In 1904, the focus of the whole world was concentrated on the northeastern region of China, and Japan and Russia also pointed out the headlines of the newspapers of various countries. Of course, the only exception is the East China government.

Although in the early days of the Russo-Japanese war, the East China government and Japan had been entangled in the issue of joint military dispatch for a while, but with Japan's continuous military victories and ended, in October 1904, the East China government received a group of revolutionaries from Japan, but this was only a small episode, in fact, in the whole 1904, the main work of the East China government was only two words "prepare for war".

After entering 1905, just after the New Year, the East China Government convened an executive meeting to make a comprehensive summary of the preparations for the previous year.

First of all, in terms of military affairs, since the course of the Russo-Japanese War in this era was basically the same as in the old time and space, the time node of the East China government's participation in the war was also set on May 20, 1905, the day of the Battle of Tsushima, and the General Staff was already working on the detailed battle plan and arrangement.

On the naval side, the two armored cruisers built in Germany had been delivered to the officers and men of the East China Government, and had started from Germany, and were expected to arrive at Qingdao in January 1905, while another battleship had also entered the final stage of outfitting and was ready for sea trials in February 1905 and could be delivered to the East China Government by May.

Among the warships built by Qingdao itself, the 7,000-ton armored cruiser has basically completed the outfitting work and will soon undergo sea trials; the 10,000-ton armored cruiser is expected to be outfitted and tested in March; and the battleship will not be completed until 1906 and delivered to the army.

On the whole, the warship construction plan is basically completed according to the expected construction schedule, but the Admiralty hopes to add two more orders for Qingzhou-class protective cruisers, because once the East China government enters the war, in addition to the decisive battle at sea, there are also tactical tasks such as breaking diplomatic relations, controlling sea routes, and escorting, just like in the Russo-Japanese War, the Vladivostok squadron only has two armored cruisers, and a large protective cruiser sank a Japanese cargo ship of nearly 50,000 tons, and the damage to Japan is much greater than that of the Pacific Fleet. However, if we analyze the results achieved by the Vladivostok detachment, we will not need two armored cruisers of 10,000 tons at all, and a 5,000-ton protective cruiser is sufficient, or even better, after all, generally speaking, the speed of a protective cruiser is faster than that of an armored cruiser.

According to the calculation of the cost, two armored cruisers of the Vladivostok detachment, one large protective cruiser is enough to build 6-7 5,000-ton protective cruisers, which can form 2-3 broken formations, so the results will be greater. Therefore, after the completion of the five-year shipbuilding plan, the number of the main ships of the KPA Navy is basically sufficient, but the number of secondary warships is still insufficient, and a large number of second-class warships are needed to carry out tactical tasks such as breaking diplomatic relations, controlling sea routes, and escorting convoys.

The Qingzhou-class protective cruiser has been in service for more than one year, and the Admiralty is very satisfied with the performance of the Qingzhou-class, because the Qingzhou-class protective cruiser can not only be completed, but can even carry out low- and medium-intensity maritime operations, and now only 4 is not enough, if there can be 6, it can form a two-ship formation of 3 ships or perform combat missions alone, or lead a part of the auxiliary warships to complete combat missions.

In addition, after the completion of the two armored cruisers, all the small and medium-sized warships that have been started in the Qingdao shipyard are currently being built, and the dock for building large warships is vacant, and some resources are wasted, and skilled workers also need to have enough construction projects to consolidate the technology learned in the previous stage, and the technical level of the construction of small and medium-sized warships is obviously not enough, so the construction of two more Qingzhou-class protective cruisers is also necessary to maintain the technical level of the shipyard.

In addition, the eight Russian warships captured in August have also basically completed repair work, only the front turret and main guns of the Crown Prince were ordered in Germany, and will arrive in Qingdao with the two armored cruisers, but the other damage has been repaired. Therefore, all eight Russian warships were also incorporated into the KPA Navy sequence and renamed.

The battleship Crown Prince was renamed the Transoceanic and incorporated into the battleship detachment; the protective cruiser Askolid was renamed Heiko, the Deaina was renamed Heidi, and the Novik was renamed Heino, and the Haipa of the original First Cruiser Detachment was drawn out and formed into the Third Cruiser Detachment together with these three warships; and the four destroyers were organized into a separate detachment. In this way, the combat effectiveness of the KPA Navy has also been further strengthened. Of course, the new warships still need to be run in, and the soldiers on the ships must also be familiar with the warships, but there is still time.

In addition to the new warships, the four old warships that had been transferred to the reserve have also returned to active duty and have been incorporated into the sequence of the navy. Although these four warships have long been outdated, and the speed is slow, and even the main guns are old-fashioned guns, after all, these four warships have thick armor and large-caliber guns, and although they are beyond their strength to participate in the decisive battle at sea, they are still competent as land fire support, and it is now the time to use the ships, so these four old ships can still exert their residual heat.

