In addition to equipment, the People's Army's military expansion is also underway. First, the establishment of the Marine Corps, and finally entered the formal implementation stage.

After careful consideration, Luo Yue finally decided to join the Marine Corps and participate in the competition for Marine Corps commanders. Although the Marine Corps now has only one division, it is a new branch of the military after all and will definitely be expanded in the future. And from a longer-term perspective, under the leadership of time travelers, China in the future will definitely not be limited to the mainland, going to the ocean, and going to the ocean is the general trend, which is also fully proven in the old time and space.

In this time and space, this process is likely to be greatly accelerated, because the current East China government already has a strong navy. Excluding the technological differences caused by the times, it can be said that in the old time and space, in the past 50 years after the founding of New China, a navy of such scale and strength has not been established. This also shows that the East China government has attached great importance to maritime development from the very beginning.

A powerful navy will never stick to the doorstep of the house, but will traverse the ocean. This means that the East China government will go to the ocean much earlier than the old time and space. It is very likely that after the Russo-Japanese War, the development direction of the East China government will turn to the ocean. Therefore, the construction of the People's Army in the future will definitely be based on the navy and take into account the comprehensive development of sea and land. The Marine Corps will also be of great use. Even if it does not form an independent army, it still has broad development prospects.

What Luo Yue is most worried about is that the Marine Corps starts from scratch, and the quality of the military source is poor, and it requires long-term training and battlefield training to become a strong army. However, Qin Zheng gave him a brief explanation. Neither the Military Commission nor the Navy would allow the Marine Corps to grow slowly, because it is the Navy, because the Marine Corps is currently a navy organization, and in the future Russo-Japanese War, there will definitely be landing operations. Therefore, the Navy also needs the Marine Corps to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. The Military Commission also guaranteed that one-third of the Marine Corps soldiers are veterans with combat experience, which completely dispelled Luo Yue's doubts.

The Navy selected commanders for the Marine Corps, and a total of 7 candidates were identified, because this time, not only commanders were selected, but also deputy commanders and chief of staff. However, the Navy also clearly stated that once they ran for election, they must join the Marine Corps and cannot return to the army. In addition, considering that the Marine Corps is currently only a division-level organization, and the commanders also serve as division commanders, so only two of the seven candidates are division-level officers, and all are deputy division commanders, and the other 5 are regiment commanders.

The purpose of the Navy Department is to take the lead by a deputy division-level officer to use their experience to make the Marines form an army as soon as possible. Two deputy division commanders were selected to run for the election in order to prevent one of them from having an accident. As a result, after consideration, the two deputy division commanders refused to join the Marines. After all, the army is also expanding, and it is very likely that they will transfer to other new divisions to serve as division commanders, so they are naturally unwilling to start over in the Marines. One of the five regiment commanders also withdrew, leaving only 4 candidates, namely Luo Yue, Ran Runfeng, Shi Qiao, and Zhong Wending.

This made the Navy a little embarrassed. Someone suggested to find a few candidates from the Army. However, the Minister of the Navy, Shang Jinfeng, decided not to add candidates anymore. He just determined the command organization of the Marine Corps among these four people. Four people are enough, and the regiment commander is the regiment commander. Don’t the Army’s division commander work from the regiment commander?

The Marine Corps commander's election adopts a comprehensive scoring method, which is divided into three aspects: 1 is the candidate's past record, command and training ability; 2 is the candidate's campaign speech and defense; 3 is the round-robin war game deduction.

As a result, Luo Yue was first in the three total scores and was undisputedly elected as the commander of the Marine Corps as the division commander. In fact, this is not surprising. Luo Yue was absolutely sure at least in the first and third events, because his record and strength experience were there. If two deputy division commanders participated in the election, they might also be able to pose a certain threat to Luo Yue with the experience of commanding division-level troops. Among the regiment commanders, Luo Yue did not have an opponent.

In fact, the Army Department did not want to let Luo Yue go, because the team led by Luo Yue was ace troops from the company to the regiment, with brave combat and military achievements. Naturally, no one wanted to let go of such a general, let alone Luo Yue and the upper-level government. When Luo Yue went to Java, the Army Department had prepared to promote Luo Yue to the division commander, but the five A-type divisions had been determined, so Luo Yue could only lead an ordinary division. However, he did not expect that Luo Yue would eventually go to the Marine Corps, and the Army Department also regretted it very much. If he had known this, he would have promoted Luo Yue to the division commander as soon as possible, so that he would not lose a general.

