The 1st Panzer Division ... In the Zhu Yuehe contract arms training base located near the Sunite Right Banner of the Xilin Gol League, Wang Yaowu in the stands stood on Yan Guang's side with a telescope in his hand, looking down on a team of "steel monsters" galloping slowly in the distance... Although he was a little amazed at these "steel monsters" that could move around on their own, Wang Yaowu beside Yan Guang was still a little skeptical.

"Boss, is this stuff really worth it?"

As the first old man to follow Yan Guang, Wang Yaowu is still very satisfied with his current position.

What's more, Wang Yaowu is not a very ambitious person, so although his power as the Minister of Defense is not as great as Cai Yi and Jiang Baili, Wang Yaowu is already satisfied after sitting in the position of Minister of Defense.

After all, Wang Yaowu is also self-aware, and he knows very well that his ability cannot be compared with Cai Ye and Jiang Baili. Don't talk about the two of them, even newcomers like Yin Changheng and Yang Xincheng are afraid that he can't compare... Lack of ability, which is also one of the reasons why Wang Yaowu is willing to sit in the vacant post of Minister of Defense... It should be noted that now Wang Yaowu has married three concubines in addition to one wife. Wang Yaowu's wives are also very competitive, and he gave birth to two sons and a woman for Wang Yaowu, and the three children Yan Guang has seen them, and they are all very cute..."The position is not heavy, but he is very influential in both military and political terms, and there are several young and beautiful wives in the family, and there are three lively and lovely children under his knees, plus the thousands of family fortunes accumulated over the years..."

At this point, Wang Yaowu has nothing to be dissatisfied with, not to mention that he is still a person with no ambitions.

Just looking at the more than 20 "steel monsters" that were slowly speeding in front of him, Wang Yaowu felt that he should do his duty as defense minister.

However, after listening to Wang Yaowu's words, Yan Guang on the side just smiled.

"Don't worry, when have you ever seen me make a loss-making deal?!"

Hearing this, Wang Yaowu nodded, although his boss always likes to joke, but Wang Yaowu really hasn't seen Yan Guang make a few mistakes.

It's just that having said that, looking at Wang Yaowu's expression, it is obvious that the doubts in his heart have not been completely eliminated.

Yan Guang could only smile bitterly at this, after all, he couldn't explain too much, because if he explained too much, in the end, I am afraid that even he himself would not be able to explain it.

Despite this, Yan Guangzhi did not have any dissatisfaction with Wang Yaowu's attitude. Because in the past period, although the plan of the "armored forces" has been kept secret, and only a dozen or so people in the political axe know about it, but all of these dozen people have opposing opinions.

Moreover, among these dozen people, there are not only defense ministers such as Wang Yaowu, but also Xu Shichang and Song Dinghan, two prime ministers and finance ministers. Even Cai Ye and Jiang Baili were also opposed to this plan.

It's not that these people can't see the epoch-making significance of the "armored forces", after all, even if Xu Shichang and Song Dinghan can't see it, it's impossible for Cai Yi and Jiang Baili, two military strategists, not to see it, right?

Cai Yi, Jiang Baili and others will oppose it, not because they can't see the importance of the "armored forces", but because the cost of the "armored forces" is too high, so high that it is beyond the psychological capacity of Xu Shichang and Jiang Baili and others... If you want to say how high... If it takes five Russian infantry divisions to form a Wehrmacht infantry division, then five infantry divisions to build an "armored division"... To put it in more visual terms, it looks like almost 50 million silver dollars. One-fourteenth of the country's financial revenue, one-seventh of the military expenditure, if it were handed over to Britain, France, the United States and Germany before the war, the above four countries would be willing to build you two super dreadnoughts with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons and a main gun caliber of 380mm... Fifty million silver dollars, such a huge expenditure is just in exchange for an "armored force" that I don't know when it will be used? Especially when they saw that this heavily built "armored force" had to lie down for one or two vehicles every time they ran a certain distance, Xu Shichang, Song Dinghan and others felt that their hearts were about to become entangled... Fifty million silver dollars, if this money is invested in Xinjiang Province, the Xiudilan Railway is enough, but now it is used to form an "armored force" that is unreliable no matter how you look at it, it is no wonder that Xu Shichang will feel entangled in their hearts...―――――――――― just when Wang Yaowu was still struggling with the cost of the "armored division" in the stands, a team of tanks drove slowly from a kilometer away at a speed that was not very fast.

