Chapter Five: Advisor

  As soon as I left the Arsenal, I rushed back to Song Gongguan. When I arrived, someone was already waiting there. It was Xu Aiming, a fellow who was engaged in mining exploration and smelting, whom I had met in the United States.

  "Xu younger brother, why don't you go in?"

  "This is indeed the mansion of the chairman of the Bank of China, how could someone like me dare to enter casually?"

  "Haha! Now I'm going to beat you up as the younger brother of the great chairman!"

  After the joke, I pulled Xu Aiming in and sat down. Little Xu excitedly unfolded a large pile of materials: "Brother Zi'an is really amazing! According to the address you provided, I found a large open-pit copper mine area in De Xing Fu Jia Wa without much effort."

  Hehe, more than 70 years later I went there, and I couldn't help but laugh to myself.

  I looked over the documents carefully and said with delight: "Very good, I remember that Mr. Weng Wenhao is in charge of mining management, let's go see him now."

  Then I went with Xu Aiming to the Resources Committee and found Mr. Weng Wen-hao who was working in his office.

  "Ah, it's Zi An, the younger brother! These past few days you've been causing quite a stir in Nanjing! How did you find time to come to this humble office of mine?"

  I said to Weng Wenhao: "I've come to trouble Secretary Weng, I entrust Mr. Xu Aiming to discover a large-scale copper mine that can be mined in the open air near Dexing, Shangrao, and hope the secretary will approve it for mining. I came especially to report this, here is the exploration data."

  Weng Wenhao quickly scanned the materials, raised his head in surprise and said: "Is this mineral deposit really so good? Can it actually be mined openly? What a blessing for the country!"

  "This is the result of Mr. Xu giving up his superior job in the United States and working hard to survey in Jiangxi!"

  "Sigh, fewer and fewer people are engaged in mining now, everyone has gone to pursue lucrative business and light industry! Since Mr. Zian is willing to engage in the mining industry, I wonder about the funding, equipment, and personnel aspects?"

  "My capital is all invested in Xiangshan and Shangrao, only some US stocks are left, where is the remaining money? How can the Capital Committee take charge?"

  "Where does this cold government office have funds?"

  "Really?"

  "Of course not! If you don't believe me, go ask the Chairman! You live in the official residence, don't you?"

  "In that case, we can only look for foreign investment."

  "What a misfortune for our country."

  "Not necessarily, Mr. Weng, would you like to gamble together?"

  "What did you say?"

  "Sell the mining rights to Germany, they are short of copper, sell them a 10-year mining right."

  "What is your younger brother thinking?"

  "Is the current international situation on the verge of a great chaos?"

  "Not bad."

  "If you continue to bully me like this, aren't we already at the point where we can no longer tolerate it and must fight?"

  "Not bad."

  "Once war breaks out, our international and coastal transportation will have to stop, even if we have resources, they can't be sold, only foreign capital can..."

  "Right, but why sell it to Germany?"

  "Germany and our current relationship is still good, and the relationship with Japan is also okay. Selling to Germany can guarantee that we can sell the ore."

  I secretly laughed in my heart. By the time the mine is built, World War II will have started on the European battlefield. After it's over, about ten years' worth of resources will be used up, haha.

  "Why don't you sell for ten years more or less?"

  "Hmm, because I estimated that by then it would be just finished."

  "I'm not in a position to make a decision on this, it will be decided after discussion with all parties involved."

  "Of course, we will still have to rely on Mr. Weng at that time. If the Resources Committee is interested, it can also participate in the exploitation."

  "Hahaha!"

  After Mr. He Weng finished the formalities and bid farewell to leave the Resource Committee, Xu Aiming said to me: "Lan sister also successfully found a mine in Shangrao, according to your plan, they went to Quzhou."

  "Alright, apart from Fugou Village Copper Mine and Zichangwei which will start production as soon as possible, the other five selected points will proceed accordingly, no need to rush, but pay attention to confidentiality."

  "I remember, Hengyang should be mined first, and Shangrao will set up a factory."

  After bidding farewell to He Yingqin, I returned to the residence of the Chairman of the Committee, but saw Jiang Baili and Mr. Chiang coming out to greet me, saying: "Younger brother, Mr. Falkenhausen wants to see you."

  "Is it German Chancellor?"

  "That's right."

  "Alright, I'll go see him."

  "After getting on the car, I asked: 'Does Mr. Bai know what's going on?'"

  "Not clear, possibly it's about the various new insights of my younger brother in terms of weaponry, Falkenhausen wants to know more."

  Arrived at the residence of the German advisory group, through the European-style porch, I saw General Falkenhausen and several other German officers, who introduced themselves to each other.

  "This is Mr. Song Zi'an, Deputy Director of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Military Affairs."

  "This is General von Falkenhausen, Chief Adviser of the National Revolutionary Army."

  "General, nice to meet you."

  "Hello, nice to meet you."

  "Mr. Song Zian, you are very young and very capable."

  "General Falkenhausen, as the Chinese saying goes, you are getting better with age."

  "Haha"

  As soon as they sat down, Falkenhausen got straight to the point: "I heard that Mr. Song has many different views on the new-style army that I have been asking about, and I would also like to hear them."

