Let go of that monster girl!

Life is more than just the ore in front of you.

Rats are born free.

Perhaps only by temporarily taking the mouse girls' eyes off the ore can their hidden creativity be unleashed.

I wonder what strange things they'll do on this day of leisure.

Seven more days later.

Molen stared at the mouse-like creature in front of him, his face filled with disbelief.

"What do you mean you guys have built tanks?"

Chapter 70 The Mousefinch Tank

Molen stared wide-eyed, carefully observing the strange and ugly mechanical device before him.

Ah, this cannon.

Ah, these wheels.

Ah, this armor plate.

Ah, this power unit.

Although it was extremely ugly, it actually had almost all the structural features that a tank should have.

This is a cannon cart that can be seen everywhere on the city wall. It has two pairs of iron wheels, one large in the front and one small in the back, mounted on the mine rails. A twelve-pound cannon sits steadily in the middle of the cart.

But unlike the other dozen or so cannon carts on the city wall...

On the left side of this artillery cart is a disproportionately large electric motor, and next to the motor are several lead-acid batteries stacked up.

On the right side, a wooden ammunition box was carelessly nailed.

A large circle of wooden planks was added around the cart, haphazardly nailed together with thick iron nails, making it look like a coffin.

The extremely cramped interior space only provided a little room for the gunner to move around, and the driver, who also served as the observer, could only sit on the battery covered with a blanket.

The entire strange device was only about two meters high, a little over two meters wide, and a little over four meters long.

In every sense, it was more like a medieval cannon piercing the windshield of a van.

Molen bent down and put his head under the car.

The rotation of the electric motor is simply transmitted to the front axle through two gears.

The rear axle could swing freely left and right, otherwise the cart wouldn't be able to turn. The mice made a simple winch to control its direction.

It's even front-wheel drive...

Although the entire transmission system is not as complex as that of a four-wheel drive vehicle, it is already ridiculously powerful.

It even uses clean electric energy, which is incredibly advanced.

Two blacksmith mice stood with their hands on their hips, puffing out their little chests.

His round face was covered in ash, and he was smiling very smugly.

They reached out their little hands and patted the big, strange thing behind them.

"The militia rats always complained that pushing the cannon was too tiring, that their backs were about to break, so we installed the electric motor we found on it!"

Molen then noticed that a large part of the motor casing was dented.

It was obviously blown down by that airship from the month of disaster.

No wonder it's so big.

"Then we discovered that the battery would smoke as soon as it got wet. Since it's been snowing a lot lately, we put a board on top to cover it."

"Then we thought the ant girl might throw spears from the front, which would kill the rat driving the car, so we installed spears in the front too! After installing them in the front, we thought the sides were also dangerous, so we installed them on all the sides!"

This perfectly aligns with the design concept of the world's first tank, a "tractor with a cannon and armor."

Molen recalled when the world's first tank was designed.

Ah, it was designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century.

That's fine.

It seems to be perfectly in line with the historical context.

He raised his eyebrows and said somewhat uncertainly:

"Shall we try turning it on?"

The rat girls who had been watching the spectacle swarmed around them.

The two blacksmith rats huddled together inside the coffin box, one crouching behind the cannon breech and the other sitting sideways on the battery pack.

The blacksmith mouse in the driver's seat stretched out its little hand, grasped the handle of the power switch, and pushed it hard.

Click.

The Mousefinch Tank launched itself instantly, and the entire machine shot forward.

The onlookers, all screaming, jumped to either side.

"Squeak!"

"So fast!"

There is no gear shifting device at all, not even a throttle; it starts in the highest gear.

Fortunately, this thing was modified from a mining rail cart, and it was currently running on the mining rails on top of the city wall, with the two rails firmly restricting its direction of travel.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the Mousefinch Tank sped away, growing smaller and smaller.

It eventually became a small black dot in the distance of the city wall.

Oh, this.

Molen was somewhat stunned.

This thing really surprised Morren at every step.

