Chapter 239 The First Division of the Army of the Three Eastern Provinces

With the general equipment of heavy machine guns, whether it is Zhao Dongyun's Feng army or other Beiyang warlord forces, the defense capabilities have been greatly strengthened, and even the southern federal forces are now equipped with heavy machine guns on a large scale, resulting in defensive battles on the front line in the south.

When the defense ability of the troops is greatly improved, in order to be able to conquer the enemy's heavy machine gun-based defense front, the attacking troops are required to have stronger firepower.

The main firepower composition is naturally artillery, but artillery is expensive, and a division equipped with 45 guns is the limit, not to mention that domestic warlords, including the Feng army under Zhao Dongyun, have limited military spending and a small number of artillery. It is difficult to ensure that each unit has large-scale artillery, all of China There are only a handful of troops with artillery regiments full of divisions. The major warlords, especially the warlords in Beiyang, vigorously engaged in the so-called 'mixed brigade' is a helpless move under the lack of artillery.

You see, a division has four infantry regiments and a three-bath battalion artillery regiment, but when the Mixed Association has two infantry regiments, there is only one artillery battalion. The three mixed brigades under Zhao Dongyun are quite good, with 16 mountain cannons, and these artillery can maintain a 75 mm of mountain. Cannon.

However, with the progress of the war and the continuous expansion of the army, there are more and more domestic warlords, but the number of artillery equipment has not been improved in time. For example, the fourth division of Duan Qirui's main force, which had 56 guns before the war. Now after deployment, there are more than 40 war losses left. For example, the second mixed brigade has only 12 guns, and the 4th Division supplementary brigade has only 9 guns.

The number of artillery of Duan Qirui and others has become more and more difficult to meet the expansion of the troops. In fact, Zhao Dongyun is not good enough to go there. In the reorganization plan of the 3rd Division and 5th Brigade, it took a lot of effort to make the number of artillery of each unit full. From October last year to now, it took half a year to take these departments The artillery force of the team is full. As for the infantry division that is expected to expand in the second half of the year and has not been officially assigned, today's artillery units do not even have a cannon.

In the case of expensive and rare quantities of traditional barrel artillery, but the army needs to greatly increase the firepower of the existing artillery, the only thing Zhao Dongyun can do is to increase the number of mortars.

For example, in order to supplement the shortage of heavy artillery, Zhao Dongyun not only equipped his three divisions with a 16-gun 120mm mortar battalion, but also assigned three infantry mixed brigades with a nine-gun 120-mm mortar battalion. In addition to the division's mortar battalion, Zhao Dongyun also prepared to set up three heavy mortar battalions to temporarily strengthen to a certain front to strengthen firepower.

If the 120mm heavy mortar is to supplement the lack of firepower of the artillery force and strengthen the artillery capability against the enemy front, then the 60mm mortar is strengthened simply to improve the infantry firepower of the front-line troops.

In the Feng army, 120 mm mortars are under the jurisdiction of the artillery units, but 80 mm and 60 mm mortars are under the command of infantry officers, especially the 60 mm mortars are the main support firepower of the company.

"Nowa company of two 60mm mortars, although the firepower is not weak, it is still not enough to provide fire support for an entire infantry company in actual combat. The opinion of our staff is that an infantry company should have three 60mm mortars, so Only then can we provide fire support for the three infantry platoons under its jurisdiction in wartime.

In terms of light machine guns, many exercises have proved the role of the gun in offensive operations, and even has even become the core support firepower of infantry platoons under certain circumstances. According to the opinions of many colleagues in the locating and combat offices, it is believed that we must further strengthen the number of light machine guns, preferably It is possible to reach each infantry squad, so that we can smoothly implement the existing infantry squad offensive tactics of our army!" Fang Biyong, as always, persuaded Zhao Dongyun to increase the number of light machine guns.

"It's unrealistic for an infantry squad to be equipped with a heavy machine gun!" Zhao Dongyun said to the other side: "The production of light machine guns in Fuchang is not enough, and it is expensive!"

