On November 10, 1906, the first annual meeting of the Far Eastern Group was held at the Kanto Hotel in Dalian, which lasted for five days, and discussed four major topics: the development of China's textile industry and its competition with the capital, the agriculture and grain deep processing industry of the three eastern provinces, the infrastructure construction of the three eastern provinces, and the strengthening of industrial and mining exploration and development in the three eastern provinces and some parts of China, as well as five small topics: insurance, securities, metallurgical industry, secondary education, and soybean export development.

The core topic of the meeting is still around China's textile industry, and finally on the development of the textile industry, the plan has made 22 countermeasures, including lobbying the Qing government axe and local governors to strengthen support for the textile industry, establishing textile colleges in Shanghai and setting up six textile secondary schools in the country, setting up a special study abroad fund for the textile industry, organizing staff to study in Britain and France, setting up Liaodong Bay Textile Industrial Zone, and promoting new cotton varieties and cotton planting technology.

In addition, the Far East Consortium will also establish the "China Far East Insurance Company" and the China Far East Securities Trust and Investment Company next year, and the Far East Insurance Company and the Far East Securities will jointly recruit capital in Shanghai to establish the "China United Insurance Company".

After the annual meeting, Song Biao took the train back to Fengtianfu and returned to the military headquarters of the Northeast New Army.

At this time, the Xinhua Finance Company has been completely purchased, this company has 1 million original shares, the total asset valuation of 20 million Kanto silver yuan, the ownership is completely vested in the Northeast New Army Military Department, by the military department carte blanche entrusted to the Far Eastern Bank trusteeship, 50% of the shares are retained in the military department, 50% of the shares are distributed according to the quota.

All shares are non-tradable bookkeeping shares, no physical documents, only internal account books to register specific shares, shares can only be used for regular dividends, no management rights and other shareholders' rights, not used for mortgage financing, each share guaranteed annual dividend of 7%. After the soldiers are discharged, the company buys back according to the market value, and those who are expelled from the military for serious violations of military discipline will be forcibly withdrawn from the company.

Song Biao returned to the military headquarters of the Northeast New Army this time, and he was going to officially distribute these shares in place.

In this matter, he adhered to the principle that the revolution could not succeed, and that he could not be kind, and that he had promised to "live and die together and share prosperity and prosperity", even if he really couldn't do it, he would at least have to be the same.

Song Biao benefited a lot from the Russo-Russian War, even if he acted according to the principle of banditry, he had to take out most of the proceeds as spoils of war to distribute to the soldiers, so he had only two choices, one was to take out a few million taels of silver to send money directly, and the other was to give out a part of the assets and shares, the money was given to you, but it still had to continue to be used for the industrial construction of the three eastern provinces.

The basic principle is to take the Battle of Liaoyang as the dividing line, and the soldiers who participated in the Battle of Liaoyang have shares, and as long as the files of the officers and soldiers who have died can be found, they will retain the share dividends for a period of five years as additional pension compensation. This plan basically excluded Russian soldiers, except for 154 Russian lieutenants and officers of all ranks, including Colonel Martos, who continued to serve in the Northeast New Army and the Far Eastern Army.

According to this plan, a total of 9,452 people participated in the final share division plan, and the minimum guarantee was 20 shares per person, and those who participated in the Battle of Heigoutai, the Battle of Jiangjiayao, and the Battle of Liaoyang were all increased by 30 shares according to the number of times, and those who participated in the Qiandongling ambush were increased by 200 shares alone.

In addition, all lieutenants of the Northeast New Army have a minimum of 100 shares, and all school officers have a minimum of 300 shares, with 30 shares increased by minor injuries and 100 shares increased by serious injuries.

In addition to Song Biao's 1,550 shares as planned, the most shares held are Zhang Yahu's 1,350 shares, because he was not only the first to join the Northeast New Army, but also "lucky" to participate in all battles like Song Biao, sharing a share capital of about 27,000 silver yuan, and an annual guaranteed dividend of 1,890 silver yuan, which is equivalent to 4 times Zhang Yahu's annual military salary.

