Chapter 433 Expansion

Compared with the careful handling of officers, the handling of ordinary soldiers is much simpler. If they are willing to surrender and meet the physical fitness, they will be directly assigned by the Ministry of Education to serve in active troops. Soldiers who are unwilling to surrender or do not meet the conditions will be directly dismissed.

There were many Anhui troops captured by the Feng army in the Jiangnan Campaign. In addition to the capture of thousands of the main force of the Anhui army, such as the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade, there were also tens of thousands of ordinary Liangjiang Provincial Army troops. In Jinling alone, nearly 20,000 people were captured, and then the ninth and 10th Division of the Liangjiang were captured in the Zhenjiang area. Almost 20,000 prisoners.

Half of these captured soldiers are directly assigned to the active troops fighting in Jiangnan, and some of them will be sent to Henan to supplement the strength gap of the Third Army.

The three divisions under the Third Army have always been short of soldiers and weapons, because the Feng army previously focused its main efforts on the troops fighting in the south of the Yangtze River, and the recruits and weapons were given priority to the south of the Yangtze River, resulting in the three divisions of the Third Army becoming troops for a long time, but they are still dissatisfied.

In addition to replenishing soldiers, there is another more important thing, that is, replenishing weapons and ammunition lost in the course of operations.

There is nothing to say about ammunition. After several months of fighting, the ammunition reserves in Jiangnan have been almost exhausted. At present, the ammunition retained by Jiangnan troops is no longer enough to launch a large-scale battle, and they urgently need replenishment from the rear.

And the ordnance is more troublesome. During the battle in Jiangnan, the Feng army lost a lot of weapons. More than 200 light machine guns were lost by lightning strikes, nearly 100 heavy machine guns, more than 100 mortars of each caliber, more than 30 75 mm artillery, and tens of thousands of ordinary rifles and pistols were lost and worn.

These weapons are all expensive. If you rely on Fengjun's own procurement alone, it will be a very expensive thing.

Fortunately, the Feng army also captured many weapons and ammunition in the Jiangnan Campaign. More than 40 17 mm field guns have been captured, and more than 50 mountain cannons have been captured. In addition, there are dozens of damaged and repairable artillery, with a total number of more than 100, which has far exceeded Fengjun. My own loss.

Moreover, the caliber and model of the artillery used by the Feng Army and the Anhui Army are similar and can be completely universal. The Ordnance Department often divides the artillery captured on the front line into categories and directly assigns them to the frontline troops.

A lot of artillery and machine guns have been captured, but more rifles/pistols have been captured. More than 30,000 rifles have been captured, and tens of thousands of rifles have been captured on the battlefield, with a total of more than 60,000 rifles, pistols and riding guns.

This number is also more than the losses of the Feng army itself, and the rifles used by the Anhui army are also mainly 88 and the 30-year-old and 38-year-old styles. Fengjun himself also used the Type 88 rifle and Japanese rifle on a large scale.

The 88 rifle is a standard rifle commonly used in China, while the Japanese rifle used to be purchased and used by the direct army and Anhui army on a large scale from Japan. The current Japanese rifle of the Feng army has basically been captured.

However, the number captured is too large. In addition to the batch now seized, there are more than 50,000 rifles preserved in the Feng army, enough to equip five Japanese engineers.

The Feng army is equipped with a large number of Japanese rifles, which also forced several Soviet arsenals to increase the production of Japanese six-five bullets. Fuyuan Machine Factory originally had only one six-five bullet production line with a daily output of more than 10,000 rounds, but now it has expanded its production to 40,000 rounds per day.

At the same time, the Jiangsu Manufacturing Bureau and Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, which are recently controlled by the Soviet system, are all production lines with Japanese bullets. Interestingly, these production lines were built by Japan themselves. The original intention was to support Duan Qirui. Unexpectedly, like a large number of Japanese weapons sold to Duan Qirui, they all fell into the hands of Fengjun and made Zhao Dongyun cheaper. .

The seizure of a large amount of ordnance and ammunition can be said to have greatly eased the current pressure on military spending. Although the Soviet finance said that there is no need to worry about financial pressure in obtaining aftercare loans in a short period of time, the money is also limited, and it is very necessary to save as much as possible.

For the Feng army during the war, the cost of ordnance is a very large amount. The main cost of raising the army in peacetime is personnel salaries, but the cost of ordnance during the war is more.

At the same time, the replenishment of ordnance is also limited by the production of domestic arsenals, otherwise money can't be replenished.

The captured weapons and ammunition are enough to speed up the rest and replenishment of the Feng army and even the expansion of the army.

Due to the large number of captured weapons, especially artillery, in addition to supplementing several troops in the south of the Yangtze River, the Feng army also used these captured artillery to establish the first independent field artillery regiment.

In the past, the independent artillery units of the Feng army had only two heavy artillery battalions, but now more artillery have been captured. At the same time, the Feng army did not have the idea of setting up many troops on the spot in the south of the Yangtze River for the time being. It was not convenient for these artillery movements of the Third Army in Henan, so they simply set up an independent artillery regiment on the spot to further strengthen the river. The artillery force in the southern region.

In this feast of partitioning many captured weapons and ammunition, even the 16th Division, which is on the third line within the Feng army, was supplemented by a large number of soldiers and weapons.

