The reason why the 155mm howitzers captured by the Soviet army were handed over to Zhang Yafei was because Song Zhewu now felt that Zhang Yafei and his officers at and above the battalion level had experienced the test of the great war, and their combat experience and will to fight had been proven; although after the reorganization of the troops, there have been great changes in the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level, but these officers above the battalion level, in addition to the deputy positions exchanged to several other divisions, the main posts and most of the staff officers are there, and the style of the first division has not changed, and after a period of training, it will soon become a strong army. Especially after several major battles, Song Zhewu thought that Zhang Yafei was fully qualified for the position of division commander, which was the most reassuring thing for him. And the firepower of such troops must be strengthened.

The reason for handing over the 105 howitzer to Liang Fang is because Liang Fang is an artilleryman, and he has more experience in the use of cannons, and handing them over to him will better play the role of these cannons.

With the addition of nearly two divisions of troops, a large number of officers are naturally needed, and at this time the advantages of setting up a teaching corps are revealed. A large number of officers provided by the officer training brigade subordinate to the teaching corps were promptly replenished to the troops, so that the lack of grass-roots officers in various units was quickly resolved.

The Aviation Research Institute of the Fourth Route Army was newly established, which was temporarily assigned to the Air Force Corps sequence, with Ba Yuzao as the president and chief designer of Major General; Wang Zhu served as the colonel, deputy chief designer, and also served as the director of the Aviation Research Institute under the Aviation Research Institute; Wang Xiaofeng served as the chief engineer of the Institute of Aeronautics; Lin Anshun served as the chief test pilot, with the rank of lieutenant colonel; Another research institute of the Aviation Research Institute is the Engine Research Institute, with Zeng Yijing as the director and chief engineer, and the military rank is also colonel.

In addition, Guo Wenyuan served as the dean of the newly established College of Engineering, and was promoted to colonel, and the general subjects and professional teaching and training of college students assigned by various research institutes were completed here. Song Zhewu is laying the foundation for his future talent training plan.

Guo Wenyuan served as the director and chief engineer of the Institute of Machinery and Equipment in the School of Engineering, mainly responsible for the manufacture and imitation of dual-use machinery and equipment of the Fourth Route Army.

The Institute of Physics was formally established, with Zheng Dazhang as the director. At the same time, the directors of the institutes and the main researchers were promoted to colonel.

For these new student soldiers, especially those with university degrees, several division and brigade commanders coveted it, and they all privately approached Tao Rong and Li Wentian, who were in charge of the reorganization of the troops and the distribution of recruits, and wanted more. No way, there are too few people who have culture, especially university interviews, at this time. Although the Fourth Route Army attaches great importance to cultural learning, all soldiers must enter literacy classes, and those who do not meet the requirements of the literacy rate cannot be promoted, even if they are squad leaders, after several years of literacy, there is no illiteracy among the veterans, but most of them can write letters and read orders.

It's just that these people's small movements soon had to be stopped due to an order from Song Zhewu.

Song Zhewu strictly ordered that all units should not fight those student soldiers, and except for the general staff of the headquarters and the officer brigade of the teaching corps to select a group of college students who resolutely want to become soldiers, all college students who come to join the army must be handed over to various scientific research institutes, and the existing researchers of these scientific research institutes must not only engage in scientific research, but also have a very important task of leading students to teach and cultivate talents.

Some of the remaining students with a secondary school degree or higher were handed over to the engineering college for further study, and the rest and those under the age of 20 who were literate among the recruits were handed over to the Air Force Corps of Wujin for pilot training.

Aircraft at this time were far less complex than those of later generations, and required a high degree of education to master. At this time, because the speed and flight altitude of the aircraft are very low, the physical fitness requirements for the pilot are far less than that of later generations, as long as there is no vertigo, high blood pressure and heart and brain diseases. Therefore, Song Zhewu did not hand over the best scarce talent resources that he urgently needed and he had very few to Wu Jin.

Although after such a large-scale reorganization, there are still a lot of recruits left, this is because in addition to Song Zhewu recruited tens of thousands of recruits in the northeast, Xiao Guodong also recruited more than 20,000 people in Laiyuan, mainly victims of the disaster in Shaanxi and western Henan, of course, there are also many students from all over the country who were affected by the victory in Manchuria and the recovery of Outer Mongolia, and directly found Laiyuan and asked to join the army.

