A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

The next morning, Jiang Xia bid farewell to the lively courtyard of the elderly, waving goodbye to the whole family amidst Teacher Zhuo's warm greetings. Jiang Xia was a little disappointed, though, as she didn't see Pu Fang and Xiao Feifei.

Jiang Xia felt an instant connection with the two of them.

"Old Wang, does the commander have that many people at home? A dozen or so people suddenly appeared during the meal..."

"Well, the old chief gets better treatment, so he can take care of the kids of his relatives and friends. Sigh... Teacher Zhuo felt sorry for him and was worried he wouldn't eat enough, so she set up a separate table for him to eat at. But after a couple of days, he quit and started eating with everyone again, saying that having everyone at the same table is a blessing. The food that was served separately was served with chopsticks on the left and spoons on the right, so he barely ate any..."

Old Wang started backing up the car, then changed the subject, jokingly saying, "Instead of worrying about others, you should be thinking more about how to settle the bet you made with the old man..."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xia, who had been enjoying a family dinner, immediately burst into tears.

"You're such a bad brother! Why didn't you lend me a hand when I was all fired up last night?"

"Oh, so rare, why would I pull you?" Old Wang pointed to his waist with annoyance, where a dark footprint was clearly visible.

"You've jumped all over the table, talking about how everyone is equal under thermobaric weapons. What if the Russians come with their armored torrent, and you just drop a bunch of these bombs down, then have the 'Flying Cat Car' carrying a cannon barrel circle around and deliver justice from the sky?"

Jiang Xia covered her face: "I drank too much..."

Old Wang smacked his lips: "Hey, you know what, the old commander's Jiannanchun is really good. I've never heard of it before."

"By the way, you mentioned that flying cat car, did you draw up the blueprints? If you finish it, I can help you try flying it..."

Jiang Xia looked at the shameless guy who was leaning in and pushed him away in frustration.

What's this "Flying Cat Car"? It's actually just that "Flying Three-Wheeled Vehicle," though its official name is a gyroplane. Yesterday, Jiang Xia, pushed to his limit by Comrade Fanzhou's lecture, pulled out this thing that we'll be deploying in large numbers in later generations.

The main principle is to not lose face even if you lose the game.

"You haven't even figured out how to run on the ground yet, what are you going to do about flying? If you still want to fly, I'll ask Factory Manager Xiong to let you go to the supersonic speeds again..."

"If you can't even have a conversation, you're as good as dead!"

Hey, drinking can lead to trouble.

Last night, Little Dumb Hair and Comrade Fanzhou had a big argument.

This was mainly because Comrade Fanzhou, an old soldier, scoffed at the cat-shaped car that Jiangxia had put together.

"Without any protection, you think your cat-like vehicle can move freely in a battlefield environment? Not to mention anything else, the high-explosive shrapnel from tanks would be enough to give your 'cat' a hard time! It won't be long before it becomes a dead cat, and even if it has good mobility, it won't be of any use!"

Comrade Fanzhou kept talking, but his eyes were drawn to Jiangxia's modified infantry fighting vehicle.

"That's more like it! It has armor and firepower, but why put a machine gun on it? It's better to just mount a cannon!"

Ah, that's the difference in philosophy between designers and users.

The men in the unit are terrified of being bombed. Now that we have the resources, give me the thickest pipes! Give me the thickest armor!

"If you use the thickest pipes and the thickest armor, what's the point of making a war vehicle? Just build a tank! Isn't the five-wheeled improvement plan we submitted to you underway? Aren't the eagles of the grasslands replacing smoothbore cannons?"

Jiang Xia retorted, "Hmph! This is called using their own spear to attack your own shield!" This smoothbore cannon was just produced by the steel rolling mill. Teacher Zhu, who was conducting research in the factory, was persuaded by Xiao Da Mao to directly use the improved cold rolling line to produce a 125mm smoothbore cannon barrel.

The main topic was that Xiao Dai Mao and he were talking about fin-stabilized discarding sabot armor-piercing projectiles, high-explosive anti-tank projectiles, and high-explosive shells. A cannon with a small caliber wouldn't be able to fire these projectiles.

Originally, Teacher Zhu was a caliber fanatic, after all, he started out with mortars. With these things, isn't the bigger the caliber, the better? He figured all cannon barrels were the same! Caliber is justice!

After being persuaded by Xiao Daimao again, Teacher Zhu also wanted to try out the hot extrusion machine that Jiangxia had made, and so the 125 smoothbore cannon was born.

Hearing that they had produced 125mm cannon barrels, the people at the grassland factory were overjoyed. Factory director Abaganar jumped up and down that very day to personally escort the batch of still-steaming big guns, which should have just returned to the grassland factory by now.

Comrade Fanzhou had also received the notification well in advance, and when he heard Jiang Xia mention it, he grinned. This little rascal, you might think he's unreliable, but he's actually quite capable.

Imagine if my five pairs of wheels were replaced with 125mm cannons, wouldn't my combat capability be boosted even more? And with the laser rangefinder that's still under research, wow, my five pairs of wheels would be a major upgrade!

Thinking of this, Comrade Fanzhou smiled happily, and at the same time explained to Xiaodai Mao why they wanted to make armored transport vehicles.

However, they all forgot one thing, something that happened later that left those who played with the "five pairs of wheels" covered in dust and dirt. But that's a story for another time, so we won't go into it. (Hey, the fun is in digging holes, it's really great to be mischievous.)

As the top commander of the armored forces, Comrade Fanzhou's explanation of these war equipment was far beyond what a half-baked military enthusiast like Xiaodaimao could match.

"Heh, you reminded us to be careful of the RPG you created earlier. I studied it carefully after I got back. The development is too fast now. If you can create such powerful infantry anti-tank weapons, how could the Russians not be able to?"

"Even if you helped strengthen the armor of the five pairs of wheels, its rear and sides will always be a fatal weakness!"

"So why do we emphasize combined arms operations? This is the reason! Mutual cover is essential to creating a synergy greater than the sum of its parts! But the old-fashioned combined arms operations are no longer keeping up with the times, which is why we need a powerful tool that allows soldiers to move freely across the battlefield!"

It's only because the person in front of him is Jiang Xia that Comrade Fanzhou bothered to explain. A researcher should just follow orders; why all the unnecessary chatter…

But as the saying goes, you can't reason with a stubborn person. Little Dumb Hair still thinks the Cat Car is the most practical. After all, he plans to use exhaust gas turbocharging technology on the current horizontally opposed engine, along with an intake preheating device. With these two additions, the Cat Car can be used even on the plateau!

Furthermore, Jiang Xia knew that the Russian steel army that had worried these old men had ultimately not marched south. In his view, there was no point in making armored personnel carriers now, and these guys had no place to show their skills.

Even if we deal with the Indians next year, we'll have to deal with the monkeys next. Leaving aside the fact that the Indians live on a high plateau, these big guys are completely useless there. Even if the monkeys have armored personnel carriers, these guys perform poorly in the tropical environment. Calling them living coffins wouldn't be an exaggeration…

However, he couldn't say that he shouldn't worry about the Russians and should focus on other things.

So he pulled out the half-finished thermobaric bomb blueprints and began to explain them with great enthusiasm. Getting more and more excited, he even brought out a gyroplane, saying it would be used to finish off armored units that had already been bombed. Finally, the Cat Car came in to wrap things up.

Hmph! You said the cat car is a dead cat on the battlefield? I'll make it fly in the sky, then you can't hit it!