After an hour of driving at full speed at the test site in an extremely rough manner, the armored vehicle returned to the test site train station carrying a busload of impressed passengers.
Next is the matter that everyone is more concerned about - weapons and protection testing.
This basic type of Gale-36 drove to an open space more than 200 meters away from the observation fort. Then a group of soldiers ran out of a house next to the platform and stood in line. These "soldiers" were also armed and wearing
The uniform, however, is not a military uniform, but a dark uniform between military uniforms and work clothes, with a boat-shaped cap, and the emblem of Tai Ping Kee Company embroidered on the cap badge and armbands. This is Tai Ping Kee Company's own guard.
Because most of the arms companies in the Ming Dynasty are private and belong to private property, the government cannot send military police to station. But because they are arms companies, they are high-risk and critical departments, and they cannot be without security forces. Therefore, these arms companies all have their own
Company Guards, and the personnel training is no less than that of the Army. The difference is that they are only equipped with light weapons.
The number of guards in this team was like a squad. They were armed with the light weapons commonly used by the Qing army: imitation Mauser rifles, imitation Japanese 38 rifles, turntable light machine guns, and Czech light machine guns. The last three people launched a Maxim
Water-cooled heavy machine gun.
The group of people all entered the concrete observation fort. There was a long observation window in the observation fort, which had a wide field of view and could accommodate many people observing at the same time. A row of artillery observation mirrors was placed in front of the observation window. Xiang Xiaoqiang and
Each of the accompanying experts put their eyes in front of a gun scope. The armored vehicle in the distance outside was very large in the gun scope, and it was quite clear. Even every welding seam on the armor plate could be clearly seen.
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The first test: resistance to rifle bullets.
The first step was to test the frontal armor. Six guards from half a squad, three with imitation Mauser and three with Type 38, stood in a row about 50 meters away from the front of the armored vehicle and followed the command "Raise the gun".
, six people raised their rifles in unison, aiming at the armored vehicle, like a firing squad executing people.
Then there was another command:
"shooting!"
There was a rapid volley of gunfire, and six puffs of white smoke rose up. Xiang Xiaoqiang and the others saw clearly in the gun scope that a burst of sparks popped out of the front armor of the armored vehicle. A second later, the sound of gunfire collided with the "clinking" steel plate.
The sound entered the observation fort.
The command sounded again:
"Push!"
Six guards pulled the bolt of their guns and pushed in another bullet.
"Raise the gun!"
"shooting!"
There was another burst of gunfire, and there was another burst of sparks on the front armor of the half-track vehicle in the distance...
After five volleys were fired in this manner, and all the bullets in the rifles were exhausted, the six guards retreated.
The second test: resisting light machine gun bullets.
Another command was given, and two light machine gun teams came forward, lay down, set up their bipods, and got ready to shoot. One group used the Deggarev turntable machine gun, and the other group used the Czech ZB light machine gun.
.
Following the firing command, the two light machine guns began to spray flames at the same time, roaring "dong dong dong..." and "ta da da..." and white smoke continued to float. At this time, there was no need to look through the gun scope.
, one can clearly see with the naked eye that dense sparks are jumping on the front steel plate of the armored vehicle more than 200 meters away.
The Czech light machine gun on the right finished its 20-round magazine first and was half quiet. Only the rotary machine gun on the left was still firing "clack-tat-tat-tat". After a few seconds, the 47-round magazine of the rotary machine gun was also finished.
Completely quiet.
The two light machine gun teams stood up, disassembled the gun mounts, put away the machine guns, and retreated. Immediately afterwards, the Maxim water-cooled heavy machine gun that had been waiting for a long time was pushed up.
The third test: resisting heavy machine gun bullets.
The primary shooter held the rear handle of the heavy machine gun, and the secondary shooter held on to the ammunition chain, concentrating on aiming at the bullet-riddled armored vehicle in the distance. Following a command, the Maxim machine gun sprayed tongues of flames "ta da da da da" and fired.
A unique dull sound. After 50 rounds of short ammunition were fired, the surroundings fell silent.
The heavy machine gun team pushed aside the heavy machine gun that was emitting slight white smoke.
The fourth test: resistance to 7.92mm anti-tank guns.
A two-person team came to the front carrying a very long anti-tank gun, lay down, set up the stand, loaded the ammunition, and waited for the command.
In fact, Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that the sets of dazzling bullet tests just now were good-looking, but there was no suspense. Looking at the sparks flying and the bullet marks, they definitely couldn't penetrate. An armored vehicle can completely resist bullet fire.
The most basic requirement. If you can't even do this, then what else are you doing? The key is down there, resisting anti-tank guns.
For this kind of lightly armored tank, it is definitely impossible to resist artillery. Even small-caliber artillery of twenty or thirty millimeters cannot resist it. That is a matter for the tank. In this case, can the armored personnel carrier be able to resist it?
Anti-tank guns are very critical. Because anti-tank guns are different from artillery. No matter how small a caliber artillery is, it is still an artillery piece. The shortest one is half a person tall. It is highly conspicuous and difficult to move on the battlefield, and it requires at least three or four people to operate it.
Easier to find and avoid.
But the anti-tank gun is different. It can be said to be a pipe. It is basically not exposed when shooting while lying down. It should not be too concealed. And it is the same as the light machine gun. It can be used by one or two people. If necessary, one person can
It is also very light to operate. One person can carry it and go, and it is very fast to transfer and deploy. Although its caliber is limited, it poses a relatively small threat to tanks, but it poses a very great threat to something as thin-skinned and large as an armored personnel carrier.
.
