The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

"Hush—" Zhang Yunyi said, "I stole this from Guangzhou with great effort. You can't let anyone know about it."

"It's not being spread outside, it's not being spread outside," Yu Zuobai said. "That's quite good. The people in Nanjing are still piecing together their memories and reconstructing Chen Tianheng's tactics and regulations. Everyone is the same."

Zhang Yunyi: "Exactly. The one I got is the original. It's much more authentic than the one from the Nanjing Academy."

Yu Zuobai continued to chat with Zhang Yun逸 for a while, and when the time was almost up, he said goodbye and left to continue his official business.

Yu Zuobai left the office, and Zhang Yun逸 sat back down, opened his locked drawer, and took out a file bag. This was something Zhang Yun逸 had taken out and locked in the drawer before Yu Zuobai's visit.

[Mountain Infantry Tactics (I)] [Final Exam] Well, this was also mailed from the Huangpu Headquarters in Guangzhou.

Zhang Yun逸 used the textbooks from Huangpu to "make up lessons" for Li Tianyou, Wei Jie, Qin Shimian and other students who had joined the party or joined peripheral organizations.

Since the supplementary lessons all use genuine textbooks, how can we not use genuine exam questions? This can also be regarded as the "final exam" of all branches of Huangpu, right?

only……

"The failure rate should be controlled at 5-10%?"

Zhang Yun逸 touched his beard and fell into deep thought.

Chapter 71, Jiangxi 1930 Special Exercise

The internal strife within the Guangxi clique continued until July, when Chiang Kai-shek called it a day and did not continue.

It was unlikely to drive Li Zongren away. Guangxi Province still supported him, and he firmly controlled several armies in Nanchang in Jiangxi, making it impossible for the Central Army to take action.

However, the complaint filed by Jiangxi gentry against Li Zongren was real. Chiang Kai-shek transferred Li Zongren from the Second Pacification Zone to the First Pacification Zone as commander on the grounds that Li Zongren "arbitrarily appointed Guangxi officers as local officials in Jiangxi and collected taxes and set up customs duties."

Li Zongren left the Second Sui District, but the Seventh Army and the 47th Army of the Second Sui District remained stationed in Nanchang.

After Chiang Kai-shek's purge of the Yisui region, which not only expelled Bai Chongxi but also replaced the commanders of various armies, including the 27th Army, Li Zongren lacked a stronghold there. Li Zongren expressed extreme dissatisfaction and demanded that at least his 7th Army be transferred from Nanchang to Wuhan, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to discuss the matter, citing the importance of military orders from the Ministry of Military Affairs.

As for Bai Chongxi, since Chiang Kai-shek failed to get rid of the Guangxi clique and was just trying to threaten it, the arrest warrant against Bai Chongxi was revoked. Chiang Kai-shek appointed him as the chief councilor of the Nanjing Military Senate, a nominal position with not much real power.

Huang Shao! continues to serve as Minister of the Interior.

In Guangxi Province, Yu Zuobai remained the provincial governor. Chiang Kai-shek and Huang Shaozi believed that Yu Zuobai would voluntarily "overthrow Li," but Yu Zuobai refused, and Huang Shaozi was powerless to stop him. Huang Xuchu stepped down from the provincial governorship and assumed the position of commander of the Guangxi-Guangdong Border Defense Army, a position Huang Shaozi had previously held in nominal terms.

In short, Chiang Kai-shek's actions weakened the New Guangxi Clique's territory and influence outside the province, but it remained a solid block within the province.

Huang Shaozhan became estranged from Li and Bai, but the New Guangxi Clique formed by Li and Bai was still able to form an independent faction and have its own say within the Chiang Kai-shek government.

"Delin, did you receive secret help from the Communist Party in Jiangxi?"

The Chief Counsel of the Military Senate was a sinecure, so Bai Chongxi now had plenty of time to travel around the country, and of course he could also go to Wuhan for a short inspection.

Li Zongren: "Yes. Very early on, in early May, the Communist Party passed me a note warning me that Chiang Kai-shek was secretly plotting against me. By June, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to mobilize the people of Jiangxi to revolt and oust me. The Communist Party said they could deal with the Kuomintang headquarters in Nanchang. Whatever they organized, the Communist Party could ruin it."

