Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Wang Zhenyu smiled and said: "Didn't I say it before, to be honest, it's okay."

Encouraged, Wan Yaohuang said, "Brigade Commander Wang, you won the Battle of Yudaimen, but Wan can tell you that you only won with a clever word. If you hadn't used the right plan and occupied the right time and place Renhe, if you only face it head-on, the brothers who aided the Hubei and Hunan Army will suffer a great loss even though they are brave."

Wan Yaohuang paused for a moment, then continued: "The Tartar soldiers on the opposite side are actually the Six Beiyang Towns that Yuan Shikai supervised and trained. Looking at the whole world, the Eighth Town of Wuhan and the Ninth Town of Nanjing can be compared. But in fact, in Hankou, the Eighth Town made them suffer a crushing defeat and almost wiped out the entire army. The attack on Yudaimen In one battle, you were here. It was the Beiyang soldiers who were less than one unit and defeated ten thousand of us. From training to equipment, the six Beiyang towns are all first-class, and there is no need to give up compared to the armies of the great powers. Although we have won half of the country right now, in terms of military alone, I am afraid that we will not be the opponent of the six towns of Beiyang! Military is the guarantee of politics. If we cannot check and balance each other militarily, the future between the north and the south may be..."

The next words are self-evident, but Wang Zhenyu is not worried about the future. In contrast, he is even more happy that he has picked up a treasure.If Xu Yuanquan is a professional tactical talent, then Wan Yaohuang in front of him is a professional strategic talent.And what I lack most now is talents, otherwise I don't need to set up a coaching team.Wang Zhenyu knew very well in his heart that it would be untrue to expect to rely on personal wisdom to reverse the luck of an era without the help of talents, and it would be purely freehand fiction.

At breakfast the next day, Wan Yaohuang shocked Wang Zhenyu who had just woken up: "Brigade Commander Wang, I have read the military training manuals issued by our brigade for each company, and they are very well compiled. But I am a little small. suggestion."

Wang Zhenyu just ate a steamed bun. Hearing a suggestion, he immediately became interested, put down the chopsticks in his hand, and said sideways: "Tell me, tell me."

Wan Yaohuang said: "First of all, it is the setting of the firepower position. You have also seen this battle in Hankou. The firepower of those Maxim heavy machine guns is very powerful. Such weapons will be used in large numbers in future wars. But this thing It is a money-hungry product, so you have to pay attention to the way you use it. I once did a calculation in Hanyang. Look at these three bowls, each bowl is like a heavy machine gun position. If you spread out in a line, each machine gun What can radiate is the front of the muzzle turning, and the firepower is limited to this. Once you encounter the fast-moving tiger and wolf division, this kind of firepower is also easy to break through."

Wang Zhenyu thought of the battle when Lu Diping took Boai Academy lightly, didn't he just bypass the front where the Qing army's heavy machine guns could radiate, and easily win by turning in from the side.Thinking of this, Wang Zhenyu naturally hurriedly nodded to Wan Yaohuang's statement.

"However, if the three bowls are arranged in a straight line to form an inverted triangle, with the help of the advantageous location, a depth of firepower can be formed. Once the enemy launches an attack, they will face crossfire from three directions. This kind of firepower is fierce and elite. It is also difficult for the army to achieve a breakthrough based on manpower alone, unless they have stronger firepower to suppress." Wan Yaohuang became more and more involved as he said: "This is the application of heavy firepower such as machine guns. As for defensive positions, I also I don't think it should be built in a line. The z-shaped positions currently implemented in Europe are very good. It is easy to build defense depth, form local firepower superposition, and also facilitate retreat. However, this requires the quality and workload of engineers. Increased."

Wang Zhenyu didn't interrupt, he just listened quietly, and at the same time took out a small notebook from his jacket pocket, and recorded them one by one.

After all, Wan Yaohuang was a young man, so he was naturally very excited and proud that his opinion was valued by the superior, and his heart was filled with enthusiasm: "By the way, brigade commander, there is another problem, which is the defense and attack of the enemy in the field. The battlefield is changing rapidly, and accidents are inevitable. For example, when the enemy is discovered, it is too late to build a complete fortification. At this time, the army should be organized to effectively form a V-shaped deployment."

"V-shaped deployment" Wang Zhenyu, who has read the book "Korean War", knows the so-called V-shaped attack, which means blocking the enemy from the front and outflanking the enemy's rear.But it was used for offense, so it is probably not the same thing that Xiao Wan said.

"It is within the effective range of firepower, unfolding in a V shape, similar to a pocket, the key lies in three points, the key is to stick to the bottom point, so as to protect the side and rear of the top two points. And the top two points If you can hold on, in turn, you can support the bottom point and form a three-sided strike with firepower. The premise is the terrain and location." Wan Yaohuang explained concisely.

