Chapter 560 Nanyuan Meeting (II)

Nanyuan Air Base, nine o'clock in the morning.

A Wild Goose light bomber flew in from the southwest. After circling twice over the air base, it descended in altitude according to the signal from the ground, and finally landed on a grassy field marked "Landing Area No. 1", and when the light bomber came to a stop, an army officer with goggles on his eyes jumped out of the plane, and without saying a word, first picked his nostrils with his fingers, and then blew his nose vigorously, trying to drive away the strange smell from his nose.

"Sir, chew on this thing, maybe it will feel better."

The pilot in the front seat also jumped out of the bomber and handed the army officer an oil-paper bag with a hippie smile.

"What's that?" The army officer took the oil-paper bag and 'fumbled' out of it a few pieces that looked like dried fruit.

"Dried betel nut, this thing, refresh, now that our pilots are chewing this thing, the commander might as well try to chew it too, maybe we can get rid of that strange smell." Actually, it's nothing, the exhaust gas emitted by this aircraft engine is this smell, just get used to it. ”

The pilot egged on the brigadier general, perhaps out of trust in the pilot. The army officer took a dried betel nut, stuffed it in his mouth, and chewed it.

"Phew! Bah! What the hell? Chew this thing, I might as well go and pour a few mouthfuls of Lao Baigan. ”

Mr. Brigadier General chewed a few bites, then quickly spit out the contents of his mouth, threw the oiled paper bag back to the pilot, then wiped his mouth, straightened his uniform, 'touched' his head, hurriedly turned around and walked back to the light bomber, reached out and 'touched' the back seat for a long time, and finally 'touched' the army cap, so he put it on his head, and then followed the pilot out of the landing area with great strides and walked towards the aviation control tower.

"Hello sir! The commander is Commander Zhang of the 129th Division, right? ”

There were already two army staff officers standing next to the aviation control tower, both with the rank of second lieutenant, and when they saw this brigadier general, they hurriedly stood up and saluted.

"That's right, I'm Zhang Licheng, and now I'm the commander of the 129th Division of the National Defense Forces."

Zhang Licheng took out his military ID, and the two staff officers took it and looked at it, and then handed it back respectfully.

"Sir, you didn't bring an adjutant?" A staff officer asked.

"What kind of adjutant to bring, a plane was sent from above, and as soon as I arrived in Chengdu, I was thrown on the plane. This way, I am the real commander of the light pole, when crossing the Daba Mountain, the plane was almost planted on the mountain, I know the feeling of taking the plane, today it was not dawn and took off from Zhangde, hurry up and hurry, finally not late. ”

Originally, he thought that the center was urgently recruiting him to go to Chengdu and hold a meeting on the spot, but who knows, before others arrived in Chengdu, the War Department had already sent a light bomber to pick him up, and this road from Chengdu to Beijing, this air trip, it was quite a thorn 'excited', in the future, he Zhang Licheng can also brag to others, looking at the entire army unit, there are really few senior generals like him who have flown thousands of miles in light bombers. And rushed all the way to Beijing just to attend a military meeting.

"Sir, the meeting place is over there, and that auditorium is."

The staff officer smiled, pointed to the very imposing building in the east, and then led Zhang Licheng to the newly completed auditorium, where an important military meeting will be held today, and the person presiding over the meeting is Mr. President, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the Republic of China, and the military meeting that Zhang Licheng wants to attend is also this meeting, and, like him, many senior officers in the western region also rushed to Nanyuan, the purpose is also to attend the meeting, but unlike Zhang Licheng, most of the others came by trainAlthough the Longhai Railway has not yet been completed and opened to traffic, at least part of the lines that have been opened to traffic can be used, trains plus cars, trains and war horses, and most of the participating officers arrived at Nanyuan on time.

The reason why the central 'gate' sent a plane to pick up Zhang Licheng was because the construction of the Sichuan Railway was backward, and in order to hurry, he simply let Zhang Licheng take a risk. Zhang Licheng's 129th Division was far away on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and his current planes could not fly to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and he could only ride a horse to and from Chengdu to Shigatse. In this way, if you want to catch up with the meeting in time, the plane is the best 'transportation' tool.

Zhang Licheng rushed to the auditorium and found that he was not the first senior general of the western garrison to arrive here, Bai Wenwei and Ji Yulin came earlier than him, and like Zhang Licheng, the two also arrived at Nanyuan Aviation Base by light bomber, but Bai Wenwei came from Lanzhou, and Ji Yulin came from Xi'an, and because they moved faster than Zhang Licheng, they arrived in Nanyuan yesterday.

Several people know each other, and now they are all high-ranking generals, and now they have met, so it is natural to reminisce about the old days, talk about the thrills and stinging 'excitement' on the road, through the 'exchange' talks, Zhang Licheng learned that Bai Wenwei and Ji Yulin are not the first time to take a plane, as early as last year, after the "wild goose" light bomber was installed in the troops, they were assigned a special plane, and they have also sat a few times when they went down to inspect the troops, but they have never flown such a long way as this time. Fortunately, there are many aviation bases along the way, and fuel supply is not a problem, so naturally there is no delay.

