Today is the Chinese New Year's Eve of the second year of Longhan, and tomorrow is the first day of the third year of Longhan.

On the southwestern border of Dahan, Dongxing Port in Qinzhou, Guangxi, an emerging port city that until three years ago was just a small fishing village in Qinzhou, Guangdong. Because it is backed by the southwest, facing Southeast Asia, bordering the Beibu Gulf in the south, Nanning in the north, Qinzhou in the east, and the southwest and south, and has a natural deep-water port, it began to be used as a military port for the South China Sea Fleet after the founding of the Han Dynasty, and it is also a commercial port, and it is now the largest port in the southwest.

This port city, named Dongxing, also became a forward port base for the empire's war against Vietnam.

The Seventh Fleet of the new South China Sea Fleet after the merger of the East China Sea and the South China Sea Fleet is stationed here, and the barracks at the port base are filled with a festive atmosphere up and down; although it is Chinese New Year's Eve, Dongxing Port is warm in early summer, and the sun is still shining on the harbor bay, and the officers and men of a fleet that has just moved from Chongming in Shanghai were originally wearing cotton jackets and winter clothes, but after arriving here, they had to change into short-sleeved single clothes.

The combined Seventh Fleet has a large number of ships and a larger number of soldiers. However, now the above military order requires that the entire army should be reduced by 280,000 again, and the navy should also be reduced by another 50,000.

The combined Seventh Fleet could only retain sixteen thousand people.

On the one hand, there was a war on the one hand, and on the other hand, there was a large-scale disarmament, and the generals of the fleet felt that this disarmament order was not appropriate, but since the order had been issued from above, it should be cut again.

However, at the suggestion of the new commander of the fleet, the Seventh Fleet is ready to let everyone finish the year first, and wait for the fifteenth year before officially announcing the disarmament list. If it is said that the most desirable profession of the Han Dynasty today, the soldiers of the Han Dynasty must be among the top spears. The soldiers of the empire were well-paid, respected, and full of glory. Being a soldier is a good career, especially for many young people from ordinary backgrounds who have not gone to school. If you haven't learned a craft, don't be afraid, as long as you can join the Imperial Army, you can get a good salary and be respected.

Not to mention that there is a great chance of promotion in wartime, even if you are discharged from the army, with your experience in the army, you can find a good job, and you can even get the recommendation of the army to serve as a policeman, a clerk and other public positions in the local government to eat public food. Don't say. There will also be a generous discharge settlement payment.

However, the empire's martial arts are prosperous, and in just a few years, there is already Wei Jia Yunei, and there are almost no invincible opponents. Although there are still some minor problems in the southwest and northwest, they are not big problems. It seemed that the imperial court did not need to maintain such a large army of millions for a while, and many soldiers now had to face the fate of being laid off.

The Seventh Fleet now has nearly 23,000 men after the merger, and this is the result of a round of cuts. Otherwise, the combined fleet would have nearly doubled in number. But even so, it is still necessary to lay off more than 6,000 people. Where did these six thousand men come from? Who to cut, this is also a headache for the new fleet commander.

Originally, the commander of the Seventh Fleet was not the commander of the South China Sea or the South China Sea Fleet, but this time the two fleets in the East China Sea and the South China Sea were merged, and the eight sub-fleets were merged into four. After the merger, the commander of the newly established Seventh Fleet was unexpectedly transferred from Liu Yunwen, the former president of the Tianjin Royal Naval Academy.

As the emperor's subordinate brother, Liu Yunzhen, who is a member of the clan, is also the current governor of Nanyang, Liu Yunsheng, and the Japanese governor Liu Yunzhen, are his own brothers.

Liu Yunwen's unexpected appointment as the commander of the new Seventh Fleet made those fleet generals who originally wanted to fight for it lose their minds.

The Liu family is now one duke and three marquis. As a royal clan, he has an extraordinary favor. Especially after Liu Qiao retired, the status of the Liu family did not decline but rose, and now the three brothers are all marquis. Two governors and one fleet commander, it can be seen that he is favored and trusted, who can compete with Liu Yunwen.

Liu Yunsheng is the new commander of the fleet, a complete outsider, who does not belong to the original East China Sea Fleet or the South China Sea Fleet, he is an outsider. But he turned out to be the principal of the Royal Naval College in Tianjin, which is known as the cradle of officers in the Royal Navy, so many officers in the fleet have studied or advanced at the academy and are considered his students.

"This disarmament list must be drawn up immediately, and it will be officially announced after the Lantern Festival." Liu Yunwen also felt a headache, and faced such a problem as soon as he took office. It's hard for him to say who will cut and who will keep whom.

