The idea of an independent air force was raised long after the end of the First Global War. At that time, the air force was trying its skills on the battlefield for the first time, and a large number of far-sighted generals such as Liao Hanxiang realized that bombers would dominate the future sky and thus dominate the future battlefield, and in order to enable the air force to give full play to its combat effectiveness on the battlefield, it was absolutely necessary to establish an independent air force, that is, the third branch of the army and navy.

It was not the Tang Empire that first established an independent air force, but those countries in Europe, Italy, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and other countries all established their air forces one after another after the end of the first global war, and even air defense forces. At that time, there was a lot of uproar in the empire about the establishment of the air force, and it even triggered a national debate, and there were not many people who supported the establishment of the air force. The impact of public opinion support on the army is not very great, and the dispute between the interests of the imperial navy and the army eventually makes the "air force" come to naught, after the army and navy have successively established air forces, the two imperial prime ministers before Xue Xiyue also felt that there was no need to waste time and effort to get an air force, and thus offended the army and navy.

In the early days of Xue Xiyue's tenure, some people put forward the idea of establishing an air force, and at that time, Xue Xiyue still attached great importance to it, after all, several countries had already established air forces, and even the Persian Empire was preparing to set up an air force, and the German Air Force was developing rapidly, and through the establishment of the air force, it was ahead of the Tang Empire in terms of aviation combat theory. But the problem is that the empire has only experienced an economic crisis at that time, and during Xue Xiyue's first term, his main task is to restore the empire's economy, restore the social order of the empire, so that more ordinary people can buy enough rice and noodles to cook, instead of running around hungry every day and looking for work. Therefore. There is no reason to spend money on the army, especially on the creation of an air force on the basis of the already existing aviation. Of course, there was another important reason for Xue Xiyue to abandon the idea of establishing an air force at that time, and that was Xue Xiyue's economic recovery policy.

In the solution of the economic crisis, Xue Xiyue completely abandoned the previous imperial economic policy and abandoned the completely free market economic model. Because freedom also represents disorder, chaos, and speculation, in the eyes of economists at the time, the economic crisis that almost destroyed the entire world was actually triggered by stock market speculation, and spread to the financial market, and had a devastating blow to the manufacturing industry. In the end, it almost destroyed the economic foundations of the empire. The policy adopted by Xue Xiyue is an economic policy that combines limited government intervention with the market, and the most important symbol of this is that the government promulgates various economic laws and regulations to restrain the investment behavior of capitalists, curb speculative activities, and regulate market order. In order to form a good competition and development mechanism. This is a long-term policy, while a short-term policy to stimulate economic development is to stimulate economic development through large-scale government investment, the construction of large amounts of infrastructure, the use of government fiscal deficits to enhance social capital flows, and ultimately the stimulation of economic development through limited, controlled inflation.

For the Tang Empire, this was obviously the most effective means of economic development, and the ultimate goal of these policies was to get the empire fundamentally free from the effects of the economic crisis, but this directly led to further economic decline in other countries. In particular, the "Tang Yuan" was devalued in order to increase exports. The use of outside investment, as well as the world's capital markets, to drive the empire's domestic economic growth has nearly brought down the economies of other countries. It was these policies that eventually led to the collapse of the "gold standard" world financial system, and trade competition eventually seriously intensified the already poor international relations, laying the groundwork for the subsequent global war.

In a series of local economic policies adopted by Xue Xiyue. It doesn't seem to have much to do with the military, but in fact it has a lot to do with it. For example, industrial production was stimulated by expanding arms purchases. In addition, in terms of infrastructure construction, Xue Xiyue planned the transportation infrastructure of the empire at that time, most of which were built before the outbreak of the war, and the construction of these transportation infrastructure also needed the support of the army. Anyway, at that time, if Xue Xiyue wanted his economic policies to be successfully promoted, he had to get the full support of the army. Apparently. Xue Xiyue's proposal to establish an air force at this time not only did not conform to the actual national conditions of the empire. It will also deprive him of the support of both the army and the navy, and I am afraid that his economic recovery policy will not succeed, at least not completely.

