Chapter 664: Separation of military and government

The North China Theater includes Beiping, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Shanxi, and Henan, and the commander is Mr. Zhu, the deputy commander Yang Aiyuan, Fu Zuoyi, and the chief of staff Liu Bocheng, and the combat troops in the North China Theater include 250,000 Jinsui Army, more than 100,000 people in the Sulu Theater Yu Xuezhong, more than 300,000 people in the South Hebei Military Region under Chen Feng's headquarters, 320,000 people in the First Theater of the National Government, and 400,000 people in the Eighth Route Army, with a total strength of 1.44 million people.

However, since these units were originally subordinate to various forces, the quality of their soldiers, and their weapons and equipment were all different, and the gap between them was quite large, Chen Feng's order to the North China Theater was to immediately carry out a major reorganization of all the troops in North China, and then conduct operations against Japan after the reorganization. It is estimated that the North China Theater will be reorganized into 10 group armies, 40 integrated divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 5 armored divisions, and 7 artillery divisions, as well as a large number of air defense, medical, engineer, and logistics units.

The Central China Theater covers Shanghai, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and other provinces, with Theater Commander Xue Yue, Deputy Commanders Chen Yi and Zhang Zizhong, and Chief of Staff Luo Zhuoying, and the troops are mainly troops from the former Third Theater, Fifth Theater, Sixth Theater, and Ninth Theater, with a total strength of 870,000 troops. The Central China Theater is expected to be reorganized into 8 group armies, 22 integrated divisions, 4 armored divisions, 4 artillery divisions, and a large number of technical units directly under it.

The South China Theater covers Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, and its commanders Li Zongren, deputy commanders Yu Hanmou and Zhang Fakui, and chief of staff Sun Lianzhong, the troops are mainly more than 200,000 troops from the Fourth Theater and more than 300,000 Gui troops, with a total strength of 500,000. The South China Theater is expected to be organized into five group armies, 15 integrated divisions, three artillery brigades, and three armored regiments.

The jurisdiction of the Southwest Theater includes Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, Sichuan, Xikang and other regions. Commander Long Yun, Deputy Commander Deng Xihou, Chief of Staff He Guozhang, the troops mainly include 200,000 Yunnan Army, 300,000 Sichuan Army and more than 100,000 Central Army, with a total strength of 650,000 troops. The Southwest Theater is expected to be organized into 7 group armies, 15 integrated divisions, 4 artillery brigades, 2 armored brigades, and 1 mountain brigade.

The Chongqing Special Theater is mainly composed of the original Chongqing Defense Force and Chen Feng's Special Guards, with a total strength of 120,000 people in four integrated divisions, as well as one brigade each of air defense, armor, and artillery. One regiment of radar troops and one brigade of special forces.

The defense area of the Yan'an Theater includes the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region and the whole of Shaanxi. Commander Yang Hucheng, Deputy Commander He Long, Chief of Staff Luo Ronghuan, the troops are mainly composed of more than 100,000 people of the former Small Northwest Army and 80,000 people of the Yan'an garrison. The total number of troops is 200,000. It is expected to be reorganized into 3 group armies and 6 integrated divisions. In addition, there are one division of artillery and one division of armored troops.

The Burma Theater is mainly composed of an expeditionary force, with Commander Du Yongming and Deputy Commanders Sun Liren and Hu Tiesheng. Chief of Staff Dai Anlan, with a total strength of 150,000 troops, was reorganized into 2 group armies and 5 integrated divisions.

Theater Commander Wang Hansheng and Deputy Commander Hu Yi have jurisdiction over the 1st and 2nd Nanyang Divisions, as well as the Air Force and Navy, with a total strength of more than 80,000 troops, as well as more than 80,000 policemen and militiamen.

In addition, the mobile corps of the former Eighth Theater was transferred to the direct jurisdiction of the Central Military Commission, with Chen Tiebao, commander-in-chief of the corps, and Wang Jiming, deputy commander-in-chief. The mobile corps has been expanded from 150,000 to 400,000, and the expanded mobile corps has jurisdiction over four group armies, 12 integrated infantry divisions, three armored divisions, four artillery divisions, one air defense division, one guard division, one engineer brigade, one radar regiment, and one special operations brigade.

At the same time as the reorganization of the army, the navy and air force also carried out a comprehensive reorganization, and the air force of the former Nationalist Government and the air force of the north were merged to form the Chinese air force. Air Force Commander-in-Chief Zhou Zhirou, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Liu Nijia, and Chief of Staff Mao Limin. The total strength is 160,000 troops, including 12 combat aviation brigades, 8 medium-range bomber aviation brigades, 8 transport brigades, 6 strategic bomber brigades, 6 helicopter brigades, and 22 reconnaissance aircraft squadrons. In addition, there are six airborne brigades subordinate to the Air Force, with Qin Yiwu as the commander-in-chief of the Airborne Forces.

The navy of the former Nationalist Government was basically lost, and only a few obsolete warships were still cruising in the Indian Ocean to assist the Allies in escorting merchant ships.

