Xia Bohai and Qin Zheng had no objection to the combat plan formulated by Xiao Jianjun, because the basic tactics had been decided long ago, and now they are only refined and supplemented. Among the three, Xiao Jianjun originally preferred to study tactics. After more than half a year of battle, Xiao Jianjun accumulated a lot of practical experience, so the combat plan he has formulated now is completely reassuring.

The three of them mainly discussed the number of troops, because according to Xiao Jianjun's plan, four regiments will be invested on the front line of Shanhaiguan, and 2-3 regiments will be stationed in Beijing, and one regiment will be needed for each regiment to be stationed. In addition, one regiment emergency should be considered. Therefore, this requires 8-10 combat regiments, which greatly exceeds the original military plan. In addition, with the restoration of salvage warships, the navy also needs to expand its troops. After all, there are still a large number of warships waiting to be restored. Unlike the 6th Army, a qualified naval crew needs much more training time than the 6th Army.

Xia Bohai believed that the 6th Army should be expanded to 12 regiments, with combat forces reaching 35,000 to 40,000, and the navy should also expand according to the warships to be repaired. Because from this Russian advance south, history has changed due to the intervention of time travelers, so the history of the old time and space can no longer be used as the basis for the decision-making of the time travel group. In order to deal with unexpected events similar to the Russian advance south, it is necessary to leave a certain amount of room for the time travel group. Moreover, the next goal of the time travel group is to occupy Shandong in an all-round way, which also requires sufficient troops to implement it. In addition, after capturing Beijing, the time traveler has obtained huge wealth and the money problem has been basically solved, so the biggest obstacle to expanding the army will no longer exist.

Xiao Jianjun naturally agreed with Xia Bohai's plan to expand the army. The more troops, the better. However, Qin Zheng considered it a little more and said: "Even if we can afford the cost of expanding the army financially, can the current population base of the area we control support us to expand the army to 12 regiments? You should know that the 6th Army has expanded, the navy will also be expanded, and the combat troops have expanded, and the support and auxiliary troops will also be increased. In this way, the size of the army will reach 70,000-80,000, while we are currently in Tianjin and Shandong controlled areas, the population is less than 10,000. Such a large army has passed the upper limit that our population size can afford."

Xia Bohai smiled and said, "Old Qin, you haven't counted Beijing yet. Isn't Beijing also under our control now? Moreover, the population in Beijing is not 10,000, or 80,000. In addition, the population around Beijing, so the number of people under our control now must exceed 20,000. Judging from this base, recruiting 780,000 troops is not too high."

Qin Zheng said: "But our initial plan was to temporarily occupy Beijing. Sooner or later, we would return Beijing to the Qing court. Our real goal is Shandong. Is it difficult for you to correct this plan?"

Xia Bohai shook his head and said, "Of course not. If our current power is to occupy Beijing for a long time, it is completely seeking death. This has not changed. But people cannot be too rigid. Before returning Beijing to Qingting, it is ours. Therefore, we can of course recruit soldiers in Beijing, and the focus of our expansion in the next stage is on the Beijing area. First, the Beijing area has a sufficient population base; secondly, we have just recovered Beijing from the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the living conditions of residents must be less than there. This is a great opportunity for us to recruit soldiers in Beijing; and the scale of Beijing area is too large and requires a large number of troops to be stationed in Beijing. You can train new recruits while using new recruits to strengthen Beijing's escorts. This is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone."

Qin Zheng said: "But what should we do after we hand over Beijing to the Qing court? These newly recruited soldiers are all from Beijing, and their families are all in Beijing. Will they go with us after we evacuate Beijing? What should they do if they follow us? Have you ever thought about these questions?"

Xia Bohai said: "First, we should strengthen political and ideological education for the new recruits and improve their ideological understanding. We should also have confidence in our ideological transformation ability. When we evacuate from Beijing, we mobilize them to evacuate with us. Of course, our family can take them away and live in Tianjin and Shandong. Of course, if someone really doesn't want to follow us, we will be strong, but I believe most people will still go with us. In addition, after defeating the Russian army, our next goal is to expand in Shandong immediately and expand our territory and population base. In this way, even if Beijing loses a certain amount of soldiers, it can still be made up for it in Shandong."

Qin Zheng thought about it seriously and thought that Xia Bohai made a point, because he just came back from Beijing. Of course, he knew the situation in Beijing. The population in Beijing is at least one million. Due to the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Beijing's economy plummeted. Therefore, the living conditions of most residents are now very poor and they can only avoid having to maintain food and clothing. Once the People's Army recruits soldiers in Beijing, it can indeed recruit most of the soldiers in a short period of time. As long as it can solve the problem of evacuation of the People's Army and take away most of the soldiers, then recruiting soldiers in Beijing is indeed a good way. It seems that Xia Bohai has indeed seriously considered the issue of recruitment.

However, at this time, Xiao Jianjun became a little worried and said, "What if the soldiers who stayed turned to join the Qing army and taught our military secrets and training methods to the Qing army? We and the Qing court will sooner or later be hostile. Isn't this enhancing the strength of the enemy?"

