On 27 February, a joint report by the Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff Headquarters on the adjustment of the troop establishment was put on Long Qian's desk. After seeing off the French ambassador, he immersed himself in reading the report, which was 28 pages thick and almost 12,000 words.

Long before the Shandong Campaign, the General Staff Department set up a readjustment of the army establishment of the National Defense Forces, with the aim of not only meeting practical needs, but also bringing them into line with the major powers in the world.

Responsible for the study of troop establishment in the General Staff and not in the Ministry of Defense. However, this report was jointly submitted by the military order and the military and political system. The names of two generals, Situ Jun and Wang Mingyuan, were signed on it.

At present, the core of the armies of the great powers is divisions. When calculating each other's strength, they all use divisions as units. Taking the German army as an example, a division has two brigades, two regiments per brigade and three battalions per regiment, with a total of 12 infantry battalions in the division.

At present, the divisional strength of the Chinese National Defense Forces is much larger than that of Germany, France, and Russia, and even if it is a type B division, the number of infantry battalions in each division is as high as 18, far exceeding that of Germany, France, and Russia. In fact, the infantry brigade of the Chinese Defense Forces is basically comparable to the German division. The actual number and firepower of the infantry brigade of the A division are basically equivalent to those of the German division. In this way, the General Staff put forward an opinion, that is, to abolish the brigade-level establishment and to directly administer the regiment under the division level. At the same time, the difference between the establishment of division A and division B has also been abolished. Armies above the division level shall be set up as the campaign command organ, and each army shall be organized into 2~3 divisions according to different tasks. In other words, divisions are relatively fixed, but corps may change frequently.

In fact, it's a game of changing the soup but not the medicine. The root cause is the imbalance caused by the horizontal comparison with the armies of other countries. The Wehrmacht now has its sights set on the world, after winning the Battle of Shandong. In the past, the hypothetical enemy Japan was no longer a problem, and they turned more and more to Europe, and made great efforts to collect and study the progress of the war in Europe, and one of the issues was the organization of the army. The division of the Wehrmacht is the army in Europe, and the division commander is the army commander. Therefore, the active division commanders of the Wehrmacht have acted as the main promoters of the reform of the army establishment.

Of course, there are indeed some problems in the current army establishment, such as the fact that the firepower of the Division A is too large and the requirements for commanders are too high. In addition, the different arrangements between Division A and Division B do cause some contradictions. Long Qian couldn't hear these contradictions. But know. The same division commander. The ranks of the establishment are all major generals, but the actual tasks and command troops are much worse, especially the artillery, and the A division has three artillery regiments. But there is only one division. Because of the production of cannons and the problem of replacement. Some newly formed army divisions. For example, the 20th Division has not yet been organized into an artillery regiment.

After agreeing that the General Staff Department should take the lead in studying and adjusting the establishment of the army, Long Qian gave a directive to the General Staff Headquarters. The General Staff was instructed to study the needs of the current country's army, and how many troops were needed?

This is a big issue. There are several assumptions that need to be set. In connection with the adjustment of the strength of the troops, the General Staff reported to the President the results of the study: if the current situation is maintained, the Defence Force should be reduced by about five brigades. But if our country enters the European war, it needs to continue to expand its army. There are several situations, the number of expanded troops naturally varies, if you join the German-Austrian side, at least 15 more divisions (30~35 infantry brigades) need to be expanded.

Long Qian spent two and a half hours carefully studying this text marked as: Top Secret, no copy. Picked up the phone to call Situ Jun, because his wife Lu Bicheng worked in the presidential palace, and the chief of the general staff did not go home at noon, so he rested at the general staff office.

"I basically agree with your comments on the adjustment of the establishment." Long Qian said to Situ Jun on the phone, "Jian yì convene an internal meeting of a considerable level to listen to the opinions of the commanders and chiefs of staff of the various military regions. Or send the text to the relevant people for them to study and then decide. ”

Situ Jun agreed to the latter arrangement, "I will send someone to make a special trip to deliver it, return to Beijing with their opinions, and report to you after summarizing." ”

"Okay. Another thing, from the perspective of the army, we have to come up with an opinion on whether or not we will participate in the war. ”

"Understood."