Because of these many reasons, the establishment of the Air Force was delayed, and this delay was delayed until the outbreak of war. Before the outbreak of the war, no one mentioned the establishment of the air force again, and under the influence of the Tang Empire, the United States did not establish an air force, and it was precisely because this opponent with the strongest potential did not establish an air force, so why did the Tang Empire need to establish an air force? After the outbreak of the war, Xue Xiyue once proposed the establishment of an air force, but everyone knew that it was the most unwise thing to reorganize the military structure of the empire on a large scale during the war. Therefore, Xue Xiyue was just mentioning it, and it was not included in the official schedule. After he recovered and returned to power, he proposed the establishment of the Air Force, but Nie Renfeng and Yan Dingyu were both resolutely opposed, and the reasons were sufficient. In the end, both sides gave in to each other, Xue Xiyue promised not to set up an air force during the war, and Nie Renfeng and Yan Dingyu also promised to discuss the establishment of an air force with the prime minister after the war.

Perhaps before the outbreak of the war, there was still a controversy over whether or not to establish an air force, after all, the air force only appeared at that time, there was no perfect tactical theory system, and no one was sure what kind of position the air force would have on the battlefield in the future and whether it would be able to dominate the war. In addition, before the outbreak of the war, the size of the army was limited, the size of the air force was also limited, and the performance of combat aircraft was even more unsatisfactory. In addition, having the army and navy each retain one air force will have little impact on the command structure of the army and navy. By now, I am afraid that no one doubts the necessity and inevitability of the establishment of an air force.

There is no doubt about the role of the air force, and there is no doubt about its status as the master of the battlefield. The greatest significance of the establishment of the Air Force is to simplify the command system of the army and navy, and at the same time to provide more opportunities for the development of the air force. There are two issues involved in this, one is the military command system, and the other is military spending.

The military chain of command is easy to understand, any general wants his chain of command to be as simple as possible, and it would be best if he could directly command every soldier. Of course. This was not possible at the time, and any cumbersome chain of command would reduce the combat effectiveness of the army. With the expansion of the size of the air force and the increase in the status of the air force, this will certainly cause a lot of trouble. For example, the Army Aviation Corps is directly subordinate to the command of the Army Aviation Command, but in actual operations, it is under the command of the Front Command. There are two systems of command. If there is a conflict between the orders issued by the two command systems, it will be a big problem.

The problem of military spending is even more serious. As a branch of the armed forces, the aviation unit does not have the right to independently declare military spending, and its funds can only be allocated by the commanders of the services. Although when the military budget is submitted, it is detailed how much of the budget is allocated to the air force, but this is only the budget. Whether it's the Army. It is still the navy, when it comes to the actual allocation of military spending, it is impossible to be exactly the same as the budget, so there will naturally be a deviation in the military expenditure allocated to the air force, and there will be misappropriation of the military expenditure that should have been planned to be allocated to the air force. This makes it impossible for the aviation to get enough military spending. In fact, the air force generally receives more military spending than the budget, but the actual distribution of military expenditure is in the hands of the service commands, and this situation of being controlled by others is certainly not conducive to the development of the air force.

It can be said that the issue of military spending is the most crucial, and it is the main reason for the independence of the air force and the establishment of the air force. After being promoted to a branch of the military, the Air Force can create its own budget and apply for a budget. Moreover, it can decide how military spending should be allocated, which is also more suitable for the development of aviation. It can be said that most of the other countries that have established air forces have also established air forces for this reason. Of course, most people do not recognize this problem, only an in-depth understanding of the results of the army, especially the importance of military spending. Only after the distribution method and other internal relations can we understand the impact of military spending on the development of aviation.

