Guderian looked at the report in front of him with a heavy face, and to be honest, he was quite disappointed with the results. The Panther did not reach the heights he had expected, and was almost completely lost in the confrontation with the Russian tanks. Please note that this is only for a few days.

What does this mean? It shows that the Panther tank did not gain the expected technological advantage, and as the most advanced German tank at present, it cannot slaughter the Russian tank one-sidedly.

"We need better tanks!" These were the first words that Guderian said after reading the report, and the second sentence was: "The panther is still not strong enough!" ”

However, some people think that Guderian's evaluation is too much, such as Heinrich Gottfried von Fittinghof-Schell, the commander of the 46th Panzer Corps, the superior of the Greater German Panzer Infantry Regiment, who said: "I think the Panther is still a very good tank, and when facing the T-34 and T-35, it has established a considerable advantage and can unilaterally slaughter them." We must see that the Panthers are only the equivalent of our T-34 and T-35, and that the Panthers are competing with the T-54 with our most advanced heavy tanks. I think the Panthers are already very good, and the defeat of the T-54 is just an inevitable disadvantage of medium tanks against heavy tanks......"

It's just that Guderian does not accept such a statement, it is true that the position of the Panther in the German army can only be regarded as a medium tank, and the T-54 is a heavy tank on the side of the Russians, and of course the medium will suffer from the heavy one. But in Guderian's view, this is just a play on words!

By the detection of the destroyed T-54, Guderian already knew. This tank is only 35 tons, and how many tons is the Panther? Nearly ten tons more than others. Are you embarrassed to say you're a medium tank?

Anyway, Guderian was embarrassed to say that the Panther was a medium tank, and more importantly. According to the information he gathered, the Russians T-34 and T-35 are also being improved. For example, in this battle, a T-35 with more armor and firepower has appeared. The tank was equipped with a 100mm smoothbore gun that was originally only used by the T-54, and the front armor was greatly enhanced, so that it could withstand the attacks of the Panthers at normal engagement distances.

This situation shows that the Russians are not sitting and sleeping, and have now begun to work on improving their tanks. You must know that the initial starting point of the T-34 and T-35 is very high, and to improve at this high starting point, one is simple and fast. The second effect is better. Suffice it to say that the Russians could quite well use the existing production lines to continue the production of improved versions of the T-34 and T-35.

Look at the Panther and the new heavy tanks that are still being designed, which are completely different from the previous tanks No. 3 and No. 4, which had to be reorganized. Workers had to be re-acquainted with the production process, so to speak, until 1943 there was little prospect of mass production of the Panthers and the new heavy tanks.

This means that the Russians will still have an armored advantage on the battlefield. Both in quantity and quality, the German armored soldiers can drink a pot. Anyway, Guderian's heart was heavy. If armor superiority is not achieved, sooner or later the Russians will have to regain the initiative on the battlefield. When the T-series tanks appeared like a sea of overwhelming people, I am afraid that it would be the day of Germany's defeat!

So even if other German generals thought that the Panther's performance was good, Guderian had to say that this was not enough! Germany must do better, otherwise, it will only face defeat again!

In his frustration, Guderian wrote a long letter to the wolf's den that night, in which he spoke out again. The Panzers must be given better tanks, and the performance of the Panthers is far from good enough!

Not beat around the bush. Guderian had good intentions and was the right judgment made by a sober military strategist. But in this world, good intentions tend to do bad things, like this time, he did it wrong.

What's wrong? That is, he shouldn't put more pressure on the wolf's den. In particular, some of the nervous mustaches were furious after seeing his report. For the mustache, the last thing to hear is that the German tanks were inferior to the Slavic barbarians. For him, German weapons must be the best in the world, and Slavic pigs must be killed in seconds.

So after seeing Guderian's report, he immediately angrily questioned the Panzer Department, asking why he couldn't provide the German soldiers with the best tanks in the world!