A rat girl next to him tilted her head back and looked at Morren, asking:

"Are they coming back for dinner?"

The surrounding mice whispered among themselves:

"Are we not going to run a full circle around the city wall?"

Moren and the surrounding rat girls turned around to look behind them, wondering if the Rat Finch Tank would complete a magnificent journey around the low hills and reappear from the other side of the city wall.

I waited for about half a minute.

Nothing appeared behind me.

Everyone turned back.

The Mousefinch Tank is reversing; it's speeding towards us from afar, getting closer and bigger.

Finally, it slowly came to a stop in front of the rats.

Except for a piece of wood on the side that got lost along the way, most of the parts are still there.

what?

It can reverse?

Molen was truly dumbfounded this time.

That's right.

Reverse the current and the motor will run in reverse; all you need to do is flip the switch.

To prevent the artillery cart from rolling backwards while firing, the front wheels were equipped with a stop bar from the beginning, which now happens to function as a brake.

The presentation wasn't over yet.

The blacksmith mouse in the driver's seat stretched out its two little hands, grasped the winch lever behind it, and turned it twice with force.

The rear wheels of the Mousefinch Tank swerved, the vehicle wobbled, and the front wheels slid off the mine rails. The entire machine clattered and drove toward the outside of the city wall.

The momentum was too great, and the Mousefinch Tank crashed straight into the crenellations of the city wall, almost tipping over.

"Fire! Fire! Try firing!"

"Oh no! They're about to fire! Squeak!"

"Pull the lever! Pull the lever! It hasn't been pulled yet!"

boom!

With a cannon shot, the haphazardly nailed armored planks instantly fell apart.

The lid pressed down on the two blacksmith rats, leaving only their four little legs and two tails sticking out.

The solid practice bullet flew into the distant darkness with a sharp whistle.

A moment later, a dull thud was heard in the distance.

It seems that some chimera beast was unfortunately passing by and was just the right person to be split in two.

The mouse girls rushed over and lifted the two wooden planks, pulling out the blacksmith mouse, who was covered in dirt but still grinning foolishly.

This……

Molen's expression was extremely strange.

What's with this weird sense of feasibility?

Of course, this Mousefinch tank has many problems.

The most obvious problem is that it doesn't have a rotating turret, so it can only rotate the entire vehicle to aim.

It can only fire after the brakes are engaged, sharing the same weakness as the Da Vinci tank.

Another obvious problem is that it has no off-road capability. Its terrifying weight would definitely crush the iron wheels into the mud instantly, so it can only drive on mining tracks and hard roads.

While the dwarf mountain rats could probably make tracks, the differential that makes the tracks steer is quite complex.

The third problem is the ever-present issue of lead-acid batteries; this tank probably only has a range of half a day.

But it's also extremely terrifying.

The battery problem is unlikely to be solved in the short term, but it can be powered by directly energizing the mine rails.

If it lacks off-road capability, it can just travel on the mining tracks.

The rotating turret should be the easiest to solve, although it may take a little more time.

"reward!"

"Great!"

The Renaissance led Leonardo da Vinci to invent the tank.

I never imagined that the Renaissance in Aishan would come true so quickly!

Chapter 71 Compromise Solutions

Life is not just about the present hardships, but also about the hardships in the future.

The mine rat girl, who had just finished work, sat at the entrance of the mine tunnel with a tin plate on her lap containing a lump of brownish-yellow paste.

She held the plate up to her nose and took a careful sniff.

A wave of dampness hit me, carrying with it a suspicious, fishy odor.

The mine rat covered its nose, pouted, and stretched its arm holding the plate forward as far as possible, pushing it as far away from its face as possible.

Another hamster next to it had already picked up a spoon and was scooping up spoonful after spoonful, stuffing it into its mouth until its cheeks were bulging out, making it look like a hamster.

"Are you going to eat or not? If not, give it to me."

"Is it tasty?"

"Like a circle."

The mine rat looked down at the brown paste in its plate, then looked up at its companion's puffed-up cheeks.