Specifically, the reform of the artillery unit is that each artillery company still has six artillery pieces under its jurisdiction, three artillery companies form an artillery battalion, and three artillery battalions form an artillery regiment, with a total of 54 artillery pieces under its jurisdiction.

At the same time, Lin Zhe has instructed the Linde Machinery Factory to develop small-caliber rear-loading rifled guns, and the Linde Machinery Factory has given several preliminary designs, namely 70 mm, 75 mm, 80 mm and other different calibers, and rear-loading rifled field guns with different barrel lengths. However, when the rear-loading rifled guns are officially installed after the design is completed, the Second Guards Division will definitely be the first to be equipped with these new weapons.

Leaving aside the rear-loading rifled field guns that are still on paper, let's just talk about the artillery regiment of the 2nd Guards Division, which is based on the existing artillery, and the biggest change between this artillery regiment and other divisional artillery regiments of the Royal Army is the establishment of a battalion-level establishment, and the corresponding total number of artillery pieces has increased from 32 to 54.

From infantry to artillery, the Second Guards Division is the same as the Chinese army, but it is different from all the armies in the contemporary world, so the formation of this force seems strange to many people.

Fourteen soldiers form an infantry squad, three infantry squads form an infantry platoon, three infantry platoons form an infantry company, and four infantry companies form an infantry battalion.

Three infantry battalions formed an infantry regiment, which was accompanied by an infantry battery of six four-pounder infantry guns.

Two infantry regiments formed an infantry brigade.

The two infantry brigades formed an infantry division, and at the same time, the infantry division also had an artillery regiment with 54 guns, a cavalry regiment with four cavalry companies, a baggage regiment with nearly 2,000 men, an engineering battalion with more than 800 men, a medical battalion, and a military band.

When fully manned, the 2nd Guards Division will have a total strength of more than 13,500 men, a full 5,000 men more than the 8,500 men of the existing infantry division.

This kind of establishment is typical of the period from 1900 to World War I. For this era, it is more than thirty or forty years away.

Of course, in such a difficult situation, it is very difficult to train the 2nd Guards Division, not to mention that even a rifle is far from enough. In the past six months, the Linde Machinery Factory has been working overtime every day, but it is difficult to meet the huge needs of the military, but fortunately, the Jinling Arsenal has now been put into production, although the output is still slightly small, but it has also been able to supply to the military in batches.

The weapons of the 2nd Guards Division were basically from the Jinling Arsenal, including the 1858 rifle produced by the Jinling Arsenal, with front-loading rifled guns.

Now using the weapons produced by the Jinling Arsenal, Lin Zhe has already organized and trained an infantry regiment and several artillery companies, as for when it will be able to completely expand into a division. It depends on how the situation develops.

Although only one regiment and a few artillery companies and a number of baggage and engineering companies were trained, Lin Zhe could not wait for them to conduct various new tactical drills, and he did not ask how well the Second Guards Division could be trained and what kind of combat effectiveness it could play, he only needed them to try all kinds of common sense in their minds, and then find out the tactics and strategies that were most in line with contemporary use.

On the whole, the 2nd Guards Division was an experimental unit ahead of its time, and even now it is difficult to use it in real combat.

Relatively speaking. Although the Sixth Army also used new weapons and experimented with new tactics, it still did not go beyond the scope of this era. And the extensive use of the existing mature system also made it so that the two infantry divisions of the Sixth Army would not be just a showmanship like the Second Guards Division.

The Sixth Army is capable of pulling out to fight!

Naturally, the new troops, which had been formed at great expense, could not let them watch the drama in Jiangyin, sitting back and watching the friendly troops in the direction of Shanghai fight to the death while watching the drama with their own benches.

The high command considered that since the coalition forces had landed in Shanghai, and had built fortifications on the spot, and put on a posture of long-term confrontation, it should not be very likely that they would suddenly disappear from Shanghai. Then run to Jiangyin to land.

