Volume 2: Famous all over the world Chapter 16 Restructuring
The small building of the former Hankou Merchants Steam Navigation Company and now the branch of the military government was brightly lit, and soldiers, officers, and government officials were bustling about. Although the national telegram would not be officially issued until tomorrow morning, Yang Qiu, the commander-in-chief of the National Defense Army, had already started work in advance and moved the Wuchang Headquarters and the Military Affairs Office here.
The military police who were originally on guard had all been replaced by the garrison battalion transferred from Hanyang. They were all equipped with Mauser 98 rifles , grenades on their waists, and machine gun muzzles sticking out of their heads, all of which told people that Commander Yang was in charge now.
The soldiers on the right side all held their heads high, while the soldiers on the left side looked a little gloomy but also hurried . A new official would start with three fires, and no one wanted to be burned first. The Sun Wu faction was a lesson learned from the past. In this era of guns, the bigger the fist, the more powerful the truth. Starting from Liujia Temple, to the capture of Wusheng Pass, the northward advance to recover the entire territory, and the bloody battle for six days before leaving, they also killed 3,000 Beiyang elites. Connecting this series of achievements, everyone had only one thought in their mind.
Was this really done by a guy who was just an ordinary baggage soldier three months ago? The 22-year-old commander-in-chief of the National Defense Forces! Damn! This guy's ancestors must be in great trouble!
Song Ziqing and Cai Jimin, who were still in Chongqing, served as Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Chief of the General Staff respectively, Ju Zheng served as the military governor, and the Military Affairs Office controlled by Sun Wu was taken over by Zhang Wenjing. Xiao Anguo continued to serve as deputy commander and director of the Training and Equipment Department. As for Yang Kaijia and other former veteran officers of the Eight Regiments, they had no chance of turning things around this time. Because Zhang Jingliang was in trouble, even the party officers did not trust them, and they were thrown to the Wuchang Governor's Office as advisers.
This is an intriguing list. Judging from the list, the biggest beneficiary is definitely Yang Qiu, as the three major departments that restrict development, logistics, recruits and equipment, are all in his hands. With the financial resources of Hankou, it is difficult for others to touch him unless he has problems! Ju Zheng, the Tongmenghui and the Literary Society are the second biggest winners, not only because they took this opportunity to reduce Li Yuanhong's influence in the army to the minimum, but also to completely separate the civil administration and constitutionalists from the army. When Sun Yat-sen returns, the Hubei E Army will become the biggest backer of the revolution.
But would Yang Qiu really follow through on what was agreed upon and invite Sun Yat-sen to be the president? This was what Ju Zheng and others were most worried about.
Yang Qiu didn't have time to think about these things, and he would not think that he could sit back and relax just because he controlled the military power. He still had a lot of things to do. If he didn't push back Yuan Shikai's fist, all of this would be just a mirage.
Zhang Wenjing had already started to speed up the delivery of military supplies to Xiaogan, but the person to go to Chongqing had not been decided yet.
Song Ziqing did a great job in Sichuan! He first used his identity to sneak into the military camp, and then killed Rui Fang and seized the military power after inciting a large number of grassroots officers to defect. Then he led his troops to attack at the same time under the cover of two gunboats, and controlled Chongqing and Guang'an at lightning speed. After plundering nearly one million from the treasuries of the two places and the homes of corrupt officials of the former Qing Dynasty, he also took over the 62nd Infantry Battalion and a cannon battalion of the 7th Regiment of the Sichuan New Army stationed there.
There were three infantry battalions in the 62nd Regiment and four battalions of the Hubei Army entering Sichuan, which meant a total of seven infantry battalions, and one Hubei-Sichuan mixed artillery battalion. The more than 5,000 veterans solved the problem of veteran shortage at once, but it was a bit tricky to decide who to continue leading them, because Sichuan was too important. Both Ziliujing and Chengdu had to be taken immediately to alleviate the gradually drying up financial resources. Moreover, he had never thought of sharing Sichuan with others, so this person must have sufficient ability to command troops.
