Chapter 560: Armored Regiment

Inside a secret military base on the outskirts of Beijing, Yan Shao stepped out of his car.

"The president..."Seeing Yan Shao, the base general, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately greeted him.

"Hmm..."Bowing slightly, Yan Shao looked around.

A country always has many secrets, and this is one of them.

Armored forces ...

Although Yan Shao wanted to call it the 'Armored Corps', in fact, the scale of the armored forces was far from reaching the scale of the Corps, so it could only be described as an armored force for the time being.

This is the military base where the armored forces are stationed, and because the existence of the armored forces is a highly confidential relationship, it has become the most mysterious military base around Beijing and even in China.

Not only does the base itself have at least one regiment of troops, but even the perimeter of the base is heavily armed. Unless it is to the point of ruin, it is impossible for anyone to threaten the existence of this base, and similarly, under the siege of heavy troops, it is difficult for some attacks like those that often occur in later science fiction movies to happen here...

"How is the formation of armored forces now? Take me over to have a look...", Yan Shao said with a pleasant face to the major general in charge of the security and command of the base.

"Yes!" With his legs together, Liang Xingye looked solemn. "Please follow me..."

Saying that, Liang Xingye walked in front to lead the way, while Yan Shao, Fu Xiuming, Feng Guozhang, Jiang Baili and others followed unhurriedly, and looked at the situation in the base from time to time.

It is one of the most important military bases in the country. Naturally, security is very tight. Not only is there a heavy concentration of troops mentioned above, but the interior itself is also tightly guarded.

Inside the base, a large number of hidden fortifications have been built. It is very sturdy and can guarantee that it can last a long time even if it is bombarded by enemy heavy artillery. At least it is not inferior to the fortress itself, and each fortification is equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns, and there is even a small airfield inside the base, which can be used by some reconnaissance planes and planes to take off and land...

If it weren't for the fact that there was really no place, maybe even the heavy artillery would have to be equipped, but even then it had reached the point of impregnability. Usually. Even if it is an infantry division, it is impossible to capture this place for a month or two, and this is still excluding the infantry division guarding the perimeter.

If that infantry division is also stationed in the base. Even an army may not be able to capture this placeβ€”β€”β€”β€”β€”β€” of course, provided that there is enough ammunition here.

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After walking with Yan Shao and Fu Xiuming for a while, Liang Xingye and the others soon came to the door of a row of warehouses made of reinforced concrete, and then with a look of honor and pride. Liang Xingye faced Yan Shao and the others. "President. Ministers, here we are..."

Through the open doors of these warehouses, Yan Shao and the others could clearly see the armored combat vehicles and other vehicles placed inside, and the number was so large that Yan Shao and the others couldn't even count them in a hurry.

And after seeing these things for the first time, Feng Guozhang and the others also looked a little shocked on their faces.

In fact, as the armored forces grow in size, the time for them to come in handy is getting closer. Under such circumstances, it is no longer necessary to continue to hide it from the upper echelons of the government.

So after Xiao Yongyan and Cai Ye learned about this, Yan Shao also decided to reveal the existence of the armored force to Feng Guozhang, Jiang Baili and others. As for Fu Xiuming. As the Minister of Defense, in fact, Fu Xiuming does not have as much real power as Cai Yi and Jiang Baili, but this does not mean that he has just been established in the early days of the β€”β€”β€”β€”β€”β€” like the US Secretary of Defense.

In fact, Fu Xiuming also has some rights, very important rights, such as the supervision and coordination of important projects such as the 'armored forces', it can be said that this kind of work is completely responsible for him in peacetime, and as Yan Shao's confidant and descendant, he is also the most suitable for this kind of work...

"General Liang..."Glancing at the weapons placed in the warehouse, Yan Shao's face showed a look of satisfaction, and then he said to Jiang Baili and the others. This is a secret project of the military, and it has always been highly secret, and even within the army, there are only relevant personnel and very few high-level government officials who know about it..."

"The whole project originated from the Shandong Campaign, when due to the trench warfare, although our army won the battle and also inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese, it also suffered heavy casualties, so I have been thinking that if there is an equipment that can quickly break through the enemy's trench fortifications, maybe it can speed up the end of the war, at least reduce the casualties of the troops..."

"In the end, the solution I came up with was this thing in front of me......... The new armament made of steel can easily pass over trenches and other fortifications, and the heavy armor can ignore most of the opponent's weapons, such as light and heavy machine guns, and I would even dare to assert that this weapon will change the situation of war, and of course, the cost of such weapons is not cheap at all..."

"After that, I handed over the project to Yushi Group......... It's not that I'm boasting, as you know, Yushi Group's research capabilities in this area are very strong, and after nearly two years of hard work, this equipment has finally been successfully developed and initially mass-produced..."

"The end result is what you are looking for..."

Hearing Yan Shao say this, Jiang Baili and the others bowed slightly, indicating that they understood.

