readx; The T8 light tank was developed between the T6 tank and the T9 tank, it was developed in the mid-twenties, and the mass service began in 1926, and the original development goal was to use it as a medium tank with the T6 tank, providing rapid reconnaissance, infantry fire support, etc. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The initial model of the T8 light tank weighs six tons and has a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour. After the Second Sino-Chinese War, the T8 light tank also made major improvements based on actual combat experience and technological progress, mainly by replacing the engine with a new type of engine, and replacing the vertical armor with inclined armor, and the firepower was also divided into two types, one was equipped with a new 37-mm tank gun, which was the main model, and the other was equipped with a 20-mm rapid-fire gun, which was used as infantry support firepower.

The T8 tank of various models is in service in a very large number, even more than the T6 tank and the T9 tank, and it is the most widely equipped and largest number of tanks in the Chinese Army, but although it is the largest in number, the limelight is obviously not as big as the T6 and T9 tanks.

The T8 light tank has been in service for more than ten years, and its surname can be considered advanced in the late twenties and early thirties, but now it is a little backward, at least compared with the BT7 fast tank in Soviet Russia, it is a little powerless.

But here it has to be said that the tactical position of the T8 light tank in the Chinese Army is not the same as the tactical position of the BT7 fast tank in the Soviet Army. In the Chinese Army, the T8 light tank is mainly responsible for reconnaissance, infantry support and other auxiliary tasks, but the BT7 fast tank in Soviet Russia is the main tank in the Soviet Army, and its status is higher than that of the light tank T26, which is roughly equivalent to the status of the T6 or T9 tank in the Chinese Army, mainly undertaking tasks such as rapid assault and tank engagement.

But theoretically, this is true, but due to the high speed of the BT7 tank and its weight of only thirteen tons, China actually treats the BT7 tank of the Soviet army as a light tank, and it is logical to treat the BT7 tank as the target of the T8 tank.

"According to some data obtained from the Spanish Civil War and the fighting on the Finnish side, the General Staff believes that the T8 light tank can no longer meet the needs of our army for light tanks!" Li Lianyang, who had just been the chief of staff for two days, was also called over by Chen Jingyun to talk about the army's plan for the development of the next generation of light tanks.

While talking, Li Lianyang also watched Chen Jingyun's reaction, speaking of which, this was the first time that Li Lianyang reported to Chen Jingyun after taking office as chief of staff. China's army, like the navy, has a situation where there are many generals and a small number of generals, and in order to enable more generals to gain qualifications and experience, some important positions are basically transferred very frequently, roughly every two years, and more important positions are changed every year.

For example, in the army, it is called the best way to promote to lieutenant general, the post of director of the combat department, almost all the major generals of the army are staring at it, and almost all the talented generals who can sit in this position, and every director of the combat department will be successfully promoted to lieutenant general, this position is not only noble, but also has great real power, with the passage of time, the authority of the operations department in the general staff is getting bigger and bigger, and Chen Jingyun has to increase the power of the deputy chief of operations of the staff to restrict. However, the deputy chief of operations of the General Staff Department was already very busy, and he was too busy to be busy with too many things in charge, so in the mid-thirties, Chen Jingyun added the post of deputy to the chief of the General Staff Department, and in addition to the original deputy chief of operations and the executive deputy chief, he added a deputy chief of military orders of the General Staff, mainly to share some of the functions and powers of the deputy chief of operations, so that the deputy chief of operations could concentrate more on the affairs of combat missions.

Although the Operations Division has been divided into some powers, the post of Director of the Operations Division is still the most competitive position of Major General in the Army, and this is also the case in the Naval Operations Division, although it is worth noting that the position of Chief of Staff in the Army is generally only a major general, while the Navy's directors are lieutenant generals. This is because the army does not have only one general staff, but also a logistics department and an equipment department, but the navy has only one navy department, and various positions are not easy to arrange, so the same name but the level of the navy is higher.

