“…… If it is river transportation, then it needs enough boats, according to the hydrological data of the Rhône, the most water-scarce winter, 200-ton ships can also reach Chalon, but now the ships on the canal are recruited by the government for shipping. We can get the ships by swapping them, that is, replacing our ocean-going merchant ships and the French government with inland waterway vessels, which is the quickest way, because everything is ready-made, but the disadvantage is that these ships are not designed as standard 2.4 by 6 meter containers, and they need to be modified to a certain extent before they can be used, and there will be a waste of tonnage.

Another way is to customize, we provide the design drawings, and the French shipyard will customize it. Based on the daily transportation of 8,000 tons by river, the journey of six days up, three days of downstream, and one day of loading and unloading of goods, we only need to build 400 river transport vessels totaling 80,000 tons to basically maintain the combat consumption of our army.

In our previous investigation, we found that because of the German occupation of northern France, more than 70% of France's iron ore mines were lost to the enemy, and many factories and shipyards in France are now idling because of the lack of raw materials. Therefore, it is feasible for river vessels to be manufactured locally.

The last option is to be relocated domestically. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we strongly subsidized the private sector to manufacture diesel engine ships, and those ships were manufactured in accordance with the regulations of the General Headquarters. If these ships can be relocated from within the country, many problems can be solved. However, these river boats are not only small, but also not resistant to wind and waves. It is not suitable for ocean routes, and if you really want to transfer it, it will be very troublesome to escort along the way.

The same is true for river transport. Since all containers are used, whether these containers can be used with French rail trains is another question. The French railway open cars are 12.95 meters long and 3.23 meters wide, and the flat cars are 12 meters long and 2.65 meters wide, both of which can hold two six-meter-long containers, but both of them are only two axles and carry 30 tons. It is much lower than the weight of more than 40 tons in two containers. The current solution is for France to mobilize some old-fashioned carriages with a length of only 8.3 meters to solve the problem of container railway transportation, the number is about 30,000, which can basically solve the problem of railway transportation. However, the French are only responsible for mobilization, and we will do the dismantling of these old cars.

River vessels, railroad cars, and then trucks. There are two kinds of trucks, one is a 25-ton container carrier. It is responsible for transporting containers from the railway terminal to the general station. Fifteen thousand tons of supplies, seven hundred and fifty boxes, and a distance of more than seventy kilometers per day require about five hundred to six hundred container trucks, and the maintenance of these transport vehicles is extremely important, because we must ensure that its actual attendance rate is not less than four hundred, and once it is less than four hundred, it will cause the entire transportation channel to be blocked;

In addition to container transporters. Then there are five-ton trucks, although the military station can lay a temporary railway to transport supplies. However, for the sake of insurance, no less than 5,000 trucks should be used to transport supplies to the front line, and the requisitioning of these logistics trucks by combat units should be prohibited as much as possible. There was a shortage of horses and fodder throughout France, and although the area from Saint-Dizière to Metz had not been devastated, and there may have been horses, wagons, and some fodder in the countryside, but this was unreliable, the war was long, and there was a general lack of labor in the countryside, and once the accumulated fodder was exhausted, we would be in the predicament of the British and French armies now killing horses. The above is the French transportation problem, and the following is the local material procurement. ”

After the transportation problem was spoken, Zhou Si cleared his throat, but his expression did not recover from the memories of the decay of the French countryside. In the past two months, he not only consulted with the French government and the military leaders, but also went deep into the front line of the British and French troops and the rural areas near the northeast front to conduct detailed investigations. Contrary to the cheers of French soldiers on the front lines, the French countryside three years after the war was not devastated by artillery fire, but there were few men in the villages, and in some villages there was little smoke, and there were few livestock and peasants. When the war came to this point, it was no wonder that all of France was in despair, if it had not been for the two great powers declaring war one after another, I am afraid that they would have negotiated and surrendered earlier.

"From the perspective of the situation of material procurement, there is basically no possibility of independence. Britain and France already had a material procurement committee, and we could only use this committee to procure materials throughout Europe. It's just that the caliber of our rifles and artillery is mostly different from that of Britain and France, and some of them are the same, such as 75mm field guns, and the length of the barrel chamber is also different, so unless our army adopts British-French weapons, there is basically no possibility of local supply - the French have a fixed production line for arms and ammunition, and they have no way to adjust the production line according to our needs;

