1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Like the other projects mentioned before, Malico readily stated that all expenses for forming this new army, including the purchase of weapons and equipment, will be borne by the two regions themselves.Of course, its establishment must still belong to the Haihan Regular Army, and it will unconditionally accept the dispatch command of the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense.

Maliko plans to select about [-] to [-] officers from the current garrison and send them to the Army Academy in Sanya for a three-month short-term training, specializing in mountain combat tactics, and then use these people to build a new army skeleton.

Since the two large regions raised their own funds, needless to say, most of these officers must be Maiko's cronies or the children of local elites.

Yan Chujie asked straight to the point: "How big is your new army going to be?"

Maiko stretched out his index finger and gestured: "I plan to build an independent regiment first and deploy it to the border area of ​​Shaozhou. Follow up to see the actual effect of suppressing bandits, and then determine the next plan."

Shaozhou prefecture borders the Ming ruled areas in Hunan and Jiangxi. It is the main road passage for inland immigrants entering the Pearl River Basin.

Yan Chujie continued to ask: "Then what weapons and equipment are needed, have you made a list?"

Maliko waved his hand and said, "Of course, the more advanced the better, it's best to follow the standards of Qian Tiandun's army!"

Yan Chujie smiled: "The more advanced the weapon, the higher the cost, and the output is extremely limited, and it will not be specially supplied to a certain army. Even Qian Tiandun's special warfare division has several grades of weapons listed. Same old guns."

Maliko is definitely good at economics, but he is obviously not good at the military field. In front of an expert like Yan Chujie, a few words reveal a lot of things that he takes for granted.

Maliko said: "As for weapons and equipment, your Ministry of National Defense decides, and money is not a problem. I have only one request. When the troops are formed, all the necessary equipment should be in place. The two large areas do not want to raise a team without combat effectiveness." The light troop."

Yan Chujie said: "The munitions order is for the arsenal of the Ministry of Industry. It's useless for you to press me here. If you need something, you have to find Lao Qiao."

Qiao Zhiya replied: "If you want new weapons, you have to wait patiently. Now the garrisons in various regions are expanding, and there is a serious backlog of orders for weapons and equipment. Most orders can only be delivered in batches."

Maliko said: "Isn't it going to wait for several years again?"

Qiao Zhiya said noncommittally: "My suggestion is that you can consider using the old equipment in the arsenal of the Ministry of National Defense first. Although the performance is not the best, it should be more than enough to deal with bandits and bandits."

Mariko obviously didn't like to hear these words, so he shook his head slightly and said: "My idea is to build an elite armed force for the two large areas, which is stronger than the current Second Lu Division. If all the equipment is old, then Is it okay if I just drag the troops of the Second Lu Division to Shaozhou?"

Yan Chujie said: "Actually, if you ask Lu Second Division to mobilize elite forces to form a regiment and send it to Shaozhou to carry out the mission of suppressing bandits, it should also have good results. Forming a new army may not be as smooth as you expected."

"The newly established army is not ready to fight on the battlefield as soon as you release your weapons. Even after forming an army, it will take a long time to get in place and form combat effectiveness."

"I suggest that you leave this matter to a professional person. Don't intervene too much. It will be of great benefit to you and this army. What you have to do is to ensure that the funds and personnel to form this army can be in place , The resources invested in the supervision are all spent where they should be spent, and this is enough.”

Maliko thought for a moment, and then agreed with Yan Chujie's suggestion: "You are right, if I do everything myself, it will easily lead to a situation where laymen direct experts if I spend energy and don't talk about it."

"My surname is Ma, not Jiang, so I'm not suitable to be a master of micromanagement."

Maliko's self-deprecating joke immediately eased the atmosphere on the table a lot, and everyone smiled heartily.

Only Li Nai didn't quite understand who the master Jiang surnamed by Maliko was, what micromanagement was, and why everyone laughed so happily.

Maliko was not originally a soldier, and he didn't have a particularly big obsession with military power.The starting point of his attempt to form a new army is to maintain local tranquility and at the same time use it as a sample to demonstrate the military strength of the two vast areas to the outside world.

As for expanding the army and preparing for war, it was not his wish to conquer the remaining territory of Ming Dynasty.He has never been on the battlefield, if he really wants to take over as the commander, then something big will happen.

Fortunately, although Maiko was proud, he didn't know how much he weighed. After listening to Yan Chujie and others' persuasion, he quickly changed his mind and decided to listen to their opinions.

Yan Chujie said: "But having said that, Ma, your financial situation is really good. Other regions are trying their best to find the executive committee and the Ministry of Defense for budget to expand the army. You are so straightforward and willing to pay for it out of your own pocket."

Maliko said: "Isn't this just to skip those tedious procedures quickly? If I, like other districts, also write a report to apply for an increase in military spending, then I will have to wait in line until the Year of the Monkey!"

"Besides, in the past few years, among all the large regions, the two large regions have the lowest military expenditures, right? The money we save is all used to develop the economy and people's livelihood. Naturally, financially, it is better than those places that have always maintained a large number of troops. Be stronger."

Maliko's words are telling the truth. In the past 30 years, there have been almost no large-scale wars in the two large areas. The execution of bandits and other operations in the jurisdiction is already the upper limit of the garrison troops. Of course, there is no need to maintain a large-scale armed force.

Other regions often have the need for foreign operations, and with the expansion of the territory, the scale of the garrison will also increase, and the military expenditure will inevitably rise.

For example, the frontier frontiers in the northern region, which are in a state of war all the year round, spend horribly high military expenditures every year. If there was no financial support from the executive committee in the early years, I am afraid that they would have been unable to make ends meet.

Of course, the long-term peaceful environment is not all good. Because of the lack of actual combat experience, the actual combat effectiveness of the troops stationed in the two major areas is not ideal, and it is far inferior to those troops that have fought with real swords and guns.In addition, the military strength is very limited, and even the maintenance of local law and order is somewhat stretched, which is inevitably criticized by the local gentry.

Maliko also learned from the pain after suffering a loss, and decided to increase military investment and train a new army with combat effectiveness.