The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 660 Concerns and Organizational Reform

Something might happen to Hu Dianjia, which obviously surprised Ye Zugui.

In addition to being shocked, Ye Zugui spoke out in response to Teng Yuzao's reminder.

"The Fujian fleet has been taken over by the imperial court and has now been reorganized into a river defense fleet. The Nanyang Fleet is very close to the British base in Hong Kong and has never been very obedient to our management. We probably can't count on them this time. It's only a matter of time before they obey the imperial court."

Ye Zugui then said confidently, "Marshal, the navy in Beiyang is still trustworthy. Most of them are veterans of our Beiyang. There will be no problem with those captains, but..."

Seeing that Teng Yuzhao still looked somewhat worried, Ye Zugui suddenly felt something in his heart. He stopped talking before he finished speaking, and then asked hesitantly.

"Marshal, are you worried about Ding Ming?"

Although Sa Zhenbing's ancestral home was in Shanxi, his family had moved to Fujian long ago. He himself was a Fujianese and graduated from the Fujian Naval Academy. He was very prestigious among the Fujianese in the North and South Ocean Fleets. If anyone could mobilize some naval ships and leave the navy to join the court, only he and a few other people like Sa Zhenbing could do it.

He almost died of heart disease, but Teng Yuzhao spent a lot of money to invite famous doctors to treat him. He even took out a secret recipe for treating heart disease and put a lot of thought into his matter.

Teng Yuzhao's secret recipe is extremely effective. The medicine made based on it has now been sold to the West and has also been patented.

According to the doctor who was invited, if his heart disease was not discovered and treated in time, he might die at any time.

Ye Zugui was naturally extremely grateful to Teng Yuzhao for saving his life, and he would never leave Teng Yuzhao.

If it's not him, then the most likely person who has this ability is Sa Zhenbing.

Although Ye Zugui was still having wild thoughts, Teng Yuzhao was very clear in his mind.

He knew that in history, he had led the fleet to bombard the three towns of Wuhan during the Xinhai Revolution, rejected Li Yuanhong's recruitment, and refused to support the revolutionary army. Finally, under pressure from the captains he had accepted, he left the fleet on the grounds of illness, and refused to fire at the Beiyang Army commanded by Feng Guozhang, who represented the court at that time.

Teng Yuzao couldn't say all of this at this moment. He hoped that his appearance would bring about a change in Sa Zhenbing.

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "Tong Hou doesn't need to filter. We can't stop those who want to leave, and we can't drive away those who don't want to leave. But you must keep an eye on our fleet."

Not wanting to mention anything about Hu Dianjia or even Sa Zhenbing, Teng Yuzhao was still very confident in his troops.

You can leave if you want to, after all, we have shared hardships together, but he will never allow you to take his soldiers and his warships with you.

Teng Yuzhao took a deep breath, tried to drive away the unhappiness in his heart, and began to think about the issue of troop organization raised by Wei Jinghai.

Teng Yuzhao has thought about the problem of the oversized troop establishment more than once. The establishment of each level of the current Zhi army is far beyond the normal level.

For example, the squads of several main towns have a strength close to that of two platoons, which makes battlefield command by officers at all levels extremely difficult. In the current situation where there is a lack of communication means and orders can only be conveyed by shouting, it is a particular headache for the commanders of the troops.

In order to solve this problem, Teng Yuzao had to set up three to five deputy positions under the chief officers at all levels. In normal times, the deputy officers at each level actually had to bear the responsibilities of the chief officers.

For example, in a super-large class of thirty to forty or even fifty to sixty people, several deputy squad leaders are equivalent to squad leaders in a normal organization. At this time, the squad leader, according to the normal organization, actually assumes the responsibilities of a platoon leader. He is actually commanding a platoon, and a reinforced platoon at that.

Even so, the problem could not be completely solved, because the troops commanded by this squad leader far exceeded the normal organization. Even in several main towns, the troops commanded by the squad leader had reached the size of half a company.

According to the experience of the great powers, it is difficult for officers above the platoon level to take into account the situation of all his troops during combat. This is even more so in complex terrain. A platoon of more than 30 people is already the limit of what a platoon leader can command.

Therefore, the compilation issue must be resolved as early as possible.

Without waiting for Ye Zugui, who looked doubtful, to speak, Teng Yuzao turned to Wei Jinghai and said.

"Ningbo, you are right about the staffing issue. Not only the towns you mentioned, but also the third and sixth towns have more than 50,000 soldiers. In the past, the Army Department would not increase our staffing, and we had no choice, so the staffing at all levels was far exceeded."

"An oversized organization will cause inconvenience in command. This problem should have been solved long ago. Now that our Zhi Army has changed its name to the National Defense Army, whether to change the organization, including expansion or reduction, is up to us. We don't need Tieliang's consent."

"It's just that this matter is not urgent for the time being. You can draw up a plan as soon as possible. After several provinces are stabilized, it won't be too late to consider adjusting the staffing."

Teng Yuzao thought for a moment and said, "Let me tell you my thoughts, and you can modify and supplement them with details."

"What I mean is that we should not follow the example of the great powers and set up army-level organizations on the division level. The great powers' division-level organizations only have 14,000 to 18,000 troops, which I think is a bit small."

"Therefore, we should organize our divisions in accordance with the Japanese divisions. The strength of the Japanese divisions is not uniform, usually ranging from 20,000 to 28,000. I think our division should be organized at 24,000."

"In this way, when one of our divisions faces any division of the Japanese, the difference in strength will be not much, and we will not suffer a loss in terms of strength. If we take into account our firepower and equipment advantages, we may even have the upper hand."

Then, Teng Yuzao thought of another question and spoke after a moment of silence.

"If we follow this organization, excluding the directly affiliated troops, several main towns can form four division-level organizations. If we set up an army level above the division level, our army will be far larger than the army-level organizations of the great powers, and it will be much larger than the army-level units of the great powers. It is not appropriate to call it an army anymore."

"I think that we should not set up armies above the division level, but change them into group armies. The chief officers of the troops will not be called army commanders, but commanders."

"Our so-called group army does not have an army under it, but is directly a division-level unit. There is no fixed number of divisions under the group army. It can be more or less, six or seven divisions, or two or three divisions. They can all be called a certain group army, which is more convenient to organize."

"When there is a combat defense mission, the army group can dispatch one or several divisions to form a smaller group to carry out the mission according to the enemy's strength, or command the entire army to deploy, and the use of troops is flexible and convenient..."

(End of this chapter)