Thousands of sparks

Chapter 91 Little Misunderstanding

In the Speaker's Office of Newsail House of Commons, Androni looked up at her son who had just entered the room, and the expression on her face suddenly relaxed a lot.

"I thought you didn't plan to come to work today." Androni put down the documents in her hand, and asked with concern, "The housekeeper said you went out without eating in the morning, are you hungry now?"

"I've already eaten outside." Du Sande's expression was a little embarrassed, and he also felt that what he did today was a little out of control.

Androni nodded, stood up and walked quickly to the door, then closed the heavy wooden door tightly.She turned around again and pulled Dusand to sit on the sofa beside her.

"I know what you're worried about." Androni took Dusand's hand and said, "You're worried that our speed is too fast and our movements are too big, which will stimulate the mining complex and cause them to counterattack."

Du Sande nodded. Although he didn't have much political experience himself, he didn't even need political wisdom to understand this truth—a sneak attack cannot be killed at once, so the opponent's counterattack is an inevitable threat.

"Because of our occupation and status, neither your father nor I can prepare the means to leave." Androni said to Du Sande, "but you are different. I discussed with your father and used His Excellency the Marquis in the Star Sea Federation I have arranged an evacuation route for you."

Dusande was stunned, he was stunned for a long time before he asked, "What about you?"

"We can't go." Androni smiled gently, and she rubbed the brown hair on Dusand's head, "Your father and I also have our own evacuation route, but we can't get involved with His Excellency the Marquis. This is the empire, if the loyalty to the empire and His Majesty is not absolute, then it is absolutely disloyal."

Du Sande took a deep breath, "Mother, then we can't do this anymore—not only for ourselves..."

"Yes." Androni nodded, "It's not just for myself." She smiled, and looked down at her abdomen, "I planned to tell you this news in two days."

Du Sande was stunned, he was stunned for a long time before tentatively pointing to Androni's stomach, "Here..."

"I don't know if you will have a younger brother or a younger sister." Androni put her arms around Dusand's head, and kissed his forehead lightly, "But, for his/her safety, I will definitely Careful."

Androni put her arms around Dusand and said confidently, "I believe that you will be a good brother."

·
·
·
Dusand, who appeared at the car factory, spent half an hour listening to Polina's report, and then recovered from Polina's question of "Did you hear me?" repeated six or seven times.

He looked at the teacher who seemed to be about to go berserk, turned his mind a little, and decided to admit his mistake immediately to avoid being pushed down by the muscular teacher and beat him up violently.

"I ran into something today." Dusand said to Polina in a low voice, "Mr. Polina, do you have any books on parenting and caring for pregnant women that you can recommend to me?"

Du Sande intends to tell Polina in advance the news that he is about to have a brother or sister, and then save himself from being beaten.What he didn't expect was that as soon as he blurted out the opening question that he planned to lead the topic, Polina slapped him.

Not just a slap, Polina directly gave Dusand a set of "combo moves".Under the shocked and even terrified eyes of several factory managers and accountants, and the "acceptance" that the guards looked away in surprise, Mr. Dusand, the "secret" postman in red, the chief private officer of His Excellency the Speaker of the House of Commons, The secretary, the owner of this factory, was beaten and kicked all the way by the Great Technician of the Empire and forced into a deserted corner.

"What did you do?!" After confirming that there was no one around, Polina began to shout hysterically at Dusand, "Lorraine is only 16 years old, and you are only 14 years old!"

Dusand instantly understood why Paulina was angry, and he wanted to explain, dumbfounded, but Polina, who was in a state of extreme worry and rage, never gave Dusand any chance to explain.

She poured out her anger and worry at a very high speed.

"She is only 16 years old and still in the puberty stage! Being a mother at this age is too early for ordinary people, even earlier for her!"

"How can you take on the responsibility of being a husband and father at your age?"

"My God, you have to hold the wedding quickly. I have to go and talk to Mrs. Androni right away. Did you tell her about this?"

