In 1915, East China's industry officially entered a stage of rapid development, and the military development of East China's autonomous political axe also had such a speed.

The new 28 divisions, plus the previous 13 divisions, formed a small operational army group of 41 divisions.

Army Group A consisted of three armored divisions and five infantry divisions, while Army Group B, C, and D each had nine infantry divisions and were equipped with a certain number of tanks, which were used only to cover the infantry. In addition, there was Army Group E, which consisted of five artillery divisions, three howitzer divisions and two rapid-fire artillery divisions.

In order not to leak the establishment, these group armies are all named with letters, and even if they learn about this establishment, they do not know what it is.

The establishment of the East China Army was initially divided into five group armies, but strictly speaking, they were not considered group armies, but they did not seem too small to become an army, and they were too big to call them group armies.

The Air Force is divided into six formations: tactical bomber formation, strategic bomber formation, attack aircraft formation, fighter formation, reconnaissance aircraft formation, and fish aircraft formation.

At present, the tactical bomber has developed two new aircraft, namely the Type 15 dreadnought bomber, which is a single-wing all-metal single-engine dive bomber, with a whistling device installed in front, and a terrifying sound when diving, with a bomb load of 1,000 kilograms, which is an extremely excellent tactical bomber, which can cause great psychological pressure on the enemy, and has a range of 600 kilometers.

Another kind of tactical bomber is an all-metal three-engine monoplane tactical bomber, with a bomb load of a terrifying 4,600 kilograms, but the flight range is only 400 kilometers, and the investment restrictions are relatively large.

The three-engine, all-metal tactical bomber was named the Hammer 4, which was designed with bomb load in mind.

The strategic red fighter squadron began to be equipped with mosquito bombers, ready to bomb the mainland or sea targets at any time.

The fish aircraft formation is also equipped with mosquito bombers, but with some modifications, the aerial bombs are replaced with torpedoes, which can be loaded with two 533mm caliber torpedoes.

The attack aircraft formation began to be equipped with a new type of all-metal attack aircraft developed by the East China Aircraft Factory, which was named Flying Locust 1, and the fuselage of the aircraft adopted key protection, with two machine guns in front of the fuselage and three machine guns on each side, a total of eight machines.

The Locust 1 is not only a strong attack aircraft, but also a fighter, but the speed is slightly slower, but it has a strong ability to fly at low altitudes and has a good effect on machine gun protection.

In the case of low-altitude strafing, the opponent's anti-aircraft guns are basically useless, only the opponent's anti-aircraft machine guns can play a role, and the Flying Locust 1 is to choose the key protection against the threat of machine guns.

Two new fighters were added to the fighter formation, one was a modified Mosquito bomber, which was extremely fast, but because it was wooden, it was easy to be damaged in air combat. The other is the all-metal fighter, named the Sword 1 type, the Sword 1 is relatively small, flexible, the maximum speed is 430 kilometers per hour, it is also a very fast fighter, the range is 1,000 kilometers, it cannot fly to the local airspace to fight, but at the speed of the mosquito bomber, there is no need to have fighter cover at all, so there is no need to equip long-range fighters for the time being.

But in the future, there will definitely be long-range fighters, because the long-range bombers of the East China Air Force are basically not equipped with any air combat weapons.

The Mosquito bomber is already the fastest at the moment, and it is estimated that no aircraft will be able to surpass it in ten years. However, the East China Air Force will inevitably be equipped with strategic bombers with more bomb load and longer range, and the 1,800-kilogram bomb load of the Mosquito bomber is not too sufficient.

Reconnaissance aircraft formation, currently equipped with aircraft has been updated to Eagle 4, this aircraft also adopts an all-metal monoplane design, has a good vision, a maximum speed of 450 kilometers per hour, has a front-loading machine gun, the combat ability is much higher than the Eagle 3, and from wooden to all-metal design, the protection ability is also greatly enhanced.

The aircraft factory is currently ramping up production orders for the Air Force, which needs at least 3,000 Mosquito bombers, 200 of which have been converted into land-based fish planes, to cope with the Shandong battlefield.

There are also orders for 200 Hammer 4 tactical bombers, which are more expensive to build, and are not as cheap as the previous wooden planes.

