Zhang Xinghan led the cavalry battalion from Changchun to the northwest and arrived at Songyuan County that night.

After resting in Songyuan for a night, Zhang Xinghan led the cavalry regiment to retreat to the Tongliao base area with the Songyuan Reading Regiment.

At the same time, Liu Cuigang also led 15 planes back to Tongliao Airport.

Because they were accompanied by more than 1,000 infantry from the Songyuan Reading Regiment, Zhang Xinghan's marching speed was greatly reduced.

It took four days, that is, on the morning of December 7, to return to the Tongliao base area.

After four days of marching, both cavalry and infantry were very tired and tired.

After handing over more than 1,000 recruits of the Songyuan Reading Force Regiment to Huang Xiansheng to arrange for rest.

Zhang Xinghan also went back to the bedroom to sleep, although there were many things waiting for him to deal with, but in the past ten days of long-distance travel, he had hardly slept once.

It took five hours of sleep before Zhang Xinghan was woken up by Zhao Zhenfan.

"Chief of Staff, what's the matter?" Zhang Xinghan rubbed his temples and asked.

Zhao Zhenfan's expression was very excited, and he didn't forget to humbly say: "Master, I didn't want to wake you up so quickly and let you have a good rest, but this news can't help but have to report to you immediately." ”

"What's the news? About the army? Zhang Xinghan patted his forehead, got out of bed, and began to put on his military uniform.

"No, it's the Huolin River mine, Xie Wu has heard that they have successfully mined coal, and he also said that the quality of the coal in Huolin River is much better than that of Benxi, and it can be sold at a good price for generating electricity or selling it to a railway company." Zhao Zhenfan said excitedly.

"Really?" Zhang Xinghan was very happy when he heard this, and lit a cigarette and said: "In the name of the division headquarters, all the miners will be rewarded by electricity, and everyone's salary will be increased by one ocean this month, and Xie Wu will be rewarded with one hundred oceans alone." ”

Zhao Zhenfan's face suddenly became a little ugly.

Zhang Xinghan noticed the abnormality and asked puzzledly: "Brother Guoping, what's wrong?" ”

Zhao Zhenfan said with some bitterness: "Master, the money we brought from Shenyang is not much, and the troops have not been paid for more than two months since the September 18 incident. ”

"How much is left?" Zhang Xinghan frowned.

Since the 918 Incident, he really hasn't paid his subordinates military salaries, and he used to be precarious in Shenyang, united as one to fight against the Kou and defend Shenyang.

It is understandable that no military pay has been paid.

Now that the troops have withdrawn to Tongliao, hundreds of thousands of Shenyang civilians have been evacuated with them, including many family members and relatives of local officers and soldiers.

Even if they don't get paid, their families have to support them, because no one who is a soldier doesn't want their relatives to live better.

In addition to this, the expansion of the army has also led to the inevitable payment of salaries on time.

Not to mention the combination of the two main regiments of the former garrison brigade and the original 7th brigade of the reading force, it is absolutely impossible to say that the recruits recruited locally in Tongliao will not be paid.

Because they are all locals, they have come to serve as soldiers, and their families have fewer strong laborers, and their families and relatives may even wait for their military pay to live.

Zhao Zhenfan took out an account book, carefully checked the calculation meeting, and said: "At present, the gold, jewelry and other property left by the division headquarters are all converted into oceans, about 200,000 oceans. ”

Afraid that Zhang Xinghan would not understand, Zhao Zhenfan said again: "Although there are still more than 200,000 oceans, but the troops have been underwhelmed for two and a half months, ordinary soldiers are counted as two months and three oceans, at present we have more than 12,000 soldiers, 60,000 oceans, more than 2,000 officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels, and more than 2,000 civilian officers, and the minimum basic monthly rings are also seven or eight oceans, and the officers above the captain level are as high as dozens or hundreds of oceans, so at least 100,000 oceans are needed."

In addition, there are also the salaries of more than 10,000 workers and technicians in the arsenal, the food of the troops, the horse materials needed by the cavalry, and other ordinary living expenses, and the remaining 100,000 yuan is simply not enough. ”

"Is it so much for military salaries?" Zhang Xinghan looked at Zhao Zhenfan with some surprise.

Zhao Zhenfan patiently explained: "Shizuo, have you forgotten that the salary of our Northeast Army is generally higher than that of other local troops in Guannai, especially our Seventh Brigade, which is higher than that of the Central Army, not to mention anything else, Shizuo, you were at the level of battalion commander, how much was your monthly military salary, you should still remember, right?" ”

Zhang Xinghan suddenly realized and nodded, he remembered that what Zhao Zhenfan said was true, in recent years, the Northeast has been greatly enriched by the efforts of Zhang's father and son.

The treatment of the army was very good, and Wang Yizhe served as the commander of the 7th Brigade of Reading Force, and during the period when he led his troops to station, he organized the officers and men of the brigade to open many small industrial factories and workshops of various kinds.

The profits are quite large, and the salaries of the officers and men of the 7th Brigade are very high.

A captain company commander was able to entertain his colleagues at the best tavern in Shenyang every week, which shows the amount of his military pay.

