At 6 o'clock in the morning the next day, Qin Zheng took his entourage to Qingdao Navy Wharf, set off on the Yizhou warship, the warship traveled at an average speed of 22 knots, and arrived at Port Arthur at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and at 6 o'clock in the evening of the same day, a train to Harbin departed from Lushun, so a special carriage for Qin Zheng was hung up, and they set off together, Qin Zheng sent a telegram to Shenyang at the Lushun Railway Station, asking the main personnel of Shenyang to gather tomorrow morning, and hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Jinzhou as soon as they arrived. Then Qin Zheng and his party got on the train, rested on the train that night, and arrived in Shenyang at about 8 o'clock the next morning.

At this time, the Northeast Theater Management Committee in Shenyang had already sent a special car to greet Qin Zheng at the railway station, and when they arrived at the office headquarters, the main members of the management committee and the headquarters had already gathered, just waiting for Qin Zheng to arrive for a meeting.

At present, the army headquarters of the People's Army has basically moved to the northeast, and the two ministers, Zhu Yaping and one of them, remain in Shenyang to assist Qin Zheng in the work of the management committee, and the other is stationed in Harbin to command the army. Although the operation has ended, the People's Army still has about 180,000 troops stationed on the front line in Harbin and is ready to attack again, so there is also a need for someone to sit here and preside over the overall situation.

Qin Zheng made a little trimming, and immediately started the meeting,

Zhu Yaping first reported to Qin Zheng and said, "Political commissar, I just received the news at 8 o'clock this morning that Zhang Zuolin's department had arrived in Jinzhou at 7 o'clock in the morning. However, since the whole army had marched for three days, it was already extremely exhausted, so it had to be repaired for at least one day before it could fight. ”

Qin Zheng was a little surprised, and said: "His actions are so fast, it only took 4 days to arrive, and this marching speed is not worse than that of the regular People's Army." ”

Zhu Yaping said: "This is estimated to be the fastest speed of Zhang Zuolin's department, otherwise how can I say that I am extremely tired." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "That's right, but that's not bad, Zhang Zuolin's troops arrived in Jinzhou, which can play a role in calming people's hearts, and if the bandits come to attack Jinzhou, they can also resist for a while." ”

Jinzhou is about 200 kilometers away from Xinmin Mansion where Zhang Zuolin's department is stationed, and Zhang Zuolin's department can rush from Xinmin Mansion to Jinzhou in four days, which is indeed very rare in this era. Its military ability is one of the important symbols to measure the combat effectiveness of an army, because the marching ability can test the army's physical strength, willpower and obedience, in the old time and space, the Red Army flew to seize the Luding Bridge, and marched 220 kilometers overnight, which is a miracle in the history of the enemy's army. Therefore, Zhang Zuolin's troops were able to march more than 200 kilometers in four days and walk 50 kilometers in one day, which was indeed a good marching achievement in this era.

It turned out that although Zhang Zuolin was born as a bandit, he had experience in the army in his early years, and participated in the Sino-Japanese War as a Qing army. Therefore, Zhang Zuolin's troops' combat effectiveness is still relatively strong among the civil and green forest forces in the northeast, and they have a certain level of training.

And Zhang Zuolin is righteous, very generous to the army under him, never arrears the soldiers' salaries, and is also very willing to the soldiers' food, although it is not for the soldiers to eat anything good, nor can it be said that the nutrition is balanced, but at least you can manage to eat enough, in this era, this is very good, of course, the main army under the hand, eat better.

This not only makes Zhang Zuolin quite popular with the army, and the orders issued to him by his army can also be carried out more actively, but also allows the soldiers to maintain a certain physical fitness and be able to withstand higher intensity training, so that a virtuous circle is formed. Moreover, this also ensured that after Zhang Zuolin took refuge in East China, his troops were able to adapt to the training of the People's Army in a relatively short period of time, and their quality was also greatly improved.

Of course, there is another important reason, the road is good. Since Jinzhou did not have a railway, after the People's Army occupied Jinzhou, it immediately built a large number of roads, anyway, the People's Army captured many prisoners, and the labor force was sufficient, and now the roads leading Jinzhou to Tieling, Liaoyang, and Shenyang have been repaired, and with good roads, the march will be much easier and faster.

Qin Zheng said again: "How is the situation in Jinzhou these days? ”

Zhu Yaping said: "There is no new change, that is, yesterday, the bandits launched an attack on Jinzhou, but because Jinzhou's defense is tight, it is not easy to occupy anything, and more than 200 people died, and then retreated to Xingcheng County, and now Zhang Zuolin's department has arrived in Jinzhou, it should be able to stabilize the situation in Jinzhou." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "So has there been any change in public opinion among the people?"