The post of director of the operations department was changed every year, and as the nominal head of the army, the chief of staff who controlled the whole army was naturally also diligent, and this situation was even more pronounced in the thirties. At the beginning of the establishment of the National Army, the chief of staff was Feng Qin, and the second chief of staff was Yuan Fang, who was urgently replaced by Feng Qin after his death, and then Yuan Fang was demoted by Chen Jingyun for poor combat and then Shen Gang took up the third term of the chief of staff, after the reunification of the country, Shen Gang retired, Yuan Fang was reappointed as the chief of staff by Chen Jingyun, in 1920, Chen Jingyun once again appointed Shen Gang as the fifth chief of staff, and then Shen Gang commanded the first Sino-Chinese war in 1923, and resigned again after the war, and it was Ma Cheng who replaced him, and Ma Cheng is the chief of staff for the longest single term, a time is four years, until 1927 before retiring, Lin Zhaomin took over for a year and was replaced by Xu Lishan, Xu Lishan in mid-1930 after the outbreak of the second war, was urgently transferred to the northeast to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Second Group Army, so Chen Jingyun once again reinstated Shen Gang, so that Shen Gang became the third chief of staff in his life, and then Li Jimin, Zuo Yugang, Liang Xunqin The three people successively took up the post of chief of staffAt the end of December 1939, that is, now, Li Lianyang officially served as the thirteenth chief of staff.

As a member of the second battalion, Li Lianyang was the first group of people to follow Chen Jingyun to start a family, and he was also promoted to general early, and accumulated a lot of military merits, in the second Sino-Chinese war in the early thirties, Li Lianyang commanded the first group army to take Korea, and annihilated hundreds of thousands of troops. However, although he has the support of Chen Jingyun all the time, and he was promoted very quickly, but unlike other generals in the army such as Shen Gang and Zuo Yugang, who became famous early, he was only considered a success in the Second Sino-Chinese War, and he can be regarded as a model of late bloomer.

Sometimes the military rank does not necessarily mean how prominent his military merits are, among the more than 20 generals in active duty in the Chinese [***] side, among the more than 100 lieutenant generals, there are also a lot of goods waiting for death, most of them are promoted by seniority, after all, the army is a place that pays great attention to qualifications, and people have followed Chen Jingyun along the way from the Fuzhou Uprising to the present, and there is no merit and hard work. It's just that these people have military ranks, but they can't hold important positions.

Although in 1930 the post of commander of the group army was more prominent than that of the chief of the general staff, as time passed, the scale of China's army became larger and larger, and the post of chief of staff became more and more important.

Li Lianyang was talking about things, while paying attention to Chen Jingyun's reaction, Chen Jingyun didn't have the same thoughts as Li Lianyang, he listened carefully to Li Lianyang's words and said: "Wasn't the latest modification of the T8R, designed in 1935, why did it fall behind so quickly?" ”

Li Lianyang said: "Although the surname of T8R can be regarded as good, but after all, it is improved according to the original design of T8, and the limitations are very large. ”

Chen Jingyun didn't plan to say too much, and immediately said: "Since this is the case, then start the research and development plan of the new light tank as soon as possible, well, for the research and development of the new tank, I still have the previous opinion, we should try to keep the universal type of parts, and the price should be suitable, and the surname can at the same time also take into account the surname price ratio!" ”

Chen Jingyun doesn't want the army to develop a tank that can be too advanced, when the time comes, the advanced is advanced, but the process is too complicated, the cost is too high, it does not have much practical value, after all, China has launched many new tanks every year, Chen Jingyun has also seen a new concept tank developed by the army, the tank surname can be good, better than the army's existing T12, T11 is a lot better, 50 kilometers of off-road speed, heavy armor, 105 mm ultra-long barrel tank gun, Not to mention the present in the late thirties, it is estimated that it will be enough in the fifties, but the reason why it is said to be a concept product, that is, something that cannot be mass-produced in mass service in a short period of time, something that is not useful.

For the capital ships of the Navy, the more advanced the better, but for the equipment of the Army, in fact, the surname price ratio is more important than the surname energy. Because the capital ships of the Navy are basically calculated in single digits, while the tanks of the army are calculated in thousands, one is a strategic weapon, and the other is a weapon that consumes the surname, and there is not much comparable surname.

