Chapter 293: 292 ‘taishan Pine’ Medium Tank Prototype, Self-propelled Cannon Power, Lugou Bridge Crisis
4150 alloy was shipped from the United States to Asia via cargo ship.
More than half a month had passed.
It was May.
In response to the Japanese Army’s frequent military exercises, the 29th Army also took action, conducting targeted military exercises in the North China region.
However, the National Government was still pinning hopes on applying pressure to the Japanese side through diplomatic channels to resolve the dispute.
Conveniently during this period, the British king was ascending the throne, so they sent a special envoy there, attempting to ease the current situation through the British people.
Unfortunately, these are not the old days.
Japan in the past had indeed benefited greatly from British assistance, even its navy was strongly supported by them, but now with feathers fully grown, Japan could no longer be suppressed by the British.
Even the interests in the North China region were almost impossible for the British people to protect.
Meanwhile, Japanese ronin in Tianjin were becoming increasingly rampant, with various disputes occurring frequently, and floating corpses discovered continuously for several days on the Hai River surface, causing panic among the people of Tianjin.
Also this month, the National Government divided the nation into six air force zones; the nation established nine air force brigades, with over 600 aircraft in total, and organized anti-aircraft gun air defense troops.
First Brigade:
Garrison: Nanchang.
Second Brigade:
Garrison: Guangde, Changxing.
Third Brigade:
Garrison: Nanjing, Jurong.
Fourth Air Group:
Garrison: Hangzhou Jianqiao.
Fifth Brigade:
Garrison: Yangzhou.
Sixth Brigade:
Garrison: Nanjing.
Seventh Brigade:
Garrison: Chuzhou.
Eighth Brigade:
Garrison: Daxiaochang, Shanghai, directly under the Aviation Committee.
Ninth Air Group:
Garrison: Cao E.
After the air force reorganization, they also extended an olive branch to Fang Wen. For this boss of an aviation company who had his own aviation team and strong flight capabilities, they wanted to incorporate him as part of the National Air Force.
To this end, Fang Wen, who was in Yangon, sent a telegram to Nanjing expressing refusal, but stated willingness to cooperate in case of warfare.
Yangon.
The first “Mount Tai Pine Tank” prototype was undergoing armor assembly.
Engineers and technicians cut the 4150 alloy steel plates into appropriately sized squares for subsequent processing.
After cutting, the armor plates needed to be processed into complex shapes like arcs, requiring rolling to form.
Hot rolling is a common method, using high-temperature flames from combustible waste gas from the oil refinery to preheat the armor plates to a certain temperature, then rolling them.
The completed armor pieces would be connected together via mortise and tenon structures, then welded, making the tank armor overall very sturdy.
But this was only the first layer of armor.
To improve defense strength, composite armor pieces needed to be added to the outer layer.
The additional armor outside the vehicle body and chassis, as well as the turret, was fixed with bolts and rivets on the armor by engineers as an extra layer of temporary steel plate, serving as the tank’s additional armor. This primitive stacking thickness method improved the tank’s protection to a certain extent.
In certain key areas, such as between the tank’s chassis side plates and side support plates, reinforced structures were added to improve bulletproof performance.
The reinforced structures usually adopted L-shaped forms, fixed to the chassis side plates and side support plates with bolts, then further reinforced by welding.
On the outer sides of some armor plate joints, holes were drilled to insert armor bolts to further enhance structural strength.
The armor bolts were fixed to the armor plates by welding, forming additional support points.
After completing these, the Mount Tai Pine prototype was formed.
Next was surface anti-oxidation rust prevention treatment, internal equipment detection, and test driving.
Once everything was ready, the Mount Tai Pine tank prototype was successfully manufactured.
As a special combat tank forged with heavy investment, its specs were also very impressive.
Vehicle height: 2.9 meters
Vehicle length: 6.5 meters
Vehicle width: 3.6 meters
Highway speed max: 30 km/h; off-road speed max: 20 km/h.
Fuel capacity max range: highway 178 km, off-road 90 km.
Standard crew: 3 people: driver, gunner, loader. （ Three-man team, also sharing duties of vehicle commander, telegraph operator, machine gunner)）
Main gun: 75 mm Taishan self-made tank gun. （ Infantry gun modified, can fire howitzer shells and armor-piercing rounds, max range 3000 meters）
Machine gun: 2 Ckm wz.30 machine guns（7.92 mm bullets）
Armor: 13~60 mm
Slope climbing: 30
Can cross 2.1 m trench
Fording depth: 1.2 m
Weight: 23 tons.
Whether in terms of overall vehicle volume, weight, or various performance aspects, it far surpassed the T-26 light tank.