Although Wang Zhenyu couldn't digest these military concepts for a while, and even if he digested it, it would not take a day or two to promote it in the whole army, but he was still very excited: "Yaohuang, if you have any suggestions, just say it, don't hide it."

Chapter 042: Go East to Nanjing ([-])

Wan Yaohuang also talked a lot about it, "There is also the cultivation of scouts, which is very important. Today's scouts are equivalent to ancient scouts, they are the eyes and nose of the army, and it can even be said that the strength of scouts is largely It determines the victory or defeat of the entire battle. On the battlefield in Hubei, the scouts in the six towns of Beiyang were obviously superior to our army. Otherwise, we would not even know such an important thing as the heavy machine guns installed in the Bo'ai Academy. It is exactly Because he was blocked in this position for too long, he sacrificed so much at the Jade Belt Gate."

Wang Zhenyu agrees with this very much. In later generations, his grandfather was a deputy platoon leader of the 47th Army's reconnaissance platoon: "What qualities does an excellent scout need?"

Wan Yaohuang has studied this for a long time, so he naturally replied without thinking: "Brave, loyal, witty, good at disguising, good at analyzing and judging, and having good individual qualities, these are all qualities that a qualified scout must possess... ..."

Wang Zhenyu gained a lot from the conversation with Wan Yaohuang. The only thing that surprised him was why didn't such a talent leave his name in the history of the Republic of China?

In fact, what Wang Zhenyu didn't know was that Wan Yaohuang was just unknown in history textbooks.It can be regarded as a person in history. When the Wuchang armistice, Li Yuanhong had already escaped from Wuchang.At that time, it was this little staff officer, Wan Yaohuang, who made a decisive decision. After chasing for forty miles in Xingye, he took the commander's seal from Li Yuanhong and stamped the armistice letter. This shows his courage and determination.As for the later obscurity, it wasn't that Jiang Lang's talent was exhausted, but that it was not at the right time and he had no master.It roughly corresponds to the sentence: "Maxima often exists, but Bole does not often exist."

Because the 16-ton small passenger ship goes down the river, its speed can reach 28 knots, that is, [-] kilometers per hour. Therefore, it only takes a little more than a day to arrive at Nanjing Xiaguan Wharf including docking supplies.

After Wang Zhenyu, Wan Yaohuang, Ma Xicheng, Zhao Dongsheng and others disembarked, they met the personnel in charge of the Nanjing Army Department.The Ninth Brigade was stationed and immediately allocated a supply, but there was no payment.Although Wang Zhenyu, who is not short of money, doesn't care about this, he can deduce from this how financially tight Nanjing is.

When we arrived in Nanjing, the whole army moved into the garrison, and the cleaning and sanitation was extremely busy.However, Wang Zhenyu was not immediately summoned by Huang Xing, but only registered with the Ministry of War.

In the blink of an eye, it was already mid-February in 1912. Great news came from Beijing. The wise and mighty Emperor Xuantong officially announced his abdication, and the North and South were finally reconciled.Immediately, the sound of firecrackers, gongs and drums rang out, and the whole city of Nanjing became extremely lively. Hundreds of thousands of militiamen and Nanjing citizens chose to temporarily forget the recent difficult life, and everyone was celebrating this good news from the bottom of their hearts. (It is indeed good news. The emperor has fallen, and everyone is no longer a chaotic party, and their lives are guaranteed.) In the eyes of most people, all the suffering in this country comes from the damn Qing Empire. Now it’s all right. The emperor has abdicated, and there should be better days ahead.At the Ninth Brigade's resident, Wang Zhenyu was on the balcony looking coldly at his subordinates who were having a carnival on the playground.Although I know that the abdication of the Qing emperor is not the end of the suffering, but the beginning of a new round of suffering, but he is not stupid enough to come out at this time to pour cold water on everyone. Dinner to celebrate this huge victory.

Now that the emperor was gone, the plan of the Northern Expedition was also cancelled. Wang Zhenyu immediately became idle, and he was happy to pay attention to the situation in Hunan province.

Strictly speaking, the situation in Hunan faced by Tan Yankai after he became the governor of Hunan is very complicated, and various forces are eager to try. In this situation where fish and dragons are always mixed, the most fatal point is that Tan Yankai himself does not have armed force. To put it simply It is the lack of reliable armed protection.

But it was in such an extremely unfavorable situation that Tan Yankai's extraordinary ability was revealed.

