Although the 1901 annual government work report meeting ended, the Military Commission also held its own summary meeting. Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, and Xiao Jianjun all participated in the summary of the army. Although Qin Zheng's position is now the speaker of the Senate and he should not participate in military meetings, the system of the East China government is not perfect, and Qin Zheng is one of the three giants of the original military and one of the founders of the People's Army, and he has not officially retired, so he can still participate in major military decisions.

The Military Council is the only one of the nine ministries that does not work in the administrative district, but only has one office in the administrative building. The office of the Military Commission is now the former German Jiaoao Governor's Palace, and before that, it was the Yamen of the Jiaoao Governor's Mansion of the Qing Court. Such an arrangement is also handled in accordance with the principle of separating the military from the government.

After nearly a year and a half, the People's Army, the army formed by the traversers, has reached its initial size and now has a total of about 93,000 people, including 72,000 in the army and 21,000 in the navy.

The army's report was told by Zhu Yaping, commander of the army, that the army's current combat force is about 60,000 people, with about 12,000 logistics personnel, and has already organized 20 combat regiments, of which 10 regiments are units with actual combat experience, and there is also a cavalry regiment and an artillery regiment, but the cavalry regiment and the artillery regiment have only two battalions.

On the whole, the establishment, system, discipline, training, weapons, and combat of the People's Army are basically carried out in accordance with the model of the modern army, and after the war with the Eight-Nation Alliance, it has also formed a certain combat effectiveness, and it is enough to defend the current territory of the East China Government, even if it turns against the Qing court, it is enough to protect itself. At the same time, the construction of the army has always been strictly disciplined and maintained a good work style, which has also won many praises from the garrison.

At present, the shortcomings of the People's Army and the Army mainly lie in three points: First, the overall quality of the army is still not high; after all, it has only been formed for less than a year and a half, and less than half of the soldiers have been in the army for more than half a year, and the level of training in peacetime is still quite unsatisfactory, but the cultural quality is extremely poor, the illiteracy rate accounts for nearly 70 percent, and the semi-illiterate rate is about 30 percent, and less than half of the people who can really read and write can read and write.

On the one hand, this is because the overall cultural level of China in this era is relatively low, and on the other hand, it is also because the navy has snatched a large number of soldiers with a certain level of cultural quality. However, even the army in modern times has very high requirements for the comprehensive quality of its soldiers, so an army with an extremely high illiteracy rate is destined not to have too strong combat effectiveness. Of course, the Military Commission also took note of this problem and began some remedial measures to carry out literacy education, literacy and mathematics education in various units, but it is difficult to significantly reverse it in a short period of time.

On the whole, the KPA is still a light army, and of the 20 regiments in the whole army, only eight regiments are equipped with medium-caliber field artillery battalions; only two independent battalions are equipped with large-caliber artillery, and the KPA has not yet engaged in heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 150 millimeters.

In fact, in 1901, the traverser purchased a batch of munitions and weapons from Zhang Zhidong, and now all of them have been delivered, in addition to assembling troops, there are still some artillery left, and assembling a few regiments is completely possible, and Qingdao Arsenal can also produce 120 mm caliber artillery at present, so the number of artillery is not a big problem. But the problem is that there are no soldiers who can shoot cannons, or soldiers who can learn to shoot.

After all, artillery is not infantry, and if you train for a month, you can go to the battlefield regardless of whether you can do it or not, but artillery is different, even if you don't have physical and mechanical knowledge, but at least you have to have a considerable cultural quality, at least you can understand the [drill code], and now almost all the soldiers in the army with a certain cultural quality have gone to serve as artillerymen. Therefore, in order to expand the artillery, we can only look at the effect of literacy in the troops.

Third, there is a shortage of logistical troops to support and assist them. The logistics of the modern army is a rather important link, and in general, the ratio of logistics troops to combat units is about 1:2. At present, the KPA's logistical personnel are obviously on the small side, and they are not in a good position, and they have not set up special engineering troops, baggage troops, and other auxiliary arms, and this has resulted in the fact that the KPA has not been able to leave the base areas and conduct long-distance operations.

In addition, there is another problem that is not too big, that is, the number of cavalry is insufficient; although after modern times, cavalry is no longer the main force on the battlefield, but there is still a place, and it can still play a great role in reconnaissance, disturbance, assault, and so on, and in some characteristic battlefields, cavalry can still play a very important position, so now the People's Army only has half a regiment of cavalry, which is obviously not enough.

