Munitions Empire

Liu Guozhu sat in his seat, feeling the comfort the new tank brought to him: interleaved road wheels were not exactly maintenance-friendly, but for the entire tank crew, they were a godsend. In terms of comfort alone, these interleaved road wheels might be superior to those of modern tanks. However, after weighing other performance factors, designs like this were completely abandoned. Tang Mo's thinking was actually quite similar to that of German designers: he planned to use Tang Country's already leading industrial capacity to give this advantage to all the fighters on the front line. The Panther Tank was a prime example of this mindset: before the next generation of tank technology emerged, it was already the best and most powerful machine. Compared to comprehensive capabilities, it outperformed all other contemporary tanks, including the famously formidable T-34 tank, in every aspect. The wide tracks combined with the interleaved road wheels gave the Panther Tank extreme stability when crossing obstacles, with almost no jostling. This allowed the Panther Tank to aim and reload while on the move, and the tactic of short stops for shooting enabled the Panther Tank to fire a sufficient number of shells during brief engagements. At the same time, its large chassis could carry 80 rounds of ammunition, a quantity comparable to the No. 4 tank, so the Panther did not sacrifice sustained combat capability despite the increased shell size. But for the gunner and loader, this new tank wasn't without drawbacks: in order to increase the tank's armor protection, the turret side hatches they used to enter and exit were eliminated. Thus, they couldn't stick their heads and upper bodies outside during travel, nor enjoy the view outside. Ventilation was definitely worse, but the side armor thickness was incomparable to that of the No. 4 tank. Also, the driver's observation window at the front was outright removed, replaced by a periscope—a direct boost to the frontal armor's defensive capability, but it did indeed affect the driver's experience while on the march. The alternative was to raise the driver's seat during normal conditions, allowing them to poke their heads out of the tank for direct driving. There were disadvantages, though; if it was a rainy day like the ones before, operating the tank would become much more troublesome. In any case, it was a matter of give-and-take: gunners and loaders sacrificed ventilation for better protection and a more powerful gun, with drivers and radio operators gaining sturdier armor as well. The commander had the most comfort, so Liu Guozhu's experience was the best; he could stick out part of his body and watch the thick smoke still rising from the villages they passed. This was a small Dahua village, with only a few houses whose backyards were piled with straw. The village, with fences half-torn down and some neglected farmland beyond, had been occupied by the Tang Army troops; the villagers had run off to who knows where. "It will soon become a battlefield here," said the driver, eyeing an open space not far off where a Camel Biplane Fighter had crashed at some unknown time. The white pentagram on the fuselage made it clear this was a Dahua Empire fighter; considering the damage, it was likely the pilot had been wounded rather than killed. When the Tang Army troops advanced to this position, they had not encountered resistance from the Dahua troops, who had departed rapidly without so much as setting a fire behind them. "Yeah! According to the messages from the battalion, a Dahua armored corps was spotted nearby, or we wouldn't have been dispatched here," Liu Guozhu spoke into his transmitter to his driver. Because of the switch to a more reliable design, the communicator inside the tank was quite good; the noise was not too loud during communications, and the sound came through quite clearly. The loader inside the turret could only listen dejectedly to his commander and driver chatting; having no chance to peek outside at the world. Divided by the gun's chamber, the gunner on the other side could at least use the sight to view the distance, but compared with before, his field of vision truly couldn't be described as good. The Panther Tank's retrofitted diesel engine roared cheerfully, driving the tank smoothly over the obstacles ahead. In the village, a unit of Great Tang grenadiers was gathered in conversation. The commander at the lead pointed out certain spots in the distance, discussing with the soldiers how they might set up their positions here shortly. A truck was parked at the back of the village, with a Type 113 Armored Vehicle providing cover for it. Installed with only a single machine gun, the armored vehicle looked rather bulging and not very lethal. "Just one tank coming over, isn't that a bit too few?" the gunner, eyeing the open ground before his scope, finally asked. Liu Guozhu, for his part, was unconcerned, "The other tanks of the platoon are on the flank. All we need to do is block any enemy trying to enter the village, no problem! The terrain here is to our advantage." They had deliberately chosen to establish defenses here because the terrain was rather narrow: with mountainsides