Xia Bohai smiled and said, "Don't worry about this. We won't stay in Beijing for too long. According to my estimate, it will only last for half a year at most. During this period, we can know how many of our military secrets we have. Moreover, the Qing court is a bad government, and even if we learn some training tactics, it will be useless."

Xiao Jianjun said: "I am not talking about ordinary Qing army, but an army like Yuan Shikai's Beiyang New Army. Although the Qing court has been ruined, I honestly want to be honest with you. Yuan Datou's character is still good. However, he does have a good attitude in military management. In this era, the Beiyang New Army is indeed a good army and is less exposed to the bad style of the old army. If Yuan Datou learns our training method, it can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang New Army. If we are enemies with the Qing court in the future, the Beiyang New Army will definitely be our main opponent."

Xia Bohai shook his head and said, "There is nothing mysterious about our training methods. The way Old Yuan trained the Beiyang New Army was mainly to learn from Germany. In this era, it can be regarded as one of the most advanced training methods. However, our biggest advantage is not the training methods, but our political education. This is impossible for both the Qing court and the Old Yuan. The Qing court estimated that the Beiyang New Army was basically the private army of the Old Yuan. Old Yuan could only control the army with the feudal idea of ​​loyalty and righteousness, which was not on the same level as our political education."

Qin Zheng said again: "Okay, even if the problem of military source can be solved, how can the weapons of the newly built army be solved? The weapons we seized are only enough to assemble 6-7 regiments, and the production capacity of Qingdao Arsenal is limited now. Is it difficult to let the newly built army use spears and long swords?"

Xia Bohai smiled and said, "This depends on your ability."

Qin Zheng was stunned for a moment and smiled and said, "What's the matter with me?"

Xia Bohai said: "Li Sanjie has already reported from Shanghai. Zhang Zhidong has officially invited us, hoping that we can send important personnel to visit Wuchang and negotiate with him in person about related matters, including purchasing weapons. On our side, the only one who can do this is Lao Qin. Therefore, although this trip to Wuchang requires some risks, you can only go there in person."

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "There is nothing to do. If you are afraid of risks in doing things, you don't have to do anything. I am willing to go there, but I can't guarantee that Zhang Zhidong will definitely sell us weapons."

Xia Bohai said: "We should do our best to do our best in this matter. We just try our best to fight for it. If we really can't agree, don't avoid being strong. Let the Qingdao Arsenal produce slowly. As long as we gather all the people first and then we can immediately form combat power after all the weapons are produced."

Qin Zheng is indeed the most suitable candidate for visiting Wuchang among the Time Travel Group, because he is one of the top leaders of the Time Travel Group, which shows that the Time Travel Group attaches great importance to this visit to Wuchang and Zhang Zhidong. Moreover, Qin Zheng is familiar with history and has a considerable understanding of Zhang Zhidong. Therefore, he went to Wuchang and persuaded Zhang Zhidong to sell weapons to the Time Travel Group.

However, visiting Hubei does have considerable risks. This is mainly because the time travel group has basically no influence on Hubei and has no ability to restrict Zhang Zhidong. This is very different from the last Shanghai negotiation, because the Shanghai negotiations are the consulates of various countries in Shanghai, and there are also consulates of various countries in Tianjin. In a sense, it is equivalent to the time travel group holding a large number of hostages in the hands of the time travel group. Moreover, Shanghai is a city in Linhai. Once Shanghai is not good for the negotiators of the time travel group, the time travel group can dispatch the navy to conduct force shooting of Shanghai within 24 hours, and can also take off helicopters from warships, conduct raids and rescue the negotiators. These conditions are not ready for Wuchang. It can be said that once Zhang Zhidong turns against Qin Zheng and detains Qin Zheng, even if the time travel group immediately sends special forces to rescue, it will take at least 72 hours.

However, Qin Zheng didn't take these risks very seriously. First, from historical materials, although Zhang Zhidong is a noble person and a bit foolish, he is still upright and upright. Moreover, the Time Travel Group is now a force that cannot be ignored in China and has established considerable reputation. If Zhang Zhidong and Time Travel Group turn against each other, the Time Travel Group will not be able to form any help to Zhang Zhidong in a short period of time, but in the long run, Zhang Zhidong has established a powerful enemy for himself. This is indeed not a clear decision. With Zhang Zhidong's shrewdness, he would never do such a thing.

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Due to work reasons recently, the update of this book is unstable. I apologize to all the book friends in this book. However, this is also a matter of no choice. I am too busy recently because the company has connected several large orders, either completed before the New Year or New Year's Eve project, which has caused the author's writing time to be compressed rapidly. Since New Year's Day, the author has not had a rest. He worked overtime continuously until 9 pm on the 18th and 19th, and there is really no way to guarantee the update.

Although the author now relies on his interest to write the book, he will still insist on writing this book. Now he can only hope to save more manuscripts during the New Year holiday and try his best to ensure updates at the beginning of the year.

Thanks to the book friend for the red envelope during the suspension
Chapter completed!