Things became interesting. The American toughness angered the French people. For a moment, there were crowds of protests in front of the US embassy. The angry French people took a bath for the US embassy.

However, in the face of the strong protests from the French, the United States was unmoved because in their opinion this was a bottom line issue and there was no possibility of concession. Anyway, the United States did not allow France or other NATO countries to obtain Soviet weapons, which was the most serious provocation.

The interesting part of this incident is that France's anger is more expressed by the French people. Although the French government said it was angry, it did not take any countermeasures. To put it simply, the French government seems to be in control.

In fact, everything is in control. Of course, he knew that buying Soviet weapons directly was definitely the biggest provocation to American authorities. It would be strange if Americans didn’t explode. His previous statement was more of an attitude, which was used to disgust Americans. You, Kat Yang, was so disgusting before, and I couldn’t say that I could only be beaten and not fight back, right?

So what is the real purpose of Charles de Gaulle? Of course, he wanted an advanced medium tank, and he was indeed quite interested in the cheap and excellent T-55. But he knew that it was unrealistic and impossible to directly obtain the T-55, and he had to find a way to bypass the pit of Soviet weapons. But he didn't think of a good idea for a while.

But Charles De Gaulle has no choice. Li Xiaofeng has many solutions. In his opinion, it is too easy to solve this problem. Didn’t the Americans just catch the T-55 being a Soviet weapon? What if the T-55 is no longer a Soviet weapon? What else can the Americans clamor for?

First of all, half of the "copyright" of t-55 is in the hands of the Northern Industrial Group, which has the power to sell t-55 to the market allowed by the Soviet Union (the benefits obtained are distributed according to the agreement between the Soviet Union and Northern Industrial). Of course, there are also political obstacles to exporting tanks directly from Northern Industrial to France. After all, the Northern Industrial Group has long been labeled as the Soviet Union by the United States and NATO groups. Therefore, Northern Industrial must also borrow a shell to bypass these obstacles.

This shell is Klaus Mafi and Rheinmetall. All familiar comrades know that these two companies are German arms giants, and they are quite active both before and after the war. Of course, in this time and space, these two companies have lived a bit of a difficult time. First of all, the severe economic situation in Germany after the war, the damage from the war and the huge war compensation have pushed the Germans out of breath. Major companies are trying every means to find a way to survive, but for German industrial enterprises, this way is difficult to find, because Germany has been deprived of its power to have the army forever. Without the army, there will naturally be no national defense expenditure. Without national defense expenditure, how can the country's military-industrial enterprises live?

A comrade said that this depends on the foreign market! German weapons have a good reputation internationally, so why can't they have no sales?

Let us ask back, how can there be sales? Arms trade has never been a simple business behavior. In the international market, your weapons are not necessarily sold if they are cheap or have good performance. For many countries that need to purchase weapons, purchasing weapons is actually an act of recognizing godfathers and joining together to keep warm.

Why did the American Empire hold the throne of the world's number one arms exporter for many years and occupy more than half of the arms export market share for many years? The main reason is that he is the only superpower. For the rich Middle East oil boss, he must give the American Empire, otherwise, the American Empire who controls the route can kill them in a minute. Even if he doesn't start with the route, just Israel, which is kept by the American Empire, is enough to give the oil boss a pot of food.

Therefore, international arms trade is actually a very serious political act. The weapons of the Germans and Germans were politically incorrect at the beginning of the war. It is easy to impart a lot of excuses to buy weapons from Germany. What's more, after the war, the super gangsters, including the United States and the Soviet Union, all hoarded a large amount of surplus arms, and everyone sold them cheaply in the international market or simply gave them to others as military aid. Who in the market doesn't like goods that are good but cheap? German goods that keep improving are good, but not that good. Everyone is at the same level, and choosing cheap politically correct is the truth.

Therefore, unfortunately, Germany's arms exports have suffered heavy losses. In addition to old customers who have always used German weapons, or countries like Israel that can accept Germany's weapons to compensate for war reparations, they are also buying German goods. Most countries either invested in the United States or the Soviet Union.

