Seeing Song Zhewu stop, Li Minghua ignored the repeated glances given to him by Wang Xuezhi and Sun Sihua, and then asked Song Zhewu: "To tell the truth, Song Commander-in-Chief is constantly expanding his troops and participating in the civil war, in my previous opinion, you are a warlord. But after listening to what Commander-in-Chief Song said just now, Minghua felt a sense of surprise. It's just that I still have two things that I don't know, if Commander-in-Chief Song can explain these two issues, I won't go back to Nanjing, so I'll go directly to Laiyuan with you. ”

Upon hearing Li Minghua's words, Song Zhewu said happily: "Mr. Li, may I ask, don't say it's two, it's no problem if it's ten." ”

Song Zhewu's demeanor, Li Minghua could feel the sincere invitation to him, Li Minghua was very moved, but he would not do anything for a warlord who only knew how to grab land and fight a civil war, he had to know what Song Zhewu was going to do? If he doesn't figure it out, he will never go, preferring to go back to Nanjing and continue to sit on his cold bench.

Li Minghua looked at Song Zhewu and asked, "Commander-in-Chief Song, you just said that within two years you will have your own place to manage, in that case, wouldn't Commander-in-Chief Song be the same as those warlords now?" Moreover, since you no longer participate in the civil war, why do you want to keep such a strong army? These two questions also asked Commander-in-Chief Song to solve Minghua's doubts. ”

Song Zhewuxin said: "This Li Minghua is really serious enough, it seems that he will not follow him if he doesn't come up with a convincing reason." ”

Song Zhewu smiled and said, "Okay! So I'll talk about it. Yes, I need to have a place where I can have the final say, preferably a province, without violating the [***] law, so that I can freely develop the economy, set up many enterprises, and fulfill my wishes. If I didn't have such a place, the magistrates alone would have had a lot of constraints and even difficulties for me to do what I wanted to do. The difference between me and the warlords is that in such a place, I will not use force to force the central government to submit to the same place as they do, and I will act in accordance with the orders of the central government in everything I do. As I said earlier, the forces of the powerful factions in various localities cannot be completely resolved in a short period of time, and this matter will take time and there needs to be a transitional process, and if these localities are suddenly handed over to the central authorities, the central authorities will not be able to take care of them with their current human, material, and financial resources. That is to say, for a period of time, the local powerful factions that are relatively peaceful and self-serving will still exist for a while, and in this case, it is not an exaggeration for me to manage a province and share the worries of the central government. ”

Li Minghua did not completely agree with Song Zhewu's strong explanation and was about to express his opposition.

Song Zhewu shook his hand and said, "Mr. Li, don't be surprised, I'm just joking, please don't mind, continue to listen to me." ”

Song Zhewu continued: "If the central government gives me a province, I will act in full accordance with the laws and regulations of the central government, and obey not only the military orders of the central government, but also the government orders of the central government. I will do my best to maintain local order, develop the local economy, establish education, and revitalize science and technology. Not only will the people under my rule be stable and prosperous, but it will also provide a large amount of money and taxes for the central government, which is absolutely different from the warlords, and should be similar to the governors of the Qing Dynasty. If the warlords were like this, Chairman Chiang would never have raised an army to fight against them. ”

"Is Mr. Li satisfied with my answer?" Song Zhewu asked Li Minghua.

Li Minghua nodded, indicating that he could basically agree with Song Zhewu's explanation.

Song Zhewu took a puff of cigarette and continued: "Your second problem is the problem of the army, and I can now tell Mr. Li clearly that the army must be retained, and not only to be retained, but also to be vigorously developed. ”

Song Zhewu waved his hand, stopped Li Minghua, who was about to ask a question, and said, "Mr. Li, don't worry, you listen to my explanation." ”

"The purpose of my army is not to cede land and pretend to be a powerful warlord and emperor, nor is it to fight a civil war. The purpose of our army building is to build a powerful military force for the Chinese nation. Song Zhewu inadvertently did not use the word "country", but used the word "Chinese nation" instead.

"What does Commander-in-Chief Song mean by building a national defense force? Now there is no foreign enemy invading our country? Moreover, the establishment of the National Defense Force is a matter of the state, and Commander-in-Chief Song can completely hand over the Fourth Route Army to the Central Political Axe. Li Minghua apparently had a different view of Song Zhewu's explanation for retaining the army.

