Bian Chunsong walked briskly into the study on the second floor, two important letters were placed in the center of the desk, just stacked on top of a pile of newspapers, he looked at the fire paint stamp, picked up the silver letterhead and opened the first letter from the Somali state.

This is a letter from a friend in Xi'an who does European trade, mainly about the export of European walnut trade, in this era of information blockage, similar business information is quite valuable.

According to this friend, nearly one-third of the European market is occupied by walnut merchants from Citigroup, and the market price is quite good, with peeled walnuts reaching between 2 shillings and 5 pence to 2 shillings 8 pence per pound, and the price is quite stable, and has not changed for more than three years.

Xi'an is located on the busy Asia-Europe trade route, and many Chinese businessmen in the region are engaged in international trade, taking advantage of the convenience of information and logistics to make a fortune, and business is quite booming.

For such a price, Bian Chunsong was neither surprised nor disappointed, and took the envelope and seriously considered it;

It is normal for peeled walnuts to be more expensive, because they require a lot of labor and wear and tear, and they are sold for eight to nine dimes per pound in the Australian domestic market, about eight to ten pence a shilling, which is about 30% cheaper than the European market.

If you add the shipping fee, the price is not much different.

However, considering that the current high prices in Australia cannot be sustained for a long time, Star Lake Ranch is the first to plant walnuts and be the first to go on the market, so it has a bonus period of about five or six years, and can enjoy excess profits exclusively.

In the future, the area of walnut orchards in Star Lake Ranch will quadruple in the future, and many pastures in Victoria are following the trend of planting, and after 6~7 years, a large area of walnut production will be formed on the market, which will inevitably lower the price and may exceed the local demand in Australia.

Then after the walnut returns to its own value, exporting to Europe becomes a profitable trade.

The point is that Europe is in high demand and prices are stable, making it a worthwhile option in the long run.

Don't expect any huge profits in the trade of agricultural products, because there is no threshold in itself, and you can grow it from home, mainly by making money with large outputs.

I thought about it for a moment

Bian Chunsong did not make a decision for the time being, because in the next two or three years, his ranch can still enjoy the dividends of the walnut industry exclusively, and there is no need to worry about this matter, just reply to a letter when he has time.

He picked up the second letter and checked the fire paint stamp, and now knew in his heart that this was a letter from the Qimarang military base on Tasmania, specifically a letter written by his mentor, Professor He Zuguang.

Similar letters go through security checks before they can be sent, using the stamp of the local garrison.

When I opened the letter, I saw it, and sure enough.

After reading it carefully for a moment

Bian Chunsong put down the letter in his hand and fell into consideration;

After the design of the "Tiger Cub" medium tank was finalized, the secret scientific research base of the Ministry of War in Qimarang was divided into two teams in the research and development of the tank project.

One continues to use the chassis of the Tiger tank to develop a series of deformation vehicles, such as 95-mm vehicle-mounted guns, 122-mm open self-propelled guns, medium tank engineering vehicles, ammunition delivery vehicles, and other new projects.

The finalized "Tiger" tanks are produced at a rate of 55 units per year, and the number of related series of deformed vehicles is small, and the total annual output is between 10 and 15 vehicles, which are basically sealed in the strategic reserve.

In addition, after moderate improvement, the light "Wild Wolf" tank is also in continuous production, with an annual output of about 80~90 units, except for 15~20 units that enter service with the army every year, all the others enter the strategic reserve for mothballing.

The second scientific and technological research and development team is to carry out the research and development of the "heavy armored tank vehicle project", taking into account the tactical needs and practical use experience, the War Department has put forward quite high research and development indicators.

Project designation T~1 tank

The total weight is not less than 19.5 tons, not more than 21 tons, the crew is four, the main weapon is a 60 mm short-barreled howitzer, and the secondary weapon is a course machine gun.

Heavy tank armored vehicles were required to be able to withstand the bombardment of 40 mm guns on the front, 12.7 mm heavy machine gun fire on the side defenses, and 9.8 mm rifle bullets on the rear armor.

mobility;

It is required to have an off-road speed of 30 kilometers per hour, a barrier wall of 0.55 meters, a trench width of 1.78 meters, a wading depth of 0.7 meters, a climbing of 22 degrees, and a cruising range of 150~170 kilometers (without additional oil drums).

In this day and age, this technical requirement is of a very high standard.

Brigadier General Bian Chunsong, as the supreme commander of the tank armored arms and a military academic authority, served as the deputy director of the review committee of the "T~1 heavy armored tank vehicle project" during his teaching at the Royal Whampoa Army Academy, and personally led and adopted the design index technical plan of the Ministry of the Army.

The reason for the demand for high mobility and heavy firepower stems from the theory of high mobility strike advocated by him, and the newly developed T-1 tank should be subordinated to the needs of the army.

After the emergence of the Wolf light tank, it gave great inspiration to the armies of all countries in the world, which was 20 years ahead of the original world line, and the current combat theory of the world for tanks and armored vehicles is mainly divided into two factions;

One faction believes that attention should be paid to high-mobility firepower strikes, mainly focusing on the Ocean Empire and France, and advocates the development of small and medium-sized armored tank vehicles with strong off-road performance.

