the world is at stake

"I know you want to go out to relax, but there is no need. It is enough for Kajia to lead a team, paired with a radio station, and go to Nanjing to spy on the situation."

Zhou Qingfeng also rejected Martha's proposal, and was squeezed out for a whole night.The next day, he appeared in Nanyuan as the special envoy of the president, and once again inspected the six main divisions of the army.

Duan Qirui and other military leaders have already left with their cronies. The six divisions have recruited more than 2 recruits, eliminated one-third of the officers, and reduced the brigade-level establishment.The army consists of three levels of "division, regiment and battalion" as the backbone, and the basic combat unit is the regiment.

It has not been three months since the new training, and the combat effectiveness of the troops has actually declined.But wars never start when preparations are made, and one must not shirk when it is time to go into battle.

Because of the large number of veterans and good equipment, the third and sixth divisions were specially drawn out to prepare to go south.The Ministry of Defense strengthened these two divisions with a batch of equipment, including radio stations, machine gun trucks, and self-propelled artillery.

The radio station is easy to say, Tianjin can already produce, and it will not use many stations when it is decentralized to the regiment level.But it can greatly strengthen the coordination ability of the army.

The machine gun truck is also easy to say, that is, the water-cooled "Maxim" machine gun is erected on the freight truck, and the entire machine gun group can carry a large amount of ammunition and move quickly.

But how did this self-propelled artillery come out?

Zhou Qingfeng went to have a look and found that it was similar to the 'machine gun truck', combining the old Krupp 1904 mountain gun with the antique truck produced by 'Shaanqi Heavy Truck'.

'1904' is a very backward carbon steel artillery with a 75mm caliber, short range and low power. The only advantage is that it is light and weighs less than [-] kilograms.

When Zhou Qingfeng raised the cannon back then, that's what he did.

The military workers of 'Holy Light' fixed this artillery directly on the open compartment of the antique truck.The six artillery batteries that used to be pulled away by dozens of horses can now be pulled away by only fifteen trucks.

Raising horses is actually very expensive. The food and drink of a horse is worth five infantrymen.It would be easier and cheaper to lose the horse.

When necessary, the artillery can be unloaded from the carriage and pushed into the battlefield by the artillerymen, maintaining the original characteristics.Its integration with trucks greatly increases long-distance mobility and flexibility, and simplifies logistics.

It used to take at least an hour to set up artillery positions.Now you only need to drive the car to a fixed position, put down the hoe, and you can fire within 15 minutes.

Each artillery group is equipped with a field telephone, which is under the unified command of a company-level artillery officer. Together with the forward artillery observation post carrying a radio, the strike efficiency will be improved.

Although this makeshift modification is simple, it does not need to make too many changes to the original system, but its combat effectiveness has actually been improved.The artillerymen fought with peace of mind and effort, and all praised them after a little practice.

Zhou Qingfeng couldn't laugh or cry at such a crude 'indigenous method'.But according to the full brigade, the cost of refitting a self-propelled artillery company is not high, but its combat effectiveness is equivalent to that of a pack-horse artillery battalion in the past, which is a big profit.

Zhou Qingfeng asked again: "Since there are self-propelled artillery, are there any planes?"

Indeed, Mr. Yang made a reconnaissance plane.

Chapter 24 One Small Step in the Military Revolution

Half-baked army fans always like to compare the individual performance of weapons and equipment, such as the high rate of fire of machine guns, the caliber of artillery, and the weight of tanks, but they rarely understand the phrase "equipment is for people to use".

Facing the temporarily modified 1910 'makeshift' self-propelled artillery, Zhou Qingfeng didn't value the single performance of this gun, but was very satisfied with its practicality.

In the development of artillery, mountain artillery refers to light artillery for mountain warfare, which can be carried by 2 to 4 mules or horses or disassembled into several parts.The Chinese warlords at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China knew what happened, but they didn't know why, and suffered a lot.

Mountain cannons manufactured in Europe and America are designed according to the European horse load standard, and each part weighs about 100 kilograms after disassembly.However, Chinese mules and horses are small in size, and their carrying capacity is only about half that of European horses.

