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Liaoyang Mansion, on the banks of the Taizi River ().

Under the sunset, Yue Peng, the newly appointed commander of the Northeast Theater of the National Defense Forces, and Zhang Zuolin, chief of staff, were watching the small boats on the river with relish under the protection of a group of cavalry, and the sappers on the boats were fixing several huge subway leather pontoons and then assembling the bridges with standard steel structures brought from Hubei.

Although the South Manchurian Railway can directly cross the wider Liao River, but the rest of the river is scarce bridges, even if there are, they are all pedestrian bridges with very low traffic capacity, in today's increasingly heavy equipment of the troops, bridges and roads have become the biggest obstacle to curb the development of the combat effectiveness of the troops, and to inhibit people-to-people exchanges, so when Yang Qiu inspected Chongqing a year ago, he handed over all the technology of the Bailey Bridge to Zheng Tingxiang, who had designed the Brooklyn Bridge, for study, and finally after nearly a year of hard work, Zheng Tingxiang successfully built 5 tons, and Sichuan Province took the lead in popularizing its use.

Yang Qiu, who had long expected this war, learned about it, and also asked the military to place an order to purchase 200 sets of steel structure standard parts and deliver them to the engineering troops for exploration.

Now the river is erecting a traffic capacity of 20 tons Bailey Bridge, because the river surface is wider so it needs to be supported by 16 large iron pontoons, even if there is no special bridge-erecting vehicles and equipment in later generations, purely by manual operation in the case of standard parts, the Bailey Bridge erected with a nut is also very fast, from yesterday afternoon to today, nearly half of the time has been completed in just one day, so that Zhang Zuolin who saw this speed for the first time is very curious.

"Good fellow, we can build a bridge in two days!" Zhang Zuolin was speechless again and again: "Zi'an, this thing is really designed by the commander?" ”

Yue Peng smiled slightly, as one of the people who knew best, he was already numb to all kinds of inventions and technologies in Yang Qiu's mind. "I don't know very well about this, but since the sappers say so, I think it should be credible." ”

Over the past year or so, Zhang Zuolin has also seen more of Yang Qiu's methods, and it seems that there is nothing impossible to design such a convenient and easy-to-build bridge, so he turned to the current battle situation: "Benxi Nanfen Coal and Iron Mine is Japan's largest investment in our Fengtian, and I heard that the investment in mining equipment and ore refinery alone is more than 30 million yen. There is also an engineering wing. Plus the road escort team or something, there are at least 2,000 people. Isn't it too thin for us to have two regiments? ”

Yue Peng looked at him, and said in his heart that these people are still too lacking in self-confidence, but this can't be blamed on them, with their current status, they can't see the rapid development of the National Defense Force. Not to mention that last year alone, the total military expenditure of the National Defense Forces was already on par with Japan's 250 million yuan, and because of the need to maintain a huge navy, more than half of Japan's military spending was embezzled by the navy, and after the army paid military salaries, officers' salaries, and daily expenses, the actual cost of purchasing equipment was less than 20 million. A German-made Krupp 105mm howitzer, including a spare barrel and tractor and other components, will cost 50,000 yuan. In other words, the Japanese Army can only purchase 400 naked guns a year. And that's not even counting the more expensive ammunition.

If it weren't for the stimulation of the Dongying incident at the end of the year. Yama Prefecture Youpeng and other army veterans pressured the Congress to allocate special military spending, and it was impossible for two divisions to be born. On the other hand, the total cost of military equipment procurement alone on his side exceeded 100 million, and if we add the expenditure in the southwest in the first two years, the cost of military equipment procurement alone in the past four years has exceeded 300 million, coupled with the ingenuity of technology, it is no longer a "miscellaneous army" that can claim hegemony with a few 57-mm guns in the early years of the Republic of China.

Taking the 22nd Regiment and the 442nd Regiment as an example, the two regiments had a total of 18 cannons of various types, a total of 97 grenadiers, and 81 light and heavy machine guns.

Therefore, he admired Yang Qiu's order to go to war now, because now is the weakest period in Japan in ten years, if Europe starts, it may promote Japan's economy to improve, and this unexpected speed has also caught Japan off guard, from the order to the present is almost ten days, but the Japanese army only has two brigades mobilized to see the essence of its weakness.

