I want to be emperor

The armored vehicles equipped by the Guards are also supplied by the same supplier as their military trucks, Hebei Arms Company... It is not that the Guards have a preference for Hebei Arms Company. It is simply that Hebei Arms Company has been a strategic partner of Tangshan Automobile Company from the beginning. .

It has early received support from Tangshan Automobile Company's core technologies such as engines and gearboxes... Not only that, Tangshan Automobile Company has actually been deeply involved in the design and development of military trucks and armored vehicles owned by Hebei Weapons Company!

The military vehicle R&D and production centers of Hebei Weapons Company are all in Tianjin... Next door is Tangshan Automobile Company, and even production is assisted by Tangshan Automobile Company. The strategic cooperative relationship between the two parties is very close.

Relying on the profound technical support of Tangshan Automobile Company, Hebei Weapons Company's military vehicle project research and development progress is also the fastest.

First, they launched the Hebei Type 15 military truck, which has successively received thousands of orders from the military. At the same time, the Hebei Type 1 military armored vehicle they developed was also the first to complete research and development and small batch production, and its performance is pretty good. The Army and The Guards all purchased this type of armored vehicle.

The mass-produced version of this armored vehicle uses a fifty-horsepower engine provided by Tangshan Machinery Company and a specially designed chassis. Compared with ordinary cars, although the highway speed is not high, it has enhanced low-speed off-road passing performance.

The steel plate it lays has good protection capabilities, and it is equipped with a Type 43 air-cooled eight-mm smokeless heavy machine gun.

The biggest feature of this thing is actually not its fierce firepower, nor its excellent protection. Even its off-road performance is not the most powerful among the armored vehicle candidates.

What is really strong in this game is reliability... This is similar to the reason why Type 1 and 5 trucks won the bid, they are both reliable and stable.

And this is very important...

To be honest, the reliability of cars these days, whether they are civilian or military, is not very good... After the rich buy a car, they usually hire a driver, and the driver must also know some simple maintenance knowledge to ensure that the car If something goes wrong, it can be repaired at any time.

This is still talking about those luxury cars that cost thousands of yuan...

Military vehicles are no exception... Although the quality standards are higher, the reliability of many military vehicles is not good due to stringent performance requirements...

In fact, let alone the Chu State’s military vehicles these days, even many military tracked equipment in the 21st century are not very reliable... If a tank battalion marches continuously for hundreds of kilometers, it will break down 2% of the time. Thirty is normal.

Therefore, the armies of many countries in later generations have emphasized battlefield emergency repair capabilities... The reason for emphasizing emergency repair capabilities is because tanks, armored vehicles and the like are prone to problems!

Although later generations used crawler vehicles, today the Chu army still uses all ordinary wheeled military vehicles... but the technology is also very different!

To be honest, it's already great to be able to make an armored vehicle with passable performance... You can't ask for too much, especially reliability.

Because of the technical support of Tangshan Automobile Company, Hebei Weapons Company has done quite well in terms of reliability... This also led to a military truck and armored vehicle of Hebei Weapons Company defeating its opponents in the early stage and winning the Army and Guards of orders.

There is no way, in a group of military trucks and armored vehicles that break down while driving and even lose their wheels... Hebei Weapons Company's military trucks and armored vehicles can drive hundreds of kilometers continuously without any problems, which is incredible.

Under such circumstances, the He-1 armored vehicle has officially entered the equipment sequence of the Guards!

In July of the summer of the 50th year of Chengshun, at the freight station in the eastern suburbs of Jinling City, a train escorted by soldiers arrived. What was behind this train was not an ordinary carriage, but a flatbed vehicle. On these flatbed vehicles There were many armored vehicles covered with sheets parked on the vehicle.

Covering it with a cloth is naturally not for the purpose of keeping some military equipment secret... In fact, the Dachu Empire hardly keeps any military equipment secret, let alone internal secrets. The latest 10,000-ton battleships are directly open to the navy. It is free for tourists to board the ship during the day.

Not to mention the many army equipment. In order to increase its influence and image, the military often holds open days and equipment exhibitions for the public to watch for free. Sometimes it also conducts live ammunition shooting for the public to see. A joy.

As for the latest armored vehicle equipment, it has been made public almost from the beginning... Hebei Arms Company announces research and development news every three days, and even invites reporters to interview it.

This thing has not yet entered the service of the Guards. Photos have been published in many newspapers. Even some local people in Tianjin have seen this thing being tested and even fired with live ammunition.

So the reason for covering it with a cloth is not to keep it secret, but purely to prevent rain... After all, these armored vehicles are produced by the factory in Tianjin and then transported by train. In order to avoid wind and rain over such a long distance, so Only then was the veil added.

After the train arrived at the stop, people from the Guards quickly came forward to accept it. Because these were several-ton vehicles, it was impossible to use ordinary hoisting. Instead, people directly drove off the train, and then swaggered all the way through the city to the southern suburbs. Guards barracks.

