The new book "Recasting the Third Reich: The New Era of Sea Power" is currently on the list. Please vote for the new book, thank you!

************************************

Vienna in January was covered with a thick layer of snow, and in the gorgeous palace of Emperor Ao, politicians and generals were quarrels, and everyone wanted to fight for as much of their country as possible at the negotiating table.

In the western suburbs of Berlin, the army test site, another group of people were in a different mood.

When Chen Tian appeared at the test site accompanied by several officers, the testers and staff speculated about what new weapon attracted the New German Emperor here. You must know that he had never arrived here after he ascended the throne.

Although the vigilance at the test site was already very strict, the imperial guards brought by Chen Tian still added a cordon around and cleared all non-key personnel out.

The equipment for the test was transported from East Prussia by train. The four big guys were still covered with thick canvas at this time. From the appearance, the first three were smaller than the last one, but the smallest one was one and a half tall, and they were placed there like a hill.

Chen Tian was wearing a gray military uniform today, the same style as the ordinary Army Marshal's uniform, without ribbons and medals, and looked simple and comfortable. Since the Army Minister took a group of generals to Vienna, only General Matthew and a dozen prestigious school-level staff members came to watch the test with Chen Tian this time.

One of the young majors in black military uniform sat silently in the corner, with a calm and cautious expression.

After a while, an officer in charge of performing the test walked to Chentian and asked respectfully:

"Your Majesty, can the experiment begin?"

Chen Tian glanced at the flat ground not far away. Five armored soldiers stood beside the four piles of things. They were untiing the ropes under the canvas at this time.

"Yeah, let's start!"

The officers quickly conveyed the order, and the armored soldiers quickly lifted the canvas. The first one to appear in the sun were three black iron guys. The officers present were both familiar and unfamiliar with them, because their bodies and turrets were almost the same as the main tank of the Imperial Armored Forces, "Stone II", and unfamiliar with them because they had completely different weapons on their turrets: the first barrel was almost 23 times longer than that of the "Stone II", the second turret was not equipped with artillery, but replaced by two machine guns thicker than ordinary machine guns, and the third turret had a strange nozzle barrel.

"Your Majesty, these three are transformed vehicles of the 'Stone II' type tank. They are named 'Stone IIB', 'Stone IIC' and 'Stone IID' respectively." The officer in charge of the test explained in time next to Chen Tian, ​​"The one on the left here is 'Stone IIB'. We installed a 37mm long-barrel anti-tank gun for it. This tank gun is equipped with a special scope and armor-piercing bomb, which can easily penetrate the armor of any tank or armored vehicle in the world within a distance of 500 meters, including the 'Stone II' itself. The standard bullets of this tank are 30 armor-piercing bombs and 50 ordinary grenades!"

"The second car on the left is a 'Stone IIC' with two 20mm machine guns installed on the front of the turret. In order to make it have air defense capabilities, we also modified its turret so that its machine gun's maximum elevation angle reaches 45 degrees and its maximum dive angle is 8 degrees. Its standard ammunition is 300 rounds of 20mm machine guns."

"The third one is 'Stone IID', which is also the first fire-breathing tank of our army. It has a specially made flamethrower installed on the front, with a maximum fire-breathing distance of 50 meters, carrying 400 liters of fuel, and can spray fire about 30 times. In addition to weapons, the above three tanks have no difference in driving and protection performance from 'Stone II'."

After the officer introduced the article, Chen Tian nodded with satisfaction. These were transformed vehicles developed based on the experience of the armored troops in actual combat. With the development of tank technology in various countries, more transformed vehicles will appear in the future. However, these three types in front of him are more than enough to deal with the British.

"Very good. These three types of tanks should be sent to the British battlefield for actual combat inspection as soon as possible!" Chen Tian made a simple instruction, and the British Isles became the best test site for the German army.

As the canvas outside the last tank was lifted off, the officers present widened their eyes. This was a strange guy I had never met. Like "Stone I" and "Stone II", it had steel tracks, body and turret, but the details were very different from the Stone series tanks: the body below the turret was square, the height was close to the Stone series tanks, but the volume was nearly half larger, and the turret was twice as large as the Stone series; a cannon with a body tube much longer than the Stone series was arranged in the center of the turret, and there was a machine gun at the left of the front of the body and turret; the appearance was relatively smooth, with only a few rivets on the body, and the body and turret had a certain incline.

