Sir Humphrey did not come to see Pu Guanshui to see the extent to which Pu Guanshui could defend China's interests, nor to praise Pu Guanshui's firm patriotism. The more Pu Guanshui and the People's Party behind him can defend China's interests, the more the British Empire's fundamental interests in China will be lost, and even the British Empire's sphere of influence in China will be completely shaken.

"I have a few things to negotiate with the general now, the first is the food problem in the embassy area and the concession, after you blocked the traffic and the circulation of houses, the concession was short of food. The second is the sanitation of the concession, and I hope you can get the dung diggers back in business. "Sir Humphrey's question is the most straightforward.

"Grain can be sold to you, and dung diggers can get back to work." Pu Guanshui replied.

"I would like to meet with the chairman of your party." Sir Humphrey made the next request.

"We can arrange this as well. If you have your itinerary arranged, we will report back to Chairman Chen Ke. Pu Guanshui didn't want to waste too much of his tongue on this matter. His work was piled up, and there was no time for Sir Humphrey to talk about meaningless things.

"There is also the question of the restoration of telegrams." Sir Humphrey said.

Pu Guanshui refused without thinking about it, "We can't guarantee this, and our own telegram has not been restored, as for your telegram problem, we can only push it back." ”

"Your military administration is only military control, but not imprisonment. Your Excellency, I don't think you should confuse the difference between the two. Sir Humphrey was not angry, but said calmly.

Pu Guanshui was not interested in such a threat at all, and he replied: "We will try our best to solve this matter, but what cannot be solved is that it cannot be solved." ”

After sending Sir Humphrey away, Pu Guanshui did not take this matter seriously, he asked the secretary to sort out the documents, checked them, signed them, and asked them to send them to the central government.

Over the next few days, Pu Guanshui supplied the concession with food at five times the price of grain for the people of Beijing. On August 24, the central government sent a telegram expressing its approval of Pu Guanshui's work, and the only opinion was that Pu Guanshui should agree to resume the telegraph communication of the Beijing Legation District.

This can't help but surprise Pu Guanshui. In those days, the wired telegraph was wiring mode, in fact, before the advent of the CNC telephone, even the telephone. Any signal transmission will encounter the problem of signal attenuation, so every other distance, a telegraph station will be set up, and the telegram will be reshot manually. Even with the advent of wireless telegraphy later, a large number of staff members were required to stay in front of the telegraph all day long and monitor various telegraph signals on their own frequency bands at any time.

The BJP has expended considerable effort to complete the mechanically controlled cable telegraph relay equipment. However, this is only the work that can be done within the People's Party base areas, and many areas between Beijing and Tianjin and Shanghai are now under the control of other forces, and even if these telegraph lines are restored, there will be too many troublesome links in the process of sending a telegram from Beijing to Tianjin.

However, this is the case with cable telegraphs, and unless it is a very expensive special line, the number of words is naturally as small as possible. For example, the famous joke "People are stupid, there is a lot of money, come quickly!" "It's definitely a joke from the days of the cable telegraph.

Pu Guanshui immediately called back, with two words, "Why?" ”

That afternoon, he received a call back, "This is an order!" ”

Since it is an order, Puguanshui can only carry it out. He sent someone to inform the legation district that the People's Party would resume the telegram from the Beijing legation district the next day, and to inform the legation district of the scope of application of the telegram. Pu Guanshui felt a little unwilling, but the scope of application of this telegram would expose the actual control area of the People's Party. But Pu Guanshui guessed that the central government's plan was probably to let the foreign devils know that the People's Party had taken control of China's elite regions.

After finishing these little things, Pu Guanshui continued to start his serious business. The war between Hebei and Shandong has not ended until now, and after the fall of the Beijing regime in Beiyang, there are still as many as 300,000 Beiyang troops in Tianjin and Shandong. Only by completely destroying these people can the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army be regarded as basically destroying the enemy. But things didn't go so well.

"Telegraph Commander Chai again, when will he come to Beijing?" Pu Guanshui said.

As soon as the words fell, the telegraph operator ran over and handed Pu Guanshui a telegram. Pu Guanshui hurriedly opened it, and then his happy expression quickly turned into doubt. This is not a telegram from Chai Qingguo, but a telegram from the Central Military Commission. The telegram informed Pu Guanshui that the next important work of the whole army was the reorganization of the army. First of all, the army was reorganized from the 44 system to the 33 system. The second is that the whole army will be formally reorganized into 46 field armies. and 1.2 million engineers and 600,000 railroad soldiers.

