Obviously, it was very unrealistic to play the German blitzkrieg of World War II in 1919, and Wang Zhenyu had to abandon this grand and unrealistic idea. After thinking about it for a long time, it took a lot of effort to call a group of military experts, and finally came up with a plan for a simple armored car.

The first batch of 150 German trucks with the best engine performance was retrofitted, all of which were reinforced with 20 mm thick steel plates, and even the tires were re-reinforced. The trucks were turned into armoured vehicles that could carry 16 people and were armed with a 37mm flat-fire gun, a heavy machine gun, and two light machine guns. It is estimated that once it is used in a charge, it has the characteristics of fast speed and fierce firepower.

But the shortcomings are also obvious, the tires are not comparable to the tank tracks in terms of terrain applicability, and the protection ability is also poor, and it is estimated that the grenade forwarding team of the Japanese will suffer a big loss. Therefore, this assault armored vehicle was eventually equipped with only 220 units in the 1st Brigade, which could only exist as a deterrent and auxiliary force.

In the following year-long period, Chinese and German military experts in accordance with Wang Zhenyu's requirements, finally designed the Shenjia light assault tank, although from the appearance of the change is not much, but its weight dropped to 8 tons, the number of crew members is naturally reduced to 3 people, this more in line with the needs of the actual combat light tank speed can reach 9 kilometers per hour. Eventually, the 1st Armored Brigade was formed with a tank regiment consisting of twenty-eight light tanks armed with 57mm low-speed guns.

And all this was carried out secretly in the 401 military-industrial base not far from Xuzhou, where martial law secrecy measures reached almost the highest level. The Japanese were naturally ignorant of what was happening at this base, and would be surprised if they could enter it now.

Spearheaded by twenty-eight light tanks, more than a thousand soldiers armed with MP18 submachine guns launched a surprise attack on the predetermined enemy positions. The 220 armoured vehicles made a detour into the enemy's flank, and the battle lasted only half an hour, and the assumed enemy army of one division was completely annihilated.

Wang Zhenyu shook hands with the commander-in-chief of the exercise, German Lieutenant Colonel Guderian, with great satisfaction and expressed his gratitude: "Believe me, Mr. Guderian, you are a very good German soldier. ”

The rigid Guderian didn't seem to care about the praise of the young Chinese commander in front of him, and he replied very coldly: "To tell you the truth, General Wang, our current combat thinking comes from your initial suggestion. If your opponents are only Japanese, I guarantee that they will be taken by surprise in the face of such an attack, but if it is Anglo-French, I think you will suffer a lot, first of all, such armored vehicle units are suitable only for short assaults on open terrain, and it will be difficult to march in ravines as soon as they encounter rivers. At the same time, I have to tell you responsibly that the engineering units under your command are not yet up to the standards of the German Army, and I think that another elite engineering unit needs to be formed to cooperate with the operation of the armored forces. In particular, the work of building bridges and paving roads and repairing them is no joke, and one negligence will make all our efforts in vain. ”

Wang Zhenyu nodded, did not speak, but turned his head to look at the officers of the First Armored Brigade standing behind Chief of Staff Wan Yaohuang and Minister of Defense Li Zongren.

Brigade Commander Gu Zhutong and Chief of Staff Chen Jiji were both from the expeditionary force, and Wang Zhenyu asked seriously: "Do you have an account in mind about how to command and use this unit?" As officers, would you use these weapons yourself? ”……

After answering Wang Zhenyu's question, Gu Zhutong, as the brigade commander, naturally wanted to introduce his subordinate officers. To Wang Zhenyu's surprise, the commander of the First Tank Assault Regiment was actually Wang Zhenhua, the eldest son of his uncle Wang Longzhong, who was his own brother and was only 23 years old this year. Don't look at the fact that being the head of this regiment is his own face, Wang Zhenyu is a little unhappy, Lao Tzu formed this army to improve combat effectiveness, not to install private individuals.

However, before he had a seizure, Gu Zhutong, who was good at observing words and feelings, hurriedly said: "This regimental commander Wang Zhenhua is currently one of the three best officers in the Tank Assault Tactics Middle School, and the other two are German officers Rommel and Manstein. ”

Wang Zhenyu turned his anger into joy and encouraged Wang Zhenhua to work hard, and then walked away, Wang Zhenhua only then realized that his back was already sweating.

Jiang Dingwen, who served as the head of the Second Armored Assault Regiment, Qian Dajun, the commander of the Third Armored Assault Regiment, and Liu Zhi, the commander of the Engineer Regiment.

Wang Zhenyu came back to his senses at this time, and co-authored this is a pile of the five tiger generals of Lao Jiang in history......

Also on the same day, in Tokyo, Japan, the official residence of the 19th Prime Minister of Japan, Takashi Tanaka, Minister of War Yoshiichi Tanaka, and Minister of the Navy Yuzaburo Kato were guests at the home of the first civilian prime minister in Japanese history.

