Beiyang 1917

In mid-July 1917, under the speculation of the provisional government, the offensive launched by the Russian army on the Eastern Front suffered a disastrous defeat in front of Germany and Austria. The diplomatic pressure of the Allied Powers on China, the United States, and Japan, which were almost standing by, increased suddenly. The advance detachment of the first expeditionary force to participate in the war was finally formed. Wang Geng sent his own guard regiment commander, Major General Zhang Zizhong, as the commander of the advance detachment, to lead the first special operations battalion of the first division of the participating army. The Navy's "Princess Mary" troop carrier boarded from Tianjin Port and set off for the European battlefield!

Before the expedition, a grand military parade was held in Nanyuan. President Feng Guozhang, Prime Minister Duan Qirui, together with the cabinet and all members of Congress in Beijing, as well as representatives of 22 provincial governors of the [-] provinces, attended the military parade of the participating troops and the first advance team. Detachment flag presentation and expedition swearing-in meeting!The envoys of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France and Russia also came to the scene to congratulate!

This is the first Chinese expeditionary force to go abroad since the Republic of China. The advance detachment is composed of 500 people, and English and French translators are allocated to the platoon level, and almost all soldiers have learned the commonly used English and French daily conversations by surprise. Of course, How much they can really learn depends on their own ability and understanding.

The advance detachment of the expeditionary force is equipped with M1 Garland semi-automatic rifles, each squad is equipped with an M1917bra squad machine gun, and each row is equipped with an M1917A1 heavy machine gun!

Wang Geng’s partner for Zhang Zizhong was Zhang Zhizhong. The title of chief of staff of the advance detachment and the baptism of the upcoming European war made Zhang Zizhong so excited and nervous that he couldn’t sleep. Wang Geng and Xu Shuzheng personally sent the advance detachment to Tanggu, Tianjin When the "Princess Mary", a troop carrier converted from a luxury cruise liner, was on the wharf, he lowered his voice and asked: the first is to live!The second is still alive!No third!

With the departure of the advance detachment of the expeditionary force, the long-awaited planes ordered from the United Kingdom were finally shipped to Tianjin Port, accompanied by a full set of equipment from an aircraft repair shop and a squadron of British pilots, able to fly far away from Europe. The battlefield came to the Far East to be an instructor, and these proud pilots took it as a reluctant vacation!

Of course, like the students of Nanyuan Aviation School, Wang Geng was waiting impatiently, as well as aviation experts Wang Zhu and Bayuzao who rushed back from the United States, the chief and deputy chief and deputy chief engineer of the aviation department of the participating army.

Not to mention the common people in China, the Chinese people, including the bigwigs in the political and military circles, have never seen the concept of hundreds of aircraft. Morgan's oil exploration team was sent to Suiyuan to explore. Of course, this was just a cover-up. Before the governor of Zhili and the third division were dealt with, Huabei Oilfield could only be hidden in his heart.That place is in the middle of Machang and Baoding, a place called Renqiu!

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of July in 1917. At this time, the pace of recruiting recruits for the participating army finally slowed down. At that time, Nanyuan added three additional brigades, and the actual strength of the participating army reached 7.Recruitment for the next step is still ongoing, but the numbers have dwindled to around 12 a day.

The exploration area designated by Wang Geng for the US Morgan Oil Exploration Team is located in Chaogewendur Village, Urad Rear Banner, Guisui. Worrying things, Wang Geng, the superintendent of the war, is busy himself!

The construction of the new hangar near Nanyuan Airport is in full swing. The runway expansion work of the airport has almost been completed. The workshop of the aircraft maintenance equipment factory has been expanded early in the morning. The installation and commissioning of the equipment is under the command of Wang Zhu and Bayuzao proceed in an orderly manner.

Of course, the impatient British flight instructors have already flown more than one sortie with a squadron of reconnaissance bombers that have been assembled. The reason for assembling the reconnaissance bombers first is because there is no hostile air force in the sky of China at this moment. If the air force of the participating army goes into battle, most of them must attack the ground forces!

The British-made de Havilland dh.4 reconnaissance bomber was quickly refitted by engineers sent by the British aircraft repair factory led by Wang Zhuba Yuzao to produce 8 two-seat trainer aircraft, that is, the position of the gunner and observer in the rear cabin. Communication control The equipment enables the pilots in the front and rear cabins to control and drive the aircraft.

