Munitions Empire

Tang Mo didn't showcase his most advanced automatic weapons at the exhibition; instead, he displayed the mature Maxim series of machine guns.

This caused his automatic weapons to seem less impressive, so the spotlight was completely stolen by a massive cannon with a 280mm caliber.

But everyone knew that weapons had already changed the mode of warfare, and what future wars would look like was uncertain now.

In the past, training a soldier merely required issuing a uniform, a musket, then having them fire a few shots. Nowadays, the cost of training a soldier was obviously higher.

Steel helmets gradually gained attention from troops of various countries, and although they hadn't become ubiquitous yet, the number of nations equipping their soldiers with steel helmets was increasing.

With the widespread use of brass cartridge ammunition, all soldiers now needed equipment to carry ammunition on either side.

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The standardization of bayonet scabbards and greater attention to soldiers' boots—under the continuous influence of the Great Tang Group—meant that sending a soldier to the battlefield was no longer an easy task.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The harsh winter was no longer an excuse for halting combat operations, which made winter coats, overcoats, and even wood for heating essentials for the troops.

To support a unit in front-line combat required more and more logistics personnel and even logistics equipment.

Without a choice, once a nation had the capability for winter warfare, all countries were forced to seriously consider the risk of being invaded by an adversary during winter.

Consequently, everyone was desperately improving their logistics capabilities, the scale of troops expanded further, and the old system was no longer adequate to meet current combat needs.

In the past, a battalion only needed a few horse-drawn carriages to transport supplies, but now a battalion required dozens, or even hundreds, of carriages just to manage.

Newly added machine guns required transport by carriage because soldiers certainly couldn't carry something like a Maxim gun.

To supply the terrifying consumption of the machine guns, the previous transport vehicles for ammunition weren't enough, and even more were needed.

The weapons of soldiers had become more advanced, rifles fired faster and were easier to load, thus more bullets were expended.

The added cannons were heavier and larger, so one carriage was utterly unable to drag a cannon, necessitating the use of two carriages linked together to haul a single cannon.

Adding so many carriages, along with the drivers—people eating, horses chewing—the consumption of food supplies naturally increased, which in turn forced the addition of even more vehicles to cover the increase in consumption.

Thus, a vicious cycle ensued, and with the introduction of automobiles and the vehicles for transporting gasoline... eventually, everyone realized that to satisfy the logistics of a battalion, they had increased by nearly 200 men, 100 war horses, and at least 20 automobiles.

This wasn't as simple as just adding 200 people; it meant adding 200 well-trained, technical, literate, and highly skilled personnel!

You say a battalion with over 20 automobiles needs a few mechanics, right? You can't just throw away a broken automobile, can you? That's impossible, right?

Horse breeders and coachmen, skills considered an art in the past, weren't jobs that just any illiterate farmer could handle.

With so many people added, would there also be a need for officers to manage them? And wouldn't these officers need to be bright, literate, and somewhat capable themselves?

As these BUFFs stacked, everyone was surprised to find that the ratio of combat personnel to other personnel in the current composition of troops was nearing 1:1.

That is to say, a battalion that originally had 500 people essentially amounted to around 1000 people after all the adjustments.

Clearly, this was too costly! It was necessary to reduce the scale of logistical support and backup troops to maintain a reasonable ratio within the force, in order to achieve an optimal state.

As a result, everyone began military reforms unanimously—phasing out the old battalion and regiment structures, as commanders started using a more rational modern military framework.

Battalions were elevated to regiments to maintain basic independent combat capabilities. Regiments were then expanded into divisions, with each division assigned large-caliber support artillery.

From another perspective, it looked as though the battalion structure hadn't changed, but more logistics support troops were added at the regimental level, along with medium and small caliber support artillery, while large caliber artillery was allocated at the divisional level.

Because the advocates of this kind of military reform were mostly graduates from the Great Tang Military Academy, the solutions they offered were highly standardized: Suthers, Laines, Dorne, and other nations had very similar troop compositions.

Companies and platoons adopted the tripartite system, with one squad comprising 12 men, one platoon having 3 squads totaling 40 men, and one company consisting of 3 platoons, making up 150 men, while a battalion was made up of 3 companies, amounting to 500 men.

The extra personnel at each level served as administrative staff, logistics personnel, clerks, and signalmen.

In the same vein, a regiment was composed of 3 battalions, with a total strength of around 2000 men. A division was comprised of 4 regiments, one of which was a logistics support regiment equipped with artillery, automobiles, and carriages, and it did not directly engage in combat.

With this calculation, a division's total strength exceeded 8000 men, more than the manpower of five original regiments.

But this force's capability for ammunition delivery was more powerful than that of the original ten, or even twenty, regiments.