The Sharp Sword 1 fighter must have at least 100 fighters to cope with the Shandong battlefield, but the Air Force ordered 200 fighters, because it is also equipped with aircraft in Shandong, and it is very likely that there will be fighters among them.

In terms of the Locust 1 strike aircraft, the Air Force also ordered 200 aircraft. The Type 15 dreadnought bomber was also ordered for 300 units, which were a sharp weapon to cooperate with the army's operations.

The Air Force has enough military money to order these planes, and the aircraft factory sells them to the Air Force at cost price, although these planes are all-metal aircraft, but they are still relatively early aircraft, and the cost is not so scary.

The new equipment of the Air Force is the foundation for victory, and Xia Jun naturally cannot be stingy, and the East China Aircraft Factory has been expanding its production capacity for several months, and the production capacity has been expanded to a very considerable extent at this time.

The East China Aircraft Factory has become the world's aircraft manufacturing center, where nearly half of the world's war-fighting aircraft are manufactured.

Eighty percent of the Allied planes participating in the war were manufactured by the East China Aircraft Factory, and 30 percent of Germany's planes were also manufactured by the East China Aircraft Factory.

The East China Aircraft Factory is an important part of undertaking orders, is an important military weapon, both sides of the war are trapped in the aircraft air battle, bombing and difficult to extricate themselves, air supremacy is too important, having air supremacy is equivalent to having a strong morale, as long as the soldiers firmly believe that they can win the war, then they can also win the war.

As the U.S. Infantry Handbook says, "When both you and the enemy feel like you're going to lose, maybe both sides are right." ”

Confidence is the determining factor in war, and many times even surpasses the gap in equipment.

Compared to the busyness of the aircraft factories, the tank factories are also busy, and they are trying to build more tanks.

There is no shortage of materials, there is no shortage of financial resources, there is no shortage of personnel, and what reason is there to build more tanks without doing anything? The tank factory in Germany was producing the Crusher 1, which was intended to be sold to the German Army, but the German Army had little interest in this weapon for the time being.

As for the Entente, they were completely unaware of the existence of such equipment.

After several months of development, the East China Chariot Factory quickly developed the Spitfire, which weighed five tons and could shoot flames up to 150 meters away.

When this chariot shoots flames, it is as if a string of lava is thrown.

The flame tank was named the 'Suffocation 1 Flame Chariot', and the East China Tank Factory developed the first self-propelled gun, which was armed with a 120mm mortar with a range of 6,000 meters and could fire 6 shells per minute.

Since the self-propelled gun is mounted on the vehicle, it can shoot while moving, and the survivability is super high, and the enemy's artillery is basically unable to lock the position of this self-propelled gun.

These two weapons belong to the East China Chariot Factory independently developed, Xia Jun did not provide any technology, in the development of the military industry, the East China Autonomous Political Axe already has a certain strength, of which Feng Ru contributed a lot, because he is proficient in machinery, so he is responsible for solving many problems.

Feng Ru's role in the military industry is no longer limited to aircraft design, that is, he can also do something in the design of warships, but he is not very professional, but his mechanical skills are solid.

With the first self-propelled guns, tank factories began to design more self-propelled guns, which had strong support capabilities and good survivability, much better than towed guns.

The number of new weapons in the East China Army is constantly increasing, and at this time the East China Army is in a stage of cultivating confidence, and if an army wants to have the belief that it is invincible, then it must rely on continuous victories to forge it.

As was believed in the law of ancient warfare, if a new army loses the first battle, then the future of this army will be bleak.

In terms of the quality of soldiers, although the East China Army is carrying out hellish training, there may still be some gaps in quality compared with the Chinese army.

However, the victory in the last war made the morale of the East China Army high.

Self-confidence and hard work to prepare for winning the war are the current East China Army, and new weapons are an important part.

…… Cai's First Army invaded Sichuan in late July and occupied several county towns one after another, but the troops dispatched by the Beiyang Political Axe had also entered Sichuan.

Cao Kun, Zhang Jingyu, Feng Yuxiang and other Beiyang generals were among the ranks of Cai Yi.

The artillery of the two sides bombarded each other, and although Cao Kun intended to release water, it was based on the premise of not defeating his army, so it was still a decent fight.

Feng Yuxiang did it very explicitly, he communicated with Cai Ye before the war, the trenches on both sides were dug only one foot deep, the guns were fired into the sky, and the Beiyang Army led by Feng Yuxiang poured the whole box of shells into the gutter.