Since the 16th Division joined the Soviet Army last year, it has actually been ignored. The soldiers have not added much, but successively supplemented the middle and lower-level officers, and the purpose of supplementing these officers is not to improve the combat effectiveness of the department, but to control the troops.

However, now the Feng army has captured many weapons, and there are many additional soldiers in the rear. In addition, after the Feng army took over the south of the Yangtze River, a large number of military generals have once again come up with the idea of expanding the army. Meng Enyuan and others said that the Soviet faction has captured Jiangnan and will continue to go south in the future. In order to unify China, more troops are needed.

When there was no plan to form a new force for the time being, the military generals wanted to expand the existing troops to the ideal establishment in 1908, but also wanted to upgrade other troops in the Feng army to the main force, which simply achieved the purpose of expansion.

Based on this plan, the 16th Division has also been supplemented. The 16th Division, which used to have only about 10,000 people, has been assigned 6,000 recruits at a time. In addition, it has been supplemented by an artillery battalion. After the supplement, the 16th Division has risen to the Feng army in terms of strength and weapons and equipment alone. The level of second-rate troops.

Of course, the actual combat effectiveness is still a little different from that of the First Division.

In addition to the 16th Division, the military has another plan, which is to expand the first mixed brigade into a division.

Meng Enyuan strongly supports this plan. At the same time, although Bao Guiqing is also from a direct line, he led the first mixed brigade in a series of battles, especially in the Battle of Jinling. According to reason, it is time to be promoted, but there is no spare division commander position in the Feng army for the time being, so The best way is to directly expand the first mixed brigade into a teacher, and Bao Guiqing can take the opportunity to become a teacher.

The first mixed brigade performed well, and it also won the opportunity to expand into teachers.

On May 3, Zhao Dongyun officially ordered the formation of the 19th Division on the basis of the first mixed brigade, and Bao Guiqing naturally served as the commander of the newly established 19th Division.

The newly established 19th Division is different from the 17th Division and 18th Division. The 18th Division and 17th Division were established solely to increase the garrison in Fengtian and Zhili, and the combat effectiveness of these two units is also limited.

However, based on the first mixed brigade, even if its combat effectiveness has just been established, it is enough to join the ranks of the front-line troops of the Feng army. After gradually expanding and increasing its strength and weapons and equipment, its combat effectiveness is expected to catch up with the main force of the Third Division.

With the expansion of the first mixed brigade into a division, it also reflects the idea of the expansion of the Feng army in the past year, that is, to stop the establishment of the mixed brigade and even withdraw and expand the mixed brigade into a regular infantry division.

After the expansion of the first mixed brigade into a division, there are not many mixed brigades retained in the Feng army, only the fourth mixed brigade, the fifth mixed brigade, the ninth mixed brigade and the eleventh mixed brigade.

The first mixed brigade, the seventh mixed brigade and the tenth mixed brigade of the other three mixed brigades have been successively expanded into divisions.

In addition, because the fourth mixed brigade was disabled in the Battle of Dangtu, there have been calls for this mixed brigade to be directly revoked and added to other Feng army troops.

However, this move was blocked by Zhao Dongyun. Although Zhao Dongyun was very dissatisfied with the defeat of the Fourth Mixed Brigade and Lin Pingxiong, the brigade commander of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, the feeling in his heart could not replace his reason.

First of all, Lin Pingxiong is one of the first generals to follow Zhao Dongyun. Although he made a mistake, he can't erase his previous credit. Moreover, his ability is still there, and the previous battles are also good. When the fierce attack on the second mixed brigade in the battle of Tu, his troops are at a great disadvantage. The defeat is also apable. After all, in the First Battle of Dangtu, although the fourth mixed brigade was defeated, it also successfully left the bodies of thousands of Anhui soldiers of the second mixed brigade, which also half mutilated the second mixed brigade.

After the second mixed brigade arrived at Jinling, there was a lack of enough troops to launch a large-scale attack on the 14th and 3rd Divisions.

At the same time, Meng Enyuan, Lin Yongquan and other people also called to plead for Lin Pingxiong, so it was not easy for Zhao Dongyun to remove Lin Pingxiong from office following his own feelings.

Lin Pingxiong will not be dismissed, but it is impossible to be transferred to other troops. After all, his rank is Major General and Lieutenant General, and the rank is there. Even if he is transferred, he must be a mixed brigade commander or division commander, so Zhao Dongyun simply continued to retain the fourth mixed brigade.

This is a cold treatment for Zhao Dongyun himself, giving Lin Pingxiong a chance to make contributions. If Lin Pingxiong still has a fiasco in the subsequent combat effectiveness, then even if he is his early general of the army, Zhao Dongyun will completely suppress him and not give him A chance to turn over.

Based on this idea, the fourth mixed brigade was also rebuilt. Due to the heavy losses in the First World War of Dangtu, experienced veterans and officers were almost killed and injured. In order to avoid the reconstruction of the fourth mixed brigade becoming a third-rate force, the military was also transferred from other troops. Some backbone veterans and officers were used to supplement the department to restore the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Mixed Brigade.

The civil service system rectified the administrative affairs of the Jiangnan region, and the military expanded and rested.