Xu Daorun took the small notebook of the record, came to Jiang Ming and Liu Zhengtai, and said: "This round of testing has ended, due to serious technical problems with the bidding vehicles of the General Motors Group, they withdrew from the competition, so we decided that the 'Jeep' of General Motors was out." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Ishikawa was very angry, and he said, "Give us a little time, and we will definitely be able to fix this problem." ”

Xu Daorun said with a cold face: "Could it be that on the battlefield, the enemy will still give us time to repair our equipment?" ”

Ishikawa still argued: "Our army is so strong, the firepower is so strong, the enemy can't threaten us at all, and our technicians have enough time to recover and repair the equipment." ”

Liu Zhengtai didn't speak just now, and reprimanded: "Don't talk about Ishikawa, we're arguing with strong words." ”

Army Colonel Mei Ruhe said at this time: "In fact, we designed several rounds of competitions in order to comprehensively evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the two cars. There is no doubt that in terms of off-road performance, space performance, speed and maneuverability, GM Jeep is very advantageous, but our personnel just checked the competition car, and found that not only the chassis and suspension have problems, but also the engine itself is seriously damaged. Obviously, the army could not accept such a service weapon, and our soldiers did not have to do anything else, and they were exhausted from just maintaining the car. ”

Xu Daorun took out a watch to show Liu Zhengtai and Ishikawa, and said, "Also, although the horsepower of the jeep is stronger and faster than that of the barrel car, your fuel consumption is more than double that of the barrel car." This forced our logistics to bring more fuel, which was obviously not in line with our expectations. ”

Liu Zhengtai only understood why Jiang Ming was so confident at this time, because he had already understood what kind of car GM Jeep was. Liu Zhengtai overemphasized off-road performance. However, while improving performance, it is impossible to ensure the reliability of this car, which makes Jeep very prone to failure, coupled with the problem of high fuel consumption, which makes Jeep unable to compare with the relatively mediocre performance in terms of service, but it is more stable and reliable.

Mei Ruhe said: "So be it. A week later, the Army will conduct a second round of testing, and we will increase the number of vehicles produced. You have a week to get the car to 10,000 kilometers, but of course to test the reliability and other performance of the car, and you still have a week to prepare, and you can still participate in the race after a week. ”

Liu Zhengtai nodded and said, "Okay." Thank you Ministry of Defense for giving us another chance. We will definitely cherish it. ”

It's just that there is no joy on the faces of all GM employees, because they know that in just one week, they will not be able to perfect the Jeep car, and if Liu Zhengtai wants to make major modifications to the car, it is even more impossible to complete it in a short period of time.

A week later, the second round of bidding for the two cars began. This time, each vehicle maintained a daily journey of 1,000 kilometers for a total of 10 days of operation. This time there were some problems with the barrel car, but they were all remedy, and Jeep basically participated in the race with three times a day. On the eighth day, the jeep finally couldn't run, because the six-cylinder engine designed by Liu Zhengtai for it burst and was scrapped directly.

On the other hand, although there were some minor problems at the beginning, the barrel car designed by FAW ran more and more smoothly in the later stage, and even after adding the trip on the bumpy off-road section, it still completed the race relatively stably. This convinced Liu Zhengtai that he was able to reach this level, which shows that his competitors have worked reliability.

Moreover, in the quotation of the two sides, the Willis Jeep with higher technology and higher standards was used, and the cost of each car reached 5,000 Tang Yuan, while the price offered by FAW to the barrel car was only 2,200 Tang Yuan per vehicle, which means that the price of buying a Willis Jeep can buy more than two barrel cars.

Of course, the military is not satisfied with the barrel car everywhere, first of all, the army proposed to let the barrel car enhance protection, and because of the design problem, when the rear row of the barrel car does not open the window, the roar of the engine will make the ears of the crew uncomfortable. Secondly, the army also asked the barrel truck to add weapons slots on the barrel truck, so that it could set up machine guns and even rocket launchers.

FAW also quickly came up with several versions of the barrel car, the basic barrel car is a soft-top convertible, but after this machine gun is erected, most of the occupants are exposed to the outside, and the safety is not very good, so FAW has developed a hard-top model, the rear row has a sunroof that can poke out of the body, and can install a shield, soldiers can more safely operate machine guns and bazookas on the roof. The third version has not yet been developed, and the FAW has rushed the chassis of the barrel car so that it can pass through the area densely covered by the river network and reach the level of an amphibious vehicle.

