Someone "is stupid and has a lot of money, come quickly", this is the consensus of the generals in Sichuan. If it weren't for these and some reserved figures, he would have been like Guo Qixun, a famous general in central Sichuan, to learn, and when Liu Yun's subordinates were counted, in addition to being nominally a subordinate in western Sichuan, they would be too generous in terms of treatment, and they didn't have to think about weapons and silver at all.

In the era of the rise of the Republic of China, all forces fought each other to the death and entangled, in the final analysis, isn't it just for weapons and silver, now it's okay, Liu Yun provides another possibility, "farming".

"Build railways, develop industries, and build arsenals by yourself", not only to make a little money, to manufacture weapons, but also to gain the morale of the people in the places under their jurisdiction, it is really a lot of gains, the problem is that they can't learn, so they have to win over Liu Yun, and it is logical, it is best to fool this guy to invest vigorously.

Deng Xihou is a particular person, quite benevolent and righteous, let him eat and drink for nothing, but he still can't wipe his face, so he often discusses military and political affairs with Liu Sanye under the pretense of discussing veterans. Mr. Deng's idea was to form a joint force with western Sichuan, and it would be better if Liu Yun was willing to take charge of civil affairs himself.

Although Commander Liu's territory is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more troops, he feels a headache when it comes to military and political affairs, no, even Maozhou City and West Sichuan County have been thrown to Liu Ebei and Yin Qinlan, so he has little interest in Guangyuan and Longnan. Of course, it may be for this reason that Mr. Deng wants to pull him to form a joint force.

That's right, this is scratching Liu Yun's itch. In addition to the necessary aerial reconnaissance, every day is to chat with Deng Xihou and talk freely about the formation of the Central Sichuan Iron Army, such as upgrading the 45th Army to a "group army".

Group army, this is Commander Deng's favorite, he himself has long wanted to upgrade. The army commander is just a general, well, once it is upgraded to a group army, it will be the commander, and in the future, Deng Xihou will go to see his old friend, and others will call him Commander-in-Chief Deng, then he will have more face, and Ge Laozi will get it.

However, after a detailed discussion with Liu Sanye, Deng Xihou realized that it was not the same thing as what he thought at all, and the group army that Liu Yun mentioned was a composite group army in the modern sense, which would be composed of several brigades, including a complete armored brigade, an aviation brigade, and an artillery brigade, while the traditional infantry units would be weakened.

It is true that Deng Xihou is a general, but he seems to understand Commander Liu's idea, the armored brigade and the artillery brigade are easy to understand, but the flying brigade is a little at a loss, what kind of advanced Dongdong is this, why has he never heard of it, and when he learned that it is an upgraded version of the flying wing, he suddenly realized.

When he learned that a flying brigade had three flying wings under its jurisdiction and a total of 200 fighters under its jurisdiction, Mr. Deng was dizzy, and if he had this family background, it would be a piece of cake to dominate Sichuan.

The armored brigade has as many as 180 tanks, and if you add armored cars and the like, the number will exceed 400, which immediately frightened Deng Xihou, and the cars of the entire Sichuan army add up, it seems that there are not so many, and the daily gasoline consumption alone can eat up the entire Sichuan army.

Why does Commander Liu love oil, Deng Xihou finally really understands, if there is not enough fuel, these tanks and planes and the like, all become scrap copper and rotten iron, if it can really be built, even if it encounters ten times the enemy army, there is more than eighty percent chance of winning, no wonder Commander Liu looks down on the ordinary Sichuan army.

Mr. Deng was heartbroken, and he was used to being beaten anyway, so he didn't care anymore, so he simply broke the sand pot and asked Commander Liu for advice, the characteristics of artillery brigades and infantry brigades. Liu Yun simply took out a pen and paper and wrote out the structure of the group army one by one, even down to the microscopic grouping of the squad and platoon groups.

A group army will have four infantry brigades, an artillery brigade, an armored brigade, a flying brigade, and a military headquarters, and each standard combat brigade will have more than 5,000 people, and the total number of the whole army will be about 40,000 people, which is slightly less than Deng Xihou's 45th Army, but its combat effectiveness has increased several times.

Taking the artillery brigade of the group army as an example, it has three artillery battalions, two armored transport battalions, an engineer battalion and a brigade headquarters, each battalion has 800 people, a total strength of 5,600 people, and is equipped with nearly 200 122-mm cannons.

If compared with the Nanjing Central Army Teaching Corps, it is even more different, and the two cannot be compared at all. Of course, it can't be counted like this in a real fight, because Lao Jiang still has a number of 150-mm heavy artillery regiments. The Japanese devils have more than a dozen heavy artillery brigades, and some of the caliber of artillery fire is as high as 203 mm and 240 mm, and if they fight in the Songhu battlefield, they even have 410 mm naval artillery support.

Of course, the western Sichuan version of the infantry brigade is not an infantry brigade in the ordinary sense, but a new type of infantry brigade integrated into the artillery battalion, armored battalion and transport battalion.

Besides, a lot of people is not all a good thing. Once the enemy gathers together, if they encounter a large-scale air attack, they will have a lot of fun, and if they are one-on-one, a wing of the Japanese army will lose more than they will win, and it will be a little uncost-effective if they dispatch brigades.

There is another option, the Japanese army can also jump over the wall in a hurry, and really dispatch a brigade to deal with an infantry brigade, then the problem is also big, because without three or four divisions, they will not dare to touch such a group army at all. Because in the eyes of the Japanese army, this is already a battle-level battle, and launching a general battle is to defeat a group army, I am afraid that even the Japanese army itself feels crazy.

