Things got interesting. The United States' toughness angered the French people. For a while, there was a wave of protests in front of the U.S. Embassy. Angry French people showered the U.S. Embassy with rotten eggs, rocks and other items. However, in the face of strong protests from the French, the United States remained unmoved, because in their view this was a bottom line issue and there was no possibility of concession. Anyway, the United States did not allow France or other NATO countries to obtain Soviet-made weapons. The most serious provocation. The interesting part of this incident is that the anger in France is mostly expressed by the French people. Although the French government said it was angry, it did not take any countermeasures. To put it simply, the French government seems to have everything under control. ¡°In fact, de Gaulle had everything under control. Of course he knew that directly purchasing Soviet-made weapons was definitely the biggest challenge to American authority. It would be strange if the Americans didn¡¯t explode in this way. His previous statements were more of an attitude, meant to disgust Americans. Your gay Yang was so disgusting to me before, you can¡¯t say that I can only be beaten and can¡¯t fight back, right? So what is de Gaulle¡¯s real purpose? Of course he wants advanced medium tanks, and he is indeed quite interested in the cheap and high-performance T-55. But he knew that it was unrealistic and impossible to obtain the T-55 directly, and he had to find a way to bypass the pitfall of Soviet-made weapons. It's just that he didn't think of a good way for a while. But De Gaulle had no choice, but Li Xiaofeng had a lot of solutions. In his opinion, it was too simple to solve this problem. Didn¡¯t the Americans just seize the fact that the T-55 was a Soviet-made weapon? What if the T-55 is no longer a Soviet-made weapon? What else can Americans clamor for? First of all, half of the "copyright" of the T-55 is in the hands of the Norinco Group, which has the power to sell the T-55 to the market allowed by the Soviet Union (the benefits obtained are distributed according to the agreement between the Soviet Union and Norinco). Of course, there are also political obstacles for Norinco to export tanks directly to France. After all, Norinco has long been labeled the Soviet Union by the United States and the NATO group. Therefore, Norinco must also use a shell to bypass these obstacles. ¡°And this shell is KraussMaffei and Rheinmetall. Comrades who are familiar with them know that these two companies are German arms giants. They were quite active both before and after the war. Of course, in this time and space, these two companies are having a bit of a difficult time. First of all, the severe economic situation in Germany after the war. The damage of the war and the huge war reparations made the Germans breathless. Major companies are trying every means to find a way to survive, but for German industrial enterprises, this It's hard to find a way out, because Germany has been permanently deprived of the right to have an army. Without an army, there will naturally be no defense spending. How can the country's military-industrial enterprises live without defense spending? Some comrades have said that this depends on foreign markets! German weapons still have a very good reputation internationally, so why are there no sales? Let us ask, how can there be sales? The arms trade has never been a purely commercial activity. In the international market, your weapons do not necessarily have sales because they are cheap or have good performance. For many countries that need to purchase weapons, purchasing weapons is actually an act of recognizing their godfather and hugging each other for warmth. Why does the United States dominate the world's top arms exporting country all year round and account for more than half of the arms export market share? The main reason is that it is the only superpower. For the wealthy Middle Eastern oil bosses, they must provide supplies to the US emperor. Otherwise, the US emperor who controls the shipping routes can kill them in minutes. Even if we don¡¯t start with shipping routes, just releasing Israel from captivity under US imperialism is enough to give the oil boss a drink. So the international arms trade is actually a very serious political act. Germans and their weapons were politically incorrect in the early post-war period. Buying weapons from Germany is easy to convince people. What's more, after the war, all the super gangsters including the United States and the Soviet Union hoarded massive amounts of surplus arms. They all sold them cheaply on the international market or simply became soldiers. Send people to aid. Who in the market doesn't like something that has decent performance but is cheap? The German products that strive for excellence are good, but they are not that good. Everyone is of similar quality, so it is the truth to choose cheap and politically correct products. Therefore, unfortunately, Germany's arms exports have suffered a heavy blow. Except for old customers who have always used German-made weapons, or countries like Israel that can accept Germany's use of weapons to