Because he participated in the least battles and was also of the same level, Yang Tiesheng, who joined the earliest, could only hold 580 shares, as for Chen Qicai and other non-commissioned officers who joined later, the senior ones were guaranteed 300 shares, and the junior students with low qualifications only had 100 shares because they all started as captains.

Special circumstances always exist, and there are also strange ensigns like Li Dahan who can be allocated 750 shares, but no one will definitely be dissatisfied, unless this person is psychologically distorted and perverted, because this is all silver exchanged for life, for example, there are more than 4,600 fallen soldiers who can't find a file at all, and the list of more than 1,400 people who are killed is just barely able to set up a file, and it is a question where the final additional pension will be issued.

Song Biao had 42 people when he started his army in Erwolf Cave, and only 23 people were still alive today, and he brought more than 600 people when he left Niujiabao, and only 194 people are still alive so far. The most tragic was the Battle of Liaoyang, when the raid on Liaoyang was 12,000 people, and then more than 6,000 local militia were added one after another, and there were less than 8,500 people when they withdrew.

Someone else's life is also life.

Even if some people suspect that the troops and rich soldiers who have shared the money will have no combat effectiveness, then Song Biao would rather share the money, to a certain extent, realize the original oath of "living and dancing together, and share prosperity", and then gradually let these soldiers and generals retire smoothly or turn into reserve forces according to the number of years.

Song Biao thinks so, he thinks that if a person wants to achieve a career, he must first have credit, morality, and morality.

He made a huge fortune of more than 70 million yuan during the entire Russo-Russian War, and even if he was a bandit, he should have distributed half of it to the brothers.

Of course, it does not mean that there will be such an opportunity to continue to divide shares in the future, generally speaking, the newly promoted school officers will also share some nominal shares, symbolizing the surname to indicate that everyone is a team.

With the gradual regularization of the new army in the northeast, and even the future national defense, soldiers have allowances for service, non-commissioned officers and generals have military salaries, casualties have pensions, retirements have pensions, and front-line allowances for going to the battlefield.

This thing is a special product of a special stage.

When all the 9,452 people were retired, the matter ended here, and all the shares of Xinhua Company were recovered, transferred to the Ministry of National Defense, and finally turned into a state-owned enterprise.

Having said that, since you can be the king of the Northeast and have a family property of hundreds of millions of taels of silver, why can't others, in fact, it's as simple as finding an opportunity to kill you with one shot?

Do you really think that there is a certain feeling and revolutionary will in this world that is stronger than 100 million taels of silver?

You may not be able to ensure that everyone and the generals are loyal to you, but if the whole army basically only recognizes you as a co-leader, and opposing you is equivalent to losing everything, then you can continue to lead everything as the only warlord commander.

…… Song Biao returned to the military headquarters on the afternoon of November 17, and after leaving the Northeast New Army for so long, he really missed his time in the army, especially the past.

In fact, he misses being a squad leader very much.

That kind of saying is really simple to the point of happiness, you don't have to think about anything, you don't have to worry about anything.

Now, though he is the commander of an army, he does not have a few days to be happy.

On the railway platform, the colonels of all units of the army were in front of the line, leading the soldiers of more than two infantry battalions in a neat line.

Song Biao changed into a dark brown new military uniform, wearing a French-style cylindrical military cap and white gloves, and black shiny deerskin military boots, and walked out of the carriage with a calm and indifferent expression.

When the officers at all levels saw him, under their leadership, the officers and men of the whole army immediately stood up and saluted, and the moment everyone's arms were raised, there was a sudden neat commotion on the platform.

Song Biao glanced at the whole army with a serious and silent expression, and continued to look at the whole army after returning the salute.

He glanced at his troops again, feeling a hint of satisfaction.

Colonel Martos was greeted by Shu Fangde, Zhao Tingzhu, Zhang Yahu and Colonel Martos, these are the four people elected by everyone, the first three are recognized as the most trusted subordinates of Song Biao, and Colonel Martos represents all the Russian soldiers of the New Army and the Far East Army.

