A large group of generals in the Feng army, like other generals of the present day, were staunch artilleryists, believing that more artillery was better, although many officers also had this disagreement on what artillery to equip.

Some traditional officers, especially the generals of the older generation, believe that the army should be equipped with more medium-caliber field guns and mountain guns, that is, 57 mm and 75 mm artillery, on the grounds that these two calibers, especially the 75 mm caliber, have already met the needs of supporting infantry, and they cite the same in all countries.

Before and after World War I, the divisional support artillery of the army equipment of most countries was actually about the same, all at the three-inch level, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, the United States, Italy, etc., although Germany has begun to equip 105 mm howitzers, but still retains a large number of 75 mm field guns and mountain guns.

The large amount of equipment of the armies of various countries and the history of equipment in the past few decades have made many people, including Xu Bangjie, firmly support the equipping of troops with more 75 mm caliber artillery, and even try to restore the Feng army to the eighteen artillery pieces of one battalion in the old Beiyang era.

There is also a considerable part of the support for more mortars, especially 120 mm heavy mortars, believing that in the absence of large-caliber heavy artillery in the Feng army, the best solution is to equip a large number of large-caliber mortars.

As for large-caliber long-range heavy artillery, everyone supports it, but it is only a verbal expression of support, because everyone knows that these large-caliber long-range heavy artillery are expensive, and even if the army runs out of belongings, it will not be able to equip a few.

Today, the Feng army is equipped with more than 200 75-millimeter caliber guns, and nearly 600 mortars of various calibers, but the long-range heavy artillery is only 12 100-millimeter cannons.

But even if it was expensive, after seeing that this heavy artillery battalion suppressed the 75 mm caliber division artillery of the direct army in one fell swoop in the Tangshan Campaign, many senior generals turned into staunch heavy artillery supporters, so that people like Fang Biyong directly said at the military meeting that they would increase the number of heavy artillery equipment.

However, the focus of today's meeting is not to discuss whether the number of heavy artillery equipment should be increased, but mainly to talk about the post-battle summary of the Tangshan Campaign, comparing the casualties of the enemy and us, and then the most important thing, that is, although a large number of generals still have a lot of questions about the Ninth Division's breakthrough through the Yinfeng line.

The war is not just won, for Zhao Dongyun, why the Ninth Division was able to quickly defeat the First Brigade is the most important thing.

As a result, in the next two days, a large number of staff officers from the Operations Department, the Supervision and Training Department, and the Strategy Department read the combat reports of the Ninth Division, trying to find out the key points at which the Ninth Division could win in a short period of time.

However, they were disappointed that there seemed to be nothing unusual about the series of battles of the Ninth Division, and that Xu Bangjie's command and the command of the officers at all levels of the Ninth Division were all in order, and there were no surprises, which was unacceptable for this large group of staff officers, because the reason why they investigated the Ninth Division's defeat of the enemy's 1st Brigade on a large scale was to find out the differences, and then quickly spread this difference to the whole army.

But they didn't notice anything different!

After the Ninth Division suppressed the support artillery of the First Brigade in the heavy artillery battalion, it began a rapid attack, but the reason why the Ninth Division attacked Shun Lì in the follow-up was definitely not because the artillery of the direct army was suppressed, because the Feng army on the front line of Huanxizhuang also occupied an artillery advantage, and at that time, Bao Guiqing's First Mixed Brigade only had more than ten mountain guns in its hands, but the third and tenth divisions and two independent mortar battalions were combined, with nearly 100 75-mm guns and more than 60 120-mm mortars. This artillery advantage can be said to be greater than that of Yinfeng Line.

But why did Huanxizhuang fail to form the same large-scale breakthrough as Yinfeng's side, and then cause a large-scale collapse of the enemy army?

"We believe that the breakthrough of the 9th Division, although due to artillery support, was not a decisive reason, and according to the results of our preliminary investigation, we find that the collapse of the enemy's 1st Brigade first occurred in the positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 37th Regiment of the 9th Division of our army.

During the battle, as the first battalion of the 37th Regiment temporarily retreated for rest due to heavy casualties, and the second battalion was also deployed in a later direction, Colonel Lei Anlin of the 37th Regiment temporarily transferred the mortars and light machine guns of the above two battalions to the third battalion, thus making the number of light machine guns and mortars in the battalion more than twice the quota.