However, the development of the People's Army's cavalry is mainly constrained by the insufficient number of war horses, and now the People's Army only has more than 1,300 war horses, which are basically captured from the Eight-Nation Alliance, more than half of which are Don hippos and three hippos captured from the Russian army, and the rest are mainly Mongolian horses, and a small number of European horses or Arabian horses. It should be said that the overall quality of the existing war horses of the People's Army is still good, and in order to develop the cavalry, it is first necessary to introduce a large number of horses and fine horse breeds, and in addition to the establishment of its own horse breeding base and the cultivation of its own fine war horses, this will also be a long-term process.

At present, the traverser has established a horse farm and cavalry training base on Shandong Horse Island, but the area of Horse Island is not large, generally about 1,500 horses can be raised, and the limit is not more than 2,000 horses, at present, it can only be enough to avoid force, fortunately, now the East China Government has established two farms, and in the fourth or fifth project, there are two farm construction projects, each farm can raise 100-500 horses, so that the comprehensive calculation, in five years, can still ensure the supply of war horses needed for the development of the cavalry。

It was expected that there would be no large-scale war in the East China government in 1902, so the main task of the army was to adjust and build up the establishment and branches of the army, and to strengthen the training and cultural quality of the army, so that the army could develop horizontally and comprehensively instead of rushing to expand the size of the army.

The biggest change in the Army's establishment is that on the basis of the regiment, combat units at the division level will be established as combat units at the general combat level, and this establishment is also in line with the modern military establishment. At present, the People's Army will be organized into five divisions, and the basic combat units of each division are three combat regiments and one large-caliber * artillery regiment, which will be supplemented by other arms to ensure that each division has a strength of between 1.2 and 15,000 and can independently complete normal operations.

Another task is that although the army will not be expanded on a large scale, it will organize and improve the building of the militia in conjunction with the land reform, and regularly send professional officers to conduct a certain degree of professional training for the army, so as to supplement the regular army, and once a large-scale battle breaks out, the army can be rapidly expanded in a short period of time.

As a supporting task of the people's army, it is necessary to set up cadre regiments, which are mainly composed of deputy personnel among middle- and lower-level military commanders and a small number of outstanding soldiers, who not only conduct military training but also train them in the management of the army, and also regularly dispatch them to train the militia.

Finally, the Army also proposed an army armor plan, that is, began to work on armored vehicles.

Although in the previous battles, the armored troops of the crossing army did not have many opportunities to fight, but every time the battle was at the most critical time, and every use must win, one of the most important battles was the Battle of Shanhaiguan, defeating the Russian army southward, which was also the biggest victory of the People's Army Army, and it was also after this battle that the People's Army Army officially won the recognition of the armies of various countries, and before that, the People's Army Army did not have any victories, and the countries only recognized the navy of the crossing army as a maritime force that could not be underestimated。 Therefore, the armored unit has also become a trump card in the People's Army as the only army in the crossing army that has maintained a complete formation.

As a latecomer, the traverser certainly knows the status of armored forces in the military, and in the next hundred years, they will be the well-deserved kings of land warfare. Although in the old time and space, the official appearance of armored forces on the battlefield had to wait until the end of the First World War 15 years later, the technical basis for the development of armored vehicles was now in place.

First of all, as the core technology of armored vehicles, the working theory of the internal combustion engine, the Otto cycle, and the main representative products of the diesel engine and gasoline engine have been invented, and have reached the level of four-cylinder four-stroke, and representing the peak of the automobile industry in the old time and space, the founders of Mercedes-Benz Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, have established their own companies at this time and launched their own representative products. The automobile industry is the basis of armored vehicles, so it can be said that theoretically speaking, at this time, there are basically not too many technical obstacles to the manufacture of tanks and vehicles, but it is necessary to further improve or make breakthroughs in local technology.

Although the development of armored vehicles is now begins, the start of the traverser is indeed a step late, but considering that the automobile technology itself is still extremely immature at this time, and the biggest advantage of the traverser is that it is familiar with the direction of historical development, including the development direction of science and technology, so in the selection of science and technology, there is a clear direction of research, and it will not take a detour and the wrong way. Therefore, if the traverser starts to develop armored vehicles from now on, and due consideration is given to entering a certain foreign technology, it is expected that it will be able to achieve substantial results in about ten years or so, so that it can achieve militarily overtaking in corners and be ahead of the world's advanced level.

In addition, the development of armored vehicles can also promote the development of the automobile industry of the traverser, thereby promoting the industrialization process of the East China government, which is also a shortcut to catch up with and surpass the world's advanced level. After all, the automotive industry represents the future direction of the world's industrial technology.