I want to be emperor

Regarding the war between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Wales, the Chu Empire did not intervene. The British Consul General in Dover only issued a routine warning to the two countries: Do not harm the interests of the Chu Empire!
This warning also lists many warnings in detail.

If you are not allowed to conduct any military operations within ten kilometers of the Chu army's garrison area, otherwise it will be regarded as a potential threat to the Chu army and subject to military attack.

Military operations are not allowed around mines, farms, railways, and docks opened by Chu people.

The transportation of more than 20 kinds of materials such as cotton, wool, and coal must not be blocked (even if these materials are owned and transported by the enemy)

Not to mention blocking the passage of the people of Chu and all materials of Chu.

In short, you are the one who beats you, but it must not affect the interests of our Chu people. For example, when the Chu people carry out extensive wool purchase operations in the two countries, you are not allowed to carry out any sabotage or obstruction...

There are more than 20 various enumerated prohibitions...

However, the Chu people's ban only protected their own interests. As for the war and interest disputes between the two countries, they did not interfere in any way.

They only protect their own interests and do not interfere in conflicts or even wars between indigenous people.

This is also an important feature of the Chu Empire's overseas expansion. On the one hand, the Chu people don't really care about the life and death of the local indigenous people, let alone winning or losing among them. Anyway, no matter who wins or loses, the interests of the Chu people All are guaranteed.

Secondly, the war behavior among the indigenous people also has certain benefits for some commercial activities of Chu State, such as the most typical military trade.

Once the war breaks out, both warring parties will have to purchase various military supplies from the Chu people on a large scale. After a war, the natives will bleed heavily, regardless of whether they win or lose.

Then the damage of the war will be very serious, and reconstruction will definitely be needed after the war. Post-war reconstruction is another big cake.

This war between the Kingdoms of England and Wales is conservatively estimated to earn the Chu people millions of Chu yuan.

This is why the Chu people do not like to prevent wars from breaking out among the indigenous people, and sometimes there are even cases where arms dealers take the initiative to provoke wars.

However, although they did not intervene, the Chu people still paid close attention to the war behavior of both sides and sent a military observation team.

And this kind of military observation group is not one or two people, but will directly send an organized force to follow... The main purpose is to prevent these natives from getting red-blooded and then killing the interests of the Chu people. location.

The military observation team of the Chu army must pay attention at all times and prevent this behavior.

And there is nothing more effective than sending an army directly behind them.

Put the gun directly to the back of their heads... and tell them to behave.

The person responsible for the mission of the military observation group in the Kingdom of England is a reinforced battalion under the Indian No. 30 Division. It has about 1000 people. It has a four-company infantry battalion, a cavalry platoon and an artillery platoon. There is also a rearrangement of supplies.

This type of reinforced battalion/mixed battalion model with more than 1000 people is also the Chu army's favorite combat organization in overseas areas. It has a complete range of arms and has the ability to fight alone. At the same time, more than 1000 soldiers are equipped with Type [-] rifles and Type [-] rifles. The powerful firepower of the ten-millimeter infantry cannon is enough for them to fight against thousands or even tens of thousands of indigenous regular troops.

It requires few troops but has strong deterrence!
This mixed battalion under the Indian No. 30 [-]st Division in the Foreign Legion belongs to this kind of unit. It was originally stationed in the London area. It just completed the refit and reorganization half a year ago. The weapons used include all percussion guns and smoothbore cannons. Upgraded to Type [-] single-shot rifles and early-model [-]mm infantry guns.

After the Royal Guards of the Kingdom of England were dispatched, this mixed battalion was also dispatched... and they didn't get too close. They were hung about ten kilometers behind to prevent any accidents.

The man who led this mixed battalion was a young Chu Army captain... Although the mixed battalion in this foreign legion had more than 1000 people, the rank of officers in the foreign legion had always been lower than that in the regular army.

The division commander in the Foreign Legion has the rank of brigadier general, while the deputy division commander and chief of staff have the rank of colonel.

However, the division commanders in the regular army are all major generals, and the division commanders of several very special first-class ace units or guards divisions are even served by lieutenant generals.

The deputy division commander and chief of staff are standard brigadiers.