The Soviet-Finnish war made the Chinese Army feel that the surname of the T8 light tank has lagged behind the world, which led to the rapid development of the Chinese Army to develop a new light tank, and the development of the new tank is very fast, and the prototype has been launched in a few months, and is finalized as the T14 tank, the vehicle weighs eight tons, uses a 47 mm main gun, inclined armor, and the maximum speed is up to 65 kilometers per hour.

The reason why the research and development speed of the new light tank is so fast is mainly because China's tank research and development has not stopped, and there have always been various research and development plans, the research and development of this T14 light tank can actually be traced back to 1935, but at that time, the army's energy on light tanks was focused on the T8R light tank, and some of the new technologies used in the T14 were not very mature, so the progress slowed down.

But tanks, many technologies are universal, China has invested a huge amount of money in the research and development of T12 tanks, and carried out various basic technology research, which not only brings convenience to the T11 tank, but also provides sufficient technical support for the research and development of other types of tanks.

When technology is no longer a major constraint, the R&D schedule is much faster.

Innovative R&D and integrated R&D based on existing technologies are two different things. The amount of money and time required is not comparable.

China's development of new light tanks is not mentioned for the time being, not to mention that this kind of thing is insignificant in the international community, and even the impact in China is very small.

The fourth quarter of 1939 was a war in Europe, which was tense and even somewhat depressing, not only in Europe, but also in Asia and even in the Americas.

At a time when the atmosphere of this world war was becoming more and more intense, China's domestic industrial development benefited from the outbreak of war in Europe and the influence of domestic military expansion, and in 1939 it showed an explosive growth, and according to the Economic Development Department, the economic growth rate in 1939 was as high as more than 20 percent. You must know that China's economic system is not a state-owned economy like that of Soviet Russia, but an extremely typical capitalized economy, and even if this economic system is guided and intervened by political axes, it is impossible to achieve an annual growth rate of 100 percent like that of Soviet Russia.

Even during the period of extremely rapid economic development, China's economic development rate was only about 14 or 15 percent, but in such a special year as 1939, China's economy showed an extraordinary development. This development can even be called somewhat morbid on the one hand.

The economy is developing rapidly, but at this time, economic development is no longer the focus of Chen Jingyun's attention, Chen Jingyun is now concerned about the world situation, and wants to participate in this war at the most suitable time.

Whether or not China will enter the war and when it will enter the war is not only the focus of Chen Jingyun's consideration, but also a fact that many people at home and abroad are concerned about.

If the scale of China's armament expansion in the years 1936-1938 can only be regarded as average, and what is done is only after the upgrading of equipment, then the expansion of the army in 1939 has been reflected in the expansion of the establishment, with the beginning of the German attack on Poland in July 1939, the Chinese Army has begun to supplement part of the troops to a complete formation, before 1939, China has a complete number of troops is actually limited, only a few parts, less than one-fifth, After all, if all of China's troops are kept intact, the number of troops and military spending will be much higher.

However, beginning in the fourth quarter of 1939, the Chinese Army had already begun to expand the three infantry corps to a complete establishment one after another, and this expansion was still continuing.

Such a large-scale expansion of China has naturally attracted the attention of other countries, and the United States, Britain, France, and Soviet Russia have all opened their eyes wide, trying to figure out whether China wants to provoke a war, and whether the war is to attack the Soviet Union or Russia, or to go south to Southeast Asia.

The most tense of these countries is naturally Soviet Russia, because when the Chinese army was expanded, the internal excuse used was to deal with the increasingly tense situation in Europe, but in the eyes of many people, this is directly related to the Soviet-Finnish war, and the Chinese do not want Soviet Russia to defeat Finland.

This is naturally a great thing in the eyes of the Finns, but in the eyes of the Russians, this is an extremely dangerous situation, in order to increase China's troops in the northwest region, Soviet Russia has also increased some troops in Siberia, but the Soviet Russia needs to use troops in too many places, he has to maintain a large number of troops on the Polish front to deal with the German side, otherwise no one knows whether Germany's Hitler will go crazy now to attack Soviet Russia directly, and he must maintain a part of his troops on the southern front to deal with Iran and Britain, And then there was another Finland on the northern line. All three of these places contained a large number of Soviet and Russian forces.

