After a simple dinner, Song Zhewu took Li Rujuan and hurriedly returned to the headquarters of the Geyuan Temple.

Although Song Zhewu had not had a good rest during the march for several days, he was already very tired almost every night either alone or with Li Wentian and Tao Rong discussing the development plan of the Fourth Route Army. However, as soon as he returned to Laiyuan and saw the vigorous troops that he had pulled up with one hand, Song Zhewu's mood was very excited, and he did not feel the slightest sleepiness at all, and he couldn't wait to immediately implement the development and planning of the Fourth Route Army, so that his beloved troops could grow up as soon as possible.

Time, time, Song Zhewu now feels that what he lacks most is time, although there are still more than ten months before the Central Plains War, but he still has a lot of things to do, and there are many things that need to be prepared as soon as possible. If he could, he would really want to break the day in half and use it. He convened a meeting of his senior officers overnight, not only to arrange for the expansion of the troops, but also to explain many things to them, and if these senior generals under his command were still in the dark, many things would not be easy to handle.

Attending the meeting tonight were not only people from the headquarters such as Xiao Guodong, Tao Rong, Wang Xu, and Li Wentian, but also Zhang Yafei, Gao Zongbao, Zhang Tao, Liang Fang, Li Sichi, Ye Changgui, Wu Jin, Xu Zheng and other generals. Although Wei Guanghui and Song Zhewu's telegrams exchanged frequently, some things could not be explained in the telegrams. Even Chu Feng, Fang Zhen, and Li Rujuan were all called by Song Zhewu for a meeting. It can be said that all the civil and military generals of Song Zhewu came to attend this meeting.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Song Zhewu briefly explained the purpose of convening this meeting, and then Chief of Staff Xiao Guodong announced the expansion of the troops. In this expansion, when Song Zhewu and Xiao Guodong were still in Xiaogan, they had basically set the tone, and after returning to Laiyuan, Song Zhewu made some adjustments to the expansion.

The specific situation of the expansion is that except for the regiment that Xu Fang left in Handan and did not undergo reorganization, all other units were mixed, and not only soldiers were to be mixed, but also officers at all levels were to be mixed. The mixed arrangement of officers is mainly aimed at the troops of the 19th Army of the original Gui Department and the Zhao Fengwu Brigade of the Northwest Army, although Song Zhewu did not say this explicitly, everyone knows it in their hearts, even Tao Rong, Li Sichi, and Zhao Fengwu also understand. However, after this period of time, they learned about Song Zhewu and the Fourth Route Army, and they not only did not have any resistance to Song Zhewu doing this, but even thought that it was normal for Song Zhewu to do this.

After the expansion, the troops of the Fourth Route Army were specifically organized into: Chief of Staff Xiao Guodong, who assisted Song Zhewu in taking charge of all matters of the Fourth Route Army; Deputy Chief of Staff Tao Rong, in charge of combat training; Wang Xu, deputy chief of staff, responsible for the intelligence work of the Fourth Route Army; Li Wentian, deputy chief of staff, is responsible for the training of recruits and officers; The unit was expanded to five divisions, five brigades and a cavalry corps, plus a teaching corps. the new first division, division commander Zhang Yafei; the second division of the new division, the division commander Gao Zongbao; the new Third Division, division commander Zhang Tao; the new Fourth Division, division commander Li Sichi; the new Fifth Division, division commander Liang Fang; Cavalry Corps Commander Wei Guanghui; The First Brigade of the Guard Brigade, Brigade Commander Ye Changgui; 2nd Guards Brigade, Brigade Commander Liang Bang; The newly set up mountain brigade, brigade commander Ye Changgui temporarily concurrently, deputy brigade commander Li Ruifang; A new garrison brigade was set up, and the brigade commander Wu Jin; Cavalry Brigade, Brigade Commander Han Kwang; The new teaching team was set up, with captain Li Wentian and deputy captain Xu Zheng; The Air Force Corps was newly established, and the chief captain was Wu Jin.

The difference between this expansion and the expansion plan set in Xiaogan is that Chiang Kai-shek gave Song Zhewu five divisions, three brigades, and one cavalry corps, while this time Song Zhewu actually organized two more brigades and a teaching corps. During this time, Song Zhewu thought about it carefully, he was a little too rigid about the establishment given to him by Chiang Kai-shek, although Chiang Kai-shek would give him the approved salary, but it was only issued according to the standard of the Central Army, and would not give him the salary according to the standard of the Fourth Route Army, and the insufficient part still needed to be solved by himself.

However, he was not different from Tang Shengzhi and Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-shek's military spending for the two of them was already insufficient, especially the military salaries of the Northwest Army were often delayed and deducted. That's the case, Feng Yuxiang can still continue to expand the army, not to mention that he is rich now. Although the cost of expanding and maintaining troops of the same size was much higher than that of Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, and even if he had money like Song Zhewu, he was still a little stretched, but when he thought of Feng Yuxiang, who was poor and strong, Song Zhewu began to expand the army without hesitation.

Although he can't afford the 300,000 troops himself, he can still do it with more than 100,000 troops. Therefore, Song Zhewu himself added two brigades and a teaching corps.

