After listening to Xiao Jianjun's reply, the others had no problem for the time being, so Xiao Jianjun said: "Then let's move on to the next item, the plan for combat assembly." ”

The combat assembly plan is divided into two parts: the navy and the army, first of all, Shang Jinfeng introduced the navy's equipment plan, Shang Jinfeng said: " In this war, the navy has two tasks, one is a decisive battle at sea, annihilating the enemy's main fleet, and fighting for sea supremacy; at present, our five modern warships and the maintenance of shipboard weapons are in a very good state, and they can be maintained until the beginning of the war, so the decisive battle at sea is absolutely certain, but the five modern warships are mainly to deal with the main decisive battle of the whole fleet, and local battles still rely on the battleships of this era. Armored cruisers to complete, we already have 4 large and medium-sized armored cruisers under construction, plus the active Kaihai, The Takumi is 10,000 tons, and the hull is relatively new, in terms of armored cruisers, it is completely comparable to the armored cruisers of Japan and Russia, but in terms of battleships, we currently only have 2 old battleships, compared with Japan and Russia, there is a considerable gap, and according to our shipbuilding plan, two more 12,000-ton battleships should be built before the war, and now it should be able to start construction, the general construction cycle of battleships is more than 2 years, if the construction starts now, by May 1905, it can almost catch up with this war, so the construction of battleships can not be delayed any longer。 ”

Xia Bohai immediately said: "This is okay, didn't your navy just get 2.5 million pounds? It is enough to build two battleships, and you can start the battleship construction project immediately, and the Central Military Commission and the Executive Yuan will complete the relevant procedures as soon as possible." ”

Wang Yunpeng nodded and said, "Okay, as long as the Military Commission prepares the relevant materials, the procedures on the Executive Yuan's side can be completed within one day." ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said: "Another task of the navy is to cut off the enemy's transportation routes, this task requires a large number of protective cruisers, the number should be 15-20, the battle of Java proved that the Qingzhou, At present, we have built 4 ships, and hope to add 2-4 ships, so that we can form 3-4 double ship formations, and we have built 3,000-ton protective cruisers, and this type of warship will be built with 6-8 ships, plus our existing 5 protective cruisers, the number is enough. In addition, we also need a type of small gunboats of 500-600 tons, the number of which cannot be less than 10, mainly for controlling the Yalu River and blocking the Japanese army on the east bank of the Yalu River, because the river surface of the Yalu River is not about 300 meters wide, and it cannot accommodate large warships. ”

After a pause, Xia Bohai said again: " There is also a piece of equipment, although it may not be able to catch up with the battle in May 1905, but I still hope to be able to invest in research, one is also useful in the later battles; second, even if this war is not used, but it will still be useful in the future, that is, submarines, we have built two prototype boats, which are expected to be launched next month for sea trials, and the next step we plan to build a submarine that can be used in actual combat, and install some modern equipment, once it can be successful, it will inevitably become one of our trump cards, this project also hopes that the Executive Yuan can fully support, because of the use of modern equipment, so it needs the approval of the Executive Yuan。 ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said: "I support this, I don't need to say the value of submarines, if some modern equipment is installed, even if it is only 1/10 of the combat effectiveness of modern submarines, it is also an invincible existence in this era." ”

Qin Zheng said: "I think that we can't just build submarines with modern equipment, we can also build some conventional submarines in this era, the history of the old time and space has proved that even conventional submarines are also very useful in breaking engagements, so that we can form a three-dimensional sea domination mode under the sea, and we can also explore the cooperation and coordination of submarines and surface ships." ”

Xiao Jianjun wrote down these opinions one by one, and then said: "Next, Comrade Zhu Yaping will introduce the plan for army equipment. ”

Zhu Yaping stood up and said, " The equipment of the army has basically been determined, but we need more modern equipment resources, first of all, according to the summary report, to prove the great role of mortars in following the army, but according to the feedback of the troops, it is believed that the shooting of 60 mortars is closer, so it is hoped that the arsenal can be improved, and at the same time it is recommended that 60 mortars be popularized into platoon-level troops, at least to ensure that a platoon has two 60 mortars, to strengthen the army's firepower, so that in the battle to greatly increase the attack power of our army. In addition, the general-purpose machine gun reported by the troops has completed factory tests and can be sent to the troops for trial on a small scale, and it is expected that it will be able to be equipped on a large scale next year, and it will be able to catch up with the Russo-Japanese War. ”

