"Of course." Zhou Changfeng answered very firmly.
Xu Zhanming immediately sat on a chair nearby, and then said slowly: "After discussions in recent months, we plan to reorganize the Marine Corps to enhance its effectiveness and independent combat capabilities."
The Marine Corps of the Ming Dynasty is not an independent service. It is directly affiliated with the Navy. Its responsibilities are to defend naval bases and perform amphibious landing missions. Its purpose is very single. Follow-up attacks in deep areas are not within the scope of its tasks.
At present, it has a total of fourteen battalions, which are stationed in Haishou, Jinzhou (Dalian), Tianjin, Weihai, Fushan (Qingdao), Shanghai, Zhoushan, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Qiongzhou, Dagu (Kaohsiung) and other places.
Obviously, the battalion-level unit in this era is very weak. It cannot carry out tasks independently without being separated from the large army and can only deal with a single situation.
Now that the situation is turbulent, the Navy is determined to build a combat force with independent combat capabilities. The reasons are self-evident.
Zhou Changfeng initially thought that the Navy came to him to inquire in detail about the situation of the Dutch and Indian Army, but why did they mention the reorganization of the Marine Corps?
What does this have to do with yourself? Could it be...
"For the purpose of experiment, we plan to form two regiment-level units to try out, and divide them into two fleets. You can be ready to transfer." Xu Zhanming said leisurely.
Aha?
Zhou Changfeng was stunned for a moment by the abrupt words "prepare to transfer". Unaware of the truth, he hesitated and asked, "Jun Zuo, is this a transfer order from the Ministry of War?"
Xu Zhanming's expression remained unchanged and he said calmly: "The transfer order will be here soon."
In fact, there is no transfer order, I am here specifically to fool you.
In fact, Xu Zhanming was helpless. He didn't want to personally get involved in this matter, because the candidates for the leaders of the two marine regiments had already been crowded with people. However, he couldn't help but someone mentioned Zhou Changfeng's name by name. and convinced the Navy.
Several people from the navy thought about it and thought that this guy was good and indeed suitable, so they agreed without hesitation.
But the key point is that this is an act of poaching, and it is poaching people to the Forbidden Army, which is really embarrassing.
And this hard job of poaching people finally fell on him, which made Xu Zhanming particularly worried, because Huang Taize and Pang Lingqi were not easy people to deal with, and he was afraid that he would have to apologize in the end.
At this moment, Zhou Changfeng also realized something was wrong - there was no transfer order, so why should he be transferred?
After working on it for a long time, it turned out that the navy was here to poach someone.
In the eyes of many people, the Forbidden Army is an out-and-out good place - high salary, good treatment, and low risks. Although the ridicule of the watchdog in the capital is not pleasant, who cares?
Many people just can't get enough of the grapes and say sour grapes, with disdain. But if he is really transferred to the Forbidden Army, then they will happily take up the post immediately.
But Zhou Changfeng was different. To be honest, he was actually quite worried that he would not be able to perform well if he stayed in the capital for a long time.
Even if a war really starts, the Forbidden Army will not be able to join the war all at once. The third mixed brigade will participate in this border war. Next time, even if the Forbidden Army really needs to be mobilized to participate in the war, it will probably be the fourth mixed brigade, the first division, and the second division. In addition, there are the Hun 1st Brigade and the Hun 2nd Brigade stationed in Yanjing.
But if it is the Marine Corps, it is different. If it conquers Nanyang, then the Marine Corps will be the vanguard.
And this is actually the fundamental goal of reorganizing the Marine Corps.
From a subjective point of view, Zhou Changfeng is naturally happy to do so, but worldliness is indispensable in life. If he takes the initiative to "change jobs", then in the eyes of others, he will be cheating, and he may be tripped up in the future.
Seeing his hesitation, Xu Zhanming thought it was because he didn't want to leave the comfortable place of the Forbidden Army, so he preached the benefits of the navy just like recruiting employees in later generations.
"After all, the size of the Marine Corps is limited, and it is an elite military force. High-quality weapons must be given priority. At the same time, the salary will never be low."
"The first regiment belongs to the Eastern Fleet, and the second regiment belongs to the Nanyang Fleet. The former is established in the capital. The initial run-in and training are also done locally. They will be transferred to Ningbo after the subsequent joint training for beach landing."
"As pilot units, the establishment of the two regiments is also quite special. They are not ordinary regiments. This is the establishment list entrusted by the Navy Department to the Military Production Bureau."
A naval lieutenant colonel next to him handed Zhou Changfeng a hard-covered booklet with "Regulations on the Establishment of Trial Marine Corps A Regiment-Level Unit" written on the cover.
After opening and browsing the list, even Zhou Changfeng, who is well-informed, couldn't help but be dumbfounded - you told me this is a "group"? How can there be a regiment-level unit of this size?
Headquarters - regimental headquarters, garrison platoon, military police platoon, communications platoon;
Service support units - baggage train, medical platoon, cooking platoon, post office, veterinary clinic, repair shop;
Combat support units - heavy mortar battalion, mountain artillery team, infantry artillery team, combat defense artillery team, engineering team, anti-aircraft artillery platoon, chemical defense platoon;
Combat units - three infantry battalions, an amphibious combat convoy.
The heavy force battalion is equipped with 18 128mm heavy mortars, and the mountain artillery team is equipped with 6 112mm howitzers, which are used for medium and long-range indirect fire support tasks.
The infantry artillery team is equipped with six 80mm light infantry guns. They are not used centrally. Instead, they are assigned to each battalion for dispersed use depending on the situation during wartime to provide direct fire support.
In addition to the service units, the amphibious combat convoy has three five-vehicle combat vehicle platoons. Counting the three vehicles at the team headquarters, there are a total of 18 Type 35 floating combat vehicles, that is, amphibious tanks; its total combat weight is 4.6 tons, and its turret The frontal armor of the car body is 16mm and 12mm respectively, and it is equipped with a 38.4mm short-barreled cannon and a machine gun.
The total number of people on the establishment list is as high as more than 4,100, and the firepower far exceeds any regiment-level unit in the world. Zhou Changfeng felt that if it were not for the convenience of landing, the Military Command would probably change the heavy mortar battalion to A mountain artillery battalion equipped with 18 112mm howitzers.
Moreover, the composition of its troops is also unusual. One thousand people are drawn from the existing fourteen battalions of the Marine Corps, and another thousand are drawn from various divisions of the Army. Only the best can be selected, and the remaining two thousand people are new recruits. .
Zhou Changfeng was deeply surprised by such an outrageous organization. To be honest, he couldn't figure out why such a bizarre organization was created - wasn't this just a confusing brigade?
"Sir Xu, instead of being so nondescript, why not just make them bigger and form a brigade?" he asked.
"Because ten landing ships can only carry so many people and things at most." Xu Zhanming answered simply.
Landing operations are extremely complex, and troop projection is very efficient and accurate. The Ming Navy believes that coordinating ten large landing ships at a time at a single landing site is the limit under current conditions, so the organization naturally has to be determined based on this data.
The Military Bureau carefully calculated the total transportation capacity, and then designed such a strange organization with the best overall combat capability.
Zhou Changfeng, who felt the same way, expressed his understanding, and then confessed the difficulty to Xu Zhanming - although the Marine Corps was very tempting, he was about to change jobs. How could this be possible?
Hearing this, Xu Zhanming looked like "I knew it", and he said leisurely: "Don't worry about this, you can just have your intention, and the resentment will never be on you."
Well, because I will take the blame.
(End of chapter)
