The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 158 Dog Meat General Zhang Zongchang

The arrival of this group of officers has indeed solved an urgent need. Although the new soldiers have not arrived yet, He Wei has begun to inspect these new officers since they entered the camp. The method of inspection is also very simple.

That is to let them take turns to lead the training. Now there are more than 60 brothers in the sixth company. He Wei lets the new people take turns to command the queue every day and lead the brothers in the sixth company to observe their basic training. The results of the inspection on the training ability of the soldiers are pretty good. Whether these new officers are from Huangpu students or from the army, most of them have received training from Huangpu Military Academy or officer training class or Army Infantry School. Their basic skills are very good, and they are from the army. They are not just rough people who cannot read a word of Chinese characters. They all have some writing skills and some cultural knowledge.
There were only two officers from the former Hunan Army. Although they had no experience in any college training, they had rich experience in leading troops and actual combat, and they were also very good at organizing training. Later, when He Wei went up to ask, he found out that these two Two officers with full military background, one from Tao Zhiyue's 16th Division, an elite unit of the Hunan Army, and one from He Jian's old unit No. [-] Division.

These two elite divisions of the Hunan Army withstood more than a dozen attacks by the Japanese army in places such as Liuhang and Zhongzaobang in Songhu. Without some combat effectiveness and ability, it would have been impossible to achieve such a record. of.

After a few days of observation, He Wei found that the two men's leadership and organizational skills were indeed somewhat unique, which was completely different from the uniqueness of officers who came from military academy. It can be said that you have your own way, and I have my own. My tricks all have a few brushes.

The lieutenant quartermaster was also good. In order to inspect him, He Wei gave him the money allocated in the past few days, and also gave him the responsibility for purchasing tactical vests. On the one hand, He Wei was To test his ability, on the other hand, He Wei wanted to see if this person's hands were clean. If he had any bad intentions of corruption, He Wei would immediately tell him to get out and leave.

This person's name is Li Youcai. As soon as his name sounds like he knows how to make money, he was admitted to a military commissary school as a high school graduate. He has a good cultural background and is very skilled in various financial manager tasks within the military such as accounting and issuing payments. , the most important thing is that this person is honest and honest in appearance. He Wei stared at him for a few days and found that this person's hands were indeed clean and there was no corruption, so he felt relieved.

In short, these new officers are all good enough to serve as grassroots officers in their own special agent battalion. With this group of people in place, it is logical to solve the problem of officers in He Wei's department.

Everything is ready, all we need is the east wind. What we are waiting for now is the arrival of new soldiers.

Five days later, Nanjing, Xiaguan

The two ferries slowly approached the Xiaguan Pier. Behind the two ferries, there were seven or eight small steamers. Several of the ferries were filled with Chinese soldiers in gray military uniforms. The pier was very lively and full of vendors. , fishermen, tourists, and Chinese soldiers on the boat looked at the pier of the capital with excitement and curiosity. Many people were excitedly discussing the big city they had never seen before.

Different from the Wu Nong soft language spoken by the Nanjing people on the dock, these Chinese soldiers all spoke with northern accents. With the sound of the ship's whistle, the largest steamship slowly docked in the center of the Xiaguan Pier. The place was different from other parts of the dock. There, two battalions of the Gendarmerie Second Regiment had already cleared an open space.

"Everyone, get off the boat!"

On the steamer, a major officer was the first to jump off the ferry and shouted the command with a thick Shandong accent. The soldiers on the ship jumped off the ship one after another, boarded the pier shore, and began to assemble as a team.

Several military police officers also came over. Compared with the military police who were wearing leather boots and woolen military uniforms and carrying flower traps and speed machines, these soldiers who disembarked looked extremely shabby. Most of them were wearing gray cotton clothes and their feet were dirty. Wearing cloth shoes, some even wearing straw sandals, they carried bamboo hats on their backs. Most of the soldiers did not carry any weapons. Only the officers leading the team carried pistols. Some sergeants and squad leaders carried Hanyang-made and Fengtian-made Liao [-] styles on their backs. [-] large cover and other types of rifles.

The vast majority of the soldiers went into battle unarmed. Some carried a bayonet, and some simply carried only bedding, stalls, and marching cookers. Their task was to join the frontline combat troops as a whole and take over the frontline. The bloody weapons left behind by the soldiers, wearing the helmets taken off the corpses, were thrown into Songhu, a hell that has countless people, one after another.