In particular, the increase in the number of light machine guns, although it was not evenly distributed, but the first company that served as the vanguard of the attack was supported by an additional nine light machine guns, and the large increase in the number of light machine guns allowed the company to greatly suppress the enemy's interceptive fire during the attack, and then broke through the position of a certain company of the enemy, and the breakthrough of this section of the position quickly caused a chain reaction, and then led to the complete collapse of the enemy's second regiment defense line, and then triggered the collapse of the entire Yinfeng defense line! ”

After hearing this, Zhao Dongyun pondered and said: "Do you want to say that the victory in this battle is not because of artillery, but because of light machine guns?" ”

Fang Biyong said: "Artillery superiority is a necessary factor for victory, and light machine guns are the dominant factor for the victory of our arms!" ”

Fang Biyong's words actually put the importance of artillery above light machine guns, and the army can fight without light machine guns, but it must not be without artillery.

But on the other hand, when the Feng army launched offensive operations, light machine guns played a huge role, and many battles have shown that the importance of light machine guns is not inferior to heavy machine guns.

The Ninth Division was defeating the First Brigade of the Direct Army, in fact, the reason before and after was quite simple, that is, the Feng Army on the front line, to be precise, the 37th Regiment concentrated a large number of technical weapons on a certain section of the front, concentrated the evenly dispersed forces, and then concentrated on breaking through a certain step of the enemy.

The tactical application of this light machine gun has developed much faster than he imagined, Zhao Dongyun pondered in his heart, the 37th Regiment temporarily strengthened the light machine guns of the whole regiment to the third battalion, especially the original three light machine guns of the first company as the vanguard, plus the nine light machine guns temporarily attached, it reached as many as twelve, enough for each infantry squad to have one light machine gun and three redundant.

The dense fire of twelve light machine guns was enough to hit the enemy on the opposite side without raising their heads!

In the past half month of fighting, many front-line commanders, especially the company and battalion commanders at the grassroots level, were very fond of using light machine guns in a centralized manner and directly assigned them to subordinate units that were responsible for offensive tasks.

It was not uncommon for a battalion's light machine guns to be used by a company, and a company's light machine guns to be used by a platoon, but this was the first time that the mortars and light machine guns of the entire regiment had been pooled for a battalion, as was the case with the 37th Regiment of the Ninth Division.

Let's not mention the good or bad of this situation, but it also directly proves the fact that the number of light machine guns equipped by the Feng army is too small, and if the Feng army's troops can ensure that each company is equipped with nine light machine guns, then the future offensive war will definitely not be as long delayed and weak as the previous Tangshan Campaign.

However, according to the current high price of light machine guns, large-scale equipment is also impossible, although the price of contemporary light machine guns is cheaper than heavy machine guns, but it is not cheaper, this Madsen light machine gun is notoriously expensive, even if it is a Madsen light machine gun imitated by Fuyuan Machine Qì Factory according to the patent authorization, although the factory price is cheaper, but it is not cheap there.

Now it is not after the First World War, but in 1907, it is impossible for the Feng army and even the whole of China to be equipped with light machine guns on a large scale, and it is good that a warlord and a division in the south can be equipped with twenty or thirty machine guns, and now there are nearly sixty heavy machine guns and nearly one hundred and fifty light machine guns in a division of the Feng army, which adds up to more than two hundred and ten machine guns.

Although the number of heavy machine guns is not comparable with the number of explosive heavy machine gun equipment in various countries, the proportion of light machine gun equipment is definitely the largest, so far, all countries are equipped with heavy machine guns on a large scale, as for light machine guns are only a small amount of real equipment, after all, for the powers, heavy machine guns have been tested by the Russo-Japanese War, and they are equipment that needs to be vigorously developed, as for light machine guns, this thing has not been tested by large-scale wars.

"As for the matter of light machine guns, we still follow the original steps, first fill up the establishment of one platoon of the existing troops, but considering the urgent need for light machine guns in the front-line troops, we can let a small number of troops increase the number of light machine guns, well, let the 12th Regiment of the Third Division as a pilot, and each infantry squad is equipped with a light machine gun, as for the specific establishment and application of tactics, you ask the personnel of the Establishment Section, the Operations Department and the Supervision and Training Department to give me a plan within three days!"

Zhao Dongyun's decision last year to assign each infantry platoon a light machine gun will not be changed lightly, and this not only involves military spending and financial resources, but also involves a series of issues such as the tactical arrangement of the troops and the supply of ammunition.

There are too many aspects affected by the changes in the establishment and the changes in the equipment, and it is impossible for Zhao Dongyun to change them at any time according to his preferences.