In the early morning, the sky had just brightened, and the loud sound of military trumpets sounded in the Encarnacion barracks, and when the horn of getting up was heard, Pang Zhenyun, commander of the First Mixed Brigade, put on his military uniform, shoes and hats, and then walked to the training ground.

The vast training ground was already full of soldiers, and groups of soldiers were conducting tactical training that they had to do every day in companies and platoons, according to different divisions of the army, and under the leadership of their respective commanders.

Looking at the soldiers who were practicing on the training ground, Pang Zhenyun felt a sense of pride and confidence in his heart.

Eight years ago, when he led nearly 100 young men to Annam and defected to the Nanyang Army, He never imagined that he would have the opportunity to lead such an army to fight abroad.

The First Mixed Brigade has two large regiments and a number of auxiliary units, with a total number of 9,000 people, equipped with 12 Jianye six-year heavy machine guns and more than 7,000 Jianye six-year rifles.

The First Mixed Brigade is the old main force of the Han Army, although in the middle of the years due to the expansion of the troops, the first mixed brigade was transferred more than two-thirds of the basic cadres, but after the replenishment of more than 100 graduates of the army military academy junior command major, the first mixed brigade's grass-roots organizational structure and overall combat effectiveness have been restored to a great extent, perhaps because of the addition of a large number of recruits and military academy graduates, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the first mixed brigade can not be compared with the previous peak. However, with graduates of military academies who have received regular military education to take over the tactical command of the grassroots combat units of the First Mixed Brigade, and some veteran officers with rich combat experience in commanding and correcting them, it is believed that it will not be long before most of them will grow into qualified grassroots military commanders after experiencing the baptism of real battlefields.

The ammunition materials used in the six-year rifle of the Jianye and the 75-mm field guns equipped by the brigade-level troops of the regular army are all new smokeless gunpowder.

Among them, the Jianye six-year rifle uses Type B single-base smokeless powder as the propellant, while the 75mm field gun uses a double-base smokeless powder ballistite.

Type B single-base smokeless gunpowder and double-base smokeless gunpowder ballistite are among the most advanced rifle and artillery ammunition in the world. Under the guidance and intervention of Li Mingyuan in advance, the local government of Han completed the formulation research and development of Type B single-base smokeless gunpowder and double-base smokeless gunpowder ballistite one year ahead of France, and then completed the trial production of rifles and artillery using two kinds of gunpowder as propellant in early 1885.

At the end of January 1885, the Hanguo Iron and Steel United Group and the major military enterprises began to carry out the production of Jianye's six-year rifles and new artillery, after four years of production and operation, by the first half of 1889, the total production capacity of Jianye's six-year rifles gradually dropped from 72,000 to 53,000 per year, and the annual output of Jianye's six-year heavy machine guns dropped from 410 to 300.

The production capacity of various types of artillery fell from 800 to 650 per year.

The annual output of various types of rifles and artillery shells has stabilized at 75 million and 370,000 rounds respectively.

There is room for further improvement in the military production capacity of the Han Kingdom, but considering the cost of ammunition production and maintenance in peacetime, the major local military industrial enterprises have not expanded their military production capacity indefinitely under the instructions of Li Mingyuan.

Comparing the current military production capacity of the Han State and the Republic of Brazil, the strength of the army's weapons and equipment, and the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers, Pang Zhenyun and most of the commanders participating in the war agreed that the Republic of Brazil has almost no possibility of victory.

However, the Republic of Brazil is not a Han state, and their high-level officials and generals did not put the intelligence collection of enemy countries in a strategic position like the Han state, so they did not really understand the strength of the Han military industry and army.

Of course, the Han attaches great importance to foreign intelligence, and also attaches more importance to the secrecy of internal intelligence, even if the top leadership of the Republic of Brazil makes great efforts to carry out intelligence reconnaissance work in all aspects of the Han country, it is difficult to obtain vital information about the performance of new military weapons, the number of military weapons, army deployment, speeches and other relevant information.

The advantages of the newly industrialized countries over the backward and conservative countries are all-encompassing, and in the objective strength of the Han and Brazilian Republics, even if there are one or more strategically minded people within the Brazilian Republic, they will not be able to make fundamental improvements to the vast and rotten institutions of the Brazilian Republic.

The number of Jianye six-year rifles currently produced by the Han State exceeds 200,000, excluding 180,000 equipped with the regular troops of the army and navy, and the remaining more than 20,000 rifles are in a state of inventory. Until the enemy is crushed, and the army of the Brazilian Republic is not given a glimmer of hope to turn over.