This is a tank company with a total of 21 tanks, but ... When the tank company drove from a kilometer away to the stands, only 18 of the company's 21 tanks were still usable..."cough, cough..." A general wearing a general's uniform crawled out of a tank lying on the furthest side in the dark, and after climbing out, he kicked the tank on his side. "Fuck, it's actually my tank this time..."

After kicking a few times and letting out a sigh, the pitch-black general walked a few hundred meters and walked in front of Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu.

"President, Lao Wang..."

It was Feng Nan who walked in front of Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu, Yan Guang's former commander of the Guards Division, and also the first choice for the commander of the Yanjing Military Region and the commander of the Guards Group Army... Almost a year ago, Feng Nan, who was already about to become the commander of the Yanjing Military Region, suddenly disappeared from everyone's eyes, and afterwards caused a lot of discussion in the army because of this matter.

However, looking at Feng Nan now―――――― Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu all covered their mouths and laughed.

In fact, it is no wonder that Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu will be like this, although the military uniforms of the National Defense Force are almost all pure black with silver decorations, and the military branches are only distinguished in several parts such as collar badges.

But now Feng Nan, not only has the military uniform changed from pure black to all black, but even his face is a black mess, if it weren't for the fact that some prototypes could be vaguely seen in the black, I am afraid that others would mistakenly think that this is from Africa... And looking at Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu snickering, Feng Nan knew what he was like now without looking in the mirror, so he just said a little breathlessly.

"Have you laughed enough, I don't want to be like this..."

In his words, Feng Nan also had some grievances.

Because since taking charge of this armored force and becoming the commander of this armored force, Feng Nan has rarely turned white... It's a pity that looking at Feng Nan's dark face with such an aggrieved expression, Yan Guang and Wang Yaowu almost laughed. It wasn't until Feng Nan was about to become angry, or had laughed enough, that the two of them stopped.

"Okay, okay, although there are more problems now, but think about it, this one division of yours is worthy of five divisions..."

As if recalling the years when he was in Sichuan, Yan Guang rarely continued to gloat, but patted Feng Nan's shoulder with his hand.

When Feng Nan heard Yan Guang's words, he felt that what he said was right, after all, if it weren't for that, Feng Nan would not have been able to let the thirty-three cavalry, infantry, and artillery divisions of the entire military region run to this sparsely populated desert without command..."But President, I really can't stand these things, can you talk to those engineers and let them improve them again?" Don't make it so much that you have to lie down for more than ten kilometers, how can you fight if that's the case!! ”

As he spoke, he looked back and pointed to the "mount" behind him, and Feng Nan's heart was on fire again.

At the time of design, although the maximum range of this Type 1915 medium tank was 80 kilometers on the road and 35 kilometers off-road, every time I did maneuver training, less than half of the tanks could achieve this indicator... Especially this time, not long after Yan Guang came to the base, his mount as the commander of the armored division fell off the chain, it was really... Yan Guang can also understand Feng Nan's mood, after all, the weapon will malfunction when it is used, which is always a frustrating thing, and..."Although the tank has come out, and small-scale production has begun, but if the reliable surname is only to this extent, then the plan to put into the European battlefield next year may not be so smooth..."

Thinking so, Yan Guang motioned to Yue Chang beside him to call several "domestic" engineers in the base.

Although the people who have been engaged in research in these years have a somewhat strange temper, and these guys with strange tempers especially don't like others to disturb them when they are researching. But obviously, Yan Guang, the president, still has a lot of face, so when he heard that Yan Guang called a few of his people to go, several engineers who were a little angry because of Yue Chang's disturbance hurriedly followed after washing their hands―――――― these scientists are actually very sophisticated, you must know that Yan Guang is now an important investor in this project, and they don't want to offend their investors at this critical moment.

And when they stood in front of Yan Guang with their hands and faces washed, they were ready to answer any questions Yan Guang had..."First of all, I want to congratulate you, because the tank you designed is exactly as I imagined, it is really perfect..."

