After staying in Nanyang for a few days, Li Mu came to Singapore again. The aircraft and mechanical equipment he ordered arrived.
Six improved Yin-16s, which just left the factory at the beginning of this year, weigh 3 tons, have a top speed of 580 kilometers per hour, and a combat radius of more than 700 kilometers. They are currently one of the fastest aircraft in the world.
The three latest generation German-made Bf-109 fighter jets are also extremely excellent fighter jets at present. Especially with a combat radius of more than 700 kilometers, they are considered to be one of the longest combat radius fighter jets in this era.
The three British-made Rafale fighter jets, with a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour and a combat radius of nearly 700 kilometers, are also among the best fighter jets in the world.
Twelve fighter jets were received, along with a batch of various machines, machinery, and processing equipment worth more than two million U.S. dollars. With these, a large metal processing factory could be established.
It will be needed for the production of guns, cannons, bullets, and ammunition in the future.
After spending more than 1.5 million US dollars to purchase a batch of steel, gasoline, explosive raw materials, and other military supplies, there was only 20,000 cubic meters of space left.
Li Mu purchased another 8,000 tons of wheat, 5,000 tons of rice, and 3,000 tons of sugar.
Speaking of which, sugar is really not cheap, costing US$185 per ton.
However, in this day and age, sugar is really a good thing.
First, sugar is one of the main sources of nutrition for the human body. It supplements the heat energy and elements needed by the human body. It can be quickly absorbed by the body, and a small amount can supplement a large amount of calories.
In addition, white sugar has high calories, is easy to carry and can be stored, and can be made into compressed biscuits, candies and other foods. It is not only small in size, easy to transport, easy to carry, but also has a long shelf life. In times of war and famine, a small handful of sugar can save a life.
During the war, sugar was also one of the essential supplies for the army.
Second, white sugar can be used as a disinfectant and hemostatic agent when there is a shortage of medicines.
On the battlefield, salt water and medicine are very scarce medical resources, and the combat conditions are difficult, and injuries and bleeding cannot be treated in time.
In an emergency, you can use sugar to simply treat the wound. Sprinkle sugar water on the wound instead of salt water, which is helpful to inhibit bacteria, clean and dry the wound.
Third, sugar can be made into very powerful ammunition. In many domestic and foreign film and television dramas, sugar has been used as ammunition. Many people think it is an exaggeration. In fact, sugar can really be used to make ammunition.
White sugar is refined sugar made from molasses squeezed from sugar cane and beets. At a high temperature of 186 degrees Celsius, the sugar will turn into caramel and burn after contact with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water. If sugar is mixed with an oxidant, it can be made into a powerful sugar.
Little fuel.
During the war, many fuels, explosives, and grenades were made with white sugar as one of the raw materials. Someone once demonstrated making a bomb using white sugar at home, with a range of up to 12 kilometers.
It's not obvious now, but in two years' time, supplies will become increasingly scarce, and sugar will become a hard currency like weapons, gold, tobacco and alcohol, and it can be considered a rigid necessity.
On the battlefield, life is the most important thing, and sugar can save lives at critical moments.
Seeing that there was still plenty of space, Li Mu purchased another two thousand tons of dried fish. As a seaport city, there is no shortage of this.
There is no way around it. As coastal cities fall one after another, aquatic products in the domestic market have become significantly less available, and prices have risen higher and higher, to the point where there is no market for them at all.
Take it back and sell part of it to enrich the tables of the people in Nanyang area, and the rest will supplement the nutrition of the army.
After finishing the work here, Li Mu returned to China again.
As usual, some military supplies were left in Hankou for purchase, and Li Mu returned to Nanyang with the remaining supplies.
The rice is given to the grain store, and the wheat is given to the flour mill. After processing, the bran can be used to feed horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry. The flour is given to the grain store for purchase.
From now on, grain stores will no longer sell wheat, but only processed flour, in bags of 50 kilograms, and each person is limited to one bag at a time.
Having said that, after selling discounted grain for a while, although grain prices in surrounding cities are still high, Nanyang's grain prices have indeed dropped a bit.
As a result, prices in all aspects have dropped a lot.
Of the 3,000 tons of white sugar purchased this time, Li Mu sold 1,000 tons of the goods on the market and recovered more than 1.2 million silver dollars. He made his capital back.
With the remaining two thousand tons, Li Mu established a candy factory, specializing in the production of candies of various flavors, which could not only increase employment, enrich the product types on the market, but also earn more profits.