Song Biao shook hands with the four of them, and shook hands with more than a dozen school officials in the back row, and thanked them one by one: "Everyone has worked hard!" ”

A few people happily replied "The military seat is hard", some people replied "The military seat is even harder", and some people laughed, as if everything was not in words.

The last few school officers were Chen Qicai and Fu Liangzuo, among those who were qualified to greet Song Biao on behalf of the whole army, they were the latest to join the army and could only stand behind, although Chen Qicai was the first senior of the Lu Shi, but there was no way.

Song Biao estimated that Chen Qicai might still be a little unhappy in his heart, so he patted him and Fu Liangzuo on the back, almost took their shoulders and walked back together, and said, "Let's go, go back to the nest." ”

Jiang Yanxing, Cai Yi, Jiang Fangzhen, and Xu Baoying, as the four students selected this year, will go to Benlu University for further study for one year again, and will come back in September next year, otherwise it stands to reason that Jiang Yanxing should be the first to greet Song Biao.

Song Biao felt that these were all trivial matters.

He waved his hand and beckoned everyone to follow him back to the military headquarters, even the carriage was saved, and he took everyone back to the military headquarters on foot.

Shu Fangde quickly followed, and asked Song Biao excitedly: "Junzao, have you encountered anything good in the United States and Mexico, I heard that you also met with the President of the United States?" ”

Song Biao hummed twice, but said: "I met with President Roosevelt, but there is no benefit, but the president of Mexico sent a large oil field for me to exploit, it is difficult to say whether oil can be extracted, but I have to smash millions of dollars to drill wells first, which made me gasp hard." In other words, if we can extract oil and earn him tens of millions of dollars, we will immediately replace all the German and French cannons, and they must be 15 mm of large caliber. ”

Everyone laughed heartily when they heard this, and everyone seemed to be a little rampant, and this was the capital of the Northeast New Army and the "Army God of China" General Song.

The Northeast New Army is still in the stage of starting a business, and the emotions between the comrades are very simple, and they have not reached the moment of rushing to be the overseer, Song Biao himself does not know what it will be like in the future, he just thinks that it is not bad now, so enjoy the simplicity of this period.

When he returned to the military headquarters, Song Biao didn't talk nonsense at all, and he didn't go back to the office to see the bunch of various important military and political affairs that needed to be dealt with urgently, but directly held a meeting of all military academy officers in the conference room.

In addition to Hua Zhenji, Wu Luzhen, Xiao Kaigui, and Zhang Zhongyuan, who went to France to inspect the cavalry, Lu Jingyuan, Shan Qipeng, and Zhang Shaozeng, who went to Germany to inspect the artillery, and Jiang Yanxing, Cai Yi, Jiang Fangzhen, and Xu Baoying, who went to Benlu University for further study, the rest of the captains and school officers all came to attend the meeting.

At present, Song Biao is the commander, Brigadier General Brusilov is the chief adviser, Colonel Maltos is the chief of staff, and Colonel Pakilov is the chief of artillery.

The new army now consists of six infantry regiments of Zhao Tingzhu, Zhang Yahu, Chen Wu, Jiang Yanxing, Yang Tiesheng, and Zhang Xiaohuai, as well as a command regiment directly under the central government, two artillery regiments, three cavalry regiments, two baggage regiments, and two engineer regiments, plus the Russian army's First Artillery Brigade, First Cavalry Brigade, and Ceshantinsk First Infantry Brigade, with a total strength of nearly 90,000 troops.

Except for the six infantry regiments, the rest of the regiments are still taught by the instructor chief of the Russian military academy officer who is responsible for regular training and work, and the regiment commander, deputy regiment commander, deputy instructor commander, and battalion commanders and instructors of each battalion are held by the noncommissioned officers and students in turn, and it is through this process that Song Biao gradually confirms the level of these noncommissioned officers and students.

With the fact that almost all of the non-commissioned officers and students in the third phase were recruited by the Northeast New Army with high salaries, the mutual contact and admiration of the first and second batch of trainees, and the addition of the Liberation Association and other forms of organization, the number of non-commissioned officers and students in the Northeast New Army has increased from the original 43 to 107.