Bai Chongxi drank tea and thought.

Li Zongren: "Jiansheng, I have been thinking about our future recently. We can no longer blindly pursue military solutions. Whether it is Chiang Kai-shek or the Communist Party, we cannot solve them. We must do a good job of management, and the focus is on managing Guangxi."

Bai Chongxi: "Yes, military means cannot solve the problem in a short period of time."

Li Zongren: "The Communist Party has a small territory but a strong military, while Chiang Kai-shek is weak militarily but has a large territory and many soldiers, forming a balance of power between the two sides. However, despite the difference in the size of the territories, the support behind them is actually the same."

"What did Chiang Kai-shek rely on? Jiangnan was the wealthiest province in the world, and Shanghai was home to a concentration of industrial and commercial elites. Guangdong Province relied on Guangzhou, the epicenter of the world's wealth. Now that the Communist Party is running Guangdong, commerce and all other industries are flourishing. The tax revenues of these two provinces are equivalent to one-third of Chiang Kai-shek's, allowing them to compete with Chiang Kai-shek. I suspect this battle between Nanjing and Guangdong will last for many years, and who will emerge victorious will depend on how well each manages its domestic affairs."

Bai Chongxi: "Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangxi's development has been inseparable from Guangdong. The so-called integration of Guangdong and Guangxi. Furthermore, how can Guangxi manage and develop to catch up with Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang?"

Li Zongren: "We're one, so who cares? So the banks and factories and mines opened by Guangdong people in Guangxi were all decided by me. Guangdong isn't sending troops to attack Guangxi anyway. Just focus on construction, Jiansheng. To put it bluntly, as long as Chen Tianheng isn't slurping noodles on the streets of Nanning, we'll pretend Guangdong didn't swallow us up."

"Catching up with Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang is another matter. Perhaps we won't be able to catch up. But if we manage Guangxi well, we will be invincible."

Bai Chongxi: "Delin, from what you said, it seems that you think that it's not a big deal for Guangxi to switch sides."

"No, we can't change sides. I've thought about it, but it's simply not feasible," Li Zongren said. "The Guangdong Communist Party is too rigid politically. They won't compromise with you on the level of their program. Either you accept their program in its entirety, or you fight."

Bai Chongxi: "Yes, the Guangdong Communist Party doesn't need surrendered generals. The generals who rebelled can be adequately treated, but they can't continue to lead troops, unless they joined the Communist Party before the uprising or were absorbed by the Revolutionary Committee. This is the first time in China's 5,000 years of history that this has happened."

Li Zongren: "The rebel generals are uncompromising in this regard, but they are even more uncompromising in other areas. Their common program now says that the Guangdong United Government is an alliance of workers, peasants, workshop owners, and the petty bourgeoisie, but the United Government has also promulgated the Land Revolution Law. Have you read their Land Revolution Law?"

"I've seen it, but this Land Revolution Law doesn't actually go beyond their common program," Bai Chongxi said. "The law's preamble states that, given China's current poverty and weakness, its extremely backward industry and agriculture, and its large population, cultivated land shouldn't be considered a means of production in the ordinary sense, but rather the basic means of survival and living conditions for the vast majority of farmers. Therefore, 'this law is enacted to redistribute cultivated land throughout the country to ensure the survival of the vast majority of farmers.'"

Li Zongren: "I am not saying that they have any logical loopholes, but I am saying that they will implement the Land Revolution Law without any compromise in the areas they conquer..."

The conversation between the two was confidential, and no outsiders, including the secretary of the Pacification Office, were allowed in. After discussing a few topics of common concern, Li Zongren opened the door and found that the confidential secretary of the Pacification Office had been sitting outside waiting for a long time.

"Commander, the Communist army's large-scale military exercises have reached the Hubei-Jiangxi border."

"It's the 21st day. Update on the current positions of each unit."