One faction believes that survival should be given priority, and in view of the harsh land war environment in the European region, defense should be given priority, firepower should be secondary, and mobility should be secondary.

This faction is dominated by Britain and Russia, the United Kingdom is still fond of developing diamond-shaped tanks, as in the original historical line, while the Russians are so ambitious, spending huge sums of money on the development of heavy tanks that are more than eight meters high and weigh hundreds of tons.

This super heavy tank has two 76mm guns, the bottom of the tank is a full four meters above the ground, and it is armed with a small short-barreled gun.

Under the guidance of this philosophy, heavy tanks should be a mobile fortress, a steel punch when a large army force attacks, and a support point when defending.

In this case, priority should be given to strengthening the defense, so that the tank can defend against frontal bombardment from 60-mm guns, as for the speed requirements, 12~15 km per hour is enough, as long as it can keep up with the pace of the infantry advance.

The "Wild Wolf" light tank unveiled by the Ocean Empire did arouse the interest of some of the European army powers, but after a little research, they immediately lacked interest.

This ultra-light machine gun cart has low defense, and can be easily penetrated with 14.5mm heavy guns, and has little survivability in the European theater of heavy artillery fire.

With the pride of Britain, France, Germany and other industrial countries, they still disdain to introduce this kind of small bean tank, they need to develop a tank that meets the needs of their own army.

Bian Chunsong, the initiator of the former theory, had experienced the war-torn Civil War and knew that with the defensive power of tanks, no matter how strong they were, it would be impossible to resist the frontal bombardment of high-density artillery, and only high mobility could improve survivability.

In the French Army

Extremely admired 76 mm field plus howitzer intensive firepower, the army is equipped with more than 3,000 guns, when attacking, directly flatten the barrel to bombard the enemy's position, the distance is even shortened to 3~4 kilometers, with fierce artillery fire to destroy the enemy's will to resist.

In the face of such heavy artillery fire, even the T-1 tank with heavy armor could not resist it, and the slow-moving tank was the best target, and there was no survivability at all.

The T-1 tank design index issued by the War Department is based on this tactical theory of high-mobility firepower, which requires sufficient protection to achieve a balance of mobility, firepower and armor protection.

Today, Brigadier General Bian Chunsong received a letter from his mentor, Professor He Zuguang, admitting that it was too difficult to achieve this design goal, and hoped to contribute to the goal of reducing some of the design goals.

The engine, gearbox, and clutch that drive a 20-ton tank are quite difficult scientific and technological research projects, and it is tantamount to making it even more difficult to achieve reliable, durable, and high speed.

In order to achieve the ballistic performance in the design indicators, the frontal armor of the tank should be between 80 mm and 90 mm, the side and back armor should also be between 20 mm and 30 mm, plus the 20-ton chassis and the weighted running gear, it will take up more than 14 tons of dead weight, plus the 60 mm short-barreled gun, and other equipment, the experimental prototype is easily overweight.

In Professor He Zuguang's letter, the experimental tank prototype reached 23.4 tons, and the weight had to be subtracted by at least 2.4 tons, which was a very difficult task.

But there are also some workarounds, such as reducing the design speed from 30 kilometers per hour to 23~24 kilometers per hour, reducing the off-road mileage from 170 kilometers to 120 kilometers, and reducing the failure rate per 100 motorcycle hours.

Such an outrageous request can give Bian Chunsong a big problem, even if he does not have this right, it is impossible to agree to such an excessive request, and how to reply is a headache.

He thought for a moment, picked up the letter, stood up, and went downstairs.

At the door of the main building, Bian San'er was washing the car with two servants, and suddenly saw the lord striding over, quickly stood up and wiped the hot sweat on his forehead, and greeted him and asked; "Sir, I'll be fine for a while now......"

"I'm going to go out for a while, and I'll wash it again when I come back."

"Oh, got it."

"By the way, I don't necessarily come back for dinner in the evening, the old lady comes back and asks them not to wait for me."

"Well, I see, sir."

Bian Chunsong pulled the car door and sat in, Bian San'er hurriedly picked up the crank to the front to start the car, then sent the crank back to the car, and closed the door smoothly.

Bian Chunsong drove the vehicle lightly around the fountain in front of him and drove all the way into the distance.

The place he was going to was six kilometres away in the town of Lijiabao, the fief of the viscount of Admiral Li Xuanzhu, where he owned more than 140 square kilometres of pasture, the third largest in Victoria.

Located 57 kilometres east of Melbourne and crossed by a coastal railway, the town has grown into a large town of 34,000 and one of Melbourne's satellite towns.

Admiral Li Xuanzhu is now one of the military bigwigs who is deeply respected by the saints today, and he has just visited Victoria and Tasmania not long ago, and now he is based in the town of Lijiabao.

Taking advantage of this reason, Bian Chunsong happens to be more close, wouldn't it kill two birds with one stone?