1890 King of Southeast Asia

"What's wrong? Wasn't everything fine during the afternoon battle?" It was late at night. Huang Zhengfang walked into a temporary hospital converted from a mud-brick house and asked Zheng Shangqing, who was lying on the bed.

Before the battle started in the morning, Huang Zhengfang suddenly received a telegram from the military headquarters, asking him to receive a batch of weapons and equipment, as well as a batch of personnel supplies.

Huang Zhengfang was confused when he received the news. The 9th Brigade had already been replenished, and the battle had just begun. Except for some non-combat casualties, the organization was complete, and the weapons and ammunition were sufficient. What supplies?

Huang Zhengfang, who thought he had made a mistake, even counted the situation of the 9th Brigade. Then he sent a telegram to the headquarters of the 3rd Army, saying that they had made a mistake and the 9th Brigade did not need replenishment.

This is very serious. Each batch of replenishment has its needs. Maybe this batch of replenishment is for a brigade with heavy combat losses. If the 9th Brigade takes it, it will not improve its combat effectiveness, and the brigade with heavy losses will not be able to restore its combat effectiveness.

Huang Zhengfang kindly reminded him, but he was just told to go. He sent a telegram to the division headquarters, and the division commander told him to go directly.

Huang Zhengfang thought about it. There was only one regiment on the other side, and the Ottoman regiment was smaller and less equipped. The 9th Brigade would not encounter any accidents, so he set off for the military headquarters.

"Brigade commander, you are back? Didn't you say you would be back in two days?" Zheng Shangqing's lips bulged slightly, and his words were a little strange.

"I heard that you were in the hospital, and the procedures there are complete. Just let them catch up slowly. I came back first."

"What's wrong with your mouth? Your voice is weird." Huang Zhengfang poured a cup of boiling water from a thermos, sat down and drank it.

"Don't mention it. I picked a thorn from a bush and used it to pick my teeth. It pierced my gums and caused an infection. I now suspect that the thorn is poisonous."

"I started to have a fever in the afternoon. The doctor gave me anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs, and fed me detoxification soup. Now I feel better." Zheng Shangqing was very amused when he said this.

(The detoxification soup is not the fantasy soup, but the ordinary detoxification soup, like the lung-clearing detoxification soup. I don't know what it is, just think about it yourself.)

"We are not familiar with this place after all. We should try not to move those unfamiliar flowers and plants... Forget it, you know it too." Huang Zhengfang said halfway and stopped preaching.

"What's the situation?" Huang Zhengfang put down the water cup, took out a cigarette, and then put it back.

"Give it to me, while the doctor is asleep, give me one." Zheng Shangqing saw the cigarette box, just like seeing a relative.

During the war, there were very few soldiers who didn't smoke. Soldiers are also human beings, and they will also have pressure. Especially in the war, people kept dying and there were corpses everywhere, which would be very stressful.

Huang Zhengfang was once a good boy who didn't smoke or drink. Even when the environment on the grassland was very difficult, he still didn't smoke and drank less.

However, with the transfer to the 3rd Division and entering the Arab battle, he didn't drink much alcohol, but he couldn't smoke less every day. There are many people like him.

"The hospital regulations say that you can't smoke. Don't think about it. Wait until you get better." Huang Zhengfang refused without hesitation.

"Alas~~ What did you do at the military headquarters? Our brigade has a total of more than 30 casualties and more than 20 injured. They are all lightly injured. We will be able to continue fighting after a while. What can you add?" Zheng Shangqing half-lying on the bed, his eyes lost.

"Our number is going to change. This time I went to the military headquarters to deal with this matter." Huang Zhengfang crossed his fingers, with a hint of surprise and a hint of embarrassment in his expression.

"Number? What does it mean?" Zheng Shangqing stared at him with wide eyes, and changed from half lying to sitting.

"The number of the 9th Brigade will be changed to the 10th Mixed Brigade, and the battle sequence will be transferred from the 3rd Division Headquarters to the 3rd Army Headquarters."

"Don't worry, there's more. This time when we went to the military headquarters, the military headquarters supplemented us with 1,500 technical soldiers, 1,000 vehicles of various types, 12 105mm cannons, 108 light machine guns, 36 heavy machine guns, and various combat supplies such as radio stations."

"In addition, there are 1,200 combat or logistics personnel. With this, the number of our brigade is close to 10,000, and we also have a 36-gun artillery regiment equipped with division-level artillery."

"The two infantry regiments need to be restructured and optimized, and some departments need to be concentrated in the brigade headquarters. The specific restructuring plan is in the document."

Huang Zhengfang then remembered to show the document directly to Zheng Shangqing.

"In this way, our brigade will have 60 towed artillery pieces. Although the firepower is weaker than that of a division, it can chase two Ottoman divisions."

"The distribution of power is more reasonable, so this reorganization makes sense."

Zheng Shangqing took a rough look at the documents, mainly focusing on the establishment of the 9th Brigade after the reorganization, or the 10th Mixed Brigade after the reorganization.

The fully staffed 10th Independent Mixed Brigade has more than 9,000 people, and the establishment of the two regiments has been reduced. Some logistics units have been placed in the brigade, with a total of 2,800 people.

The brigade headquarters has been expanded, the brigade staff has been doubled, and the direct subordinate units have increased significantly. After all, the brigade headquarters used to be directly under the command of only a few companies, and there was no artillery or other fire support arms.

"I inquired about it, and 4 brigades were selected for the reorganization of this batch of mixed brigades, one each from the 3rd and 5th Divisions, and one from the 14th Division and the 22nd Division." Huang Zhengfang nodded and agreed with Zheng Shangqing's statement.

After all, the beginning of this battle was that a regiment, with the support of the air force and divisional artillery, broke through two lines of defense at once, and then held on to form a situation of catching turtles in a jar.

Although the regiment suffered heavy casualties, it did not kill 5,000 people along the way, but killed 4,800 people, which means that there were too many enemies. If there was only one division, it would have been defeated long ago.

"This is a pilot project. The two brigades and four regiments in Europe are being changed to three regiments, and the regiment size is also shrinking. This is not without reason."

"At least here, in Arabia, in the Ottoman Empire, small-scale troops with divisional firepower support can deal with the Ottomans more flexibly."

"If all divisions are reorganized in this way, three divisions can have one more division, and the divisions against the Ottomans still have overwhelming firepower, but the requirements for equipment will be much higher."

After a pause, Zheng Shangqing said again,

"Especially vehicles."

The overall personnel are reduced. To supplement combat effectiveness, the quality and quantity of equipment must be improved, otherwise the damage to combat effectiveness will be too great.

In this way, improving the firepower of individual soldiers and increasing the number of heavy equipment have become the fastest channels to improve combat effectiveness. The increase of machine guns and artillery will increase the logistical burden, so the logistical support capacity must be increased.

In this way, the army's sustained combat capability can be guaranteed, and the mobility and flexibility of the troops can be improved.

However, large organization is not without benefits. It can also increase the firepower of large-organized divisions and burst out powerful combat effectiveness, just like the United States, with 28,000 combat personnel in a division and about 40,000 logistical support.

How can such a division not crush the German infantry division that has already run out of fuel?

However, doing so is a great waste of manpower. The United States has no choice but to do so. Their 6th Army can only see the combat effectiveness of 4th-level soldiers.

"Also, your and my military ranks will be promoted to major general. The documents will be issued after the peripheral operations are over, and then we will start to reorganize."

"The war is imminent, and the General Staff will not give us too much time to reorganize. There are at least eleven divisions on the other side around Ain Tab." Huang Zhengfang said worriedly, and the excitement brought by the promotion was also washed away.

It can be seen from the fact that the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade was directly derived from the 9th Brigade instead of drawing veterans from various units and adding new recruits to reorganize. The higher-ups hope that the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade can be quickly reorganized and immediately put into battle.

The battle is still going on, and Huang Zhengfang can understand it, but he is still unsure in his heart. He doesn't know what the future mission of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade will be, and whether it can be completed well.

"There must be a process. We won't be asked to attack an army directly. Do you mean that we will start to reorganize after the peripheral battle is over?" Zheng Shangqing saw Huang Zhengfang's worry and deliberately made a joke to ease the atmosphere.

"The commander said that we should first clear out the enemies outside the city, and then attack to eliminate the worries. It will take about half a month." Huang Zhengfang nodded.

They have taken a position in this direction, but this is taking advantage of the Ottomans' lack of preparation and the road is unobstructed. Ain Tab has more than one position outside the city. There are troops in the south, east and north.

The two armies are deployed, and the battle line is hundreds of kilometers long. They have only made a breakthrough here. They can attack directly, but if the periphery is not cleared, when the street fighting reaches a critical moment, anything is possible.

As more and more Ottoman defeated soldiers run back, the Ottoman troops in other directions will surely prepare for war quickly, and they need to fight one by one.

"The artillery battalion has been set up... It turns out that before we set out, the higher-ups decided that we would be the pilot to accept the reorganization, otherwise it would be unreasonable for the division commander to directly give us half of his belongings."

"One division and two brigades, take away half of the division's artillery regiment, one person and one and a half, you say, the 3rd Division will not be split, right?" Zheng Shangqing asked.

"It shouldn't be. After all, they are old troops, and they have made outstanding achievements and never made mistakes. What did you just say?" Huang Zhengfang stood up and saw some cherries and oranges in the pocket at the head of the bed. They were washed and he took them and ate them.

"I bought them from the locals. I don't know if they are poisonous." Zheng Shangqing turned his head away and said deliberately.

"The artillery has set up the cannons on the high ground. Starting tomorrow, we can bombard the eastern part of Ain Tab. We need to reorganize. Do we still need to fire?" Zheng Shangqing asked again.

"Fight, just treat it as adaptive training." Huang Zhengzheng took out the handkerchief given by his sister and wiped his mouth.

"Okay, ask the Air Force to conduct reconnaissance tomorrow, and then we can start bombarding." Zheng Shangqing nodded and yawned.

"Okay, I just came to see what's wrong with you. Since you are fine, I will go back first. I have been traveling all day and I am also very tired." Huang Zhengfang saw this and packed up the documents.

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