Years of the Republic of China 1913

[Text]Chapter 73 Big Compilation

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"Deputy Master Fang, when did you arrive in Nanjing?" Li Shimao asked with a smile on his face as the atmosphere in the room became much more relaxed after Zhao Hengti and the others left.

"I arrived yesterday, hehe, Commander Li, I am no longer the deputy division commander of the Eighth Division. Just call me Zhang Ming."

"No no! In my heart, Deputy Commander Fang is a member of our Eighth Division, and will always be our Deputy Commander, no! It's the division commander!" Li Shimao said categorically, everyone present nodded in agreement, only a few who followed Zhao Hengti just now The battalion commander looked terrified and felt uneasy, but everyone was happy that Fang Zidan had returned to Nanjing again.

"Brother Zhang Ming, fortunately you came in time, otherwise I'm afraid..." Huang Kaiyuan was a little ashamed. Facing Cheng Dequan and Zhao Hengti, he, the deputy commander, could do nothing. If it wasn't for Fang Zida's sudden appearance, Zhao Hengti might have succeeded today. Huang Kaiyuan felt really sorry for Fang Zida's entrustment at the beginning.

"Brother Baochang, I know you have tried your best, so you don't have to blame yourself. Brother Yong, you are the same. Thank you Zida for being here!" Smiling, he nodded to Huang Kaiyuan and Wang Xiaozhen, although they couldn't stop it. Zhao Hengti, but no matter what, he has tried his best, especially Wang Xiaozhen, Fang Zida is already very satisfied that he can not show neutrality to Zhao Hengti in his position.

After chatting with everyone with a smile, Fang Zida glanced at the battalion commanders who were attracted by Zhao Hengti. These people trembled in fright, lowered their heads, and their hearts were beating in disbelief. Jump.

"Some people! They just can't see the big picture clearly. Why bother jumping up and down for the sake of gaining some power? I have always believed that as a soldier, I should be simple. A soldier should obey orders as his bounden duty, and don't get involved in politics, factions, etc. What a mess, the construction of the National Defense Forces is to build a national army, not an army of a certain faction! Some people do not understand the general trend of the world and try to be a car with their arms, which is simply suicidal!"

Fang Zida's words made these people shudder, and their legs went limp with fright, but Fang Zida didn't pursue them too much, he just let the matter go after a stern warning, and they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother Zhang Ming, Cheng Dequan's incident happened, Zhao Hengti and Tao Deyao entered Beijing, Shanghai should make arrangements early, otherwise the officers and soldiers of the 31st Regiment and the Shanghai Army Corps will get into trouble after hearing the news..." Cheng and Zhao said Wang Xiaozhen was very happy about the downfall, but he still raised his concerns. After all, the 31st Regiment and the Shanghai Army Regiment controlled Shanghai. Once there was any change after getting the news, the matter would be troublesome.

Fang Zida was not nervous about this at all, instead he smiled and said, "Hehe, Xiong Shihui was already in Shanghai yesterday, and the 31st Regiment has been controlled. Even if there are a few jumping clowns, they can't make a fuss. As for the Shanghai Legion, Hehe, Duke Yong, do you think they still have a chance?"

Hearing what Fang Zida said, Wang Xiaozhen suddenly realized, and patted his forehead repeatedly saying yes.

Speaking of which, Cheng Dequan, Zhao Hengti and others thought they were playing a good game of chess, but in fact their every move had been under Fang Zida's nose, and Fang Zida kept holding back, just waiting for them to finally jump out.As early as years ago, Fang Zida sent Zhang Huchen to Nanjing, together with Xiong Shihui, Liu Zhi and others to closely monitor the Eighth Division's every move, and even secretly contacted many lower-level officers of various regiments and battalions to grasp the movements of the 31st Regiment and the Shanghai Army Regiment.

Last night, Xiong Shihui led people to Shanghai quietly, took advantage of Tao Deyao's decisive attack when he went to Nanjing, and took control of the 31st Regiment without bloodshed. Due to the tight news blockade in Shanghai, Tao Deyao was still at a loss until today's meeting. In fact, his troops have lost Take control.

Similarly, inside the Eighth Division, Zhang Huchen's gendarmerie took little effort to control the situation with the cooperation of Liu Zhi, and then remained as calm as ever on the surface, secretly waiting for Cheng Dequan and others to throw themselves into the trap.Just like that, when Cheng Dequan, Zhao Hengti and the others thought they were done, Fang Zida, who had been hiding all along, suddenly appeared and turned the world around in one fell swoop.

Clearing up the hidden dangers of the Eighth Division is of great significance to the reorganization of the National Defense Forces of the Eighth Division. Moreover, with Cheng Dequan's resignation, the central government's decree will go directly to Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, which also marks the beginning of the separation of local military and government.

Fang Zida, as the general manager of the central bank and the special commissioner of the central bank, was ordered by Yuan Shikai and Song Jiaoren to assist in the reorganization of the Eighth Division.In this regard, he had a plan in mind, and decided to use the Eighth Division as a blueprint to reorganize a national defense force that was completely different from the previous one.