"So be it, we'll have a meeting in a few days. It is estimated that the diplomatic aspect was also relatively clear at that time. Long Qian put down the phone.

House's trip to China had an actual look at China's strength, so instead of returning to the United States with David, he stayed behind to begin his trip to China, visiting Jinan, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Changchun, and other cities in addition to Beijing. In particular, Shenyang, Xi'an, and Taiyuan are the three key cities for the construction of conventional weapons in the General Ordnance Industry Administration; Xi'an's pyrotechnics, explosives, and artillery shells, Taiyuan's light artillery, and various types of ammunition, and Shenyang's heavy artillery, firearms, and ammunition have become large-scale; Shenyang, in particular, is the focus of the military industry planned by the General Ordnance Industry Administration, and the goal is to undertake the supply of weapons and ammunition for the operations of the large corps of the Northern Military Region in the event of a war against Russia or Japan, and the military industrial enterprises under construction are complete in all categories, and there is a tendency to catch up with and surpass Jinan. Of course, in addition to Shenyang, there are several locations in Northeast China, including explosives and pyrotechnics in Jilin, firearms in Changchun and artillery factories in Harbin, but Shenyang is the core of military construction in Northeast China.

The Americans apparently had some information, and House's first stop from Beijing was Shenyang. Accompanying him on his visit were Gu Weijun and Wang Zhifeng, and Long Qian's order was not to keep it secret from him, and he could watch whatever he wanted.

Sure enough, the British and French began a second round of lobbying to draw China into the side of the Entente, and Long Qian handed over the errand to the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without seeing the British and French ambassadors. This round of lobbying is dominated by the British, and the relevant hole cards have been studied, and China must take the opportunity of the First World War to shake off the shackles tied to its body and reap some benefits as much as possible. Long Qian's plan is to save face, the face project is mainly a concession issue, Long Qian also knows that it is unrealistic to take back all the concessions at once, but this time he must cut some flesh from Britain, France and the United States. A battle of Shandong, which took back half of the Japanese concession, greatly boosted the morale of the people. Although there is a tendency for nationalism to rise in popularity, the positive effect is enormous. If China wants to get rid of poverty and ignorance, it is first necessary to wake up the long-dormant Chinese people, and the emergence of a right-wing bloc may be a bit troublesome, but it cannot suppress the nationalist cry for now.

As for the final payment of the Xinchou Treaty, Long Qian decided not to pay it anymore, and this year is the last year. Whether joining an alliance or joining an entente, the allies' indemnities must be waived, let alone the enemy's. Originally, Germany and Austria were not considered, but the number collected by Long Qian found that Germany's losses in the war of a year and a half were much smaller than the number he remembered! Although the course of the war was generally the same, the German army played an exceptionally good role in the defense of the position, and the German army was much more armed, such as the general equipment of light machine guns, and the lead of Britain and France made the opponent desperately catch up, and the arrogant British had to privately find China, hoping to buy several Chinese patented technologies. China, of course, refused. The rationale is that neutrals cannot sell war resources. Germany's performance in the war made Long Qian doubt himself for a long time. Could the Germans really be able to rewrite history and defeat Britain and France before the Americans joined the Entente? The Americans obviously can't sit still, and Wilson is a productive president, and the reason behind sending House to China to make a naked diplomatic stance is partly due to China's demonstrated strength. Also because the losses of Britain and France were too great.

Long Qian decided to take another look. Let's take a look at the ending of Verdun.

The present arrogance of England and France will soon be wiped out by the loss of Verdun and the Somme. As for Russia. This year will drain the last bit of Russia's vitality. Alexei. Brushilov may be able to achieve some victories, but he will not save Russia from decline. Therefore, Long Qian did not care much about the representations between the British and French representatives and the Prime Minister's Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Let them bargain first, the Entente countries don't want to get any benefits from China without showing the real money that impresses them, not a soldier, a gun, or a bullet.

