Beiyang 1917

The British-made Handley Page 0400 heavy bomber is the most suitable bomber to be converted into a civilian airliner in this era. In 1917, when the international civil aviation market had not yet started, the appearance of Wang Geng, the butterfly, made this aircraft land two years earlier. In China, in Wang Geng's previous life, the Aviation Affairs Preparatory Office under the Ministry of Communications of China had to wait until after the war in 1919 to introduce this aircraft and convert it into a civilian airliner.

The basic parameters of Handley Page 0400 are as follows:

Wingspan: 38.48 meters

Captain: 19.15 meters

Machine height: 6.71 meters

Maximum payload: 0.9 tons

Maximum take-off gross weight: 6.3 tons

Endurance: 8 hours

Engine type: Rolls-Royce "Eagle" viii

Maximum flight speed: 176 km/h

Practical ceiling: 3500 meters

The Handley Page 0400 bomber adopts a wooden structure plus a cloth skin. The double wings have a normal layout, with obvious dihedral and 6 sets of interwing struts, and the lower wing is shorter than the upper wing.Interestingly, in order to protect this non-metallic structure aircraft from erosion in bad weather and at night, the outer section of the wing can be folded back at 90 degrees, which is convenient for the storage of the standard field hangar of the British army. extremely rare.

The aircraft has a long fuselage with a rectangular section, the belly slopes up towards the nose and tail ends.At the nose end is the shooter-bombardier cockpit, which was a common layout among heavy bombers at the time.Then there is a side-by-side two-seater cockpit, which is the seat of the pilot and navigator or mechanic, all of which are open. The 0100 and 0400 aircraft have two horizontal tails and two vertical tails, which ensure the stability in long-distance flights.The landing gear is four single wheels in parallel with a tail skid.

On both sides of the fuselage, between the upper and lower wings, there are nacelles for two Rolls-Royce "Eagle" water-cooled piston engines. Under the central wing, eight 2 kg bombs can usually be hung, and the self-defense machine guns on the machine have 8— 113 quite.

Handley Page 0400 is an improved version of Handley Page 0100, the main improvement lies in the increase of engine power.Due to the replacement of various "Eagle" engines, the performance has been continuously improved. The batch of aircraft purchased by Wang Geng uses the "Eagle" VIII engine with a power of 350 horsepower, which has increased by 40% compared with the earlier engine power.

In addition, 0400 added a rear fuselage machine gun, and the fuel tank was moved from the engine nacelle to the fuselage. This is the main difference from the 1 in appearance.In the previous life, it is reasonable to say that the 0100 aircraft was not officially installed in the British Royal Air Force at this time. I don’t know if it was Wang Geng’s appearance that stirred up the wings of the butterfly. This aircraft appeared in the second half of 0400, half a year earlier than the previous life. In the skies of the Western Front of Europe.

Apparently, with a maximum endurance of 8 hours and a maximum speed of 176 kilometers per hour, the theoretical maximum range of the Handley Page 0400 aircraft has reached 1400 kilometers. This is Wang Geng's confidence in forming China Airlines in early August.The straight-line flight distance from Shanghai to Beijing is only 8 kilometers, 1055 kilometers from Shanghai to Guangzhou, 1277 kilometers from Shanghai to Hong Kong, 1238 kilometers from Beijing to Wuhan, and 1040 kilometers from Beijing to Kulun.

新成立的中华航空公司，王庚的财政部和徐树铮的交通部依然各占15%的股份，剩下的股份，中美石油公司占10%、汇丰银行占10%、花旗银行占10%、中国银行占10%、交通银行占10%、中华慈善基金会占10%、日本正金银行占10%。

After missing out on the big business of Sino-American Petroleum Corporation, the Japanese finally sneaked into the financial empire planned by Wang Geng with a sharp and shy face. Stocks don't care. In his opinion, everything is for the country and the nation. In other words, guns are everything, political power is everything, and everything else is just icing on the cake.

By the beginning of August 1917, the arrival of the third batch of US military equipment, and Wang Geng now had five supplementary brigades on hand. Although the air force recruited and selected nearly 7 pilots in the model army in July With cadets and 500 ground troops, Wang Geng's participating army has expanded to an astonishing nearly 2500 troops!

The three divisions govern nine mixed brigades, plus the five supplementary brigade recruits currently on hand, plus the teaching regiment, gendarmerie brigade, heavy artillery brigade, armored brigade, and aviation team directly under the headquarters of the participating army.