The Nanyang Navy under Chen Feng's command was immediately renamed the Chinese Navy, with Admiral Chen Shaokuan as commander-in-chief, Chang Zhiguo and Tian Haiyang as deputy commanders-in-chief, and Jiang Haitao as chief of general staff. The total strength of the Navy is more than 60,000 troops, including a two-brigade Marine Corps.

According to Chen Feng's reorganization plan, after the completion of the reorganization, China's national defense strength will have 6.06 million troops, covering the three major arms of the navy, land, and air force, as well as dozens of sub-arms, and the total strength ranks first in the world.

Because China's defense industry is very weak, and only Saibei Province has begun to take shape, the vast majority of the troops can only use their original weapons and equipment in the early stage of reorganization. However, Chen Feng planned to carry out a comprehensive rearmament of all the troops within a year, and the vast majority of the weapons and equipment needed were provided by the Huaxia Arms Company of the United States, except for some of the weapons and equipment that were produced by themselves.

In addition, in order to cooperate with Chen Feng's plan for army reorganization, the United States and the Soviet government decided to provide industrial assistance to China, and in exchange for the patents for the production of penicillin drugs and some weapons and equipment in exchange for the patents of the penicillin drugs in Chen Feng's hands, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union provided China with a large amount of industrial equipment in the shortest possible time, covering steel, building materials, petrochemical and other industries.

They have always known that Senior Commander Chen of the Northern Military Commission has courage, but they did not expect to be so crazy in doing things, although these troops originally existed, but not all of them were precious field troops, but some of them were local garrison troops, and those troops with low combat effectiveness and little training were just a group of cannon fodder even if they were sent to the battlefield.

Now Chen Feng has gone so far as to carry out a comprehensive reorganization of these troops, and he will also have to redress these units within a year, and his madness can be called "heartbreaking."

At the same time as the meeting of the Central Military Commission, Chen Feng also presided over a national state affairs meeting, which was attended by provincial chairmen or vice chairmen who are also non-military governors of various provinces. Since the Soviet Union had returned millions of square kilometers of land, the administrative divisions used before were no longer applicable, so Chen Feng announced at the meeting an order to reclassify China's basic administrative regions.

After two meetings, the meeting unanimously passed a resolution to merge Suiyuan and Chahar into Inner Mongolia Province; The entire territory of the former Mongolia is formed into the province of Outer Mongolia; Tangnu Ulianghai and 750,000 square kilometers of land north of Chengli Beijiang Province; The vast area east of the Ussuri River formed the province of Gangdong; Sakhalin was established as a separate Sakhalin province; The 2.24 million square kilometers of land in the Outer Northwest Region was divided into two, one part of which was incorporated into Xinjiang and the other part was established as Western Xinjiang Province.

The conference established the legitimacy of the new territories in the form of a law, and thus all the land annexed by the Chinese masses occupied by Tsarist Russia was recovered.

In addition, Chen Feng proposed at the meeting that the military and the government should be separated, and that all senior military officers or members of the Central Military Commission who are also provincial chairmen should be eliminated from their part-time positions and focus on military affairs or politics. He also took the initiative to resign from the post of chairman of the National Government and President of the Executive Yuan, and proposed that Mr. Mao of Yan'an should be the chairman of the National Government and Mr. Zhou should be the President of the Executive Yuan.

Although this proposal was opposed by some of the delegates attending the meeting, with the strong support of Chen Feng, Mao Zhou still became the acting chairman of the Nationalist Government and the acting president of the Executive Yuan.

Chen Feng's posture is to focus on military affairs, and he also asks all senior officers not to intervene in politics and to be simple soldiers. Chen Feng's behavior is admired by everyone, and of course some people don't understand.

Although Chen Feng handed over the administrative power, he demanded that the government departments fully cooperate with the actions of the Military Commission, and all state activities should be based on the anti-Japanese resistance as the first priority.

After Chen Feng's series of big moves, everyone was quite overwhelmed, but after seeing the powerful strength of Chen Feng's department and the unimaginable industrial capacity of Saibei Province, everyone repaid great confidence in him, because the haze that hung over the heads of all senior military and political officials because of the death of the old man disappeared without a trace. For Chen Feng's order, no one dared to slack off.

This is of course because Chen Feng is strong, on the other hand, there is also the credit of the Japanese, after this unscrupulous assassination, all the senior officers in China are scared out of a cold sweat on their backs, the Japanese are too insidious and cunning, and there is no bottom line, from Zhang Zuolin Zhang beard to Lao Jiang, as long as the Japanese feel that you are their stumbling block, then they will do whatever it takes to get rid of you, even the previous pro-Japanese faction is now afraid, worried that one day the Japanese will be killed.

On February 5, 1942, the Northeast Theater was the first to complete a major reorganization, and the huge strength of 30 divisions and 4 brigades in the entire theater was assembled.

Then the Northern Cyprus Theater, the North China Theater, and the Central China Theater completed the reorganization one after another, and the cargo ships departing from the west coast of the United States also successively ordered the port of Vladivostok, and a large number of weapons and equipment, industrial equipment, and technical personnel went ashore from the port of Vladivostok and were transported back to China through the Siberian artery. (To be continued......)