Song Zhewu saw Li Minghua's thoughts, and then Li Minghua's words began: "Mr. Li said that there is no foreign invasion now, which Zhewu does not dare to agree with. Mr. Li won't forget Taiwan, right? It was snatched from us by force in 1895, and the island of Taiwan, all its affiliated islands, and the Penghu Islands are still in his hands. Taiwan is the land left to us by our ancestors, how can we see it become an enemy, and if we future generations cannot take it back, how will we face our ancestors after death? At present, we do not have a navy, and we are not aware of Taiwan's important surname, and the islands of Ben, Okinawa, Ryukyu, Taiwan, and the Philippines have formed a chain, and this island chain has almost completely blocked our 10,000-mile sea frontier, which will make our coastal country a de facto landlocked country. And once Taiwan and the Ryukyus are taken back by us, the entire Pacific Ocean will open its arms to us. Decades later, when we have our own navy, we will be able to roam the vast Pacific Ocean as we please. ”

As soon as Song Zhewu thought of Taiwan, he felt a faint pain in his heart, sighed and continued: "I just talked about the south, and now we will talk about the north." None of you here will forget Outer Mongolia, right? Although we are still in fact the suzerainty of Outer Mongolia, we have long since died in name, and in a few decades we will probably have to swallow this bitter fruit. ”

Song Zhewu sighed and said: "There are still Tibetan Province and Xinjiang Province in the west, which seem to be stable now, but in fact, it is a powder keg. Where is Tibetan Province, the British in India have been invading Tibetan Province in the last century, and now they are colluding with the upper class nobles of Tibetan Province to make trouble; In order to protect the stability of Siberia and Central Asia, Soviet Russia tried to establish one or more countries and regions dependent on it between our country and Soviet Russia, and colluded with the separatist forces there, and if there was an opportunity, such as a change in the external situation, or an intensification of internal strife in our country, they would make waves in Xinjiang Province and then separate Xinjiang Province from our territory; And the southwest, Guangxi and Yunnan are not absolutely stable regions, the French have not yet fully recovered from the First World War, and once they can free their hands, there will be no peace and stability anywhere. ”

Song Zhewu took the tea from Sun Sigui, took a sip and said: "The biggest threat to our country is our evil neighbor to the east. Soviet Russia in the north just wanted to cut a few large pieces of meat on us with a knife, but he really wanted to swallow us in one bite. Since the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, they have been working on our ideas, and they have been secretly making preparations. Now they not only have garrisons in our northeast, but also their merchants and the so-called pioneer regiments, in fact, they are immigrants in disguise, and they have many privileges in the northeast. Their South Manchurian Railway Co., Ltd. was a colonial company jointly funded by the government and the private sector, and directly controlled by the government, which was actually a copy of the British East India Company. It is said that this political axe has the right to supervise, the right to appoint and dismiss personnel, and the right to determine the total amount of funds. At the beginning of the establishment, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Portsmouth, it operated the southern section of the Dongqing Railway between Dalian and Changchun, Nanguanling to Lushun, Dafangshen to Liushutun (Dalian Bay), Dashiqiao to Yingkou, Yantai (Liaoyang Lighthouse) to Yantai Coal Mine, Sujiatun to Fushun, and the railway transportation business from Fengtian to Andong that was taken over according to the annex of the "Conference on the Three Eastern Provinces Affairs", as well as mining, water transportation, electricity, and hotel businesses. It also exercises administrative power in the 'dependent territories' along the railway line, collects taxes, plans urban construction, and operates agriculture, culture, health, education, and other undertakings. Now he has 482.9 square kilometers of such annexed land in Northeast China. This nation is not only greedy, but also very cruel, and every indication indicates that in two or three years at the latest, they will raise their butcher's knives against our three eastern provinces. With the current situation of continuous civil strife in the country, at that time, he will certainly be unable to stop his own aggression against the three eastern provinces. And once we swallow our anger and make compromises, we will inevitably think that we are weak and can be bullied, and we will intensify our aggression against us even more violently, and if we do not rise up to fight, we will inevitably be in danger of destroying the country and extinction of the species. ”

