The headline of the news was "The Fourth Route Army Was Temporarily Stationed in Zhengzhou to Suppress Bandits on the Order of the Chinese People's Affairs Committee."

The content of the news was to the effect that the Song Zhewu Department of the Fourth Route Army was ordered by Chairman Jiang of the Chinese People's Affairs Committee to temporarily stationed in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, to eliminate bandits and appease the localities. Recently, it has been said that some people have groundlessly accused the Jin Sui Army and Song Zhewu of garrisoning the province, which is really untrue. The inscription was made by Yan, Minister of the Interior of the Central Committee of the Republic of China and Chairman of Shanxi Province.

Tao Rong handed the newspaper to Song Zhewu, Song Zhewu just looked at it briefly and handed it to Sun Li, waiting for Sun Li to finish reading. Song Zhewu said to Sun Li: "Commander Sun, you have to hurry up and train the troops, so that the new recruits of the third regiment who join you can reach the standard of the Fourth Route Army as soon as possible and integrate into the troops, and they will be about to fight. ”

Sun Li's feet in black and shiny riding boots touched his feet and said loudly: "Please rest assured, Sun Li will live up to the commander's trust." ”

On the way back to Liulin, Song Zhewu did not say a word about the newspaper, but gave Tao Rong a detailed introduction to the various training subjects of the Fourth Route Army and explained in detail the characteristics and objectives of the Fourth Route Army's training.

Yuan Village and Liulin Town are not far away, and soon they arrived at the entrance of Liulin Town, Tao Rong couldn't help it, and asked Song Zhewu: "Commander-in-chief, what do you mean by Yan Xishan posting this news in Zhengzhou Business Daily this time?" And he will definitely not do it only in Zhengzhou, but also in other major newspapers. ”

Song Zhewu said thoughtfully: "Chief of Staff Tao, what you said is right, Yan Xishan will definitely be like this, Yan Xishan is to tell the people that the Fourth Route Army was stationed in Zhengzhou on the order of Chiang Kai-shek, not what he Yan Xishan meant. Once we had a conflict with the Northwest Army in Henan and caused a major war, it would also be a civil war provoked by the Fourth Route Army and Chiang Kai-shek, but it had nothing to do with him. ”

Tao Rong said with some doubts: "However, Yan Xishan sent us both food and money, obviously very supportive of us staying in Zhengzhou, isn't he afraid that Chiang Kai-shek will let us go back to Hebei if he sends this news?" ”

Song Zhewu nodded and said, "I'm afraid, of course he's afraid!" However, Yan Xishan was more scheming than Feng Yuxiang, and he was sure that Chairman Jiang would not do this. As soon as the Central Committee defeated the Gui faction, Chairman Chiang will definitely take advantage of the situation to get rid of Feng Yuxiang, a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, which others can't see, but Yan Xishan can see it, and since Chairman Chiang wants to fight with the Northwest Army, he will definitely not let us go back to Hebei. ”

When Song Zhewu said this, Tao Rong became even more strange. "Since Yan Xishan knew that Chiang Kai-shek was going to take action against the Northwest Army next, why did he still support us to help Chiang Kai-shek, wasn't he afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would clean up and play the Northwest Army and then clean him up?"

Song Zhewu said with a smile: "But if Yan Xishan doesn't believe that anyone will be able to take care of the Northwest Army at all, at least not for a short time, do you think he will do it." ”

Song Zhewu glanced at Tao Rong, and then said: "Just like when the crusade against the Gui family began, whether it was Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, or Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, they didn't expect that the Gui family would be defeated so quickly, and before the war started, even Chief of Staff Tao would not believe that in just ten days, the 200,000 or so horses of the Gui family in Hebei and Lianghu would be so easily disintegrated." Fundamentally speaking, Yan Xishan was afraid that Chairman Jiang would clean him up, and that Feng Yuxiang would rob him of Shanxi. Therefore, he now most hopes to see a big battle between the Central Committee and the Northwest Army, and he believes that Chairman Chiang will not be able to help Feng Yuxiang's 500,000 men, so that the strength of both sides can be consumed, so that neither of them has the ability to deal with him. Even Yan Xishan wanted to use this to weaken the strength of our Fourth Route Army. In the previous paragraph, although Yan Xishan was suspicious of the rumors that Feng Yuxiang colluded with Soviet Russia to seize Shanxi and northern China, he had always been very wary of Feng Yuxiang, and he said many times, "From the perspective of Feng Yuxiang's history, Feng successively betrayed Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui, and Wu Peifu, and it was precisely because of Feng Yuxiang's betrayal that Wu Peifu's vitality was greatly damaged, and he was defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army." Feng Yuxiang was able to develop and grow rapidly after taking the oath in Wuyuan, all thanks to the support of Soviet Russia and [***], but once he became strong, he kicked them away again. In a word, whoever cooperates with Feng Yuxiang will suffer his Feng Huanzhang's loss in the end. It was he who was afraid of Feng Yuxiang, so he arranged the main force of the Jin Sui army to deploy along the Yellow River in Shanxi. However, in this way, Feng Yuxiang was afraid that when he and Chairman Jiang made a move, Yan Xishan would take the opportunity to bite him, so he had to increase his troops to guard near the Yellow River, which made Yan Xishan even more convinced that Feng Yuxiang was plotting against his Shanxi. I believe that this rumor was spread by the one in Hankou, the purpose was to make Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang suspicious of each other, and now it seems that this purpose has been achieved. Yan Xishan now not only hopes that the Central Committee and the Northwest Army will take action, but even he and Chairman Jiang hope that our Fourth Route Army will have a conflict with the Northwest Army, so he absolutely wants us to stay in Zhengzhou, and he has another purpose in sending this news, that is, to leave a back road to join hands with Feng Yuxiang to deal with the Central Committee. ”

