Chapter 150: Submarines

Chapter 150: Submarines

In mid-1913, the Wehrmacht accelerated the pace of army building. After the end of the Henan crackdown on bandits, Duan Qirui officially went out of the mountain, and in early August, he led four divisions under the jurisdiction of Wang Tianzong, Zhang Fenghui, Chen Shufan, and Liu Bin from Xi'an and advanced to Longshang. In the middle of the month, Jiang Zuobin and Ouyang Wu led reinforcements. The Wehrmacht swept through the eight towns of Longshang with a strong force. At the end of September, Duan Qirui sat in Lanzhou to coordinate the overall situation in the northwest. In early October, the Ministry of National Defense announced the establishment of eight military regions, namely Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Shenyang. The commanders of the military region were Huang Xing, Duan Qirui, Cai Yi, Xu Shaojiao, Wang Shizhen, Zhang Shaozeng, Sun Yue, and Zhang Xiaohuai. Among them, Huang Xing, Cai Yi, and Zhang Xiaohuai are concurrently serving as the chief and deputy ministers of the Ministry of National Defense, and Cai Ye and Zhang Xiaohuai are also concurrently serving as deputy chiefs of general staff. Considering the special situation of Cai Ye and Zhang Xiaohuai, the Ministry of National Defense specially allocated two capable deputies, Cai Yi's assistant is Lan Tianwei, the former non-commissioned officer Sanjie, who served as an assistant to his juniors and served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Jinan Military Region. Zhang Xiaohuai's assistant was arranged unexpectedly, and there was no deputy commander-in-chief for the time being in other major military regions. The commander-in-chief of all major military regions shall have the rank of lieutenant general, and the highest military ranks of the National Defense Forces shall be generals Fang Jianxiong and Huang Xing. Fang Jianxiong, the founder of the Wehrmacht, did not give himself the title of marshal in the end.

In fact, the call for Fang Jianxiong to be the generalissimo in the army was very high, but Fang Jianxiong denied this appeal at the meeting, laughing: No matter how beautiful the civil war is, it is not qualified to be a marshal. This sentence set the tone that the marshal of the Wehrmacht could only be obtained in foreign wars.

At the end of 1913, the first stage of the reorganization of the Wehrmacht was completed, and the training of 24 divisions of the first division was completed. Gui Danqi served as the commander of the first division and Xu Shuzheng, the commander of the second division, which was very unexpected, it turned out that Jian Sen took the initiative to resign and go to Wuhu to teach. The commander of the third division was Anyi, and Paulus, the former commander of the third division, also went to Wuhu to teach. The First Army was stationed in Fengtai and Nanyuan around Beijing, and the Gonggong guarded the safety of the Beijing Division. The commanders of the fourth, fifth, and sixth divisions, Li Xiaochuan, Lin Huaichuan, and Huyan Aobo, were stationed in Shenyang. Li Yifeng, commander of the 7th Division, was stationed in Jinzhou. Zhang Zhenwu, commander of the eighth division, was stationed in Wuhu. Wang Longzhong, commander of the Ninth Division, was stationed in Wuhan. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth division commanders were Li Qianyu, Ouyang Wu, and Shen Tongwu, and were stationed in Jinan. The commanders of the 14th, 15th, and 16th divisions were Gao Sheng, Li Gengen, and Long Jiguang respectively, and their stations were Xuzhou. Wang Tianzong, commander of the 17th Division, was stationed in Lanzhou. The commander of the 18th Division, Zhang Zuolin, was stationed in Anshan, the commander of the 19th Division, Xu Chongzhi, was stationed in Tai'an, the commander of the 20th Division, Leng Shu, was stationed in Guangzhou, the commander of the 21st Division, Liu Yutang, was stationed in Nanjing, the commander of the 22nd Division, Liu Bin, was stationed in Ningxia, the commander of the 23rd Division, Tian Jiyang, was stationed in Jinzhou, and the commander of the 24th Division, Lin Shuqing, was stationed in Dezhou.

In addition to the A division, 40 B divisions were temporarily organized and stationed throughout the country. In addition, 10 cavalry divisions were formed, of which the first division was stationed in Beijing, the second cavalry division was stationed in Shenyang, the third cavalry division was stationed in Jinan, and the remaining cavalry divisions were under the jurisdiction of the Lanzhou Military Region. The formation of twenty heavy artillery regiments, as well as the formation of artillery regiments under each division, became the biggest problem. The officers of the various units went to crash courses in various localities in phases and batches, and then disrupted the divisions of the units. Artillery, unlike infantry, is not to be sloppy. It was not until the end of the year that the Nanjing Artillery School, which was established in the middle of the year, graduated from the first phase of the half-year crash course, which was considered to have solved the problem. 1,500 graduates, plus 1,000 people trained by the German army in Qingdao, this can be regarded as the basic completion of 20 heavy artillery regiments. The artillery regiments of the 40 B divisions have the biggest problem, and there is a huge shortage of personnel, as long as there is still a serious shortage of technical officers. There are many B divisions, and only three or five officers have seriously studied artillery. I can't rush this problem, so I can only wait patiently for the graduates of the second phase of the Nanjing Artillery School and the first phase of the crash course of the Baoding Military Academy, which was changed into an artillery school.

As a result of the large-scale expansion of the army, the combat effectiveness of the army has naturally declined. In order to avoid this problem, Fang Jianxiong concentrated his talents in the twenty-four A divisions. The top 10 divisions of the second division were also given better treatment.

The end of 1913 quietly came, and Tang Jiyao of Guizhou finally announced before the Chinese New Year that he would give up autonomy, which was also something that could not be helped. Although there were not many artillery and could not withstand the large number of people, Tang Jiyao wanted to run to Guangxi under the attack from both sides, but was attacked head-on by the three B divisions stationed in Guangxi from Jiangxi.

