During World War I, the battles in Eastern Europe were booming. The German and Austrian coalition fought fiercely with Russian livestock for three years, and finally knocked this giant creature from outside to the ground, and a bloody freak deformity broke out on its corpse. However, compared to the enthusiastic scene of mutual attacks on the Eastern Front, the main theme of the battlefield on the Western Front is almost always defense.

Since the European terrain is in the shape of an inverted funnel from west to east, the narrower the way westwards; the German-French battlefield with relatively short fronts, coupled with the machine gun cannons produced by the three industrial empires of Britain, France and Germany, which were far more than the eastern line, immediately formed an insurmountable trenches. The warring sides had tried to make a frontal breakthrough more than once, but they were beaten into a bloody river in front of the defensive system composed of machine gun trenches and barbed wire. In order to break this deadlock, both sides racked their brains and used their unique skills: the Germans fully utilized their advantages in the chemical industry and land warfare, developed poison gas and nurtured infiltration tactics; while the British moved their experience in the navy to the army and built tanks, a "land cruiser" that changed the future land warfare pattern.

Although the early tanks that appeared in World War I were still in a very primitive stage, the three elements of fire protection speed were not good, and the work reliability was even more terrible, they undoubtedly played a very important role in the subsequent battles. This guy who was not afraid of guns and bullets rumbled over the barbed wire that took away countless attacking officers and soldiers' lives, absorbed a large amount of firepower from the defensive party, and played an irreplaceable role in saving the lives of their own officers and soldiers or creating offensive conditions. With tanks, they may not be able to break through.

The side guards a solid defense line, but it is almost impossible to complete a breakthrough on the enemy's front without tanks! In addition, this weapon will also play an extremely important role in the Eastern Front battlefield; the Eastern Front battlefield, whose artillery density is geometrically reduced compared to the Western Front, gives this primitive weapons an excellent living environment, allowing them to perform super gods like slaughtering young people when facing a Russian army that cannot even guarantee a rifle, and almost all cavalry equipped with melee sabers, are extremely scarce.

Because the extremely important role that tanks will play in future wars, Qingying, as a time traveler, naturally would not sit idly by. In 1905, just after the Americans built the first tractor in the modern sense, Qingying began to fully introduce this ready-made technology from the United States, and invested in and build factories in Germany in the name of increasing agricultural output, and engage in the production and research and development of the predecessor of the tractor tank. With Qingying's deliberate push, German engineers have developed to a very high level in the field of fuel-powered crawler tractors: in addition to equipting higher-power engines, a series of tests were also conducted to lay steel armor and equip guns.

In March 1908, on a sunny and warm windy day, on the test site of the Royal Tractor Factory located in the suburbs of Berlin, a steel chariot with a completely different shape from an ordinary tractor attracted the attention of everyone around the site. The dark gray body cast from steel looked particularly generous and powerful, and the continuous tracks under the load-bearing wheel worked and loved; and the short-barrel cannon in the rotating turret exuded a unique temperament that was passionate and unrestrained under the sunlight, and a unique blow would be hit!

"Your Highness, this is the weapon developed based on the fuel crawler tractor we produce in accordance with your previous requirements. It is controlled by three personnel, responsible for commanding, driving and firing respectively; its combat weight reaches 9 tons, which is more than 4 times that of an ordinary car." Oliver, the head of the Royal Tractor Factory, looked at the young man in front of him respectfully, with a little more eagerness in his words. Due to Qingying's strong support for the R&D project, Oliver, who also received the project's main project, has benefited from the injection of massive funds; at this moment, facing the funder with huge funds, Oliver naturally wants to show his R&D results in front of Qingying without reservation.

Qingying nodded when he heard this, and a smile quietly spread out from the corner of his mouth. With his direct intervention in the research and development process, the newborn German tank had already had the classic prototype of modern tanks in later generations. It not only adopted the optimal design concept of a single turret, but its defensive appearance was no longer as square as the German tank in history, which was easily penetrated by direct shells, but undoubtedly used inclined armor in the front. Those who directly adapted the naval experience to the army field, thus creating a large number of equipment, multiple artillery and machine guns, and the heavy tuition fees paid by the barbarians of multiple turrets, which were as flashy as an arsenal, were all avoided and improved to almost the best extent.

