The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 237 Prelude
That night, Liu Tao, Zhao Guoping and others arrived in Zhangjiakou.

Military trains and vehicles can be seen everywhere.

This place has been transformed into a huge barracks, and you can see troops conducting training.

They were taken to the command center and met the commander-in-chief.

"This time, your combined brigade represents the face of the entire Kunming Military Region. You must not bring shame to the troops!" The commander-in-chief spoke with a thick Jingchu accent. He was intimidating without even being angry and would not tolerate any refusal.

"Yes!" Liu Tao and Zhao Guoping stood at attention.

This commander-in-chief is no ordinary person, but a battle-hardened general.

Afterwards, the two soon learned that as early as March, a preliminary exercise plan had been drawn up, and the superiors had entrusted the Beijing Military Region to organize and implement the exercise.

This time the combined brigade has an emergency mission, so they are asked to participate in the exercise.

According to the exercise plan, the troops participating in the exercise include the army, air force aviation units, and support forces, totaling more than 11.4 people, mobilizing 1327 tanks and armored vehicles, 1541 artillery pieces, 475 aircraft, and 10606 vehicles.

As for sending the combined forces brigade north to participate in the exercise, the decision was made only yesterday.

The leader wants to review the combined forces brigade to see how well it is trained and its combat effectiveness.

The title of this exercise is the front-line defensive campaign exercise, which mainly includes four contents: one is the simulation of enemy cluster tank attack, two is airborne and anti-airborne, three is the army division's solid position defense, and four is the battle reserve counter-assault.

It can be said to be very targeted.

This is also the follow-up impact of the "Red Dragon's Roar" operation.

The lesson of "Red Dragon's Roar" is to practice more in peacetime so that you will be more proficient in battle!

Although the results of the battle were very remarkable, when the casualties were counted and the battle situation was reviewed after the war, some of the problems that had previously existed in the army were also exposed.

There are three main problems that have emerged, the first of which is the problem of equipment.

The second is the problem of strategic thinking. All the previous wars experienced by the troops were fought when their military equipment was inferior to that of the enemy. To win the war, the strategic mode of "defensive operations" was indispensable. From the initial contraction of defense to the concentration of forces to attack one point, the damage caused by the enemy's weapon advantage could be effectively reduced. This kind of combat thinking was also brought into "Red Dragon's Roar". The troops played very conservatively and missed many great opportunities.

The last issue is the coordination of arms. In "Red Dragon's Roar", the troops deployed a lot of artillery, tank troops and air force. In terms of firepower, they did exceed the enemy by several times. However, it was difficult to carry out effective coordination when commanding on the battlefield, so that the firepower of the troops could not be exerted normally. Sometimes, the infantry charged and were attacked by the enemy's firepower, resulting in many soldiers dying in vain.

It was based on the exposure of these problems that the superior leaders solved them one by one, streamlined the troops, replaced weapons and equipment, and strengthened routine training.

The purpose of this exercise is to allow the troops to have actual training and to see the results of the troops' training over the past two years, so as to identify and solve problems.

On the morning of September 9, the combined brigade finally arrived at Zhangjiakou Railway Station.

When Liu Tao and Zhao Guoping arrived at the train station, they saw the soldiers untying the anchor points and then starting to drive tanks, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and other weapons and equipment off the train.

It seemed very chaotic, but Liu Tao did not curse.

Since this was also the first time that the combined forces brigade conducted a long-distance train maneuver, confusion was normal.

Chaos can expose problems and help solve them.

Liu Tao and Zhao Guoping were talking quietly, and Zhao Guoping kept writing in his notebook. "In the future, we should conduct road maneuvers, field march maneuvers, and train maneuvers from time to time, so that the troops can be ready for battle at any time." Liu Tao said, "It's not terrible to make mistakes. What's terrible is to make mistakes without discovering them or solving them. We must be good at discovering and solving problems, and build a strong army with strong combat capabilities!"

Are those who possess advanced weapons the elite?
Not necessarily!
Advanced weapons are never equated with strong combat capability.

Later, a certain army, which had advanced equipment and the third highest military expenditure in the world, was beaten to a pulp by a group of guerrillas.

There was also a certain unit that was equipped entirely with American-made equipment, but was defeated by the guerrillas in a short period of time, and all the American-made equipment became trophies.

Liu Tao doesn't want the combined brigade to be just a silver-plated gun with advanced equipment but no strong combat capability, which is good-looking but useless!
When the entire combined brigade arrived, all weapons, equipment, personnel, supplies, ammunition and artillery shells were unloaded.

Afterwards, Li Fuguo led the troops to the military camp. Although it was called a military camp, it was actually just a piece of vacant land allocated to the combined brigade, and the combined brigade had to set up camp on their own.

The soldiers began to set up tents.

Liu Tao, Li Fuguo and Zhao Guoping went to the headquarters to attend the meeting.

The commander-in-chief will give a comprehensive and detailed introduction to the entire exercise plan. After all, the exercise will begin tomorrow.

After returning to the combined brigade headquarters, Li Fuguo summoned the battalion and company commanders to make deployments.

It is a great honor for the combined brigade to be personally ordered by superiors to move camp urgently and participate in this military exercise.

Everyone wants to show the training results of the combined forces brigade in front of their leaders.

After the deployment meeting, the commanders of each battalion and company went back to mobilize. The military exercise started on September 9 and ended on September 14, lasting six days.

After the live-fire exercise, a grand military parade and march will be held.

Soon, updated news came out that the number of leading cadres who came to observe the exercise reached an astonishing 32000.

It is conceivable that the superiors attach great importance to this military exercise.

In the evening, Liu Tao, Li Fuguo and Zhao Guoping went to the command center again.

Here at the command center, the commander-in-chief is holding a meeting, this time to make arrangements for tomorrow's exercises.

Liu Tao looked at the commander-in-chief's deployment and was secretly shocked. This was how a large-scale military group fought. Each unit was under the control of an intelligent leader and every unit was deployed in place.

This was different from any battle Liu Tao had ever known; it was a real large-scale troop battle.

I am afraid that there are no more than ten countries in the world today that have the capability to wage large-scale military operations.

The Soviet Union was probably at the top of the heap. The Soviet army was best at large-scale troop combat, and the Soviet Union's steel torrent was the most terrifying and the most impressive.

The second is not the US military, but the Chinese army, because the US Army has never been ranked first, and it has been beaten more than once or twice.

The Chinese army is different. The Chinese army is capable of large-scale combat.

Of course, compared with the combat capabilities of large troops, the Chinese army is best at guerrilla warfare and people's war, which is engraved in the bones of everyone in this era.

(End of this chapter)