Through the interrogation of the small number of captured bandits, the traverser learned about the Green Forest Conference, and it turned out that the bandits in Shandong had united and were ready to launch a comprehensive counterattack against the East China government. It should be said that the means adopted by the bandits are indeed good, turning the whole into reality, avoiding defense and attacking the weak, and quick victory, these tactics are usually the means of the weak side against the strong side, which has a bit of guerrilla warfare meaning, and is also the most headache tactic for the regular army. Moreover, the bandits actually knew how to use propaganda tactics and threw all the responsibility on the East China government, which was obviously instructed by a high-ranking person.

Of course, the East China government could not compromise with the bandits, and then return to the situation in the past when the Qing court ruled Shandong and allowed the bandits to run rampant, so it could only meet this challenge and have a decisive battle with the green forest bandits in Shandong. Moreover, after more than a year of all-round rule in Shandong, more than 80 percent of the land reform has been completed, and the East China government has initially built its own administrative structure, and it also has sufficient strength to wipe out the bandit forces in Shandong's green forests.

However, because the captured bandits did not know much about the details of the Green Forest Conference, the East China government did not know that Wang Kefu was involved, and the top priority now was to deal with the bandits' harassment tactics, and there was no time to track them down.

After the study of the Central Military Commission and the experience of the Jinan garrison in dealing with bandits, six implementation measures were formulated:

First, when approaching the bandit forces, each village should seize the time to build walls and other defensive facilities, because the bandits' ability to attack fortifications is not strong, so after the village wall is built, the resistance to the bandits can be greatly improved;

Second, the building and training of the militia organizations in the villages should be improved as soon as possible, and the governments of all localities should do their best to provide the militia with corresponding weapons, of course, mainly cold weapons and guns, which should still be distributed cautiously, and establish a defense system for local villages, so that the villages will have sufficient ability to resist the surprise attacks of bandits and wait for rescue;

Third, it is necessary to do a good job in the distribution and garrisoning of the people's army, strengthen the defense of all villages, and make sure that it can quickly counterattack, act quickly, seize the opportunity, and resolutely crack down, but first of all, it is necessary to protect the traversers and government workers working at the grassroots level;

Fourth, it is necessary to completely cut off the ties between bandits and the common people, severely crack down on any exchanges with bandits without the permission of the government, and even more absolutely prohibit transactions with bandits; those who violate all things will be punished as gangsters; we should strengthen the work of mass prevention and control, encourage and mobilize the masses at the grassroots level to supervise and guard against the whereabouts of bandits, report to government organs in a timely manner, and reward the masses for providing information;

Fifth, through various effective means, inquire about the location of the bandits' cottages and strongholds, and then directly destroy the cottages and strongholds with an absolutely superior force, so that the bandits will lose the basis for survival and the source of economic materials.

Sixth, it is necessary to intensify propaganda work, focus on publicizing the policies of benefiting the people that the East China Government has made since it took power in Shandong, including land reform, cracking down on landlords, abolishing exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and so on, as well as the benefits and benefits that the common people have obtained from them, exposing the bandits' sowing discord, and at the same time emphasizing that the common people believe in the government and believe that the people's army can eliminate the bandits and restore peace to the localities, and absolutely support the government's action to crack down on bandits.

After these six measures were submitted to the Executive Yuan, they were also approved by the Executive Yuan, and the Executive Yuan and the Central Military Commission jointly issued formal orders to all local governments and garrisons, requiring all localities to implement them, and at the same time comprehensively launched a special campaign against bandits, and officially named the campaign the "Bandit Eradication Plan" It has set the goal of eliminating the main bandit forces in Shandong within six months to one year, so that there will be no large and medium-sized bandit forces with more than 50 people in Shandong, and that most areas in Shandong will no longer be threatened by bandits.

On the one hand, the People's Army strengthened its vigilance, and on the other hand, the villages also strengthened their own defenses, so that the whole situation was suddenly markedly improved.

It was this nine-month-long operation that basically wiped out the bandit forces in Shandong Province, which not only ensured the stability of the Shandong region, but also enabled the East China Government to have no worries about the future and was able to concentrate all its energies on dealing with the situation at home and abroad.

In December, the last month of 1902, the work of the East China government was also quite busy, in addition to the routine quarterly and annual summaries of various departments and the Executive Yuan, and after formulating plans for the coming year and the next quarter, there were also more "bandit elimination plans" In addition, there are two major events: First, the delegation to Germany to receive warships is about to depart; second, the first batch of construction projects in the Shanghai New Area has been completed, and the Shanghai New District Government will also officially move in, and at the same time, a comprehensive commercial center led by the film industry will be officially opened, and the East China Government will apply for manpower for help, so the staff of the East China Government are very busy.

