nucmednet Chapter 162 Armored Division
Chapter 162 Armored Division
With a loud rumble, a plume of black smoke billowed from behind. The steel monster, two and a half meters tall, two and a half meters wide, and four and a half meters long, roared as it charged forward.
It easily crossed the trench, which was more than a meter wide, climbed a gentle slope, and then with a flash of fire, it destroyed a bunker two hundred meters away with a "boom".
Then two machine guns firing in the same direction began to fire fiercely, raising clouds of dust on the other side.
"Great!" Several staff officers clapped happily. Shen Lian also nodded in satisfaction.
After more than half a year of testing, the first real tank was finally successfully built. This tank weighed twelve tons and was equipped with a 40mm smoothbore cannon and two machine guns.
The maximum speed limit on the highway is 15 kilometers per hour, and the maximum driving distance is 100 kilometers.
The frontal armor is 20 mm thick, the side armor is 15 mm thick, and the rear armor is 10 mm thick.
Although it still has shortcomings in many aspects, it is already a powerful weapon. Shen Lian cannot ask for too much.
Besides tanks, armored personnel carriers were also designed. Weighing four and a half tons and equipped with four general-purpose machine guns, these vehicles, capable of transporting an entire squad of soldiers at once, would be a formidable weapon for Shen Lian.
With Shen Lian's continuous heavy investment, his car factory has expanded to three, producing cars, trucks, and tractors respectively.
Of course, with current productivity and technology, it is impossible for a factory to produce hundreds of thousands of cars a year, as it would be in later generations.
However, thanks to Shen Lian's pioneering implementation of assembly line production technology, his car factory is now able to produce one hundred cars per month.
This well-designed and aesthetically pleasing car immediately won the favor of wealthy people both at home and abroad upon its release.
Despite its exorbitant price of 100,000 taels of silver, it's still in high demand and short supply. It just goes to show there are just too many rich people in this world.
Many clients had special requests. For example, the British envoy, Sir John Daryl Saunders, ordered a car with an interior decorated with high-grade wood and gold, saying it was a gift for their Queen. Shen Lian ripped him off by 300,000 taels of silver.
With so much investment, we're finally seeing some return on our investment! Shen Lianguang has applied for dozens of patents for this car in Western countries, marking the first time a Chinese invention has been patented in the West.
As a result, newspapers in various Western countries gave it a lot of publicity, which brought Shen Lian's car, known as Haojue, into the view of Western countries.
It can also be said that Shen Lian truly defined what a sedan is, while the so-called automobiles in the West still retain the form of horse-drawn carriages.
Westerners also began to change their perception of this once-backward and vast empire. Of course, it couldn't become much better overnight, but it was moving in a positive direction.
His truck and tractor factories, however, have been relatively quiet. It's not that they lack products, but rather that all their resources are currently focused on producing tanks and armored vehicles.
As long as you have a good engine, everything else is actually quite simple. After all, people's requirements for cars aren't that high these days.
Shen Lian possesses all the technology and blueprints for engine development. He only needs to select some currently feasible technologies to leave other countries far behind.
. . . . . .
"Xiaoman, come to Daddy for a hug!" Shen Lian hugged and kissed his beloved daughter as soon as he returned home. His son, Little Dog Egg, who was almost two years old, immediately ran over and grabbed his father's trouser leg, wanting a hug too.
Shen Lian's doting on his daughter was known throughout Shandong. He even designed many beautiful dresses and various toys for her, which inspired people to follow suit.
"Daddy, hug me! Daddy, hug me!" Little Dog Egg grabbed Shen Lian's thigh and shook it vigorously.
"Okay, okay! Daddy, hug me!" Can't you, as the older brother, give in to your little sister a little more?
Helpless, Shen Lian squatted down and picked up his son as well.
Nie Xiaoqian, Xiao Yue'er, and Chen Ruyi sat to the side, watching this scene with smiles on their faces.
Both women are now pregnant, with large bellies. Nie Xiaoqian's belly is the biggest, and she's about to give birth. Xiao Yue'er is also seven or eight months pregnant.
As long as Chen Ruyi watched this scene with envy, it wasn't that she couldn't have children. Shen Lian felt she was too young and should wait a couple more years before having a child.
With another member expected to join the family, the happiest person was naturally Old Master Shen Hu. Although his health wasn't good, his spirits were still quite high. He would even go out for a walk when the weather was nice.
Time flies, and another three months have passed. Nie Xiaoqian and Xiao Yue'er each gave birth to a son for Shen Lian.
The Marquis's residence became even more lively, and Shen Lian spent more time at home, accompanying the women and children.
By the end of the year, Shen Lian's first class of military academy students had officially graduated. At the same time, they began recruiting a new class of students, including outstanding officers recommended by the military and recruits from the general public.
The first batch will recruit 1,000 people, and with recommendations from the military, the second batch is estimated to have 1,500 students. A new batch of students will be recruited every year thereafter; the exact number will be announced later.
The first batch of trainees were all officers, and after they returned to their units, Shen Lian's military expansion plan quietly began.
He plans to initially form twelve main divisions, each with approximately 12,000 men. Then, by the end of 2004, he plans to form ten more Class B divisions, each with approximately 8,000 men.
The force will be expanded to 300,000 before 2005, which should be sufficient.
The General Staff began to act according to plan, and the manpower was readily available. The militia reserve force of the past two years was no joke.
Excellent recruits received the notification and quickly assembled at the barracks. Before anyone outside could detect anything amiss, the first phase of troop expansion was completed.
These are militiamen who have been trained for two years. They have some combat skills and will become an elite force after a period of further training.
Shen Lian was particularly focused on the formation of the First Armored Division and the Independent Artillery Division.
If we were talking about the level of World War II, an armored division would have two to three hundred tanks, plus more than two hundred armored vehicles and dozens of artillery pieces towed by trucks.
Just one armored division would bankrupt Shen Lian, and he doesn't have that much equipment right now. The current tank technology isn't up to par; he'll have to wait until the tanks are upgraded.
He planned to start with a basic version, equipping one hundred of the current Leopard 1 tanks, one hundred armored vehicles, and thirty 105mm artillery pieces.
As for the artillery division, he plans to form four artillery regiments: the 210mm howitzer regiment, the 150mm heavy artillery regiment, and two 105mm artillery regiments.
With Krupp's technical support in artillery, mass production of the 105mm cannon has already begun, and the 150mm cannon is under design. As for the 210mm cannon, he's not in a hurry; it's unlikely to be needed for the time being. This is preparation for a future landing in Japan.