Speaking of this, Song Zhewu, who was excited, couldn't help but slap the table fiercely, looking at the people with solemn faces, Song Zhewu said in a heavy tone: "You may not know yet, right? In Taiwan, Chinese is no longer allowed to be taught in schools, only the language, and in a few decades, it will probably be difficult for outsiders to distinguish whether they are Chinese or themselves from the language. ”

Song Zhewu's words shocked everyone present! Including Li Wentian, they not only have very little understanding of the international situation, but they also do not care very much about the situation in neighboring countries, and their eyes are only fixed on China. After listening to Song Zhewu's analysis, they were all surprised! In the past, they all believed that as long as the civil war subsided and the country carried out peaceful construction, China would be fine. But Song Zhewu's words shattered their beautiful dreams, Li Minghua and these international students have more contact with the outside world, and their feelings are deeper, they all know that what Song Zhewu said is true, if the country does not prepare early, all this is very likely to become a reality.

Song Zhewu continued: "There is also the issue of the Fourth Route Army mentioned by Mr. Li just now, strictly speaking, Mr. Li's words are not wrong, the establishment of the national defense force is indeed a matter of the state, and even resisting foreign exile should be done by the central government. However, because the central authorities have to deal with these local forces in the country, they are simply unable to spare their hands, and not only do they have no time or financial resources to do so now, but even if they solve the problem of the Northwest Army, the central authorities will also be unable to devote themselves to national defense construction, because the civil war in the country will not stop in a short period of time. Although these people are ostensibly obedient to the central government, they will not only secretly resist the central government for their own interests, but even some people will take risks to launch rebellions; Moreover, there is the problem of GCD, the contradiction between them and the Kuomintang in terms of fundamental interests is irreconcilable, and it is an endless struggle between different isms and different social systems, and unless one side is eliminated, it will never stop. As long as the civil war does not stop, the central authorities will not have enough time and financial resources to carry out national defense construction, and it will be impossible to have a sufficiently strong national defense force. ”

Song Zhewu sighed and continued: "You have all studied abroad, although you are not studying military affairs, but you must have all seen the armies of the great powers, they not only have planes, warships, but also artillery and tanks, and what do we have?" Our army only has rifles, machine guns, mortars, and a small number of cannons of caliber below 150mm; Almost all of the navy's warships were left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and they were all small-tonnage warships that were too old and more than 40 years old; As for the Air Force, the planes of the Central Political Axe are all planes of the First World War, and these planes are compared with the various powers, and even compared with the other powers, not to mention the degree of advancement, even the number is very small, and the few can even be almost completely ignored. Looking at our defense industry, we now have only a few military factories that can only produce rifles, machine guns and a small number of mortars, and the production is extremely limited; There is not a single modern warship and aircraft plant. Once a foreign enemy invades, what will we, the army, which lacks guns and ammunition, rely on to win the war? Is it by the flesh and blood of our soldiers? The current equipment of the Fourth Route Army can be said to be the best in the country, even the equipment of the Central Army and the Northeast Army cannot be compared, but such army equipment is far from that of the great powers. And this kind of equipment is now impossible for the Central Army to be the same in the whole army. Almost all of the equipment of the Fourth Route Army was purchased by Song Zhewu out of his own pocket. When I first arrived in Laiyuan, there were only about 40,000 troops, but before I arrived in Hubei, it had grown to 160,000. Because the chairman of Hebei Shang still wants to invest his limited financial tax revenue in Hebei's civil affairs, restore people's livelihood and develop production, he can only give me 300,000 oceans a month, even so, he only gives me half a year's military salary, and the rest is my own money. ”

There is another sentence, Song Zhewu couldn't help but didn't say it, that is, the large amount of treasure obtained by Sun Dianying from robbing the tomb made him make a fortune, otherwise his funds would have been beyond his means. However, this cannot be said, otherwise it will immediately set off a blatant wave in the country, and he Song Zhewu will also become the target of public opinion condemnation from all sides.