Letting Song Ziqing continue to stay in Sichuan is the best option, but at the moment he lacks a core staff officer, not to mention there are thousands of veterans, so he must be brought back. The remaining Yue Peng and He Xi are both designated commanders of the First and Second Divisions, so who should go?
"If you want to be safe, let Hang Zhi and Hu Lao San go." Xiao Anguo pointed at Yuezhou and said, "Hang Zhi's battalion is idle in Yuezhou. He was originally asked to monitor Hunan. Now that Hunan has been liberated, there is nothing wrong with him staying there. Hu Lao San is in Badong, just a stone's throw away from Guang'an. The four battalions and 2,000 new soldiers assigned to him have also arrived in Yichang. Together, they can ensure the safety of both places."
Zhang Wenjing obviously had bigger ambitions and disagreed, "Yuezhou is the intersection of Hubei and Hunan, and its location is important! Now that we have it, we shouldn't let it go easily. Hunan has been liberated, but no one can predict what will happen in the future. I think after the new recruits here have finished their training, we should give them two battalions to expand into a regiment. On the one hand, this can deter others from moving upstream of Wuchang, and on the other hand, it can also keep an eye on Hunan so that it won't cause trouble for us in the future."
"Su Xiaohu!"
"Su Xiaohu is not bad. He was also well-known in the Gaowubei Academy. He didn't join the army because he was the only son. Now he should be able to rise after some training. It's just that..." Zhang Wenjing frowned and said worriedly, "At present, the only ones we can fight in Yangxia are Su Xiaohu's Second Battalion, Fan Liangshan's Garrison Battalion, the Supply Battalion and the Second Artillery Battalion. The Guard Company has less than 200 people. The four new recruit battalions can only be used at least until the end of the year. Will there be twists and turns on the other side after he is withdrawn?"
Glancing at Zhang Wenjing with a strange expression, Yang Qiu didn't know whether to laugh or be worried. He was happy because this group was gradually developing independent thinking, but he was worried because the historical context in the parallel world was diverging little by little, and he himself had become confused. Now a new interest group centered on himself has gradually taken shape. As its influence extends to Sichuan, people's hearts are gradually no longer simple. Where will they go in ?
He smiled dumbly, as if he felt that he had thought too much. Old Master Feng was furious at Wusheng Pass. Although Sun Wu had fallen, Huang Xing would come again tomorrow. If he couldn't win this battle, everything would be empty. Why think so far ahead? So he immediately waved his hand and said, "My safety does not depend on how many people are around me, but on how far we can go!"
After deciding on the commander, the task was simple. The Second Battalion set out overnight to join Hu Laosan's troops in Yichang and Badong. At the same time, Yue Peng and Wu Zhaolin immediately selected two hundred veterans and young officers who had passed the test of Wushengguan to go to Jingshan for support. Song Ziqing disbanded the Hubei-Sichuan troops, leaving behind three infantry battalions and an artillery battalion, and took two heavy machine gun companies, ten light machine guns and one thousand Mauser 98s to form the Sichuan Pioneer Brigade of the National Defense Army.
Su Xiaohu is the brigade commander, Hu Laosan is the head of the 1st regiment and deputy brigade commander, and Ma Kui will also go over to take over as the commander of the southern Sichuan garrison. He will be responsible for recruiting new soldiers in Chongqing, Guang'an and other places, and building necessary facilities. The government affairs crash course will also be moved to Chongqing. At the same time, he must immediately find a way to gather the scattered old workers of the Sichuan Manufacturing Bureau and all kinds of talents in Sichuan.
Except for the initial period, Yang Qiu had always strictly prohibited various external troops from recruiting soldiers privately, stipulating that new recruits could only be recruited through local recruitment stations and needed to be sent back to Hanyang for unified training. However, this time he gave Ma Kui the task of recruiting and training new recruits, obviously he was determined to make Sichuan his rear base.
