In fact, Feng Guozhang was reluctant to tear his face with Zhou Fu in the overall situation of river defense. He knew the importance of the Yellow River's defense.

In Henan and Shandong provinces, river engineering has always been one of the main tasks in the province. For this reason, the imperial court allocated a large amount of special silver every year, although due to the increasing foreign aggression since the First Sino-Japanese War, which affected the revenue of the central government and reduced the payment of river silver, the above still gave money.

The officials who were taken off because of the river defense problem could not be counted with two hands stretched out.

The problem is that Zhou Fu wants to put the army on the front line this time! This made Feng Guozhang feel unacceptable. On the top line, you have to take due responsibility! This is what Feng is most worried about. Although his duty is not to defend the river, he is most worried about the territory of Shandong, especially a section of the river in Wuding Prefecture. But Futai actually offered to be responsible for that paragraph!

In the depths of Feng Guozhang's personality, there is something called "slippery head".

Zhou Fu's proposal to rely on the army to hold the river defense was undoubtedly bewitched by Long Qian's house, and the evidence was very sufficient, and he even had a plan to divide the troops to garrison. But Feng Guozhang considered himself and couldn't agree.

Feng Guozhang saw Zhou Fu's dark face, pondered for a moment, got up and solemnly bowed his hand, "Boss, if Guozhang doesn't accept the order, there is really a difficulty." The army went to the embankment and held on, Guozhang agreed, but can the specific plan be changed? In the Caozhou section, Guozhang's headquarters was completely handed over to the right wing of the Weisheng Army and was not transferred. The section from Tai'an to Jinan is under the responsibility of Guozhang's department, but the governments of the two places must obey Guozhang's dispatch, and the river defense materials must also be prepared locally. Whoever makes a mistake, Guozhang will take his head! Wuding section. Let's leave it to Long Qian. ”

Zhou Fu didn't say anything, thinking to himself, this kid is even more ruthless, and he will take the head if he makes a mistake? However, Feng Guozhang's plan is not unacceptable, Long Qian went all the way to help, walking 300 miles, and 500 miles.

"Okay, that's it. However, Admiral Feng said that the first thing to take is ......"

"Your Excellency. Isn't Guozhang a person who doesn't know the laws of the imperial court? But not harshly. The humble position is afraid that the following will be contemptuous and misguided. ”

"Okay, just do what Hua Fu said. The old man sent a telegram to Long Qian, asking him to lead his troops to leave as soon as possible. In any case, we can't afford to let the river go wrong this year. ”

Long Qian received an official notice from the governor's yamen. He did not take into account the proposed changes and divided his troops in two places. Day. The order to assemble and fight the flood was given to the relevant troops. Zhou Yi's second bid went west to Caozhou and was responsible for river defense in Caozhou. Long Qian seemed to be a little worried about Caozhou - there had just been an accident over there, and the chief of staff Ning Shijun was sent to the second standard to sit in the town. Long Qian handed it over to Ning Shijun to take to Caozhou. There was also a company and a half of the headquarters engineer battalion and a company of the cavalry battalion.

The rest of the detachments of the team directly under the headquarters (owed to the second company of the guard battalion), the first standard of Lushan (owed to the cavalry company), the second and third battalions of the reserve and their directly subordinate detachments, went to Wuding Mansion. This route was personally led by Long Qian.

The headquarters was presided over by Deputy Chief of Staff Situ Jun, and because the situation was calm, there was only one guard company and one cavalry company in the remaining troops. However, there are hundreds of cadets in Yizhou who accompany the battalion military academy, and Fei County also retains one of the strongest battalions. Long Qian thought it was enough to deal with the emergency.

On the second day after the order was issued, more than 100 pamphlets were urgently printed and sent to various ministries for the troops to study. This booklet, which Long Qian personally compiled half a month ago on the precautions related to flood control and embankment repair, made him work hard, but he was never satisfied. It wasn't until the task came that the draft was hurriedly finalized and printed in a hurry. Anyway, he thought, it's better to have it than not to have it. After all, none of these commanders under his command had ever commanded a war against the flood, including himself.

