In the system of power of the soon-to-be-established republic, the head of the office of the General Directorate of National Security does not seem to be a big man, but the head of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Military Commission and the chief of the General Staff of the National Defense Forces are absolutely. On the way back to Xibasho after leaving Haiyan Hall, the guards in several fixed positions saw the chief of the general staff coming over and stood up and saluted.

Ten years ago, he returned to China alone, and ten years witnessed the birth of New China, when the students of the Berlin Military Academy were still struggling in the rank of major and lieutenant colonel, they actually sat on the throne of the chief of the general staff of the Wehrmacht, who was known as the brain of the army.

Situ Jun is undoubtedly an extremely important figure in the Wehrmacht system. But unlike Lu Shan, Wang Mingyuan, Feng Guozhu, Ye Yanbing and other generals who commanded the army, he had no private power in the army, and most of the senior generals in the army regarded him as Long Qian's chief of staff. The chief of staff, who is deeply trusted by the Supreme Commander, seems to have deliberately kept a distance from the commanders, and has no personal friendship with each other. Not only that, but this is obviously the first person in the army other than Long Qian, who lives an extremely simple life, and has remained celibate so far, with almost no personal desires except for work or work.

If you ask the chief of the General Staff, who seems to others to be simple to the extreme, whether he has a secret desire, the answer is yes. How can people have desires? Situ Jun, who has a strong sense of nationality, does not lie in money, women, or Chinese food, but even more despises money like dung. His desire was extremely noble to speak - to build a powerful army beyond the German Army! In the national war that may occur in the future, it will be decisive and wash away the national shame. Recreate the glory of the strong man and the Tang Dynasty!

And the prerequisite for the realization of this ideal is the establishment of an army command structure with absolute authority, similar to the German General Staff. Situ Jun believed that the establishment of a general staff with absolute authority and high efficiency was a prerequisite for building a modern army that could compete with the Western powers.

Modern Germany was born out of the Kingdom of Prussia, and Prussia has a unique military tradition, and it has been described that Prussia has an army in other countries, and the Prussian army has a country. This shows the Prussian tradition of martial arts. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 proved that the Prussian army was superior to the French army, which had once been invincible across Europe, and the reason for the victory of the war was, in the eyes of the Prussians, because they had created a system of general staff, which was more advanced than all the other countries, in which the officers had an astonishing common mind, in Stuart's view. This is the key to ensuring the creation of a strong army and the victory over a single enemy.

He has already taken the seat of Chief of the General Staff. His proposal to create an efficient and authoritative General Staff has won the approval of the supreme rulers and has already acquired the absolute power to reorganize the General Staff.

Situ Jun admitted that the Mengshan Army was already China's most powerful armed force, and that a quick victory in the war against the Qing was expected, albeit with a swiftness that Situ Jun had not expected (Situ Jun overestimated the stability of the Manchu regime). did not expect the various factions to defect in the later stages of the war). At the time of the onslaught of the main forces of the North Ocean. Situ Jun firmly believed that the Shandong army could hold Dezhou. This kind of self-confidence is not based on the fact that the Shandong Army has weapons and equipment that are not weaker than those of its opponents. In other words, Situ Jun, who had a deep understanding of the Beiyang Army, believed that the Mengshan Army founded by Long Qian had more institutional advantages than Beiyang. In the nearly ten years that he has followed Long Qian. Situ Jun has already been impressed by his commander-in-chief, admitting that he has a sharper vision than himself, such as in weapons allocation, troop formation, squad tactics, officer training, etc., especially the application of new technologies, and has a vision beyond himself. The radio stations that were painstakingly procured from the United States played an extremely important role in the anti-Qing war. However, Situ Jun believed that Long Qian still had many shortcomings in the establishment and use of the General Staff system, and now that Long Qian had completely entrusted himself with the task of reorganizing and improving the General Staff Headquarters.

