It is true that the army is developing faster than the navy, which also proves a problem from the side, that is, the army can be quickly armed, and its expansion rate far exceeds that of the navy. This is also an objective fact, how to say, the speed of building tanks is much faster than the speed of building warships, and it is much faster. In addition, the training of officers and men in the army is also easier than that of the navy, and the army can withstand losses, which in many cases are difficult for the navy to sustain heavy losses.

The setbacks and tribulations suffered by the Army in this war are not below the Navy. In the early days of the war, even Japan's poorly qualified and poorly equipped army could not be defeated quickly, and it fought with Japan on the Korean Peninsula and in the South Seas for so long, which almost made Yan Dingyu take the blame and resign. In addition, the problem of the army in the direction of development is more serious than that of the navy, and as a result, after the war with Russia, it was almost defeated by the Russian army, but fortunately, Russia was fully committed to dealing with Germany at that time, and the strategic depth of the empire in the northwest direction was large enough, so the army did not retreat all the way to Lanzhou. It can be said that in this war, the lessons of the army are quite profound. Like the navy, after being "taught" by the enemy, the officers and men of the army were not discouraged, but quickly corrected their previous mistakes, quickly gathered new forces, and finally gradually moved towards victory.

At that time, there were two schedules in the documents that Tan Renhao obtained, one was the total strength of the Imperial Army at the end of June 26, and the other was the total strength of the Imperial Navy at the end of June 26. When he saw the size of the army and navy, Tan Renhao could only describe his feelings as surprised and shocked.

Before the outbreak of the war, the total strength of the Imperial Army was between 2.5 million and 3 million, which was not small, but the size of the real elite troops, that is, the first type of corps, was less than 1 million. Of these 1 million, there are at most about 400,000 who are truly elite. is a real workhorse. By June 26, almost five years after the war, the strength of the Imperial Army had reached 17.5 million. The size of one of these corps reached 5.5 million, and in five years, the figures of the two groups increased by a factor of six and a factor of 45.

The Imperial Navy was far inferior to the Army in terms of expansion. Before the war, the Imperial Navy had a total strength of less than 1.2 million, including 300,000 marines. 150,000 civilian personnel. By the end of June 26, the total strength of the Imperial Navy was 3.85 million, of which 1.5 million were marines and 210,000 were civilians. Of the 3.85 million officers and men, there are less than 800,000 real fleet officers and men, that is, after excluding the marines, civilian personnel, and fleet officers and soldiers, there are 1.34 million other officers and men. Including base garrison personnel, military police, seamen on transport ships, reserve officers and soldiers, etc. Both in terms of total size and the size of front-line combat units, the size of the navy is much smaller than that of the army. Of course. To a large extent, size is not the main factor determining strength, the importance of the army and navy is the same, and even if the army continues to expand in size, it will not be able to replace the navy.

Tan Renhao is not very concerned about the strength of the navy, and in his opinion, the number of Imperial Navy servicemen fighting on the front line will not exceed 2 million, which is indeed a fact. In fact, the forces of the Imperial Navy were still insufficient. Because compared to the army, the navy has higher requirements for logistics support. More logistical support troops are needed. But the problem is that the Imperial Navy has not lowered the requirements for recruiting soldiers, and at the same time, it has not lowered the training standards, but only increased the training intensity to shorten the training time. Therefore, it is difficult for the navy to expand rapidly. As early as a few months ago, Tan Renhao saw the 26-year recruitment plan of the Imperial Navy, although it is planned to recruit 750,000 new soldiers, but the real final addition to the navy will not exceed 500,000. This is the problem of the Navy, and at the same time the characteristics of the Navy. As long as the navy maintains high demands, it will be difficult to rapidly expand its capabilities. This is also an obstacle to the development of the navy, and if it does not have sufficient troops, it will be difficult for the navy to undertake heavier combat missions and to play a greater role in war.