But its cost was also staggeringly high, roughly $30,000 per vehicle, equivalent to the price of a Shuiyun Type 1 Seaplane.
With the Mount Tai Pine prototype completed, Fang Wen was naturally the first to drive it.
He selected two people from among the engineers and technicians as temporary gunner and loader, and began the first official test drive.
In a large open area in the western suburbs of Yangon, everyone involved in the project had gathered.
Under their attention, Fang Wen and the two others walked toward the Mount Tai Pine medium tank.
Fang Wen was the first to climb onto the tank, entering through the top hatch, followed by the other two entering the tank.
As temporary vehicle commander, Fang Wen instructed them: “To your positions, gunner responsible for observation, loader responsible for radio station, simulate wartime travel.”
After giving the orders, Fang Wen sat in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
As the aircraft engine in the rear operated, the temperature inside the vehicle began to rise.
This was a heat dissipation issue in the enclosed space; the internal temperature was also a major problem currently faced by tanks. During combat, for safety considerations, the temperature inside a sealed tank would become very stuffy and hot.
If this internal temperature problem couldn’t be solved, driving the Mount Tai Pine would be a very painful experience.
Although this was a problem faced by tanks in all countries currently, for Fang Wen, there was a way to solve it.
He designed a simple vehicle-mounted air conditioning system.
Using a condenser and evaporator made from copper pipes, connected to the second water cooling system of the aircraft engine, circulating refrigeration with ammonia as the refrigerant, then using a fan to blow cool air processed through airflow and heat exchange into the vehicle.
With a slight cool breeze, the temperature inside the vehicle immediately dropped.
In this temperature environment, it was no longer a driving difficulty. Fang Wen started the tank and began various driving operations in the open area.
He drove in different terrains, testing the tank’s various performances.
Overall, this tank with strong horsepower was the best tank of this era, and also the most expensive.
Its defense and power were all noteworthy, much better than contemporary tanks.
After all, no one would use an aircraft engine as the power source for a tank with extremely high combat loss rate.
Now, only the firepower test remained.
The loader used the vehicle-mounted radio station to contact the outside, and soon a car arrived, leading the tank to the artillery test site.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the artillery test site, which was a piece of abandoned buildings bought from locals, originally a flour mill with brick and stone structure, perfect for testing artillery firing power.
Fang Wen drove the tank around the mill building once, then gave the order: “Aim at the house on the left, one howitzer shell.”
The gunner immediately observed the target, then forcefully turned the lever to rotate the turret.
As the turret rotated, the gun barrel aligned with that direction.
Then, the loader began loading propellant. Once ready, the gunner loaded the shell and activated the launch device.
With a roar, the recoil mechanism behind the gun barrel jerked back sharply, and the hot cartridge case popped out into the cartridge case box beside it.
This artillery strike hit the upper part of that building, and the explosive power blasted a large hole in the top of the structure.
The effect of the first shot was very good. One could imagine that when the Mount Tai Pine medium tank and the mercenary group’s soldiers arrived here together and encountered enemies stubbornly resisting in the forward stronghold, only such powerful artillery fire could destroy the enemy’s defense.
He drove the tank circling around the mill, ordering the gunner to fire from different directions.
These two acting as gunner and loader were only temporary testers, not professional military personnel, and after firing a few shells, they became flustered and disorganized.
It seemed specialized trained military personnel were needed. Fang Wen stopped the artillery test, and that pile of ruined walls became the result of this firing.
The result of the artillery test gave Fang Wen the feeling that the power was good, much stronger than the 37 mm gun.
It was just that this short-barreled gun had shorter range than long-barreled guns and less accuracy.
But higher power.
In reality, in Fang Wen’s mind, he defined the Mount Tai Pine medium tank as a self-propelled gun, a fully armored high-defense armored weapon with both mobility and power, for coordinated combat with infantry.
Now the Mount Tai Pine tank prototype existed, but production couldn’t be in Yangon.
After all, if produced in Yangon, with the Sino-Burmese Road not yet built, the whole vehicle could only be shipped by sea to China’s coastal ports, possibly intercepted by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Therefore, Fang Wen planned to transport the materials for tank equipment back domestically disguised as ordinary cargo.
Early May.
A cargo ship entered via the Yangtze River estuary and docked at the Nanjing port dock.
There, the cargo on the cargo ship was repackaged onto smaller steamships.
These small steamships carried the supplies upstream along the Yangtze, then turned into the Yuanjiang, unloading in Changde.
Fang Wen also arrived in Changde early, receiving the goods together with fourth sister’s husband.
Mercenary group soldiers from Xiangxi Airport, as well as engineers and technicians for tank equipment, were all busy together, unloading large and small parts from the ship.