After Situ Jun led the General Staff organs into Beijing, he set up the General Staff in the West Eighth Institute between the Yi Nian Hall and the Qinzheng Palace, which was a large bungalow complex, although some of the houses were dilapidated, and even some houses leaked rain and the doors and windows were damaged, but it was enough to house the organs of the General Staff Department. Situ Jun, who has always adhered to the concept that a soldier must be simple and simple in life, criticized Shang Fengchun's occupation of the Qinzheng Hall and the large-scale renovation of the Xiba Institute, not to save money for Long Qian, but to run against his philosophy of governing the army—once the General Staff organ fell into material comfort, the vigor of this organ would come to an end. Having a bad winter? Do field troops have heating equipment in winter? Did the Northern Army brave the freezing cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius to suppress bandits with coal stoves? Situ Jun's cross-examination made Shang Fengchun, who was born in the Northern Army and now serves as deputy chief of general staff, extremely embarrassed.

After Situ Jun entered Beijing, according to Long Qian's authorization, he guided, organized, and coordinated the formation and transfer of the major military regions and the newly established divisions on the one hand, and drew up military action guidance plans for the major strategic regions on the other, and supervised the implementation of the military regions after submitting them to Long Qian for approval. The fighting in the Southeast Military Region has subsided, but the Northwest Military Region's advance into the northwestern provinces and the Southwest Military Region's march into Sichuan are still fighting on a small scale.

Situ Jun admits that he is more disgusted with politics and is also relatively dull. However, the history of the anti-Qing war and the earlier founding of the Mengshan Army has long proved that in China, it is simply a joke to govern the army without understanding politics.

Returning to his extremely shabby office, Situ Jun immediately summoned Shang Fengchun, deputy chief of the general staff and chief of operations, to report the conclusion of the study on the situation in Outer Mongolia just now, and instructed Shang Fengchun to immediately draft an order and issue it to the Northern Military Region. He then concentrated on revising and perfecting the draft of the army establishment submitted by the Establishment Bureau. The 110-page report, which has been on Mr. Stuart's desk for seven days, is still unfinalized.

After Situ Jun entered Beijing, although he could not get along with Long Qian day and night as in the past, and discussed military issues without scruples (mainly because Long Qian's time was occupied by others), the two of them still talked about the formation of the head of the Wehrmacht several times. Long Qian's long-established idea of separating the two major systems of military administration and military command is being implemented, and this is not only a basically mature practice of various countries, but also conforms to his consistent thinking of separation of powers and constraints. It is fully supported by Situ.

The Ministry of National Defense, which is responsible for the heavy responsibility of military and political affairs, has not yet been formed, but the military order system must go one step ahead. Of the three general departments that have been established so far, the most regular operation is the General Staff Headquarters, the core of the military command system. Although the other two departments, the General Political Department and the General Joint Logistics Department, were established and had their own heads, they did not actually play their due role because the Mengshan Army was divided into three strategic areas that were not connected with each other at that time. For example, Song Jinguo, as the head of the General Joint Logistics Department, was not responsible for the logistics support of the Southern Army, but was only responsible for the supply of all the arms of the Shandong Army and part of the Northern Army, and the Southern Army was specifically responsible for Lian Shupeng. The director of the General Political Department was Fang Shengyuan at that time. But Fang Shengyuan basically did not enter the role. The Southern Army was in charge of Cao Minzhong, and the Shandong Army and the Northern Army were simply in charge of the commander Ning Shijun. Moreover, their energies are mainly focused on training troops to fight wars, and the functions assigned to the General Political Department, such as personnel, auditing, rewards and punishments, are not very regular.

After Long Qian and other Situ Jun led the General Staff organs into Beijing. The task of planning the commanding organ of the armed forces of the Republic was entrusted to Situ Jun. Long Qian said to him. You don't have to wait for government agencies to be established. Let's start with a general plan. I have already discussed with you some principles, and you have designed the structure of the Wehrmacht Command in accordance with the principles that I have set out, and you have defined their respective responsibilities. No omission, no overlap, streamlining and efficient.