"Are you sure Lorraine is pregnant? Has she been to the hospital? Don't go to the mission hospital, it's too conspicuous..."

Dusande took a deep breath, and then said in as calm a tone as possible, "You misunderstood."

"Oh? It seems that you are quite smart, and you didn't go to the mission hospital..."

"I'm talking about pregnancy." Du Sande quickly explained, "It's not Lorraine, it's me who is going to be an older brother."

Polina stopped talking, opened her mouth wide and looked at Dusand, after a while she suddenly asked, "Mrs. Androni?"

Du Sande nodded solemnly, and then explained seriously, "My father seems to be in good physical condition."

Polina's face flushed suddenly, she covered her face with her hands, and began to apologize.And he tried his best to intimidate and lure him, hoping that Dusande would immediately lose his memory of the few minutes just now.

"The only thing that is thankful is that you didn't scold me directly in front of the managers and accountants." Dusande said with a smile, "I think you can explain yourself later because you learned about tank engines. New solutions' to prevaricate the past."

Although my body hurts, I still have to keep smiling, so I am so angry.

Well, actually not very angry.Dusande felt that he had always maintained a strange... lightness.This feeling is very special, it definitely has a part of joy in it, but at the same time, there are all kinds of strange... unspeakable emotions mixed in it.

Androni was pregnant, and in a way, Dussand was sincerely happy for her and Duchamp.To be honest, this child is strictly their child.It is not an "assembly machine" with hardware provided by Androni and Duchamp, but an operating system called "traveler" is secretly installed inside.

Dusand, on the other hand, had to worry about the imminent birth of a child.

According to the information "provided" by Mr. Marquis, Newsail will face an attack from the alliance's main fleet within four months.In the face of war, any life will appear extremely fragile.Newsail, in the midst of war, is definitely not a suitable place for a pregnant woman to prepare for childbirth.

At the same time, Androni may have to face retaliation or even strife from the Imperial Mining Federation.Such attacks may come from the invisible and intangible political field, or they may directly come from a more "specific" and practical level.

Even someone like Harold knew that the best way to destroy an enemy was to physically kill them.How could the mining association not know this?
Dusande took a deep breath, and then decided to do some real work that he could do that might make his family safer.

For example, get out the tank first.

"The engine compartment of the tank can be enlarged a little more." Dusand said to Polina, "The technology of the track drive does not necessarily require it to be particularly durable. We can design the replacement of the track more easily."

The current experimental tanks mainly face three difficulties.The engine power is insufficient, the track material is unqualified and prone to breakage, and it is difficult to use the existing production line for mass production.

In terms of engine power, Du Sande's solution is very rough.Existing, the largest engine that the entire depot can make is a V12, but this engine is too big.The next best thing is an inline eight-cylinder engine is actually a better choice.

A single gas inline eight-cylinder engine is not enough to allow a tank weighing 30 tons to move at fifteen miles per hour on a flat road.The compression-ignition ignition of the gas engine resulted in a decent amount of torque for this internal combustion engine, but not enough horsepower.

The plan Dusande came up with was very rough. If one inline eight-cylinder is not enough, then two.

Unlike cars, tanks themselves do not have "steering wheels" in the traditional sense.Its steering is achieved by the difference in operating speed of the tracks on both sides.

The current experimental tank is driven by an inline eight-cylinder engine, and when turning, the operator must release the clutch inside the track drive wheel on one side and lock the track drive wheel on that side.Only then can the orientation adjustment be realized.

If you accidentally adjust the direction too far, you can only let the tank go straight again, and then do it again according to the operation just now, locking the track on the other side to adjust the direction.

This is too inefficient.

Dusand's plan, on the other hand, has an inherent benefit.Two in-line eight-cylinder engines drive one side of the track respectively, so that the speed of one side of the engine can be adjusted during driving to achieve steering maneuvers.

