In the camp of the Fifth Army outside Huai'an, Shen Chiyun got up at six o'clock in the morning as usual to get acquainted, although Shen Chiyun, like most of the other officers, was born as a traditional scholar, but his years of military career had already made him a complete soldier.

If you just look at the surface, you will never find that this sturdy soldier used to be a scholar holding the Four Books and Five Classics.

After a simple grooming, Shen Chiyun was ready to ride the horse for a spin according to his habits, he was originally a horse lover, and the batch of war horses under his hands were British thoroughbred horses given by Lin Zhe, with a beautiful and tall body, so that Shen Chiyun did not hesitate to do it.

Since getting this thoroughbred horse, Shen Chiyun has basically ridden a lap every day when he is fine!

The only thing that made Shen Chiyun feel pity was that this British thoroughbred horse was castrated and could not be bred.

But then again, if this British thoroughbred horse hadn't been castrated, it wouldn't have been in the hands of Shen Chiyun, but 100% would have gone to the hands of the Military Reserves Division to breed horses.

Over the years, the Chinese army has purchased a lot of Yanmar from merchants from various countries through many channels, including British thoroughbreds, Arabian thoroughbreds and European crossbreeds such as Anglo? Arabian horses, etc., but most of them are castrated military horses purchased from the colonies of various countries, and cannot be used for breeding, and very few of them can be used for breeding.

After establishing a military horse breeding mechanism at the beginning of the year, this year a batch of castrated stallions and mares were purchased, but the number is still small.

At present, there are only three British thoroughbred stallions and two British thoroughbred mares in the military department. Four Arabian thoroughbred stallions and five Arabian thoroughbred mares only.

The horses, which numbered only fourteen, were highly valued by the Military Reserves Division.

Not only do they breed the best mares in Mongolia with thoroughbreds and Arabian stallions, but they also breed them directly between thoroughbreds and Arabian horses. Trying to breed Anglo-Arab Malays that belonged to China.

Of course, in order to improve the horse breed in a short period of time, it is difficult to breed excellent horses that are suitable for the Chinese climate with only a dozen war horses, and more excellent stallions are inevitably needed.

It has already sent special trips to Europe and Australia to prepare for the purchase of breeding stallions and mares in large quantities.

Thankfully. In these years, no country has played any trade sanctions, let alone banned the export of horses to China, as long as you are willing to spend money. If you are willing to pay for the high cost of transportation and the high mortality rate of horses, then you can buy it.

The degree of importance that the Israeli Military Reserve Division attaches to stallions and mares, if Shen Chiyun's batch of thoroughbred horses are stallions that are not driven, they will definitely not fall into the hands of Shen Chiyun.

This is not only the British thoroughbreds in Shen Chiyun's hands. In fact, most of the mounts of the high-ranking generals of the Chinese army are also castrated thoroughbred or Arabian horses. Anyway, it was impossible to breed, and because there were not many of them, it was impossible to arm a large number of Western horse cavalry, so these sporadic purchased Western horses were generally used as horses for high-ranking generals.

After galloping around on his beloved horse, Shen Chiyun handed over the ride to the groom, and after cleaning, he took the towel handed over by his own soldiers and wiped his face, and the adjutant on the side said: "Chief of Staff Song, they are already waiting!" ”

Shen Chiyun nodded: "Then let's go!" ”

Then he strode forward and led the people to the conference room in the center of the camp.

Not long after, Shen Chiyun arrived at the conference room. At this time, there were already many people in the conference room, including Major General Song Xiangtang, chief of staff of the Fifth Army. Former commander of the 14th Infantry Regiment of the Fifth Division, the new commander of the Fifth Division, Major General Du Yongtao, Chief of Staff of the Fifth Division, Colonel Pei Jianjie, and other generals and colonels of the Fifth Army.

All of them wore the standard double-breasted officer's uniform of the Chinese Army, with a command knife and revolver around their waists, long leather boots, and hats on the table showing their sleek heads or short hair.

When these people saw Shen Chiyun coming in, they all quickly stood up and saluted.

Shen Chiyun had just ridden a round of horses, and he was in a good mood while walking forward, and at the same time took off his military hat and saluted in return: "It's all old brothers, you're welcome, sit down!" ”

As he spoke, he also sat directly in the first place, and continued: "Let's talk about what good news there is today!" ”

Because it was a routine daily meeting, although everyone present said that there were high and low ranks, they were all senior officers in the Chinese army, so after the initial salute, everyone did not have too much politeness, and immediately sat down one by one.