At the Guangzhou General Staff Headquarters, Chen Tianheng was in the Operations Department. On the wall was a map of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, with a line of handwritten words in hollow Song font on the map:

"Jiangxi '1930 Special Exercise"

The staff of the Operations Department pulled out the small flag on the map and then put it back in a new position according to the latest movement status of the troops today.

"The 1st Division arrived at Xiushui County, the 2nd Division arrived 5 kilometers east of Xiushui County. The 10th Division is 5 kilometers west of Xiushui County."

"The 13th Division has entered Wuning territory, the 15th Division is in Wuning Qingshan. The 8th Division is in the area around Wuning Jiugong Mountain."

"There is also the 5th Division, which is stationed in Xiushui, in the same location as the 1st Division."

Chen Tianheng: ":The location and status of the two artillery battalions."

"The mountain artillery battalion arrived at Yongxiu County with the 1st Division, and the field artillery battalion... was in Xinyu. It was 150 kilometers behind the infantry division."

Zhou Shidi: "During a 700-kilometer campaign-level long-distance march, the field artillery lagged behind by 150 kilometers. This is no small number. At their marching speed, that's five to six days' delay."

Chen Tianheng: "This is the difference between a cannon weighing more than one ton and a cannon weighing four or five hundred kilograms..."

The Jiangxi '1930 Special Exercises, also known as the Gan Special Exercises, mobilized six infantry divisions from four armies, plus a mountain artillery battalion and a field artillery battalion.

This special exercise does not involve tactics and there is no combat confrontation. It is mainly to practice "whether the infantry division can conduct a 700-kilometer march as a whole" and to find out "how long it takes and how much loss such a long-distance march will cause."

This wasn't a forced march, a rush of just a few days to fight a single battle, nor was it a small regimental or battalion-sized march. Rather, it was a corps-level troop movement. It involved a large amount of heavy equipment, as well as vast quantities of food, fodder, and ammunition. These supplies needed to sustain the troops in three or four consecutive battles after entering Guizhou or the Sichuan Basin. This was because it was possible that even after the troops had made it through the march, the logistics transport team was still organizing and deploying supplies, and it would take several days for the supplies to arrive.

The 21-day test showed that mountain artillery could barely keep up with the marching columns of infantry divisions on rural dirt roads, but field artillery could not.

Furthermore, a large number of draft horses, whether employed in the mountain or field artillery, became sick, disabled, or died. Consequently, Chen Tianheng ordered the exercise to involve only one battalion each of mountain and field artillery, to minimize horse losses and solely for the purpose of obtaining test data.

1、2、10师从广东出发，进行了21天的行军，行军距离是最远的，715公里。山炮营和野炮营也都是行军了715公里。

第五军的13、15师从郴州出发，行军15天,距离500公里。第三军8师行军14天，距离450公里。

Chen Tianheng: "The exercise is now nearing its end. Both the Operations Department and the Intelligence Department have confirmed that 24 days is a critical timeframe. Within 24 days, we will have strategic surprise. Beyond 24 days, the advantage of surprise may disappear."

Zhou Shidi: "What I am thinking about is that more than 70 pack horses and draft horses were sacrificed for this exercise..."

Su Yu: "General, we will enter Guizhou and then Sichuan. Perhaps the artillery can be towed by cars."

Chen Tianheng: "Yes. But a car-drawn march basically doesn't need to be practiced... When the operation begins, even if we have cars, the draft horses and pack horses will have to be concentrated in western Hunan. The Sichuan-Guizhou highway is too dangerous. Two packs of dynamite can turn a road suitable for cars into a packhorse path."

Wuhan.

"You're saying that half a month ago, someone in Ganzhou saw these troops participating in the exercise, and half a month later, these troops appeared on the Hubei-Jiangxi border?"

Bai Chongxi asked.

"Yes, sir. Many businessmen and foreigners in Ganzhou saw it."

Bai Chongxi looked at the map and asked, "They came here from Guangdong. There's clearly the excellent Guangdong-Hunan Highway that goes all the way to the Miluo River. Then they took the mountain road from Pingjiang to where they are now. Why didn't they take that route, instead choosing the less-than-perfect road?"

