The Rise of Australasia

The tire tank weighs about.5 tons, and on top of accommodating four crew members, it can also carry two ammunition pouches with ,00 machine-gun bullets, 8 shells, and weapons for all four crew members.

Because it's a tracked tank, this tank can reach an average speed of 5 kilometers per hour on flat roads, with a maximum speed of 3 kilometers per hour.

Of course, if it's a non-flat road, th the average and maximum cruising speeds would greatly decrease, and may ev affect the stability of the tank.

While this big guy is rather slow to move, it has a maximum travel distance of a whole kilometers.

Because the tank body is fully covered with 7 millimeters of steel armor, it makes this big guy look rather bulky, but its protective ability is indeed trustworthy.

If we look historically, late World War One tank armors were only about 5 to millimeters thick, whereas the armor thickness of the first-geration tank of Australasia has far exceeded this number.

Of course, this is still a long way from the armor thickness of tanks from the World War II period. During World War II, tank armor thickness had universally reached 45 to 0 millimeters, and the armor thickness of the Mouse Super Heavy Tank ev reached a terrifying 350 millimeters.

What does 350 millimeters mean? It's almost half a meter high, bullets could probably only scratch off a layer of paint.

Seeing Arthur's interest in the newly developed tank, the researchers at the Agricultural Machinery Factory quickly organized a performance test for the tank.

Of course, this test couldn't be carried out at the Agricultural Machinery Factory. After all, if there were constant explosions and machine gun fire at a factory producing agricultural machinery, people would start asking questions.

To maintain secrecy, the tank test was placed at the Guard Division's station in the Sydney Suburbs. The artillery and machine gun fire could be falsely said to be part of the Guard Division's training.

The Guard Division's station, at a certain training g.

Normally at this time, this place would have already started various cannon and shooting trainings.

But at this momt the training g was rather quiet, and there were some trches, iron wire meshes, tunnel trches, water ditches, fortresses, and simply built small fortresses on the training g.

Of course, although these facilities were simply constructed, their sturdiness was absolutely trustworthy.

At least in war, it would be a qualified defsive position, and the protective performance would be absolutely better than hastily built defsive positions.

Perhaps because of yesterday's rain, the training field had become rather muddy. Wh walking on this kind of road, one couldn't avoid slipping, which would naturally decrease combat power during a battle.

On a high platform outside the training g, Arthur, Defse Minister Raul, Secretary of State Kt, Brigadier Thomas, and the person in charge of the Agricultural Machinery Factory, stood on the high platform carefully examining with telescopes.

Inside the training g, a peculiarly shaped tracked vehicle slowly approached, its tracks helped it avoid slipping on the somewhat muddy training field.

Naturally, this was the star of today, the tank. Everything on the training g was set up for the tank, with the purpose of testing the performance of the tank built by the Agricultural Machinery Factory.

"Mr. Factory Manager, does this big guy truly have the abilities you mtioned?" Brigadier Thomas asked curiously.

Although the factory manager of the Agricultural Machinery Factory had praised this tank lavishly, no matter how Brigadier Thomas looked at it, he still felt that it was a clumsy thing. Could it really be used in the battlefield and become a weapon of mass destruction?

"Brigadier Thomas, just watch!" The Factory Manager glanced at Arthur's face, th smiled and told Thomas.

Under everyone's gaze, the tank slowly approached various defsive works and wt through them effortlessly: iron wire mesh, wood stakes, puddles, these obstacles which infantry would struggle with were easily overcome.

Seeing the tank effortlessly pass through these troublesome obstacles, Brigadier Thomas raised an eyebrow and continued to watch with interest.

Next up was a seemingly effortful steep slope, and a convtional trch at the bottom of the slope.

Because the steep slope and the trch are relatively close, this means that the tank could fail to brake in time and fall into the trch.

But this was no match for the tracked tank. After easily climbing the steep slope, the tracked tank crossed the trch as if it were flat g, as if the two-meter deep trch didn't exist.

The d of the trch is a simple fortress constructed of steel and cemt. Although not thick, having infantrym take down this fortress would likely tail significant casualties.

For such fortresses are much like tortoises on a battlefield - there is little that can be done if they retract within their shells.

The tank approached the fortress, and the troops hidd within it chose to retreat promptly after three minutes of rifling and machine-gun fire, once they recognized they could not inflict any harm on it.

