10 July 1917
The room was already a madhouse. It was hard to hear with seventy plus men crowded into the chamber with boxes everywhere. There were no secretaries, it was a cadre only and they were pressed into the space with tables which had been laid out with maps in addition rolling carts, and large book keeping blackboards with times and dates on and data transcribed from printouts.
"The legation is in a bloody twist." Someone grumbled. Reinsch was all knotted up about the situation, the bankers were complaining, and the state department regulars were a third wheel. And that was just the American side of things. There were at least three sides in the British Legation even in spite of Ed Gray finally getting sacked by Lloyd George. Then of course there was the last of the friendly nations Japan's foreign service position within the Legation had even more internal cliques the army the navy, divisions within each, provincial loyalties of satsuma and choshu, the career civil service, the farm lobby, the heavy industrialists... it went on.
The Russian and French situation... who could say. The danes were taking advantage of Beglium being occupied. It went on. It was nothing new, they knew that. The comment did nothing to draw aay from questions of lead time for manufacturing things. Once upon a time the stock drying process for rifles had been significantly longer. They had gotten around that by first kiln drying, and then a combination of kiln drying, and going to multipiece stocks. Changes in machine, cutting, grinding and the milling operations had changed the rifle receiver.
There was a significant difference between a rifled gun, and a rifle. The receiver and the barrel were some of the longest lead time items to contend with with, with the exception of complex engines that measured horse power in four digits, and holding at seventy miles on the open line... but even that compared to the way things had used to be took less, much less than it had been in Stevens hayday. The problem lay in that two months to put together a whole piece of rolling stock wasn't the problem for today... oh they needed more locomotives, but they had a build schedule that was currently marked out almost two years in advance. They knew what trains they would be building...
"And that's precisely why we need to be getting back to how things were."
"A return to scientific organization of labor, and production." Another member remarked barely audible from fifteen feet away.
That twisted the conversation back up into the situation with the states entering the war in Europe, the Swiss office, and the Middle America discussion that another fifteen minutes to get parsed down and everyone back in their seats. "Gentlemen there will be a contraction of the apparatus of global trade when the war resolves itself. Governments will hastily respond tit for tat as they usually do to perceived unfairness and inflame such behaviors with further tariffs. The French have been pressuring both England, and the States for artificial government price controls on export goods. This is intended to save the French government money. Nothing more nothing less, they're overleveraged." ... and the truth was China was not in good financial situation as countries went...
The Communications Bank, of the Communications clique, which took its name from its 'ministerial portfolio', was tied up with the Japanese Legation with the original idea having been that banking consortium was 'finally' get China's finances sorted out... but of course that had failed. Every intervention and round of reorganizations always seemed to fail...
"Russia then?"
"The French and English divided the Ottomans up last year, they've staked claims out now of Russian territory, and"
Stevens. The whole business with the Trans Siberian while at the same time the English were looking for another route if that wouldn't work if there was a trans Caspian connection anything that could funnel material from pacific ports and shore up the Russian front. England's Foreign Office was looking for figureheads, so they wouldn't have to rely on French puppets, and the old world empires were fine parceling out spoils to get America to play ball with concessions in the Russian far east.
'And we need it in writing.' Was the declared consensus. It seemed clear that France and England had reached their own decisions on how things were going to be and that the States needed to be talked around to agreeing to that...
Whatever regulations were to be born out by Wilson's decision to bring the United States into the European War they had to be out in front of it. As the guns had opened in the summer of 1914 the Cadre had changed, with the entry of the United States it seemed that there would be the much expected change in their ranks as well.
That was the notion to which they adjourned their meeting on giving him time to step outside of the confines of the cadre's 'war room'. "You said it was important?"
"A cable from Terauchi's government went out from Tokyou. Hayashi is being recalled. Mister Nishihara is coming as is, Soho," They had known that Tokutomi was planning a visit in August, but the idea that Terauchi was pulling Hayashi out... that was news. Nishihara, and Tokutomi Soho visiting was one thing, but to pull the minister of the legation out was... Terauchi wouldn't have done that sort of thing without explicit support of the senior statesmen. There was a pause, "Do you think Tokutomi is a second prong?"
Allen paused, "Because he's the advisor on Korea," It took a minute to remember that detail he'd, Soho, been on that post for so long, "No, but I do want you to call Tokyo double check Soho's itinerary." The newsman had only been allowed limitted access, like most of the Japanese press, during the Russo-Japanese war and there was little doubt that if Soho could get in sooner he'd be in Tietsin to see if he could report on the fighting here. His original itinerary had been putting him getting into Tietsin in a few weeks from now, if he was coming early... well they'd have see.
Just because the physical lines to Peking were blocked by troops shooting at each, didn't mean the front interrupted the passage of wires. Telephone and telegraph carried word , and radio would soon make physical lines run alongside the railways that moved goods inland merely a more reliable way. Telegraph, and telephone though had been able to send word hundreds, thousands of miles away and have it delivered in minutes or seconds even to the intended recipient. A change that many had been unprepared for as the technology matured.
He glanced to the trio of teletype copies, "Alright, thank you." He responded,
"What do I need to do?"
Allen threw a look over his shoulder, back down the long hall, and then pulled his sleeve back on his watch, "Its three o'clock now. Sunset is about eight, summon the 1
st officers and staff put them in a room, I want to know what is broken, and what we need to fix to put them on the line." Soho visiting early had the potentially to be a double edged sword... better that if he came in their bit was done, "as for these, call find out Soho's itinerary and get back, I'll bring this to the cadre, we'll work on it."