Nowadays, the army divisions of the Republic of China are not unified. The Beiyang divisions are divided into two types, one is the large establishment of the division-administered brigade, and the other is the small establishment of the division-administered regiment. Yes, some were compiled according to the Beiyang Army, and some were compiled by the Zhenxiehe Patrol Battalion, such as Zhang Xun's Department, and some were even directly compiled by Japanese divisions and brigades.Under the reorganization of Huang Xing, the Eighth Division adopted the large establishment of the brigade under the jurisdiction of the Beiyang Division, that is, one division governed two mixed brigades, each brigade had two regiments, plus the original Linhu independent regiment, which is now the temporary 33rd regiment , cavalry regiments, artillery regiments, etc.But in Fang Zida's eyes, this kind of organization seems to be good. In fact, both in terms of coordination and command, there are great hidden dangers, and the number of regiment-level soldiers is too small. The entire regiment is only about 2000 people. As a separate unit, the coordination of several units is often poor in battle, which cannot meet the needs of new warfare.

In the new national defense force, Fang Zida intends to directly revoke the name of the mixed brigade, abandon the popular "mixed" organization and directly change it to an infantry brigade, borrowing the large organization structure of the Beiyang Division, which is still two brigades per division and two regiments per brigade. However, the regiment Each regiment has three battalions, each battalion has three companies, and each company has three platoons, adopting a three-three system structure.In addition, each battalion has a machine gun company, and each regiment has an artillery battalion, a reconnaissance unit, a communications company, an engineer battalion, a military police company, a military supply battalion, and a health battalion.

In terms of this structure, Fang Zida will also implement the staff system in the Eighth Division, change the current structure of a division without a staff officer or only a chief of staff, allocate the staff staff to the battalion level at the lowest level, and set up a staff department at the division and brigade headquarters. The position of chief of staff of the division will be established permanently, and the chief of staff of the division is equivalent to the deputy commander of the division.

In this way, the strength of a regiment will reach about 4000, while the total strength of an infantry brigade including the brigade headquarters will be 9700, and the total strength of the entire division after reorganization will be as high as 21000.

This number is almost double that of the current eighth division. When Fang Zida announced his reorganization plan, everyone's eyes lit up.

"Shang Ming, it's good to need so many more troops, but how to solve the problem of military pay and weapons?" Huang Kaiyuan couldn't help but worried while excited, and at the same time Wang Xiaozhen also hesitated: "It's not difficult to recruit soldiers, the problem is Every regiment has an artillery battalion, an engineering battalion, a health battalion, and a communication company. Is this possible? Especially the artillery battalion. Brother Zhang Ming, you are not unaware of the situation of the Eighth Division. There are only a few cannons available for the entire division. The door, how to fill this gap? There is also a machine gun company, where are there so many machine guns! As for the health battalion and the communication company, there are also a large number of junior officers, where...where can we find so many people?"

"It's okay." Fang Zida waved his hands with a smile, and said with confidence: "Don't worry about military pay and weapons and equipment. Don't forget that I am the general manager of the Central Bank. Whether it is the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Defense, the expenditure cannot be bypassed by my central bank." Banks, don’t worry. As for the lack of cannons and machine guns in the army, it’s not a big deal. I’ll go to Shanghai in a few days. The manufacturing bureaus in Nanjing and Shanghai are already subordinate to my central bank. Meet the needs of reorganization. As for professional talents, a group of military cadets will come to my Eighth Division to report in about half a month. They are fully qualified for some positions. Cultivation, no matter how difficult it is, I think there is always a way to solve it.”

Fang Zida's explanation made them feel relieved. If the reorganization of the Eighth Division was really as Fang Zida planned, after the reorganization was completed, the Eighth Division would become a pivotal force in the National Defense Forces.Looking around, is there any army in the whole country that can compare with the mighty Eighth Division?The thought of this made everyone's blood boil.

Due to the departure of Zhao Hengti and others, Fang Zida appointed Huang Kaiyuan as the commander of the Eighth Division and Wang Xiaozhen as the deputy commander of the Eighth Division.The two brigade commanders will be replaced by Li Shimao and Li Jun. Among the four main regiment commanders, three will be headed by Xiong Shihui, Liu Zhi, and He Sui respectively. However, Cao Kun loves the general, and it took a lot of effort to pull him to Fang Zida of the Eighth Division. As a famous general in history and Wu Peifu who has received professional staff training, Fang Zida believes that the chief of staff of this division is absolutely competent.

The other candidate for regimental commander is Wang Tianpei. He will come to the Eighth Division to report with the rest of the military academy students. Among these people, except Wang Tianpei who has led soldiers before and will directly serve as the chief officer at the regiment and battalion level after arriving in the Eighth Division, The rest will serve as regimental and battalion staff officers and junior officers at the company and platoon levels.

All the preparations were ready, and the Eighth Division mobilized immediately. When the specific plan for the official reorganization was notified to the whole division, the officers and soldiers who had been uneasy about the reorganization of the National Defense Forces burst into cheers and rushed to tell each other.A few days later, Chief of Staff Wu Peifu also arrived in Nanjing to officially take up his post. A few days later, Wang Tianpei and 32 graduates from the military academy also arrived together. So far, the framework for the reorganization of the Eighth Division has been set up, and the next step is to officially start the reorganization Work and train.

At this time, Fang Zida handed over the specific work of reorganization to Wu Peifu, Huang Kaiyuan and others. Although Huang Kaiyuan was the division commander, Fang Zida let Wu Peifu take charge of the specific work. The reorganization of the Wehrmacht is of particular significance.