I want to be emperor

Chapter 1196: Strange Military Vehicles

When the Chu army was fighting in Europe before, it had already deployed various types of armored vehicles on a large scale, including some large armored vehicles weighing seven or eight tons.

This type of armored vehicle is actually quite useful in field combat, and it is also okay in urban combat. In addition to its own machine gun firepower, this type of armored vehicle can also carry multiple soldiers for combat.

This type of armored vehicle is more similar to some infantry armored transport vehicles of later generations.

There are also some armored vehicles that do not transport soldiers but are only responsible for providing firepower output. They generally weigh three or four tons, are equipped with multiple heavy machine guns, and have better maneuverability.

However, these armored vehicles also have shortcomings. That is, they are all thinly armored vehicles. Generally speaking, the front armor is okay, basically good, but the side and even the rear armor is not so good. It is difficult to withstand close-range 11mm rifled rifle bullets.

This is because the engines used in modern motor vehicles have too little horsepower, and the weight of the vehicle body, including the engine and gearbox, is also very heavy. If the armor is too thick, the maneuverability will be very poor.

This is why modern large armored vehicles, although they appear to weigh seven or eight tons, still have weak armor.

After all, the basic technology is just so-so and it’s hard to produce anything really good.

When this type of armored vehicle is deployed in complex environments such as cities, it faces fire attacks from the flanks and even from the rear. It is possible that it can be penetrated by fire attacks from some single-shot rifles in the hands of the indigenous rebels.

  I have to say, this is actually quite embarrassing!

The Chu army tried several times to use some existing armored vehicles to fight in European cities, and the results were actually quite good, but the security risks were still very high.

This led to some armored soldiers on the front line often installing additional steel plates at key positions on the sides and rear in order to resist possible flank fire attacks from indigenous rebels.

  what does that mean?

This means that there is an urgent need for armored vehicle units with all-round heavy armor protection in the front-line troops!

In the past, the Chu Army's armored vehicles were mainly used for field battles and assault operations, and they did not pay much attention to the side and rear armor. But now it is different.

Today, the Chu Army is also required to have the ability to fight in complex terrains such as cities. This requires one or more armored vehicles that can operate in complex terrains, effectively resist flank and rear fire attacks, and be used for battlefield assaults and combat in complex environments.

  It doesn't matter whether it's wheeled or tracked!

Even the firepower requirements were not high. When the army first issued the bid, it required the new tanks to be able to fire medium-caliber grenades and have the ability to attack fortifications. Therefore, weapons companies successively proposed plans for 30mm long-barreled artillery and 45mm long-barreled artillery.

But now... After two years of actual combat, the Army feels that the firepower of armored vehicles does not need to be that high. An 8mm heavy machine gun can actually meet the needs of more than 90% of combat scenarios.

If there were an 11mm heavy machine gun, then 99 percent of the needs could be met... at least most of the buildings in those indigenous cities could not withstand the fire of an 11mm heavy machine gun.

Armored vehicles, artillery, etc., are actually not needed most of the time...

Of course, it would be better if there is one, and it would be great to be able to use a machine gun to attack a fortified position occasionally.

While the requirements for firepower are not high, the requirements for mobility are also not high... In the past, armored vehicles were required to be able to run for dozens of kilometers and to be able to carry out rapid assaults like cavalry.

But now, the Chu army feels that it is unnecessary. A speed of ten kilometers per hour is enough. Anyway, there is no need for a fast speed when stopping and starting in the city.

  However, protection must be maximized!

It is necessary to be able to resist attacks from light weapons, even bullet attacks from the side and rear, whether it is the 11mm single-shot rifle in the hands of the natives, or the 8mm black powder bullet repeating rifle used by some friendly vassal states.

At the same time, for future considerations, it is also necessary to be prepared for the strafing of early heavy machine guns, namely the 11mm black powder bullet heavy machine gun and the 8mm black powder heavy machine gun.

  These tactical requirements are all designed to meet the needs of urban defense and garrison and combat in overseas areas!

The goal is quite clear.

After summarizing these tactical indicators, the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company made targeted improvements based on the test vehicle of the No. 78 tank.

First of all, thanks to the continuous development of engine technology, they chose an engine with a horsepower of 80 horsepower, and then removed the 40mm howitzer mounted on the original turret and replaced it with an 11mm heavy machine gun.

At the same time, the hull and turret each have an 8mm heavy machine gun.

The designed highway speed is only 15 kilometers per hour. It uses full tracks to move, and its obstacle-crossing ability far exceeds that of previous wheeled vehicles.

Then here comes the key point. Its front armor reaches 20 mm, and the side armor and tail armor both reach 15 mm.

This kind of armor protection capability is almost top-notch in modern times. Not to mention light weapons, even many artillery equipped by the Chu Army cannot penetrate it... Of course, the Chu Army's army artillery generally does not have any anti-armor capability.