Song Zhewu put on another cigarette, lit it and thought about it: "What I said is not that the Fourth Route Army is my Song Zhewu's private army, I just want to say that I have put a lot of effort into this army. It's not that this force can't be handed over to the central government, but the central government is really unable to maintain this unit that is closest to the level of the army of the great powers in terms of equipment, such as its own army. At present, there are more than 1 million troops under the direct and indirect control of the central authorities, and if all the troops are armed with such equipment as the Fourth Route Army, it will be a very huge number, and the central government's finances will not allow it. For example, the cost of the more than 200,000 troops of the Fourth Route Army can feed 600,000 to 800,000 troops like the Northwest Army; Even a unit like the Central Army can also equip 400,000. In other words, if all the troops in the central government follow this standard, the military expenditure will be at least doubled. The central government is already stretched thin, and if such a large amount of military spending is added, where is there still money for national defense construction? ”

Song Zhewu looked at the crowd and said with a smile: "Actually, I only said half of the agreement with Chairman Jiang that I just said, and the other half is, 'If I don't occupy our land within three years, I will hand over the Fourth Route Army to the central government, and I myself will be at the mercy of the central government's arrangement, whether I can be in politics or continue in the army.'" ”

Song Zhewu's words surprised everyone again, not to mention that now, even in the future, no warlord will willingly hand over his troops, Song Zhewu can do this, which shows that he is open-minded and has no selfishness and ambition. And Song Zhewu's statement that he would invade within three years made them even more excited.

Song Zhewu observed everyone's expressions, not only Li Minghua, but also Wang Xuezhi and the Sun family brothers also looked solemn. Song Zhewu knew that he had persuaded Li Minghua. Although Li Minghua is not the top authoritative talent in the field of electromagnetism today, he is also a scientist and technical expert who stands at the forefront of the development of electromagnetism today.

Li Minghua stood up, picked up his wine glass and said solemnly: "Commander-in-Chief Song, Minghua has offended a lot, Minghua will make amends to the commander-in-chief!" The commander-in-chief is broad-minded and patiently solves Minghua's doubts, which shows that the commander-in-chief sincerely invites Minghua. Minghua is a scholar, and the commander-in-chief is so loving, Minghua is grateful! Minghua is determined to follow the commander-in-chief and do his best to strengthen the army against the enemy. This glass of wine is the commander-in-chief of Huajing, in order to show Hua's admiration. ”

Song Zhewu laughed happily, and also stood up and said, "Okay! Brother Minghua, I'm done with this glass of wine. With that, he tilted his head and drank the wine from his glass.

Song Zhewu was so happy today, he originally just wanted to comfort the families of the two brothers, Sun Sihua and Sun Sirong, but he didn't expect to pick up two more treasures. And it's the kind he needs most.

Song Zhewu pulled Li Minghua to sit down, and said with a smile on his face: "Since Minghua has agreed to work in our Fourth Route Army, I will appoint you as the colonel and dean of the Electronics Research Institute of the 'Fourth Route Army Research Institute' that will be established by our Fourth Route Army." ”

Li Minghua looked at Song Zhewu like a child getting his beloved item, he was very happy, and said with a smile: "Commander-in-chief, I still have a question. ”

Hearing that Li Minghua still had questions, Song Zhewu, who was full of smiles, was startled, and the smile on his face froze suddenly. He smiled bitterly and said, "Why is there still a problem?" You don't want me to tell him that Song Zhewu is a time-traveling person, right? ”

Everyone saw Song Zhewu's demeanor, and they all understood that Song Zhewu sincerely invited Li Minghua and Wang Xuezhi. Father Sun was a little reluctant to go, and said to Li Minghua: "Mr. Li, Commander-in-Chief Song sincerely invites you and Mr. Wang, so don't be embarrassed by Commander-in-Chief Song." ”

Li Minghua said with a smile: "Uncle, I don't want to be difficult for the commander-in-chief with this question, I want the commander-in-chief to continue to solve my doubts." ”

Li Minghua turned his head and asked Song Zhewu: "Commander-in-chief, you said that you would have a piece of territory under your management, and I think Chairman Jiang will definitely give you a province, but the financial and material resources of a province must be limited. ”

Song Zhewu looked at everyone and said: "Minghua's question is on the point, saying that once I expand the war of aggression, it will be a national war, and the whole country will carry out a war of resistance, and there will never be only one province and one Fourth Route Army to carry out a war of resistance." This is one of them; Second, even if we are a province, not only in terms of land area but also in population, it will be larger and larger than many Western European countries. Not to mention the large provinces of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia, even the area of any province is not much smaller than that of the province itself, as long as we seize the opportunity, vigorously develop industry, especially heavy industry and national defense industry, and step up the training of troops, it is not impossible to resist the attack of the province, but this development will take a lot of time. ”

