In contemporary China, there are not many people with the rank of general in the army, whether it is the Soviet Union or the Anhui system or the Jin system, the Hubei system, etc., these armies that also belong to the Beiyang system, regardless of whether they are in a hostile state with Zhao Dongyun, but the big guy still belongs to such a big system as Beiyang, at least so far Duan Qirui still recognizes the Jingshi Republic Government as the only government in China, he just does not recognize Zhao Dongyun as the president.

So don't look at the lively fights between Beiyang warlords such as Wang Yingkai, Zhao Dongyun, and Duan Qirui last year, but they didn't declare any independence or anything like that, Zhao Dongyun didn't have it before entering the customs, and Duan Qirui didn't have it after Zhao Dongyun became president.

Therefore, in contemporary China, there are still only two governments, that is, the 'Empire of the Federal Republic of China' led by Zhang Zhidong and controlled by the southern provinces, and the 'Republic of China' established by the Beiyang system.

In this case, although Duan Qirui and others were at war with Zhao Dongyun, he Duan Qirui himself was still an army general registered in the Quanxu Department of the Beiyang Republican Government.

At present, there are many army generals officially registered in the Quanxu Office of the Beiyang Republican Government, such as Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen, Wu Fengling, Wang Ruxian, Zhang Huaizhi and others, but there is only one general belonging to the Soviet family, and that is Meng Enyuan.

Although Xu Bangjie and Chen Guangyuan were previously awarded the rank of lieutenant general and general, this military rank still belongs to lieutenant general in essence, and they just enjoy the ceremonial treatment of a general.

Today, Zhao Dongyun awarded Xu Bangjie, who had outstanding achievements in the southward operation, the official rank of army general, in recognition of Xu Bangjie's military exploits in leading the Second Army to take Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

Although Xu Bangjie had already predicted before entering the customs that if he was a good person, then he was very likely to reach the pinnacle of his life in the unification war and become an army general, but he did not expect that it would come so quickly, this unification war has not yet been fought, and he was promoted to an army general, which must be a lie to say that he is unhappy.

And he didn't know that the reason why he was promoted to general was that in addition to his own military exploits, Zhao Dongyun also had other considerations, that is, to boost the morale of the army and prepare for the next step of crossing the river in the south.

He wants to let the generals of the military see hope: as long as you win the battle and have military exploits, then I, Zhao Dongyun, will never be stingy, whether it is power or honor, I can give it to you!

With Xu Bangjie being awarded the rank of 'general' of the army, Zhao Dongyun conferred military ranks on many other generals of the military, such as Liu Tinggui, commander of the 13th Division, who was awarded the rank of major 'general and lieutenant' of the army, and Xue Yiping, the former chief of staff of the 10th Division and the current commander of the 29th Brigade, was awarded the rank of major 'general' of the army, and Lin Pingxiong, the new commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade, was awarded the rank of major 'general and lieutenant' of the army.

In addition, there are many people who have newly obtained or promoted the honors, such as Chen Guangyuan was promoted from the third to the second, the third division commander Gu Lanyu will be awarded the third honor, last year several generals who successively surrendered to the army, such as the first division commander Lu Yongxiang won the medal, the sixteenth division commander Zhang Dianru also won the medal, the first mixed brigade commander Bao Guiqing's military rank was promoted from the army major 'general to the army major 'general plus the middle' general at the same time, he was also awarded the four medals, Even Liu Chaolu, the commander of the 31st Brigade, was awarded the fourth honor.

The division commander was officially awarded the rank of lieutenant general and three medals, and the commander of the mixed brigade was awarded the rank of major general plus lieutenant general, four medals, and even the commander of an ordinary infantry brigade could receive five medals. It's just that although their military ranks and honors are on the high side, everyone knows that this is a gesture made by Zhao Dongyun to the outside world to attract more enemy generals to surrender.

In this promotion and awarding ceremony of dozens of people, the most valued is naturally Xu Bangjie's promotion to army general, and the next person who attracted attention was not Gu Lanyu and others, but a junior in the eyes of everyone: Yang Deming.

He was promoted by Zhao Dongyun to the rank of major general and lieutenant general of the army because of his appointment as the commander of the 14th Division.

Why is he so eye-catching, just because he is the only division commander without a medal among all the division commanders and mixed brigade commanders in the Feng Army!

In other words, people were not surprised that he did not have a medal and was even promoted to the rank of major 'general and lieutenant general', but that he was extremely surprised that he was appointed commander of the 14th Division.

Now there are only a few infantry divisions in the Feng Army, and there are only nine divisions including the Toucheng troops and the empty frame troops, and the main forces of these nine divisions are the third, ninth, and tenth divisions. The second-line troops are the 1st, 11th, and 12th divisions, and the 8th and 16th divisions are the first division again.

However, the newly formed 14th and 15th Divisions, and the current 15th Division are still just empty shelves, and there is not even a division commander, but this 14th Division is different!

Although this division is newly organized, unlike the 11th and 12th Divisions that were hastily organized and trained into an army in the early days, this division has had more time for training, and it has directly transferred many units from the 7th Mixed Brigade and the 9th Mixed Brigade, and its weapons and equipment, especially heavy weapons, have the latest artillery imported from Germany by an entire regiment.

