On a sunny southern summer day, long convoys of trucks drive along the rugged roads of the mountains. Two squads of combat units were crammed into each truck with a load of one and a half tons. Twenty men with rifles on their backs sat on improvised benches that could be raised and lowered attached to the side of the truck, with fixed machine guns and ammunition boxes in the open space in the center of the wagon.

Everyone's face is not good-looking, although they don't have to walk, but they can wander around for an hour or two on a vehicle with this kind of shock-absorbing device, and it is already the result of training to be able to not vomit. Spit and spit and slowly get used to it.

Lieutenant Colonel Qi Rui's face was just as unsightly as the other participants, and he had thought that motorized transportation would allow the troops to travel long distances in a more comfortable manner. After a month of testing, the stomach and all parts of the body were clearly conveying to Qi Rui the fact that long-distance travel could be done, but comfort was not at all.

"War depends on people!" Qi Rui now couldn't agree with his father Wei Ze's admonition. The tests that motorized units have to endure are far more arduous than imagined, and the entire force must first be subjected to severe tests before entering battle. Throwing troops into the battlefield of blood and fire, before accepting the test of life and death, the motorized troops must also accept the test of living and suffering. Even Qi Rui, one of the founders of the motorized force, felt quite painful.

According to the regulations, every hour and a half, everyone has to get off the bus and rest for a while. Stepping on solid ground, Qi Rui only felt that his feet were soft, but he had a solid feeling in his heart. It is true that the marching capacity of motorized units far exceeds that of infantry, capable of traveling 33 kilometers in an hour and a half, or 50 kilometers on a wide plain. Thousands of troops can march up to 100 kilometers in a day. The most important thing is that after such a long march, it can maintain a minimum of combat effectiveness.

Ordinary troops may be able to walk 100 kilometers a day, and after this distance, they will completely lose their combat effectiveness. Qi Rui didn't know that in the history of his father Wei Ze's time and space, the Red Fourth Regiment set a record of 120 kilometers of forced march in 25 hours under the condition of heavy rain + mud + a little resistance. Even in the current bad situation, a regiment of the Liberation Army can achieve or even surpass that prestigious army by relying on fairly primitive motorized marching tools.

Even if he knew this, Lieutenant Colonel Qi Rui would not feel any joy at this time. The members of the unit are walking in vain, and they are starting various stretching exercises in order to recover their physical condition in the shortest possible time.

Colonel Hu Xing stroked his stomach and walked to Qi Rui's side, and said with an expression of wanting to lie down: "Let the troops cross the mountains of North America, I think it is more reliable to rely on foot." "Both he and Qi Rui served in North America and are very familiar with the majesty of the Rocky Mountains.

"Motorized troops still have more room to operate in the Great Lakes." Qi Rui did not deny the opinion of his old comrades-in-arms. The impression given to him by the motorized troops through the mountains was very bad, and in terms of comfort alone, Qi Rui was very suspicious that walking was only more comfortable than motorized.

The young man was in good health, and after ten minutes of rest, everyone felt alive. Then they received an order from the command, "Return on foot!" ”

I'm not afraid of not knowing the goods, I'm afraid of comparing the goods, and I walked back 33 kilometers. Carrying a marching bag, carrying a weapon, and manpower dragging those ammunition and equipment. After only 11 kilometers of walking, the troops participating in the test began to miss the time when they were dangling in the car, and when they walked 22 kilometers, everyone didn't even feel nostalgic. The swollen and hot feet and heavy equipment had exhausted the physical strength of the young soldiers. In the last 11 kilometers, no one knows how they got there.

Walking back to the departure camp after dark, Qi Rui barely mustered up the last spirit and commanded the troops to put the marching equipment in accordance with the regulations. After making all the preparations, Qi Rui staggered to his bunk and lay down to sleep. As for Hu Xingzhi, he couldn't see anyone, let alone complaining, this guy was already lying on the bunk like a dead dog and snoring loudly.

