Chapter 49: Post-War Summary

  Upon receiving Lin Wei's telegram, Song Zhe Wu immediately ordered Zhang Ya Fei to speed up the matter of winning over the Northwestern Army prisoners. It must be done before dinner tonight. Song Zhe Wu estimated that Shi You San and Han Fu Quan would rush here as soon as they received the notification from Nanjing, so he had to take these old soldiers back to Laiyuan early tomorrow morning. There was no one who stole something from others and waited like a fool for others to come and claim it back.

  There is still one more thing to be completed immediately, that is, Song Zhiwu requires all participating troops to write a combat summary. Each person in each combat class must not only conduct self-summary but also mutually summarize each other. The summary should include the application of personal tactics and techniques in battle, including the execution of combat orders, and the summary should be reported to the company; each platoon and company should summarize the use and effectiveness of combat preparations, campaigns, and tactics, and the summary should be reported to the battalion; the summaries of the battalion and regiment should be reported to the division; the summaries of each regiment and division should be reported to the Public Security Army Command. Song Zhiwu's purpose in doing so is to make his troops form a habit, a troop that constantly summarizes experience, draws lessons, and continuously improves combat experience and combat skills. Such a troop will be a self-perfecting, self-improving, and even self-evolving troop.

  Another thing is that Song Zhiwu wants to extract four battalions from the three regiments of the First Division and exchange them with the Second and Third Divisions. His security troops are still too young, and every battle now is a huge fortune for them, he wants to spread this wealth throughout the whole army.

  All these tasks must be completed tonight, and tomorrow morning, he will take Zhang Yafei and the three regimental commanders of the First Division, as well as the troops of the four battalions and the new recruits to Baoyuan. The matter of returning the guns to Shi You San and Han Fu Jin will be handled by Xu Zheng.

  As soon as Song Zhe-wu gave the order, all work was carried out quickly and in an orderly manner. By afternoon, the selection of prisoners had been completed. More than 3,600 people met the conditions, except for a very small number who were unwilling to join the Security Army, everyone else was attracted by the high military pay of the Security Army. Moreover, they also saw the food of the Security Army, and that bowl of meat they could not eat in a month. Especially after Zhang Ya-fei arranged for soldiers to talk about the Security Army among the prisoners, the Northwestern Army soldiers were eager to join, if there was no age limit, almost all the prisoners would have joined the Security Army. In the end, 3,328 soldiers and 294 officers of platoon, company, battalion, and regiment were willing to join the Security Army. The old and weak bandits in Zengjiashan were released, and those who met the conditions were taken back to Laiyuan.

  Deputy commander Xu Zheng was left to hand over the guns to Shi You San and Han Fu Chu, and he couldn't help but click his tongue in disapproval. He muttered: "Commander, Chief of Staff, Regimental Commander, you three can't all leave! Han Fu Chu and Shi You San have lost so many men, they're not anxious about it at all!" Zhang Ya Fei glared at him: "Giving them the guns is already a favor, if it were up to me, I wouldn't return any of them, just assign them to the troops." Song Zhe Wu smiled and said: "Deputy Commander Xu, don't worry! What they value most are firearms, they won't mind too much about the number of people. If we return over 10,000 guns to them, they won't have a second word to say." In the evening, another telegram was received from Shang Zhen, ordering the First Regiment to be stationed in Wu An, and for Song Zhe Wu to adjust the deployment of another regiment to Jing Xian at his discretion.

  Xiao Guodong and others were puzzled, not knowing what Chairman Shang was up to. Song Zhiwu stood in front of the map, deep in thought for a moment, and said with a bitter smile: "Chairman Shang wants us to intimidate Yan Xishan in Shanxi Province. He must have seen our combat effectiveness and placed us at these two key passes leading into Shanxi, blocking the exit routes from Shanxi." Xiao Guodong nodded: "Wen Ge is right, now Shanxi will also pay attention to us, you'd better be prepared." Song Zhiwu just nodded, without saying a word.

  After returning to the source, Song Zhe-wu immediately arranged for a meeting of all military officers above the regiment level. More than 200 people crowded into the Western Zen House of the Temple, with several long tables placed in the center of the room, reserved for seats for more than 20 team leaders and above. One person who caught everyone's attention was Fang Zhen, the head of the Literature and Art Department, who was also present.

  It turned out that Song Zhiwu was very interested in him the first time he saw his resume. This person came from a small business family in Beiping and graduated from Yenching University, later studying psychology in France. According to Chu Feng, this person was not very enthusiastic about various student movements when he was studying at Yenching University. After Song Zhiwu sent someone to investigate carefully, he did not find that he had any special background. After returning to China after completing his studies in France, his specialty had no use in the country. Fortunately, he had a great artistic talent and was proficient in playing musical instruments, so he was introduced by friends to teach at the Art Academy. Song Zhiwu was very satisfied with him after talking to him in depth. Song Zhiwu found that Fang Zhenxin was meticulous and extremely sensitive. Sensitive people are all smart people and are good material for doing special operations.

  Song Zhe-wu had long wanted to set up a security and defense system within his own troops. His troops were currently maintained by high military pay, far exceeding that of other domestic troops, as well as strong promotion prospects. Of course, the latter only had a strong appeal to a small number of people. These measures were effective for ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers, but not necessarily reliable for high-ranking officers. As the team grew larger and more complex in composition, it was hard to guarantee that there would be no one who would be bought over by those with ulterior motives. Because almost everyone had an insatiable desire for power and wealth, which was a natural human instinct. Therefore, he needed a security system to ensure the safety of his troops. It's just that there hadn't been a suitable candidate until now, so he decided to establish the Security Defense Department of the Guard Army, with himself as the director and Fang Zhen as the deputy director. The reason why Fang Zhen was not appointed as the director was because this position was too important, if the wrong person was entrusted, the consequences would be terrible, even disastrous. He also wanted to observe Fang Zhen while guiding him in his work.

  As the meeting time had not yet arrived, Song Zhe-wu, Xiao Guo-tong and Wang Xu were still absent. The people in the room were all surrounding Zhang Ya-fei and the regiment commander of the First Division, inquiring about the details of this battle, and from time to time bursting into laughter when they reached the exciting parts. Xu Fang and Meng Xi were naturally the objects of everyone's teasing. Some teased Xu Fang, saying: "You won a victory but were demoted, how unjust!" Someone else said: "That's because Xu Fang is clever, he used his position as regiment commander to exchange for money with Commander Zhang, 1000 big yuan, crisp and clear!" There were also people teasing Meng Xi, saying that Meng Xi was not good at giving advice, he came up with a bad idea but got promoted, letting Xu Fang take the blame. Xu Fang didn't care about his demotion at all, and enthusiastically told everyone about the scene of chasing after the 55th Division, while Meng Xi just smiled silently.

  There is still one more chapter today, making up for yesterday's. Sorry for the untimely update and thank you for your collection.