--
There was more space to work despite similar office accoutrements filling the space. He had laid out that there were two objectives to the Regimental staff, and attendant battalion officers. The first was the immediate need, and objectives, and the second was to be looking at where their problems in this deployment had been and what they would need to do to correct that.
The electric lights of the long windowed façade created a glare against the night lurking outside the third story. It was pushing eleven, though the bell hadn't yet tolled. The cadre had divided into separate committees with divisions between the regiments, and the small handful of independent sections, but also the lateral wings of corporate interest.
Waite's motion to start pushing for ground clearing was still stalled up, but that was because of the disagreement about the war and the distraction. How long until they could ink the final arrangement with ford, and start taking receipt... the answer was however long the Germans could hold out, because consensus sat that if the US previous wars were any indication as soon as hostilities ended the congress would start wanting to downsize immediately and... the question was could they wait.
The incoming Battalion S3, who'd been in the job just shy of a month now, for third was a stock fellow, basically no neck and forearms of size that wouldn't sit comfortable against his size. In other words the reflected build of a career enlisted. 3
rd Battalion's operations officer was having to deal with the shortage of of vehicles, and more correctly spare parts. The infantry mustang knew what he was doing, but that didn't change the fact that they were short on parts, and that it had taken them longer to get moving as a result.
The red leg's staff officer was shorter, and skinnier and just younger all around in the spot because Griswold trusted him to run the hammers that actually made the barrels. "Battalion garrison has," a pressing, "need for a dedicated allotment for machine shops."
It was one thing when they'd been encamping in railroad depots. The machine shops there were plenty much sufficient to needs in 1914. Unfortunately putting addition plate armor, and heavier engines put additional on the stress on the forward leaf springs, which meant off road capacity diminished... which... meant you bogged down in the mud. The bigger engine had been required for moving the additional weight of the armor and the slightly higher top speed on roads.
"The British have done some interesting things this past year with their tractors." That had resulted in the development of a dedicated armored tow for recovery of distressed vehicles... which sort of sounded like they needed. "Of course it bears," to be realistic, "reiterating the facts of current limitations." It was all well and good to recognize that one vehicle couldn't do everything. "Our immediate priority is provision of the tractors for the Five Nines. Their mobility is paramount."
The smaller red leg staff officer nodded looking painfully smug at confirmation, but at the same time relieved that he didn't need to argue the point. The rifle officers were less enthused. The problem was that was where the break down was. He doubted the Artillery branch was truly unified behind the heavy guns, some probably would have preferred a tractor with better characteristics to maneuver the light howitzers ... but they were certainly a minority in face of that a tractor that could tow a hundred fifty millimeter howitzer could pull the smaller gun on the same chassis.
"In shortage terms the tractors are in better shape."
"Explain."
He didn't really need it explained. He had an idea where this was going.
"All of the guns use the same chassis, even if a frame becomes damaged, or a wheel needs to be replaced they can be easily be switched out." Obviously, that had been the whole point of the system, "While there is wear to tractors they're not going as far from staging grounds, nor as quickly as cars. Simply put that any tractor from the heavy brigade can be used to move ammunition or batteries from any lighter field piece."
That and there, also of consideration, was they had no entrenched cavalry to fight. There were horse soldiers around, but Cole was too pressed on with the gendarmes and more focused as mounted rifles for anyone under him to contemplate four legs versus wheels. That went back what they had in front of them. "There are already plans in discussion to expand production," And whatever provincial rivalries existed Shansi and Shensi could benefit symbiotically from the other, "There is at this moment a shortage of factories," both domestically, and there was no external slack to make up for demand, "So the priority are the larger guns. Any talk of self motorized gun carriages will have to be for later. Equally the same full mechanization, or expansion of scout cars, armored cars and carriers will need to be put aside."
The thinking six months ago had been that they had been in possession of a reserve of material and with no pressing need that they could afford to experiment. While they hadn't reached the point where there was a consensus to start disbanding the experimental technical sections they had been proven wrong about the volume of spare parts, and machines needed to be kept in reserve for rainy days.
They had ended up putting all three regiments in the field, which hitherto had been an unthinkable situation compared to the idea of simply posting units of reservists as preeminently guard or picket duty. It was July of 1917, a year ago the states hadn't even been in the war, and Okuma had still been prime minister, and the little welsh man hadn't become the English PM until December.
A year.
It felt as if they had fallen behind.
Just a month ago they'd been expecting Duan to make a move on Hunan while the latter was looking at the chaos over the border with Szechwan.
The immediate concern was fixing the cars that were broken, and how quickly they could do that. If it took a few weeks that was one thing, but days would be better, hours better... but doing that would probably meaning pulling from elsewhere.
--
Notes: this is an amalgamation of three separate sections, obviously as history will tell you mechanization largely favored going to a truck based solution for towed goes, there were instances of continued tractors but it really does drop off as automobiles increasingly mature as a technology and tractors become more specialized. Also of course thats because highways become more common and road fuel efficiency drives that adoption since in peace time moving artillery piece A to location B usually involves driving it around rather than going overland. Specialized tracked artillery movers show up in this period but predominantly in this period its horses (or donkeys / mules depending), and then tractors, trucks, and also you need to move ammunition. [And also of course standardization during this period was very much a not a thing, the vehicle list for England and France, 'we had some of these sitting around']
