Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

Thinking of this, an idea popped into Gao Jianguo's mind.

Why not just leak the details of future tank designs to these designers ahead of time?

Letting him do it himself is definitely hopeless, so let's offer some suggestions.

These ideas may not be applicable now, but they might be implemented in the next generation, allowing them to avoid many detours.

Moreover, there are several directions inside that allow homogeneous steel armor to be sent into the historical pile ahead of time.

Although this generation of tanks cannot solve the problem, it is still much better than what we saw in the previous generation, where the problem was still not solved by the next generation.

He considered his words carefully before speaking, "Mr. Guan, as I mentioned earlier, I also came from the battlefield."

"Back then, I would lead my comrades to carry explosives to blow up Japanese tanks. I had only one hope in my heart—we also needed to have enough tanks of our own."

Before General Guan could even respond, Staff Officer Lin and the others' eyes welled up with tears.

Gao Jianguo then changed the subject: "So during the lulls in the fighting, I also spent a lot of time thinking about tanks."

General Manager Guan's eyes lit up immediately: "Practice makes perfect, Senior Engineer. You were a sworn enemy of tanks back in the day, so you must have your own opinions on them. Tell us about them, and we'll learn from you."

After saying that, he took out his notebook and pen, adopting a humble and eager-to-learn posture.

Gao Jianguo himself didn't understand things like transmissions and engines, so explaining them wouldn't help the current situation.

But he still had some impression of other things in his mind.

As Gao Jianguo recalled, he poured out his thoughts: "Back then, we were convinced of one thing: as long as we destroyed the engine, even if the Japanese took back the battlefield, they would never repair that tank."

"Because disassembling and assembling the engine and transmission is just too damn difficult."

"I've been thinking, what if the engine and transmission could be packaged together as a single unit, so a crane could just lift them up and replace them? Would that improve the situation considerably?"

The matter he was talking about was an old almanac from his past life, related to export tanks.

When we took it to overseas clients for testing, it was rejected outright because it lacked a complete powertrain.

Fortunately, other aspects were still acceptable, and the client's international situation changed, so after going around in circles, the sale was eventually made. However, the lost orders could not be recovered.

Moreover, this integrated power pack approach, whether sold to others or used internally, can significantly increase the speed of battlefield repairs.

Later, this technology was used in almost all three generations of tanks internationally, not purely for the purpose of selling tanks.

As he took notes, General Guan nodded and said, "Yes, yes, that's a good idea. Rapid battlefield repairs are crucial."

"Those who have personally been on the battlefield come up with ideas that are different from those of us who just bury ourselves in drawing."

"Zhendong, continue."

"Back then, when we were fighting Japanese tanks, if we had a choice, we would definitely pick the ones with the most antennas on their turrets first."

Mr. Guan was completely bewildered: "Huh? Why is that?"

Gao Jianguo smiled.

This was something that was discovered purely through practical experience; someone who's purely technical would never have thought of it.

"The presence of numerous antennas suggests that the person inside is most likely an enemy commander."

"If we take him out, the command of the remaining tanks will be thrown into chaos."

The "braid" he was referring to was the communication antenna on the tank.

It's quite normal for command tanks to have one or two more antennas than regular tanks because of their heavy communication tasks.

All tanks were fitted with camouflage antennas, an improvement that was later implemented on the 5DL tank.

General Guan slapped his forehead: "I get it! The tanks under command have a lot of communication equipment, so they can be recognized at a glance."

"No problem, we need to add camouflage antennas to all the tanks so that the enemy can't tell which one is the command vehicle."

The pen flew through his hand as he scribbled notes across the notebook.

The admiration that Director Yang, Old Chen, Staff Officer Lin, and the others felt was genuine.

You can tell if someone has real knowledge just by listening to them speak.

Although Gao Jianguo himself doesn't work on tanks, every word he utters is based on practical experience in tank design.

He then began to rummage through the remaining information stored in his mind.

Infrared headlights, two-way stabilization, automatic fire extinguishing and explosion suppression, laser ranging, automatic calculation, collective NBC protection device... all of these were displayed at once.

Of course, Gao Jianguo didn't mention a single word about things like millimeter-wave radar combined with hard-kill active defense systems, which are unlikely to be implemented for decades.

Some of the tasks were outside of Mr. Guan's area of ​​expertise and belonged to a subsystem.

But he still wrote down everything Gao Jianguo said without missing a single word.

These experiences and suggestions come from all aspects.

Remember this: if people from other professions could make it, they might be able to kill one more enemy and save one more soldier on the battlefield.

As they talked, the topic returned to Mr. Guan's area of ​​expertise.

"Mr. Guan, do you think we could pre-install some screws on the outside of the turret and the front of the vehicle, or weld some screws on?"

Gao Jianguo originally wanted to bring up the matter of welding the turret directly.

But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that these days, building welded turrets is far more difficult and costly than casting them.

Welding thick plates presents a significant challenge in terms of weld strength; it's unrealistic to expect to achieve the desired result overnight.

However, the concepts of modular armor and composite armor are now on the table.

Mr. Guan was a little confused by this suggestion: "Pre-embed or weld screws? What for?"

Gao Jianguo took a basin, turned it upside down, and placed it face down on the table.

He grabbed another book and started gesturing and pointing it at the basin.

"Just think of it as a turret."

"I was thinking, could we make the turret thinner, and then make more of the armor into modular pieces, and fix them to the turret surface with screws?"

Mr. Guan became interested: "Modular armor?"

Gao Jianguo slapped his thigh: "Yes, that's the right way to address him, Mr. Guan, you've hit the nail on the head."

"I just thought that doing it this way would make it easier to replace the armor if it gets damaged."

"If technology makes a breakthrough someday and we can create even more powerful armor, we won't need to replace the entire turret."

"As long as the original base armor is acceptable and the new armor's performance is up to par, we can simply replace the outer module."

Guan's eyes shone brighter and brighter: "That's right, this way the tank armor upgrades and improvements will be both cheaper and easier, and repairs will be more convenient."

"If pushed to the limit, they might not care about the power-to-weight ratio; they might just add another layer of armor modules, which would at least make a difference."

Gao Jianguo added, "When there aren't enough materials, we can build the cast turret with only the base armor and use it. When the conditions are met or when needed, we can add armor modules on top. It won't delay anything."

"Moreover, once our welding technology improves and costs come down, we won't even need to cast turrets anymore; we can just weld one directly from suitable steel plates."

"When it comes to automated production, welding turrets is definitely much more efficient than casting turrets."

A few words from Guan Zong made him restless: "Zhendong, this idea can be implemented! It takes into account all aspects, is flexible and convenient, can quickly improve the protection performance of tanks, without increasing costs, and is not technically difficult."

Gao Jianguo laughed: "Moreover, I have some other ideas in mind regarding the armor blocks."