By the end of July, the model army continued to participate in the war but built a small field airport in Tianjin Machang, built a medium-sized airport in the capital of Suiyuan that could take off and land three types of British aircraft, and even farther away in Baotou, Wu Peifu's No. A small field airfield was also built at the garrison of Han Fuqu, the Ninth Brigade of the Third Division.

dh4 reconnaissance bomber:

The maximum flight speed is 230 kilometers per hour,

The practical ceiling is 6700 meters,

The maximum range is 770 kilometers,

The maximum battery life is 3 hours and a quarter of an hour,

Using a Rolls-Royce Eagle single engine, the engine horsepower is 289 kilowatts,

Empty weight 1085 kg,

Full load weight: 1578 kg

Armament is nose forward: a .303in (7.7mm) Vickers machine gun, a Lewis machine gun in the rear firing rearward.

Bombs: can carry aerial bombs with a total weight of 210 kg

The dh4 aircraft is suitable for reconnaissance and can also be used as a light bomber. It is quite powerful when carrying four aerial bombs weighing [-] kilograms to attack the ground.

After the construction of the airport in Guisui, the capital of Suiyuan, was completed at the end of July, Wang Zhu, the chief of the aviation department of the participating army, personally drove a dh7 reconnaissance bomber to complete the opening of the air route from Beijing to Guisui. The air distance is 4 kilometers, which happens to be one The two-way distance cannot be turned back without refueling. Fortunately, the aircraft in this season do not have high requirements for the airport. In fact, a wide and flat grass field is enough to complete the landing and take-off.

Immediately afterwards, the route from Guisui to Baotou and the route from Beijing to Machang were also quickly opened. The Nanyuan Aviation School under the Aviation Department selected nearly 2000 officers and soldiers with good education and outstanding physical fitness from the participating troops, plus [-] ground staff Of course, apart from the instructors of the aviation school and the British pilots, it will take at least a month for the Chinese students participating in the war to fly solo!

Except for Wang Geng, who participated in the war and supervised the management, this sneaky ace of the sea, land and air special forces who flew from the fifth to the seventh in the previous life became the first student in the army to fly into the sky on the dh4 plane piloted by Wang Zhu. The first student who personally drove a dh4 to complete landings, Wang Geng, the supervisor of the exhibition, even got himself a special plane dh4, the nose was painted red, and the machine emblem of the participating army was lazily used by the model army's slender red hoop The design is just to enlarge a circle with a red background year-on-year, then a white circle in the middle, and then a black official script model in the middle.

In order to reflect the elegant demeanor of the five-color flag, a golden edge is inlaid on the outside of the red and a blue edge is inlaid on the inside of the white circle.

The construction of such a large-scale aviation team was actually carried out by Wang Geng in a short period of time. The first is due to the solid foundation laid by Nanyuan Aviation School, and the second is that the two talents Wang Zhu and Bayuzao are really the best in this era. The last is the hands-on teaching of the British Royal Flight Instructors. Of course, the training of aircraft mechanics among ground crews still needs time.

The participating army has been built to such a large scale and advanced in three and a half months. Of course, the combat effectiveness has yet to be tested by the war, but at least it has been armed like a hedgehog that has exploded. Everyone regards this team as a Far East and Asian army. A miracle in history, everyone coveted this team, and everyone was afraid of offending that not-so-good-tempered war supervisor Wang Geng.

In the impressions of the ruling and opposition parties and the press, Wang Geng is more elusive than the arrogant Xu Shuzheng. It seems that there is nothing in this world that he does not know, and he only focuses on building and arming the participating troops. The undercurrent of political turmoil seems to be ignored.

Wang Geng’s Financial Salon of the Revitalization Society is held at Lu Ding’s house every week. Since Wang Geng married five concubines, this fellow refuses to step into the Bada Hutong again. Going to kilns during the holidays is neither opposed nor supported on the surface, but in fact, strict health monitoring and management are carried out.

Singing the military song of the Three Great Disciplines and the Nine Points of Attention, the model soldiers walking on Nanyuan Street, and walking into a listed brothel in a blink of an eye has become a common sight for ordinary people in Nanyuan Town. Going to brothels with your own money is also to stimulate consumption and help those entertainment practitioners is the idea that every soldier is indoctrinated.