Hedong, by the Yellow River, Long Beach. That's what the locals call it, and the Yellow River flows through here to ease up. This is the best place to cross the river. An infantry battalion of the Republican Army was stationed here, opposite the Huns and the Imperial Court. It has to be said that it is a great irony that only the Republican Army is stationed in such an extremely important place.

The Republican Army could have crossed the Yellow River and established a beachhead on that section of the Yellow River, but doing so would have alarmed the imperial court and the forces of all sides. So, the IRA did not carry out the creation of a beachhead there. However, necessary reconnaissance is still necessary, and the Republican Army scouts often spend time from here to conduct reconnaissance, and some mapping teams will sneak in to survey and map some maps of the other side. In short, the preparations of the Republican Army have never been relaxed. The infantry battalions on this side patrol every day to prevent a sudden attack by hostile forces on the opposite bank.

In fact, the Republicans were right to hold off on building a bridgehead on the other side of the Yellow River, because they did not have enough boats to cross the river, and in the first phase of the offensive they would need at least one hundred and fifty boats, one or two infantry battalions, and equipment to be transported quickly. And the Republican army collected only a pitiful five, five ships with a maximum of two infantry platoons, more troops will suffer a greater disadvantage. So, in such a situation, the republican army can only postpone the offensive.

But the IRA is actively preparing. Here's the command from above.

Less than fifteen miles east of Long Beach was garrisoned the 12th Engineer Battalion of the Republican Army, whose task was to erect bridges and repair roads. Even, lay a large number of **, because many of them have blasting technology, learn such technology, you can go to the coal mine, get a very good job.

"One, two, push hard. One, two, push hard. The soldiers shouted slogans loudly. Then a pontoon bridge was erected over the creek.

Yes, it is a pontoon bridge, in such a situation, the solution to be able to use large-scale troops and quickly transport supplies is to use pontoon bridges, so that the completion of their transportation tasks can be guaranteed to the greatest extent.

Private Li laid a large iron plate weighing hundreds of pounds on the pontoon bridge with his bare upper body, and several sappers quickly buckled the tenon down, so that the pontoon bridge could be fixed on it very stably.

Soon, a pontoon bridge was erected. Li hurriedly took the water float and drank it in a big gulp. It felt really comfortable.

In general, the pontoon bridge is made of wooden planks, and the weight of the planks is relatively light. However, planks are extremely cumbersome and need to be fixed, tied and even nailed with rivets. Pontoons are usually disposable. Moreover, such pontoon bridges, the limit of passage is very limited, to pass through an infantry regiment, such pontoon bridges usually need to be built three times, in order to pass quickly. It would be even more troublesome if it passed through a cavalry unit, because the horses sometimes did not necessarily cross such a pontoon bridge.

Located in Handan No. 2 Arsenal, the main thing is that they have a large number of iron factories around, not only with the official background of the Republican Army, but also many small private iron factories, they provide a large number of cast iron, these cast iron, thick, fair price. If such an iron plate is laid, the traffic capacity can be greatly accelerated. In order to increase the speed of passage, they also added a pattern on it. In this way, the traffic capacity is increased a lot.

Such a pontoon bridge can transport an infantry regiment in an hour. If possible, an additional infantry battalion could be transported. The traffic capacity has been greatly accelerated.

However, such a pontoon bridge also has disadvantages, first of all, it is too heavy. In order to be able to transport these iron plates. Their engineer battalion was equipped with more than 110 ox carts. Even so, their superiors thought it was very insufficient. After all, it's all iron. The cow felt a little difficult to pull. But that's what they are equipped with. These pontoon bridges were erected, not only by infantry, artillery units and, most importantly, cavalry. The cavalry units had to ride quickly through the pontoon bridge, in order to open the passage for them in the first place. It can be seen that the Republican Army has taken great pains to fight in Hexi this time.

Li Yong is a local who lives in a small village in Pingyang County. Because the soldiers gave fifty acres of land, Li Yong came. In fact, this is because their family has a large population and insufficient food, and the twelve acres of land in the family have also been hit by a military disaster, and the harvest has been halved. In order to be able to have a bowl of rice to eat, and to be a soldier for 50 acres of land, Li Yong joined the engineer unit, because the engineer does not have to fight, and must have strength, Li Yong is a strong person, otherwise he would not join the engineer unit.