Although the Marine Corps now has only one division, the number of the whole army exceeds 18,000, of which 1.2 are combatants, which is about 2 percent more than the strength of other divisions, of course, the establishment of the Marine Corps is very different from the army division, and there is also the establishment of the landing fleet, and the four old ships with the prefix of the town are actually commanded by the Marine Corps, and now the Marine Corps is under the command of Luo Yue, undergoing strict training.

On the whole, when the East China government entered the war, the navy could complete the preparations according to the original plan and participate in the battle in the best condition.

As for the army, the 15 main divisions have all been established, and the weapons that each division should be equipped with are also in place, and various tactical training is being carried out, and these 15 divisions have a total of about 200,000 people, including about 150,000 combat personnel, constituting the main force of the people's army. At the same time, 18 reserve divisions with about 220,000 people have been established, and the reserve army is basically composed of civilian troops from various places. After the establishment of the East China Government, the militia system was implemented in various localities, on the one hand, to maintain local law and order, and on the other hand, to serve as a reserve force for the people's army. The militia has basically received a certain amount of military training, and some militia units have also fought some low-intensity battles and have some combat experience, so it is easier to form combat effectiveness than recruiting new recruits.

In addition, there are two divisions in the Hehu base area, and if the marines are added, the total strength of the East China Government's army will reach 36 divisions, with about 450,000 people and about 300,000 to 350,000 combat personnel.

In November 1903, the reserve divisions were assembled in five locations for three months of military training, and two more military exercises, at which point the training was nearing completion, and at the end of January, all the reserve divisions were to be disbanded, and returned home for the New Year, and spring ploughing, and at the end of March 1905, they were ready to go to war.

In addition, the War Department will form 8-10 reserve divisions with about 100,000 troops to deal with special situations.

In addition to the regular army, the army also has several special troops, which are also several trump cards created by the army, all of which have been formed, first the cavalry troops, in fact, the 15 main divisions have a small number of cavalry troops, but they are all based on companies, and the tasks are mainly reconnaissance, not combat. However, the cavalry unit was a unit with cavalry combat as its main task, with two regiments and a total of more than 5,000 people. It is also the only cavalry corps in the army that is capable of fighting.

Of course, the cavalry unit cannot be called a trump card, but the armored train is definitely a trump card, and now two armored trains have been built, each armored train has a staff of about 1,200 people, of which there are about 900 people on the train, including two companies of combat troops, an armored train is set as a battalion-level establishment, and the objective system is temporarily under the direct command of the War Department, and after the war begins, it will be incorporated into its corresponding group army.

At this time, the armored train was conducting joint training with the main division, and it also won unanimous praise from all units in the joint training, because the armored train has strong mobility and fast reaction speed, and can provide good fire support for all troops. So the army also decided to build two more armored trains, and these two armored trains were more powerful, and the caliber of the main gun was increased to 280 mm. In addition, two cargo ships used to carry armored trains have been renovated and completed, which can transport one armored train at a time, and the next armored train will be equipped with training.

In addition to the armored trains, there are also 4 self-propelled guns of 200 mm caliber 40 x diameter, which have also been renovated and installed, each self-propelled gun will be equipped with about 200 soldiers, set at the company level, and equipped with 2 trucks and 8 horse-drawn carriages for the transportation of shells, fuel, spare parts and personnel. Although the caliber of self-propelled guns is smaller than that of armored trains, the caliber of 200 mm is already considered a giant cannon for army artillery, and self-propelled guns do not need to rely on orbital action, so they are more maneuverable and more flexible in arrangement. Moreover, self-propelled artillery units, like armored trains, are independent formations and can be flexibly deployed according to operational needs.

The last trump card is the 155 mm towed artillery regiment, although it is not as powerful as the 200 mm artillery, 240 mm artillery, but the 155 mm gun in the army artillery is also considered a large caliber, but also in the number of more, a total of 16 155 mm caliber 40 times the diameter of the artillery, each gun is pulled by a car, and because the weight of the 155 mm gun is more than twice as light as the 200 mm gun, its mobility is stronger than that of the self-propelled artillery, so it can be more flexible on the battlefield to carry out a more flexible mobile arrangement, in the local battlefield to form a firepower advantage, in a short period of time to suddenly strengthen the firepower in the local battlefield, the actual combat value can not be underestimated.

It can be said that these three trump cards are the greatest confidence of the army, and in the rest of the time, it is to further run in with various units of the army in training.

Generally speaking, the preparations for war of the navy and the army are proceeding step by step, and they are all carrying out rigorous training, especially after entering 1 9 0 3 1 1 January, when the cold winter season is approaching, the army has also seized the time to carry out the last winter training before participating in the war.