After lunch, Song Biao asked Qiu Jin to leave first, leaving Shu Xuan to ask a few more questions about the publication of poetry manuscripts.

During her visit to America, Shu Xuan finally translated Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and delivered it to the Far Eastern Publishing House for publication. Song Biao read the entire manuscript. In his opinion, even if it was not

People who understand poetry appreciation can also find the joy of reading and the perception of freedom in this collection of poems.

Because the poem manuscript was about to be published, Shu Xuan seemed particularly happy. She had been working hard on it for a whole year and couldn't wait to see the results. Song Biao was also really happy for her persistence and hard work.

After talking about the poem manuscript, Song Biao personally escorted Shu Xuan out of the government building. When he walked out of the door, Song Biao thought for a moment before asking Shu Xuan: "How are you working in the art troupe? Are you still happy?"

Shu Xuan smiled without thinking: "It's good. Now I have Captain Qiu Jin to accompany me to do interesting things together. It's very good!"

After hearing this, Song Biao didn't plan to say anything else.

Now he regrets recruiting Shu Xuan to join the art troupe, but since Shu Xuan likes this job very much, he must continue to support her.

Song Biao just hoped that Shu Xuan would not be too involved in it and understand what she wanted and not necessarily care about what others wanted.

Qiu Jin was still waiting at the door of the agency building and sent Shu Xuan to Qiu Jin. Song Biao did not send her further and returned to the office to discuss the third phase of training with Colonel Martos, who was already waiting for him.

Colonel Martos was still as thin as ever, and he still liked to smoke. The smoke filled Song Biao's office.

In the entire Northeastern New Army, Colonel Martos was one of the very few senior officers who did not regard Song Biao as his absolute leader and superior. When he saw Song Biao coming in, he did not need to salute and continued to sit with his legs crossed in front of his desk.

In wooden chair.

He took out a cigarette from the cigarette case in his hand and threw it to Song Biao, saying: "For the sake of safety, I suggest that the entire army continue to maintain the second phase of training."

Song Biao was not in a hurry to speak. He sat at his desk and poured himself a cup of tea. He thought for a moment before replying: "I'm afraid we need a suitable situation."

Colonel Martos said: "It's very simple. We will make the exercise more difficult. This is just a design problem. First, the 2nd Infantry Regiment is one of the few troops with better preservation of strength in the Liaoyang Battle. Yang Tiesheng's 2nd Infantry Regiment

The Sixth Infantry Regiment is well trained, the problem is always with the 3rd, 4th and 5th

Among the infantry regiments, as long as more companies are drawn from these three infantry regiments to participate in the exercise, a lot of problems will be exposed. Objectively speaking, the overall training level of the New Army is more stringent than that of the Russian army as a whole.

It seems to me that there is still a certain practical gap between what you requested."

Song Biao was not in a hurry to make a decision, but continued to ask: "How are the plans for the third period of training going?"

Colonel Martos said: "Jiang Fangzhen is not here, and the coordination between the First and Second Staff Offices is not very smooth. Chen Qicai still needs some time to adapt. It may take another two weeks for the third phase of the training plan to be more complete.

Formulated. Generally speaking, the three-phase training plan itself is relatively complicated."

Song Biao nodded slightly.

The four-phase training method was Song Biao's initial response to the basic fact that the number of soldiers in the army was poor. The one-year comprehensive training of soldiers was divided into four phases, namely, the recruit period, the strengthening period, the improvement period, and the excellence period.

, with the accelerated pace of regularization of the Northeast New Army, a series of improvements were made taking into account the special requirements of different development stages. It is currently renamed the "Recruit Period, Improvement Period, Strengthening Period, and Excellent Period."

Among the four phases of training currently implemented, the first recruit period first conducts queue training and firearms skills training, gradually adjusts and improves the physical fitness of the soldiers, and implements tactical movement and tactical execution training. After the three-month recruit period,

Improvement period.

Previously, according to regulations, the cultural class training of the new army was only started in the third period, but now it is carried out in the second period. During the training, each company was strictly required to popularize the cultural class tutoring education, and each company set up two different classes according to the literacy level.

For cultural tutoring classes, each company is guaranteed to have at least five cultural soldiers as counselors.

In addition to the requirements for cultural courses, the second phase of basic training requires all soldiers to be proficient in 22 rules in the "Soldier Combat Basic Manual", and further emphasizes tactical actions and tactical execution training on the basis of the recruit phase.

