[The Iron Blood King of the Anti-Japanese Army] Chapter 255: Honors and Expansion

On August 15, 1938, at nine o'clock in the morning, the Nationalist Government celebrated the victory of the Battle of Wuhan and the ceremony of awarding meritorious heroes in the Xishan Military Camp in Wuhan.

Early in the morning, reporters from all walks of life and invited spectators arrived, and the scene was crowded with people and the atmosphere was warm.

At nine o'clock, the award ceremony officially began. The rostrum was raised high and covered with a red festive carpet, and the ambassadors of various countries and the on-site reporters of the news media sat at the front of the rostrum. At the same time, some representatives from all walks of life and several heroic units that fought bravely were also present at the ceremony. Due to the limited space, each unit participating in the battle was allowed to come to a maximum of one battalion, and Ma Zheng's unit was a special operations brigade.

To tell the truth, he is no stranger to awarding medals to Ma Zheng, he is also a military genius who is also famous in the army of the Republic in later generations, and he himself can't remember how many medals he has been awarded by the state, anyway, even the incumbent vice chairman of the Military Commission has personally awarded him medals.

But in this era, it was the first time to accept the award of the No. 1 boss of the national government or the eldest girl to sit in a sedan chair. However, in Ma Zheng's view, the medal of the National Government is actually not as good as imagined, that is, it was happy and happy at that time, and it was useless, after all, the end of the National Government was doomed, and the affirmation of a loser was meaningless to Ma Zheng.

The award procedure is similar to that of later generations, first of all, Lao Jiang's speech, and the full two-hour tirade made Ma Zheng feel numb when he heard it. A total of 3,786 officers and 140,000 soldiers participated in the awards, and of course, the ceremony of awarding ordinary officers and soldiers was not here, but usually only the Ministry of Military Affairs sent the medals to the troops, and the commanders of the units arranged them themselves.

In fact, less than 40 officers were awarded at the ceremony. Among them, there were only 7 members of the Eighth Route Army, including Huang Sicheng, Xu Hu, Tie Niu, Xu Haifeng, Xing Chao, Xu Weiguo and Ma Zheng himself.

"Now I would like to read out the decision of the Military Commission on the reward of meritorious troops and individuals in the Battle of Wuhan."

Lao Jiang swept everyone with his eyes, and said loudly: "Order: The 7th Division of the 13th Army of the 13th Army of the National Revolutionary Army is the primary meritorious unit for the victory of the Battle of Wuhan, and it is hereby upgraded to the 63rd Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with two divisions and four brigades, directly under the cavalry, artillery, engineer, and guard regiments!" Ma Zheng was appointed commander of the 63rd Army. and awarded Ma Zheng the Order of the Blue Sky and the White Sun of the First Class and the Order of the Baoding of the First Class ......"

As soon as Lao Jiang's words fell, all the military and political officials on the scene were shocked, including Ma Zheng himself. It's really incredible, I haven't heard of the rumors of upgrading the Duqi Division to the army before, why did it suddenly be promoted? Even though it's only a B army, it's still very surprising.

Ma Zheng didn't expect that Lao Jiang would award the first merit of the Battle of Wuhan to the Duqi Division this time, and he didn't expect that he would upgrade the establishment of the Duqi Division. You must know that Lao Jiang is famous for protecting his shortcomings, even if the Duqi Division fought really well this time, but the 13th Army and the Fourth Army and other troops also fought well. According to the past practice, these troops must eat meat, and it would be good if the Duqi Division could drink some soup.

To be honest, it is really surprising that Lao Jiang can do this, even if Lao Jiang gives the first credit to Xue Yue and Ma Zheng this time, he will not be surprised, let alone feel that there is anything wrong, after all, if there were no millions of Kuomintang troops on the periphery of Wuhan, there would definitely be no later big victory. But Lao Jiang didn't do this, could it be that Lao Jiang's heart has become bigger?

Naturally not, if it was just a war exploit, Lao Jiang would definitely not have spent such a big amount of money. In fact, there was a special meeting on how to reward the Seventh Division, and the decision was to reward Ma Zheng personally and ignore the Seventh Division. In other words, Ma Zheng can be given all kinds of unimaginable honors, but as far as the entire army of the Duqi Division is concerned, don't think about things like upgrading and expanding. I didn't expect things to change just overnight, which is why He Yingqin and others were surprised.