Under the direct intervention of the mustache, the Panther tank was almost stillborn, according to the mustache's idea, since the Panther is garbage, then there is no need for it to exist at all. Only a tank capable of completely overpowering a Slavic tank could go to the battlefield.

But such an order was undoubtedly a disaster for the German armored forces. Originally, the tanks they used were far behind the T-34 and T-35, and it was easy to hope for the Panther, but the Führer wanted to shoot the Panther. This means that new tanks require a longer development and production cycle, which means they need to continue to wait. And now the German armored forces really can't afford to wait, and if they wait any longer, there will only be more and more advanced T-series tanks pouring into the battlefield, how can they fight at that time?

Fortunately, Germany is not without understanding, in the opposition from top to bottom, the Führer finally reluctantly agreed to put the Panther into production with only a few improvements, but he demanded that a super tank that can fully seize the armor advantage on the battlefield be launched immediately, which is the Tiger King.

At the strong insistence of the Führer, the Tiger King turned into an outright armored monster, both in terms of firepower and protection, to the point of jaw-dropping the whole world. Of course, the weight of the King Tiger will also reach the point where the world will be stunned.

The Germans went crazy, and this information was immediately fed back to Britain and the Soviet Union through the intelligence system. The British did not feel much about this for the time being, and for them they had not yet seen the power of German tanks. Their impression of German tanks was still in the hands of the blitzkrieg against France. The most powerful thing about German tanks at that time was not their technical performance, but the command of a tactical genius.

In the eyes of the British, the quality of German tanks was the same thing, and there was no advantage over the Churchill in the face of their own country, so there was no need to worry too much.

The British reacted with ease. But the reaction of the Russians was completely different. The Panthers captured on the battlefield were immediately transported back to the tank test site in Chelyabinsk day and night in packing trucks. There, the best Soviet technologists at once carried out a full range of interpretations and live firing of the Panthers.

The test was led by the commander of the armored forces, General Fedlenko, and the investigative committee personally inspected the three captured Panthers. The other seven Panthers destroyed on the battlefield were inspected, and the final and most critical live-fire test was carried out by Senior Technical Lieutenant Kozlov personally piloting the T-34-76.

During this live firing, Kozlov fired 30 armor-piercing rounds at the frontal hull of a Panther with a destroyed running gear at a distance of 100 meters, including 20 rounds of armor on the head. 10 rounds of armor under the head. Just causing a breakthrough near the already destroyed driving wheel shocked the investigative committee, including General Fedlenko!

In the end, the commission came up with a method of destroying the Panther: a 14.5-mm anti-tank gun fired at the vertical armor on the side of the Panther's chassis at a distance of 100 meters, and a 45-mm gun fired a high-speed armor-piercing projectile with a tungsten carbide warhead. firing armor in parts other than the frontal part of the hull; The 76-mm gun fired armor-piercing shells, firing armor-piercing shells other than the frontal part of the hull, and the 85-mm anti-aircraft guns fired armor-piercing shells, firing armor-piercing shells at armor other than the frontal part of the tank.

Let's put it this way. The commission considered that the existing armor-piercing shells fired by the existing tank guns and anti-tank guns of the Red Army simply could not penetrate the front of the Panthers. Want to get the Black Panther. Only the sides and back of the panther can be shot.

To be honest, this conclusion shocked the Military Commission, because according to this report, once the German army produced Panther tanks on a large scale, the Red Army had few options, except for the T-54 equipped with 100 mm smoothbore guns, which could destroy the Panther at normal combat distances, and the rest of the tanks could only deliver food.

That is, the anti-tank capabilities of the Red Army had to be increased immediately. Otherwise, the consequences are unimaginable!

Li Xiaofeng also saw this report, but his evaluation of this report was not too high. Fedlenko's investigative committee nevertheless saved face for the armored corps. Because he only reflected the defense power of the panther to the Military Commission, but not the attack power of the black panther.

