"Mr. Hannagan, thank you very much for coming. To show my respect for you, please accept this 1889 version of the gift pistol." Xu Jie, who had already figured it out, turned around and took out a gift box from the cabinet and handed it to Hannagan.

in hand.

"Mr. Xu is too polite." Hannagan was also confused. He didn't know what he had done to make Xu Jie, who was lukewarm to him just now, become so polite. However, there are good reasons.

The guiding ideology was that it would be a fool not to accept it. After a little pushback, Hannagan still accepted Xu Jie's gift.

"I would like to ask you a question. What do you think is the biggest flaw of the Beiyang Army?" Xu Jie asked modestly.

"Logistics system, the Beiyang Army has not yet established a modern army logistics system based on the Western model. Once it goes abroad to fight, such as going to North Korea, the backward and inefficient logistics supply system will definitely cause a fatal blow to the army's combat effectiveness." Hannagan hit the nail on the head.

pointed out.

"As expected, he is indeed an expert on the army. He has hit the key to the problem in just one sentence." Xu Jie secretly admired in his heart. In fact, it is different from people's general perception. The combat effectiveness of Beiyang's army participating in the exhibition in North Korea is not as bad as people imagined, and even

Even Ye Zhichao, who was later ridiculed as a coward, chose to retreat for objective reasons. In the Battle of Pyongyang, Ye Zhichao did not retreat because of cowardice. According to historical records, the Qing army fought the Japanese army in the daytime battle on September 15.

Basically, they were evenly matched, but the real defeat was caused by the Japanese ambush when retreating from Pyongyang on the night of the 15th. Since it was possible to draw a tie during the day, Ye Zhichao would not have chosen to retreat without external reasons. Moreover, Ye Zhichao was following the Huai Army.

Liu Mingchuan, the direct descendant of the veteran general, had always been very brave in battles, so he would not have fled in a panic when the situation of the battle was unclear. But there can only be one real reason. Ye Zhichao had run out of ammunition and food.

When Xu Jie was browsing historical materials, he found the following sets of data. The source was provided by Qiu Fengchi, who was in charge of the ordnance supplies of the Sheng Army. At that time, the Sheng Army stationed in Pyongyang received a total of the following ordnance: 1,200 rounds of 75mm guns and 1,200 rounds of 2-pound guns.

There are 50,000 rounds of Gatling cannons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. How much of these ammunition stocks are left after 15 days of fierce fighting? 350 rounds of 75mm guns, 300 rounds of 2-pound guns, 100,000 rounds of bullets, and Gatling rounds

The machine gun is 0! And what about the battle consumption on the 15th? 750,000 rounds of bullets and 2,800 artillery shells (note that Gatling is considered a rapid-fire cannon, and its ammunition consumption is not counted as artillery shells). Even taking into account the 5,000 infantrymen when the Sheng army set off, each

Each infantryman carried 150 rounds of ammunition, and each of the 20 artillery pieces carried 50 rounds of artillery shells. After 15 days of fierce fighting, the entire army only had 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 600 rounds of artillery shells left. In other words, the remaining supplies were not enough for even one day.

Use or not withdraw, what should I do?? (In comparison, the Japanese army consumed 2,800 artillery shells and 280,000 bullets in the Battle of Pyongyang. Of course, the Japanese army’s artillery consumption was mainly 75-level field artillery and mountain artillery, and the bullet consumption was indeed

Much less than the Qing army. There is a basis for saying that the Qing army fired guns randomly.)

If Qiu Fengchi’s records alone are an estimate, the records of the Japanese army can explain the problem even more. After the Pyongyang Battle, the Japanese army seized 18 75mm camp guns and 516 shells. 13 2-pound guns and 209 shells. And Gatling

There are 4 machine guns, and only 117 rounds of ammunition are available, which is not enough for 4 guns to fire for 2 minutes!!

The impact of such a low amount of ammunition on the campaign is obvious, but compared with the food problem, the ammunition problem is only a small problem. According to data, in order to support the Qing army in the Pyongyang battle, Beiyang successively prepared 7,000 shi of military rations for them.

However, due to various reasons, not a single grain of rice arrived in front of the battle. In desperation, the more than 10,000 Qing troops could only raise food by themselves. But where did the food come from? You know, there were only more than 20,000 people in Pyongyang at the time. According to Japan

According to the final statistics of the seizures, the Japanese army seized a total of 2,600 shi of rice, 302 shi of rice (not yet shelled), 4 shi of barley, 817 shi of corn, 317 shi of wheat, and 102 shi of corn. These items are calculated as one shi and 50 kilograms.

.These grains are about 200,000 kilograms, and based on the 15,000 Qing troops in Pyongyang City, they can barely sustain it for about 10 days. It should be noted that these data were captured during the Battle of Pyongyang. On the night of the 15th, the Qing army

When the army retreats, the food problem will be even worse. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to describe the situation of the Qing army in Pyongyang as running out of ammunition and food! (The above information comes from "The Sinking of Sino-Japanese War" written by Chen Yue)

"The supply of the Beiyang Army, no, the entire Qing Army's army is really bad. Mr. Li's army's logistics supplies are completely dependent on the station. There are no military stations on the logistics line to transport supplies to the front line, and there are no supply units in the army at all.

, so once a fight breaks out, the logistics supply will be very weak." At this point, Hannagan shook his head and said.

"There are more critical issues. First, if there are multiple troops on a battlefield, the supplies of each troop will be independent, which causes chaos in the supply system. Second, it is difficult for Beiyang to recruit enough civilians.

We have no strength to provide logistics support for the troops. And there is a lack of an overall organization to coordinate the entire logistics supply." Xu Jie added.

In the history of the Shengjun and Fengjun armies, military resources were raised at the base and could not be supplied by the national logistics system. The armies did not provide supplies to each other. They were unable to recruit enough civilian ships for transportation. All of this made the battle in Pyongyang difficult.

The logistics of the Qing army collapsed, and Xu Jie needed to solve these things one by one.

After an afternoon of discussion, Xu Jie combined his own memory and Hannagan's experience and finally came to the following conclusion. If Beiyang needs to have sufficient logistics supplies, the following points must be achieved. First, there must be a general manager of the logistics department

Beiyang Army Logistics. Secondly, each army has its own dedicated logistics establishment. Thirdly, there are enough civilian ships and vehicles for supply (the Japanese army increased the ship tonnage by 170,000 tons for transportation during the Sino-Japanese War, and the Sino-Japanese War had just begun.

It has a total tonnage of only 180,000 tons.) Fourth, the civilian logistics personnel mobilization mechanism must have enough manpower for transportation. Fifth, a rigorous logistics management system and supplies must be developed. (The author does not know much about logistics.

Just take a look and welcome your valuable comments)
Chapter completed!