Chapter Twenty-Two: Undercurrents

  Lin Wei was a busy person and he left immediately after receiving Tan Xiao's reply document.

  Tan Xiao made brief thoughts and plans for two or three of Chiang Kai-shek's handovers, but spent a lot of effort on the other two. In his analysis of the Sino-Japanese War, he could not directly mention Japan's historical invasion date. He stated that Japan would start a war with China before 1939 - the year the Treaty of Versailles expired, and afterwards there might be a global upheaval. Additionally, he analyzed that Japan's war against China can be divided into two situations: active and passive. The former refers to when Japan thinks it is ready to go to war, which relies on intelligence departments to discover and analyze. The latter has four reference standards: one is the completion of national currency unification in China; second is the elimination of more warlords, such as two out of the Guangxi clique, Sichuan clique, Guangdong clique, and Shandong clique; third is the elimination or complete suppression of ** forces; fourth is the start and initial success of a nationwide military reorganization. Because these four major changes will mean China's true move towards unification and strength, Japan will not sit idly by!

  Tan Xiao's view on this is that China cannot abandon its unity and development for the sake of avoiding Japanese invasion. What needs to be done should still be done, but with a clear mind and preparation for fighting against aggression at any time. He also attached a pre-war reserve mobilization plan based on a 1960s war preparedness manual he found when cleaning up his base in later years.

  Tan Xiao's detailed discussion of the four major changes and Japan's timing of launching a war against China has an important point, which is to hope that the civil war will decrease, at least in intensity. Such internal consumption had too much impact on the later anti-Japanese resistance - In his later years, he read a book that listed the rise and fall periods of the Chinese army, mentioning that due to the consumption of the civil war, the equipment of the National Army during the Anti-Japanese War was far inferior to that of the Beiyang government era! Now, with less bias than before, in his concept, regardless of whether it is the KMT or local warlords, all consumption is a loss for the resistance - Those soldiers who died in the civil war could have been a great force on the anti-Japanese battlefield!

  For the overall plan of the army, he put forward many views different from those of Sekt. He believed that in order to avoid Japan's alertness, the National Army should not start with a big fanfare, but should first organize a backbone force before the national army reorganization meeting, as a reference for subsequent reorganization. For the Military Affairs Department's plan to reorganize the Central Instructional Corps and ten divisions including the Zhong Song Independent Division, which was stationed in the Shanghai direction, he fully agreed, but suggested that under the name of internal reorganization of the Xiang Army, four divisions of the Xiang Army, including the current Wild One Division, which is not on the front line, can be added to the list of reorganized troops, and reorganized into the Wild Two Division to the Wild Four Division.

  He had a big difference of opinion with Sekret on the formation of troops. He believed that in actual combat, National Army units often had large formations but few soldiers, too many levels of command, and orders were difficult to transmit quickly to combat units. At the same time, a large number of command departments wasted a lot of manpower to protect themselves. Therefore, he was negative about the 22 system, 23 system, and 33 system. He proposed a divisional formation similar to that of the US military, with one division having five regiments, and abolished the brigade level in the reorganized troops, with brigades only serving as local second- and third-line defense units without heavy firepower, reserve units, and special branch formations temporarily formed for tactical tasks.

  In terms of military organization, Tan Xiao's overall idea is to first unify the organizational structure of all national troops; secondly, to compress or disband a large number of numbered units through replenishment of combat units; thirdly, to focus on training and improve combat effectiveness in various departments; fourthly, to hope that the total cost of maintaining the army after reorganization will not increase; finally, it is hoped that this reorganization, except for the first batch of 14 divisions that have been secretly carried out in advance, will uniformly organize all local warlord troops and central troops according to the model and rules starting from the second batch. In these views, he and Seckt and the Military Affairs Department are tacitly agreed.

  In terms of military equipment, he also negated the idea of fully equipping the army in a German style, as China did not yet have the conditions for unified national military equipment. As long as they could unify rifles at the division level and unify machine guns as much as possible, that would be good enough. Therefore, he believed that the current priority was not to consider which type of gun to equip, but rather to integrate resources and solve the problem of allocating weapons.