At the same time as distributing the pamphlets, Long Qian wrote to the governor of the yamen and put forward seven suggestions: first, he listed the details of the materials needed for river defense, and asked the local government to prepare them in full; The second is to issue special bonds for river defense in the name of the governor of Shandong, Yamen, to raise funds from wealthy households along the coast to purchase and hoard flood control materials, and agree to repay debts with interest in the coming year; Third, it is necessary to gather river workers who understand water conservancy and those who commanded the construction of embankments in the first place, and find out the dangerous river sections in advance. Fourth, young and strong people are recruited for a fee, organized into river defense troops, and under the unified management of the army, they will conduct meticulous inspections along the coast to find hidden dangers and eliminate them in a timely manner. Fifth, it is necessary to form a fleet, the larger the tonnage, the better, in case of emergency mobilization of materials and personnel. Sixth, formulate a plan so that in case of a levee break, everyone will not be busy and do not know what to do. Seventh, establish a medical team to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic.

Of these seven suggestions, except for the first and fourth ones, which had been discussed with Zhou Fu in person, the remaining five were all thought of later, but now that they were put forward, Long Qian felt that it was a little late.

Of course, the government is not full of wine bags and rice bags. This is by no means the first time that Shandong has faced the problem of river defense, and there should be no shortage of capable officials and cadres in this regard. And Zhou Fu is also a capable official. What Long Qian is worried about is the low administrative efficiency of the government, and there is a serious phenomenon of signal attenuation. By the time the above instructions were conveyed to the grassroots level, they had already been out of shape. And in the matter of river defense, the most basic level is the most lethal link......

In view of this, Long Qian decided to rush to Wuding day and night.

The reason why Ning Shijun and Zhou Yi were in charge of the Caozhou section and led the main force to defend the Wuding section was because Wuding was more dangerous. Long Qian did not have any information, but he reasoned that the lower the Yellow River went, the more serious the sediment accumulation became, and the more prominent the problem of the hanging river, the greater the hidden danger.

On the afternoon of the second day, Long Qian handed over the troops to Lu Shan, and led the relevant personnel of the Staff Office, the Intelligence Department, and the Logistics Department, as well as the rest of the cavalry battalion, to start in advance. Lu Shan disagreed, believing that this kind of work of hitting the front station was not done by the commander.

"I'll go! Commander, you will come with the brigade later. I've memorized your little book, and I know what I'm doing. ”

"You don't have experience in fighting floods......"

"Commander, have you commanded the flood fight? There's a first time for everything. If you even let you do the work of setting up a camp and sentry detectives, will you make your defeated general Feng Guozhang laugh at the fact that there is only one commander in our Mengshan Army? ”

That's a bit of a general. Long Qian smiled, "Also, the knife is not sharpened and is not fast." I'll leave it to you. Others are really not so restless. If the person I choose is not suitable, you will change. The first bid was handed over to Feng Lun's agent, and he paid attention to keeping in touch with me. ”

"Yes!" Lu Shan smiled.

"Lushan. This matter must not be taken lightly. It's harder than fighting. For what? You can guess the enemy's next move, but you can't guess God's mind. We looked like there were quite a few of us, but there weren't many of them scattered out. Therefore, it is necessary to find out the most dangerous areas and make a plan to come out. There is also the preparation of materials, you can't just listen to the words of those officials, understand? ”

"Understood!" Lu Shan restrained his smile, saluted Long Qian, turned over and rode away.

……

Huang Jinhui and his company made steady progress according to the predetermined march route and marching plan. The plan lists the daily marching distance and camping sites, which are very detailed. The troops carried two days' worth of dry rations with them, and the expected full-load march did not show up. The four carts sent by each company loaded the vehicles with heavy weapons. Ammunition was also diverted quite a bit from the soldiers. This greatly lightened the burden and made the armed march of about 100 miles a day relatively easy.

Huang Jinhui didn't know what to do, and his soldiers didn't know what to do, if this march record was passed on to Feng Guozhang. His initial impression must have been a big surprise. And then I just don't believe it. Because. At the beginning of the small station training, under the strict supervision of the German army's advisory group, there was no such astonishing record.

That's still a small station soldier who claims to be the best soldier in the world. If you take out the patrol battalion that the green battalion has changed. Under the same conditions, it would be a miracle that they could break a third of this record.

