"Clumsy, zuihou said it so well, I see that Russian reporter's face is green!" Zhang Xueliang said with a smile.

"It's not just the Russians, but the British and the Japanese have even worse faces, and none of these foreign devils have any good intentions!" Zhang Tingshu also said.

"That's right, the second brother has a point, these reporters are actually testing our ideas on behalf of their government." Zhang Tinglan said: "The Russians are unwilling to lose the Middle East Road, and they want to retake it by force, the Japanese plan to take advantage of the situation and stretch Shili to North Manchuria, while Britain and the United States and other countries are under the banner of the Entente, in fact, they want to muddy the waters, and they don't want either side to dominate the Middle Road." ”

These reactions of the great powers were all expected by Zhang Tinglan, obviously these powers did not want to cheapen the Feng army in vain, but they were also full of contradictions, and it was this situation that also gave the Feng army a very rare opportunity.

"Humble words, since the great powers have bad intentions, how do you think we should deal with it?" Zhang Xueliang asked.

"Britain and the United States and other countries are still too far away, the heart is more than enough but the strength is insufficient, in the final analysis, we have to face only Japan and Russia, as the saying goes, persimmons have to pick up soft pinch, the combat effectiveness of the Russian army has been taught, they are also very chaotic in the country, it is difficult to send too many troops, most of them are bluffs, then we should show toughness to Russia to promote peace, and we must also show force to further deter Japan!"

Zhang Tinglan had already conceived the overall policy, and he immediately issued orders to the two sides of Manchuria and Suifenhe to be ready for battle and to resist a possible counterattack by the Russians at any time.

However, after some thought, Zhang Tinglan believed that the deployment of the Feng army must be fully adjusted, and the original arrangement of the Feng army was to seize the Middle East Road, but now that the railway is in hand, we should consider how to deploy troops and hold the Middle East Road.

Previously, Zhang Tinglan also served as the commander-in-chief of the border defense of the three eastern provinces. Therefore, this time Zhang Tinglan put forward a new proposal to Lao Zhang, that is, to combine border defense and road defense into one, and set up border guards in the three eastern provinces.

Now that the railway is in the hands of China, it is worthless to hoard so many troops along the line, but to strengthen the defense on the Sino-Russian border, and after guarding the two ends that threaten the safety of the railway, the middle part is almost patrolled by the police, and there is no need to invest too many regular troops. The length of the border between the entire three eastern provinces and Russia is more than 4,000 highways. On such a long border, conflicts of all kinds occur every day, and more attention must be paid to it.

Especially after the revolution in Russia, more and more Russians crossed the Sino-Russian border and absconded to China. Those Russian stragglers also continued to rob the Chinese border people, and now the Feng army has solved the problem of the henchmen of the Middle Road. It is necessary to take advantage of the situation to solve the side troubles.

"Humble words. Your suggestion is very good, and the marshal basically agreed, but the Sino-Russian border is so long, if you want to hold it, you must need no less people, how should this border guard be configured. What a hassle! ”

The establishment of the armed forces has always been a troublesome matter, not only in terms of actual needs, but also in terms of the extent of financial resources and the balance within the factions. It's really nerve-wracking.

"According to my estimates, at least three divisions or so should be arranged on the border line, and at the same time, a large number of border police, and they must patrol uninterrupted every day, so as to ensure basic security, but obviously the strength of the Feng army at present cannot withstand this pressure, but the number of border guards cannot be less than 15,000 people, and it must also be equipped with a large number of cavalry troops, and it is best to arrange a fleet of inland gunboats in Heilongjiang to be responsible for daily patrols."

Yang Yuting also thought about it carefully, and found that the standard set by Zhang Tinglan was indeed the lowest limit, and it must not be less, otherwise he would not be able to undertake the task of border defense at all.

"In my opinion, it is better to take the four combat brigades of the current road protection army as the basis, expand into four brigades, including two infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade, one artillery brigade, the cavalry unit is responsible for patrolling and guarding key areas, two infantry brigades are stationed in the east and west to block the Russians from attacking the hinterland of the three eastern provinces along the railway, and the artillery brigade has a heavy artillery regiment and a mountain artillery regiment under its jurisdiction, as a reserve corps for the entire army, and the main firepower to strike Liliang!"

Zhang Tinglan is also constantly calculating, the original road protection army was mainly drawn from Jilin's army, and now if it is fixed into a border guard, then the gap in the direction of Jilin will definitely have to be recruited and replenished, if they are all replenished, Zhang Tinglan and Zhang Zuoxiang's troops will definitely be able to overpower Zhang Zuolin.