The situation in the family has been much better after I became a soldier. Several of the younger siblings were able to eat well. The eldest brother and the second brother both went to the county seat, and it is said that they built houses for others on an engineering team. A lot of money in a month. It's more than farming at home.

The family also said that he should work hard and strive to come back as an officer.

Shangwu also brought the modern letter system into the army, and the letter system was first popularized by the army, the army will be responsible for transporting these letters, family letters worth 10,000 dollars, in the era of war, especially in times of war, soldiers get family letters will improve morale. If they see that their families are doing better, they can maintain a more vigorous fighting force.

This is where the family letter comes in. Li Yong's soldiers were only one of the Republican Army's offensive combat units deployed in Hedong. And such an engineer battalion, the Republican Army arranged three. One engineer battalion can build three pontoon bridges, and three, at least seven such pontoon bridges can be built for combat readiness. In this way, the logistical pressure will be much less. The war is fought in logistics, and the purpose of the Hexi operation is rarely known by these soldiers, and perhaps only when the war is mobilized, can they know the specific situation.

The Wild Wolf Regiment was stationed, and their unit had just completed its reorganization, with a total of 2,152 combatants. It is equipped with more than 1,200 flintlocks and eight two-inch guns. This is the belongings of the whole group.

"Our troops can't be mobilized. An order given directly by the division headquarters. Let us be reserves. Zhao Laosan said helplessly.

"Reserves?" Zhang Zhen asked incomprehensibly. What he knew was that the newly expanded mountain division was going to carry out such an operation, but why was there such a situation, or why did they not go directly to the battle, but let them serve as reserves, and what kind of troops would serve as reserves.

"Yes, it is estimated that the scale of this battle is not very large, and it is enough to use only one infantry division. And it's all cover-up. Zhao Laosan said helplessly. To be honest, he didn't think it should be like this. But given the special situation of their troops, having a large number of recruits, serving as a reserve is actually to avoid a larger battle. When he said this, he was also comforting.

"Oh. I don't know when we're going to fight, I can't wait. Zhang Zhen said worriedly.

"Alright. Don't worry. This kind of thing is indispensable to us, and without our battle, it is not easy to fight. Zhao Laosan was comforted like this, but he didn't know what kind of situation it was.

Li Jiazhuang, War Department.

Jia Xu held a telegram from Handan and looked at Shang Wu.

"What's the matter?" What Shang Wu wrote.

"It's a military order, an order for weapons needed on the battlefield in Hedong, and an order for munitions, but we simply rely on military orders to pull our factory production, which is really a bit too unfavorable for us." Jia Xu said.

"Hmm. There is no way, there are too few civilian orders. Maybe the whole market is too small. Or maybe it's because of the current situation, but in many cases, things don't go very well. Shang Wu said.

Yes, most of the military factories of the Republican Army are military orders, and civilian orders, that is, the number of orders in various places is still relatively small, and they do not even get half of them. This kind of development, in fact, is still very unfavorable to them, Shangwu desperately hopes to change such a status quo, after all, such a situation is very unfavorable to them, especially the future market development is very bad.

Just imagine, if there is no demand, then there is no point in production, and they themselves will trap themselves to death.

"Well, the different perceptions of firearms in the surrounding area are naturally detrimental to our situation, and in such a situation, it is naturally difficult for our production to develop. Coupled with the delicate relationship between us and the imperial court, both sides have great restrictions on the development of the market, and there is no problem with our products, but in terms of development needs. Too little. Jia Xu said helplessly.

The system of production is a good system, but the problem is that there is too little demand, which is caused by the self-sufficient agrarian society of feudal society. It's not that there is a problem with their industrial products, but that such an economy itself has a certain degree of closure, and what Shangwu is doing is to break this closure, but for the time being, this closure is still difficult to break.

"Maybe we can solve this problem from another angle, for example, the exchange rate. If we take the initiative to reduce it, for example, if we devalue our currency, for example, to become one to two, then the copper coins of the Chabuddha court will have a lot of purchasing power, so that they will buy more things. A lot of money will come into us. Shang Wu said.