Li Xiaofeng gave an order and prepared to start the Great Leap Forward directly. The B2-34 was no longer able to meet his requirements, and he was ready to get the B54A and the matching fixed-shaft mechanical transmission directly.

Why did Li Xiaofeng suddenly want to jump from B2-34 to B54A? The reason is very simple, first of all, this thing is going to be angry with Ulitsky, don't you give me B2-34? That Lao Tzu directly uses a better B54A, and he must overpower your girl's head. Secondly, as I said before, NORINCO is preparing to design an epoch-making tank. What kind of tank can be considered an epoch-making tank?

FT-17 counts, this French bean tank laid the basic layout of modern tanks, which really makes sense. In the future, the T-34 will be available that can be regarded as epoch-making, Li Xiaofeng does have the idea of copycat T-34, but he is not completely satisfied with the copycat, and is ready to add a snake. For the suspension system of the T-34, a certain immortal is not satisfied, this spring suspension born from the Christie suspension is simple, but the performance is not very good, and from the perspective of the development of the times, the torsion bar suspension is the mainstream.

Therefore, Li Xiaofeng means to develop a copycat version of the T-34 that uses torsion bar suspension, and use this knock-off to let North Industry practice his hands, and after his skills reach the standard, he will directly step into the T-39 before 54.

It should be said that this idea is still very realistic, for this reason a certain immortal specially asked North Industry to set up several research teams, the first group is naturally to tackle the B2-34 engine and transmission system, the second group is to tackle the torsion bar suspension, after all, in the early thirties, the Soviet Union's metallurgy was not strong. I really didn't master the processing technology of torsion bar suspension. As for the third and fourth tackling groups, it is in terms of firepower. Three groups are responsible for tackling 100 mm tank guns, and four groups are responsible for tackling two-way stabilization systems and fire control of tank guns.

Of course, the priorities of the four groups are certainly different, and the highest priority is naturally responsible for the motivation part. The lowest priority is given to the team responsible for tackling 100 mm tank guns.

The four groups were formed in 1929 and spent three years basically solving the problems with the engine and torsion bar suspension. Now he was about to enter the state of "building up", but he was released by Ubolevich. Without an engine, every qiē loses its meaning. At least according to the assumption of a certain immortal, the copycat T-34 will definitely not work.

According to Ulitsky's urine, the production of B2-34 in Kharkov will definitely not be given to NORINCO, and it takes a long time for a tank to be designed and produced, and if NORINCO copies the T-34 according to the original plan, it will inevitably collide with the genuine T-34 of the Kotin Design Bureau.

At that time, the copycat T-34 of NORINCO had no advantage, and it was inevitable to lose to the genuine version of Kejing. And it was when this was discovered that Li Xiaofeng asked for another way, simply, let's stop copying T-34. Run straight to the T-54 in one step, forget it. Do the math, most of the technology is actually off-the-shelf. The engine and gearbox are tackled again, and there is still time for tank guns.

Even if the tank gun can't be done for the time being, you can make do with the 76 gun first. The most optimistic estimates are that in about 38 years, a reduced version of the T-54 can be born ahead of schedule. And what is the advantage of the T-54 over the T-34? Even friends who play Yamaguchi Ding know that it is not a grade.

Li Xiaofeng is ready to jump to the T-54 in one step, ready to release a big satellite. But soon the problem arose, he somewhat overestimated the capabilities of NORINCO. Soon the chief engineers of the various subsystems rebelled!

The first person to complain was his pseudo-brother Konstantin, as the head of the power system, Konstantin expressed strong dissatisfaction with the behavior of a certain immortal.

