Chapter 2836
Compared with the super-standard infrastructure such as ports and main roads that we have seen before, the place used by the local government for official receptions appears to be very simple. It is a manor next to the Jinzhou Camp.
The manor is a traditional Chinese-style building. It covers a small area and has four courtyards at the front and rear. The interior is not like the Jiangnan courtyard with many ingenious views. It is all a simple and clear patio corridor structure with almost no unnecessary decoration. From the mottled marks on the interior and furniture, it is not difficult to tell that this manor has been around for some time.
"This used to be the official residence of Jinzhou Daying. Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom both lived in this courtyard. Twenty years ago, I came to Jinzhou to host negotiations and met with envoys from Ming Dynasty and North Korea here. You mentioned it in the history textbook The Three Kingdoms Covenant that I studied in was signed in this courtyard.”
Baikes was no stranger to this manor. Even after many years, he still had not forgotten his experience. After entering the gate, he talked about the past history of this place to several juniors.
Chen Yixin said: "Except for the gradual replacement of some new living facilities, there have been no major changes during this period. It has basically retained its appearance twenty years ago. I usually come to Jinzhou for work, and I also live here most of the time. ”
Bai Kesi nodded and said: "In a few years, this place will be able to hang a sign of a celebrity's former residence or historical site, collect admission fees, and sell souvenirs."
After saying that, they looked at each other and Chen Yixin laughed knowingly. Several young people looked at each other in confusion, not quite understanding what allusion their fathers were talking about.
That night, the Jinzhou Government Office held a grand welcome banquet for the arrival of Bai Kesi and others. All local officials and celebrities attended, and it goes without saying that the atmosphere was lively.
The next day, Bai Kesi and his party went to the first inspection destination, the Jinzhou Camp adjacent to the station.
The predecessor of Jinzhou Camp was the Jinzhou Guards Station during the Ming Dynasty. However, in the back-and-forth tug-of-war between the Ming Army and the later Jin Army to compete for Jinzhou, the fortress and fortifications of the guard station were seriously damaged. The Jin Army defeated the Ming Army and occupied it. Before Jinzhou had time to organize renovations, it was driven out by the Haihan army that broke into Liaodong.
At that time, the battle line between the Haihan Army and the Later Jin Army was pushed to the Jinzhou Isthmus in the north. Haihan poured almost all the resources in this area into the isthmus defense line, and also set up his base camp more than ten miles away from the isthmus defense line. The location of Jinzhou Guards Station is also called Nanguanling Camp because of the place name.
The Haihan Army was not interested in repairing the fortifications of the Ming Dynasty. It only renovated the original site to a certain extent, retained some of the living facilities, demolished and filled in the necessary defensive fortifications, and built on the original site. A Haihan-style military base was set up.
For a long period of time afterwards, the Jinzhou Camp was the main station of the Haihan Army in Liaodong. At its peak, there were more than 10,000 military personnel stationed here. Nowadays, the area controlled by Haihan in Liaodong is dozens of times larger than that of twenty years ago, and the troops are stationed and deployed more dispersedly. There are not that many troops stationed in Jinzhou Camp, including the troops stationed at the isthmus defense line. It only maintains around 2,000 people all year round.
However, although the number of troops stationed there has been reduced, the status of Jinzhou Camp has not changed. It is still the command center and main arsenal of the Liaodong garrison. The weapons and ammunition used by the entire Liaodong area garrison are uniformly allocated and delivered by the Jinzhou Camp. All troop mobilization and training plans are also ordered by the Maritime and Land Joint Command located in the Jinzhou Camp. At this time, Baikes and his party were sitting in the combat command room of the Joint Command, listening to reports from the officers.
A huge map of Liaodong hangs on the wall, which clearly identifies the areas currently under direct control of Haihan. As can be seen from the map, the current Haihan-controlled area is actually only a small area in the entire Liaodong. Most of the areas on the map are still controlled by various tribes outside the customs led by the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. The territory controlled by the Jurchen tribes in the further north actually extends to unknown lands thousands of miles away.
But this does not mean that the area controlled by Haihan is small. Just do a mental calculation based on the map scale and it is not difficult to find that the location of Jinzhou Camp is thousands of miles away from the northern border.
Currently, the Haihan Army's army troops stationed in the Liaodong region actually have only one regular division, which is the Army's Sixth Division. It has six infantry regiments under its jurisdiction, which are stationed in Jinzhou Guard, Fuzhou Guard, Gaizhou Guard, Guangning Guard, Dongning Guard, Shenyang Zhongwei and other places under the jurisdiction of the original Ming Dynasty.
In addition to these six infantry regiments, there are also cavalry battalions, artillery battalions, engineer battalions, special operations battalions directly under the division headquarters, as well as other administrative and logistics units such as medical, logistics, and communications, with a total of 13,000 military personnel on staff. More than a thousand people.
Just looking at the paper data, it seems that there are a lot of troops. However, considering the area under Haihan's jurisdiction in Liaodong, this amount of troops can only achieve basic control of key areas. To put it bluntly, it can only protect itself. If it wants to expand its territory, the existing military strength is obviously not enough.
Even in many relatively remote areas, defense forces mainly rely on local armed groups such as militia groups to maintain their defense capabilities. For example, the multiple settlements that were originally under the jurisdiction of Liao Youwei were far away from the main garrison points. The Haihan Army stationed in each camp could only maintain a squad-level organization and had to organize and train militia personnel. Replenish troops.
However, to maintain the current scale of the standing armed forces, the military expenditures required are no longer a small amount, and allocations from the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense alone are not enough. Many troops are still using weapons and equipment produced in the 1930s, and their replacement progress is far less advanced than their counterparts in the south.
When Baikes heard these issues, he did not immediately make a statement. It was normal for local garrison troops to complain to the Executive Committee about insufficient military expenditures. No matter where he went, the garrison commanders would complain endlessly and beg the Executive Committee to allocate more funds to them. military spending.
But the reality is that the military is often doing miserably while generating income through various "side jobs." The military has unique conditions. As long as you use some tricks, many commercial resources will be indirectly controlled by the military. It is not difficult to make money and profit from them. What's more, the financial situation of the Northern Region has always been good. Liaodong has also been vigorously developing mining in recent years. Chen Yixin should not be short of military expenditure.
The most critical point is that Baikes is also the director of the ordnance industry department. He knows how much of the weapons and equipment produced by Haihan every year flows into the hands of the Northern Region. The Sixth Division of Lu wanted to do a miserable job in front of him, claiming that they had no money to update their equipment, but it would not be easy to succeed.
(End of chapter)