About 10 minutes later, all the Chinese soldiers on board the ship boarded the dock and began to assemble. The open space cleared by the military police was now crowded with newly landed Chinese soldiers, and the shouts of officers and squad leaders were everywhere. With the sound of organization, the Chinese soldiers who came ashore began to line up in battalion and company units. Although it was chaotic, it was also orderly in the chaos. These newly arrived officers and soldiers were the Tenth Army of Xu Yuanquan's troops who had recently been reinforced from Hubei.

This unit is the remnant of Zhang Zongchang's army. The troops on the Songhu front line suffered heavy casualties this time. The unit received an order to draw out officers and soldiers from the unit to supplement Hu Zongnan's First Army. Now the more than 4000 people boarding the dock are all from No. 40 First Division, this division has been stationed in Jingzhou, Hubei Province for a long time. After receiving the order, they immediately took a boat from Jingzhou to Nanjing. Next, they will take a train to Nanjing as scheduled.

After reorganizing the team, a lieutenant colonel of the 41st Division quickly stepped forward to hand over the military police officers who came to contact him. According to the scheduled plan, they would leave for Songhu as soon as possible. The lieutenant colonel felt that the troops he led were only After a short rest, Hui boarded the train bound for Songhu. However, the order given to him by the military police officer surprised him.

"I order your troops to keep one thousand soldiers below the rank of warrant officer in Nanjing to listen to their orders, and the rest of the troops will leave for Songhu immediately."

Although he didn't understand the purpose of the order from the Military and Political Department, the officer had only one choice: to execute the order. Soon, the thousands of people on the dock were divided into two teams, one with nearly 3000 people, and the other with about 1000 people. Organized and led by the military police, this group of soldiers, consisting of many people, boarded dozens of large trucks one after another without any explanation, and left the dock first.

. . . . . . . . .

The trucks transporting this group of soldiers drove into the city of Nanjing through Yijiang Gate. The back compartment of each truck was covered with a cloth, and the entrance of the compartment was guarded by military police. The dark environment and the unknown destination made it invisible. This aggravated the fear of these soldiers. Many people were wondering, where did this car drive to? It was named after receiving an order to go to Songhu for reinforcements. Why was it separated from other brothers?

Some soldiers who couldn't bear it wanted to open the curtain of the carriage and take a look outside, but when they saw the fierce military police in the carriage, they gave up the idea. So, in an atmosphere of anxiety and fear, La La Dozens of trucks carrying more than 1000 soldiers of the 41st Division traveled all the way through the city and finally arrived at the city defense spy camp located in the Central Military Academy.

Dozens of trucks drove into the camp in a mighty manner and stopped at the playground of the Central Military Academy. On the playground, He Wei, Fu Chen, Hu Zhaowu, Fang Jing and a group of officers had been waiting for a long time. The soldiers of the Sixth Company The officers and soldiers also lined up neatly on the playground, waiting to accept this new batch of reinforcements.

All the officers and soldiers of the Sixth Company were wearing neat new military uniforms. In fact, these recruits did not arrive as scheduled and were three days later than expected to arrive in Nanjing.

In order to enable the troops to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible after the arrival of the new recruits, the Ministry of Military Affairs issued in advance new military uniforms, ordnance, helmets and combat equipment, as well as a series of communication and engineering equipment such as engineering shovels, engineering picks, telephones, radios, etc. This batch of materials all From the military police inventory.According to the plan, He Wei's special agent battalion will cooperate with the military police to perform duties after the troop formation is completed. The military police's field and frontal combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the field troops, but He Wei's troops are serious army field troops. If you want the horse to run, Naturally, the horses had to eat grass, so the Military Police Headquarters generously allocated a large amount of supplies to He Wei.

In addition to this batch of supplies, the Military Police Headquarters also paid He Wei an additional 2000 yuan in legal currency for organizational expenses, which was an unexpected surprise.

The batch of new tactical vests ordered by He Wei have also been completed and shipped, and loaded into the warehouse of the Central Military Academy. All preparations have been made, except for the people.

"Everyone has it, get out of the car!"

A military police officer who was escorting got out of the truck and shouted at the top of his voice. In an instant, the rear panels of dozens of trucks were pushed open, and more than 1000 soldiers of the No. 40 First Division got out of the truck and looked at this curiously. In a strange place, in the distance, He Wei silently looked at the soldiers who were about to be added to him. He Wei nodded to Fu Chen,

Fu Chen immediately went forward to hand over to the military police officer responsible for transporting this group of soldiers. He Wei watched every move of these soldiers. To say whether an army is strong or not, and how disciplined an army is, there is actually no need to look at anything. The level of shooting, tactics, attack, defense, and pursuit encounters can be seen through daily life and subtle observations.

He Wei saw that although there were some small-scale chaos, noises, and yelling after these soldiers got off the bus, they were able to organize their queues and teams after the brief chaos. This showed that this unit was well-trained. To be able to perform like this, no matter how high the training level is, it is definitely not bad.

