Chapter 54: Bai Chongxi's Worries (Part 1)

  In the following days, Song Zhiwu was busy inspecting the reorganization and training of the troops.

  Time flew to March 3, and on that day, a telegram from Bai Chongxi, the commander-in-chief of the North China Front, was received through Shang Zhen. In the telegram, Bai Chongxi stated that he would lead the 53rd Division south soon and wanted to purchase a batch of military rations. He hoped that Song Zhiwu would send flour to Handan, and his troops would take it away when they passed through Handan.

  Regarding this telegram, Song Zhiwu felt a bit of a headache for two main reasons: Firstly, he knew that in the original historical context, Bai Chongxi was supposed to leave Beiping and take a ship from Tanggu, intending to return to Guangxi via Shanghai. However, near Shanghai, he was almost intercepted by a warship sent by Chiang Kai-shek, and eventually had to go through Japan to Vietnam before returning to Guangxi. But now, Bai Chongxi was planning to lead Liao Xun's 53rd Division back to Wuhan by train. Song Zhiwu didn't know if it was because his "butterfly" wings had taken effect, but if so, his advantage of knowing history would be completely lost, and he wondered if he could still compete with the various elites of the Republic of China era. With his current ability to handle affairs and manipulate power, he was absolutely no match for Chiang Kai-shek, not even for Yan Xishan; all he relied on was his foresight into the course of history. Secondly, should he provide military rations to Bai Chongxi? If he did, it would offend Chiang Kai-shek; if he didn't, it would antagonize the Guangxi clique. During the War of Resistance, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were both high-ranking generals in the National Army; if they gave him a hard time, it was absolutely because they knew he was vulnerable. Moreover, Song Zhiwu knew that Han Fuju's death had an absolute connection to Li Zongren.

  In fact, Song Zhiwu did not know that in the original history, Bai Chongxi had wanted to take the 53rd Division southward, but ultimately failed. After much consideration, Song Zhiwu decided to forward this telegram to Nanjing. Nanjing quickly replied, asking him to agree to Bai Chongxi's request and transport food to Handan first.

  The telegram from Nanjing left Song Zhiwu and Xiao Guodong stunned. After some thought, Xiao Guodong said to Song Zhiwu: "Nanjing is about to take action against Bai Chongxi in Hebei and Wuhan. The grain will not be given to Bai Chongxi at all, let him return to Wuhan smoothly. You also said earlier that Chiang Kai-shek's one division stationed in Handan was to prevent Bai Chongxi from marching south along the Longhai Road. There must be a strong defense on the Jinpu Road in Xuzhou with central troops stationed there. This grain is unlikely to be for him, and it's probably meant to numb Bai Chongxi."

  Song Zhe Wu has always been worried that his appearance may have already changed history, only now the change is very small and has not had a significant impact on history. These tiny changes may be slowly accumulating in quantity, when this quantity reaches the critical point, it will suddenly occur like a nuclear reaction, causing a fundamental qualitative change.

  In real history, Bai Chongxi left Hebei by boat from Tanggu on March 20. When the ship passed Shanghai, it was almost intercepted by a warship sent by Chiang Kai-shek at sea. In the end, Li Zongren, who was hiding in the Shanghai Concession, sought help from the Kwantung Army and used another ship to pick him up ahead of time on the sea and take him to Japan via Vietnam back to Guangxi. Song Zhiwu did not dare guarantee that his appearance would not change this piece of history. Bai Chongxi absolutely could not disappear in the long river of history at this time and place. To be on the safe side, he wanted to remind Bai Chongxi, and even lend a helping hand when necessary.

  After weighing the pros and cons, Song Zhiwu called Ye Changgui, who was the junior fellow of Bai Chongxi's guard commander Bai Chongguang. After detailed instructions, Ye Changgui led a squad of special troops to follow a dozen trucks from the military department's logistics division to Beiping.

  That night, in the mansion of Bai Chongxi in Beiping, Bai Chongxi, who had just seen off Fang Zhenwu, the commander-in-chief of the 6th Route Army, was standing at the window of his study on the second floor, deep in thought. The news that Fang Zhenwu had brought him was shocking: the commanders of the 161st Brigade, Hao Mengling, the 162nd Brigade, Xue Yubin, and the 160th Brigade, Wen Jie, were secretly plotting to kidnap him and hand him over to Chiang Kai-shek.