The only one who is more attentive to the battle is Zhang Jingyu, but it is a pity that it is a straw bag, as soon as he enters the battlefield, he was defeated and lost by Cai Yi, in this war to protect the country, Zhang Jingyu's confidence was lost, maybe this is the reason why he took 100,000 Beiyang troops but could not defeat 3,000 Hunan troops in history.

The Beiyang Army had a large number of troops, reaching nearly 60,000 people, forming a ten-to-one situation with Hu [***], and Cao Kun ordered to hold on, so that Hu [***] could not fight the battlefield.

Seeing this situation, Cai Yi ordered the troops to be defeated on the front line, and Zhang Jingyu saw that the protection [***] could not support it, so he led the army to charge with great interest.

As a result, he was killed by Cai Yi, and the Beiyang Army was suddenly defeated, and was driven all over the mountain by Yunnan Hu [***], and Zhang Jingyu was defeated with a disgraced face, but he was so frightened that his soul was scared.

Just when the two armies were fighting, the mixed brigade sent by the East China Political Axe was watching the battle from a distance.

After the arrival of the mixed brigade of the East China Army, both armies strictly restrained the behavior of the soldiers so as not to be punished by the combined gendarmerie, especially Wu Peifu, who violated military discipline and was shot on the spot.

Wu Peifu's magic weapon for governing the army is to kill, and those who dare to retreat on the battlefield are killed on the spot, and at the same time, another magic weapon is to organize men and horses to sneak attack the opponent's headquarters. This is how Wu Peifu won the first Zhifeng War, but Wu Peifu did not use this method at present, because he and Cao Kun had no intention of fighting to the death with Hu [***].

Soon a very strange phenomenon appeared on the battlefield in Sichuan, that is, the two sides began to enter the stage of confrontation.

The Beiyang Army has no will to fight, and Zhang Jingyu, who only intends to fight against Hu [***], is already powerless at this time, and he has been frightened, so he can only play soy sauce.

The Beiyang Army led by Feng Yuxiang came to fight soy sauce from the beginning, and when Zhang Jingyu's troops were defeated, they took advantage of the chaos to incorporate many Beiyang Army, and their strength was still growing.

Cao Kun is a symbol of the surname and the protection [***] to fight a dozen, at this time Wu Peifu, who has been promoted to the division commander, even drank and wrote poems there all day long, and secretly sent his poems to Cai Yi every day for appreciation.

Cai Ye fought a few big battles, and the ammunition was almost consumed, although the East China Commercial Hall had assistance to them, but after all, they couldn't withstand the big fight, and the transportation was inconvenient, and the ammunition was very inconvenient to carry.

The ammunition of the Beiyang Army is not too much, although there is a railway to Sichuan, but the battlefield is not near the railway.

What the two sides did at this time was to confront each other, firing a few shots into the sky from time to time to confirm that this was a battlefield.

At the time of the confrontation between the two sides, Liu Shixian of Guizhou announced that Guizhou was reading power and organized the Second Army to go to Guangxi.

Guangxi is Lu Rongting's territory, Lu Rongting is Yuan Shikai's son and daughter, Yuan Shikai in order to win Lu Rongting to stand in his camp, and gave Lu Rongting 10,000 guns.

Seeing that Guizhou was about to fight, Lu Rongting didn't want to clash with the Guizhou army at all, which was detrimental to his strength, so Lu Rongting directly turned against the water, and also announced that Guangxi Reading Power would join the camp of protecting [***].

At this time, Guizhou Hu [***] had no excuse to fight Guangxi, but formed a coalition with Guangxi and sent troops to Hunan together.

Guangxi Lu Rongting's backlash made Yuan Shikai, who was in Yanjing, scold and be angry. The stalemate in the Sichuan war situation is also the main reason for Guizhou and Guangxi.

The warlords of these two provinces were also afraid before!

What if I join the protection [***] and is exterminated by Yuan Datou?

This is the problem of standing in line, and as a result, Cai Ye not only won a few battles in Sichuan, but also gained a firm foothold, which emboldened the warlords of these two provinces.

Yuan Datou is not very good! Now it is clear that people's hearts are lost.

And for the officers of the Beiyang Army, they are also waiting and watching at this time.