When he said this, there was not a trace of falsehood in Yan Guang's words.

As early as 1915, the designers of the arsenal had actually begun to design some relatively rudimentary "tanks" according to Yan Guang's requirements, and the technical content of these tanks was only comparable to that of the British nomad tank.

Two tracks, plus a huge water tank ... Just like the nomads, this is a veritable "water tank"... Of course, the "Type 1914 light tank" designed by Chinese engineers appeared almost a year earlier than the British Nomad tank.

After designing this Type 1914 tank, the engineers invested the experience accumulated on the Type 1914 into the next type of tank, and in the process, because Yan Guang invested a huge amount of money, the engineers became more and more experienced.

In the end, the engineers finally produced an experimental tank with a total weight of 15 tons and a 360-degree rotating turret according to Yan Guang's requirements.

It was at this time that he felt that the technical level of the engineers had reached his own requirements, and ordered them to develop a real combat tank..."Type 1915 medium tank..."

According to Yan Guang's requirements, the thickness of the frontal armor of the turret and hull of this first type of tank, which should reach 50mm, and the thickness of the side armor should be 25mm, which allowed the Type 15 tank to ignore the threat of British and German tanks on the battlefield.

In addition, in terms of armament, it should be a 75mm tank gun, a 12.7mm side-by-side machine gun, and a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun with a shield on the turret.

The full journey is around 80 kilometers, and as for speed, as long as it can reach a road speed of 15 kilometers per hour and an off-road speed of 10 kilometers per hour.

The crew consists of 4 people, namely the commander, the gun commander, the loader and the driver... When seeing Yan Guang's requirements, the engineers who were recruited were in a dilemma, because these requirements put forward by Yan Guang are unscrupulous high standards in this era―――――― in fact, not only in this era, if Yan Guang's standards are used to design and produce, in addition to the mobile surname, the remaining protective surnames and firepower are enough to make the Type 15 tank on the eve of World War II for a period of time... Although Yan Guang's requirements are too high, who calls Yan Guang the president? He was also an important and only investor in the tank project, and in the end, the engineers had no choice but to design the Type 15 tank according to Yan Guang's requirements.

When the engineers succeeded in designing, they were presented with a 30-ton medium tank that looked exactly the same as the smaller Panther II tank... This shape was designed by Yan Guang, but unfortunately with the current technical level of 30 tons is already the limit, so whether it is in terms of body size or firepower and protection, it is much worse than the real Black Panther II in history, and it is even more different in terms of mobility... Especially in terms of maneuvering, the speed when going off-road only reaches the level of 8 kilometers per hour... However, the mobile surname is almost there, after all, the Mark 1 tank that appeared later is not as good as the Type 15, but the question of reliable surname is now a top priority. Therefore, after some polite words, Yan Guang directly turned to the main topic.

"But everyone, the current reliability of these Type 15 tanks is too poor, I don't know if you can think of more ways..."

As he spoke, he secretly pointed at Feng Nan, who had just taken a wet towel from his subordinates to wipe his face.

Seeing Feng Nan's appearance, several engineers present also nodded, indicating that they understood, and then an engineer in his 30s spoke.

"President, in fact, we have thought about this problem a long time ago, but the gasoline engines currently used in various countries are almost the same in terms of surname, and although the domestic engines currently used in our country have reached 180 horsepower, we are also powerless now..." However, Master Feng, please rest assured, at present, all countries are making rapid progress in engine technology, and China is the same, so I believe that it will not take a few years to reach the level of reliability in the engine..."

"That's right—" The other engineer nodded, then turned to look at Yan Guang. By the way, the president, I heard that some time ago the Air Force imported a type of engine to Spain..."

"You mean Hispano? Siza? ”

"That's right, it's this engine...", the engineer said and glanced at Yan Guang and Feng Nan. If the president can get the Air Force to provide this engine for us to study and improve, I believe that after replacing this engine, the mobile and reliable surnames of the Type 15 tank will be even better..."

The engineer did not deceive Yan Guang and Feng Nan, because the engine used in the current Type 15 tank is improved from the air force's aero engine, so if it can be equipped with Espano? In the case of the Siza engine, it is difficult to say that it is reliable in the surname, but it can indeed improve a lot in the mobile surname.

