sovbooks Chapter 98 Unlocking the Half-Track Armored Vehicle, Li Jianghe's Ambition
Chapter 98 Unlocking the Half-Track Armored Vehicle, Li Jianghe's Ambition
These armored vehicles are all considered classic armored vehicles from World War II.
This will free Li Jianghe from the predicament of using trucks to transport soldiers to assault enemy positions.
After all, if the enemy is prepared, these trucks would be moving targets.
The soldiers on board would have had a hard time surviving under the intense firepower of the Japanese army.
They were able to use trucks to carry soldiers and rush directly into the Japanese positions because they launched a surprise attack before the Japanese could react.
If these armored reconnaissance soldiers and armored personnel carriers can be used to transport soldiers for close reconnaissance in the future, it will greatly improve the soldiers' survivability.
Meanwhile, some of these armored vehicles can also have their onboard weapons upgraded by consuming merit points.
Both the .221 light reconnaissance armored vehicle and the .251 half-track armored personnel carrier can be upgraded to a 20mm autocannon as their main weapon.
As for the American-made M3 half-track armored personnel carrier, it can be equipped with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.
(US-made M3 half-track armored vehicle.)
The Type 251 half-track armored vehicle and the American-made M3 half-track armored vehicle are actually quite similar in their overall positioning, both being core vehicles of mechanized forces.
These half-track armored vehicles can be based on a common chassis and can be evolved into various combat versions.
For example, adding PAK anti-tank guns, twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, or even field guns, mortars, etc.
The American-made M3 half-track armored vehicle, often equipped with anti-tank guns, ambushed German tanks on the European battlefield.
Its armor thickness ranges from 6 to 14.5 mm, which can withstand the firepower of Japanese light and heavy machine guns, as well as rifle fire.
However, larger caliber bullets or artillery can easily penetrate it.
Of course, this armor thickness is not bad, considering that the frontal armor thickness of the Japanese Type 95 light tank is only a pitiful 6 to 12 millimeters.
Well, it's quite bizarre that the Japanese army's so-called tanks were not as well protected as half-track armored vehicles.
The .221 light reconnaissance armored vehicle is primarily used for battlefield reconnaissance, and to some extent, can even be used as a command node.
(German-made Type 221 light armored reconnaissance vehicle)
Li Jianghe even planned to use it directly as a mobile command platform when necessary.
However, half-track armored vehicles are also quite expensive.
An Opel Lightning truck requires 100 merit points, while a Type 221 light armored reconnaissance vehicle requires a full 300 merit points to redeem.
The two half-track armored vehicles are in a similar situation, both requiring 300 merit points.
In short, it costs money, a lot of money.
Upgrading and modifying the equipment, or adding different weapons, also requires additional costs.
For example, installing a Swiss Oerlikon 20mm cannon requires an additional 100 merit points. If you install an anti-aircraft gun, anti-tank gun, 75mm short-barreled gun, or mortar-howitzer, the cost will be even greater.
In short, purchasing 100 half-track armored vehicles requires 30,000 merit points.
Based on the operational configuration of the German armored forces, taking a German armored division in 1944 as an example, its total number of half-track armored vehicles (. . 251) was approximately 285.
The total number of personnel in a German armored division is generally between 10,000 and 15,000.
Li Jianghe's future goal is to expand the army to 15,000 men, equivalent to the size of a German armored division.
Just configuring half-track armored vehicles, plus upgrading and modifying some other vehicles, would require at least 100,000 merit points.
This is only the merit point consumption for one type of combat vehicle. If we also include the consumption for armored reconnaissance vehicles, trucks, and motorcycles, the amount would be at least 150,000 merit points or more.
This doesn't even include fuel consumption, ammunition consumption, and various spare parts, maintenance equipment, etc.
This doesn't even take into account that Li Jianghe's "fake German-equipped armored division" didn't even have decent tanks, only those eight pitiful Panzer I tanks, whose performance wasn't much better than the Japanese Type 95 light tanks.
In addition, the daily needs of these 15,000 people, just for eating, drinking and relieving themselves, require a large amount of food and other military supplies.
Some of these can be replenished locally or through captured loot, while others can only be purchased from within the system space.
The 300,000 or so merit points he had accumulated from fighting the Japanese seemed like a lot, but after a quick calculation, Li Jianghe realized that it was far from enough.
He now only hopes that the 100,000 silver dollars promised by the Chairman can be delivered as soon as possible.
This was in the early stages of the war; the purchasing power of silver dollars and legal tender was still relatively good.
Later on, when this financial genius, Lao Jiang, started issuing gold yuan notes with impunity, they were practically worthless, too hard even to wipe one's ass.
Long Wenzhang leaned closer, quite intrigued, and said:
"Where's the letter of appointment, Brigade Commander? Does this mean I'm now considered a regimental commander?"
Yang Ruifu pushed up his glasses and said:
"Hmph, you think you can fool a brigade commander? If you ask me, the higher-ups are just petty. Otherwise, the Japanese soldiers that the brigade commander killed could easily become a corps commander."
Xu Dingguo, the commander of the Fifth Regiment, read the telegram over and over again and found that it did not mention anything about their Fifth Regiment at all.
"Sigh, our Guangxi Army is really unwanted by everyone. I wonder when we'll be able to get in touch with Commander Li."
Xu Dingguo couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
Right now, his fifth regiment only has a few hundred people left, and he has been busy recruiting soldiers these days.
After all, the Fifth Regiment had captured a lot of spoils in the battle against the Japanese army. Now all the soldiers had been equipped with Japanese weapons and wore steel helmets. Their overall equipment was far superior to that of ordinary Guangxi Army troops.
Li Jianghe then put the telegram away and said:
"Be content. It's good enough that you weren't shot. You have to remember that at the beginning, the higher-ups were hoping we would all die in Nanjing."
We've at least escaped with our lives, and we'll fight the Japanese to the bitter end with those lives.
After saying this, he looked at Long Wenzhang and said:
"I asked you to recruit soldiers, how's that going?"
Long Wenzhang spread his hands and said:
"It's not that easy. They have no money and no reputation. They just promise to feed us, but it turns out they're just a bunch of lazy bums who want to freeload. Bringing in people like that would only reduce the fighting capacity of the troops."
"That doesn't make sense. I should be somewhat famous, right? After all, I'm often in the newspapers, aren't I?"
Li Jianghe muttered to himself, his mind filled with doubt.
Yang Ruifu sighed and said:
"You've forgotten, haven't you? The newspaper clearly states that you've died in battle."
I told them we were their troops, but they all thought we were scammers.
At this point, his eyes lit up.
"Oh, right, now that you've received commendation from your superiors, I reckon the content of the news reports should also change."
Especially considering we annihilated over six thousand Japanese soldiers in the Fanchang area—that's a real victory!
These words reminded Li Jianghe, who then said to Long Wenzhang:
"Keep a close eye on us. If the newspapers start reporting on us again, then you should hurry up and recruit more people."
As for pay and such, there's no need to worry about that. Just sell the spoils of war and any extra military supplies on the market.
"Yes, Commander."
The two answered in unison.
Two days later, in Chizhou city, outside a teahouse, the cries of newsboys echoed throughout the street.
The front-page headline in the news reports was: "The Nanjing army fought a bloody battle to break through the encirclement, and anti-Japanese hero Li Jianghe annihilated 10,000 enemy troops."