Insufficient balance

  Yu Ruofei and others were somewhat excited when they saw Chen Jingyun, and even some people who came forward to speak were a bit shy, including Yu Ruofei, who was three years older than Chen Jingyun.

  In terms of generation, Chen Jingyun and Yu Ruofei are of the same generation, but they took different paths. Chen Jingyun attended Fuzhou Wubei Academy from his early teens and then studied in Japan, while Yu Ruofei also attended a new-style school but later chose to study at Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied law. After returning to China, their treatment was also different. As an outstanding student of Tokyo Imperial University, Yu Ruofei's academic background should be much higher than Chen Jingyun, who graduated from the specialized military academy for officer training. In any other country, Yu Ruofei would have become an elite figure with such qualifications and could easily hold high-ranking government positions.

  But after returning to China, he faced the Qing imperial court. Although the constitutional movement had been gaining momentum in recent years, it was still largely an illusion. After two years of studying law, Yu Ruofei achieved nothing and eventually had no choice but to become a teacher at Fuzhou Law and Politics School. Moreover, his wife came from a humble family background, which led to strong disapproval from his own family members, who looked down on him. In contrast, Chen Jingyun, who studied military affairs, became a deputy military school officer upon returning home, and within less than a month, he was promoted to full military school officer. Within two or three years, he rose to the rank of commander-in-chief, third-grade official, and became the leader of a banner army.

  After Chen Jingyun led the troops to start the uprising, Yu Ruofei also couldn't hold back his desire to make a name for himself. He first asked Chen Yushi to sound out Chen Jingyun's intentions. Although Chen Yushi was already a member of the Chen family, she still had a lot of affection for her nephew from her birth family. So she personally spoke to Chen Jingyun about this person and said that if Chen Jingyun thought it was possible, he would help this man get a job.

  After turning around in a circle, Yu Ruofei formally met Chen Jingyun and said he wanted to join the army.

  Chen Jingyun didn't have a strong impression of this person, although they were cousins and didn't interact much. However, he was still family, and with his impressive educational background as a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University, one of the top universities in China, Chen thought that if he applied himself, he could become a great general like Zhang Lingfu. So, Chen put him in charge of a regiment in the guard unit, giving him a nominal position as a lieutenant colonel, and sent him to Fuzhou Military Academy as an auditor. This person was intelligent and had a broad perspective, attending both short-term and accelerated training courses at the academy. After just half a month, he had already made significant progress. When Chen Jingyun met with him again, he was amazed by his learning ability and delighted by his potential. As a result, Chen gave him another promotion to regimental commander, allowing him to continue auditing classes at Fuzhou Military Academy while also serving as the second-in-command of the general staff. At the time, Chen told him, "For now, just focus on studying; don't worry too much about other tasks in the unit!"

  Almost two months later, Chen Jingyun took the opportunity of the expansion of the Guards Regiment to a division to promote him as the regiment commander, and also let him serve as the first staff officer of the General Staff Department, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

  These two months have made Yu Ruofei feel that the years he spent after returning to China were simply wasted. If he had known, he would not have gone to Tokyo Imperial University in the first place and would have taken the exam for the army instead. However, the warmth and coldness of human relationships over the years have also made him realize that the reason he was able to change from a law teacher to a lieutenant colonel in just two months is largely due to Chen Jingyun's support behind his back; otherwise, even if he had been diligent in his studies, it would not have been possible for him to achieve such rapid promotion.

  So this time when he met Chen Jingyun, he didn't dare to put on any airs as a table brother, but instead called him "Governor" whenever he spoke, and accompanied Chen Jingyun with Lin Chengkun to inspect the military camp.

  After a tour of inspection, Chen Jingyun and others watched a battalion-level exercise in which two companies attacked and defended each other.

  Chen Jingyun's military knowledge is all inherited from the original Chen Jingyun's memory, but he did not inherit his military genius and intuition, and can only make rough judgments based on memories in his mind. To a certain extent, the current Chen Jingyun is not a good general, nor even a qualified one.

  While the military attaché beside Ma Cheng's command was watching with great interest, even Yamamoto Jun'ichirō on the other side was watching very seriously. However, Chen Jingyun felt bored after just a few minutes, having seen too many large-scale scenes in movies, and this exercise, which wasn't even live-fire, seemed unimpressive by comparison. Although he found it boring, he still managed to notice some things, that is, this unit had a very strong Japanese style, yes, the "flesh bullet flow" that Japan revered.

  A simple ambush, the commander of Team A was able to turn it into a fierce battle, using wave after wave of continuous charges to storm Team B's position. In the end, although Team A won, Chen Jingyun couldn't help but have a big question mark in his mind - if there had been a layer of barbed wire in front of them, with two machine guns (or even just one) behind it, would they still have been able to charge up the position?

  The answer is absolutely impossible!

  Now, including the Beiyang Army, Chinese troops have been influenced by the Japanese army for a long time, and it's not easy to change in a short period of time.