First of all, on December 1, the Zhenwei and Zhenyang ships of the ironclad fleet were officially converted into reserve training ships. This was originally a plan that had been determined a long time ago, and the four warships of the ironclad fleet would be transferred to reserve, and these two warships were the first batch.

Zhenwei and Zhenyang are both Saxony-class ironclad ships of the former German country, and the Saxony and Byrne are both old-fashioned ironclad ships that are more than 20 years old, and they have served in the People's Army Navy for less than a year, although they have not participated in any battles, but in terms of training their crews, they have made a certain contribution to the People's Army's navy, and according to the tradition of the Navy, a ceremony should be held for the warships that are retired or transferred to the reserve, so in the Qingdao Military Port, the officers and men of the two warships participated in the transfer ceremony of the two warships. At the same time, a number of soldiers were appointed to be promoted in rank.

The establishment of these two warships is between 300 and 320 people, but in the People's Army, the personnel of the Zhenwei are 212 and the Zhenyang is 207 people, and this is mainly due to the shortage of personnel of the People's Army and Navy, so the establishment of the two warships is only 6 or 7 percent.

A small number of these crews will be assigned to other warships to continue their service, while most will be part of the delegation to Germany to receive warships, and some personnel will be added from other warships to Germany to receive the two newly built warships.

The departure time is scheduled for December 8, first to Shanghai to assist the official opening of the integrated business center of the Shanghai New Area Government, and then officially depart for Germany. After today's ceremony, the members of the delegation to Germany to receive warships will be given a five-day vacation, and they will be able to go home to attend to their personal affairs and report back to the barracks before 9 a.m. on 7 December. After all, it will take at least 4 months to go to Germany this time, and it is impossible to return home during this period.

After the team disbanded, Zhao Ping returned to his dormitory to clean up his luggage, preparing to use the five-day vacation to go back to Zhao Weizhong's house in Tianjin. I haven't been home for more than 9 months, and I can't come back for several months when I go to Germany this time, so I naturally have to go back first and say goodbye to my family. In fact, Zhao Ping and Zhao Weizhong are only distant relatives of the same clan, and he was just a subordinate in Zhao Weizhong's family before, not much close, but his parents died when he was a child, and it was indeed Zhao Weizhong who raised him, and provided him with reading, literacy and martial arts, so Zhao Ping also regarded Zhao Weizhong as his elder, and Zhao Weizhong's home as his home.

Zhao Ping joined the People's Army Navy for a year and a half, first serving four months on the destroyer Hailong, first as an ordinary sailor, and then working in the engine room for more than a month, and learning some knowledge of steam engines; then he served on the cruiser Orlando for seven months, successively serving as a gunner, engineer squad leader, and damage management team leader; after the People's Army Navy was formally established, he was assigned to serve on the Zhenwei and served as a gun team leader. The rank of captain of the crew has also been promoted all the way, and at today's transfer ceremony, he was officially promoted to second lieutenant, which is already the highest rank of the Navy's native soldiers.

Although in the current People's Army, the status of the Navy is higher than that of the Army, so the ranks of the Navy's officers are generally higher than those of the Army, for example, Shang Jinfeng, Minister of the Navy, is already a general, Wang Hailong and Zhang Wei are both lieutenant generals, and the highest military rank in the Army is only Major General. This is mainly due to the fact that the rank of the Navy's crossing officers generally starts higher than that of the Army.

But on the home soldiers, the army has a large number of lieutenants, while the navy has the highest second lieutenant, and their number is far less than that of the army. This is partly due to the fact that all of the Army's company-level officers are homegrown soldiers, and the rank of lieutenant is the lowest rank of company commander, and partly because the Navy participates in fewer battles, so there are naturally fewer opportunities for promotion.

Zhao Ping was able to be promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in a year and a half, which is already very fast in the People's Army Navy, mainly because he has a certain cultural knowledge, not only can read and write, but also can write and calculate. There is a certain understanding of physics and other knowledge, although these understandings are only scratching the surface, but in this era, it can already be regarded as knowing foreign affairs, so Zhao Ping's position on the warship is mainly in two aspects: marine engineering and guns, it is because these two types of positions require a certain understanding of the machine, and in the navy, such people are rare.

Of course, this is also inseparable from Zhao Ping's own efforts, although Zhao Ping's joining the People's Army was arranged by Zhao Weizhong, but he also knew in his heart that this was a major opportunity in his life, and if he did well, he could get ahead and become famous, otherwise he would be a subordinate in Zhao Weizhong's family for the rest of his life, and at most he would be a manager in the factory opened by Zhao Weizhong, so after entering the People's Army, he was training, studying, His daily performance is very accumulated, and he has been praised by his superiors many times, plus he is also Zhao Weizhong's family, and he is basically reliable politically, so he has naturally become one of the key personnel trained by the navy.