On 5 March, Long Qian listened to the final plan for the adjustment of the army's establishment at the General Staff Headquarters. The content of this meeting was expanded, and Situ Junjian studied the construction of the navy and air force together, and Long Qian agreed. As a result, the Navy and the Air Force also prepared their own plans. On the first day of the meeting, only the vice minister of national defense and generals at the level of deputy chief of general staff of the General Staff participated in the meeting, and only Premier Fang Shengyuan, vice premier, and acting finance minister Xiong Xiling attended the government system.

The meeting went relatively smoothly. Because the adjustment of the establishment will involve the adjustment of personnel, Wang Mingyuan called the commanders and chiefs of staff of the major military regions to Beijing to attend the meeting, but Long Qian vetoed the meeting, and Long Qian divided the meeting into two stages: the first stage was to discuss and determine the establishment of the army, navy, and air force and related personnel issues, and the second stage was to study and determine the national defense strategy. After entering the second stage, the relevant generals can be invited to participate, and the government and parliamentarians must also express their opinions. But in the first phase, there won't be so many people, "they're the executive layer." Do you understand? Long Qian said to Wang Mingyuan, "At any time, the authority of the General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of National Defense will not be allowed to be shaken. ”

According to Long Qian's order, the opinions of the commanders and chiefs of staff of the major military regions were consulted in advance. As expected, the commanders and chiefs of staff of the military regions were in favor of the overall idea of changing the existing army grouping, but they also put forward many good suggestions.

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the army was reorganized with 1~16, 21, and 22, a total of 18 army divisions and another cavalry brigade, including 6 A divisions. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, five new divisions of 17~20 and 23 were newly built, which were assigned to the southeast, south and northwest military regions. Among them, the 18th Division also participated in the Shandong Campaign and achieved good results. The Independent Cavalry Brigade, which had participated in the expedition to Tangnu Ulianghai, was expanded into a division in 1911 and was led by Jiang Cunxian, a cavalry officer with veteran qualifications in the Mengshan Army. In addition, two heavy artillery brigades were formed under the General Staff.

In 1912, the Railway Corps Command was established, and the 17th and 22nd Divisions of the Army were assigned to the Railway Corps Command, and the number was changed to the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Railway Corps.

At the beginning of 1916, the Wehrmacht Army consisted of 24 divisions and 56 brigades. The total strength of the army within the establishment is 1.026 million (including military academy cadets, engineering troops and other special forces).

The plan for the adjustment of the army establishment put forward by the General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of National Defense is as follows: The original six military regions and garrison regions will be retained as unchanged, and a total of 22 armies will be reorganized and set up in the 1st ~ 22nd periods, with 3 infantry divisions in each army, a total of 66 infantry divisions, and another 2 cavalry divisions and 3 artillery divisions.

In fact, it has been expanded.

After the adjustment, the armies are subordinate as follows: garrison areas: 2nd, 4th, and 10th armies. Northern Military District: 1st, 5th, 9th, 12th, 21st Armies. Central Military District: 6th, 16th, 18th Armies. Southeast Military District: 3rd, 15th, 20th Armies. Southern Military District: 8th and 14th armies. Southwest Military Region: 13th and 22nd armies. Northwest Military District: 7th, 11th, 17th, 19th Armies.

Among them, the 11th, 17th, and 22nd armies were newly built. They were mainly expanded by the 1st Brigade of the original 1st Division, the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division and the 25th Brigade of the 9th Division. The rest continued the old number of the division.

After the completion of the reorganization, each division has three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment, and is equipped with corresponding reconnaissance, guard, communications, and engineering units, and the number of each division is 13,500. The General Staff Headquarters has made detailed regulations on the establishment of units below the regimental level, and the Ministry of Defense has set the corresponding establishment ranks.

