The sun is blazing.

In a weapons base in the western suburbs of Chang'an, a new tank is being tested on all-terrain on a field composed of various terrains such as mountains, hills, beaches, mud pools, and woods.

I saw that this new tank is very different from the traditional tanks in the world, but in terms of appearance, this tank is obviously much smaller than the American-made SRA tank currently in service in the Tang Army, the width of the vehicle is only 3 meters, the height of the vehicle is less than 2.5 meters, and the total combat weight is only 34 tons, which belongs to the category of light and heavy tanks.

The original SRA and other international mainstream tanks were still in the shape design of the late stage of World War I, not to mention the large and bulky size, and were easily attacked by enemy fire. The tank in front of you is less than 2.5 tall and has a circular turret design, which is much more beautiful than the SRA.

This is a prototype of a main battle tank designed by Datang Military Industry for the German Wehrmacht, two-thirds of which is designed by Datang designers, and the rest is modified by German designers according to the requirements of the German army.

The main armament of the tank is a 75 mm TM-3 A smoothbore gun, which can directly destroy the armor of the SRA tank at a distance of 800 meters, which is powerful. The secondary armament is two 7.92 mm TP machine guns, of which the main gun is developed and produced by the Tang military industry, and the machine gun originally used the M2 heavy machine gun of the Tang Army, but in the end, the German army changed the requirements to the 7.92 mm machine gun that the German army is used to, in order to reduce the pressure on the German army's logistics ammunition supply.

This tank was jointly developed by the arms experts of the Tang and German countries, but in the end, it won unanimous praise from the German Wehrmacht because the design of the Datang military experts was more advanced, and the most important thing is that this tank uses a new jishu that Shijie tanks from all countries do not have - Christie hanging jishu.

Christie's suspension device Jishu was invented by Christie, a Tang American. This device can greatly reduce the bumps when the tank is traveling in the mountains, and the movement is like walking on flat ground, thus greatly improving the speed of mountain travel.

This jishu was originally intended to be sold to the U.S. Army. However, the U.S. Army Commission did not accept it, and then both the Tang Dynasty and the Soviet Union sent personnel to negotiate with Christie, but the U.S. government refused to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the Congress's original intention to pass a declaration recognizing the legitimate status of the Soviet Union was vetoed by the Hoover administration, and finally Christie chose to give the Tang Empire a generous treatment for political reasons.

This matter is not as simple as it seems, originally the Soviet Union negotiated with Christie before Datang, until Datang carried out military cooperation with Germany. When the Wehrmacht proposed that the two countries jointly develop a new tank, Zhang Meng remembered Christie's suspension jishu.

This is all because Datang attaches great importance to the construction of the Navy and Air Force Liliang, so the status of the Datang Army is much lower. The speed of equipment development and renewal is naturally not as fast as that of the Navy and Air Force. Tanks are the foundation of the army, so the Wehrmacht attaches the most importance to it, because they suffered a big loss from the British and French tank corps during World War I, so they attach great importance to it.

When Zhang Meng began to pay attention to tank research and development. It turned out that the Soviets had already negotiated with Christie. Moreover, the Soviets offered generous terms, and Christie had actually agreed to transfer it to the Soviet military, which frightened Zhang Meng, because Zhang Meng knew the huge war potential and patent value of this jishu in the future, and he naturally couldn't let the Soviets pick up the cheap.

Previously, when Zhang Meng took advantage of the US economic crisis to loot American industry and agriculture, the Soviets were not far behind at that time and also marched into the United States. Therefore. When Zhang Meng also sent someone to contact Christie, the Soviets offered a higher price.

Zhang Meng saw that the Soviets were about to buy Christie's patent. He knew that the Soviets could no longer be stopped by traditional means, so he had to resort to political maneuvers.

Originally, Roosevelt was supposed to become president, and he would pass a bill to recognize the Soviet Union as the legitimate government and establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, but after Zhang Meng intervened, Roosevelt became a street rat that everyone in the United States shouted and beats, and Hoover was re-elected, and the relationship with Zhang Meng was very good, and the non-aggression pact signed by the United States and Tang made the relationship between the two countries closer.

Against this background, Zhang Meng immediately telephoned Hoover and expressed great concern about the imminent approval by the US Congress of recognizing the legal status of the Soviet Union. That Hoover had received Zhang Meng's guidance and had already achieved remarkable results on the issue of internal reform, so he was convinced of Zhang Meng's words, so he vetoed the bill at the juncture, so that the United States continued to refuse to recognize the Soviet Union, and the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union was put on hold.

As a result, the original bill of the US Export Administration Council prohibiting exports to the Soviet Union continued to take effect, and Christie's patent transfer approval was naturally intercepted by the US government, making the Soviet people watch with their eyes as the fat on their lips was taken away.

Christie saw that he couldn't sell it to the Soviets, so he had to sell it to Datang, but Zhang Meng was still very generous to Christie's talent, and God knows if he would invent more advanced Jishu after inventing this super awesome jishu, so he hired him generously and took Christie to work in Datang and work for Datang.

The Christie suspension device was installed on the new tank and immediately shined, and the representatives of the Tang Army and the German Army who watched the test in the stands were full of praise, especially after using the TВ-2C water-cooled diesel engine developed by Datang Heavy Industries, the power of up to 373 kilowatts made the tank reach a maximum speed of 55 kilometers per hour, and the two cylinder spare mailboxes made its maximum travel reach 468 kilometers, and the Datang designers improved the tank under Zhang Meng's prompting, so that it could steadily pass through the obstacle 0.75 meters high, 2.49 meters wide trench, 30 degrees climbing, 1.5 meters wading and other excellent results.

Of course, the most important point is that this tank was developed for the German Wehrmacht, the Germans have always valued defense, but this 35-ton light tank is equipped with 20~60 mm thick Datang special steel armor, which is 30% stronger than the German Krupp steel armor, which is deeply liked by the German representatives.

"When will this tank be officially put into production?"

German Army General Liszt was very excited and immediately asked Lieutenant General Huang Jianguo, Vice Minister of Defense of the Tang Empire, who accompanied him to observe the exhibition.

Huang Jianguo said with a smile: "Just wait for your country's Ministry of Finance to sign the appropriation, as long as your country's military nods and agrees, our Datang will build the production line of this tank within three months, and you can equip your country's national defense force within half a year." ”

"So fast? That's great! ”

Liszt was a little surprised, he really underestimated the industrial capacity of the Tang Empire, but seeing that most of the core jishu of this tank were provided by Datang experts, Liszt believed it.

"I will immediately report to the Führer, and it is estimated that it will be approved within a day or two."

"That's great! I can't imagine that our military cooperation will come to fruition so quickly! ”

The two looked at each other and smiled, knowing each other very well. One is to bypass the treaty restrictions and expand armaments, and the other is to make money, and both sides take what they need, and there is no conflict of core interests. (To be continued......)