Comparatively speaking, China has a lot less place to use troops, because it has driven Ben out of Korea, and according to the current strength of the Chinese navy, it is basically impossible for Ben to land in Korea or other coastal areas of China, so the deployment of troops in the northeast, north China, and east China is no longer as large as in the 20s, and more troops are deployed in the northwest region, and in addition, in recent years, the deployment of troops in the south and southwest regions has also increased year by year, and this side is naturally facing the direction of Southeast Asia and India.

This situation makes it easier for China to assemble troops.

Of course, it is impossible to increase the number of troops in Siberia unlimitedly, affected by the capacity of the Siberian Railway, whether it is China and Russia or the Soviet Russia, the total deployment of troops is at most about one million, and more than this number can not be supplied logistically, the Kazakh region in Central Asia is better, after the Northwest Railway is completed, the number of Chinese garrisons in this region has greatly increased, and it can also be equipped with a large number of heavy weapons, and the increase in troops has brought heavy pressure to Soviet Russia.

China's strategic advantage in the Asian region is obvious to all, China not only has a strong army, but also a navy is not weak, otherwise Germany would not always want to pull China into an alliance.

In 1938 and 1939, the Germans sent people to China to try to sign an anti-Socialist Labor agreement with China and to try to establish a coalition to flank Soviet Russia.

From the perspective of short-term interests, this should be an advantage for China.

But no one else knows that Chen Jingyun doesn't want Soviet Russia to be killed like this. What was the ultimate purpose of his intervention in the Russian Civil War? It wasn't that he was disgusted with the Social Workers, or that he was unhappy with Lenin or Stalin, and he wasn't interested in any of that, and he didn't care about the lives of the Russians. What he wanted was for Russia to be divided into two states, East and West.

The division of Russia has been the supreme strategy of the entire northern strategy of China since 1917 and even thereafter, and all diplomatic and military strategies in the northern region must be subordinated to this goal.

Based on the consideration of this strategic goal, China will not allow Soviet Russia to enter the East to unify Russia, nor will it allow the Russian Republic to conquer Soviet Russia to unify Russia.

If China and Germany form an alliance now, not to mention whether Soviet Russia can be completely defeated, and not to mention the reaction of Britain, France, and the United States, even if all goes well, China and Germany join forces to defeat Soviet Russia, then what will be the result?

That is, the final unification of Russia by the Russian Republic, and this kind of thing is absolutely unbearable for Chen Jingyun.

If, after defeating Soviet Russia, China props up another country on the territory of Soviet Russia, what will happen? That is, the Russian Republic will become an enemy of China.

After all, everyone is not stupid, although the Russian Republic is weak now, but they also want to unify Russia, once China does not let them unify Russia after defeating Soviet Russia and supports a Western Russian state, then the Russian Republic will definitely not give up.

You must know that although the Russian Republic is supported by China, this does not mean that the Russian Republic will follow China's instructions in everything, they have their own strategic goals, they have their own code of action, and the Russian Republic does not seem to have any sense of existence now, but its nearly one million army is not for use, once it is hostile to China, then these millions of troops will become China's enemies. And when the time comes, the Russian Republic will even be able to use Russia's territorial resources in Europe and Central Asia to confront China.

The Republic of Russia is not a province of China, but an ally of China. The Russian Republic, as an ally, has Russia's interests in mind, not China's.

If China allows the Russian Republic to unify Russia, even if Russia continues to maintain an alliance with China after the reunification at this stage, what about a dozen years from now, decades from now? Then it will evolve into the same as before.

If the United States is Chen Jingyun's most scrupled enemy, he said, "It is Chen Jingyun's most disgusting enemy, and even a unified Russia is an enemy that Chen Jingyun will get rid of when he dies." He would rather engage in an all-round naval and air war with the United States in the Pacific Ocean and fight for attrition than engage in a long and protracted confrontation with Russia on a border of tens of thousands of miles, and Chen Jingyun will not allow Russia to reunify for any purpose.