Pang Zhenyun was promoted to commander of the 1st Mixed Brigade, and as a member of the senior officers, he was fortunate enough to see nine operational plans in the direction of Encarnación, and according to the unexpected situations that may arise on the part of the Brazilian Republic and Paraguay, the General Staff Headquarters has taken various measures to deal with them, among which even the extremely low probability of the front-line army of the Republic of Brazil going against the norm and defeating the 1st Mixed Brigade has appeared in the operational plan of the General Staff Headquarters.

Although Pang Zhenyun believes that as the command center of the army, it is necessary for the General Staff Headquarters to predict the impact of various possible or unexpected events on the course of the campaign, but there is absolutely no need to put certain events that are almost impossible to occur in the combat plan.

Thinking of some jokes among his colleagues about the staff headquarters, Pang Zhenyun naturally had a smile on his face.

It took Pang Zhenyun more than eight years to rise from a junior officer to a brigade commander in charge of a 9,000-strong unit, and if the First Mixed Brigade performed well in the Paraguayan War, then it would be impossible for him to replace the epaulettes on his military uniform with the rank of major general with a small bean.

After inspecting the training of the soldiers as usual, Pang Zhenyun was about to turn around and return to the temporary headquarters of the First Mixed Brigade when he saw Shen Dehui, an operational staff officer at the brigade headquarters, walking towards him.

"Good news, Brigadier Commander!"

Major Staff Officer Shen Dehui (born in 1863, graduated from the German Military Academy. found Pang Zhenyun, walked quickly to his side, and said happily: "The headquarters has sent us an additional 105 mm howitzer regiment, and the whole regiment has 36 artillery pieces, all of which use double-base smokeless gunpowder ballistite as a propellant, this thing is a good thing, with it, our brigade's heavy fire attack capability has improved more than a little bit!" ”

"I waited for a long time and waited for a good news, let's go, let's go and see what this group of big guys looks like, so that the staff headquarters can be so precious, and they have been hiding and reluctant to send it to us!"

With the support of a 105-mm artillery regiment, Pang Zhenyun was in a good mood and said with satisfaction.

"Haha, brigade commander, don't worry, there is more than one good news, the General Staff Headquarters learned that the Republic of Brazil has sent an additional 20,000 troops to Paraguay, and is worried about the increase of enemies on the combat route of the first mixed brigade, so it has sent us two additional garrison regiments, a total of 3,000 reinforcements, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hu Kunshan, commander of the Fourth Garrison Brigade, to assist our brigade in combat."

"With one more person and one more helper, and 3,000 garrisons to help, our combat operations will be carried out more smoothly."

Pang Zhenyun's face did not change, and he smiled faintly: "Let's go, Zhang Wenlian, the head of the first regiment, and Zhou Shanchu, the second regiment, are all called, let's go together to welcome the new colleagues." ”…………

"Brother Zhenyun, farewell to Annan. You and my brother haven't seen each other in years. ”

Seeing the people who came out of the camp to greet them, Hu Kunshan, commander of the Fourth Garrison Brigade, smiled and said.

"Haha, busy with military affairs, Pang didn't find time to get together with Brother Hu to catch up, and I regret it in my heart."

Pang Zhenyun laughed and welcomed Hu Kunshan and his party into the camp, and said: "I think that at the beginning, you, me, Zhu Bingqing, and Li Tang each led a hundred people to defect to the Nanyang Legion, and now we and the other four have returned to the mainland with the army, each serving in different units, thinking that in only eight years, thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in Annan have been reduced to Fayi colonies, and we have also become imperial officers. ”

"Getting together with Brother Zhenyun again, Hu does have this state of mind."

Hu Kunshan observed the weapons and training of the officers and soldiers of the First Mixed Brigade, and said enviously: "Eight years ago, we were just thinking about killing three or five Fayi to avenge the shame, even if we died in a foreign country, I have no regrets, but today, seeing the majesty of Brother Zhenyun's force, my brother has no regrets in my heart. ”

"If only the brothers who died at the beginning had knowledge! When you see the scene of your own country today, you should also be blinded. ”

Pang Zhenyun sighed, and continued: "Brother Hu actually doesn't have to envy the weapons and equipment of the First Mixed Brigade, when the Paraguayan War is over, Brother Hu and the brothers of the Fourth Garrison Brigade will make a war, and when they are rewarded for their merits in the future, they may also be able to win the opportunity to be reorganized into a regular army." ”

"Haha, then borrow Brother Zhenyun's auspicious words."

Hu Kunshan laughed.

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