Ying Yikang spent so much effort to get the opportunity to go to the front line, but before he came, he never thought that he would become a contractor after arriving at the front line.
Ying Yikang, who came back from inspecting the construction site, saw that the military uniform he had customized at a large price from an old tailor in Jinling City was covered in dust. He sighed and sat down without caring about the dignity of the past.
It was not the ammunition box he often liked to sit on when marching and fighting, but a Taishi chair, which was moved from Jiayuguan not far away.
There were still more than twenty people busy in the tent, with people in military uniforms and people in civilian clothes mixed in. Many people were writing and drawing on drawings with serious expressions, but what they wrote was not a battle plan, but construction.
plan.
From time to time, messengers came in and out, but they were not delivering combat orders, but construction orders.
Everything in front of him made Ying Yikang feel strange and helpless!
He is the youngest major general in the empire and the most eye-catching general in the army. He came to the northwest and became a contractor?
What fucking bullshit!
The chief of staff next to him also looked helpless, slumped in the chair next to him.
His chief of staff was an old acquaintance. He was Army Brigadier General Fan Feiping, who was a few years older than him. After sitting slumped for a while, he picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea, then stood up and walked to Ying Yikang.
He said in front of him: "Sir, this can't continue like this. It will affect morale too much!"
"Brothers have worked so hard to come to the front line, but they only want to go into battle to kill the enemy, not to build roads!" Fan Feiping sighed and continued: "Several people have come to me just now to complain, saying that they want to go to the front line.
Fight with the Tatars!"
Although Ying Yikang himself had a lot of dissatisfaction, he frowned at the many complaints and thoughts of his subordinates: "Next time someone comes to complain, ask him to come directly to me. In the Western Expedition, there are front lines everywhere, and others
When the troops go forward, they go to fight, but when we build railways in the rear and provide logistical supplies to friendly troops, we are also fighting a war."
"Serving the empire and serving the Holy Emperor, how can you be picky and picky!"
Although Ying Yikang was dissatisfied and helpless, he knew the importance of maintaining the logistics line.
The focus of this Western Expedition was not on how many Tatars were eliminated. In fact, how many Tatars were eliminated was of little significance. Actual control of the Western Regions was the focus.
To actually control the Western Region, we must have smooth logistics supply lines.
Building railways is the simplest and easiest way to implement it.
Therefore, although the Fourteenth Army failed to go to the front to fight the Tatars, it was equally important to build the railway in the rear, and even to a certain extent, it was more important.
Because the two cavalry corps and the fifth army that were sent forward were, to some extent, to intercept the possible Tatar cavalry and prevent them from attacking the railway construction site.
To put it bluntly, they serve as bodyguards for the Fourteenth Army and 30,000 ordinary workers.
Going into battle to kill the enemy is as important as building the railway.
Therefore, although he is unwilling to do so, Ying Yikang will still resolutely carry out the order from the top: build the railway!
However, the atmosphere in the army is not very good now. Ying Yikang is still planning to do something, so after thinking about it, he said: "When the work is finished in the evening, call a meeting with the chief officers of each battalion and regiment to let them know about the road construction task.
importance!"
After evening that day, the battalion commanders and regiment commanders gathered in the division headquarters camp. Ying Yikang personally chaired the meeting and discussed the importance of the road construction task. He also said that this was not just road construction, but a battle.
Task.
Just like any other battle!
If building roads is not important, then in the past when we were marching and fighting in a hurry or transporting heavy equipment or repairing bridges, roads would no longer be important?
No!
They are all equally important!
Only by repairing the railway quickly can more supplies be transported to the front line, so that the Western Expedition troops can smoothly advance all the way west, and they can occupy one step of land for the empire without moving a step forward!
When the railway is built to Hami and Turpan, then the empire's territory will expand to Hami and Turpan!
Road construction is also a combat mission, and if it is completed successfully, you will also receive credit. Don't worry about not getting credit.
After such a meeting, the military morale of the main generals was initially stabilized.
The 31st Infantry Division was like this, and the other two units of the 14th Army were not much better, especially the 14th Infantry Division. They were the main standing division and had never done such hard work as building roads.
If you ask them to build roads, they would rather fight the enemy one against ten!
I heard that Dong Qiankun of the 14th Division went to Lieutenant General Dai Yanghong to complain. After getting no results, he went to see General Lu Yu, but he was driven back by General Lu Yu.
In the end, we can only build roads honestly!
Directly using a field army to build roads is unique in the history of the Tang Army's war, and has never happened in the history of transportation construction in the Tang Empire. However, because of its particularity in the Western Regions, such a strange thing happened.
One scene.
Compared with the resentment of the generals below, Lieutenant General Dai Yanghong, commander of the 14th Army, was very indifferent.
At his level, he has broken away from the low taste of ordinary generals. What he considers is not the direct gains and losses of the battle, but the entire battle situation.
Therefore, he was also the most supportive of General Lu Yu's approach, and he even volunteered for the road construction task.
