On March 17, 1925, this day was destined to be famous for its name along with March 17 three years ago. On March 17 three years ago, when the German March Revolution broke out, the subsequent German split and the Soviet Union's westward advance completely smashed the Versailles system in this world and brought the war back to Europe. Afterwards, a series of changes in Europe were passed on to Asia through the conclusion of the Treaty of France, Germany, China and Italy, and smashed the unwarranted treaty of China, Japan and the Soviet Union, which was not reliable.

Today, three years later, Berlin has once again become the focus of attention of hundreds of millions. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Chairman of the China National Committee of the Communist Party of China, and British Foreign Minister Austin Chamberlain gathered at the Bellevue Palace in Thilgarten, Berlin to sign their names in a notorious treaty called the "Anti-Third International Agreement" (Moscow's Commentary).

Unlike the previous discussions between Chang Ruiqing, Hitler and Fuller at the Bellevue Palace, the British Empire finally chose to join the treaty openly instead of sneaking behind the scenes to manipulate. It seems that the secret negotiations between Britain and the Soviet Union must have failed! However, the obligations that Britain undertakes in the treaty are still different from those of China and Germany, and it does not have the obligation to participate in the attack on the Soviet Union. As long as China and Germany provide logistical and technical assistance, it is enough. As for the issue of how to divide the spoils after the elimination of the Soviet Union, it is not mentioned in the Anti-Third International Agreement. It seems that London does not really believe that China and Germany have the ability to eliminate the Soviet Union, the behemoth.

However, the other two contracting parties in the original five-nation treaty, France and Italy did not mean to join the Anti-Third International Agreement. The French obviously had no interest in attacks. In their opinion, everything would be fine as long as they put Germany in front and consumed the Soviet Union. Anyway, their colonies in Asia and Africa were not threatened by the world revolution, so there was no need to provoke the Soviet Union.

As for the Italians, they simply changed into phobia. The little blood that was incited by Mussolini was finally incited by Mussolini. The Soviet Red Army was defeated. Moreover, Mussolini's regime became in danger due to defeat. Every day, a large number of protesters gathered in front of the Venetian Palace in Rome, shouting slogans asking Mussolini to step down. Even within the fascist party, there were people planning to demolish Mussolini's platform. Fortunately, Mussolini was prepared.

, from northern Italy, mobilized a large number of black-shirted troops who were loyal to him into Rome, and successively replaced a large number of unreliable Italian army generals. He also persuaded the Italian king Vittorio Emmanuele III to continue to support the fascist regime. Although the regime was stable, Mussolini, the dictator, was turned into a lame duck. I wonder if there was any hope to lead Italy to help Hitler?

Due to the lack of two helpers, France and Italy, international public opinion generally does not have much optimism about the future of the Anti-Third International Agreement. After learning that China, Britain and Germany had signed the treaty, the Soviet government immediately took out tit-for-tat measures and announced that it would invite Japanese People's Committee Chairman Ken Katayama, Polish People's Committee Chairman Myanzki and Persian Republic President Reza Khan visited Moscow to discuss the conclusion of an alliance to counter the Anti-Third International Agreement.

The US government did not express public opinion on this treaty. It only proposed to the UK: London Navy Arms Negotiation must be participated by representatives of the Soviet Union and Japan. Otherwise, the United States will postpone the negotiations. It seems that the US government is not optimistic about the newly released Berlin, London, and Nanjing Axis.

After signing the Anti-Third International Agreement, Chang Ruiqing did not go to London to participate in the naval military negotiations. Before the Soviet Union and Japan's representatives arrived, the negotiations were impossible to hold. However, Chang Ruiqing was not idle. The day after the agreement was signed, he visited the Eplat test base in Swabian, southwestern Germany at the invitation of Hitler. However, it was not to see the seismic weapon test that always failed, but to develop the hunter tank that was designed by Chang Ruiqing during his visit to Germany in 1923, and finally made breakthrough progress.

On March 19, on a temporary cement stand in the Eplat Test Base, at least a dozen people wearing Chinese and German defense forces uniforms and dozens of people in suits stood. In front of the stand was a large test yard with a circle of hard ground runways. In the middle of the runway was a large mud pond, which was probably the most hated terrain that the army troops encountered during marching and fighting. Most of the officers in the Chinese delegation to Europe, senior officers from the German Ministry of Defense, Armored Forces Command, the Weapon Procurement Bureau, and representatives and designers from several large industrial groups gathered here. Everyone was whispering to discuss with each other the "Sursuit Plan" that they are most concerned about.

