Chapter 123: Electromagnetic Cannon

Early the next morning, according to the experimental requirements proposed by Fang Kongwen, the weapon experiment was scheduled to take place in Beiyang City, seventy kilometers away from Xiang A City.

Beiyang City had only been upgraded from a county to a city three years ago. Besides the two new development zones, the rest of the area still felt somewhat dilapidated. This area had always been occupied by Fierce Beasts. Reconnaissance data showed that Level Three Fierce Beasts appeared frequently, and traces of Level Four Fierce Beasts were even found. It was the ideal location for testing the power of new weapons.

The tank platform for the new weapon was based on the Type 09 Main Battle Tank for transplantation, and the technology was quite mature.

To test its passability, the seventy kilometers from the military airport to the experimental site would not be covered by transport vehicles. Instead, five new tanks would drive themselves to the destination.

Since this unnamed tank, except for the turret, was converted entirely from the Type 09 Main Battle Tank, neither the engine nor various equipment had changed much. Except for the turret, it was essentially a Type 09 Main Battle Tank. Fang Kongwen’s explanation for this was: “Time is urgent now, and we don’t have much time to develop a mobile platform that perfectly fits our needs. So, we can only modify the suitable Type 09 Main Battle Tank to a certain extent. As long as the experiment is successful, I believe that in the near future, a brand-new mobile platform will replace the Type 09 Main Battle Tank platform.”

Everything Fang Kongwen said was the truth. Even the five experimental tanks were rushed to completion by the Ordnance Group in Yu A City. To equip them in large numbers, given the current manufacturing capacity, only about eleven or twelve could be produced daily, far from meeting the army’s needs. Although a plan to expand production capacity had been submitted, the country would not approve it until final experimental data was obtained.

Fang Kongwen was very confident about this experiment. After all, with mature technology and a mature launch platform, it was completely a mature product.

The rumbling sound echoed as the five tanks drove out of the military airport and turned onto the highway, advancing at a speed of sixty kilometers per hour. They were expected to arrive at the target experimental site in over an hour. Behind the five tanks were more than a dozen military trucks, filled with fully armed soldiers.

The X Squadron was flying in several helicopters, following the convoy below.

After crossing the Frontline, the area they entered belonged to the Fierce Beast Occupied Area. Xiang A City was located in the Yangtze River basin, with flat terrain. The convoy drove on the highway, with boundless fields on both sides. Rows of trees stood tall along the highway, and crops that had matured and fallen to the ground in the fields began to sprout, growing into a chaotic patch of new plants.

The sun soon rose above the horizon, and ten thousand rays of light shone upon the earth.

Just like Fang Kongwen’s confidence, the five tanks drove very steadily, and no problems occurred all the way. Zhou Liming could now vaguely guess what weapons were used on these tanks. He must not forget that one of the missions he had previously carried out was to rescue Electromagnetic Expert Su Yunan in Yue B City.

Judging from Fang Kongwen’s arrogant appearance, the electromagnetic technology must have been successfully applied to actual weapon systems.

Everyone knew that electromagnetic technology was bound to replace traditional gunpowder technology in the near future. It was a completely new direction for weapons, belonging to the category of energy weapons. From the research efforts of various countries around the world in the past, it was known that its developmental prospect was astonishingly great. However, many key technologies of it had not been solved yet. There was still a long way to go before it could be applied practically.

“Perhaps he really has the capital to be arrogant.”

The entire convoy advanced at full speed. Occasionally, they encountered some Fierce Beasts along the way, all of which were at the Level One or Level Two. Although they acted ferocious, they showed fear in the face of such a large convoy. Then, they turned around and disappeared into some village woods.

Fang Kongwen had no intention of using these low-level Fierce Beasts for testing, so he did not order the tanks to attack.

There was nothing to hide now. These were Electromagnetic Tanks equipped with Electromagnetic Cannons. From the initial development of Electromagnetic Technology, the intention was to apply it to the mobile platform of tanks. However, later when the research was successful, its volume was indeed too large. Its own weight and volume far exceeded any main battle tank in the world at that time. Under these circumstances, it was impossible to apply it to the tank platform.

Subsequently, the Electromagnetic Cannon technology had to be applied to naval vessels. Only these massive ships weighing thousands or tens of thousands of tons had enough space to accommodate the bulky Electromagnetic Cannons.

Even so, the Electromagnetic Cannon was still not perfected. Although its power was amazing, its application in actual combat was far from meeting the military’s requirements. Therefore, even if it could be applied to naval vessels, this breakthrough had never been achieved. Its bulky figure could only be seen in laboratories.

But things were different now. Su Yunan’s contribution lay in increasing the power of the Electromagnetic Cannon technology by five times. At the same time, through a series of technological breakthroughs, the bulky body of the Electromagnetic Cannon could be miniaturized. Although miniaturization would reduce power, this reduction was not very obvious.

