Since handing over the list of officers with the expanded army to Zhang Zhizhong, Song Zhewu and Xiao Guodong have been very busy. The first is the expansion of the troops, fortunately, the 30,000 recruits have been almost trained, and the 7th, 8th, and 9th regiments have been newly formed, and the first division is composed of the 1st, 4th, and 7th regiments, with division commander Zhang Yafei; The 2nd, 5th, and 8th regiments formed the 2nd Division, with division commander Gao Zongbao; The 3rd, 6th, and 9th regiments formed the 3rd Division, with division commander Zhang Tao. It's just that due to the lack of soldiers, the artillery, baggage, engineers, reconnaissance guards and other units of the three divisions are not fully equipped, and there is no way to do it, so we can only make up for it later. The commander of the cavalry division was, of course, Wei Guanghui; Liang Fang, commander of the artillery brigade; Brigade Commander Wu Jin. The original guard battalion was expanded into a guard brigade, with Ye Changgui as the brigade commander and Liang Bang as the deputy brigade commander. The special brigade was included in the guard brigade sequence, mainly because Song Zhewu didn't want to pay too much attention to this unit. Although the artillery was expanded into a brigade, the brigade was only put up first, and in fact there were only two 75mm mountain artillery regiments and a 120mm heavy mortar regiment for the time being. At present, the monthly profits of several factories will be consumed by the various expenses of more than 100,000 troops in the same month, and the money abroad can only be used at the end of the year, and he now only has money for storing ammunition, and there is no way to purchase weapons for the time being. If Nanjing gave him military expenses, he would be more generous.

The expanded frame must come down, Song Zhewu threw all the specific affairs to Xiao Guodong, and plunged into Wang Xinggang's Spring Festival Gala rehearsal base to get busy with the Spring Festival Gala.

As soon as Song Zhewu heard that Nanjing was going to send reporters, he immediately felt that this was an opportunity, an opportunity for him and his troops to make a name for himself, and he had to seize this very rare opportunity to make a big fuss. Only by becoming well-known will it attract the attention of various factions, and will it gain the greatest benefit from their competition. Chairman Chiang of Nanjing immediately promoted him to a higher rank, promoted his troops, and paid him a salary, for fear that others would not know, and sent reporters to make a big deal of it. All this shows that Chairman Chiang in Nanjing is announcing to all factions: Song Zhewu and his troops are mine, so you should not get involved. But will others do what he wants? At least Yan Laoxi won't, Song Zhewu believes that Yan Xishan, who has come back to his senses, will soon come to show favor to him.

In order to do a good job in this "Military and Civilian Spring Festival Gala", which opened the precedent of the Republic of China, Song Zhewu pulled Wang Xinggang and Fang Zhen to study the program repeatedly, but the program was still too small, and there was no way to add a few more operas. Two more rehearsals were organized, and then we stopped. The venue of the party is placed at the foot of the mountain outside the city, and a huge stage is set up against the mountain, and the stage background curtain is made by a few young people who are engaged in art in the literature and art department, according to Song Zhewu's intentions, but under the cover of the front curtain, everyone can not see the real face. Diagonally facing the stage, two large tents were built for the distinguished guests.

The three days came in a blink of an eye, and on the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the reporters sent by Nanjing were first picked up from Shimen by a convoy sent by Song Zhewu at noon, and Wang Xinggang was specifically responsible for receiving these literati. What makes Song Zhewu happy is that there are still a few actors among these people, which really makes Song Zhewu feel that Chairman Jiang is thoughtful!

Song Zhewu immediately arranged for these uncrowned kings to serve wine to catch the wind, in order to entertain these nobles from Nanjing, he specially invited a chef from Beiping, and purchased a large number of ingredients that could not be found in Laiyuan. There is only one purpose, that is, to make these reporters happy and write articles praising Song Zhewu, so that they can have more depth and strength.

