Li Zhigao did want to hold a military exercise of the garrison corps in the near future, and he did invite many celebrities in the political and business circles in China, that is, the so-called well-known scholars, well-known politicians, and well-known businessmen, to visit, and it was Zhao Jiayi himself who proposed this plan.

Originally, military exercises were just a very normal process, after all, these garrison corps were newly recruited, and usually, after a period of training, a military exercise similar to an exam would be conducted to measure the results of the previous period of training.

This system of conducting a division-level military exercise every three months of training was the training system of a field division at the earliest, while the reserve mobilization unit conducted a division-level military exercise every six months, that is, once every six months, and later recruited garrison troops, which belonged to the mercenary-style professional military units, and still followed this training mechanism of field units to carry out military exercises every three months.

The advantage of such a military exercise mechanism is that it can allow the troops to quickly form combat effectiveness, and the disadvantage is that it is too expensive, but for Li Zhigao today, money is not a big problem, not to mention that he does not have many professional troops at this time.

No matter how unsatisfactory Li Zhigao is in politics and in dealing with outsiders, he has never been the slightest slack or sloppy in economic and military construction, and this is also the fundamental reason why he has been able to stand tall and become stronger and stronger.

To put it bluntly, any conspiracy and political decision-making, in the final analysis, revolve around strength, and if the difference in strength is too great, then no conspiracy or trick has any power.

For example, the new provisional government that the League took advantage of Li Zhigao's absence some time ago to create a new provisional government, and the provisional president elected by surprise, was ultimately not recognized by the powerful warlords of all sides because it did not have its own army and strong strength. In the end, it only became the current embarrassing situation of just talking to oneself.

Many people of insight have already seen this, and have begun to abandon the League and move closer to the Liberation Party, but it is a pity that Sun Wen and others are stubborn and still refuse to give up their ideals, or their efforts to fight for power and profit. That is, Li Zhigao was not ruthless enough to deal with these people coldly, which caused the seemingly deadlocked situation now.

If the head of the Jiangnan Military Government had been replaced by Yuan Shikai, I am afraid that the provisional government formed by Sun Wen and others would have been forcibly dissolved, and Sun Wen and others would have been arrested.

Of course, in fact, in terms of means and final results, it is still the Jiangnan military government that is one step ahead. From the weakness and passivity at the beginning, to the current unity of the whole country, it is equivalent to using those people in the League as catfish, creating a catfish effect, and stimulating the efficiency of the government operation of the Jiangnan Military Government.

In other words, by fighting with the League in the newspapers, it is like engaging in a debate, and it is a cheating asymmetrical debate. In the process, through half-truths and half-truths. A great tide of discussion among the whole people was formed, which twisted the Jiangnan Military Government down to the ordinary people and up to the officials and nobles, and was kidnapped by the propaganda machine launched by the Jiangnan Military Government, making people more and more disgusted with the democratic politics represented by the League. On the contrary, he became more and more fond of Li Zhigao's enlightened dictatorship, and gradually moved closer and closer to the road of dictatorship.

In other words, the League and others are already representatives of the democratic republican faction in the eyes of everyone. And the League has not made any achievements so far, the only thing that will be full of fake big empty guns and the villain style of grabbing class and power, and the lace news of their leaders also shows that some of the high-level people of the League are a group of people with corrupt private morality, and most of the people will not distinguish the inside story, and will only rely on what the propaganda says, thinking that the people of the League are not good people, and the democratic republic represented by the League is not a good thing, which is not suitable for China's current status quo.

On the contrary, because the Liberation Party led by Li Zhigao has real political achievements, plus it is the main force for overthrowing the Qing government, and because the territory is not large, the number of troops is not large, and because the secrecy measures are well done and they are very good at showmanship, in the eyes of ordinary people, Li Zhigao's army has strict military discipline and has never bullied the people, while Li Zhigao's government is honest and honest, and Li Zhigao himself is a model of abandoning his family and business for the country and the people. In particular, the achievements of construction in all aspects of the Taiping area and the real improvement of the people's living standards have made everyone full of feelings and expectations for Li Zhigao's Liberation Party, and at the same time, they have also expressed their support for the enlightened dictatorship of the representatives of the Liberation Party.

It's just that this is done, and the bad thing that Li Zhigao originally didn't deal with enough has turned into a great thing. Up to now, outsiders think that this was planned by Li Zhigao from beginning to end, and that he had let the League take advantage of the loopholes to set up a provisional government, but he was just using the foolish people of the League as targets and clowns, and to find a comparison between the Jiangnan Military Government and the Liberation Party, so that everyone would be more disgusted with republican democracy, and instead support Li Zhigao and his enlightened dictatorship.

