At present, the main force has eight divisions, namely seven Royal Army infantry divisions, one guards division, three cavalry regiments and a number of independent heavy artillery battalions.

If the expansion plan is carried out smoothly, the size of the main force will swell to 13 divisions, five cavalry regiments, and one heavy artillery brigade next year, with a total strength of more than 120,000 troops.

These 120,000 people may sound like a lot at first glance, but if they are scattered to various fronts and internal domination areas to carry out bomb suppression tasks, then in a certain direction, in fact, the strength of the Royal Army is still quite small.

For example, according to the plan of the Strategic Division, the Second Army and the Fourth Army will not be able to get reinforcements from the Royal Army in southern Anhui and southern Anhui next year, and they can still only have one Royal Army infantry division under their jurisdiction, and the Royal Army currently used to attack Anqing is only 8,000 people.

By next year, the region with the largest number of troops in northern Jiangsu will only be able to receive reinforcements of more than 10,000 men from two divisions at most, and when the First Army and the Fifth Army are combined, its main force, that is, the Royal Army under its jurisdiction, will only have five divisions and about 40,000 troops.

Therefore, even if this expansion plan nearly doubled the total number of troops, in fact, for the huge territory of the Chinese Empire and the simultaneous war on multiple fronts, the royal army of only 120,000 still could not effectively achieve much strategic advantage.

Therefore, in the expansion plan formulated by the Strategy Division, the training and expansion of the Auxiliary Defense Force are also a very important part!

"In order to effectively cooperate with the various combat missions of the Royal Army, the current strength of the Auxiliary Defense Force is still too small, colleagues in the Strategic Department have always believed. The strength of the Allied Defence Force should be at least twice as large as the Royal Army, and preferably three times as large! ”

Chen Anxu told Lin Zhe the importance of the follow-up expansion of the Auxiliary Defense Force: "It is necessary to establish at least 40 auxiliary defense divisions to initially meet the needs of our army's secondary combat missions. And if 60 auxiliary divisions can be built, then they will be able to fully support the combat mission of the Royal Army! ”

Lin Zhe didn't make a fuss just because he heard Chen Anxu say dozens of divisions. Because he personally formulated the establishment of the auxiliary defense division, it is naturally very clear that the auxiliary defense division in the Chinese army is actually a pure infantry unit, and the establishment is relatively small, with about 4,500 people in one division.

You must know that the Chinese army now has more than 20 auxiliary defense divisions, but the total strength is only about 100,000. Even if it was subsequently expanded to 40 auxiliary defense divisions, its total strength would only be 180,000, even if it was 60 auxiliary defense divisions. Moreover, if these 60 auxiliary defense divisions are all fully established, their total strength is only 270,000.

According to the operational tradition of the Chinese Army last year and this year, two to three auxiliary defense divisions are generally attached to a royal army division to form a combat detachment in a certain direction and establish a corps-level establishment.

Except for the First Army, which is more special, the other four armies all have only one Royal Army division, and two or three auxiliary divisions are used to fight.

At the same time, the Auxiliary Defense Force is not only to the front line as cannon fodder, in fact, they also need to bear the heavy responsibility of suppressing the locality, because they also need to disperse a lot of auxiliary defense forces.

Other words. According to the current structure of the Chinese Army, the total strength of the Auxiliary Defense Force needs to be more than twice that of the Royal Army.

However, the Auxiliary Defense Force is not the same as the Royal Army, it does not mean that you can expand it if you have money and food, because you need soldiers. The soldiers of the Assistance Defense Force are all prisoners, and whether or not they can catch a large number of prisoners has become an important factor in whether the Assistance Defense Force can grow.

And this factor is uncontrollable, and it is not the Strategy Department that says that it will expand the ADF. Immediately, tens of thousands of captive soldiers came out and could use them.

In this regard, Chen Anxu proposed another solution: "Considering the uncertainties of the expansion of the auxiliary defense force. Therefore, on the part of our Strategic Division, we can consider the division of the ADF. It is subdivided into front-line combat units as well as rear garrisons.

The front-line combat units continue to follow the current system of the Allied Defence Force, which is expanded by taking prisoners and continues to fight with the Royal Army, while on the other hand, we believe that a local garrison co-defence force can be formed following the example of the Royal Army.