In the end, the Army announced that it had selected the barrel truck of the FAW Group as the winning bidder for this "light land motor vehicle". FAW also officially named the barrel car "Lightning Fast Horse", and this name was also copied, there is no doubt. Due to the relative cheapness, the Ministry of Defense ordered 160 Lightning Horses, exceeding the original plan of 100. These Lightning Horses were partly soft-topped Type I models, which were primarily used for officer transport, communications, and reconnaissance; Most of them are thickened armor, with hard tops and shields, and will be used as armored assault vehicles for the army's mechanized infantry; There is also a small number of Type III amphibious versions, which are equipped with the Datang Marine Corps.

In order to meet the order needs of the Equipment Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense in the short term, FAW quickly set up a production line of Lightning Fast Horse, and produced it at high speed, and it is expected that all 160 vehicles will be delivered to the troops within this year.

The army equipped four infantry regiments with armored assault vehicles, and the mechanized infantry created was actually not fully mechanized infantry. The emergence of mechanized infantry is actually accompanied by the emergence of tanks, the main means of delivery is armored transport vehicles or infantry fighting vehicles, and the mechanized infantry composed of four regiments of the army is actually not a mechanized infantry, the core point of the mechanized infantry tank, the Tang Army does not have it, and the Ministry of Defense does not have the idea of manufacturing this thing for the time being, because there is no firepower in this world that can compare with their opponents, and the appearance of tanks is of little value. On the contrary, assault vehicles that can carry machine guns and artillery pulled by trucks are the most suitable for the current situation of the Tang Army.

In addition, the four infantry battalions that the army has focused on building are actually unable to achieve comprehensive mechanization at all, because whether it is the warrior car that existed before the crossing or the lightning fast horse built by FAW now, the number of crew members is relatively small, and one squad has two fire groups, and now one fire group is in a car, and the rest still have to be transported by truck. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the Datang Army will purchase another batch of off-road vehicles in the future, so that the Jibu battalion will be completely machine-stepped. It's just that for the time being, the army feels that it is not necessary, assault vehicles equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers, only a few of them need to appear in the battle, they can inflict huge damage on the enemy, and then the rest of the motorized infantry will rush up and end the battle, large-scale equipment of armored vehicles, which will cause a logistical burden, and there is a surplus of firepower, which is not easy to use.

In fact, the field system of the army has been established, that is, light armored assault under the cover of artillery, so the two major focuses of the development of the army are mechanized infantry and artillery. The Mechanized Infantry had a light land motor vehicle program, which allowed each regiment to have its own assault force, followed by the creation of artillery.

The M101 howitzer was copied and mass-produced in 1775, and the 105mm gun would for some time become the army's only long-range fire supporter. It has a range of more than 10 kilometers and is relatively lightweight, ready to run around when loaded into a truck, and full of power. Not to mention the present in the 18th century, even if you get World War II more than a hundred years later, the M101 is also a benchmark artillery and a close friend of the infantrymen. Even if the Datang Army encounters a tough battle, after being equipped with special ammunition, the M101 artillery is enough to deal with the difficult bones.

In World War II, the M101 artillery was the artillery firepower at the division level, and in Datang, where the number of troops was limited, this artillery was directly used as the standard firepower at the regimental level.

Each Datang Army regiment has four battalions, and the basic configuration is two infantry battalions (motorized with trucks), one mechanized infantry battalion, and one artillery battalion. The artillery battalion is equipped with 18 S1775 guns, that is, M101 guns, which is enough to break up an army with good discipline in an open battlefield with a few rounds of artillery bombardment.

In addition to the 18 105mm guns of the regimental artillery battalion, the infantry battalion also has a machine gun company, equipped with shorter-range curved and direct fire, 81mm mortars and 120mm rocket launchers, and fire guns at the company level, in addition to heavy machine guns, 60mm mortars at sea. In fact, this kind of firepower distribution is more powerful than the firepower of the people's army for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

After this kind of establishment was basically set up, the Ministry of Defense often conducted deductions and exercises, and the subjects were varied, which were also very closely related to reality, such as how to use the strength of a regiment to capture a port under the cover of the navy's coastal artillery fire. For example, how to break through 100 kilometers in one day and night and sneak attack a city.

In addition to regular combat training, the Ministry of Defense also arranged more street fighting training for the soldiers, and in order to enhance the combat effectiveness of street fighting, the Ministry of Defense also placed an order for a batch of Thompson submachine guns and imitation Remington 870 shotguns to NORINCO. The S1 is less useful in confined spaces, while the shorter and more powerful submachine guns and shotguns are undoubtedly more suitable for close-quarters combat.

A very important drill in the street fighting was the blockade of traffic and the investigation, which was obviously in preparation for the future battle. (To be continued.) )