Just imagine, if there is no League, Li Zhigao wants everyone to support him, so that most people start to hate democracy and support the republic, it will obviously not be as fast and efficient as now, but once the clown-like League is launched, and the Democratic Republic and the League are tied together intentionally or unintentionally, this makes everyone naturally accept Li Zhigao and accept the dictatorship, and oppose the republican democracy because of the opposition to the League.

This seems a little incredible, but in fact it is also normal, because this is the catfish effect, before the alliance began to stir up, even if the Manchu Qing was overthrown, for most of the people, the impact was not great, and it was still a pool of stagnant water, but because of the mixing of the alliance, the Jiangnan military government had an excuse to use this incident as an excuse to engage in large-scale propaganda, so that everyone knew what the alliance had done, how hypocritical the democratic republic they represented, and by the way to promote their own ideas and political achievements.

If there is no alliance to make comparisons and engage in large-scale propaganda like this, perhaps many people will have a rebellious mentality and will feel resistant, but with the alliance as a target, it can be regarded as a normal debate and forced counterattack, which can put the Jiangnan military government in the position of a sympathetic victim, and public opinion will be favorable to Li Zhigao.

These things, if Sun Wen and others are still in the dark because of stubbornness and narrow-mindedness. But Huang Xing, who was in the center of the whirlpool and was on the front line, gradually thought about it, but after thinking about it, he understood that he didn't have any good way to break this situation at present, and break this situation where most people hate the alliance more and more, and the reputation of the alliance is getting worse and worse. In Huang Xing's view. If this continues, the only fate of the alliance will be to dissolve itself in a scolding voice, and then change the vest and reorganize the party.

"Keqiang, what do you want?" Just when Huang Xing was still pondering there, he suddenly heard a familiar voice, and turned his head to see that it was Li Zhigao in military uniform.

Li Zhigao is now wearing a good-looking yellow-green military uniform with a large-brimmed hat on his head. He also wore a cloak on his back, white gloves on his hands, and surrounded by two female bodyguards who were also wearing yellow-green military uniforms, boat-shaped hats and large sunglasses, plus those guards in steel helmets and submachine guns in the distance, giving people a feeling that they were the focus wherever they went.

"Oh, it turned out to be Chairman Li." Huang Xing hurriedly stood up, "I didn't know that Chairman Li had arrived." Keqiang lost his temper. As for what I was thinking just now, well. I'm just looking forward to the next military exercises, after all, your army is famous for being good at fighting in the world, and it's an honor for us to come and see it for ourselves this time. ”

"Huh." Li Zhigao waved his hand, "It's just a regular military exercise of the local garrison division, and there is nothing particularly outstanding." It's just for everyone to join in the fun. ”

Speaking of this, Li Zhigao said again: "Come on, come on, this is not the best observation point, and it's still early, you come with me." I'll take you to a place that's the best place to watch military exercises. ”

"Ah, no, it's good here." Huang Xing hurriedly waved his hand.

"What's good, it's so remote, if I hadn't seen you here, I would have almost thought you hadn't come." Li Zhigao simply took off his gloves and grabbed Huang Xing's arm, "Just listen to me, follow me, go to me, and besides, I have to introduce you to a few people, you must be interested." ”

Seeing Li Zhigao like this, Huang Xing had no choice but to follow, and when he walked to the center of the parade platform, he found that the vision there was better, and it was also equipped with a lot of telescopes and sand table maps, etc., and the chair coffee table was also quite high-grade, and it was indeed an excellent observation point.

Before Li Zhigao and Huang Xing came in, there were already a lot of people sitting or standing here, some wearing suits and some wearing horse coats, there was no foreigner, basically all of them were middle-aged and elderly Chinese, but it seemed that these people did not look like military people, but more like businessmen and scholars.

After seeing Li Zhigao, no matter what they were doing, these people stood up unconsciously, or apologized, or bent over, and kept saying hello to Li Zhigao.

