Most things in the world are easy to look at from the sidelines, but it is difficult to actually do them.

In preparing for the establishment of China's first army officer school, Song Xiaofei knew very well that this was a major event that would benefit the present and future generations, and he boasted in front of Liu Kunyi that as long as the army military academy persists for 20 years, China will become a strong country, and has won Liu Kunyi's strong support. Coupled with Li Hongzhang's strong recommendation, the imperial court approved Song Xiaofei to go to Tianjin to prepare for the establishment of the Army Military Academy, Li Hongzhang became the honorary principal, and Song Xiaofei served as the first principal.

Li Hongzhang solved the problem of running a school in Tianjin and hiring German foreign instructors for the military academy, but Song Xiaofei soon discovered a problem: most of his old subordinates were stationed in North Korea, and there was a special shortage of military talents around him who knew how to run a soldier and could remain loyal to him personally. Song Xiaofei's idea was to turn the Beiyang Army Military Academy into his own "Whampoa Military Academy".

The Army Military Academy was still a particularly new thing in the 11th year of Guangxu, just as Li Hongzhang said, the scholars were keen on the imperial examination, busy with morality and speech, and the scholars were even more ashamed of their words, doing the spring and autumn dream of "convincing people with virtue", and the children of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Dynasty were keen to go to a welfare unit like the Shenji Battalion to provide for the elderly, and there were not many people who took the initiative to find Song Xiaofei to sign up for the military academy.

Song Xiaofei thought of his brother Xu Shichang who was worshipping in Chenzhou Mansion at this time! Xu Shichang was originally from Tianjin, Xu Shichang got Song Xiaofei's funding in the second year of Guangxu, and later after Song Xiaofei's recommendation, he visited Weng Tongyi, Guangxu ten years in Jinshi, then served as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy. Hanlin Yuan is a Qingshui Yamen, and what he does is extremely boring, Xu Shichang was following Li Hongzao, who was dismissed as the Minister of Military Aircraft and demoted by two levels. The leader is unwilling, the subordinates are angry, the talented Xu Shichang is very aggrieved at work every day, a volume of documents is not sorted out, he was scolded by Li Hongzao, he was trying to change the place to breathe, so he took the opportunity to go out of the Hanlin Academy to help Song Xiaofei run a military school.

Xu Shichang was really resourceful, and seeing that there was a shortage of training talents, he suggested that Song Xiaofei could reverse some procedures, such as recruiting some junior sergeants in the Huai Army first, and then writing a specific plan for Li Hongzhang to build a school and a training plan. Song Xiaofei went to ask Li Hongzhang to post a notice in the Huai Army in his name to recruit talents for the Luguan Military Academy, and Li Hongzhang agreed. This notice simply states the seven recruitment conditions of the Army Military Academy:

1. Lifting 100 catties with both hands;

2. You can run forty miles in one hour;

3. More than 5 feet tall;

4. Don't smoke, drink, gamble, or go to the museum;

5. Over 20 years old;

6. Literacy;

7. Be in good health and have no history of disease.

This was actually a very high condition at that time, not to mention the physical fitness for the time being, literacy alone blocked many Huai troops from the door, because many of the soldiers at that time were illiterate. Some Huai Bing looked at it, and they knew the big characters, but they still shook their heads and walked away, "What kind of rotten school is this, requiring no smoking, no drinking, no gambling, no going to the museum, what is the meaning of being alive?" ”

But there are also some young people who are eager to change their destiny and seize this great opportunity to leap into the dragon gate.

The first cattle man to come to Tianjin to defect to Song Xiaofei was Feng Guozhang, who was twenty-six years old at the time and was working as an unknown soldier in Dagukou, Tianjin. In fact, Feng Guozhang's ancestors are very good, his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather is Zhu Yuanzhang's founding minister Feng Sheng, who ranks third among the eight meritorious heroes, although Feng Sheng was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion in his later years, the Feng family was still a big family in the village in the late Qing Dynasty, but when it came to Feng Guozhang's father's generation, the family was in the middle. Feng Guozhang entered a private school at the age of seven to study, especially hard, and later entered the academy to study, the exam results were among the best, under the sponsorship of his uncle Feng Gantang, to Baoding Lianchi Academy for further study, equivalent to studying now self-examination undergraduate, he studied while going to the restaurant outside the academy as a buddy, for his own study, but he also had to support his wife and children, at that time most of the students brought food from home, the meager income of the restaurant, the wife and children were not full, so Feng Guozhang dropped out of school, he was determined to change his poor family, in Guangxu ten years, Carrying his parents and wife behind his back, he went to Dagukou to join the Huai Army.