compensate for war reparations, they are still buying German products. Most countries are not To surrender to American imperialism was to surrender to the Soviet Union. At one time, the German industrial enterprises were almost unable to uncover the pot. Under this situation, Norinco took decisive action, acquired a considerable part of the shares of German industrial enterprises through acquisitions or shares, and transferred part of the production orders to Germany. For example, Norinco's advanced high-power diesel engines were transferred to Germany and jointly developed by MTU and Bosch, covering a wide range of models from four to twelve cylinders.?. So as soon as Li Xiaofeng heard that the French had political concerns, he immediately put forward a new proposal: "France will invest 100 million francs to jointly develop the first-generation European tank with KraussMaffei, Rheinmetall, MTU and Bosch. " One hundred million francs was equivalent to 20 million US dollars at that time. To be honest, this was a lot of money. How much financial aid did France get from the United States by selling itself? It's only a little over a billion, and it doesn't get it in a year. Now Li Xiaofeng opens his mouth and asks for 20 million. Isn¡¯t this too dark? Li Xiaofeng didn't think he was a swindler, because the conditions he gave were very generous. The 20 million U.S. dollars would not only allow France to participate in joint research and development and enjoy the right to authorize the assembly and production of the first-generation European tanks in the future, but the 20 million U.S. dollars would also include Funds to purchase the first batch of 50 European tanks. In other words, France can not only obtain 50 tanks by paying 20 million, but also obtain the authorization to assemble and produce European tanks. Is it worth it? Of course it¡¯s a bargain. For de Gaulle, the previous asking price of one hundred British Centurions was nearly 20 million US dollars just for the tank itself. Each one is equivalent to a high price of US$200,000. And these are just the tanks themselves, excluding spare parts, ammunition and training costs. Adding up all the miscellaneous items, France would have to pay close to 30 million US dollars to buy 100 Centurions. This was still very tight for France at that time. Now, by paying 20 million, you can get 50 tanks, and you can also get the assembly and production rights of the first generation of European tanks in the future and some technology transfer. This is still a good deal for France! Because at this time, de Gaulle inspected relevant French companies and discovered that the research and development plan for a new generation of medium tanks was not as smooth as expected. The so-called most optimistic estimate of production starting in three to five years is too much. Let's put it this way, the less optimistic estimate is that France's new generation of medium tanks may not be put into production until ten years. ¡°Perhaps some comrades would like to say, just ten years, it will take ten years to build your own things, and it will take a hundred years to build your own things. It is better to develop your own tank industry than to ask for help forever in the future, right? That is true. If it takes ten years and huge capital investment to make the French tank industry gradually catch up with the world's largest group, then De Gaulle will bear it. The problem is that according to the current technical standards for France's new medium tanks, even after spending a lot of money and time, they have not been able to catch up with the technical level of the world's leading group. Instead, they have been left further and further behind. Yes, the French have encountered many technical obstacles that they cannot overcome. For example, tank armor, high-pressure tank guns and more advanced anti-tank ammunition, as well as new engines and gearboxes. Almost all of the most important parts of tank technology cannot be solved by the French. The level they reached with great effort is the level of World War II. Now World War II has been over for seven years. In these seven years, almost It is a leap of an era. ??And the medium tanks developed by the French (based on technical standards on paper) are just lame imitations of the German World War II Panthers. Part of the weight was reduced, but at the same time the armor was weakened. The firepower barely reached the level of the Black Panther, but the quality and accuracy of the armor-piercing projectiles were very poor, and the life of the artillery barrel was quite limited. What's worse is the engine and gearbox. They are almost copycat models of the Panther's unreliable engine, which is far from the current world's advanced level. All in all, it will take about three to five years before the French can obtain a heavy tank of 1943 level, and the gap with the world's advanced level will widen to more than ten years. Tell me, if you were Charles de Gaulle, would you be able to bear this? It must be intolerable, so after witnessing the current situation of the French tank industry, De Gaulle felt that the only way to change this situation was to introduce technology and cooperate with the world's advanced level, and there are only a few so-called world's advanced level. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Now the United Kingdom and the United States have no chance. The only thing they can do is talk to the Soviet Union. ¡°And this cooperation method is also very ideal. It is guaranteed by Germany¡¯s precision machining and backed by the Soviet Union¡¯s superb overall design and World War II experience. How can the tanks produced be any worse? What's more, Li Xiaofeng also explained to de Gaulle: "The first-generation European tanks are not newly developed, but are technological improvements based on the overall design of the T-55." Let's put it this way, this so-called first-generation European tank is actually the Soviet Union The casing is replaced with a built-in version of some German components. Without making too many changes to the overall design, it is just to use some German parts to strengthen it. It can be said to be a Soviet-German fusion version of the T-55. Among them, the overall design of the T-55 is retained, but the chassis is slightly lengthened to facilitate the replacement of the 8v90 four-stroke diesel engine just developed by MTU. The diesel engine has a maximum power of 620 horsepower and is rectangular in shape. The structure adopts one cylinder and one cover, which are parallel to each other. Connecting rod, push rod transmission, and integrated box body are convenient for disassembly and serial production; mechanical supercharging and pre-combustion are adopted.?Combustion system, compact overall layout. The transmission device adopts the 4hp250 hydromechanical comprehensive transmission device with dual-flow dual-radius differential steering device of Z Company (Zahnraederab?k?edhshaen) (Friedrichshafen Gear Manufacturing Company), with 4 1 forward gear and 2 reverse gears (each gear has two prescribed turning radii, large and small. Since the prescribed turning radius is larger, the steering power loss is less). Some comrades may want to ask, the B54 diesel engine on the T-55 is derived from the B2. It has reliable performance and is very compact. How good is it to continue to use it, why change it? Well, to be honest, the b2 series is indeed a bit old. Although the compactness is good, the performance, especially the lifespan, is still far behind the world's advanced level. Judging from subsequent developments, continuing to hang on the b2 tree is not a good choice. What's more, the b2 series is troublesome to disassemble and maintain (it cannot be hoisted as a whole). In fact, the most critical problem is not the B2, but the painful transmission device of the Soviet-made tank. Although the T-55 fixed-shaft mechanical transmission is simple and reliable, its performance is indeed average. It is far behind the later hydraulic transmission, and it is the French It is also quite obsessed with mobility and has very high requirements for mobility. Even the genuine T-55 is somewhat unable to meet the needs of the French. Therefore, Li Xiaofeng instructed Norinco to test advanced diesel engines and hydraulic transmissions on the French, using the French as guinea pigs. In addition, the firepower of the first-generation European tanks was also changed from the T-55's D-10t to German goods. Because firstly, the D-10t is not exported to NATO for the time being, and secondly, the performance of the D-10t is also average. The French are full of praise for Germany's sophisticated tank guns in World War II. Since the French like German products so much, then give them German products. Rheinmetall directly installed the improved version of the 88-mm gun of the Tiger tank on the first-generation European tank. Through appropriate improvement processes, the tank gun is basically at the same level as the American 90-mm tank gun on the M47 and M48. For the current It's enough for the French. Moreover, Rheinmetall also promised that once the newer large-caliber tank gun is successfully developed, it can be easily modified for use on the first-generation European tanks. De Gaulle was very satisfied with this. The newly released first-generation European tank weighs 39 tons (a slight increase in weight due to changes in the chassis and engine transmission system), has a maximum road speed of 65 kilometers per hour, and basically uses German armor technology. , the defense level of the entire vehicle is slightly lower than that of the T-55. The front of the turret is about 150 mm, and the front of the car body is also at the level of 150 mm. However, this has far exceeded the expectations of the French. Originally, they were satisfied with a hundred millimeters of frontal armor. Moreover, KraussMaffei also promised that the first-generation additional armor under development will soon be put into use. After the installation of this additional armor, the defensive power of the first-generation European tanks can be increased by 30 to 50 mm, and the vehicle The weight will not increase significantly. De Gaulle made the decision to invest without saying a word, and immediately announced it to the public. He just wanted to tell the Americans: "Without you Zhang Butcher, I wouldn't have to eat pigs with hair on them!"