Instead of fighting, we could just build a road all the way to Hami, and then transport hundreds of artillery pieces to blast the hell out of them.
In Dai Yanghong's opinion, this kind of thing is simply a military merit that comes to your doorstep, and it should not be given in vain.
As for the Fifth Army and the two cavalry corps, let them blow the northwest wind in the wild!
It is simply impossible to find Tatars in the wild and fight them.
The Tatars will not come out at all. Maybe after arriving in Hami, those Tatars will run away on their own. By then, our 14th Army will be able to take over the city of Hami without any effort. Such a good thing can usually be done.
Can't meet.
Dai Yanghong's ideas are different from those of Ying Yikang and others, but it doesn't matter if they have different ideas. Obedience to orders is the most important thing in the Army of the Tang Empire.
Not only ordinary soldiers and middle- and low-level officers, but also senior generals must obey orders.
Lu Yuzhi ordered the Fourteenth Army to build roads, and the Fourteenth Army had to build roads. If Dai Yanghong disobeyed the order, he would be sent to a military court immediately. If Ying Yikang disobeyed the order, he would also be sent to a military court.
.
Therefore, despite having this or that idea, the entire 14th Army still devoted themselves to building the road.
The soldiers of the Fourteenth Army are naturally not specialized railway workers. They cannot do some technical work when building roads. They can only do the most common earthworks. Technical work, such as laying rails, is all railway work.
The head office's own engineering team came to carry out the construction.
However, the officers and soldiers of the Fourteenth Army are all strong men!
If you pull out anyone at random, they are all strong men with several abdominal muscles. In addition, the army is also trained to dig and build various fortifications, dig trenches, build parapets, etc., which are the most basic.
So these tough men wielded hoes and shovels to do earthworks. They were so fast and good that the heads of the railway company were drooling when they saw it!
These are the best young and strong labor force, and they can work as hard as two ordinary laborers.
What’s more important is that there is no salary required!
Because this is a military railway, the construction costs of the railway are directly allocated by the empire. The railway company is still one of those who get money to build the road. The military builds the road itself, so naturally it is impossible to give any more wages.
I can only drool just looking at it.
These tough guys in the military are beyond their control. Even if they don’t get paid, they can’t afford the military’s food and salary levels!
They had been to the field restaurant in the military camp, and the food was really good, which made them envious.
Later, he shamelessly approached Lu Yuzhi and asked the military to support some ingredients to supplement the meals of ordinary workers.
In order to make the engineering team of the Railway Corporation work harder to repair the railway, the military did not care about these small things and directly approved it. Anyway, for the military, if the railway is repaired one day earlier, it can take more strategic initiative.
Ying Yikang led his troops to build the road. After working on it for more than ten days, he changed from the high-spirited young general in the past to a contractor.
When I go to the construction site to inspect, I no longer wear military uniforms, hold a saber, and wear gloves like before.
Instead, he was wearing ordinary military uniforms and a safety helmet, and what he held in his hand was not a saber, but construction drawings...
This scene seemed extremely abnormal to Bi Zhian and other old subordinates.
Bi Zhi'an has followed Ying Yikang for several years. Whether he was fighting in Beihai Province or in the northwest, Ying Yikang was a role model for soldiers from beginning to end. When he inspected the troops, no matter it was spring, summer, autumn or winter, even if it was mud everywhere
In the rainy season, he always wears a general's uniform, long leather boots, and black leather gloves.
The officers of the new era are full of style.
but now……
No matter how you look at it, he looks like a contractor!
With the strong cooperation of the 14th officers and soldiers and the 30,000 construction team of the Railway Corporation, they built the railway at an astonishing speed, much faster than when they originally built the Northwest Railway.
The main reason here is because enough manpower has been invested. This is not just a transportation construction task, but a military task.
Another very important point is that the design standards of the railway are not very high. For example, when passing through a windy area, the impact of strong winds is not considered, because the speed of the train is inherently slow and the impact is not significant.
There are also problems such as frozen soil and desert. These problems are undoubtedly very serious problems for commercial railways, especially for future high-speed commercial railways.
However, this is just a military railway!
These problems are not big.
The military's requirements are very low. As long as it can maintain the supply of materials for the frontline troops, it doesn't matter if the speed is slow or the transport volume per trip is small.
As for high maintenance costs, this may be fatal for commercial railways, but it is not a problem at all for the military.
No matter how high the cost is, can countless carriages travel across thousands of kilometers and walk on the Gobi Desert and desert?
The Northwest Railway Extension Line is a military facility, which cannot be compared with ordinary commercial railways that are civilian facilities.
According to the construction team of the Fourteenth Army and the Railway Corporation, they will be able to build it to Hami before winter comes, and to Turpan next year. After crossing a large amount of desert and Gobi desert terrain, they will be able to build it in the future.
The vast Central Asian plains were repaired!
At that time, if the Tatars do not send troops to carry out armed interception, the empire will be able to build railways to Europe in one go!