Regarding Jiang Baili's proposal, both Yan Shao and others were very much in favor of it.

First of all, the A Division, which was reorganized according to the military system in 1914, will undoubtedly become the core of the Wehrmacht, and at the same time the most effective unit. In fact, today's 33 infantry divisions are indeed the best in the world in terms of equipment.

Basically, the data on paper of each infantry division has reached an extremely high level, with 22,560 soldiers, including 471 light machine guns, 216 heavy machine guns, and the number of light and heavy machine guns in the infantry units of the division is as high as 687, which is definitely a very high number in this era, almost every infantry squad is equipped with a light machine gun—————— originally Yan Shao planned to increase this number to two per squad, but unfortunately the European war is getting more and more intense. It is already impossible to continue importing equipment from Europe. And with the domestic military production capacity, it is indeed difficult to equip each infantry squad with two light machine guns, so it can only be like this for the time being.

Even so, the figure of 687 was far higher than the European level of this period, after all, at the beginning of the European war, European infantry divisions were usually armed with only 24 machine guns. Even at the end of the European War, each division was usually only equipped with these three or four or five hundred, but the U.S. Army, known as the local tyrant, was said to have been equipped with 1,000 during the European War, while each division was only equipped with 18 before the outbreak of the war.

Leaving aside whether this information is true or not, but 1,000 machine guns per infantry division or something. In this world, it is estimated that only local tyrants such as the United States can do it.

In any case, due to the excellent performance of machine guns in European wars, machine guns have always been called the most deterrent weapons in European wars. Its deterrent effect is even higher than that of artillery and tanks. The reason for this is probably because the former shoot at a long distance and ordinary soldiers can't see it at all, while the latter are too few in number and not very reliable, so they often lie down on the way to charge.

And in addition to infantry units, cavalry units were armed with a certain number of light and heavy machine guns. However, it is not very large, but when combined with the number of infantry, the total number will reach more than 700.

In addition to machine guns. The Division A is also equipped with 72 artillery pieces, including 54 75mm mountain guns and field guns, which are equipped in three artillery battalions. As for the specific distribution, it was mainly decided on the basis of the production capacity of the arsenal and the number of seizures in the Shandong campaign.

Although literally. Thirty-three infantry divisions currently have in the possession of the Commune government. Each infantry division had 72 guns. However, in fact, with the current production capacity of the national government, it is not enough to meet the needs of all troops. Therefore, in addition to the former Guoshe Army, the Beiyang Army, and the Yunnan Dian Army of Cai Yi in Yunnan, many units are still only equipped with 6 to 18 artillery pieces. That is, the size of a company or a battalion, and some don't even have one.

However, in this Shandong campaign, the National Defense Army captured many Japanese-made infantry guns in Shandong, although there are some differences between Japanese-made and German-made. However, many Japanese infantry guns were copied according to German infantry guns, and the difference was not very big, plus the artillery of many domestic infantry divisions was not yet full. So this part of the equipment was sent to artillery regiments everywhere.

But even so, there is still a certain gap in equipment.

Time can make up for it, though. The current Wehrmacht is not in a particular hurry. Because at least for a short time, the Wehrmacht did not have the possibility of entering the war.

And in addition to 54 75mm infantry guns, the artillery regiment is armed with 18 light howitzers of 105mm caliber. This is mainly because when fighting with other armed forces, the original National Socialist Army found that the power of the 105mm light howitzer was much greater than that of the 75mm caliber mountain gun, and it was not very prominent in weight, and finally the artillery regiment, which was originally a three-battalion formation, was organized into a four-battalion formation, and the number of people also reached 2,332, nearly 600 more than the original 1,756 people.

The reason why it is not equipped with heavy guns of 120mm or 150mm or 210mm caliber is mainly because of the weight. The larger the caliber, the greater the weight of the artillery, for the general field troops, the 105mm light howitzer is already the limit of carrying, no matter how large the caliber of the artillery, it may be unique in power, but in other aspects...

Although the construction of the 'expressway' is now being stepped up in the country, it is difficult to say when it will be built throughout the country. Not only did the trucks fail to equip the whole army, but their reliability was also difficult to guarantee, so 75mm and 105mm were the most suitable for field troops.

By the way, the current European road is probably not as good as China's.

Anyway, China has already started to build highways, and it's nationwide, as for Europe...

When the news of the highway first reached Europe, there were so many countries that wanted to build the road, but unfortunately there was a European war next. This kind of resource-consuming thing can only be put aside for the first time, but the railway transportation in Europe is very developed, and it is not comparable to China.

At least now China, it is not yet possible to open every province to traffic.

