The operational plan of the Imperial General Staff against Russia was premised on the expansion of the main lines of communication, that is, the railway lines.

In the area of deployment of the Northeast Front and the Mongolian Front, a total of three railways were available, one of which was the easternmost section of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was originally built by Russia, now known as the Haiye Railway, which stretched from Vladivostok along the Ussuri River and the Heilongjiang River to the city of Yerofezhan on the Sino-Russian border, where it was connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was still part of Russia, but due to the different gauges of the two countries, the trains of the two sides could not be directly opposed. The railway is connected to the Northeast Railway, which has the highest density in China, through the Mudanjiang Railway (Mudanjiang-Vladivostok), and at the same time, it can also transfer materials from the sea through the port of Vladivostok, and interconnect with the inland waterway shipping system of the Northeast River System through inland ports such as Boli and Hailanpao. In the 1915 war plan of the General Staff, this railway was initially used as the main communication line of the First Army of the Northeast Front. After the last Asian-Russian war, the railway was retracked and expanded into a double-track railway, with a capacity of 60 pairs of standard military trains per day and night.

Each standard train carries 50 6-ton standard wagons, which can supply a hoplite infantry corps (including 50,000 officers and 16,500 horses) formed in 1912 for about two days—almost 270 tons of food for men and horses.

The First Army had 3 heavy infantry corps, 2 cavalry brigades, a number of heavy artillery battalions, transport companies, engineering companies and railway companies, a total of 165,000 men and 55,000 horses, and required 540 tons of food and fodder per day, that is, the capacity of two standard military trains.

The second is the Qiqihar Railway from Qiqihar, the capital of Heilongjiang to the border city of Manchuria between China and Russia, which connects the huge Manchuria barracks with the northeast, Beijing-Tianjin industrial and agricultural areas and the surrounding hub seaports, and it is very convenient to obtain all kinds of materials. At the beginning of the war, it was stipulated that the two-track strategic railway, which had been expanded and repaired after the last Asian-Russian war and had increased its daily traffic capacity to 60 pairs of trains, was to be used jointly by the Second Army of the Northeast Front and the right flank of the Third Army - a total of 240,000 men and 82,000 horses from four heavy infantry corps, five cavalry brigades, front reserves and other auxiliary units, which would consume almost 720 tons of supplies per day and be transported by three standard military trains.

The third is the Datong Railway (single line) from Datong to the northern border city of Sukhbaatar in Outer Mongolia through Kulun, which is connected to the core economic zone of the interior through the Zhangda (Zhangjiakou-Datong) Railway and the Taitong (Taiyuan-Datong) Railway, which was opened to traffic in 1908 in the fourth year after the end of the last Asian-Russian War, and completed the double-line expansion work before the war in 1914, and the daily traffic capacity has also reached 60 pairs of standard military trains - equivalent to the same level of railways in Europe.

At the beginning of the war, the railway was to be used by the left flank of the Mongol Front and the Third Army of the Northeast Front, with a total of 7 heavy infantry corps, 2 light infantry corps, 15 cavalry brigades, 13 armored brigades and other auxiliary units, a total of 480,000 men and 170,000 mules and horses, and the daily consumption of food and fodder alone amounted to 1,500 tons, which had to be transported by five standard military trains. The 700 armoured vehicles and nearly 6,000 automobiles and tractors owned by these units, all of which were driven on unpaved dirt roads, consumed 315,000 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (a standard mechanized march in one day), or one and twenty times the volume of a standard military train.

It should be noted that the above three railways, with the exception of the Haiye Railway, which is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, are economically more than worth the losses, and are basically operating at a loss in peacetime, and the government invests a lot of subsidies for this every year - that is, the military significance completely overwhelms the existence of economic significance.

The Landi Railway (Lanzhou, Dihua) in the northwest and the Disa Railway (the newly reclaimed land) that penetrated east and south of Lake Balkhash through the Alashankou (Dihua passed through Akdouka in the northwest corner of Lake Balkhash and turned south to Sareozek north of the Ili River, and its military auxiliary line extended to the border, that is, the north bank of the Ili River), was slow due to its distance from the economic center of the empire and the harsh natural conditions. The former was opened to traffic in 1910, the latter was delayed until 1913, and the two-line expansion of the two railways was not carried out until early 1914. Although it is a single line, the entire Lanza line, which is not inferior to the European standard in terms of quality, still has a daily and nightly traffic capacity of 40 pairs of standard military columns, which is two-thirds of the double line.

The Lanza Railway was supposed to serve as the main transportation route of the Northwestern Front at the beginning of the war. The front army has 6 heavy infantry corps, 10 cavalry brigades, 7 armored brigades and other auxiliary units, a total of 360,000 men and 128,000 horses, and needs to consume 1,150 tons of supplies per day, that is, the transportation capacity of 4 standard military trains. When all the 380 armored vehicles, 3,000 automobiles, and tractors owned by the Front Army are in operation, they will consume more than 162,000 liters of fuel per day, which is roughly 60% of the capacity of a standard military column.

