Chapter 122: Tycoon Brigade |
The public trial was moved up to align with the medal awarding ceremony, a perfect opportunity for publicity.
The ceremony itself was in preparation for the upcoming military reorganization.
During this period, Osena was busy, Lambert was busy, and Gu Hang was equally busy.
Even though those two held significant government positions in their respective areas, the ultimate authority still lay with Gu Hang.
For any issue with a broader scope or those requiring inter-departmental cooperation or assistance, all matters were processed through Gu Hang’s office.
Even major decisions needed to pass through him.
Handling these tasks alone was already a considerable amount of work.
Furthermore, Gu Hang personally oversaw military affairs.
Civil administration was important, but so was military governance.
The officers would be divided into three main ranks: generals, colonels, and lieutenants, totaling ten levels. There would be four general ranks, currently none in use; three colonel ranks, with the highest being colonel; and three lieutenant ranks, with the highest rank as captain.
Yan Fangxu would leap three ranks, making him the highest-ranking officer under Gu Hang with the rank of colonel; next was Tadius, who would be promoted to lieutenant colonel, managing the Military Administration Department.
The entire military would be reorganized into two major formations.
The first would center around the infantry regiment Gu Hang had brought from Revival City, expanding into a heavy combined arms brigade. This brigade would include five combined battalions, an artillery battalion, an engineering battalion, an air defense battalion, and a logistics battalion, totaling nine battalions. The brigade’s headquarters and direct units would include a staff division, command division, field medical division, political division, guard company, engineering company, communications company, a reconnaissance company under brigade command, and an aviation squadron.
Not to mention, the five combined battalions would expand based on the current five infantry battalions as their core. Each battalion would consist of one artillery company, one armored company, two mechanized infantry companies, two armored infantry companies, and one support company, totaling seven companies.
The battalion headquarters would also include a reconnaissance platoon, a communications platoon, and a guard unit.
This main combined battalion would exceed 800 troops, with 40 Iron Bull trucks, 30 Hunter motorcycles, 24 Walker infantry fighting vehicles, and the need for command armored vehicles and communications armored vehicles, as well as 12 155mm howitzers, and 12 tanks…
Just these five combined battalions would have over 4,100 soldiers, without counting the heavy equipment, let alone the light equipment.
By the time they reached the combined brigade stage, adding in the other four battalions and the brigade headquarters, they would reach a scale of over 7,000 people.
From the current count of 1,500 troops, already under-strength from battle casualties, to scaling up to 7,000… Clearly, Gu Hang intended to draw fresh blood from the former Alliance Legion.
Meanwhile, ensuring that weapon production kept pace was even more crucial.
The tanks would use the remaining 60 operational units left from the Alliance Legion, barely enough, though somewhat outdated; there was no alternative.
As for other equipment production, Gu Hang was about to fly back to Revival City to discuss solutions with Wu Jiarong.
Other things could be managed: the troop transport trucks and rapid motorcycles needed for mechanized infantry would use the ‘Iron Bull’ and ‘Hunter’ models.
However, the heavy artillery required for the artillery battalion couldn’t be fully supplied from the Alliance Legion’s confiscated stock. Gu Hang planned to ask Wu Jiarong about the progress on the self-developed 155mm howitzer.
Additionally, Gu Hang intended to put several items from the latest technological developments into production.
For the mass-produced ‘Walker’ series armored vehicles, he planned to start by establishing a production line for the ‘Walker’ infantry fighting vehicles, which had high demand and significant utility.
In this technologically undeveloped wasteland, the power of the ‘Walker’ was likely even more reliable and powerful than locally produced tanks.
For those with lower demand, like the ‘Listener’ communication armored vehicle, ‘Defender’ air defense vehicle, and ‘Navigator’ command armored vehicle, they would use black box units directly rather than hastily setting up production lines.
When Gu Hang presented his vision for the heavy combined brigade, both Yan Fangxu and Tadius were left a bit stunned.
They could handle the troop count, but the equipment requirements… were incredibly lavish.
A… Tycoon Brigade?
If this heavy combined brigade came together, it would dominate the wasteland with unmatched force.
In fact, if Yan Fangxu looked at this unit through the lens of an Imperial officer, even in a regular Starfleet army, this brigade would count as well-equipped — as long as the tanks were upgraded to high-level Starfleet standards.
Typically, Starfleet would not organize elite combined brigades this way. Starfleet often faced larger, broader battlefields, where forces in the hundreds of thousands or even millions were needed. Larger division-level structures were more common, with dozens or even hundreds of divisions forming an army group for continent-scale warfare, and multiple army groups for a campaign on a planetary scale…
The Starfleet earned its nickname, ‘The Emperor’s Hammer,’ for a reason. Like a hammer, it would crush enemies with unstoppable force.
But that didn’t mean Starfleet only needed hammers and not knives. Elite combined brigades would often be used as vanguard forces.
The Governor’s planned brigade was somewhat reminiscent of that purpose.
If this unit was fully assembled and equipped, and somehow transported to the Quintet starship in orbit, the troops onboard might find themselves overwhelmed. If defenses were inadequate, it wouldn’t be impossible to directly reach Commodore Alicia.
While there were indeed 100,000 people on board, most were support staff or laborers, with only two to three thousand armed troops, and they lacked heavy equipment.
In addition to this main combined brigade, the next force to be structured would be a standard infantry division composed of three infantry regiments, each with an artillery battalion. Though called a division, including the division headquarters, it totaled around 7,000 to 8,000 troops, similar in size to the main combined brigade, though far less well-equipped.
Yan Fangxu didn’t think much of this unit. Even with good training, the poor equipment quality would make it no more than a standard ‘filler division’ by Starfleet standards.
However, in the wasteland, it wasn’t a bad force.
With these two units totaling about 15,000 soldiers, this was Gu Hang’s current plan.
With a population of one million, maintaining a well-equipped force of over ten thousand shouldn’t be a major issue for now.
He planned to raise such a large force because it was necessary.
Building internal strength was crucial; a million people’s production potential had to be fully tapped. But external expansion couldn’t stop either.
Gu Hang hadn’t forgotten that he only had two years. More than two months had already passed. Collecting taxes from a population of one million could be barely feasible with maximal productivity, but it would lock all his resources into this single goal.
That was not an option.
He needed to bring more territory and more people into his order.
Leaving Revival City to build a new foundation had been to plant a seed. Now, this seed had taken root in Revival City. This city would become a lever, with which he intended to lift the entire planet.
In fact, preparations for expansion had to begin even before the logistics and equipment were fully in place.
Comments 2