But last night, Ma Zheng risked his life and killed two armed assassins with his bare hands while gambling on his political future, saving Lao Jiang. If Lao Jiang can ignore the Duqi Division in this way, then it will inevitably make many people feel cold. After all, there were still a lot of reporters on the scene when the incident happened last night, when the situation has already been reported.

Because of this, Lao Jiang thought about it for a long time last night, and had an in-depth conversation with his wife before deciding to upgrade the Seventh Division to the 63rd Army. There are many benefits to doing this, first of all, setting an example. You can take a look, I ****** even old enemies can tolerate it, and you have no problem. The second is to repay Ma Zheng's life-saving grace, this favor is the most difficult to owe, and if you owe it, you have to pay it back.

There is also Lao Jiang's other thoughts about Ma Zheng's department, mainly because this army is too special, not to mention its combat effectiveness, and it is also a real anti-Japanese team, such a unit Lao Jiang really can't bear to destroy, maybe it can be used one day. It's like a peerless swordsman who gets a peerless sword that is not very familiar, which can be used to hurt others or hurt himself, but just because he may hurt himself, he will abandon it? Or even destroy it?

What's more, Ma Zheng's department now has more than 20,000 soldiers, even if his old Jiang doesn't give it up, can the Duqi Division still dismiss the remaining troops?

The answer, of course, is impossible, not only will the Eighth Route Army not do this, but other troops will also not be able to do this.

In this case, Lao Jiang simply was a little more generous, and he showed that he was generous when he gave a military-level number. Anyway, it's just a number, and there are no weapons, equipment, and food at all, so why not do it.

In addition, Lao Jiang also had another careful thought about doing this, this 63rd Army used to be the number of the Northeast Army's Ma Zhanhai Division, but it was later removed, and people within the Northeast Army had a lot of opinions about this. Now that he has restored the number of this army, it can be regarded as an explanation to the Northeast Army.

In fact, he wanted to use the name of this army to provoke the relationship between Yan'an and the Northeast Army, just like to provoke the relationship between Yan Laoxi and the Eighth Route Army. It's just that Yan Laoxi only lost one brigade at that time, while the Northeast Army lost one army.

But in any case, Lao Jiang's temporary decision still shocked many people.

In addition to the promotion of the troops, Ma Zheng was awarded two medals this time, the Order of the Blue Sky and the Order of the White Sun and the Order of Baoding. The center of the Blue Sky and White Sun Medal is the Blue Sky and White Sun Emblem, representing the country, surrounded by light, symbolizing the person who won this medal, having the merit of defeating the enemy and making the country glorious. This medal was promulgated by the Nationalist Government on the 15th of the month and revised to the Regulations on the Medal of the Army, Navy and Air Force on the 15th of the month as the Regulations on the Medal of the Army, Navy and Air Force. This medal is awarded to the army, navy, and air force personnel, and all those who defend foreign insults and defend the country.

And the center of the Baoding Medal is Baoding, surrounded by light, Ding is the treasure of our country in ancient times, symbolizing the winner of this chapter, the defense of the country is meritorious, the country cherishes such as Ding, and the light of honor is shining. It is divided into one to nine classes, the first three classes are large ribbons, the fourth and fifth classes are collar ribbons, the sixth and seventh classes are the ribbons with medals, and the eighth and ninth classes are ribbons. This chapter is awarded to the servicemen of the army, navy, and air force who defend foreign insults or deter civil strife.

The Order of Baoding is awarded to officers of the 1st to 4th classes, the 3rd to 6th classes for colonels, the 4th to 7th classes for lieutenants, and the 6th to 9th classes for warrant officers and soldiers. Non-army, navy, and air force personnel, or military personnel in the township, or foreign personnel, who have made meritorious contributions to the war, may be awarded the Baoding or Yunlu Medal in accordance with the regulations. It can be said that the Order of the Blue Sky and the White Sun Medal and the Baoding Medal are the highest honors awarded to soldiers by the National Government, but I didn't expect that they would be awarded to the same person at the same time, and they were both awarded in the form of a large award.

When Ma Zheng came to the stage to accept the medal, almost all the people in the stands applauded, and the warm applause made Ma Zheng's eyes a little red, and his nose was sour.

The ceremony proceeded very quickly, and in groups of 10 people, all the meritorious personnel who participated in the award were soon completed. After that, representatives of all parties took the stage to speak and accept interviews with the media, and Ma Zheng was the first to take the stage. (To be continued.) )