Chapter 472: Chapter 470: Land Cruiser (End of the month, ask for monthly ticket!)

When it comes to cannons, many people are quite familiar with them. These heavy attack weapons, hailed as the gods of war, have a long history. From the moment they were created, they were destined to dominate the main theme of warfare.

The earliest cannons can even be traced back to over two thousand five hundred years ago during the Spring and Autumn period of Flame Country, when a military weapon called "礮" emerged. It is the ancestor of the various types of artillery that exist today.

However, these early so-called cannons were largely used to launch stone shots or create incendiary bombs made from materials like pine wood. Rather than being true cannons, they were more like giant stone throwers.

With the progression of history and the invention of gunpowder, true cannons began to take shape during the Song Dynasty. By the Yuan Dynasty, the true cannons — smoothbore cannons — were invented, laying the foundation for all the artillery used throughout human history thereafter.

The emergence of cannons, such powerful weapons of attack, naturally garnered the love of a plethora of military strategists throughout history.

Anyone who wishes to achieve victory cannot refuse this ultimate solution to winning.

With the Urban Giant Cannon, the Turks ended the thousand-year glory of the Roman Empire. Since then, there has been no fortress that wouldn’t fall.

By concentrating the use of artillery, Napoleon conquered Europe, and from then on, no famous battle in human history has lacked artillery.

In fact, conversely, since the mass utilization of cannons, is there any famous battle without the presence of artillery?

As cannon barrels were made thicker, increasing their power, their weight also became heavier, naturally limiting their mobility and use.

Because of this, the Urban Giant Cannon remained the largest caliber cannon ever made by humans for quite a long time.

Until modern times, with the development of industry and technology, super giant cannons with calibers reaching astounding levels appeared, and the method of transporting them no longer relied on manpower or animal power but on trains.

This led to the creation of the strongest artillery ever used in warfare: train cannons.

These super giant guns that rely on railway movement are undoubtedly the largest caliber weapons used in warfare by mankind. The Paris gun used by Germany to bombard France during World War I, the Gustav Giant Cannon, and the Dora Cannon during World War II, and the mass-produced K5(E) Type Train Cannon, etc...

Though super giant cannons are extremely troublesome whether in terms of moving or setting up, in wars, once these cannons fire, their power is unparalleled.

The Gustav Giant Cannon once penetrated 10 meters of reinforced concrete fortifications with a single shot, leaving a crater as large as four football fields. In war, nothing can withstand its bombardment.

However, such giant cannons still moved too slowly and were too cumbersome, while the mass-produced train cannons lacked sufficient caliber.

Is there a cannon that can meet the mobility requirements on the battlefield and guarantee the caliber of artillery?

The answer is yes, and someone has made it; it resulted in what Chen Xin received in the document, the ultimate land warfare weapon created during the Suyia era — the land cruiser.

Honestly, when Chen Xin first saw this thing, he seriously thought it was something fabricated by a science fiction novelist, as it was just too outrageous.

After World War II, the Suyia acquired a large amount of German technical data, which naturally included the train cannons that had shone brightly in World War II, and the technical data of the Gustav heavy cannon that hadn’t been completely destroyed.

At that time, the Suyia didn’t pay much attention to this and merely sent some weapon experts to research and attempt to replicate their own train cannons.

But with the post-war confrontation with the Federation and the escalation of the Cold War, the Suyia felt the need for a ground weapon that could resist the Federation’s invasion from the East Coast in Siberia. Train cannons naturally became a focal point of consideration by the Suyia leadership.

After all, between the easternmost point of Suyia and the westernmost point of the Federation lies only the Bering Strait, which is merely 35 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.

The Suyia could completely deploy super large cannons here to directly bombard the Federation mainland.

While such actions may not be very meaningful, if the Federation plans to cross the Bering Strait to attack the Suyia by land, it’s still necessary.

However, Siberia is desolate, and constructing railways for deploying train cannons is quite troubling. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

So when the Suyia’s weapon experts designed a giant cannon with a 600mm caliber supported by two rails, the plan was rejected.

Firstly, the mobility was still insufficient, as missiles and rockets had begun entering service, making train cannons seem less attractive and useful.

Secondly, the Suyia leadership felt that its caliber and power were still not enough, especially with the Suyia having developed nuclear technology by then, train cannons no longer held charm.

Thus, the Suyia’s weapon experts underwent a transformation and developed a second improved version.

They replaced the train wheels under the cannon trailer with tracks and created a super large chassis with sixteen tracks, an 800mm caliber, and a range of over 70KM super cannon equipped with specially designed nuclear shells.

This time, the Suyia leadership was satisfied and ordered a prototype to be made and test-fired in the Siberian weapons testing range.

However, this thing never saw real practical use, as it was still too heavy.

Even with sixteen tracks, allowing it to walk on land with difficulty, in Siberia it could only move normally after the ground frozen in winter, and the snow would severely hinder its advancement.

When the temperature rose and ice melted, the muddy frozen soil could cause it to sink entirely into the mud.

The key issue is that the thing is powered by steam turbines, requiring huge fuel consumption to start moving.

So after test-firing, the Suyia leadership proposed new demands for the weapon experts, hoping that it could be made more practical, smaller, with less power, yet still practical and mass-producible.

This time the request was reasonable, so the Suyia’s weapon experts somewhat restrained their imagination and thus created a land cruiser that could be put into practical use, completing two prototype vehicles and one follow-up improved model.

And this is what Chen Xin got from the document, a 110 meters long, weighing 307 tons, equipped with twin-mounted 305mm caliber main cannons, using a small nuclear reactor as its power source "super tank".