The war in Europe is in full swing, and the people of all ethnic groups in China are celebrating the Spring Festival lively, this is the fifth Spring Festival that Xiao Zhenlei has come to this world to spend, and this Spring Festival is the most comfortable, China has abolished the unequal treaties signed with the foreign powers in the past, and has withdrawn all the leased lands, tariff autonomy and consular jurisdiction, extraterritoriality and other humiliating treaties, the pressure on the body has been reduced a lot, and it is safe to send troops to take back the Liaodong Peninsula and Wandao and other places in the future.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Baili came over and presented a report, saying: "This is the situation of the army training that has been recruited one after another in the past year, a total of 40 divisions, just 1 million people, plus the previous 1.5 million, a total of 2.5 million people, this is the establishment and number of each division, a total of 188 people in the whole army who are qualified to serve as commanders of these 40 divisions, and the personnel list is here."

"Okay, I'll do my best to select and appoint after reading it" Xiao Zhenlei nodded, and said: "By the way, we will continue to recruit soldiers, recruit 500,000 first, and if it is not enough, we will continue to recruit depending on the situation later!" ”

"This ??????" Jiang Baili hesitated when he heard this.

Xiao Zhenlei looked up at him and asked, "What?" Questions? ”

Jiang Baili paused and said: "President, now there are people outside who have complained about our wanton expansion of the army, saying that we are a bit reckless?" 》?????”。

Xiao Zhenlei didn't say anything when he heard this, took out his cigarette case, took out a cigarette, lit it and smoked it, got up and walked around the office, smoking as he walked. After a few minutes, he said, "Brother Baili, others can't understand it." I'm sure you won't fail to understand that this war is unprecedented in history. I believe that as the war continues, more and more countries and people will be involved, and we may not be spared, don't look at Japan now that it has not provoked us, as long as it completely defeats the Tsarist army in the Far East, I am sure that Japan's ambitions will swell dramatically, and then turn its guns on us!

How this war was triggered, you know it, Brother Baili, and I know it too. Many people know that this is a war to redivide the territory of power and reorganize the pattern of the world order, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if you participate in it, you will get unexpected gains, and if you don't participate, it doesn't mean that you can not be affected, the Japanese have long coveted our country, which can be seen from its step by step encroachment on Korea, Liaodong, and Mengmanchuria, and other countries have long wanted to carve up our country, and international politics is like this. Only when you are strong, others will not dare to provoke you, and you should actively participate in international affairs instead of always nesting in your own one-third of an acre of land, and you will not fight for it. Others will come to carve you up, the reality is so cruel.

This is an opportunity for us not to be bullied by the powers. We must be strong enough to show our strength to the great powers. Let them not dare to think lightly about us, and this is the time to show our strength to the Great Powers. To take back the land that we should have from the Japanese, we always say that we want to be strong, but how can we be strong if we don't pay? What do we have now? Compared to wealth, we are not as good as the United States and the United Kingdom, and we are not as good as them than technology, our only strength is that we have a large population and a vast area!

In the past 100 years, we have fallen behind, we have been bullied, and if we want to turn over, we can't do it by being magnanimous, this world is a world of the jungle, only if you are strong, others will respect you, do you think that humble others will respect you? Others will think that you are weak and deceitful, and that humiliation can only be washed away with blood, and there is no other way to forge our glory with our own blood, with the blood of those enemies!

In fact, I didn't know that our country only needs a million troops to ensure its own safety and defend the place? Why don't you know that an increase of 1.5 million soldiers will increase the financial burden? The real problem is that we have to do this, it's still too late to prepare, and once Japan hits, then we won't have time to prepare!

I can't make everyone like me, but I can only make the vast majority of people like me! The reason why I am doing this is not to satisfy my personal desire for power and wage war, but to obtain more living space and resources for our country, 450 million people, the number of people alone is overwhelming the government, these people get up every morning and open their mouths to find me to eat, I want to feed them and clothe them, in another 20 or 30 years, when the living conditions are better, the medical conditions are better, and the children will not be born. When the population exceeds one billion, what will we do for them to live? ”

Jiang Baili listened so much and felt the huge pressure on Xiao Zhenlei, indeed, the throne of this big president is not so easy to sit on, if he is like Yuan Shikai, of course it is very comfortable to sit, but for the sake of power, he can not care about sovereignty and the life and death of the people, but Xiao Zhenlei can't.

"Got it!" Jiang Baili gave a military salute.

"Wait!" Xiao Zhenlei stopped Jiang Baili, who was about to leave, raised the stack of texts in his hand and said, "There are still many people on the list of these division commander candidates, who should not have gone through the military academy, right?" ”

Jiang Baili nodded and said, "Yes, most of them have not gone through military schools, and they have been promoted to this position by virtue of military merit and qualifications!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said: "Let them all study in advanced military academies for three months, and give me their assessment transcripts after three months, and then I will determine the candidates for the commanders of these forty divisions!" ”

"Good!"

The Japanese side also quickly got the news, which aroused great attention and panic on the part of the Japanese authorities, and it was impossible for Japan to expand its army so much like China, and Japan had only a small number of people in total, and had already called up all the reserves, and together with the permanent divisions, it had gathered a total of 40 divisions and regiments, 720,000 people, and another 300,000 people had been recruited in the first half of the year, and the number of soldiers had reached 1 million, and almost all of Japan's idle male labor force had been recruited into it. If the army is expanded, even teenage children may have to be recruited as soldiers. The damage to a country is considerable.

Unlike China, the population base of China is there. 450 million, even if 10 million people are conscripted, it can bear it, as long as it can ensure that production can keep up, there is no problem, but Japan is not good, although Japan's economy was a little sluggish before, but after the recent expansion of the army and the increase in military spending and the war against Tsarist Russia, the economy has picked up, but if the expansion continues to exceed the limit of national strength, then it will definitely cause immeasurable damage to production and the economy.