However, when he was about to give the horse bandit bearded marshal a little confidence, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and he turned his head to see Jiang Zuobin, who had just been transferred to the Northeast Theater as an operational staff officer, and Zhang Zuoxiang, a staff officer of the 14th Division, who were riding horses, and the two of them cheered from afar: "Commander, chief of staff!" Great victory, great victory! ”

Great victory?!

Hearing these two words, the corners of Zhang Zuolin's mouth twitched twice, now there is no big victory except Nanfen! Could it be that the news was sent back in the morning and the exchange of fire was brought down in the afternoon? When he was still suspicious, Jiang Zuobin had already jumped off his horse and rushed to the two of them, handing over the telegram and his face turned red: "Benxi is a great victory, the 22nd Regiment and the 442nd Regiment joined forces to annihilate the Baofen Japanese Invaders, killed the Engineer Wing Captain Takeda Ai, captured more than 1,000 people, and all the rest were killed ()!" ”

"yes, yes." Zhang Zuoxiang also jumped off the horse in three steps and two steps, as if he was afraid that he would be robbed of all the limelight, and said happily: "With more than 400 casualties, more than 2,000 people and horses were annihilated, and they also occupied the Japanese mineral sand factory and mining field there. Lao Feng and the others also found more than a million yen and a lot of gold and silver in the mine vault, if they were shipped back, hehe. ”

"it. Tell the good news, what the hell are you worth? Think of yourself as a bandit! Coal and iron mines, that is our national property! What does the state want me to say? Later, I will go back and write ten times to Lao Tzu to check, and inform the whole division and Feng Delin that all the seizures in this war must be handed over, and the private collectors will find one and shoot one by one! Seeing that Zhang Zuoxiang showed his old background again, Zhang Zuolin was so angry that he was full of bags, and after scolding, he kicked and turned his head and said: "Commander, don't take it to heart, our old Zhang assured the commander-in-chief last time he went to Nanjing for a meeting, and the state property and private individuals are still clearly separated." ”

Let's talk about good news, how can this guy go so far? Although he knew that Zhang Zuolin had the idea of showing loyalty, Yue Peng had nothing to say in the face of these old bandits, and said with a smile: "Brother Yuting, don't blame them, how much money is seized is to be counted into the military merits, and it is also a great achievement to count and hand it over." ”

"Haha, Commander Yue is right, I'll send someone to investigate in a while. Don't even think about leaking from our old Zhang's hands. After Zhang Zuolin finished laughing, he rubbed his hands excitedly and his eyes lit up: "But then again, this battle is really to be won, my old Zhang didn't expect to win so simply, but I am afraid that the commander just now thought of it, right?" ”

At this time, Zhang Zuolin is not the Zhang Dashuai who dominates the Northeast and peeps into the world, although he is not as arrogant as he seems. is quite scheming, but after seeing Yang Qiu's methods, he has long lost the mind to fight. I just want to run errands and add a few more flowers to my shoulders. In the future, it will be good for the ancestors to return to their hometowns, so even Yue Peng feels that this person can make friends.

Jiang Zuobin was also very happy, he didn't expect that he had just come to the Northeast Theater to witness a victory, but he was much calmer than Zhang Zuolin and others. As a graduate of the Japanese army who has studied in Japan for many years, he understands that the engineer wing is actually only a second-line force in the Japanese army, and said: "It is good to win, but the engineer wing is not very good at fighting, and the real trump card of the Japanese army is the infantry and cavalry wings that can be awarded the flag by the emperor ()." ”

His words made Zhang Zuolin and the others quickly calm down, and Yue Peng was not too excited. After listening to him, he nodded in agreement and said, "Brother Yuyan is right. It has not yet come to be happy. The 38th Wing of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army from Sinuiju had arrived at Fengcheng, and the 74th Wing of the 19th Division also went north to jam Yingkou. If it is fast, the 38th Wing will be able to reach Motianling in the afternoon of the day after tomorrow and threaten Benxi. ”

