Now that the Ninth and Tenth Legions had commanders, what about the Seventh and Eighth Legions? Jiang Baili raised this question to Xiao Zhenlei.

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said: "Appoint Liu Chenglong as the commander of the Seventh Legion and Yang Jie as the commander of the Eighth Legion!" ”

"Okay!"

On April 12, 1918, the Western Theater Commander's Headquarters of the Chinese Expeditionary Force received an order from the domestic base camp, ordering the First Army Corps and the Second Army Corps of the Expeditionary Force to be transferred back to China for rest and recuperation.

After receiving the telegram order to evacuate one after another, Wu Shiyou, commander of the First Army Corps, and Zhang Xiaozhun, commander of the Second Army Corps, were a little disappointed, they had fought bloody battles here for three years, and this dynasty was about to be transferred back to China, and they were really a little reluctant, not only all the officers and men of the First Army Corps and the Second Army Corps had to return to China, but even their officers and commanders had to be ordered to return to China to report on their work, and the new Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Army Corps would come over one after another to replace the First Army Corps and the Second Army Corps. All the heavy weapons were handed over to the new troops, and all they could bring back was the remains of their comrades, their own glory, and their wounds.

According to the plan of the domestic base camp, in order to save time and facilitate the transportation of troops, the base camp ordered all the soldiers of the newly formed four corps, including the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth regiments, to carry only one set of changed uniforms, and not to carry any weapons and equipment, to board the ships at the assembly area, and to receive the weapons and equipment of the first and second armies that were to be evacuated after arriving at the destination to complete the task of changing guards.

This arrangement is undoubtedly the quickest and most convenient. It has reduced the burden on soldiers and officers, and has reduced the transportation pressure on logistics and transportation departments. It's just that in the process of transporting troops to Europe, it is necessary to send an escort fleet to accompany the escort, otherwise all the troops going to Europe will not be armed. Once you encounter an accident on the way, the consequences will be unimaginable.

There is no problem with the formation of the Seventh and Eighth Army Corps, there are still 1.5 million troops in the country itself, and there is no pressure to transfer some troops from various places to form two corps, and they only need to send an order to complete the boarding within half a month.

There was no problem with the Ninth Army Corps, which was composed entirely of Japanese troops, who were now being held in concentration camps in Siberia and other parts of Japan, and could assemble in half a month with just one order. Now these Japanese troops had no other choice, and the Chinese side asked them to go to Europe to participate in the war. They were promised to be sent home after the war was over, and each soldier and officer was given a handsome commission.

A little more troublesome is to recruit 300,000 troops from Southeast Asian countries again, including North Korea, every small country has to recruit another 30,000 soldiers, which makes these small countries a little dissatisfied.

In fact, even if it is not a big problem to recruit hundreds of thousands of soldiers from these small countries, many men in Southeast Asian countries are lazy at home, only women work outside, and men are lazy and stupid.

In order to solve the problem of conscription from these countries, Xiao Zhenlei had to personally convene a meeting of the envoys of these small countries in China. Knock them out, knock them out.

On the morning of 14 April, the DPRK and Southeast Asian envoys in China came to the presidential palace one after another to wait for Xiao Zhenlei's reception, and Xiao Zhenlei received them at 11 o'clock in the morning.

Xiao Zhenlei looked at the envoys of North Korea and Southeast Asian countries and said, "I summoned you here this time, I think you already know the reason. That is another 300,000 troops, another 30,000 from each of your countries, 30,000 and that's it. I don't think there should be much pressure on this conscription! The Second Army performed quite well in the European theater, although it was reduced from 1.1 million to more than 500,000 at the beginning. But at present, these more than 500,000 people have become elite soldiers, and they have changed from farmers who only know how to farm to elite soldiers in the past three years. In these three years, every soldier they are still alive has experienced many battles, and each of them has a lot of trophies, and I believe that the value of these trophies is something they can't earn in their lifetime by staying at home, and the military has given an order that in the next three months, they will be transferred back to China one after another to recuperate, and then disband and go home! This conscription of 300,000 troops is to fill the gap left by them after they are transferred back to China, and I don't think other countries will not support it, right? ”

The envoys of various countries were originally very reluctant, not only to go to Europe to fight the war, not to fight for themselves, but to fight for China, but listening to Xiao Zhenlei's words, they knew that the remaining 500,000 soldiers each had a lot of loot, and if those valuable booty could be brought back to China, it would undoubtedly stimulate their domestic economy.

On the other hand, if the countries do not agree to conscript 300,000 troops, then the Second Army will not have the opportunity to return home until the end of the war.

The envoys of various countries all know that their arms can't twist their thighs, no matter how unwilling they are, under the strong pressure of China, they can't withstand the pressure at all, and they dare not go against China's wishes and not cooperate, and the conscription of 300,000 troops again has become a foregone conclusion, which cannot be changed, and it cannot be avoided!