Then Jiang Baili said with some doubts. "So......... Did this weapon really work as intended? ”

"Of course, after testing, this weapon can easily cross trenches at a faster speed than human infantry, ignoring weapons such as machine guns, in other words, this weapon is considered a success..."

After speaking, Yan Shao looked at Liang Xingye, and then said slowly. "I'll let General Liang introduce the rest, after all, the scale is much bigger than the last time I came..."

"Yes!" After saluting Yan Shao, Liang Xingye immediately dealt with Xiu Ming and the others. In fact, it was mainly Feng Guozhang and Jiang Baili who introduced. "Since the armored vehicle was finalized, the factory has been producing this equipment at its best, according to our initial preparation. Each company has 15 tanks or armored vehicles, 5 battalion headquarters, each battalion is equipped with 50 tanks or armored vehicles, and a regiment has three battalions, counting the regimental headquarters, with 160 vehicles per regiment. ”

"After a long period of hard work, at present our army is equipped with two regiments of armored weapons. There are a total of 320 vehicles, and the factory is still producing them, but the number is relatively mixed. It is impossible to form a formation, and if all of them are combined, it is probably about 350 vehicles. ”

"More than three hundred and fifty vehicles," Jiang Baili muttered, in the mind of China's best military scientist. I have already begun to think about how to use this weapon. It's just that I haven't seen how this weapon works, and there is still a little difference between the imagination of the brain alone...

After half a ring, Jiang Baili said to Yan Shao. "President, I wonder if you can let these weapons be demonstrated, let's see how these weapons are used in combat?"

Standing behind Jiang Baili, Feng Guozhang and the others also nodded slightly.

Obviously, they were also curious about how these weapons worked.

"No problem..."Yan Shao said with a smile. I'm letting you come this time. Just so that you can see with your own eyes how these weapons work...", Yan Shao nodded at Liang Xingye.

After receiving Yan Shao's signal, Liang Xingye hurriedly went down to make arrangements. In fact, even Liang Xingye himself was very interested in this. Don't look at him as the person in charge of the base, the general who takes care of these weapons, but in fact, even he has no right to use these weapons.

It's not surprising, after all, the movement of this thing is too big, and it is easy to attract the attention of others if it is used easily. In addition, even if you don't consider Tokyo, you should also consider the issue of fuel consumption.

At this time, there are no fuel-efficient engines, almost one is more oily than the other, one or two are counted, and dozens or hundreds of them are used at a time, and I am afraid that the fuel cost will be a lot...

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In order to better let Jiang Baili and others understand the power of these equipment, Yan Shao dispatched a regiment of tanks this time.

No matter what era it is, the scene of a hundred tanks being dispatched at the same time is extremely shocking. This is especially true after the tanks and armored vehicles that Jiang Baili and others saw with their own eyes easily crossed the pre-dug trenches.

As for the blocking that there used to be, it was different from the last time, after all, the scale of this time was larger, and no one knew if there would be an accident, if it was a drill, it would be fine, but this time it could only be said to be an ornamental performance, and it was not worth it to kill people for this, so this time the tank unit only performed how to cross the trench and so on...

But even so, this performance still brought enough shock to Jiang Baili and others.

After all, the scene of hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles advancing together is very spectacular, and even if there is no live-fire drill, Jiang Baili and others can imagine the scene of these weapons on the battlefield as if they were nothing...

When they were close just now, they had personally touched these equipment, and they knew very well that these equipment were composed of thick steel plates, which could not be penetrated by ordinary bullets, and even small-caliber machine guns could not be used, and if they really wanted to deal with these equipment, they would probably need larger-caliber weapons...

As for air scrubbing? At this time, the Air Force was not very perfect, so no one thought that they could deal with these weapons by washing the ground in the air ...

In fact, not only now, even during World War II in history, aren't few people able to think of this solution...

To be honest, if there are a hundred bombers, carpet bombing, after a few rounds, it is really hard to imagine how many tanks can survive.

"It's indeed a subversive weapon..."After the performance ended, Jiang Baili couldn't help but admire, Feng Guozhang and the others were even more shocked, even Fu Xiuming, who had long known the power of these weapons, was only slightly less shocked than Feng Guozhang and them.

This is not surprising, after all, Fu Xiuming is only in charge of supervision, and he may have seen a scene where a tank or more than a dozen tanks were dispatched together, but this scene of hundreds of vehicles is β€”β€”β€”β€”β€”β€” first time...

"President, this kind of weapon must be equipped more..."Standing up from behind, Feng Guozhang couldn't help but say. As long as you have these weapons. We will definitely be the country with the strongest army, and neither Japan nor Russia will be our opponents at that time..."

Feng Guozhang's words were quickly recognized by many people. Many people nodded in agreement, obviously agreeing with Feng Guozhang's words.

Indeed, more than 20 years later, a country's steel, oil, etc. are certainly the standard for measuring a country's strength. But how many weapons such as tanks are equipped is actually a standard.