Zhang Zuolin experienced the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and has always been deeply impressed by the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Army, especially in the Russo-Japanese War, the picture of the Japanese wings charging against the overwhelming machine guns and artillery of the Russian army made him feel a little more afraid of this close neighbor, and said: "Yes, a wing still has to be careful. ”

"This is the intelligence of the Sixteenth Division." Jiang Zuobin took out the materials he had prepared and handed them to Yue Peng and introduced: "After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan greatly reduced the army and reduced its expenditures, and only two of the four wings of each division were fully established, and the other two only kept their numbers. Of its four wings, the 20th and 33rd wings currently only have the number number, leaving only the 9th and 38th wings. However, it should be noted that in order to preserve their strength, Yamayama Aritomo and other army veterans deliberately confused the scale of the reduction, and transferred the veterans of the wing who only kept the number to the other two wings, so at present, the wings in the Japanese permanent divisions are all supernumerated.

The 38th Wing, which is coming, belongs to this situation, with a total of 4,132 infantry in the whole wing, plus logistics and the artillery and cavalry wings brought in, the total strength is about 7,200, which is already more than one of our brigades, and the total number of the whole division is 18,000! The current wing commander is Sadao Araki, who studied at the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School and the Army University, and once won the title of the first person in the Army University that year, and intelligence shows that he is a well-known Russian expert in the Japanese army, and he is proficient in combat courage and tactics, and this person is one of the front-line officers who most actively promoted Japan's annexation of Manchuria, and is also the first officer to send a telegram to the War Department to ask for war after learning of our move. ”

Yue Peng listened and looked through the information, and when the photo of the 38th Wing appeared at the end, his eyes suddenly shrank into a little cold star, and asked, "Brother Yuyan has been in Japan for many years, so he should have heard about the Wing Flag, right?" ”

Speaking of the wing flag, Jiang Zuobin's face also became solemn, and he introduced: "Since 1874, the Meiji Emperor of Japan personally awarded the military flag to the 1st and 2nd Guards Infantry Wing, and since then, all newly formed infantry and cavalry wings of the Japanese army must be personally awarded the military flag by the emperor, as the core of the unity of the troops, improve the sense of honor of the soldiers, and erect the spirit of the military flag (). Because the military flag was given by the emperor himself, only the infantry wing and the cavalry wing could have it, so it was also called the wing flag. According to the regulations of the Japanese Army, if the military flag is present, it will be established, and if the military flag is lost, it will be sanctioned. Therefore, the wing flag is a very important thing in the Japanese army, and the selection of flag bearers is all the most elite Shaozuo in the wing, and a military flag guard squadron is specially set up to protect it.

Since the Japanese army divisions and regiments did not have a military flag, the wing flag was also regarded as a symbol of the Japanese army.

I heard when I was a student in Lu Shi that the Japanese Army has always had a tradition of killing people with flags, and once they couldn't keep the flag, the flag guards would immediately burn the flag and launch a "jade shattering" attack, or simply commit suicide! Although Zhang Zuolin and others knew that the Japanese Army only had an infantry wing, they had heard of this allusion for the first time, and when they heard that the flag was gone, they would commit suicide and gasp.

"The supply truck team set off immediately, ordering the 21st and 23rd regiments to speed up to Motianling to set up a defensive line, the armored battalion and the 1st brigade did not stay after crossing Nanfen and went south overnight to set up an ambush at the mouth of the Caohe, the divisional artillery regiment accelerated its speed and penetrated to the southeast of Qingchengzi, and the 3rd and 43rd brigades continued to move along the South Manchurian line towards Haicheng. Telegraph the 10th and 12th divisions to speed up, and in five days I will see them in place. Yue Peng's expression remained unchanged, and he closed the document with a snap, and his gaze swept over everyone.

"Seven years ago, the Japanese army defeated the Russian army with superior equipment in one fell swoop, which was called the Far Eastern miracle in Europe, and since the signing of the Portsmouth Treaty, the Japanese army wing flag has been called by the European people, do you know what it is?" In the shaking of the heads of Jiang Zuobin and the others, Yue Peng raised the information in his hand, and asked himself with a serious gaze: "Europeans call it the Mythical Flag!" ”

"We now have a chance to unplug it!" …… (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to () register as a member to read the latest chapter list, your support is my biggest motivation. )