In January 1918, with China Fudao Automobile initially having the ability to assemble and produce cars, and also due to the continuous supply of oil from Sino-US Petroleum Renqiu Oilfield, China Bus Company came into being with a total share capital of 1 million yuan and 200 Ford TT utility vehicles modified buses. More than a dozen bus routes were opened in the Beijing Ringcheng and southeast and northwest, and each route was departed every 15 minutes from 6 am to 8 pm.

As an advertising campaign, passengers can take buses for free in the first month of the trial operation, and charges start from the second month. There are one-way tickets and round trip tickets, weekly tickets, ten-day tickets and monthly tickets. Of course, the discount for season and annual tickets is the largest. Overall, it is a little more expensive than the price of rickshaws, and the purpose is to not oversqueeze the living space of rickshaw drivers.

Students, soldiers, elderly people, and disabled people all ride for free. As a public utility, China Bus Company does not aim for profit, but only to facilitate people's lives and improve travel efficiency. At the same time, the China Charity Foundation also donated 50 ambulances that are also modified by Ford TT-type multi-purpose vehicles to major medium-sized hospitals in Beijing, 100 tT-modified fire trucks to Beijing Firefighting Association, and 50 tT-modified school buses to major universities in Beijing.

In January 1918, after completing the assembly and testing of the second batch of imported British aircraft, China Aircraft Manufacturing Company focused on the imitation and production of the engine of the Eagle Viii of Rose-Royce Company. At the same time, the progress of the production of the V/1500 heavy bomber with 100 sets of the assembled Viii engines was also quite smooth. Based on the two original prototypes, the first domestically produced imitation and assembly v/1500 aircraft is expected to be tested at the end of January.

If the test flight is successful, it is expected that from March, the Nanyuan Aircraft Factory of China Aircraft Manufacturing Company will be able to increase the production capacity to 6 v/1,500 per month, and the production capacity will be expanded to more than 20 per month in half a year.

In January 1918, the construction of the Xuanhua Steel Refining Arsenal Base was still in an orderly manner. The smokeless powder workshop and six light weapons production lines of the Xuanhua Arsenal were basically commissioned and entered the trial production state. Since skilled arsenal workers still need time to train, the initial production capacity of the entire arsenal is still relatively low. It is expected that starting from February, 3,000 m1903 springfield rifles, 500 m1917bra squad machine guns, 200 m1917a1 Browning water-cooled heavy machine guns, 500 Browning.45 caliber automatic pistols, and 1 million 7.62mm 30.06 rifle bullets.

With the expansion of scale, the in place of raw materials and the improvement of workers' proficiency, the production capacity of Xuanhua Arsenal will be increased by 3 times in half a year, and by 5 times in one year! 7. Piaotian Literature registered member recommends this work. The production capacity of rifle bullets will be higher, and will be able to produce more than 10 million rounds per month.

With the light weapons production line of Xuanhua Arsenal, Wang Geng mobilized talents and engineers from the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and the Hanyang Arsenal through the Army Department, and directly purchased related equipment and technologies for the arsenal artillery production from Japan, preparing to start building the artillery workshop of Xuanhua Arsenal. In addition to the 75mm caliber 41 mountain cannon and Type 38 field cannon, as well as 150mm howitzer equipment, the imitation of French mortars is also underway.

Japan has insufficient production capacity of large-caliber artillery. Last year, it was subcontracted to Japanese-produced artillery from US aid purchase orders. It is expected that all delivery will be completed until March this year. Japan was unwilling to transfer its imitation French artillery production technology to Wang Geng, but Wang Geng threatened to import equipment directly from the UK and France, and cancel the remaining artillery orders to Japan that have not been delivered, and at the same time suspended the export of crude oil to Japan. Japan was stunned. After thinking about it, he finally agreed to Wang Geng's request.

The recruitment of recruits from the participating troops has never stopped. Since the 11th, 12th and 13th divisions were organized continuously at the end of November 1917, the number of recruits who joined the army in December has restored the number of supplementary brigades of the Nanyuan Base Camp of the participating troops to 4.

Although the second loan from the United States was successfully reached at the end of December, in fact, Wang Geng did not stop production at the three arsenal branches of the Colt Gab Company in the United States. The eighth batch of US-American fires arrived at the end of December were enough to arm the five mixed brigades. Wang Geng officially organized and established the 14th Division of the participating army in early January.

The 14th Division of the participating army was compiled on the basis of the 9th Brigade of Han Fuqu, the former Third Division of Suiyuan. Wang Geng added two supplementary brigades to him, and at the same time, he added another supplementary brigade to Wu Peifu of Kulun, Outer Mongolia, so that the total number of participating troops in Suiyuan and Outer Mongolia reached the full capacity of three divisions and nine brigades.