A large number of victims voluntarily came to Laiyuan to join the army, which was still due to Song Zhewu's actions in Hankou. Because the Fourth Route Army recruited the victims as soldiers in Hankou at that time to take care of their families, the victims who came came with their families in tow, which made Song Zhewu and Xiao Guodong and other core personnel of the Fourth Route Army both happy and worried.

Happily, their Fourth Route Army will not only be now, but will no longer worry about recruitment. Of course, the premise is that the rules of the Fourth Route Army for recruiting disaster victims as soldiers remain unchanged; The concern is that they don't have that much staffing to fully accommodate these people. Moreover, the influx of these people into the jurisdiction of the Taihang Administration has made the food shortage in this mountainous area, which does not produce much grain.

Moreover, almost all of these victims have no property, and it is not only a matter of food but also shelter to help them, which costs money.

Fortunately, the salary of the Fourth Route Army is very high, as long as one of the victims' families is a soldier, the whole family will not starve, so although there are many victims in Laiyuan, there is no confusion, and there is almost no need for Song Zhewu to do a lot of relief work for the victims.

Due to the large influx of these victims, Laiyuan and even the entire Taihang Administration area has also created many business opportunities because of the increase in population, and Laiyuan, where businessmen gathered, has attracted many businessmen, which makes the entire Taihang Mountain area appear full of vitality and vitality.

It's just that in order to maintain this rule, which is mixed with Song Zhewu, Song Zhewu must now properly solve the problem of food and accommodation for all the people who came to Laiyuan to join the army and their families, because after entering Shanxi, he needs a lot of manpower to build, and if he can't settle these disaster victims well, the people who take the initiative to come to Shanxi to join him in the future will not be very enthusiastic. Therefore, the money used by the Fourth Route Army to buy grain in Hebei and Shandong every month was a large amount, and of course, most of what he bought was miscellaneous grains.

However, Song Zhewu believes that as long as he survives more than half a year, he will have a way to solve the problem of food and resettlement of the victims in Shanxi.

For these recruits, who could not be reorganized, Song Zhewu crammed them all into the recruit brigade of the teaching corps and the newly established engineering corps teaching brigade, so that the recruit brigade and the engineering corps teaching brigade were overcrowded, and their size was no less than that of a division.

As for weapons, Song Zhewu is now not lacking, not only Chiang Kai-shek, Yan Xishan, and Zhang Xueliang gave him a lot of weapons and ammunition before the victory in Manchuria, but also the weapons and ammunition he captured from the Soviet army after the victory in Manchuria were piled up. It's just that there is one thing that makes Song Zhewu a headache, that is, its troop weapon models are a bit miscellaneous, and there are several models of rifles alone. However, he can't solve it now, and these things can only be completely solved after he takes Shanxi.

There is another thing that Song Zhewu must also do, that is, the issue of selecting international students, Song Zhewu asked Xiao Guodong to be personally responsible, and asked those experts and scholars of the research institute to help, and selected 200 people from among the students to study in Europe and the United States. These people should study as wide a range of subjects as possible. In the future, 200 people will be sent every year, and this will be a system. Song Zhewu just wants to reserve as many talents as possible and prepare for future development.

After the reorganization of the troops was completed, the training was immediately put on the agenda, and all divisions and brigades launched vigorous large-scale military training activities, and for a time the entire Taihang Mountains were filled with shouts of killing, ping-pong gunfire, and rumbling artillery. Although the training activities of the entire Fourth Route Army were in full swing, the troops' long-distance raid drills could no longer be carried out.

The reason is that after Song Zhewu left Laiyuan with Zhang Yafei's first division and cavalry brigade, Xiao Guodong and Tao Rong added a large number of long-distance training to the training plans of each unit in accordance with Song Zhewu's plan. The scope of these exercises is basically limited to the area of the Taihang Administration. In the long and narrow area of the Taihang Administration, from south to north or from north to south cross drills, the south is as far as Handan, and the north is as far as Datong is only 50 miles.

All the troops ran around in the Taihang Mountains, and such a large-scale training exercise was not only a simple cross-country march, but also a division and brigade unit, and all large units were dispatched, and they also had to bring enough food and ammunition, and even field hospitals. In short, everything was aimed at actual combat, with each division and brigade carrying out rapid and long-distance attacks on its own, and even the subjects of continuous combat day and night were even practiced.