There is a difference between the training of the reserve forces and the two step markers. Those two units have the credit of the German coaching staff. But the Germans had never been to the base area, and they didn't even know that there was an astonishing force in the mountains on the right flank of the Victorious Army. But the training syllabus of the reserve forces does have German traces, especially the artillery and engineer regulations, most of which come from the German army. What Situ Jun took out was also something of German origin. The German instructors expressed their admiration for the strong marching strength of the Wasion Army more than once. And this time the reserve forces showed no less strength than the main forces.

Take a 10-minute break every 10 miles and a 30-minute break every 30 miles. Take an hour off after lunch to give the soldiers a break. Fortunately, in the summer, the days are very long and there is plenty of time.

The authority of the company commander is not won by his position, but by his own quality. What the superiors give is power, not authority. Wei has to be built on his own. Huang Jinhui not only listened to the instructor's teachings, but also compared the advantages and disadvantages of his own company commanders. This long-distance armed march was the best opportunity for him to establish his prestige.

The company commander is not worthy of a war horse. He had to walk with his soldiers, but he needed to use his brain to decide which position to walk in. The Fifth Company is the vanguard company of the whole army, and the control of speed is the most important thing, not only to ensure that the marching speed can complete the mileage of the day's march, but also to ensure that the troops will not be dragged down. So on the first day, Huang Jinhui personally became a spearhead. Fortunately, he has a bonus pocket watch that counts time.

When the speed is pressed, Huang Jinhui needs to inspect the whole company and find problems, so that his position will be constantly adjusted from the top soldier to the middle and even the back row. It is necessary to pay attention to whether the troops are adapted to the frequency of marches that they have determined. The troops should not be overly excited, nor should they be discouraged early. In this way, it is necessary to adjust the atmosphere, for example, to sing a song in the villages passing through.

Every 10 miles or so, Wong would order his troops to rest for 10 minutes. Dump the mud and sand that has poured into your shoes, check your leggings, drink a little water, and tidy up your loose gear......

At the Suiying Military Academy, Wong learned a lot, including the skills of long-distance marching. These things look simple, but they are very practical. Just like drinking water, each officer and soldier has an elaborately designed and multi-purpose iron cylinder, which can hold about three catties if all of it is used for water. Recruits always don't drink when they're not thirsty, and when they're thirsty, they take big gulps of water, so they drink up early, but veterans don't do that, they always take small sips and start replenishing before they are thirsty. These things have to be taught to the soldiers. Huang Jinhui noticed that out of the company's nine combat squad leaders, six were competent and three were not very satisfactory.

During the 30-mile break, Huang Jinhui would remind the cooking squad to find a water source to replenish drinking water for the officers and soldiers. It is not allowed to drink raw water, and the water must be boiled as soon as possible. The four carts were loaded not only with weapons and ammunition, but also with food and cooking utensils. The cooking class at the end of the line is the most comfortable, and they can even take turns to catch the car and rest. However, by noon and evening, the cooking class should be busy. At noon, the soldiers who eat quickly can sleep soundly for dozens of minutes, but the firehead soldiers cannot.

At noon, Huang Jinhui had to wait until the soldiers had eaten enough before allowing himself to eat. Then he would have no time to rest. When he arrived at the designated camp in the evening, he also had to liaise with the camp team sent by Commander Wang, arrange accommodation for each platoon and squad, personally inquire whether there were any people who were sick from heat stroke in each squad, and strictly ordered the squad leaders to urge the soldiers to burn their feet with hot water and solve the foot blisters of the long-distance march, so as not to affect the next day's march.

In addition, a small meeting of the platoon commanders will be convened every night to review and discuss the issue of the day's march. The biggest problem on the first day was that the army marched under the scorching sun almost all day, and the deputy company commander and platoon commander asked whether it was possible to start earlier and extend the noon break to avoid the scorching sun at noon. It was a good suggestion, and he immediately agreed. However, the time is set by the superior, and he must write a written report and change it after the superior's approval. Therefore, Huang Jinhui walked back with the letter and went to find the battalion commander who was following behind. Fortunately, the battalion commander, who was very close to their camp, did not read the letter, listened to his verbal report, and immediately agreed to his suggestion, approving the advance of the morning march to four o'clock and a rest at eleven o'clock. Afternoon departures are postponed to 4 p.m.

As soon as this decision was announced, the company immediately burst into joy. Looking at the eyes of the soldiers looking at him, Huang Jinhui knew that the first day of his march was a success. (To be continued......)