Chapter Ten The Scheming of Two People
"Really? I say Wen Ge, Liu Bang is an emperor, do you also want to be an emperor?" Xiao Guodong saw Song Zhe Wu was excited and he himself was also very happy, so he deliberately teased him.
"I'm not happy, misspoke, misspoke." Song Zhe Wu's words were indeed somewhat inappropriate, and he was also a bit embarrassed. Xiao Guotang saw that Song Zhe Wu was somewhat flustered and quickly changed the subject.
"Weng, there have been many things lately, and you also need to tell me about some of them so that I don't make mistakes. Specifically, there are 5 things. This time's attack, what's the situation with the Northwest Army participating? What is Shang Zhen's attitude towards us? How will the troops be expanded? Is the special forces you mentioned something that can be established now? And also, which direction should we develop in from now on?"
Song Zhe Wu put away his smile, Xiao Guo Dong was right, many things need to be clarified, especially the development direction of this troop in the future. However, many words cannot be said for now, or rather, it's not good to say them. Song Zhe Wu wanted to take advantage of knowing the historical trend beforehand, prepare early and make arrangements before the event happens, so as to gain the greatest benefit for himself. After the war starts, he will have more power and can give the little devils the biggest blow. Song Zhe Wu decided to answer one thing at a time, in order to buy some more time for himself and come up with more reasonable excuses for sensitive issues.
"Alright, Elder Xiao, I'll answer your questions one by one. First of all, regarding the bandit attack this time, there's a rumor that the Northwestern Army was involved. Actually, it wasn't the Northwestern Army, but rather the 12th Army under Sun Dianying's command." Song Zhewu continued to speak as he saw Xiao Guodong's surprised expression: "The 12th Army was ordered to go to the Songshan area to suppress bandits, and a battalion of troops came here. After entering the mountains, they changed into Northwestern Army uniforms and coincidentally encountered those bandits. Because the battalion commander knew the bandit leader from before, and that bandit leader said our convoy had brought a large amount of silver dollars and a box of gold bars. It can be confirmed that this battalion was just passing by and joined in on impulse after seeing the wealth. Where did they go? Why were they wearing Northwestern Army uniforms? We captured the deputy commander of this battalion, who is now seriously injured and unconscious. Once we return to Laiyuan, we'll understand more about the situation. What's worth noting is how these bandits got the false information that we were carrying a large amount of wealth. From what the bandits said about us having a box of gold bars, I estimate it was the Japanese who leaked this information. Although we did transport many things this time, there was only one box, which contained dye additives for printing and dyeing. In Tianjin, the Japanese even offered 3 million to buy it; currently, only the Japanese are interested in it."
Song Zhe-wu handed a cigarette to Xiao Guo-tang, lit one for himself and continued: "Shang Zhen's trip to Tianjin has two purposes. One is to win us over, the other is to arrange a place for his four supplementary regiments. Shang Zhen is not from Shanxi Province, nor is he an old subordinate of Yan Xishan, so he has always been discriminated against in the Jin-Sui Army. This time, as the chairman of Hebei Province, he must want to take advantage of the situation to establish his own power. However, his own strength is limited, and Zhang Yun-wu in Beiping and Fu Zuoyi in Tianjin are not people he can handle alone. Therefore, he wants to win us over and is willing to help us grow stronger. Once we turn against Yan Xishan, we will be a powerful backing for him. His four supplementary regiments were originally intended for the students of the Beiping Political Military School he founded in Beiping, but Yan Xishan did not want Shang Zhen's power to grow stronger. I estimate that he used the "Military Reorganization Plan" announced on July 14th to suppress him. Although Shang Zhen is the chairman of Hebei Province and nominally belongs to the central government, he is still in the Jin-Sui Army after all. Without Yan Xishan's consent, he cannot expand his forces. So he handed over these four regiments to us, and explicitly told me that one year later, some graduates from the military school will also be arranged to come over. As for us, we must now fully support him. It is good to take shelter under a big tree. Without his support, we would find it difficult to move forward, or even survive. The problem of troop organization should be handled according to what Big Brother said, which is very good. Big Brother also needs to take charge of the special forces."