Li Zongren: "Exercises, exercises, are exercises to practice certain situations that might happen. ... Where do they want to attack?"

Confidential Secretary: "Commander, are you planning to attack Guangxi?"

Bai Chongxi frowned, looked around on the map, and briefly measured the roads in the areas controlled by Guangdong and Guangxi. He shook his head and said, "It's unlikely that this exercise is targeting Guangxi. If they send troops to attack Guangxi, they don't need to climb 700 kilometers on mountain roads."

Li Zongren: "So, where will the Guangdong Communists attack..."

"Hmph." Bai Chongxi chuckled twice, "Delin, what you said just now is very right. I agree now. As long as they don't attack Guangxi, they can attack anywhere they want."

Chapter 72: GAC Citroen's Wuling Truck

The Jiangxi '1930 Special Exercise accumulated rich data for the Sichuan campaign and similar long-distance breakthrough operations in the future.

Of course, the exercise also exposed some problems that need to be improved.

For example, the loss of mules and horses during the long march exceeded previous estimates. The artillery battalion with 12 field guns lost 55 of its 72 draft horses. Even after all the spare horses prepared before the exercise were deployed, the battalion's marching speed was still slow.

Only one field artillery battalion and one mountain artillery battalion were deployed in this exercise, but in the actual Sichuan Campaign, the revolutionary army would probably deploy four field artillery battalions and six mountain artillery battalions. For an artillery unit of this size, the loss of horses alone would be a huge expense.

The Shaoguan-Ganzhou section of the exercise was the smoothest, as the artillery was towed by vehicles. After the exercise, the staffs of the four participating armies unanimously stated that whenever possible, vehicles should be used to pull the artillery.

虽然现在革命军装备的火炮都是利于马拉的大直径钢木轮，时速45甚至60公里的汽车拉炮也只能限速20公里,否则大炮轮子要冒烟，但20公里/小时也十分强大了。骡马拖拽的时速是6公里,上坡路可能还不到。

The revolutionary army was gradually forming a field corps combat model, rather than relying on transportation lines to advance or retreat. This field corps combat capability was built on the staff's ability, the basic quality of the soldiers, and the material foundation.

In the original historical dimension, the 20 pieces of Japanese military equipment received by the Eighth Route Army in North China upon their surrender in 1945 were crucial to the People's Liberation Army in the interior. Only after receiving an entire division's worth of Japanese equipment could the various field corps of the Huaye Army be formed. The field corps outside the Great Wall depended on the progress of the search for Japanese equipment.

But the revolutionary army does not have such a complete set of equipment now. When fighting with Chiang Kai-shek, the equipment captured from the annihilation troops is also incomplete. If they want to achieve the same offensive and defensive combat capabilities as the Japanese divisions of the same period, they basically have to accumulate it themselves.

"Today, the first Wuling truck produced by GAC-Citroen rolled off the production line!"

"This is a masterpiece of cooperation between Citroën and China. In just 18 months, we built a car factory on a vacant lot! A modern Ford-style factory, which is unique in China and in all of Asia."

“Long live the Sino-French friendship! Vive l'a Franco-Chinoise!”

Chen Yun delivered an impassioned speech on the stage, interspersed with a phrase of newly learned French. He then shook hands with the manager of GAC and a representative of Citroën, followed by the clatter of firecrackers and cheers.

The driver of the first Guangzhou Wuling truck—actually a light truck version of the Citroën C4—started the engine. Amidst a roar of noise, the truck drove out of the workshop on its own, moving forward more than 30 meters, getting closer to the crowd at the rollout ceremony.

The truck's logo is "Wuzha" and its name is GAC Wuling. This was done after consultation with the French side, in response to the current high expectations of Chinese people for domestically produced cars. Although the truck looks exactly like the Citroën C4 and is mostly made of genuine French parts, the mere mention of "GAC Wuling" will always make people look at it differently.

It has a rated load capacity of 1.25 tons and powerful power, and can reach a speed of 96 kilometers per hour on hardened roads. Of course, this is a bit useless, but the high-power engine brings strong climbing ability, which is definitely useful in today's China.