If you really want to select people who are really worthy of training and reuse from these 107 non-commissioned officers and students, Song Biao currently seems to be only 20 people.

More than 50 main officers of the Northeast New Army are concentrated in the conference room, half of them were hurriedly joined in this special 32 years of Guangxu, and the other half of the people who have really experienced the test of war are the other half, and the non-commissioned officers and students in these people account for 27 people, 14 people are Zhao Tingzhu and Zhang Yahu who were trained in the war, some of these 14 people joined early, some were recruited before the Battle of Heigoutai, and there are even two Xiucai from Fengtianfu, and there are also beards and ringing horses. At present, they are all studying in the Far Eastern Lushi advanced course, and Zhang Yahu, Chen Hu and others, who have a poor foundation, can only complete the short-term crash course first, and then prepare to participate in the advanced course while reading and writing.

The 15 Russian [***] officers other than these people are all Martos, Pakilov, von. The reasons why these people stay here are roughly divided into two categories, one is that they don't want to stay in the Russian army; The second category is the deployment of Russian troops here.

Fifty-seven officers gathered here, which represents the entire command level of the Northeast New Army.

When he left the railway station and entered the military department, Song Biao was already as cold as ever, and he was known as the god of the army, and he was always so cold as frost in the Northeast New Army, and he was known for his strict management of the army.

In the past few months of his absence, the whole army seems to have breathed a sigh of relief, and now when he returns, the whole army is like clockwork with full strength, and he doesn't laugh, and no one dares to laugh.

He sat at the front of the conference table with a solemn and cold gaze, his eyes were low, and his expression was solemn, and the others suddenly seemed to fall into an ice cave and involuntarily became more strict, for fear of a trace of negligence.

Song Biao's strict management of the army is comparable to that of the army, and the non-commissioned officers and students who stayed in the army can generally adapt to it, and everyone else is also accustomed to such an atmosphere and severity.

The whole conference room was quiet, and the atmosphere in the venue was as solemn as before when Song Biao personally presided over the regular military meeting, everyone was suddenly tense as if they had just been whipped, and they all seemed to be wearing a mask, sitting rigidly at the conference table, and the 31 army captains of the lower level sat against the wall on the periphery, and everyone straightened their bodies.

Song Biao also did not personally preside over the regular military meeting for a long time, and deliberately waited for a while to make sure that every subordinate was still the same as in the past, so he glanced around again and said: "In the two months that I have visited the Americas, everyone has worked hard. ”

Colonel Martos and others are generally considered foreign aid, relatively relaxed, and they generally do not speak in such situations.

Jiang Yanxing and Jiang Fangzhen were not there, and the officers of the New Army were headed by Zhao Tingzhu, Zhang Xiaohuai, and Shu Fangde, and Zhao Tingzhu took the lead in replying: "It's my duty to wait for hard work, and the military seat has worked hard!" ”

Song Biao bowed his head slightly, and continued: "I came back at this moment, there are two things that must be done immediately, one is the assessment of the second phase of the whole training, and what the training situation is in the second half of the second phase of the whole training, I still don't know, the first and second staff departments draw up the exercise plan as soon as possible, and I will randomly assign a battalion from each regiment to participate in the military exercise, the exercise site is located in the area between Zhujiatun and Baiqingzhai, and the exercise time is set for mid-December, mainly to show the results of the second phase of the whole training. The regiments of the companies that failed to perform well in the exercise will continue to re-conduct the second phase of the retraining, and if it is necessary for three regiments to re-carry out the second phase of the retraining, the whole army will reorganize and retrain again. ”

Hearing Song Biao's words, everyone's warm hearts that had warmly welcomed the return of the military visit were shattered, and the teaching, battalion commanders, and intern regiment commanders of various departments, who had been a little lax a few days ago, were eager to slap themselves.

When Tuvaniel re-translated these words to Martos and others, the Russian [***] officials were also secretly talking.

Song Biao almost sat here in the name of the god of war, and most of the people here came to admire him, listening to his orders, no one dared to have any objections, and could only accept such a strict request.