This is exactly what Situ Jun is willing to do.

At present, the commanding organs of the armed forces are the three general departments. According to Long Qian's idea of separating the military, government, and military orders, a large mess under the control of the General Political Department will definitely be transferred to the Ministry of National Defense, which will be established soon. However, Situ Jun was very puzzled by the relationship between the General Staff, the General Joint Logistics Department, the Army Command, and the Navy Command, which had also been established, and the Ministry of Defense, which was obviously the highest military and political organ of the country.

He already has two deputies, Shang Fengchun and Zhang Yulin. But on this issue, the two deputies are obviously the second monk Zhang, who is confused.

Situ Jun believed that since Ning Shijun had been appointed commander-in-chief of the navy, the establishment of the naval headquarters was inevitable. With the Navy Command, what to do with the Army? Directly under the president? Long Qian once said in a small area that the Ministry of Defense should act as the acting authority of the Army Command, and he did have such considerations, but in this way, the Navy seems to be independent of the system, which is obviously inappropriate.

It is not only a question of the relationship between the two major branches of the army, navy, and navy. What is the relationship between the Command of the Navy and the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and the General Joint Logistics? Vertical or parallel? Does the General Staff have a naval guidance body? What is the relationship between the total involvement of the Ministry of Defense? If the General Staff and the General Joint Logistics Department were to be parallel, it would not be appropriate for the troops' arms procurement to be entirely decided by the General Joint Logistics Department, because the Combat Training Department may not be involved in the development and procurement of weapons and equipment.

In addition to the above problems, there was also the issue of the branch headquarters raised by Long Qian, who had appointed Duan Qirui as the commander of the artillery, but was rejected by Duan. It proves that Long Qian already has the idea of setting up a branch command. If we take into account the special services such as the engineering corps, cavalry, and signal corps, what is the relationship between the headquarters of these arms and the aforementioned large organs? Is it the disadvantage of the zài stacked bed frame house?

These questions that involve the overall situation can only be answered by Long Qian. Situ Jun admitted that although Long Qian did not have a special military education, he had a sensitivity to the establishment of military institutions beyond others. Of course, he didn't know Long Qian's origins, and attributed it to God's endowment, and the founding leader did have abilities that ordinary people did not have.

In response to the series of questions summarized by Situ Jun, Long Qian's answer is as follows: The Ministry of National Defense is the highest administrative organ of the country's military forces. The Navy Command and the Army Command, which may or may not be established, are organs of the Department of Defense, and they do not have a parallel relationship but a vertical leadership relationship. The Ministry of National Defense is the administrative management of the armed forces throughout the country, which is reflected in the appointment, rewards and punishments, salaries, the establishment of new units, and the abolition of old units. But the Ministry of Defense doesn't care about other business of the army, such as the command of military operations, that is the business of the General Staff. It also does not matter about the procurement of weapons and equipment, that is the business of the joint logistics headquarters. This begs the question, what is the relationship between the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense? The answer is parallelism. The General Staff is the core of the military order system, the Joint Logistics Headquarters is the core of the logistics system, and the Ministry of Defense is the core of the administrative system. Therefore, there must be a higher organ to lead and coordinate these large organs, and this body is the Military Council. I have thought about it repeatedly, the Military Commission cannot be abolished, otherwise it will not be unified. In the future, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the whole country will be constitutionally defined, and in the event of an overall war, the Central Military Commission will be the supreme command. The president will naturally assume the chairmanship of the Military Council. The Minister of Defence, the Chief of the General Staff, the Chief of Joint Logistics, the Commander of the Navy, and the Ministers of the main government departments such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transport, and the Prime Minister of the Government should also be members of the Military Commission. As for the relationship between the Joint Logistics Headquarters and the General Staff Headquarters, which you are worried about, it doesn't matter, it can be coordinated by the Central Military Commission, and the Joint Logistics Headquarters will, of course, listen to the opinions of the General Staff Headquarters. As a matter of fact, the state's military management and command system is like two wheels: the General Staff Department is in charge of establishment, training, and fighting wars, the Ministry of National Defense is in charge of personnel, and the Joint Logistics Headquarters is more in the position of assisting the General Staff Headquarters. Now you get the idea, right? In addition to establishing and perfecting the organs of the General Staff Department, your task is to clearly define the responsibilities of the major organs, and you must not have a situation in which the army and navy are vying for power, as is the case in Japan. The military is not allowed to override the government. There is a phenomenon in which the military influences the political situation. My principle is that the army must be subordinate to the government, not the other way around.