During the Anti-Japanese War, Sun Lianzhong, the commander of the 2nd Army, reported to Chiang Kai-shek: "The 5st company of the 1th Mountain Artillery Regiment of the affiliated company turned to the south of Shandong, and the mules and horses carried them for a long distance. Nine out of ten saddles were seriously injured and emaciated. Moving..."

The Japanese army also encountered the same problem. Its approach was to introduce Western horses, and after decades of selective breeding, they cultivated tall oriental horses.Now that the time and space are restarted, the military team of the 'Holy Light' doesn't want to do any 'muses' at all, and go directly to mechanization.

Loading the Krupp mountain cannon with limited range and accuracy on an antique truck with limited load complements each other's advantages and perfectly solves the problem of artillery mobility.

Most people don't know that the mobility of artillery has always been the biggest headache for battlefield commanders.Whether it is attacking or retreating, the speed of the entire army is affected by it.

The reason why World War I became a trench warfare is that the artillery could not keep up with the infantry, and could not cover the infantry to move forward quickly after opening the breakthrough, preventing the enemy from closing the gap.

The result is that both sides of the battlefield have a large number of artillery and countless shells, but they can only fight idly, meaninglessly consuming human lives.

Once the artillery can run, the rules of engagement will change dramatically.The power of mechanized warfare will be revealed in advance.

Laymen will only watch the excitement, exclaiming whose army is invincible; only experts will know the specific reasons and use them as the direction of army building.

"How much can this wheeled self-propelled artillery be modified?" Zhou Qingfeng asked.

The accompanying man also liked to have a war weapon in his hand, but said regretfully: "At present, only three vehicles have been modified for testing. Even if we speed up the progress, when we send troops to the south, we can only equip at most one self-propelled artillery battery. .”

"One company is not bad. Zhang Xun only has an old patrol battalion in his hands. There is no heavy equipment and few machine guns. If it is not for occupation, it is entirely possible to send only one division to go south quickly."

Man Brigade is a real expert in warfare. He nodded and said: "This battle must be fast, so fast that the enemy can't react. If the British are really mentally ill and dare to come up with an overseas army, I don't mind using more guns." Boom several times."

The two were chatting and laughing, and a staff officer sent an internal reference, which was sent by the State Council.The content is that the British Minister to China, Zhu Erdian, issued a warning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The British Empire hopes that the Chinese government will properly handle the issue of Yuan Shikai's military power, avoid hurting British diplomatic and commercial interests, and hopes to continue to control China's customs.

The reason is that China currently lacks foreign trade talents, and rashly taking over the customs will lead to confusion in import and export.

The British Empire does not rule out using any optional means to safeguard its interests in East Asia, and hopes that the current government of the Republic will seriously consider it. "

Zhou Qingfeng raised the 'internal reference' in his hand, and cursed bitterly: "Another celebrity, blatantly threatened us. Charles I of England has torn his face, so don't blame us for being rude."

Man Luzuo also read the notice sent, "If the UK really intervenes, the situation will be very bad. We can't control the diplomatic talk, and this will naturally be handled by Minister Wang. Go and see our plane, I hope you like it .”

In 1903, the Wright brothers came up with an artificial aircraft that was heavier than air, and the development of aircraft was extremely rapid.In the original history, the late Qing Dynasty imported 1910 planes from France in 12 and built an airport in Nanyuan.

Now, there is nothing wrong with the French, and the Chinese make their own planes.Master Yang did it himself and designed it together with the military personnel of the team.

Most of the aircraft in 1910 were primitive, unsatisfactory in shape and performance, and could only be called bicycles with wings and engines.

Also in Nanyuan, the Imperial Capital Aircraft Design Bureau opened.Army engineers are still rushing to build infrastructure such as airports, runways, factories, and warehouses.

The first plane that Mr. Yang used to practice his hands left the factory in a large bullpen.When Zhou Qingfeng saw this thing, the air force pilot of 'Holy Light' was driving it on the newly built runway for a test flight.

Early aircraft design was basically a mess. No one was a serious aircraft designer, and they didn't understand fluid mechanics and structural mechanics. They did experiments entirely with enthusiasm and interest.

A successful test is a good aircraft, leaving a name in history.If it is not successful... the test pilot who became a monk halfway is basically the designer himself, and most of them will die without anyone knowing.