In fact, at present, the Air Force also has its own high-horsepower gasoline engine project, which are 200 horsepower and 250 horsepower, but it is a pity that the design progress of these two engines is relatively backward, and only a few test engines have been built. Siza engine up... Espano? Siza, a new water-cooled V-shaped eight-cylinder engine introduced in Spain in July 1915, was once considered "the best aero engine in the world", which is why the Air Force introduced this engine.

After listening to the engineer's words, Yan Guang nodded.

"It's no problem with this...", said Yan Guang as he looked at a few engineers. After replacing this engine, how far can the Type 15 tank be maneuverable ...

"It's not for sure, but maybe it can reach 10 kilometers per hour when it was originally designed..."

Several engineers are indeed uncertain, after all, compared with the domestic 180 hp engine, the Espano? Siza has only increased the horsepower by 20 hp, and they don't know if this engine, which has just been on the market for a short time, can compare with the domestic engine in terms of reliability.

In fact, they asked Yan Guang for this engine, and they just wanted to try it, if it could be used, it would be the best, if it could not be used, they could also learn a lot from it, and then produce a special gasoline engine for tanks―――――― in fact, these engineers have always thought that it is not a good choice to let tanks use gasoline engines converted from aero engines, after all, these engines were originally intended for use in aircraft, not for tractors, cars and tanks... Of course, there is also a person in several engineers who thinks that the diesel engine is the most suitable for the use of tanks, after all, the diesel engine has a non-flammable surname, but it is a pity that the diesel engine in this era is too large, and the degree of development is not as good as the gasoline engine, plus the efficiency of the diesel engine is inherently worse than the gasoline engine......... All sorts of things, anyway, in the tank factory, the diesel engine is only at the research stage ... At this time, Yan Guang was still very satisfied with the maneuvering speed of 10 kilometers per hour.

Although this speed, not to mention compared with the KV tank with a toilet head, even the rat tank with only two prototypes and a total weight of nearly 200 tons is much faster than the Type 15 tank, but if it can reach a speed of 10 km / h, then the Type 15 tank is still well-deserved in this era, and the strongest tank with the surname of mobility... Because a year later, the British put it into the Western Front, the 28-ton Mark 1 tank, with a tractor engine of only 105 horsepower, had a top speed of only 6 hours and 1 kilometer per hour... As for Germany? The first AV7 tank was officially produced in October 1917, and after using two 100 hp Daimler inline 4-cylinder water-cooled gasoline engines, the AV7 had a maximum off-road speed of only 8 kilometers per hour... (By the way, although the AV7 weighs more than 30 tons, in fact, the AV7 is similar to an armored car, and the body is very similar...) And then there's the French Renault FT-17, which was the first tank in the world to feature a rotating turret, but the 7-ton Renault was powered by a 39 hp Renault upright liquid-cooled 4-cylinder gasoline engine, so it also had a top speed of only 10 km/h... In other words, even if the Type 15 tank weighs 30 tons, as long as it can reach a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, the Type 15 tank will still be the most mobile tank in the world.

Moreover, the progress of gasoline engines is almost rapid nowadays, and it will not be long before a 250 hp gasoline engine will be developed, and by that time the mobility of the Type 15 tank will be improved even more. What's more, the foundation of the Type 15 tank is here, as long as it has enough engines, it will be invincible even if it is used until the end of the 30s... What's more, in history, opponents like the Soviet Union were equipped with scum like the T-26 at the earliest...―――――――――― although Feng Nan seemed to be a little dissatisfied with the mobile and reliable surnames of the Type 15 tank, but in the end, Yan Guang patted the engineers on the shoulder with considerable satisfaction and praised them a few words.

After all, Yan Guang is different from Feng Nan, as a traverser of later generations, Yan Guang knows very well that the Type 15 tank is already the limit of the current technical level.