Song Zhewu's extremely warm hospitality made the reporters very happy, these days of long-distance travel, so that these reporters in the big city of Shanghai and Nanjing have suffered a lot, and many people even scolded this Song Zhewu who did not let them live in peace for many years, and came to Laiyuan. However, after Song Zhewu gave everyone a letter of hard work, all the unhappiness disappeared. The two section chiefs of the Central Propaganda Department who led the team were more expensive for hard work, and Song Zhewu gave them two small yellow croakers per person. The attitude of these two people towards Song Zhewu immediately changed from humble politeness at the beginning to sincere gratitude, and repeatedly said that for party-state elites like Song Zhewu, young rookies must write a special book, and Song Zhewu must become a role model for [***] young generals.

After settling the reporters, Song Zhewu, Xiao Guodong, and Wang Xu took the chief and deputy commanders of the four divisions, as well as Liang Fang, Wu Jin and others, as well as Zhang Zhizhong, Meng Chu, and Secretary Chen of the Party Department and dozens of people, and went outside the city to greet Shang Zhen and Lin Wei. I received a telegram from Shang Zhen last night, knowing that they should arrive at Laiyuan at about three o'clock in the afternoon. Wei Guanghui, who received Song Zhewu's telegram, hurried back to Laiyuan yesterday with a cavalry regiment of more than 2,000 people escorting more than 7,000 pack horses. In addition to the pack horses that were sent back in the past, there are now more than 15,000 pack horses in the whole army, and now if the whole army marches in battle, all weapons and ammunition will no longer be carried on the shoulders of the baggage soldiers.

Ye Changgui took a guard company of the guard brigade, all equipped with P18 submachine guns, and Wei Guanghui's cavalry regiment, and set off at noon to greet him.

At nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, the convoy of Shang Zhen and Lin Wei and his entourage, escorted by more than 2,000 cavalry, came majestically outside Laiyuan City. The convoy consisted of 5 cars and 6 trucks, after Shang Zhen and Lin Wei got out of the car, Song Zhewu stepped forward quickly and gave Shang Zhen a military salute first, and Song Zhewu's actions made Shang Zhen very satisfied. Chiang Kai-shek forcibly took away Song Zhewu's elite army from him, which made him very annoyed, but Lin Wei, the confidant of the chairman of the committee, flew to Beiping in person, comforted and comforted him, and insisted that he personally read out the personnel appointment of the former security brigade, which made Shang Zhen's anger a lot less. The dignified chairman of the Military Commission and the actual leader of China, in this way, he has given himself enough face, and it is okay, who made his temple too small. Now, Song Zhewu has not forgotten his old club, and came to salute himself first, instead of greeting the celebrities around the chairman first, which greatly satisfied his self-esteem.

"Wengo. Let me introduce to you, this is Lin Wei, director of the General Headquarters Staff Office. Shang Zhen happily pulled Song Zhewu to introduce him to Lin Wei.

Song Zhewu knew that Lin Wei and Chen Bui were known as the two housekeepers of Chairman Jiang's side, one article and one martial arts, and they won the trust of Chairman Jiang. He and Zhang Zhizhong are very similar on the surface, neither is greedy for power, and neither has any ambitions, but in fact, they are not. Zhang Zhizhong's surname is indifferent to fame and fortune, which is due to the surname of heaven; Lin Wei deliberately suppressed his original surname. In March 1935, in order to unify the personnel of the army, navy and air force of the whole country, the Military Commission set up a Quanxu Hall in the Military Commission, which was specially responsible for the evaluation of army generals, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Lin Wei as the first director. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Lin Sen, chairman of the Kuomintang political axe, awarded a medal of loyalty to the chief officers of various departments, departments and associations of the Military Commission.

It is said that Song Zhewu is also a lieutenant general, although the appointment has not yet been officially announced, there is no need to salute Lin Wei, who is also a lieutenant general, but Lin Wei is the director of the General Staff Department of the General Headquarters, and the salute is reasonable in terms of position.