This is because Russia is afraid of being attacked by the East Asian Alliance again, and the Haiye Line has already met the needs of normal trade between China and Russia, so it deliberately avoids its own railway line on the border in order to avoid being used by the other side in the war.

In the case of the Qiman Railway, the terminus of our railway is only 280 kilometers in a straight line from the nearest Russian railway station, and the road mileage is more than 350 kilometers.

On the part of the Great Soviet Railway, the road mileage from Sukhbaatar to the nearest Russian railway station is about 200 kilometers.

In the case of the Lança Railway, the Russian railway terminus north of Akdouka is at Ayaguz, where the nearest road is about 150 kilometres; To the west of Akdouka is Sayak, a 150-kilometre dirt road in between. There is an 80-kilometer railway-free "buffer zone" between the terminus of the Russian railways south of the Ili River in Almaty and the terminus of the military railways of our country that extends to the north bank of the Ili River.

Even on the Haiye Line, due to the different gauges of the two countries, even if they quickly invade enemy territory, they will not be able to use each other's railways immediately, and it is necessary to consider that the Russian army will inevitably destroy its own railways before retreating after the war.

Since the purpose of the war is not just to "regain lost territory" but to fight until Russia sues peace with the Allies and helps the East Asian alliance establish effective land links with the Central European power bloc, it can be expected that the front will advance into unprecedented and far-reaching space.

In this way, in order to ensure the supply of the advancing army of millions of people, it is necessary to follow the expansion of the railway terminal in time.

The solution is to set up a professional combat railway unit.

At the beginning of the war in Europe, although the railway network in Europe was extremely developed, the German army was still soberly aware that it was an extremely important task to quickly seize and repair the railways in enemy territory and make them open to traffic.

To this end, the German base camp set up 90 well-trained standing railway corps companies before the war, and these railway corps units were equipped with construction trains, which carried all the equipment needed to repair damaged railways and lay new roads.

However, in the second month of the war, due to the total destruction of the railways in enemy territory, the 26,000-strong railway troops were far from sufficient, and they had to temporarily requisition the strength of civilian companies, which generally had independent and comprehensive repair capabilities.

But even so, by the eve of the Battle of the Marne (September 1914), only three of the 43 large railway structures damaged in Belgium had been repaired, and only 300 to 400 miles of the 2,500 miles of railways occupied by the Germans had been reopened.

Proceeding from the practice of the German railway troops in the early days of the war, the Reich General Staff summed up the following lessons:

1. It is strictly forbidden for our troops to arbitrarily dismantle and destroy the communication and liaison equipment along the railway line during the march.

2. The railway corps company should be equipped with guards when operating, and the weapons equipped with should be placed near the operation area.

3. The rear must be replenished with locomotives to the repaired or newly built road sections in a timely manner.

4. It is very important to quickly and decisively capture the enemy's station - it is possible to capture the enemy's train.

5. Using special construction trains, an average of 25-30 kilometers of Russian railways can be renovated per day on flat land, or 15-20 kilometers of imperial standard railways can be built

……

By the end of the war, the professional railway corps of the Imperial Army had expanded from 18 companies at the beginning to nearly 100 companies, reaching 25,000 people, and the maximum number of requisitioned civilian laborers exceeded 100,000. It provided important support for the operation of hundreds of thousands of troops on the front.

After the war, the Standing Railway Corps was further expanded to 140 companies with about 35,000 personnel, and participated in the construction of the Landi, Disa, and Dasu railways, as well as the double lines of the Qiman Railway and the Haiye Railway, and made outstanding contributions to the early opening of these strategic trunk lines, which were crucial to Russia's operations.

On the eve of the outbreak of the war in Europe, the railway troops began to rapidly expand their scale, replace them with new equipment, and strengthen their weapons operation training, mainly in preparation for war against Russia.

By the time the empire entered the war, the railway corps had expanded to 220 companies with about 55,000 men, of which 140 were the best-equipped and most experienced "combat railway companies" (that is, standing railway companies before the war) directly assigned to various armies, organized into railway corps of different sizes, and carried out repairs, track changes, new construction and upgrading of field emergency railways and other projects. Except for a few that were assigned to the Southern Front, most of the other railway companies were used as base camp reserves, and after further training and supplementation, they were put into the direction most needed according to the situation.

So, what role did the Reich Railroad Corps, which surpassed its German counterparts in size, play in the early stages of the war?

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——From "The Imperial Railroad Soldiers in the Great War of the World", Military History Press, Army University, 1928.