Chapter Eleven: Expansion of the Army
At that time, the population of Laiyuan County was far less than it is now, with only a few thousand households. Due to the arrival of the Bao'an Brigade, the originally quiet county town has become very lively, and it can be said that it is the most prosperous county town in the Taihang Mountains area.
When Xiang Guodong arrived with his troops, the residents were very afraid. Because in the past, whether it was the Northern Army or the Northeastern Army, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army would often engage in forced buying and selling, extortion, and blackmail when they came here, so the residents would hide whenever they saw soldiers. On the day Xiang Guodong arrived in Taoyuan, he issued a notice: "The Security Brigade is an army of Hebei people themselves, established to protect the safety and well-being of the Hebei people." The notice also announced the military discipline of the Security Brigade, including not bullying civilians, not flirting with women, and fair trade. These few points left a deep impression on the residents, as it was rare for such rules to be written into military discipline. Finally, the notice asked the residents to help supervise. At first, the residents were still skeptical, but soon they discovered that this Security Brigade wearing grass-green uniforms was indeed very different from the various armies of the past. Not only were their uniforms a different color, but as stated in the notice, they treated people with kindness and fairness, and traded fairly. In tea houses and restaurants, they paid their bills on time, never owing money, as if these soldiers had a lot of money. For a while, business was booming inside and outside the city, especially for meat, vegetables, and other food sales, which increased greatly. Every day, just supplying pork to the troops required nearly 10,000 catties. Because the troops were stationed outside the city, a huge agricultural market had spontaneously formed outside the south gate.
Song Zhe Wu has been in Laiyuan for 3 days, and he needs to wait for Shang Zhen's four supplementary regiments to arrive before reorganizing and expanding the troops. So, on the evening of his arrival, he met with several high-ranking generals under him, accompanied by Xiao Guo Dong, and inspected all the newly built military camps, including the garrison troops stationed at mountain passes outside the city, and was very satisfied and happy. The supplementary regiments arrived in Laiyuan yesterday afternoon, and this morning Song Zhe Wu gathered all the company commanders and above to his brigade headquarters at Ge Yuan Temple.
Ge Yuan Temple is located in the city center, also known as Da Si. It covers an area of 900 square meters and has existing buildings such as Tianwang Hall, Wenshu Hall, East and West Wing Halls, Scripture Storage Tower, East and West Chan Houses, etc., with wing houses on both sides. Except for Wenshu Hall, all other buildings in Ge Yuan Temple were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Wenshu Hall is the oldest, dating back to the 16th year of Liao Yingli, over a thousand years ago. Song Zhe Wu had visited here with a tourist group in his previous life, and couldn't help but feel nostalgic and sentimental.
Although the security team has not yet expanded, there are about 200 officers above the rank of platoon leader in the entire brigade. Due to the large number of people, the meeting was held in the Western Zen House courtyard where the brigade headquarters is located. Two long tables were set up in front of the house, with Song Zhiwu and Xiao Guodong sitting behind the central table, while Chu Feng, Wang Xinggang, and two recording staff officers sat behind another table placed on one side. In the courtyard opposite them, long benches were arranged, with 11 square tables placed in front of the benches from left to right, each with three chairs behind it. On the far left front bench sat Zhang Yafei, the regiment commander, along with the deputy regiment commander and chief of staff. Behind them sat the battalion commanders of the first regiment. The second regiment was similarly arranged next to them. Then came the third regiment, artillery regiment, cavalry battalion, logistics battalion, and brigade personnel. The third regiment currently only had one battalion, and the artillery regiment was also undermanned. Except for the first two regiments, all other units had very few personnel.
These officers already knew that this meeting was an expansion meeting and also a promotion meeting. After the meeting, many people would be promoted, and everyone was very excited, but they all tried their best to suppress it and didn't dare to show it. The initial 18,000 people of Song Zhe Wu were all peasants and students, not a single one had been a soldier before, except for the few high-ranking military officers who were invited by Song Zhe Wu at the beginning. All other battalion and regimental cadres, including several deputy regiment commanders and regimental chiefs of staff, were trained and grown up by Song Zhe Wu and others through personal training. They had a strong sense of identity with Song Zhe Wu. Song Zhe Wu was usually very kind to soldiers, but he never joked with officers. Of course, he was still very casual with Zhang Ya Fei and others.
