From Roque's point of view, the truck sent by Rudolf Diesel is still a bit shabby, and the appearance is not perfect enough, which is very inconsistent with Roque's aesthetics, in Roque's words: ugly and amazing!

Of course, compared to the vehicles of this era, the truck sent by Rudolf Diesel is still a great improvement, at least the engine before the cab is closed, and the cab also has a roof, which is more than most vehicles at this time.

In most vehicles of this era, the cab is not closed, but a collapsible canvas roof is placed in the trunk, which is propped up when it rains, and when it is not raining, it is a standard convertible.

Military trucks are certainly not the same as sedans, and Roque requires not only the cab and engine, but also the cabin covered with a fixed canvas roof so that it is easy to use, and it doesn't matter if it is beautiful or not.

Rudolf Diesel still did not understand Roque's intentions, the cab of the truck not only has no door, but also no windshield, and the designers have used a large number of steel plates on the cabin to increase the protection capacity, not to mention how much the protection capacity can be improved, which will definitely affect the load capacity of the truck.

Roque didn't want an armored car, probably many people didn't expect that there were already armored cars, as early as 1898, the British F· R. Smith invented the first armored car by installing a Maxim heavy machine gun on the front wheel link of a four-wheeled vehicle, and then installing an iron baffle in front of the driver to protect the driver.

In 1902, Georgian engineer Mikhail Nakasiz invented an armored car with a road speed of 50 kilometers per hour.

Rudolf Diesel's invention of the truck, which uses a four-cylinder 33-horsepower engine with a load capacity of 1.5 tons, and travels at a road speed of only 20 kilometers per hour, which makes Roque very unhappy.

Mikhail Nacassiz uses an engine of 15 hp and can reach a speed of 50 km/h, while Rudolf Diesel uses an engine of 33 hp and a speed of only 20 km/h.

"Remove the steel plates—" Rudolph Diesel hesitated, he didn't yet understand what kind of truck Roque wanted.

"Yes, remove all the armor plates, and all the unnecessary decorations, I want a truck, it must be able to carry two squads of soldiers, and their equipment, and five bases of ammunition, and the truck must have a certain cross-country ability, nothing else matters." Roque once again clarified the positioning of the truck, this is not a tank, just pull as much as you can run fast.

In the current situation of the new 1st Cavalry Division, one base amount of ammunition is about 100 rounds of ammunition and 50 rounds of grenades, which is basically equivalent to the consumption of a medium-sized war.

Taking into account the necessary reserves, five base ammunition was necessary, so much ammunition, enough for the fighters of the newly formed 1st Cavalry Division to fight from Nyasaland to the Suez Canal.

"Well, as you wish." Rudolf Diesel was a little frustrated, but still did Roque's order and ordered the accompanying engineers to remove all the protective steel plates.

"Rudolph, no matter what product we research, we have to meet the needs of customers as the first goal, all the functions that customers don't need are useless design, you have to understand that." Roque didn't like Rudolph Diesel taking matters into his own hands.

"Isn't it unnecessary to increase your protection, Sir?" Rudolf Diesel doesn't think he's wrong.

"It's necessary, but it's not suitable for all scenarios, most of the time, the truck is used in a safe area, so the possibility of being attacked by the enemy is not high, we just have to solve the transportation problem now, safety protection is not important, if you sacrifice mobility and load capacity for this, it is more than worth the loss." Roque was not accustomed to Rudolf Diesel, trucks were used to maneuver, there were tanks and armored vehicles to charge, and trucks would not take on combat missions.

Rudolf Diesel no longer distinguished, and more than a dozen engineers worked together, which was still very efficient.

Soon, all the armor plates on the truck were removed, and after starting again, the truck was like a wild horse that had escaped from the reins, and it was running wild on the training ground of the newly formed 1st Cavalry Division.

Roque wasn't sure what the truck's speed was, but it was definitely over 50 km/h, which wasn't on a standard road yet, and if it was on a road, the speed would have increased even more.

"Li Fei, call two squads over, carry all the equipment, plus five base ammunition-" Luo Ke immediately added the burden, the monsters have already begun to carry out large-scale production, the performance of the diesel engine is undoubted, and the most important thing now is stability.

Soon, two squads of soldiers carrying equipment lined up next to the training ground, they are now only equipped with two Madsen light machine guns, although the Nyasaland Arsenal has developed a general-purpose machine gun, but it will take some time to enter mass production, the last time the arsenal provided a test sample gun, there were some problems during the test, the engineers brought the sample gun back to the Nyasaland Arsenal for improvement, it is estimated that it will take one or two tests before it is finally finalized.

