For China at the moment, I am afraid there is nothing more important than the war in Shandong. After all, this was the first time that the new government had engaged in a war with a foreign army since its establishment, and therefore all circles in the country were very concerned about it, wanting to see how different the current Guoshe government was from the original Qing government.

Moreover, given the importance of the war, it was taken more seriously than the war in Europe. This also made some Europeans with a strong sense of superiority a little depressed.

On the other hand, the war was also taken very seriously within the government, and as mentioned earlier, it was the first war with the outside world since the establishment of the new government. Moreover, most of the officials within the government can be said to have stepped on the bones of the former Qing Dynasty to stand up, if this war is lost, then what is the difference between them and the Qing government that they despise?

Fortunately, at present, Shandong has been receiving good news, so people are relieved.

But even so, they still didn't dare to relax in the slightest.

Because not long ago, the Special Affairs Bureau had just obtained some information from the Japanese side.

There are other miscellaneous things, but one of them makes Yan Shao, Duan Qirui and others attach great importance to it, that is, the Japanese plan to demand a large amount of reparations from China through this war, in addition to a large number of unequal treaties, in order to strengthen themselves and use this to fight China...

These were all set before the outbreak of the war in Shandong, because of the time and distance, as well as the closed process of Japan itself, so it was not until now that the Special Affairs Bureau got these things into its hands. And with the current war in Shandong, it is obvious that the Japanese do not have this opportunity.

But even so. Yan Shao and the others still didn't dare to relax, after all, if they were accidentally turned over by the Japanese...

That's not going to be fun...

So after getting a request from Cai Ye and Jiang Baili and others for mortars, Yan Shao quickly got some of them from the inventory of the provincial arsenals. It was transported to Shandong by rail or water, followed by a large number of mortar shells...

And Yan Shao also began to consider whether to send some troops from other places to Shandong, because according to the intelligence of the Special Affairs Bureau, the garrison activities in Japan and even North Korea and other places were abnormal, and it seemed that because of the successive defeats in Shandong, the Japanese planned to send some additional reinforcements to Shandong...

Previously, the Japanese sent 100,000 troops to Shandong, and these days there are probably about 10,000 casualties. That is to say, there are still 90,000 people.

And although Cai Ye and Jiang Baili also have 150,000 people in their hands, because they are defenders, there are many places that need to be defended. Therefore, the frontal forces may not be much more than Kamio Mitsutomi. If the Japanese really plan to send reinforcements, then if they want to eat this force, Cai Yi and Jiang Baili will need more troops...

And as long as this war can be won, then Yan Shao can use the victory to demand something from Japan that he wanted to do a long time ago. So this war can be said to be inevitable for him ...

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Mortar. It is a weapon specially used for positional warfare, mountain warfare, and street warfare.

Positional warfare and mountain warfare, naturally, needless to say, the Russian artillery captain Leonid in history? Nikolaevich? The reason why Gobiato wanted to invent this artillery was because at that time, the Japanese dug trenches and approached only a few dozen meters away from the Russian position, and it was difficult for the Russian army to kill and injure the Japanese army with ordinary artillery and machine guns. So Nikolayevich tried to convert an old 47mm naval mortar gun on a gun carriage with wheels and fire a long-tail shell at a large elevation angle, which turned out to be effective in killing and wounding the Japanese troops in the trenches and repelling many Japanese attacks.

This gun uses a long super-caliber mortar shell with a total weight of 11.5 kg. The firing range is 50~400m, and the firing angle is 45°~65°. This kind of artillery was born in an emergency on the battlefield. At the time, it was called the "Thunderbolt", and it was the world's first mortar.

In street fighting, the terrain of the city is usually very complex, sometimes even more complex than the mountains. Street warfare in later generations will be called the most brutal war, and a large part of the root cause also comes from this―――――― of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that positional warfare has disappeared at that time, after all, positional warfare is also very cruel.

It is precisely because of this that it is very suitable for the use of mortars with curved ballistics in street battles, not to mention that the size and weight of this kind of artillery are so light that even ordinary infantry can carry it very lightly, so now the Wehrmacht has begun to equip this weapon on a large scale. And the infantry division equipped with this weapon is also called the '1914 Infantry Division' because of the time ...

To be specific...

The original infantry platoon consisted of three infantry squads of 14 men each, for a total of 46 men if the platoon headquarters were included.

Today, the infantry platoon of the new army system has added an additional mortar squad, 8 people with 2 guns, and every 4 people have a 60mm mortar. After the number of squads reached 4 and there was an additional mortar squad, not only the firepower of the entire infantry platoon was greatly strengthened, but the number of people also increased from the original 46 to 54 people.

