If it is said that Xu Jie, the Beiyang sailor, is admired and regretted. For the Beiyang Lu Division, Xu Jie is left with only disdain. Although the former also had various vices, there was also a situation in which the level of training declined in the later stage, and the party within the fleet was the same. But judging from the national conditions and the appearance of the Beiyang Fleet, the Beiyang Naval Division under the leadership of Ding Ruchang and Liu Buyun really fought to the last moment. After being selectively ignored or even abandoned by the decaying Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang Naval Division still chose to resist under the siege of land and sea. In the entire war, more than half of the senior generals of the Beiyang Naval Division were killed or committed suicide in defeat. This ratio is quite rare in the history of the world's navies. And the army of the North Seas. Except for a very few generals, such as Nie Shicheng, Zuo Guigui, Ma Yukun, Xu Bangdao and other very few people, I am afraid that other people can only be described as constantly "turning in".

Therefore, if Xu Jie's talk about the naval strength of China and Japan is just an objective statement, when evaluating the Chinese and Japanese armies, the extreme hatred in Xu Jie's words made Xue Fucheng secretly shocked.

"On paper, the Qing Army plus regimental training is no less than a million. But in fact, if something happens, how many troops can be used? Xu Jie's face couldn't help but have a sneer.

"The regular army, the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion are not much hopeful, and those old men spend far more time on smoking guns than on rifles. That's nearly halfway there. The only thing that really has a certain combat power is the training of the troops in the provinces," Xu Jie said without caring about the embarrassment on Xue Fucheng's face.

"Then, the Qing Dynasty was divided into the North Ocean and the South Ocean, and once the war started, the Beiyang Navy basically had no chance of winning. Nanyang can't get through if he wants to move, and if he wants to take the land route, with the traffic situation of the Qing Kingdom, it's not easy to mobilize a large number of troops, right? What's more, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kun and others in Nanyang are afraid that they can't wait for Beiyang to be beaten, right? The strangeness of Xu Jie's face made Xue Fucheng's heart tighten.

"Sir's words are wrong, whether Beiyang or Nanyang are the refined masters of the imperial court. Master Zhang will not be indiscriminate. Hearing Xu Jie's words, Xue Fucheng replied with a pale face.

"Even if Lord Zhang has the heart to help, in the case of the sea route being cut off, how many army troops and the required logistics can be transported to the battlefield far in the northeast with the transportation capacity of the Qing Kingdom?" Xu Jie asked rhetorically.

"But with the combat strength of my Beiyang Land Division, I may have the strength to fight." Xue Fucheng paused and said.

"The power of the First Battle? What is the combat strength of Beiyang, I think adults will know clearly, we can roughly list the troops that can be used in the north of the Qing Dynasty, Jilin has 34 infantry battalions, 26 battalions of the Ma Army, and the total number is about 10,008. Mukden has 56 infantry battalions and 21 horse battalions, totaling about 25,000 people. The Zhili Infantry Army had about 105 battalions, and the Ma Army had 38 battalions, with a total number of about 40,000. Note that these are the entire armies of the provinces, and it is impossible to directly put them into the front line. Now let's talk about the Japanese Army. Xu Jie paused and said.

"I want to hear about it." Xue Fucheng made a gesture of please.

"The field troops consist of 6 divisions and the Guards Division. Each field division has 12 infantry brigades (8 battalions under the jurisdiction of the Guards Division), 3 squadrons of cavalry, 6 squadrons of artillery (4 squadrons of field artillery, 2 squadrons of mountain artillery, and only 4 squadrons of field artillery in the Guards division), 2 squadrons of engineers (1 squadron under the jurisdiction of the Guards Division), and subordinate organs and baggage. The total number of personnel was 18492 (12095 Guards), 5633 horses (4211 Guards), 9600 combat infantry (5760 Guards), 303 cavalry, 24 field artillery, 12 mountain artillery (no mountain artillery in the Guards division). The total field strength of the 7th Division was 123047 man, 38,009 horses, 63,360 combat soldiers, 2,121 cavalry, 168 field artillery, and 72 mountain artillery. The garrison and reserve corps counted 12 infantry squadrons, 24 separate brigades, 6 cavalry squadrons, 6 artillery squadrons, and 12 engineer squadrons. The Tuntian Corps counted 6 infantry brigades, 1 squadron each of cavalry, artillery, and engineers. The total number of mobilized personnel was 220,580, 47,221 mules and horses, and 294 mountain artillery. And the corresponding Beiyang Army is only about 50,000 people, right? In terms of numbers, there is already a gap between the front-line forces of China and Japan. Xu Jie said

"Let's talk about the equipment gap between the two sides, the Sheng army as the elite division of Beiyang, the rifle is still very good, the infantry uses the American-made Haqikes six-shot breech rifle and single-shot rifle, and the cavalry is Winchester (old translated as Yunzhest) thirteen-round breech carbine. In terms of performance, it is very good, more advanced than the Japanese Murata rifle, but in terms of artillery, it is far inferior to Japan, and a Japanese division has 24 field guns and 12 mountain guns. The former has a maximum range of 5 km, the latter 3 km. The artillery of the Beiyang emphasized lightness, and only 16 of the 35 guns of the Sheng army were standard field artillery. THE REST ARE EITHER 37MM MOUNTAIN GUNS OR 11MM MACHINE GUNS. An artillery team of this size can only be used to suppress bandits and fight the Japanese, which is undoubtedly a fool's dream. And this is still the elite in Beiyang, if it is replaced by the training of other provinces, it is estimated that it is not as good as a success. And below the training army, it is estimated that there are still many people who use guns and broadswords and spears, right? Xu Jie sneered. …,

"And the bigger gap is the army system and soldiers of the two sides. The current Beiyang march was born out of the Huai army, except for the replacement of a batch of foreign guns and artillery, what is the difference between it and the old Huai army? There is no Western-style staff system, no modern logistics system. The archaic structure made the command of the engine messy in engagement, and the scale was too small to complete the set task. And more importantly, the army may not even know what it is fighting for, right? Xu Jie said slowly.

"At that time, it was for the imperial court and the Qing Dynasty." Xue Fucheng said dissatisfiedly when he heard the last sentence.

"If it is really for the sake of the court and the Qing Dynasty, which army discipline is loose and eats empty salaries, what is it? When encountering the viciousness of the people, and when encountering foreign enemies, they will flee one after another, what is this? If it is really as Your Excellency said, how can I get the reality of the Qing Army so easily? "In order to better achieve the purpose. Xu Jie unceremoniously used his advantage as a traverser. I brought up the number of jù I had seen.

"So it seems that my 2nd Division of the Great Clear Water Land has no chance of winning?" Xue Fucheng said with some trepidation.

"I've always wanted to find a reason why the Qing Dynasty can win against Japan, but I can't find it." Xu Jie said with regret on his face. "And what we've just said is just a few details compared to statecraft. Compared with the Westernization Movement in Beiyang for more than 30 years, Japan's 20-year reform has achieved better results and is more thorough. Xu Jie said in his heart, Xu Jie originally planned to explain it from the country's system, but it was too late. What's more, it is uncertain whether Xue Fucheng agrees with himself in terms of democracy, so in line with the principle that the goal has been achieved, and more things are better than less, Xu Jie decided that today's long talk should be stopped. The two of them talked about some more inconsequential topics, and then left the inn.