After a pause, Zhu Yaping said: "To be honest, the biggest problem of the army now is not equipment, but the problem of transportation and demand. Although there were trains in this era, due to the low popularity of train lines, it was worse in China, and wheeled transportation had not yet appeared, and animal transportation was still irreplaceable, and still accounted for a large proportion. Of course, there is an advantage of fighting in the Northeast, that is, the Eastern Railway has been built, which can basically run through the entire territory of the three northeastern provinces, so as long as we can control the railway, the main transportation line uses trains, and the branch lines use animal power, which can indeed greatly save transportation capacity, but even so, according to our calculations, we still need about 10,000 mules, horses and donkeys, and the cavalry also needs about 5,000 military horses, so we need at least about 15,000 mules, horses and donkeys, of which the number of horses is about 10,000, and the current gap is about 5,000 horses, and in the rest of the time, we must hurry up the introduction。 ”

"By its heavy equipment such as artillery, due to the need to quickly enter and exit the battlefield, not only the requirements for transportation are higher, but also the requirements for the quality of mules, horses and donkeys are also higher, taking horses as an example, China's horses are mainly Mongolian horses, although compared with European horses, Mongolian horses are smaller, but hard-working, easy to serve, The advantages of good endurance, so it can also be used as a war horse, but for pulling horses, Mongolian horses are small, and the shortcomings of weak strength are infinitely magnified, generally the pull of a Mongolian horse is 200-300 kg, and the pull of European horses is generally about 400 kg, and some heavy pull horses, such as the British Shire horse, can even exceed 500 kg. ”

Wang Yunpeng was a little skeptical: "Can a horse only pull 2 or 300 kilograms? I remember that even a rickshaw can pull 2 or 300 kilograms of goods." ”

Xiao Jianjun explained: "The pulling force here refers to a long time of pulling, at least to ensure that it can be pulled continuously for 2-3 days of marching time, a rickshaw can pull 2, 300 kg, but if you want to pull continuously, at least two people need to rotate, if it is only a short distance pull, even if it is a Mongolian horse, it can also pull 5, 600 kg, and even can pull 1 ton of goods under extreme conditions." ”

Wang Yunpeng nodded and said, "So that's the case." ”

Zhu Yaping then said: "The weight of army artillery in this era is 1.5-1.8 tons for 75mm guns, about 2 tons for 100mm guns, about 2.5 tons for 125mm guns, and 155mm guns are generally more than 3 tons. Such a simple addition of the pull, 6 Mongolian horses can only pull 75 mm guns, of course, a few strong Mongolian horses are strong, can also be exempt from pulling 100 mm guns, but 125 mm guns can only be pulled by European horses, fortunately, we in the Shanhaiguan War, captured a batch of three hippos, and now buy a batch of three hippos from Russia, this kind of horse belongs to large and medium-sized horses, not only has the advantages of Mongolian horses to bear hardships and stand hard work, but also the pull force is much greater than Mongolian horses, can pull 125 mm guns, fortunately, only the first division is equipped with 125 mm guns, so our current three hippos are also enough, but to pull 155 mm guns, not even the three hippos. ”

Xu Jichao said: "Then we can't increase the number of horses that pull guns? 8 horses, or even 10 horses?"

Zhu Yaping shook his head and said: "No, the model of three horses and six horses, is the largest group of animal traction, after hundreds of years of practice summed up the experience, if you add another one, the pace of each horse will interfere with each other when traveling, can not play a pulling force, in the old time and space, Japan has experimented with the traction mode of four horses and eight horses, but without exception all failed, and then had to adopt the most stupid, and the only way, is to breed their own excellent heavy horse breeds, so to increase the horse's compensation, there is no need to try. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "No, right? How did other countries get it? Is it so difficult that the army can't use 155-millimeter artillery?"

Zhu Yaping said: "Europe has heavy horses, and Europe's railways are relatively developed, so heavy artillery can be sent to the vicinity of the battlefield by train, and then used animal power for short-distance transportation. If it really can't be done, you can only change the horse-drawn transportation, or disassemble the artillery, pull it separately, and assemble it again when you get to the battlefield. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "Then we can also adopt this model!"

Zhu Yaping said: " In fact, we have a better way, that is, to use car traction, we have a total of 77 vehicles, including 19 trucks, 35 engineering vehicles, basically can pull 155 mm artillery, most of the vehicles have surplus power, can carry a part of the shells or soldiers, our plan is to form a special 155 mm artillery regiment, a total of 40 guns, of which 24 are pulled by cars, and a small number of transport vehicles, it is expected that more 30-40 vehicles, can be quickly maneuvered on the battlefield, and the other 16 are pulled by animal power, mainly using the railway line to transport, arranged around the railway line, as a supplement。 The 155 mm gun is quite powerful for the army, far superior to the 125 mm gun, so having 40 155 mm guns, with 24 155 mm guns that can be quickly deployed on the battlefield, is a considerable advantage for us. ”