This does not mean that the regular army has more people and the foreign legion has fewer people... In fact, many second-class divisions that have not been mobilized only have [-] people, which is not as large as the foreign legion.

After all, the Foreign Legion performs combat missions overseas all year round and is a force that maintains a state of long-term combat readiness. Although it lacks firepower and does not have many technical arms, its number is definitely sufficient... Anyway, the cost of recruiting and maintaining foreign soldiers is also very cheap. No need to spend a few bucks.

This also led to the fact that among the regular troops in the Chu army, the military tended to accumulate more technical weapons and reduce the number of personnel and mules and horses.

The most obvious manifestation of this is the unmobilized second-class division. Although it only has 1 people, its artillery ration is the same as that of the first-class division... At most, it is just some relatively backward second-line artillery, but the number is definitely not enough. Less.

Therefore, the mobilization of the second-class division does not require the addition of additional technical weapons. It only needs to directly replenish soldiers. Moreover, it does not need to replenish too many combat soldiers. What needs to be replenished in large quantities are auxiliary soldiers. Of course, they also need to eat a lot. , mules and horses that the military usually dislikes.

Generally speaking, only by adding five to six thousand mobilization troops and several thousand mules and horses can this second-class division be fully equipped and have high mobility to perform various field missions.

They pursue a strategy of hoarding weapons and mobilizing manpower and livestock during wartime.

But it's different in the Foreign Legion... The soldiers in the Foreign Legion are cannon fodder foreign soldiers, not worth much money. For example, although the food supply allows them to eat well, the food they eat is mainly cheap potatoes.

And what about the big men in the regular army? Every meal must have good rice and noodles, not to mention the open supply, but also meat... After a while, he said that we must pay attention to the nutritional balance, and we must not lack vegetables and fruits. On the battlefield, we must have all kinds of things. Canned meat and canned fruits are available.

The cost of food supply for the two is more than ten times higher.

To put it simply, the food cost of raising a regular Chu soldier can feed ten foreign soldiers of the foreign legion... and this is only about the food aspect, and other things have not been taken into account!
The cost gap in all aspects of food, drink, and sleep is not a small sum when added up.

And if a foreign soldier is killed in battle, there is no need to worry about any negative consequences...if he dies, he dies, no one cares.

Therefore, the soldiers in the Foreign Legion are typical cheap cannon fodder... Relatively speaking, high-tech weapons are much more expensive than them, and livestock are also more expensive.

This is also the reason why there are few technical weapons and mules and horses in the Foreign Legion, but there are so many people... Many artillery maneuvers in the Foreign Legion are only equipped with a small number of horses, and then let a bunch of cannon fodder soldiers push and pull.

This is still talking about artillery, and horses have to be used.

There are no horses at all for ordinary supplies, and most of them are carried by manpower!

There was no way. The Chu Army's munitions department calculated and found that in the Foreign Legion, the transportation cost per ton of mules and horses was higher than the transportation cost per ton of manpower...

Of course, this is talking about the extreme theoretical situation... In fact, even the Foreign Legion does not have to force the soldiers to move with a large amount of supplies. Instead, they will recruit and use local mules and horses or indigenous young men... What, I If you usually think that mules and horses are too expensive to raise, then you can directly recruit the indigenous mules and horses in the war zone. If you don't have mules and horses, then you can recruit the young and strong indigenous people.

But no matter what, the foreign legion in the Chu army is weaker than the regular army in all aspects... After all, it is just a cannon fodder army.

Therefore, the commander of the infantry regiment in the Foreign Legion is generally a major, the senior regiment commander is a lieutenant colonel, and the commander of the infantry battalion has the rank of captain.

At the same time, artillery and cavalry units do not have a regiment organization, only a battalion organization.

For example, the artillery battalion of the Foreign Legion equipped with rifled weapons is equipped with sixteen artillery pieces, using four early 32-year-old 75mm field guns replaced by the regular army, eight 34-year-old 75mm mountain guns, and four more. of eighty-millimeter mortars. Due to the low bore pressure, the mortar has a larger charge coefficient than the howitzer shell of the same caliber, with more charge and greater power. At the same time, because of the high-angle curve ballistics, the landing angle is very large. The impact fragments and fragments formed after the explosion can form a good 360-degree impact. However, the shells fired by howitzers and even long-barreled field guns have relatively flat trajectories. Straight, because of the angle of the artillery shell after it hits the ground, a considerable part of the impact fragments and shrapnel will be absorbed by the ground.