Song Xiangtang, chief of staff of the Fifth Army, first said: "Last night, news came that Captain Li Shanjing encountered 1,500 puppet Qing troops on the way to Andong County yesterday, and took the initiative to meet Da Pozhi, destroying more than 100 enemies, and in the evening he broke through Andong County, destroying more than 50 enemies and capturing 200 enemies!" ”

Shen Chiyun smiled after hearing this: "This Li Shanjing has done a good job, and it is not in vain for your teaching, Chief of Staff Song!" ”

Song Xiangtang also smiled: "Although this kid is a little dull and not clever enough on weekdays, he still has the courage!" ”

When Song Xiangtang said this, he himself was deeply comforted, why, because Li Shanjing was his brother-in-law!

Major General Song Xiangtang was one of the early major generals in the Chinese army, and in 1853 he applied for the Yuyao County Yongying Suiying School, and was one of the earliest students in the early Suiying School, and his qualifications were much higher than the later Suiying School students.

Since its inception, the school has enrolled thousands of students, but there are not so many students in the early stage, in the early days, due to the poor school system, the students are fighting while learning, the school system is not clearly defined, most of them will be admitted to a group of people every month, but if they graduate, as long as they finish the subjects they have learned, they can graduate through the semi-annual assessment, so they can only be counted according to the way of graduating in half a year.

By the time of the reform of the school system in 1855, there had been four classes of graduates, with a total of about 600 students.

After 1855, the school system was reformed, from the previous half-year on-the-job study to a one-year full-time study, and now it has graduated two times, the first batch graduated more than 400 people, and the second phase graduated that is, more than 600 people graduated this year, with a total of about 1,600 people.

Of course, relying only on the above-mentioned formal class students is categorically unable to support the required number of officers whose scale has reached more than 100,000, so in addition to regular students, there are also quite a lot of crash course students, especially in the past two years, the Chinese army has expanded too fast, resulting in a serious shortage of officers, so a large number of literate soldiers have been selected to enter the crash course to study, which can meet the needs of the officers of the Chinese army.

Although Song Xiangtang said that he enrolled about a month later than Shen Chiyun and others, he participated in the graduation assessment and passed the graduation assessment at the same time as Shen Chiyun and others, so he, like Shen Chiyun, Shi Langyi and others, was the first batch of students of Suiying Academy.

After that, his experience was the same as that of most students in the camp academy, starting from the lowest second lieutenant deputy company commander, and then slowly rising to company commander, deputy battalion commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, etc., and then fell into the Joint Staff as deputy chief of operations, and then fell into the Fifth Army as chief of staff.

His career can be regarded as a smooth sailing grandson.

And Li Shanjing, this person is Song Xiangtang's brother-in-law, two years ago from his hometown to Shanghai to join his brother-in-law, Song Xiangtang has no choice but to try his best to arrange, originally arranged to his headquarters or business zone as a copywriter and the like, but I didn't expect Li Shanjing also said that he wanted to join the army, so he had no choice but to arrange for him to take the exam of the Suiying Academy, and after the examination, he became a member of the first one-year full-time students of the Suiying Academy.

Soon after graduation, he was promoted to lieutenant and served as a company commander.

Now that Li Shanjing has made meritorious contributions in the front of the war, his brother-in-law also feels that there is light on his face!

But although I was happy in my heart, I didn't show it too obviously, why?

Because among all of you here, who doesn't have a few sons and nephews, not to mention anything else, Shen Chiyun's younger brother Shen Chiquan served in the Second Division, and now they are all major battalion commanders, compared to him, Li Shanjing's achievements are nothing.

In the early days of the formation of the Chinese Army, it had a very typical feudal consciousness, and the soldiers were all of the same country and clan, and most of the officers were also division commanders, disciples, or classmates, and the relationship between them was very close.

Moreover, often after one person in the family has made meritorious contributions in the Chinese army, the rest of the children of the family will also run over to take refuge, and some classmates will also run over to take refuge when they hear about it, and most of these people go to apply for the camp academy and become one of the officers after graduation.

As a result, most of the generals of the Chinese army have sons and nephews or classmates and friends who join the army, and they have close personal ties with each other.

When Song Xiangtang's mind passed over this, Shen Chiyun on the other side was also listening to other people's reports:

"News has come from Sizhou that General Shi's main force has arrived in Sizhou to join the First Division, and it is expected that they will integrate their forces to launch an attack on the Suqian area in the near future!"

Shen Chiyun said: "After waiting for so long, it's finally time, when will they attack and where will they attack from?" ”

Du Yongtao below: "It is not clear when the attack will be launched for the time being, but there is also news from the First Army that it is very likely that they will not launch an attack on the heavily guarded Suqian, but will launch an attack in the direction of Taoyuan County!" ”

"In this way, could it be said that the First Army is preparing to join forces with us, take Huai'an City first, and then go north to Suqian?"

Du Yongtao said: "I think it should be so!" ”

Shen Chiyun had already stood up, then walked to the large map on the wall, and looked at it for a long time before turning around and saying: "I see that this move is feasible, immediately contact the First Army and contact the two sides to coordinate the operation, well, it is best for me to talk to General Shi in person!" (To be continued......)