In particular, according to the meaning of the Ministry of War, this time it is not only a reduction of troops, but also a disarmament of officers. It will be reduced according to the ratio of officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men, 2 to 5 to 3, and 6,000 will be disarmed, including 1,200 officers, 3,000 non-commissioned officers, and 1,800 soldiers.

It is relatively easy to reduce troops, but it is more troublesome to lay off officials. After all, since ancient times, China has been accustomed to the lifelong system of officials, and they can go up but not down.

"The imperial court asked for a judgment of 50,000 for the navy, I can accept it, but it is good to lay off ordinary soldiers, why do you want to reduce officers and non-commissioned officers? These are the most precious things in our navy, and it is not easy to train an excellent officer and non-commissioned officer. At present, several naval cadet officer training schools in Qingdao, Fuzhou, and other countries have started training in their teens, and then they have to go on board ships for many years of alternate apprenticeship. ”

The deputy commander shouted that he was originally the commander of a detachment of the East China Sea Fleet, but now he has become the deputy commander, and his heart has not been very happy. I was even more dissatisfied with this disarmament plan of the Ministry of War.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of War has launched a new officer program, that is, the separation of officers and soldiers. According to the new military order, there will be a strict line between officers and soldiers in the future, which can hardly be broken. Soldiers enlist in the army from the beginning of the private, excellent performance all the way to the promotion, from the private to the third class of the second class of the first class, and then can be promoted to sergeant, right, left, right, sergeant, the best sergeant can also be promoted to the head of the coach, the front and back left and right head of the head, can also be promoted to the head of the head, the head of the town or the head of the army, and the highest branch of the head of the military.

For example, the chief instructor of infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, sailors, marines, and naval divisions. The chief instructors of the services include the chief instructor of the army and the chief instructor of the navy.

However, even if he becomes the chief instructor of the army or the navy, he is still a soldier and not an officer. According to the new regulations, the head of the teaching belongs to the military rank, and the military rank of the head of the teaching at all levels is a military rank, not an officer rank, and there is no rank. The highest head of the army, enjoying the treatment of a general, as an assistant and adviser to the chief of the army general staff. He was able to have his own independent office in the Privy Council, but he was still a soldier.

A soldier can only be promoted from a fourth-class non-commissioned officer to a fourth-class non-commissioned officer and then to a fifth-class instructor, but not to an officer.

Officers are not promoted by soldiers, but are directly trained through military schools, where officers are cadets at the beginning of the academy and have to be apprenticed in the army, where the candidates compete together, and finally the best ones become full-fledged officers, and then promoted by performance.

An officer's role in the military is to direct operations, not to train and manage officers. Training and management are the responsibility of instructors and non-commissioned officers. Non-commissioned officers are responsible for training and management, while instructors are not only responsible for training management, but also equivalent to assistants and staff advisers to officers at all levels.

Under this system, the timing of promotion at all levels of military ranks is also strictly regulated. It is even required that if you do not get promoted after the promotion time, you will be forced to leave the army. Whether it is a soldier or a non-commissioned officer or a instructor, or an officer at all levels, there is a time for promotion and time for service.

A right sergeant major is promoted to left sergeant major. It only takes eighteen months to be eligible for promotion, and the minimum military age required is only two years. This military age does not include the time spent studying in a military school.

And an ordinary soldier, as soon as he joins the army, is a private. After three months of training, he was automatically promoted to the rank of third class.

However, the promotion of a first-class soldier to a right sergeant is not 100 percent, and there is only a promotion rate of about 95 percent. There is only a 90 percent promotion rate, and the same is true among officers, and only about 95 percent is promoted to left sergeant major.

The higher you go. The lower the promotion rate, even to the highest level of chief instructor and general, it is a turnip and a pit, and only when a position is vacant can another person be promoted.

The Imperial Army has also fully implemented the system of linking military ranks to military ranks, and the corresponding military ranks are awarded to those who hold the corresponding military positions.

"Do a promotion assessment in advance, and those who can't be promoted will be put on the retirement list. In addition, all those who have disabilities should also be discharged from the army. Age is also a criterion for consideration, soldiers over forty years old, officers over fifty years old, can be considered for early discharge. ”

Wang Mushan, the king of soldiers of the Seventh Fleet and the head of the Seventh Fleet, stood aside and put forward his own suggestions to Commander Liu Yunwen. Wang Mushan is a veteran, one of the earliest members of the nine-headed bird, participated in almost all the battles of the nine-headed bird before the founding of the country, and later transferred to the navy, because he was illiterate, he was promoted to the head of the coach instead of being a commander. At that time, the head of the sect still belonged to the officer, and after this reform, the head of the sect became the head of the soldier.

Wang Mushan became the head of the Seventh Fleet, enjoyed the treatment of the right general, and was regarded as the spokesperson of all the soldiers of the Seventh Fleet, and also had a place in the headquarters.