The Fourth Division of the Model Army that participated in the war was officially formed in Nanyuan on August 1917, 8. The selection of the division commander was still beyond everyone's expectations. Guo Songling, head of the model teaching regiment of the participating army, was the commander of the fourth division of the participating army and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

This appointment was of course based on Wang Geng's recommendation. Jiang Baili, the chief of staff, was so handy that he couldn't let go of it for a while, and Guo Songling, the head of the teaching regiment, was placed in the crucial position of the commander of the fourth division by him. expected!The most surprised were the Southern Party members, followed by Feng Guozhang!

Is it true that the Prime Minister is so dedicated to the country and the public that he has no opinions?First, Wu Peifu, who was directly related, became the commander of the third division of the participating army, and was in charge of the Suiyuan side, and then Guo Songling, who was a member of the alliance, became the commander of the fourth division!Is this model army that participated in the war really the country's new army and not the Anhui lineage he raised by Duan Qirui?

This war supervisor Wang Geng is really a national hero who is selfless and dedicated to the country?Is Xu Shuzheng really not a narrow-minded person who is jealous of the virtuous and capable?There was a lot of discussion in the market for a while, and the selfless image of the Prime Minister and the war supervisor was further enhanced by the rendering of the media!

By the beginning of August 1917, the establishment of the model army participating in the war was as follows:

Wang Gengjian, Commander of the First Division, Shi Jingting, Commander of the First Brigade, Li Mingzhong, Commander of the Second Brigade, Zhang Shusheng, Commander of the Third Brigade, and the First Division stationed at Nanyuan Base Camp

Jiang Hongyu, Commander of the Second Division, Qiu Bin, Commander of the Fourth Brigade, Liu Yufen, Commander of the Fifth Brigade, Zhang Zhijiang, Commander of the Sixth Brigade, Division Headquarters of the Second Division, the Fourth and Fifth Brigade in Langfang, and the Sixth Brigade in Machang

Wu Peifu, commander of the Third Division, Sun Liangcheng, commander of the Seventh Brigade, Zhang Weixi, commander of the Eighth Brigade, and Han Fuqu, commander of the Ninth Brigade.The division headquarters and the sixth and seventh brigades were stationed in Guisui, and the eighth brigade was stationed in Baotou

Guo Songling, Commander of the Fourth Division, Lu Zhonglin, Commander of the Tenth Brigade, Song Zheyuan, Commander of the No.11 Brigade, and Bai Chongxi, Commander of the No.12 Brigade.

Supplementary 1 Brigade Commander Sun Futian, Supplementary 2 Brigade Commander Liu Ruming

Li Jishen, head of the teaching group

Xue Dubi, Commander of the Gendarmerie Brigade

Sun Lianzhong, head of the Heavy Artillery Regiment

Feng Zhian, Commander of the Armored Regiment

Wang Geng, commander of the air force of the participating army, himself

Bai Chongxi, who came to Beijing from Guangxi to join the war army for less than a month, jumped directly from the battalion commander of the teaching regiment to the position of the No.12 brigade commander.Like his regiment leader Guo Songling, he created a promotion record for the participating army!And the tiger Song Zheyuan, who had been suffering for a long time, was finally released from the cage by Wang Geng and became the brigade commander. Among the three disciplines and the nine precautions, the one of not abusing prisoners became a curse that he dare not forget in his life!

The new head of the teaching regiment, Li Jishen, was recommended by Xu Shuzheng from the Ministry of the Army. In 1909, after graduating from the Army University, he stayed at the school to teach, and was later invited by Xu Shuzheng to the Ministry of the Army as the director of the Department of Military Science. Wang Geng, who is optimistic about the talent, of course knew that this guy was both excellent in military and political affairs, intelligent and brave in his previous life. He thought that this guy was messing around in the south, but he didn't expect that Li Jishen had been in Beijing and the Ministry of the Army for so many years.

The armored regiment of the participating army was not equipped with tanks, but instead used Ford TT vehicles to modify wheeled armored vehicles.

In four months, the model army of the participating army started from a mixed brigade of 1 people, trained and expanded its armed forces into a new-style army of nearly 15 people. .

Where to place the [-]th Division of the participating army is a question for Wang Geng to think about!

At the same time, with the establishment of China Airlines, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Changsha and other provincial capitals set off a rush to build airports!In 1917, when the population was relatively sparse and the size of the city was small, it was much easier to build an airport than later generations. The requirements for runways and venues during the take-off and landing of propeller military aircraft in World War I were quite simple.