Years of the Republic of China 1913

After the exercise, Lu Jianzhang held a military meeting and announced the establishment of the Third Armored Division. Except for Deng Xihou, Liu Mingzhao, and Lu Chengwu, the other three officers did not know about it before. Even Deng Xihou and others knew about it. It was only two days in advance, and the Armored Division was a new branch of the army, how to form it and how to form combat effectiveness, everyone had no idea at all.

When Lu Chengwu returned to the meeting room, Deng Xihou asked everyone to speak freely, but his eyes were on Xue Yue, who was sitting second from the left. You must know that among the people present, only Xue Yue knew the armored troops best, not to mention that he was the commander of the armored brigade , he should have the most say in this regard.

Xue Yue actually knows how much weight he has.It was a bit of luck to be able to win the previous exercise. One is that the army does not understand the use of armored forces, especially tanks, and he knows a little more about armored forces than ordinary people. After months of rigorous training, he beat an opponent by surprise, and this is the only way to achieve such a result.

But to say that Xue Yue is proficient in armored combat is a bit of an exaggeration, even he himself does not think so, not to mention that after the exercise, he found that there were many unexpected problems in the exercise. As a new technical branch, the formation of armored divisions It's not that easy.

However, when everyone was looking at him, especially when Deng Xihou directly called Xue Yue to talk about it, Xue Yue could only bite the bullet and speak up, saying some of his experience and thoughts on the armored force.

Following Xue Yue's narration, everyone gradually let go of their original restraints, especially Zhou Yinren, who was still somewhat unconvinced by the results of the exercise, immediately pointed out the weaknesses exposed by the armored troops.Regarding this situation, Deng Xihou not only did not stop it, but also listened to it with great interest, and Chief of Staff Liu Mingzhao even took out a notebook.Record the various questions Xue Yue and Zhou Yinren raised one by one.

The meeting lasted from the afternoon until late at night, and finally came up with a preliminary plan.In the early morning of the next day, Deng Xihou personally reported to Lu Jianzhang as the representative, and was approved by Lu Jianzhang.Next, we will use this plan as a blueprint to form the Third Armored Division. If problems are encountered during the formation process, we will make additional adjustments at that time, because Lu Jianzhang knows.Time is running out, and in two months, the Sino-Soviet war will officially break out.

At the same time that the Third Armored Division was formed, the First and Second Armored Divisions were also formed in the Mongolian Military Region and the Northeast.The 78st Armored Division is probably the most elite and experienced of the three armored divisions, because it was formed by Bai Chongxi on the basis of the former 45th Regiment of the Mongolian Military Region, and the commander of the 45th Division was the division commander Bai Chongxi.At the same time, Chief of Staff Zhang Zhizhong was also transferred to the First Armored Division. Cao Wenlian, the former deputy division commander, was promoted to the division commander of the 39th Division, and formed a group army with the 39th Division. The final ownership of the group army commander was somewhat unexpected.It fell on Zhang Huchen's head. Feng Yuxiang failed to get the position of army commander that Feng Yuxiang was coveting, but he still took the position of deputy army commander and continued to serve as the commander of the [-]th Division.

As for the commander of the Second Armored Division, He Yingqin was stationed in the northeast.The strongest of the three armored divisions is the [-]st Armored Division, followed by the [-]rd Armored Division, but the [-]nd Armored Division is the weakest.This is not because the General Staff does not pay attention to the Second Armored Division, but because the production quantity of tanks and self-propelled artillery cannot meet the requirements for all of them to be assembled at once.Compared with the first and third armored divisions, the task of the second armored division is the role of defense and reserve.What they are facing is the Kanto State in the southeast, in case the Japanese fish in troubled waters after the Sino-Soviet War officially broke out.so.It is also expedient to set up a shelf first, and then wait for the equipment production capacity to be fully in place.

Armored divisions, as the name suggests, are troops equipped with new weapons such as tanks and self-propelled artillery. However, because the country cannot produce so many tanks and self-propelled artillery at a time, all equipment can only be in place step by step.Except for some tanks and other weapons allocated before.A few days after the formation of the three armored divisions, several batches of equipment arrived one after another, but the total number of these tanks and self-propelled artillery was less than half, which greatly affected the normal formation and training of the armored divisions. Without any choice.Each armored division can only adopt the method of rotation training to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

At the same time as the formation of the armored division, another secret force of Fang Zida was also forming an army in full swing.This force is Fang Zida's trump card - the Air Force.

By the beginning of 1922, the military industrial base presided over by Chen Wei had completed the second phase of development and production of fighter jets and bombers.Through independent development and research on the transformation of various aircraft that emerged during the European War, China has successfully produced its own biplane fighters and bombers.

Compared with the first-generation fighters in the European War, the new fighter is much more advanced. Although it is still a single-seat double-wing, it far surpasses the most advanced Fokker d.vii model in the European War in terms of flight speed and distance. , and abandoned the 110-horsepower engine, and adopted a more advanced and reliable new engine, making its combat radius reach 420 kilometers, which is almost double that of the best fighter in the European war.

