As soon as Yan Xishan's voice fell, Sun Chu, Zhao Chengshou, Yang Xiaoou, and Wang Jingguo signaled to each other with their eyes, and several people had something to say, but they didn't dare to say it first, they all looked like they wanted to say and stopped. In the end, Wang Jingguo couldn't help it, hesitated for a moment and said: "Commander-in-chief, we resolutely support the commander-in-chief against Chiang, but we have an opinion on that battle plan......

Yan Xishan didn't have to wait for Wang Jingguo to finish speaking, he also knew what he meant later, and even he knew that these generals had the same question as Wang Jingguo, that is, the problem of Song Zhewu's original Fourth Route Army as the general reserve. It's just that, after all, he is the leader of the Jin Sui Army, and the Fourth Route Army has joined the Jin Sui Army, which means that there is no Fourth Route Army anymore, and now there is only the Jin Sui Army, and they are all a family. Although for the time being, it is inevitable that there will be a difference between relatives and distance, but this cannot be said in public from the mouth of him, the leader of the Jin Sui army.

Without waiting for Wang Jingguo to finish speaking, Yan Xishan stood up, beat his waist, and said very tiredly: "Meng has taken the car to Wutai since today, and after a day of driving, Meng's bones are almost scattered, Meng is very tired, I have to go to rest first, if you have anything to say, you can tell Yuru." ”

Yan Xishan, who walked to the door, thought about it and turned around, looked at the people who sent him off, and said solemnly: "However, Meng wants to remind you that Wen Ge raised the whole army to join our Jin Sui Army, so that our Jin Sui Army will immediately become the most powerful armed force in the country, Wen Ge has made great contributions to our Jin Sui Army, and anyone must treat Meng the same way as he treats him, if anyone wants to anger him, Meng is unsympathetic." After saying that, he ignored everyone and left alone.

Yan Xishan's departure, everyone's emotions relaxed, but the full stomach of questions has not been answered, let his troops go up and fight hard, but let Song Zhewu, an outsider, wait behind to eat meat, this is not Yan Xishan's surname, so they are a little confused.

Zhao Chengshou first asked impatiently: "Mr. Yuru, although Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army has joined our Jin Sui Army, it is still difficult to say that he will not have a little selfishness like Chairman Xu, the commander-in-chief put the Fourth Route Army behind, but let our own troops go up and fight hard, what does this commander-in-chief mean?" ”

Although Jia Jingde's political experience is very long, which can be traced back to the early years of the Republic of China, due to his status as a staff member, he did not have any official title for a long time in the past. During the period of the Beiyang political axe, he only served as the observer of the North Road of Shanxi Province and the director of the administrative department of the Shanxi Provincial Administrative Office for a short period of time, and it was less than three years before and after, and now the first and only position included in the sequence of officials of the Nanjing National Political Axe is only a member of the Taiyuan Branch of the Central Political Committee of the Kuomintang with Yan Xishan as the chairman. Despite this, everyone knows that Yan Xishan will discuss all major matters with Jia Jingde, and Jia Jingde has the greatest influence on Yan Xishan from the top and bottom of the Jin Sui army.

Jia Jingde said with a smile: "General Yinfu, I want to remind you that from now on, you must not call Deputy Commander-in-Chief Song the respect, otherwise the commander-in-chief will blame him, and even you, a brave general, will not be able to bear the guilt." ”

Zhao Chengshou said indifferently: "It's all our own people here, and the commander-in-chief is not here." ”

Sun Chu, the commander of the First Army, has the highest rank among the generals in the Inner North Hall, and he is already a general, counting Yan Xishan, there are only four generals in the Jin Sui Army, of course, he is a general granted by Yan Xishan privately, and he has not been approved by the Nanjing Central Political Axe, but this can also be seen that Yan Xishan attaches great importance to Sun Chu. Sun Chu Zhengse said: "Yin Fu, what Mr. Yuru said is right, in the future, whether in front of people or behind people, we must call the deputy commander-in-chief, if we are disrespectful to the deputy commander-in-chief, let him and the commander-in-chief have a grudge, it will be a bad thing for the commander-in-chief." ”

Regarding Sun Chu's admonition, Zhao Chengshou repeatedly said yes. was about to ask him another question, but Jia Jingde looked at Guo Zongfen and Chu Xichun and said: "Zaiyang and Jingbo, both of you are think tanks in the army, and they are valued by the commander-in-chief. ”

Zaiyang is the character of Guo Zongfen, the commander of the 19th Division, and the word of Yan Bo is the character of Chu Xichun, the commander of the 25th Division, and the two of them are also the only two division commanders to participate in today's meeting.

