In the Pingren Hall of Zhonghua Palace, Chen Yuntao also reported the war in the north to Lin Zhe with a happy face: "At present, Beiping, Chengde, and Shanhaiguan have all been recovered, and the Sixth Army has sent the Ninth Defense Division to continue to march into the northeast, and it is expected that it will not be long before Shengjing and other places can be taken, and the complete recovery of Liaodong is just around the corner!"

In addition, the main forces of the Sixth Army, namely the Eighth and Ninth Divisions, had already begun to turn westward, and after resting, they entered Shanxi to carry out the subsequent strategy of westward expansion into Shaanxi and Gansu.

The First Division is currently stationed in the Beiping area, but it has already sent troops to march into Chahar to establish an advance base for the follow-up control of the Mongolian steppe, especially Uriya Sutai! ”

"Oh, what's going on on the Mongolian side, and now that the Manchus have fallen, will they continue to resist?" Lin Zhe is still more concerned about the war in the north, although he has conquered most of Zhili, including Beiping, and annihilated the new army of Duxing'a, but the north is so big, especially the Mongolian tribes.

If those Mongolian tribes are unwilling to take the initiative to surrender, then the Chinese army will have to crusade one by one, don't look at these Mongolian princes do not have many troops, but distance is a natural obstacle.

If the Chinese army wants to completely control the steppe, and those Mongol princes are unwilling to take the initiative to surrender, then it will still be more troublesome, and it will take a long time.

"According to His Majesty's previous decree, all Mongolian princes who voluntarily submit will retain their titles, and most of the Mongolian princes are still relatively cooperative, but some princes have made it clear that they will not surrender. The follow-up command will formulate a strategy according to the specific situation and suppress the recovered Mongolian tribes one by one! ”

"If you want to march into Mongolia, you still have to rely on cavalry. How prepared are you in this regard, and when will the 1st Cavalry Brigade be formed? Lin Zhe continued to ask.

Chen Yuntao obviously made full preparations for today's military affairs report. Although Lin Zhe's question jumped very big, he was still talking about the Sixth Army in front of him. Then it was Mongolia, and then the cavalry, but Chen Yuntao still replied without thinking:

"Since the troops went north, our army has captured a large number of horses, in addition to a large number of mules and horses were used for baggage and artillery units, some excellent horses were selected into the cavalry unit to supplement the cavalry companies of the divisions of the northbound troops and the second cavalry regiment, and the remaining horses were used to form the fourth cavalry regiment and the sixth cavalry regiment.

The horses of these two cavalry regiments are basically in place, and the cavalry is composed of cavalry recruits trained in advance by the Military Training Department. The First Cavalry Brigade composed of these two cavalry regiments has been initially formed, but the training is slightly insufficient, and it will take a lot of time to exert its combat effectiveness! ”

"In addition, after our army took control of Zhili and part of Mongolia, it has adopted the principle of proximity and directly recruited herdsmen to join the army locally, and it is expected to recruit at least three cavalry regiments for the defense of Mongolia, especially Uriya Sutai and other places in the future!"

Hearing Chen Yuntao say this, Lin Zhe also turned to the pages of the report on the preparation for the establishment of the First Cavalry Brigade and the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Cavalry Regiments.

Then he nodded, expressing satisfaction with these actions of the military.

The establishment of large-scale cavalry has always been what Lin Zhe has been looking forward to. In the past, the Chinese army was trapped in the southern region and could not obtain a large number of war horses, so the scale of the cavalry has not been able to rise, and the replenishment of horses often depends on capture. In particular, horses are basically seized by seizure.

During the Northern Expedition, the Chinese army captured so much booty. One of the most strategically valuable is these mules and horses, especially for riding.

Although it is said that the horses of the Qing army are all Mongolian horses. However, although the Mongolian horse is a little weaker, it is inferior to the offspring bred by various horses introduced by the Chinese army from the Middle East, Europe and Australia. It's better than nothing.

Besides, it takes time to breed excellent war horses that adapt to China's climate and terrain, and this time will take at least one or two decades.

In other words, for at least ten years in the future, the cavalry of the Chinese army can only continue to use Mongolian horses.

The Chinese army used these captured Mongolian horses, in addition to the ordinary cavalry units, the surplus war horses were used to form the fourth cavalry regiment and the sixth cavalry regiment, and these two cavalry regiments were organized into the first cavalry brigade with individual combat capability in the Chinese army.

The first brigade commander was the first cavalry commander in the Chinese army, and the former cavalry commander Wang Luyun, who was known for his bravery, served as the commander-in-chief.

After the Chinese army took Zhili and part of Mongolia, it directly began to recruit local herdsmen to form cavalry, and recruiting herdsmen to form cavalry has an advantage, that is, people not only come to serve as soldiers, but often bring war horses.

In other words, recruiting herdsmen as cavalry can directly solve the problem of shortage of war horses.

However, although these herdsmen are skilled in horsemanship, their physical and tactical qualities are relatively poor, and they need to undergo long-term training to become qualified cavalrymen.

After all, the cavalry unit of the Chinese army is not a traditional Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry, but a modern cavalry unit, and the quality of war horses and cavalry is quite high.

In any case, after taking the north, it played a great role in promoting the development of the cavalry of the Chinese army, before going north, the Chinese army had a total of four cavalry regiments, namely the first cavalry regiment, the second cavalry regiment, and the fifth cavalry regiment.

Previously, the Chinese army consisted of four cavalry regiments and more than 10 divisions belonging to cavalry companies, with a total of about 5,000 cavalrymen, and they were scattered to fight in various parts of the north and south of the river.