Don't look at Granny Tan who is only in her early 30s, she has a skillful wrist and a deep city, which is really rare in China.He first reached a mutual understanding with the Tongmenghui, and sent people to comfort the families of the two governors, Jiao and Chen, who were killed.At the same time, he also thanked Mei Xin for supporting his superior, and appointed him as the commander of the Fifth Division of the Hunan Army and the guardian of Changbao.Tan Yankai naturally has ways to deal with the troops left by Jiao Dafeng and Chen Zuoxin.First of all, in the name of aiding the revolution in Hubei, these troops were successively transferred to the front line in Hubei.Before leaving, he also asked the ministries to sacrifice for the revolution without looking back.

In layman's terms, you should all die in Hubei, and don't come back.

For the dissidents who stayed in the province, Tan Yankai even used his strength to instigate Mei Xin's troops to kill them.Through secret deception and public suppression, a two-pronged approach quickly settled down local forces such as the Baoqing military government branch.

As for Wang Longzhong returning with his troops to settle accounts, that would be even better.Tan Yankai first took advantage of Wang Longzhong's power to scare away Mei Xin who was entrenched in Changsha and controlled him.Then he appointed Huang Luanming, the old chief of No. 49, who was not in Changsha during the revolution, as the director of military affairs of the military government because he participated in the autumn exercises.After Huang Luanming ran to Wang Longzhong relying on his former prestige to convene the old department for a while, he said that everyone dared not act rashly again, and Wang Longzhong finally lost the chance to become the governor.

Tan Yankai took advantage of the relationship with all parties to resolve a huge crisis invisible.Later, Tan Yankai brought in the supervisor of the second battalion of the original 49th bid who also participated in the autumn exercises, that is, Chen Qiang, Wang Zhenyu's predecessor.He was appointed as the commander of the Eighth Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Hunan Army, and took over half of Wang Longzhong's forces.

Tan Yankai is still looking for contacts, looking for acquaintances, and preparing to form a more reliable army. . .

All these were written by Lu Diping to tell himself. Lu Diping was quite a character, and he told himself very straightforwardly that he also accepted Tan Yankai's solicitation, and most of the officers under Master Wang had already been solicited.

Damn, this Granny Tan is really good at building relationships!After reading the letter, Wang Zhenyu couldn't help sighing.

There is a saying in later generations that is very in line with the national conditions, that is, how high a person can achieve has little to do with ability, the most important thing is to see what level of people you can recognize.

Isn't it just for relationship, and I will do it too.

With this in mind, Wang Zhenyu immediately asked Ma Xicheng and Zhao Dongsheng to send invitations everywhere. Now that he is a major general in the army anyway, he still has the face of inviting people to dinner.

If someone invites someone, someone will eat it. In addition, Wang Zhenyu is generous in his actions and speaks decently.

There are two people who come here often, and they are very familiar with Wang Zhenyu.

One is Wang Zhixiang, commander of the Third Army, from Zhili, in his 50s.Before the revolution, he was the chief political envoy of Guangxi, and he was in charge of the Six Battalions in Guilin. After being persuaded by his brother-in-law Liu Renjun from Hunan, he joined the revolution and became the deputy governor of Guangxi.However, he had a quarrel with another deputy governor, Lu Rongting, and had to take his own troops to Nanjing to prepare for the Northern Expedition. He didn't want the Qing Emperor to abdicate, and the Northern Expedition was cancelled.Now Lu Rongting refuses to let him go back to Guangxi, and stays in Nanjing, and the Liushou Mansion will not give him a penny of military pay.Facing the [-] mouths that want to eat under his hands, Wang Zhixiang feels helpless now, no, he drinks with Wang Zhenyu here every day.

The other is Tian Yingzhao, the brigade commander of the 35th Brigade, Wang Zhenyu's fellow Hunanese, [-] years old, and he is a general.Speaking of the bandits in western Hunan, everyone may know, but in fact these people were not bandits at first. They were formed for historical reasons. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was suppressed, Tian Xingshu, a Phoenix man in western Hunan, was the father of Tian Yingzhao.He led the team into the Hunan Army, and then followed Zuo Zongtang to Xinjiang to fight the Russians.After fighting all the way, he became the governor of Guizhou.Just like Feng Zicai had the Cui army, Tian Xingshu had the army under his command. These troops were not disbanded by the court, but continued to exist as volunteers.It then became a local armed group.The famous Gansu Majiajun (not the track and field team) was also formed in such a model.Therefore, the origin of the banditry in Xiangxi is not bandits, but the volunteers (temporary workers without establishment) left over from the Qing Dynasty.Just because they resisted the rough reorganization of cadres who went south after liberation, they embarked on the "wrong path" against the people's government. Naturally, according to their political orientation and propaganda needs, they became bandits who ate human flesh and drank human blood.By the way, there was also a great literati named Shen Congwen in Ganjun, but I won't mention it here.