  Chen Jingyun doesn't think of himself as a god, who can decide the combat style of an army with just a casual order. After all, he cannot directly change the way of thinking of so many generals in the army. When it comes to real battles, the commanders on the front line will use their own subjective will to judge the situation and dominate the war, while most of the great men behind can only shout and wave flags.

  To change this atmosphere, Chen Jingyun also had to start with the Fuzhou Military Academy, directly instilling various advanced war concepts into the officers' training.

  Let them know that this is no longer an era of charging with flesh and blood, but an era of barbed wire and machine guns.

  The Chinese may be numerous, but they are not here to die for nothing!

  Of course, this pattern of barbed wire and machine guns still poses some difficulties for the National Revolutionary Army. One is that heavy machine guns are in short supply: currently, each division of the National Revolutionary Army has only twelve heavy machine guns, which does not have much advantage over the Beiyang Army in terms of quantity. As for the eighteen light machine guns, their firepower is too weak to sustain, and they are mainly used as offensive fire support in the army. In trench defense battles, they still rely on heavy machine guns as the main force. At the same time, European armies that pioneered the tactic of barbed wire and heavy machine guns had a density of over 200 light and heavy machine guns per division. Apart from the insufficient firepower of machine guns, barbed wire is also a big problem. Fuzhou does not have any steel mills, so it is unrealistic to produce large quantities of barbed wire locally. Relying solely on imports would also incur significant expenses.

  Based on this reality, Chen Jingyun also doesn't plan to say anything for now, and can slowly come later, no need to rush at the moment!

  Anyway, the warlords in the country are all playing like this now, and they are not too backward either.

  After the exercise, it was already late in the afternoon. Chen Jingyun and the generals went to the canteen of the Guard Corps for lunch together. The cooks in the canteen had been prepared beforehand. On this day, they served plain rice and white buns, accompanied by large pieces of pork and fresh vegetables. Each person could also get an apple. This kind of food supply was basically a show, intended for the reporters from several newspapers who came to take photos. The Guard Corps even made sure that the soldiers who came to eat were all wearing clean and tidy uniforms. More than a dozen officers and soldiers who stood behind Chen Jingyun to take photos as representatives had been selected by Lin Chengkun the day before. They were not only handsome, but also wore brand-new dress uniforms.

  It's nothing but a publicity stunt: Look, the soldiers under my command are living so well and are so energetic and spirited. You young people should quickly come and join the army to be cannon fodder for me...

  So when the flash went off during the photo shoot, Chen Jingyun felt that his smile was so fake, just like Jin Sanpang in later generations.

  After finishing these superficialities, Chen Jingyun and Lin Chengkun, Yu Ruofei and a few other high-ranking officers of the Guard Corps entered the conference room. It was only then that Chen Jingyun put down his facade and sat down, but he didn't speak immediately, instead lost in thought.

  Lin Chengkun and Yu Ruofei were sitting below, accompanying him. Chen Jingyun didn't speak, so they didn't dare to say anything either, just staring blankly.

  After a while, Chen Jingyun finally coughed slightly, and several people on the ground immediately sat up straight and cast their eyes towards Chen Jingyun.

  "Today's inspection, overall the guard brigade is doing a good job!" Chen Jingyun spoke at a moderate pace throughout the meeting. In the past, it was to prevent himself from saying wrong things and slowing down his speech carefully, but over time, it also became a habit, using his own speech rate to control the atmosphere of the meeting.

  "The troops are well-trained, it's clear that Cheng Kun has put in a lot of effort!" Chen Jingyun said: "This is great! Only when the guard regiment is good can I feel at ease."

  He said, looking around at others in the field like Yu Ruofei: "The Guard Corps can be seen from its name what kind of troops it is. This is the most trusted part and the last reliance. Therefore, the affairs of the Guard Corps still need to be taken care of by you all!"

  Lin Chengkun immediately said: "Governor, rest assured, the entire Guards Division will die for you!"

  At this critical moment, we can't fall behind, so the following Yu Ruofei and several others also chorused: "Swear to die for the commander!"

  As for their statement, Chen Jingyun still feels quite comfortable listening to it. Although people's hearts are separated by a belly skin, if they don't even pretend to be loyal on the surface, what's the point of talking about inner feelings?

  "For those who have made contributions, I have always been clear in my rewards." Chen Jingyun said, pausing before continuing: "It's just that the national army has already expanded to a considerable scale and cannot continue to expand in the short term, so it may take some time for everyone to be promoted. However!"

  "In the future, when the Guards Brigade is expanded into a division, if it can still maintain its current rigorous training state, then the Guards Brigade will be the first batch of troops to be expanded into a division!" Chen Jingyun pre-emptively released his own reward, which also gave everyone an expectation.

  Lin Chengkun's face turned red with excitement as he imagined himself in the prestigious position of a senior officer, and even Yu Ruofei was secretly thinking that if there were to be an expansion next year, he might just be able to snag a division commander position.

  For a moment, everyone in the conference room was immersed in fantasies of a beautiful future...