Chapter 1069: The Darkness Before Dawn (Ask for Subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

After signing the agreement, Ma Zheng immediately sent a working group headed by Feng An to accompany the Soviet representatives to the north, on the one hand, to guide the Soviet side to establish a production line for assault rifles and bazookas, and at the same time, to let him go to receive the warships, so as not to be stolen by Lao Maozi. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, Ma Zheng also believed that Stalin would not be so short-sighted, and the current Soviet Union was in need of allies, and Huaxia helped the Soviet Union in its most difficult time. Especially when the Soviet side did not pay for the goods for two consecutive years, it still supplied penicillin drugs, I don't know how many Soviet officers and soldiers were saved, this is a real send-off, I guess Stalin will not pit them.

What's more, the Soviets did sell these warships at a high price, almost three times the cost of building them, and they also included a large number of old goods. If they really secretly replace those warships with decent performance, then there is no need to deal with them in the future.

However, the heart of harming others is indispensable, but the heart of guarding against others is indispensable. Although Ma Zheng didn't think that the Soviets would do this, it was better to send someone over to watch it earlier.

On January 12, 1943, it was a good day for Ma Zheng and the entire Saibei Corps, and after waiting for nearly half a year, the batch of P40 fighters ordered by Huaxia Company from the United States finally arrived in Tianjin.

In fact, these fighters arrived at the Hawaii Naval Base as early as three months ago, but due to the blockade of the Japanese Navy and the fact that the maximum range of the P40 fighters is only 1,100 kilometers, they cannot fly directly from Hawaii to Tianjin, so they can only stay in Hawaii before defeating the Japanese Navy.

Fortunately, after the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses, so the blockade of the Pacific region became a little inadequate, so the American side seized the opportunity and finally sent these planes back to Tianjin.

Watching the planes land at Tianjin Airport, and then quickly transfer to the rear after filling up the tank, Ma Zheng was as excited as Wang Zhengyang, Xue Bicheng, and Huang Liren. Although the P40 is not an advanced fighter, and it is not even comparable to the Japanese Zero fighter, it is much stronger than the Type 96 fighter they are equipped with now.

You must know that the Type 96 fighter has no chance at all when facing the Zero fighter head-on, but as long as the P40 fighter gives full play to the advantages of the fighter and adopts coordination tactics, it will still have the power to fight against the Zero fighter.

With this batch of fighters, Ma Zheng has a bottom on the next battle plan.

After smoothly receiving these brand-new US planes, Ma Zheng immediately expanded the aviation brigade into an army aviation brigade, with Wang Zhengyang as the brigade commander, Chen Zhiheng, political commissar of the reorganized 2nd Division and 3rd Brigade, as political commissar, Xue Bicheng as deputy brigade commander, and Huang Liren as chief of staff.

The entire army aviation brigade has four regiments, two fighter regiments, one bomber regiment, one transport aircraft regiment, and an airborne regiment with an authorized establishment of 1,200 people.

Although the entire corps headquarters was not optimistic about Ma Zheng's formation of an airborne regiment, the main reason was that the Japanese army had been defeated by them several times when they used airborne troops, so the entire corps really looked down on the airborne troops.

But Ma Zheng knew that the airborne troops were still very strong, but the Japanese destroyed the airborne troops with two poles. First, because Japan does not have a separate air force, there is no advanced tactical concept to support the use of the air force and airborne troops, and secondly, there is no experience, if the Germans did not provide some technology and equipment, the Japanese airborne troops may still be in the era of parachuting and falling to the neck.

However, Ma Zheng is different, as a special operations commander who traveled back in later generations, he himself is a very good airborne soldier, and he knows airborne operations very well. Not only does he have advanced tactical concepts, but he also has appropriate training methods, and he believes that the airborne troops he has trained will certainly not be comparable to those garbage of the little devils, and they will inevitably become a blockbuster when the time comes.

Fortunately, Political Commissar Luo and others did not object, after all, the entire airborne regiment was only 1,200 people, and compared to other army units, it was only two reinforced battalions.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of January, and the Spring Festival of 1943 was only a week away.

On January 27, the twenty-third day of the lunar month, under the chairmanship of Ma Zheng, the military and political leaders of the various military regions of the Saibei Corps held a three-day meeting in Datong to discuss and formulate a development plan for 1943.

This time, Ma Zheng did not pay as much attention to the army and light government as before, he asked for both military and political attention. The armed forces should draw up plans for the development of the armed forces, and government departments should also set their own development goals.

In particular, Ma Zheng has high requirements for government departments, and he asked the local governments of all military regions to achieve three basic goals in the new year. The first basic goal is to basically satisfy self-sufficiency in food, and even have a certain surplus.