"Good, good." Li Zhigao smiled all over his face, waved his hand lightly to greet these people, and walked into the crowd, and after everyone got together, Li Zhigao began to point to several of the elected representatives and said to Huang Xing, "Keqiang, do you still know these people?" ”、

"Of course I do." Huang Xing was also surprised, and turned to the current middle-aged and elderly man in a horse coat and a suit to clasp his fists and salute, "Xiang Bogong, Si An Gong?" Why are you here? ”

The two people in front of Huang Xing are all celebrities of this era, among them, the person in the horse coat is called Ma Xiangbo, who was a celebrity in the Westernization Movement in his early years, and later single-handedly founded Aurora University, the predecessor of Fudan University, is a well-known veteran figure in the education and business circles, with a huge influence.

Another person wearing a suit, is also a celebrity, he is also a big celebrity in the education industry, has donated to a number of schools, but more famous is in the industrial and commercial circles, this person is in the late Qing Dynasty champion into the industry of the big entrepreneur Zhang Jian, Si An is his number, the general outsiders or juniors see him, more called Si An. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was recognized that the biggest businessman was naturally Sheng Xuanhuai, and the only one who could compete with Sheng Xuanhuai was only Zhang Jian.

"It turned out to be Brother Keqiang." Zhang Jian smiled and nodded.

Obviously, these two people are no strangers to Huang Xing, after all, in fact, these two people have been in contact with the Alliance more or less before, and they have met Huang Xing more than once.

In addition to these two people, there is also a relatively young person, this person is neither an industrialist nor an educator, but Huang Xing still knows, he is the lobbyist or commissioner sent by Yuan Shikai - Yang Du.

For Yang Du, Huang Xing is even more familiar, after all, both of them have studied in Japan, and they have both studied in the crash course of the teacher training of Tokyo Hongwen Academy, and the two are real classmates. In the past, they had a good relationship with each other. He once co-founded the "Study Tour Translation and Editing" with Yang Dusheng and others in Japan, and organized the "Hunan Editorial Society" to discuss Western systems, culture and science.

In other words, Yang Du had a good relationship with Huang Xing before, but then the two gradually disagreed, and Huang Xing advocated a republic. Yang Du advocated constitutionalism, Huang Xing favored democracy, and Yang Du advocated dictatorship. It was because the differences became more and more serious, so the two later parted ways, for example, Huang Xing became a rebel and revolutionary party in the late Qing Dynasty, while Yang Du joined the Qing government and became the main force of the constitutionalist faction, and became friendly with Yuan Shikai. became Yuan Shikai's right-hand man.

Therefore, it is precisely because of these grievances that after meeting again here, Huang Xing and Yang Du just nodded, but did not speak, and seeing Huang Xing like this, Yang Du was also arrogant, and naturally refused to give in. also smiled and pouted, and then didn't say a word.

See them like this. Li Zhigao, who knew their grievances, also smiled: "It seems that you all know each other, so you don't need me to introduce you more." ”

"yes, we're all old friends." Zhang Jian smiled and said, "Keqiang, you really came." How's it going? ”

"Okay, okay, everything's fine." Huang Xing nodded, and then looked at Li Zhigao. "Chairman Li, you are ......"

"What, in doubt?" Li Zhigao said with a smile, "Keqiang, guess what, why did I invite them to come over to watch this military exercise?" ”

"If I'm right, you're going to be a demonstration." Huang Xing smiled faintly, "Demonstrate first, let them see your military appearance, and then ask for donations?" ”

For Huang Xing's words, which can be said to be a little unkind, Zhang Jian and Ma Xiangbo just glanced at each other and did not intervene much, obviously, what Huang Xing said, they also thought of it, but they didn't dare to say it clearly.

Now, whether it is Ma Xiangbo or Zhang Jian, most of their careers and family properties are under the control of Li Zhigao, so they have no choice, and it is precisely because of their big family that they are not as unscrupulous as Huang Xing.

Of course, Huang Xing's idea also represents the thinking of most of the political and business celebrities here at this time, and everyone thinks that Li Zhigao's sudden invitation to them to visit the military exercise is the idea of saving a demonstration and then asking for donations.

"Hahaha, I knew you would think so." Li Zhigao shook his head with a smile, and said to Zhang Jian and the others, "However, do you think that with my current identity and family business, I still need to ask you for donations?" Even if I ask for donations, do I still need to go through such trouble? ”

"And what do you mean?" Huang Xing asked directly.

"What do you mean?" Li Zhigao smiled, then took out his pocket watch and looked at it, "Well, it's not early, the drill is about to start." Well, let's watch the exercise first, and when the exercise is over, we'll talk about the rest, and then you will know why I invited them, but in short, it's definitely not a bad thing, it's a good thing, a big good thing. ”

Immediately after, Li Zhigao asked everyone to come to the fence, and then nodded to Zheng Yun, the adjutant next to him.