Just by looking at the composition of the officers inside, you can see how important this division is in Zhao Dongyun's mind, the commanders of the division's two brigade commanders, four infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, and a cavalry regiment are even including the chief of staff of the division and the chief of staff of the two infantry brigades.

In the contemporary Soviet army, the graduates of the Army University still regard themselves as advanced students, and regard themselves as Zhao Dongyun's most senior officers.

This small group of advanced students is undoubtedly the most loyal and highest group under Zhao Dongyun.

And the middle and high-level positions of the 14th Division are all held by advanced students, so it is enough to see that Zhao Dongyun attaches great importance to this division.

Not only for senior officers, but also for middle and lower ranks, six of the top 10 outstanding graduates of the ninth March crash course graduated from the Mukden Military Academy in the winter of 1907 were assigned to the newly established 14th Division.

Among the 12 infantry battalion commanders, one-third of the battalion commanders had studied in Germany, and all of them had participated in southward operations, and were outstanding young officers with rich combat experience.

Although the 14th Division, which brought together a large number of elite talents and spent a lot of money to build, has not yet been officially declared an army, people in the Feng Army know that this division is the main division carefully built by Zhao Dongyun, and it is hoped that this division can have the combat effectiveness of the third, ninth, and tenth divisions, or even surpass the above three divisions.

For the position of the commander of this division, to be honest, many Fengjun generals have peeped into it, such as Li Chun, He Zonglian, Cao Kun and Liu Tinggui, the current division commanders, and even Gu Lanyu said in private that if the marshal wants to transfer him to the 14th Division, then he is confident that he will bring out a new third division.

On the eve of the award ceremony, Zhao Dongyun suddenly recalled Yang Deming, the former chief of the operations department and later the commander of the 17th Brigade on the southern Anhui front, to return to Beijing.

At this time, people remembered why Zhao Dongyun had transferred Yang Deming from the position of the chief of the combat department to the field army as an ordinary infantry brigade commander, in order to let this person accumulate combat experience and qualifications, to put it bluntly, he was asked to gild, and now after he transitioned to the position of brigade commander for half a year, Zhao Dongyun finally let Yang Deming lead the first division of the army.

Looking at the president who gave him a new military rank, Yang Deming had mixed feelings in his heart!

Although he knew earlier that his career in the army would be much smoother with Zhao Dongyun's attention, he didn't expect that Zhao Dongyun would attach so much importance to him, and let such a junior surpass many Fengjun seniors to become the commander of the 14th Division in one fell swoop.

Even after the ceremony, on the way back after receiving the congratulations of a group of colleagues, he was still in a trance, this qiē came too quickly!

When he first joined the army and stayed in Germany, how could he have thought that he would become on a par with famous generals such as Gu Lanyu and Ren Cungao so soon!

He didn't know that Zhao Dongyun had brought him up so quickly to become the commander of the 14th Division, and it was also a division that had no way, according to Zhao Dongyun's original intention, it should be to let Yang Deming train for a while and accumulate enough combat experience before serving as the commander of the 1st Division.

However, as more and more troops under his command are under his command, it is becoming more and more difficult to find talents under his command, especially those who can serve as senior generals.

Contemporary Zhao Dongyun can solve the problem of the shortage of grass-roots officers in a short period of time, and the group of middle-level officers has the support of advanced students, and there are some Fengtian military academy students and Beiyang military academy students with rich combat experience, the problem is not too big, but in terms of senior generals, it is extremely lacking.

If there are useful talents under his hands, why would he let Lin Yongquan, a civilian-type and low-level person, serve as the commander of the Ninth Division. Looking at the many brigade commanders of the contemporary Feng Army, almost all of them are old men who have followed Zhao Dongyun for many years, and they are now all division commanders and brigade commanders. After all, these brigade commanders and regiment commanders received a relatively low level of military school education, and they did not continue their studies after joining the army.

Even these people are extremely scarce for Zhao Dongyun, although these people are worse as a whole, but they are all generals who have been in the army for many years and have rich combat experience, the most obvious is Xu Bangjie, he is a veritable veteran in the Feng army, not only is he old, but he has never received any new military education, but it does not prevent him from commanding tens of thousands of troops to fight south.

And there are not many people like Xu Bangjie, Meng Enyuan, and Cao Kun!

And Zhao Dongyun didn't want a person with mediocre ability to take charge of the 14th Division, which had placed his high hopes on him, so he planned to recall Yang Deming, a junior of the same school, from the Jiangbei front line and entrust him with an important task.

Yang Deming, as a top student of the Berlin Military Academy and a junior of Zhao Dongyun's school, can squeeze into the top three in the entire Feng Army, and he has already shown great talent during his tenure as the head of the Operations Department, otherwise Zhao Dongyun would not have specially asked him to go to the 17th Brigade to serve as the brigade commander, in order to pave the way for him.

Although Yang Deming's appointment to the 14th Division caused a stir within the Feng Army, the current Soviet Department is in a state of rising prosperity, and although many people are appreciative in their hearts, they do not have the courage to question Zhao Dongyun's decision, at most they just complain a few words in their hearts.

After officially becoming the commander of the 14th Division, Yang Deming continued to train the troops to wait for the inspection of the command to officially become an army, and once it was officially formed, then the division would follow in the footsteps of other Feng troops to the south!

And Yang Deming also knows very well that after fighting in the south, it is the time to truly test the combat effectiveness of the 14th Division and test his ability!