The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 212 Departure to Shekou
The Type 81 light tank and the Type 81 amphibious tank were developed.

Liu Tao continued to move towards the medium tank.

"It's a medium tank, and its tonnage should be similar to that of the Type 59 tank, around 35 tons." Liu Tao thought to himself.

The Type 59 tank is a medium tank.

Of course, people used to like to call it a heavy tank.

Because China does not have a tank with a larger tonnage than the Type 59 tank, nor does it have a tank with more advanced performance than the Type 59 tank.

However, according to tonnage, the Type 59 tank is an out-and-out medium tank.

Liu Tao positioned the medium tank he was going to develop as a replacement for the Type 59 tank!
The Type 59 tank, after all, is a first-generation main battle tank. In fact, due to its materials and processing technology, it is not as good as the T-54 tank.

It has been 59 years since the design of the Type 20 tank was finalized.

The Type 59 tank is lagging behind the world in all aspects of performance!

In the "Red Dragon's Roar" two years ago, our army had 7 tank regiments and 2 tank battalions ordered to participate in the battle, mobilizing more than 600 tanks and suffering more than 500 losses.

Although the Type 59 tank performed the best, 25 were still damaged and 5 were scrapped.

If the Chinese tanks had more advanced performance, the losses would not have been so great, and they could have achieved greater results.

For a country like China, the importance of tanks is unquestionable and they can definitely be called powerful weapons of a great power.

Almost a week has passed by unknowingly.

A brand new tank has appeared in front of Liu Tao.

Liu Tao looked at the data on the virtual panel with a slight smile on his face.

The Type 81 medium tank has a combat weight of 36 tons, a body length of 7.5 meters, a tank length of 9.2 meters (including the gun barrel), a tank width of 3.3 meters, and a tank height of 2.5 meters. It is equipped with a diesel engine with a horsepower of 1100. It has a maximum road speed of 90 kilometers per hour, a maximum off-road speed of 60 kilometers per hour, a wading depth of 1.3 meters, can climb a 0.9-meter-high vertical barrier, and cross a 2.5-meter-wide trench. The climbing gradient is 60 degrees, and the maximum range is 600 kilometers.

主炮采用的是105毫米坦克炮，倍径高达62倍，堪称世界最强的105毫米坦克炮。副武器有7.62mm机枪、12.7毫米重机枪以及30毫米榴弹发射器。

The cockpit is still automatic and equipped with an automatic loader, but due to space limitations, the main gun only has 38 rounds of ammunition.

As for the tank armor, it uses composite armor, the frontal defense can reach 600mm, and the turret is as high as 800mm, which is much stronger than the Type 59 tank and can reach the defense capabilities of those third-generation heavy tanks overseas.

And because it was invented by Liu Tao, many of the tanks are similar.

For example, a tank driver, as long as he knows how to drive one tank, he can easily drive other tanks.

Likewise, the fire control systems are similar in many ways.

This will undoubtedly greatly speed up the training of tank drivers, commanders, and gunners.

This is also the importance of weapon systematization.

If a country is equipped with weapons of different systems, it will be very troublesome. It will be troublesome to train soldiers and it will also be troublesome to repair and maintain them.

"System, analysis!" Liu Tao muttered to himself.

Suddenly, I saw drawings being quickly formed on the virtual panel.

Soon, a complete set of design materials was available.

After returning home, Liu Tao transferred the entire set of design drawings to the computer.

The next day, Liu Tao and Zhu Lin set off.

The car was filled with large and small bags, all of which were the children's things, except for their spare clothes. The driver took them directly to the airport, where they would first take a plane to Yangcheng, and then take a bus from Yangcheng to Pengcheng.

At that time, Pengcheng had just become a special economic zone, but the airport had not yet been built.

As soon as we arrived at Yangcheng Airport, staff from the provincial government were already waiting there.

They got on the provincial government's car, left Yangcheng Airport, and finally joined the people from the provincial government and Yangcheng City.

An old man took the initiative to sit with Liu Tao.

This was the second time Liu Tao met the old man. Although the old man seemed approachable, Liu Tao still couldn't help feeling nervous.

The old man had been in a high position for a long time, and his intimidating presence made Liu Tao feel like he was suffocating.

"Comrade Liu Tao, Mr. Ho Ying-tung once said that your factory's annual output value can reach 10 billion US dollars. Is it really that high?" the old man asked.

He came in person this time because the importance of this project is self-evident.

Given Ho Ying-tung's status and influence, as well as the friendship that the two sides have established over the years, this project, a collaboration between Panshan Machinery Factory and Ho Ying-tung, will serve as a model.

Moreover, the factory is located in Shekou, which is also very important for Shekou, a pilot area for reform and opening up.

Since the reform and opening-up strategy was launched, the aim here has been to attract capital from Hong Kong and even overseas to invest and build factories here in order to boost the economic development here.

Of course, there is another important reason, that is, this project requires a huge investment. When Ho Ying-tung was in Beijing, he was told that the annual output value of this project could reach 10 billion US dollars.

"Boss, we have three versions of computers. The low-end version is priced at $1500 in the U.S., the mid-range version is priced at $3500, and the high-end version is priced at $10000," Liu Tao said. "We can sell at least 10 units of each in the U.S., which means we can sell at least $15 billion."

"Of course, the ex-factory price is not that high, but an annual output value of $10 billion is definitely not a problem!" Liu Tao said: "With the increase of workers and investment in production lines, the output value will increase."

"How is the performance of this computer?" the leader asked.

"It has reached the world's advanced level among similar products." Liu Tao replied, "Later our factory will donate some computers to colleges and universities so that they can cultivate talents in computer science."

China is really short of computer talent, and most of them are concentrated in the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

There is a huge gap between China and the United States in this regard.

"How much does it sell for in China? If it's so high, I'm afraid no one can afford it," the leader asked.

Liu Tao said: "The price in China will definitely be lower, but computers are basically irrelevant to ordinary people now. The market is mainly in Europe, the United States and Japan."

The leader nodded.

Computers are advanced products without much thought. The average Chinese person earns only 30 or 40 yuan a month, so no one would be willing to buy a computer. Besides, computers are completely useless to ordinary people.

What is really useful are the universities and research institutes.

The leader asked some more questions and Liu Tao answered them one by one.

Liu Tao clearly felt that the leadership attached great importance to the computer factory and to the development of computers.

The leader even promised to purchase a batch of computers, which was obviously a support for the computer factory.

Liu Tao secretly sighed in his heart, thinking that it was estimated that no one would take action in this era, as the development of computers would be so rapid and profoundly affect all aspects of society, bringing about tremendous social changes.

So much so that some people call it the computer revolution or the information revolution!
It is compared with the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, and some even believe that the impact of the computer revolution far exceeds that of the First and Second Industrial Revolutions.

(End of this chapter)