The train cannon might have indeed been a very powerful battlefield support weapon during World War II, but after nearly a century of technological advancements post-war, the technology mastered by humans has undergone a tremendous transformation.

A mere train cannon, in front of the missiles, rockets, bombers, and even more sci-fi space-based weapons equipped by modern armies, is practically like a large target.

In terms of military equipment owned by modern armies, dismantling a train cannon, which could still be considered a sharp tool during World War II, only requires two armed helicopters.

So although the Suyia land cruiser seems mighty and terrifying, in reality, this thing is already a historical relic.

In fact, after its actual construction, the Suyia leadership realized that it wasn’t practical, and soon abandoned the idea of mass production.

Otherwise, considering the craze of Suyia and the Federation during the Cold War, the Suyians had no reason not to equip such a giant weapon carrying two 305-caliber barrels extensively after its successful development.

As for whether the Suyians could produce so many, envisioning their tank production plans which were measured in thousands, it wouldn’t have been a problem for Suyia’s industrial capability to spare a bit of production to fabricate a hundred or so of such land cruisers.

But the Suyians did not choose to mass-produce the land cruisers; they only built two experimental units and one production model and then sealed them away in a secret military base in Siberia, never to be used again.

Investing tremendous resources and time, the end products were built, yet directly sealed away—it is indeed a wasteful approach.

However, during the Cold War era, this was not unimaginable: pouring vast resources into technical research only to find the results already obsolete was common in military research.

Especially after World War II, the rapid development of military technology led to many military pieces of equipment becoming outdated right after they were finalized.

Some could still be used reluctantly, while others could only have their plans discarded and archived.

Furthermore, the Suyians had not ruled out the use of these three land cruisers; during the most tense relations between Flame Country and Suyia, when border conflicts even erupted, the Suyians considered deploying these three beasts, which had just been sealed, into the border conflict.

Due to the long distance, the three land cruisers couldn’t be transported by train and would have had to rely on their own power to reach the conflict area, which would take too long.

Moreover, it was only a border conflict at the time; although both sides engaged in fighting, they restrained themselves from escalating into a full-scale conflict. While the Suyians indeed contemplated using the weapon, they eventually abandoned the idea.

Thus, this matter became a forgotten file, left undiscovered for half a century.

Until this time, when Lucia, seeking assistance from Flame Country, revealed all their hidden reserves, they found records of this event in dusty Suyia file cabinets.

This also informed Flame Country that during that border conflict, the Suyians had planned to use such a massive weapon.

Fortunately, it’s all in the past now; Suyia disintegrated over thirty years ago, so revisiting this matter doesn’t signify much, aside from sparking Flame Country’s interest in these three land cruisers.

As for why these three land cruisers should be brought back, it’s indeed not as simple as modifying them into all-terrain vehicles, as stated in the documents.

Although the leadership does plan to convert the three land cruisers into all-terrain vehicles, there are deeper intentions involved.

The power source for these three land cruisers is nuclear reactors, which, given Suyia’s nuclear technology at the time, was feasible since they even developed mobile nuclear power stations back then, only later abandoned due to the Che City incident.

However, through declassified top-secret documents, Chen Xin learned that the Suyians only used nuclear reactors on the second experimental machine and the production model; regarding the power source of the first prototype, the Suyians didn’t employ nuclear reactors.

Instead, they used an Energy Crystal accidentally acquired by the Suyians, which is the true objective of Chen Xin and his team’s journey to Siberia this time.

If they can retrieve all three land cruisers, they will, but if they can’t, they will map them and bring the blueprints back to make new ones themselves. But the Energy Crystal used in the prototype is what truly interests the leadership and what they want to acquire.

It’s precisely because of this that the leadership dispatched this team to Siberia, aiming to retrieve this Energy Crystal, comparably powerful to a nuclear reactor.

According to another piece of top-secret documentation gifted by Lucia, the Energy Crystal is only fist-sized yet can stably output energy equivalent to a small nuclear reactor of that era.

If not for the fact that Suyia’s scientists couldn’t replicate it by any means, unable to even understand its principle and material structure, they wouldn’t have applied it to the land cruiser, essentially wasting it.

This also piques Chen Xin’s interest, because in the Suyian research materials, it is recorded that although this crystal continuously releases energy, its mass remains unchanged. Even with the most precise instruments and long-term observation, the Suyians noticed no change in its mass.

This is highly anomalous because, during the material-to-energy conversion process, the greater the released energy, the more the material’s mass decreases. With continuous energy release, theoretically, its mass should be continuously reducing.

However, this crystal, after being studied for a considerable period by the Suyians, continuously released energy without any mass reduction, evidently defying the laws of physics.

This scenario suggests two possibilities: either the crystal absorbs new material during its energy release to replenish itself, forming a cycle; or it is an extremely high-density energy crystal that releases energy at a "low-power" mode. Although energy is released, the mass reduction is too trivial for Suyia’s observational capabilities at the time to detect.

As for the actual situation, Chen Xin cannot determine it now. Only after obtaining the object can he assess what it truly is.

It is also because of the emergence of this object that Chen Xin finally finds interest in this journey.