With the Third Division led by Gu Lanyu taking Chuzhou and Duan Qirui's Fourth Division retreating to Jinling, it can be said that the Jiangbei Campaign, which the Feng army has been going on for more than three months, has come to an end.

Zhang Huaizhi's Lu army was not strong, its fifth division of the 10th Brigade in the Jinan Campaign was heavily damaged by the Feng army, although Zhang Huaizhi reorganized the brigade in the following months, but the reorganized 10th Brigade has lost the combat power of the old Beiyang era, reduced to the same as the provincial army.

In a series of subsequent battles such as Suzhou and Mengcheng, the Fifth Division was once again wounded, and after retreating to Hefei, the Fifth Division had less than 7,000 troops and almost lost all its heavy weapons.

As for the thousands of other provincial troops under Zhang Huaizhi's command, it is not worth mentioning.

Therefore, there are tens of thousands of Zhang Huaizhi in central Anhui, but it is almost a fool's dream to block the southward movement of the Feng army.

Zhang Huaizhi himself knew this, so after learning that Duan Qirui had retreated from Chuzhou, he once again retreated from Hefei and other places in central Anhui with the remnants of the Lu army, and ran all the way to Anqing.

"As of yesterday, the First Army of our army has successively captured Hefei, Lu'an and other important prefectures and counties in central Anhui, and the Fourth Mixed Brigade of the Forward has entered the Anqing area. Our Second Army has successively conquered Chuzhou, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong and other important prefectures and counties, and the forward forces have arrived in the surrounding areas of Jinling! When Fang Biyong said this, he showed a happy face.

In the past few months, more than 100,000 Feng troops have continued to fight hard in the Jiangbei region, and now they have finally taken down the huge Jiangbei region, and the importance of Jiangbei to the Soviet system is undoubted, and taking Jiangbei is equivalent to completely consolidating the rule of the Soviet system in the north and the Central Plains. If you add Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen, who have been loyal to the central government and reached an alliance with Zhao Dongyun, they control Shanxi and northern Hubei.

Then for the northern republican government, it can barely be regarded as controlling China north of the Yangtze River.

In the hearts of many people, taking the entire area north of the Yangtze River, the Soviet Union has laid the foundation for hegemony, and as long as the Yangtze River continues to go south, it is just around the corner to win and unify the whole of China!

Under such circumstances, many military and political dignitaries of the Soviet system were beaming, and one by one they had the dream of being the heroes of the founding of the country and leaving their names in history.

However, for the actual rulers of North China and the leaders of the Soviet Union, taking Jiangbei is just the beginning, and they still face many problems if they want to completely unify China.

Zhao Dongyun knew very well that he was not only facing more than 100,000 enemies under Duan Qirui or hundreds of thousands of enemy troops in the Southern Federation, but he also needed to face his own problems.

Since the entry into the customs in June, the war that lasted for half a year almost exhausted all the finances of the Soviet system, and the military expenditure of the Feng army in the first few months could still rely on the foundation accumulated in the three eastern provinces to support, but the subsequent southward war, especially the Jiangbei war, in fact, the Soviet system could no longer come up with money to support the war, and could only rely on the issuance of patriotic bonds and embezzlement of funds from other directions.

In order to raise funds for the war, as Zhao Dongyun's financial steward, Premier Xiong Xiling, as always, played the matter of tearing down the east wall and repairing the west wall that he had been sitting on for many years, not only embezzling the administrative funds of other departments, such as officials' salaries and education funds, but even the operating profits of the Jingfeng Railway and the profits obtained by several officially controlled enterprises were misappropriated by him.

Now that the war in Jiangbei has stopped for a while, this has relieved Xiong Xiling and other officials in the financial system, although everyone knows that the war is not over, but it is extremely rare to be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

It's just that when Xiong Xiling thought that he could breathe a sigh of relief, the headquarters put forward the so-called rest and replenishment plan, and he asked for 20 million yuan of plan funds with one mouth, which made Xiong Xiling almost vomit blood after knowing it!

"President, although it is appropriate to reorganize the armament war, but you are also clear about our current situation, the Ministry of Finance has been in arrears for three months in a row, and it is really difficult to raise additional military funds!" Xiong Xiling did not say anything against the expansion of armaments, but blindly said that there was no money.

Listening to Xiong Xiling say that there is no money, it is not once or twice, every time he wants to spend money, this Xiong Xiling is this rhetoric, no matter whether he has money or not, he doesn't want to take it out anyway, this kind of Xiong Xiling makes the high-level generals of the military very dissatisfied, especially Zhao Dongping, the military's financial housekeeper, has turned his face with Xiong Xiling several times because of this.

However, no matter what kind of bad feelings the senior generals of the military have towards Xiong Xiling, and even belittled this person in Zhao Dongyun many times, the outside world does not see Zhao Dongyun's intention to remove him.

