Three military cars drove slowly along the Chengya Highway, Xiao Yimin, Chiang Kai-shek, and Liu Bingxian all sat in the second car, this Dodge modified car was exactly the same as the front and rear cars, but the interior was very different, and the interior of the car decorated with mahogany planks and leather was wide and comfortable.

The front and rear rows are finished with leather seats, the floor is covered with thick rubber pads, and even the armrests and window handles are made of stainless steel, which has the comfort of a luxury car.

Liu Bingxian, who had already been equipped with a special car, looked here and there, and said jealously that his car was like an ox cart in the countryside and an imported Swiss carriage compared to this car, and finally said that he would ask Xiao Yimin to get one for him.

Xiao Yimin smiled and told him that under the stimulus of the European war, the American Dodge Company has launched a new product, and the engine and electrical system of the newly developed high-chassis passenger car are better than this car, and when the aircraft purchase contract is signed next month, by the way, Mr. Xie Kai of Shenchang Foreign Company will be entrusted to order a few reconnaissance vehicles for the army, and the Dodge ten-wheel trucks that have just been sold to Europe at the beginning of the year will also be bought back to see if a mechanized artillery regiment can be formed.

Chiang Kai-shek heard that it was an airplane and a mechanized artillery, and a series of new terms made him fall into a fog, so he wanted to ask Xiao Yimin about his specific ideas, at this time Xiao Yimin seemed to see something, looked out of the car, and told the driver to stop, Chiang Kai-shek thought there was something big, so he had to suppress the problem and follow Xiao Yimin and Liu Bingxian to get out of the car together.

Two signal soldiers who were working on the side of the road saw that the person who got out of the car was the commander-in-chief, so they were so frightened that they hurriedly threw down the tools in their hands, spit out the cigarettes on their mouths, hurriedly sorted out their training uniforms, and ran to Xiao Yimin to salute and report.

The two young faces were flushed, and the look of excitement and panic caused Xiao Yimin to smile with relief, he returned the salute, said a few words of greeting, pointed to the operation soldier at the top of the telephone pole, and asked: "Squad leader Hu, is there anything wrong?" ”

"Report to the commander-in-chief, there is no fault, it is a routine inspection every day." After the Hu squad leader finished answering, he turned around and called the soldiers on the telephone pole down.

The soldiers above had already seen everything below, packed up their tools, stepped on the tripod and quickly came down, ran to Xiao Yimin, and saluted and reported:

"Xiao Zhong, a corporal in the second squad of the first company and three platoons of the communication battalion directly under him, has seen the commander-in-chief, please give the commander-in-chief instructions!"

Xiao Yimin returned the salute and stepped forward to sort out his younger brother Xiao Zhong's clothes: "How long have you not been home?" ”

"In the past eight months, since the opening of the Chengkang line, the younger brother has been busy with tasks, so he has no time to go back, brother...... How about sister-in-law and Nanzheng? Did Komaki have teeth? The corporal looked at his brother and greeted with a smile.

Xiao Yimin nodded: "Everything is fine at home, the pastor will call Dad, haha!" Your second brother only came back from Shanghai last month, and he didn't stay for a few days and left, your third brother and Xiaohua are afraid that they will study in the United States at the end of the year, and they will have time to take a leave of absence to go back and see, don't always call, the transport fleet of the headquarters walks this road every day, and it is very convenient to take a ride. ”

"Yes."

Xiao Zhong's young face showed a hint of embarrassment.

Xiao Yimin patted his younger brother on the shoulder, said a few words, and talked with Squad Leader Hu again, seeing Squad Leader Hu pointing to the three newly distributed military horses grazing not far away, nodded with satisfaction, and instructed the head of the guard, Wu San, to take out a few cigarettes and distribute them to the three soldiers, and then boarded the car and continued to march towards Ya'an.

Chiang Kai-shek learned from Liu Bingxian's introduction that the young signal soldier just now was one of the four younger brothers that Xiao Yimin picked up and raised nine years ago.

The four younger brothers who don't know who their parents are all surnamed Xiao with Xiao Yimin, their names are Zhen, Xing, Zhong, and Hua, and the most unpromising is Xiao Zhong, who signed up for the army after barely finishing middle school, and the other three have become the best of the younger generation after completing nine years of good education, respectively engaged in three professions of business, music and medicine.

In addition, Xiao Yimin also has four younger sisters with the same fate, named Wind, Frost, Snow, and Rain, three of whom have been married, the most beautiful Xiao Xue married Xiao Yimin's former adjutant Zheng Changze, and the youngest Xiao Yu is still studying at the German Church Medical College.