Tao Rong hesitated for a while, and finally said: "Commander-in-chief, Tao Rong deeply feels the grace of the commander-in-chief, and has some things to say, please don't blame the commander-in-chief if you say something wrong." ”

Song Zhewu took the stationary horse, looked at Tao Rong and said, "Chief of Staff Tao, please speak, we are all a family, where will I blame you." ”

Tao Rong took a breath and said: "Commander-in-chief, please forgive me, since we already know that Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan are wary of us and even uneasy, why do we still stay in Zhengzhou, isn't it better for us to go back to Hebei?" Staying in Henan, once there is a conflict with the Northwest Army, if Feng Yuxiang gathers the main force to deal with us, we will definitely not be able to resist it. Although our Fourth Route Army is strong and strong, after all, there are only more than 60,000 people in Henan, and I have no confidence in resisting the main force of the Northwest Army. ”

Tao Rong can say it so bluntly, which makes Song Zhewu very happy, which shows that Tao Rong has truly regarded himself as a member of the Fourth Route Army. "Chiang Kai-shek's defense of us is because he as the leader of the country has the idea that he wants to eliminate all warlords from the heart, although we have more than 200,000 people, and we can already rank fourth among the powerful factions in various places in the country, but the time for our rise is too short, the foundation is very shallow, we are neither as strong as the Northwest Army, nor as deep as the Jin Sui Army, and we cannot disobey the orders of the Central Committee now. As for what Chiang Kai-shek will do to us in the future, let's not talk about this for a moment, but one thing is certain: as long as we do not disobey his orders, as long as there are local powerful factions that support the army and respect themselves, he will tolerate us. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for us to return to Hebei now. Yan Xishan has always wanted to destroy us, we are in Hebei, it has always been a problem for him, but he can't easily eat us now, if he can borrow the hand of the Northwest Army to weaken our strength, he is very happy. However, if we offend Yan Xishan, our Fourth Route Army will not be able to gain a foothold in Hebei. Therefore, we now know that no one has a good heart towards us, but we can only obey the order and camp in Zhengzhou. As for your concern that the Northwest Army will gather its main forces to deal with us, I am not worried about this. ”

It was the first time that Song Zhewu called Chiang Kai-shek these three words in front of people, which was not a mistake by Song Zhewu, but his intention. Song Zhewu believed that the Central Plains War would take place in less than a year, and after that, he would inevitably fight openly and covertly with Chiang Kai-shek, and now he needed to show his attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek to his subordinates.

Song Zhewu gently took the reins of the horse, controlled the horse to walk slowly, and said with a smile to Tao Rong who followed up: "Feng Yuxiang has learned the lesson of the Gui family, and he no longer dares to disperse the troops, this time the troops in the Henan region are withdrawn to Shaanxi is a clear proof, as long as we don't go too far, he will not fight with us, the reason why he accused us of garrisoning across provinces without authorization is that he is not at ease, afraid that we will block Sun Liangcheng's troops in Shandong from returning to Shaanxi." ”

Tao Rong looked at Song Zhewu and asked, "Does the commander-in-chief mean that Feng Yuxiang will give up Shandong?" Sun Liangcheng will also withdraw to Shaanxi? ”

didn't wait for Song Zhewu to answer, then smiled with relief and said: "Yes, the commander-in-chief is right, Sun Liangcheng will definitely return to Shaanxi, and the lessons of the Gui family are in front of him." If Sun Liangcheng is still in Shandong, once Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang make a move, he will inevitably deal with Sun Liangcheng first to relieve his worries. ”

Tao Rong thought about it and asked Song Zhewu with some worry: "Commander-in-chief, but whether it is Chiang Kai-shek or Yan Xishan, they are all looking forward to us fighting with the Northwest Army, if we have been doing nothing in Zhengzhou, what if they give you an order?" ”

"This is very likely, I guess Chiang Kai-shek most wanted us to intercept and eliminate Sun Liangcheng who retreated west east of Zhengzhou, first cut off one of Feng Yuxiang's arms, and forced Feng Yuxiang to change his plan to lead troops to save Sun Liangcheng, so that the Central Army could take advantage of the chaos to send troops to western Henan, and block the main force of the Northwest Army in Henan, without rear support, the Northwest Army in Henan will inevitably not be able to fight for a long time, defeat is inevitable, even if it can retreat to Shaanxi, it will suffer great losses, so that the initiative will be completely in the hands of the central government. However, in this case, we will inevitably be attacked first by the troops of the Northwest Army who rescue Sun Liangcheng, and our losses will also be very large, which we must try our best to avoid. Therefore, once Chiang Kai-shek or Yan Xishan issued such an order, it would not work if we did not carry it out, and the key was to see how we did it. What we have to do is not to disobey their orders, but also to make Feng Yuxiang not feel unforgettable pain, and we will not be desperate to seek revenge on us, to do this just right, it depends on your ability to do it Tao Chief of Staff. ”

While the two were talking, they had already come to the headquarters set up in Liulin Town, and after everyone dismounted, they hugged Song Zhewu into the courtyard.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, a person rushed out under the old locust tree in the yard, and went straight to Song Zhewu, Ye Qing behind Song Zhewu stepped in front of Song Zhewu with an arrow step, and the double guns in his waist were already in his hands at some point, pointing at the comer.

(To be continued)