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With so many machine guns and artillery, the logistical pressure will definitely be amazing, so the Ministry of Defense has also expanded the baggage battalion. The baggage battalion was reorganized from the original battalion into a regiment, and the number of personnel was expanded from the original 754 to 2,312, which is not a small increase. However, as long as you think about the extra machine guns and the total strength of 10,000 people, it turns out that the baggage battalion, which only has more than 700 people, can no longer meet the needs of the A Division.

And because it is equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns, the original infantry regiment has been expanded from 4,000 in the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty to 7,966 now.

It can be said that in the current infantry divisions, with the exception of cavalry regiments and engineer battalions, almost all branches of the army have changed. This is also for what Yan Shao would think of today's infantry division. As far as equipment is concerned, it is the reason why it is the best in the world.

Because he is indeed like this, otherwise, Yan Shao would not have won the Shandong Battle so easily. And not only because of the bravery of the soldiers. Equipment also played a big role.

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Compared to the A division, the B division has also changed quite a lot.

First of all, Division B abolished the cavalry regiment owned by Division A, which caused some controversy among the high-ranking generals of Zhilu Dao's expansion plan. Because in the opinion of many, the mobility of the cavalry units was still very strong.

However, Jiang Baili cited the news he had just received from Europe, which showed that the cavalry played a very small role in modern warfare, in the face of strict fortifications. Even only the part of being slaughtered. The reason why the A division will keep the cavalry regiment is entirely because the cavalry has the ability to maneuver that the infantry does not have, otherwise. I'm afraid that the cavalry units have long been removed from the Wehrmacht.

What's more, the cavalry consumes a lot of materials every year, and judging from the current severe financial situation of the national government, it is obviously unable to support the cavalry troops that are too large. What's more, in addition to the supplies consumed, they also need to buy some horses from outside to come back. A cavalry regiment. The number of war horses required will definitely not be a small number, which is definitely a headache for the national government.

It is precisely because of this that when other generals are still controversial, Liang Shiyi is very supportive of them.

Therefore, the original cavalry unit of more than 1,000 people will no longer appear in the B division.

In addition to the cavalry, as was once said, the artillery will also be downsized. The original 105mm light howitzer will be abolished, and the existing artillery regiment will become the original three-battalion system. The whole regiment had only 54 75mm mountain guns and field guns, and it was restored to the size of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty. But in a way, this is probably the average of the same era...

As for the machine guns, since there is not much difference between the infantry regiments and brigades and the Division A, there is basically no change. It's just that the size of the baggage force has changed from a regiment to a battalion again, and it is precisely for this reason that the original 22,000-strong Division A has become the current 19,223-strong Class B Division...

However, due to the improvement in firepower, especially the large number of mortars equipped, the firepower of the B division was much stronger than when there were more than 18,000 people. After all, compared with that time, Division B not only had the same number of machine guns, but also a large number of mortars, and compared with now, there were only eighteen more 105mm light howitzers.

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If Division A is the core and Division B is the backbone, then Division C can only be regarded as cannon fodder.

That's right, cannon fodder ...

No matter how nice it sounded in the mouths of those present, the so-called C division could only be called cannon fodder. Compared with the B division, the equipment and strength of the C division were the most severe, and the light machine guns that should have been had in every infantry squad were also abolished, and the entire infantry division was left with only a regimental heavy machine gun company, with 200 men in each company.

In addition, the cavalry regiment was also cut down like the B division, and as for the issue of artillery ...

After some discussion and reflection, Yan Shao felt that the cost of infantry artillery was too high, which did not conform to the idea of Jiang Baili and his so-called 'cannon fodder' troops—————— artillery in this era was very high in terms of manufacturing time and cost. Otherwise, how could some units of the new army in the former Qing Dynasty not even be satisfied with the establishment of artillery regiments, some even had only one artillery company, and some did not even have an artillery company, which shows how high the cost of artillery is.

Therefore, since the C Division is positioned as 'cannon fodder', that is, troops specially used to pile up numbers, there is naturally no need to equip artillery. But in the same way, although Yan Shao positioned the C Division as a 'cannon fodder' unit, he still hoped that this unit could survive with more people, so the C Division was still equipped with a certain amount of heavy firepower.

This heavy firepower included both a heavy machine-gun battery that was present in each regiment and a mortar regiment that could be used intensively by an infantry division.

The so-called mortar regiment is actually roughly the same as the infantry units of Division A and Division B. The same is true for 8 people per squad, armed with two 60mm mortars.

The difference is that not all mortar regiments as a whole are armed with 60mm mortars, although there are three battalions in the entire mortar regiment, in fact they are armed with three mortar battalions of different calibers. They are a battalion of 60mm mortars and a battalion of 80mm mortars. 120mm mortar battalion.

