The destroyed American tank was quickly towed up, and the sappers were still trying to repair the tank's power system so that the tank could drive itself back. In order to ensure that these tanks can be sent back and handed over to technicians for study, Gu Xunlei also specially arranged a guard platoon to guard, and after the Marine Corps arrived, these tanks were handed over to the Marine Corps to deal with, and Gu Xunlei also got the information of these tanks at this time.

The destroyed tanks were M26 heavy tanks that the U.S. military had only begun mass production at the beginning of the year. This is also a heavy tank developed by the United States to deal with the tank superiority of the Tang Empire and Germany. In all respects, the M26 is aimed at not Type 25 tanks, but the Tiger and King Tiger heavy tanks equipped by the German Army. The Type 25 is actually just a medium tank, and the Tang Empire matches the Type 24 heavy tank, also known as the Type 24 A tank.

The Army of the Tang Empire had many similarities with the Navy in the development of aircraft carriers in the development of tanks. The tank was born in the late stage of the first global war, and from the moment it stepped on the battlefield, the tank was destined to become the king of land warfare and the overlord of the land battlefield, but at the beginning, the Tang Empire did not attach much importance to tanks. It was not until more than a year before the end of the first global war that the first tank of the Tang Empire was officially put into actual combat use, which was the Type 0 tank, which took only a year from the development to equip the troops, in fact, it was basically copied from the British MK1 type, which was not very good in terms of performance, and until the end of the war, it was only produced less than a thousand, and it did not play much role on the battlefield, and the war was over.

After the end of the First Global War. Almost all countries are engaged in large-scale disarmament in order to reduce economic pressures and focus on restoring national economies. The same was true of the Tang Empire, which was also disarming after the war until the outbreak of the economic crisis. At that time, the army put forward several tank design plans, but most of them only stayed on the drawings and did not really build them. Not even a prototype. In addition to military spending. The use of tanks in warfare was still an unknown at the time that no one dared to be sure. Therefore, the Army of the Don Empire was always hesitant on the question of whether it was necessary to prioritize the development of tanks. And with the outbreak of the economic crisis. The state was even more unable to support large-scale military scientific research, and the navy was greatly affected at that time, for example, the first aircraft carrier designed at that time was difficult to deliver, and the army was also greatly affected, and the development of several new tanks proposed by the army was fruitless.

By 13 years, when the economic crisis was over and Prime Minister Xue Xiyue came to power, the signs of a major war had already emerged, and then several major powers had serious differences over the naval arms treaty. The world's major powers have begun to prepare for war. Spring of the Empire's naval and land forces came at this time, the "Emperor" class aircraft carriers of the Navy. The battleships of the "Dignity" class, the large cruisers of the "Li Jing" class (which were not yet air defense cruisers at that time) were introduced at this time. The Army also proposed several tank designs at the time, and all of them were quickly adopted. More importantly, the tanks designed by the Tang Imperial Army at that time ranged from later light tanks to heavy tanks, and the designers proposed more than a dozen design schemes after more than ten years of silence. This was rare in other countries, because at that time, no country's army recognized the importance of tanks. Unfortunately, a lot of research was too advanced at that time, for example, in 15 years, the designers proposed the design of an "all-electric" tank, and the world's first all-electric tank in mass service was developed more than 60 years after the war. In addition, the design divided into several directions also dispersed the design funds, and at that time the army needed a tank that could be comparable to the tanks of other countries, with moderate performance, cheap, easy to operate, and capable of mass-equipping the troops, rather than some science fiction tank. As a result, many design solutions are actually just a piece of paper, and only two or three designs are actually implemented.

Before the outbreak of the war, the Army of the Don Empire had three main models of tanks.

