Zaolin Military Academy, one day, Duan Qirui Duan General Staff also served as the director of discipline of the military academy, and went to the playground early in the morning to gather all the teachers and students of the school to give a lecture. I don't know if it was because of negligence, or if he deliberately wanted to give his subordinates a little color, General Duan walked away after finishing the training, forgetting the officer who was kneeling straight on the playground.

During the morning exercise the next day, Lao Duan came to the playground again, and raised his eyes to see a person kneeling stiffly on the playground, with a layer of hoarfrost on his head and back. At first, he wondered what this man was doing on his knees. After questioning, General Staff Officer Duan learned that this was the officer who had been punished by himself for kneeling yesterday, and he was immediately moved, helped him up and walked to the director's office, and ordered the officer to "be promoted from second lieutenant to major." This is the famous story of "one kneeling and jumping three times". And this officer who was blessed by misfortune was Colonel Wei Zhongguo, who later served as the director of the Construction Division of the Reserve Department of the General Logistics Department.

Today, Wei Zhongguo knelt in front of Lao Duan again, but this time Lao Duan didn't have the heart to help his beloved apprentice. "You brute, why don't you die?" Lao Duan was already dizzy, and just now a stack of newspapers smashed directly on Wei Zhongguo's head, making him crooked on one side, and then continued to kneel, bowing his head and not saying a word. "You're a bastard, your dad is an old fool, you father and son are really very capable. Pulling the whole army to blackmail you from the general seat, right? ”

Duan Qirui's hand trembled and stretched into the holster on his waist, it seemed that he was planning to pull out the gun and destroy this guy. Lieutenant General Wei Yu and Wei Lihuang, who accompanied him, hurriedly stepped forward to persuade General Staff Duan, so that he could persuade Duan Lao to stop. In the end, in Duan Qirui's roar, Wei Yu fled with his cousin.

Of course, all this can't be hidden from the eyes of people with a heart, Wei Yu also found that everyone's words around him seemed to flicker, and he also understood that most of them still didn't want him to be implicated for the affairs of the old Wei family, Wei Yu did not continue to dwell on this matter, but put down his burden and began to devote himself to the plan of expanding the air force.

Wei Zhongguo was invited by the Judge Advocate General to talk, and when he returned, he resigned from his military position, took off his military uniform and left the compound of the General Logistics Department. All this seems to be uneventful, and the turmoil about the Wei family seems to have gradually disappeared. Wei Keren also took off his military uniform half a year later, gave up his career as a general at the age of fifty-five, and returned to his hometown Qingzhou to open a large farm. Wei Keren's eldest son, Wei Zhongjia, was unexpectedly transferred from a certain unit of the 10th Group Army to the Communications Department of the General Staff Department as the head of the training department, and was soon selected into the chamber of the chief of the Ministry of National Defense. It wasn't until twenty years later, after the Wei Zhong family exercised in various positions, that everyone found that the Wei family seemed to have risen again, and Wei Lao Er seemed to have disappeared into the sea of people, and there was no news of him.

At this moment, on the cliff of Qinglong Mountain, Wei Zhongguo was wearing a half-worn training uniform without a military rank and looked at the military camp that was still sleeping in the morning light, when the wake-up horn sounded, he saluted a standard military salute in the dark, and then picked up the military backpack under his feet and strode down the hillside that was still in the dark, but the morning light behind him could not catch up with his footsteps, but the dew drops on the grass blades where he just stood seemed to be a little heavy.

Although there is such an undercurrent, but for the first time in more than ten years, the land of China is completely free of the smoke of war, and Yang Zengxin of Xinjiang also announced that he will change his flag and obey the central government, and China has completed reunification in the situation, but in Wu Chenxuan's heart, this is only the first step towards reunification, and those countries that owe China's blood debt are still there, and before the day when the liquidation is completed, China's national defense forces still need to be strong. If China is recuperating at this time, then Europe at this time is still a scene of bloody battles, although there is an unofficial Christmas truce, however, war is war after all, and it does not end because of the friendship of the officers and soldiers on the front. However, at this time, the political leaders, soldiers, and ordinary people of various European countries understood that they could no longer fight, and the lack of supplies, the number of casualties increased sharply, the debts were high, and the human nature was degraded, whether it was France, Germany, or the British Isles, the spring of 1918 became extremely harsh.

As the spring of 1918 approached, a heavy rain and snow flooded the shelter of the trenches, forming deep silt. The officers and men were in icy muddy water, making it difficult to move. Edward 61 Huls, a British lieutenant who thought he had taken part in the battle, described: "Our feet often sink into the mud and cannot extricate ourselves, like a flying fly on a flytrap." "In the cold season of spring, the mud on the soldiers' bodies froze, and it was unusually cold. In such an environment, the will to fight of the officers and men of both sides was greatly affected, and war-weariness continued to spread, as if the greatest threat came not from enemy attacks, but from a harsh environment. Both the British and Germans devoted a great deal of energy to dealing with the silt in the trenches. And the so-called battle, it is just to keep the head very low, avoid the fire of the opposing sniper, and then look for the right opportunity to shoot at the exposed enemy. The similar environment made the British and German officers and soldiers sympathize with each other, and "living for oneself and letting others live" gradually became their common creed. They consciously reached some tacit understanding.