As for grenades and blasting canisters, the quality personnel who visited with me thought that the quality awareness of the current British and French military factories was extremely indifferent, and many workers used female workers who had only undergone short-term training, so it was difficult to ensure the quality of the products. At that time, at the Schneider factory, they sampled 100 boxes of grenades on the spot, and the defective rate was about 21 percent, and the quality of this product would definitely be rejected by the quality staff of our army's logistics department. Therefore, all you can buy here is some clothing, wood for building barracks, and cement. The Americans had taken over two cement plants from the French, and we had also taken over the cement plants near the shipping lines, which had begun to expand production to meet wartime cement requirements. ”

"Before, when I was talking to the French about the purchase of local supplies, they talked to me about merchant ships; And when they talked about merchant ships, I began to emphasize the submarine threat of the Mediterranean allies. In the port of Bora in Austria-Hungary, there was a detachment of German submarines in the Mediterranean. The number of boats is about thirty; And Austria-Hungary did not pay much attention to submarines at first, and it was not until they saw the achievements of German submarines that they built armed submarines. The number of its equipment does not exceed 20, but it is these dozens of submarines that sank 1.5 million tons of merchant ships last year alone.

It can be said that the anti-submarine situation in the Mediterranean does not need to be optimistic in the Atlantic, and our army's merchant fleet needs a safe Mediterranean route, especially since the first batch of ocean-going ships will start sailing tomorrow, although they are all loaded with Russians. But we can't help but use bean buns as dry food......"

Zhou Sixu made fun of the Russians so much that everyone laughed. Of the 500,000 expeditionary force, the Russians accounted for nearly 200,000. At this time, Russia had not yet withdrawn from the war, and the Provisional Government, as well as the British, French, and American governments, were all in favor of these prisoners leaving the camps to continue fighting, but the difference was that Britain, France, and the United States wanted them to go to the Western Front, while the Russian Provisional Government wanted them to go to the Eastern Front. However, Russian officers and soldiers who are worried about the lack of weapons and food in their country. And China, which controlled the fate of these captives, believed that the Western Front was their best destination, so these people would eventually be sent to the Western Front.

"It will take about forty days between now and the arrival of the fleet. In these forty days, we must effectively contain the German-Austrian submarine offensive, otherwise the fleet will suffer heavy losses. Although the daytime plan for the Mediterranean Sea drawn up by the General Staff was feasible, it was nearly 3,000 nautical miles from Marseille on Alexandria Island, and the voyage in the Mediterranean would be increased to nine days only during the day. And. There is not enough evidence to prove it. This would be effective for such a large fleet.

The really effective way is to eliminate the German-Austrian submarine in the Adriatic Sea in the port of Bora, which Italy has had a plan of air attack on these days, but it has been canceled at our request. Now all parties in the Entente want to hear about the anti-submarine plans of our army as soon as possible, and if there are no other problems, I hope to schedule this meeting for tomorrow. ”

Zhou Sixu received a telegram from Lin Wenqian to categorically ask Italy to cancel the plan to attack the Bora Military Port, but before he had a round with Lin Wenqian, he did not know the content and secret level of the plan of the Revival Army, so he needed Lin Wenqian's approval for tomorrow's meeting.

"Yes. The meeting will be scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. "Lin Wenqian was also thinking about attacking the Bora military port along the way to contain the plan of the German-Austrian submarine. The plan requires the cooperation of all countries, and at least Italy does not need to be caught by surprise.

"Okay." Zhou Sixu said the next question as he jotted it down. "If the submarine threat in the Mediterranean is resolved, then the tonnage of the merchant fleet supporting our military can be reduced to one and a half million, or even one and a half hundred thousand tons. This can save military spending to the greatest extent, or some of it can be transferred to other projects, such as increasing the configuration of trucks in each division, increasing the configuration of tank divisions, and increasing the configuration of body armor......"

The body armor mentioned by Zhou Sixu made Lin Wenqian frown a little, the General Logistics Equipment Experimental Bureau really invented the invulnerable body armor, which weighs eight pounds and can resist pistol bullets and various fragments and stray bullets on the battlefield. Although the British and the French also developed steel body armor, the problem is that the kind of clothing weighs 20 pounds, and because it is hard, it is extremely inconvenient for soldiers to move after wearing it, and the body armor developed by the general rear is only a silk bulletproof vest, except for being heavier, it does not hinder action.

The only pity is that the price of this kind of body armor is extremely expensive, 300 Chinese yuan per piece, which is exactly one-third of the pension, and the entire expeditionary force needs 150 million Chinese yuan to complete the body armor. For officers, non-commissioned officers, and technical arms, 300 yuan is a trivial matter, but the General Political Department is very worried that body armor will weaken the troops' will to fight - if you wear body armor, you dare to work hard, and if you don't wear body armor, you will cringe. The prime minister once said that the victory in the war came from science and art, but now the revival army, which is in the midst of a large-scale redress, has a tendency to be technocratic, after all, several wars have been won by technology.

