In addition to equipment, the expansion of the KPA is also underway, starting with the creation of the Marine Corps, which has finally entered the stage of formal implementation.

After careful consideration, Luo Yue finally decided to join the Marine Corps and participate in the competition for the commander of the Marine Corps. Although the Marine Corps now has only one division, it is a new branch of the armed forces after all, and it will definitely be expanded in the future. And from a longer-term perspective, under the leadership of the traverser, the future China will definitely not be limited to the mainland, and it is the general trend to go to the ocean, and even to the ocean, which has also been fully proved in the old time and space.

In this time and space, this process is likely to be greatly accelerated, because the current East China government already has a navy that is not weak, excluding the technological differences caused by the times, it can be said that in the old time and space, in the nearly 50 years after the founding of New China, there was no navy of such scale and strength, which also shows that the East China government has attached great importance to maritime development from the beginning.

A strong navy will never stick to the doorstep, but will crisscross the ocean, which means that the time for the East China government to go to the sea is much earlier than the old time and space, and it is likely that after the Russo-Japanese War, the development direction of the East China government will turn to the sea. Therefore, in the future, the building of the People's Army will certainly follow the path of taking the navy as the leading factor and taking into account the comprehensive development of the sea and land, and the Marine Corps will also be of great use, and even if it does not become an independent army, it will still have broad prospects for development.

What Luo Yue is most worried about is that the Marine Corps is starting from scratch, starting from scratch, the quality of the soldiers is poor, and it needs long-term training and battlefield training to become a strong army. But Qin Zheng gave him a bottom line, the Military Commission and the Admiralty will not allow the Marine Corps to grow slowly, and it will be the Navy, because the Marine Corps is currently part of the Navy, and in the future Russo-Japanese War, there will definitely be landing operations, so the Admiralty also needs the Marine Corps to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. The Military Commission also assured that it would ensure that 1/3 of the soldiers in the Marine Corps were veterans with combat experience, which also completely dispelled Luo Yue's doubts.

The Admiralty selected a commander for the Marine Corps, and determined a total of 7 candidates, because this time not only the commander was selected, but also the deputy position, the chief of staff, but the Admiralty also made it clear that once he was elected, he must join the Marine Corps and could not return to the Army, and also considered that the Marine Corps is currently only a divisional establishment, and the commander is also the division commander, so only two of the 7 candidates are divisional officers, and all are deputy division commanders, and the other 5 are all regimental commanders.

The intention of the Admiralty is to hope that an officer at the deputy division level will take the lead, use their experience, and let the Marine Corps become an army as soon as possible, and the selection of two deputy division commanders is to prevent one of them from having an accident, but after consideration, the two deputy division commanders refused to join the Marine Corps, after all, the army is also expanding, and they are very likely to transfer to other new divisions as division commanders, so they naturally do not want to start all over again in the Marine Corps, and one of the five regiment commanders also withdrew, leaving only four candidates, namely Luo Yue, Ran Runfeng, Shi Qiao, Zhong Wending.

This also made the Admiralty a little embarrassed, and some people suggested that a few more candidates be found from the Army, but Shang Jinfeng, the Minister of the Admiralty, overrode public opinion and decided not to add more candidates, and the command structure of the Marine Corps was determined among these four people, and Bi Jing 4 people were enough, and the regiment commander was the regiment commander, and the division commanders of the army were not all from the regiment commander.

The Marine Corps Commander Election is based on a comprehensive scoring system, which is divided into three aspects: 1. the candidate's past record, command, and training ability, 2. the candidate's campaign speech and defense, and 3. the round-robin game of wargames.

As a result, Luo Yue was undisputed as the commander of the Marine Corps and the division commander with the first place in all three total scores. In fact, this is not unexpected, Luo Yue is absolutely sure at least in the first and third items, because the record and strength and experience are all there. If the two deputy division commanders participate in the election, they may also be able to pose a certain threat to Luo Yue with their experience in commanding division-level troops, and among the regiment commanders, Luo Yue really has no opponent.

In fact, the War Department didn't want to let Luo Yue go, because the team led by Luo Yue started from the company to the regiment, all of which were the ace troops of the army, brave in battle, and all of them made meritorious contributions, such generals naturally no one wanted to let go, not to mention the relationship between Luo Yue and the upper echelons of the government, when Luo Yue went to Java, the War Department had already prepared to promote Luo Yue to be the division commander, but the five divisions of the first class had been determined, so Luo Yue could only be allowed to lead an ordinary division. But he didn't expect that Luo Yue would eventually go to the Marine Corps, and the War Department also regretted it greatly, knowing that he should have promoted Luo Yue to division commander as soon as possible, so that he would not lose a general.