Zhao Dongyun knows more about the role of light machine guns than Fang Biyong. He also knows that an infantry squad is equipped with a light machine gun is the trend in the future, but the problem is that he doesn't have so much money to equip so many light machine guns. If a squad is equipped, that division will cost more than 400, and his three divisions and five brigades have to cost more than 2,000. That's right!

"For the equipment of light machine guns, it is still carried out according to the existing system. First, the light machine guns of the existing department are fully equipped!" Zhao Dongyun continued, "After a little loose in the second half of the year, I will try to assign a two-machine gun squad in the infantry company."

"As for the 60mm mortar, the output of Fuchang is quite large, and the price has also been reduced. You can try out a three-door configuration in three main divisions in a row!"

These days, light machine guns are much more expensive than 60mm mortars. Due to the new construction of the light machine gun production line in Fuchang, mass production has only begun in recent months, and the output is small. Moreover, due to the complex structure and high technical content of the Madsen light machine gun, the price of light machine guns in Fuchang is still high at present.

As for the 60mm mortar, it has been produced by Fu Factory for several years. At first, imported seamless steel pipes were used, and the price was relatively expensive. Later, in order to reduce costs, Fu Factory boldly adopted the gun barrel produced by Tangshan Iron and Steel Factory. Although the mortar produced by this is much heavier, it also fired The process has also been slightly reduced, but the cost has been significantly reduced.

At the same time, the shell of the 60mm mortar is still insisting on using the steel of Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant as the shell casing and self-produced * as the charge. The price of this shell is also relatively low.

The only high cost is the mortar scope imported from Germany!

Since the output is high and the price has been reduced a lot, Zhao Dongyun will not hesitate to continue to increase the number of 60mm mortar equipment to fill the troops.

"This is the case of the mortar and the light machine gun!" Zhao Dongyun waved his hand and motioned Fang Biyong to continue, because he knew that he did not have to speak forever. Next, he must be required to increase the number of 80mm or even 120mm mortars and the number of heavy machine guns.

It doesn't matter. Zhao Dongyun is more urgent than him to expand his army, but it is not so easy to expand his army. If he opened his mouth and said a few words, he would have said it 10,000 times.

"How's the new editor?" Zhao Dongyun changed the topic and asked about the new brigade.

The new editor, which is the first part of the military's plan to expand an infantry division in March, according to the private agreement reached between the military and the government, that is, the civil and military officials, the government will provide 2 million taels of additional military expansion within half a year. As for how these military expenses are used, people don't care. Anyway, in addition to the rated military expenditure and the additional military expenditure of these two million, unless a war breaks out, don't expect the State Council to allocate even one or two silver to the military.

Although it is unlikely to expand an infantry division by relying only on these two million taels of silver, the military also has its own small calculation. After the bottom of two million, it is estimated that the military can free up hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and then the operation to suppress the bandits in Northeast is still in progress, and the battle to suppress the bandits is expected to be won. You can also make hundreds of thousands of profits, so that you can barely make more than 3 million taels of silver.

After more than 3 million taels, it is barely possible to train a division. As for how to maintain it after training, it is not something for these military generals to worry about. Zhao Dongyun can't abolish a newly expanded division.

Therefore, since March, the military began to prepare for the construction of this new infantry division. Since Zhao Dongyun has not officially asked the central government for the number, nor has he given the same army number of the three eastern provinces as the patrol force, so at present, it can only be the 'new editor' as a temporary name.

"Now the new editor has received 3,000 new recruits from the Ministry of Education and has set up a preliminary shelf. It is expected that by May, it will be full of personnel and relevant weapons are in place. It is expected that they will initially form an army in July and have preliminary combat effectiveness in the second half of the year!" Square wall Yongdao.

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "Well, this progress is not bad. Since the new editor has set up a shelf, it can't be without a number, but the number of the Central Army is also troublesome. In this way, using the number of the provincial army first, it will be designated as the first division of the army of the three eastern provinces."