Chapter 20: First Meeting with the Chairman!

  Third update, seeking recommendations! Seeking collection! Brothers are so powerful!

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  Zhang Xinghan arrived at the Ministry of War with his own luggage, and General Zhao Dengyu had already made preparations. In addition to Zhang Xinghan, two guards also followed along.

  As soon as Zhang Xinghan arrived, General Zhao Dengyu immediately took three people out of the hotel and got into a jeep that had been waiting for a long time. After the four people got on the jeep, the driver started the car and drove away in a cloud of dust.

  ………….

  From Xifengkou to Jixian, the distance is about 90 kilometers. Zhang Xinghan and General Zhao Dengyu took a car and arrived in Jixian after nearly three hours.

  At that time, Ji County was still in the rear, and the headquarters of the Third Army Corps was located in Ji County.

  Ji County, formerly known as Yuyang. In the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, it was called Wu Zhongzi State. During the Qin dynasty, it belonged to You Beiping Prefecture. It was renamed Ji Prefecture in the Tang Dynasty and Ji County in 1913.

  This thousand-year-old ancient city is located in the hinterland of Ping, Tianjin and Chengde. In order to facilitate the command of various troops on the front line, Song Zheyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Third Army Group, set up his own command post here.

  Zhao Dengyu arrived with Zhang Xinghan and others, and immediately someone brought them to the Third Legion Command in Ji County.

  "Are you Zhang Xinghan who killed the Japanese Lieutenant General?" Commander Song Zheyuan looked at young Zhang Xinghan with some surprise in the headquarters.

  "Reporting to Commander! Yes!" Zhang Xinghan hastily stood up straight and replied loudly.

  "Good! Truly a hero emerges in his youth!" General Song Zheyuan smiled and nodded, then turned to Zhao Dengyu and said: "Shun Chen, this time when we go to Baoding to meet with the governor, it will be you, me, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Pang (Pang Bingxun), Counselor Qin (Qin Dechun, originally from the Anhui clique, later defected to the Nationalist government after the Central Plains War, first serving as counselor to General Zhang Xueliang's headquarters, now serving as chief counselor of the 29th Army) and our anti-Japanese hero Zhang Xinghan!"

  "Oh! By the way, General Pang Bingxun went where?" Zhao Dengyu asked as he didn't see General Pang in the headquarters.

  "Oh! He returned to the 40th Army headquarters to hand over some follow-up work and command issues, we'll go ahead and meet him in Beiping!" Song Zheyuan said.

  "Oh! When are we departing?" General Zhao Dengyu nodded and asked again.

  "Half an hour later! You rest here for a moment, I'll go and prepare!" General Song Zheyuan said to Zhao Dengyu and others.

  "Yes!" General Zhao Dengyu and Zhang Xinghan hastily saluted.

  After seeing Song Zheyuan off, Zhang Xinghan and General Zhao Dengyu found two chairs in the command center and sat down. Having been jolted by the long car ride for several hours, both of them had sore waists and backs.

  Half an hour later, Zhang Xinghan followed Zhao Dengyu and General Song Zheyuan to drive north to Beiping.

  The entourage consisted of two jeeps and over a dozen trucks, with Song Zheyuan, Zhao Dengyu and Zhang Xinghan among others riding in the two jeeps, while an elite guard battalion was seated on top of ten trucks.

  This guard company has about 200 people and is a infantry company directly under the command of the 29th Army Headquarters, its main task is to undertake the security work of the 29th Army Headquarters.

  The members of the guard company were all tall and strong, with thick arms and sturdy physiques. The weapons they were equipped with were also relatively advanced, with about half of the officers and soldiers carrying MP18 submachine guns, commonly known as "flower machines". This submachine gun was not a genuine German product, but rather a Shanxi-made copy of the Jinzhao submachine gun, however its power was no less than that of the authentic product.

  Although the flower machine gun was a German equipment in World War I, in China with weak industrial foundation at that time, this automatic weapon was also quite advanced, and it was used to deal with hand-held special soldiers who were good at fighting against devils. In close combat, it was almost invincible.

  Ji County is nearly three hundred li away from Beiping, and this time the convoy drove for two days and one night before arriving at Fengtai Railway Station in Beiping on the morning of March 18.

  Due to a tight schedule, Chairman Chiang will arrive in Baoding tonight.

  So, after arriving in Beiping, General Song Zheyuan didn't even have time to meet with Commander-in-Chief Zhang Xueliang at that time, and took Zhang Xinghan and Zhao Dengyu directly to Fengtai Railway Station, preparing to take the train from Fengtai and head straight to Baoding.

  Just as the 29th Army's motorcade arrived at Fengtai Station, Pang Bingxun, deputy commander of the Third Corps and commander of the 40th Army, also drove up.

  At this time, Pang Bingxun was not only the commander of the 40th Army but also concurrently served as the commander of the 39th Division. Pang Bingxun was already over fifty years old and slightly plump in build. When he saw Song Zheyuan, he hastily got out of the car, saluted with a loud "click" and smiled: "General, you've come so quickly!"

  "Pang brother, you're not slow either! Alright, hurry up and board the vehicle! Time is pressing! The delegate might have arrived already." Song Zheyuan said with a smile.

  As they spoke, the group began to board the train. A special train had been waiting for a long time. After being questioned by the station guard team, they were allowed to pass through. Song Zheyuan led the Third Army Corps and others to board the train one after another.

  Zhang Xinghan followed General Zhao Dengyu, looking at Pang Bingxun, who later in the Battle of Xuzhou, fought against the Japanese army's Itahashi Brigade for a month and won a great victory in Linfen. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion. Who could have known that he would later surrender to Japan in the Zhongtiao Mountain area, leaving an indelible stain on his life?

  However, its outstanding military achievements in the Battle of Xuzhou are also worthy of praise.

  After everyone got on the train, it slowly started moving, panting heavily, let out a long whistle and rumbled to life, heading in the direction of Baoding.

  A night of silence, and on the second morning, the train arrived at Baoding Station.

  The person who went to the station to greet him was Wang Shih-wei, Chiang's personal attendant. After Zhang Xinghan got off the train with the crowd, he directly boarded the car prepared by Wang Shih-wei, while the guard company of the 29th Army followed and ran forward.

  Zhang Xinghan, as Chiang Kai-shek's appointed visitor to the anti-Japanese heroes, naturally rode in a car. Besides Brigade Commander Zhao Dengyu, there was also 40th Army Commander Pang Bingxun in the same vehicle.

  Due to Zhang Xinghan's killing of a Japanese army major general, the news had already spread throughout North China and the whole country under the National Government's all-out propaganda. Pang Bingxun also naturally knew about it.

  However, due to the difference in military rank and position, after asking a few simple questions, Pang Bingxun stopped talking. Indeed, as a military commander and lieutenant general of the National Government, he couldn't have much common language with an ordinary soldier like Zhang Xinghan. At this time, Zhang was also not in the mood to build a relationship with him, he just wanted to finish his current task as soon as possible and then return to continue fighting against the Japanese devils.

  So all the way except Zhao Dengyu and he had some words to say, basically speechless.

  The car drove for about twenty minutes and arrived at Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters in Baoding.

  As the car door opened, Zhang Xinghan followed General Zhao Dengyu out of the car and looked up to see a magnificent administrative office building in front of him.

  On both sides of the street, armed guards stood at attention. Zhang Xinghan had just shifted his gaze to the entrance of the building when he saw a few people standing there. Upon closer inspection, one of them was none other than Chiang Kai-shek, the current president of the National Government.