After resting for one night, early the next morning, Bai Fei and the others continued on the road and walked for a few more hours before arriving at Gaojiabang. Sure enough, there are many barracks and hospitals here, and there are many idle big-headed soldiers squatting and chatting on the side of the road.

There was no time to rest, Bai Fei immediately asked Wang Weiguo to set up tables and chairs in an open place at an intersection as a temporary recruiting place to start recruitment. At first, no one cared, but after Wang Weiguo raised the banner of the Anti-Japanese Protector Army, the crowd of onlookers immediately increased, and they talked nonsense:

"It turns out that they are the Anti-Japanese Protector Army, I heard that they eliminated tens of thousands of little devils in Luodian."

"What, I heard that they blew up two Japanese warships at the Gongda Yarn Mill."

"Bombing a warship? They're too good, aren't they..."

"You are all old Huang Li, the Protector Army cooperated with the 87th and 88th divisions to recover Hongkou and other places the night before yesterday, and I heard that there were heavy losses, so I came here to recruit troops..."

"Didn't you say you've always admired the Protectors? Why don't you sign up now? ”

"This... I'll wait and see..."

Wang Weiguo saw that there were many people watching the excitement around, but there were very few people who asked to sign up, so he said to Bai Fei: "Tuanzao, I think it's better to write out our treatment and pension policy, I don't believe they are not impressed..."

Bai Fei said: "It's not proper, the treatment of our National Protector Army is much better than that of the Central Army, not to mention other troops, it is just a matter of spreading it in private, if we blatantly write it on paper and hang it out, it will definitely become someone else's handle and cause others to be jealous, in that case, I am afraid that there will be no less trouble in the future." ”

Wang Weiguo nodded and said, "Well, yes, it's me who didn't think it through." ”

"Although we can't come openly, it seems that the onlookers are not very motivated right now, and we really need to find a way. Well, let's do this..."Bai Fei whispered a few words in Wang Weiguo's ear.

Wang Weiguo's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said yes repeatedly.

After a while, two people walked in from the crowd from the periphery, saw the Protector Army recruiting, and suddenly said happily: "Oh my God, the Protector Army is recruiting, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I have to sign up quickly." ”

The man was about to squeeze forward, but was stopped by a person next to him and asked, "Brother, what do you mean when you say a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?" ”

The man: "Don't you know? The treatment of the Protector Army is very good, and an ordinary soldier is paid a month's salary. The man said, holding out ten fingers.

The questioner's eyes lit up and asked, "Is it fiat currency?" ”

The man waved his hand and said, "Do I still need to tell you about fiat currency?" It's silver dollars, real money! Let me tell you brother, let's sign up quickly, in addition to the high salary of the Protector Army, the other treatment is even more amazing, you can scare you when you hear it..."

The person who asked him didn't believe it: "Tell me, what's a good method?" ”

The man said: "A minor injury pension of 100 silver dollars, if you are injured and disabled, you will be given 1000 at a time, even if you die, you will not be afraid, you will be given 1500 silver dollars at a time, and it will be guaranteed to be sent to the relatives of the deceased, don't believe it, I have a distant relative who followed the Protector Army earlier, and later died fighting the Japanese in the Taihang Mountains, and now the family has a pension of 1500 silver dollars, and immediately became rich, and I also learned from them that the treatment of the Protector Army was so good..."

As the two talked, the noisy sound of the onlookers became smaller and smaller, and finally the needles could be heard, especially when they heard the silver dollars being counted in thousands, the people around them seemed to have toothaches at the same time, and the sound of gasping for cool air, everyone's breath was suffocated, and their eyes burst out with eager light.

The man continued to question the man: "Brother, I have explained the situation to you clearly, the soldiers are fighting everywhere, but such a good treatment is difficult to meet, let's not miss the opportunity, I heard that the Protector Army only recruits a small number of personnel at a time, in case you miss this time, there is no place to cry." ”

"Yes, yes, hurry, let's sign up...", the two of them were about to squeeze forward.

As soon as this sentence came out, the people who were watching before suddenly squeezed to the conscription table, stretched out their arms and shouted to sign up, and the crowd was surging, almost overturning the conscription table.