The soldiers of this kind of auxiliary defense force are also recruited, and the salary can be slightly inferior, and the cold weapons and old-style muskets can be used in terms of weapons and equipment, although this move will greatly increase the salary expenses of our army, but at present, our army has abundant military spending, and the biggest factor limiting the development and growth of our army is not military spending, but the production capacity of guns! ”

Chen Anxu obviously had great expectations for the kind of local garrison and defense force he was talking about, and continued with excitement on his face: "And the soldiers and training system are the same as the Royal Army, if necessary, these soldiers can be directly supplemented to the Royal Army, or after the gun production capacity comes up, these soldiers can immediately form a combat effectiveness that is not inferior to the Royal Army by replacing them with new guns!" ”

While Lin Zhe listened, he also turned the report in his hand to the page of 'Local Garrison Auxiliary Defense Army', which was naturally much more detailed than Chen Anxu's simple dictation.

I saw that he looked at it for a while before he spoke: "The cost of this place to garrison the auxiliary defense force is slightly larger, and it is a pure infantry unit, there are no auxiliary arms such as artillery, cavalry, and baggage, and the gap between it and the regular army is too big!" ”

Lin Zhe felt that although the prospects of this kind of local garrison and defense force were good, but the cost performance was somewhat poor, if they were not allowed to be the main force on the battlefield, then there would be no need to compete with the Royal Army for high-quality soldiers, and give them high salaries, but if they were allowed to act as the main force, only equipped with cold weapons and old-style muskets would definitely not work, then they were later replaced with Mini rifles, but they would also have independent combat capabilities because of the lack of cavalry, artillery, baggage and other auxiliary forces.

However, the Strategy Department mentioned it, and Lin Zhe also felt that it was necessary to change the current system of the Chinese Army, which currently only has the Royal Army and the Auxiliary Defense Army, the former is the main force, and the latter is cannon fodder.

And there is still one missing in the middle, that is, troops with mission attributes such as reserves and local garrisons!

In this way, it is also necessary to garrison the auxiliary defense force in this place. However, I can't talk to the Strategy Department about this, so Lin Zhe continued:

"Since the newly established unit is positioned as a second-line combat unit. Then it should belong to the ranks of the Royal Army, and it should be the same as the Royal Army in terms of establishment. However, the specifics can be slightly less, a division of the Royal Army has a baggage regiment, this kind of second-line troops can build a battalion first, and the artillery can also be reduced by one or two, but a division must be equipped with at least two companies of artillery.

In terms of equipment, the existing idle equipment is the mainstay, don't we still have mothballed smoothbore guns and old artillery, transfer them over and use them first! ”

The model that Lin Zhe said is actually to treat these second-line troops as the reserve of the Royal Army, and they are connected first. Then when the ordnance production capacity comes up, as soon as it is replaced with new guns, then it will be the main force.

Of course, the cost will be more than what Chen Anxu said at the beginning of the local garrison and defense army, but you get what you pay for, if it costs half a bucket of water, it is better to do it directly in one step!

Moreover, Lin Zhe also knew that the troops of this model of the Auxiliary Defense Force were out of place. It can't survive forever, and now there is a steady stream of prisoners to replenish, and the war is going on, so the Auxiliary Defense Force can keep going. But when the fighting stops for a while, these auxiliary defense forces will lose their source of soldiers, and Lin Zhe can't always force the soldiers of the auxiliary defense army to help him fight for free. At that time, if some of them are to be left, it is estimated that they will also have to be changed and treated as a regular army.

In this way, it was later reorganized from the Auxiliary Defense Force. It is better to set up a new framework now and establish a brand-new second-class unit to gradually assume the combat mission of the auxiliary defense force. After the reunification of the country, the auxiliary defense force can be abolished immediately.

"Well, you should remember that, in addition to the above-mentioned ones, the follow-up local bomb pressure tasks will all be undertaken by the newly established garrison troops, and the existing auxiliary defense forces will be gradually transferred to the front line one by one. How many garrisons are needed to suppress the various places, and when the time comes, you can discuss with the rest of the staff department, and turn around and hand over the regulations! ”

According to Lin Zhe's vision for the future development of the army, the auxiliary defense force, an irregular temporary army, will have to be withdrawn sooner or later, and the strength of the army in the future should be the main division of the Royal Army and the local garrison of the Royal Army.

As for the Guards Division, which is more special, this kind of Guards unit responsible for guarding the royal family is only two or three divisions at most, and it is impossible to use it as the main force of the army.

The Strategy Department has formulated a series of strategic plans for next year, and based on this, it has drawn up a series of plans for the expansion and training of the armed forces!

Of course, for the smooth implementation of the entire strategy, it is not just a matter of drawing up a few documents, but requires the coordination and cooperation of all departments of the high command to be able to run the entire war machine.