"Huo! Tank III!" Chen Tian suddenly had such an idea in his mind. He seemed to have seen another famous tank in the Third Reich of the World. In fact, this new tank called "Monster" will play the same tactical role as the No. 3 tank, assault tank!

"Your Majesty, this is the prototype of the 'Monster I' tank made by the Cornisburg Armor Research Institute!" Although he participated in the design of this tank and had long seen the design drawings, Chen Tian still listened to the officer's explanation very carefully. After all, he has been busy with war in the past six months, and during this period, the experts must have made many technical improvements to the "Monster".

Just as the officers were surprised by this unprecedented new thing, the armored soldiers quickly climbed into the tank from the body of the vehicle and the hatch on the turret, and then four tanks were launched one after another with the roar of the engine!

Just like when the Stone Series tanks were launched, bursts of blue smoke continued to erupt from the tail of the "monster" with the roar of the engine. With the sound of a harsh metal friction, the huge "monster" began to move.

"At present, our Monster I prototype car weighs 15 tons, is 5.5 meters long, 2.8 meters wide and 2.5 meters high; the equipment is a 45-diameter 50mm tank gun, with 88 rounds of ammunition, and the turret and body are equipped with an improved "Firebird" machine gun, with a standard ammunition of 1,200 rounds per ammunition; the turret and body armor adopt a homogeneous armor plate, the turret adopts the latest welding technology, the body adopts a mixed technology of welding and rivets, the front of the turret adopts a spoon-shaped structure with artillery anti-shield, the thickest part of the front of the turret body reaches 35 mm, the front of the turret can reach 40 mm, the side of the turret is 20 mm, the back is 15 inside, and the roof and bottom armor are both 10 mm!"

"The prototype car uses a Daimler inline 4 cylinder, with a 200-horsepower water-cooled gasoline engine as the power unit (the A7V tank, a famous German activity fortress in World War I, used this engine, but the A7V weighs 30 tons and has 1,626 members, so the maximum speed is only 10 kilometers per hour). During the test, the maximum road speed can reach 30.5 kilometers per hour, the off-road speed can exceed 15 kilometers per hour, the fuel tank capacity is 300 liters, the maximum road trip is about 150 kilometers, and the off-road trip is 80 kilometers. The vehicle uses a balanced coil spring suspension device (the A7V tank also uses this suspension device, and the comfort is better than the British tanks of the same period), and there are 5 independent load-bearing wheels on both sides of the tank. In the previous test, according to the testers' reaction, the balance and comfort of the "Monster I" when traveling is better than the "Stone II" tank, and general armored soldiers are completely acceptable!"

As the officer spoke, "Monster I" had already thrown away three other tanks and ran wildly in front, with a burst of dust rising from behind the car.

With a larger body, stronger armor, thicker artillery, and faster speed, Chen Tian’s staff members couldn’t help but sigh.

At this moment, the young major with a cold expression was also staring at the "monster" galloping on the test field. Its graceful figure, the coherent movement of rapid turning when bypassing the target flag, and the turret that kept turning during the process, all of this seemed so obsessive.

In Chen Tian's view, although the current armored steel plate technology still needs to be improved, and the "monster" cannot be compared with the III tank of the Head of State, there is no doubt that it is already a product ahead of the times. This is not only due to the designers of the Cornisburg Armor Research Institute, but also thanks to Germany's superior industrial system.

First of all, the German military industry, with traditional arms factories of all sizes providing the most powerful guarantee for the German army, and Krupp and Mauser are among the best.

The Krupp Enterprise (founded in 1811 and was originally a steel mill) is famous for its artillery technology. They have been providing artillery to the Prussian army since 1844. The excellent artillery they made showed their skills in Pudan, Puao, Fa and World War I. Among them, the 420mm siege cannon developed successfully in 1909 created the world's best at that time. This huge industrial empire not only manufactured artillery, but also made it in steel.