Therefore, the High Command made the latest strategic adjustment in July, withering the Sixth Army out of Jiangyin and moving south to reinforce Shanghai, while the defense of Jiangyin was transferred to the Fifth Army. Considering that although there is a main force such as the Fifth Division in the Fifth Army, the strength of the Twelfth Infantry Division under its jurisdiction is still relatively weak, in order to prevent tens of thousands of coalition troops from suddenly appearing out of nowhere to bypass Shanghai and land in Jiangyin, Chen Yuntao pleaded with Lin Zhe.

Lin Zhe transferred an infantry regiment from the 1st Guards Division, and at the same time transferred two auxiliary defense divisions to Jiangyin to maintain the defense force in the direction of Jiangyin.

Of course, the reason why it was not opposed by the officers of the Guards Division behind this is naturally related to Chen Yuntao and others' promise to increase the support for the training of the Second Guards Division in the future, and Chen Yuntao and other senior generals of the Command Department have made a private verbal commitment to Lin Mailan, the division commander of the First Guards Division and the person in charge of the training of the Second Guards Division:

If there are no major changes on the Shanghai front in the near future, then in the following August and September, the high command will slow down the pace of training of the 13th Infantry Division, so as to free up some of the rifle and artillery production of the Linde Machine Factory for the 2nd Guards Division.

If there was no such commitment, it is estimated that Lin Mailan and the others would not agree to the plan of the Commander's Headquarters to transfer the Guards Division, because in the eyes of Lin Mailan and other generals of the Guards Division, the war in Shanghai and Jiangyin is the matter of the Royal Army such as the Command, and it really has little to do with them.

They didn't care about the victory or defeat of Shanghai and Jiangyin, they only had one thing to do, and that was to cover Lin Zhe, the emperor of the empire, on his western hunt or northern tour when the coalition army reached Nanjing.

In other words, when the situation is corrupted, the Guards Division has to flee with Lin Zhe.

Then there is another mission intention that no one has spoken, that is, when Nanjing falls, Lin Zhe, who escapes with the Guards Division, may encounter some loyalty problems, such as the self-reliance of the generals in the north and the west, don't think that the Chinese Empire seems to be working together now, but this is only based on the continuous victories of the Chinese army. Once there is a fiasco in the collapse of southern Jiangsu, the foundation of the empire, that is, the foundation of Lin Zhe's rule, will be shaken, and then Lin Zhe will need to have a force that is absolutely loyal to him to deter the generals outside, in order to make a comeback.

The guards division with these tasks is actually under a lot of pressure!

If the coalition forces were really able to break through the Shanghai and Jiangyin defense lines, then the main forces of the Royal Army of the Chinese Army, which represented the southern direction of Jiangsu, would be completely defeated. At that time, only the Guards Division will be able to escape with Lin Zhe, and it will not be easy to successfully cover Lin Zhe's escape in the hands of a coalition of tens of thousands of people.

Not to mention how to ensure that Lin Zhe's throne is not lost after escaping, when the time comes, the guards will need to show enough strength to deter the generals in other directions from being double-minded.

Otherwise, why do you think Lin Mailan, the people of the Guards Division, are worried about training the Second Guards Division all day long? It's not that one day, the Guards Division will have enough strength to ensure the stability of Lin Zhe's throne.

From the Yongying in Yuyao County to Yu Shengjun, and then to the Chinese Army, the establishment of the Chinese Empire, the current Chinese Army is no longer a simple Lin Zhe private army. Despite the call of the Royal Army, in fact, this army has gradually become an imperial army, and is no longer Lin Zhe's private army.

The role of Lin Zhe's private army has been transferred from the Royal Army to the Guards Division.

The current Guards Division is the same as Yu Shengjun a few years ago, and is only loyal to Lin Zhe personally.

Based on these circumstances, it was actually very difficult for the Commander's Headquarters to send troops from the Guards Division to the front line to participate in the war, and it had tried to transfer the Guards Division to Shanghai to fight a few months ago, but it was rejected by Lin Mailan and others with a tough attitude, and this time it was able to transfer an infantry regiment of the Guards Division to Jiangyin to participate in the defense. The High Command had to commit itself to prioritizing the allocation of a large number of new weapons to the 2nd Guards Division in the coming months, which would cause the formation of the 13th Infantry Division of the Royal Army to fall behind.