The next day was the wrap-up meeting, and all the participants agreed, "No matter how many problems there are with motorized marching, it is better than walking!" ”

This is the heart of the participants, after the motorized march, everyone still has the strength to complain, and after the foot march, where is there still a trace of strength. More importantly, motorized marching can carry a larger amount of weapons and ammunition, and it is impossible to maintain such a huge carrying capacity by marching on foot.

An infantryman carries 10 hand rounds and 200 rounds of ammunition, which is nothing when sitting on a truck, but this weight can kill a person when walking. Not to mention the 75 guns towed by trucks, when a truck tows a 75 gun and some ammunition, it is still within the range of motorized capabilities, and if it is dragged by manpower, it is a nightmare in the mountains.

"Motorized good! That's it! Hu Xingzhi's strength has not fully recovered, even if he is a little incoherent, Hu Xingzhi still strongly expresses his attitude.

The basic tests are very brutal, with various limit tests one after another, with the aim of finding out the upper limit of the motorized march as soon as possible. Just as in the initial test, a squad of 10 fighters rode in a truck, and considering the loss of equipment of the troops, the test of one vehicle pulling two squads was also a test content.

The soldiers were fine, but the faces of the mathematicians involved were even more ugly. But their job is to collect data and refine the mathematical model. Under the double consumption of physical torture and mental power, many mathematicians turned pale.

As one of the initiators, Qi Rui has more to consider. The campaign goal of the motorized march is to carry out an effective campaign breakthrough at a distance of 50 to 100 km, and the current facts have proved that a 100-kilometer campaign breakthrough can be achieved, and with the strength of the Liberation Army, the 50-kilometer campaign depth has reached the limit. Moreover, the motorized troops are also very much in line with the strategic thinking of the Liberation Army, which concentrates superior forces as much as possible to encircle and annihilate the enemy's inferior forces. Fight big battles, encirclement wars, and fight wars of annihilation. From this point of view alone, the motorized forces are very successful at this stage.

As for the larger motorized forces in the future, that's another matter. After the scale is expanded, the logistical pressure increases exponentially. Qi Rui is now throwing himself into the five-body body that his father admires, and Wei Ze is guiding the Guangfu Army to develop at an unprecedented speed, and the time it takes does not look long. According to optimistic estimates, it will take at least three to five years for the Liberation Army to build up motorized infantry and bring the scale of the motorized troops to 100,000 men.

And it will take another year or two to deploy equipment of this scale in North America. It will take at least five years to implement motorized combat in North America. As for the partial three-wheeled motorcycle proposed by Weizer, not even a prototype has been made now. It is still unknown when this combat equipment will be able to replace horses. Thinking of this, Qi Rui found that he still had to participate in the exercise of horses and motorized troops, which was another arduous experiment.

The summary meeting failed to make any name for itself, and everyone had a lot of expectations for this new combat mode, and the facts proved that most of these expectations were unreliable. In addition to the most intuitive feelings, such as Hu Xingzhi's insistence on "motorization is good!" That's it! Ideas have dried up to the point where they are almost non-existent.

As the deputy secretary of the party committee of the test unit, looking at the somewhat cold performance, Qi Rui smiled and said: "Comrades, I have a data. Guess what is the average age of the beta program? ”

When it comes to the data, a significant number of participants grin. These comrades deal with data every day, and their first reaction when they hear it is to feel fear. The data on fuel consumption, the data on the basic combat effectiveness of the troops, and each of these data must be done by these people themselves, and the sun is shining, the moon is shining, and the wind and rain are blowing, these are all data. It also includes the allocation of capacity for small trucks with a load of 1.5 tons. All is data, and sweat that is several times dozens of times the weight of the paper on which the data is recorded.

"The average age of the participants was 21.7 years. This data is about the same age as the troops in Guangdong who have been reorganized and popularized liberation shoes. Qi Rui was still full of energy when he spoke.

