Luo Jian wanted to personally command the combat operation, but Shi Kefa resolutely disagreed, the reason was very simple, Liu Lan was going to give birth in a few months, and the old lady said that if he let Luo Jian go, she would be anxious with Shi Kefa.

In fact, Shi Kefa knew that there was not much suspense in the current battle, it didn't matter if Luo Jian went or not, if he was fighting an uncertain battle, Shi Kefa would not stop Luo Jian from leading the troops in person.

In the end, it was determined that Huang Degong was responsible for the general attack in the north, Huang Degong said, the Metropolitan Governor went in person, he had nothing to fight about, just be a deputy to the Metropolitan Governor, since the Metropolitan Governor did not go in person, who would dare to fight with Lao Huang?

Luo Jian and Shi Kefa also thought that the Fifth and Sixth Divisions in the direction of Huai'an and Xuzhou and the Fourth Division in Fengyang were all Huang Degong's old troops, and he personally went out, and there would definitely be no problem with the command and coordination of the troops, and it was reassuring for him to go.

At the beginning of July, the provisional government activated all propaganda machines, and the "China Daily" first sounded the clarion call to march across the country, and then the Red Lady's Art Troupe also began to tour from Nanjing, and even the "Ming Pao" sponsored by the Senate also published a series of articles entitled "Unite and Win the Final Victory."

Liu Lan even dragged her heavy body and personally organized a speech team to give a wide range of lectures on the streets, factories and mines, and fields.

More than half a month of propaganda has thoroughly mobilized the mood of the people, "All for victory!" The slogan was shouted from Nanjing to Guangxi.

Although there were still some discordant sounds, they were extremely weak in the vigorous preparations for war, and were soon drowned out in the passionate melody of war.

All factories related to war preparations spontaneously began to work overtime, and the military factories had already begun to work in three shifts, and some workers did not even go home during the time off, but asked their daughters-in-law to deliver meals to the factories, just to save time back and forth.

In the military clothing factory outside Yangzhou, Mrs. Gao has not been home for half a month, although the cart keeps transporting out, but the military uniforms produced in the warehouse are still piled up.

In that mysterious courtyard, all kinds of people kept coming in and out every day, and Lai Fu kept opening the wax pills on the table, all of which were all kinds of information collected from the Manchus, and the information that Dorgon had recently summoned his ministers to discuss state affairs was also among them.

The General Staff Headquarters located in the northwest corner of Nanjing City has been brightly lit every night for more than 10 consecutive days, and Luo Jian and Shi Kefa have been living here for three or four days, constantly studying and perfecting combat plans and various plans together with Huang Degong and Yi Bangcai every day.

When He Gang, the head of the General Logistics Department, went to the General Staff Headquarters to report to Luo Jian and Shi Kefa that all kinds of military supplies had been prepared, Luo Jian and Shi Kefa looked at He Gang, who was already tired and deformed, with some surprise.

More than 100,000 troops all had to participate in the war, and the amount of logistical support work was far greater than people could have imagined. There are already more than 200 people in the General Logistics Department, but there are still too many arrangements and coordination in all aspects, looking at He Gang's current appearance, Luo Jian and Shi Kefa both know that He Gang is desperate.

Zheng Zhilong also left Nanjing, and personally took the Fujian Navy Division to Liangguang to transport ammunition and clothing, the grain and grass of the first and second armies were directly guaranteed by Liangguang, and the nearly 60,000 people of the two armies were not under great pressure on Liangguang.

"Where has the First Army been?" In the war room of the General Staff, Luo Jian asked towards Yi Bangcai.

"I have arrived in Hunan Daoxian County, and it is estimated that an attack on the Qing troops in Hunan has been launched." Yi Bang replied.

After listening to Yi Bangcai's answer, Luo Jian was also very helpless, he knew that what Yi Bangcai said was only the news he received five or six days ago, and this was reported through the post station express horse.

"What about the Second Army?"

"There is no news from the Second Army yet, and it is estimated that it is still on the march." Yi Bangcai pointed to the route of the second army's march to Guizhou on the map.

"Brother Xian, our troops are still insufficient!" Luo Jian stared at the national map hanging on the wall for a long time, then turned to Shi Kefa and said.

"Xinghua, in my opinion, the Hangzhou garrison division has been taken by Ma Yingkui for more than half a year, so it should have a certain combat effectiveness, right? Ma Yingkui has written several reports to the General Staff and asked to participate in the war, do you think you can consider it and let them also participate in the war? ”

"Metropolitan Governor, Governor, Hangzhou Garrison Division hasn't changed its clothes yet, can it be done?" Yi Bangcai said.

"You can't fight without changing your clothes? I see that the soldiers don't all have cannons and muskets, right? My advice is to bring them with you. Huang Degong, who walked in from outside the door, heard it, and his loud voice began to shout.

"You don't know yet, do you? Ma Yingkui is not a fuel-efficient lamp, he has already asked for more than 2,000 rifles from me, and I think that with these rifles, the training of the garrison division will definitely not be pulled down. Shi Kefa said with some embarrassment, he forgot to tell Luo Jian about this.

"In this way, Chief of Staff, you will bring people to Hangzhou tomorrow to assess the garrison division, and if the assessment is passed, we will change the Hangzhou garrison division to the tenth division, and let them serve as the reserve of the whole army in the north, and prepare to participate in the battle while training." Luo Jian pondered for a moment, then turned to Yi Bangcai and said.

Yi Bang quickly agreed.

The recruitment of the Nanjing Garrison Brigade far exceeded Luo Jian and Shi Kefa's expectations, and they did not expect that the enthusiasm of young people to join the army would be so high.

