Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Wei Hongjun's old leader, Yang Quanwu, was able to surpass other military divisions in troop development precisely because he trusted and relied on officers formerly employed by the Nationalist Army. If his old leader could do it, Wei Hongjun could do it too.

"Why is the column still poaching people from us? I haven't seen the column send many cadres to us.

Gao Wei cursed.

Not happy.

Since Zheng Laishan joined the Chaxi Detachment, he first secured a batch of weapons and ammunition for the unit and maintained a well-organized logistics management system. Beyond logistics, Zheng Laishan also made significant contributions to the development of the detachment's headquarters. The Chaxi Detachment developed independently, and Gao Wei lacked much experience in troop development. His ability to manage a force of over ten thousand troops was largely due to Zheng Laishan's assistance in establishing a formal detachment headquarters.

It can be said that Zheng Laishan is a cadre that Gao Wei relies on very much.

Unexpectedly, the column wanted to poach Zheng Laishan with just one telegram.

How could Gao Wei be happy?

"It might be related to the chaotic management of supplies between the various detachments during this battle. I heard that the Pingbei detachment thought the price quoted by our hospital was too high and asked for help from the column. This is like complaining to the column."

Lu Weisheng expressed his opinion.

Gao Wei scratched his head.

He said unhappily, "I didn't take advantage of them."

"But we are all part of the Eighth Column after all. If we have trouble with the column due to issues like supply replenishment or the hospital's wounded, it will be embarrassing.

This problem always needs to be solved, otherwise there will be more and more such problems in the future."

Lu Weisheng immediately comforted Gao Wei.

Gao Wei is actually very similar to the commander of the 8th Column, Wang Qiuyun.

He usually focused his energy on training the troops and thinking about war all day long. As for other tasks, he didn't worry too much. Including military construction, he would push it off whenever possible and not put his energy there.

They don't like to waste their energy on other things.

They were pure military commanders. Training troops and researching tactics were their favorite jobs.

So Lu Weisheng needs to do more work. Gao Wei waved his hand and said, "What's the point of investigating the reason now? It's a pity that such a good cadre is leaving our detachment. You said he went to the column, so it should be considered a promotion.

"If I'm guessing correctly, the political commissar should want to reuse him."

"That's good. After all, he's from our detachment. It would be a shame if he wasn't taken seriously in the column just because he came from the Nationalist Army. It would be better for him to stay in our Chaxi detachment."

"Don't worry. Our commander and political commissar are such great men, how could they discriminate against him just because he came from the National Army? Comrade Zhang Dahu, commander of the Chadong Detachment, is also from the National Army. And Comrade Wu Qinghe, deputy commander of the Chanan Detachment, Comrade Cao, deputy commander of the Pingbei Detachment, Comrade Li Wanfu, commander of the 16th Regiment, and Comrade Song Zhiyuan, commander of the 35th Regiment, are all former National Army officers who joined the Eighth Route Army after the July Incident.

"makes sense."

Gao Wei nodded.

He said, "Then send someone to inform Zheng Laishan. The telegram said that Zheng Laishan must report to the column within a week. Have Zheng Laishan hand over his work as soon as possible and then report to the column."

Chapter 391 Solution

Gao Weinong's meeting at the Trade Department was indeed not very smooth.

The cadres in the logistics department had the support of the military and local governments. Although the trading companies were nominally affiliated with the Column Trading Company, transportation and communications were poor in those days, and the lower levels were far from the emperor. The military and local governments not only meddled in the affairs of the trading branches but also secretly established their own trading companies.

Furthermore, although Gao Weinong was a university professor and director of the Trade Department, his subordinates, many of whom were veteran Party members who had participated in the Agrarian Revolution and had the support of the military and local government, did not take him seriously.

It is not so easy to make them give up the benefits they have obtained.

The meeting did not go well.

Some people supported Gao Weinong's proposed profit-sharing model, but their proposal was a 90% split. The trading company would take one share, and the remaining nine would remain with the others. But Gao Weinong couldn't possibly agree to that.

Why can the general trading company only take 10%?

The main trading company is not there to do nothing. The supplies of the various trading companies under it need to go through the head office before they can be sold in the base.

At the same time, the headquarters allocated supplies based on the needs of each region. Even business with other bases was handled directly by the headquarters. While the individual branches still had to complete the task, the headquarters' involvement in facilitating these relationships was a significant contribution.