Zhu Yaping said: "When the accident first happened, some rumors appeared in Shenyang, according to our dark line report, these rumors were deliberately spread by someone, and the committee immediately ordered a ban on the spread of rumors, and arrested a group of people who spread rumors, and confirmed that two of them were hired by Japanese spies, and now the situation is much better." However, the situation in Jinzhou is even worse, and Bi Jing is now occupied by bandits in Guangning County and Fuxing County. The situation in the city of Jinzhou is better, Bijing has our army, but it is difficult to say in other places, because it is the village of Zhuang in the city, I heard that some villages have sent people to surrender to the bandits, and donated money and rice. It is said that the remaining personnel in two counties have also surrendered to the bandits, although these reports have not been confirmed. ”

Qin Zheng frowned, this is indeed a bit tricky, although the People's Army occupied Jinzhou Mansion very early, but because the main energy and resources of the People's Army at that time were focused on the Japanese and Russian affairs, so except for Jinzhou, other counties and departments did not establish a local administrative system, or appointed the original Qing court officials to maintain local management, just sent troops to station, only in Jinzhou there are some civil affairs agencies, and there are about 20 naturalized civilian cadres to manage.

The army is still stationed in Jinzhou, of course, there will be no problem, but once the army is withdrawn, it will lead to the lack of control in this area of East China, of course, if the local administrators of East China are stationed in the county halls, it can be solved, but in this interval, bandits invaded Jinzhou Mansion, causing the situation to deteriorate.

Qin Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Can Zhang Zuolin's troops recover Guangning County and Fuxing County?"

Zhu Yaping said: "There are certain difficulties, in fact, Zhang Zuolin's troops still have a certain combat effectiveness, but his troops are in too much hurry this time, and they have not had time to replace their equipment and weapons, and about 1/3 of the soldiers have no weapons, so they are fire support troops, basically bare-handed, and the cavalry only has more than 100 war horses, all of which are Zhang Zuolin's own war horses, which will affect the combat effectiveness of Zhang Zuolin's troops." What's more, this gang of bandits has a large number of people and is quite well-armed, so it is not easy to deal with. And if it's just bandits, it's a little easier, but with the help of Mongolian cavalry, I'm afraid this battle will be very difficult to fight, and there is still a big gap between Zhang Zuolin's troops and the People's Army. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Are all the transfer equipment of Zhang Zuolin's troops ready?"

Zhu Yaping said: "It has been prepared for a long time, that is, the equipment of a regiment can be taken out at any time, if it wasn't for the accident in Jinzhou, it would have been sent to Xinmin Mansion now." ”

Qin Zheng said: "Then we will send this batch of equipment to Jinzhou now, let Zhang Zuolin's troops change their clothes in Jinzhou, and then let him send troops to recover Guangning County and Fuxing County, is this feasible?"

Zhu Yaping shook his head and said: "This suggestion of yours has been discussed in the General Staff, but I don't think it is feasible, because now the rifles used by Zhang Zuolin's department are all Mosin Nagant rifles, if all of them are replaced with our standard Type 01 rifles, there is a process of familiarizing themselves with the use, and the use of rifles is a little easier, but it is not a matter of one or two days for his soldiers to learn to use mortars, it will take one month to say the least, and it will take time for the cavalry to be familiar with the war horse and establish a relationship with the war horse." In addition, the General Staff believes that it is not appropriate for Zhang Zuolin to take the lead in the affairs of Jinzhou, and that we should send more personnel and a small number of elite troops over to take command. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Why is this?"

Zhu Yaping said: " It's not that we don't trust Zhang Zuolin, it's just that he just joined the People's Army, he took the liberty of handing over such an important task to him, whether he wins or loses, it is not easy to deal with, if Zhang Zuolin wins, we are bound to reward him, either to promote him to division commander, or to promote his troops to an independent regiment, which not only expands Zhang Zuolin's power, but also may breed his ambitions, so that he thinks that he has a pivotal position; and if Zhang Zuolin is defeated, maybe he will resent us, and send him to fight before he changes his clothes, so that he can deal with such a powerful enemy, he Bi Jing is a local, and has a certain influence, it will also have a certain bad impact on us. It's better to let us take the lead, and we are responsible for winning and losing, and it also seems that we are responsible. ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Makes sense, is there anything else?"

Zhu Yaping said: "Also, this time to pacify the crisis in Jinzhou, not only to recover the two county seats, but also to deal a heavy blow to the bandits, and the Mongolian cavalry, when necessary, even to cross the border to Mongolia to fight, in addition to appease the local people, restore local order, and may also deal with a group of people who colluded with bandits, or surrendered to bandits, but these situations, I am afraid that Zhang Zuolin can not deal with them." To tell the truth, some things are beyond the scope of the military's duties, and should be handled by local civil affairs personnel. ”