Chapter 258: The Arms Business

Although the award ceremony has ended, the impact is still fermenting, and even in the afternoon of the same day, the relevant newspapers reported what happened at the award ceremony.

Both ordinary people and officials of the Nationalist Government were surprised to find that it was not Chairman Jiang who was specially mentioned in this award ceremony, but Ma Zheng, the commander of the Eighth Route Army.

Almost all newspapers have almost the same evaluation of Ma Zheng, wise and personable, erudite and connotative. In particular, Ma Zheng's appeal to the United States, Britain, and other countries not to condone Japan's aggression against China, let alone to be Japan's accomplices, won the support of all the Chinese people. Ma Zheng's prophecy about war was also published in the newspapers, although most people felt that the possibility of war between the United States and Japan was slim.

The day after the ceremony, the events of the ceremony were reported back to the United States and Britain, and the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Times of the United Kingdom reported on the matter in an important page.

When the Americans saw that in the eyes of the Chinese their government turned out to be an accomplice in Japan's aggression against China, everyone was stunned. In their eyes, the US government is just and powerful, especially the measures such as the moral embargo advocated by the government are helping the Chinese, but when they read the newspaper, they are surprised to find that the government is dirty under the so-called justice.

It turns out that the government is shouting about the embargo, but on the other hand, it is wantonly providing arms and other strategic materials like Japan to help Japan invade China.

The American people felt that the government was really fooling the people, and then the almighty American media unexpectedly picked up an even more surprising news, the government is negotiating a loan with the Japanese side, and the government has decided on a $125 million loan and credit from Japan. In order to purchase strategic materials such as machine tools from the United States, we will strengthen the war machine of Japan's invasion of China.

As soon as the news came out, the entire American society was in an uproar, and soon demonstrations broke out in many cities to oppose the government's participation in this unjust war of aggression in this obscure way.

Not to mention that the US Government had no choice but to temporarily suspend negotiations with the Japanese side because of the repeated demonstrations and demonstrations in the country. Let's talk about Ma Zheng's side first. After the ceremony, the troops entered a period of recuperation, and at the same time agreed on the time for the withdrawal of troops from the north.

Due to the tight train wagons, the Military Commission informed Ma Zheng that it would take at least a week before some trains could be mobilized to send them away. If more than 20,000 people are to be sent back to Xi'an, it will take at least half a month.

Ma Zheng didn't have any opinion on this, anyway, the wounded in the army wouldn't be better for a while, and if he was recuperating from his wounds here, the Nationalist Government would have to provide him with medicine, so why not.

Moreover, Yunjian also sent a telegram saying that everything was normal in the base area now, and the troops had been stationed in Guisui City. The Japanese army has shrunk on all fronts, and it is impossible for a major war to occur for a while and a half, and it is completely possible to stay in Wuhan for another half a month.

The most important thing is that Ma Zheng still has some things to deal with now, this time he went south to Wuhan to participate in the battle, and the 7th Division suffered heavy casualties, with at least 16,700 dead and wounded. Although the 7,000 men when they came here have become the current 22,000, and it seems that the number of soldiers has increased by 15,000, the old troops brought by Ma Zheng from Chanan have almost lost all casualties. Even the special operations brigade, which Ma Zheng regarded as the meat of his heart, suffered more than half of the casualties.

But there is no doubt that the harvest is also fruitful. The numbers of a Type B Army and a Class A Division approved by the National Government are also worth it. In addition, in this war, the Seventh Division successively annihilated the Botian Detachment, the 101st Division, the 106th Division, and the Fifth Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, captured Jiujiang, Hukou, Pengze and other strategic places on many occasions, and captured a large amount of weapons and equipment.

In addition, a large number of Zhongcheng, Hanyang-made and other equipment were also captured, which were captured by the Japanese army during the battle. The sheer number is difficult to estimate. Because the quantity of these weapons and equipment was too large to be taken away, after obtaining the consent of the chairman and others, Ma Zheng decided to sell a large number of weapons and equipment that could not be used or eliminated for the time being to the Kuomintang troops who were now in urgent need of weapons.