At that time, the commands of all arms of the Navy put forward the requirements for expansion, and uniformly demanded that different recruitment standards be adopted according to different arms of the army. For example, for the Marine Corps, the most important thing is physical fitness, and a strong physique is the minimum requirement for officers and men of the Marine Corps. For aviation, the most important thing is not only physical fitness, but also eyesight and psychological endurance, after all, no pilot is short-sighted. For the officers and men of the fleet, the question of height has always been the basic criterion for recruitment, and at the same time, they must be able to endure a long life at sea in terms of character. For submariners, stature and adaptability are the most important. Therefore, different branches of the military obviously have different recruitment requirements, and if you want to expand the number of conscripts, you must adopt different recruitment standards according to different requirements, so that more young people can join the Imperial Navy. It was even proposed to directly recruit overseas immigrants from those empires to expand the navy.

The manpower problem was indeed a major problem for the Imperial Navy, and Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing were both trying to solve this problem at that time. However, both men have the same viewpoint, and the recruitment standards must not be lowered because of the rapid expansion of the army, especially those standards that have a direct bearing on the overall quality of the navy. As for how Nie Renfeng would revise the recruitment criteria in the end, Tan Renhao didn't know in his heart, he only knew one thing, if the Imperial Navy wanted to finally hit the American continent, it would have to continue to expand its army, especially the scale of the transportation support force, which must be rapidly expanded, and more sailors must be recruited, otherwise, the Imperial Navy's shipping capacity will not be able to meet the requirements of the war.

It is much simpler to expand the force of the army. In addition to officers trained by military schools, ordinary soldiers in the army are recruited directly from the civilian population and then undergo intensive training for 2 to 3 months in the boot camp, during which the recruits are equipped with the most basic combat skills, such as how to use a rifle, improve physical fitness, and some basic combat tactics. Subsequently, these recruits will be assigned to higher arms training camps, such as those assigned to infantry recruits who are trained in the use of machine guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, blasters, light mortars, etc., and some recruits will also be trained to drive cars. If you are assigned to a tank unit, you must first learn to master the basic structure of the tank, learn how to maintain the tank, and then how to operate the tank, and then this is the basic tactical training. This training system is much stricter than that of infantry. In general, a recruit after receiving a recruitment notice from the Army. It only takes 4 months at most to report on the front-line infantry units, and it only takes half a year for tank crews to join the front-line combat units. In terms of aviation, the ground training system of the army aviation is similar to that of the naval aviation. Just take off and land on an aircraft carrier is not required.

Obviously, it is much more convenient for the army to expand its strength, and its requirements for new recruits are not very high, the main thing is physical fitness, in other words. Young people who do not have a serious physical impairment can join the Army. In addition, the training time of the army is much shorter than that of the navy, and the difficulty of training is also very great, and the training pass rate of its recruits has been more than ninety percent, while the navy's rarely exceeds seventy percent, and in 24 years, the pass rate of naval recruits is not even fifty percent!

The immediate effect of the rapid expansion of the army's strength is that on the Russian battlefield, the army's generals no longer need to worry about the number of troops in their hands, as long as they can advance as quickly as possible. That's how fast you can advance. It can also be seen from the ratio of the army's front-line troops to the logistical support units at that time, almost one officer and soldier fighting on the front line would have two logistical personnel to support him in the rear. This is also a major feature of the Army, or rather, a tradition of the Imperial Army.

At that time, about 3.5 million of the 5.5 million Category 1 units of the Imperial Army were deployed on the Russian battlefield. There are about 250,000 troops in Europe, 500,000 in North Africa, 500,000 in Australia, and 750,000 troops in strategic reserve. According to the army's original plan, if the attack on Russia did not go well, the 750,000 troops would be thrown into the Russian battlefield, but by the end of July, when the army planned to launch a strong attack on Moscow, the number of 3.5 million troops was enough. And it can't accommodate more troops on the battlefield. In other directions, in addition to the North African theater, 200,000 to 300,000 reinforcements are needed. There is no other place where troops are needed. As a result, the Army actually has about 500,000 strategic reserves that have not been dispatched to the battlefield.