In addition to the impact on morale, the expensive price is also a big problem. Although, according to the estimated data, the body armor is only a by-product of a certain research in the Ministry of Industry Laboratory, and it is not at all woven from the silk of the Tianshan snow silkworm as the newspaper boasted, and the factory that produces it is not much different from the synthetic ammonia explosives factory, it is all made of steel tanks. In terms of input costs and labor costs, this kind of clothes should be shot if they are sold for 100 yuan, but because of the support of the Mystery Institute, they were sold for 300 yuan. If it is really this price, then it is better to equip the expeditionary force, after all, this time there is no province in the country to send troops, but if there is a large-scale war and tens of millions of soldiers are used, who can afford the more than 3 billion body armor money?

In addition to body armor, which can cause unease among ordinary soldiers, the same problem exists with small-scale trial penicillin. After years of hard work, the drug laboratory finally obtained high-yield penicillium strains from rotten oranges sent hundreds of kilometers away, but this was only a matter of the first few months, and it is not yet known how high the actual production of this high-yield strain is, if the yield is still not high, then Lin Wenqian is very worried that it will be like the last Sino-Japanese war: some wounded people can use it, and some injured people can't. It only adds to the troubles.

"Guangting, don't announce the news of body armor for the time being." Lieutenant General Lin Wenqian hesitated for a long time before mentioning this matter.

"Ah......" Zhou Sixu had already introduced at this time, "Pay attention to the relationship between soldiers and local left-behind women". I don't want the question from a few minutes ago to be raised by Lin Wenqian again. He thought for a moment before saying: "I'm afraid this is difficult, the armor company has given hundreds of sets of body armor to the armies of the Entente countries in order to advertise, how can this matter be hidden?" ”

As soon as Zhou Sixu said advertising, Lin Wenqian sighed secretly in his heart, Mr. is good at everything, but he believes in marketization too much. Not to mention that the sale of body armor to foreign countries will improve the combat effectiveness of soldiers from other countries, and it will also lead them to crack the secret of nylon silk, if that is the case. This marketization is too much of a loss. Lin Wenqian sighed secretly, but he didn't know that the laboratory had begun to formulate a new experimental plan - research and development of aramid, which was the body armor material in Yang Rui's heart, not the twelve pairs of nylon socks used now.

When the Baath Army is in a meeting. Inside the U.S. Temporary Command across the street. Commander Pershing was pulling out his pistol and firing at the Chinese-made body armor hanging in the corner of the room, seven bullets were gone, and Colonel Williams of the Ordnance Department asked him to take off the clothes, turned over the back of the clothes and looked at them, and said, "General, it is intact." ”

He said this, and a Chinese in a suit near Pershing smiled all over his face, "Your Excellency, General." As long as it's not a rifle shooting at close range, or a more unlucky shell. Your soldiers will be intact and return home safely with victory. ”

Without paying attention to the Chinese, Pershing personally took the body armor, touched the inside of the clothes, and found that there was indeed no damage, but he was still not at ease, and asked the adjutant to put the body armor in front of him, and then shot the back of the clothes without protective hard blocks at close range.

The American's behavior startled the suitmaker, although he had long been accustomed to the rudeness of the Yankees, but he did not expect that Pershing, as a general of the First Army, would shoot and try on clothes so recklessly.

"General......" The man in the suit shouted a word, and Pershing's gun went off, and the sparks and smoke from the pistol shot slammed everyone's faces. Pershing didn't care, and immediately checked the body armor, and found that the bullet only penetrated a few layers of fibers on the clothing, not completely, and then he approved: "What is this made of?" He touched the layers of nylon socks, curious.

The suit-bearer was still in a dizzy state from shooting at close range, and he only came to his senses until Colonel Williams, the chief of the ordnance department, was afraid of him. Hearing that this was the problem, the suit-suited guest pretended to be mysterious and said: "Your Excellency General Hui, this is the silk of the Tianshan Snow Silkworm, which is hand-woven after processing, which is stronger than steel, plus that piece of bone china, this has achieved a magical bulletproof effect." This is more than ten times stronger than the kind of steel plate body armor used by the British and French, and their kind of body armor, once the soldier puts it on his back, he can't move at all, except as a human-shaped shield to block bullets for the soldiers behind, it is useless. ”

"Silk on the Tianshan Mountains? Bone china? Pershing shook his head, not quite understanding what the Chinese from Washington to Paris was saying, but as he could see, the clothes were bulletproof, light and soft, and the soldiers wore them without hindering their movements. So, Liang, how much did you sell to the Baath Army? ”

"It's the same price for selling it to the Renaissance Army, I swear by my ancestors!" The suiter said very seriously. "The company has a business all over the world, and we will never deceive customers."