Therefore, the explosive power and killing range of mortars are greater than grenades and cannons of the same caliber.

In actual combat, the [-]mm mortar's lethality against living targets in the open ground is comparable to that of a [-]mm field gun.

This is also the reason why the Chu army equipped mortars on a large scale and began to equip large-caliber mortars... Although the rate of fire is too fast, which causes the shell consumption to be relatively large, you only need to ignore its rate of fire. You can treat it as a large curve. If you use powerful artillery, it will be very useful... Of course, the accuracy is a bit poor, so you have to put some in to fire.

It is obviously impossible for the Foreign Legion to be equipped with large-caliber howitzers, so they simply use [-]mm mortars as large-caliber anti-personnel artillery.

Each infantry regiment in the Foreign Legion will also be equipped with two [-]mm infantry guns that were replaced earlier.

Therefore, the foreign legions in the Chu army are far inferior to the regular army in the Chu army in terms of artillery firepower... Even if the performance of the weapons is different, they are far inferior in quantity.

You must know that the divisional artillery regiment in the regular army has a full strength of four battalions. After the Eastern European War, in order to increase the firepower of the divisional artillery, another company was added to the artillery battalion, reaching four companies.

The current artillery regiments of several divisions are composed of four artillery pieces to form a company, four companies of sixteen pieces to form an artillery battalion, and three battalions with a total of 48 artillery pieces to form a division artillery regiment. At the same time, this artillery regiment also has an ammunition Company, responsible for transporting ammunition.

In terms of infantry support firepower, each infantry regiment is currently assigned an infantry artillery company with four [-]mm infantry cannons, and a mortar company with four [-]mm mortars.

The infantry battalion has a machine gun company, equipped with two [-]mm mortars and two [-]mm heavy machine guns. The heavy machine guns are equipped with air-cooling or water-cooling depending on the region.

The infantry company is currently all infantry, with no fixed formation of light artillery or machine guns...

This is because the current core tactics of the Chu army use the infantry battalion as the basic tactical unit to perform combat tasks, so the supporting firepower is fixedly deployed at the infantry battalion level.

In actual combat, the 1000mm infantry guns and [-]mm mortars in the infantry regiment are often assigned to the infantry battalion. At the same time, part of the division's cavalry is also directly strengthened to the infantry battalion to form a scale of more than [-] people. The mixed battalion performs tasks.

As for why not to form a combat unit with infantry companies as the basic tactical unit... this is naturally due to cost issues.

If this is done, the number of machine guns and mortars will need to be greatly increased, and the maintenance cost of daily training will also be higher.

At the same time... Weapons and equipment do not mean the more the better or the more advanced the better. We also need to consider the cost of equipment and the issue of logistical maintenance.

A 20mm mortar seems to only weigh more than [-] kilograms. It can be carried by just one person. If two people carry it separately, the weight of a single person is only more than ten kilograms. It can maneuver quickly and accompany the front line. The infantry moves quickly.

But you still have to carry mortar shells!
Therefore, a 26mm mortar team in the Chu army has six people, one gunner, two gunners, three ammunition operators and reserve gunners. All gunners are equipped with [-]-type eight-millimeter rifle cavalry models. No more than a thousand millimeters long.

It is worth noting that the rifle cavalry models in the Chu army are also assigned to engineers, artillery, baggage and other technical or auxiliary arms as self-defense weapons.

The Type 26 small-caliber repeating rifle currently has three models of different lengths, namely the standard version with a length of 1.2 meters, a short-barreled version with a length of 1.1 meters, and an ultra-short plate with a length of one meter. This ultra-short plate rifle is also Called a lance, carbine or carbine.

Conventional infantry mainly uses the 1.2-meter five-standard version. The rifle is long enough and even longer after adding a bayonet.