Song Biao continued: "The second thing is the allotment of shares of Xinhua Company. This matter has been planned since the beginning of the year, and there have always been various different opinions, some people want to allocate shares, some people don't want to match, some people just want to receive a sum of money, some people want to divide the land and fields, all kinds of opinions are available, and the plan has been changed again and again, and the opinions of different people have been solicited several times. I would like to say here that this matter has come to this day, and it must be done within the year in order to reassure the army. This incident is a special event in the stage of the semi-regular army in which our army is gradually transitioning from private armed forces to national and national armed forces, and it is not an exception, and it also means that there will no longer be a large-scale allotment of shares similar to the current stage in the future, still less can it be regarded as a characteristic of the Northeast New Army, which is only a product of a special stage. You get the idea, right? ”

"Understood!"

The officers nodded yes in unison.

Only then did Song Biao raise his hand and take the "Northeast New Army Unified Assets Internal Allotment Approval Case" from Shu Fangde beside him, opened it and scanned it again, making sure that it was consistent with the final version he reviewed during his stay in Dalian, and then raised his eyes again and swept around, asking: "You have all seen the plan, who still has different opinions?" ”

No one spoke.

This matter should have been solicited and revised three times, and everything has been very perfect, the details that can be considered have been considered and weighed, and the matter has been done for a very long time, and I don't care about the time to ask again.

Song Biao didn't want to continue to waste his tongue on this kind of issue, so he instructed Shu Fangde, who was in charge of this matter: "You can explain it to you again!" ”

"Yes!"

Shu Fangde solemnly received the order, got up and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why the military seat wants to deal with this matter is to govern the army with human thoughts. We are all human beings, everyone has wives, sons and daughters, everyone has parents, relatives and friends, our military salaries are not low, especially you, compared with the new army in the Guannai military and the actual treatment is definitely higher, but to be honest, it may not be enough to be difficult. If we die unfortunately, we will sacrifice our lives for the country and the nation, and the brothers can take care of each other for a while, but not for decades, and it is precisely with these in mind that the military seat decided to set up the Xinhua Company in order to avoid everyone having worries about the future and other distractions, and all operations will be entrusted to the Far Eastern Bank, half of which will be used for internal allotment of shares and dividends, and half for investment in the financial industry and the military industry. Although the funds for the allotment of shares this time are as high as 20 million silver yuan, because of the large number of people involved, all the generals who serve in the military seat and the soldiers who have killed the enemy on the battlefield and made meritorious contributions have a share, and the average amount per person is not very much, I hope you understand. The military seat said very clearly, we are one life, soldiers are also one life, we have parents, wives and children, soldiers also have one, push themselves and others, but all soldiers who participated in the Russian war should have a share, and not much less than us. On average, the average allotment of shares here is between 100 and 1,500 shares, and the rank of the position, the number of battles participated, the severity of the wounded, and the severity of military exploits are the four major indicators. ”

After he said these words, he paused for a moment and waited for everyone to make a statement.

After waiting for a while, none of the officers in the conference room spoke, and everyone was silent.

Shu Fangde continued: "Since there is no objection, then I will emphasize one last time, as I said when I communicated with you separately before, the right to income and ownership of all allotments lies with you, and the right to control and operate are entrusted to professional institutions, and the right to use them for investment in the financial industry, industry, mining and textile industry, real estate and ports, and military industry, the first three make profits and make money, and the latter protects the army for a long time, and the whole army shall not have any interference in the operation. After the officers retire, they continue to enjoy dividends until their death, and the military department buys them back according to the market value, and those who sacrifice their territory will receive dividends on time for a minimum of seven years, until they actually reach the age of 60, and this will not affect other military welfare and pension policies. That's all I want! ”

After saying these words, Shu Fangde simply sat down neatly and did not speak again.

In fact, these policies have been explained and solicited from the officers and men of the new army, and after several revisions, there is no objection at present, and among the 9,452 people who have been allotted shares this time, the information of 1,400 people is still being confirmed, and about 1,000 people will soon participate in the civil defense crash course after the end of the third period of training next year, and transfer to the local government to take charge of serving as militia officers.