After replacing Terauchi, who had stepped down due to the rice-grabbing trend, as prime minister, the first thing Hara Kei did was to suppress the forces of the military department, including strongly advocating the withdrawal of troops from Siberia in Russia and maintaining good relations with the United States.

As the first political party cabinet, Hara Kei was the first to crack down on the feudal forces, which politically pushed Japan further a**. While cracking down on the military forces, Hara Kei was also very smart to win the support of the army and navy by establishing a relationship of mutual trust with the two army and navy veterans, Aritomo Yamaguchi and Heihachiro Togo, otherwise he would have stepped down or been condemned by heaven according to his approach to attacking the military forces.

In addition, Hara Kei has a gentle personality, always has a smile on his face, listens attentively to other people's opinions, and is very tolerant. Hara was talented at raising the political funds necessary for elections and party operations. On the occasion of the election, if a party member applies for 10,000 yen in funding, he will give 15,000 yen; He will provide 30,000 yen for 20,000 yen and mediate for the interests and power of party members. At the end of each year, Hara always stayed at home in Tokyo, because he knew that some of the party members would not be able to survive the New Year, so he opened the door at home and waited for them to ask for help. Every time Yuan Jing had a heated debate or criticized someone with someone, he would send him to the gate and tell him something to say, "Beware of catching a cold" and "Be careful of a big hole on the way back." Yuan Jing has a high prestige and command in the Political Friendship Association, largely because of his political ability and skill and insight, but also because of his deep friendship with party members, thinking about party members in terms of money, and his personality charm makes party members happy and convinced. Even Hara's opponents admit that he is an incorruptible and simple man.

It should be said that Japanese politics entered a period of relative stability at this time, and this is precisely the situation that Wang Zhenyu does not want. But it doesn't matter, now sitting in the Hara Kei Mansion there is a Lord who wants to create problems, and this person is Tanaka Yoshiichi.

The purpose of the Admiralty Minister Kato Yuzaburo is very clear, that is, to Hara Kei to support their Admiralty's proposal to establish the "Eight? The "Eighth Fleet" (8 battleships and 8 cruisers) represented by the mechanization, modernization, and complete aviation of weapons and other large-scale military enhancement programs. On this point, Hara Kei has made it clear that maintaining a strong naval force is the foundation for the survival and development of the Great Japanese Empire.

In contrast, Yoshiichi Tanaka's demands were a bit excessive.

"Nani, send troops to Shandong, and it is a large-scale army? Tanaka-kun, what I hope most now is to complete the retreat of the empire from Russian territory as soon as possible, Kolchak is already impossible to defeat Lenin and their army" Hara Kei almost jumped off the tatami mat when he heard Tanaka's request.

Tanaka Yoshiichi smiled indifferently and said: "Don't be excited, Your Excellency Prime Minister, if you conquer the world in advance, you must conquer China first, and if you conquer China in advance, you must conquer Manchu and Mongolia first, this is the only way to realize the imperial continental policy, and it is a national policy." Now you are obsessed with domestic affairs, and you are too close to Britain and France diplomatically. But you must not ignore the most basic fact, South China has undergone an industrial revolution, their power has now surpassed that of North China, and according to the latest information available to the Empire, they have hoarded 500,000 British and French troops on the south bank of the Yellow River, and they have sharpened their knives to complete the unification of the Northern Expedition by force. According to the updated intelligence, the government of South China is also preparing to seize the Shandong region by force, jeopardizing the interests of the empire in Shandong. Your Excellency Prime Minister, if China is reunified, it will mean that the Empire's continental policy will become more difficult or even impossible to achieve. If it really comes to this point, it will be the greatest disloyalty of our courtiers to His Majesty the Emperor. ”

Hara Kei was angry and amused when he heard this: "All the Japanese are subjects of His Majesty the Emperor, and they have been silently contributing for the past few decades, and now that the empire has achieved great things, is it time for us to consider repaying them." As for sending troops to Shandong, I am surprised that Lu Xiang, how can you have such a crazy idea, regardless of the victory or defeat of the war in South China, the losses are all materials that should be used to improve the lives of the people! ”

Tanaka Yoshiichi smiled contemptuously: "South China is very rich now, and we can get enough loot after defeating South China." ”

Yuan Jing thought about it very carefully and said: "This is unrealistic, Britain and France will not sit idly by and watch us continue to be strong, believe it or not, the final result is the Russo-Japanese War, we have paid a lot, but we have gained nothing." ”

Tanaka Yoshiichi shook his head and said, "Then I dare to ask you, over there in Paris, Britain and France have already given Shandong to us Japan." However, South China is plotting to take back Shandong by force, how does His Excellency the Prime Minister plan to deal with this issue, and whether he will sit back and watch it take back, or oppose it by force? ”

This time it hit Yuan Jing's soft underbelly, he pondered for a while, took a deep breath and said: "Then may I ask Lu Xiang, how many troops do we need to mobilize to Shandong?" ”

Yoshiichi Tanaka smiled proudly and stretched out three fingers: "There is an invincible Imperial Japanese Army, and three divisions are enough to ......"