The reasons for the extreme backwardness of the military industry of the Republic of China are: First, it is true that China's industrial base was weak at that time, and heavy industry was basically zero. Second, the people in power do not attach importance to heavy industry, and have a strong comprador mentality, such as before the Anti-Japanese War, Yan Xishan took the initiative to ask for the Taiyuan Arsenal, the largest arsenal in the country at that time, to be handed over to the central government, and demolished and built to a safe place in the rear, but asked for a certain amount of compensation (about 5 million legal currency), the central government looked down on the local factories, felt that they suffered losses, and were unwilling to ask, and the two sides were torn to the point that the devil had not yet been solved when he entered Taiyuan, and the largest arsenal was cheapened by the devil in vain, how much is this 5 million? It is equivalent to one and a half years of funding for a division of the Central Army. This arsenal produced more than 200 75-mm mountain guns in only 36-37 years, while the central arsenal did not have this ability at all, and it cost 12 million legal dollars to buy the same number of foreign cannons (of course, the quality is better), not to mention that this factory also produced 20,000 rifles, nearly 10 million rounds of ammunition, more than 100,000 shells, hundreds of mortars, and more than 1,000 machine guns in the same period. Third, the people in power are greedy for perfection, blindly worship foreign flattery, the eyes of the national government are only staring at Germany and the United States and other well-armed countries, and after Jihua built the factory, the first thing is to send people to foreign countries to inspect for a year and a half, and then sign contracts with foreign companies, factory design, main machinery and equipment, and even auxiliary equipment are all newly imported, and even some domestic civil engineering also hire foreign engineers to supervise and guide, which prolongs the construction cycle and spends more money. Fourth, it is also a common problem to discuss but not decide, to decide but not to do, and to change it casually. For example, the powerful fleet of Jihua in 28 years was still on paper until the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the artillery factory built at the end of Jihua 36, the machinery and equipment had not been shipped to China at the beginning of 38, the steel plant built in Jihua in 37, the plant had not been built at the beginning of 38, and so on. Zuihou, the personnel dumping was very powerful, at that time it was popular to be a son of heaven and a courtier, so a large number of local ordnance experts lost their jobs after the factory was taken over by the central government (even after the factory director was changed), such as the most important ordnance experts in the Republic of China such as Han Linchun, Yang Wenkai, Deng Yancun, etc., except for Han Linchun, who died early, were unemployed after the arsenal was accepted. The limited number of talents cannot be used, which also greatly restricts the development of the military industry of the Republic of China.

Wang Zhenyu is determined to change this situation, to be honest, Wang Zhenkun is actually a turtle, and the real manager of the eight major military industrial enterprises for Wang Zhenyu in the future is Han Linchun, the designer of the "Han Linchun-style" rifle dug from Beiyang, Deng Yancun, who graduated from the first phase of the artillery department in Baoding, Jia Xiaohou, who is good at mechanical manufacturing and blasting (this person played with bombs during the Xinhai Revolution), plus four senior engineers of Hou Debang, these four people are in charge, and they are not afraid that Wang Zhenkun, a layman, will be fooled.

Han Linchun's position is the head of the gun and ammunition research group and senior engineer, under the direct leadership of the Ministry of Armaments, and he was awarded the rank of colonel.

Deng Yancun was the head of the artillery research group and a senior engineer, and was awarded the rank of colonel under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Armaments.

Jia Xiaohou's position was the head of the equipment and gunpowder research group and senior engineer, and he was directly supervised by the Ministry of Armaments and was awarded the rank of colonel.

Hou Debang's position is the head of the chemical research group and senior engineer, and this person has little to do with the Ministry of Armaments, and he is not awarded a military rank.

There are two main sources of Jishu personnel in the eight major factories: the first is to combine all 17 arsenals in the nine southern provinces (the requirement for Wang Zhenyu, a bureaucrat who does not understand Jishu, is to eliminate all of them, promote management cadres from Jishu personnel, and the factory director is appointed by the head office). By the end of the fifth year of the Republic of China, the scale of this public student has reached more than 7,000 people, of which 4,000 are military students, and as of July next year, it is expected that 2,000 people will return to China and then work in military factories or research institutes.

According to the current military industrial construction, by 1918, the navy and air force will not care about it, at least on the army side, the monthly output of the military industrial department will be enough to meet the needs of an integrated division.

However, Wang Zhenyu has more ideas for the military industry, but there is no need to take it all out at once now, and the rice always has to be eaten one bite at a time.

As for the army's future submachine guns, tanks, and other weapons, it is necessary to develop them, and the Air Force's various planes and air-fired artillery must also be carried out. The navy's money-burning project still has to be burned hard, but the focus may be on aircraft carriers and submarines, and the battleship is a big guy, Wang Zhenyu's idea is that a big man will not pay for it, and if there is a shijie record about the battleship, let the Japanese Navy create it. If the group of people in the Admiralty knew that Wang Zhenyu's calculation in his heart was that not a single battleship would be built, then it is estimated that they would immediately defect to Beiyang.

Wang Zhenyu has a very clear goal for the construction of national defense, that is, the army will surpass Japan before 1921; At the same time, around 1929, he took the steps to participate in the Shijie hegemony.

The idea is very plump, but the reality is very skinny.

The biggest problem facing Wang Zhenyu now is the problem of execution, which can be summed up in one sentence that it is not enough to have weapons, but also to have an army that is good at fighting.

Take the Sino-Japanese War as an example, if you look at the national strength alone, Japan is not enough to see, if you look at the equipment alone, Japan is not the opponent of the Qing army, but as a result, the Qing Dynasty will not recover and Japan will successfully rise.