Song Zhe-wu saw Xiao Guo-dong about to speak, waved his hand and said: "I know what big brother wants to say, the special forces thing will be discussed later, I'll answer big brother's last question first. This 'Military Case' is simply a disarmament case, the chairman of the committee doesn't like each faction having its own army, doing its own thing. But does he have the ability to relinquish military power with a cup of wine? So for now, they can only weaken the Northwest Army, Guangxi and Shanxi armies' strength, the method is disarmament. The specific method of disarmament is: nationwide 300 divisions, cut 250; keep 50 divisions, each division has 15,000 people, totaling 8 million people; divide the country into 12 zones, each zone retains troops in proportion, and each group army handles it separately. According to this bill, Feng, Yan, Li and others each have one zone, and their troops will certainly be greatly reduced, while Chairman Chiang has not only his original zone but also can manipulate other eight zones under the name of the central government, his direct forces do not need to be reduced at all if they are scattered. Such a plan would obviously not be accepted by Feng, Yan, Li and others. On one hand, Chairman Chiang must disarm in order to weaken each faction's strength; on the other hand, each faction opposes disarmament in order to preserve their own strength, openly or secretly struggling against it. The two contradictions are fundamentally irreconcilable, so a war between the central government and local governments is inevitable. What we need to do now is to vigorously expand our troops, strengthen our forces, once the war breaks out, we can get what we want."
Xiao Guodong said nothing after Song Zhiwu finished speaking, but silently lit another cigarette and slowly inhaled. He wasn't disbelieving Song's analysis, on the contrary, he believed it too much. Two years ago, when Song invited him to form a team, he found that Song had changed, looking at problems with depth, analyzing issues clearly, and being logical and clear, no longer like the young man before, but more like an experienced politician with rich experience and profound thinking. He didn't know what happened in these two years that changed Song Zhiwu. After the Northern Expedition victory, the KMT-CPC split, including this year's Second Northern Expedition, all were predicted by him one by one. This time it was very likely to be predicted again, Xiao Guodong also agreed with Song Zhiwu's analysis.
Xiao Guodong extinguished the cigarette in his hand and said, "Since we're going to fight, we need to prepare early. We don't have enough men yet, so we need to recruit more; we also need to stockpile a large quantity of weapons, ammunition, and artillery. These are your responsibilities. I'll be in charge of recruiting personnel and training the troops. Also, you need to make money quickly. Our current military funds are running low."
"How much is left?" Song Zhe Wu felt a bit uneasy. Recently, due to the relocation, several factories had been idle for almost two months without any income. In the past, this money was directly handed over to Xiao Guo Tong. Now, how much was left, Song Zhe Wu wasn't clear about it. "Apart from the factory's operating expenses, there's less than 3 million left, only enough for two months of military pay," Xiao Guo Tong replied.
"Two months, that's enough time. Don't worry, big brother, next month I'll make another 20 million for you." Xiao Guodong chuckled: "Wen Ge, if you weren't a soldier and went into business instead, you'd definitely become China's richest man. Your ability to make money is truly admirable."
"Right, Weng Ge, this special forces thing still needs you to take charge of it personally. I've only heard some things from you, but I don't have a clue how to do it specifically." Song Zhe Wu chuckled and said: "Big brother, the capable one has more work to do, so we'll have to trouble you with this matter too." As he spoke, Song Zhe Wu took out a thick stack of papers filled with writing from a small leather bag on his bedside table and handed it to Xiao Guo Dong. "This is the training plan for the special forces unit. Take a look first, and then we'll discuss it together."
"Report, Captain Zhang has arrived." Chu Feng's voice outside the door interrupted the conversation between the two.
Thank you all for your support with votes, I will work hard, still two chapters today.