It's like when the Type 15 tank was first designed, although Yan Guang was designed in accordance with the Black Panther 2 of later generations in terms of shape and many aspects, but in the end, in terms of size, protection and firepower, it was still smaller than the Black Panther 2 more than one number, but this is also a helpless thing, after all, the technical level of this era, if you use an engine with only 180 horsepower to drag the body of more than 40 tons, it is undoubtedly using a small car to pull a big thing, if you really want to do that, the car will not be able to build, But I'm afraid the mobile surname can only be maintained at a pitiful level... And in that case, it would be better to build a rotating steel turret in the same place... After inspecting the armored forces, Yan Guang was still very satisfied with the surname of the Type 15 tank, after all, this result was already very good, and it was impossible to use the Yan Guang of later generations to measure the things of this era... So after staying in Zhu Yuehe base for a while, Yan Guang returned to Yanjing.

After all, there are still many things for Yan Guang to decide, and Yan Guang can't always stay in Inner Mongolia... And after Yan Guang returned to Yanjing, the first thing he did was to face the frenzied march of the people of Yanjing... In the first battle, more than 30,000 enemies were annihilated... No matter how small this result seems on the battlefields of the Eastern and Western Fronts, it is still an exciting news for the people of Yanjing and even the whole country, even no less than the victory of the Shandong Campaign.

After all, the Battle of Shandong was to defend against foreign invaders in their own homes, and this expeditionary force was an expedition to Europe, and won a victory in Europe, although the object was only the weak and rotten Ottoman Turkey, but for the people, as long as the object was Europeans... The victory in the first battle of the Battle of Fancheng made the whole country rejoice, and then Jiang Baili sent back, hoping to get the second batch of expeditionary force after the telegram was sent back, although the consent of the parliamentarians was not required, but the vast majority of the parliamentarians still voted in favor―――――― if they voted against it when the whole country was jubilant, it is estimated that they would not be able to be parliamentarians, not to mention that the results of annihilating more than 10,000 enemy troops in the first battle also made many parliamentarians excited.

So after returning to Yanjing, Yan Guang's first task was to start raising the second batch of expeditionary forces. This expeditionary force, like the first expeditionary force, will reach the Caucasus via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and after a period of recuperation, take part in the second offensive launched in January 16.

But none of this matters to Yan Guang, what Yan Guang cares about most is, when will Emperor Nicholas II of Russia transfer some troops of the Caucasian Front back to the Eastern Front?

Recently, through the Military Intelligence Agency, Yan Guang has bought off a lot of Russian nobles and let them speak in the ears of the Russian emperor, for which Yan Guang even bought off the Russian demon monk Rasputin who made the Russian emperor obey... Because in this way, in the case of the reduction of the strength of the Russian army in the Caucasus, more and more Chinese expeditionary forces will be able to dominate the Caucasus. And when Yudenrich and Nikolai were also transferred, Yan Guang could also transport the 1st Panzer Division to the Caucasus before the British put tanks on the Western Front... And then... Advance to Iraq, destroy the Turkish army on the battlefield in Mesopotamia, join up with the British army in Mesopotamia, and firmly grasp the Iraq and Kuwait promised by the Entente to Yan Guang... As for opening up the Dardanelles or something? Yan Guangcai is not so two!

The Dardanelles Strait is the blood transfusion line between Britain and France to Russia, if this blood transfusion line is opened, although Russia is now suffering from internal and external troubles, but with the support of Britain and France, it may be able to hold out for a few years, after all, whether it is Britain, France, the United States and Germany, they do not have any good feelings towards the sickle and hammer party... At that time, it will not be worth the loss, let alone Central Asia, I am afraid that even the regions of Outer Mongolia and Outer Khinganling will be a troublesome matter to take back.

This is also the reason why Yan Guang would buy off the Russian magnates, and even the demon monk Rasputin―――――― Yan Guang is very jealous of the length of this demon monk's JJ, after all, it is too inhuman to have a JJ of nearly 30 cm under normal circumstances.

JJ's question aside, for Yan Guang, if Nikolai and Yudenrich are not transferred, and the forces of the Caucasian Front and the Expeditionary Force are gathered, maybe the Dardanelles Strait can really be opened, and then it will be a stone-shifting... Therefore, for Yan Guang, the most important task at present, in addition to increasing troops in the Caucasus, is to transfer Nikolai and Yudenrich, two rare Russian generals, so as not to hinder his future plans...

(To be continued)