Chapter 3: The Merchant Chairman's Thoughts (Part 1)

  Song Zhiwu was somewhat perplexed by Shang Zhen's arrival. Song felt that Chairman Shang did not hold his troops in high regard, as when they were incorporated, Shang had only sent his chief of staff Liu Pei to Tianjin. Over the past few months, Shang had been appointed chairman of Hebei Province and had many local affairs to attend to. In Hebei, apart from the Jin-Sui Army, there was also the 4th Corps led by Bai Chongxi and the 2nd Corps led by Han Fuqu, all of which required his coordination. Moreover, he himself had founded the Beiping Military-Political School in North Ping, which had many matters that needed his attention. It could be said that he was busy to the point of being carefree. Therefore, Song Zhiwu had not met with Shang Zhen until now, and all matters related to the departure of the troops were arranged through telegrams with Liu Pei. What business did Shang have to suddenly arrive at this time without prior notice? Was it about the matter of the material supplies of the Straight-Ru Allied Army? But hadn't he already...

  After some deliberation, he still couldn't get to the point. But Shi Zhen was someone who needed to be received immediately, so he composed himself and ordered: "Vice Officer Chu, order the entire guard battalion to assemble and await Chairman Shi's inspection."

  After Chu Feng left, the courtyard immediately echoed with whistles and shouts of orders. Since the troops had already gathered and were ready to depart, the whistles and shouts outside soon stopped.

  Song Zhe Wu adjusted his uniform, looked himself up and down, felt good about himself, then walked out of his temporary command post.

  Affected by the later generations, the military uniform color of the Baoding Travel adopted olive green. Compared with the domestic yellow and gray and the light blue uniform colors of the Sichuan Army in this era, the camouflage effect of olive green is obviously better than other colors. In order not to make major changes during the war of resistance, the style of the uniform only adopted that of the Central Army.

  The organization of this unit is based on the German military organization, with the Japanese military organization as its target. The Japanese army has 13 people per squad, equipped with 8 rifles and one machine gun. The Security Brigade has 16 people per squad, with the squad leader and deputy squad leader equipped with P38 submachine guns, 10 rifles, and one Czech light machine gun. One gunner, one deputy shooter, and two ammunition handlers. The deputy shooter and ammunition handler are also equipped with handguns.

  Each infantry company has 4 platoons, plus a 3-gun 60mm mortar section, with a total of 69 people in the whole company.

  Every 5 companies, 4 infantry companies, one 28-man artillery company. The artillery company is equipped with 6 60mm mortars. 4 communication personnel, a 2-person medical team, a cooking class, totaling 322 people.

  Each regiment has 4 infantry battalions, one machine gun battalion, equipped with 12 82mm mortars and 12 Maxim heavy machine guns. One logistics battalion of 215 people. Guards, scouts, communications, medical each have a company. Including the regiment's direct personnel, there are 1765 people in total.

  Each regiment has 4 infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, and one logistics battalion. The artillery battalion includes two artillery companies each with 12 75mm mountain guns, and a 120mm heavy mortar company. One logistics battalion. One guard company, one reconnaissance company, one communications company, and one medical company. Total personnel in the regiment is 7688 people.

  The security troops' unit equivalent to the Japanese army's brigade. From battalion to brigade, each level of the security troops is slightly stronger than the Japanese army in terms of personnel and firepower. Of course, this does not take into account individual soldier quality. Song Zhe-wu knew that soldiers who had been trained for less than 2 years and had fought in two low-intensity battles were far inferior to well-trained Japanese soldiers in terms of individual quality.

  Due to the more than 20,000 newly captured prisoners of war who had not yet been incorporated into the troops, the original 18,000-strong army only formed two divisions, one cavalry regiment with 720 men, a training battalion and an artillery division equipped with only six field guns. The main reason why the artillery division was not heavily armed was that division-level artillery should be equipped with large-caliber artillery. Large-caliber artillery could not be bought on the black market, it was not just a matter of money. Song Zhe-wu could only leave it to be solved later with regret. The current commander of the artillery division, Liang Fang, is basically the commander of the artillery training division.

  Song Zhe-wu's guard battalion had 4 infantry companies, with the 4th company as the inner guard fully equipped with P38 submachine guns. Because all the staff members were taken away by Chief of Staff Xiao Guo-tong, now in Tianjin, Song Zhe-wu only has 1775 men left.

  Apart from the 4th company standing guard outside the gate, the other four companies and battalion personnel were divided into five formations, each holding guns and standing solemnly. Machine guns and mortars under their feet shone with a cold blue light in the scorching summer sun.

  Although it was already July, the North China Plain had been hit by a heat wave, but the large courtyard gave off a desolate atmosphere. Song Zhe Wu looked at his own hand-built troops and nodded in satisfaction.

  Song Zhe-wu arrived at the gate with Chu Feng and Ye Chang-gui, where the warning lines had already been set up. More than 300 people from the 4th Regiment stood on both sides of the street, lined up over 200 meters away, each holding a submachine gun across their chest, standing straight and facing each other.

