The changing times are dizzying.

On 25 June, Chen Tongming, commander of the Sixth Army of the Chinese Revolutionary Army, issued a telegram in Chaozhou, changing the name of the unit to the "Guangdong Salvation Army," and the whole army had more than 50,000 troops in seven divisions, announcing that it would attack Guangzhou.

The next day, the Socialist government declared Chen Bu a rebel and announced that the Chinese Revolutionary Army would crusade against the East, with Jiang Wei, commander-in-chief of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and Xu Chongzhi, Liu Ximin, and Yang Zhenhuan as deputy commanders-in-chief.

The planned troops were divided into three routes to meet the Chen army: the left route army, Liu Ximin's Gui army, Yang Zhenhuan's Yunnan army; Xu Chongzhi of the Middle Route Army, Guangdong Army; The Right Route Army was the instructor and the second division of the Guangdong Army. The total strength is about 30,000.

In order to boost the morale of the military, the instructors are scheduled to hold a pledge meeting in Guangzhou on 28 June.

The various departments of the instructors quickly assembled, but only the Xie Niancheng Department of the Third Regiment and the Third Battalion was unable to participate in the pledge meeting due to the distance from the station.

Early in the morning of 27 June, Xie Niancheng ordered all units to straighten out their personnel and horses, stand by and set off, and when he arrived in Guangzhou City, he could not come because of the large number of troops, and he, the battalion commander, still had to attend the military meeting.

The military meeting was scheduled to be held at the Qingpu Military Academy in the afternoon, and Xie Niancheng returned to Guangzhou in the morning. His residence at the Military and Political University, which is next door to the Qingpu Military Academy, has become the office of the Confidential Bureau. In addition to Yang Yuwei, there are two other operators and several internal guards of the confidential bureau.

After having lunch and telling Yang Yuwei to pack up the necessary things and go out with the army, Xie Niancheng rushed to Qingpu Military Academy.

In the combat conference room, Xie Niancheng and several other officers of the third regiment looked a little different:

The others were wearing gray military uniforms, only the officers of the third regiment were not, the regiment commander Hu Yang and the other two battalion commanders were wearing the black uniforms of the anti-smuggling team, and Xie Niancheng was wearing the mighty dark green military uniform.

Not to mention Jiang Wei and senior officers, just pull out an officer and soldier of the first and second regiments and ask them what they think of the third regiment. ”。

In the hearts of others, the three regiments of the mentor are adapted from the ** of the previous business group, what combat effectiveness can they have?

Therefore, in the combat conference room, no one paid any attention to these officers of the third regiment.

Hu Yang and the two battalion commanders were from a serious military academy, but during this time, they were tossed enough by the gang of bear soldiers under them, and they had no interest in talking.

The two attendants arrived at the door, and Jiang Wei entered the combat conference room in military uniform.

All the officers stood up together: "Hello Commander!" ”

Jiang Wei raised his hand and motioned for everyone to sit down: "If there are too many, I won't talk about it, and now I will ask Chief of Staff He Yingcheng to introduce the enemy situation and the deployment of our army." ”

He Yingcheng opened the curtain on the wall, revealing a huge map:

"Everyone, please see, the Chen army attacked Guangzhou in three ways, and the five divisions of its main force Lin Hu were assembled in Huizhou, and our army planned that the left route army would outflank the Longjiang line from the north road, and my right route instructor would advance along the first line of Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Tamsui, and the middle route army would build a defense line in the Futian area, and after the left and right roads were in place, they would attack Huizhou!"

"I taught the mentor the plan to advance with the first and second regiments attacking in echelons, and the third regiment covering the baggage as the rear guard troops......"

After presenting the complete plan, each ministry develops its own action plan.

How much Jiang Wei and He Yingcheng looked down on the Third Regiment, how much Commander Hu of the Third Regiment looked down on the Third Battalion, in his heart, these three battalions were nothing more than the militia regiments, which were worse than the first and second battalions.

Hu Yang, the commander of the third regiment, ordered that the first and second battalions were responsible for guarding the baggage of the whole division and marching twenty miles behind the main force of the division. ”

After receiving such an order, Xie Niancheng was not angry, but felt lucky—although his third battalion was well-trained and well-equipped, most of the officers and soldiers had never seen blood after all, and it was a good choice to walk in the rear of the large team and slowly feel the atmosphere of the battlefield.

On the morning of the 28th, Xie Niancheng still wore his eye-catching dark green military uniform to the rostrum of the swearing-in meeting, not that he wanted to be in the limelight, but that the officers and men of the first and second battalions of the third regiment who participated in the swearing-in meeting were wearing gray-black military uniforms.

Xie Niancheng came to participate in this conference, the main purpose was to see the military appearance and military discipline of the friendly army, and to compare it with the troops under his command, so that it would be good to have a reference for fighting.

At this swearing-in meeting, Xie Niancheng was the only battalion-level officer of the infantry, and except for the inconvenient transportation of the artillery battalion, the battalion and company-level officers of other units had to lead the troops to participate in the parade.

Xie Niancheng and several officers of the teaching regiment stood on the edge of the rostrum, and these were also acquaintances: Gu Dingwen, commander of the first regiment, Zhang Linfu, commander of the second regiment, and Chen Qin, commander of the artillery battalion.

These people looked at Xie Niancheng's mood, which was somewhat complicated.

The other students of the first phase of Qingpu, the best ones are only company-level cadres, this Xie Niancheng is good, as soon as he graduated, he became the battalion commander, and the seven military cadets brought out were all arranged for battalion and company-level positions, and the most important thing is that Xie Niancheng is not yet eighteen years old!