Since both the 60mm mortar and the 80mm mortar are 8 men and 2 guns, both battalions are armed with 54 60 and 80mm mortars, respectively, and the number is also 414 people. As for the 120mm mortar. Since it is a squad of 10 people and one in a class, there are only 27 120mm mortars in the entire mortar battalion, and the number is 468 people, and the whole regiment has a total of 1324 people and 135 mortars.

Although this kind of firepower can't be compared with the A division and the B division. In addition, mortars cannot be compared with infantry artillery. But even so, the power of more than a hundred mortars is still not small, not to mention that the entire infantry division still has 72 Makqin heavy machine guns. This figure is a little more than the number of heavy machine guns in infantry divisions of various countries before the outbreak of the European war.

Even if it is just an ordinary C division, it can only be used as cannon fodder, and its combat effectiveness is also very strong.

However, compared to the A division and the B division. The gap is noticeably large. The cost of such an infantry division is also much less than that of a division A and a division.

As for the establishment of mortar regiments, generally speaking, there are usually only artillery regiments or artillery divisions, and mortar regiments and so on are indeed rarely heard. But such a compilation has also occurred, for example...

The one who attaches the most importance to heavy firepower, Soviet Russia ...

However, a mortar regiment of that level is usually organized at the army level, and it is rare to see something like this, not to mention that it is still assigned to a C division?

But Yan Shao can't help it. Although Yan Shao would like to integrate mortars into the infantry as he did in the past. The problem is if you do that. The number of people will be expanded too much, which is completely inconsistent with Yan Shao's original intention of forming a 'cannon fodder'. This is also the reason why Yan Shao will concentrate mortars to make a mortar regiment, after all, even if a mortar regiment is formed, it is only more than a thousand people, but if it is brought to the troops, then the number of people will probably be two or three thousand, three or four thousand...

As for today's C Infantry Division, at least on paper, the establishment of an infantry division is 11,891 people, which is even less than the original Beiyang New Army. But it's not surprising, after all, this time the C division has reduced the cavalry and artillery, and there is also an additional heavy machine gun company and regimental guard platoon in the infantry regiment...

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A, B, and C, although there is no D, but the three grades can be regarded as being able to help the future National Defense Force to make a certain division.

What is clear is that China has a vast territory, a huge population, and a large ethnic population. More than 700,000 men in the 33rd Infantry Division, as well as some local militia units, are not enough. However, if the new army is formed according to the existing military system, the cost will inevitably be too high, and at this time, the emergence of Division B and Division C can bring a solution to Yan Shao and the Guoshe government.

Not to mention the high-ranking generals of the military, even government officials are very appreciative of this establishment.

After all, if you do this, it will also be very good for the finances.

And it is obvious that if China is really involved in the war in Europe and decides to send an expeditionary force to Europe, then it is almost impossible to send those main forces in the country to Lu, and the best way to do it is to have a few A divisions with B and C divisions, A plays a central role, B plays an intermediate role, and the 'cannon fodder' division plays an auxiliary role, helping to hold the position, filling in the trenches or something...

Naturally, Yan Shao also has his own cautious eye, although he will not be a miscellaneous army like a certain principal in later generations. However, the fact is that the 33 infantry divisions in China at present have too many bad habits, and even after reorganization, there is a big gap between them and Beiyang and the National Social Army.

At least for now, they don't deserve the title of Armor Master. Therefore, Yan Shao had been looking forward to the opportunity to find a way to reduce them from Division A to Division B, and then promote some Division B to Rank A. But if there is no reason, it is easy to cause a storm in China.

And the battlefield is obviously a good litmus test...

If they play well on the battlefield, Yan Shao will certainly not be stingy with rewards.

Even if they are the generals of the miscellaneous army, anyway, when there are more national troops in the future, it is impossible to stay at the division level all the time, and there will always be an army or a group army. Those who play well can do the same.

But if they are embarrassed and conspicuous on the battlefield, then Yan Shao will definitely not be soft...

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Yan Shao was very satisfied with Jiang Baili's plan, but he didn't immediately ask him to start working on it. After all, China has not yet participated in the European war, and Britain and France do not seem to have any intention of asking Yan Shao, since this is the case, Yan Shao naturally does not need to be in such a hurry, not to mention that the current financial difficulties are also very difficult.

Without the financial support of Britain and France, the financial pressure on the government is very great.

After all, Yan Shao didn't want to learn from the British, and he was still a creditor in the United States at the beginning, but because of a big war, he was turned over by the Americans and became a landlord.

On the other hand, there was some fun coming from the European side.

Let's say, the outbreak of the Italian campaign.

Italy was originally a member of the Central Powers, but because of some conflicts with Austria-Hungary, it ended up jumping ship to the Entente. And launched a more fierce offensive against Austria-Hungary, and the number of troops organized by Italy, I am afraid that there are quite a few ... (To be continued......)