If Fedlenko showed the data on live fire of the Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun to the Military Commission, it would be more than a shock! And the reason why this General Fedlenko did not do this is very simple, to protect the interests of his own service.

Because the Kwk42L7075 mm tank artillery hit the T-34 data is really too bad (or too good-looking). Let's put it this way, the Kwk42L70 is quite capable of destroying the T-1000-1500 at a distance of 34 to 76 meters. In particular, the huge driver's entrance and exit hatch and the machine gun shield on the front of the T-34-76 hull are Achilles' heels, as long as they are shot, they will inevitably be finished.

Why didn't the commander of the armored forces bring up the subject? The reason is very simple, I can't say. At this time, the military commissar was already amazed by the technical performance of the Panther, and had the idea to immediately improve the existing tank. In the past, the director of the armored corps was not interested in improving the existing tanks, believing that the Red Army's armored corps had a greater advantage on the battlefield and did not need to be improved at all. So the appearance of the Black Panther was very embarrassing for the Armored Forces Command Bureau.

At this time, if the Military Commission knows that the T-34 is vulnerable in the face of the powerful firepower of the Panther, then it will be a lot of fun, and the Military Commission may think that the T-34 is no longer valuable, and it should be replaced with a better tank to deal with the Panther.

So what is this better tank? It's the T-54, or it's a smaller version of the T-54, the T-35. After all, in previous battles, the T-54 showed incomparable superior performance, almost one-sided torture of the Panther. Dominating the world directly with the T-54 is undoubtedly a very tempting idea.

Although the performance of the T-35 is not much different from the T-34, the template of the T-35 is better, and NORINCO has already started the T-35 improvement program a few months ago. At this time, the improved version of the T-35A had entered service with the Red Army on a small scale, and it was another tank in the Red Army that could withstand the thunderous blow of the Panthers and defeat the opponent at normal engagement distances. And what was the state of the T-34 at this time? It's still the same as before, and it's simply impossible to complete improvements in a short period of time.

If the leaders of the Military Commission knew this, then what would they choose? I'm afraid that no one wants to waste energy on the T-34. Direct mass production of the T-35 and discontinuation of the T-34!

This will embarrass the Directorate of Armored Forces, and it will also make the General Staff very faceless, you know. A few months ago, Tukhachevsky had demanded that the production of the T-35 be discontinued, and that the T-34 should be produced in full force. Fortunately, Li Xiaofeng resisted this suggestion at that time and kept the T-35, otherwise the Red Army armored troops would be unlucky now.

But even so, the Armored Forces Directorate was still very embarrassed, so at this juncture, he simply didn't mention that the Black Panther's firepower was too powerful. Just talk about the armor of the Panthers. At most, after the decision was made to improve the T-34, the defense was strengthened at the same time as the firepower was strengthened.

It should be said that the idea of the General Directorate of Armored Forces is good, but it does not necessarily work. Who made Li Xiaofeng come through time, and he knows very well how terrifying the firepower of the Black Panther and later the Tiger King is. So immediately after reviewing the report of the Directorate of Armored Forces, he asked a question: "Supposedly, the exchange ratio of our T-34 to the Panther is ugly?" ”

Fedlenko was a little embarrassed. I thought about diverting the topic: "The Panther's solid armor did cause some trouble for our tanks. But our valiant tankmen can overcome this problem, and we have strong convictions......"

Li Xiaofeng interrupted him without hesitation: "I'm not talking to you about belief now, I'm talking to you about technology." Comrade Fedlenko, please tell me, what is the performance of the Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun of the Panther tank? ”

Fedlenko became more and more embarrassed, but he had to deal with it head-on: "The performance of the Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun is still very good, it can pose a threat to the T-34 and T-35. But according to our tests, the cannon is quite expensive to manufacture......"