These troops pulled equipment and materials in the Taihang Mountains almost all over, several division commanders are fine, they all understand the purpose of the exercise, but the troops below are different, personnel at all levels have complaints, only under the strict orders of Xiao Guodong, Tao Rong and several division commanders, they insisted on completing the exercise.

Through this long-distance training close to actual combat, many problems have been exposed, such as rapid response, reconnaissance and intelligence, and coordination and liaison among various units, and the biggest problem is still the problem of logistics, and many units have the problem of disconnection between logistics supply and forward troops, and the problem of untimely supply.

In the subsequent summary, in response to the problems exposed, Xiao Guodong, Tao Rong and others took measures in a timely manner, and some even adjusted the establishment on a small scale after reporting to Song Zhewu for approval.

It is good to say that the personnel at all levels of the Fourth Route Army have complaints, after all, such a large-scale exercise has tired them enough, but for the Jin Sui Army and even Yan Xishan, it is not as simple as having complaints.

On the second day after the Fourth Route Army began to attack and exercise, Yan Xishan began to receive reports from the intelligence officers he sent in Laiyuan, and then the same information continued to come from all over Taihang Mountain from north to south, and more than 100,000 people were completely in actual combat The big action could not help but startle Yan Xishan, and most of his main forces were deployed in southern and western Jinxi at this time, with the purpose of guarding against the Central Army in Henan and the Northwest Army in Shaanxi. Before October last year, with the tacit consent of Chiang Kai-shek, Song Zheyuan had contacted Han Fuyu and Shi Yousan to attack Shanxi, so Yan Xishan transferred his main forces to southern and western Jin.

At that time, according to the information obtained by Yan Xishan, Song Zheyuan, in view of the characteristics of the Jin Sui army being good at defending but not good at field warfare, agreed with Han Fuyu that he would not fight with the Jin Sui army city by city, and only use part of the troops to monitor and block the Jin Sui army troops in southern and western Jin, and use the main force to surround the city and join Taiyuan as soon as possible, believing that as long as Taiyuan was taken, the economic and military center of Shanxi, Yan Xishan would not be able to gain a foothold in Shanxi, and would inevitably withdraw from Shanxi under the blows of the Northwest Army and the troops of Han Fuyu and Shi Yousan. And by taking Shanxi, he could find a rich rear for the impoverished Northwest Army, and Feng Yuxiang could reorganize his troops and revitalize the Northwest Army.

Although Chiang Kai-shek knew the thoughts of Song Zheyuan and others, he still secretly acquiesced to Han Fuyu's participation, and he believed that the war between the Northwest Army and the Jin Sui Army would inevitably be a defeat for both sides, and it would never be as simple as Song Zheyuan imagined, not to mention that Han Fuyu would never return to Feng Yuxiang's command.

What Chiang Kai-shek was happy to see, Yan Xishan was naturally uncomfortable, and the plan of Song Zheyuan and others could be said to be hitting Yan Xishan's soft underbelly.

Ordinary military operations do not ignore the enemy in the rear, so it is easy to be surrounded by the enemy and annihilated because of the lack of food and ammunition. But it also depends on the opponent's ability, although the Jin Suijun is famous for its good defense, but it is not afraid of field battles, at least Yan Xishan thinks so, he will never sit back and watch others run to his hometown to spread wild, he will not let the Jin Suijun stick to it, even if he fights for his life, he will also meet the Northwest Army.

The problem is that he is facing the poor jingling Northwest Army, even Han Fuyu and Shi Yousan, who voted for Lao Jiang, are not rich, they don't have enough ammunition, and naturally they don't need much replenishment, as for food, it is not a problem, Jinnan and Jinzhong are the granaries of Shanxi, and they can eat on the spot.

The east and north of Shanxi are the easiest to defend, and the west and south are worse, if they really let their two or three hundred thousand extremely poor army rush into the hinterland of Shanxi, even if they are finally defeated, Shanxi will be beaten to pieces, and he Yan Xishan will also be greatly injured, not to mention that he no longer has the strength to fight Chiang Kai-shek, and even Chiang Kai-shek is likely to take the opportunity to fall into the well and find a reason to clean him up with Feng Yuxiang.