Zhang Licheng was not assigned a special plane last year, but this cannot be blamed on the partiality of the War Department, because the headquarters of his 129th Division is located in a high-altitude area, and even if he is given a special plane, he will not be able to use it, and because the local area is not connected to the railway, the transportation of this oil is also troublesome, so he is not worthy of the plane. Not even a car, Zhang Licheng's 129th Division can be said to be the most "earthy" unit among the various units of the National Defense Force.

Zhang Licheng didn't care about this, he just asked what new weapons Bai Wenwei and Ji Yulin's troops had been allocated, after all, this is the foundation of the combat effectiveness of the troops, as for airplanes and cars, it is just a matter of face, for the 129th Division, as long as it is equipped with mules and horses, it is very good.

Before Zhang Licheng had time to be jealous of the luxurious equipment in Bai Wenwei and Ji Yulin's troops, he heard a command that the president was coming.

The presidential motorcade was accompanied by a group of "field tours," all of which were the War Department and the Admiralty. Many of them are also trainee officers of the Army University, and they are about to go to Europe to inspect the situation of the Balkan War on the spot, and by the way, to study the construction of the army and navy of the European powers, and to make suggestions for the center to formulate correct strategies and tactics.

In order to welcome the arrival of the president, all the planes that can fly at the Nanyuan Aviation Base have flown up, divided into five formations to line up through the field, and also pulled the colorful 'colored' tail smoke, this formation really frightened Zhang Licheng, a "native old man"; he stayed in Xikang and Qinghai-Tibet for almost two years, and the local information was blocked, and he had no intuitive impression of the development of the air force, but now, Zhang Licheng finally has a general understanding of the country's air force construction.

Zhao Bei gave full understanding of Zhang Licheng's surprise, and he also showed great enthusiasm for this garrison general from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, not only pulling Zhang Licheng to visit the hangar, but also inspecting the aviation cadets. He also specially asked Zhang Licheng to stand by his side and accept the salute of the aviation cadets together.

A total of more than 200 high-ranking officers rushed to the Nanyuan Air Base to attend the military conference, and the lowest rank was also a major, and the epaulettes were all 'colored' gold stars, and this scene was more spectacular than that air show; in fact, in addition to the troops in the three eastern provinces and the southern China region, the garrison units in the Central Plains and the western region basically sent officers over, and there were more than 20 figures at the division commander level alone.

Before the formal meeting in the afternoon, the president first held a small military meeting in the conference room of the auditorium, and the meeting was attended by non-voting delegates, except for the chief officers of the army and navy joint staff, and the others were basically division commanders and division political commissars, and only Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Xiaozhun had special identities.

Jiang Fangzhen's official position is now that of president of the Army University, and he also served as commander of the Wuhan garrison after Zhou Daogang left for the three eastern provinces. Although these two high-ranking officers have a lot of power in their hands, they have always been far away from the center of central power, and the reason why they came to the meeting this time was also because of the light of the Sino-German joint military confrontation exercise in Qingdao, and the president specially sent a telegram to summon them to the center before the exercise.

Of course, now that these two people are attending this meeting, everyone understands to some extent that perhaps from the very beginning, the president summoned the two to Beijing, and this intention is probably for this meeting.

Indeed, at the beginning of the meeting, the president's new appointments to Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Xiaozhun confirmed everyone's speculation.

The letter of appointment was read out by an adjutant, crisply, without nonsense and without an explanation of why the appointment was so.

"Jiang Fangzhen is hereby appointed as director of the Military Coordination Office of the Southwest Region, and his military rank is promoted to lieutenant general. Zhang Xiaozhun is hereby appointed as director of the Northwest Regional Military Coordination Office, and his military rank is promoted to lieutenant general. ”

The room was silent, and everyone wondered what the president wanted to do.

"Everyone, I guess you're a little confused. As a matter of fact, we are holding a meeting here today for two purposes, the secondary purpose is to solve the problem of the promotion of military ranks, although the national defense forces have been experimenting with the new military rank system for a year, there are still many problems, and the officers and men of the national defense army have the right to express their opinions on this, and this is the secondary purpose of this meeting.

As for the main purpose, it is to readjust the military deployment throughout the country, and the garrisons of the troops stationed in various localities will be readjusted, except for the garrisons in the three eastern provinces and the coastal areas of South China. Gansu, Yunnan, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Guangxi, these provinces must be incorporated into the central strategy as soon as possible, in view of the fact that the local armed forces in these places have more or less the background of the great powers, if the central forces want to move them, they must make corresponding military preparations, although the central center does not want to clash with the great powers, but the necessary precautionary measures must be prepared, and now, the War Department has drawn up a plan for marching, according to this plan, We will first solve the armed forces of the Majia family in the northwest of Gansu and Qinghai, and then, wait for an opportunity to march into Xinjiang, and when the northwest issue is resolved, the rest will be Yunnan and Guangxi. ”

Zhao Bei stood up and briefly introduced the topic of the meeting, and his words made everyone suddenly realize.

On the one hand, the Longhai Railway has been partially completed, which can guarantee logistical supplies, on the other hand, the situation in Europe is becoming increasingly tense, and Tsarist Russia, which has long coveted the northwest region of China, cannot pay full attention to the Far East, and now it is advancing into the northwest provinces, and the pressure from the great powers is minimal.

This is exactly the next step in the center's strategy, marching westward!