  Good grief! I turned to look at Jiang Baili and unexpectedly Mr. Baili said, "It's all right, please speak directly."

  "Since the general has spoken, I will speak directly. In my opinion, the advisory team led by the general has been of great help in enhancing combat effectiveness, but in many aspects, they have not adopted equipment, configuration and training that are suitable for China's national conditions and enemy situation, resulting in twice the effort with half the effect."

  "Put up or shut up!"

  "As I was at a disadvantage in terms of air power, large-scale weapons such as warships and heavy artillery would be difficult to play a role in the battle, while the advisory group suggested spending huge sums of money to import 150 German howitzers for the 10th and 12th Heavy Artillery Regiments."

  "Modern warfare is impossible without artillery."

  "In modern warfare without air superiority, heavy artillery is bound to be useless, at least in field battles."

  "What would you do if you were me?"

  "Three heavy artillery groups, 48 150mm howitzers and 24 75mm high-angle guns would be enough to equip each army corps with a battery of 37mm high-angle guns and a battery of 120mm mortars, which will play a much bigger role in the war."

  Falkenhausen looked at me and after a while, he said slowly: "Please continue."

  "Similarly, Germany has a strong air force and a powerful high-altitude artillery group. China only has a weak and small air force and an insignificant high-altitude artillery. To counter the enemy's superior air force, it is impossible to learn from the German army's approach of simply enduring bombing and strafing, waiting for air support or anti-aircraft units. It is necessary to use existing weapons to strike and suppress the enemy air force."

  "What do you mean by 'the weapons at hand'?"

  "Now universally equipped with Czech-made light machine guns, I also designed a simple anti-aircraft gun mount."

  "Ridiculous, truly ridiculous! Don't even mention the enemy's high-altitude bombers, even when their dive-bombers and fighters launch low-level attacks, you won't get many chances to hit them with your ordinary light machine guns. Even if you occasionally score a hit, the limited number of bullets will not be enough to bring down the enemy plane! On the contrary, your machine gun group will suffer heavy losses, even reaching a loss ratio of one to over a hundred!"

  "True, ordinary machine guns cannot hit bombers flying at medium to high altitudes; and as you said, shooting down a low-flying enemy plane may cost the loss of one hundred machine gun groups; but General, do not underestimate the effect of wounding, the loss of one hundred machine gun groups while shooting down an enemy plane can also wound dozens or even more enemy planes that are forced to withdraw from combat. More importantly, the large number of enemy planes being intercepted and attacked by my temporary air defense units will greatly weaken the enemy air force's advantage, making the battlefield favorable for our army's actions. In a situation where our military is severely lacking in air force and air defense units, we can only exchange lives for results!"

  "Fauchenhausen bellowed: 'This is a desecration of the warrior's life!'"

  "I glared at Falkenhausen's word by word response: 'This is the price that must be paid to protect more warriors' lives!'"

  We were about to quarrel, and Jiang Baili hurriedly got up to mediate.

  Falkenhausen took a deep breath and continued questioning: "Is there anything else you want to say?"

  "The existing 2-regiment divisional structure is too outdated, it's a pre-World War I formation that should be changed to a 3-regiment division or simply have the division directly command 4 infantry regiments."

  "You don't know that apart from some light weapons, the equipment of the Chinese troops was far inferior to that of the German army on the eve of World War I? Why can't we use the organization at that time?"

  "When all other things are equal, victory will go to the side with the simpler plan."

  "Anything else?" Falkenhausen finally bellowed at me.

  "There are many more, such as a complete lack of light howitzers, a complete lack of sniper rifles, and a complete lack of anti-tank guns..."

  Before I could finish speaking, Falkenhausen had stormed out in a rage, and several German officers followed him, leaving me and Jiang Baili to exchange bitter smiles.

  As we walked out of the advisory residence, Jiang Baili sighed: "It seems that I was wrong, and I shouldn't have let you speak directly. It seems that I overestimated the intelligence of the Germans!"

  "Hundred Miles Mr. don't worry, the Chairman of the Committee will not do anything to me."

  "What I sigh about is that we've been so busy fighting internal wars all these years, and haven't been able to keep up with the rapidly developing world! The things you mentioned that I have, I hadn't even thought of, some I only vaguely thought of, cough..."

  The two of us returned to the government residence, looking at the stunned Chairman and his wife. Jiang Baili was the first to admit his mistake: "It's my fault for not taking care of my little brother, but instead letting him speak directly, with the result..."

  I had no choice but to follow closely: "Sorry, Mr. Chairman, I was in a hurry and didn't think of General Falkenhausen..."

  "Alright, alright, it's all been said. Anyway, we were only discussing specific business matters and no one was insulted, so let's just forget about it. From now on, I'll just avoid that old man, Falkenhausen." Third Sister quickly mediated when she saw the Chairman's face turn unpleasant.

  The director could only smile bitterly and say, "Alright, it's just as well that you're going to Xiangshan. You'd better hurry up and go; after a few months, when you come back, the matter will have blown over. I'll take care of things at the Arsenal."