The Ministry of National Defense once set the rank of commander as lieutenant general, but it was vetoed by Long Qian. Long Qian expressed his opinion and thought that it was more appropriate for the major general. The reason, it's still the old saying, leave room for them to improve. In this way, the establishment rank of division commander was reduced to brigadier general, but the reorganized division was actually the brigade of the past, and the original establishment rank of the brigade commander was brigadier general.

This is a major reorganization. The force will face a major expansion. In particular, the newly formed three armies will have a large number of generals who will have the opportunity to be promoted. At the meeting on March 2, the Ministry of National Defense came up with its own opinions and reported them to Long Qian for approval, and Long Qian made a decision on the spot. Some of the generals serving in the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff will go down to lead the troops, some of the chiefs of staff will be transferred to military commanders, and some of the division and brigade commanders will be transferred to the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff Department, or they will serve as chiefs of staff of military regions and armies.

In advance, Wang Mingyuan had already consulted Situ Jun's opinion. So this personnel adjustment did not take any more time.

Judging from the subordinate units proposed by the General Staff Headquarters and the Ministry of National Defense, the Northwest and Northern Military Regions are the two most powerful military regions, and the Northern Military Region has five armies, and the armies reorganized from the former 1st and 9th ace divisions have been incorporated into this military region, and the Northeast Military Region also has two agricultural reclamation divisions with combat effectiveness. The Northwest Military Region is also not ambiguous, the predecessor of the 7th Army, the 7th Division, was originally a first-class division, and the 17th Army, which was expanded from the original 6th Division and 16th Brigade with outstanding military achievements, was also assigned to the military region.

This result shows an attitude of the center, I am afraid that it is really going to join Germany and Austria in the war against Russia!

At the end of the General Staff meeting on 2 March, Long Qian proposed the rotation of commanders of military regions, and he told Wang Mingyuan and Situ Jun, two senior members of the unified army, that the commanders of the regions could not do well in one place for a long time, and they should be rotated. After the Battle of Shandong, Feng Guozhu and Ye Yanbing switched up, this time the Northwest Military Region added two new armies, and a veteran general was needed to sit in charge, so let Marshal Guozhu pick up this burden. For the rest, my opinion is that Wu Nian took over as commander of the Southern Military Region. Hu Zongyu went to the southwest, and Lan Xinzhi went to the southeast, and they switched each other. Cheng Erhu and Shi Dashou did not move for the time being. What do you two think?

Situ Jun said yes. Wang Mingyuan seemed to have some thoughts, but he didn't say it, and he agreed.

"Then Mingyuan, you can issue an order in the name of the Ministry of Defense." Long Qian looked relaxed.

Vice Premier Song Jiaoren stopped Long Qian after the meeting ended, "President, I know you are busy, but there are a few words I have to tell you. ”

Long Qian looked at Song Jiaoren's anxious demeanor and knew what he was going to say, "You say, Mr. Dull Chu." ”

"President, looking at the military grouping and stationing of the army, has it decided to join Germany and Austria in the war against Russia?"

"Why do you think that?"

"The Northeast is just that, there are Japanese troops stationed, and the place is also rich. But the northwest is barren, how can it raise so many soldiers? If it is not a war against Russia, why is the Northwest Military District equipped with so many troops? ”

"Haha, Mr. Dull Chu is biased. The northwest is vast and sparsely populated, and ethnic contradictions have always existed, and there were originally only two divisions, and troops like the 7th Division were originally intended to be used in the battle of Shandong, but they were not drawn because of local stability, but now they are just enriched. Don't worry, Mr. Tan Chu, the major policies of the state cannot be decided by me alone, and whether or not to participate in the European war must be seriously studied by the central authorities, the military is one thing, and the parliament and the government must fully express their opinions. You can rest assured. Brother Zhiquan didn't protest just now, and I'm already very grateful. ”

The business of the Government Council was adjusted, and the Ministry of Finance was placed under the management of Song Jiaoren, and neither Song Jiaoren nor Xiong Xiling raised the issue of military spending just now, which surprised Long Qian. (To be continued......)