At one time, almost all German industrial enterprises were unable to extricate themselves. In this case, Northern Industry took decisive action and acquired a considerable portion of German industrial enterprises through acquisitions or investments, and transferred part of the production orders to Germany. For example, Northern Industry's advanced high-power diesel engine was transferred to Germany, jointly developed by Mtu and Bosch, covering a wide range of models from four-cylinders to twelve-cylinders.

So when Li Xiaofeng heard that the French had political concerns, he immediately put forward a new suggestion: "France invested 100 million francs with Klaus Mafi, Rheinmetallurgy, Mtu and Bosch to jointly develop the first generation of European tanks."

One hundred million francs at that time were only 20 million US dollars. To be honest, this was a big sum of money. How much financial aid did France get from the United States after selling itself? It was only about one billion, and it was not obtained in a year. Now Li Xiaofeng has 20 million words, which is too dark, right?

Li Xiaofeng doesn't think he is bad, because the conditions he gave are very generous. The 20 million US dollars of funds will not only allow France to participate in joint development and enjoy the power to authorize the assembly and production of the first generation of European tanks in the future. In addition, the 20 million US dollars also includes the funds to purchase the first batch of 50 European tanks. In other words, France can not only obtain 50 tanks for 20 million, but also obtain the power to authorize the assembly and production of European tanks. Can you make it a deal?

Of course it is worth it. For Charles de Gaulle, the previous price of the British 100 captains was as high as nearly 20 million US dollars for the tanks themselves. Each one was equivalent to a high price of 200,000 US dollars. And these were just the tanks themselves, not including spare parts, ammunition and training costs. Together, France had to pay nearly 30 million US dollars for a hundred captains. This was still very tight for France at that time.

Now, you can get 50 tanks by paying 20 million, and you can also get the assembly and production rights and some technology transfers of the first generation of European tanks in the future. This is still very cost-effective for France!

Because when Charles de Gaulle inspected relevant French companies, he found that the research and development plan of the new generation of medium-sized tanks was not as smooth as expected. The so-called most optimistic statement that production will begin in three to five years is too heavy. Let's put it this way, it is not optimistic that the new generation of medium-sized tanks in France may not be put into production in ten years.

Maybe some comrades want to say that ten years is just ten years, and your own things will be built even in a hundred years. It is better to develop your own tank industry than to ask for others in the future?

That's right. If ten years and huge investment can make the French tank industry gradually catch up with the world's No. 1 group, then Charles de Gaulle will endure it. The problem is that according to the technical standards of the new French medium-sized tanks now formulated, even if they spend a lot of money and time, they cannot catch up with the world's No. 1 group's technical level, and instead are being left farther and farther away.

Yes, the French encountered many technical obstacles that they could not overcome. For example, tank armor, high-bucket pressure tank guns, more advanced anti-tank ammunition, and new engines and gearboxes.

The French could not handle almost any of the most important parts of tank technology. The level they had reached was that of World War II. Now, World War II has ended for seven years, and these seven years are almost a leap of an era.

The medium tanks created by the French (in terms of technical standards that stay on paper) are only the poor copycat model of the German World War II Black Panther. They reduced some of the weight, but at the same time they weakened the armor, and their firepower was barely enough to reach the level of the Black Panther. However, the quality and accuracy of the armor-piercing projectiles were poor, and the life of the artillery barrel was quite limited. What's worse is the engine and gearbox, which is almost the copycat model of the Black Panther's engine with low reliability, which is far from the current advanced level in the world.

In short, it will take about three or five years before the French can obtain a heavy tank of 1943, and the gap with the world's advanced level will widen to more than ten years. Tell me, if you were De Gaulle, would you endure it?

It is definitely unbearable, so after witnessing the current situation of the French tank industry, Charles de Gaulle felt that the only way to change this situation is to introduce technology and cooperate with the world's advanced level. There are only a few so-called world's advanced level, including the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and now Britain and the United States have no chance, and the only way is to speak to the Soviet Union.