Reorganization takes a great deal of time, as evidenced by the first reorganization and expansion of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. It took nearly a year for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to reorganize and expand its troops from more than 10,000 to more than 30,000. Before the war against Beiyang, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army planned to expand its army to 3 million. Pu Guanshui picked up the pen and calculated, in a 44 system, there are more than 20,000 people in a division, and 100,000 in an army. Although the establishment of the three-three system is not very clear, one army is more than 20,000 people, and even if the full number of civilian and auxiliary personnel is added, there are at most 30,000 people. Such a force formation would require more military training.

Not to mention this troublesome matter, according to the calculation of 30,000 people in an army, the 46 armies are 1.38 million, plus 1.2 million engineers and 600,000 railway soldiers. The total strength of the army is 3.18 million, and there is no talk of a major expansion of the army at all. At present, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army is far from the point where the swords and guns enter Kuma and release Nanshan, and the next war of liberation will be a long-term process. The reorganization at this time is really puzzling.

However, the orders of the Military Commission must be carried out, and there is naturally no need to say anything about this. Pu Guanshui hoped even more that Chai Qingguo would hurry to Beijing to join him. As the commander of the two major military regions, he can discuss what he can do. At least when discussing this matter with the Military Commission, everyone can say something.

On the 26th, the second batch of trains transporting materials from Henan to Beijing also carried Chai Qingguo and others. The two commanders of the Shandong and Henan Military Regions finally met.

"Commander Pu, you're showing your face." Chai Qingguo came up and said with a smile.

"What is there to show your face, this is not a strategic victory, and you can't talk about a battle victory. It was a purely tactical victory. "Pu Guanshui is very good at putting himself in the right position. In the Shandong Campaign, the People's Party simply gave full play to the advantages of the internal movement and carried out a surprise attack on a route that the Beiyang Army could not have imagined. As for the Battle of Beijing, in addition to adopting the "encirclement of three and missing one", the biggest internal victory was that Yuan Shikai suddenly fell ill and died. These are all factors that cannot be replicated, and if this is regarded as a merit, Pu Guanshui really does not have such a thick skin.

Chai Qingguo didn't expect Pu Guanshui to be so calm at this time, and after listening to Pu Guanshui's explanation, he said with a straight face: "Commander Pu, it's different if you have gone to military school. It's different from my native bun. ”

"Don't talk nonsense, Commander Chai, have you seen the order of the Military Commission to reorganize the troops? I don't understand why the CMC is doing this. "Pu Guanshui is completely concerned about the major events of the adaptation.

"I have received this news, and we will do whatever the Military Commission tells us to do. And I think this plan is good, the number of troops under the 44 system is too large. Anyway, when I fought with the Beiyang Army, I felt that one division would be enough in many places. Now if you put an army up, 100,000 people, it is always inconvenient for me, as the commander of a military region, to go past the army commander to command the division commander. After the reorganization, there will be more than 5,000 people in one division and 20,000 in an army, and it will be more convenient to transfer command. On the contrary, Chai Qingguo has more experience in large corps operations than Pu Guanshui, and he is very supportive of the plan of the Military Commission.

Pu Guanshui understood this explanation very well, he nodded and said, "That's true, but I don't think the firepower density will drop significantly?" ”

"Then it depends on the final firepower configuration of the Military Commission. If you are only cutting the number of pure infantry units, or if you are reducing the number of grassroots units, but if you deploy more automatic weapons to the front-line troops, the reduction in the size of the troops does not mean that the firepower is reduced. The size of the troops is small, and the relative logistical pressure is also small. Although he claims to be born in Tubaozi, Chai Qingguo does not have the slightest lack of confidence when talking about military issues.

As the commander-in-chief of Beijing's military administration, he completely relied on what he had learned in the base areas to govern the big city of Beijing, and the fact that there had been no problems so far did not mean that he really liked this post. Being able to talk about military affairs with Chai Qingguo, the commander, at this height, the energy that he had been holding back for a long time was finally vented, and he was more interested than Chai Qingguo.

Chai Qingguo came from a long way, and he was tired enough along the way. After talking for two hours, he felt quite tired, and he smiled: "Commander Pu, you treat guests like this." Anyway, let's eat first. ”

"Yes, yes, yes! You see, I forgot about that. Pu Guanshui hurriedly apologized.