  Lin Lin, looking at his own troop deployment plan, found it to be vastly different from the one Chiang Kai-shek valued, that of Sekret. He couldn't help but smile wryly and shake his head, unsure whether Chiang would adopt his pragmatic approach or Sekret's aristocratic one.

  Regarding the reorganization of the Chinese military, it is now a raging undercurrent, with domestic and foreign interest groups secretly active.

  Now, the representatives of Elma factory in Germany, to be exact, the German representatives - after learning that Elma factory was going to Lingling, and having already known from other channels that Chiang Kai-shek had shown the initial plan for the reorganization of the National Army to Tan Xiang, the German Ministry of Defense immediately organized a working group consisting of personnel from the Ministry of Defense, military industry, finance, and entrepreneurs to go together. And they took advantage of their good relations with the Soviet Union and Japan, not taking the train but flying in relay to hurry over.

  The British and French were not idle either, their two anti-German organization members had also arrived in Lingling! The personnel level of this time's visitors was very high, although they were not the absolute power holders of the two organizations, but they were the core figures of the two organizations: Charles de Gaulle, the future leader of Free France, and "M", who looked 80% like Mr. Bean from the comedy series, the ancestor of the 007s! They were preparing to compete with the Germans again on the battlefield without gunpowder smoke.

  However, the ones who arrived the fastest were not these two groups, but Kong Xiangxi, who had secretly arrived in Lingling the night before, when a shooting incident occurred at the gate of the military camp with the Japanese. The next day, he learned that various arms dealers had transported a large number of weapons to Ye Jianying's division, and he was like sitting on pins and needles!

  In bartering with the Germans, he gave an appraisal value of German goods that was over 100% profit, and on top of that, added another half, which is approximately 33% of the total contract value as his kickback! But now, things have changed, the original plan has fallen through, and trade with Germany has been forced to be suspended. Moreover, many military procurement targets have already been altered. Basically, light-caliber cannons are no longer within Kong Xiangxi's purview. Now, Chiang Kai-shek has also handed over negotiations for cooperation on munitions factories to Tan Xiao, leaving Kong Xiangxi truly anxious.

  Kung Hsiang-hsi, known as the "Laughing Tiger", thought and thought, but couldn't get around Tan Pao-san. So he simply asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions, and in order to facilitate Tan's negotiations, he personally secretly brought over 6 million (yuan). Of course, his purpose was not just to deliver money; otherwise, he wouldn't have made the trip himself, which involved more than 30 million marks!

  At the same time Kong Xiangxi arrived in Lingling, Tan Xiao received a top-secret telegram from Chiang Kai-shek himself: Regarding negotiations with Germany, proceed entirely according to your own ideas and ignore others' opinions!

  Chiang Kai-shek was not unaware of Kong Xiangxi's huge kickbacks! However, the deficit of over 60 million yuan in the central government's account, the government's various expenditures, especially the huge military expenses for "suppressing bandits", made him have to compromise with the Jiangsu-Zhejiang financial group. Now, with Tan Xiao as a shield, he would not miss it. At the same time, he also understood Kong Xiangxi's intention to go to Lingling; he did not stop him, and the financial situation was so tight that he could not even allocate money to Tan Xiao, now Kong Xiangxi can make room for it, great! So, he sent this telegram to Tan Xiao. And Tan Xiao only understood Chiang Kai-shek's meaning when he knew Kong Xiangxi was coming.