Seeing Li Zhigao nodding, Zheng Yun took out a signal gun, slammed it into the sky, and released a red signal flare, which showed that Li Zhigao and others were ready, and the exercise could officially begin.

As the flare lifted into the air, a rumbling sound was heard in the distance, and then a cloud of smoke and dust exploded at the target site on the opposite hillside, and if you look at it with a telescope, you will find that the smoke and dust are the smoke and dust caused by the explosion of the shells, and if you look at it with an experienced person, you will guess the density of the shelling based on the situation of this smoke and dust.

Sure enough, after looking at the smoke and dust on the opposite side with a telescope, others were just gone, but Huang Xing's face changed suddenly.

"It's, it's heavy artillery!" Huang Xing's hand holding the telescope clenched tighter, "Judging from this level of shelling, this can only be caused by heavy artillery of more than seventy-five millimeters, and so many cannons, still shelling?" Chairman Li, how many cannons did you use? In my opinion, that's more than a hundred cannons. ”

"Amazing, it's different if you have led soldiers, you can actually see it." Li Zhigao put down the binoculars with a smile, "You're right, there are indeed more than a hundred cannons in this shelling. To be precise, it was the shelling effect of 72 105-mm guns plus 72 75-mm guns. ”

"72 cannons of 105 mm caliber? And 72 75-mm cannons? Huang Xing was a little stunned, "This, what is this cannon made of?" ”

"It's a divisional artillery formation." Li Zhigao smiled, "It is the garrison division that participated in the exercise this time. The garrison division is a professional soldier, which belongs to the establishment of the master regiment, and the brigade-level establishment has been increased, which is the largest in numbers.

Forget about the rest, in terms of artillery firepower, this 101st garrison division has a special divisional independent artillery brigade. This separate artillery brigade has three artillery regiments. Each regiment had 24 105-mm howitzers, which added up to 72 105-mm howitzers. At the same time, this division also has two infantry brigades, each infantry brigade has two light infantry divisions and an independent artillery regiment, each independent artillery regiment has 24 75-mm guns, so that two infantry brigades have 48 75-mm howitzers, plus 72 105-mm howitzers of the artillery brigade, there are 120 howitzers of more than 75 mm. The effect you see now. It is the effect of 120 guns firing at the same time. ”

"One division, there are 120 guns of more than 75 mm?" Huang Xing took a deep breath, "What a big stroke." ”

"Hehe, it's average, compared to the Western powers, I just passed." Li Zhigao smiled.

It's not just a pass, it's a pass. You know, these cannons of Li Zhigao. However, the materials and technologies purchased from modern times are produced by themselves in this time and space using their own arsenals. Since the materials and processes are modern, at best it is a job of processing parts and assembling parts, so the power and effect are much stronger than those of the same caliber heavy artillery of this era.

For example, the 105 mm caliber heavy gun equipped by Li Zhigao is actually the production process of the M101 howitzer in the United States in the later generations. Therefore, the total weight of the whole gun is only 2.06 tons, which is much lighter than the original M101 howitzer, and the maximum firing range, using ordinary M1 high-explosive shells, has 11056 meters. It was slightly shorter than the original gun, but it was not much different.

As for the 75mm gun, it is the production process of the M116 type 75mm pack-mounted howitzer, because the design of this gun itself is relatively mature, so it is also copied in its entirety, without many changes, and the power is also similar to the original, such as the weight is only 658 kg, the maximum range is 8792 meters, and the effective range is 7500 meters.

The reason why the artillery regiment is set up as this 75mm gun is because in the plan, this kind of garrison division will belong to the B division in the future, and the B division will be able to realize the horse in accordance with the new regulations, in this case, lightness is very important, plus the important factor of being able to produce it itself, so the M116 75mm pack-mounted howitzer with simple and light technology has become the first choice.

As for the 105-mm howitzer, it is a striking force directly under the division, and it will not be used easily, and it will only be used when the division level is attacking, with the Chinese environment of this period, even if the 105-mm gun is not used, only the 75-mm gun of the artillery regiment is enough to sweep the four directions, at least it is no problem to fight the Beiyang Army.

In addition, in each infantry regiment, there will also be an independent artillery battalion, the artillery battalion uses two infantry artillery companies equipped with the new 92 infantry guns and a mortar company equipped with 82 mm mortars, below the battalion level is no longer equipped with heavy artillery, only equipped with machine guns, the grassroots infantry squad of 12 people, is 10 56 semi-automatic rifles and a new Brun light machine gun, the light machine gun is operated by two people, plus a CH1910 type 9 mm pistol per person, such an infantry squad, When the garrison fights with the Beiyang Army, it can be swept away with less firepower.

