March 5, 1924

In the early morning, after a few faint bursts of spring thunder, it rained for the first time since the beginning of spring. Lines of rain slowly fell from the twilight sky. Layers of rain clouds obscured the rising sun. After a while, the scenery near and far was shrouded in misty rain and mist.

In a small courtyard in Qinghe Village, in the corner of the courtyard, there is a small wooden square table common to farmers in southwest China, and a small charcoal stove is placed on the carved tabletop. Next to the table are four bamboo chairs with backrests, and on the left is a young man who looks to be in his twenties, and the remaining three are slightly older. A middle-aged man in his thirties sat on a chair, bent down with his right hand to select a few tea leaves from the tea jar and put them into the four tea cups, lifted the kettle, added water one by one, and carefully poured out the first tea in the two tea cups for a while, and then picked up the kettle again to pour the tea and cover the tea lid.

Chen Shao was dressed in a white suit, and the whole person looked very young, if it weren't for the blue beard on his chin and a small handful of mustache on his mouth, it would really make people think he was a student boy.

The rain didn't last long before it stopped.

Water droplets fall to the ground along the eaves, and some fall in the stagnant water, making a tinkling sound.

Chen Shao drank tea while eating the Tianfu peanuts fried in the river sand on the plate, listening to the dingdong sound in his ears, this Qinghe Village farmer was particularly pleasant after the rain.

"Chairman Chen, how can you have time to come here today to accompany us people to have tea." If he hadn't experienced ups and downs, Li Zongren would never have believed that the young man in front of him, who looked like he was in his twenties, would be a man of the hour in the southwest.

"Brother Zongren, this tea is brewed well." Chen Shao took a sip of tea and said with an endless aftertaste.

"In the past, I also drank every day, and no matter how good the tea was, I didn't know how to enjoy it, and I wasted a lot of things. I am very impressed by Chairman Chen's deeds, and now Chairman Chen is the chairman of the government in the southwest, which is really embarrassing for my generation. Li Zongren picked up the kettle and added water to Chen Shao's teacup.

"Brother Zongren has an overreputation, Shao is just a petty fight, how can he be worthy of the word laughing and proud."

"Chairman Chen is too modest, this is a petty fight, then the others are playing at home."

"The ruler is long, the inch is short, in my opinion, promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses is the way to make progress in life."

"Exploit your strengths and avoid your weaknesses? yes, not really. I have to admire Chairman Chen on this point. Make great efforts, stay away from the filthy domestic political arena, strategize, and win the four provinces. Li Zongren said with emotion. Thinking that he was captured in the grove back then, he originally thought that Chen Shao would do with him, but he didn't expect to just put himself here and ignore it, as if he was preparing to retire himself, and he would let him go for several years.

In the past few years, he and Bai Chongxi have also visited this place, and at first the barracks couldn't enter, and then I didn't know what was going on, and some training grounds began to open to the two. Although he couldn't get close, he could still feel the belligerence and killing intent emanating from his bones when he stood far away, such a soldier was by no means comparable to the kind of soldiers of other warlords, nor could he be trained overnight. He couldn't help but come to a conclusion that Chen Shao's ability to dominate the southwest was not accidental, but deliberately low-key.

Sometimes, I go to some factories. There were all sorts of factories, many of which he had never heard of. Of course, he understands things like flashlight factories, bicycle factories, motorcycle factories, battery factories, etc., but in his impression, isn't there a small similar factory in some places along the coast in China? But what did he see? What he saw was a continuous stream of factories, some of which even had to be pulled by motorcycles with double buckets. In the factory, those workers were ten thousand times stronger than the black workers he had seen along the coast and in the north. The neat factory uniforms, the full mental outlook, the ruddy faces, and the vigorous pace all show that these workers are not those coastal "death row prisoners", but real modern workers. It was even much stronger than what he had seen in the coastal areas in his early years.

Sometimes, I go to school. That's what shocked him again. Although it is said that many schools are just bungalows for the sake of economy, there are spacious and bright teachers, wooden tables and chairs, and textbooks full of desks, and occasionally open pages, beautifully printed pictures, lively texts, and dedicated teachers on the podium who can't even wipe their sweat, as well as students who sit upright below, for fear of missing a word the teacher says, and these students actually have neat school uniforms......

At first, I could only walk around Qinghe Village, but later it was lifted, except that I didn't leave Huashi Town. Although he went to several places, both poor and rich, each place left an extremely deep impression on him. At the entrance of some villages, a large group of soldiers wearing grass-green camouflage uniforms were digging a canal, and only after questioning did they know that it was the reserve force that was conducting unified training. However, at the entrance of some villages, there was a roaring diesel engine and a long water pipe, and after asking, I learned that it was the diesel engine working group of the town's agricultural technology station that was irrigating the villagers from village to village. In other places, a large group of people were digging and transporting stones in the barren mountains and wilderness, and when asked, they were actually building roads, and the words of the villagers made him feel that he had lived in vain for the first half of his life, "The comrades in the town said that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads......