Moreover, the cooperation method this time is also ideal. With German precision processing assurance, and with the superb overall design of the Soviet Union and the experience of World War II as a backing, how bad can the tanks be? What's more, Li Xiaofeng also explained to Charles de Gaulle: "The first generation of European tanks was not newly developed, but were improved in the technology of the overall design of the T-55."

Let me put it this way, this so-called first-generation European tank is actually a machine-storage version of some German parts in the Soviet Union's shell. If there is no big change to the overall design, it is to use some German parts to strengthen it. It can be said that it is the Soviet-German converged version T-55.

The overall design of the t-55 is retained, just a little longer chassis, so as to replace the 8v90 four-stroke diesel engine just developed by Mtu. The diesel engine has a maximum power of 620 horsepower, a rectangular shape, and a structure adopts a cylinder and one cover, parallel connecting rod, push rod transmission, and a joint box, which is convenient for disassembly and assembly and serial production; it adopts a mechanical supercharger and pre-combustion chamber combustion system, and the overall layout is compact. The transmission device adopts a 4hp250 hydraulic mechanical type from Z Company (Zahnraederab) (Fedris Hafen Gear Manufacturing Company), and a comprehensive transmission device with a double-flow, double-radius differential steering device, with 4 forward gears and 2 reverse gears (each gear has two specified steering radii. Due to the large specified steering radius, the steering power loss is less).

Some comrades may ask, the b54 diesel engine on the t-55 is derived from the b2, and its performance is reliable and compact. How good is it to continue to use, why change it?

Well, to be honest, the b2 series is indeed a bit old. Although it is compact, the performance, especially the life span, is still far from the world's advanced level. Judging from the later development, continuing to hang on the tree of b2 is not a good choice. What's more, the disassembly and maintenance of the b2 series is still troublesome (it cannot be lifted as a whole).

In fact, the most critical problem is not B2, but the Soviet-made tank-built transmission device. Although the mechanical transmission of the t-55 fixed shaft is simple and reliable, its performance is indeed average, and it is very different from the hydraulic transmission later. However, the French were quite obsessed with mobility and had high requirements for mobility. Even the genuine T-55 was a bit unable to meet the French's expression needs. So Li Xiaofeng instructed Northern Industry to test advanced diesel engines and hydraulic transmission on the French, and treat the French as guinea pigs.

In addition, the firepower of the first generation of European tanks was also changed from the d-10t of the t-55 to German goods. Because the first d-10t is not exported to NATO for the time being, and secondly, the performance of the d-10t is also average. The French praised the excellent tank guns in Germany during World War II. Since the French like German goods so much, let's give them German goods. Rheinmetall directly installed the 88 gun improved version of the Tiger tank on the first generation of European tanks. Through appropriate improvements, the tank gun is basically at the same level as the US 90mm tank guns on the m47 and m48, which is enough for the current French. Moreover, Rheinmetall also promised that once the updated large-caliber tank gun was successfully developed, it can be easily modified to the first generation of European tanks.

Charles de Gaulle was very satisfied with this. The newly released first-generation European tank weighed 39 tons (slightly increased due to the changes in the chassis and the changes in the engine transmission system), the maximum road speed was 65 kilometers per hour, and basically used German armor technology. The defense level of the whole vehicle was slightly lower than that of the T-55. The front of the turret was about 150 mm, and the front of the vehicle was also 150 mm. However, this has far exceeded the expectations of the French. Originally, they were very satisfied with the front armor of them. Moreover, Klaus Mafi also promised that the first-generation additional armor under development would be put into use soon. After installing this additional armor, the defense of the first-generation European tank could be increased by 30 to 50 mm, and the weight of the vehicle would not be greatly increased.

De Gaulle decided to invest without saying a word and immediately announced it to the public that he wanted to tell the Americans: "Without you, Zhang butcher, I don't have to eat a pig with hair!"
Chapter completed!