However, Japan watched China's military expansion but had no other way. Only by expanding the army themselves can we resist the panic in my heart, so the Japanese authorities also announced that they would continue to expand the army by 500,000, and after this order was issued, it immediately aroused the opposition of the Japanese people, and also gave the opposition party an opportunity to attack the cabinet of Okuma Shigenobu, but the opposition party did not have much effect, after all, this was caused by external pressure, and if the army was not expanded, the Chinese Congress would exert tremendous military pressure on Japan.

As a result, a very terrible phenomenon has emerged in Japan. All men over the age of 14 must enter the barracks and join the army, and this is mandatory, and if they do not go, the police and the army will send someone to arrest them. You can't hide.

This is the real reckless force! Although Huaguo has also expanded its army, if the number of soldiers is controlled between three million and four million, Huaguo can still afford it. No matter how much it is, it will be difficult, which is why Xiao Zhenlei advocates the expansion of the army.

The Americans did not express their dissatisfaction with the fact that China, an ally, was so tormented. On the one hand, China has indeed brought great economic benefits to the United States, and the economic exchanges and cooperation between the two sides are very pleasant. On the other hand, Japan's rise over the past few years has brought great pressure to the United States, and the United States has an ally of China to contain Japan in the Far East, which the US authorities are also happy to see.

US President Wilson even sent a telegram to Xiao Zhenlei asking whether there were not enough weapons for China's military expansion, and if not, the United States was willing to supply unlimited quantities and negotiate the price.

The reason why Xiao Zhenlei wanted to expand the army by another 500,000 was also to prepare for war, and the secret treaty signed with Britain and France had already stipulated that China must join the Entente to participate in the war within half a year to a year, and if it did not participate in the war at that time, Britain and France would definitely announce the content of the secret treaty, and even if China did not go to war with the Central Powers, the Allies would declare war on China.

Now, in addition to the navy continuing to increase ships, the army expanding its strength by another 500,000, and the air force adding more fighters and pilots, Xiao Zhenlei feels that the rest is a matter of logistics support.

Logistics support includes many contents, weapons, ammunition, equipment, transport vehicles, food, etc., each of which is very important, and in a war, the fastest and largest consumption is ammunition, followed by food, and then weapons.

The General Logistics Department of the Supreme Military Commission is now under the control of Cai Guodong, and Xiao Zhenlei brought Cai Guodong over, and the two discussed the logistics work.

Xiao Zhenlei said: "If this battle is definitely fought, it will take no more than nine months, how long can your general logistics department ensure timely supply?" ”

Cai Guodong said: "Three million troops, a year's consumption should be no problem!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei frowned when he heard this: "Three million people a year, even if we have three million troops, it is impossible for all of these three million people to fight, do you count this as well?" ”

Cai Guodong said: "Recruits need to be trained, and there is a lot of consumption in the training process, so I count all the consumption!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said: "Weapons and equipment are secondary, save a little, a soldier can manage two sets of military uniforms and one set of winter clothes for a year, but the consumption of ammunition is a big problem, fortunately, we have now unified weapons, bullets only need to produce a few models is enough, if you still want to go to the previous Wanguo brand, it is really a crime!" You have to increase the production of ammunition again, is there anything you can do? ”

Cai Guodong said with a smile: "Of course there are ways, first, take the money and add the hypothetical arsenal again, as long as you have money, I will add four arsenals to you within three months, of course, this is not enough, in addition, you also need to purchase from abroad, as far as I know, Britain has several arsenals in India, and now Britain has not used their production capacity, we can order ammunition from them."

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said: "Okay, just do it, you send someone over tomorrow to get the approval, and the matter of ordering ammunition from the Indian arsenal will also be implemented, and there must be no problems in logistics!" ”

After thinking about it, Xiao Zhenlei asked again: "Is the number of aerial bombs in the air force enough?" And what about the torpedoes of the torpedo machine? ”

Cai Guodong said: "Up to now, 20,000 20,000 20,000 bombs have been reserved, 10,000 50,000 50,000 have been reserved, and 1,000 have been reserved for 200 kilograms!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei shook his head and said: "Less, too little, you don't know how long this battle will last, four years, how much ammunition will be consumed in four years?" ”

Cai Guodong nodded and said: "Of course I know this, but you also know that this battle will not be fought every day, and it is impossible for planes to drop bombs on the enemy every day, aren't we still producing it now?" Produce while consuming, if you produce too much at once, what if you finish the war and the warehouse is still full of inventory? These things will definitely become obsolete, and when the time comes, they will have to be sold cheaply to other small countries or destroyed! ”

Xiao Zhenlei pondered Cai Guodong's words, and thought that what he said was not unreasonable, the problem of ammunition is really difficult to grasp, but if the process of the war is mastered, it is possible to control the production quantity of ammunition to meet the needs of the war, and when the war is over, these ammunition will be almost consumed, and new weapons of war will come out in the future, which will not waste and save military spending.

"Then continue to produce, and prepare more now for a lot less pressure on production in the future, isn't it? If we produce more, we can't say when this war will be fought, the current situation is different from history, and it is not impossible to say that it will be fought for ten or eight years! ”

"Alright then!"

Next, Xiao Zhenlei asked the navy about the ammunition reserves, especially the reserves of naval artillery shells, there are many calibers of naval guns, and there are as many as seven or eight kinds of large and small calibers, and it is really troublesome to produce them one by one. Cai Guodong replied that with the current scale of the navy, it was enough, and Xiao Zhenlei was relieved. (To be continued......) R1292