One is the Type 17, the tank has a combat weight of almost 6 tons, a crew of 3 people, is armed with 4 machine guns, the thickness of the armor is 6-12 mm, and the maximum speed is 37 kilometers per hour. The performance was basically close to the No. 1 tank of the German Army. This was not actually a real tank, but it was put into use in the Korean and Nanyang theaters at the beginning of the war, and then it was phased out, some of which were converted into self-propelled guns, and some were left in the rear for training.

The other is the Type 19 tank, which has a combat weight of 11 tons, a crew of 4 people, is armed with a 60-fold diameter 25-mm gun, three machine guns, armor thickness 15-30 mm, and a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour. The performance was basically close to the German Army's No. 2 tank. This was also the first main tank of the Imperial Army, which was used on a large scale in the early days of the war, especially in the Korean Theater and the Nanyang Theater, and was one of the most combat-effective tanks equipped by the Tang Empire at the outbreak of the war. But with the development of the war, especially after the war with Russia, the performance of the tank appeared to be quite backward, so from 23 onwards, the tank was successively withdrawn from the front-line combat units, most of which were converted into self-propelled guns, and the other part was aided by other allies, and the Imperial Army only retained a small part to equip the rear reserve units.

The last is the Type 20 tank, which was developed only at the end of 20 years, with a combat weight of 23 tons, a crew of 4 people, armed with a 70 mm gun of 50 times the diameter, three machine guns, armor thickness 15-60 mm, and a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour. This is also the first tank of the Imperial Army that is passable in terms of performance, at least it is not bad at all compared to the No. 3 tank of the German Army at that time, and it is much better than the No. 3 tank in terms of maximum travel and tank internal space, and it has been well received by tankers. However, the tank was only successfully developed before the outbreak of the war, and before the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Army received less than 500 units, and because the Empire's war industry was not adjusted in time, it was 23 years ago. Less than 3,000 Type 20 tanks were produced, and they were replaced by better tanks. Of the less than 3,000 Type 20 tanks, at least 2,000 were destroyed on the Russian battlefield and were the most powerful tanks of the Imperial Army before the Type 23 tank entered service.

After the outbreak of war. The Tang Empire did not immediately declare war on Russia, but the fierce battle between German and British and French armored forces in the Western European theater greatly shocked the Tang Imperial Army, especially the performance of the German No. 4 tank. Let the Imperial Army be a surprise. Subsequently. The Reich reached an agreement with Germany, which provided the Reich with a complete set of production drawings for the No. 4 tank. And the return of the Tang Empire was to provide more strategic assistance to Germany.

This is where the Type 23 tank came from, and the entire imitation work took more than a year. At the beginning of 23, the development of the tank was completed. The Reichsage did not completely adopt the design of the German No. 4 tank, but made a number of changes to the German design, the main modifications were the replacement of a more powerful diesel engine, the increase in the thickness of the tank's frontal armor, the use of an 80 mm caliber gun (still a short-barreled gun), improved running gear, and a 12 mm heavy machine gun. Instead of an 8-mm universal machine gun.

The Type 23 was the first of the Imperial Army's main tanks to compete with the tanks of the Russian Army on the battlefield, before the Type 25 appeared. The Type 23 is the only medium tank that can compete with the T-34, at least at a distance of 800 meters, the Type 23 has a chance to penetrate the frontal armor of the T-34, and the Type 20 does not even have this chance! But in any case, the Type 23 was copied from others, and the German Army soon discovered the limitations of the performance of the No. 4 tank, and when the Tang Empire copied the No. 4 tank, the German Army was already developing a better tank. Therefore, the Tang Imperial Army did not abandon its efforts to acquire better tanks.

When copying the Type 23 tank, the tank designers of the Reich drew on a lot of the experience of the Germans in building tanks, as well as some shortcomings of German engineers when designing tanks. At that time, the Imperial Army had already captured some T34s on the battlefield, and the Imperial tank designers quickly absorbed the advantages of German and Russian tanks, and quickly brought these advantages together, and this is where the Type 25 came from.