In the previous live-fire test, the military directly used 78mm heavy machine guns to fire at this improved version of the Type battlefield... and then found out embarrassingly that the fire could not penetrate it at normal combat distances, such as three or four hundred meters.

It's not just ordinary bullets that won't work...even semi-armor-piercing bullets designed specifically for use with 11mm heavy machine guns and designed to target fortifications won't work.

Unless it is placed at a distance of one or two hundred meters, it will be unable to cause effective damage to the side and rear armor.

  As for the 8mm heavy machine gun, it was completely useless!

A hundred meters is enough!

And this is referring to the heavy machine gun currently in service and used by the regular army of the Chu Army. It is a new generation of heavy machine gun that uses smokeless powder.

Not the old stuff.

If it is an old stuff, such as the early 11mm heavy machine gun, this thing still uses 11mm caliber bullets with black powder as propellant. The muzzle kinetic energy is actually very limited and cannot pose any actual threat to this type of tank.

Following up was the 78mm black powder heavy machine gun, which was actually of average power, at least it had little effect on the Type tank.

These two types of heavy machine guns are also the ones that the indigenous rebels may get... Mainly because these two types of machine guns are currently equipped by the armies of some friendly vassal states, such as the West African Kingdom, and are also used on a large scale by the Foreign Legion.

Therefore, the Chu Army's tank development also included special defensive designs against these two types of machine guns.

When all was said and done, the No. 78 Type vehicle emerged!

A tank specially developed for field battlefield assaults and urban street fighting.

Its combat mode is very simple. According to the designers' idea, there is no need for any tactics or concerns. Just drive into the city, search for the enemy while driving slowly, and then attack directly after finding them. In order to attack enemies hiding in high-rise buildings, they also specially increased the design elevation angle of the 8mm main machine gun. At the same time, the elevation angle of the mm auxiliary machine gun on the turret is even larger, so it can almost shoot into the air.

As for enemy counterattacks, there is no need to worry at all... The enemy's current or future light weapons are unlikely to cause any actual damage to this type of tank.

As for artillery, those natives didn't have rifles... and smoothbore cannons were not powerful enough, and most importantly, they were not accurate enough to hit the target.

After all, if the Chu army's chariots were on the battlefield, they would only drive slowly, and they would not stop to let you shoot... and they had three machine guns on them, so if they saw anything wrong, they would just fire a volley of bullets without thinking.

Therefore, the battlefield survivability of this 783-type battlefield tank is very strong.

At this moment, what Prince Luo Jun and his entourage saw was this 783 tank!

The total weight reaches more than eight tons. For long-distance mobility, it can be transported by a carriage pulled by a large tractor, and can move on its own on tracks after arriving at the battlefield. Luo Jun was very interested in this 783 tank and even climbed up to experience it. He then instructed the military to speed up the research and development of this advanced weapon and its subsequent deployment.

The current Chu army truly lacks a tortoise-shell-like land combat weapon, and the emergence of the 783 tank fills this gap.

In addition to the 783 tank, which focused entirely on protection and even abandoned its artillery for the sake of protection, there were also two types of tanks, 78 and 781, which were also based on the No. 782 battlefield prototype test vehicle.

They also used newly designed engines, but they differed due to combat purposes and different tendencies.

Tank 781 is actually the successor of the prototype of tank 78. The vehicle uses a 45mm tank howitzer, which can effectively destroy enemy fortifications. Although the protection has also been upgraded, the upgrade is not significant. The front is mm, the side is mm, and the tail is mm.

It has better maneuverability and its maximum highway speed can reach 30 kilometers per hour.

In fact, this is a relatively traditional light tank that conforms to Luo Zhixue's early ideas...mainly used for traditional field combat.

There is also a 782 tank, which is actually a self-propelled artillery vehicle based on the chassis of the 78 tank. Its armor is very weak or even non-existent, but it is equipped with a 100mm howitzer.

When the Army first proposed this plan, the goal was very simple, which was to obtain a type of artillery that could quickly maneuver off-road in complex terrain and then open fire after arriving at the launching position!

Yes, this thing is neither a tank nor an armored vehicle. It is actually a self-propelled artillery, but it uses a full track chassis for off-road driving in complex terrain, especially muddy and complex terrain.

Moreover, the Chu Army developed this so-called self-propelled artillery, which was different from the self-propelled artillery of many countries in later generations. The purpose of the artillery was to accompany the rapid advancement of armored forces. The Chu Army developed this kind of self-propelled artillery purely because towed artillery could not quickly pass through muddy and complex wilderness and had high requirements for roads.

That's why we specially developed a fully tracked self-propelled artillery to pass through such complex terrain so that the infantry on the front line can get timely artillery support.

Looking at the development of various motor vehicles of the Chu Army, they are actually quite different from those of the same period in the original time and space and even those of subsequent countries.