Commander Yang is the chief engineer of stealth fighters, and the team around him is also the chief engineer of each sub-system of the fighters.The first aircraft designed was headed toward practical use——learn from some historical experience.

Zhou Qingfeng looked on the ground, and whispered to the full passenger seat: "Why does this plane look like a German 'Fokker' triplane?"

"Technology in the world leads to the same goal by different routes." Man Luzuo dragged out a sentence, which convinced Zhou Qingfeng who wanted to say 'plagiarism'.

Master Yang came out of the cowshed factory like an old farmer. He heard the two men muttering from a distance, and said unhappily: "What are you talking about behind your back? The current engine is rotten and unreliable. What are you doing if you don't have a triplane? "

The advantage of a triplane is that it can create as much lift as possible when the power is weak, and the hovering performance is good, but the head-on resistance is large and the high-speed performance is poor.

The cowshed factory does not have the lofty scene of aircraft design and manufacturing at all. Building an aircraft is like making furniture, with a lot of wood chips and shavings on site.Workers use hammers to knock.

Several woodworking machines were processing the wing skeleton, and seven or eight female workers used canvas to cover the pieced wings with a layer of skin, stretched them into wings, and spliced ​​them together.

In addition to the one currently rolling out, there are two other aircraft in various stages of assembly in the bullpen hangar.

Zhou Qingfeng went in and slipped around, and asked in surprise, "How fast is this aircraft manufacturing? The factory was built in less than a month, and there are almost three of them."

Master Yang sighed, "Because this thing is really simple. Before the restart of time and space, we spent a month collecting and sorting out the overall design plans of dozens of types and hundreds of aircraft.

In the next three to forty years, we don't need any original designs for industrial products such as automobiles, airplanes, and tanks. There are enough classic solutions left in history.

I no longer plan to do aircraft design full-time, and switch to aerospace production management and education.Many engineers in the team turned to the reproduction of materials and processes, striving to turn the technologies on the drawings into real objects as soon as possible.

You can see that the production speed in this factory is fast. In fact, the production management is well done, and all raw materials and components are integrated in an orderly manner to avoid short boards.

However, it must be explained that the Guihang nine-cylinder air-cooled gasoline engine we are currently using has only 85 horsepower and high fuel consumption.

The current test flight 'triplane' has a wooden fuselage, weighs only half a ton, has a cruising speed of less than 150 kilometers per hour, and has a range of [-] kilometers.

However, the test flight of this little thing is also simple, and it can take off with a runway of 200 meters.A week later, three daytime reconnaissance models with radios and cameras will follow.I don't know if it's useful, but it's enough to scare people. "

"Fifty kilometers is enough." Man Luzuo replied: "At present, domestic infantry marches at a speed of no more than [-] kilometers per day on foot. The range of mainstream artillery is within ten kilometers, and the infantry's accompanying artillery is even less than five kilometers."

When Zhou Qingfeng was about to lead his troops to the south, Minister Zhu Erdian of the British Embassy in Dongjiaominxiang received a telegram from London. The telegram came from British Foreign Minister Gray, requesting an assessment of the feasibility of intervening in China's political situation.

Zhu Erdian knew very well what Great Britain wanted to do. It was nothing more than trying to reproduce the easy victory of the "Eight-Power Allied Forces" in 1900, but he was worried about another "Boer War in the Far East".

At present, the Chinese squadron deployed by the United Kingdom in Singapore and Hong Kong has 1 old battleship "Star Canopus", 2 armored cruisers, 2 cruisers, and 8 destroyers.In addition, Australia, New Zealand, and India also have powerful navies.

This is an invincible existence in East Asia, and it is not afraid of any opponent at all.As long as "Number [-] Downing Street" orders, the entire coast of China and even the Yangtze River will be the playground of Great Britain.

China's army is in a state of fragmentation.The provinces still obey the central government in name, but the relationship between superiors and subordinates has not improved because of the military and political changes in the central government in the past month.

Yuan Shikai still wanted to make a comeback, and everyone in Beiyang waited and watched.There is a general named Zhang Xun who is willing to accept the support of Great Britain and is preparing to seize Nanjing and declare independence.