The positions of the other three candidates were also determined. Shi Qiao served as deputy commander and deputy division commander, Ran Runfeng and Zhong Wending served as chief and deputy chief of staff, and the political commissar was directly appointed by the Navy Department, and Zhu Wenxiang, the former deputy political commissar of the Changbaishan ship. In this way, the Marine Corps team was also formed and the establishment of the Marine Corps was officially started.

When the Marine Corps was established, two project proposals were sent to the Office of the Military Commission, suggesting that the Military Commission establish projects and carry out research and development of fixed-wing aircraft and armored combat vehicles.

The proposal for the development of fixed-wing aircraft was created by several helicopter pilots in the crossing army. Now the East China government has 14 helicopters and 8 drones, with a total of 37 helicopters and 16 drones, because 9 of them are two-person pilots, and the ratio of the two-person helicopters to pilots is 1:1.5, single-person helicopters and drones are configured as 1:2, and there are also helicopters and 187 drone ground crews, forming a flight team of more than 200 people.

Although the Military Commission has always regarded the flight troops as a trump card of the People's Army, and the flight troops have played a huge role in previous wars. Although they did not participate in the war directly, they have made great contributions in reconnaissance, early warning, and correction of artillery data. However, the flight troops have always been in a very awkward position in the People's Army system. Although their status is important and their average rank is high, the flight troops do not have their own team, their own projects, and they have no funds. They even have no say in the army. They just live on more than a dozen helicopters and drones, making people unable to see any future.

But in this era, helicopters and drones are difficult to maintain long-term. Although they can still rely on some spare parts brought by crossing to maintain the state of the fuselage, there is no place to replenish the aero kerosene used by helicopters and drones. Fortunately, the steam turbine of the Kunming ship also uses aero kerosene. Therefore, the escort fleet carried a large amount of aero kerosene, otherwise it would be estimated that at least half of it would be left behind. However, when the aviation kerosene is used up, the Kunming ship can still rely on two diesel engines to support it, while the flight troops can only be disbanded.

Because of the fact that other time travelers are either in politics or business, anyone with a skill can do well, many members of the flight troops cannot stand the silence, especially the ground crew, who are all very skilled and are very popular in the East China government because of their good skills. At this time, 26 members have chosen to change careers and develop. Fortunately, the 37 pilots have not moved yet, ensuring that the backbone of the flight troops can be guaranteed to maintain the team without forcing them to force themselves.

Of course, the pilots were very clear about the problems of the flight troops, and they also understood that the only way to solve the difficulties of the flight troops was to develop fixed aircraft, so that there were projects, funds could be reviewed, and a large team could be brought out. Therefore, when the East China government was first established, the pilots suggested to the Military Commission to start developing fixed aircraft, but the conditions at that time did not allow it. However, the flight troops were not idle. They designed several aircraft styles when they were fine, and they checked the engine performance of this era. They also used wood and cloth to make several aircraft models for reference.

The flight troops also made great contributions in this Java operation. Therefore, after returning to Qingdao, the pilots Wang Xinping and Zheng Zongming who participated in the war took the lead and signed by other personnel, suggesting to the Military Commission that the development of fixed aircraft projects should be started as soon as possible. The reason is that the spare parts of the helicopters and drones are basically used up, and the fuel is not sufficient. At most, they can only ensure the Russo-Japanese War. The R&D cycle of fixed aircraft is relatively long. If the research and development is started after the Russo-Japanese War, there will be a short period of time. If the project is established from now on, then as soon as possible during the Russo-Japanese War, several aircraft may be able to conduct actual combat experiments and accumulate more experience to promote the development of the aircraft projects.

In addition, in the proposal, a relatively feasible plan was proposed. Members of the flight troops led a student to form a R&D team. The R&D was mainly divided into two parts. One was to use the engines of the automobile to build aircraft, with the purpose of accumulating flight data and cultivating pilots. The other was to use the engines of this era to build aircraft. The engines could be purchased from Germany and accumulate manufacturing experience. The R&D funds did not require much, but 8-10 cars were needed, 2 were used for ground testing, 4-6 test aircraft were used for collection of flight data and training, and 2 were left for backup. When the Russo-Japanese War was in progress, the test aircraft could also participate in the war. Although the performance of the test aircraft was not as good as that of the helicopter, it was always better than that of none. It was used for air reconnaissance and correction of artillery data.
Chapter completed!