Wang Zhenyu still remembers very clearly the summary of the First Sino-Japanese War by later military scientists:

First, the country's suffering lies in the political system, and the backwardness of the system will inevitably be beaten.

On March 14, 1887, when the Empress Dowager Cixi was preparing to embezzle the special funds for the purchase of naval ships to overhaul the Summer Palace, the Japanese emperor ordered that one-tenth of the imperial funds be withdrawn as a subsidy for the purchase and construction of naval ships.

Second, defeat in the war is due to corruption, corruption is not eliminated, and defeat is achieved before the battle.

During the 10 years from the 7th to the 17th year of Guangxu, the special allocation for the Navy should be 46 million taels of silver, and even after deducting relevant factors, it will be about 36.8 million taels. In the past ten years, the Beiyang Navy has purchased a total of 9 warships, spending a total of 11 million taels at best, and nearly 26 million taels of silver have been filled into private pockets.

Third, a strong country must have a strong army, and if the army is not strong, it will be a rich country at most, and it will never become a strong country.

Before the war, China's economic and military strength was no worse than that of Japan, but the Qing government neglected national defense construction. Even if warships are purchased from Western countries, some ships have ships without guns, and some ships have guns without ammunition. Three months before the start of the war, Li Hongzhang planned to replace 21 new guns for the Beiyang Navy, but it was difficult to raise this money, so he had to buy 12 fast guns for the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan ships. At this time, almost all Japanese ships had been equipped with rapid-fire guns, which laid a hidden danger for the First Sino-Japanese War.

Fourth, to strengthen the army, we must innovate in concepts, backward concepts, and lose everything.

In the 90s of the 19th century, the concept of "giant ship heavy artillery" has been replaced by the concept of "fast ship fast gun". In the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Japanese fleet was armed with 71 large rapid-fire guns and 154 small rapid-fire guns, while the Beiyang Fleet had only 2 large rapid-fire guns and 130 small rapid-fire guns. Ammunition is fired in 10 minutes, and the ratio of China to Japan is 33:185. It can be seen from this that although the Beiyang Fleet is not bad in terms of the total tonnage of warships, the operational concept is backward, which leads to the transformation of advantages and disadvantages.

Fifth, a strong army focuses on shaping the soul of the army, and an army without a brave spirit will be a piece of loose sand.

Sixth, a strong army must have weapons and equipment that are suitable, effective, and sufficient.

In the Battle of the Yellow Sea, China and Japan were indistinguishable in terms of the number of ships, and China was at a disadvantage in terms of the quality of military construction. The four main guns of the bow turrets of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships could only fire in the forward direction due to design flaws; 8 12-inch caliber guns, only 3 combat flowering shells, the rest are solid practice shells; The other ships were rumored to have only 15 ammunition per gun. In naval battles, the follow-up replenishment ammunition either does not match the caliber of the artillery, or the quality is too poor, and some are dud when fired...... And so on, even if the Beiyang sailors have three heads and six arms, they are powerless.

Seventh, a strong army must be constantly prepared, and only when it is prepared can it be safe.

Some people of insight in China have a clear understanding, but the understanding of Japan by the imperial court and most of the political leaders is still at the stage of "a small state." At the critical juncture when Japan was pouring all its strength to expand its armaments and the danger of war was imminent, the Qing government instead relaxed its national defense construction, and in 1888 it began to stop purchasing warships and stopped allocating funds for the navy's equipment and ammunition in 1891. It was in such an unguarded state that China ushered in a fateful war.

8. To strengthen the military, it is necessary to have an efficient command, intelligence, and communications system and a reliable logistical support system.

Therefore, Wang Zhenyu put forward several important opinions on the management of the army:

First, the military's anti-corruption work should be given top priority, including the establishment of a troika of military supervisors, staff chiefs, and political supervisors to check and balance each other; These include the establishment of the Military Police Command and the Military Discipline Department, which conduct strict audits of the internal accounts of the army; It also includes the collection of personnel and financial powers from the army, allowing soldiers to set up their own committees, and to a large extent stifling the privileges of officers, and so on. Second, field units are required to conduct two live-fire combat training sessions in the summer and winter of each year, with a training period of between 10 and 20 days. Non-field troops, security forces, and reserve forces also conduct 10 to 15 days of live-fire training after the autumn harvest each year.

Third, it is necessary to establish a strict system for the management of the military's finances, equipment, and materials, so as to minimize all kinds of loopholes.

Fourth, promote nationalism and patriotism education throughout the army. Soldiers without a junior high school education must receive a junior high school education during their service, and soldiers without education must attend literacy classes.

Fifth, Wang Zhenyu also attached great importance to proposing that radio academies should be set up in the Army University, the Navy University, and the Air Force University to train radio personnel in various systems. In field troops, the division headquarters has set up a special communications regiment, the brigade headquarters has set up a communications battalion, the regiment headquarters has set up a communications company, and the battalion headquarters has set up a communications squad.

Sixth, Wang Zhenyu once again reiterated that the non-wartime movement of non-security forces must be jointly ordered by the General Office of the Central Military Commission and the General Staff, otherwise it will be regarded as a rebellion; The salaries of the officers and men of the various units are directly paid in the bank, and the armaments department is directly set up at the battalion level; The consumption of training ammunition for each unit must be exchanged for an equal amount of new ammunition with empty cartridge shells; Officers at the regimental level shall be transferred once every two years, and officers at the battalion level shall not serve in the same post for more than three years, and officers at the company level shall not serve for more than four years; The Armed Mobilization Department is responsible for recruiting and training all recruits for four to six months, and the subordinate units are basically distributed after a large geographical situation.

For the army, Wang Zhenyu can be regarded as diligent, who let this be his biggest capital?

And in Nanjing, the first turmoil around the struggle for power also began......