To control the vast lands, relying on a minority of elite troops would not suffice; ensuring a sufficient number of basic military forces was essential.
The territory of the Great Tang Kingdom was already quite sizable, and 400,000 regular soldiers could not fully control the entire nation.
Moreover, out of these 400,000 regular soldiers, at least about 100,000 were not on the mainland of the Great Tang Kingdom but were deployed overseas.
This meant that the actual military strength of the Great Tang Kingdom was only around 300,000. And these 300,000 people had to be distributed across three defensive lines.
One defensive line was in the north, guarding against Qi Country, the second was in the west, to resist the Dahua Empire, and the last was in the south, targeting Chu Country.
The previous military deployment included roughly two divisions per defensive line, about 40,000 people, which accounted for approximately 120,000 soldiers.
Therefore, the maneuverable forces of the Great Tang Kingdom were left with only eight divisions, four Armored Divisions and four Motorized Infantry Divisions.
To increase the troops and prepare for future wars, the Great Tang Kingdom had to continue to expand its military, forming four new infantry divisions.
The high command structure of these infantry divisions was truly trained and had command experience, but the junior officers and the common soldiers were all newly recruited.
Everything for them had to start from scratch with training, and their equipment was not complete.
The newly formed divisions were generally only equipped with 75mm caliber infantry field guns, and after being issued with a full set of infantry equipment, they were virtually devoid of any heavy weapons.
Even though from a macroscopic perspective, these four new infantry divisions were not lagging behind those of other countries, they were still vastly inferior when compared to the main force of the Tang Army.
Normally, a division would be issued at least hundreds of vehicles, but these four infantry divisions only had about two hundred vehicles each.
It wasn't that the Great Tang Kingdom lacked the production capacity for military vehicles, but rather a large batch of vehicles and fuel had been allocated for civilian construction, leaving the military side awkwardly waiting.
Without trucks, there was no way to tow heavy artillery, so the 155mm caliber howitzers were out of reach for these four new infantry divisions.
In truth, Tang Mo and the military high command didn't expect these four infantry divisions to stand on their own. Everyone knew that these infantry divisions were merely garrison troops.
To put it plainly, these divisions were to follow behind the main forces and handle miscellaneous tasks, capable of filling in the defense lines, occupying cities, and maintaining order—that would suffice.
The mechanized forces and the main infantry divisions would handle assaults, which didn't have much to do with these newly formed infantry divisions.
Nonetheless, these troops still required rigorous training. They had to undergo a transformation to keep up with the combat rhythm of the Tang Army's main forces.
In Tang Mo's view, although these troops seemed mediocre in combat at the moment, they were inevitably going to become main forces in the future. Taking advantage of the peace before the outbreak of war to quickly train them was certainly necessary.
Due to demographic composition, the vast majority of soldiers in these newly formed infantry divisions were locals, all with black hair and black eyes—of Chinese descent.
This change also interspersed with some of Tang Mo's intentions of starting to utilize Chinese people; more than half of the mid-level officers in these four divisions were Chinese.
In fact, with the expansion of the military, Chinese people with black hair and black eyes now accounted for more than half of the total military force.
Even though they were all junior soldiers, these soldiers indeed formed a vast foundation—in the future, with the outbreak of war, these junior soldiers all had the chance to distinguish themselves and get promoted, and there were bound to be Chinese among the future middle and senior officers.
Although reluctant to admit it, the high-ranking commanders of the Tang Army from Brunas were indeed relying on the Chinese, because it was a fact!
And some Chinese, or rather some locals, had already begun to emerge within the military: many educated young people from Dongwan Island, Linshui, and Tongcheng joined the military and became the backbone at the grassroots level.
These educated youngsters, who quickly mastered simple equipment maintenance and usage, soon took on roles as squad leaders and platoon leaders in the military. Many even joined the Armored Corps, becoming electro-mechanical operators or gun commanders.
A C47 transport plane wobbled down the runway, jumping slightly before its front wheel left the ground and then slammed back onto the tarmac, dragging along until it finally came to a shaky stop.
The side hatch was pushed open, and a group of travelers from afar, carrying their own luggage, followed one another off the plane.
The airport on Dongwan Island had been particularly busy lately; every day, the busiest air routes of the Great Tang Kingdom were used to transport key personnel and materials here.
To ensure the planes' secrecy, there were no direct flights to the Great Tang mainland for the time being. Nearly all the planes landed at the airport on Dongwan Island and then returned to Dragon Island.
Although countless people had seen the planes flying overhead, no one had really seen what they looked like. Thus, legends about dragons buzzed around, but a legend remained just a legend. Explore more stories at My Virtual Library Empire
Cameras of the time were fairly basic, so on the rare occasion when someone captured an image at sea, the true form of the planes was still indiscernible.
From the photographs, all one could make out was the vague shape of the character "士" flying through the clouds, which didn't prove anything at all.