In Feng Guozhang's view, if China can be equipped with more of these weapons, the gap between China and the great powers at sea may still be very large. But at least on land, they will no longer have to worry about any opponents.

However, unlike Feng Guozhang and others, who were more emotional, they were certainly very excited. But Jiang Baili thought about more things. "I don't know the cost of this weapon......... How much exactly? Is it convenient for mass production? ”

Giving Jiang Baili an appreciative look, Yan Shao nodded. "The production volume is not mentioned for the time being, but the cost is high, even if mass production has already begun. But the cost of purchasing a tank still needs at least 100,000 yuan. What you see now, after counting the supporting equipment, it will cost at least 40 million yuan..."

Speaking of this, Yan Shao sighed.

After all, tanks cannot be counted only from a single quantity, and the supporting equipment for maintenance also needs to be counted. And that's not even counting the cost of building these warehouses, the reinforced concrete warehouses are strong, but the cost is not small at all, after all, this is a military standard, not a civilian one...

"Forty million..."Hearing this number, Feng Guozhang and the others were taken aback. After all, at this time, the annual fiscal revenue of the national government was only one billion yuan. 40 million is already equivalent to 4% of fiscal revenue. At the same time, it is equivalent to the cost of almost two super-dreadnoughts, which is not a small amount...

God knows, just now Feng Guozhang and the others were still fantasizing about the scene of tens of thousands of tanks going out together to crush the enemy. Now it seems, shattered...

A tank costs 100,000 yuan, 10 is 1 million, 100 million is 100 million, 100 million is 100,000, and at least 1 billion yuan is needed. This is not only the cost of tank procurement, if you count the cost of supporting equipment, daily maintenance, fuel, and personnel training, etc., about 1.5 billion should be regarded as a more reasonable price...

It is impossible to use a year's and a half years of financial revenue to purchase 10,000 tanks.

As for the question of these more than three hundred ...

Feng Guozhang and the others never doubted that Yan Shao could get more than 40 million to produce these more than 300 tanks in a quiet situation, and neither the Congress nor they knew about it.

Not to mention that Yan Shao himself has the financial resources to provide 40 million, if he is determined to do something, Feng Guozhang and they really haven't seen Yan Shao discuss with anyone.

Of course, if the environment is changed, Yan Shao's attitude will definitely cause a backlash from his subordinates, but who says that China is now in a thriving momentum. Just like Hitler in history, before he led Germany to the top, there were actually many opponents within Germany.

But after he recaptured the Rhine and took Austria and other places without blood, Hitler's popularity in Germany reached a peak, and no one in Germany dared to oppose Hitler, at least openly. Until Germany went from the top to the defeat.

At present, Yan Shao's position in China is somewhat similar to that of Hitler at his peak, but after Hitler's lesson, Yan Shao will definitely not go down the same path as Hitler...

As for Congress? It's just a vase...

What Yan Shao is willing to tell them, he will naturally inform them, but for those things that Yan Shao doesn't want to tell them...

They will not know anything.

Even if those guys in Congress are dissatisfied, can they still bite Yan Shao?

In fact, if it weren't for the purpose of leaving some foundation for the future 'republic', and this is also the political system left over after Xinhai, Yan Shao would really want to dissolve the parliament...

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Unlike Feng Guozhang and others who were shocked by the cost of these tanks, Jiang Baili was shocked by the price at the same time, and he was also very keen to grasp a loophole in Yan Shao's words just now.

"Tanks?" Jiang Baili asked a little strangely. "President, what is a tank?"

Hearing Jiang Baili's words, Feng Guozhang and the others also followed.

Through the introduction just now, they have learned that this kind of weapon is usually called an armored fighting vehicle and an armored transport vehicleβ€”β€”β€”β€”β€”β€” of course, the latter can also be called an armored personnel carrier or an infantry fighting vehicle or something, anyway, the division is still very general at this time.

But tanks, they really can't figure it out.

And in the face of the puzzled eyes of Jiang Baili and others, Yan Shao was also dumbfounded. It's hard for him to say that it's because he didn't get it right for a while, and he slipped out of his mouth and got the word tank out, right?

So I had to pretend to be stupid. "Tanks? What is that? Did I say that? Maybe you heard it wrong..."

From a certain point of view, the current Yan Shao can be regarded as a politician, although he can't be compared with those treacherous and cunning guys, but if he pretends to be stupid, ordinary people still can't distinguish it.

Therefore, after taking a serious look at Yan Shao's expression, Jiang Baili and the others had no choice but to give up observation and ask them questions instead.

"Just now you said that you want to put these weapons into use, could it be that you are talking about Europe?"

"That's right..."Yan Shao nodded. The Allies are preparing to launch a campaign on the Somme to drive the Germans back to the German-French border, and you should know the news. In this battle, the expeditionary force will also be one of the main forces into the battle, so in order to reduce the casualties of the troops, and at the same time allow the expeditionary force to exert impressive combat effectiveness in the Somme, it is inevitable to invest in armored forces..." (To be continued......