Standing in front of the large military map, Yang Deming, who was waving a baton, began to speak: "Marshal, commanders, colleagues! ”

"At present, our army has three infantry divisions and three mixed brigades, and two cavalry brigades, the third division and the first cavalry brigade of the above units are stationed in Yuguan, the fourth mixed brigade is stationed in Chengde, and the seventh mixed brigade is stationed in Tangshan.

The 9th Division was stationed on the Jinzhou defensive line.

The 10th Division, the 5th Mixed Brigade, and the 2nd Cavalry Brigade are currently stationed in Shenyang.

Our army has more than 8,000 supernumerary patrol policemen, and is currently organized into three patrol regiments and six patrol battalions, three of which are stationed in Huludao, Jinzhou, and Shenyang. The other six patrol battalions were stationed in Yuguan, Xinmin, Panshan, Yingkou, Changchun, Harbin and other areas.

In addition, Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces also have a considerable number of old armies, patrol police, anti-theft battalions, and other troops, and in accordance with the No. 26 commander's warrant issued by the headquarters on December 8, the Education Department has now reorganized the old armies of the two provinces with a joint staff office, and it is expected that they will be reorganized into 18 patrol police battalions with a total of about 9,000 people, and they will be able to be stationed in various prefectures and counties to undertake local public security tasks! ”

Although these numbers were already known to the generals present, it was clearer to hear Yang Deming say it now.

I only heard Yang Deming continue: "Among the above troops, there are a total of 53,000 active field troops and 17,000 patrol officers. However, at present, a large number of field troops of our army are lacking.

At present, the Ninth and Tenth Divisions have only two artillery battalions, and the Third Division lost four artillery pieces, 16 heavy machine guns, and 26 mortars during the period of entering the customs, which have not yet been replenished, and they also need to be equipped with light machine guns. ”

In the past two months or so, Zhao Dongyun ordered a large-scale expansion, and on the basis of the previous three towns, it was directly expanded into three divisions, three mixed brigades, and two cavalry brigades, and this expansion was carried out directly from the active troops as the backbone of the newly programmed troops in accordance with the Beiyang Army's expansion tradition.

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun created three divisions and five brigades in a short period of time, but he also led many troops to be seriously lacking, especially the Ninth Division was transferred out to form the Seventh Mixed Brigade because it fell into the pass, so that the Ninth Division actually only has one infantry brigade and two artillery battalions left.

The 10th Division was also drawn from an infantry regiment and an artillery battalion.

The 3rd Division was no exception, with an infantry regiment and an artillery battalion also being drawn.

The units of the above three divisions were used to form the 4th Mixed Brigade, the 5th Mixed Brigade and the 7th Mixed Brigade.

That is to say, in the past two months, Zhao Dongyun's Feng army has actually expanded a lot, but the actual strength is not too much, before the war, his three full divisions had nearly 50,000 people, and after two months, it is only more than 6,000 more.

The reason why the number of troops has not increased much in the first two months is not that the Fengjun army has not recruited new recruits, but that most of the recruits urgently recruited in these two months are still training in the recruit camps, and they will not begin to replenish the active troops in large quantities until this month and next month.

After all, this is reality and not a strategy game, it is impossible to say that Zhao Dongyun opened his mouth to talk about expanding the army, and tens of thousands of troops immediately appeared in front of him. There is a time process in between, from the time the soldier walks into the recruiting station, it takes about three months to complete the various training and replenish the troops, and now the time is tight to shorten the training period of the recruits, but it also takes about two months, and it is difficult to ensure the quality of the recruits on the part of the education department.

Zhao Dongyun looked at Zhao Dongping from the Ordnance Department at this time: "How long will it take to complete the ordnance replenishment of the troops?" ”

Zhao Dongping had a bitter look on his face again, Xiong Xiling, the government's financial housekeeper, had gray hair in order to maintain the finances recently, but he Zhao Dongping was no better.

He is the general office of the Ordnance Department of the Fengtian Army, and the Ordnance Department he is in charge of is not only in charge of ordnance research, procurement, etc., but also has a salary section under his hand, which is responsible for distributing the salary of the whole army.

However, there is no military expenditure allocated by the General Administration of Finance, and he Zhao Dongping is also a clever woman who is difficult to cook without rice, since entering the customs to fight, the military expenditure of the Feng army is soaring in a straight line, people look at the appearance of the hope that the war expenditure of entering the customs is only about one million, but in fact, the military expenditure of the Feng army in the past two months is as high as eight million, of which the war expenditure is only a small head, most of which are used to expand the army and purchase technical weapons!

The import of 75 mm field artillery from the German side alone cost him Zhao Dongping a huge amount of 500,000 yuan, and then he purchased the old field artillery from the Japanese side, and at the same time purchased the new type of tube retreat mountain artillery from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, in addition to the purchase of shells that were not inferior to the artillery itself.

The cost of purchasing artillery, shells, heavy machine guns, light machine guns, rifles, and other ordnance cost Zhao Dongping at least 4 million.

And the State Administration of Finance only gave about half of the money, even if Zhao Dongping personally found Xiong Xiling's house, then Xiong Xiling was a scoundrel and said that he didn't want money, and he didn't want to die, anyway, the State Administration of Finance only had so much money, and he didn't squeeze it out, so Zhao Dongping could only spend the money in the small treasury.