Relatively speaking, the establishment of the Air Force has the greatest impact on the Army, and it is a gain or a loss for the Navy. If the Air Force were to be formed, the Army Aviation would certainly be fully subsumed into the Air Force, because there was no reason for the Army to have an independent Air Force, and the main task of the Air Force would be to cooperate with the Army. However, the Navy has a reason to maintain at least one independent aviation force, that is, carrier-based aviation, and perhaps some shore-based aviation to carry out maritime patrol duties. This is primarily due to the task peculiarities of the carrier-based aviation of the Navy. and determined by the inseparable relationship with the fleet. In addition, the maritime patrol aircraft unit in the shore-based aviation is also mainly carried out with the navy. Tasks related to naval warfare should be under the direct command of the Navy due to the specificity of the place of their tasks. In these respects, after the creation of the Air Force, the Navy was still able to retain aviation.

The biggest impact for the Imperial Navy at that time was the loss of strategic strike forces, but this was not actually a loss, because there was no reason for the Navy to continue to have so many heavy bombers.

When the Strategic Strike Force was first established, Nie Renfeng took into account the impact on the Navy when the Air Force was established in the future. If those heavy bombers are incorporated into naval aviation, then where will naval aviation go in the future? Of course, there is also an element of compromise with the army, because after all, the tasks performed by the strategic strike forces basically overlap with those of the strategic bomber units of the army aviation forces, and the strategic bomber units are one of the main bodies of the army aviation. Therefore, as far as the navy is concerned, the strategic strike force is actually a "selected" unit, and it can be seen from the successive arrangements for Liao Hanxiang, Wu Xianyu, and later Luo Yunchong to be the commanders of the arms, Nie Renfeng knows very well that this unit is temporarily assigned to the navy, and after the war is over, the navy will have no reason to retain the strategic strike force.

On the whole, or in terms of the interests of the navy or the army itself, the emergence of the air force will undoubtedly not benefit either branch of the armed forces. If the empire had established an air force after the end of the war, it would have been unacceptable to both the navy and the army in terms of military spending alone. After the end of the war, the military expenditure will definitely be greatly reduced, and the distribution of military expenses between the two families was tight enough, but now they have to divide the military expenditure into three parts, so it will naturally be even more tense. More importantly, as long as the air force remains within the army and navy, the army and navy will have greater flexibility in the use of military spending, so that they can try to make up for the loopholes that appeared when military spending was reduced. Therefore, neither Nie Renfeng nor Yan Dingyu wanted to see the Air Force appear, but both of them also knew that there was no way for them to prevent the establishment of the Air Force.

If Wei Boyu did not have an accident and was not involved in the assassination of the prime minister, or if he was not a member of the Wei family, then he would definitely be the number one candidate for the first commander of the Air Force, no matter in terms of experience, qualifications, influence, etc., Wei Boyu is more than a hundred times stronger than Luo Yunchong. The main body of the Air Force is the Army Air Force, so it is reasonable for the Commander of the Army Aviation Corps to be the Commander of the Air Force. And Luo Yunchong was only the commander of the Navy's strategic strike force at that time, which was even a little worse than the commanders of other arms.

Wei Boyu was dismissed, giving Luo Yunchong a chance. In fact, at that time, no one was more suitable to serve as the first commander of the Air Force than Luo Yunchong.

Tan Renhao knew when he proposed Luo Yunchong that as long as Liao Hanxiang did not come forward to compete with Luo Yunchong, then no one could snatch the position of the first air force commander from Luo Yunchong. And Liao Hanxiang should not compete with Luo Yunchong. First of all, Luo Yunchong is Liao Hanxiang's proud disciple, Luo Yunchong became the commander of the Air Force, then Liao Hanxiang is the old head of the Air Force Commander, and this status is not bad. The second is Liao Hanxiang's age, when Liao Hanxiang is about 60 years old, there is no need to work anymore. In the end, Liao Hanxiang's treatment in the navy was also quite good, and it was the navy that gave him the opportunity, and he had no reason to "stay in the future" and become an "enemy" of the navy.

After thinking of this, Tan Renhao was almost sure that as long as the prime minister settled Nie Renfeng and Yan Dingyu, then Luo Yunchong would become the first air marshal of the empire, but his guess was not completely accurate.