Speaking of this, Song Zhewu's expression couldn't help but become heavy, now there are only more than two years before the "September 18 Incident", and even when it comes to the all-out War of Resistance, it is only eight years. In such a short period of time, it is absolutely not enough to build an industrial base and a strong army that can compete with Yuben, he can't conjure up enough planes and artillery, I remember reading an online novel in my previous life, it seems to be called "Bayonet". He thinks that the novel is very wishful thinking and illogical in terms of fighting against the war. If you give him twenty years, it's about the same. If there is 20 years of development, it is possible for him to keep Yue himself out of the country, and even if there is 10 years, he is confident that he will block Yue himself from North China.

Li Wentian, who had not spoken, suddenly asked Song Zhewu: "Commander-in-chief, how long do you think it will take us to be ready?" ”

Song Zhewu smiled bitterly and said: "This time is naturally as long as possible, it would be good if there were twenty years, but I will not give us that much time, I estimate that we have about ten years." ”

Song Zhewu didn't want to discourage everyone, and said in a firm tone: "As long as we all work together, from now on, we will work together, do more things, do practical things, maybe it won't take ten years for us to do this." ”

"Good!" Li Minghua said loudly: "The commander-in-chief said it well! Do more things and do practical things, the commander-in-chief said this very well, just rush to the commander-in-chief, and I, Li Minghua, will follow you. Once the commander-in-chief has a territory, I will be looking for all my classmates, and we will all work together and we will definitely succeed. Sihua, you go and get me a pen and paper, and I will write a letter to the Ministry of Education in Nanjing to resign. I won't go back to Nanjing, I'll go to Laiyuan tomorrow. ”

Then he said to Wang Xuezhi: "Xuezhi, I decided to follow Commander-in-Chief Song, what about you?" ”

Wang Xuezhi looked at Song Zhewu's sincere and expectant gaze and said: "Commander-in-Chief Song is dedicated to the country, and Xuezhi is deeply admired!" It's just that smelting is different from Brother Minghua's electromagnetic research and production, smelting is a big industry, if I go to Laiyuan now, there is basically nothing to do there, it is better to go back to Hanyang Iron Works now, where I will step up study and research, and thoroughly understand all the processes of smelting. In addition, I will contact a few more people, and as soon as Commander-in-Chief Song starts to build a large-scale smelter, I can immediately bring some technicians and skilled technicians to participate in the construction. ”

Then he joked: "It's just that at that time, the official position given to me by the commander-in-chief couldn't be smaller than that of Brother Minghua?" ”

"Good!" Song Zhewu said in a loud voice, he is now eager to seek talent, and he is a little anxious. If Li Minghua goes to Laiyuan now, he can immediately carry out research, and once he starts to build a factory, he can immediately turn their research results into products. During this time, Li Minghua can not only start his research, but also take a group of students. But Wang Xuezhi is different, Laiyuan not only does not have a blast furnace, but also a small iron-making furnace, Wang Xuezhi really has nothing to do in Laiyuan at this time, it is better to take the Hanyang Iron Works as an internship opportunity as Wang Xuezhi said, and then pull away those engineering and technical personnel. Anyway, during the Anti-Japanese War, these factories, including the Hanyang Iron Works, did not play any role, even if they hollowed out all the personnel, it didn't matter, let the British worry about it.

Song Zhewu said happily: "The method of learning wisdom is very good, so we can save a lot of training costs for personnel." I can assure you that the smelter will start construction in two years, and you will have to bring me the man when the time comes. ”

Seeing Wang Xuezhi nodding, Song Zhewu said to the Sun brothers, Li Minghua, and Wang Xuezhi: "Our plan to develop the economy and strengthen the army needs a lot of talents like you. ”

Li Minghua thought for a while and said: "Now there is a person, his name is Zheng Dazhang, he studied at the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris, and chose chemistry as his main direction. Zheng Dazhang is now a French physicist and chemist, Madame Currie. He and I are friends, and I can write to him and ask him to come back. ”

Li Minghua, Wang Xuezhi, and the Sun family brothers, one by one, recommended a lot of talents, which made Song Zhewu overjoyed......

(To be continued)