Chapter 65 Tank! Tank!

  PS: Almost overslept! Second update today! There's still one more coming later, thanks for your continued support!

  Even if World War II were to happen again, even if the Japanese were to occupy Southeast Asia, the Chinese of this era would no longer be a target that other indigenous peoples and foreigners could easily bully. At this point in time, the Chinese can rely on their own long-term development and established defenses to resist layer by layer, or they can strategically retreat and leave space. After all, the purpose of Japan's occupation is nothing more than rubber, oil, and mineral resources. Under the resistance of the great powers and local people, this plundering work will be extremely difficult.

  At that time, the British and American powers, who were harmed by their own interests, would not sit idly by and watch their sphere of influence being eroded. If they concentrated their efforts to crack down on Japan, its fate would be worse than in another space-time. After going through trials and tribulations, the Chinese people would eventually give up all illusions and strive for their rights and freedom on the basis of what they already had. At that time, even without Chen Xiaoqi's help, with their intelligence and wisdom, they could grasp the initiative. As long as a strong China existed, the powers would no longer be able to instigate and support the natives in massacres and looting, and they would no longer be able to reap benefits from behind the scenes.

  This grand long-term plan involves a multitude of complex and intricate details, which cannot be explained in just a few sentences. Chen Xiaoqi would not reveal the possible future developments to them; he only guided and supported them through the first three steps of their work. The rest depended on what they themselves chose to do. After all, he was not God, lacking the power to control everyone's fate - he couldn't even control his own destiny.

  According to the plan, Luo Ba Dao and Jiang Kai, Song Yu Xiang and others formed the leading core, then dozens of new recruits who had undergone rigorous military training as the backbone, and dozens of peripheral members who had undergone security training joined in, after which they were re-trained with targeted training, and then they were taken to Chen Xiao Qi's two shipyards in Newport for on-board familiarization and training. At the same time, Chen Xiao Qi invested in the construction of two 600-ton small wheel ships in the shipyard.

  On the surface, these two ships were built according to the general merchant ship standards, but those who knew the truth could definitely tell that everything from the structure, steel plates used, power and auxiliary facilities was done according to naval standards, the only difference being that various caliber cannons had not been installed on them.

  This is not the end, Chen Xiaoqi also added an order for a 3,000-ton transport ship, with standards exactly like those of the German ironclad destroyer, but different in that all these ships are equipped with the latest high-strength shipboard armor plating, using the new welding technology from "Mei Hua Laboratory", and after manufacture, the overall structure is more stable and solid, and after installing the naval guns at the reserved positions, they can certainly exert their due combat effectiveness.

  The two small boats were built at an extremely fast pace, and in less than half a year, they were launched into the sea, each carrying a large amount of supplies. Not long after, news arrived that the two small merchant ships had encountered pirates in the Malacca Strait, and not a single ship or crew member escaped, resulting in a complete defeat.

  These two ships and their crew were not lost, they themselves became thieves and stole the ship. They also took away all the military supplies loaded in the shipyard as their starting capital. Not long after, another merchant ship hired by "Meihua Trading Company" was robbed on its way from Europe to Shanghai. Some second-hand mechanical equipment on board was stolen, but more importantly, dozens of 150mm, 105mm, 75mm and even 40mm naval guns were taken away without leaving any behind.

  The two ships, though not large in size, were capable of carrying twin 150mm Krupp quick-firing guns. This heavy artillery, invented during World War I, might be insufficient to take on battleships, but it was more than enough to deal with pirates. Among the goods that had been hijacked earlier were various welding equipment and auxiliary machinery, which the technical workers had already prepared in advance. Later, Chen Xiaoqi actually manipulated the purchase of these guns, which were installed on the two ships under the pretext of "research" by a certain Chinese warlord. With their powerful engines, strong hulls, high-quality soldiers, and shells loaded with "Black Gold" explosives, the killing power was enormous! Chen Xiaoqi believed that as long as those guys weren't too stupid, relying on these two warships, they could take out some real pirates in a short period of time and establish their own base without any problems. As for how they would develop later, it depended on whether they became a force to be reckoned with. Anyway, Chen Xiaoqi had an endless supply of guns, artillery, medicine, and ammunition to support them, so as long as they came out to "rob" once, it would be enough to sustain them for a year.

  This kind of inside and outside collaboration, Chen Xiaoqi is becoming more and more skilled. In the country, Huang Zhen Shan and others are also irregularly "robbing" goods from Zhoucun Bogshan Zhangdian to Zhangqiu, sneaking around and snatching things away, even stealing a lot of equipment from the Beiyang Army's arsenal, causing quite a big mess, but those who ended up taking the blame were people like Liu Heiqi who were later eliminated.