Liu Yunwen nodded, he also supported the disarmament of the imperial court, and even supported proportional disarmament, rather than only reducing troops and not officials. If only the army is cut and not the number of officers is cut, then the proportion of officers is undoubtedly too high. From the point of view of long-term development, maintaining a reasonable proportion of officers, and even limiting the promotion rate of officers at all levels, as it is now, and at the same time constantly training new candidate officers and cadets through military academies, and having cadets join the ranks every year to provide fresh blood, will undoubtedly make the officer contingent more energetic, neither aging nor slack.

"Mr. Wang's words are very reasonable, and this round of promotion assessment conducted in advance this time can be regarded as a reward for everyone."

Those who pass the assessment will be retained and promoted, and everyone will have more morale. Those who are not selected by the assessment, when they ask to be discharged, they will also be given a special promotion, and if they are promoted again before leaving, they can also get more retirement benefits according to their promoted positions, and even when the officers are transferred to the localities, it is also very beneficial.

According to the promotion procedure of the Han army, the superior commanders of the officers recommended to the above, and finally the fleet command gathered these recommended lists, made comments, and submitted them to the military department together with their files for evaluation, and finally selected the promoters from a number of candidates.

The higher the promotion, the lower the promotion rate.

It is still the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, so there is not much restriction on the number of years, otherwise, the promotion requirements will be higher, for example, a right sergeant to the left sergeant has a two-year military age limit, and if he is promoted to a right general, at least 20 years of military experience.

However, because the imperial court now implements the matching of military rank and military rank, in fact, the commander of the detachment like Liu Yunwen has the rank of general Zuo, but in fact, his military age is only more than three years.

However, the imperial court also stipulated that all positions have a tenure and promotion period, and each position can generally only serve a maximum of two terms, if you cannot be promoted, you must be discharged from the army, and there is no possibility of leveling or demotion, or continuing to hold the original position.

The emperor also said that if the post is fixed for many years, this will inevitably affect the normal promotion of officers at all levels, and then affect the ideological stability of the entire officer corps. After all, now that the size of the empire's army is slowly fixed, one radish and one pit, if an officer can't be promoted and stays in that position, then the people below him can't be promoted.

In order to prevent this situation, and also to prevent the aging of the officer corps, the imperial court also specially stipulated that those who could not be promoted after two rounds of promotion were required to retire. And generally the second round of promotion is within three to five years after the first round. The first promotion generally takes one or two years or three or five years, and each position has a corresponding promotion time according to the rank of the officer.

For the entire army, every year or even month, there will be officers who have their turn to be promoted and pass the promotion, and if they are promoted once, they will have another round of promotion opportunities in a few years, but if they do not have the second round, they can only be discharged.

Therefore, this comprehensive promotion assessment of the Seventh Fleet is also an assessment of disarmament, and if it fails to pass the promotion, it may have to be retired.

There is no shortage of officers in the army now, and the proportion of officers cut in the last disarmament was small, so that the proportion of officers in the army is now almost the same as that of ordinary soldiers.

This time, after the new round of disarmament, the proportion of officers remaining, 55 percent, and 30 percent, should be 15 percent, 55 percent, and 30 percent.

As far as the Seventh Fleet is concerned, not only do they have to eliminate more than 6,000 officers and non-commissioned officers, but they also have to eliminate many ships. In the future, Dongxing Port will be the home port of the Seventh Fleet, and in addition to the surface ship forces, there will also be shore defense troops at the military port base, and all the land and water soldiers combined, including the soldiers of the command headquarters and logistics units on the shore, can only retain 16,000.

And their warships will also have restrictions.

Some boats will be cut, and there will be a limit to the number of ships.

The Seventh Fleet will retain two ships of the first rank, four ships of the second rank, for a total of six battleships, in addition to the cruisers of the third and fourth ranks, twenty-four. This will also be the main warship of the Seventh Fleet, and the number of third- and fourth-class ships will sometimes be used as troop carriers, and the number of fifth- and sixth-class ships and non-class ships will also be reduced, and the number of ships in the entire fleet will be maintained at about 120.

Compared with the previous detachment, both the number of personnel and ships has increased, but the rated personnel on the ships have decreased, mainly because the marines on board have been greatly reduced.

"We really have to speed up this disarmament list, the Japanese of the Imperial Association Legion have already captured Haimen, if we don't hurry up, they will all hit Thang Long City by then."

"These widows are very active, and they haven't been able to live for years." The deputy commander shouted again.

"Of course, the Japanese are active, but the more they grab, the more they earn. Besides, they didn't have the imperial court to pay them food and salaries, so they had to solve it themselves, and if they didn't seize the opportunity to kill those South Vietnamese monkeys, what year would they have. (To be continued.) )

PS: I feel sleepy these days, and I can sleep for 20 hours a day