The Republic of Heroes

The armored force is a sharp weapon of the army. Since he was in Suidong, Wu Xiaoliang has deliberately built a tank factory. Now after ten years of development, it has become quite large. However, due to the lack of raw materials for the Japanese naval blockade, the output is not large. Two hundred tanks were smuggled. Coming to Shandong is already the limit.If Shandong wants to expand its armored forces, it can only produce them by itself.However, the complex structure of tanks cannot be put into production overnight. Although the factory has been built, it will take time to enter the mass production stage. It is already a good result to be able to maintain the supply of key components.

Tanks were born in the European War, and are still rare in the West, let alone in backward China. After all, Li Zejun is from Suidong, and he knows a thing or two about tank troops. Hearing Wu Xiaoliang frankly said that Shandong has built a tank regiment, he couldn't help being very excited.He is very clear that the tank is a super sharp knife of the army, with which the infantry will be in every position, and dealing with these warlords with backward equipment and tactics is like chopping melons and vegetables.

"The tank regiment should equip our 57th Division first. The 57th Division is facing Henan Feng Yuxiang's hundreds of thousands of troops head-on. With this sharp knife, the surname Feng will definitely suffer."

Li Zejun relied on Wu Xiaoliang's background as a guard, so he had few scruples when speaking.Although the others were happy to see Lie, they couldn't open their mouths to ask for it like he did. They also waited expectantly for Wu Xiaoliang's next words, wondering who would get this golden phoenix.

But what Wu Xiaoliang said next disappointed them.

"I am going to set up a tank division, including two brigades, one for the tank brigade and one for the motorized infantry brigade. The tank brigade is organized into two regiments, and the motorized infantry brigade is organized into three regiments..."

Everyone was disappointed for a while, but they were all overwhelmed by the grand blueprint drawn by Wu Xiaoliang.Indeed, if Shandong establishes such a mechanized force, it will be invincible and invincible in the melee of warlords, but how did they know that the ultimate goal of Wu Xiaoliang's establishment of the armored division is not the domestic warlords at all, but Japan, which has been eyeing and vainly trying to annex China.

Although Zhao Donghai, the commander of the Jinpu Road Guard Army, was only a military police captain in Fengjun before, he had heard of the reputation of tanks, and he said excitedly, "A tank regiment is enough to break the spirit of the Jin army in Hebei. It is not a problem for the Shandong army to seize the whole of Hebei and Beijing and Tianjin!"

"To deal with the three warlords Jiang, Feng, and Yan, I don't plan to use my trump card. Good steel must be used on the blade. Under the condition of immature training and organization, you must not easily deploy armored troops!"

Wu Xiaoliang poured another basin of cold water.However, the most frustrating thing was Tantai Jize's words.

"The biggest problem facing the establishment of an armored division now is not personnel training, nor is it the quantity of equipment, but fuel! It's fuel!" He deliberately paused here, prolonging his tone and emphasizing his tone.

"The diesel I have stored for half a year is only enough for an armored regiment to last for ten days. If an armored division is established, the annual savings may not be enough for a few days' consumption!"

As soon as Tantai Jize said this, the officers who were still in high spirits were greatly disappointed, especially Li Zejun, he knew that if tanks and cars had no fuel, they would be a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron, which would be of no use at all.

"However, China does not produce oil, and all domestic fuel oil needs to be imported. Not to mention the high price, and the transportation volume is very small. More than half of them are shipped to Shanghai and Guangdong. It can be said that very few can go to Shandong. Shandong can be stored by us even less."

When it comes to oil, Wu Xiaoliang couldn't help but feel moved. Who said China doesn't produce oil?Later generations of New China successively discovered oil in Shandong and Heilongjiang, and Daqing Oilfield and Shengli Oilfield were the crude oil producing areas of later generations of China.The only thing he worries about is whether this is the best time to exploit oil in Shandong. Once the oil fields are exploited, will Shandong be able to survive the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war?Can the oil field survive?If it cannot be kept, all these resources will become tools for Japan to massacre the people of China and the world. Is it not worth the loss?

In a blink of an eye, Wu Xiaoliang's thoughts had turned several times, and his heart was really entangled.

The officers didn't know what Wu Xiaoliang was thinking. Seeing him in a daze, they thought he was thinking about where to buy raw materials, and they all made suggestions.

"The provincial government might as well set up a shipping company to transport foreign crude oil, and then process it into fuel oil in Shandong. This will increase the transportation volume and lower the cost than directly importing fuel oil." Tantai Jize is worthy of being a Shanxi merchant. I have been immersed in the business world for many years, and I know the international trade situation well.

This is a good idea, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to set up a company. Liangda's shipping company is already the largest shipping company in Asia. It is very appropriate to entrust this business to them. In this way, the funds are reused and the efficiency is improved. Not a star.

With calculations in his mind, Wu Xiaoliang also downplayed his plan to exploit oil fields in Shandong. He absolutely did not want to risk the oil fields being used by the Japanese, just for the moment.Wu Xiaoliang's concerns were by no means superfluous. Many people in later generations questioned Japan's launch of the Pacific War and thought they were extremely stupid.In fact, one of the important reasons for this is the lack of oil resources in the country and the occupied territories. Originally, Japan’s domestic fuel oil production was pitifully low, and due to the US embargo, the limited fuel oil production has long been unable to meet the Japanese army’s large-scale aggression. At that time, only the islands in Southeast Asia had oil production in Asia, and it was impossible to go beyond the United States to obtain these oil production areas, so the only option in the dilemma was to declare war on the United States.

If the Shandong oil field is exploited prematurely now, China will change from a country without oil to a country with oil, then Japan will be more bound to win China, especially Shandong, and it may delay declaring war on the United States because of sufficient oil resources At that time, which direction the world war pattern will develop will be full of variables, and such variables will never be beneficial to China.

The next day, Wu Xiaoliang ordered Tantai Jize to go to Tianjin in person to discuss the dispatch of cargo ships by Liangda Shipping Company to transport crude oil.The preparations for the armored division were handed over to an armored army officer sent by Suidong who had nominally retired from the Suidong Army sequence.

In late May, a person claiming to be a special envoy of the Northeast Frontier Army secretly came to Wu Xiaoliang's private residence to ask for an interview.When Wu Xiaoliang heard about this, his heart moved, Zhang Hanqing, Zhang Hanqing, you can't bear the loneliness at last, but unlike the previous life, I'm afraid this life will not have such good luck.

The busy man invited the special envoy in, Wu Xiaoliang was surprised when he saw it, it turned out to be him!