Some infantry units in the army that are responsible for special terrain operations such as amphibious landing operations and mountain jungle troops use the short-barreled version with a length of 1.1 meters. At the same time, this version is also provided to the navy and the Guards fleet.

The one-meter-long carbine is used by cavalry, artillery and other special auxiliary arms.

A mortar team, in addition to carrying a mortar and artillery shells, also needs to carry a carbine for self-defense, as well as personal items, rations, etc., and the load is also very heavy.

So it doesn’t mean that the more weapons and equipment the better... you can’t carry too many!

In a period when mobile transportation could only rely on power storage and manpower, the Chu army's battalion-level firepower configuration was already extremely exaggerated.

If the firepower is increased, there will be more logistics personnel than combat personnel.

Relatively speaking, the mixed combat battalion of the Foreign Legion does not have so many messy things. At least there are no heavy machine guns or mortars, only single-shot rifles and [-]mm infantry cannons.

It is worth noting that the Chu Army found that it is very useful to equip the Foreign Legion with [-]mm infantry cannons... Because the artillery firepower of the Foreign Legion is relatively weak, it is impossible to equip all battalion-level combat units with infantry like the regular army. Cannons and mortars and heavy machine guns.

The mixed battalion in the Foreign Legion only has one kind of [-]mm infantry cannon... It is because this thing is a breech-loaded rifled artillery, with very high accuracy. It can be used as a field gun for horizontal fire and as an ultra-light howitzer for curved fire.

Taken together, the cost of use is actually relatively low.

This is why the Chu army's top brass assigned the foreign legions [-]mm infantry cannons, but not the seemingly cheaper [-]mm mortars.

The sixty mm mortar seems to have many benefits, but one thing is fatal to the Foreign Legion, that is, this thing is actually a front-loading smoothbore gun with poor accuracy. When hitting a target, it often needs to be fired. Only by firing multiple shells can an effective hit be achieved... The combat mode of this artillery is to rapidly fire three or four shells in a short period of time to achieve results.

But the [-]mm infantry cannon is different. This thing is rifled and has high accuracy. At the same time, the enemy cannot hit them due to poor weaponry and equipment. The gunner can aim slowly and try to kill the enemy with one shot... Save ammunition.

It is because the [-]mm infantry gun can have a variety of different combat effectiveness at the same time to a certain extent. With this thing, you need field guns and mortars, and its high accuracy can save shells, so it has become the preferred weapon of the Foreign Legion. The first choice for battalion-level firepower.

When fighting a war, you have to consider the cost, right?

However, even such a foreign legion's combat effectiveness is very astonishing, especially in the British area. If the two sides open up their formations, such a foreign legion can easily take down tens of thousands of indigenous regular troops.

As for the elite ace of the Kingdom of England, their Guards only have a total of more than 8000 people, which is not enough for a mixed battalion of the Foreign Legion.

This is also the reason why the English Guards were very cautious when they went north, bypassing the Chu people's properties one after another and trying to avoid conflicts with the Chu people.

It really pissed off the Chu people, and the foreign legion behind them could wipe them out in minutes... By then, I'm afraid the war between England and Wales had just broken out, and it would be over before any war happened!

Because by that time, I'm afraid the English Guards no longer exist!
The English Guards, who had been cautiously walking around the Chu people, finally arrived at their destination on a stormy evening and met up with an English army stationed there.

After resting for a few days, the English army, which totaled more than 5000 people, began to move toward the northwest.

Just over ten kilometers in front of them, the Welsh army of approximately 8000 people had also assembled and headed south, preparing to defend the enemy from outside the country!

As expected, the two armies will encounter each other in the wild, and a large-scale line battle will break out.

This kind of line battle, where both sides have similar weapons and equipment and similar tactics, can be considered evenly matched. To be honest, even many people in the Chu army are very interested in it, and they do not hesitate to rush to the battlefield to prepare for observation.

So a day later, in a low hilly area, the English army and the Welsh army encountered each other and a large-scale battle broke out. At the same time, a group of Chu officers and foreign soldiers were watching the battle and watching a show on a distant hilltop... from time to time. A few comments.

(End of this chapter)