  Not to mention Huang Zunshan and his family's troubles in their Shandong hometown, Chen Xiaoqi's troubles in the US were no less than theirs. At the end of 1923, just before Christmas, the "Mei Hua Experimental Laboratory" subordinate arsenal produced a new generation product after the "M1923" submachine gun - the tank!

  This new generation of war machines, piled up with Chen Xiaoqi's known technology, has the unparalleled strong combat power of this era. This new generation of tanks, developed on the basis of large-scale crawler tractor chassis technology, provides a structure and basic configuration that has hardly changed for nearly a hundred years in later generations.

  The tank made by Chen's family has a very ugly appearance, so ugly that Chen Xiaoqi almost couldn't bear to see it and wanted to melt it down when he saw it for the first time. After getting used to seeing tanks with smooth lines and geometric beauty in later generations, looking at this ugly thing is really nauseating.

  This tank is 7 meters long, 3.3 meters wide and 3.2 meters high, with a new generation of high-manganese armor steel welded by the Metallurgical Laboratory and the US Steel Group. The load-bearing wheels and tracks are similar to those of the Sherman M4, with three pairs of triple structures. The engine is equipped with a 300-horsepower MC-GAA diesel engine newly developed by the Power Laboratory, which can drive this thirty-ton giant at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour on standard roads for 180 kilometers.

  The turret is equipped with a fake 75mm 35-caliber smoothbore gun, with 70 rounds of ammunition. The armor-piercing shells can penetrate 55mm of homogeneous steel plate at a distance of 1000 meters, and it's hard to say how far it can go beyond that. Just like the M4 tank in history, the firepower is really weak and shameful.

  The armament consists of coaxial and turret-mounted 7.62mm light machine guns, with a total ammunition capacity of 5,000 rounds. Notably, the tank features the newly invented "hydraulic return center assembly" technology, which allows the turret to rotate 360 degrees under auxiliary power system drive, without having to turn half a day like previous tanks for aiming.

  The frontal armor of this tank reached the peak of its era - 120mm, and the side armor was all 50mm thick. It can be said that the anti-tank guns of this era were powerless in front of it. In actual verification, even direct hits from ordinary 75mm mountain guns did not cause any damage to the tank. Direct hits from 105mm heavy artillery could destroy it, but if it exploded nearby, it would only flip over, and the shrapnel from the explosion had almost no harm to the crew inside.

  The tank adopted a fully enclosed air filtration system, which can effectively prevent the toxic gases on the battlefield of World War I. The strong alloy tracks are not only suitable for various road conditions but also effective in dealing with anti-tank grenade attacks. It can be said that on the front battlefield, an army without anti-tank rocket launchers and anti-tank guns is powerless.

  This tank is ugly because it looks like a combination of the original M3 tank and the later M4 tank, especially the turret, which is not cast as a whole but welded together from thick steel plates into a flat hexagonal shape. The short main gun is mounted on top, making it easy to think of the iron cans that were cobbled together by the little devils in later times.

  The German engineers responsible for quality control were unwilling to let such a product leave the factory, claiming that it would damage the reputation of their German technical personnel.

  Chen Xiaoqi, this pseudo-military enthusiast, seems to have forgotten that the turrets of famous tanks in later generations were all welded together. Because hemispherical turrets are cast, there may be irregular voids inside during manufacturing, which is not conducive to overall strength. In an era where anti-tank weapons are advanced, relying solely on shape to resist hits is no longer enough; active reaction armor is still the most reliable. This unintentional adoption of welding and geometric shapes based on later impressions is actually ahead of its time, and following this development will inevitably lead to being ahead of its contemporaries.

  However, he made his first tank product look like this, which is also not good. He understood what the mainstream tanks of later generations would be like. A gun tower as high as this is purely a living target. On the battlefield of World War II, American tanks with a height of over three meters were almost given to Germany's "Leopard" and "Tiger" series. The Germans made their tanks short and stout from the beginning, which naturally increased the difficulty of aiming, plus the strong frontal armor, naturally increasing the survival rate.

  But to the engineers and visiting US Army officers, this broken tank was an invaluable war machine! In this era, such a massive armored vehicle itself is a silent threat, and when it starts moving, the heavy tracks pressing on the cement road make a series of crisp sounds "Ka Ka Ka", and the main cannon's roar creates a huge shockwave that gives people a sense of boundless power.

  Despite the Army's tight budget, they managed to scrape together enough funds to purchase 24 of these tanks, which were designated M1 "General Lee".