That is, in the new garrison division, artillery is deployed only at the regimental level, which is based on the lessons learned from the previous battles.

You must know that in terms of the number of weapons, Li Zhigao is not short at present, but he lacks enough artillery talents, if the artillery is arranged below the regiment level, such as the battalion and company level, then the quality requirements for the soldiers are very high, for example, if you arrange the artillery at the battalion level, then you must at least have enough artillery talents in this battalion, and if you reach the company level, you must also find artillery talents in this company. But obviously, artillery talent is a high-tech branch, at least you have to be able to do mathematics, can measure distance, this can be done for field divisions that concentrate on assault study, after all, assault study for nearly a year, but for these garrison divisions that have just been recruited, it is completely impossible to do it.

Therefore, based on the principle of a small number of artillery talents, artillery was used in a concentrated manner, and artillery was only equipped to the regimental level, and the firepower below the regimental level was supported by light and heavy machine guns. That is to say, in the fire support at the battalion level, the artillery that continues to be more demanding is removed, and the M2 Browning large-caliber heavy machine gun produced by itself is replaced, of course, this heavy machine gun is not called Browning, it is called the CH1911 12.7 caliber heavy machine gun.

As soon as Li Zhigao explained to Huang Xing the issue of artillery establishment, he saw a yellow signal flare shot into the sky, and immediately afterwards, he saw a large number of soldiers wearing steel helmets and camouflage uniforms suddenly starting from their starting positions, and slowly approaching the target with their waists bent down in the situation of a straggler line, and when they launched a surprise attack, their own artillery bombardment was still continuing, and there was no sign of stopping.

Just when the soldier was under the cover of his own artillery and slowly advanced to a certain distance from the target location in the regimental skirmish line mode, he lay down again at the same time, and then the regimental artillery and the heavy machine gun began to fire, and the lying soldiers also fired at the same time, and the heavy artillery in the rear stopped firing, obviously starting the pre-formation firing phase.

After a period of firing at each other, the rear artillery began to cover again, accurately hitting the opponent's position after being corrected by the scouts in front, and then a terrible charge horn sounded, and with this charge horn, all the soldiers jumped up at the same time in a whistle, and then held a semi-automatic rifle with a bayonet on it, and under the leadership of the commander of their respective troops, they fired while trotting forward.

In the process of charging, their own covering artillery fire continued, and only when their own men rushed to the front of the opponent's position two hundred meters did they begin to extend their firepower backwards, and then, the trotting soldiers no longer fired, but under the encouragement of the commander of the unit, they shouted again and began the all-out sprint stage.

Soon, the soldiers rushed to the position, as usual, the first strafing fire, during which the light machine guns of each squad were fire support points, and when the strafing was finished, the soldiers would enter the opponent's position, which meant that the position was captured.

After that, the first soldiers who rushed into the position began to stay on the enemy's position, and those who came up behind continued to charge, following the blast point of the artillery, continuing the previous process, and finally attacking the hill and taking down the red flag, thus completing the exercise.

Obviously, this exercise is mainly to test the infantry and artillery coordination ability of our own troops, and it is not a real fierce confrontation drill, after all, in a real confrontation, it is unlikely that you will be able to do it so step-by-step, and it will not be so easy to rush into the position. All in all, it was a relatively simple exercise.

However, although in Li Zhigao's view, this is a very simple military exercise, but in the eyes of insiders like Huang Xing and other laymen, this is very unusual.

In the eyes of the layman, they were shocked by the power of the artillery bombardment and the assault of the soldiers all over the mountains, and they were shocked by the scene, while in the eyes of the insider, such as Huang Xing, he was shocked by the strength of the artillery firepower and the discipline and small arms firepower of the soldiers.

According to Huang Xing's opinion, with the strength of these garrison divisions alone, at least in China, there is no army of the same number that can stop it, that is to say, if a division like Li Zhigao wants to block it, if it is the Beiyang Army, it must be at least 50,000 people to be sure.

"How's it going, Brother Keqiang." After the green flare at the end was raised, in the cheers of the army opposite, Li Zhigao put down the binoculars and turned his head to look at Huang Xing, who had also just put down the binoculars and had a very calm face, "My army is still so-so, right?" (To be continued......)