Just when the Soviet and German armies were fighting fiercely in Stalingrad and Moscow, the Tang army entered a strategic rest period.

In addition to replacing the Japanese police and army on the Japanese archipelago, they captured Japanese war criminals everywhere, there were still small remnants of British troops and local armed forces in some British colonies occupied by the Tang army. They adopted guerrilla warfare, and the Tang army had to spend their efforts to encircle and suppress them.

In addition, 80% of the army of the Tang Empire entered a rest period. This rest period is not a holiday, but maintaining a small-scale training intensity to relieve the pressure of war without relaxing the war. The new soldiers of the Tang army are still recruiting the army, and the total strength is still expanding.

Due to the outbreak of World War II and the Tang Empire successively annexed the British and French colonies, achieving brilliant results, and the territory increased sharply. The territory expanded from 20,000 square kilometers before the war to 16.2 million square kilometers, and the territorial waters expanded by 90 million square kilometers, almost integrating the Pacific into the inner lake of the Tang Empire. (6.2 million square kilometers in the Far East, 9.97 million square kilometers in Oceania, and Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands)

Among them, the Far Eastern territory originally returned by the Soviet Union and the Tang Empire was only about 1.5 million square kilometers, all of which were land seized from the Qing government during the Tsarist Russian era. This part of the land was unconditionally transferred to the Tang Empire.

However, with the fiercer Soviet-German War, the Soviet Union faced unprecedented military pressure, and most of the domestic heavy industrial zones fell, and it was difficult for the factory equipment relocated by the Soviet army to be put into production quickly. Even if it was put into production, the production capacity was limited, making it difficult to compete with the German steel torrent.

For this reason, Stalin and Zhang Meng had a secret phone call. Stalin hoped that the Tang Empire could provide strategic materials such as steel, food, medicine, etc. to the Soviet Union on a larger scale, and even hoped that the Tang Empire would provide weapons and equipment. In exchange, the Soviet Union sold the entire Far East to the Tang Empire in exchange for the strategic materials they needed.

The land of more than 6 million square kilometers of the entire Far East region, although most of the areas are frozen and frozen, is not worth much in the eyes of everyone in the world, only Zhang Meng knows how valuable it will be in the future, and contains countless high-value oil and mineral resources. Even forest resources are worth buying.

Zhang Meng agreed that the Tang Empire purchased more than 3 million square kilometers of land in the Far East from the Soviet Union for 5 million tons of steel, 500,000 tons of grain, and 30,000 boxes of medicine, so that all the 6.2 million square kilometers of land in the Far East became owned by the Tang Empire.

At the same time, Zhang Meng also agreed to Stalin that the Tang Empire would supply 5 million tons of steel, 500,000 tons of grain and 3,000 boxes of medicine every year. Even some weapons, equipment and industrial equipment that would not attract the attention of the German army would be transported to the Soviet Union through the Far East by Siberian Railway.

In this way, the Tang Empire acquired the entire Soviet Far East, causing the territory of the Tang Empire to expand to 16.2 million square kilometers and reach the Arctic Circle.

The Tang Empire's existing military strength was far from enough to manage such a huge territory. This was exposed when the Tang army just took over Australia. At that time, it was impossible to draw more troops to deal with the Japanese army. Fortunately, the Australians were very honest. They did not rebel or even formed guerrillas to fight against the Tang army, which allowed the Tang army to quickly complete their rule over Australia. They divided their troops to participate in the brigade battle and finally won the victory.

Now, the Tang Empire has made a territorial exchange transaction with the Soviet Union, which has offended Hitler, but the two sides have not broken up. But Zhang Meng knew that whether the German army wins or the Soviet army wins, the victorious side will definitely settle the score with the Tang Empire. If it is the German army, it will compete with the Tang Dynasty for territory and hegemony in a comprehensive manner with the Tang Dynasty. If it is the Soviet army, it will inevitably be unwilling to lose the Far East and make a comeback and let the fist determine the rule of the Far East.

