Outside the general's mansion left in the former Qing Dynasty, An Guoliang jumped off the horse with a light shout. The short sheepskin jacket, the animal skin sleeve that extends to the thighs, and the sun-red cheeks all prove that this is no longer a bustling pass.

Most of the people of Wusu Yalitai are still wearing the robes of the former Qing Dynasty, and many of them still have ugly braids, and the ever-changing atmosphere in the Guannai does not seem to have affected this important town in the northwest border, and the local herdsmen are still turning prayer wheels to sincerely thank them for their eternal life. If anything, anything had changed, only the thousands of soldiers stationed here from far away told them that the Manchu era was gone.

The northwest frontier is vast and sparsely populated, but it is particularly important, and as long as the central government of the past dynasties stabilizes the Guannei, the central government will definitely send heavy troops to the border. The government of the Republic of China is no exception, and during such a tense period of an unavoidable battle in Chapter 382 of the Sino-Japanese War, the two divisions of the Northwest Army still carried out a sweep of the separatist forces regardless of their cooperation. After the stabilization of the Guannai at the beginning of the year, the military strength of the theater increased instead of decreasing, not only increasing from the original two divisions to four mixed divisions, but also sending two national and civilian guard brigades to take charge of local security for the first time.

The mixed division is a new establishment of the National Defense Force, and it is also a unique establishment of the Northwest Army, which is formed in a mixed mode of cavalry and infantry, and each division has two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade. In addition to the cavalry, some trucks have recently been brought in to cooperate, but because it is not easy to transport gasoline, the Northwest Army mainly relies on horses and camels.

An Guoliang was ordered to be stationed in Wusu Yalitai at the beginning of last year, this important military town has been renovated several times in the former Qing Dynasty, and after the arrival of the Wehrmacht, it has also been planned, although the project is not yet completed, according to the plan to build a grassland fortress that can accommodate at least one infantry division.

The current Dingbian General's Mansion is a large office with a mixture of military and government, and on the left are the civil officials sent by the central government and the officials who managed Western Mongolia. And on the right is Chapter 382 of the garrison office, an unavoidable battle. As soon as An Guoliang entered the door, he saw Wu Changshan, a special commissioner of the Simon government who had just arrived, a man in his thirties who used to work as a clerk in the fourth town of Beiyang. Okurayama transferred to the Wehrmacht, because of his good pen, he was trained as a logistics officer of the Fourth Division, and after being injured in Anmin Action, he was transferred to a civilian position, and finally applied for the government affairs training course and was assigned here. To be honest, it's really not a good errand to come here, so he didn't look very good when he came.

An Guoliang's prestige of tearing apart the defensive circle of the fourth town with his own hands has long been well known, and the two can be regarded as old acquaintances, so when he saw him, Wu Changshan immediately asked: "Is there any news of Babu Zabu's group?" ”

"No, I don't know where that guy is hiding. Wu Changshan was a little disappointed, after the Sino-Japanese war, Babu Zabu and his group, who were very close to Japan, responded in Mongolia, and later the results of the Qingdao Battle came and this group suddenly disappeared. In order to find them, the Northwest Theater made a lot of effort. And he also hopes to catch this person as soon as possible, make a meritorious service, and return to the Guannai. An Guoliang knew his thoughts, and smiled: "Come on, don't be angry, quickly pack your things and go to Baotou with me." ”

"Baotou?"

Wu Changshan scratched his head and traveled thousands of miles from Wusu Yalitai to Baotou. The fastest horses take days and nights, so why do you have nothing to do with running so far? An Guoliang said with a smile: "The commander-in-chief has arrived in Baotou, summon our officers to a meeting, and by the way, let the civil officials who protect you go back to meet." Wu Changshan's eyes lit up, he didn't expect that he would have the opportunity to see Yang Qiu soon after he came, so he could take care of the others and immediately prepare to go back to the house to pack his things. An Guoliang grabbed him and asked, "By the way, did you see Li Liejun come back?" ”

"What, you still invited him?"

An Guoliang nodded. After Li Liejun was slapped three times by Yang Qiu in Jiangxi, he was sent to the boot training camp for training, and then he was sent to Tangnu Wuliang Sea to guard the frontier. It was not until the establishment of the Northwest Theater and the Northwest Army that he was incorporated into the Northwest Army as a company commander after the Northwest Army was stationed in Wusu Yalitai, but because Yang Qiu had not returned the order to garrison him, he had been in the Wulianghai area without a supreme order not to leave, if it wasn't for Yang Qiu to take him to Baotou by name. I'm still stationed there, and I can't leave.

Just as the two were talking, there was another neighing of horses outside, and when they turned their heads to see that their faces were full of scum, Li Liejun, dressed in herdsman's attire, appeared outside the door with four cavalrymen.

An Guoliang learned the riding subject in the "Japan", although he didn't say a few words, he knew each other, but he was strange when he saw it at the moment. The original Wenxiu Li Liejun is much stronger than before, and his complexion has become black and red because of the perennial wind and sun on the deep plateau, the biggest change is those eyes, the former high-ranking and powerful governor of Jiangxi, the Kuomintang bigwigs can no longer see it at all, only the perseverance after tasting the wind and sand and cold hardships.

"Let's go." An Guoliang didn't say much, patted the war horse and the group and quickly headed south.