After the gruel, pickles, steamed buns, and fried vegetables with minced meat were served, Chai Qingguo looked at the red dates boiled in the porridge and smiled, "I haven't drunk porridge like this for a long time." When I remembered that Gengzi was in Beijing, hey......"

Pu Guanshui also smiled, "Lao Chai, I heard that you had an awkward relationship with Chairman Chen in Beijing. ”

Chai Qingguo said nostalgically: "I won't mention that matter, Chairman Chen was also cautious at that time, obviously he didn't take those people in Beijing seriously, but he still wanted to do something to obey the organizational discipline and use it to test me." I'm also young, and I can't stand that bird at all. As a result, there was a fight, and now I know that organizational discipline is not a joke. ”

"I heard that the person who made trouble in Beijing at that time was named Zheng Wenjie, right?" Pu Guanshui asked.

"I only remembered his name when you said that, how did you know Commander Pu?" Chai Qingguo was very surprised.

Pu Guanshui laughed, "Do you think those people in the Internal Affairs Committee are vegetarians?" Zheng Wenjie, as a member of Beiyang who has invested in Chengcheng, looks very interesting. ”

"Don't mention it, I don't want to see this person." Chai Qingguo put away his smile and said, "I will also hold grudges, so it's best not to see it." ”

"Understood." Pu Guanshui replied. In fact, he didn't notice this matter, but the comrades below knew that Chai Qingguo was coming to Beijing, and put forward this person's information separately to Pu Guanshui. Pu Guanshui didn't quite understand whether this comrade was careful, or wanted Chai Qingguo to take revenge on this person. But Pu Guanshui didn't want Chai Qingguo to get involved in such a thing at all, and when he saw that Chai Qingguo made it clear that he didn't want to see Zheng Wenjie at all, he was a little relieved.

After eating and resting for a while, Pu Guanshui and Chai Qingguo began to discuss the future situation again. If there is no reorganization, after the order in Beijing is restored, Pu Guanshui will join the troops of Chai Qingguo's Henan Military Region. The CMC's next target is the Northeast. If you want to enter the northeast, you must first deal with the remnants of the enemy in Hebei.

However, when it comes to the reorganization work, it will be difficult to carry out the operational work. This is also something that Pu Guanshui feels very strange, "Isn't the Military Commission afraid that foreign devils will arm these Beiyang Army?" ”

"Cut! Commander Pu, you give me an honest explanation, how much equipment have you captured? Chai Qingguo had a disdainful expression on his face.

"This ......" Pu Guanshui was silent, the equipment he captured was at least enough to arm 300,000 people. Especially the artillery, which makes Pu Guanshui wake up with a smile in his sleep.

"Look, you're not talking." Chai Qingguo said with a smile, "So the Beiyang Army is not a problem at all, and the foreign devils don't have the money to pay them military salaries." The Beiyang Army couldn't hold out for long. I'm just worried about one thing right now, the British will never give up so much. Although this is not the time for the reorganization of the troops, the benefits of the reorganization will be great. First of all, each province can have an army stationed. Secondly, there are mobile units that can be engaged in all aspects of combat at any time. There are some reasons why I'm here this time. The Party Central Committee has long said that Handan is the location of an important steel group. After the completion of Handan Iron and Steel, it can immediately relieve the industrial pressure of Beiyang. We have so much equipment, and if we don't have a railway, we will have to suffer a lot in combat. Handan Iron and Steel Group does not say much, if it can produce 30,000 tons of rail steel a year, how many railways can we build? With the railway, it's easy to say anything. ”

"It's not that easy to build a steel plant." Puguanshui is not optimistic.

"It's not easy to be easy, but I can tell you privately that the iron-making furnace, steel-making furnace, and technical experts have all arrived in Handan. It is estimated that I am afraid that the construction has already started. Chai Qingguo said in a low voice.

"What?" Pu Guanshui was taken aback.

"There's nothing strange about it, you can't build a big stove, so it's okay to start with a small 20-ton stove. Rails can't be produced, so it's always okay to produce rails from mines to ironworks first. Wasn't the Zaozhuang Ironworks built like this? If you can't build a machine, you can't make a head office for raw tea farming tools, right? If you start land reform and distribute iron farming tools, it will be more effective than giving out money. Chai Qingguo said with a smile.