  Bai Chongxi is now filled with regret, he and his superior Li Zongren have made a mistake, a huge mistake. They should not have stretched the Guangxi clique's power so far, from the two provinces in the south to Hebei. It seems that they control five provinces, with hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers in front and the rich financial resources of the two provinces as backup, their prestige is overwhelming, their strength is pressing against Chiang Kai-shek's government in Nanjing. However, there is a biggest flaw, which is that their power is too dispersed, although they are very strong overall, each place is actually very weak. Taking his troops in North China as an example, he now has four divisions: the 12th Division led by Zhang Dingnan, the 51st Division led by Li Pixian, the 53rd Division led by Liao Xue, and the 54th Division led by Wang Zemin, with a total of 100,000 soldiers. This is Yan Xishan's territory, and they cannot collect taxes locally. The Nanjing government has been delaying supplying food and salaries since last winter, and all the expenses needed for the troops are provided by Guangdong. If Chiang Kai-shek really wants to take action, he can completely cut off the financial resources of the troops just by blocking the sea route, without needing to use force, the troops will become chaotic on their own. If they had stopped at Hubei and Hunan back then, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers gathered together, and with Guangdong as a strong backup, he believes that Chiang Kai-shek would not have dared to take action against the Guangxi clique first.

  The three families of Gui, Xibei and Jinxi have their own strengths and weaknesses. The Gui family has strong troops and rich finances, with the strongest comprehensive strength among the three, but now its forces are scattered and it has become the weakest; The Xibei army has the most troops and can also be said to have the strongest combat power, but its financial resources are the weakest. The territory currently occupied by the Xibei army, except for Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, are all poor and barren lands that do not have surplus grain supplies to replenish their troops. Even in Henan, they can only barely support themselves. Without grain supplies from Nanjing, the Xibei army would hardly be able to sustain its 400,000 soldiers; The Jinxi army is no match for the two Guangs in terms of financial resources and cannot compare with the Xibei army in terms of military strength. Even Bai Chongxi looked down on the combat power of the Jinxi army. During the second Northern Expedition, if he had not personally led Ye Qi's troops to reinforce them from afar, Yan Baichuan would have been unable to occupy Hebei. However, the Jinxi army has an advantage in terms of geographical location, with Shanxi being easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the several provinces it occupies are all located on the periphery of Shanxi. As soon as there is a situation, they will retreat back to Shanxi. In Bai Chongxi's view, any domestic force that wants to enter Shanxi without half a year's time and huge casualties would find it absolutely impossible to do so. In those years, even with the Xibei army's strong combat power and Han Fuju's bravery, they were defeated at Nankou.

  The high-ranking generals of the Guangxi clique all looked down on Chiang Kai-shek's military ability and were very dissatisfied with his occupation of the Military Commission, believing that this position should be held by their leader Li Zongren. During the Northern Expedition, if it weren't for the Seventh Army of the Guangxi clique, the Eighth Army led by Tang Shengzhi, and the Fourth Army led by Li Jishen, who fought bravely and won battles in Wuhan and Nanchang, defeating the main forces of Sun Chuanfang and Wu Peifu, the Northern Expedition would not have been completed so smoothly. In contrast, Chiang Kai-shek's First Army, except for He Yingqin leading a part of the army to fight well in Fujian, the other troops led by Chiang were mediocre. Wang Boling's First Division was even defeated and fled under Sun Chuanfang's attack in Nanchang. The Guangxi generals all believed that Chiang Kai-shek's command ability was only suitable for being a company or battalion commander, and Bai Chongxi also thought that in terms of tactics, Chiang Kai-shek was at most a regimental commander level. However, these people did not see Chiang Kai-shek's outstanding strategic vision and extraordinary political strategy. He is now more and more admiring old Chiang!

  However, such a person is deeply hated by the Guangxi clique. Chiang Kai-shek has a "grudge of forcing him to retire" against him and Li Zongren; and harbors resentment towards his subordinates for being slow.

  The more Bai Chongxi thought about it, the more annoyed he became. He walked to his desk, lit a cigarette and took a deep drag!

  I'm sorry that the updates have been late for the past few days, causing inconvenience to everyone. I apologize for this! The main reason for the delay is that it's troublesome to look up the unit numbers of each department. During this period, the unit numbers of various departments have changed repeatedly, with some changing several times a year, and some even changing once every one or two months. Once again, I offer my apologies!

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