Therefore, Yan Xishan complained to Feng Yuxiang on the one hand, and asked Feng Yuxiang to call to stop the actions of Song Zheyuan and others; On the one hand, the main force of the Jin Sui army in Shanxi was mobilized to strengthen the defense of southern and western Jin, and wanted Song Zheyuan and Han Fuyu to retreat in the face of difficulties. Therefore, in the Jin Sui Army near the north of Jin and Taiyuan, only the Fifth Army of the Jin Sui Army, which had just been reorganized into an army, was garrisoned, and in case the Fourth Route Army harbored evil intentions and suddenly attacked Taiyuan, the division of more than 100,000 tigers and wolves could not be stopped by Li Fuying's Fifth Army, which had more than 30,000 people.

Therefore, in the face of the sudden large-scale movement of the Fourth Route Army, Yan Xishan urgently ordered Yang Chengyuan's Second Security Column and Zhou Shilian's Third Security Column stationed in northern Shanxi to immediately seize all the communication arteries leading to the Taihang Mountains, and ordered them to resolutely block and delay the other side once the Fourth Route Army attacked Shanxi; On the one hand, Yang Xiaoou's Second Army, Zhang Huizhao's Eighth Army, Zhao Chengshou's Cavalry Army, and the three brigades of Gu Renfa, Yang Yaofang, and Wen Yuru, among the seven artillery brigades of the artillery commander Zhou Yu's department, quickly returned to Taiyuan; Sun Chu led the First Army, Wang Jingguo led the Third Army, Li Shengda led the Fourth Army and other units immediately moved closer to Taiyuan and prepared to deal with the situation.

After giving the order, Yan Xishan sent another urgent telegram to Laiyuan to inquire about the reason for the sudden transfer of the Fourth Route Army.

Xiao Guodong, Tao Rong, and Wang Xu, who were in Laiyuan, were also uneasy about the urgent transfer of the Jin Sui army, thinking that Yan Xishan wanted to take advantage of Song Zhewu's troops to leave Laiyuan and eat their Fourth Route Army, and was about to send a telegram to Song Zhewu, who had already advanced eastward to Zhangjiakou, asking Song Zhewu to return for reinforcements as soon as possible, when he received a telegram from Yan Xishan asking about the reason for the transfer of the Fourth Route Army.

After reading the telegram, several people knew that Yan Xishan had misunderstood their exercise, so they couldn't help laughing at each other, and hurriedly ordered all the troops who were exercising to stand by, and went to Taiyuan from Xiao Guodong to meet Yan Xishan in the starry night, explaining to Yan Xishan that the troops of the Fourth Route Army were conducting exercises.

In order to eliminate Yan Xishan's misunderstanding, Xiao Guodong volunteered to be a hostage and insisted on entrenching in Taiyuan for more than 10 days until the end of the exercise, when he returned to Laiyuan.

Because of this episode, Song Zhewu didn't want to cause Yan Xishan's uneasiness this time, if Yan Xishan was vigilant, it would not be a good thing. Therefore, all divisions were strictly ordered not to engage in long-distance training, but could only carry out training on the spot. At the same time, all divisions are required to sum up their experience in long-distance raids and hand them over to the headquarters, which will summarize them and combine them with the problems discovered by the staff headquarters in the early stage, sum up a set of feasible experience and methods, and then distribute them to all units for implementation.

arranged the complete compilation of things, and Song Zhewu, who had just had time to catch his breath, had not had time to see his precious talent, so Xiao Guodong led Ye Changgui to find Song Zhewu. After the two explained their intentions, Song Zhewu had to dispel the idea of going to the research institute.

It turned out that the two of them came to Song Zhewu because Ye Changgui not only had to assist Xiao Guodong in the security work of the headquarters and the Fourth Route Army Headquarters and some important places and departments, but also presided over the training of his special brigade and other regular work, and also arranged the deployment of Xiao Guodong, Wang Xu, Fang Zhen and others needed the assistance of his special brigade to handle all kinds of things.

When Song Zhewu was in Manchuria, Ye Changgui found Xiao Guodong several times to react, but Xiao Guodong had no right to transfer the work of a person of Ye Changgui's level, especially the work that Ye Changgui was responsible for, and Song Zhewu attached great importance to it, and Xiao Guodong's cautious surname was to give him this right, and he would also ask Song Zhewu's consent first. Therefore, although Xiao Guodong also agreed with Ye Changgui's hardship, he just told Ye Changgui to wait for Song Zhewu to come back, and he kept delaying it.

(To be continued)