine guns and artillery, it would be invincible. In the early days of the European war, the warring sides were locked in a standoff. Major Swinton of the British Expeditionary Force proposed the need to break the dull stalemate on the Western Front by creating an armored vehicle capable of opening roads across the battlefield of subway wires, climbing over trenches, and destroying enemy machine-gun fire points. ”

Ge Yunfei continued: "The British War Office has no interest in Winston's proposal. However, Churchill, the British Secretary of the Admiralty, was like a treasure, and ordered the formation of the "Land Battleship" committee and personally led the development of the "Land Battleship". The British government then took the advice of Major Winston and went into production in February '15, producing the first prototype of the tank in September. In 16 the British tank factory produced the Mark I tank and put it into the Battle of the Somme.

Britain's new weapon, the tank and combat vehicle, was on display as soon as it appeared on the battlefield. Tank combat vehicles walk on tracks, are not afraid of bullets, collapse obstacles and trenches, and are unstoppable. The British, using tank fighting vehicles, quickly broke through the British lines. It can be said that the British Army's Mark 1 tank fighting vehicle opened up a new era of land warfare, and in the future, tank fighting vehicles will surely become the king of land warfare. It is no exaggeration to say that our Tiger 1 tank is already a generation ahead of the Mark 1 tank, and its performance is far superior to that of the British tank. ”

The officers present had proud expressions on their faces. Ge Yunfei's face became grim and said: "But the tanks we produced have no time to be tested, and they will be put into battlefield combat, because we have no time to test the combat performance of the tanks, so we can only be tested on the battlefield, so you must be mentally prepared." Captain Lei! "Here!" Thunder stood up. Before October, all officers and men of your unit must complete the training subjects, and there must be no mistakes! "Subordinates obey orders!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, in the future, you will drive the moving steel fortress and shoulder the role of pioneer, I hope you will ······."