As early as June 1923, shortly after Chang Ruiqing's first visit to Germany ended, European large industrial enterprises including Daimler-Benz (the merger of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz at the end of 1924 was more than a year earlier than in history), Man Company, Krupp Steel United Company, Rheinmetallurgical Company, Bavarian Machinery Manufacturing Factory, Schneider Company, Renault Company, Fiat Company, and Skoda Company received a notice jointly issued by the weapons procurement departments of France, Germany, China and Italy, asking him to

We designed a turretless tank with a total combat weight of no more than 18 tons, a front armor of more than 60mm, and a vehicle height of no more than 2.2 meters. It can be directly equipped with a turretless tank with a 75mm caliber and a 48-fold cannon on the front of the vehicle. Since it was a notice issued by France, Germany, China and Italy, all European machinery manufacturing and arms companies that received the notice knew the weight of it. No one was willing to let such a super big order slide through their fingers, so they worked hard and prepared to do a big fight.

In just one year and nine months, there were five models, a total of fifteen prototypes of the "Searcher" tanks were sent to the Eplatt test base for trial operation. The five models of "Searcher" tanks were provided by five European companies, of which "Searcher One" was jointly designed and manufactured by Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and Rheinmetallurgical Corporation; "Searcher Two" was jointly designed and manufactured by Man Company and Krupp Steel Corporation; "Searcher Three" was jointly designed and manufactured by Germany's Bavarian Machinery Manufacturing Factory and Czechoslovakia Skoda Company (by the way, Czechoslovakia has become a protector of Germany. The Sudeten area has also been directly incorporated into the territory of the German Empire); "Searcher Four" was provided by the French giants led by Schneider and Renault; and "Searcher Five" is a masterpiece of the Italians.

"There are actually five models of hunter!"

Chang Ruiqing and German Armored Forces Director Kmas Hoffman sat side by side in the first row of the stands, surrounded by Jiang Baili, Pan Wenzhao and others, and the father of German Armored Forces in another time and space. Colonel Guderian, the chief of staff of the German Wehrmacht Army, and some entourage staff. Seeing a long and uninstalled tank parking on the runway not far away, like a large iron box, Chang Ruiqing couldn't help but sigh.

"Chairman, this is all your credit." Max Hoffman, who sat on Chang Ruiqing's right, used to be a military adviser in China for one year. He was familiar with Chang Ruiqing and could understand some Chinese. At this time, he approached Chang Ruiqing's ear and said to him in a low voice in English.

"My credit?" Chang Ruiqing smiled slightly: "So when you talk about it, you also think that such low-cost tanks will be the nemesis of the Soviet tank sea?"

"Isn't it?" Max Hoffman shrugged, "This is obviously a tank used to deal with tanks. In the future, every German infantry division will have a battalion of hunters. I think the Chinese infantry division will also be equipped with hunter tanks, right?"

"Well, the hunters are indeed used to fight tanks." Chang Ruiqing paused for a moment, and couldn't help asking: "General Hoffman. Have you never thought of imitating the Soviet Red Army to organize the armored division?"

"Armored Division?" Max Hoffman pointed to Guderian beside him and smiled: "Mr. Guderian kept calling on us to form an armored division, but since the beginning of last year, the results of a series of military exercises by the National Defense Forces have shown that this kind of hunter tank with extremely strong anti-tank combat power must be accompanied by a large number of infantry to exert its power. If the Soviet tank army is organized, this tank without a rotating turret and slow speed can easily be destroyed by tanks or infantry that go around the flanks."

"Yes." Guderian nodded, "If we want to form an armored division, the performance of the Chaser Tank is somewhat inapplicable. Its design idea is to provide anti-tank firepower for the infantry division. Therefore, the speed is very slow and the maximum mileage is relatively short. So I suggest that after the Chaser Tank is set, we should consider designing and manufacturing tanks and armored vehicles suitable for the formation of armored troops. If we want to defeat the Soviet Union in ten years, it would not be possible to rely on a bunch of infantry divisions equipped with dozens of Chaser's infantry divisions! We need an infantry tank, a tank specially used to deal with tanks, not like the Chaser, and we must follow a rotating turret that can attack in all directions, and these two tanks must have extremely strong maneuverability..."

"General Guderian is advocating the armored division again?" Just as Guderian was talking nonstop to sell his armored warfare ideas, a German-speaking voice rang behind them.

When he heard someone talking behind him, Chang Ruiqing, Hoffman and Guderian all turned around at the same time. He saw Hitler standing behind them with a smile, and a group of middle-aged men in exquisite suits and elegant manners were followed by the German Chancellor.

"Mr. Prime Minister." Both German generals stood up and saluted Hitler, but it was not the raising salute that Chang Ruiqing saw on TV in later generations, but the standard military salute, and did not shout: "Hi! Hitler." It seems that although Hitler came to power in this time and space was almost ten years earlier, his authority was far inferior to the "head of state" in history. After all, Germany is now dominated by the National Defense Forces and the Nazi Party, and there are also flag-bearer leaders such as Hindenburg and Rudendolf.

Chang Ruiqing smiled and reached out to hold Hitler, and greeted him in stiff German: "Your Excellency Prime Minister."

"Oh! Marshal. I'll introduce you to some friends." Hitler pointed to the bosses of several major German companies around him and smiled: "This is Franz Joseph Papp, general manager of Bavarian Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., this is Mr. Ferdinand Porsch, technical director of Daimler Mercedes-Benz, Mr. Ball Reyche, chairman of the board of directors of Man Company, and this is Mr. Gustav Krupp of Krupp..."