For example, the cloth needed by the base area was not only obtained through the clandestine trade between the various trading companies and enemy-occupied areas, but also largely through the General Trade Company's connections with other bases in the Jin-Cha-Yi region, from which it purchased goods. This was particularly true of the First Division, which was facilitated by the General Trade Company. After importing large quantities of cloth, the General Trade Company would allocate it to its branch companies based on demand, allowing them to sell it locally.

How can I only get 10% when I do so many things?

But those people below him didn't care about what Gao Weinong said. Because the branches knew that the trading company couldn't do without them, so they kept opposing Gao Weinong.

So we kept arguing during the meeting.

Gao Weinong couldn't suppress it, and Li Shiping stepped in, but the problem still couldn't be solved.

There are huge conflicts of interest.

When it comes to interests, even Deputy Commander Li Shiping cannot suppress it.

Finally, Wei Hongjun couldn't help himself. He personally attended the meeting and lectured the trading company leaders, directly criticizing them for "factionalism" and "parochialism." Although Wei Hongjun emphasized and strictly enforced discipline within the column, he rarely used such broadsides.

But this time Wei Hongjun couldn't help it.

As soon as Wei Hongjun lost his temper, everyone fell silent. Even if they disagreed, they didn't dare to confront him like Li Shiping and Gao Weinong had done before. Wei Hongjun was currently the top leader of the Party, government, and military in the base area. If he were to be dealt with, no one would be spared.

Of course Wei Hongjun was angry, but it was not to the point of requiring mandatory regulations.

Therefore, mandatory regulations are of little use.

After the criticism, Wei Hongjun reasoned with them. With Wei Hongjun's support, Gao Weinong continued the meeting. However, even with Wei Hongjun's intervention, it wasn't easy to get concessions from the subordinates. In the end, everyone decided on a 70% profit split. Each trading company would submit 30% of its profits to the main trading company, and 70% would remain with the subordinates.

This resolved the current chaotic trade situation in the various bases. All trading companies in the bases, whether open, semi-open, or even operating covertly, were incorporated into the General Trading Company. Anyone who privately established a trading company-like entity would be punished, including the logistics leaders of the various military units, the heads of the trading branches, and the leaders of the local government.

Just as the meeting was being held at the Trade Office, Zheng Laishan, Chief of the General Affairs Section of the Chaxi Detachment, came to the column.

Zheng Laishan is thirty-seven years old this year.

After receiving the telegram and handing over his duties, he arrived at the column exhausted. In fact, he was nervous when he arrived at the column. In fact, Zheng Laishan was living a good life in the Chaxi Detachment.

Gao Wei, commander of the Chaxi detachment, trusted him very much.

If Gao Wei hadn't come from the Nationalist Army and hadn't been in the Eighth Route Army for so long, he would have recommended Zheng Laishan to the column as deputy commander of the Chaxi Detachment. This was because Zheng Laishan was the treasure of the Chaxi Detachment.

Now that he had left his familiar leaders and comrades and arrived at the column, Zheng Laishan felt a little nervous.

I don’t know what the column wants to talk to me about.

I don’t know whether the column will reject me because I am from the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

It wasn't until Li Shiping, the deputy commander of the 8th Column, spoke to him about the current logistical chaos that he finally felt relieved. It turned out the column had contacted him to find a solution to the current logistical problems.

After Zheng Laishan came to the column to rest for a day, Wei Hongjun went to find Zheng Laishan.

"Report to the Political Commissar, Zheng Laishan has arrived to report on orders."

"Comrade Zheng Laishan, hello."

Wei Hongjun observed Zheng Laishan.

Zheng Laishan also observed Wei Hongjun. Everyone in the Eighth Column knew that the current Eighth Column was built by Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun. From a group of about thirty, it had grown to encompass nearly 20 counties and a population of over three million.

Within Jin-Cha-Ji, Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun are both legends.

From a company-level cadre in the Eighth Route Army to a military sub-district commander, Zheng Laishan was also very curious about such a person.

But at first glance, you can't see anything.

Wei Hongjun was thin, not tall, but not short either. His uniform was bleached, evidently from frequent washings. He looked so gentle and courteous that it was hard to imagine he was the political commissar commanding tens of thousands of troops.

Wei Hongjun didn't have any time for pleasantries, so he went straight to the point and asked, "Comrade Zheng Laishan, Deputy Commander Li should have told you the details. I heard that you used to be an officer in the Military Affairs Department of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, and later in charge of the logistics of the Chaxi Detachment, and you managed it very well. Now that the Eighth Column has grown in number and the scale of its battles is getting bigger, if the logistics department remains in such disarray, how will the column mobilize troops to fight in the future? Therefore, this problem must be resolved as soon as possible. I asked you to come here because I hope you can come up with a solution."