Andrew 61 Todd, a telegraph operator in the Royal Engineer Corps, wrote in a letter home: "You may be surprised to learn that the soldiers on both sides have become very 'good' in their respective trenches. In one place, the trenches were only 60 yards (about 55 meters) apart. Every morning at breakfast time, soldiers on both sides erected a plank in the air. As soon as the plank was erected, the gunfight ceased, and they each began to fetch water and provisions. Silence reigned supreme as long as the plank was upright throughout breakfast, but when the plank fell, the war resumed. ”

Sometimes, the officers and soldiers of the British and German sides shouted at each other. Some German soldiers who had worked in Britain before the war would often ask the British about the shops and streets they were familiar with. They even use loud arguments and singing as a way to entertain and convey information. On sunny days, officers and soldiers from both sides would gather at the front of the trenches for impromptu concerts and singing patriotic or sentimental songs. On quiet evenings, singing would drift from one side's position to the other's trenches, eliciting applause from the opposing soldiers, who were sometimes asked to do it again. This "battlefield friendship" between British and German officers and soldiers intensified, and there was even a German soldier who quietly put chocolate cake into the trench of the British army. The friendly actions of the officers and men of the opposing sides shocked and disturbed the senior commanders. When General James 61 Doron, commander of the British Second Army, received the news, he immediately ordered: "Commanders at all levels of the regiment must bear in mind that it is absolutely necessary to encourage the offensive spirit of the troops. In the course of defense, the enemy can be destroyed by any means allowed. From then on, the British had absolutely forbidden "friendly exchanges" with the Germans, unofficial armistices, and the exchange of cigarettes and other goods, and even occasional entertainment.

However, this prohibition in itself will not solve the problem, because the only concern on the minds of the soldiers and officers on the front lines is when this damned war will end, and whether they will survive to that moment.

The Western Front had now become a state of disarray, and due to the large number of experienced officers and sergeants killed, the attacker's main problem in trench warfare was that it was simply unable to control the attacking army. Radio communications were just beginning to develop, so the means of communication available at that time were telephones, flags, signal lights and carrier pigeons. These methods of communication take a long time, so many trench battles are commanded by company and platoon commanders. In this case, there is a great reliance on junior officers and non-commissioned officers, which is precisely what all parties to the confrontation on the Western Front lack, and of course the Chinese Expeditionary Force cannot be counted in this, because it is the only fully formed army with a casualty rate of less than 5%. With the reunification of China, the originally delayed fourth batch of expeditionary forces also landed in France, and the 100,000-strong expeditionary force was already able to undertake an offensive in one direction alone.

The giant with feet of mud, the neat roller finally fell apart, the February Revolution in Russia, Nicholas II went home to eat shabu mutton, and the Russian army was already grassy chickens, so they simply herded the sheep. Germany would then be able to draw troops from the Eastern Front to support the Western Front. Originally, it didn't matter if the Western Front was tight, anyway, the air force of the Chinese Expeditionary Force controlled the sky, and the armored forces covered the rear road, and the British and French forces were not afraid of being outflanked, it was nothing more than to strengthen the defense. But soon another piece of news came that the balance on the Western Front was fragile, and the Americans were going to war.

As early as April 6, 1917, the U.S. Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany. But at that time, the U.S. Army had only 100,000 troops, and it could not even send 30,000 troops except for the troops stationed on the Mexican border and the Philippines. However, once the United States, which has an advantage in human resources compared with Britain and France, mobilizes, its strength is not comparable to that of the Germans. Although the size of the U.S. Army was far superior to that of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, both the British and French allies and the Germans believed that the combat capability of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was far superior to that of American GIs, because in the six months after the United States declared war, almost no troops could be sent to the Western Front, and they were still trained by British and French instructors in American barracks. It was the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which never exceeded 50,000 men, that helped Britain and France through the most difficult year in 1917, although it did not bring much victory to Britain and France, but there was a lot to be done to turn the tide, so that the current Expeditionary Force was actually a general reserve deployed on the third front, ready to make up for it at any time and fill the hole that was torn open by the Germans.

When Pershing led the first 50 divisions of American GIs to France, the first thing they saw were the yellow-skinned and black-eyed soldiers who were escorting their trucks to the barracks in armored vehicles and tanks, and they soon learned about this unit, which was also an expeditionary force, and their legendary achievements. In the last 200 days of World War I, the Chinese Expeditionary Force's allies were armed with an army dressed like Sunday school students attending Mass at the chapel, an army that had never rolled over on a bloody battlefield, but given their numbers and the size of the American army that followed. Their arrival at least made it clear to both the British and French troops and the Germans on the opposite side that the end of this war was not far off.