The current southern suburbs barracks of the Guards is the main training camp for the mobile troops of the Guards. The 1st Transportation Regiment of the Guards that the Prince inspected was deployed here, and the 1st Armored Vehicle Battalion of the Guards that is expected to be established is also deployed here. Training takes place here.

When these armored vehicles swaggered through the market, they naturally attracted a lot of people's attention... After all, this was the first armored vehicle to be mass-produced and put into service. People had never seen it before, so they were somewhat curious!

As there were many people watching, a Guards colonel who led the team felt that this was a good opportunity to improve the civil image of the Guards.

There was also a maneuver performance of armored vehicles in a small square on the spot, and they even temporarily stopped for people to take a look... When I met some curious people, I allowed them to get on the vehicle and have a look.

Anyway, these dozens of armored vehicles now do not have machine guns installed. They only have one machine gun mounting bracket. The vehicle-mounted Type 43 air-cooled heavy machine gun is transported separately. It has already been transported to the southern suburbs military camp. You can just go back and install it directly. There is no danger. sex.

This temporary performance was accompanied by a weapons exhibition, which delayed it for several hours, but the guardsmen were very satisfied with it.

This kind of thing that can improve the impression and bring the military and civilians closer is quite good.

Relatively speaking, the Guards pays more attention to military-civilian relations than the army and navy, especially the military-civilian relations in the Yingtianfu area...

This is also related to the characteristics of the Guards... After all, the main defense area of ​​the Guards is Yingtian Mansion, and once civil strife breaks out, the Guards will conduct defensive operations in Yingtian Mansion and surrounding areas.

This kind of defensive operation in a local area will not go smoothly without the support of the people.

Not to mention, there are also a large number of reserve soldiers of the Guards in Yingtian Mansion... The emergency mobilization of the Guards during the war is to urgently recruit at least 100,000 reserves in Yingtian Mansion.

Therefore, the Guards usually pay more attention to their influence and reputation among the people, especially in Yingtian Mansion... In fact, it is not just the Guards. In fact, the royal family also pays special attention to the public support work in Yingtian Mansion and surrounding areas. Every year, there are Many members of the royal family attended various activities to boost public sentiment and strengthen the close relationship between the royal family and local people.

How to put it, I don’t ask how much the local people support the Guards and the royal family during the turbulent period, but at least don’t lead the way for the rebels...

On the contrary, the Army and Navy actually don't care much about the so-called military-civilian relations, and even adopt a strict separation of military and political affairs. Except for some military open days, they basically have no contact with civilians...

Then again, if you are a local general who wanders around the ground with nothing to do for three days, and you still try to win over the people...the Internal Affairs Department will have to keep an eye on you.

After the armored vehicles from the Guards were brought back, the First Armored Vehicle Battalion of the Guards was officially established, and dozens of armored vehicles were used to conduct various trainings... In addition to being familiar with the armored vehicles, this kind of training is more important. In fact, it is still used to explore the tactics of using various armored vehicles.

It is not easy for this thing to operate and exert great effectiveness... It is different from military trucks. Although military trucks are also new things, their purpose is actually very clear, that is, to replace horse-drawn carriages in transportation troops and horse-drawn carriages in artillery troops. Horse, used as a means of transportation.

But armored vehicles are different... There is no precedent for this thing, and it is not meant to replace any type of military unit. How to integrate armored vehicles into the Chu army's combat system to achieve greater combat effectiveness; how to rationally deploy armored vehicles in overseas areas to obtain greater deterrence and actual combat capabilities at a lower cost; how to integrate armored vehicles and artillery Troops, infantry and cavalry units cooperate effectively.

These are the problems that still plague the Chu army so far.

A weapon does not mean that it can immediately exert strong combat effectiveness as soon as it is produced. It must be integrated into the combat system.

Otherwise, a solitary armored vehicle will have limited actual combat effectiveness.

For example... Even though armored vehicles have steel plate protection, in fact it is only a few millimeters of steel plate. It can be used to block bullets, but don't expect to block artillery shells... Even the smoothbore cannons equipped by the indigenous people, in the hundreds of If it hits accurately within a distance of 30 meters, it can beat this kind of armored vehicle to pieces... Of course, it is difficult for the indigenous smoothbore cannon to hit this kind of motor vehicle.

So this also raises a question, that is, when armored vehicles are facing the enemy, they should try not to stay still, but to move... Otherwise, they will easily be hit by the enemy's artillery fire. .

But it's impossible for an armored vehicle to maintain mobility all the time on the battlefield... It always has to stop for corrections and supplies, or in order to increase the hit rate, it chooses to stop for aiming and shooting, etc.

At this time, the support of surrounding infantry or cavalry is also needed.

There are many kinds of combat manuals that cannot be finalized just by tapping the head. A large number of repeated exercises and training are required before problems can be found and solved, and more armored vehicle units can be cultivated at the same time. Relevant technical talents.

This is also the main task of the 1st Armored Vehicle Battalion of the Guards. Similarly, the 1st Transport Regiment of the Guards also shoulders similar responsibilities.

