Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

The punitive army marched through the surrounding streets, which gave the surrounding Shanghai residents a big boost and made them straighten their backs. They also ordered the large army to stay in the city first, and then divided the army into smaller units and entered the battlefield in batches.

Rushing in all at once would easily lead to poor coordination, so the safer approach would be to enter the battlefield one battalion at a time, then exchange guard with the soldiers of the 19th Route Army and ask the veterans stationed there for any defensive suggestions.

Fortunately, the punitive forces had a shared mindset and were able to steadily move into this task and complete it very quickly.

The deployment of the punitive army was to leave 1000 men at the Wusong Fort to guard the Japanese warships and prevent them from landing.

All the artillery and heavy machine guns of the Punishment Army were placed along the coast. The war here was a war between heavy weapons, and manpower could not play a big role, so Li Qinwu only sent 1000 people here.

Then, 1000 people stayed at the riverside to prevent the Japanese from crossing the river. Another 1500 people entered the city to set up street fighting defenses, and the remaining 2500 people served as reserves.

A large part of the city's defense line faces the 19th Route Army. If the 19th Route Army fails to withstand the attack of the Japanese troops, the Japanese may attack the Punishment Army's defense zone, and then this part of the defense zone will come into play.

The tanks and armored vehicles of the Punishment Army are also deployed here. They will serve as a rapid response force. If the 19th Route Army's defense line cannot hold, the Punishment Army's tanks can quickly enter the 19th Route Army's defense zone to provide support.

Here we will talk about the armored forces of the Punishment Army. The tanks of the Punishment Army are mainly 8 Renault FT tanks captured at the Fengtian Railway Station and 7 Type 89 tanks captured at the Jiangqiao battlefield.

These tanks have been heavily modified, so heavily that it is almost impossible to distinguish the models of the two tanks from the outside!

The big machine boss who was in charge of the tank modification removed the outer shells of the two tanks and rebuilt the hull and turret with ceramic steel!

As we all know, as long as the workmanship of one-piece casting tanks is correct, their defense is several times stronger than that of welded and riveted ones. For example, the famous Sherman tank has a model with a cast turret hull.

Unfortunately, this cast Sherman has a very bad reputation among vehicles, because casting requires very high craftsmanship. As long as there is a small bubble in the cast shell, the entire armor will be ruined, and the enemy can easily tear off the armor by firing a shot at you.

The car body cast with No. 2 ceramic steel does not have this problem. The No. 2 ceramic steel powder is a bit like concrete before firing. After designing the car body in advance, add water to the No. 2 ceramic steel and stir it evenly, then inject it into the mold, and then vibrate the mold continuously to compact and expel the bubbles.

Since No. 2 ceramic steel has strong defense and is lighter than steel, even a light tank like the Renault can be stacked with outrageous armor.

The front armor of the enhanced Renault tank has been improved to 30mm, 20mm on the sides, and 10cm on the top and rear. Such thick ceramic armor plus a certain degree of inclination, the actual armor effectiveness is equivalent to 50mm vertical armor, completely immune to 37mm cannons, and the weight of the tank has actually decreased, which has slightly increased the speed.

As for the short-barreled 89mm gun of the Type 57 tank, which is now the mainstream equipment of the Japanese, the Japanese designed this gun to attack infantry. The chamber pressure is very low, and it cannot penetrate the reinforced Renault tank even if it fires armor-piercing shells. This was proven in the Battle of Nomonhan, where the Type 89 tank was beaten to pieces by the BT fast tank, which was lighter than it.

In addition to the changes in armor, the turret of the Renault tank has also been changed. The original turret of the Renault tank was angular, but now it has been replaced with an oval turret, similar to the turret of the T-54.

The egg-shaped turret has a very high ricochet rate, and coupled with the Japanese low-pressure infantry gun, if you want to penetrate this tank, you may need Amaterasu to fire it manually.

The armor has been upgraded, and the armament cannot be left behind. After all, the size of the Renault tank is there, and it is impossible to equip it with a large cannon, so the Big Machine has enhanced the firepower of the Renault tank by turning the short-barreled cannon into a long-barreled cannon.

He used ceramic steel to build a long-barreled 37mm gun for the Renault tank, which slightly increased the gun's range and also improved its anti-armor capability, but the improvement was not significant because the amount of propellant was not increased.

Besides, what is a tank without a machine gun? The Big Machine King slightly expanded the turret and the entire driver's cabin size, allowing him to cram in two Czech light machine guns.

The commander and gunner can now fire in between driving and firing, greatly increasing the firepower of the tank. Unfortunately, the only light machine guns currently equipped by the Punishment Army are the Czech type, which can only hold a 20-round magazine and have very poor firepower sustainability.

A useful belt-fed light machine gun is imminent, and Li Qinwu has decided to design a new machine gun as his next firearm!

In addition to the Renault tank, the modification of the Type 89 tank also follows the same idea, with an integrated cast hull, an oval turret, an extended ceramic steel 57mm gun, a hole next to the gun, and a coaxial self-defense Czech light machine gun, while the rear machine gun of the original Type 89 tank turret was removed.

At that time, the modified tank of Dajiba was quite confusing. Why did the Japanese install a light machine gun at the tail of the tank turret? The internal space of the tank was originally small, and they installed a light machine gun that was almost useless. I don’t know what was wrong with them. After removing the light machine gun at the tail, they vacated the space to store more Czech magazines.

The Type 89 tank's onboard machine gun was also strengthened. The original onboard machine gun that fired 6.5mm small jelly beans was replaced with a more powerful Liao-made Maxim heavy machine gun.

In order to prevent the exposed water-cooling sleeve of the heavy machine gun from being damaged, the Dajiba also provided a bullet-proof cover for the water-cooling barrel. This rather conspicuous bullet-proof cover resulted in a large bulge in front of the vehicle body, which really looked like that thing and was quite indecent.

Water-cooled heavy machine guns are large in size and heavy in weight, and if they are barely mounted on a tank they will become a tank-killer. This made Li Qinwu realize that the design of air-cooled heavy machine guns should be put on the agenda.