"Chairman Chen, Bai admires you very much for all this. Frankly, no one else can reach your level, not even similar. Whether it's Nanjing, Beiyang, or Mukden, they can't compare with you. To be honest, I don't think you're just passing through the southwest, but ......" Bai Chongxi took a sip of tea and let out a long breath, "but for China, you have found a direction!" Facts have proved that we, China, our nation, can also live such a happy and good life. ”

"Chairman Chen, I won't beat around the bush, we are not the time to retire for the elderly, these experiences have also made me see clearly, how are you going to arrange us?" Li Zongren said calmly.

"Yes! Chairman Chen, maybe we are all generals, but we also have a patriotic heart. Chen Jitang also said.

"It's good that you have this heart, but the People's Army has the rules of the People's Army, and I hope you don't mind. In this way, you will first go to the Chinese Military Academy to study for a period of time, and you will be given the opportunity to display it later. In the future, the southwest will definitely not be the current southwest, and your goal should be a little farther, and when you leave the military academy, it will be the time for you to regain military power. ”

Military academy? Bai Chongxi and the others couldn't help but be a little moved. At this time, he was just a chicken in the soup, and he was still a prisoner. I usually look at the military books that are sent, and I have been fascinated by the Chinese Military Academy for a long time. Although the military academy is also in this place, none of them have ever been there, and they have heard a lot of news about the military academy, and they are looking forward to the next study.

Military? They knew that Chen Shao's strength was not comparable to those warlords. According to their understanding, the People's Army, which is a battalion, has more heavy weapons than the two divisions in the country. What's even more ridiculous is that the weapons of those warlords were all bought from Chen Shao.

In October 1924, Zhang Zuolin led his troops to attack Shanhaiguan, and the Second Zhifeng War broke out. Cao Kun saw that the war was tight, and ordered Feng to go out to Gubeikou, but refused to allocate food and wages. Wu Peifu sent troops to the Beijing Division, but strictly ordered Feng to fight, and Feng Yuxiang had long been wary of this. At this time, Zhang Zuolin sent someone to lobby Feng Yuxiang. Feng Yuxiang agreed to unite with Zhang Zuolin to oppose Wu on the condition that Fengjun would not enter the customs. Feng retreated, Zhang Zuolin attacked Shanhaiguan, and Wu Peifu was forced to leave Beijing and go north. When the time was ripe, Feng Yuxiang ordered Lu Zhonglin to rush into Beijing and capture Cao Kun alive. Cao Kun, who had been president for a year, stepped down. Feng Yuxiang was welcomed into Beijing by Sun Yue. Wu Peifu was defeated and retreated, when he learned the news of Cao Kun's departure, he was ready to fight to the death with Feng Yuxiang, Duan Qirui also sent a letter to urge him to go to the wilderness at this time, and Wu Peifu had to take the outer ship south to Hubei. In order to eradicate the roots of the restoration, Feng Yuxiang chased Puyi out of the palace. After Cao Kun and Wu Peifu stepped down, Zhang Zuolin reneged on his promise that the Fengjun would not enter the customs, led his troops into the customs, and went to Jinmen to persuade Duan Qirui to go out of the mountains to take charge. Duan Qirui, the scheming leader of the Anhui faction, pretended to make a gesture, claiming that he would discuss it after Feng Yuxiang came to Tianjin. In order to save the country, Feng Yuxiang decided to go to Tianjin in person despite the opposition of his subordinates. Feng Yuxiang accused Zhang Lin of breaking his promise, and Zhang Zuolin threatened to occupy all of China, and wanted to take advantage of the hunting opportunity to plot against Feng Yuxiang. Feng Yuxiang escaped from Tianjin. At this time, Duan Qirui ripped off his disguise and hurriedly assumed the provisional administration.

During the battle of Zhifeng, Chen Shao did not make too many moves, but just sent a telegram to warn them not to kill the people in vain, and if anyone came in chaos, he would support the other side, and a large supply of weapons was supplied.

At the same time, Chen Shao also announced the beginning of the formation of the Construction Corps, which is different from the conventional combat corps, which focuses on construction and uses military training as the mainstay, and the construction corps announced the recruitment of 200,000 soldiers, which is to the outside world to claim the recruitment of railway workers. It is equipped with artillery in small quantities and will not be equipped with heavy weapons such as armored vehicles.

The heavy equipment of the construction corps is some heavy equipment used in construction, such as excavators, bulldozers, cranes, armored bridge erection vehicles, and road rollers.

The number of light and heavy machine guns, as in other units, has decreased.

The military training of the construction corps was also carried out in the barracks, and at the beginning it was only military training, and only after three months, it was half a day of construction and half a day of training.

Now there are two main tasks of the construction corps, one is the highway and the other is the railway.

Construction was led by senior engineers, and training was carried out by infantry instructors.