This is because weapons are not good or bad, only suitable or not.

It is necessary to plan and make performance trade-offs based on your own situation and the situation of the imaginary enemy.

The early tanks in the original time and space were basically used to break through trenches and resist the enemy's machine gun fire. The Chu army also had a demand for this, but it was not strong... because under the powerful firepower of the Chu army, the natives had no barbed wire or machine gun fire coverage, and could not actually stop the Chu army's attack.

The Chu army could basically destroy the enemy by simply providing some fire coverage and sending some armored vehicles to go around the side.

In the middle and late stages, in addition to supporting infantry combat, tanks in the original time and space also mainly engaged in anti-armor combat, so there were various long-barreled tank guns, and penetration became an important performance indicator.

The Chu army did not need any anti-armor warfare. The Chu army's armored vehicles and tanks were all used to support infantry combat, or to fight alone against indigenous infantry.

Therefore, the Chu Army's tanks paid more attention to the protection of light weapons and did not require high firepower. The 783 tank was even equipped with only an mm heavy machine gun!

  Why use 11mm heavy machine guns?

Because the firepower is sufficient and it can carry a large number of machine gun bullets, it can provide long-term continuous firepower output capability.

Then it is relatively light, which can effectively reduce the weight of the tank, thereby freeing up weight to strengthen the armor.

Not only tanks are special, other motor vehicles are also special.

  For example, the Chu army particularly likes to equip various types of tricycles... In addition to sidecar tricycles used as firepower output vehicles, there are also a large number of regular tricycles used for transporting personnel and materials, also known as three-wheeled vehicles!

Chu Jun is very satisfied with this three-wheeled motorcycle. It is cheap, affordable and easy to use.

Although it has various shortcomings, it can be used barely, and it's enough as long as it can be used... When the enemy is too weak, many of the shortcomings of the three-wheeled vehicle will not be exposed.

But in the original time and space, not many countries would equip three-wheeled vehicles on a large scale...

Many situations led to Luo Jun seeing a lot of strange motor vehicles compared to the original time and space at this weapons exhibition.

However, these motor vehicles seem very normal and reasonable when placed on the Great Chu Empire.

Of course, it doesn't mean that all motor vehicles are weird. Many of them are very normal. For example, the Type 15 truck is very normal. It is a proper rear four-wheel load-bearing truck. Apart from being expensive, it has no other disadvantages.

Then North American automobile companies also launched a small and medium-sized off-road passenger car based on their pickup truck chassis, which was greatly optimized and had increased ground clearance.

This thing is a special vehicle designed to make it easier for middle and senior military officers to command troops on the battlefield.

After all, low-ranking officers in the Chu army now ride on sidecars to inspect and command troops in combat.

As for middle and senior military officers, they directly use cars or ride horses. Riding horses is already outdated, but cars often have poor off-road performance.

In order to solve the problem of battlefield command vehicles for middle and senior military officers, the military began purchasing pickup trucks produced by North American Motors three years ago. These pickup trucks have good off-road performance and also have certain car-like riding comfort.

  How to strike a balance between off-road capability and ride comfort has always been the strong point of North American automobile companies... They make a living by doing this, and the reason why pickup trucks sell so well is because they are indeed very strong in this aspect!

Seeing this, North American automobile companies simply made drastic optimizations to their own pickup trucks. While optimizing the off-road performance, they removed a lot of unnecessary things, and then removed the small truck bed at the back, added rear seats, and made it into a traditional four-door, five-seater type without a trunk.

If we have to describe the positioning of this thing, it is probably a bit similar to the off-road vehicles of later generations.

  It’s no wonder that the military is very fond of this thing and has already ordered a batch for use!

Senior military officers also want an off-road vehicle that matches their status and can be used flexibly on the battlefield.

Traditional cars are not very good, three-wheelers are too low-end, not to mention trucks, they don’t fit in.

The pickup truck is actually pretty good, but the cargo box at the back is really annoying to look at... I'm a general traveling for an inspection, do I need to carry some supplies in the back compartment?

Of course, although the off-road performance of pickup trucks is better than that of sedans, it is not as good as that of real military off-road vehicles.

Therefore, North American automobiles directly optimized the pain points raised by the military and came up with an off-road vehicle with optimized off-road performance, without the cargo box, and looking similar to a sedan.

When the military officers saw it, they were like, what a great thing... and immediately purchased a batch for use.

If nothing goes wrong, the military will purchase a large number of this car and distribute it to middle and senior military officers for use as their vehicles!

Military generals, if you ask them to allocate funds to buy expensive 15 trucks, they are reluctant to do so, but if you ask them to allocate funds to buy their own vehicles, they are still very generous...

The North American automobile company even launched a high-end luxury version of the off-road vehicle for the generals, priced at more than two thousand Chu Yuan…Once it was launched, the army ordered more than a thousand vehicles in one go, without even blinking an eye!