Lieutenant Colonel Wei Lepei, the military attache of the British Embassy, ​​arrived in Nanjing a few days ago, had a secret meeting with Zhang Xun, and inspected his patrol battalion.In the telegram it sent back it described the army...

"The quality of soldiers is poor, the army lacks training and capable officers. Soldiers have no will to fight, they are more like lazy hirelings who take money and pretend to work hard.

The Jinling Arsenal in Nanjing is still producing outdated equipment from the last century and cannot provide Zhang Xun with advanced weapons.Its army is like a beggar, still using small-caliber one-pound guns to make up the numbers, and the caliber of guns cannot be unified.

Unless we invest millions of pounds, supply weapons and equipment at low prices, and mobilize a group of capable professional officers to retrain Zhang Xun's army, otherwise it cannot be expected to play any military role. "

That's a bad review.

But Daying has no shortage of money and equipment.

Zhu Erdian's diplomats are not military officers, and Zhang Xun in his eyes is more valuable than Lieutenant Colonel Wei Lepei's observation.Considering that the Chinese government is becoming more and more powerful, he thinks it is necessary to remind the other party who is the master of the Far East.

"Lieutenant Colonel Wei Lepei, we have very friendly feelings and respect for Yuan Shikai, and hope to see a strong Chinese government that can communicate fairly with other countries. Such a government will have all the diplomatic support of Great Britain.

I have ordered Jardine Matheson in Shanghai to provide you with a fee of £50 to organize an unofficial volunteer team to assist General Zhang Xun in his independent move in Nanking. "

When receiving this telegram, Lieutenant Colonel Wei Lepei was a guest at the Governor's Mansion on Changjiang Road in Nanjing.He casually handed the telegram to Zhang Xun who was hosting a banquet.

The interpreter next to him read the translation on the telegram, and Zhang Bianshuai, who was wearing a mandarin jacket and a small cap, burst out laughing, making all the young and old in Beiyang laugh silly.

"Okay, okay..." Zhang Xun repeatedly patted the table, "With the help of English people, why worry about my great success? When Marshal Yuan comes to power in the future and becomes the emperor, all of you here will be Conglong's heroes."

As soon as this was said, the audience applauded.

Chapter 25 I Made Progress Again Today

When Zhou Qingfeng was preparing to go south, Kajia brought an action team of seven or eight people, pretending to be foreigners traveling south from the imperial capital, and took a small steamer to Nanjing along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The small steamer is about [-] tons, and it belongs to China Merchants Shipping.For example, grain from the south is transported to the north, and coal from the north is transported south.

Katya dressed like a European lady, wearing a floor-length skirt and a wide-brimmed feather hat.The bodyguards around him are all high-nosed and deep-eyed, powerful and armed with firearms.

The boss of the boat was greedy for the lucrative silver dollars of the boat, and was worried about getting into trouble. Therefore, he was very careful and served him wholeheartedly, hoping that nothing would go wrong along the journey.

The smoke pipe of the small steamer was emitting black smoke. Katya didn't want to stay in the cabin, so she moved a chair and sat on the bow, and grabbed a pair of binoculars to observe the river, the city and the residents.

In the team, there are intelligence officers from the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense who pretend to be ordinary people. When they stop along the way, they must carry out staff operations and provide information on the route, supplies, enemy situation, etc. for the army going south.

But for Katya, the trip was boring.When she left the imperial capital, she was still a little nervous about facing the war, but within 24 hours, she completely lost this feeling.

After the 'Holy Light' team came to the imperial capital, they were amazed at the poverty, filth, and decay of the capital.But when you leave the imperial capital and look elsewhere, you can see abject poverty everywhere, and the people live like livestock.

The magistrates received along the way were small in stature, arrogant and inferior.When Katya spoke Chinese, he was like a frightened little animal, as if he was about to get into the sedan chair and turn his head to run away.

The people on both sides of the canal don't care about the changes in the outside world. They carry dung buckets to irrigate the cultivated land on both sides of the river bank, and only hope that the crops in the fields will get a few buckets more.

It took five days for the small steamer to travel from Tongzhou to Tianjin to Xuzhou, and finally arrived in Nanjing.The central government's New Deal was being discussed in the Imperial Capital Teahouse, but there was nothing unusual in Nanjing City.