And when Lin Zhe approved the 1858 strategic plan of the Strategy Division, all departments of the Command Department acted quickly!

First of all, the Military Training Department is to set up recruit training camps in many places, expand the recruitment areas from the traditional northern Zhejiang and Songjiang prefectures to the whole of Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu, and also try to establish troops in southern Anhui, Fujian, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui, and other areas controlled by the Chinese Empire.

It is not enough to have soldiers, there must be enough officers, and the military schools that are also under the management of the Military Training Department have also been changed!

The Army Military Academy and the Navy Military Academy immediately announced that they would expand their enrollment to the whole country at the end of the year, and as long as they have a basic level of education and physical condition, they can apply for the examination, and after passing the entrance examination, they can enter these two military academies.

Combined, the two military schools are expected to enroll as many as 3,000 students by the end of the year!

At the same time, the early class of the Army Military Academy was officially separated from the Army Military Academy, and a separate 'Royal Army High School' was established, which widely recruited outstanding students between the ages of 10 and 15, who had passed the physical fitness test, had a basic level of education, and had the characteristics of agile thinking, but even if the enrollment scale was expanded, the number of students in the Army Middle School would not be too much, and the annual enrollment would not exceed 200 people.

The interesting thing is that the difficulty of students applying for the army middle school is much more difficult than directly applying for the army officer school, which does not refer to the student's existing education level, but refers to the comprehensive quality of the student, and the test of the student's endurance, mental agility, and mind in addition to cultural knowledge.

Because for the military, these students in army middle schools are the future, and these officers who directly apply for the military academy and study for a year are just a kind of transition, and they belong to the officers who are trained quickly.

This can be seen from the length of schooling, the army middle school has a full three-year school period, and after graduation, it will enter the military academy to study and even study abroad.

The entire training period is as long as four or five years or even seven or eight years, and these cultivated elites are the key to the modernization of an army!

Compared with the personnel replenishment plan of the Military Training Department, in fact, it is much more difficult for the Ordnance Department to purchase guns and guns, after all, there are not many others in China, that is, there are many people, and it is not a big problem to collect thousands of students from hundreds of millions of people to become military cadets, and then quickly train them for a year, and it is not too difficult to recruit 50,000 or 60,000 high-quality soldiers, and the cost is only salary and settling-in expenses.

But guns are not so easy to solve, and the current supply of ordnance to the Chinese army mainly depends on the Linde Machinery Factory and civilian handicraft workshops!

For example, the large number of bayonets and command knives required by the Royal Army, as well as the large number of swords, spears and other cold weapons required by the Auxiliary Defense Force, were not produced by regular large-scale arsenals, but mainly relied on the widespread existence of many small-scale handicraft workshops.

These swords and other cold weapons are generally made by blacksmiths according to the specifications of the pattern, although some places organize these blacksmiths to improve production efficiency, but still not fundamentally change the mode of manual production.

In addition, these workshops will also hand-craft a certain number of flintlock smoothbore guns, most of which were left over from the former Qing or Taiping armies, and used to produce arquebuses for the Qing army.

Although the Chinese army is said to be dominated by mini rifles, this is limited to the Royal Army.

The reason why they are not equipped with Mini rifles is that on the one hand, the production capacity of the Linde Machinery Factory is insufficient, and on the other hand, it is also a cost problem, a Mini rifle includes a set of equipment such as rifles, bayonets, holsters, bullet molds, etc., and the price is at least 278 yuan.

If you use a fire cap to fire a smoothbore gun, the price of each set can be reduced to less than 15 yuan, and if you use a flintlock instead of a fire cap, the price of each set of flintlock smoothbore guns can be reduced to less than 12 yuan.

In the past, all kinds of smoothbore guns in the Chinese army were captured from the battlefield, but they could not always be like this, it just happened that the technical requirements of these smoothbore guns were not high, and they could be manufactured in handicraft workshops, so the Chinese army purchased a large number of mini rifles from Linde Machinery Factory, and also purchased some flintlock smoothbore guns from some handicraft workshops and small machinery factories to equip law enforcement officers such as the Auxiliary Defense Force and local patrol police.

Even for the sake of cheapness, the military did not purchase better fire-cap shot-bore guns, but only flintlock shotguns, and the wood and bayonets and other parts used to make the gun body were also some bargains!

The main reason why the military continued to purchase flintlock muskets was not because of how good it was, nor because it was cheap, but because the production of Minnie rifles from the Linde Machine Factory was insufficient and had to be compensated for with smoothbore guns.

It's not just Minnie rifles that are underproduced, but also artillery! (To be continued......)