*******

If there was anything that had kept Europe to sleep since 1915, it was not the rare peace in the Far East, much less the short-lived and bloody 510 uprisings, but the presence of steel on the banks of the West Rum. The A7V tanks that appeared in advance slowly advanced towards Paris, and the British and French were at a loss, and the situation on the Western Front returned to the German offensive posture in September 1914.

The initiator of such a major change on the Western Front went to Baotou far away from the bustling city, and led a white investigation team to investigate the long-coveted Baiyun Obo region, silently sketching the blueprint of the country's heavy industry in his mind. Bernard and Kant, who were in the air, were very disappointed, Li Yuanhong and Tang Shaoyi were deeply dissatisfied with their pushing attitude, and they began to miss Yang Qiu's years in Nanjing, although the young man made them unspeakable, but when he left, he found that the country couldn't even find a real master.

From the beginning of Yuan Shikai to Sun Yat-sen's departure, the Beiyang Group disintegrated the Kuomintang and retreated, achieving the dominance of the national community, and at the same time, it also purged all the people who can call the shots in the country, which caused the current dilemma. So Yang Qiu also knew that at this moment, he didn't know how many people wanted him to go back as soon as possible, but he didn't want to go back to Nanjing immediately, in addition to plugging the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River and the Baiyun Mine to attract him, after the main force of the Russian army in Siberia was withdrawn and was destined to not be able to come back, it was time for the north to start planning up.

This is because although the Sino-Russian Friendship Pact recognized each other's current national borders, Russia also recognized the Tangnu-Ulianghai, the area from Ili to Lake Balkhash west of Zungar, and Mongolia as part of the territory of the "Chinese" state, but left the tail of the "Chinese" government not to station troops in the above-mentioned areas until the end of the European war. Out of the idea of getting hands on it first, Yang Qiu agreed to sign this agreement, so at present, the National Defense Forces only stationed one brigade in Urumqi and Usu Yalitai, and the rest of the troops were temporarily stationed in Suiyuan and Chahar.

The Ulanqab grassland north of Yinshan Mountain is full of sheep in the morning. Unlike the remote areas, since the construction of the city in 1870, the development of Baotou and the surrounding Mongolian banners has increased significantly, and in just 20 years, it has become the center of the fur and medicinal materials trading in the north after Kulun, and even Britain and France have set their eyes on it. Benefiting from the European war and the momentum of the rapid economic development in the country, the animal husbandry industry has also had a good momentum in the past two years, especially the sheepskin, ghee and other wintering materials are very scarce, and the northern tariffs have also been fully recovered, so that the herdsmen do not have to work hard to raise but eventually sell cheaply, and the number of cattle and sheep has also increased.

It's just that there are still very few independent herdsmen in the Mongolian steppe, most of the cattle and sheep are noble, and the status of ordinary herdsmen is as low as that of the long-term workers and serfs before the land reform in Henan.

"What happened to Cullen and Russia?" Yang Qiu carried a horsewhip and stepped on the mine with Shi Xiaolou, Wu Peifu and other officers, and since last year, the Ministry of Natural Resources has specially sent people here to investigate in accordance with his deployment, and the results are naturally not surprising. In order to protect the "secret", the 6th Division and the 122nd Newly Formed Mixed City Division of the three army divisions formed after the Sino-Japanese War were transferred from the General Staff Headquarters to garrison here.

Shi Xiaolou is now the commander of the Northwest Theater of Operations, and Su Xiaohu, the new commander of the Southwest Theater, is nicknamed the "Two Small Commanders of National Defense." Both of them are shy and do not like to be public, but they hold heavy power in their hands, and they lead one side alone, and even have more power than He Xi, the commander of the old Second Division. In order to see Yang Qiu, he deliberately changed into his regular clothes and introduced: "Kulen is now a group of dragons without a leader, since we signed the treaty with Russia, many Mongolian nobles and princes have temporarily hid in Lake Berga or Irkutsk, and the 8th Jebtsundamba Living Buddha has also retracted his previous words, but I heard that people have been sent to Japan and St. Petersburg to seek assistance. On the contrary, the Babu Zabu who pursued independence with the Manchus has been very active recently, sending people to various banners from time to time to liaise, and secretly went to Kulen to meet the living Buddha last month. Now there are four or five thousand people in his hands, many of whom are still Asiatic elements, so he is very liked by those frightened Mongolian nobles, and he is very careful, but his whereabouts are erratic, and he has run away several times in our actions to encircle and suppress. On the Russian side, it is relatively simple, most of the troops stationed in Siberia have been withdrawn, and at present there are only about 30,000 men and a small fleet stationed in Vladivostok, Boly, Chita, and Irkutsk, and there are about 10,000 Cossack cavalry in the Tomsk direction, which should be used as a mobile force to guard against us. ”

"When did Nicholas II become so careful?"

Shi Xiaolou smiled: "In the past, I didn't have to be careful because the Qing army couldn't threaten him at all, but now it's strange that we don't get nervous after we take over and defeat Japan, if it weren't for the fact that the European side can't get out, I'm afraid our two families would have fought because of Cullen by now." ”

"yes. Like the Japanese book, this war avoidance is unavoidable. ”

During the conversation, Yang Qiu climbed to the top of the mountain with all his might, and the blue sky and green grass in his eyes suddenly became very clear, so when can the world in his heart be so distinct?!!!