Song Zhewu had long heard that Guo Wenyuan's Machinery and Equipment Research Institute had designed and manufactured a tank, but what made him strange was that Guo Wenyuan had never reported to him in person.

It stands to reason that Guo Wenyuan will not fail to report such a happy event as the development of a tank?

Song Zhewu came to the Machinery and Equipment Research Institute in a hurry with such thoughts.

Guo Wenyuan is not in the research institute, he has many positions now, and he is very busy all day. There is no way, now Song Zhewu just lacks a talent like Guo Wenyuan who can take charge on his own.

Although Xiao Guodong, in accordance with Song Zhewu's instructions, set up assistants in various administrative positions held by these senior technical personnel, including Guo Wenyuan, to assist them in handling routine affairs, some things are still inseparable from them and must be done by them personally.

Although Guo Wenyuan had been notified by Xiao Guodong in advance, he had not yet rushed back from the National University of Defense Technology.

Because the school was first built, there were many various affairs, but fortunately, there was Ling Hongxun, the former principal of [***], who handled various affairs in a very orderly manner, which made Guo Wenyuan worry a lot.

However, Ling Hongxun also has a lot of things to preside, just the construction preparation of the Taiku Railway and the line survey and selection of the line are enough for him to be busy, and it is impossible for him to spend all his energy on school construction, so Guo Wenyuan still has to spend some time on school affairs every day.

Song Zhewu learned that Guo Wenyuan was not in the research institute, and he did not go to the office to wait, but directly asked people to lead him to the test workshop of the research institute. He wanted to see as soon as possible what the tank designed and manufactured by Guo Wenyuan looked like.

When he saw the tank designed by Guo Wenyuan in the middle of the factory, Song Zhewu's hanging heart finally let go.

Originally, Song Zhewu was very worried about whether Guo Wenyuan, a halfway monk, would design a tank that was not like a four. Of course, Song Zhewu thinks that even if this is the case, it is quite normal.

However, Song Zhewu still has a lot of confidence in Guo Wenyuan in his heart, after all, at this time, there is no country in the world that has a tank design major in schools, and now all tank designers are ordinary mechanical designers who have changed careers. With an outstanding talent like Guo Wenyuan, and Song Zhewu accurately grasping the correct development direction of the tank, it is only a matter of time before an excellent tank is built.

Guo Wenyuan really lived up to Song Zhewu's expectations, and the prototype car he has built now is very different from the imitation prototype FT-17, and it looks very powerful, even very similar to the T-34 that appeared 10 years later.

Painted grass green, the tank is about 2.6 meters high, 3 meters wide, and more than 6 meters long, with a hexagonal turret and armor that is tilted at 30 degrees on the front and slightly larger on the other three sides. Outwardly, the only drawback was the installation of a 37mm battle defense gun as a tank gun.

The most obvious change is that the size difference between the driving wheel and other load-bearing wheels is gone, and in order to ensure the obstacle crossing ability, a small upward mounted front guide wheel is added at the front and rear ends of the track.

The tracks were even more special, as the tracks of the new tank were almost half as wide as those of the FT-17 parked next to it, about 20 centimeters wide.

Looking at this tank full of strong modern atmosphere made according to its design requirements, Song Zhewu's joy was beyond words. Without waiting for the introduction of several engineers and technicians accompanied by the research institute, Song Zhewu grabbed the handrail and was about to climb to the car.

"Commander, wait a minute! Don't get on. Guo Wenyuan, who hurried back, hurriedly shouted out to Song Zhewu.

Looking at Guo Wenyuan, who looked embarrassed, Song Zhewu let go of the handle he was holding in confusion.

At the moment when his hand was released, Song Zhewu immediately felt a sticky feeling from the gloves on his hands, and then looked at the two white gloves, which were already covered with grass-green paint.

"I only painted the floor last night, and it won't dry so quickly." Guo Wenyuan said with some embarrassment.

"This is our own paint?"

Seeing Guo Wenyuan nodding, Song Zhewu thought to himself, "It seems that I have to hand over the formula and process of fast-drying paint to Wang Mingyang."

Perchloroethylene paint is a good quick-drying paint, the paint film dries quickly, smooth and bright, has good weather resistance and chemical corrosion resistance, and is especially suitable for metal spraying.

Song Zhewu took off his paint-stained white gloves, handed them to Liang Bi behind him, and said to Guo Wenyuan with a smile: "This tank is good!" Why not report? ”

Guo Wenyuan hesitated for a moment, and said embarrassedly: "Commander, the task you gave me has not been completed, this tank, strictly speaking, is not a tank in the real sense, and it does not have a piece of armor steel on its whole body. And it's not welding, it's all riveted. ”

Song Zhewu looked at the very powerful tank, and said in his heart: "This can't be a model, right?" ”

Guo Wenyuan seemed to see Song Zhewu's thoughts, and hurriedly said: "That's the case, after the chassis and drawings of the Christie tank brought back by Wang Dong this time were handed over to me, although there is no armor steel and a suitable engine, I don't think I can just wait, I should first use ordinary steel to make a tank, and first, I can explore the tank design and manufacturing technology; Second, we can also test whether the various surnames of the tanks we designed can meet the standards according to the requirements put forward by the commander when he was in Laiyuan......"

