"In just one month, the coalition forces lost 200,000 people in repeated attacks.

Even if there are many of them, they won't be able to hold on for long." Li Xiao looked at Odessa in the morning light.

The arsenal ship is frantically bombing Odessa, and orange flames are constantly rising in the Odessa port.

"That means we no longer need to land in southern France, right?"

Li Xiu put down the telescope, and he knew this was the result.

Perhaps, this is the result that the elder brother had already planned in his mind.

Otherwise, despite such a large-scale conscription by the Ming army, we would not have seen my eldest brother send more marines to the Mediterranean.

"While the war has not yet been won, preparations still need to be made for landing.

Moreover, the Navy and Marine Corps will be our focus of development in the future.

The Army will gradually disband some units in the future.

This is why there are so many troops with temporary titles on the Russian front line.

The prefix "temporary" refers to the temporary establishment.

From now on, our field troops will be organized into four group armies, each with several divisions under its jurisdiction."

"Group army?" This was the first time Li Xiu had heard of this concept.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty did not have military-level establishments, and all military-level establishments were temporary.

Just like the First Army of the Expeditionary Force, this organization was used before when they attacked Grozny.

At that time, the commander of the army was still Sun Zhijie, and the number of troops was only more than 70,000.

After Grozny, the First Army of the Expeditionary Force was disbanded, and each unit was returned to its organic form.

After the imperial court decided to participate in the Russian War, the First Army of the Expeditionary Force was established again.

The commander of the army is Ao Canghai, and the entire army gathers the essence of the Ming Dynasty.

Zu Kuan's First Tank Division, Cao Bianjiao's Second Tank Division, and Li Dingguo's Third Tank Division.

Together with the essence of the original 1st Division and the main force of the 3rd and 4th Divisions.

The combat power is unprecedentedly powerful!

Entering the Russian battlefield, he really made an extraordinary move.

Together with Man Ye's First Cavalry Division, they launched an iron wall encirclement against 600,000 Austro-Hungarian troops.

In one battle, 150,000 enemy troops were wiped out and 450,000 enemy troops were captured.

This directly caused a huge gap to appear on the central front of the coalition, causing the coalition's winter offensive to become two disconnected parts.

Now Li Xiao suddenly proposed the concept of a group army, and Li Xiu was confused for a while.

"A group army is a first-level unit that gathers several divisions.

However, by that time, division-level units will be greatly downsized.

There will no longer be a 100,000-strong establishment like Ao Ye's first division.

These people are usually under the command of the same unit and conduct drills together.

The troops are relatively familiar with each other, which is good for combat."

After listening to Li Xiao's explanation, Li Xiu nodded suddenly.

It turned out to be like this, he thought it was like before.

A field division has an establishment of 40,000 to 50,000 men, and the First Division also has an establishment of 100,000 men.

There are three to four hundred thousand people in such a group army!

The divisional establishment has been greatly reduced. It is not a big deal if a group army has four or five divisions.

Taken together, there are only about 100,000 people.

Not much different from the current First Division!

"And the future Marine Corps will be a mechanized force dominated by tanks and armored vehicles."

"What does our navy say?" Compared to the army, Li Xiu wanted to know what the navy would develop into.

"The navy will be dominated by aircraft carriers in the future, and we will occupy major waterways around the world.

Moreover, an aircraft carrier battle group consisting of an aircraft carrier, one or two battleships, cruisers and several destroyers is deployed near the main waterway.

Globally, approximately ten aircraft carriers are needed.

Each aircraft carrier carries forty to fifty aircraft.

But I think fewer battleships will be built in the future.

Build a maximum of two cruisers, and more will build a large number of destroyers.

The advantage of this is that if more ships of the same type can be built, the cost of shipbuilding will be reduced."

Li Xiao sat on the chair and put the telescope directly on the table.

The port of Odessa is considered finished. The bombardment by the arsenal ship directly damaged most of the infrastructure, and a warship was sunk by bombs in the port.

This port is expected to be unavailable for some time.

"Ten aircraft carrier battle groups?" Li Xiu was shocked. He didn't expect his eldest brother to be so courageous.

Ten aircraft carrier battle groups will be built at once!

If there are ten aircraft carrier battle groups, it doesn't seem to matter if we don't build battleships.

As a naval general, Li Xiu, through such a long period of combat experience, already knows that battleships are actually a type of ship that has been eliminated.

Although big ships and huge cannons look majestic, even a 480mm warship can send shells ten kilometers and twenty kilometers away.

But at such a long distance, you have to aim accurately.

In comparison, carrier-based aircraft are much more powerful.

Carrier-based aircraft can be launched two to three hundred kilometers away.

No matter what, the battleship cannot attack this far.

The main role of the battleship now is actually to use its huge-caliber naval guns to bombard targets on the shore.

Even a reinforced concrete bunker with a thickness of one or two meters cannot withstand the bombardment of a main gun shell.

Li Xiu knew that future naval battles would be battles between aircraft carriers.

Destroyers are very good. They are not large in tonnage, but they can protect aircraft carriers very well.

It’s also great as an escort warship!

The most important thing is that destroyers are cheap to build.

For the cost of one battleship, eight or nine destroyers can be built.

With groups of destroyers surrounding it, the safety of the aircraft carrier will not be a big problem.

"In the future, the main mission of destroyers will be air defense.

Because targets that are far away will be destroyed by carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier."

"Air defense, do you have other planes that will attack our aircraft carrier?" Li Xiu looked at Li Xiao in surprise.

Aircraft are considered Ming Dynasty's top secrets, even if there are downed fighter planes on the battlefield, and even Ming Dynasty pilots are captured.

But the elite scientific and technological power from all over Europe has been concentrated, and it has not been able to imitate it until now.

Li Xiu felt that nothing on the sea could sink his aircraft carrier.

"Haha! The secret of the plane will be discovered sooner or later.

The secrets here actually cannot withstand the research of so many elite scientists.

From now on, not only Ming Dynasty will be able to build airplanes."

Li Xiao nodded and said.

Li Xiu looked at his elder brother, but also said nothing.

In his opinion, the only one that can defeat the Ming Dynasty fleet at sea is the Ming Dynasty fleet.

This seems like nonsense!

But... the fleet is so big, just in case someone has other ideas...

In Li Xiu's opinion, the eldest brother did this just to protect himself.

"Ten aircraft carriers are indeed a big deal."

Li Xiu could only say this. In his opinion, this was because his eldest brother was guarding against him, the naval commander.

"So many aircraft carriers are needed, and three of them are deployed in the main waterways on combat readiness.

Three ships have returned to port for maintenance, and three more have to undergo training.
To be continued...