In addition, in preparation for the future march, Li Mu established a food factory, specializing in the production of compressed biscuits of various flavors and some non-staple foods.
He also convened a group of technical talents and university professors in related majors to prepare to perfect the ham sausage making process and produce ham sausage.
Ham sausage can not only supplement nutrition, but is also easy to carry. Compared with ordinary meat, it has a longer shelf life. It can be used as military rations and can also be introduced into the market to enrich people's dining tables and nutrition.
…
The above are all areas of economy, people's livelihood, manufacturing, and the influx of people. The current Nanyang City obviously cannot bear it.
The Office is planning to set up a new district east of Nanyang City to accommodate more people and businesses.
From now on, the area within the city wall will be called the old city, and the new area to the east will be called the new city. The new city and the old city together constitute Nanyang City.
Recently, Li Mu has sent people to survey the terrain and hired professional urban designers in the concession to make a master plan for the construction of the new area.
It is conceivable that when the project is launched in the future, how big the scale will be, how much manpower and material resources will be needed, how many jobs will be created, and how many people will be able to find a livelihood in this troubled world.
…
At this time, Li Mu heard the news that the Japanese 14th Division, led by Dofeiyuan, had captured Heze and was about to attack eastern Henan and capture the provincial capital Kaifeng.
When Li Mu heard about Tu Feiyuan and the Fourteenth Division, the place name "Huayuankou" suddenly popped into Li Mu's mind.
More than 40 counties in the three provinces of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu were flooded, with more than 10 million people affected and millions of deaths forming a huge yellow flood zone at the junction of the three provinces.
It was not blocked until 1947.
How many fertile fields have lost their harvest and turned into swamps, and how many disaster victims have turned into beggars and fled the famine.
Li Mu's real hometown is also within the scope of the yellow flood zone. He has heard from the older generation about the tragic situation back then.
My hometown is actually quite lucky, being on the edge of the Yellow River Flood Zone. Some places are really miserable. Entire villages, or even entire towns, were simply wiped out, as if they had never existed.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, these places were rebuilt, and few local aborigines were seen returning. Probably, maybe, there was no one left!
Faced with such a tragedy, Li Mu would try his best to prevent it from happening if it was possible to avoid it.
He had read articles about this matter, and one of the biggest triggers was the Battle of Lanfeng.
The commander of this battle was the famous general Xue Laohu, and his opponent was Tu Feiyuan's 14th Division.
It is said that with Xue Laohu's ability, the future battle of Changsha will be fought beautifully. He has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, including several German weapon masters, who are direct descendants of the principal. It is impossible to defeat a division.
The problem was that they really couldn't beat them. The army of hundreds of thousands wanted to make dumplings, but a division penetrated the entire battlefield. In turn, they wanted to unite with the Japanese army in Xuzhou to make dumplings for these hundreds of thousands of people.
There are two reasons: First, although there are a few direct German weapon masters, they only want to preserve their strength when fighting, and they are not as good as the miscellaneous troops. Xue Laohu's dumpling-making strategy was originally implemented well, and 70,000 to 80,000 miscellaneous troops fought to the death.
Instead of retreating, those direct disciples were frightened away as soon as they came into contact with the little devil. They even lost the guarding strategic location of Lan Feng City to the little devil.
If his subordinates don't obey orders, what can Xue Laohu do? He can only look up to the sky and sigh. He is a direct descendant, and there is nothing he can do.
The second reason is that Tufeiyuan's 14th Division is indeed strong. Usually, an ordinary standing A division has four infantry regiments and one field artillery regiment. However, in order to enhance the maneuverability and firepower of the roundabout troops, Xiang
Tsukiji's First Army temporarily strengthened the Doihara Division with three artillery regiments, armored vehicles, anti-aircraft artillery battalions, etc., making the Doihara Division's artillery strength exceed that of four ordinary standing Class A divisions.
The 14th Infantry Regiment is not an ordinary force, but a small and specialized "automatic vehicle force" equipped with a large number of motor vehicles, plus a large number of mobile tractors brought by each artillery regiment.
In fact, the Doihara Division can be regarded as an out-and-out mechanized force.
Such a unit is indeed more than a step ahead of the domestic army in terms of firepower and mobility.
After Tu Feiyuan penetrated the entire battlefield, the situation became extremely dangerous. Once he came, he could join forces with Xuzhou's small team to make dumplings for hundreds of thousands of people.
Secondly, after penetrating the battlefield, the hinterland of the Central Plains is no longer defensed against him and can be defeated in a single battle. In fact, due to the Battle of Xuzhou, the vicinity of Wuhan is empty. With the maneuverability of the 14th Division, it is even possible to directly attack Wuhan.