One is the north wind, the other is the south wind, the south wind gradually began to hedge with the north wind, although it is not clear for a while, but the south wind is also very strong.

Many officers of the Beiyang Army were against the imperial system, but they also had to think about their own future, so they were also waiting to see which side had the advantage, and they would stand on whichever side.

Standing in line cannot be sloppy, and if you are sloppy, you will lose your future, and you will even be pushed to the end and unable to turn over.

Although the icing on the cake is not as good as sending charcoal in the snow, it is risky to send charcoal in the snow, and although the icing on the cake does not get too many benefits, at least it does not hurt.

At this time, the combined gendarmerie in Sichuan provided some food to both armies in the name of preventing soldiers from looting, so as to ensure that the soldiers of both sides did not go hungry.

The stalemate in the Protectorate War also made Yuan Shikai feel very angry and anxious, and Yuan Shikai began to feel that there were some people inside who did not support him as emperor.

In order to win over Xia Jun, Yuan Shikai made Xia Jun the king of East China at the end of July, and sent Xia Jun a half-table banquet by train.

Yuan Shikai sent the banquet to tell Xia Jun that this banquet can be divided equally, and the world can also be divided equally, and he intends to invite Xia Jun to come out to pacify the southwest [***].

Xia Jun was unmoved when he learned that he was named the queen of East China, and at the same time asked people to return the banquet, and at the same time reaffirmed his neutral position in public again.

Divide the world equally?

He Yuan Shikai is willing, he is still unwilling!

Yuan Shikai saw that the banquet was returned every time, and knew that he had been politely refused, and he also felt the unwillingness to cooperate with the East China Autonomous Political Axe.

Obviously, the East China Autonomous Political Axe was also a little resistant to him being called emperor, but the situation was okay for Yuan Shikai, and it was already very good that people didn't pull the banner against him.

The question is whether he can wipe out the Southwest Protector [***], if he can eliminate the Southwest Protector [***], then the interior can still be stabilized.

You must know that his model brigade has trained three divisions of the Praetorian Guard for the Yuan family, which is also Yuan Shikai's confidence, but these three divisions cannot be easily mobilized.

Cao Kun was ineffective in Sichuan, and Duan Qirui also said that he was not sick, Xia Jun strictly maintained neutrality, and warned the media in the autonomous region not to stir up more incitement in order to disrupt the situation.

At present, China's industry is mainly concentrated in the seven coastal provinces of East China, and even if the other provinces are in chaos, the losses will not be too great, and once the seven provinces of East China are in chaos, the losses will be extremely huge, just like California in the United States and Osaka in the United States, where these industries are concentrated, are the dead holes of an industrial country, and once they are defeated by the enemy, most of the country will basically be defeated.

At present, except for the seven autonomous provinces of East China, which have developed large-scale industries, the other provinces are still agricultural provinces, and the characteristics of an agricultural country are decentralized, and the losses caused by the war to protect the country are not large, and they are under the control of the East China Autonomous Political Axe, and the losses are even smaller.

Xia Jun really did not have the extra strength to take care of the issue of Yuan Shikai becoming emperor, in addition to assembling a group army group in the Shandong battlefield, the East China Army also sent anti-bandit troops to various provinces, and also sent a reinforced division to Xinjiang Province, and there were four production corps in the northeast.

The strength of the East China Army is currently in a relatively scattered state, and the East China Army is preparing to conduct a landing exercise along the coast, and three infantry divisions are participating in this landing exercise.

The three divisions were transferred to Guangdong, and the exercise site was located on Hainan Island, and the exercise was to land in Hainan from Guangdong in preparation for landing on Taiwan.

In Hangzhou, at this time, there was only one 42nd Division, which had been formed for less than a year, to defend it, and the strength could be described as extremely empty, although the troops were empty, but they were very safe.

At present, the armies are completely unable to turn against each other, and it is impossible for the army to deploy troops to land in Hangzhou, but Zhejiang's coastal defense is very strong.

Xia Jun attached great importance to the landing exercise and personally went to the scene to watch the exercise.

This exercise is related to the battle to recover Taiwan, and in the same way, this exercise must be tightly guarded, and if it is detected by Yu Ben, it is easy to speculate on the intention of the East China Autonomous Political Axe to strengthen the defense of Taiwan's coastal areas.

(To be continued)