The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 162: Enough Bullets and Artillery Shells (asking for monthly tickets)

Combined battalion.

Liu Tao also only had a rough idea, which was considered a half-understanding. He only knew that powerful firepower and high degree of integration were the future directions of China's military reform.

As for how to train a combined battalion and how to unleash its combat effectiveness, Liu Tao did not understand military command and he did not know.

What he could do was to provide a rough framework and suggestions to Li Fuguo and others, provide good logistical support, allow the soldiers to use the best weapons, significantly improve their regular meals, and be able to accept stronger training intensity.

Liu Tao even left some of the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and tanks produced for the combined battalion for training purposes.

Liu Tao has not yet equipped the combined battalion with the two tank companies, but if he is given a year at most, he will be able to equip the tank companies.

There are also various artillery pieces and armored vehicles that will be equipped in the next one to two years.

As for how to train and how to unleash the power of the combined battalion, that is the responsibility of military commanders such as Li Fuguo.

Liu Tao is not professional, but what he is best at is leaving professional matters to professionals.

"Next, you have to conduct tactical drills at Tianzhu Mountain. Treat Tianzhu Mountain as Koulin Mountain, Laoshan Mountain, and Zheyin Mountain, and think of ways to conquer it." Liu Tao said, "Don't think about saving ammunition. There are enough training bullets, and there will be no problem with live ammunition."

He knew only too well how frugal the soldiers were.

In the army, a soldier may not be able to fire five bullets in a whole year. He has to aim constantly with his gun, and he can be happy for half a month if he can fire a bullet.

As for the combined battalion, he often said, don't be afraid of target shooting, there are enough bullets and artillery shells!

For Panshan Machinery Factory, the production cost of a pistol or rifle bullet is very low.

The bullet production in one day is enough for the soldiers of the combined battalion to consume in a year.

As for the shells, they are indeed much more expensive, but also much lower than the selling price.

"Director, Tianzhu Mountain is suitable as a simulated training ground!" Li Fuguo said. He was very familiar with the terrain of Yun Province. "Next, I will take the soldiers there to familiarize themselves with the terrain and formulate a training plan."

"When you go to Tianzhu Mountain, take Comrade Guoping with you," said Liu Tao.

Afterwards, two tank companies were assembled. Each tank company consisted of ten tanks and one self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. Each tank and self-propelled anti-aircraft gun team consisted of three people, which means that each tank company had a strength of 33 people, and the two tank companies had a strength of 66 people in total.

Now the number of tanks and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns is limited, so everyone takes turns driving them.

This time, Liu Tao came not only to drive the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun to the combined battalion, but also to give lectures, which is what he does every week.

Although he compiled several textbooks for the soldiers to read, and also combined them with tanks and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, only a few people could read the books, and more people needed to be explained by Liu Tao.

When it comes to understanding the Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and Type 80 tank, no one in China knows more about them than Liu Tao, the developer.

Liu Tao knows every switch clearly.

If you want soldiers to bring out the true power of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and tanks, you must be very familiar with them and be able to respond in time. In normal times, you also need to let soldiers drive and use them more often so that they can know.

Of course, due to limited space here, it is not suitable to use live ammunition, so we can only use training ammunition.

Before I knew it, it had gotten dark.

Liu Tao stayed in the military camp and ate with everyone.

"Director, is the combined battalion really the direction of the army's development?" Zhao Guoping and Liu Tao sat together for dinner and asked the doubts in their hearts.

"I don't know if this is the right direction, I can only say it is a possibility." Liu Tao said, "You know the plan to streamline the troops, right?"

Zhao Guoping nodded.

"This time, the army reduction plan will cut one million troops. After the reduction is completed, there will still be 530 million troops in the country." Liu Tao said: "In fact, this army reduction is just to complete the goal that was not completed a few years ago."

"We will continue to streamline the troops in the future. By streamlining the troops, we can save military expenditures, which can be used to replace equipment and increase the proportion of technical arms, thereby improving the combat effectiveness of the troops." Liu Tao said: "Now our army can only be said to have completed the mule-horse model, but you have to know that mule-horse model has been implemented since the 60s. In other words, our troops have actually been marking time for more than ten years. Even as those veterans of hundreds of battles have aged and retired, many troops have not experienced the baptism of war, and their combat effectiveness is not even as good as that of the 50s and 60s."

Zhao Guoping was a little surprised. He didn't expect Liu Tao to judge that the army would not just stop at this streamlining, but would be streamlined again!

However, he agreed with what Liu Tao said, that the combat effectiveness of the troops was not as good as that in the 50s and 60s, because when he was in Beijing, some leaders cursed and criticized the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Last year's "Red Dragon's Roar" operation not only shocked the military-industrial system and exposed its problems, but also shocked the top brass and leaders of the army. These leaders, who had come through the war years, discovered for the first time that the combat effectiveness of the troops had seriously declined.

Although those veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles had inferior weapons, they were the kings of light infantry. Their combat effectiveness and execution of tactics were very strong.

Most of the soldiers behind had never seen blood, and were even poorly trained. Many of them had never fired a few bullets.

This is why the Red Dragon's Roar also suffered considerable losses.

The so-called mule-and-horse-based army means that soldiers march on mules and horses, and weapons and equipment are also transported by mules and horses, such as horse-drawn artillery, and the transportation of supplies and ammunition also relies on mules and horses.

The Chinese army did not achieve mule and horse transformation until the 60s, but the Japanese army during World War II was a mule and horse force.

"During World War II, the German army had already achieved semi-mechanization, pioneering modern mechanized infantry warfare. Ordinary infantry divisions were equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and cars, and at best, motorized vehicles and bicycles." Liu Tao said: "After World War II, the US military completed full motorization during the disarmament process, and has been undergoing mechanized modifications since then. Now it can be said to have achieved full mechanization."

"The Soviet army also began to gradually achieve motorization after the end of World War II, and achieved mechanization in 1964," Liu Tao said. "The development of our army will also go through the same stages, from mule-horse-based to mechanized, and build the army into a mechanized force."

A step-by-step concept of generational development of military equipment is that according to the development of military weapons and equipment, it is usually divided into infantry, mule and horse, motorization, and mechanization!

Infantry is the most basic organizational model of the army after the use of hot weapons. It is mainly composed of infantry. Whether it is advancing or fighting, it relies on soldiers to move on foot. Infantry means infantry that relies on walking on two legs to fight.

The most typical example in this regard is the war in Liaodong Peninsula. Due to its strong combat capability and impressive record, that unit was hailed as the pinnacle of infantry.

(End of this chapter)