"But it's still expensive." Just like Pershing's mood at this time, if a million troops are equipped with body armor, according to the price of 150 dollars a piece, it is 150 million US dollars, although the congressional allocation for the purchase of ordnance is as high as more than 13 billion, but spending so much money on clothes always feels a little outrageous.

"General, it's better to spend money on bathtubs, bookshelves, and lawnmowers, at least this money can boost the morale of the soldiers and make them fight a hundred times more bravely. Soldiers will also be grateful to you for spending the equivalent of their annual income to ensure that they can leave the battlefield intact for the rest of their lives. Seeing that Pershing was hesitating, Colonel Williams struck while the iron was hot, and a bunch of words analyzing the pros and cons came out. Among them, the morale of the troops impressed Pershing the most -- if the US military could not be respected by Britain, France, and other countries on the Western Front, then the damage to the US army and the reputation of the United States would be enormous.

The reason why Britain and France strongly invited China to enter the war after the United States declared war was not only to ease the anti-war sentiments in the two countries and give the people confidence to continue the war, but also to use China to stimulate and balance the United States. Compared with President Wilson's ambition to reset the rules of world rights, the Chinese only want to be treated fairly and the few privileges that a powerful country should have, and it can be said that China's entry into the game has sharply reduced the bargaining chips of the United States.

"Okay. Then order a million sets! "After a moment of silence, in the anticipation of the Chinese and Colonel Williams, Pershing finally said what they wanted to hear." However, I hope it will arrive soon, and more strictly speaking, my soldiers will have to wear this body armor until they go to war next spring. Can you do it? ”

"I'll do it." The suit-bearer guaranteed the ticket, and even said flatteringly: "If it can't be delivered, I will transfer the 200,000 pieces of body armor sold to the Renaissance Army to your army, and they are too poor to afford it anyway." ”

"But we ordered a million pieces." Pershing was not happy that the other party listed himself as a VIP, he was just worried that not everyone could get such clothes until the soldiers went to war.

"Don't worry, Your Excellency, I will do exactly what you ask you to do: let each of the soldiers wear a body armor before they go to battle." The suiter flicked his hands excitedly, and was sent away by Pershing after the guarantee, and the rest of the matter was to go to the ordnance department to sign the contract and negotiate kickbacks.

"John, the Chinese have grabbed our defense." After sending away some annoying Chinese businessmen who can always come up with good things, said General Bliss, the chief of staff, who had just returned. "Also, I found that their Marines were much more spiritual than we were, and it was unbelievable that this was a barbarian force."

When Paris was welcoming the Chinese, Pershing was invited, but he did not go at all, and he did not even listen to the speech of the Chinese general Lin on the radio just now. Thinking of his own courtesy a few months ago, and then looking at the popularity of Chinese now, Pershing's heart is a little sour, when is a yellow country actually more popular with Europe than the United States?

"Yes, General Petain had already told me about it yesterday, and his explanation was that the Chinese could only use the port of Marseille in the Mediterranean, so from a transport point of view, they had to be assigned to the right wing and nothing else." Pershing said, the tobacco in his pipe rising.

"Perhaps the French are right, but the result would be that we would be divided and eventually become a reservoir of forces for Britain and France, which we did not want to see. Although General Foch told us that we could hand over the section of the defensive line next to the western side of the Chinese Saint-Diziye, behind this line was the Marne, and we could not do anything except deal with mud. General Bliss said.

"Maybe we can take over the section of the line of defense near the Atlantic, which is the section west of Persan." Pershing said.

"What about the British?" General Bliss asked. "Will the British agree?"

"Maybe they'll agree, maybe not." Pershing shrugged his shoulders, "Say you know." Actually, I don't think the Chinese are lucky to get the section of the defense line east of Saint-Dizier, it's just their helpless choice in the face of traffic restrictions. You must know that most of this defense line is on the Lorraine Plateau, since the ancient Roman period, in order to seize the important town of Metz, there have been successive wars here, until now, there are still huge fortresses left by the ancient Roman period under the city of Metz; In addition to these, this place also has many river valleys, forests, and mountains, which are particularly unsuitable for decisive battles with large armies. ”

Speaking of this, Pershing suddenly laughed on his face, he poured a glass of whiskey for Bliss and himself, and handed one of the glasses to Bliss, and then said, "I hope the Chinese will like it there." (To be continued......)