From this point of view, his 200,000 oceans are really not enough.

Zhao Zhenfan said: "This is not counting the 25 new fighters that the division seat Lingzun paid for us, if you count all the total, our reading division can now be described as in debt, which is not an exaggeration at all."

Now that the young marshal has cut off our military salaries for two months, and the Nanjing political axe only gives the establishment but not the military salaries, our top priority is to find a way to raise military salaries as soon as possible. ”

"Well, it looks like we'll have to think of a way to raise salaries." Zhang Xinghan nodded thoughtfully: "In this way, the rewards for the mine workers will be canceled first, and then we will be rewarded when we are financially rich." ”

Zhao Zhenfan nodded.

"By the way, Chief of Staff, how much more weapons and ammunition do we have now? In particular, how many self-produced and seized weapons from the Shenyang Ice Factory that we eliminated and did not use? Zhang Xinghan suddenly asked.

"The warehouse of the Shenyang Arsenal originally stockpiled about 1560,000 rifles and pistols, and millions of rounds of ammunition were almost untouched, and in three battles with the Japanese army, we captured more than 20,000 rifles, more than 200 light and heavy machine guns, and more than 100 large and small artillery, all of which are now kept in the temporary warehouse of the arsenal in Tongliao Town." Zhao Zhenfan thought for a moment and replied.

"Oh, we don't need these weapons and equipment for the time being, you send someone to sort them out, I will ask my father to contact the buyer, and we will sell them to raise military salaries and pay the troops." Zhang Xinghan instructed.

"Is the division going to resell arms?" Zhao Zhenfan was a little surprised.

"Yes, in the future, the surplus weapons and equipment can be sold to other local troops, first, it will also enhance the combat of other local troops, and improve China's national defense strength as a whole, and second, we can also obtain huge profits and solve our financial crisis." Zhang Xinghan thought for a while and said: "Therefore, the arsenal needs to rebuild the plant as soon as possible and resume production as soon as possible." ”

"Well, that's a good way to get the best of both worlds." Zhao Zhenfan nodded when he heard this.

"By the way, how's the recruit recruitment going these days?" Zhang Xinghan asked.

"It's going well, in the past half a month, I have recruited more than 1,500 people, most of them are Mongolian compatriots who can ride and shoot well, and many of them still have war horses, we can form another cavalry regiment." Speaking of recruitment, Zhao Zhenfan said with some excitement.

"No, one cavalry regiment is enough, not to mention that each regiment is already attached to the cavalry company directly under the regiment, and in the future, our assault force will be mainly composed of tank armored troops, and the cavalry will be completely reduced to an auxiliary branch, and finally leave the stage of modern warfare." Zhang Xinghan said.

"Makes sense."

"In this way, the newly recruited Mongolian recruits can be allowed to ride horses when marching, but they need to dismount and fight like the infantry in a car, after all, they have just joined the army, and they will inevitably be a little psychologically difficult to accept if they let them not ride horses as infantry, and they must wait for them to gradually integrate into the collective of our troops, and then carry out regularized unified deployment and reorganization."

"Well, I see."

…………………… Lushun is the headquarters of the Kwantung Army.

Lushun was attacked by air raids, the army, navy, and air force suffered heavy losses, and a large number of military supplies were lost, which shocked the whole country.

It also shocked officials of the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of the Navy, who have not advocated the expansion of the war against China.

If the successive defeats of the Kwantung Army were due to the stupidity of the enemy and the front-line commanders, then this long-range super-intensive air raid operation.

It has been proved enough that the threat of Zhang Xinghan's subordinates can no longer be ignored, especially after their air force in the northeast has been completely annihilated again.

It also aroused the urgent attention of the base camp, and through investigation and discussion, the base camp came to a correct conclusion.

That is, Zhang Xinghan's air force based on the Northeast Army Air Force was already very powerful.

And all this was less than three months before the outbreak of the war, which made the top brass of the city shocked.

In just three months, Zhang Xinghan's troops have developed to such a powerful point, if they are not eliminated in time, if they are not eradicated in time, will it not be a big trouble for the empire's henchmen?

As a result, the Navy and the Ministry of War rarely agreed on the same opinion.

We should increase preparations for and input into the war in China, and send a large number of additional sea-based and land-based air forces and a large-scale increase in air defense units.

In addition, the local aircraft factories are also working at full capacity, working overtime to produce new fighters at night.

At the same time, samples of new machine guns and rifles captured by the Kawamoto Special Operations Team were also returned to the Kwantung Army on the mainland.

The military industry experts in this book were very interested in this and began to study it.

The news of Ben's large-scale deployment of additional troops to prepare for the landing naturally could not be concealed from the eyes and ears of the Nanjing Secret Service Headquarters.

At the behest of Chairman Chiang, the agents reported this information to Zhang Xinghan.

After receiving the notice, Zhang Xinghan resolutely made the decision to continue the air raid on Lushun and delay his own assembly and landing with a strong air raid.

At noon on the same day, the bomber group of the Reading Division Air Brigade and 25 Zeros poured out again and flew towards Lushun.

(To be continued)