Where is Wuhan... After the fall of Jinling, Wuhan has now replaced Jinling's status, and its importance can be imagined.
The hundreds of thousands of troops who fought in the Battle of Xuzhou have not yet completely withdrawn, and hundreds of thousands of troops are also entrenched in eastern Henan.
In this case, if a small army directly attacks Wuhan in the rear area and cuts off this water and land transportation hub and transportation line, the situation will be very tragic.
Ever since, based on this consideration, we also wanted to delay the attack of small and large troops to buy more time for Wuhan's military deployment, and the Huayuankou Incident happened.
The 14th Division of Dofeiyuan was indeed badly flooded, and abandoned its armor and retreated to Shandong Province.
However, just one month after the Huayuankou Incident, Xiao Benzi marched straight along the Yangtze River, and the Battle of Wuhan began.
I didn’t see how much time was gained.
…
Whether he is a person from the yellow flood zone or a Chinese, Li Mu wants to prevent the Huayuankou incident from happening. Although he doesn't know how effective it will be, at least he must try his best.
Of course, he cannot influence the general direction. It is still possible to cooperate with Xue Laohu to lay siege to Tufeiyuan's 14th Division, assist in the defense of eastern Henan, and prevent the small army from Xuzhou from invading the hinterland of the Central Plains.
However, this is not just a matter of flying planes and bombing a few times. Real ground troops must be dispatched.
Thinking of commanding soldiers to fight, Li Mu shook his head. He was self-aware. With his military literacy, he couldn't even figure out how to set up a march, let alone command troops to kill in all directions.
Not only him, but also the officers under his command.
Although they are all military talents he poached with high salaries, this talent needs to be enclosed in double quotes.
Most of these people were former middle- and lower-level officers. They could command a platoon or a company, but they could command a battalion or a regiment.
It's ridiculous to ask them to command large armies in battle.
It's normal when you think about it. No truly capable senior military officer would come to apply for a job as an instructor in a local security corps because of the high salary. As long as he has thousands of soldiers and horses, he can garrison any city and make money.
There are no available generals on hand, and there is also a serious shortage of middle- and high-level officers. Even junior officers have a huge vacancy.
Although he established a short-term military training class, it only lasted so long and did not produce many talents.
In the final analysis, the security group was established for too short a time, its foundation is too weak, and it has little accumulation and foundation.
Even the lower-level soldiers are basically new recruits who have been in the army for less than half a year. The first recruits still have some experience in suppressing bandits, but the latter recruits have never seen blood, let alone suppressing bandits.
Without one or two years of rigorous training, and then through military training courses to train a large number of grassroots officers, no matter how many soldiers are recruited, they will be just the same, and they will not be able to form much combat effectiveness.
Just like now, due to the serious shortage of grassroots officers, many of the platoon leaders, squad leaders, and even company commanders are promoted to serve as recruits who have been in the army for less than half a year.
There was no way, even though he had recruited hundreds of military talents through Muwu Trading Company, if they were put into an army of tens of thousands, it would really be a drop in the bucket.
In fact, if you think about it, I only came here in August last year, and now in May, in only nine months, I have created such a career, which is not bad.
As for the army, it is not something that can be achieved overnight. It needs to be cultivated from the bottom level officers, otherwise no matter how many people are recruited, it will be a mess.
…
However, the situation is like this, the army still has to be sent there, and the battlefield is the best school. Fight more tough battles and see blood, and the army will slowly start to train.
Then, you can only find an expert to lead the team!
One soldier is raging, and the general is raging in a nest.
You can't count on those in the south, and people don't look down on the small security team. The only thing you can count on is the north, where stars are like rain and handsome men are like clouds.
Just send a few here and you'll be able to beat them.
It just so happens that there is a shortage of money, supplies, and equipment there... but there is no shortage of talents, especially various types of military talents.
There is money, supplies, and equipment here, but there is a shortage of talents, especially military talents.
You can ask them to do you a favor and come over to fight the Japanese together. You won't refuse if you think about it.
For the troops that are willing to come over, Li Mu will be responsible for providing equipment, food and wages, and together with the security forces here, they will form an anti-Japanese coalition, and they will be led by the other side's experts and rush to the front line together.
At that time, the mountain artillery regiment, the heavy artillery battalion, the armored battalion...all will be sent there. Under the command of the experts, I believe they can still compete with the little book.
As long as the equipment and firepower come up, there is no doubt about the combat effectiveness of the north.