These comrades who actually tested it didn't understand what this data meant for a while, and Qi Rui didn't want to be sloppy, he said confidently: "This data tells us that when we made a big breakthrough in our marching ability for the first time, it happened to be about the same as the average age of our current participants in the establishment of motorized troops. After the last time liberation shoes and standard marching backpacks were popularized, the marching ability of the Liberation Army made a big breakthrough. Now, we will definitely be able to make a big breakthrough. ”

In response to such a statement, the comrades attending the meeting expressed their reaction by laughing. It's not a laugh of approval, it's just that the data is so unexpected, and this mutual internal logic is too far-fetched.

Although Qi Rui felt lost in his heart, he did not flinch because of this blow, and he shouted heartily: "Our fathers led the last big breakthrough at our age, and it is our turn to lead the Liberation Army to a new breakthrough at this time. This may seem ridiculous, but if you really think about it, isn't it? Don't we want to do what we did? ”

"Well said!" Li Shaokang replied loudly in silence, "Let's not say that one generation is stronger than the next, but we can't be worse from generation to generation, right?" The Liberation Army has built a great reputation in the hands of our fathers, is it impossible to smash the signboard in our generation? ”

As long as it is reasonable, ideological agitation can always play a role, not to mention that this team with an average age of 21.7 years is young and vigorous. The reason why he couldn't respond to Qi Rui's statement immediately was because the older generation had too much pressure in the hearts of the younger generation, and two people jumped out to shout in a row, and the young people also felt that this was not unreasonable.

"No matter how good our parents are, they can only walk on two legs. Now we're on four wheels, and we're twice as many. Hu Xingzhi was encouraged firstly, and secondly, he was willing to support Qi Rui. He shouted.

"You can't say that, there are four-legged horses." Ma Xiaoming, who had been to Japan with Qi Rui, gags with a bad tone. Everyone knew that he wanted to soothe the atmosphere, so he didn't care about Ma Xiaoming's somewhat frivolous speech.

Qian Da, who had been to Japan together as an honor student, patted Ma Xiaoming's shoulder with a sympathetic expression on his face, and said in a heavy tone: "Old horse! Let you run on all fours, you ...... Thank you for your hard work! ”

"Die!" Ma Xiaoming didn't expect that Qian Duo was in ambush and suddenly jumped out now, and hammered Qian Duo with a smile and two punches. The members of the party committee were amused by these words, and they laughed loudly, and the gloomy atmosphere was swept away from the meeting.

After everyone finished laughing, Qi Rui also took advantage of the ease to start discussing the next stage of training. Ma Xiaoming put forward his own idea, "We can try to alternate the execution of walking and motorized transportation, what do you think?" ”

"There's no way to alternate artillery. Transport artillery is pulled by people? Most of the money is not directed at Ma Xiaoming, who has always been a proponent of pure motorized transportation. Even after the first week of vomiting, Qian mostly firmly believes in the huge advantages of motorized marching. This may have something to do with the fact that most of the money came from artillery.

Ma Xiaoming, who was born in cavalry, replied: "I always feel that the alternation of a section of walking and a section of motorized transportation can allow the troops to recover their physical strength. Give it a try. ”

With Ma Xiaoming's proposal, the party committee finally entered the working state. Seeing that everyone was going to argue about this plan, Qi Rui interjected, "Let's make proposals first, and then discuss each proposal." However, I don't think that discussion is the same as negation, and that discussion is about clarifying the purpose of the proposal. The test still has to be tested. Our fathers did it, not said it. ”

This view was endorsed by a group of party committee members, and after proposals and discussions, five test plans were selected first. In fact, it includes Ma Xiaoming's alternate plan, as well as Li Shaokang's proposal to march lightly accompanied by vehicles.

However, Qi Rui only participated in Ma Xiaoming's plan test, and received an order to return to the headquarters of the Nanjing Military Academy. He didn't go to the headquarters, and as soon as he arrived in Nanjing, Qi Rui received a secret order to go home. After being a soldier for so long, it was the first time that I went home by order. Qi Rui didn't know what was going on at home, and with a lot of doubts, Qi Rui returned home by car.

Wei Ze waited for his son in the study and asked Qi Rui to sit down. Wei Ze said straight to the point: "There has been a disturbance recently, although I have suppressed this matter. But I still want to discuss it with you. ”

"Father, what's the matter?" Qi Rui was puzzled. Daddy has never discussed things with himself so formally, or it seems to be a matter of business.