"The imaginary enemy of the tank is the steam knight of the alliance, so the firepower configuration must have sufficient armor-piercing capability. At the same time, we must ensure that our tank can defend against the opponent's armor-piercing hammer and six-inch hand cannon." A few words temporarily solved the problem After the two major problems encountered by the tank, Dusand put forward new requirements for his "chief project designer", "I require the tank to keep a low profile so as to avoid direct fire from the enemy. At the same time, the original The vertical armor design is going to be changed - to a sloped armor design."

The tank design Polina came up with was entirely her own.From every angle, her design is full of "beauty".

The tank itself has no suspension system. At the same time, she also imitated the navy's ship fire layout design, and installed four 30-inch short-barrel cannons on Dusand's "5-ton tank".Two doors are on the left side of the tank and two doors are on the right side.

At first glance, this thing looks like a shoe box with four pencils pierced through the side wall.

Dusand did not reject this design at first, after all, it was Polina's design, and it was more in line with the parameter requirements proposed by the Army and Navy Commandos.Although it is by no means a qualified tank from the perspective of modern people, as a self-moving firepower bunker with certain protection capabilities, Polina's design is definitely successful.

Dusande, who originally wanted to fish, was under the double stimulus of the alliance's imminent invasion and his mother's pregnancy, and planned to use some of his previous life's knowledge to sharpen the imperial people's understanding of "tanks".

A real tank should be a war machine that combines mobility, firepower, and protection.It is not an auxiliary role, but a killing machine that should be used intensively to completely overwhelm the enemy's defenses and harvest life with artillery and heavy machine guns.

"My vision for the tank is this..." Du Sande squatted down and began to paint on the ground with branches.Soon, the familiar image of an egg turret loaded with a cannon and tracks no higher than the waist of the hull appeared on Imperial soil.

"The tank itself is divided into two parts, the turret and the hull. The turret can rotate, and the barrel can be raised or lowered." Dusand explained his "design", "The turret is cast, which can speed up Manufacturing progress. The car body adopts a sloped armor design, which can reduce the weight of the car body and reduce the difficulty of processing."

What Polina is more curious about is the drive part.Pointing to the rough graphics on the ground, she asked, "How can this design of five wheels supporting the track be realized? Our current track is not strong enough. Such wheels are directly connected to the track, which is likely to generate great stress when off-road. This caused the track to collapse."

"Tanks also need suspension." Dusande said bluntly, "Its suspension cannot be too high, and it cannot be exposed as a weak point. My idea is to use metal rods as a source of strength to provide suspension deformation."

Dusand's "design" is simple.It would be a Type 16 tank powered by 59 compression-ignition gas cylinders, with an oval turret and torsion bar suspension, and five pairs of road wheels and two pairs of power wheels driving two tracks.

As long as the allies dare to come, let the tank army run over their positions directly, and then use the brains and blood of these racists to lubricate the tracks of the tanks!
"In principle, it is not difficult to achieve." As a great technician who has become accustomed to Dusand's "engineering genius", Polina quickly accepted this setting and began to analyze the difficulty of tank manufacturing. "Other issues are easy to talk about. If you cast the turret, it is not very difficult to mass-produce it. It may be a little troublesome to drive. The two engines may barely fit into the body, but there is absolutely no way to install two sets of gearboxes. into the tank."

"The driving device can be simplified. This kind of tank does not need a particularly fast maneuvering speed." Dusand thought for a while and said, "Two to three forward gears and one reverse gear are basically enough. There is no need to A car goes directly to a five-speed or even a six-speed gearbox."

"There may also be compromises on the artillery—the barrel you drew is too long, and the smoke from the gunpowder is not easy to discharge." Polina said while thinking, "The 5-inch short-barreled howitzer is actually good. I asked the Navy about it. Commandos, they said a gun of this size would have no problem bombing Steam Knights."

The two squatted on the ground and started a heated discussion. The factory manager and accountants who were secretly watching from a distance looked at each other. For a while, they didn't know whether to invite the two to continue their research in the conference room, or stand still and wait.

(End of this chapter)