Chapter 376 On the Eve of Nandu

The financial situation of the Soviet system has always been bad. The problem of lack of money has run through almost all the development periods of the Soviet system. However, the development of the Soviet system will not stagnate because of the poor financial situation.

Military, even if the military expenditure of the contemporary Soviet system has far exceeded the upper limit that the Soviet system can afford, the expansion of the army and war have not been stopped.

Since October 1906, the field troops controlled by the Soviets have expanded from the third brigades to the current nine infantry divisions, seven infantry mixed brigades, two cavalry brigades, eight patrol cavalry battalions, two independent heavy artillery battalions, and four heavy mortar battalions

Although some of the above troops are vacant, for example, there is only one brigade dissatisfied with the 15th division at present, not even the division commander, and the 1st Division under Lu Yongxiang is also dissatisfied with the formation and lacks a gun battalion. The 16th Division of Zhang Dianru, which has just defected, is only 10,000 people, has an extreme shortage of ordnance, and only one artillery. The combat effectiveness of each battalion is not even as good as that of a brigade of the third division, the main force of the Feng army. The second cavalry brigade had less than a thousand horses, and other troops also suffered more or less losses in the process of fighting south.

However, after December last year, after the rest and supplementary plan implemented by the command, many main forces in the Feng army have been restored to full capacity, and many main forces, including the 3rd Division, 9th Division and 10th Division, have been restored to full capacity through the addition of new recruits and absorption of selected soldiers. In terms of ordnance supplement, on the one hand, it is to replenish the captured weapons on the spot, and on the other hand, it is also to supplement the weapons transported from the rear, so that these main forces have gradually restored the number of heavy weapons such as artillery, mortars and machine guns.

By the end of 1908, that is, before the Spring Festival, the total strength of the regular field army of the Feng army (including the direct main force and the surrender force and the patrol cavalry force) had expanded to about 170,000, including about 12,000 cavalry troops.

The above-mentioned troops have 26 100mm cannons, about 350 new and old 75mm guns, 50 captured 57mm guns, and dozens of various messy old guns. The heavy machine guns are mainly Maxim machine guns, and some of the daily Hachikais heavy machine guns, with a total of about 600. Although there are many ways to import, seize and build light machine guns, they are all unified into Madsen light machine guns, with a total of about 1,500.

The number of mortars is larger. Each division and brigade has four independent mortar battalions, with a total of about 150 120 mm heavy mortars and about 500 80 mm mortars, while 60 mm mortars are more, reaching 1,300.

In addition to the above heavy weapons, there are naturally many rifles as light weapons. The total number of rifles used by cavalry and infantry adds up to 150,000, of which the 88 rifles are mainly for the benefit. In addition, there are also a large number of Han-made 88 rifles brought by capture and surrender, and the 88 types produced by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Although the sources of the Soviet army are relatively complex, the rifles of the regular army are only equipped with Type 88 rifles and Japanese rifles.

Naturally, the 88 rifle is equipped because this rifle is the main rifle of the Soviet series. As for a large number of Japanese rifles, it is purely because there are too many seizures.

Before, the direct army was all Japanese weapons. After the defeat of the direct army, whether it was surrendered or captured, basically these weapons and equipment fell into the hands of the Feng army. The Anhui army used to use German weapons like the Feng army, but last year, it also purchased a large number of Japanese ordnance, so the Anhui army also used Japanese weapons with the 88 self-produced and the imported German original 88. For the captured Japanese rifles, the Feng army naturally had to waste them. Basically, they were all assigned to several divisions.

Therefore, several troops equipped with Japanese rifles can be found in the current Feng army, including Lu Yongxiang's first division, Bao Guiqing's first mixed brigade, the new 11th Division and the 11th mixed brigade, all of which use uniform Japanese rifles.

In fact, in addition to the 88 rifle and the Japanese rifle, there are many messy rifles in the Feng army, including the Manlisha rifle in Austria and Hungary, the Mosinagan rifle in Russia, and even a small number of the latest German Mauser 98 rifle. In addition, there are many old-fashioned single-pack rifles, such as Mauser single-pack rifles, Martini rifles, etc. Some of these messy and old-fashioned rifles are in the inventory of the original three provinces, and more are captured after the southward battle.

However, these messy rifles are generally not equipped with regular troops. Due to the unification of logistics, the command of the Soviet system has already clearly ordered that the standard rifles of regular troops are 88 rifles, and a large number of captured Japanese rifles can be concentrated in a limited number of troops. After the other rifles were collected, each model was assigned to each patrol force.

This also caused dozens of patrol regiments in the Feng army to be equipped with various and very complicated equipment. Some are equipped with Type 88 rifles, some equipped with Japanese rifles, and some are simply equipped with Russian Mosinagan rifles, but there are also equipped with single rifles such as Martini and Old Mauser.

In a word, it is a mess. All guns that can be found in contemporary China can basically be found in dozens of patrol regiments of the Feng army.

Naturally, there is nothing to equip the patrol troops with a large number of these miscellaneous guns. The expansion of Fengjun is too fast. Although Fuchang has already begun to work overtime, the guns produced are still far from the needs of Fengjun, and they are even forced to import guns to fill the gap. Under such circumstances, There is not much energy to free up to change the patrol force uniformly, so you can only use whatever you have first.

At present, these patrol forces with messy equipment and strong combat effectiveness have a total of 30 regiments and 18 independent battalions. The number of each regiment is more or less, such as more than 298 people in the fifth patrol regiment stationed in northern Jiangsu, only 1,000 people, and the number of independent battalions is also more or thousands. Five or six hundred are enough.

The total number of these patrol units (excluding patrol cavalry battalions) is about 70,000.

The total number of regular troops and patrol forces is about 240,000.

Compared with last year's entry, the number of troops has more than doubled.

For such a war, countless people stared at the movements of the Anhui army and the Feng army. Even Wu Fengling, Wang Shizhen, Zhang Zhidong, Zhao Erxun and others in Hubei and Shanxi coincidentally stopped the large-scale war, and then turned their eyes on it. Yangtze River.

And under this tense atmosphere, Zhonghai, Beijing Xiyuan, also ushered in the first large-scale political banquet of the Spring Festival!

On the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, Zhao Dongyun and his wife sent invitations to invite military and political dignitaries and foreign public envoys in Beijing to Xiyuan Zhonghai to participate in the Spring Festival party.