Guo Zongfen is not from Shanxi, but from Hejian County, Hebei Province, and is a student of the ninth phase of the Baoding Army Military Academy. In 1923, Guo Zongfen graduated from Baoding Military Academy with excellent results. Immediately, after the introduction of Shang Zhen, a fellow villager of Baoding Mansion and the commander of the First Mixed Brigade of the Jin Army at the time, he entered the Military Supervision Office of Yan Xishan. He first served as a second lieutenant in the Overseer's Office of Staff, where he was responsible for the management of military records. At that time, although Guo Zongfen had a lot of experience, he was still a young man - only 22 years old; He is young and vigorous, and full of military learning. God-given opportunity, he was able to step into the famous local powerful Yan Xishan shogunate as soon as he left the school, and the young Guo Zongfen was full of ambition and determined to do a career.

Soon, Guo Zongfen quickly gained Yan Xishan's attention and attention with his diligence, alertness and proficiency in his own duties. Yan Xishan was accustomed to asking for archival information out of the blue, and Guo Zongfen was able to find it out accurately every time, even at night. Guo Zongfen became one of Yan Xishan's most reliable advisers.

As a result, in the course of a year, he rose several ranks, and in 1924 he was already a lieutenant colonel and chief of operations in the staff office of the Overseer. In 1925, Guo Zongfen was ordered by Yan Xishan to investigate the geography of Shanxi Province. After accepting the task, he trekked through mountains and rivers, conducted field investigations, and traveled almost all the dangerous passes in Shanxi. On the basis of in-depth and meticulous investigation, Guo Zongfen integrated theory with practice and wrote the "Chronicles of Shanxi Soldiers' Geographical Points".

Guo Zongfen's outstanding performance strongly proves that this young man is up to the task, and based on this understanding, Yan Xishan is more and more hands-on with him. In 1925 and 1926, there were two major wars in Shanxi, which were to fight against Fan Zhongxiujian [***] and "Seeking Feng". Both of these major battles ended with the victory of the Jin army, and the specific formulator of its combat plan was the young combat commander Guo Zongfen. After the two battles, the up-and-coming Guo Zongfen has become well-known in the Jin army. In 1927, Guo Zongfen was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the General Staff Office of the General Headquarters of the Northern National Revolutionary Army in Yan Xishan. During the two Northern Expeditions, Guo Zongfen accompanied Yan Xishan to command operations on the front line and give advice as chief of staff, and won the reputation of "think tank" because of this. Now he is now a major general and division commander of the 19th Division of the Seventh Army.

Chu Xichun is also a native of Baoding, graduated from the fifth phase of the Baoding Military Academy, and served as the captain of the 8th student detachment of the Baoding Military Academy, the captain of the 4th team of the 9th infantry department, the chief staff officer of the lieutenant colonel of the 20th division of the army and the captain of the officer education regiment, and the chief of staff of the colonel of the axe guard brigade of Duan Qirui. In January 27, Zhang Yinwu, a classmate of the military academy, served as the director of the Shanxi Officer Training Corps to accommodate and train surplus officers and in-service officers in rotation. At his invitation, Chu Xichun came to Shanxi to serve as the head of education of the regiment. He is currently the commander of the 25th Division.

These two people, not only are they not from Shanxi, but they joined the Jin Sui Army very late, and they can achieve today's status completely by virtue of their own talents. Chu Xichun also has one of the things that he is most proud of in his life, that is, in the Datong Defense Battle in 1946, with a basic infantry division as the main force, he held Datong for 45 days, resisting the attack of 100,000 people from Nie Rongzhen and He Long, which was not inferior to Fu Zuoyi defending Zhuozhou. It was a big hit for a while. Of course, this is an afterword, Chu Xichun's name is not so loud at this time.

Because of their qualifications and provincials, Guo Zongfen and Chu Xichun didn't want to say more, but Jia Jingde asked him to talk by name, and it was definitely inappropriate not to express his opinion. Guo Zongfen asked Chu Xichun to say that the older Chu Xichun had experienced a lot, and he didn't want to talk much on this occasion, so he said with a wry smile: "Zaiyang, don't shirk your think tank, let's talk about it." ”

Guan Fu'an, the commander of the Seventh Army, was Xu Yongchang's old department, and he, a native of Jilin, was still somewhat excluded in the Jin Sui Army, although he was taken care of by Yan Xishan, he was still a little unhappy. At this time, he also wanted Guo Zongfen, the commander of his seventh division, to be in the limelight. Guan Fuan said in a tone with a strong Northeast flavor: "Zaiyang, Mr. Yuru wants you to say it, you can tell you what you said to me today, so that everyone can refer to it together." ”

Guo Zongfen could not excuse himself any longer, so he pondered it for a moment and said: "Judging from the current situation, in terms of the comparison of our forces with Chiang Kai-shek, we have an absolute advantage, and according to the commander-in-chief's plan, we will take advantage of the superiority of our troops far more than the Central Army and launch an offensive on four fronts at the same time. Now the key is whether Zhang Xueliang in the Northeast will send troops, if the Northeast Army goes out, we have a ninety percent chance of winning, but ......"