  As soon as the police line was drawn, pedestrians on the road felt that a big shot was coming. Tianjin people have always had the habit of gathering around excitement, and immediately many people gathered together, squeezing and shouting, making quite a commotion.

  At this moment, a black Ford sedan came out of the gate of the Tianjin Haiwang Temple Garrison Command, under the escort of a row of cavalrymen, heading north to Beicang.

  In the back seat of the car sat two middle-aged military officers, the one on the left was slightly fat and wore a lieutenant general's insignia. The one on the right wore a major general's insignia. These two people were Hebei Province Chairman Shang Zhen and his chief of staff Liu Pei. As the car swayed, Shang Zhen, who had narrowed his eyes, was still thinking about Fu Zuoyi's words just now.

  As they were both in the Shanxi Army sequence, as the chairman of Hebei Province, he had to go to Tianjin and inevitably had to greet Fu Zuoyi first. After some small talk, he casually asked Fu Zuoyi about his opinion on this "free" Security Regiment. What he didn't expect was that Fu Zuoyi, who was always proud and arrogant, unexpectedly said three good things without hesitation: Good military discipline, good training, and good weapons. In addition to his surprise, Fu Zuoyi added a sentence, "They are also very good at making money."

  Shang Zhen was born in Baoding, Hebei Province, with ancestral roots in Zhejiang. In his early years, he joined the Baoding Military Academy but was expelled after joining the Tongmenghui. He then organized a militia outside the pass and later followed Lu Jianzhang to Shaanxi before joining the Jin-Sui Army. As neither a Shanxi native nor an old subordinate of Yan Xishan, Shang Zhen faced constant exclusion within the Jin-Sui Army. His seniority allowed him to barely maintain his position in the army.

  This time, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to prevent the Guangxi clique and the Northwest Army from expanding, handed over Hebei to Yan Xishan. Yan Xishan immediately appointed his trusted subordinates Zhang Yinwu and Fu Zuoyi as garrison commanders of Beiping and Tianjin respectively. In order to appease Shang Zhen, he was given the position of provincial chairman. The entire tax revenue of Hebei, with Beiping and Tianjin accounting for more than half, can be said that Shang Zhen only got half of Hebei.

  Shang Zhen had been enduring humiliation and keeping a low profile in the Shanxi Army for many years, and he had long wanted to establish himself independently. Although this time he only got half of Hebei Province, at least he had gained a foothold. So as soon as he arrived in Beiping, he took advantage of his position as provincial chairman to show off his skills and extensively deploy his own forces in various fields. However, Shang Zhen was often troubled by the lack of talented personnel who were well-versed in government affairs among his subordinates.

  Cultivate his own network, regardless of the suspicion of Yan Xishan, set up the "North Peace Military and Political School" in Beiping. After two months of busy work, the school's framework was established, and the students were also recruited. What surprised Shang even more was that Beiping was indeed the economic and political center of North China, with a large number of intellectuals, and this batch of students were all high school graduates or above, with many having university degrees. Shang even secretly compared them to the early days of Whampoa Military Academy, and the current active first-phase students of the Central Army, whose student quality at the time of admission was absolutely inferior to that of the current military and political school.

  Unexpectedly, on the first day of school, Yan Xishan sent someone to deliver the "Military Reorganization Case" passed by the Nationalist Party's Fifth Central Committee in Tangshan. The third article clearly stipulates that no military academies can be established in various places, and the fourth article is to reduce the army. Thinking back to when Yan Xishan came to Tangshan for the meeting, he just went through the motions of a routine courtesy visit with himself, and after the meeting was over, he didn't even say goodbye before leaving. Shang Zhen knew that the rift between himself and Yan Xishan could no longer be mended.

  It turned out that Shang Zhen not only established a military and political school, but also secretly recruited more than 12,000 remnants of the Zhili-Fengtian Army, forming four supplementary brigades. He had planned to hand over these four brigades to the first batch of graduates from the military and political school after one year, so that they could form their own elite troops.

  Yan Xishan sent someone to deliver the "Military Reorganization Case", which was clearly aimed at these two things. It seems that what he did in Beiping, Yan Xishan in Shanxi knew very clearly. This is not surprising, among the 4 regiments of the 2 divisions of the First Division, only one division and two regiments really listened to him, which is also the reason why Shang Zhen wanted to form a loyal army.

  Shang Zhen and Chief of Staff Liu Pei deliberated for a long time, finally Shang Zhen gritted his teeth, "The Military-Political School will continue to operate, Yan Laoxi's school in Taiyuan won't stop, we won't stop either." Then he said with some regret: "It seems that these 4 supplementary regiments can't be kept!"

  Liu Pei was Shang Zhen's old partner when he was in Shaanxi. Seeing Shang Zhen had made up his mind, he smiled cunningly and said to him: "Actually, those four battalions can't be kept either."

  "Oh?" As soon as Shang Zhen heard Liu Pei's words, his eyes lit up in an instant. He grabbed Liu Pei's hand, "You have a way, speak quickly!"