Regardless of the result, the Tang Empire had to be prepared. Therefore, Zhang Meng considered that the existing military system and national defense plan were no longer suitable, so the United Nations Ministry of Defense re-formed a plan for military expansion.

According to the new plan, the total strength of the Royal Army of the Tang Empire was expanded to 500,000. It has three army headquarters, Pacific War Zone, Oceania War Zone and Far East War Zone, 4 military headquarters, 16 combat divisions (4 armored divisions, 4 mechanized divisions, 4 light infantry divisions, 1 air assault divisions, 3 airborne divisions), 5 aviation brigades, 3 armored cavalry regiments, 10 artillery brigades, 3 independent land special forces and 1 airborne special forces.

The Royal Navy of the Tang Empire expanded its troops to 412,000, excluding the Marine Corps. It has five fleets, namely the Pacific Fleet (West, South, North Pacific), the Indian Ocean Fleet (Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Red Sea), the Atlantic Fleet (South, North, East Atlantic), the Mediterranean Fleet (Mediterranean), and the local Fleet (Central Pacific), and a Navy Transport Command.

The Tang Dynasty Royal Air Force's troops expanded to 402,000, with Air Operations Command and Air Mobile Command. The Air Operations Command has 10 air fleets (one of which is a strategic bomber aviation fleet), 24 air wings. The Air Motor Command has 2 air fleets and 15 flight wings.

The Tang Dynasty Royal Marine Corps has expanded its troop strength to 350,000. It has 10 Marine divisions, 8 service support brigades, 3 security and confidentiality battalions, and 5 frogman special forces battalions.

The Tang Empire Coast Guard expanded the largest scale, from the initial Central Pacific Guard Fleet composed of less than 40 patrol ships, it suddenly obtained 105 patrol ships, 400 seaplanes, and more than 1,500 various speedboats and small boats, and 10 new Arctic icebreakers. The force reached 53,000.

In addition, there is a special force with a force of 50,000, directly controlled by the Bureau of Homeland Security and not directly commanded by the Ministry of National Defense. However, the three armies, navy and air forces, only loyal to the royal family of the Tang Empire, are called the Royal Special Service Team. This unit includes all kinds of military talents, and is located in Chang'an, next to the Daming Palace. Among them, 3,000 Royal Guards directly protect the security of the royal family and do not leave Chang'an in normal times.

The special service team is directly a concentrated essence of the Tang army, including 25,300 special operations troops of the army, 5 brigades (each including 3 battalions), 1 individual corps infantry regiment (including 3 battalions), 1 aviation regiment, 1 psychological combat brigade (including 5 battalions), 1 civil battalion (including 5 companies), 1 communication battalion and 1 support battalion. The naval special operations troops have 14,000 people, 1 command center, 1 combat center, 3 brigades, 6 brigades, 6 "seals", 2 "seals" transport convoys, and 2 special boat squadrons. The air force special operations troops have 5,000 people, 1 headquarters, 1 corps, and 14 squadrons. The information warfare units are 3,000, and are actually assigned to other special service teams.

The Tang army launched a large-scale expansion of its army, with a total force of more than 1.7 million. If it only guards the 20,000 square kilometers of land in the Tang Empire, it would be too much. However, looking at the global strategy of the Tang Empire, hundreds of new strategic support points were added, the 1.7 million people did not seem to be too many.

Especially World War II has not ended yet. Although the Tang army is resting, it is always at risk of re-entering the war, and the enemies they face will be extremely powerful.

If it weren't for the population base limit of the Tang Empire and the economic development as the center, the Tang army would probably have expanded more.

Even so, the Tang army's troops of more than 100,000 were enough to shock the whole world. Now they have expanded to more than 1.7 million people. The actions of the Tang Empire made the whole world tremble, and they all guessed who the Tang army's next target was.
Chapter completed!