Feng Guozhang's story is very inspiring, Song Xiaofei likes such a self-motivated young man, and what's even more awesome is that Feng Guozhang, who seems to be a weak scholar, squinted his eyes and told Song Xiaofei about "Sun Tzu's Art of War" as soon as they met.

The second cow who came to defect to Song Xiaofei was Duan Qirui with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He was only twenty years old at the time, and he was working as an ordinary artilleryman in Weihai, Shandong. Duan Qirui is a young man with a hard life, speaking of Li Hongzhang's hometown, a native of Feixi, Anhui, his grandfather Duan Pei was a small general of the Huai Army, and brought him to the military camp in Suqian at the age of seven. At the age of fourteen, his grandfather died, he helped the coffin home, and at the age of sixteen, Duan Qirui ran away from home alone, walked more than 2,000 miles, and walked from Hefei to Weihai, Shandong, and defected to his uncle Duan Congde's Huaijun. But the bad luck did not let Duan Qirui go, his father Duan Congwen came to the military camp to see him, but he was robbed and killed by thieves, in fact, it was only a few taels of silver, and he died more unjustly than Dou E, and within a year, his mother also died of grief, leaving only young siblings in the family. Eighteen-year-old Duan Qirui worked hard in the military camp and wanted to get ahead, but unfortunately the Qing soldiers at that time, most of them ate, drank and gambled, he was out of place with the people around him, and was in a deep confusion.

Song Xiaofei was also born in poverty, and he was admitted to the military academy for his sister to study, listened to Duan Qirui's history of blood and tears, and asked him what hobbies he usually had, Duan Qirui said that he "doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't go to the museum, doesn't gamble, doesn't embezzle, and doesn't take advantage", Song Xiaofei greatly appreciated, and saw that his Krupp cannon could also be skillfully trained, so he let him enter the artillery academy.

The third person who came to defect to Song Xiaofei was Wang Shizhen, a young man who couldn't help but be weak, twenty-four years old, who came all the way from Shanhaiguan. He looked thin, weak, a little ugly, smiling, and even his name for a long time, where he didn't make it clear, Song Xiaofei was about to give him some money to send him home, Wang Shizhen said that he was admitted to the Zhengding Town General Military Cadre Corps when he was seventeen years old, Song Xiaofei asked him to tell him what he had learned in the Zhengding Town General Soldier Cadet Corps, Wang Shizhen immediately said that he was like a river, how to arrange the troops, how to, all aspects, very organized, Song Xiaofei was overjoyed, felt that it was available, and also stayed by his side for backup.

Song Xiaofei didn't expect this notice to be posted, and he actually put together the "dragons, tigers and leopards" of the "Three Heroes of Beiyang", and he was in a good mood, and the three also exchanged greetings, Song Xiaofei said proudly: "Although we are all inconspicuous now, we will not be willing to be ordinary, one day, the spotlight of history will shine on the faces of our young people, and we will eventually become the most dazzling big man in history!" ”

Feng Guozhang asked weakly, what is a spotlight? Song Xiaofei said: You will know it in the future, and now we should seize the time to draw up a plan for building an officer academy and a plan for military training.

The five of them drew up a plan, Song Xiaofei handed it over to Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang asked the Military Aircraft Department, Prince Alcohol waved his pen, and let Yinchang become the assistant of the Army Military Academy, and selected 200 flag soldiers to enter the school.

Yin Chang, who was 26 years old at the time, although he was a Manchu, was indeed a military talent, and he entered the German [***] School of Military Affairs for one year in Guangxu, and after graduation, he was sent to escort mines back to China. Yin Chang belongs to the Zhengbai Banner people, and has a relationship with Prince Alcohol, Prince Alcohol has high hopes for Yin Chang, and originally wanted him to supervise Song Xiaofei, but he didn't expect Yin Chang to contact Song Xiaofei, and found that Song Xiaofei not only understands military theory, but also has rich practical experience, and also understands foreign languages and diplomacy, and only one talent in five hundred years! From then on, before and after the saddle, he was willing to be driven.

"When the youth is strong, China is strong", no one expected that these six young people with an average age of more than 20 years old would open a new era of modernization of the Chinese Army!;