Now that the 15 th Army has a great cause, Hu Weidong does not dare to take all the equipment and technicians with the army as he did when he moved to Jiangnan, including Wu Yunduo, an apprentice who was directly called from Luoyang by telegram (by plane) to learn the knowledge of ships after the occupation of Qingdao, and there are less than 1,000 maintenance personnel (weapons, automobiles, and airplanes) around him. The reason why these works can be carried out is largely because Qingdao itself has a certain industrial base, and when Jinan was recovered, it occupied the Jinan Arsenal, which was far from being comparable with the five major arsenals of the Republic of China, but also had some scale, so the equipment and workers needed to modify anti-aircraft machine guns could still be found.

It is naturally a good thing that the air defense capability of warships has been strengthened, but for the air defense brigade of the 15 th Army, it is very depressing to suddenly have so many new antiaircraft guns taken away in exchange for a large amount of garbage. But this is also a helpless thing, although as long as the warship is closer to the shore, the anti-aircraft guns on the shore can be protected, but after all, the anti-aircraft guns are directly installed on the ship and the effective range is longer. Fortunately, this kind of thing is also a temporary move, and it is understandable from the top and bottom of the air defense brigade

Soon after, after discovering that Japanese reconnaissance planes had flown over Qingdao for two consecutive days and that intelligence personnel had also discovered that there were devil spies infiltrating, Hu Weidong realized that the Japanese army base camp might have become suspicious and did not dare to delay any longer, so he hurriedly sent a telegram to inform the Central Committee, and the Red Party Central Committee, which had been prepared for a long time, also sent a report to Zhou Gong as soon as possible, asking him to inform the national government of the good news that the 15 th Army had occupied Qingdao and captured a large number of Japanese warships.

Lao Jiang's first reaction when he found out was not surprise, but disbelief. But he knew that Zhou Gong was a person, and soon realized that the Red Party could not really take Qingdao, and after asking about the fighting style of the 15th Army, Lao Jiang was amazed at the same time, but also secretly shocked by the Red Party's super transformation ability, "The demagogic ability of the Red Thought is really terrible, and the Japanese can actually use it for it"

But no matter what, Qingdao's recovery is definitely a shot in the arm for the now overwhelmed old Jiang. The capture of so many devil warships is a miracle that can greatly boost the morale of the whole country and the hearts of the people, and what makes Lao Chiang especially happy is that the Red Party lacks naval talents. Therefore, although they desperately grabbed this rich trophy, in the end they had to take the initiative to hand it over to the government, which really made Lao Jiang feel physically and mentally happy like never before. The whole person seemed to be ten years younger all of a sudden. Because Shen Honglie has always been loyal and reliable since he defected to Jiang, Lao Jiang didn't expect that guy to be easily dragged to the side of the Red Party

First of all, he took out the commendation order that had been prepared by the 15th Army when it conquered Jinan but was not issued after all, and added a few more. Lao Chiang not only promoted Hu Weidong to the rank of second-class general of the army and promoted the 15 th Army to the 15 th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, but also gave the establishment of the Group Army A at once, that is, the units under the jurisdiction of the 15 th Group Army will be armies, not divisions, and at the same time, because the 15 th Army has become a Group Army of the First Division. Zhang Hao and Su Yu were also promoted to generals along with Hu Weidong.

This was originally great news, but after thinking about it, Lao Jiang, who was still a little worried, added a little restriction to it before the order of the Military Commission was issued: "Without the permission of the Military Commission, you are not allowed to increase the number of military levels without permission." But Hu Weidong soon realized the loophole in this order. Ma Zhongying's armored cavalry division was directly turned into a regular division, because this was a division, not an "army." After knowing this, Lao Jiang hurriedly issued another order, saying that except for the units directly under the group army, they must strictly abide by the principle of the "three-three system" and are not allowed to expand the number at will. As a result, Hu Weidong promoted all the units directly under the group army to the division level (such as the heavy artillery brigade, the engineer regiment, and the air defense brigade) in one fell swoop. and the newly created rocket artillery regiment and the like. ), the number of Jishu equipment is not enough, so the infantry is added in the name of the escort force, and the total strength has almost reached 100,000 people, which makes Lao Jiang angry enough, of course, these are all later words...,

Perhaps Lao Jiang felt that this was somewhat unkind, so he not only agreed to Hu Weidong's request and transferred Fu Zuoyi from Suiyuan to the First Theater to take over the post of chairman of Shandong Province of Shen Honglie, but also directly assigned Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army to Hu Weidong's 15th Group Army.

Hu Weidong's suggestion to transfer Fu Zuoyi to Shandong was not as simple as it seemed, and the implicit meaning was that Lao Jiang would hand over Suiyuan to the Eighth Route Army. Although Lao Jiang is militarily incompetent, he is still quite politically sensitive, and it is naturally impossible not to see the intentions of Hu Weidong or the Red Party, but considering that Suiyuan is not large and has a population of only more than 2 million, almost half of which has fallen into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, so Lao Jiang is happy to be a favor, and the Red Party has obtained Baotou, which is rich in coal and iron resources, and has the largest rare earth mine Baiyun Obo in Shijie, and the fertile Hetao Plain. It's not that important in comparison.

For Fu Zuoyi, although Suiyuan, the land of the foundation, has been lost, Shandong has a large population and developed economy (relative to Suiyuan), even if the 15th Army occupies most of the territory, the leakage is much more valuable than Suiyuan. What's more, Fu Zuoyi is just an orthodox soldier in his bones, and unconsciously becoming a warlord is completely caused by the development of the situation, even if he has lost all his territory, he can leave Suiyuan, which is now basically no devil to fight, and came to Shandong, the main battlefield of resistance against Japan, Fu Zuoyi, who is bent on killing the enemy and serving the country, has only joy in his heart

Of course, the most important thing is the naval issue, and Lao Chiang, who regarded Shen Honglie as his hardcore, naturally agreed to let him be the commander of the Third Fleet of the rebuilt Republic of China Navy, and the Red Party's request for Ye Fei, a general of the New Fourth Army, to be the director of the Political Department of the Third Fleet was also agreed to by Lao Chiang

The members of the Third Fleet Command were directly selected by the two parties through consultation, and the captains of the ships were selected from among the existing middle and senior officers of the Kuomintang Navy. )