The Electromagnetic Cannon installed on the tank now had the military code name GX-1. From the tests, this 155mm Electromagnetic Cannon could pierce through five Main Battle Tanks lined up together from their frontal armor positions. More importantly, the accuracy of the Electromagnetic Cannon had an error margin that was unbelievable. The terrifying attack range could strike targets across tens of kilometers, far surpassing traditional artillery.

The greatest power of the Electromagnetic Cannon lay in its penetration capability. Even a piece of iron, after electromagnetic acceleration, became an invincible killer. Furthermore, the shells used on the Electromagnetic Tank were specially designed. They possessed terrifying penetration power and also had super strong explosive power.

Actually, Fang Kongwen was not very keen on Super Warriors because he was not a biology expert. He only obsessed over endless mechanical technology.

Similarly, he also hoped that a Level Five or even Level Six Fierce Beast would suddenly appear on the road. Then, in front of everyone’s stunned faces, he would kill these Fierce Beasts easily. But all this was just a thought. In fact, encountering even one Level Four Fierce Beast in this area was already very rare. As for Level Five Fierce Beasts, they were not non-existent but extremely hard to encounter. Level Six Fierce Beasts were even more so; they were almost extinct here.

However, going deeper into the Fierce Beast Occupied Area was somewhat unrealistic.

The Electromagnetic Cannon’s attack power on the Electromagnetic Tank was super strong, but its own defense was still the armor of the Type 09 Main Battle Tank, which had not changed. For some Fierce Beasts, this armor was like paper, easily torn to pieces. With the not-yet-large number of Electromagnetic Tanks, they could not go too deep. Otherwise, the Fierce Beasts swarming at them would drain the energy of the Electromagnetic Cannons, turning them into a pile of scrap metal.

The journey was smooth, and they soon arrived at the outskirts of Beiyang City.

The massive convoy and the helicopter squadron could not escape the keen perception of the Fierce Beasts. The moment they stopped, shrill cries came from the city. Then, some Flying Fierce Beasts took off into the air within the city. After confirming the position of the convoy, their ferocious traits made them rush forward regardless of everything.

Fang Kongwen was not terrified but instead joyful. Arriving and immediately having experimental targets delivered to them—what could be better than this?

Without any combat orders from Fang Kongwen, the automatic locking system of the five tanks had already locked onto the flying targets. The main gun certainly could not target targets in the sky. But do not forget that on both sides of the turret were two small Electromagnetic Cannons. Their size was not much different from that of heavy machine guns, but the barrels were slightly longer. This was mainly because the bullets needed enough space for acceleration.

The sound of the Electromagnetic Cannon firing was very faint, almost like a silenced weapon. At a distance, it was impossible to hear any sound.

The bullets, invisible to the naked eye, were completely silent to Zhou Liming. However, the Level Three Flying Fierce Beasts charging at them, whose tough hides could only withstand Missile damage, were now like paper dolls, easily pierced with large holes.

Miserable roaring sounds echoed. The Flying Fierce Beasts fell from the sky like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, one after another.

Zhou Liming had excellent eyesight. He could see these Flying Fierce Beasts being hit by bullets from time to time. A bloody splash exploded on their bodies, and the bullets had already disappeared into their insides. The terrifying penetration power did not cause excessively large wounds; the entry holes were only the size of the bullets. However, when the bullets pierced through and exited their bodies, the exit wounds tore away half of their entire bodies.

The small Electromagnetic Cannons could not achieve as high a rate of fire as machine guns, but it was already astonishing. Missiles could not deal with them, yet a single bullet easily killed them. Keep in mind that these were not Level One or Level Two Fierce Beasts, but Level Three Fierce Beasts.

In fact, everyone who witnessed it was greatly shocked, their eyes staring blankly.

Zhou Liming was certain that in his Fierce Beast Form, he might be able to withstand the attack of these small Electromagnetic Cannons, but he definitely could not withstand the attack of the 155mm Electromagnetic Cannon. If just one shell hit him, no matter how strong his defense was, he would be blown into fragments. The terrifying acceleration power meant that even this small Electromagnetic Cannon could send a warship to the cold seabed.

Fang Kongwen became smug. He had already tested the effect of the Electromagnetic Cannon hundreds of times. How could he not know its real power?

Now, what remained was to wait for the mass production approval from the military after this practical experiment that seemed somewhat like a formality. At that time, the army equipped with large amounts of Electromagnetic Weapons would no longer need Super Warriors. Instead, they would, in one swift move, recover all the fallen areas and eliminate all the Fierce Beasts.

And he would be the greatest merit-maker in all of this.