"Someone is now clamoring for the crown prince. I don't think even if this matter is suppressed, it won't really go unmentioned. So instead of someone else talking to him about it, I'd tell you. Wei Ze bluntly told Qi Rui, the focus of the matter, about the problem.

"Establish a prince?" Qi Rui's first reaction was that he didn't understand. If Qi Rui never thought about this question, it would be nonsense. However, Qi Rui doesn't care about this for a while now. It's not because he doesn't want to be a prince, but because Qi Rui feels that even if he wants to inherit his father's mantle, he must at least have his father's ability. inexplicably became a prince, Qi Rui still felt unacceptable.

"I'd like to hear what you think about this." Wei Ze looked at his son's puzzled expression, and he was still very happy in his heart. After getting along with those people for a long time, and watching his son grow up, whether his son was overjoyed by this, Wei Ze thought that he could still judge. His son can face the problem of the prince very seriously, which is enough to show that his son has grown up. At least not the kind of rookie who can be easily instigated.

After thinking for a while, Qi Rui found that his heart seemed to be quite divided. The feeling of excitement is naturally there, and this excitement even accounts for a considerable proportion. It's just a part of the heart, at least no less than the excitement, but it's a kind of self-admonition. After thinking for a while, Qi Rui said: "Father, this time I went to study in the intermediate class, and I realized that you had a sentence that was very right before. There are too many heroes and heroes in the world, and if you want to stand above them, you must at least have the ability to provide services to heroes. I feel like I'm pretty bad on this side...... Well, it's still learning. ”

"Humph!" Wei Ze looked at his son and couldn't help but smile, "It seems that you still want to take over my class!" ”

His mind was pierced by his father, and Qi Rui's heart couldn't help but waver, but he didn't flinch, but stared at his father's eyes and replied seriously: "If I can reach my father's level, of course I want to take over my father's class." ”

What should come is still coming. Wei Ze sighed in his heart. Young people always have to grow up, and Weezer must also hand over everything he controls now. Even if Weezer resisted to the end, the Grim Reaper would unstoppably complete the process.

"If you have the ability, I personally have no objection to you taking over my class. I can now tell you unequivocally that you want to take over my class, and that you still have a great advantage over others. I'd like to talk to you about that now, but don't interject as much as you can, okay? Wei Ze said to his son solemnly.

"Yes!" Qi Rui replied.

"I've never been a proponent of bloodline succession, and I haven't said that to you, but it's my true words." Wei Ze came up and made a general question. Qi Rui's face was surprised, but he was only surprised, and he didn't ask any questions because of this.

"I destroyed the Manchu Qing with my own hands, from the eighty old man to the swaddling baby, and I killed tens of thousands of Manchu princes and ministers. Physical lineage does not mean anything, and if there is anything that can truly be called inheritance, it must be spiritual. Speaking of this, Wei Ze tapped his head lightly, "The real inheritor must inherit here." ”

Looking at his son's slight nodding, Wei Ze was very happy in his heart. He continued: "So I hope that you will not inherit the title of this emperor. I think you know exactly what my full title is. Chairman of the Liberation Party, Chairman of the Military Commission of the Liberation Army, President of the Ming Dynasty of China, and Emperor Wei Ze. The first three are the source of my strength, the title of the emperor is nothing but a lace, like a rooster's comb, it looks very majestic, but it is just a piece of soft meat, no rooster's mouth, no wings, no claws, and it is useless to have an empty cockscomb. As a father, I certainly want you to be a strong person, someone who can surpass me. Chairman of the Liberation Party, Chairman of the Military Commission of the Liberation Army, and President of the Ming Dynasty of China, these are all positions that you can get by yourself. With these statuses, that title of emperor is not only useless, but even harmful. So many so-called dragon sons and phoenix grandchildren were killed in batches like dogs. There are so many dynasties in China, which dynasty can escape such a fate, I gave birth to children, not for them to eventually become the king of the country. ”