Yang Shiqi said next to him: "Ladies and gentlemen, now all countries are members of the Great China Federation, we are a whole, in Europe, our country has sent many more troops than all countries combined, this war is not for our country to fight, let all countries send troops to participate in the order to enhance the status of countries in the world, now the armies of all countries in Europe have played a prestige, the great powers all look down on all countries, if the countries are not willing to send troops to participate, do not show their faces in front of the great powers, who will look down on you?" If you want to be respected by others, you must have the ability to be respected, if you don't pay for it, and you don't pay for it, who will take you seriously? I hope you think it through! ”

The envoy of Siam stood up and said, "Your Excellency, the pressure on our country to conscript 30,000 troops is too great??????."

Xiao Zhenlei immediately said: "Then don't recruit soldiers, and directly transfer 30,000 people from the Siamese army!" ”

The envoy of Siamese was dumbfounded: "Ah?????? Your Excellency, this ?????? No! ”

Xiao Zhenlei's eyes widened: "What?" No way? Then let the King of Siam personally lead his troops to Europe to participate in the war! Do you think I want to use your trash? The men are lazy to eat and do at home one by one, and the family's food and clothing are all earned by the women from the outside, and you waste conscripts are transferred to the battlefield, which is for your good, to reduce the burden on you, don't be ignorant! Still have questions? ”

The Siamese envoy shrank his neck in fright, and hurriedly said: "No, no, our country will immediately organize a conscription and strive to complete it within two months!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei looked at the envoys of other countries: "Do other countries still have objections?" If there is any objection, raise it now, if not, immediately after returning to the country, our ministers in various countries will also issue conscription orders to the governments of various countries, you must urge the government to complete the conscription as soon as possible, and then our country will send officers to receive it! ”

When the envoys of various countries saw Xiao Zhenlei's anger, they were so frightened that they did not dare to express their dissatisfaction, and immediately said that there was no problem, and when they returned to the embassy, they immediately sent a telegram to China to inform them of the incident, and urged the country to complete the conscription of 30,000 troops as soon as possible.

After sending off the envoys of North Korea and southeastern countries, Xiao Zhenlei said to Yang Shiqi: "Treat these people, we can't blindly appease, we can't always be kind to them, sometimes we must give them some colors to see, so that they don't forget their identity, when it's time to be powerful, let them know that they are powerful, they will be afraid, and they will be honest!" ”

Yang Shiqi arched his hand and said: "The president is wise, Shiqi is taught!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei instructed: "You personally supervise this matter, try to let the 300,000 people complete the boarding within two months, for those disobedient countries, they should be beaten hard, you can't encourage their squeamishness, you can't get used to them, let them think they can bargain!" ”

Yang Shiqi hurriedly said: "Yes, President, I understand!" ”

The matter of transferring 500,000 people from the Japanese surrender to form the Ninth Army Corps, Jiang Baili handed over to the Governor in Japan Lu Zhengxiang, Japan is different from Korea and the southeastern countries, it was originally a hostile country, although it has surrendered, but it cannot be unguarded, now China still has a large number of garrisons in Japan, and the concentration camps throughout Japan are holding the surrendered Japanese troops everywhere, and there needs to be a fully responsible person in many things, so there is the position of Governor in Japan, and the current Governor in Japan is Lu Zhengxiang, He was responsible for dividing Japan into six small countries, supporting the establishment of political power in each of the six small countries, and also had the right to control the garrison.

After receiving a telegram from China, Lu Zhengxiang, who was in Tokyo, thought that if he wanted those surrendered troops to go to Europe to fight in Europe willingly, he had to first persuade the Japanese officers who surrendered, as long as the Japanese officers who surrendered were willing, the soldiers below would be appeased, and those Japanese officers were generally not designated as war criminals, and the officers at the level of group leader and wing commander were not qualified enough to be designated as war criminals, and these people could be co-opted.

Lu Zhengxiang called his secretary and instructed: "Go and contact the commander of the garrison, Wu Peifu, and say that I will invite him to dinner in the evening!" ”

The secretary promised: "Okay! ”

In the evening, Wu Peifu came to the appointment, looking at the table full of dishes, Wu Peifu smiled and said, "Why is Governor Lu so polite today?" It's not often that you have a treat! ”

Lu Zhengxiang greeted: "Come on, General Wu, you also know that the old man doesn't have many treats, so you have to drink and eat more today anyway."

"Then it's better to be respectful than to obey your fate!"

Half an hour later, Wu Peifu was full of wine and food and asked, "Governor Lu, what is the matter with you?" How do you want to give up this meal? ”

Lu Zhengxiang laughed and said: "General Wu is really powerful, you can see this, yes, today the telegram sent to me in China, asking me to transfer 500,000 people from the Japanese surrender to form the Ninth Army to fight in Europe, the domestic officer corps and military police units will arrive soon, I think this matter has to ask General Wu to help!" ”

Wu Peifu heard this and immediately said: "This is as it should be, Governor Lu rest assured, you can rest assured about this matter, how do you want me to cooperate with you?" ”

Lu Zhengxiang thought about it and said, "I want to call those wing captains and captains to have a meeting and mobilize them first!" ”

"Okay, no problem!" (To be continued......)