Two classes were twenty-four people, and Roque made another empirical mistake, and the prototype car sent by Rudolf Diesel could not fit two classes at all, and one class was a little crowded.

The truck compartment is still a little smaller.

"That's it, that's a class." Luo Ke retreated, a squad is actually fine, the newly formed First Cavalry Division has such a small number of people, and all of them are mechanized, that is, more than a hundred trucks.

That is?

Now there are not even a hundred trucks in the world combined!

The 12 soldiers, plus their equipment, weigh at least about 1.5 tons, which is about the same as the standard load capacity of a truck.

Rudolf Diesel still had two brushes, and the truck pulled 12 soldiers, not much slower, and circled around the training ground frantically, each lap was 500 meters.

Although the training ground was dusty, Roque didn't back down, and as the truck made more and more laps, Roque's expression became happier and happier.

"Don't worry, sir, our test results are that the truck can run a thousand miles continuously without failure." Rudolf Diesel has a proud look on his face, and this is a remarkable statistic.

Roque seems to be unusual, a thousand miles is a lot?

1,600 kilometers only -

Nothing more?

Don't forget that in 1903, this was already quite a result.

"Very good, very good, Rudolph, stop the truck, and we'll look at how to minimize the weight of the truck." Roque is indeed not satisfied with this achievement, but he can't ask too much, motorcycles plus trucks, the Northern Rhodesia Division and the new 1st Cavalry Division have basically achieved mechanization, don't forget that it is 1903!

No, according to Roque's standards, even if they are equipped with motorcycles and trucks, the Northern Rhodesia Division and the newly formed 1st Cavalry Division are only motorized, and there is still a certain distance from mechanization.

The mechanized units have a very high level of equipment synthesis, and their main equipment is composed of tracked heavy tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, and other heavy weapons, and they have very powerful firepower, strong mobility, and perfect logistical support capabilities in combat.

The level of equipment synthesis of motorized units is relatively low, and the mode of combat mainly relies on combat personnel rather than equipment, and the equipment is mainly based on motorcycles, trucks, and light wheeled infantry transporters; the main characteristic of motorized units is flexibility, but the level of firepower and mechanization is far lower than that of mechanized troops.

Considering that it was 1903, motorization was already a very high level, and even the most powerful British Army in the world during this period was at most mule and horse-like, and it was still a long way from motorization.

In order to reduce the weight of the truck, Roque also worked together, and the officers of the newly formed 1st Cavalry Division showed great enthusiasm for the truck, and more than a dozen officers surrounded the truck and kept giving advice.

"The carriage doesn't need to be made of steel, it can be all wood, it doesn't matter if it's broken, we can repair it, install two more layers, and the weight will be much lighter-"

"It's all 1.5 tons, we can actually develop armored vehicles, reduce the cabin, use steel plates to protect the cockpit and carriage, and install heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, which must be a big killer on the battlefield-"

"Tires, tires don't work well in the field, we can use tracks, and the off-road performance of tracks is better-"

It was really one person who counted the short, the other the long, and a dozen officers gossiped, and soon Rudolf Diesel remembered it densely in his little notebook.

"Armored vehicles are not in a hurry, first study the trucks, and the tracks are not in a hurry, now the main thing is the tires, how are the carbon black reinforced tires being studied now?" Roque is not in a hurry, the meal has to be eaten one bite at a time, and the research of the truck has to be done step by step.

About three months ago, Roque's headhunting company in Europe sent back a message about carbon black reinforcing tires, which is a research project at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and there are no initial results.

In 1892, British's Burleimere invented cord fabric, which was used for production in 1910.

In addition to improving the quality of tires and expanding the variety of tires, the invention of cord also made it possible to mold tires.

In 1904, Matt created carbon black reinforcing rubber, which was used on a large scale to reinforce the tread rubber after the tire was ply, because before that, the canvas was damaged faster than the tread in the use of tires, and the amount of carbon black in the rubber compound grew rapidly, and the carbon black used in every 100 parts of raw rubber in the 30s was only about 20 parts, at this time, carbon black was mainly used on the tread, and the carcass was not used, and before the tread was mixed with carbon black, the tire only traveled about 6000 kilometers, after mixing carbon black, The range of the tires soon increased significantly, and a set of truck tires could travel about 100,000 kilometers.

Carbon black was first invented by the Chinese, who used carbon black to make ink a long time ago.

Therefore, the Chinese are the real experts in this area.

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