But anyway. The Guards Division finally had an infantry regiment to join the defense of Jiangyin, and after receiving reinforcements from this infantry regiment, the Fifth Army had a greater grasp of defending Jiangyin.

In this way, the headquarters can rest assured that the Sixth Army will be dispatched to reinforce Shanghai!

After receiving the order, Shi Qingxuan did not hesitate much, and after preparing for a few days, he left Jiangyin with the whole army of the Sixth Army, and then went all the way along the river to Shanghai.

Jiangyin is not far from Shanghai. It was only more than 100 kilometers, and at the same time, this was not a reinforcement task such as a military emergency, so the Sixth Army was not in a hurry to go, and at the same time, the Sixth Army could not move fast with a large number of baggage and artillery, so it took five days to arrive in Jiading.

But the Sixth Army had just arrived in Jiading. Shi Qingxuan received an urgent military report from Shanghai, saying that a large number of ships had been found off the coast of Shanghai.

At this time, dozens or even hundreds of ships were gathered, and only the British and French forces appeared in the waters off the coast of Shanghai.

"Is it their reinforcements? How many? Shi Qingxuan asked with a frown.

It's a pity that no one can give him an answer, for the current Chinese army, it is not easy to detect the enemy's large-scale fleet in the coastal waters, and this information is still a situation that the navy has taken the risk of sending small boats disguised as fishing boats to the sea to reconnoitre.

However, the size of the coalition fleet is too large, and there are dozens or hundreds of ships at random, and it is difficult to know the actual number of ships of these reconnaissance boats disguised as fishing boats when they dare not approach, let alone detect how many of these ships are carrying cannonballs, food, and other supplies, and how many are carrying reinforcements.

To these, the navy can only give a very vague answer, that is, the enemy's fleet is about fifty to eighty ships, most of which are transport ships.

As for how many supplies were on board, how many troops were unknown!

But there is no doubt that there must be supplies and reinforcements inside, it's just a matter of quantity!

After receiving the report from Shanghai, Shi Qingxuan also received a letter from Bing Qusong from Baoshan County, that is, from the Wusong Fortress.

The letter asked the enemy to reinforce on a large scale soon, and also asked the Sixth Army to give strong support, and then asked Shi Qingxuan to lead the Sixth Army to deploy in the eastern part of Jiading to prevent the enemy from advancing to the northwest.

This letter was written by Bing Qusong in his personal capacity, and it was not in a commanding tone, because although Bing Qusong was the commander-in-chief of Shanghai's defense, it stands to reason that all the troops that came to the surrounding areas of Shanghai to participate in the war were under his command, and this was the case with the Second Army, and the same was true of the Sixth Army, which was now reinforced.

But although he is already a first-echelon high-level general in the Chinese army, he is still slightly inferior to Shi Qingxuan, Xu Yanqing and Lin Anfei, with his qualifications and prestige, he does not dare to give orders directly to Xu Yanqing and Shi Qingxuan, and can only use a consultative tone to adjust the coordinated operations of the three armies.

However, although Xu Yanqing and Shi Qingxuan were somewhat dissatisfied with obeying Bing Qusong's orders, they were also smart people, and they all knew that Bing Qusong was able to serve as the commander of Shanghai's defense not because of his qualifications and prestige, but because of his familiarity with the Shanghai area and with the foreign armies such as the coalition army.

The surrounding area of Shanghai is the host for Bing Qusong, and Shi Qingxuan and Xu Yanqing are guests, so although they are reluctant, they still have to obey Bing Qusong's orders, otherwise, if Lin Zhe in Nanjing knows that he has violated military orders and other actions, it is estimated that the end will be very bad.

Fortunately, Bing Qusong is also an interesting person, knowing his own shortcomings, and he is even more reluctant to embarrass these two bigwigs, so whenever there is a strategic deployment, he uses a consultative tone.

This time is the same, after Shi Qingxuan saw it, he didn't care too much, he didn't come to Shanghai to fight for power and profit, nor to get angry with his colleagues, he came to Shanghai to prove that his efforts in the past six months were not in vain, and to prove that the many new tactics he has worked hard in the past six months are of practical significance, and they are of great significance! (To be continued......)

PS: 3.9K small welfare chapter, don't blame the update late