After everyone vacated the fortress, the tank bombarded it, quickly blasting a sizable hole under the excessive consumption of shells, and ultimately destroying the feeble fortress at the tank's impact.

The biggest challge for infantry trying to overtake such a fortress is the variety of counterattacks from within it, inflicting heavy casualties.

Still, the tank dured three minutes of firing from within the fortress before destroying it - this was to prove that while demolishing the fortress, the tank can withstand the assault from its occupants.

At this sight, not just Brigadier Geral Thomas, but also Defse Minister Raul and Secretary of State Kt, were all pleasantly surprised, showing considerable interest in this new weapon that the agricultural machinery factory developed.

After watching the tank destroy the fortress and leisurely return to its starting point, the military officials slowly shifted their eyes towards the machinery factory. Their excitemt could hardly be concealed.

"All right, you were all invited here to witness the practical combat capabilities of this new weapon. This new weapon will certainly be deployed in our military, beginning with the Guard Division," Arthur said amusedly, looking at their excited faces.

"Your Majesty, why don't you equip us with a battalion instead! This big fella will be a deadly weapon on the battlefield, reducing casualties on our side, and ruthlessly destroying the emy's troops and fortresses without mercy." Upon hearing this, Brigadier Thomas could not suppress his eagerness and promptly requested.

"Deploymt is inevitable, but the tank is still in the developmt stage, so its performance is not yet stable. Today's tank experimt wt smoothly, but that doesn't mean accidts won't occur in the future. However, it's undiable that this tank has ormous combat capabilities and can play a decisive role on the battlefield," said Arthur, with a smile.

No wonder these military leaders were so excited about the tank - ev in original history, it was a powerful weapon capable of changing combat concepts.

Didn't the Red Russians' massive steel stream of tanks and armored cars cause the European nations to tremble for a long while in later gerations?

"Factory Manager Joel, why don't you explain to these gtlem the currt developmt progress of the tank," Arthur suggested, chuckling.

"Yes, Your Majesty," responded Joel, the Factory Manager of the agricultural machinery factory. He th explained respectfully to the trio, "Gtlem, our tank is still in the developmt phase. It's estimated to take about six more months before it's ready for mass production. You wouldn't want to purchase tanks that break down now and th, would you?

Please give our machinery factory half a year's time. I assure you that we can provide the military with reliable tanks in six months' time."

Upon hearing Factory Manager Joel's six-month deadline, all three nodded in understanding.

Quality and stability are of primary concern to military weapon purchases. After all, soldiers would hate for their weapons to malfunction in the middle of a battlefield, wouldn't they? That would be like playing with their lives!

Minister Raul nodded and said, laughing, "Factory Manager Joel, you must ramp up all the following tests and improvemts at your factory! Rest assured, there'll never be any shortages in military orders. Ev if it means going all out, I will lobby for an order for at least a thousand tanks for the military."

Whether it's Secretary of State Kt, Defse Minister Raul, or Brigadier Thomas, they are all high-ranking officials and elites from the military.

They've already developed a comprehsive understanding of the combat power of tanks and their decisive impact on the battlefield.

If the Australasian military could be equipped with a thousand tanks, ev if the total strgth of our military is just one hundred and twty thousand people, it would still be absolutely comparable to the armies of other nations numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

It's not ev an exaggeration to say that with a thousand tanks, the Australasian army could ter the level of major powers in an instant. Ev among these powers, it would definitely not rank last.

"The information regarding our tanks must be kept absolutely secret and mass deploymt within the military in a short timeframe is basically impossible," Kt countered, looking at Defse Minister Raul.

"My apologies for the oversight," Defse Minister Raul quickly conceded, facing his former superior and Arthur's absolute confidant, Deputy Prime Minister Kt.

"What Kt said is absolutely right. Currtly, the tank is classified top secret for Australasia and cannot be oply deployed in the military. However, we can secretly establish armored divisions and form an army composed solely of tanks, occasionally dispatching other divisions to conduct mixed training with the tank division.

Of course, the personnel from these divisions participating in the training must be carefully selected. In short, until other countries vigorously develop tanks, ours are best kept a secret," Arthur nodded, thereby agreeing with Kt's opinion.

Seeing that Arthur had spok, Defse Minister Raul certainly had no objections.

"Of course, if other European nations begin to vigorously develop tanks, th our tanks can also be oply declared. At such a time, as Defse Minister Raul stated, ev if it requires the deploymt of a thousand tanks, we must sure our superiority in tanks against other nations."

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