The positions of the other three candidates have also been determined, Shi Qiao is the deputy commander and deputy division commander, Ran Runfeng and Zhong Wending are respectively the chief and deputy chiefs of staff, and the political commissar is directly appointed by the Navy Department, and Zhu Wenxiang, the deputy political commissar of the original Changbai Mountain ship. In this way, the team of the Marine Corps was also formed, and the formation of the Marine Corps officially began.

At the time of the establishment of the Marine Corps, two more proposals were sent to the office of the Central Military Commission, suggesting that the Central Military Commission initiate the project to carry out research and development work on fixed-wing aircraft and armored combat vehicles.

The proposal to develop a fixed-wing aircraft was something that was made up by the joint efforts of several helicopter pilots in the crossing army. Now the East China government has a total of 14 helicopters, 8 UAVs, a total of 37 helicopter pilots, 16 UAV pilots, because 9 of them are double pilots, and the ratio of double helicopters and pilots is configured according to 1:1.5, single helicopters, UAV pilots are configured according to 1:2, and there are 187 helicopters and UAV ground crews, forming a flight team of more than 200 people.

Although the Central Military Commission has always regarded the flying unit as a trump card of the People's Army, and the flying unit has also played a tremendous role in previous wars, although there are not many times when it has directly participated in wars, it has made great contributions in reconnaissance, early warning, and correction of artillery data, but the flying unit has always been in a very embarrassing position in the system of the People's Army. Despite its important status and high average rank, the flight unit has no team, no projects, and no funds, so it has no say in the army, and it just lives on a dozen helicopters and drones, so that people can't see any future.

But in this era, helicopters, UAVs are difficult to maintain for a long time, although at present can also rely on some spare parts brought by the crossing to maintain the state of the body, but helicopters, UAVs use aviation kerosene has no place to supplement, fortunately the Kunming ship's gas turbine is also used aviation kerosene, so the original escort fleet only carried a large amount of aviation kerosene, otherwise it is estimated that at least half of the nest is now underway. But when the aviation kerosene is always used up, the Kunming can still rely on two diesel engines to support it, and the flight unit can only be disbanded.

Seeing that other traversers are either engaged in politics or business, anyone with a skill can mix well, and many members of the flight unit can not bear the silence, especially the ground staff, because they have a good technology, they are extremely popular in the East China government, at this time there are 26 members who have chosen to change careers and develop, but fortunately, 37 pilots have not moved, ensuring the backbone of the flight unit, and can also maintain the team without being strong.

Of course, the pilots are very aware of the problems of the flight troops, and they also understand that the only way to solve the dilemma of the flight units is to develop a fixed aircraft, so that there are not only projects, but also can be approved for funding, and a large team can be brought out. Therefore, at the beginning of the establishment of the East China government, the pilots suggested to the Military Commission to start developing fixed aircraft, but the conditions at that time did not allow it. However, the flight unit was not idle, and designed several aircraft styles when they had nothing to do, and inquired about the engine performance of this era, and also made several aircraft models with wood and cloth for reference.

Therefore, after returning to Qingdao, pilots Wang Xinping and Zheng Zongming, who participated in the war, took the lead and other personnel jointly signed a proposal to the Central Military Commission to start the project of developing fixed aircraft as soon as possible. The spare parts of the UAV are basically used up, and the fuel is not sufficient, at most it can only ensure the Russo-Japanese War, and the research and development cycle of the fixed aircraft is longer, and then start research and development after the Russo-Japanese War, there will be a short time, if the project is established from now, then as soon as during the Russo-Japanese War, there may be several aircraft for actual combat tests, accumulate more experience, and thus promote the development of the aircraft project.

And in the proposal, also put forward a more feasible plan, both by the members of the flight unit with a student to set up a research and development group, research and development is mainly divided into two parts, one is to use the engine of the car to make an aircraft, the purpose is to accumulate flight data, and train pilots, the other is to use the engine of this era to make an airplane, the engine can be purchased from Germany, the accumulation of manufacturing experience, and the research and development funds do not use too much, but the need for 8-10 cars, 2 for ground testing, the manufacture of 4-6 test aircraft for the collection of flight data and training, and leave 2 for backup, when the Russo-Japanese War is carried out to the need, the test aircraft can also participate in the war, although the performance of the test aircraft is not as good as that of a helicopter, it is still better than nothing, and it is still possible to use it for aerial reconnaissance and to correct artillery data.

It should be said that this proposal of the flight unit is still relatively pragmatic, and in the early stage of the project, there is really no need to invest too much research and development funds, the traverser naturally knows that the aircraft is the future development trend, and at this time the conditions for the development of the aircraft are basically ready, if the historical development has not changed, in December of this year, the Wright brothers' plane will take off. In terms of technology, the traverser is of course no problem, it is far more advanced than the Wright brothers, and the biggest obstacle engine for the development of the aircraft has actually been solved.