To be honest, Zhao Dongyun himself is also a little dissatisfied with Xiong Xiling's attitude, but don't say it, Zhao Dongyun really doesn't want to replace him. This Xiong Xiling said that he had no money every time, but he would not drop the chain at the critical moment, regardless of whether he issued bonds to borrow money or embezzled it, he would always take out money to maintain military supplies at the moment of shutdown.

If you simply look at the accounts of the Ministry of Finance, the deficit of the Soviet finances is already as high as more than 40 million yuan, and if someone else were in charge of the finances of the Soviet Union, it is estimated that he would have been blinded a long time ago, but this Xiong Xiling still barely supported the Soviet finances and did not go bankrupt, and when the Feng army was fighting fiercely on the front line and urgently needed ammunition, he could always make up hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to buy ammunition to supply the front line.

Simply talking about the ability to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, in the huge Su family, Zhao Dongyun really can't find a second person who can compare with Xiong Xiling.

With this hand, Zhao Dongyun has to continue to use him, and he is still reused!

Relatively speaking, for other political officials in the Soviet Union, there are many people who play finance smoothly, such as Zhou Xuexi, the current Minister of Finance, who is also very set, but this person is good at banking and industry. Another example is Zhao E, who has been trained for many years, is also good at foreign affairs, and has a very good set of industry and commerce for the development of the economy, and the director of the tax department of the Ministry of Finance who gradually entered Zhao Dongyun's vision after Fengjun entered the customs, this person has a very good set of tax affairs, and has made a lot of contributions to sorting out the tax system of the Soviet system.

But none of the above people can maintain the normal operation of the Soviet regime and maintain the continuous fighting of the Feng army in such a predicament like Xiong Xiling.

Zhao Dongyun is still a very realistic person in his bones, although he personally doesn't like Xiong Xiling's character very much, but this does not prevent him from reusing Xiong Xiling.

However, Fang Biyong on the side glanced at Xiong Xiling, and then said: "We also know the difficulties in the cabinet, but now the situation is difficult, and the rest and recuperation plan proposed by us is also formulated according to the actual situation today!" ”

At this time, Fang Biyong put his gaze back on Zhao Dongyun, and said respectfully: "President, our army has been fighting for half a year, and has experienced countless large and small battles, especially in the Jiangbei War that lasted for three months, the ammunition and ordnance in the army's inventory have been exhausted, and now the troops going south are in urgent need of ammunition replenishment. ”

Perhaps feeling that this could not convince Zhao Dongyun, Fang Biyong continued: "The Third Division, one of the main forces going south, has gone through many battles, although the division is still relatively complete in personnel, it is lacking in armament and ammunition. It is reported below that the division has only two thousand rounds of seventy-five-millimeter shells, an average of less than forty rounds per shell. Its 60-millimeter mortar shells are less than 15 rounds each, and ammunition is also relatively scarce.

In addition, a lot of mortars and machine guns were lost in the battle, which needed to be replenished one by one!

If it is not supplemented, it will be difficult for the third division to exert its original peak combat power in its current state! ”

Fang Biyong continued: "This situation is not only unique to the Third Division, but also the Ninth and Tenth Divisions and other participating units have the above problems!

In order to restore the combat effectiveness of the troops, our colleagues from several departments have jointly formulated this plan, which aims to restore the combat effectiveness of the existing departments and restock enough ammunition to support the needs of future southward operations! ”

As soon as his words fell, Xiong Xiling sneered: "Even if the ammunition is replenished, it will be 20 million yuan, and besides, we just gave 2 million to the military last month to purchase ammunition, and as far as I know, this batch of newly purchased ammunition has not been sent to the southern combat troops!" ”

Fang Biyong immediately said: "The ordnance purchased with that money is used for the newly built 14th and 15th Divisions, and it has nothing to do with the southbound combat troops!" ”

Xiong Xiling immediately smiled: "Your military wants to replenish the ordnance of the southbound combat troops, and at the same time want to expand the new troops. But have you ever considered whether our current financial situation can support your extravagant spending, and besides, the 14th and 15th Divisions, which have already spent no less than 3 million before and after, are still an empty shelf, I would like to ask, where did you spend all that money? Have you been fed with it? ”

Fang Biyong originally had a good temper, but when he heard Xiong Xiling's words, his face was not very good-looking: "The progress of the new two divisions is slow, it's not because you have been dragging your feet and refusing to give money, the first batch of funds of three million only arrived last month, and most of them were used to order field artillery, and the rest of the money is not even enough for the settling-in fee required to recruit soldiers." ”

Xiong Xiling said again: "You can't blame me for being late for more than half a month for this batch of funds, it was you who said that the southern combat funds asked me to give you money to buy ammunition and winter clothes first, so I embezzled the money for half a month!" ”

"You!" When Xiong Xiling said this, Fang Biyong almost scolded, but even if he was angry in his heart, he also knew that it was Zhao Dongyun on the side, so he immediately snorted coldly.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun also spoke: "They are all people with heads and faces outside, how can they still be the same as hairy young men!" ”