Based on the above considerations, in fact, don't look at the pressure that China has shown on Soviet Russia is getting bigger and bigger day by day, but Chen Jingyun has no idea of starting a war with Soviet Russia for the time being, let alone the idea of completely destroying Soviet Russia, if one day Soviet Russia is attacked by Germany, and Soviet Russia can't resist it, Chen Jingyun even has plans to support Soviet Russia against Germany.

There has always been no eternal enemy in the relations between countries, only eternal interests.

And an alliance with Germany will not bring even the slightest benefit to China!

Not only could it not bring benefits to China on the side of Soviet Russia, but it also could not bring benefits to China's Southeast Asian strategy, because even if it did not form an alliance with China, it would not be difficult to take over France with Germany's strength, and if China wanted to carry out its Southeast Asian strategy at that time, Germany's influence would actually be very limited or even equal to zero.

Of course, if Germany has the ability to sweep the world all the way, and even fight India to join China, it can also bring some benefits to China's Southeast Asian strategy, but if Germany is really strong to this point, Chen Jingyun still cares about the interests of Southeast Asia, not to mention that he immediately united with the United States to completely destroy Germany, Germany with Hitler and the Nazi Party is very dangerous, and it is good that it is far away, and Chen Jingyun is the first to destroy it when he gets close to China.

In Chen Jingyun's view, all countries in this world are enemies, and the difference is only that which country poses a greater threat to China, and he will fight that country if the threat is greater.

As for sincere allies, China did not have them before, does not have them now, and will not have them in the future.

With the strategic goal of splitting Russia, Chen Jingyun still politely rejected the anti-Socialist Workers agreement in the mouth of the envoys sent by Hitler again, but he also repeatedly stated that China still has a zero-tolerance attitude towards the Socialist Workers.

As for whether the Social Workers Party is really as bad as Chen Jingyun said, who cares! When Chen Jingyun needed it, he would naturally say that it was bad, and if he needed to support Soviet Russia that day, it would naturally mean that it was good.

The standard of good or bad is only about profit, and has nothing to do with anything else.

After the German side tried to form an alliance with China again without success, although it still did not give up, it also aimed at the "Ben", and Germany had also been in contact with the "Ben" before, but at that time, the "Ben" did not agree, like China, but was ready to continue to sit and watch the development of the world situation, but the strong combat effectiveness shown by Germany in the Polish War made the few people who said "Ben" also have a trace of ideas, so that they began to carefully consider the benefits that the alliance with Germany can bring.

However, it is absolutely not good to think about it, because Germany is too far away from Asia, and if it wants to fight China, Germany will not be able to help, and if it wants to occupy Southeast Asia, the Germans will not be able to help either.

At this stage, it is very difficult for Germany to find allies in Asia.

However, Germany can't find allies in Asia does not mean that his European strategy will stop Shortly after 1940, Germany launched a blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway, occupying Denmark in order to protect the homeland and avoid the British and French [***] teams from landing in Denmark to attack the hinterland of Germany, occupying Norway, that is to ensure the transportation of various ore raw materials from Sweden, after the war, the British Navy is very active, and the British side is also preparing to land in Norway to gain the initiative to cut off Sweden's transportation line to Germany. In this case, Germany must also occupy Norway first, and take the initiative to secure the transportation lines between Germany and Sweden.

Norway can be said to be the most difficult country in the early stage of World War II, Britain and France want to attack it, Germany wants to attack it, and it can't stop any of them, and the final result is either occupied by Britain and France or occupied by Germany.

When Germany quickly occupied Denmark and Norway, the Soviet-Finnish war also entered the final end, as the Soviet army continued to penetrate into Finnish territory, the Finnish army continued to retreat, Chen Jingyun also felt that it could not continue like this, now Finland could not fall, China also needed Finland to continue to contain Soviet Russia, so in February 1940, China and Finland urgently signed the Sino-Finnish mutual defense treaty, as soon as the treaty was signed, China announced the second level of mobilization, and then sent the strongest diplomatic protest to Soviet Russia, The Soviet army was asked to stop attacking Finland within 24 hours, and everyone was asked to sit down and negotiate peace, otherwise all the consequences would be borne by Soviet Russia alone.

As for whether Chen Jingyun was bluffing or planning to come to a Sino-Soviet war, this had to be analyzed and judged by Stalin himself.