The third period is an intensive period of training. In this period, more rigorous skill training and tactical training are emphasized, and more physical fitness and fighting will are emphasized, including new army boxing, rifle and bayonet fighting, and five-kilometer load-bearing cross-country.

, sixty-kilometer emergency march, etc. must reach a higher level, and combat exercises must be more rigorous. Combat training and exercises must be increased to enhance combat capabilities.

The fourth phase emphasizes actual combat exercises and combat experience at a higher level and on a larger scale, emphasizes tactical execution and command capabilities, and conducts rigorous scout and field combat training, including adaptation in various environments such as snow, mountains, and deserts.

Training includes drills for a variety of combat capabilities, such as training for fortification, transportation, ambush, reconnaissance and other tasks.

Like the previous fourth phase of training, after completing the excellent phase of training, some of the soldiers with the best performance will be transferred to serve as squad leaders, or transferred to scouts, field troops, or directly recommended to the Far East Army Corps.

Non-commissioned officers are given crash course training to serve as deputy platoon commanders and other positions. After a period of inspection, this group of grassroots non-commissioned officers will be sent to the Far East to participate in long-term training courses in order to serve as platoon commanders and company commanders.

Prepare for the job.

The second-phase training period of the Northeastern New Army lasted for six months, which was twice as long as expected. This was because when the current training plan was initially formulated, it was considered that the army would continue to expand, and the headquarters doubled to 60,000.

people, the Russian military headquarters will continue to shrink from 40,000 people to 25,000 people at the same time.

Considering the various problems brought about by this drastic change, Song Biao deliberately set up a longer-term second-phase training period from the beginning in order to keep the entire army in sync, and at the same time transferred cultural classes to the second-phase training.

Within six months, we will ensure that all soldiers in the army have a basic understanding of 300 regular characters and can memorize military regulations and disciplines and the 22 basic principles of soldier combat.

Military training is a very simple thing to say, but there are many things that need to be paid attention to in the actual implementation process, even down to the details of how many sets of soldiers' uniforms should be equipped, how to change and clean them, arrangements for off-site drills, and changing training venues for several weeks.

Obstacle setting. Adjustment of more than 30 detailed subjects in physical training and improvement of specific requirements.

Colonel Martos talked a lot with Song Biao. Generally speaking, he was not very satisfied with the second phase of the new army's training.

He raised a question with Song Biao. In October, he randomly selected 100 soldiers from Chen Wu's Third Infantry Regiment to assess their memorization of the "Basic Soldiers' Combat Manual". No actual investigation was conducted to respond.

, being able to recite it once is a passing grade, and being able to write it silently once is a perfect score.

As a result, 70% of the soldiers could not recite it all, and only 14 soldiers could write it down from memory. Many soldiers' 22 items were not in the correct order.

Colonel Martos actually devoted all his efforts to this new Northeastern Army, so he was very dissatisfied. However, he was not the supreme commander of the New Northeastern Army. Everyone respected him, but he was not taken too seriously.

Something happened.

Colonel Martos called Chen Wu over and criticized him. As a result, the two sides were very unhappy.

Talking about this matter, Colonel Martos suggested to Song Biao calmly: "General, I am not here to stir up trouble or take advantage of the opportunity to retaliate, but I really think that the entire army has not met your requirements. To be honest.

, the Russian Military Department cannot meet your requirements. The entire army of the Russian Empire cannot meet such requirements, but the Russian Military Department

After all, it is not your direct unit, and it may be transferred in the future. From the worst perspective, the Russian Army relies on its large number of people and the toughness of its race to win. In previous wars, it relies on its large number of people and the fear of death to attack the opponent.

It's different here. There are only so many troops at present. If we don't take the road of elite soldiers, there will be no future at all."

Song Biao nodded silently. He thought very carefully for a long time, and finally said to Colonel Martos: "After this exercise is over, you will draw 300 soldiers from each regiment and randomly draw them from the roster.

Come out and re-assess your dictation of "Soldiers Combat"

"Basic Manual", my requirement is that 100% of the standards must be met. If any regiment fails to meet the standards, that regiment will continue to repeat the second phase of training for one month. If the regiment fails to pass the repeated training twice, the regiment leader will resign and either go to the Army for further training or become a recruit.

The commander of the battalion.”

Colonel Martos agreed: "Yes, it should be so strict. Oh, by the way, I remembered another thing. I received news from the Russian Army Ministry that the Russian army imported a batch of 7.62mm caliber from Denmark

The Madsen machine gun uses Nagant rifle ammunition. This machine gun weighs only 9.5 kilograms and is very suitable for use in squad-level combat troops. I have calculated that as long as two soldiers are added to each squad, one will serve as a machine gunner, and the other will serve as a machine gunner.

one negative

Responsible for transporting ammunition, other soldiers can fully utilize the value of this light machine gun by fully combining the redundant labor force. Although it is impossible for every squad to install one, if it can be installed on a large area, the combat effectiveness of the army will definitely be

It will be greatly improved and the combat method will be more comprehensive. This kind of machine gun has been installed in Russia for some time and has been proven to be very reliable. The Ministry of War has even planned to introduce a production license for mass production."

Song Biao nodded in approval cautiously and said: "We can definitely buy more. If the price is right, we will buy three thousand first. It is best to introduce the license at the same time to see if we can use it in our joint venture with DWM Company.

Production."

Colonel Martos said: "There should be no problem. Our current adjustments to the new army's equipment are mainly towards higher mobility and stronger firepower. As mortars are gradually transferred to the platoon and company levels,

, the Madsen machine gun should also be properly equipped at the platoon level, and the Maxim heavy machine gun needs to be equipped at the company level."

Song Biao was thinking about these things in his mind, because the Northeast New Army focused particularly on mobility, and in the current environment, the mobility characteristics and firepower of the troops are always a contradictory standard. Mortars and machine guns require a large amount of ammunition, and they need a lot of ammunition at high speeds.

During the transfer process, a large amount of ammunition requires a lot of manpower and horsepower to transport.

Therefore, the Northeast New Army currently has very high requirements for high-quality draft horses, and the demand is also very large. According to the plan of the entire Northeast New Army, each infantry regiment has a baggage battalion with a standard configuration of 1,850 men and 1,175 draft horses.

, the higher the level of draft horses, the stronger the transportation capacity of the entire baggage battalion. Each infantry battalion also has a baggage company, with a standard configuration of 580 men and 385 draft horses.

During the entire World War II, the German Army recruited a total of 1.21 million military horses, 95% of which were used to transport supplies. The Soviet Union mobilized twice as many military horses as Germany during the entire World War II. This had a negative impact on the agricultural production of the Soviet Union, Germany and the entire Eurasian.

This has had extremely serious negative effects, which is different from the Soviet-German steel torrent in our impression. The historical truth usually surprises people.

Song Biao didn't know much about cavalry. But he was still very clear about this number. For a country as big as China, the foundation of the machinery industry is weak. The foundation of the oil industry is even weaker. If there are not enough good and enough draft horses, for China

For the Army, it was an extremely terrifying shadow and fatal flaw for fifty years.

Therefore, Song Biao now attaches great importance to the cultivation of draft horses, especially the cultivation of medium to heavy-duty excellent military horses that can be used both for drafting and riding.

Of course, the Northeast New Army is not short of horses at present. During the large-scale retreat, the Russian army gave about 300,000 horses to Song Biao at a low price, because it would be a big problem for Russia to transport these horses back by railway.

There were also a large number of horses abandoned by the Japanese army when they retreated from Jinzhou and captured during the war.

Even if this is the case, considering the large consumption rate of materials in war, especially in high-speed mobile operations, when a large number of lightly armed troops march in an assault and quickly intersperse the enemy's lines, the help that the baggage troops can provide is very limited.

of.

How to ensure the balance between the firepower and mobility of the troops under such limited circumstances determines the characteristics and style of an army.

Looking back at the impact of military thinking on the army, what Song Biao and the Northeastern New Army chose was Suvorov's idea of ​​"maneuver, speed, and fierce attack," which is often said to "quickly concentrate superior forces in key areas to annihilate the enemy."

army main force

", always requires a faster assault than the enemy. When the enemy cannot react in time, suddenly surround the enemy with a large number of superior forces, encircle and annihilate the opponent's main force with several times the force advantage, and eliminate the opponent's key forces, occupying the enemy's

key position.

This special military thought that is completely different from the entire European military theory will inevitably make the Northeast New Army focus more on flexibility, portability, and convenience in supplying equipment. For example, mortars, light machine guns, and infantry guns,

When it comes to the choice of heavy machine guns, the Northeastern New Army will focus more on mortars and light machine guns. Heavy machine guns must be equipped, but infantry artillery is basically not required.

If you have to choose between mortars and light machine guns, it must be to choose more and more popular light machine guns. Of course, the conflict between the two is not great, because the Northeast New Army is currently mainly at the infantry platoon level.
To be continued...