The combat mode of tanks is completely different from warships. Due to the relatively long distance and the effect of hitting a single shot, it is almost impossible to kill one shot; therefore, warships often require a certain number of main guns to ensure dispersion and hitting at long distances, in order to cause the most effective strike to the enemy (the Japanese Navy's test conclusion is at least 6). The distance between land tanks is relatively close, and the complement of precision optical fire control instruments is enough to accurately hit one shot and completely knock the target into scrap iron. Therefore, multiple turret tanks have no any

The significance of the turret will, on the contrary, cause serious deterioration in cost, tonnage, technical research and development difficulty and mobility due to more turrets, thus being completely defeated by single turret tanks in the most important field of war economics. The tilted armor that Qingying insisted on in the development of new chariots was also proven to be a superior concept of far greater than the benefits; the tilted armor's resistance to direct shells is far stronger than the equivalent armor obtained by SerB, a science fiction author of the rasp master, in his water cabinet world using cosine calculations.

Accompanied by the roar of the engine, this vehicle, which could be called a tank, began to operate slowly; seeing this scene, Qingying's eyes lit up, and she developed a strong interest in his performance on the test field. However, what surprised him was that although it sprayed extremely thick blue smoke at the tail, its forward speed was extremely slow. It was like an old man in his 80s was staggering forward with a crutch. After slowly leaving the flat ground, the speed of the chariot entering the off-road state was even more unsightly; the roar of the engine lasted for more than 15 minutes, but the small section of gravel was everywhere, and the rugged road with high and low heights had not been completely crossed!

Seeing that Qingying's face was slightly stiff, Oliver quickly explained: "Your Highness. Although its speed is a little slower, due to the current technical conditions, it is already the limit for us to install a 35-horsepower gasoline engine for this tank. With this power output, its maximum road speed is 4.5km/h and off-road speed is 2km/h. Although its speed is a little slower, it has a pretty good oil storage capacity; the loading of the large fuel tank behind it is enough to allow it to travel 50km continuously on the road."

Qingying had a detailed understanding of the tragic performance of the tanks in World War I in later generations; this was only equivalent to the speed of roads that a normal adult walked on, which was the inherent technical limitation of this era. He paused a little and was about to speak, but suddenly a harsh sound of "Crack and Crack" came from the test site. Qingying felt a trembling heart. When he turned around, he saw that the tank that was in line with the blood of later generations and seemed quite majestic, and the tank was trapped in a gully less than half a meter deep. After the smoke exhaust outlet finally squeezed out two balls of blue smoke, the engine and the engine were completely stopped in a strange sound that was obviously different from normal operation. The maintenance team members who had already been waiting next to him rushed forward. They held various maintenance equipment and used their extremely quick skills to conduct various troubleshooting and replacement of the tanks.

Qingying covered her forehead with her right hand, and Qingjun's face was full of pain that she could not directly look at her face. The reason why World War I could not break through and blitz like World War II was not only because of the lack of strong air force support, the extremely high failure rate of its original tanks was also one of the crucial reasons. In history, in the Battle of Somme, when tanks were first put into combat, the 49 British tanks that participated in the battle were mechanical failures, so they had to lose nearly two-thirds of their crew before they could drive to the offensive position. In the end, the lucky ones who survived and could still move could even count with one hand. Considering that the engine, transmission shaft, gearbox and other technologies were still incomplete in mid-1908, and the test vehicle was operating for nearly half an hour before it was announced on strike. It was an excellent performance of German workers' pursuit of excellence!

"Don't deliberately pursue any driving distances anymore. With this guy's current failure rate, it is impossible to have the ability to perform long-distance tactical maneuvers. Our main task at present is to improve its reliability and enable it to drive longer under normal operation; only in this way can the German Imperial Army have the necessity to purchase them." Just as Oliver was embarrassed and wondering how to explain to Qingying, a clear and peaceful voice suddenly came to his ears. Seeing that the young man in front of him was not as angry as he imagined, Oliver couldn't help but feel relieved in his heart, and claimed that he said: "Your Highness's will is my will. I will definitely make corresponding improvements in this field."

Qingying nodded slightly and said, "Please solve this problem as soon as possible. Half a year later, I hope it can perfectly pass the military review on the test field and join the German Army's active lineup."
Chapter completed!