The Type 25 tank remained a medium tank, with a combat weight of 32 tons, and the later models reached 38 tons. One 75-mm gun with a diameter of 80 and three machine guns were used. The armor was 30 to 100 mm thick, and a large number of inclined designs were used to enhance bullet resistance. The maximum speed on the road is 55 kilometers per hour, and the off-road speed is 20 kilometers per hour. In terms of overall design, the Type 25 tank is somewhat similar to the German No. 5 tank, also known as the "Panther", but there are many differences between the two. First, the tank crews of the Tang Empire are relatively short, and there are only 4 crew members, and the projection shape of the tank is smaller. In addition, the Type 25 tank uses a large number of high-strength alloy steel, so the armor thickness is slightly thinner, but the bullet resistance is by no means inferior to that of the "Panther". The most significant feature is that the 80mm high muzzle velocity gun, which was almost the most powerful tank gun on the medium tank at that time, was still powerful enough to destroy most of the armored targets when a large number of high-speed armor-piercing shells were used in the later period!

There are many improved models of the Type 25 tank, and the one that Gu Xunlei got is only the ordinary model. Of the main modifications, the Type 26 variant, which was put into production in the middle of the year, was replaced with a 100-mm tank gun, and a more powerful diesel engine was replaced, the armor thickness was increased to 120 mm, and the combat weight reached 38 tons. At that time, these new tanks were first equipped with the main army of the empire fighting on the battlefield on the mainland, and Gu Xunlei tried many ways but could not get these new tanks.

It can be said that the tanks of the Empire, like the armored forces of the Empire, are the products of war. Like other countries, although the medium tank has irreparable shortcomings in many aspects, it has become the main tank of the armored forces because of its excellent mobility, relatively balanced performance in all aspects, low price and other factors. On the contrary, heavy tanks with more firepower and stronger armor, but limited mobility and expensive construction are not so "popular", to be precise, the army does not have the money to equip a large number of heavy tanks, and more importantly, on the battlefield, heavy tanks are not able to replace medium tanks in many cases. However, no country has given up on the development of heavy tanks, and heavy tanks are still irreplaceable by medium tanks in some important battlefields and in special tactical environments.

It was after the outbreak of the War of '21 that the Imperial Army began to imitate the German No. 4 tank that it put forward the request for the development of heavy tanks, and the first target was the heavy tank of the Russian Army. Because the Type 20 tanks of the Imperial Army at that time were difficult to compete with Russian tanks on the battlefield, the need to develop heavy tanks was even more urgent than the development of medium tanks, so the development of heavy tanks was put in the first place, and this is where the Type 24 tank came from.

The combat weight of the Type 24 tank is 58 tons, and it was originally intended to install an 80 mm gun (that is, the artillery of the later Type 25 tank), but the power is too small, and then the army directly borrowed the German 88 mm anti-aircraft gun technology (the navy's model is the 80 mm anti-aircraft gun), and after some modifications, the 90 mm tank gun was developed, and when it was used on the Type 24 tank, that is, the 90 mm tank gun with 60 times the diameter, which was definitely the most powerful tank gun in the world at that time, Especially after the adoption of high-speed armor-piercing shells, no tank could compete with them. The tank's armor was also very strong, with a frontal armor thickness of 100-120 mm, and later models increased to 140 mm. The tank's only drawback is its poor maneuverability, with a maximum speed of only 40 kilometers per hour on the road and less than 20 kilometers per hour off-road, and a poor maximum range of barely 150 kilometers per hour.

In terms of overall performance, the Type 24 tank is not lagging behind, but the tank's poor performance is not the maneuverability, but the other two "performance" that have nothing to do with the basic performance, one is the cost, and the other is the complex structure. The high cost of construction makes it impossible for the army to purchase large quantities, and the complex structure leads to many failures of tanks, which are difficult to repair on the front line.

The Imperial Army was still looking for better tanks, and at that time, the main equipment on the battlefield was only Type 24 heavy tanks and Type 25 medium tanks!