  However, two days before Tan Xiao looked at some Sino-German cooperation items and was shocked: for example, a set of 150mm heavy artillery equipment, including cars and shells, cost as much as 800,000! Not counting Tan Xiao's ability to bargain for second-hand goods, even if he bought them through normal channels, it would not have cost more than 600,000! A few cannons consumed an entire division's monthly expenses! He did not know that in real history, the actual purchase price reached 870,000! Due to Tan Xiao's intervention in this time and space, Kong had already given a 10% discount. Tan Xiao roughly calculated that if one billion German marks could help China persist from the beginning of the war of resistance until the United States entered the war, then after deducting corruption and Germany's profits, this equipment worth one billion marks could have supported China until September 2, 1945, the end of the war of resistance, without any foreign aid!

  As for corruption, Tan Xiao is deeply disgusted with it, regardless of the time and space. Now that he has arrived, he cannot watch such a thing happen where China's military strength is greatly weakened due to corruption!

  So when Kong Xiangxi stepped into the division headquarters in Luling Old City, Tan Xiao understood that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to use him to block this gap. He was being used! But Tan Xiao was willing! He was fighting for the fate of 450 million compatriots!

  Tan Xiang and Kong Xiangxi met in the large living room of Rong Hui, where three people from the Anglo-French anti-German organization also arrived: "M", De Gaulle and Pétain.

  "That Chinese actually asked you to participate in the negotiations with the Germans as an assistant!?" The three men were shocked, and of course, delighted.

  "I overestimated that guy, he has no immunity to my little treasure at all..." Eric Beding probably wanted to show off his own merits here, so he walked up elegantly and tried to pull Rong Hui, who was sitting on the sofa, onto his lap with his hand.

  Rong Hui obediently let him pull her up and said, "Holding hands is no problem, but aren't you worried that the Gu Long water on your body will cause trouble? Tan is very sensitive, if he knows about our past, he'll kill you, I guarantee it!"

  Bei Dang was stunned, he didn't expect Rong Hui to reject him in front of the other two giants, but her reason was very sufficient.

  "Eric, we are discussing a very serious matter..." De Gaulle motioned for him to sit back in his seat.

  He's losing her! I felt it the moment he uttered those condescending words about that Chinese man, and now it's confirmed. Poor little aristocrat! But the organization can't lose her! "M" thought with a hint of silly humor in his mind.

  "So, we can easily get the overall plan and all the details of Sino-German cooperation! Great!" De Gaulle looked at Rong Hui with appreciation: "Whatever you need, just speak up, the organization will give you the greatest support!"

  "Does that include the terms of exchange?" Rong Hui changed her usual lazy tone: "I can provide all the details of the Sino-German plan and give you the greatest help in your actions, but what I want is the terms of exchange, not support!" This was the best opportunity to get away from Bai Dang, without having to plead or have a falling out between them. Rong Hui thought.

  De Gaulle was also stunned. He looked at Pétain and "M", the former with a look of astonishment, the latter still smiling foolishly.

  "Alright, state your terms." After a moment of contemplation, de Gaulle finally reacted.

  "I want to be a true noble, not someone's accessory. Maybe I'll become the wife of a military strongman of a country... and what's impossible?" Rong Hui stared straight at De Gaulle.

  He took a glance at Bei Dong's face which was red with excitement and secretly smiled in his heart, knowing De Gaulle's choice.

  "Do you think it's the country's interest or personal importance, my friend?" De Gaulle looked at Bedan, whose face turned even redder. Now he regretted bringing Rong Hui to Lingling and sending her to Tan Xiao's side. This woman was... really too much!

  "Are you really going to leave me?" He still asked with that noble elegance, knowing the answer but wanting to lose with some dignity, at least hoping that Rong Hui would give him a better way out.

  "But Rong Hui didn't: 'The sooner the better, Mr. Bei!'..."

  In a quiet courtyard in the city of Lingling, four people were sitting together. One of them was the president of Mitsui & Co.'s Hunan branch, Yamashita Keigo. The other two men were those kinds of people that you wouldn't necessarily remember even if you saw them a hundred times. On the other hand, the woman was the opposite - just one glance and she could capture your attention: a beauty. Unlike Rong Hui, she lacked some warmth but added a few degrees of coolness. But if you put the two women together, it would be like a peach and a plum competing in beauty.