"The B2-34 is a rather complex diesel engine with a lot of new technology. As you know, the foundation of North Industry is very weak in precision machining. Our technicians were extremely inexperienced, and it was already difficult to mass-produce the B2-34 in three years. And you've turned up the difficulty again, do you know what that means? ”

Without waiting for Li Xiaofeng to answer, Konstantin roared: "This means that the preparations we made before have been in vain, and we have to start all over again!" ”

Looking at the angry Konstantin, Li Xiaofeng pouted his teeth, he was really a little speechless for this pseudo-mother, because since he changed his career to study power systems in 1923, his temper has continued to grow. In the twenties, he chased his ass every day to ask for this and that, or to complain about the poor investment in basic research of North Industries. And he, the younger brother, is already very patient, and he has met the requirements of the pseudo-brother as much as possible. And now he is just a little bit more demanding, this one actually broke out, Nima, who is the boss of the two of them?

"It has nothing to do with who the boss is!" Konstantin screamed angrily, "It's you who are blindly directing!" I just want to remind you that if you want to develop an improved engine that surpasses the B2-34, you will have to pay the price of time! ”

Li Xiaofeng thought about it, he really couldn't ignore the delay of time, if Konstantin didn't lie, it would probably take three years to get the B54A engine, and it would be 36 years at that time, and the time left for North Industry to expand its production capacity was already very tight, at least if there was a delay, that one qiē node would not be able to be saved.

"Is there no other way?" Li Xiaofeng asked.

Konstantin looked at him angrily and said angrily: "I don't understand, why are you in a hurry to improve the B2-34, it seems to me that this is already a rather compact, too compact engine!" ”

This is true, the B2 is a very compact engine both in the year and in the 21st century, otherwise the Soviet-style tank would not have retained the record of the world's smallest power compartment for a long time. Compared with the power compartment of Western tanks, which are eight or nine cubic meters or even more than a dozen cubic meters, the power compartment of Soviet-style tanks is less than six cubic meters, and the most important factor in this miracle is the compactness of the B2.

Of course, being compact is a bit, but being too compact is not a small hassle, in order to reduce the size. In order to reduce weight. B2 uses a lot of aluminum alloy. This is lighter than the bulky cast iron body, but the reliability and longevity are also greatly reduced. At the same time, the difficulty of processing is also rising sharply, after all, aluminum alloy is troublesome whether it is welding or cutting.

Let's put it this way, when the Soviet Union first put into production B2, it encountered quite a lot of troubles, and it was mentioned earlier that the production capacity of the 75th plant in Kharkov was quite pitiful for a long time. Moreover, the early B2 had a very high scrap rate, and its life span was quite acceptable (at one point it was only more than 300 motorcycle hours).

In Konstantin's opinion, the performance of the B2-34 is already very rebellious. Compared to those junk gasoline engines of the Great Powers, the B2-34 is simply too advanced. In this case, why is Li Xiaofeng still not satisfied, and he wants to immediately improve the model for no reason?

"The company decided to launch an epoch-making tank, and the B2-34 and its accompanying gearbox were too large, and the power compartment was too long, which affected the layout of the chassis!"

"That's it?!" Konstantin said nonchalantly.

In the pseudo-mother's opinion, how big of a problem can the chassis be a little longer? In order to accommodate the chassis, it is necessary to overhaul the engine and transmission system that have been finalized, which is something that can only be done by many brains?

But our Li Xiaofeng is still such a paranoid. He hated to be unreasonable and said: "I don't accept the longitudinal engine position, the B2-34 must be overhauled!" ”

"It's absolutely impossible!" Konstantin was also on fire. "If you want to make a big change, give me another three years!"

"No three years, one year at most!" Li Xiaofeng is not giving an inch.

"A year?" Konstantin snorted coldly, "Then you can ask for another master!" ”

After speaking, the pseudo-mother was about to brush her sleeves away, but Li Xiaofeng was dumbfounded. For his pseudo-mother, although he is quite speechless, but this pseudo-mother does have real skills, and is a genius in the field of engines.