This is the basis of Yan Yulong's promise to send additional troops to the Australian mainland. Perhaps it is difficult for these 500,000 strategic reserves to play an important role on the Russian battlefield, but on the Australian battlefield, if the army increases by 500,000 troops, then the result will be completely different. In Gu Xunlei's words, let alone an increase of 500,000 troops, as long as he is given a few more tank divisions and a few motorized infantry divisions, he can knock down the American army.

Gu Xunlei must be looking forward to the arrival of this powerful legion, but for the navy, this is definitely not good news. To put it bluntly, the Army's investment of 50 divisions on the Australian battlefield is enough to fight with MacArthur, and the Marine Corps still has more than 10 divisions on the Australian battlefield, and the problem of troop strength is not very big, and the role of sending more troops is not obvious, and the problems brought are very thorny.

That's the problem of logistics. Unlike the Army, which fought on the battlefield in Russia, the supplies needed by the combat troops on the Australian battlefield could not be transported by rail, but could only be sent by boat. The capacity of sea transportation is indeed higher than that of land transportation, a train can carry up to 2,500 tons of materials, and a 10,000-ton ship can carry 10,000 tons of materials, which is the transportation volume of four trains. But the question is, how many transports are needed to support 1 million land forces, plus more than 100,000 marines? In addition, the Marine Corps is responsible for the logistical support work of the Army's combat units, and as the Army increases its troops, the Marine Corps will also have to expand, and more Marines will have to be deployed, which will increase the pressure on logistical support.

It's no wonder that Gan Yongxing complained, and at the same time, it also proved that Tan Renhao's guess before that was completely correct. The Army's attitude was lukewarm before the attack on Australia, when it did not achieve a major victory on the Russian battlefield and did not even see any hope of defeating Russia by the end of the year. Now, however, the Army has increased its presence in Australia, as if Australia is its own battlefield, and the pressure on the Navy has made the Navy feel very uncomfortable.

It can be said that the Army's willingness to undertake the main combat mission on the Australian mainland battlefield is both a good thing and a bad thing. Tan Renhao had already thought at that time that Yan Dingyu's decision to send troops to Australia was obviously to fight for more interests for the army. Only until the army quickly defeats Australia, then the main credit is the army, plus the army's victory on the Russian battlefield, the status of the army will definitely rise a lot. Perhaps, no one will notice how much effort the Navy made before attacking Australia, and how much the Navy has contributed to ensuring that the Army can successfully conquer Australia. But even if the navy has no intention of competing with the army, at least Nie Renfeng will not do so, so will the navy be able to withstand such great pressure?

Thinking of Gan Yongxing's attitude, Tan Renhao also knew it in his heart, and he also understood why Liao Hanxiang wanted to take down the Hawaiian Islands before the battle on the Australian mainland ended, because only by taking down the Hawaiian Islands would the army not let the army take all the limelight in 26 years. This must also be Gan Yongxing's idea, the Russian battlefield does not have the part of the navy to intervene, and the Australian battlefield is at most the land and navy have equal share of the merits, and if you want not to be left behind by the army, the navy must take down the Hawaiian Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands are places where there is no army to intervene.

Here, Tan Renhao has work to do. The focus of the attack on the Hawaiian Islands remains logistics. If five fleets are concentrated to attack the Hawaiian Islands, then the logistical support of these five fleets must be considered. Perhaps, with the five fleets in turn, with the help of the rapid combat support fleet, that is, the support of the rapid supply fleet with an average speed of more than 24 knots, the logistics of the fleet will not be very difficult. The greatest difficulty is to provide adequate logistical support for the attacking marines.

It's basically a math problem. Tan Renhao made several calculations, and finally came to the conclusion that at least 150 10,000-ton ships should be needed to provide logistical support for the Marine Corps. At that time, in order to ensure the logistics of the army's 1 million combat troops on the Australian battlefield, it was difficult to concentrate 150 transport ships in the Central Pacific. In addition, these 150 transports needed at least 30 to 40 destroyers to escort them, and the Navy did not have so many escort destroyers at that time, and it was not until at least September that it was able to assemble so many escort destroyers.

In other words, now that the battlefield is blooming everywhere, and the navy is taking care of one thing and the other, it can only take care of one end, so how to solve this contradiction?