The ship industry also performed well. In fact, as early as 1906, the Krupp company built submarines. Chentian's Baltic Squadron purchased two experimental submarines from them. It was not until William II specially approved the deployment of the best submarine designers and technicians to the Corniesburg Shipyard. At the same time, Chentian also dug up many well-known submarine engineers from the United States, Britain and other countries with high salaries, which made the Corniesburg Shipyard gradually become the largest submarine manufacturing base in Germany and even the world.

At present, whether it is the Stone Series tank or the new monster tank, the artillery they use is the products of Krupp, especially the 50mm tank gun on "Monster I". It is also a new cannon specially developed by Krupp after receiving the order (i.e., a cannon with a long body tube, a low ballistic trajectory, and a large initial velocity of the shell, a small firing angle).

Although the history of the Mauser company is not as long as Krupp, the Mauser brothers created a Mauser myth. Since the 1870s, Mauser rifles have become the most reliable individual weapon of the German army, and the 98 series rifles have been prosperous. In fact, not only rifles, Mauser has been committed to the research and production of various light weapons, including the Mauser pistol produced in 1896 (the famous mauser gun, which has almost no improvement in the structure in the following 40 years, but due to the fact that the structure of the Mauser pistol was produced in 1896.

The price is high and the size is large. No country regards it as a standard weapon for the army, but the Chinese love it well). Starting from "Stone I", all types of German tanks have been equipped with machine guns without exception. This weapon has been proven to be an "infantry killer" in actual combat. The Stone Series and Monster Series tanks are equipped with 7.92mm "Firebird" improved machine guns. Although this machine gun is provided by the East Prussian Arsenal invested by Chentian, its technology has been successfully researched in cooperation with Mauser.

In addition to the excellent arms industry, before the outbreak of the war, the German automobile industry had already formed an independent industrial sector, producing 20,000 cars annually. Such a huge automobile industry provided technical support for the development and production of German armored vehicles. Among dozens of automobile manufacturers, the most famous, oldest and largest automobile factories were Mercedes-Benz and Daimler. Mercedes-Benz started mass-producing "Villo" brand cars in 1894, and Daimler first applied nozzle carburetors and magnetomotor ignition devices in 1901. The performance of the engine was greatly improved, which also made it possible to tractors that require high-power engines. After the establishment of the GG tractor factory invested by Chentian, the first thing was to buy gasoline engine technology from Daimler and cooperated with the company to establish an engine research room. The 200-horsepower Daimler engine used on "Monster I" is the best gasoline engine at present.

In addition, Chentian Engine Research Institute is committed to developing diesel engines with higher power, smaller size and weight, and strive to move this safer engine to a tank as soon as possible. The chief designer of this project is the inventor of the diesel engine - the German Rudolph Diesel Diesel is an excellent inventor, but he has no smart mind in business. He developed the first diesel engine in 1892 and obtained a patent, but he returned the technology two years later.

The immature diesel engine was put into commercial production, but not only did not be accepted by the public but was heavily in debt. Later, Chen Tian found him and paid off his debts (or this poor inventor would have been swept away by big waves on the ferry deck in 1913. Of course, most historians believed that he committed suicide because he was desperate). From then on, Diesel stayed in the engine laboratory in Cornisburg. Now German submarines are far ahead of Britain and France, and Diesel and his diesel engine technology make an indelible contribution.

After bypassing the target flag, the distance between the "monster" is more than 50 meters ahead of the "stone". What it will have to accept next is obstacle tests, first a trench about 1.5 meters wide, followed by several rows of wooden piles about 1 meter high. The wooden piles are connected by barbed wire mesh, and then there are two trenches about 1 meter wide and 30 meters long. There are also several machine gun fortresses made of piles of earth and stones between the trenches. This arrangement is also the most common defense method in position wars at present.

Further apart, there are also a pile of brick and stone walls, an inclined earth slope and a large puddle.

"How deep is that puddle?" Chen Tian had no doubt that the "monster" could pass easily for the "defensive position" in front. He was more interested in the off-road ability of this new tank at this time, so he turned his head and asked the officer in charge of the explanation.

"Reply to Your Majesty, it's about 1.1 meters deep!" The officer quickly gave the answer, "The brick wall is 2 meters high, 20 cm thick, the earth slope is 2 meters high, and the slope is 30 degrees!"
Chapter completed!