Bai Fei saw this scene from a distance, stretched out his thumb to Wang Weiguo, and said with a smile: "Yes, Brother Weiguo, you even have such a talent, and the performance is so vivid, I almost heard my heart between the words." ”

Wang Weiguo also smiled: "It's still your idea that is good, so we won't be afraid that we won't be able to recruit soldiers." ”

Bai Fei said: "Although everyone's enthusiasm has been mobilized now, we can't relax the scrutiny when we recruit people, so as not to mix the black sheep." ”

Wang Weiguo said: "You can rest assured about this, we have worked out a set of methods to ensure that there will be no problems." ”

……

Two hours later, the Protector Army had recruited more than 800 "recruits", all of whom had more than two years of military experience, and all of them had survived several major battles, and they were between 20 and 35 years old, and they were in good health, which was very suitable for Bai Fei's requirements.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to these 800 soldiers, Xu Changsheng, the commander of the third company, also unexpectedly brought more than 400 soldiers. It turned out that after the Protector Army arrived here in the morning, Xu Changsheng met the remnants of the original 201 Brigade. The 201st Brigade and the 11th Division, where Xu Changsheng was before, both belonged to the 18th Army, and they had fought bloody battles with the Japanese army in Luodian together, so the two sides were more familiar.

On August 24, 1937, Cai Bingyan, the commander of the 201st Brigade, was ordered to lead his troops to Luodian for fortification. At night, the deployment was initially decided, and the enemy troops were spotted before the battle. Cai Bingyan ordered the soldiers not to move recklessly, and when the enemy approached the position about 50 meters, he gave an order, opened fire fiercely, and then rushed to kill with bayonets, and completely annihilated the attacking Japanese troops. In the early morning of the 25th, the 201st Brigade attacked the 11th Division of the Japanese Army occupying Lujiazhai with a regiment of troops and captured its forward position. Later, due to the frantic counterattack of Japanese reinforcements, the department suffered heavy casualties. At 12 noon, Cai Bingyan personally led a team to fight the enemy, was shot several times in the fierce battle, and died a heroic martyr at the age of 35.

After Cai Bingyan's death, there were few troops left in the 201 Brigade, and hundreds of remnant soldiers were later placed here, this time the Protector Army came, Xu Changsheng inadvertently met an acquaintance of the former 201 Brigade, after talking, the remnants of the 201 Brigade were about 400 people, all willing to join the Protector Army, Xu Changsheng took them to see Bai Fei, Bai Fei briefly asked them a few words, and even accepted them.

So far, the number of recruits in the Protectorate has reached 1,350. Seeing that the number was almost up, Bai Fei ordered everyone to end the recruitment work.

However, just as everyone was packing up their things and preparing to leave, they saw five or six military police-looking people driving a military jeep rushing towards this side from a distance like a gust of wind.

Bai Fei saw that the jeep was very fast, and hurriedly ordered the onlookers to dodge away, and as soon as everyone got out of the way, the jeep rushed over, and stopped in front of Bai Fei and the others with a "crunch", and the dust on the ground was kicked up and flew high, and everyone around them coughed, but no one dared to scold.

Bai Fei covered his mouth and nose, his brows furrowed.

An officer with the rank of captain stepped out of the car on his toes, looked around with his head tilted, and said slowly: "What part are you from?" Who is the chief, come out and speak. ”

Bai Fei looked at him, and said arrogantly, damn, Chen Cheng and Gu Zhutong's generation didn't look at people with their nostrils like you in front of me. Although he was unhappy, Bai Fei didn't want to make a big deal about it, so he stepped forward and said: "I am Bai Fei, the head of the 001 Regiment of the Anti-Japanese Protector Army, I don't know what advice I have?" ”

The officer was slightly surprised, obviously he had heard of the prestige of the Protector Army, but after he looked at Bai Fei a few times, he still said lazily in an official tone: "I received a report that you are recruiting troops here, I don't know if there is a warrant from Chief Gu?" ”

Bai Fei frowned and said, "I just came down from the front line yesterday, and I haven't had time to find Chief Gu yet..."

The officer sneered: "Just came down from the front? Do you feel that you have worked hard and made great achievements, and thousands of people are dying in battle every day in Shanghai, when will it be your turn to work hard and make high achievements? Don't think that just because you've won a few battles, you're going to be unruly. There is no warrant, it is illegal and illegal recruitment, I have the right to arrest you and wait, how about it, or come with me? ”

Bai Fei's face was a little ugly, and Wang Weiguo hurriedly went up and patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down. turned around and took out more than 20 pieces of ocean from his pocket, quietly stuffed them into the officer's hand, and said with a smile: "We recruited troops to fight the Japanese, not to rebel, and we hope to raise our noble hands..."

The officer stared, swept the silver dollar in his hand, sneered, and suddenly fell to the ground, and the silver dollar smashed everywhere. I only heard the captain officer scolding loudly: "You are our brother is called Hanako? Let me tell you, it doesn't matter if you fight the Japanese or rebel, you don't have a warrant, and if you want to recruit troops here, you can't even recruit troops here. Stop talking nonsense and hurry up with us. ”

At this time, even Wang Weiguo's face changed.

Bai Fei sneered: "What a big breath! I'm not going with you today, I'm going to see what you can do with me. ”