Without waiting for Song Zhewu to salute Lin Wei, Lin Wei grabbed Song Zhewu's hand and said enthusiastically: "Commander Song, we are all soldiers, soldiers don't treat those false courtesies, how old am I to be fooled with you, you call me Brother Wei Wen, I will call you Brother Wen Ge, do you think it?" "Being able to call the chairman of the committee a brother and a brother, of course Song Zhewu is happy: "It's better to be respectful than to obey your fate, then I will become your brother Weiwen" After speaking, the two laughed. Then Zhang Zhizhong came over to say hello to Shang Zhen, and the two knew each other for a long time, and they didn't need to be introduced by others. Then, Song Zhewu introduced his subordinates to Shang Zhen and Lin Wei one by one. In addition to Xiao Guodong and Ye Changgui, the others Shang Zhen had never seen it, he and Lin Wei shook hands with these generals in order to show their affection, and when they were introduced to Meng Chu, Shang Zhen held Meng Chu's hand and said: "County Magistrate Meng, Wen Ge has repeatedly told me that you are a good official who is diligent and loves the people, and there are not many such people now!" I wanted to transfer you to the provincial government, but Wen Ge had to keep you for another year, you have to cooperate with Wen Ge, and I will transfer you after a year. ”

Shang Zhen wanted to transfer himself to the provincial political axe, Song Zhewu had already told him, this was a great thing for Meng Chu, who had no background and no money, without Song Zhewu's garrison Laiyuan, where would Shang Zhen know him. Look at him. Out of gratitude to Song Zhewu, he had no choice but to stay in Laiyuan and take Chu Feng wholeheartedly to help Song Zhewu deal with civil affairs. At this moment, seeing that Shang Zhen, the chairman of the provincial government, was like this to himself, he was excited to thank him again and again. Lin Wei in the back heard that the county magistrate was a person valued by Song Zhewu, and he also shook hands and encouraged him. Meng Chu knew that without Song Zhewu, these people would not look at him squarely, and his gratitude to Song Zhewu in his heart increased again.

To Song Zhewu's surprise, Yan Yangchu also followed Shang Zhen. It turned out that Shang Zhen knew that Yan Yangchu did not have a family and was alone in Dingxian, so he brought him along the way, and there were two reporters from Beiping in his entourage. "Congratulations, Wengo!" Without waiting for Song Zhewu to speak, Yan Yangchu continued to smile and said: "I, a poor man, came here to eat a good meal for the New Year; Second, it's the New Year, come and ask for some reward. Spring is coming soon, and many farmers in my Dingxian demonstration county have no seed money, so I wanted to find Chairman Shang, but he is not rich as the provincial chairman, so you have to give me 180,000 yuan this time, otherwise I won't leave. ”

"Good, good! Mr. Yangchu's matter, Wen Ge will definitely do it. After speaking, he pulled Yan Yangchu to introduce it to everyone again. Zhang Zhizhong and Lin Wei looked at Song Zhewu and Yan Yangchu's affectionate appearance, and they were also very happy in their hearts, a soldier who cares about the livelihood of the people will definitely not be a person who disregards the general interests of the nation, and they did not recommend him in vain in front of the chairman of the committee.

Song Zhewu led everyone to the brigade headquarters of the Geyuan Temple, except for a few people who followed Song Zhewu to greet Shang Zhen and Lin Wei, the other people who were promoted were waiting in the conference room of the brigade headquarters. First, Lin Wei encouraged and condoled everyone on behalf of Chairman Jiang, and then Shang Zhen read out everyone's orders one by one. Subsequently, Song Zhewu said on behalf of all the promoted personnel: "Resolutely support the political axe of the Central Committee, resolutely support Chairman Jiang, and under the leadership of Chairman Shang Zhen, vigorously suppress bandits and stabilize local ......."

Because the start time of the party was set at 6 o'clock in the evening, Shang Zhen and Lin Wei followed Song Zhewu to the party scene after a short rest.