Among them, the tank chassis and some large castings were the hardest to transport. Local hired workers used round logs underneath as rollers, with people pulling on top and pushing below to move them.
Looking at the busy scene, fourth sister’s husband couldn’t help asking: “Fang Wen, I’ve prepared the location and factory building for you. The stuff will arrive soon. Are you really going to build a factory and make vehicles here in Changde?”
“Of course it’s real. I’ve shipped all this stuff here; how could I be deceiving you?” Fang Wen laughed.
Fang Wen did not tell fourth sister’s husband that he was making tanks, fearing it would be too stimulating for him.
But choosing Changde was also an emergency measure. After all, Xiangxi Airport was all mountainous roads; transporting there for assembly would make it a problem to drive out.
Assembled here in Changde, they could directly drive to the Yangtze River bank and transport to the frontline via major rivers.
After sending off his brother-in-law, he immediately arranged tank assembly matters. Materials for a total of two tanks needed to be assembled within these two months to send north for use by the escort team’s ground troops.
A month passed unknowingly.
June arrived.
Knowing what was about to happen, Fang Wen grew increasingly tense.
At this moment, personally experiencing all this gave him a deeper understanding of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The development of events all had reasons.
What caused this intensification, even outbreak, was the formation of Japan’s new cabinet.
With the new cabinet established, the Japanese side’s attitude toward China became increasingly tough.
The situation in North China became increasingly urgent.
Japanese Army garrisoned in Tianjin conducted exercises more frequently, especially the first regiment stationed in Fengtai, which took attacking Wanping City as the target, holding exercises day and night.
The Imperial Japanese Navy was also rampant across China’s seas, with Qingdao, Shanghai, and Shantou as their exercise venues.
And this month, in Taiwan under Japanese rule, all newspapers and periodicals were comprehensively banned from using Chinese, intending to fully replace with Japanese language education.
This series of provocative actions gave people in North China and coastal regions a feeling that a storm was coming.
Late June.
Two tanks were assembled.
The method to transport north was already planned, to be carried out by soldiers of the mercenary group led by Wu Yingzong.
It wasn’t time yet; they needed a trigger to draw national attention north before departing conveniently. They were now selecting tank crew members and training intensively.
Additionally.
3 modified gunships were stationed at Xiangxi Airport.
Mercenary group soldiers in the airport were also gearing up.
Comprehensive war was about to break out.
Knowing full well this would happen, Fang Wen was in a state of high tension, running between the airline company and Taishan Volunteer Army, concerned with everything.
Until the latest intelligence arrived from Shanghai.
This intelligence contained a major message.
【Japanese spies stationed in Beiping will soon disguise as radical students to incite riots inside the city, to cooperate with some action.】
Seeing this message, Fang Wen couldn’t help recalling the encrypted telegram Yoshida had proactively sent two days ago.
From what Yoshida had overheard among senior officers in the Imperial Japanese Navy, they were privately spreading a message: “On the evening of July 7th, North China will see a second Liutiaohu incident.”
It seemed everything was already in the Japanese side’s plan, so it was no longer a secret.
Fang Wen anonymously passed this intelligence to the 29th Army.
In the subsequent city-wide manhunt, these Japanese spies preparing for action were arrested, and they confessed they would act together with the Japanese garrison in Dongjiaominxiang during the operation.
As for the main attacking forces outside, it was obvious without thinking—they were the Japanese Army that had been eyeing Lugou Bridge southwest of Beiping.
Such actions were already obvious; anyone still clear-headed knew the Japanese would soon occupy North China.
In response, professors at Tsinghua University who had been hesitating also began considering evacuation.
Some had already fled with the fleeing crowds out of the city, while others were reluctant to leave their research materials. Some familiar with Fang Wen proactively contacted him.
The Japanese were about to start war.
Professors from Tsinghua University and Peking University sent telegrams to Fang Wen requesting help.
For this, Fang Wen definitely had to help. These were intellectuals with backbone; even facing such dire circumstances, they had held firm in Beiping. Now that they wanted to evacuate, of course he had to assist.
Immediately, Fang Wen dispatched two civil aviation company flights to land at Qinghe Airport.
Then, upon learning there were also many materials to transport, Fang Wen flew the Taishan No. 1 Transport Aircraft over. With the Taishan One’s large capacity, those materials were finally safe from destruction in the war.
After several days of continuous busyness, the precious materials and professors/students from the two universities in Beiping were sent south.
Among them, some professors and students, after learning about Taishan Airlines’ industrial foundation in Yangon, proactively requested to go to Yangon.
This was an unexpected delight; the Yangon industrial park desperately needed senior intellectuals to join.
After arranging for these people to go to Yangon, Fang Wen waited.
Soon after, gunfire from Lugou Bridge rang out.