This mountain brigade, that is Song Zhewu considering that in the future mountain operations, it is very necessary to have such an elite army, which has been agreed with Tao Rong on the way back to Laiyuan, and even this deputy brigade commander Li Ruifang is a battalion commander of the original 19th Army recommended by Tao Rong. Letting Li Ruifang serve as deputy brigade commander is not that Song Zhewu doesn't trust him, Song Zhewu thinks that Tao Rong's choice of person will not be wrong. Let him serve as the deputy brigade commander, just because Song Zhewu was afraid that Li Ruifang would be suddenly promoted from battalion commander, and he was afraid that his subordinates would not accept it and affect the training of the troops, so he asked Ye Changgui to press the formation for him first, and once Li Ruifang brought the troops up, the position of brigade commander would still be handed over to him.

As for the garrison brigade of Wu Jin, it was mainly used to guard the airfield, warehouse, school and related aircraft maintenance plant of the Air Force. Liang Bang's Second Guard Brigade not only had to defend the warehouses, scientific research institutes, hospitals, arsenals and other important departments and locations of the Fourth Route Army, but also shouldered the garrison and public security tasks of the entire Taihang Administration. Although Ye Changgui has always been the commander of the guard brigade, because there are many things in the special brigade, Liang Bang is responsible for the regular work of the guard brigade, and Song Zhewu is very satisfied with his ability and conscientious attitude. Song Zhewu even thought that in the future, the Shanxi garrison and the garrison force would also be expanded from Liang Bang's Second Guard Brigade.

Since the main responsibility of these two brigades is not to fight, but to guard, they are responsible for more locations, and there will be more and more in the future. Therefore, Song Zhewu did not organize these two brigades according to the ordinary brigade level, but set up 12 battalions with a regular establishment in China, plus the brigade organs, all of which had more than 8,000 people. As long as necessary, a number of more battalions can be added to it at any time, and it can be said that these two brigades, Song Zhewu is prepared according to two divisions or even two armies. Of course, because Wu Jin is the chief captain of the Air Force Corps, the garrison brigade is subordinate to the Air Force Corps.

Due to the aircraft factor, Wu Jin's Air Force Corps was temporarily organized into only three bomber groups, with a total of 54 aircraft. It also has an aviation school, a small aircraft repair shop. It's just that there is no dedicated aircraft maintenance equipment yet, and for the time being, it is only composed of simple machining and maintenance equipment brought by some engineers and mechanics sent by Curtis, that is, some machine tools. Then the Fourth Route Army Repair Institute and the mechanics recruited in Hankou this time selected some people to learn the maintenance of the aircraft.

One hundred and twenty of Curtis's planes have already arrived, and because there are no spare parts for these planes that are being produced anywhere, it is impossible for Song Zhewu to use all these planes, otherwise he will have no spare parts to repair once they are damaged. In other words, many of these aircraft were to be taken apart and used as spare parts until he had no source of spare parts. However, to Song Zhewu's delight, when he talked to Guo Wenyuan, a mechanical engineer recruited in Zhengzhou, Guo Wenyuan happily agreed to survey and map the DH-10 parts and arrived in Laiyuan more than ten days earlier, and now serves as the director and engineer of the maintenance plant. According to Wu Jin's report, Guo Wenyuan is very enthusiastic now, and he is even fascinated by airplanes, and he is leading people to work hard day and night.

Originally, Song Zhewu wanted to set Liang Fang's division as a teaching instructor, but this accounted for the establishment of his combat unit of the Fourth Route Army. The teaching corps consists of an officer training brigade, a recruit training brigade, and two standard exercise demonstration brigades. The two demonstration brigades are both regimental-level establishments. In other words, this teaching corps is a division-level establishment.

Xu Zheng was originally going to be transferred to the headquarters as deputy chief of staff and commander of the Second Guard Brigade, but after Xu Zheng knew that he was going to set up a teaching corps, he told Song Zhewu and Xiao Guodong that he wanted to do the training of recruits and officers, and in order to make his reasons more convincing, he even took out his own translation of the lecture notes of the West Point Military Academy, as well as his analysis of the "comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the infantry regulations of the German army and the American army".

Xu Zheng is one of the few college students among the officers below the division commander level of the Fourth Route Army. When he was in elementary school, he studied in the preparatory school for studying in the United States, which was founded in 1911 and was established by part of the "Gengzi indemnity" "returned" by the United States, which is the predecessor of Tsinghua University, and is now called Tsinghua School. In 1925, the university department was established and began to recruit four-year college students. Xu Zheng only studied there for one year in 25 years, and because of his family background, he joined the Fourth Route Army with his younger brother Xu Fang and his brothers. Therefore, Xu Zheng's English is very good, he can translate foreign language materials, and Xiao Guodong also thinks that Xu Zheng is more suitable to teach as a tutor.

It's just that Song Zhewu knew that Xu Zheng removed him because of his dismissal because of that move, and Xu Zheng is still a little scared and cautious. Although Song Zhewu had the intention to reactivate Xu Zheng, after careful consideration, Song Zhewu felt that it would be good if Xu Zheng was allowed to serve as the deputy captain of the teaching team, which would not only give full play to Xu Zheng's strengths, but also give others a warning. So he finally agreed to Xu Zheng's request and appointed him as the deputy captain of the teaching team.

(To be continued)