  "This person is too exceptional and unfriendly to the Empire, can't stay any longer. Mukimura, please take care of it!" One of the slightly older Japanese men said very seriously to that Mukimura.

  "Hi." Kimura didn't even have an extra word.

  "Sakura, you can move now," said the middle-aged man to the woman.

  "Tomorrow, according to the schedule, it should be tomorrow." Sakura replied.

  "As for you, stupid guy, just go back to trading minerals!" the middle-aged man scolded Yamakoshi Kogoro.

  Poor Yamashita, the president, didn't even have the courage to speak, and was trembling with his head hung low. For this middle-aged man, he was really afraid, originally just an ordinary businessman, not a soldier or spy. It was this middle-aged man, Tanaka Hisashi, who brought him to the position of branch president and took him to the forefront of serving the empire. He knew that Tanaka Hisashi was the favorite of the organ chief, Tōyama Mitsuru, which was enough to describe his fearfulness.

  Last night after returning, he reported to Tanaka Hisashirō and then decided to kill Tamura. So the original plan was changed, except for Sakiko continuing to infiltrate the No. 1 Corps, Kimura Kōji, another high-ranking agent sent, became the leader of the assassination team.

  Sakiko, Sakiko Hamano had a Chinese name: Ye Yingying. After the September 18th Incident, she mixed in with the refugees and arrived in Nanjing, where she was admitted to the ninth class of the Central Military Academy. One of her classmates was named Zhou Xing, whose father was an officer in the Northeastern Army and had a very good background, and had just graduated early and been transferred to the First Division. She knew that Zhou Xing was a special agent of the Revival Society's Special Operations Department, because she had also received secret training with him, but she had left for a particular reason: she hadn't passed the special training, specifically the training on men.

  Now she is going to enter the No. 1 Wilderness through Zhou Heng's line, and all the arrangements have been made. What needs to be arranged now is the assassination of Tan Xiao.

  Their plan was to kill with a borrowed knife, as they had learned that the Xiangxi Guerrilla Force was deploying an assassination against Tan Xiao. They intended to wait and see - if the Xiangxi Guerrilla Force succeeded, they would not move; if the Xiangxi Guerrilla Force failed, they would make up for it and make it look like the Xiangxi Guerrilla Force had done it all along. So now they were paying close attention to every move of the Xiangxi Guerrilla Force's assassination team.

  The Western Hunan Guerrilla Force now hates Tan Xiao and the First Division to the bone! One thousand and twelve lives were buried in the hands of this counter-revolutionary! Due to this loss, the Western Hunan Guerrilla Force had to stop its raids behind enemy lines and flee from the encirclement of various Xiang Army units. Therefore, after their core command center escaped danger, they immediately planned to take revenge on Tan Xiao and the executor Peng Hanbo.

  There are ten people in the group, five of whom are sharpshooters from the team. More importantly, the other five are the backbone of the revolutionary forces lurking in Lingling City. This time, in order to get rid of the heinous Tan Xiao, they didn't care about the danger of exposure and mobilized all their forces, it was a desperate blow!

  According to the latest observations, Tan Xiao has been in and out of a French arms dealer's house recently, making three trips in just three days. One trip was even made without wearing his uniform or bringing any guards, unfortunately, no one knew it was him at the time, otherwise, they would have taken action earlier! The Party Secretary of Lingling introduced. He lived near the headquarters of the First Field Army, so he had been personally monitoring the movements of the high-level officers of the First Field Army. On that day, Tan Xiao went out without wearing his uniform, and he didn't notice it at first, but after learning about Tan Xiao's whereabouts later, he regretted it: if only he had known earlier, Tan Xiao would have died a hundred times!

  "Can't it be done outside the city? I've seen him several times traveling between military camps with just one driver and no guards!" asked another elderly villager.

  Secretary rubbed his head: "It seems to be okay, anyway this Tan Xiao doesn't seem to have very strict self-protection measures in place, he just brings a driver and goes everywhere, actually killing him shouldn't be that hard!"