In addition, the newly developed fighter is not only equipped with machine guns, but also equipped with aircraft cannons, which strengthens the firepower of air combat and ground support. From a technical point of view, this fighter has completely surpassed the existing models of Western countries , was named "Sirius" fighter by Fang Zida.

The Overlord bomber was also formed at the same time as the Sirius fighter. The Overlord bomber is an upgraded version of the original German Gotha bomber. In addition to replacing the newly developed engine, the Chinese technicians continued to use four rounds as power to increase the bomb load. From the original 2000 kg to 3500 kg, and the range has increased by almost 50%, it can be said to be a very good heavy bomber.

After these two aircraft were finalized, mass production began. By February 1922, the Chinese Air Force had owned 2 Sirius fighters and 520 Overlord heavy bombers.This powerful aerial power can be said to be second to none in the world, but because of the secrecy kept by the Chinese government, it is still unknown to outsiders.

With an airplane, the pilot is the most important thing. Thanks to Fang Zida's early plans, the formation of the air force also quietly proceeded after the airplane took shape.As a new military branch, in order to confuse the outside world, Fang Zida did not directly establish an air force in the Ministry of National Defense, but secretly established this establishment in a confidential manner.In order to show his importance to the Air Force, Fang Zida personally served as the commander-in-chief of the Air Force.At the same time, Chen Yu was instructed to step up the development of fighter jets and bombers for aircraft carriers in order to achieve the overall development of the air force.

The Air Force initially formed five air divisions, each of which has three air regiments, each regiment has three flying brigades, and each brigade is composed of three flying squadrons.Each division has 80-90 fighter planes, and in addition to pilots, there are also a large number of ground personnel and commanders.At the same time, secretly build air bases and airports in Northwest, Mongolia, and Northeast to make logistical preparations.

The beginning of 1922 was calm, with no major events happening at home or abroad.Although the Sino-Soviet war had been declared as early as last year in name, the two sides did not directly go to war for more than half a year. This strange phenomenon made the originally excited Western countries gradually lose interest. From the human point of view, the Sino-Soviet war had become a ridiculous joke, and because winter had not yet passed, the civil war between the Soviet government and the orthodox government of the Russian Empire was temporarily suspended.

The Japanese in Liaodong are still sneaking around. According to the information from Jin Jiu, the Japanese side is indeed unwilling to fail, and is encouraging the old and young of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Mongolian princes to start a civil war.However, the effect was not as good as they had imagined. Perhaps because of the terrorist incidents that happened in China last year, the Chinese government took decisive action and dealt a heavy blow, which scared these high-sighted and low-handed guys out of their wits.Except for a few young and energetic people, most of the former members of the Socialist Party expressed that they would take a second look and take it easy.This result made the Japanese very dissatisfied, but there was nothing they could do, the younger brother didn't dare to step forward, so why couldn't he, the boss, go into battle naked himself?

You must know that there is still a truce between China and Japan. In theory, the war is not over.Once the Japanese jump out in person at this time, not only will they be condemned by public opinion internationally, but the Japanese military does not have the confidence to win a battle now. They only hope that the war between China and the Soviet Union will break out as soon as possible, and then encourage the full Qing's elders and children caused turmoil, and then took advantage of the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

In order to achieve the goal, the Japanese side first forced the communist party members to make up their minds, and on the other hand, the special high school came forward to contact the Soviet government secretly, poured it on, promised a lot of benefits, and instigated Stalin to attack China first, so that Among them, the Soviet Union officially broke out.

But Stalin was so easy to fool?This is a guy who has never taken advantage of the disadvantages, not to mention the current Russian civil war, Stalin didn't want to formally start a war with the Chinese government at all.Now the tacit agreement with the Chinese government to cease the war is a situation that is very beneficial to you. Could it be that you, the little Japanese, are playing tricks and letting him give up the revolutionary cause of unifying Russia?

But Stalin didn't say anything dead. When the Japanese approached him quietly, Stalin didn't refuse. He simply asked Japan for a lot of aid, and asked Japan to send troops to attack China at the same time as himself. Only then did he agree to agree to the Japanese side. requirements.

At this moment, the Japanese were dumbfounded. Japan was not rich in the first place. The economic policies of these years have seriously damaged the vitality of the Japanese domestic economy. How can there be so many things to feed Stalin, a big eater?Reluctantly, in order to achieve the goal, the Japanese side first promised some benefits, and also privately gave nearly 200 million yen in funds and materials as bait in an attempt to lure Stalin to send troops.Who would have thought that Stalin, a well-tested "revolutionary", would have a keen eye for such a trick, and immediately swallowed the sugar coating, and then continued to brazenly reach out for money, food, and supplies, rambling and ambiguous words, but never give the Japanese a definite reply. (To be continued..)