In addition, each infantry battalion has another battalion mortar platoon, under the jurisdiction of 4 mortar squads, each squad is like the mortar squad of the infantry platoon, there are also 8 people, but the equipped mortar has become an 80mm caliber mortar, which is 20mm larger than the original in caliber. As a result, the number of men in each battalion increased from 852 to 1,015, which was more than the Japanese infantry company. (After counting the changes in each platoon.) ）

In addition to the infantry battalion, each infantry regiment will also be equipped with a direct 120mm mortar company, 10 people in 1 squad, 1 platoon 40 people, 4 platoon headquarters 176 people, 16 company headquarters in 4 platoons, a total of 192 people. The number of men in each infantry regiment will also increase from 2,846 to 3,483.

Because of this, the strength of each infantry brigade reached 7,966 men―――――― including the brigade's heavy machine gun battalion plus the brigade's guard company.

With the exception of infantry, most of the other classes will not change much. For example, artillery, cavalry, sappers, etc., well, including military bands―――――― to be honest. Yan Shao always felt that the military band was a bit redundant, but except for Yan Shao, everyone else seemed to like the military band, so Yan Shao didn't say much.

Of course, it is not possible that nothing has changed, at least the establishment of the baggage battalion has been expanded.

This is also an inevitable thing, after all, it turned out to be an infantry division of the former Fresh Army. With only 12,000 men per division, 12,512 to be exact, it seems natural to have a baggage battalion of only 754 men.

And the infantry division at that time was on the Beiyang side. But those in the south didn't even have a few machine guns, and some didn't even have enough of the six 75mm infantry guns needed by an artillery company, and the baggage battalion of 754 men was more than enough.

But now the situation is somewhat different, and the original new infantry division has evolved from 12,512 men to 18,510 men. That's 6,000 more. And most of the extra part is machine guns, think about the 687 light and heavy machine guns equipped with each infantry division, and then think about the ammunition that machine gunners need to consume in battle, the baggage battalion side said that the pressure is huge.

And now, the newly formed infantry division has a lot of mortars, including 192 60mm mortars, 96 80mm mortars, and 120mm mortars, because each regiment has a company of 16 120mm mortars. Therefore, there are 64 mortars, and the number of mortars in the entire infantry division has reached 352.

Originally, at the time when there were almost 700 machine guns. The logistics department has already said that the pressure is huge, and now there are more than 300 mortars, and there is no doubt that the original 700 people will definitely not be able to settle this matter.

Therefore, in the end, the baggage force could only begin to expand, from the original battalion to a 2,313-man baggage regiment. The number of people has expanded, and the people of each unit no longer have to worry about logistical support, after all, they can't always recruit people from the local area to help.

What's more, there are some places where you can recruit people, but in some places, there is not even a shadow of a person, how can you recruit them? For example, Xinjiang and Tibet. If you really don't find out the problem until then, then the problem will be big.

Of course, there have been people in the army who have offered to buy too many trucks so that the logistics of the troops can be motorized first.

The problem is that the cost is too high ...

And the reliability of the truck is also in question at this time.

Considering that there are about 600,000 people in the national defense force today, even if each soldier and officer only receives a military salary of 10 yuan a month, it will take more than 70 million yuan a year, not to mention that the salaries of officers are much higher than those of soldiers, and the wear and tear of weapons and ammunition in peacetime, as well as the daily food and other problems of soldiers, these are all money, and it is basically impossible to get down without 100 million yuan in a year.

According to the original plan, each infantry division will have 18,510 men, and each infantry division will also have nearly 700 machine guns and a lot of artillery.

But this is just a plan after all, the fact is that there are only the former National Social Army and Beiyang in the National Defense Force, and there are some local armies that can meet this requirement, while the troops in some remote areas are obviously worse, no way, who is called no money.

According to the Ministry of Finance, after recovering the local finances, this year's government revenue should be able to reach the standard of the Qing government when the Qing government collapsed in 1911, that is, more than 400 million yuan.

The problem is that the current Nationalist government still has a lot of debts on it, because of the war, Japan and Germany's share can basically not be considered, but there are also countries such as Britain, France, and the United States, and the money borrowed from the Rain Stone Bank must also be repaid. If it weren't for the fact that it had borrowed a total of 100 million pounds from the Rain Stone Bank, I am afraid that the Nationalist government would have had to consider the problem of cutting back on food and clothing, and it would not have been possible to play a new military system like it is now.

After that, coupled with various expenditures, such as the construction of railways, etc., the current government can only invest more than 100 million yuan in military spending on the army every year, and at most cannot exceed 150 million yuan―――――― which is also the requirement of the Ministry of Finance.

But considering the war in Shandong, this point is basically in vain.

And the military expenditure of more than 100 million, after removing the soldiers' salaries, various expenditures, etc., etc., the remaining money is obviously not enough to buy trucks for the logistics troops, even if Yan Shao gives a friendly price. After all, the price of a truck is really expensive, and even if it is sold at a cost price, it is not something that the army can afford. Now the Wehrmacht is also only using trucks in a centralized manner, except for some of the main forces. Most of the troops were still maintained in the age of mules and horses...