But now, it is necessary to expand at least five cavalry regiments at once, and the scale of the expansion will continue to increase as more Mongolia and the northwest region are occupied, and more horses are available.

According to the plan of the cavalry director of the high command, this year they will strive to expand the size of the cavalry to more than 10,000 people, and ensure the establishment of 10 independent cavalry regiments in addition to the cavalry companies under each division.

Within three years, it is necessary to ensure the establishment of at least 20 independent cavalry regiments, and to reorganize the divisional cavalry companies into small cavalry regiments, so as to make the total number of cavalry more than 30,000.

Don't look at 30,000 cavalry is a lot, but in fact it is very small for the huge China, according to the plan of the cavalry director. If the current divisional cavalry company is expanded into a cavalry regiment with a small formation, the three-company system is adopted. A regiment is six hundred cavalry, and how many infantry divisions will the Royal Army have in the future? Twenty is certainly not enough. Thirty is very reluctant, and even forty or fifty can meet the ground defense of the huge China.

Just to give each infantry division enough divisional cavalry, it would cost twenty or thirty thousand cavalry.

According to the existing cavalry regiment that operates independently, it has four cavalry companies under its jurisdiction, and the size of about 800 cavalry regiments will require 16,000 cavalry for 20 independent cavalry regiments.

This adds up to 30,000 cavalry, which is already the minimum limit for the number of cavalry in the Chinese army in the future.

In fact, the proportion of cavalry in the armies of contemporary countries is quite high, generally speaking, more than 15 percent, and the proportion of cavalry in some specific areas will even account for more than 30 percent.

And the hope of the cavalry commander of the Chinese army is to develop the proportion of cavalry to more than 10 percent. That is to say, if the Chinese army has 500,000 troops in the future, then 50,000 of them must be cavalry, and this task can be said to be quite arduous.

However, even if it is difficult, Lin Zhe also insists on the development of cavalry, which can be seen from the fact that he did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to purchase all kinds of horses from the Middle East, Europe, and even Australia and the Americas, and then transported them back to China for cross-breeding.

Lin Zhe's intention to develop cavalry had already been decided a few years ago, otherwise there would not be such a position as a cavalry director in the command, you must know that there is no director of artillery, infantry, baggage and other arms.

Lin Zhe's desire to develop cavalry is actually related to the terrain of China. Although the southern part of China is mountainous and full of rivers, the north, northwest and northeast regions are plains, which are extremely suitable for cavalry warfare.

On the savannah. Even if your infantry can fight again, you can only stare at the cavalry that comes up and down like the wind!

The topography of northern China determined that cavalry was indispensable in order to control the northern region.

"Now that the 1st Cavalry Brigade has been formed. Then it should also be sent out as soon as possible, this hard training is not as good as actual combat training! Lin Zhe finally closed the report in his hand: "The problems of the Mongolian tribes must be resolved as soon as possible. The follow-up was dominated by the 1st Division and the 9th Auxiliary Defense Division, plus the 1st Cavalry Brigade and the three Herdsman Cavalry Regiments formed in the future. I believe it's barely enough! ”

When Lin Zhe said this, Chen Yuntao naturally nodded yes!

Then Lin Zhe said: "In this northward operation, the performance of the Ninth and Nineteenth Auxiliary Defense Divisions is not bad, so you are ready to go back and officially integrate these two auxiliary divisions into the Royal Army!" ”

Chen Yuntao said: "The minister obeys the order!" ”

The next day, the High Command officially announced that the Ninth Auxiliary Division would be immediately reorganized into the 14th Infantry Division of the Royal Army, and the 19th Auxiliary Division would be immediately reorganized into the 15th Infantry Division of the Royal Army. The division commanders of these two divisions and the commanders of each division are retained by the commanders of the original divisions, and those with lower ranks are directly promoted to the appropriate ranks.

For example, Zhou Ren, the former commander of the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, was a colonel when he was the commander of the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division, and now his name has been changed to the commander of the 14th Infantry Division, and his military rank is also correspondingly promoted to major general.

In addition to the reorganization of the above-mentioned two auxiliary defense divisions, since the fighting in Shandong, Henan, and Zhili has basically ended, and a large number of auxiliary defense divisions in the area were also reorganized at the same time, some of them were reorganized into garrison units on the spot, some of them were separated from combat missions and transformed into construction units or tuntian troops, and some were directly disbanded on the spot.

Of course, the reorganization of up to 20 or 30 auxiliary defense divisions cannot be completed in a day or two, and the entire reorganization work may last for half a year or even a year, and finally these auxiliary defense divisions will be completely eliminated from the sequence of the Chinese army.

In addition to the reorganization of the auxiliary defense division, the Nanjing side also rewarded the meritorious generals of the Northern Expedition units one after another, and the rewards received by ordinary soldiers were mainly based on multiple salaries, while the meritorious officers were mainly promoted, and many people were transferred to other units.

However, these did not affect the follow-up operations of the Sixth Army, and after solving the last main force of the Qing Army, the Duxing Asuo Division, the Sixth Army had almost no unified enemy in Zhili, Northeast, and Mongolia, and many prefectures and counties even surrendered without resistance.

The follow-up operations of the Sixth Army in the north are not an exaggeration to describe them as autumn winds sweeping away fallen leaves.

And just when the Sixth Army swept through the northern provinces, the Fourth Army in the direction of northern Jiangxi finally opened a general attack on Jiujiang and the entire Jiangxi after a long period of preparation!

Shi Langyi and other generals of the Fourth Army have been waiting for the Western Expedition for too long, too long! (To be continued.) )