In the more than 100 years since the overthrow of the imperial system, Xie Niancheng has sat in this position at the age of less than 18 years old, which should be unprecedented.

However, they still have a good impression of Xie Niancheng.

Chen Qin was kind, and he was very concerned about this student: "Battalion Commander Xie, this is about to go on the expedition, are your battalions ready?" ”

Xie Niancheng also had a very good impression of these teachers, and during his time at the military academy, he often asked them questions, "Report to Regiment Commander Gu, Regiment Commander Zhang, and Battalion Commander Chen, our department has 970 people, all of whom are fully loaded, have sufficient food and ammunition, and are ready for battle...... It's just that my unit, from the officer to the soldier, has never been on the battlefield, and I feel a little uneasy. ”

Gu Dingwen thought he had heard it wrong: "What? Nine hundred and seventy? ”

Zhang Linfu and Chen Qin also looked at Xie Niancheng.

"Yes, that's right, my battalion has three infantry companies, an artillery company, and an engineer baggage company, plus some directly subordinate troops at the battalion headquarters, this is the number."

"Artillery battery?"

Chen Qin was very interested in this, and his artillery battalion was subordinate to two companies, with a total of six 75 mountain guns.

"What cannons do you have? How many doors? ”

"Our artillery battery is equipped with 12 80 mortars."

"Mortars?"

In this era, mortars were all new weapons in Europe, and no army had seen the real thing on the side of the Han Kingdom.

Chen Qin, as an artillery commander, naturally knew what a mortar was.

"Where did you get all this good stuff?"

"I bought it from Germany to a friend...... This time, our battalion went out to fight, and we relied on these things to strengthen our courage. ”

Gu Dingwen and Zhang Linfu also joined the conversation to exchange how to use mortars.

After chatting for a long time, the swearing-in meeting began, led by Jiang Wei, Wang Zhongzheng, and Song Kaizhong, leading the people on the rostrum to stand in front of the stage and began to review the Eastern Expeditionary troops.

The order of review is in the order of the unit number.

The first to enter the field was a regiment, a battalion and a company, and the company commander was also an old acquaintance of Xie Niancheng.

Guan Zongnan walked in the front, leading his brother in the company, and his mood was agitated.

As soon as he graduated, he became a company commander in the army, and he was still a regiment, a battalion, and a company!

Walking to the rostrum, Guan Zongnan saluted to the rostrum, and admired and respected Jiang Wei, the principal and Bole, from the bottom of his heart.

Suddenly, Guan Zongnan saw a guy in a dark green military uniform on the side who was very familiar, "Isn't this that Xie Niancheng?" How did he stand on the podium? ”

Thinking of Xie Niancheng, Guan Zongnan's respect and love for the principal were temporarily forgotten, and he felt a pain in the egg.

That's right, it's just egg pain, when he was beaten in a group at school, he ate Xie Niancheng's leg, but he could only walk with his legs between his legs for several days.

"Hmph, this guy looks very angry, I heard that he also became the battalion commander, this time the Eastern Crusade, when the militia he led is killed, I will save him...... After saving him, see how I teach him. "It's true that hatred blinds people.

The deputy company commander next to him kicked him imperceptibly: "Company commander, you have walked past the rostrum, there is no need to salute." ”

Guan Zongnan reacted at this time, "Damn, I almost made a fool...... The surname is Xie, this is all your responsibility! ”

Similar scenes occurred one after another, Du Qingquan, Huang Lian, and Pan Jinhan, who had eaten Xie Niancheng's big moves such as "pulling the hair and attacking", "locking the throat", "dragon gripping the hand", and "attacking the ribs", all had mixed tastes after seeing Xie Niancheng standing on the rostrum.

The bigwigs on the rostrum were still very pleased with the gaffes of these young officers: "I am still from Qingpu Military Academy, you see, many students can't help themselves, and the revolutionary sentiment is very high!" ”

Xie Niancheng didn't notice these details, and his attention was all on the morale, equipment, and physical condition of the troops.

According to his observations, the first and second regiments, from officers to soldiers, were in a very good mental state, and their equipment was not satisfactory; the soldiers of the infantry company only had rifles and a very small number of flower machines and pistols, and the infantry company of Xie Niancheng's unit was equipped with light machine guns and mortars, two new weapons that had only just come out.

The first regiment and the second regiment each had six heavy machine guns, which could be regarded as heavy firepower, and the physical condition of the soldiers was obviously thinner than that of Xie Niancheng's troops.

It would be disappointing to wait until the troops of the third regiment entered the field.

The soldiers of the first and second battalions of the third regiment were drawn from the anti-smuggling corps by officers assigned by Wang Zhongzheng, and most of these soldiers were soldiers of the former merchant regiment.

Although the officers worked very hard, the training time was not long, and as soon as they looked like they were in good spirits, they were a little worse than the troops in front of them, and their weapons were all rifles and pistols, and the two battalions did not even have a single heavy machine gun.

Jiang Wei and He Yingcheng sent them to guard the baggage, which can be regarded as making the best use of them.

The troops all entered the arena, and the bigwigs on the rostrum also took turns to make speeches, and finally the swearing-in meeting ended successfully amid the overwhelming slogans of tens of thousands of Guangzhou onlookers and thousands of officers and men.

After the conference, Xie Niancheng declined the invitation of others, took the action plan given to him by Head Hu, and went back to school to pick up Yang Yuwei and go straight to Meiling.