In order to accumulate these family funds, Zhao Dongyun and other large number of Soviet generals took the risk of doing military material business with Japan and Russia, and even killed the bandits who were famous in Fengtian, so that they saved about five million belongings, and in the past two months, they have lost half of them all at once, which makes Zhao Dongping not worried.

The money in this small treasury is used for emergency use, and it cannot be used until the moment of death.

If the deficit on the side of the State Administration of Finance continues to deteriorate, and it is not possible to squeeze out enough military spending in the next few months, then the remaining two or three million small treasury in Zhao Dongping's hand will also have to be spent, and then the big guys will probably have to drink the northwest wind.

Zhao Dongping, who had a bitter face, spoke: "The ordnance required for this supplement has already been ordered in front of it, and it will be able to be replenished in about two or three months, but there is still a part of the final payment that has not been paid, and this month's military salary and finance bureau have not yet allocated it!" ”

Hearing Zhao Dongping's complaint, Zhao Dongyun frowned slightly, he knew more about this financial difficulty than Zhao Dongping, but today's occasion was not the time to talk about this, to solve the financial problem, he and the government had to find another way, there was no need to say this at the military defense meeting.

So he interrupted Zhao Dongping's words: "Well, it's good to have an ordnance supplement, as for the issue of military spending, we will postpone the discussion, and you and Director Xiong will come over tomorrow!" ”

He quickly turned his head to look at Yang Shande: "How is the training of recruits in the Education Department, and how long will it take to replenish the existing troops?" ”

Yang Shande's expression is much better than Zhao Dongping, after all, he doesn't care about money, and the pressure on military spending has nothing to do with him, he just needs to recruit and train, and if he is short of money, Zhao Dongping will naturally solve it.

"The recruits in October are about to complete their initial training, and it is expected that they will be able to start their distribution at the end of the month, and the recruits in November will not be able to complete their initial training and distribution until the second half of next month, and the total number of recruits in the last two months is 13,000, which can already initially meet the shortage of the existing part of our army!"

Zhao Dongyun showed a satisfied look after hearing this, the work of the Education Department has always been a department that he is more comfortable with, since the era of Lin Yongquan, although Wang Zhanyuan has transitioned for a month in the middle, but it has not caused any negative impact, and after Yang Shande took over the work of the Education Department, it is still developing steadily and healthily.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun looked at Yang Deming again, and Yang Deming spoke again:

"The Operations Section believes that at present our army's defense work is mainly concentrated in three directions, Andong and Lushun on the southern front, Harbin on the northern front, and Yuguan on the western front.

The direction of Yuguan on the western line has been decided, and the ministry will not repeat it in many words, and I will talk about the direction of the southern line and the northern line below.

In the direction of the southern front, in order to guard against the Japanese army in Korea, a small number of garrison troops in the countries of the Arthur Concession and a possible landing force, in the direction of Korea, the construction of the Operations Division is to defend Andong in the early stage, relying on the Yalu River and Andong, the future point of the Sino-Korean railway, if possible, it is necessary to capture the railway bridge or blow up the bridge, if Shun lì Andong can win us at least three months of mobilization preparation time, if the situation is not good, it should also be able to win about a month of preparation time.

The defence force of the area should be no less than one mixed brigade, preferably one division.

In the direction of Lushun, due to the small number of troops of the existing countries in the Lushun Concession, and at the same time, because of the restrictions of many treaties, it is difficult for our army to enter the hinterland of the Liaodong Peninsula, so the construction of the Operations Section is to deploy a brigade or so of troops in Yingkou near the Middle East Railway, and in the event of a military conflict, seize the Dashiqiao as quickly as possible, and at the same time defend against the possible landing of enemy troops in the direction of Yingkou.

In the direction of the northern front, it is necessary to guard against the Russian Far East troops, because the north is vast and sparsely populated, and the supply and movement of the Russian army is strictly dependent on the Eastern Railway, so the opinion of the Operations Division is to abandon the rest of Heilongjiang and concentrate troops to defend Harbin. As long as we hold Harbin, then we will be able to cut off the railway traffic from Manchuria to Vladivostok by the Russians, and Harbin will not lose a day, and Changchun and Shenyang will not have to worry about it for a day.

Since the area may face a heavy attack by the Russian army, the construction of the operations section is that the garrison force in the area needs at least one division, and it is best to have more than two divisions.

The defensive strategy of the southern and northern fronts is the most ideal situation, but considering that once the war breaks out and the difference in strength is very large, as Commander Fang said, our army will abandon Harbin and Andong and other places when necessary, retreat to Shenyang, and if it encounters difficulties again, it will retreat to Jinzhou, relying on the Jinzhou defense line that has been built for many years to defend to the death. ”

Although Yang Deming said the deployment of the southern and northern fronts, and Meng Enyuan was the commander of the Yuguan defense on the western front, as one of the few heavyweight generals in the Soviet Union, Meng Enyuan naturally took the lead in speaking on behalf of many generals: "According to Colonel Yang, this south and north need at least one division and two brigades to be armed. At present, our army's troops in Guannai are only two divisions and two brigades, which are filled in the northern and southern fronts, how to solve the defense of Shenyang and Jinzhou and Huludao? ”