Su Xiaohu was very excited to be promoted from battalion commander to Sichuan Pioneer Brigade commander. During this period, the brother troops in the front were fighting vigorously, but the Second Battalion was only training and training. There were a lot of complaints from the subordinates. So after receiving the order, the former security team guys all started to run around like untied hounds. In addition to excitement, there was also a lot of pressure, because Yang Qiu had already issued a death order, requiring the Pioneer Brigade to completely capture Ziliujing and Chengdu within half a month.
At the same time that Ma Kui and Su Xiaohu set off overnight, the reorganization regulations of various units in Hubei also began. The division reform regulations that Zhang Tingfu had read were approved by the new general staff, and the orders were quickly sent to various units by fast horses and radio waves.
According to the plan, all troops in Hubei will be reorganized. The left and right armies that have troubled everyone for a long time will be abandoned first and all will be changed into a unified national defense army. The new national defense army will temporarily consist of three divisions and one brigade, and each division will have three brigades under its jurisdiction.
The three brigades of the Left Route Army originally stationed in Qingshan Defense Navy were incorporated into the First Division. Ke Shao led his direct company back and Yue Peng was appointed as the division commander. The four battalions of the First Regiment, two battalions of the Second Regiment, the First Artillery Battalion and the two detachments originally incorporated from Jingshan of the former Right Route Army of Xiaogan formed the First Brigade of the Second Division, with Qin Zhangshu, the former deputy commander of the First Regiment who graduated from the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy, as the brigade commander. The two brigades of He Xifan and Zhang Tingfu were changed to the Second Brigade and the Third Brigade, with He Xi as the division commander.
The four veteran battalions in Chongqing and the third battalion of Hang Zhi will be merged with the newly established seventh brigade of the former Left Route Army into the first brigade of the third division. Xiong Bingkun's fifth brigade and Luo Hongsheng's sixth brigade will be changed to the second brigade and the third brigade of the third division. Cai Jimin will temporarily serve as the division commander and will be immediately transferred to Liujiamiao for garrison as a reserve force.
The reorganization order was issued, but there was still a long way to go. First of all, the combat effectiveness of each brigade was uneven. The First and Second Divisions had troops that had fought against the Beiyang Army, and most of them were veterans from the Eight Towns of Hubei, who were the core force of the war. However, the newly built brigades of the Third Division were not fully staffed, and their weapons were seriously insufficient. Except for the Second Artillery Battalion, which would immediately go north to join the First Artillery Battalion, and the three artillery teams in Xiaogan, which would be led by Jiang Tai to form an artillery regiment, the other two divisions could only be assigned to an understaffed artillery battalion each. Therefore, there was still a long way to go to realize the new infantry division in mind.
After the organization was finalized, Yang Qiu also took severe measures within the army. He was furious that the new recruits formed by secret societies in the Xiaogan incident were the first to escape, so he immediately announced the layoffs of these new recruits who were of no help but instead caused trouble. After promising to immediately recruit 5,000 new recruits from the former Right Route Army recruitment stations in rural areas such as Yichang and Xiangyang and return to Hanyang for training, Ju Zheng and others agreed to the layoff plan.
This was the busiest night for the army since the war began. By the next morning, several secretaries in the secretariat were so tired that they fell asleep on their desks, but the officers were very excited despite their fatigue. Unlike the chaos in the army when Sun Wu was in power, Yang Qiu showed his capable and decisive side. Almost all his orders and reorganization plans were aimed at the shortcomings, and a large number of young and talented officers were promoted. All these told everyone that the 22-year-old commander-in-chief was not in vain, and the previous victory was by no means a fluke.
When the guards opened the curtains of the conference room, in addition to the prepared telegram about Yang Qiu taking over as commander-in-chief, another national telegram that had been brewing for a long time was also sent out.