Wang Jingguo waved his hand and impatiently interrupted Guo Zongfen's words: "These are all things on the table, even if Zhang Xueliang does not send troops, with our current strength, victory is certain." ”

Then he said to Jia Jingde: "The question now is, why use Song Zhewu's troops as a general reserve, what does the commander-in-chief mean?" ”

Jia Jingde frowned slightly imperceptibly, and said with a smile: "Actually, Zaiyang has already answered this question just now. ”

"Answered?" Wang Jingguo is a little unclear.

Jia Jingde smiled and said: "I'm not good at military affairs, and I even said unceremoniously that I am definitely a layman, but I think everyone will think so when I say that we have an absolute advantage." In fact, even if Zhang Xueliang does not send troops, and even if he does not count the troops of Deputy Commander-in-Chief Song, we still have an advantage. The commander-in-chief meant that the Northwest Army would attack the Pinghan Line mainly, and with the murderous name of the Northwest Army, Chiang Kai-shek would inevitably send heavy troops to deploy in Hubei, not only to block Feng Yuxiang, but also to deal with Li Zongren, and even to guard against He Jian, Cheng Qian, and even Guangdong. In this way, the troops that can be used in the eastern section of Jinpu Road and Longhai Road must not be much, at most 200,000, with our Jinsui army as the main force, plus Han Fuyu, Shi Yousan, Wan Xuancai and many other local forces have nearly 400,000 troops, it is not difficult to win, and then the armies of Jinpu and Longhai will attack Xuzhou. ”

"Now, even there are people in the Central Army who are dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek like us, as long as Xuzhou is taken, or even if we don't need to enter Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek's descent will be a foregone conclusion."

Jia Jingde deliberately stopped to see everyone's reaction. Seeing that everyone was pricking up their ears and listening carefully to what he said, Jia Jingde said meaningfully: "At that time, the Central Army and the troops attached to the Central Committee will defect one after another. Whoever is on the front line will have a significant increase in the strength of his troops. ”

After being silent for a while, Wang Jingguo suddenly came to his senses and said, "Are you saying that our Jin Sui Army will develop and grow because of accepting these defective Central Army?" ”

Seeing Jia Jingde smiling and nodding, Wang Jingguo said with some regret: "I understand, the commander-in-chief is afraid that Song Zhewu's troops will continue to grow, and we will not be able to control it. However, in this way, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army will also grow, but it will cheapen him. ”

Chu Xichun moved his lips and wanted to say something, but in the end he chose to be silent. Although Yan Xishan values him very much, these Shanxi generals have always looked down on themselves as a provincial, so it is better to say less at this time. He admitted that Jia Jingde was absolutely outstanding in government affairs, but he was a layman in military affairs, and his words must have been Yan Xishan's meaning, Yan Xishan thought about this war too easily, and before the war started, he began to calculate others.

Jia Jingde shook his head with a smile and said, "It won't be like this, General Security is too worried." Who do you think would be willing to be disciplined by Feng Yuxiang's strict parents? Who would be willing to follow Feng Yuxiang to eat coarse tea and light rice, or even go hungry? ”

Jia Jingde glanced at Chu Xichun, sighed and said, "Calculate your own people before fighting, this is also the last resort of the commander-in-chief, and there is no way to do it." Now in our Jin Sui Army, the original Fourth Route Army is larger, and our authentic Jin Sui Army is weaker, this is not good, it is not our Jin Sui Army to annex the Fourth Route Army, but the Fourth Route Army to annex our Jin Sui Army. However, when Chiang Kai-shek is out of the field, the situation will be completely reversed. ”

Jia Jingde then told everyone: "Generals, I have a word to remind everyone, don't say these words today except for the Inner North Hall, and don't have the slightest disrespect for the deputy commander-in-chief, otherwise the commander-in-chief will definitely blame." ”

Song Zhewu, who had already arranged for Liang Bi to arrange Li Dayong and others to pack up and prepare to rush back to Laiyuan the next day, had already sneezed several times in a row, so frightened that Ye Qing hurriedly asked the guards to add a pot of charcoal to Song Zhewu's bedroom before he went to rest with confidence.

(To be continued)