…
This is a German-style Mauser anti-tank gun with a caliber of 7.92 mm. The caliber is the same as that of an ordinary rifle, but as an anti-tank gun, it has a longer barrel, more charges, and more importantly, its warhead
It is the famous "K-type bullet" with a tungsten carbide core.
Xiang Xiaoqiang turned his head and looked at Zhang Shaoheng.
Mr. Zhang also stared intently at the gun scope, his throat rolling. It seemed that they had not had time to do this kind of test, and he was also very nervous. When they were doing the rifle and machine gun tests just now, Mr. Zhang looked calm.
But no wonder, this is an armored vehicle, not a tank. Even if it is a tank, with the level of tank armor in this era, it is still quite dangerous to encounter an anti-tank gun, let alone an armored vehicle.
A command was given, an anti-tank gun clicked outside, and a few sparks popped out of the front armor plate of the half-track vehicle in the distance.
Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart pounded nervously. He turned the focus of the gun scope and searched over and over for the gun hole on the front of the armored vehicle. But after searching all over, he only found a relatively deep scratch on the armor plate of the engine hood at the front of the vehicle, which was larger than the surrounding ones.
The scratches caused by other bullets all appeared powerful.
He was relieved. The sloped armor plate worked. The 7.92mm tungsten carbide armor-piercing bullet ricocheted.
Another high-pitched "shoot" command came from outside. Immediately, gunshots rang out again, and a spark burst out from the front plate of the armored vehicle in the gun scope. Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately looked through the gun scope -
Haha, Ricochet again.
Shoot again. This third shot hit the machine gun shield on the roof of the armored vehicle. This time there were not many sparks, and Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately discovered that there was an extra bullet hole in the shield.
This time it penetrated. If it had been a battle, the machine gunner behind would have been dead.
"Well, it's penetrated," Zhang Shaoheng said next to him, his eyes still pressed against the gun scope, and his voice was as calm as possible, "The machine gun shield has been penetrated."
An expert from Taipingji immediately took it over and said calmly:
"Oh, that's normal. The shield is only 8 millimeters thick, and the angle is very small. Well, that's normal."
Xiang Xiaoqiang did not respond and continued to observe close to the gun scope. This was of course common sense to these people. At a distance of 200 meters and at a nearly vertical angle, a 7.92mm tungsten core anti-tank gun would not be able to penetrate an 8mm steel plate.
, then... Then Xiang Xiaoqiang and Taipingji will customize a large number of these steel plates and install them on all the tanks of the Ming army and the steel fortresses on the Yangtze River defense line.
Wang Hexiang spoke and said lightly:
"The shield can be more beveled on both sides. It should not be a flat plate like it is now. It may not be able to block anti-tank guns at close range, but it will be better at long range."
Zhang Shaoheng turned around and chuckled:
"Master Wang is right to the point."
…
Next, seven more rounds of tungsten carbide bullets were fired. Five of them hit the car body armor, all ricocheted, and none of them penetrated. But the other two bullets hit the machine gun shield, and all of them penetrated.
Then two soldiers came up carrying a thicker anti-tank gun. This was a 12.7mm anti-tank gun produced by Daming. Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that large-caliber anti-tank guns would also be the mainstream of anti-tank guns in the next few years.
.
Another 10 rounds were fired, 7 ricocheted, and 3 penetrated the armor plate.
This result is still satisfactory. During the Battle of Nanjing, there was a problem that the front armor of the Ming Dynasty's Gale-33 armored personnel carrier could not resist the Qing army's 12.7mm anti-tank gun. It can be seen that this time the Gale-36 addressed this problem
Improvements were made. The armor was thickened by 3 mm and the inclination angle of the armor plate was increased. As a result, the bulletproof effect was greatly enhanced.
And Xiang Xiaoqiang can see that the effect of increasing the tilt angle is far greater than the effect of the 3 mm thickening. The current blast-36 front armor is 18 mm thick. The 18 mm armor is not thin as an armored vehicle, but
For a large-caliber anti-tank gun, it is still easy to penetrate this thickness. But now the bevel angle has been increased, so the tungsten core bullets that could have been easily penetrated are repeatedly bounced away.
Xiang Xiaoqiang came up with a sentence that was quite satisfactory, smiled and said to himself:
"Angle is armor."
"Angle is armor," Zhang Shaoheng immediately took it and nodded with a smile, "Incisive. Very incisive. Sir, may I ask where this famous saying comes from? I like it very much."
Xiang Xiaoqiang felt comfortable in his heart and smiled lightly:
"Haha, I'm just kidding. This is not a famous saying. It's just a casual summary of the general's whim."
"Oh!" Zhang Shaoheng showed a look of admiration in his eyes, stroking his hands and smiling, "Okay, Lord Xiang is indeed a famous general, and he can sum up such insightful words casually. Yes, that is indeed the case. The angle is the armor, and this is the We just confirmed it.”
As he spoke, he turned to a Taipingji expert beside him and said:
"Aren't you writing a monograph on armor design? I suggest you include the sentence 'Angle is armor'. Believe it or not, this sentence will become a famous saying in the history of military technology."
The expert also nodded in agreement.
Xiang Xiaoqiang felt extremely comfortable in his heart, but on the surface he still expressed a few words of modesty in a nonchalant manner. He knew that Mr. Zhang was flattering him quietly. But he was a big boss after all, and he was capable. This flattery makes people feel good, and it's not so explicit. At least half of the people here can't tell that it's flattery. This is a great success.
For example, Qiu Qiu didn't realize that this was flattery, and now she was looking at her with admiration, with happiness and pride written all over her face.