Cannon Fire Arc

Wang Zhong looked down at the clearly unconvinced engineer and said, "No, I have thought of a better solution. You will take part in tank crew training and then be deployed to the front lines to drive a T34 tank without radio. Today is November 23, 914. If you fight on the frontline until November 23, 915, then you can come back and talk to me about your tank designs."

Having said that, he stood up, turned off the safety of his pistol, and looked at General Sergey, "Do you have any objections?"

General Sergey: "Personnel reassignments require orders from Military Command..."

"There will be orders from Military Command. Letting him experience firsthand what he has designed will help him establish a correct understanding. If he doesn't go, General Sergey, I'm sure you know that without my approval, none of your new products or improved models of existing ones can go into production."

General Sergey: "Fine, let my son-in-law experience his own creation then. But I must remind you that he is..."

Wang Zhong: "He is an idiot; if not an idiot, then he is a spy. Now let's talk about the glass issue. Can't we produce optical glass now?"

General Sergey: "We can produce it, but the quality is very poor. If you want a scope with performance as good as the Prussians', we can only use the ones we've captured. Binoculars and gunner's scopes are also affected."

Wang Zhong: "What else is affected?"

General Sergey displayed a rueful smile: "Everything is affected, especially explosives; we've lost twenty percent of our explosives production capacity."

Wang Zhong raised an eyebrow: "That seems manageable? The loss isn't so great."

General Sergey: "But our fertilizer production capacity has dropped to twenty percent of its original output. Do you understand what I mean?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Wang Zhong's mouth gaped open; wartime expansion of explosives production mainly relied on converting fertilizer production capacity, and without the fertilizer capacity, conversion was impossible.

Furthermore, during peacetime, the consumption of explosives wasn't high, being used mainly for mining and such, so explosives production should have been scaled up for war.

Otherwise, there wouldn't even be enough for ammunition filler.

The Prussians had trouble delivering shells, while Ante had its production capped.

Both the Crouching Dragon and the Young Phoenix.

General Sergey continued: "What's worse, with the fertilizer production capacity reduced to this extent, agriculture will definitely be affected next year. But the good news is that we don't have that much land left to cultivate. Considering only the high-quality agricultural areas, we only have forty percent left, so the shortfall isn't too large."

This is supposed to be good news? This is clearly a joke from hell!

With that, Sergey pushed a thick binder full of tables towards Wang Zhong: "For other reductions, please refer to this table."

Wang Zhong picked up the table and quickly leafed through it, finding a huge downward arrow next to all production data.

After about thirty pages, Wang Zhong set down the table, his expression grave—there were at least thirty more pages to go.

He seemed to mutter to himself: "It turns out that what we urgently need right now is not improvements to the flaws in our weapons and equipment. What we urgently need is support from the Federation."

General Sergey: "Exactly. The entire year of 915 will be very difficult for us without external assistance. This is why the logistics department supports the idea of a swift victory, because otherwise, next year will be too challenging.

"Do you understand? We all actually know your theory is correct, and Tukhachev probably knows it too. But we are in a tougher spot than Prosen—though not at the point of collapse, next year we will be walking a tightrope. If the enemy causes us to lose eleven thousand tanks in eighteen days like they did this year, then the war cannot continue.

"Of course, you've achieved very impressive results in battle, and with the Federation now in the war, we will likely receive support from the Federation. For this, I am more thankful to you than anyone else."

Wang Zhong was astounded.

General Sergey: "Of course, improvements to weaponry must also continue. We expect Raoul's factory to start trial production in April next year. As long as we don't take radio supply into account, we can have this factory devote all its efforts to producing the T34W, leaving the space for radio installation empty.

"Ye Fort's United Machinery Plant currently also has a production line very familiar with producing your T34W, although the output isn't high.

"I agree to do this because the forces really report the T34W to be superior to the standard T34. I was just convincing my son-in-law, but he remains stubborn, insisting that the T34W requires twice or even three times the man-hours to produce compared to the T34..."

Wang Zhong: "But a single T34W, if used properly, can achieve five to six times the effectiveness of a T34."

"I know," General Sergey looked at his son-in-law, who had just gotten up, holding his face, "so I was convincing him... Well, perhaps sending him to the front lines is a good idea. Alright, Valentin, you can go now."

The engineer, holding his face, left.

General Sergey then spoke to Wang Zhong in a more solemn tone: "If the war really continues, whether we can get assistance from the Federation—and how much we can get—will become the key. Unfortunately, that's something beyond my control.

"As for the internal matters of the Ordnance Department, I assure you we will give full consideration to your suggestions. Many engineers are very obstinate; you can't send each one to the front lines, someone has to stay and design things."

Wang Zhong: "No, I'm not sending everyone to the front. I'm sending those stubborn fools who ignore frontline feedback and overestimate themselves to the front. If the engineers are cooperative and listen to the frontline feedback, I won't send them away."