As for the formation of the branch command, Long Qian explained that the arms are different from the services. It is a refinement under the military branch. The current situation. For the time being, only two major arms of the armed forces, artillery and engineering, will be formed. Under the leadership of the General Staff Headquarters, their function is to study and strengthen the building of the two major branches of the armed forces, and they will vertically manage the artillery and engineering units of the military regions. Artillery and engineering units are deployed in different military districts as needed. However, the cavalry and signal corps no longer have a headquarters, the former has no future, and the road is getting narrower and narrower, and the latter does not need a special headquarters, and it is sufficient to set up a communications bureau under the General Staff Department, but the building of the signal corps should be strengthened, not only by strengthening the radio, but also by popularizing wired telephones. After all, there is a leakage problem in radio, and it is still necessary to rely more on wired telephones in peacetime and wartime.

Long Qian explained the structure of the military command organ, and Situ Jun discussed with his assistants several times, came up with the framework for the formation of the General Staff organ, formed a report, and submitted it to Long Qian. Situ Jun planned to set up five bureaus of staff, communications, intelligence, training, and communications. The core department is the General Staff Bureau, which is also the longest-established department of the General Staff Department, formerly known as the Mengshan Army Staff Office. For example, the Communications Bureau was a new unit that was only set up in Guangdong, the Training Bureau was separated from the former staff officers and will be in charge of the training work of the whole army, and the Communications Bureau was a new unit. The establishment of the Intelligence Bureau is based on the belief that it is necessary for the General Staff to establish its own military intelligence system, and the current Military Intelligence Bureau is directly responsible to Long Qian, which is very inconvenient.

The day after the report was handed over, Long Qian called Situ Jun, Shang Fengchun, and Zhang Yulin to Haiyan Hall to discuss the organizational setup of the General Staff Headquarters, and Long Qian put forward several opinions on Situ Jun's report. For the Transportation Bureau, Long Qian believes that it is very good and forward-looking, and military operations are inseparable from transportation, especially railway transportation. The General Staff Department should set up its own military communications department. The establishment of the Ministry of Communications can also be done, and the next step is to vigorously improve and raise the level of communications of the troops. But for other departments, Long Qian put forward his own opinions, and it is clear that he was thinking about Situ Jun at the same time as he conceived the General Staff Agency.

Long Qian believed that Situ Jun's plan lacked important functions, the first was the establishment of a mobilization system, so it was necessary to set up a mobilization bureau or military service bureau to be in charge of the reserve construction of the whole army. Shandong already has experience, and it is necessary to sum up and promote it. Long Qian said, for a country as big as ours, how can we rely on only a dozen or twenty active divisions? On the other hand, even if the country has money, it cannot support millions of troops in peacetime. So it definitely doesn't work without reserves. The General Staff Department should study and formulate a military service system, which should be clearly defined in the form of law after being deliberated and approved by the National Assembly and the government, and implemented by local governments but guided and supervised by the General Staff Headquarters, and it should take 15 to 20 years to reserve 3 million or more reservists to cope with a major war of overall significance.