After more than ten minutes of tossing, all the more than 1000 soldiers got out of the car and lined up on the playground. Fu Chen also completed the handover with the military police. The officers and soldiers of the Sixth Company did not step forward, just like He Wei. Watching these new soldiers quietly on the spot, the more than 1000 soldiers also stood in line, looking around with their heads raised, talking in low voices to their companions from time to time, and exchanging views on this strange place.

This state of stillness remained for 5 minutes, and He Wei finally took steps towards the newly added soldiers.

Walking closer, He Wei saw a sergeant standing at the front of the queue. He Wei guessed that this was probably the leader. Then, He Wei walked around the team again and found that each team In front of the column stood one or two sergeants with guns on their backs. Thinking that when he wanted to recruit more soldiers, he specifically said that he only wanted sergeants and soldiers instead of officers. He Wei estimated that these veterans were now serving as company and platoon leaders. Staff Sergeant.

He Wei walked up to a sergeant. When the sergeant saw He Wei hanging the rank of major, he trembled for a moment, then turned around and shouted loudly to the officers and soldiers behind him: "Fourth Company, everyone Everyone, stand at attention."

More than 100 soldiers behind him put down their weapons one after another and stood at attention towards He Wei. The sergeant also stood the rifle in his hand on the ground, put his arms across his chest and saluted He Wei. Wei returned the greeting with a warm smile on his face. He was not kind to the new officers and wanted to show both kindness and power. However, He Wei felt that he should give more smiles to the soldiers.

"Old squad leader, what's going on with you guys? Is the sergeant here to take care of things?"

The sergeant said: "Sir, as soon as we got off the boat, there was an order from above asking us to detach a thousand men and follow them on those carts. As long as the soldiers do not need officers, the team cannot be without a steward. Each of our companies will let the most qualified The old sergeants are in charge, and I, the oldest soldier in the company, am in charge."

He Wei nodded and said, "That's it, old squad leader, how many companies have you come to?"

"Sir, there are seven companies of brothers here."

"I hear you have a Shandong accent. I heard that the troops of your 41st Division used to be the old Fengjun troops?"

Seeing He Wei mentioning Lao Fengjun, the old sergeant's eyes lit up and he said: "Yes, sir, our division used to be Lao Fengjun's army, Zhang Zongchang's team, Marshal Zhang's team, I was the first to follow Marshal Zhang Later, the army was defeated and after leaving the customs, I ate with Yu Shuai and fought for more than ten years. I have been in Shandong and Northeast China. More than half of the brothers behind me are from the north, and most of them are from the north. There are many people from Shandong and the four eastern provinces, and they were all old brothers who followed Marshal Zhang and Marshal Yu on their campaigns in the north and south."

The sergeant seemed to miss the old days very much. He kept telling He Wei about the situation of the troops during the Fengjun and Zhilu Allied Forces. He also called the veterans from other companies over and gathered around He Wei to chat.

Several veterans of other companies were from the Northeast. When they heard that the future commander, He Wei, was from the Northeast, they felt particularly cordial. They chatted openly with He Wei, sometimes about Zhang Zongchang's habits, and sometimes about him. Let’s talk about the situation when the White Russian Army Corps was incorporated into the army by Zhang Zongchang and Zhang Xiaoliuzi’s father came to inspect the army.

Finally, a few people actually recited the poems of Zhang Zongchang, the dog-meat general, in front of He Wei, such as: "Daming Lake, Minghu is big, there are lotuses in Daming Lake, and there are toads on the lotus, they poke and jump. .", "What things are flying in the sky, piles coming here and there? Could it be that the Jade Emperor built the Golden Palace, sifting lime and sifting lime." and other representative works of Zhang Zongchang.

He Wei didn't know what kind of magic this guy used. After so many years of death, he could still let his former troops remember his poems. Of course, He Wei didn't forget to ask about their garrison situation in Hubei, and what he got The answer still satisfied He Wei.

It turns out that since the remnants of the Zhilu Allied Forces were absorbed by the central government, after so many years of transformation, they have gradually begun to be centralized. Many officers in the army have been sent to the advanced classes of the Central Military Academy and the Army University for further training. The level of education and training has also been gradually improved, which means that the soldiers added to He Wei have been receiving good training over the years.

Many of these people are veterans with rich combat experience. Although they have backward war experience in China, they have seen blood no matter what. They are better than raw melons and eggs. In addition, they have been trained continuously for these years. , in He Wei's opinion, the quality of these supplementary soldiers is generally quite acceptable.

(End of this chapter)