What is most important in wartime is, of course, weaponry. There is a shortage of automatic firepower that can continue to strike with oil, gas and water. In the next few days, the garrison of Ma Zheng's headquarters quietly turned into a large arms market, and there was an endless stream of representatives of the Sichuan army, the Yunnan army, and even the Central Army, and the vast majority of them were military commanders of various units, and among these people, the local troops were the largest.

The weapons sold this time included 20,000 rifles, more than 200 light and heavy machine guns, and even many heavy artillery and tanks. The local troops looked at the light weapons, while the central army looked at the tanks and heavy artillery in Ma Zheng's hands.

Ma Zheng was also reluctant to take action against the more than 40 tanks and more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces that had been captured, but the problem was that Wuhan was separated from Chahar by thousands of mountains and rivers, and in China, where transportation was extremely underdeveloped, it was impossible for these tanks to reach Chahar smoothly. Due to its size and weight, the heavy artillery can only travel along the railway, which is even more chicken for Ma Zheng, and selling it is the best choice.

With so much weapons and equipment to arm at least three divisions, but the troops on the Wuhan front line were not only three divisions, and 20,000 guns were simply not worth mentioning for a million-strong army, and soon all these weapons and equipment were sold out.

Although there were more monks and less meat in short supply, Ma Zheng did not squeeze these local troops. After all, these people are also part of China's national defense forces, and there is no need to make this black money, so Ma Zheng deliberately lowered the price to about 80% of the market price, which really surprised those bitter local troops, and at the same time won the friendship of many local troops for the Eighth Route Army.

West Hill Barracks.

Ma Zheng's temporary office was full of people, in addition to Ma Zheng, there were Vice Chairman Zhou, Huang Sicheng, Xing Chao, Xu Hu, Xu Weiguo, Tie Niu, Xu Haifeng and others.

As soon as everyone sat down, Vice Chairman Zhou took out a letterhead-like document and said: "In the morning, I have been invited to the official residence of Chairman Chiang for a meeting, and the train wagons mobilized for you will arrive at Hankou Station in the evening, and board the train at 9 o'clock in the evening, and the first batch of 10,000 people can go, so you must hurry up and prepare." ”

Ma Zheng immediately asked: "Chief, what about the rest of the troops, when can they wait for the train?" ”

"Three days later, but it still can't be transported all at once, up to 8,000 people!" Vice Chairman Zhou said.

Ma Zheng thought for a while and said: "Otherwise, the first batch will transport the lightly wounded away, and the other supplementary regiment will also go first, and the rest of the troops will wait for the next batch!" ”

"Are you worried about Lao Jiang's detention of you?" Vice Chairman Zhou could see Ma Zheng's thoughts at a glance.

"Well, there is nothing he can't do with Lao Jiang's person, we can't take risks!" Ma Zheng said.

"It shouldn't be like that, you are the hero of this battle, if he detains you, it will be a great disapproval of the world!" Vice Chairman Zhou said.

Ma Zheng shook his head and said: "This time, even if Lao Jiang really detains our army, there is nothing to say, you must know that 80% of these soldiers are former Kuomintang troops, if Lao Jiang uses this as an excuse to detain them, we have nothing to say, after all, we did not seek the consent of Lao Jiang and the Military Commission before absorbing these people." ”

"Well, what you say makes sense, then arrange it according to your plan! Send the wounded and the troops away first, and wait for the rest to be wagoned on the next train! Vice Chairman Zhou said.

"Well, it's not safe to leave the loot and the money first!" Ma Zheng said again.

"Speaking of money, you kid has to give me a clue, how much money you made this time!" Vice Chairman Zhou asked with a smile.

Ma Zheng smiled and said, "It's not much, it's just more than four million oceans, and another three million yen!" ”

"More than four million, that's all? Can't more than four million people get into your kid's eyes? Vice Chairman Zhou asked with a smile.

"No, it's just a matter of talking!" Ma Zheng said with a smile. (To be continued.) )