The second basic goal is that the traffic between the major cities of the province should be basically smooth, from Bayannur Linhe in the west, to Xilinhot in the east, to Erenhot in the north, and to Zhangjiakou in the south.

The third basic goal is that the most basic coverage of science, education, culture, and public health should reach the level of townships and towns, and in particular, basic education should be put on the agenda of government work, and a number of primary and secondary schools should be built in various urban and rural areas under the control of the Saibei Corps.

As a person of later generations, Ma Zheng is well aware of the importance of education. Now the war is basically coming to an end, and if it does not end early, it will only be two and a half years until August '45. It is not advisable to blindly expand the armed forces and prepare for war while ignoring the economic and cultural construction of the defense zone.

What's more, the economy is the foundation of all superstructures. If the economy cannot keep up, there will be no way to talk about the development of the troops.

When the army is small, it is good to say, you can eat and drink everywhere, and even rely on capture alone to support the troops, but now it is different, the total strength of the Saibei Corps has exceeded 800,000 people, in addition to the traditional army, the navy and the air force are in the process of vigorous construction, if there is no good economic environment, these arms that eat gold and drink silver can really not afford to feed.

In addition, the Chinese/army led by the Saibei Corps had already recovered most of North China, and the Japanese puppet army had been compressed to Shandong, Henan, and other places, so the next attack on these places was inevitable. Secondly, there is the Kwantung Army in the northeast, which is also the target of Ma Zheng's attack.

And the more it came to the end, the more fierce the resistance of the Japanese army became, which is completely conceivable. The next big war will either not be fought, and once it starts, it will be a life-and-death Armageddon.

Because of this, troops must accumulate strength, from food to ammunition to other strategic or non-strategic supplies, all in sufficient quantities. In particular, heavy firepower equipment such as tanks, armored vehicles, airplanes, assault rifles, and rocket launchers can only be prepared for a decisive battle with the Japanese army.

However, it is not easy to accomplish this goal, you must know that the current defense areas of Ma Zheng's department are located in northern Xinjiang, with harsh climatic conditions, vast and sparsely populated, and have always been the best interpretation of barren land.

In ancient times, it was the territory of Beirong, the territory of the Xiongnu since the Qin and Han dynasties, the territory of the Turks and Khitans during the Tang and Song dynasties, and later the sphere of influence of ethnic minorities such as the Jurchens and Mongolians.

For thousands of years, the food problem in this land has always been a top priority, and food shortages seem to be a common occurrence. Even since Ma Zheng took charge of this land, food is often insufficient, and he needs to spend a lot of money to buy it from Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places every year.

However, Ma Zheng knows that although the Suicha area is not a major grain province, it is still no problem to meet the food rations of less than 10 million people in the province, but many fertile lands in the Suicha area have not yet been developed, such as the Hetao Plain, which is known as the south of the Yangtze River, so a very important task of the XPCC and the local government in the new year is to promote agricultural development.

As long as the people keep their mouths closed, other things will be easy to do, so the phenomenon of food shortage must be solved. Therefore, Ma Zheng specially allocated 3 million oceans from the funds seized by the army for water conservancy construction and the promotion of high-yield crops.

In addition, the traffic situation in the defense area must be improved, the Suicha area is sparsely populated, so far there are less than 10 cities with a population of more than 500,000, from east to west only Chengde, Zhangjiakou, Datong, Guisui, Baotou, and Linhe can be counted as listed, and the others are small counties with a population of less than 100,000.

Because of this, there is not yet a complete road between the major cities in the defense area, and this has seriously affected the development of the military and political affairs of the Northern Saibei Corps, so this year Ma Zheng instructed the local government and the garrison to actively improve the traffic situation in their respective defense areas.

In addition, Ma Zheng also set development goals for the Corps headquarters, requiring all units to step up training and all arsenals to continue to expand production capacity. Efforts should be made to complete the refitting of 10 reorganized divisions within half a year, and the scale of armored divisions should be expanded accordingly.

At the same time, there will be large-scale conscription this year, and by the end of the year, the total strength of the whole army will reach at least 1 million, including 900,000 in the army, 80,000 in the navy, and 20,000 in the air force.

In addition, Ma Zheng also particularly emphasized that all units should be prepared for war from now on, and in Ma Zheng's original words, 1943 will be a crucial year in determining the situation in North China.

In this year, the Chinese people and army are likely to make a major breakthrough in North China, and it is even possible to completely drive the Japanese army out of North China and end the fighting in North China. In a word, China has entered the eve of the dawn, and although it is dark, the future is bright.