Tang Jiyao, who announced his resignation, put on civilian clothes and fled to Hong Kong with a few retinues and went to Japan. Before the end of the year, Duan Qirui was ordered to send two divisions, Chen Eun and Wu Xiangjiao, into Urumqi, and Xinjiang Wang Yang Zengxin did not resist and remained in the post of governor of Xinjiang. So far, all the national defense forces have been stationed in the whole country, except for Tibet, Qinghai, and Outer Mongolia. The situation of reunification has basically taken shape.

On the New Year's Day of the Gregorian calendar in 1914, a fleet of ships from across the ocean slowly docked in Shanghai. Stilwell stepped off the boat and stood on the dock settling in to the steadiness of the land. The confusion of history was supposed to be returned

Stilwell, who teaches at West Point, set out from the Philippines again and set foot on Chinese soil.

Stilwell's new position as military attache at the consulate in Wuhan was due to the fact that U.S. Minister Raines highlighted in his telegram to China that the Yangtze River basin, from Wuhu to Chongqing, had become the engine of China's industrial development. Several key cities along the Yangtze River, such as Wuhu, Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuhan, and Chongqing, account for 75 percent of China's total industrial output. This is a staggering figure, with a focus on Wuhan, the Huangpi Special Economic Zone (SAR) that has popped up in the past year to become the most densely popped up for industrial enterprises in China.

Stilwell was lucky, and the American fleet had been carrying cargo to Shanghai, and the cargo ships were undoubtedly much more comfortable than the warships. When Stilwell was on board, he was very interested in the kind of boxy containers, and after inquiring about it, he learned that it was a new gadget invented by a company called "Merlot Manufacturing Company", which had just recently been introduced. This company is said to have a very good relationship with Fang Jianxiong, a big man in China, and Fang Jianxiong designated the American steamship company to use this kind of container to transport this batch of American goods. As for what was on board, Stilwell, as a military attaché, was of course very clear. In the past year, the major US arms companies worked at full speed to complete 150,000 rifles.

This incident has taught the US Government a profound lesson, and despite the fact that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are used as barriers, in the event that the United States is invaded one day, the US Government has specially studied the topic of how to quickly convert its powerful industrial strength into military products.

Stilwell heard that the Chinese placed an order for 500,000 rifles to the American ** industrial enterprises in one breath, and this number made Stilwell speechless, and the US Army only had a few guns in total. Fortunately, China is a country separated from the United States by the Pacific Ocean, and it is not yet a naval power. Look at the fact that even rifles have to be imported, and you will know the industrial strength of this country.

"Mr. Stilwell, welcome to Shanghai, the largest metropolis in the Far East." After shaking hands, Joyce looked at the fleet and whistled softly: "How many fleets is this year?" I can't even remember. ”

"The Chinese are building an army of a million people, which is a good thing for the United States." Stilwell smiled, and Joyce opened the car door and said, "Yes, that's a good thing." As a result, U.S. companies have received a large number of purchase orders. The Russians and Japan are deeply disturbed, and it seems to me that their uneasiness is justified. Because you can't just come to China to grab things. ”

"How is the equipment of the squadron? This time I came to China, and I need to understand something about this issue. ”

"It's not good, the industry in their country is too backward, and most of the equipment needs to be imported. They are stepping up the construction of the base of the military industry, which, in my opinion, lags behind the United States by at least fifty years. The country is big, and the surrounding neighbors are not a good thing, so so so there are so many troops. As for the mood of Japan and Russia, who knows? ”

Ford slowly walked through the flow of people on the streets of Shanghai, and Stilwell closed his eyes to rest.

The Wusong military wharf is now a military restricted area, and when the US fleet entered Wusongkou, Fang Jianxiong was inspecting a batch of newly commissioned submarines of the navy at the wharf. There were six submarines in this batch, two of which were new submarines produced by Jiangnan Dockyard in cooperation with the Germans, with a displacement of 700 tons and carrying six torpedoes. The other four have been in service for half a year and have been trained by German naval officers. The only person who really takes submarines seriously now is probably Fang Jianxiong.

In less than a year, Europe will be able to fight, and time is too tight for Fang Jianxiong. In the second half of last year, the work of the Republic of China Government was mainly focused on two aspects: one was to popularize compulsory education throughout the country, and the other was to step up army building. These two items account for 40% of the state's fiscal expenditures. When the budget was put into the new year, Congress was noisy again. The opposition parties are deeply dissatisfied with the fact that the military expenditure in the budget is as high as 30% of the total expenditure, and the KMT, together with the Progressive Party, has hyped up this topic. In the end, this budget was still passed, and it was forced to pass guò on the same day.

A submarine docked, and Fang Jianxiong saw a submarine of this era for the first time, so he couldn't help but walk forward with a little curiosity. After the submarine dropped anchor, the first person to turn out of the hatch was a German devil, who was still recognizable at a glance although he was wearing a Chinese vest.

"Wang, it seems that there is a big man on the docks." The Germans turned around and shouted at the second Wang Tong, a native of Wenzhou who studied in Japan in 1909 and mixed very well in another time and space, and was the adjutant general of the navy. At this time and space, probably seeing that it was too slow to be promoted on an ordinary warship, Wang Tong chose to come to the submarine force and directly promoted the captain to serve as the captain. The navy is still short of talents, especially those who are willing to work in submarines. Most naval officers still have the idea of a giant ship with cannons, the bigger the battleship, the better, who wants to come to the living coffin of the submarine to suffer? (To be continued)