"Comrades, before the meeting begins, I would like to read out a telegram from Chairman Shang Zhen of Hebei Province. Song Zhe Wu stood up first, followed by the other officers who also rose to listen to the order. 'Hebei Province has been plagued by war and banditry since the Republic of China was established, causing immense suffering for the people. Although the National Government's two Northern Expeditions drove out the remnants of the Beiyang government, there are still many bandits and thieves in the province who have not been eradicated despite repeated attempts to do so. On July 21st of the 17th year of the Republic of China, Song Zhe Wu, the commander of the Hebei Security Regiment, led a brave attack on thousands of bandits at Yangjiazhuang Village in Laiyuan County with only a handful of men, killing over a thousand bandits. In recognition of this achievement, we hereby appoint Song Zhe Wu as the Commander of the Hebei Security Command and Xiang Guodong, formerly the Chief of Staff of the Security Regiment, as the Chief of Staff of the Hebei Security Command. This order is issued by Chairman Shang Zhen of the Hebei Provincial Government. Note: This order has been reported to the Military Affairs Department of the Central Government for filing.'"
Xiao Guodong immediately took out another telegram and continued to read: "The Hebei Province Security Brigade, on July 21, 1928, bravely attacked the bandits in Laiyuan, killing nearly a thousand of them. This move truly shows that the Hebei Provincial Government is concerned about the people's suffering and has a good policy. Therefore, we promote Hebei Provincial Government Chairman Shang Zhenzhong to General, and Hebei Security Commander Song Zhiwu to Lieutenant General. This order is from the Military and Political Department of the Republic of China."
Xiao Guodong finished reading the order, Song Zhiwu waved his hand to signal everyone to sit down: "Brothers, two years ago, you were all workers, peasants, students. Today, you have all grown into officers of the Security Regiment." "Thank you, Commander!" Someone in the back shouted first, followed by all the seated officers, including Zhang Yafei and others, standing up together: "Thank you, Commander!"
Song Zhe Wu's opening remarks were meant to remind everyone that everything they have is thanks to him. The current situation makes Song Zhe Wu very satisfied. After gesturing for everyone to sit down, he continued: "Not only should you thank me, but you should also thank yourselves. Without your own efforts, there wouldn't be today. Our security regiment has been through wind and rain for two years, it's not easy, but we've made it through and become a powerful combat force. All of this is not something that I, the chief of staff, and Zhang Tuanzhang can do alone. A large part of the credit goes to you all, it's because of your strong role as grassroots officers that our regiment has such strong fighting power. You are the guarantee for our security regiment's continued growth and development." Everyone already knew that today's meeting was an expansion conference, in other words, a promotion conference for those present. A wave of happy and excited laughter spread from below.
"A moment later, the Chief of Staff read out the appointments of officers at the regimental and battalion levels. The appointments of officers below the battalion level were made by each division on its own, and after the announcements were made, everyone immediately returned to their units and took over their posts. In the afternoon, the battalion-level officers reported to the headquarters for approval. However, I want to remind you all that although you have all been promoted, the expanded troops need you to intensify your training. Tomorrow, all regimental-level officers will still have a meeting, which is to announce the new training plan. The amount of training in this plan will be far greater than before, and there will be assessments every month. Those who are not qualified will be removed. Has everyone understood?" "Understood."
Song Zhe-wu listened to the loud responses from the officers below, feeling very relieved. This unit, since its establishment, Song Zhe-wu had intentionally cultivated a sense of competition among the officers and soldiers, knowing that after returning, they would all go all out to train their own troops.
Xiao Guodong then began announcing the formation of troops and the appointment of officers.
This time, the security travel expansion for six infantry regiments, a artillery regiment, a 2000 people cavalry regiment, a logistics regiment, a special forces battalion, and the direct troops of the brigade. Without announcing the commander, deputy commander and chief of staff of a division, these three people would sit down at the table in front. When announcing the battalion company commanders, the new battalion company commanders would sit down on the bench behind their regimental commanders. Among them, the regimental commanders were Zhang Ya-fei, Gao Zong-bao, Zhang Tao, and the regimental commanders of the 4th, 5th, and 6th regiments were succeeded by the original deputy regimental commanders of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regiments. The commander of the cavalry regiment was Wei Guang-hui, the commander of the logistics regiment was Wu Jin, and the original commander of the communications battalion Wang Xu was appointed as the deputy chief of staff in charge of the command post telecommunications office and the communications battalion.
Song Zhe-wu originally wanted to set up three infantry brigades, with the current three regimental commanders serving as brigade commanders. However, Xiao Guo-dong opposed this and instead established three brigades, which was clearly a division-level unit, too high-profile and not conducive to future development. To appease these regimental commanders, Song Zhe-wu and Xiao Guo-dong specially hosted a dinner for them last night, explaining the appointment issue and guaranteeing on the spot that they would set up divisions within two years and make them division commanders.
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