"That is to say, the only domestically produced component on this vehicle is the truck seat?" Chen Tianheng asked.

"No, no, no, now there is another component that is also domestically produced, the steering wheel." Chen Tianheng sat in the truck cab, sat on the domestically produced seat, and touched the domestically produced steering wheel - there was a Wuling logo on it, and there was a line of small words on the side of the steering wheel: Guangzhou Auto Parts.

"I used to think that after seats, the next part to be domestically produced would be car windows."

Chen Yun: "Car glass is not that simple. Various parameters are high, and the price must be based on Citroën's specifications. It can't be more expensive than French glass. But the car glass will be ready soon, in half a year."

Chen Tianheng: "There's no need to report such detailed progress on the car glass. As I said before, if we can manufacture the four major components: engine, gearbox, chassis, and bogie, then we can say we have our own auto industry. We don't have an auto industry yet."

Chen Yun: "Besides the four major components of a car, there's a fifth: gasoline." Chen Tianheng: "Hey, you're bringing up something irrelevant."

"Mr. Minister, Mr. Chief of Staff," said Albert, the Citroën representative, "the price of crude oil was $1 a barrel last month, but this month it's dropped to 65 cents. At 65 cents, or 1.3 yuan, this car can run from Guangzhou to Changsha. Fuel isn't the key factor."

“No, that’s the key factor,” Chen Tianheng said. “But this has nothing to do with you or GAC. This is our job.”

Chen Tianheng had no intention of racing on the spot, so he stayed in the cab for a while and then lowered his head to look for the mechanism to open the door. Albert, who was outside the door, immediately understood and attentively pulled the door handle to open the door for Chen Tianheng.

He pulled once, but it didn't budge. He pulled twice, but it didn't budge. He pulled a third time, trying hard. Albert held up the door handle he had torn off, his expression awkward and bewildered.

Chen Tianheng: “….” Chen Yun: “…..….”

What could be done? The first batch of 50 trucks rolled off the GAC Citroën production line were ordered by the General Armaments Department of the Revolutionary Army...

Albert and GAC promised to send the 50 vehicles back for re-debugging and inspection, and also promised to review the assembly line process and train technicians to ensure that such incidents will not happen again in the future.

That's it. After GAC's own debugging and inspection, the final assembly will also inspect the car again.

The car doors and handles are all original French parts, and they must be the workers on the assembly line working according to the procedures.

Zengcheng, light weapons testing ground.

The first phase of testing for the Ishii and Shadao light machine guns has concluded. The scores were very close, with Ishii's ZB-30 slightly ahead. The two arsenals now have a month to make minor adjustments based on feedback from testers and test troops, then produce a batch of prototypes for the second phase of testing. Once the test results are released, the winner will be determined.

So the small arms testing ground has been testing several types of firearms brought by the American salesman Wells Huggins for the past week.

"The FN M1930 is the most accurate of all the 7.92mm rifles we've tested. It's even more accurate than the Czech Mauser imitations."

The first thing the test team leader evaluated was the FN M1930 rifle brought by Huggins.

"That's natural. You may not know that its predecessor, the FNM1924, was the competition gun for the 300-meter rifle three-position event at the Amsterdam Olympics!"

Huggins confidently threw out the trump card, the gun used in the 300-meter rifle three-position competition, which is enough to illustrate its accuracy.

However, Huggins was still a little exaggerated. The FN1924 was only one of the five recommended guns for the 300-meter rifle three-position competition in the 1928 Olympics.

This event has the strongest military flavor among all shooting sports and has long been a showcase for precision rifles from various countries. However, after 1972, this event was no longer included in the Olympics because the venue requirements were too high and the competition was too lengthy. It is only retained in the Shooting World Championships.

Chen Tianheng: "In that case, this gun should have a scope. It should also have a bipod."

"Yes, yes, we have all these FNs, they are all ready-made!"

The test team leader said: "It is true that this gun is more suitable for long-range shooting with a scope."

Chen Tianheng: "What's the effective range of this gun? I want to see if a 2.5x or 4x scope would be suitable."