In a telegram sent to the imperial capital, Katya described: "The city has no defenses. When I went ashore, I only saw the ancient and huge city gates and dilapidated shacks inside and outside the city.

My presence at the Shimonoseki pier sparked a little chaos.But the guards guarding the city gate did not stop us, and even avoided us.

The residents here are too poor. Hunger and cold have closed their minds, and they have no energy to pay attention to things that have nothing to do with them.When I appeared, they were terrified and curious.When I hand out a few copper coins, they flock to it.

I lived in Jinling University run by the Wesleyan Church in the United States, and Father Bao Wen of the church was quite friendly.He pays more attention to current affairs and is the only person who can talk to me about the current situation for a few days.

He revealed to me that he met the military attache of the British embassy from the imperial capital at a certain salon recently.This person is Wei Lepei, Lieutenant Colonel of the British Navy.He unscrupulously stated at the salon that he was recruiting volunteers and was preparing to interfere in China's internal affairs.

The British were too arrogant to have any sense of secrecy, and all interference was done in the open, as if winning or losing had already been decided.I will continue to track this down. "

When Kajia's telegram was received, the advance team of the Third Division of the National Defense Forces stationed in the imperial capital arrived in Tongzhou, recruited hundreds of ships of all sizes, and marched southward.

Wang Xin, who is two meters tall, served as the vanguard general with the rank of temporary major general, commanding a regiment-level advance team of more than 2000 troops.His team was filled with hundreds of civil dogs from the 'Holy Light' team as temporary officers to strengthen combat effectiveness.

At the same time as the third division was dispatched, the Ministry of National Defense sent a telegram to Nanjing, requesting Zhang Xun to return to Beijing to report on his work, and there should be no delay for any reason.

Zhang Xun reacted fiercely to this, and sent a telegram to resist his orders, saying that the central government had perversely treated Beiyang harshly. It was called a republic, but it was actually a dictatorship.He called on all provinces to unite to force Xiao Jinlang to step down and hold a new general election.

"Electricity" is actually similar to "Hot Search" in the Internet age. Zhang Xun opened an issue, seeking comments from all provinces.But wired telegrams cost a lot of money, and if you want to send a "nationwide power supply" talk, you have to prepare thousands of oceans.

As soon as Zhang Xun's "power on" came out, the whole country was in an uproar.Newspapers and periodicals from all over the country published it one after another, and literati and politicians commented on it one after another.There are criticisms, approvals, and persuasion.

But the provinces are silent for the time being, and those who have the strength to be chess players are waiting and watching.

The central government reacted quickly, and the power generation announced that Zhang Xun would be deprived of all official positions and deemed him an anti-party.Anyone who follows or assists his rebellion will be punished as treason.

Zhou Qingfeng announced his appointment as the commander-in-chief of the suppression of the chaos, and he would personally lead two infantry divisions southward to wipe out Zhang Xun's rebellious party.He held a public swearing-in meeting at the Nanyuan Barracks, and invited media reporters and military attaches from great powers.

Holding a meeting is just a formality, what is said at the meeting is not important.Instead, two '1910' triplane reconnaissance planes flew over the school field at low altitude, boosting morale and demonstrating military might.

No matter how slow the triplane was, it seemed to be traveling at hundreds of kilometers per hour from the ground. The sound of the roaring engine frightened the soldiers on the ground, followed by thunderous cheers.

Zhou Tianwang led the team to boost morale, and seeing that his side had planes to help, the two divisions participating in the battle suddenly became full of voices.The reporters who came to report were all dumbfounded, their cameras and video cameras kept taking pictures to record this historic moment.

Zhou Qingfeng talked about the reconnaissance plane as the eye of the sky condescending, which can monitor the ground, so that the enemy has nowhere to hide, no secrets to defend, and no way to retreat.

Two triplanes circled back and forth in the sky, making small-diameter turns at an altitude of 300 meters, which appeared to be very flexible.The military attaches from various countries who were invited were shocked, and the British were indispensable.

All the large selected forces are developing their own air forces, and the fast ones basically form a mature plan within a month.But the first public display is really 'Holy Light'.

In the eyes of current mainstream diplomatic and military personnel, the level of aircraft design and manufacturing in Europe and the United States is the highest.But this 'high' is extremely limited.