Chapter 589 Training (I)

The sky was full of sand and dust, and visibility was poor. After a dozen paces away, it is impossible to see what the scenery is, and this kind of long-distance march under weather conditions is indeed a test for the morale of the troops.

This is the inner 'gate' g ancient western region, according to the previous regional division, this belongs to the west of the Hetao, so it is called "Xitao", in the past it was the pasture of the Ejina Turgunt Department, after the republic, the Beiyang government fǔ took into account the complex situation of the 'Gate'g ancient area, coupled with the challenge from the southern ** force, there is indeed no 'fine' force to manage that area, therefore, from 1909 to 1912, the West Trou area has been by the local ' The ancient princes of Men'g were administered on their behalf, and there, the central government decrees were not enforced, and the princes of the Xitao region relied on each other with the local armed forces of Gansu and Qinghai, and in fact there was no difference from the independent kingdoms.

Naturally, the center would not tolerate the continuation of this situation, and in 1912, the center acted decisively. With the means of high pressure and gentleness, the local armed forces of Gansu and Qinghai were purged, and these two provinces were brought under the direct management of the center, so that the ancient princes of the 'gate' g in the Xitao region lost their support from the south, and only the outer 'gate' g princes in the north could be cited as allies, but due to the deep historical grievances between the two sides, coupled with the differentiation and co-optation of the central government, the princes of the Xitao region finally led more than 30 departments such as Erut, Ejinne Turghut, Dulbert, Turgot, and Heshute to declare their submission to the center. Since then, all the ancient areas of Inner Gate have been brought under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Committee at the beginning of 1913.

Taking into account the interests of all parties, the central center finally decided to redivide the administrative division of the inner 'Gate' G region, merging the East 'Gate' G area with the former northern Zhili region to form Rehe Province, the Central 'Gate' G area and the former northern Zhili region to form Chahar Province, the West 'Gate' G area and a part of the Central 'Gate' G region to form Suiyuan Province, and the three new northern provinces to jointly keep an eye on the outer 'Gate' G area, retreat can be defended, advance can be attacked, once the situation allows, the three provinces can quickly send troops to attack the outside Gate 'g Coulomb, consolidating the frontier.

Therefore, the western part of the current Inner Gate is part of Suiyuan Province, bordering the Outer Gate to the north and Xinjiang to the west. To the south is Gansu.

Compared with Rehe and Chahar, the natural ecological conditions of Suiyuan are relatively poor, because the climate here is very dry, it has been a place of wind and sand since ancient times, and the scene of wind blowing grass and seeing cattle and sheep is rare here, even the herdsmen are very difficult to survive here, not to mention the army that has traveled thousands of miles.

At present, a cavalry unit is marching on a Gobi desert in the western region of Suiyuan, and in the morning the scorching sun is in the sky, and the officers and men are all covered in stinky sweat; after noon, the wind and sand rise again, blowing all over the people's faces, and getting stained with the sweat, not to mention how uncomfortable it is, but the troops are troops, and no matter how uncomfortable they are, they must persist in advancing, and it is not until the officers give the order to rest that the officers and men can get rid of the present embarrassing situation.

This cavalry unit was subordinate to the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division of the Wehrmacht, and the division commander was Zhang Guoping. Qin Ling, political commissar of the division, and Tian Yingzhao, chief of staff of the division.

At present, the highest military commander leading this cavalry unit into the march is the division commander Zhang Guoping, and the division's political commissar Qin Ling and the division's chief of staff Tian Yingzhao are also in the ranks; in addition to these high-ranking officers, Xu Shuzheng, the "Northwest Frontier Affairs General Office," also led all the members of the staff department to take part in this long-distance training, and two of the three cavalry brigades of the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division participated in this march.

Although Xu Shuzheng is the "General Office of Northwest Frontier Affairs" and nominally coordinates all border affairs in the northwest, in fact, he does not have the right to directly command the garrisons of the northwestern provinces, and he can only directly dispatch thousands of local armed forces, Xu Shuzheng was not directly involved at all, his job was only to provide logistical support for the cavalry troops, and to keep an eye on the ancient direction of the outer 'gate'.

In this way, although Zhang Guoping, the commander of the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division, is not as high as Xu Shuzheng's military rank, as long as the center and the president do not speak, then there is no need for him to obey Xu Zong's words, but because Zhang Guoping has been leading part of the cavalry division to be stationed near naturalization, therefore. The cooperation between the two is relatively pleasant, although Xu Shuzheng will 'reveal' his unruly side from time to time, but Zhang Guoping is a well-cultivated person, not the kind of emotionally 'exposed' character, he is very stable in dealing with people, and he has not affected unity because of Xiao Xu's unruliness.