  "Hmph, that counter-revolutionary hypocrite, usually keeps the troops in line, doesn't disturb the people, and even helps the poor and widowed in the area, so he thinks he has won over the hearts of the people and isn't on guard. This time it will be his demise!" A dwarf squatting on a bench said: "I think it's best to kill him right at that woman's doorstep, striking down counter-revolution and intimidating imperialism!"

  After a long time of debate, there is still no conclusion: Tan Xiao's self-protection in daily life is really too poor, and there are opportunities to take action everywhere, so it's hard for everyone to reach an agreement.

  While the group of traitors were arguing about how to make their move, their target was also in a heated debate with others - Kong Xiangxi.

  Tan Xiao disagreed with Kong Xiangxi's request to join the negotiations with Germany! This was a great surprise to Kong Xiangxi, as he, the Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan, Minister of Finance and Governor of the Central Bank, was actually refused by a division commander to participate in the negotiations.

  Tan Xiang's reason is that this is just the first contact, and the other party is mainly composed of engineers. If our side sends a deputy head of the administrative council to attend, it would be a bit too much and not in line with national etiquette. This reason Kong Xiangxi really can't say anything about.

  He thought for a moment and had to say very seriously: "Actually, this time not only engineers came from Germany, but also their military, defense industry and financial departments all sent people."

  "As long as it's not a high-ranking person representing the head of state, we shouldn't have Director Kung attend! Otherwise, who should go for the formal signing?" Tan Xiang still disagreed with Kong Xiangxi attending.

  Kong Xiangxi was furious, his attitude was so clear, but Tan Xiao still remained stubborn. "Feng Sheng, now we are in a difficult situation and need help from others, what's wrong with being humble? The country is in trouble!" He sighed with a worried look on his face.

  Tan Xiao wanted to refute him what was meant by "having a request for someone", and wanted to analyze Germany's needs with him, but he understood it was useless. From Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, this Kong Xiangxi was just a troublemaker for the German military procurement. But Lao Jiang didn't dare to say it out loud, let alone Tan Xiao, who couldn't be tough and also couldn't bring up Chiang Kai-shek!

  Seeing Tan Xiao hesitating, Kong Xiangxi burst out laughing: "I'm not afraid of losing face, haha, Fengsheng, what are you still worried about? It's settled then!"

  "No way!" Tan Xiao still disagreed! He couldn't come up with any reason, but he still disagreed. Disagreement was disagreement! "I only know that soldiers are pitted against soldiers, generals against generals, and kings against kings. This step is rushed, the next one will be even harder!"

  Kong Xiangxi really didn't expect Tan Xiao to be so stubborn. Judging from the situation, if he didn't use his identity as Premier to force things, it would probably be impossible for him to attend the meeting. However, he was worried about one thing: what if Tan Xiao still disagreed after he used his identity as Vice Premier to force things? Chiang Kai-shek had given Tan Xiao full authority to negotiate with the German side on cooperation in military factories, and Kong Xiangxi knew this. What would happen if Tan Xiao took out that order at that time? The "smiling tiger" suppressed the anger in his heart and smiled: "Then, let's go back and think about it some more? We can decide tonight?"

  Hard ones don't dare to use, come soft! At night, it's the best time to talk about money. I just don't believe you're not greedy for money, not fond of sex, and not infatuated with power! When the time comes, as long as we're not in the teacher's office, everything can be discussed! Kong Xiangxi thought that as long as he hinted to Tan Xiao that he wanted to support the army, all kinds of expenses could be reimbursed here, there should be no problem. However, this is the last step - asking Mr. Kong and a small military officer to discuss the division of spoils, he thinks it's embarrassing!

  What was Tan Xiao thinking? He didn't have any ideas, but emotionally, he really wanted to shoot Kong Xiangxi - - - - Since he guessed that the purchase of German military supplies was corrupt by Kong Xiangxi, he wanted to kill him!