When Wang Dong arrived in Taiyuan, he reported to Song Zhewu that when he was negotiating with Christie Company in the United States to purchase their technology for producing tanks, he met a purchasing group led by Kalinovsky, Deputy Minister of Mechanization and Motorization of the Soviet Red Army, which purchased two Christie tanks for $60,000 and the corresponding patented technology for $100,000.

It was precisely because of the successful procurement of this Soviet delegation that Christie's company became very confident in negotiating with Wang Dong, which also made Wang Dong's negotiation very difficult, and in the end, Wang Dong only bought two tank chassis and patented technology, as well as a free engine patent, and spent 120,000 US dollars, which made Wang Dong very painful.

However, Song Zhewu confirmed that the $120,000 was worth it.

The Christy chassis is the world's first innovative use of all-wheel reading suspension, which can make the readability of each wheel of the tank undulating with the terrain, producing excellent cross-country ability and speed, and this kind of chassis suspension can even drive up to 70 miles per hour on bad roads in the field when unarmoured, but the U.S. military has not adopted it due to specification problems.

The famous T34 tank in World War II used this chassis, so that the T34 tank has a significantly better off-road maneuverability than the German tank, and the wide track design also minimizes the ground pressure.

Guo Wenyuan, who did not notice the change in Song Zhewu's expression, continued: "Our tank weighs 26 tons, has a crew of 5 people, a 37 mm main gun, two 7.62 mm machine guns, a length of 6.2 meters, a width of 2.8 meters, a height of 2.39 meters, a star-shaped 7-cylinder engine, a power of 300 horsepower, a maximum off-road speed of 45 kilometers per hour, a maximum travel of 268 kilometers, a height of 0.75 meters through obstacles, a width of 3.1 meters, a climb of 30 degrees, and a thickness of 18-45 mm armor......"

Guo Wenyuan said with some guilt: "It's just that it didn't fully meet the standard proposed by the commander, its weight exceeded 20 tons, and the tank gun didn't have a suitable 75mm gun, so I had to replace it with a 37mm battle defense gun." ”

Guo Wenyuan did not wait because there was no armor steel, but took a more active approach, first using ordinary steel to build prototypes, accumulate design experience and technical reserves, and can carry out technical verification and improvement of all technologies except protection capabilities in advance. In this way, as soon as there is armor steel, a real tank can be produced very quickly.

This approach is very much in line with Song Zhewu's wishes, especially the series of parameters reported by Guo Wenyuan, which made Song Zhewu even more amazed.

Originally, when he was in Laiyuan, the tank standard proposed to Guo Wenyuan was somewhat sloppy, and after thinking about it, this standard was really a little difficult for Guo Wenyuan. With the technology that Guo Wenyuan has mastered now, it is difficult to meet the standard.

For example, a tank gun weighing less than 20 tons and a 75mm caliber is not so easy to solve.

As far as the weight is concerned, it is almost impossible to reduce the weight with the material at this time, and the only way to reduce the weight is to sacrifice the thickness of the armor, but this is absolutely impossible.

At that time, Song Zhewu only considered that the bearing capacity of the bridges in this era and the ability of his tanks to fight in the grassland, excessive self-weight, driving on the relatively soft ground of the grassland, the ability to maneuver would be greatly limited.

However, because it is a Christie site, its tracks are wide, not to mention the dead weight of 26 tons, even if it is more, there is no problem.

As for tank guns, that's not a problem, there are no long-barreled guns above 75mm now, but that doesn't mean there won't be one in the future.

Song Zhewu was most amazed that in addition to the problems of artillery, armor and engine, the technical parameters of this tank prototype were very close to the surname of the famous Soviet T-34 tank in later generations.

Due to the problems of his traverser, the inclined armor appeared in advance, and for this alone, this tank is the most advanced tank today, at least also the most technologically conceptual.

There is also a point of epoch-making significance for this tank. That is the general arrangement of the power-transmission device in the rear and the driving wheels in the rear.

You must know that in the medium tanks during World War II, most of them used the overall layout scheme of the engine in the rear, the gearbox in the front of the hull, and the driving wheel in the front, such as the M4 in the United States, the "Tiger" and "Panther" in Germany, and the Type 97 tank in this book.

The advantage of this arrangement scheme is that the longitudinal arrangement is relatively balanced, the cab and the transmission chamber overlap, which can shorten the length of the body, however, due to the fact that there is a very long propeller shaft through the fighting compartment, the height of the vehicle increases, which becomes a major disadvantage.

The overall arrangement scheme of the rear of the power-transmission device can reduce the height of the vehicle and enhance the protection of the whole vehicle. Even decades later, this arrangement is still the mainstream arrangement of main battle tanks, with the exception of a few tanks such as the Israeli Merkava.

Of course, this was all done by Guo Wenyuan at the suggestion of Song Zhewu, a traverser.

Now the most pressing issue is the engine.

(To be continued)