He believed that as a cavalry unit, it was necessary to persist in long-distance training, and considering the possibility of advancing into the ancient area of the outer 'gate' in the future, the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division must seize the time to train, especially long-distance running. Zhang Guoping agreed very much with Xu Shuzheng's suggestion, so the two of them jointly handed over the relevant training plan to the War Department, and the War Department quickly approved the training plan, so the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division soon began this kind of long-range training, if it is counted from last year, up to now, the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division has completed five similar long-range training, and this training will be the sixth long-range training.

This time, it was a long-distance training. The cavalry unit drove from Guihua City, first went north, went deep into the Gobi region in the south of the outer 'gate' and went around in a big circle, turned east and went to the northern grassland of Rehe, and then turned around to the west, walked for a few days and then turned back to the south, and so on, and so on, by now, this cavalry unit has marched for almost 4,000 miles, although the officers and soldiers are very tired, but the morale is still maintained. Because the logistics support is relatively sufficient.

In order to ensure the logistical supply in the process of long-distance running, the Fifth Independent Cavalry Division still carried a considerable number of camels with the army, compared with the war horses, the endurance and carrying capacity of the camels are more 'outstanding', and the camels are resistant to hunger and thirst, this advantage has reduced the logistical pressure of the troops to a certain extent, and the camel 'meat' can also be used as the food of the troops.

Because the troops carry enough camels, therefore, so far, every two soldiers can still get a camel, but the weight of the camels has been reduced a lot, and the supplies are indeed almost consumed, and now it is really necessary to find a military station for the necessary supplies.

The nearest military station is still more than 100 miles away from here, and according to the administrative division, the military station is actually located in Gansu Province and is under the management of the Gansu General Military Station.

According to Zhang Guoping's estimate, they will be able to rush to the military station tomorrow morning at the latest, replenish the fresh vegetables that the troops need most, eat camel 'meat', and gnaw canned 'meat'. Now it's almost like chewing salt-stained rubber, and more importantly, the war horses are also very tired, and there are almost five hundred war horses killed on the road, although they carry spare war horses, but many soldiers have become camel cavalry, to be honest, Zhang Guoping is very distressed, he wants to rush to the military station as soon as possible, rest for a few days, and by the way, use 'fine' feed to replenish the fat of the war horse.

Seeing that the wind and sand on the Gobi were getting bigger and bigger, Zhang Guoping was worried that some soldiers in the army would be left behind, so after discussing with Xu Shuzheng, he decided to set up camp on the spot and wait for the wind and sand to stop before continuing to hurry.

When the trumpet sounded, most of the officers and men quickly stopped advancing, but some of the troops that had gone too far had not yet received the military order and were still advancing, while the camel baggage teams that were walking slowly were still lagging behind, and Zhang Guoping had to send some more people out to look for those who had fallen behind.

After Zhang Guoping finished assigning the task, the guard company had already set up a field military tent for him, which was made in a 'private' factory in Wuhan, with steel pipes and canvas as the main materials, simple to build, very popular with the troops, and has been purchased by the War Department in large quantities, but for the cavalry troops, this kind of big tent that can live in a class is a bit cumbersome, therefore, most of the cavalry still live in the kind of single tent in the past, and when not in use, they can also be rolled up and cushioned on the saddle, so as to make the big 'legs' that are uncomfortable with the saddle a little better.

Zhang Guoping walked into the tent and saw that Xu Shuzheng was already sitting in the tent studying the map, and it was the kind of rolled-up single tent under his buttocks, and there were several staff officers standing beside him, wiping the mud on his face with a 'hairy' towel.

"Division Commander Zhang, please pass on the order again, tell the soldiers to hurry up and rest, and let's have another night march tonight."

Seeing Zhang Guoping walk into the tent, Xu Shuzheng immediately unceremoniously took out his opinion.

Zhang Guoping took a 'hairy' towel handed to him by a staff officer, wiped it on his face, and said: "Then we have to wait for the wind and sand to stop, if the wind and sand don't stop at night, we can't take risks, last winter training, we have suffered losses, the climate of this grassland is not as good as that of Guannei, and we can't be sloppy." ”

"I understand that. However, according to the report of the meteorological detachment just now, this sandstorm will not last too long, and according to the experience of previous herdsmen, there will be no major sandstorms at this time. ”

Xu Shuzheng nodded confidently, and it turned out that his analysis was correct, and at five o'clock in the afternoon, the annoying wind and sand finally ended wreaking, and at this time, the sun was also in the west, the temperature dropped, and the officers and soldiers could sleep comfortably.

But before Zhang Guoping could rest, a staff officer suddenly pointed to the southern horizon and shouted.

"Look! There was wind and sand again. ”

Zhang Guoping looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw the sand and dust flying on the horizon, but soon a scout came to report that it was not a sandstorm at all, but a unit, another unit of the Wehrmacht.

Coincidentally, that unit was also here for long-distance training, and it was also the kind of unit that moved quickly, but unlike the cavalry, that unit did not need to feed the livestock, and that unit only needed oil.

It was an armored car corps of the Armored Corps, with a total of 50 armored vehicles.