Second, the General Staff Bureau might as well be called a combat bureau. The General Staff Department is the brain of the whole army, and it must be subordinated to the will of the state strategically, but it must rely on the General Staff Department and the military region in campaign planning, so the General Staff Bureau is not as appropriate as the Operations Bureau. If a war breaks out, the Operations Bureau must shoulder the heavy responsibility of commanding the operations of the whole army, and set up departments that are capable and substantial, and select the best officers to join the Operations Bureau.

Third, the training bureau should not be called the Education and Training Bureau, and there is no need to elaborate on the training, but it is necessary to formulate training standards for various arms of the armed forces and distribute them to the whole army as the basis for training. This is because the management of military academies and academies throughout the army should be handed over to the General Staff Headquarters, and the General Staff Headquarters needs to make overall plans for what professional officers need to be trained.

In addition, we have set up two additional bureaus, one is the Establishment Bureau, which specializes in studying the issue of the organization of troops, and now we have divided the divisions on active duty into two types, A and B, and this is not enough; for the troops in the north and the troops in the south, and the troops fighting in the plains, plateaus, and forest areas, there should be differences in the establishment, and we cannot generalize. The issue of establishment is very important, and it is necessary to have someone specially study everything from the formation of the front army to the number of infantry squads and the allocation of weapons. This is a science, and you should study the military establishment of the great powers, put forward the establishment plan of our army in a targeted manner, and constantly improve it. The second is the Aviation Agency, didn't I say that? It is necessary to vigorously build up the air force, which is a key branch of the armed forces that will determine the outcome of the future, and it is necessary to have special personnel to study and manage it. By the way, there is also the problem of surveying and mapping, we do not have accurate maps, let alone foreign ones, even our own land also lacks accurate topographic maps, this work must be the General Staff Headquarters, have you considered it?

Situ Jun explained that the establishment, surveying, and aviation had all been thought of, and that the original plan was to set up an establishment office and an aviation department under the General Staff Bureau, and a surveying and mapping office under the Training Bureau. Long Qian said that the establishment and aviation should be upgraded, as for surveying and mapping, let's do it according to your ideas, you have to select a department of experts from the university to do this, and the drawing of maps will use airplanes, and you will experience the importance of aviation more and more.

In the past few months, the main energy of Situ Jun and his two assistants, who have a clear division of labor, has been to organize and improve the organs of the General Staff Department. At present, the principal officers of the various bureaus have been fully staffed and are basically operating normally; in addition to the Outer Mongolian issue, the most pressing tasks at the moment are, first, the adjustment of the establishment, and second, the adjustment of the military academies and academies and the adjustment of their majors.

"Report," the report sounded outside the door.

"Come in," Situ Jun put down the pen in his hand.

"Report to the Chief Executive, the Director of the Political Affairs Bureau asks to see me."

"Oh, please." Situ Jun didn't expect Fang Shengyuan, who was busier than him, to come to the door in person.

"Oh, dignified Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, you're oversimplifying, aren't you?" Fang Shengyuan looked at Situ Jun's office and sighed. Although they were all in Xiyuan, Fang Shengyuan came to the General Staff for the first time.

"Is it easy? I think it's pretty good. Situ Jun dragged a chair, "Please sit, do you have any advice?" ”

"Where do you dare." Fang Shengyuan smiled and took out an invitation.

"It was your great joy." Situ Jun took it, "I must go and ask for a cup of wine." ”

"I said, Situ, you should worry about your business. Why don't I talk to Cai Yuanpei? Let him find one for you at Peking University? If you have a bad background, I'm afraid you won't look down on it. ”

"Thank you, thank you. I'll take care of my business. ”

"The Commander has said many times that he wants us to help you." Fang Shengyuan said with a smile.

"Thank you, thank you. Director Fang is about to get married, and he is about to become the prime minister of the government, and I am very touched that he cares about me so much. He said moving words, but there was no moving look on his face. (To be continued......)