  Liu Pei withdrew his hand, which was being gripped by Shang Zhen, "My brother Qi Yu, this is 'not recognizing the true face of Mount Lu, only because one is in the midst of this mountain.' This troop reduction is a major policy direction from the central government. However, implementing it specifically will not be easy. But that person from Shanxi used this as an excuse and didn't allow expansion, we have no choice but to obey."

  Liu Pei took a light sip of tea and continued, "This troop reduction refers to the regular army units. In my opinion, it is aimed at the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Army Groups. We are part of the 3rd Army Group, so it's not good for us to go against the wind."

  "The Third Army Group is going to be disbanded or not, it's a headache for the free Shanxi province, you'd better tell us what to do quickly." Seeing Shang Zhen's anxious expression, Liu Pei continued: "The disbandment didn't explicitly state that local troops would also be abolished."

  Shang Zhen was taken aback for a moment, then slapped his thigh and burst out laughing. "Good! You're indeed my military advisor, this idea is great! Let's establish the 2nd and 3rd Security Brigades."

  Liu Pei saw that Shang Zhen did not understand his meaning, and hastily shook his head saying: "This won't do."

  Jian Shangzhen looked somewhat puzzled, and Liu Pei continued: "Now the new security regiment is being formed, although it avoids the issue of disarmament, but it also makes it clear that we are going to confront Shanxi. We don't have the strength for that yet. My idea is to hand over these 4 regiments to Song Zheyu in Tianjin and let him train them for a year. After a year, when the first batch of students from the military academy graduate, they will all be assigned to these 4 regiments. This way, we have an explanation for Shanxi, and our 4 regiments are also established."

  Shang Zhen did not respond immediately, but instead turned his back with his hands behind him and began pacing on the ground.

  Liu Pei knew that Shang Zhen was still hesitant and didn't disturb him, lit a cigarette, and quietly waited for Shang Zhen to make a decision.

  Since entering Beiping, Shang Zhen has been busy with the military and political school, and hasn't paid much attention to this security brigade. As for the reorganization of the security brigade, relocation, etc., it was all arranged by Liu Pei. In fact, until now, Shang Zhen still hasn't met Song Zhe-wu in person. What makes Shang Zhen hesitant is whether the security brigade is really as well-trained as Liu Pei said, comparable to regular troops. He doesn't want these four regiments to become a local force under Song Zhe-wu's command, he needs the elite soldiers of these four regiments. Second, if these four regiments are handed over to Song Zhe-wu for training, can he still grasp them after a year? If it ends up being a waste of effort for someone else, that would be laughable.

  Shang Zhen stopped in his tracks and looked at Liu Pei, asking: "Is this security team really as you said, well-equipped and well-trained?"

  Liu Pei returned and praised Song Zhe Wu and his troops in front of Shang Zhen. Shang Zhen was busy with school matters, and after listening, he just smiled and nodded without expressing any opinion. Liu Pei knew that Shang Zhen probably thought he had been treated well by Song Zhe Wu and was speaking up for him. He didn't believe at all that this troop was excellent. At the time, Liu Pei couldn't say much more, but in his heart, he felt very indignant on behalf of Song Zhe Wu.

  "Now that they're back, I'll tell you, this unit's training and equipment are absolutely top-notch. Several high-ranking officers aren't simple, mostly from the Baoding Military Academy, which makes them your junior, actually. Song Zhe-wu and Chief of Staff Xiao Guo-tang even graduated from the Dresden Infantry School. Trust my judgment, Song Zhe-wu is definitely a hero for now." Liu Pei-liu paused for a moment, then continued with a smile: "No mistake, I did receive benefits from Song Zhe-wu, 10 gold bars. This also has to thank Brother Qi-yu for giving me this wonderful mission."

  Seeing Shang Zhen's stunned expression, Liu Pei burst out laughing and immediately composed himself, saying seriously: "Those 10 gold bars were given to me by Song Zhe Wu when I first arrived in Tianjin. At the time, it was not a gift, but an attempt to buy me over. The 10 gold bars were too little. But after inspecting the troops and having in-depth talks with several high-ranking officers, my perspective changed greatly. We have absolutely struck gold."

  Shang Zhen laughed and said: "You've made a fortune, but you didn't invite me. Now that you mention it today, I'll deduct half a month's military pay from you."

  Liu Pei saw that Shang Zhen was somewhat moved, and hastily said: "What is heard is empty, what is seen is real. You go to Tianjin to take a look, and by the way, you can also probe their bottom. This branch of troops will be of great use to us in the future."

  Shang Zhen nodded slightly after a moment's thought and immediately agreed. "Alright, let's go to Tianjin. Haven't they left yet?"

  "What a coincidence! Song Zhe-wu just called to say that he will be leaving Tianjin with the last batch of troops tomorrow at 9 o'clock. We can set off early tomorrow morning and still make it to Tianjin."

  This led to today's trip to Tianjin.