After knowing these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek had another layer of understanding about Xiao Yimin. After thinking for a moment, Chiang Kai-shek put aside these complicated questions, pointed to the telephone poles and endless telephone lines that were constantly passing outside the car window, and asked Xiao Yimin, who was sitting next to him: "Yiming, is your phone connected to Kangding?" ”

"Yes, it was connected eight months ago, and now it has reached remote areas such as Batang at the junction of Sichuan and Tibet, Xichang at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan, and in another year or so, the telegraph and telephone company to which Zhengaxe belongs will also be able to connect to these remote areas. Now everyone is aware of the importance of communication, not to mention the military significance for the time being, just the continuous emergence of business opportunities and the acceleration of material trade, can make the big rich people everywhere tempted, so the provincial political axe's road construction plan and communication plan have hardly met with any opposition, and rich businessmen around the country even want to get a piece of the pie, but they do not have this technology. ”

Xiao Yimin paused for a moment and added:

It is also touching to say that at the beginning, the younger brother selected 1,000 young soldiers from the army who had mastered a certain amount of cultural knowledge to help and study with the American technicians who undertook the telecommunications project in Chengdu and the surrounding 16 counties.

"Now it seems that this is the right thing to do, 1,000 soldiers have studied with more than a dozen Americans for more than half a year, and now they have become a professional and technical branch of our army, and 30 of them have been rewarded for entering the military academy for advanced studies in communications, and the level of communications in our army has risen sharply."

"At present, in the whole of China, I'm afraid that only your Sichuan army has formed a special communication unit, right?" Chiang Kai-shek listened with envy.

Xiao Yimin replied quite smugly: "Yes! The Manchu Qing Dynasty's nearly 300 years of rule made China's army complacent, [***] weak, if it did not speed up the pace to catch up, it would only become more and more backward, more and more ignorant, in the face of the wolf-like powers, only to be slaughtered.

"In the past two years, the younger brother has called for strengthening the construction of the army in newspapers and magazines, and published more than a dozen articles on the regularization and scientific training of the army, but he has not seen any effect, but it is no wonder, now everyone has not enough to eat, and I don't know who to fight for, the whole [***] team is divided and separated, and all forces are in a situation of mutual conquest, where is the mood to carry out any military reform?

"The younger brother has no choice but to try it out slowly in his own army, and it seems that the results are quite good, and I believe that within five years, the younger brother will have a signal corps and a traffic corps that are not inferior to the army, and then the signal corps system will be implemented to regiment-level units."

Chiang Kai-shek thought so: "Yiming, in the past few days, you have mentioned the German, British, and French armies many times, and even the American army, you have also mentioned a lot, why have you never heard your evaluation of the army?" ”

Xiao Yimin shook his head: "I'm afraid that the army doesn't need to be mentioned by the younger brother, right?" Brother Kai-shek completed three years of military study at the Military Academy, and practiced for one year in the Army, and his understanding of the Army is far above the younger brother, and then a quarter of the instructors of our Sichuan Military Academy graduated from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School. ”

Chiang Kai-shek was very useful in his heart, waved his hand humbly, and said very regretfully:

"Shame, shame! After graduating from the Zhenwu Military Academy, Brother Yu entered the 19th Wing of the 13th Division of the Japanese Army for nearly a year as an alternate noncommissioned officer student of the Army Noncommissioned Officer School.

"The military is very wary of us Chinese students, and many of the regular practice projects do not let us participate, I am afraid that they are worried about teaching students to kill the teacher, or, as you criticized and predicted in the newspaper, you say that I have wolf ambitions and have coveted China for a long time, so I have hidden a hand everywhere.

"Now it seems that you are right to send the students to Germany for further study, at least the Germans and we have no conflict of interest, and the relationship between them has always been good, if it weren't for the many affairs, the foolish brothers would want to go to Germany to see."

Xiao Yimin's heart moved, but in the end he didn't say what he thought, just as the convoy entered the northern suburbs of Ya'an, Xiao Yimin took the opportunity to introduce Chiang Kai-shek to the gun factory and ammunition factory that he was about to pass by.

Liu Bingxian, who was sitting in the front, was already amazed and praised the great changes in Ya'an. Chiang Kai-shek curiously asked Liu Bingxian if he hadn't been here for a long time? Liu Bingxian replied yes, and he had only been to Ya'an five times, and the last time he led a team to conduct teaching research as the chief instructor of the military academy, and lived here for half a month.

(To be continued)