In just over half a month, more than 11,000 young people have signed up to join the army, and there are still people from Zhejiang and Fujian who are rushing over.

In view of this situation, Luo Jian convened a meeting at the General Staff Headquarters and carefully analyzed the current situation, and everyone thought that it was really not enough to recruit one Nanjing garrison brigade, so they simply turned the Nanjing garrison brigade into a garrison division, and at the same time recruited another division in Hangzhou.

In Luo Jian's expectation, after solving the national problem, the entire country will maintain about 300,000 troops, not that it can't afford to raise more troops, but that it is unnecessary.

The Wehrmacht of the future will certainly use all new rifles and new artillery, and these equipment are far beyond this era.

If the army is expanded too much now, it will face the problem of disarmament after the war, which is also a headache, and Luo Jian wants to find a balance between solving the national problem and limiting the number of troops.

According to everyone's idea, the army is to recruit another 200,000 people, which can be fully affordable by the provisional government's finances, and the expanding arsenal is also fully capable of production, but Luo Jian is not ready to do this.

Luo Jian planned to fight a few battles in Shandong first, and after the battles, after making a comprehensive assessment of the combat capabilities of the enemy and us, he would decide whether to recruit more troops.

After all the preparations were basically in place, Luo Jian, Shi Kefa, Huang Degong and others arrived at Wang Qiang's Seventh Division.

The Seventh Division will be the sharp knife force for this northward attack, and everyone wants to see how they are training now.

After the bloody battle of Guazhou and several trips to Japan, Wang Qiang has completely lost his original stunned energy, and now he looks like a young and promising general, which makes Luo Jian very satisfied.

Shi Kefa and Huang Degong both felt something different from other troops from the Seventh Division, but neither of them could say what it was, but Luo Jian had a very familiar feeling.

The Seventh Division did not have a single soldier from the previous Ming Army, and the Seventh Division, which was like a blank sheet of paper, was built by Luo Jian and Wang Qiang in complete accordance with the idea of building the army of the People's Liberation Army in another time and space, and of course there were many styles of the People's Liberation Army.

"What is this?" Huang Degong took an iron barrel-like thing from a soldier, he had seen a mortar, it was a bit like that, but much smaller.

"This is a grenadier canister, which can be used by a single soldier, which is equivalent to a small mortar." Wang Qiang replied beside him.

This kind of grenadier was specially made by Liu Weimin for the Seventh Division, because the output of the new type of zha medicine is not high, and the use of artillery must be guaranteed, so this small grenadier is only produced fifty pieces, and Liu Weimin hopes that it can play a role at a critical time.

It was precisely because the production of the new ZHA medicine was not high that Liu Weimin gave up the production of grenades, and he knew that these few new ZHA medicines had to be delivered to the Qing soldiers by remote delivery to produce the best results.

Liu Weimin very much hoped that the war could be postponed for half a year to a year, so that the output of the new type of ZHA medicine in the chemical factory could basically guarantee the operation of the Seventh Division, but Luo Jian was not prepared to wait that long, he felt that the current equipment had exceeded the Qing soldiers too much.

Luo Jian actually has his own considerations on this issue, and he also knows that if everything is on the right track in the chemical plant and the production capacity is greatly improved, the Qing soldiers will be completely vulnerable in front of the Wehrmacht using the new type of zha medicine, but Luo Jian feels that such a battle cannot hone the troops and make the Wehrmacht a strong army.

Luo Jian's ideas were supported by Shi Kefa and Huang Degong, both of whom believed that only a unit that had passed the test of blood and fire could truly become a strong army.

Despite this, Liu Weimin still did his best to provide support for the Seventh Division, the number of howitzers in the Seventh Division was not large, like other divisions, there were only 36 guns, but these guns were already fully equipped with the performance of indirect aiming and shooting, and Liu Weimin equipped all these guns with new Zhana medicine shells.

Because of this, when Shi Kefa and Huang Degong came to the artillery regiment of the Seventh Division, they did not feel the difference, but felt that the artillery of the Seventh Division was too weak.

Wang Qiang listened to the words of the two of them, and just smiled.

1 August was a good day, the Daxiao field in the west of Nanjing was already crowded with people, and the citizens of Nanjing rushed over very early, and under the organization of the Nanjing garrison, more than 100,000 people were in good order, and everyone was looking forward to the moment when the swearing-in meeting began.

"It's coming! Look! The Seventh Division is here! With a burst of cheers, the Seventh Division, dressed in green imitation camouflage uniforms, began to enter the field.

"You see, how is the gun on their shoulders different from everyone else?" From time to time, someone in the crowd of onlookers asked.

The first to enter the colonel's field was the 7th Division and the 1st Regiment, and many people noticed that the rifles on the shoulders of the officers and men of the 1st Regiment were different from those of other units.

Soon, all the men and horses of the Seventh Division marched neatly and sang loud military songs into the school field, and as the rows of artillery entered the school field under the traction of mules and horses, the crowd of spectators resounded with bursts of exclamations.

Luo Jian, Shi Kefa and others also arrived later, standing on the rostrum, Luo Jian looked at the Seventh Division that had been modernized, and sighed in his heart, the four of them have been struggling for several years in this era, accumulating thick and thin, isn't this the day they are waiting for?

With Luo Jian announcing the order to march across the country, the warm atmosphere on the colonel's field reached its peak, and the continuous sound of firecrackers had already sounded around him, Luo Jian did not ask for firecrackers, these were the spontaneous actions of the people.