"Don't be impulsive!" Li Xiaofeng hurriedly grabbed the pseudo-mother and persuaded him with good words: "I am also here to improve the performance of the product, we can slowly find a way!" ”

Konstantin glanced at someone "amorously" and said contemptuously: "Think of a way? What can you do? You thought it was easy to develop a brand new gearbox? ”

Li Xiaofeng touched his chin and said, "Well, the gearbox can't move, so let's start with the engine, or should we shorten the cylinder spacing and cylinder diameter?" ”

Konstantin said: "This adjustment is too big, and the processing and materials have to be restarted. You won't be able to go into production in two years, and there's a good chance that the power metrics will drop, are you sure you want to do that? ”

Li Xiaofeng thought about it, the performance of the B2-34's five hundred horsepower can only be regarded as just right for the T-54, if the power index falls, with the weight of the T-54, the speed performance will not look good. The most important thing is that it will take two years to change like this, and I really can't afford to wait.

Li Xiaofeng gritted his teeth and put forward another proposal: "Otherwise, sacrifice part of the power index and change the twelve cylinders of the B2-34 to ten cylinders, and reduce the length of two cylinders to naturally be smaller, what do you think?" ”

Konstantin looked at Li Xiaofeng dumbfounded for a long time before he held back two words: "!" ”

Why would Konstantin say that Li Xiaofeng's construction is nonsense? The reason is very simple, the B2-34 is indeed compact, but this compactness is not without a price, because its cylinder adopts a V-shaped 60-degree angle design, which leads to it cannot easily evolve into 8-cylinder and 10-cylinder models like other V-shaped machines.

Let's put it this way, the six cylinders in each row of B2 are a whole, which is cast from a single piece of silicon-aluminum alloy. This design guides the B2 to keep the basic design of the 12-cylinder 60-degree angle unchanged. Later, the various power derivation models of B2 are actually the same mold, and some even have the same size.

All in all, at this point, B2 is a hard injury, and no one can do anything about it. And Li Xiaofeng is very layman and put forward such a funny Jianyì, what can Konstantin say besides talking nonsense?

After listening to Konstantin's explanation, Li Xiaofeng was also dumbfounded, he had always thought that B2 was an artifact, and how awesome it was, so he moved closer to the artifact. Who knew that this artifact was so strange that it suddenly made him feel that his worldview had collapsed.

"There's really no way around it?" Li Xiaofeng asked distressedly.

"It's basically impossible to reduce the number of cylinders and reduce the volume!" Konstantin laughed nervously, full of sarcasm and sarcasm, and he took out the paper and said as he wrote and drawn: "A structure like B2." I want to reduce the number of cylinders. There is only one way. That's just to remove half of the cylinder and turn it into a six-cylinder in-line engine! ”

Seeing this, some comrades may say: "Isn't this a reduction of six cylinders?" The size of the engine must have become smaller! ”

The problem is that, as mentioned earlier, the 12 cylinders of the B2 are divided into two rows and work together at a 60-degree angle, and the six cylinders in each row are a single unit. According to Konstantin's method of reduction, the cylinders were reduced. But the length of the engine hasn't actually shrunk! How is it possible to reduce the length of the power compartment when the engine is still longitudinal?

Anyway, Li Xiaofeng understands, the gearbox is a hard injury, in fact, from the later improvement of B2, the length of B2 not only did not decrease, but increased (B2-34 is 1568 mm long, B54A is 1583 mm long), why can one be transverse and the other can only be longitudinal? In the final analysis, it is still the transmission system of the T-34 that is not powerful!

After tossing for a long time, Li Xiaofeng found it very sadly. This Nima is a big hole, do not change the T-34 that egg-sore gearbox. The length of the chassis cannot be reduced. And to move the gearbox, it takes time.

"How long will it take for your department to come up with a gearbox that meets my requirements?" Li Xiaofeng asked dejectedly.

Konstantin shrugged: "Two to three years!" ”

After some thought, Li Xiaofeng could only compromise with reality, temporarily use the original engine and gearbox combination, first develop a longitudinal version of the T-54 with an engine in state A, and then improve the T-54 in state A after Konstantin got the gearbox.