This Tian Yingzhao is the third eldest child. He likes to wear a mustache and is nicknamed Tian Huzi.Lao Tzu died within a few years of his birth, spoiled by his mother and daughter, and belonged to a master who had never learned well since childhood.Later, he entrusted his connections to enter the Hunan Army Academy, but was expelled from the school for beating foreign instructors. He failed to recruit and had to go abroad to study in Japan, but was assimilated by the Revolutionary Party.After returning to China, Tian Yingzhao actually served as Wang Zhenyu's teacher and was the general manager of the Army Primary School. However, Wang Zhenyu didn't remember that he had such a teacher. Anyway, the two have become friends now.

When attacking Yuhuatai in Nanjing, Tian Sanshao asked himself to be a death squad and made his first contribution. Huang Xing appreciated it and appointed him as the commander of the [-]th Brigade.

Tian Yingzhao liked Wang Zhenyu, a generous and straightforward little fellow, and even warmly invited Wang Zhenyu to smoke opium with him, saying that it was the finest Yunnan tobacco, which was so rare.Wang Zhenyu was so scared that he was taken aback for a while, this revolutionary is also taking drugs?

But thinking about it makes me feel relieved, just like the second generation of officials and the second generation of rich people like to take drugs to seek excitement. In the late Qing Dynasty, the rich and powerful class smoked opium. afford.The more famous one is Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang. This adult was a tiger general when he was young, but he was a smoker when he was old.During the First Sino-Japanese War, he was ordered to command [-] Hunan troops to the Northeast to fight against Japan, but he was addicted to cigarettes, and he was drunk all day long, and the time he could sit up and do business was only a few hours.This is really a lion who was once the leader of a lion and later became a pig. He came to command the Hunan Army. The result can be imagined.With such an old man on the stall, the Hunan Army naturally showed no aggressive performance in the battle of Liaodong.In the end, Liaodong fell, and the Hunanese had no choice but to cry bitterly and regret that the Hunanese had wronged the country.

Chapter 043: Go East to Nanjing ([-])

This Young Master Tian San will be a serious second-generation official and second-generation army in later generations. It is normal for him to like to take drugs.It's a pity that Wang Zhenyu doesn't want to be Zhang Xueliang, and he doesn't plan to live to be as long as 105 years old. Naturally, I am grateful for this.

Staying in Nanjing was a little boring, and the training was handed over to his subordinates. Wang Zhenyu, who had nothing to do, thought that since he came to the Yangtze River Delta, the most affluent place in China, he must do some business.

If I want to make a name for myself in the future, talent and money are both indispensable.

In Wuhan, I have Ye Zuwen as a comprador, and this old boy is dedicated to his work.But if a person wants to stand firm, it is absolutely impossible to rely on only one leg.

I still need to have a leg, but Ye Zuwen will come to Nanjing soon, maybe he can find another leg for himself!

Tian Yingzhao was also tired of staying in Nanjing recently, and suddenly wanted to go to Changzhou for two days, so he came to invite Wang Zhenyu.

Although the entire south of the Yangtze River is nominally out of the control of the Qing court, it does not necessarily belong to the Republic of China if it is out of the Qing Dynasty.The scope actually controlled by the Nanjing Provisional Government is also very limited, but Changzhou obviously belongs to this actual controllable scope.

30 troops from all walks of life gathered in Nanjing, and the Northern Expedition became a moon in the water because the Qing emperor announced his abdication.After a long time of leisure, everyone will feel bored. Zhenjiang, Changzhou and other places, which are not too far from Nanjing, have become good places for military officers to spend their time.

But this time Tian Yingzhao obviously didn't lead the right way. Wang Zhenyu and his party followed Tian Yingzhao to a place called Benniu Town near Changzhou, and found that it was pretty deserted here.

Seeing the depression, Tian Yingzhao was so angry that he scolded his own soldiers: "Bastard, didn't you say that you have been here before, didn't you say that this place is very lively?"

The soldier was so frightened that he didn't dare to take a breath, but just stood there with his head bowed.

Wang Zhenyu was not angry at all, and now he can be regarded as a general. He began to consciously control his emotions. After all, anger often cannot solve problems.He dismounted immediately, threw the reins to his guards, and started walking slowly on the street with his hands behind his back.After walking a dozen or so steps, he was surprised to find that there was still a shop open as usual on the empty street. Seeing the customers coming in and out from time to time, the business seemed to be doing well.

This is a western scene. Just after the war, economic depression is the norm, and vice versa is very strange.