This is still the case with the Guards. At the same time, the Army and Navy also have similar experiments to train talented transport vehicle units or armored vehicle units.

And some of them are quite large... For example, the Army has a so-called motorcycle mixed group in the northwest.

This motor vehicle regiment is not equipped with a single motor vehicle, but is equipped with a variety of motor vehicles at the same time, including one or five trucks, one type of armored vehicle, and three-wheeled and two-wheeled vehicles developed by the Shaanxi-Gan Weapon Company. A three-wheeled or two-wheeled vehicle was named a motorcycle by His Majesty.

Among them, the three-wheeled motorcycles are actually very valued by the Army... The Army generals feel that this thing is much more reliable than armored vehicles with steel plates. Three motorcycles can directly carry a Type 43 heavy machine gun squad, and It is small and flexible, and has very strong terrain adaptability... and because the vehicle is small and light, if it encounters a special shape, it can be passed by having a few more soldiers to help push it through.

And it's fast... The highway speed of this thing can reach forty or fifty kilometers per hour, which means it can move long distances quickly.

As for the poor protection ability... As long as you don't stupidly enter within the one or two hundred meters range of the enemy's musket, it's actually not a big problem. As for the artillery threat... If you are hit by an artillery shell, your armored vehicle with several millimeter steel plates is also a problem. It can be shot to death, it is no different from a tricycle.

This thing, coupled with the use of more powerful two-wheeled motorcycles, the army can form a fast mobile force for rapid maneuvers and strikes.

Therefore, the Army is now very interested in three-wheeled and two-wheeled motorcycles... Using these two things, plus trucks and armored vehicles, an experimental motorcycle hybrid group was created.

The entire mixed regiment is equipped with artillery pulled by trucks, and trucks are also used for transportation. The infantry also uses trucks for mobility. It is also equipped with three-wheeled and two-wheeled motorcycles for mobility. The reconnaissance support unit replaces the previous cavalry units and is used to perform rapid maneuvers. , reconnaissance and other tasks.

This mixed regiment was also the first army in the Chu Empire and in the entire human history to completely abandon mules and horses and use all motor vehicles.

Although from the perspective of later generations, this mixed group is somewhat nondescript, it is still of great significance to the Chu State!

Its significance even exceeds that of the bicycle that had served in the Chu army many years ago!

The Dachu Empire used bicycles in the military field many years ago. After the bicycle was first invented, it was actually tepid for a long time. As long as there were no pneumatic tires in the early years, the bicycle also looked bulky. , and the price is also expensive, so for many years bicycles have actually been a very niche item and have not become popular.

Until the 1940s, as many key bicycle patents expired, bicycles became a commodity without patent monopoly, and a large number of manufacturers entered and produced them one after another, and then improved.

At the same time, the price of air tires has gradually decreased, and they have been popularized on bicycles, greatly improving the driving experience of bicycles.

Finally, bicycles similar to those of later generations appeared... From this time on, bicycles began to enter the homes of ordinary people and became one of the tools for people to travel.

The army also purchased bicycles on a large scale during this period, mainly for use by messengers, and then for reconnaissance troops, etc. So far, many first-class troops have set up specialized bicycle units, usually an infantry regiment. There will be a bicycle company as a short-distance rapid mobile unit.

However, the strategic and tactical significance is still not great...

How to put it this way, bicycles also need roads to support them. If the road conditions are not good, they are actually useless. And in the army, you can't stay on the road every day, so the limitations of use are relatively large.

Unlike military trucks, armored vehicles, and motorcycles, although they are also wheeled, they have engines. The horsepower may seem small, but they are stronger than humans and horses, so they have basic off-road capabilities, and Even faster.

This is why the military attaches so much importance to cars. This thing can change the way of war... unlike bicycles that can only be used as an auxiliary tool.

However, the development of bicycles among the people is extremely rapid, because the riding experience is getting better and better, and the prices are getting lower and lower. Production and sales are increasing year by year, and now the annual output has reached two to three million units.

Bicycles can be seen in many places in cities, suburbs and rural areas.

However, because of the public transportation system in the Dachu Empire, there are too many public carriages... At the same time, cultural traditions are not inclined to this kind of thing. In addition, women in the Dachu Empire generally wear skirts, and the social atmosphere is not biased towards women. Ride the bike stuff.

Due to various restrictions, there are actually no bicycles all over the streets in the Chu Empire... Even though there are already millions of bicycles produced every year... The Chu Empire has a population of more than 700 million, and it is widely distributed around the world. , these millions of bicycles are scattered, but they are actually not many.

At present, in big cities, ordinary people still tend to take public carriages, trams, and city trains for longer distances.

Although there are bicycles, they have not become mainstream...

However, although it has not become mainstream, from the perspective of later generations, the Dachu Empire is still a veritable bicycle power.

At any rate, the annual output is two to three million vehicles a year.

It's just that the bicycle industry's potential and attention are far less than that of the automobile industry...