Lao Zhang will not sit idly by and watch the imbalance within the Feng army, and he will inevitably increase his troops, so that a large expansion of the Feng army has become inevitable. Of course, Zhang Tinglan also knows very well that the Feng army has indeed reached the time when it must be expanded, and more chaos in Russia is not far away, and if the Feng army wants to make a difference, it must have the ability to fight abroad, and at the same time, it must have a strong army to keep an eye on the Japanese, and resist the Beiyang.

In fact, Zhang Tinglan already had an idea, he and his father Zhang Zuoxiang focused on the north, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Russian civil war to expand the living space of the Feng army, while Lao Zhang was sitting in Fengtian and settling down in the rear.

"Lingge, for the time being, I will follow your jihua, but I have two suggestions, the first is to reuse the establishment of the 28th Division, the old 28th Division is not usable, we can use this banner to form a new division, cooperate with the 27th Division, as the two trump cards to guard Fengtian."

Originally, after the 28th Division experienced a fiasco, the main generals were transferred, and the army was gone, leaving only one name, Lao Zhang initially even wanted to revoke the number of the 28th Division, but considering the needs of expanding the army in the future, this number was still retained, and now Zhang Tinglan proposed that the 28th Division be re-enriched, which is a good time.

"This method is not bad, otherwise it is too difficult to deter the Japanese with just one 27th division, especially since we have captured so many on the Middle East Road, and we also have enough financial resources to expand the army, we have ordnance, financial resources, and this demand, the expansion of the army is a matter of course."

Zhang Tinglan put forward this suggestion, so he didn't worry about Yang Yuting not agreeing, he continued: "The second is the real border of immigrants, more than 4,000 kilometers of border, there are not enough people, just relying on the army to guard, the consumption is too great, so I suggest that the focus of the three eastern provinces to introduce immigrants from the customs this year is to tilt towards the Sino-Russian border." The immigrants completely adopted the model of large farms, and the proportion of militia on these farms was higher, the training was more rigorous, and their combat effectiveness should reach the level of the second and third line troops, and the weapons equipped with the same equipment as the main equipment of the Feng army. ”

After a year of operation, the resettlement work in the three eastern provinces has become more familiar, especially after the success of the big farms last year, and this policy has been strongly supported by Wang Yongjiang. Now Zhang Tinglan is going to push the farms to the border areas, of course, these farms are not exactly the same as those in the mainland, the militia in the inland farms are mainly aimed at bandits and bandits, and the militia here is to face the Russians.

They have to cooperate with the border police and the regular army to jointly guard the security of the border, and to prevent the Russians from flowing into China, of course, these troops are more dangerous, so Zhang Tinglan is also prepared to give them more favorable conditions.

"I have also drawn up some new preferential conditions for immigrants, such as after 10 years of farming, the land will be owned by the cultivators free of charge, the government will provide interest-free loans, preferential farming tools and cattle, and in the future, the Fengjun will give priority to building primary and secondary schools, roads, and hospitals in the border areas, and so on.

After reading it, Yang Yuting also nodded and said: "The matter of civil affairs still has to be decided by Governor Wang, but I think this condition is already very favorable, and it will definitely attract a large number of immigrants." And then send some veterans, give these peasants comprehensive training, and let them guard the border in peacetime, which is definitely a good idea. ”

"I also have a proposal that all border residents should be banned from shooting, and that they should be allowed to own and use firearms."

After the rebellion in southern Liaoning, Zhang Zuolin promulgated a new decree, that is, a strict ban on guns, the main purpose of this is to maintain local law and order, and at the same time to crack down on bandits and landlords, and restore order in the three eastern provinces.

Now Zhang Tinglan advocates lifting the gun ban and allowing border residents to have guns, which is undoubtedly to improve the combat effectiveness of the border people and cultivate the spirit of martial arts, after all, the polar bear is a very strong nation, and China's border people have been bullied repeatedly, and now they are armed in order to better compete with Russia.

Yang Yuting agreed to Zhang Tinglan's suggestion, he immediately reported to Zhang Zuolin, and Zhang Tinglan began to prepare, the original four reinforced regiments, now expanded into four regular brigades, Zhang Tinglan's troops increased by more than one-third at once, especially the formation of the artillery brigade, which was the first in the Feng army.

The overall combat effectiveness of the border guards is absolutely second to none in the Feng army, and after having this army, Zhang Tinglan's status in the Feng system is bound to jump again, and even overwhelm those old people in one fell swoop.

In this battle, there are many excellent low-level soldiers in the Feng army, especially many wounded soldiers, as long as they recover, they are the backbone of a unit, Zhang Tinglan thought of this, so he lowered the affairs at hand, and went to the hospital to check the heroes in the battle.

Zhang Tinglan had just arrived at the hospital, and when he was far away, he saw a lot of people gathered here, which seemed very lively. (To be continued......)