General Sergey nodded: "Alright, you have the logical high ground on this matter, and given your father and many comrades have already sacrificed themselves on the battlefield, you certainly have the right to send my son-in-law to the battlefield as well.

"Besides the T34, what else needs to be improved?"

Wang Zhong: "I'll write you a detailed report, and I will also have the technical officers who use various equipment under my command produce a detailed report as well; they are currently resting at Kubinka."

General Sergey: "I promise to study these reports carefully, and I will make sure that the engineers working on the relevant projects do too. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Wang Zhong: "I need a new weapon, an armored vehicle whose main gun should still have a certain penetration ability at a distance of 1500 meters, such as a vertical penetration depth of 110 millimeters."

"At the same time, its shells should ensure enough lethality after penetrating the enemy armor."

"It should be easy to maintain with a low failure rate. The high failure rate of the KV tanks now is due to the engines being too weak and the vehicles being too heavy..."

Sergey interrupted Wang Zhong: "Our engine technology isn't really good."

This was the same as on Earth; after all, the engine is the "jewel in the crown of the industry," and during World War II, many Soviet engines were produced under licenses from others, and some engines even came with blueprints and technical materials from the Sturmtiger—just to lull the Soviets into a false sense of camaraderie.

Wang Zhong: "I know our engine technology is not great. So I'm thinking first, we should introduce high-powered engines from the Federation, and it would be best if we could obtain the blueprints and production authorization."

"Second, before the Federation's new engines are in place, we should produce a simplified, armored gun carrier. In fact, the ZIS-30 was well-received in my division. But it is too exposed, and without a turret, it can only ambush from prepared positions."

"We could produce a gun carrier with a turret and vehicle body capable of withstanding heavy machine gun fire, which would be much lighter than the T34. We might even be able to utilize the production lines for the BT series..."

"That's impossible," Sergey interrupted Wang Zhong, "The BT series of tanks cannot be fitted with the caliber of gun you require."

Wang Zhong: "Are you certain?"

"Of course. I may not be an artillery expert, but I have worked at the Ordnance Department for fifteen years; I know that the caliber of gun that can meet your requirements won't be small, and the barrel won't be short, either."

That was indeed true; any old weapons engineer would realize upon hearing Wang Zhong's requirements that such a cannon would certainly be long, black, and thick.

General Sergey continued: "Such a cannon, with just the barrel weight alone, is not to be underestimated, and when you add in the breech, recoil mechanisms, stabilizers, and so on, that turret won't be small. I suspect even the T34W's turret couldn't accommodate this thing."

Wang Zhong: "Then let's build a bigger turret..."

"Currently, the largest turret we can build is the one for your T34W. To make this turret, we even imported a special vertical lathe from Prosen, and we've copied this type of lathe, but we've never found a tank that has to be produced with this kind of lathe because even the turret ring for the KV tank is less than 1600 millimeters in diameter."

So, they've procured machinery capable of producing larger turret rings just to show off with Parade Tanks for the rich and vain, and now it provided the foundation to manufacture even larger turrets?

The more Wang Zhong understood the situation, the more dreadfully thoughtful he became.

In addition, Wang Zhong realized something—the Sherman's ring diameter is 1753 millimeters, which is why the British could mount the 17-pounder gun on the Sherman to create the Firefly tank destroyer!

Wang Zhong gathered his thoughts and said to General Sergey: "First, let's find a cannon. Once we've found the cannon, we'll see if we can fit it into the existing turret. For example, we can consider reducing some of the things inside the turret, or removing the top armor..."

Hmm? Wang Zhong suddenly stopped speaking at this point; this setup looked somewhat familiar.

Isn't this the Hellcat?

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A Soviet-version Hellcat?

Wang Zhong was very familiar with the Hellcat because in the game War Thunder, his favorite vehicle from World War II was this fast-running, reliable cannon.

What's not to love about the Hellcat or the T50?

However, the biggest flaw of the Hellcat was that it was hard on the commander. Since it lacked a roof, the commander sat high up, causing them to stick out of the turret.

Of course, Wang Zhong's ultimate goal was to build a tank with reliable armor so that Ante's elite Tank Operators could survive.

The survival rates of the Guards Motor Rifle Division's Tank Operators were already high, so they were likely the most experienced Tank Operators in all of Ante at the moment.

For the next six months, as long as they trained hard, turned their basic skills into muscle memory, and were matched with reliable equipment, they would be ready to go tiger hunting.

This plan, however, was just a temporary solution while waiting for more powerful engines. Once a reliable engine was obtained in the future, it was time to consider upgrading the armor to withstand armor-piercing rounds.

General Sergey looked at Wang Zhong. "Hmm, a simplified turret? We can try that, let's choose a cannon first. I have the performance data of all our current models of cannons here for you to pick from."

"I'd like to remind you that developing a new cannon might take even longer than developing a new tank," Sergey added"

Wang Zhong: "I'm aware, hand me the data."