Therefore, a baggage force with a large number of people has become inevitable, and considering that the firepower of the national defense force may continue to be strengthened in the future, so even if the baggage force has been motorized, it is still necessary to maintain a large base―――――― after all, in a few years, the baggage troops need to consider not only ammunition and food and clothing, but also fuel problems...

And after so many items, the number of the entire infantry division has also increased from the original 18,510 to 22,560. That's an increase of more than 4,000 people. However, as a result, the Wehrmacht has the strongest firepower of its time, and in addition to training. Yan Shao's most important thing is precisely the problem of firepower, at least in his opinion, exchanging a cannonball for an enemy is definitely a good deal―――――― not to mention anything else, you must know that the pension of a soldier alone is a lot of money...

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Although at present the Ministry of Defense has begun to follow the '1914 Infantry Division'. But it's not an easy thing to do. First of all, like I said before. The question of money is very strict.

First of all, there is the question of military salaries, and the number of a '1914 infantry division' is 22,560. At present, there are a total of 33 infantry divisions in the country, and if all of them are added together, the military salaries paid to the officers and men alone will reach more than 100 million yuan a year―――――― even if all of them are paid according to the standard of soldiers, it will cost 90 million a year.

This is undoubtedly a great burden, not to mention the need to purchase a large number of light and heavy machine guns, various types of artillery, and mortars required by the new military system, which is also a huge expenditure.

In fact, there are currently loud voices within the government that there is no need to form such a newly formed infantry division. The original establishment alone is sufficient.

But...

If China were a country like the United States, Yan Shao would never have chosen to form such a force. After all, countries like the United States basically do not have any countries that can pose a threat to it except for Canada and Mexico, and even Canada and Mexico are relatively threatening compared to those small countries that are the size of sesame, in other words, the United States basically does not need to worry about threats on land, as long as they have a large navy, they can defend against all threats overseas. And his huge industrial capacity can also ensure that he can arm a terrifying force in a short period of time―――――― provided that his navy is not suddenly killed.

But China is different, first of all, there are many countries adjacent to China. Not to mention the far, but to talk about the near, there are Japan and Russia.

Japan has a colony in Korea and itself covets the Northeast.

Russia also has great interests in the Far East, and it is even more eyeing Mongolia, Northeast China, and Xinjiang.

Add to that the French Indochina of France and the British threats in Tibet and Burma, and China needs to have a large and powerful army.

At present, 33 infantry divisions are simply not enough to ensure the security of the homeland, let alone expand the territory. Even this newly formed infantry division is only the bottom line. After all, at this time, no matter which powerful country it is, has the ability to mobilize millions of troops.

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Although Yan Shao was very supportive of this plan and eventually rejected some proposals within the government, some problems still lay in front of him.

What is particularly important is that with the outbreak of war, whether it is Europe or the Far East, Yan Shao can no longer import arms from abroad as before. For example, he values light and heavy machine guns and various types of artillery the most, in other words, from now on he can only rely on himself.

However, at this time, although there were many arsenals in China (such as Sichuan Arsenal, Dexian Arsenal, Guangdong Arsenal and Hanyang Arsenal, etc.), there were not many of them, and the expansion work was continuing, but there were not many results, and only the Anqing Arsenal could manufacture light and heavy machine guns and various artillery on a large scale, after all, it was Yan Shao's hard work for many years.

In addition, although other arsenals such as Hanyang Arsenal and Guangdong Arsenal can also be manufactured, they are a bit too small in terms of production capacity. And at present, their work is mainly to produce more Mauser G98 rifles, as well as rifle cartridges and machine gun cartridges to supply the troops who are fighting on the front line, and they simply cannot spare the resources that are already in dire need to produce such complex things as light and heavy machine guns, and even mortars are only produced in small quantities with the little production capacity left...

Therefore, the number of national defense forces reorganized into the '1914 infantry division' is still very small, and there is only one in Shandong at present, which is Yan Shao's descendant unit in Anhui that year, and this time it was transferred to Shandong for Cai Yi and Jiang Baili to command in order to fight the Japanese.

As for the rest of the troops...

So there are one or two equipped with mortars, but they are not yet large-scale, that is, they cannot reach the standard of 352 guns, at most only one or two hundred.

Originally, if the war hadn't broken out, they would still have time to slowly fill these vacancies, but now that the Shandong side has been in a mess, it is obvious that they don't have this opportunity...

Fortunately, at present, Cai Ye has fought well in Shandong, at least he has not lost the battle yet, and with the advantage of equipment, he has also overwhelmed the Japanese on the frontal battlefield. (To be continued......)