Li Xiaofeng interrupted him again: "What does it mean that the performance is good?" What does it mean to be a threat to the T-34 and T-35? Comrade Fedlenko. Please don't talk about him left and right, what the Military Commission wants to know now. At what distance can the Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun destroy our tanks! As for what cost, that's what the Germans should think about, not us! ”

Fedlenko wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, if it was possible, he really didn't want to answer any of Li Xiaofeng's questions, but the problem was that there was no such possibility, he had to answer these questions truthfully.

Fedlenko looked at Tukhachevsky, and the latter's expression was also quite unsightly, which showed that Tu Shuai was also embarrassed at this time. After hesitating for a long time, seeing that Tukhachevsky did not say anything, Fedlenko stubbornly said: "The Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun can effectively destroy the frontal armor of the T-34 and T-35 at a distance of 1000 meters......"

Li Xiaofeng wants this result, of course, he knows very well that Fedlenko is still injected with water in the data. The Kwk42L7075 mm tank gun could completely blow up the T-1200 at a distance of 34 meters, and the T-34 had to be very close if it wanted to threaten the Panthers.

However, Li Xiaofeng is not ready to continue to embarrass Fedlenko, anyway, his goal has been achieved, and now the Directorate of Armored Forces can't fool things around, and he will win a better priority for the T-35.

So he quickly said: "Comrades, from what Comrade Fedlenko said just now, we should know that the situation is very serious now. Our T-34 and T-35 have lost their technological superiority, and in order to win this tough war, we have to improve the existing tanks. The T-34 needed to immediately increase its defense and firepower, while the T-35 needed to completely discontinue the previous model and move to full production of the T-35A! ”

Tukhachevsky unconsciously shook his eyebrows, he was a little surprised, according to his understanding of someone, such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attack him should not be missed, but just now someone basically did not talk about this topic, but talked about the improvement of the tank on a case-by-case basis, could it be that someone has changed his personality and is ready to let him go?

How could Li Xiaofeng release the water, he was quite annoyed by Tukhachevsky's blind command, if he could remove this guy today, he would never wait until tomorrow. But the problem is that it can't be, Trotsky won't allow it.

The reason why the issue of the Directorate of Armored Forces was not mentioned this time and that the water dogs were not beaten was very simple, there was no need. According to Li Xiaofeng's understanding, the inner circle of the Trotskyists has completely despaired of Tukhachevsky and is ready to be replaced, and is now in full swing to train Vasilevsky.

For the Trotskyists, Tukhachevsky was only a transition before Vasilevsky, and when the time came, Tukhachevsky would be abandoned immediately. If Tukhachevsky was doomed, why did he bother to spend too much effort on this man who was already doomed to fall.

Now it is not impossible to concentrate firepower to take down Tukhachevsky, the question is whether it is worth it. At this time, the Trotskyists could naturally sit on the ground and raise the price, but the political price to be paid at that time was too great. It is better to wait for the Trotskyists themselves to take the initiative to abandon Tukhachevsky, and then it will be his turn to shout.

Yes, Li Xiaofeng is not in a hurry at all, so the attack on Tukhachevsky is point-to-point, but he can gain a good reputation for taking the overall situation into account. For example, this time, even Fei Delenko had to admit that even if Li Xiaofeng made him a little unable to get off the stage in public, but after all, he was not held responsible.

The meeting of the Military Commission ended, and the conclusion was very simple, the T-34-85 could walk on the drawing board, and the T-35A received extremely high priority before the T-34-85 was born. However, Li Xiaofeng was not satisfied, but instructed the ladyboy brother: "We must immediately speed up the research and development of the T-54A, focusing on improving firepower and fire control!" ”

A struggle around tanks has begun, both Germany and the Soviet Union are speeding up the development of more advanced tanks, in the future, more powerful steel monsters will appear on the battlefield, who is the king of land warfare, must be distinguished.

However, at this time, Li Xiaofeng did not care about the tank issue, and soon after the meeting, he boarded a special plane and hurriedly flew to the Far East...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to 435349915, kaiqicat, gundam0080, scrap s, hzwangdd and comrades Juventus!