Speaking from the heart, this choice really made him speechless, and for a moment, he had the heart to purchase a batch of fixed-shaft mechanical transmissions used by the T-54 in a cornucopia while using them to make Konstantin copycat. However, Konstantin finally dispelled this idea with a few words:

"Even if you could get a gearbox from the international market that would have the engine mounted horizontally in the power compartment, I would advise you not to do that. NORINCO is too short of skilled technicians in the power sector, and if you don't let them accumulate experience from easy to difficult in actual production, how can they produce more complex gearboxes in the future? ”

Li Xiaofeng deeply believes this, the development of industry is actually the same as playing online game upgrades, the little newcomers who have just come out of the newcomer village have to obediently fight the little monsters, don't worry about the boss behind at the beginning, otherwise? Otherwise, he will become the same as Ah San in later generations, always ambitious, always staring at the world's most advanced level, and thinking about playing the 100-meter trapeze battle before he learns to walk, so don't he fall on his heels?

If you don't want to masturbate with words like "will" and "future" like the third brother, then obediently start with the simplest job. If you don't accumulate steps, you can't accumulate thousands of miles, you can't accumulate small streams, you can't become rivers and seas, this is the truth!

With Li Xiaofeng giving up the layman's guidance to the insider, the research and development of the new tank codenamed 54 of NORINCO Engineering has finally entered the fast lane. Especially in the case of drawings provided by a certain immortal, the research and development work progressed quite quickly, and only a few modifications were made, and the overall design work was basically completed. If it weren't for the fact that it was necessary to wait for engines and artillery, in 1933 the copycat version of the T-54 would have rolled off the assembly line.

Of course, this is not to say that Project 54 will be smooth sailing in the future, in fact, there are quite a lot of problems behind, but most of these problems are not engineering, but political. Because of the interference of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, Project No. 54 could hardly receive any support from within the Soviet Union, and Ulitsky liked the feeling of wearing small shoes for a certain immortal, and he never tired of it.

Not only Ulitsky, but also within the Red Army, the controversy over Project No. 54 was also quite large, and a group of cavalry generals headed by Budyonny and Voroshilov frantically resisted the armored corps, and they demanded that a large amount of funds be spent on cavalry construction instead of armored corps, which squeezed out a lot of valuable resources.

And inside the armored system, Tukhachevsky prefers a heavy tank with a multi-turret, or a flying tank, and is very unpopular with Project 54. In the small picture, a single-turret tank can only be used for reconnaissance, and breaking through the enemy's lines can only be done with a multi-turret tank.

Under Tukhachevsky's insistent requirements, the tank resources were heavily tilted towards multi-turret heavy tanks, and among single-turret tanks, he preferred the BT series of fast tanks. For a time, Project 54 was completely unmarketable!

At that time, Li Xiaofeng was so angry that he began to understand a little why Tukhachevsky had to be cleaned of the steel back then, because the development of the Red Army and the misleading of the Red Army were both twofold. The new equipment that came up according to his requirements will be a mess in future wars. For example, a heavy tank with multiple turrets, whether it is a T-28 or a T-35, it is scum!

However, for the time being, Li Xiaofeng also has no problem with Tukhachevsky, who made this product the chief of the General Staff, and who let him have the strong support of Trotsky behind him, so he can only endure for the time being. Of course, Li Xiaofeng still had a personal relationship and asked Ubolevich to help place a certain order for Project No. 54 in the name of testing, although the number was not too much, but it was finally opened. Later, in the name of the National Security Council, he asked GRU to purchase a batch of Project 54 samples.

However, 39 years ago, the poor Project 54 only sold 150 units, which is simply a loss of money compared to the huge investment in the entire project.

Fortunately, a certain immortal does not care about this investment, and he is also confident that Project 54 can be successful, as long as World War II breaks out, there will be no market for the performance of the T-54? And the T-54 copycat version of the thirties does have a lot of problems, whether it is the engine, gearbox or torsion bar suspension, the watch xiàn is not particularly ideal, and it requires the technicians of NORINCO to practice a little harder...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Admiral Hood, hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus