My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

I smiled and said to him: "Yousheng, what are you doing? I was just kidding you!"

"I am not going to disband the cavalry division, but I am going to reorganize the cavalry division."

Upon hearing this, Sun Yousheng's expression changed drastically, and he grinned foolishly, "I knew that you, Commander, would not disband the Cavalry Division for no reason."

"But what do you mean by reorganization? Do you mean to reorganize into infantry?"

Seeing that he changed his attitude faster than turning the pages of a book, Jiang Li clenched his fist and hit him lightly on the shoulder, then turned around and sat back in his seat.

But he now had more than a thousand pounds of strength, and even though it was a light punch, it hurt Sun Yousheng so much that he gritted his teeth.

But Jiang Li ignored him and started explaining on his own.

"You've heard the speeches of those foreign teachers. Today's wars are gradually shifting towards mechanization, with tanks being the most important."

"So I plan to use trucks and tanks instead of horses to form a new cavalry division. This will not only make the cavalry division more mobile, but also carry more heavy firepower, greatly enhancing the combat effectiveness of the cavalry division!"

Sun Yousheng jumped up with joy when he heard this. As a division-level general, how could he not have seen a tank? He knew too well how powerful that thing was.

Now that Jiang Li said that he wanted to rebuild the cavalry division based on tanks, he was naturally very happy. As for the trucks that Jiang Li mentioned before, he simply filtered them out.

So he immediately asked Jiang Li with a smile, "Hey, commander, how many tanks do you plan to give us?"

"I don't want more. Our division has nearly 20,000 people. Only 3,000 to 5,000 will be enough. When the time comes..."

"fart!"

"You think tanks are cabbages, and you still have 3,000 to 5,000 of them? Let me tell you, now all our tanks have to be imported, and there are only 62 in total, so behind each tank, there must be at least a platoon of infantry."

"Most of the remaining soldiers will need to take trucks. When there are more tanks in the future, I will slowly replenish them for you!"

When Sun Yousheng heard that there were only 62 tanks, he immediately hung his head and said, "Commander, you are just making empty promises to me!"

"We eliminated 30,000 or 40,000 war horses and replaced them with 60 tanks. This is like throwing away the watermelon for the sesame seeds. What a loss!"

Jiang Li was angry when he heard this and said, "Don't talk nonsense to me. Others don't know, but you don't know?"

"Right now your cavalry division is in the most awkward situation. It consumes the most resources and participates in the least battles. It cannot fight mountain battles or siege battles."

"In a real fight, we don't have an absolute advantage against the same number of infantrymen. We can only rely on mobility to assist and gain some combat exploits!"

"Now is the perfect time to make a complete change, shock everyone and make you look good. You still dare to complain here, it makes you look bad!"

Sun Yousheng knew very well the current situation of their cavalry division. Because they had to ride horses, they could only carry special carbines, and the price of doing so was that their firepower was greatly weakened.

They had no way of fighting against an infantry unit equipped with a certain number of heavy machine guns, and the reason he complained before was because he felt that sixty-two tanks were too few.

Now that Jiang Li had scolded them like that, they finally understood that they should indeed change. After all, they had been bullied too much before.

Because they had never fought any tough battles, they had always been unable to hold their heads up. If it was just because of the type of troops they had, and they did not have suitable combat opportunities in mountainous areas such as Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan, it would be understandable.

But the most crucial thing is that their cavalry division consumes the most supplies among all troops of the same level.

It’s not that their food treatment is the best, but because they have 38,000 horses, their food and fodder alone are several times more than other troops.

People alone can't eat much, but war horses are not like cattle and sheep raised on the grassland that can survive by just eating grass.

In addition to the more than ten kilograms of grass they eat every day, they also need to eat ten kilograms of coarse grains, otherwise they will not be able to support their daily strenuous exercise.

And this is exactly the reason why Jiang Li decided to eliminate these war horses even when there were not enough tanks, because he really couldn't afford to keep them!

However, he never thought of killing these horses directly and eating their meat.

Instead, they were divided into several groups, and some of them could be left behind as messengers. Although his army now has quite comprehensive wireless and telephone coverage, cavalry would still be used to deliver messages in some special circumstances.

In addition, since there are many mountains in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan, some war horses can be allocated to patrol soldiers to patrol the border.

In addition, he also planned to leave a small number of cavalry in case of emergency. After his consideration, he finally left a cavalry reinforcement regiment with 1,500 people and 3,500 horses.

The last part is the conversion from military use to agricultural use. Some are sent to various farms as stud horses, raised for breeding and eating meat, and their blood is extracted to cultivate blood mushrooms. The rest are handed over to various ranches and forestry farms for agricultural production.

But these horses are basically not handed over to farmers. After all, these horses have an astonishing appetite and farmers may not be able to afford to raise them.

The most important thing is that these are military horses. If we encounter special circumstances in the future, we may have to recall these horses. If they are scattered among farmers, it will be difficult to get them back.

After Jiang Li considered the issue of whether to keep or go with these horses, he began to formally reorganize the cavalry division.

When it comes to reorganizing the cavalry division, the first thing to do is naturally to select 1,500 of the best soldiers and more than 3,000 of the best war horses, and retain the cavalry artillery battalion and machine gun company.

In order to strengthen their firepower, Jiang Li even expanded the machine gun company into a machine gun battalion, directly increasing the number of people and machine guns by three times.

As for the 500 extra war horses he deliberately left behind, they were prepared for transporting cannons, heavy machine guns, as well as guns and ammunition.

The personnel and horses of the cavalry regiment were selected, and the remaining 13,000 soldiers were reorganized into the first mechanized unit under Jiang Li, and it was still named the First Cavalry Division.

Jiang Li allocated all 62 tanks and 500 trucks to this division.

Afterwards, a lot of heavy artillery and machine guns were allocated, and then they were asked to follow the German instructor, Heinrich Schmidt, to start practicing infantry-tank coordination.

Of course, infantry-tank coordination is still in the exploratory stage during this period, and they are making progress while exploring.

But this army, both soldiers and instructors, are veterans with rich combat experience, so the speed of progress is quite fast.

Of course, in addition to the coordinated operations between infantry and tanks, the soldiers of the cavalry division also have to practice how to use trucks for rapid maneuvers.

And practice how to respond and deploy quickly when attacked, and use vehicles as cover for defense.