“Political Commissar, Deputy Commander Li has already discussed this matter with me.

I went back and thought about it carefully. This problem stemmed primarily from a lack of trust among the various units. They worried about carelessly distributing supplies to troops in other detachments and then not being able to retrieve them. Each unit didn't want to cause conflict with its comrades over such a small matter. If a fight erupted at the head of the column over a few supplies, it would be even more embarrassing. So the straightforward solution was to simply withhold the supplies.

"Lack of trust?"

"Yes. In fact, the current logistical chaos all stems from trust. As long as the trust issue is resolved, this problem can be solved smoothly."

Zheng Laishan answered confidently.

Zheng Laishan knew that he might have to work in the column in the future. In this case, it was natural for him to show his ability in front of Wei Hongjun.

He didn't dare to say anything about other aspects, but Zheng Laishan believed that he was capable in managing logistics.

“How do we resolve the trust issue?”

"The column acts as a guarantor. The column centrally customizes material application forms and receipts, which are then distributed to subordinate units. When a unit needs to receive supplies, it writes an application form, and the logistics unit issues a receipt.

Finally, these orders will be counted in a unified column, so the units below will not have to worry about other troops or units defaulting on their payments.

Wei Hongjun immediately began to think about this.

The column acts as a guarantor?

The column uniformly customizes material application forms and receipt forms.

Wei Hongjun thought about all this and said, "How do we settle the account in the end?"

"Political Commissar, there are two solutions. One is for the Column Logistics Department to unify the management of all logistics agencies in the base area. Establish institutions similar to the Nationalist Army's military depots in some important locations to be responsible for the unified management and distribution of supplies. The advantage of this is that the column can directly manage all supplies, and the supply application and receipt forms issued by the column do not need to go through other departments below. The individual troops below no longer need to worry about supply issues, they only need to be responsible for fighting. Because everything is directly managed by the column, there is no wrangling, and management is more convenient."

"Where's the other one?"

"The Column's Logistics Department will continue to manage all logistics organizations, but will not be in charge of all material management and distribution. The supplies of the subordinate units will continue to be managed by the subordinate organizations, and the general model is similar to the current one. The Column will only act as a guarantor and manage the collection of additional supplies. The Column will allocate supplies to the subordinate units every year, and the Column can adjust the distribution of supplies based on the material collection list. This is to provide guarantees to the subordinate units.

"Which one do you think is suitable?"

"the second."

Zheng Laishan has been in the Chaxi Detachment for several years and is very familiar with the current situation of the Eighth Route Army.

Therefore, he directly said, "Currently, the column is still mostly operating as a regiment or detachment. Many of the subordinate units are still independently developing bases. Giving them more autonomy and allowing them to exercise more autonomy will better increase their enthusiasm. Although the column's large-scale combat mode has increased, cross-detachment and cross-regional combat situations are not common. Therefore, it is not yet time to establish a unified logistics depot. The current stage is mainly to solve the problem of cross-detachment and cross-regional supply collection. In this process, we will gradually establish a model for the column to issue supply application and collection forms, which will lay the foundation for the establishment of a unified logistics depot in the future."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

Professional matters should be left to professionals.

Many of the Eighth Route Army's officers came from guerrilla warfare backgrounds, so they still had many problems with regularizing the troops. Officers from the Nationalist Army, especially those in government agencies, were more familiar with this aspect.

This is the case with Zheng Laishan.

After hearing Zheng Laishan's words, Wei Hongjun was quite satisfied and felt relieved. Therefore, Wei Hongjun said, "Comrade Zheng Laishan, on behalf of the Column, I appoint you as Deputy Director of the Column's Logistics Department, with full responsibility for resolving cross-detachment and cross-regional supply issues for the troops. Furthermore, our Column will inevitably move towards a regularized model of large units and corps. The same applies to the logistics department. In addition to resolving cross-detachment and cross-regional supply issues, you will also be responsible for the regularization of our Column's logistics and lay the foundation for the establishment of a unified military depot in the future."

"Yes."

Zheng Laishan was very happy.

He had always worried about the column's opinion of his background. Unexpectedly, Wei Hongjun entrusted him with such an important task, entrusting him with the formalization of the column's logistics. Wei Hongjun was even more satisfied.

Gao Weinong integrated the Trade Department, and the trading company thrived. However, as Director of the Logistics Department, his performance wasn't as good as expected. Li Shiping, Deputy Commander of the 8th Column, was adept at propaganda and organization, but not at logistics. Logistics, for example, still requires specialized talent.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun has high hopes for Zheng Laishan.