It turned out that the leaders of some German companies were following Hitler. Just as Chang Ruiqing was politely shook hands with them one by one, Chinese Ambassador to Germany, Jiang Baili, quietly came to Chang Ruiqing's ear and whispered: "Chairman. A test run was held a month ago. Today's test run is for you. The Germans are bound to win the Chinese market."

Chang Ruiqing nodded slightly, and he had already received information about what Jiang Baili said. The bidding for the hunter tank was nominally a fair competition, but in fact, the governments of France, Germany and Italy could not hand over the order to foreign companies, so the results of the bid were almost settled. The French would definitely purchase the "Surveyer 4" of Schneider and Renault, while the Italian Army would buy the "Surveyer 5" of Fiat. As for the Germans' orders, they would definitely fall into their own companies. Only Chinese companies did not participate in the bidding, and China had a huge demand for this tank, so it naturally became the main target of the French, German and Italian companies. Hitler even came on stage in person this time and brought a group of leaders of a large German company to sell tanks to Chang Ruiqing.

After about half an hour of chatting with Chang Ruiqing, Hitler and this group of German merchants, the field test of five models of the Stalker Tank officially began. Since the four weapons procurement departments of China, Germany, France and Italy had already put forward very detailed and clear requirements on the performance data of the Stalker Tank when they proposed the bidding, the data of all the vehicles participating in the test were similar. The prices were not much different. Which product was better? It can only be determined through field and almost practical testing. Moreover, it is a peaceful time, and heavy equipment like tanks often needs to be repeatedly tested and improved for several years before they can be finalized. However, today's test is the most important one among all tests, which is likely to bring orders of thousands or even tens of thousands of tanks to the companies participating in the bidding!

The test to be conducted today is off-road testing. In fact, the main gun to be used in this Scholar tank has not been designed yet, so the fifteen vehicles participating in the test have no guns installed, but just like a water cabinet. The five models of "Scholar" participating in the test have three exactly the same sample cars, and now they are all parked in the mud about 3,000 meters away from the cement stands. They are lined up like soldiers undergoing inspection.

As a red signal flare rose, all the chariots began to start. Since it was not the first time that so many vehicles were tested at the same time, the scene was not at all confused. In less than a minute, all the vehicles started to rumble and crawl forward.

"The one on the right is the No. 1 model, a prototype designed by Daimler Mercedes-Benz and Rheinmetallurgical. The length, width and height of this car are 6.38 meters, 2.63 meters and 2.17 meters respectively. The bottom is 420 mm from the ground. The total combat weight is 15.95 tons. The members are 4 people. They are powered by a Daimler Mercedes-Benz six-cylinder 150-horsepower gasoline engine and are suspended using a spring-type shock-absorbing suspension." Jiang Baili followed Chang Ruiqing at this time and began to make guest appearances on-site commentary.

"The body of the No. 1 model is all made of pressed hot-rolled steel plates and fully welded structures. No rivet can be found outside the entire body. The front upper surface of the body is made of 55mm thick 60-degree inclined armor, and the front lower surface is made of 55mm thick 40-degree inclined armor, which greatly improves the protection ability of the armor. The rear armor on the side of the car body is also 20mm thick, and the inclination angles of the upper and lower bodies are 40 degrees and 15 degrees. The thickness of the hatch doors at the body and the rear of the car is 8mm rolled steel plates."

After a pause, Jiang Baili continued: "In the first round of testing of the weapons procurement department of France, Germany and Italy, this No. 1 car was favored by the German Weapons Bureau and is expected to be equipped with a large amount of equipment by the German Army in the future."

"The thing is pretty good, what is the price?"

"The current quote is 85,000 Imperial Mark per vehicle, which is 85,000 Huayuan."

"The price is fair." Chang Ruiqing nodded slightly, then turned his attention to the three hunter 2 driving. The horsepower of this model seems to be stronger than that of the No. 1 car and the driving speed is slightly faster.

"That was jointly launched by Man and Krupp Steel. This model is a larger one lap than the Stalker One. Its length, width and height are 6.5 meters, 2.8 meters and 2.2 meters respectively. The total combat weight is 16.8 tons. Other performance cars with the same performance are close to each other. The biggest highlight is that it uses a 200-horsepower diesel engine designed by Man, so the speed is also faster. However, it is expensive, and it costs 100,000 Empire Mark.

In addition, the Chaser 3 jointly launched by the Bavarian Machinery Manufacturing Plant and the Czechoslovakia Skoda Company is the cheapest of the five Chaser models, with a price of only 65,000 Imperial Mark. Of course, the performance is also the worst, and it does not use a fully welded structure, so when the armor thickness is slightly worse than that of the No. 1 and No. 2, the expected total combat weight is as high as 18.8 tons and the size is larger."
Chapter completed!