Waiting for Shu Fangde to explain all the terms in more detail, there was still no objection, Song Biao estimated that everyone was waiting for him to sign and divide the money, but he didn't dare to shout out, so he didn't ask anymore, picked up the pen and signed his name on the change approval case, and handed it back to Shu Fangde, the chief adjutant of the secretariat.

As soon as he signed this word, everyone present almost jumped for joy.

At this point, the dust has settled on the issue of allotment of shares within the New Army, and this has come to an end.

Satisfied, dissatisfied, no one has any chance to change it.

Seeing that Song Biao personally signed the approval order, Colonel Martos, who had been waiting for a long time next to him, also breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: "Thank you, Your Excellency the Governor!" ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, signaling that everything between him and Martos was silent.

Don't look at the gathering of heroes here, it can't be exchanged for a Colonel Martos from Song Biao, it's not that these people are inferior to Colonel Martos in the future, but they don't have this level yet, and even the gap is extremely far.

Song Biao glanced at the others, obviously very happy, no matter how much or less, 1/3 of the officers present belonged to the captains who only received 150 shares and entered more than 2,000 silver yuan, and the rest were above the 4,500 silver yuan credit.

This income is not much, but after all, it is a minimum dividend of 7% per year, which is basically equivalent to doubling the military salary. Colonel Martos and Colonel Pakilov each have a special guarantee of 1,300 shares, which is twice as much as their annual dividends in Russia.

Although not many people are soldiers for money, and the earnings of about 23,000 rubles are not a huge fortune for Colonel Martos, it is worth weighing.

Song Biao waited for a long time, silently drinking tea in a large tea jar, and waited for everyone to gradually regain their calm, and then continued: "Some people know that when I started the army, I said the words 'life and death together, common prosperity', which is the most insignificant point of all our goals, but within the scope of our ability, we should still achieve it. In fact, I will give these shares to everyone to consider the factors of investment and business fever, and my advice to you is not to do business, to spend all your energy on the army, not to think about other things, I will consider your affairs properly, all to heart. If you really want to do business, I will give you a suggestion, then continue to invest money in Xinhua Company, we choose the most capable people to set up this company to implement trust management, it is definitely more practical than you go out to do business by yourself and think about making money. Starting today, I hope that everyone will listen to my suggestion and really devote all your energy and time to military affairs, you still have a lot to learn, and I have a lot to learn, and we must make more efforts to protect this country and nation. ”

Everyone continued to be silent for a while, and after waiting for a while, Zhao Tingzhu took the lead in getting up and said: "Junza, I should strictly abide by the words of Junzao, except for my generation Xinhua Company, I will never buy private property, and I will spend my whole life on the military, and I will swear to follow Junzao to the death, and assist Junzao to conspire for hegemony." ”

His words were very domineering, and the other officers present had their own feelings and did not dare to speak easily, only the real old subordinates such as Zhang Yahu, Chen Wu and others continued to take the oath loudly without scruples.

Under the leadership of these old subordinates, Shu Fangde and others added fuel to the fire, and all the officers present took the oath one after another.

When everyone had almost taken the oath, Song Biao waved his hand and said, "You can understand it in your heart, don't say too much, it's not easy in the world, I can understand." ”

Listening to these words, every officer present could not help but feel a burst of heartwarming, and everyone here at this time could truly feel that joining the Northeast New Army was indeed the wisest choice.

Whether you want to participate in the revolution, or want to get rid of the old shackles of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, or to maintain the dignity of a soldier, to make more money, for a better future, or to defect to a famous general, or because of the warm advice of classmates and friends, or for various other reasons, the New Army in Northeast China is indeed the best stage for every soldier here.

Everyone here is growing and learning, and this is the best training stage and the best military school, where there are the best instructors, and there is also the best military commander.

He was called "the first general of the Far East Army" by the Russians, he was called "the god general of China" by himself, and he was called "China's world-class general" by the world's military circles.

At this time, everyone here is deeply aware of the fact that he is the strongest military commander in China and Asia, and there is no one to speak of.

In every aspect, he is clever and worthy of his name.

(To be continued)