Such a beautiful concept of army building has a fatal flaw, that is, if you want to make use of these technical equipment, you must have tens of thousands of technical troops. Taking Deng Xihou's 45th Army as an example, the light and dark are added together, and the total strength is as high as 70,000 or 80,000, but when it comes to soldiers who understand technology, they are very rare.

Therefore, Commander Liu's plan for a new-style group army is a combination of lofty and high-mindedness, which is somewhat unrealistic. Fortunately, Liu Sanye also has a simplified version, which can adapt to the operational requirements of the Sichuan army, that is, the popularization of infantry brigades, all equipped with mortars, and 72-type infantry guns, while the artillery brigade is equipped with 75 mm field guns, or 105 mm mountain guns, and the standard tanks are replaced with armored vehicles.

Of course, in this way, the combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced, such a group army, in the face of a division of the Japanese army, has to cry dad and call mother, hoping that the friendly forces around him can pull him, when luck is good, it can crush the Japanese brigade and scare off the main force of the Japanese army, and when the luck is bad, it is not uncommon for more than half of the casualties to be killed.

After a few days of careful consideration, Deng Xihou decided to implement his large regiment system, a regiment of up to 3,300 men, in fact, a weakened infantry brigade, under the jurisdiction of three 800-man infantry battalions, plus a few artillery companies, or armored transport companies, etc., can best adapt to the low-quality Sichuan troops.

Because Mr. Deng himself has thought about it, since the quality can't keep up, then use the quantity to make a difference, a military has three divisions, each division has three brigades, and each brigade has two regiments, with a total strength of 65,000 people, in his opinion, even if a regiment can only fight against a large group of the Japanese army, and a division of the Japanese army, it will not be able to eat him as an army.

In the face of such a group army establishment, Liu Yun himself was speechless, because some accounts are not calculated like that, you want to use a regiment against a brigade, it seems to be wonderful and reasonable, the question is will others listen to you? Could it be that the Japanese planes and artillery are not all arranged, I am afraid that the armies of the two sides will be blown up before the official exchange of fire, and then the Japanese devils will beat the rabbit unconscious.

Commander Liu had no choice but to look up to the sky and sigh, these old generals were too stubborn, too much to worship infantry assaults, and they didn't know that once the tanks and planes launched a large-scale attack, the apparent numerical advantage would immediately lose its meaning, no wonder the Chinese army was heroic, it was also a series of defeats, and the original root was here.

Anyway, the 45th Army is Deng Xihou's 45th Army, Liu Yun is an outsider, he can't manage it if he wants to, and he can also manage weapons and equipment, but in business, if the price code is not enough, he will not let go, fortunately, when doing aerial surveys, he found a lot of mineral deposits, such as large gold mines, and found several places.

The largest gold mine is still in the Wenxian gold mine in Longnan region, located at the junction of Gansu and Sichuan Ruoergai, and the wisdom brain estimates that there are about thousands of tons.

As for other ordinary mineral deposits, it is casual, let Deng Xihou's subordinates dig hard, dig more and earn more, a ton of coal is sold for two silver dollars, and Liu Yun also plans to popularize mechanized operations, each person can dig about seven or eight tons a day, and the monthly per capita wage is still seven or eight silver dollars.

For veterans, this is twice the original military salary, and naturally responded, Commander Liu built a residential area near the industrial and mining points according to the specific differences of the industrial and mining sites, and carried out welfare housing in accordance with the practice of western Sichuan, but don't think about the villa group, it is still dozens of square meters of residences.

However, Commander Liu didn't want to be too mean, so he also built some commercial and residential real estate in the county near the industrial and mining sites, limited to the technical conditions at that time, the floors were generally no more than three floors, and each miner's family could be divided into seventy or eighty square meters of unit-type housing, plus a small façade.

However, these residences and facades are all welfare commercial houses, private individuals are not allowed to buy and sell, but they are allowed to rent out for profit, of course, if the workers really don't want it, they can also carry out housing subsidies, anyway, it is symbolic, it is better than nothing, and the workers are not stupid, so they naturally choose the house.

To the surprise of Deng Xihou and other generals of the 45th Army, due to the high income of the workers, these scattered industrial and mining gathering points later developed into small towns, and at the same time, due to the first appearance of commercial and residential real estate, many families with relatively wealthy families went to the city to buy houses, which promoted the vigorous development of county towns in various places.

Seven or eight days passed quickly, and the Guangyuan Group, which was jointly built by the military and the people, was initially completed, and Liu Yun naturally threw his hands in charge, and after everything was done, he directly appointed Zhang Sili as general manager and Li Hansi as deputy general manager.

At the same time, Ma Xingchi's railway construction team, Commander Liu did not forget, with the help of Deng Xihou's military camp, held a conference on the North Sichuan Railway, congratulated and praised the past road construction achievements, not only invited the gentry of Guangyuan to participate, but also invited Mr. Deng and Ma Hongbin and others to attend the meeting.

After all, the focus of the next stage of work is still to focus on the construction of the railway, and the Gansu railway is even more imminent, whether it is to repair the Longnan railway, or to repair the Tianshui railway, Lanzhou railway, it is necessary for the local military and people to give strong assistance, especially the "friendly" Sichuan army and the Ma Jiajun. Liu Yun still planned to station garrisons along the railway line to guard against attacks by bandits and rogues, and if the military and civilian opposition along the route was too fierce, it would be difficult for these garrisons to stand up.

For this point, Deng Xihou and Ma Hongbin naturally have nothing to do. As long as Commander Liu is willing to invest heavily, they have no reason not to welcome it, and the troops stationed at the station do not have much opinion, they only have one request, hoping to participate in the operation of the Gansu Railway. Liu Yun naturally agreed, and he built the Northwest Railway, not to occupy territory.

As soon as the celebration and oath meeting of the Guangyuan Railway Construction Team was over, Mr. Deng took someone to his official residence compound.