Han Fuqu also became the third general in the participating army to take up the position of commander from the brigade commander. At this time, he was only twenty-nine years old. 10 months ago, he was just a battalion affiliated to the 16th Mixed Brigade.

At the same time, the participating army aviation team sent a SE5 fighter squadron and 2 DH4 reconnaissance bomber squadrons to Wu Peifu's Outer Mongolia Kulun. The above squadrons have 16 units. In addition, it is a Handlipeji 0/400 heavy bomber squadron containing 12 aircraft. At the same time, the same number of air teams were sent to Wang Tingzhen stationed in Harbin.

Like China Fudao Automobile Company, engines are the source of everything. Wang Geng’s first step is to use imported parts and raw materials to imitate the engine based on the transferred production drawings and authorized patents. The second step is to localize the above four engines, and then the research and development of new domestic engines. In 1918, China’s machinery industry and steel industry technology were still far from Europe and the United States. To make a qualified engine, high-quality cast iron and steel are indispensable.

The iron ore of China Iron and Steel Company in Xuanhua base has been put into production, and the thermal power plants, iron smelting, steel smelting, coking and other branches will also start production at the end of January. The first phase of the Xuanhua Iron ore project, which was put into production, is expected to produce 800,000 tons of iron ore annually. The first 450-ton blast furnace of the iron plant has been put into production, and the second 450-ton blast furnace can be installed and commissioned before the end of February to be put into production. By then, the daily iron production will reach 1,000 tons, and the annual iron production will be more than 300,000 tons.

The first phase of Xuanhua Steel Plant has three 140-ton open furnaces, with an expected annual output of 150,000 tons. Three electric furnaces are used to smelter alloy steel, gun barrel steel and tool steel. It is expected to produce 5,000 tons of special steels such as alloy steel, gun barrel steel, etc. annually.

The first phase of the project will be completed before the end of June and meet the expected production capacity. The second phase of the Xuanhua Steel Joint Base will continue to begin in the second half of the year. By the end of the year, the iron ore production capacity will be expanded to 1.6 million tons per year, the annual output of pig iron and crude steel will both double to 600,000 tons and 300,000 tons, and the electric furnace special steel will be increased to 10,000 tons per year.

The main coking coal and thermal power generation coal of the Xuanhua Iron and Steel Joint Base mainly come from the Kailuan Coal Mine controlled by the British and Jingxing Coal Mine in Shanxi. They transport coal to the Xuanhua Base day and night through the Tianjin-Beijing section of the Jinshan Railway and the Jingsui Railway.

With the start of the Xuanhua Steel Base, the raw materials of gun barrel steel and barrel steel in Xuanhua Arsenal will gradually no longer rely on imports, and the engine production of China Fudao Automobile and China Aircraft Manufacturing Company will also obtain cast iron and engine steel urgently needed for the production of engines. The steel rolling workshop and wire drawing workshop of Xuanhua Steel Plant will gradually provide various armored steels, stainless steel, spring steel, gun barrel steel and barrel steel of the world's quality level, etc.

It can be said that Wang Geng spent 9 months arming a new army with American arms, singing the three major issues of discipline, and established the Renqiu Oilfield and Xuanhua Iron and Steel Consortium Base within six months, and initially established the prototype of a heavy industrial system centered on emerging industries such as energy, steel, ordnance, automobiles and aircraft!

At the same time, the command system of the participating troops is reflected in the dual leadership mechanism with the mixed brigade as the basic unit and the reorganized division as the front army unit. The "Three Five-Seven Leasing Reduction Regulations" and the reduction of land taxes and exemption of all showdowns and donations of wages in the six northern provinces played a key role in improving and improving people's livelihood, stabilizing the agricultural foundation of northern provinces and maintaining social stability.

In fact, China faced much greater challenges in 1918 than the previous year. On the outside, Russia's inevitable civil war was about to break out, and Wang Geng set a goal for the participating troops to recover all territories occupied by Tsarist Russia on the Eastern Front since the Sino-Russian Nebuchu Treaty.

Internally, the House of Representatives elections across the country will become a battlefield for various factions of forces. Within the Anhui faction, between straight and Anhui, between the north and south, and in the south, many political forces within the south are complicated. How to maintain the spirit and loyalty of the participating troops under the banner of pursuing constitutionalism and military nationalization is a huge challenge. To avoid civil war, we must also strive to move the country towards unity and democracy through constitutionalism.
Chapter completed!