to the south, enemy tanks were unable to deploy. If the enemy attacked only with infantry, the Tang Army's grenadiers would repel them. If Dahua Armored Corps charges in from the north, the forest there would slow their attack, followed by a line of three other tanks in a relatively open area engaging in battle and wiping out all the enemies. Only when attacking the village from the west would it be necessary for Liu Guozhu's crew to intercept, and on this battleground, the suppression power of a single Panther Tank was already extremely terrifying. As for why a tank platoon has only four tanks, that's because one broke down on the way—malfunctions are actually quite common with complex armaments such as tanks. "Rest assured! We still have a Lion-model armored reconnaissance vehicle ahead of us! When it retreats back, that will be enough," Liu Guozhu said while lifting the binoculars hanging in front of his chest and looking toward the distant sky. There, a fighter plane clearly from the Dahua Empire was circling, a biplane, very distinct. The air force of the Great Tang Kingdom had long stopped using biplane aircraft: even the reconnaissance planes didn't use the similar bi-wing design. It was the Dahua Empire, however, that often employed the obsolete and slow Camel Fighter for reconnaissance missions: this was indeed a good choice, at least providing valuable intelligence for the Empire's ground forces. After all, the Dahua Empire had thousands of Camel Fighters. Although outdated and unsuitable for air superiority roles, they still could be put to some use. "I suppose they already know we are here." After putting down the binoculars and glancing at the huge national flag laid out on the ground by the infantry, Liu Guozhu casually remarked. Since there wasn't much space on top of the Panther Tank for identifying friend or foe, the previously used identification markings on top of the Type 4 tanks had essentially been canceled. To prevent friendly fire, the task of laying out markings for air recognition was transferred to the infantry. Grenadiers made it a habit to spread national flags wherever they went, on rooftops and the ground. Despite this, incidents of friendly fire were still common, causing considerable consternation within the army; the air force meetings discussing the issue were just as frequent. These things can't be helped. Even during the Gulf War period on Earth, American aircraft managed to bomb British armored vehicles, and such incidents could happen in any era. "Hello? Yes! This is me! Understood!" Receiving communication from the platoon leader, Liu Guozhu took off his headset and climbed out of the tank: "Everyone come out for some air! According to the reconnaissance battalion, enemy tanks and infantry have been spotted nearby, and battle could break out at any moment, so take the chance to breathe!" The gunner and loader both climbed out of the tank, taking food out of the storage box on the side of the tank turret. The steel plate on the outside of the Panther Tank's storage box could withstand close-range machine gun fire, so it was possible to store some food and clothing. Anyway, if they took fire from a shell that could actually penetrate that layer of steel, losing some clothes and food wasn't too high a price to pay. After the few of them ate a couple of canned fruits, the Lion-model armored reconnaissance vehicle that had retreated earlier stopped on the other side of the village. The commander of the reconnaissance vehicle brought back news of the enemy: about seventy to eighty tanks, along with a large number of infantry. It seemed that the Dahua Empire was indeed making significant efforts to take back Wangchun City, being able to assemble such a large force under disturbance from Tang Country's air force was no easy feat. Sure enough, less than half an hour later, the Empire's soldiers appeared in the Tang Army's field of vision. The atmosphere suddenly grew tense, and Liu Guozhu's crew members also entered the tank to make final preparations. "Load armor-piercing rounds!" Liu Guozhu commanded, peering through his binoculars at the Dahua military assembling at the end of the clearing in the distance. "Armor-Piercing Rounds!" The loader pulled a shell from the most awkward position, pushed it into the gun chamber, closed the breach, and repeated loudly. This particular shell was designed to attack the enemy tanks, ensuring the high barrel pressure of the 75 mm gun could easily penetrate the enemy tank's front armor from a distance of one kilometer. Most of Liu Guozhu's tank was hidden behind a small reverse slope, with only the turret and a small part of the chassis exposed. With the shrubs in front of them, spotting a tank hiding here was no easy task. This was an important part of the Tang Army tank training syllabus—the commander had to remember all the conditions for choosing a position. As the enemy approached, Liu Guozhu issued the firing command, "Aim at the lead Dahua tank, and fire when ready!" "Boom!" Before he even finished saying "fire," the gunner stomped on the firing pedal, and an armor-piercing round flew out of the Panther Tank's recoiling barrel, racing towards the distant target seeking its doom!