The sun was setting, six kilometers east of Quzhou City, and the first brigade and one regiment of the Independent Division were stationed.

In the courtyard of the regiment headquarters, Major Ma Zhu, a staff officer of the regiment, was a little uneasy. Recently, the head of the regiment, Wu Zhe's behavior is quite strange, he does things arbitrarily and arbitrarily, and his temper is also a lot shorter. did not greet the convoy in the morning, and after Wu Zhe returned to the station, he scolded the second company commander who came to inquire about the whereabouts of Bai Yan, the deputy company commander, and then explained with a cold face that Bai Yan had gone on a secret mission.

However, Ma Zhu knew very well that during this period of time, the focus of the work of the whole army revolved around Chiang Kai-shek's inspection of Quzhou and Maoliangwu, and there could be no secret mission at all, so where did Bai Yan, the deputy of the second company, who was Wu Zhe's confidant, go? However, because the entire New Second Army was facing expansion, the management of all brigades and regiments was relatively chaotic, and the flow of personnel was extremely normal, so although Bai Yan was puzzled in his heart, he didn't think of anything else.

In the afternoon, news came from the military headquarters that since Chairman Chiang would no longer make a special visit to Quzhou City, martial law in Quzhou would be lifted, and the 1st Regiment of the Independent Division would be stationed in Fangcun in the early morning of tomorrow to wait for the order of the emergency response team at any time.

The expression on Wu Zhe's face when he received the order was extremely strange, Ma Zhu couldn't bear the doubts in his heart, and after studying tomorrow's task arrangement with Wu Zhe, he saw that it was not early, so he asked to leave, and then walked out of the regiment headquarters with his guards and walked towards the canteen in the east.

Halfway through, the guard couldn't help it, so he rushed to the dense forest next to the school field after asking Ma Zhu for instructions, Ma Zhu lit a cigarette and waited patiently.

"Chief of Staff, there is a situation here, you can come here!" The anxious voice of the guard came.

"Stinky boy, didn't you bring a roll of paper?" Ma Zhu muttered, reluctantly walking into the dense forest. It was evening, and the light in the forest was not very good, so Ma Zhu scolded and said, "Where are you, don't let Lao Tzu step on your kid's poop......"

The guard stood up from behind a haystack near the river and pointed to a pile of branches and leaves beside him: "Chief of Staff, look here! ”

Ma Zhu walked over, followed the direction of the guard's finger, and saw that something seemed to be hidden under the branches and leaves of the trees, and there was a faint smell of blood in the surrounding air. Ma Zhu was very surprised, and hurriedly stepped forward to lift the layers of dead branches, lowered his head and took a closer look, and was suddenly startled.

The corpses of six people were neatly stacked together, the blood stains had already solidified, and large groups of ants climbed up and down, and the black pressure was scattered on the surface of the corpses, which looked extremely terrifying.

Ma Zhu took a sharp breath and muttered, "What's going on?" Isn't this a second lieutenant? The regiment commander said that he went on a secret mission, how could he ......"

The more Ma Zhu thought about it, the more frightened he became, and the guards were so shocked that they couldn't keep their mouths shut. Just now he smelled something wrong when he was in Dajie, and the more he looked at the pile of branches and leaves, the more suspicious he felt, so he called Ma Zhu in, but he didn't expect this amazing discovery!

It turned out that the night before yesterday, Wu Zhe summoned his subordinates and used all kinds of demagogic and brainwashing words to stimulate the recruits to kill Chiang Kai-shek.

Ma Zhu cautiously glanced around, didn't hear anything unusual, and hurriedly pulled the guards away quickly.

######

Phoenix Mountain Arsenal.

Chiang Kai-shek smiled and was very interested, and yesterday Wu Ming promised to support a batch of weapons and equipment in the Xuzhou Theater, and at the same time promised to use troops in Linhang and other places as soon as possible, so that he could let go of his worries. Last night, he talked with Chiang Ching-kuo all night, teasing his grandson, and enjoyed this rare and warm scene.

In the morning, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Quzhou party and government officials in the large conference room of the Maoliangwu Taohuayuan Hotel, and after luncheon, he rushed to the Phoenix Mountain base to visit the military factory accompanied by Wu Ming.

Looking at the busy workers in the factories dotted like spider webs in the belly of the mountain, Chiang Kai-shek stopped to watch from time to time, and sighed: "I didn't expect that the scale of the arsenal would more than double after I didn't come for more than half a year!" ”

"Mainly affected by the Battle of Songhu, many factories and enterprises in Shanghai and the surrounding areas moved to western Zhejiang, and we purchased a number of machine tools and production lines from major factories and enterprises, so the stall is so big! Today, the arsenal can produce more than 4,200 imitation Mauser rifles, more than 1,500 imitation Colt pistols, more than 150 imitation Czech light machine guns, more than 250 imitation Thomson submachine guns, more than 150 60 and 81 mortars, more than 2 million rounds of various bullets, and more than 2,000 mortar shells every month. ”

Wu Ming counted the production capacity of the Phoenix Mountain Arsenal. Previously, he had been hiding it, just because he was afraid that Chairman Chiang would nationalize the Phoenix Mountain Arsenal, but now that the Sino-Japanese war was in full swing and the central government moved west to Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek was a little out of reach of Quzhou.

"Oh?"

Chiang Kai-shek was a little surprised, and said in surprise: "Now the Phoenix Mountain Arsenal has a higher production capacity than the Chengdu and Chongqing Arsenals combined!" ”

Wu Ming didn't take the conversation, and introduced himself: "Chairman of the committee, there is a bazooka production workshop in front...... It produces bazookas and unconscionable cannons, which is the secret weapon of our New Second Army to achieve a series of great victories! ”

"A bazooka is the kind of shoulder-portable cannon that can hit tanks?" Chiang Kai-shek asked curiously.

"Exactly!"

Wu Ming led Chiang Kai-shek to the bazooka workshop, shook his head and said: "Actually, the flamethrowers equipped by the American and German armies are also very useful, and they are even more powerful than submachine guns in a small space, but we lack the necessary materials and cannot produce them for the time being!" ”

"That's a shame!"

Chiang Kai-shek said regretfully: "Before the Lugou Bridge Incident, we should have introduced more weapons and equipment, but we did not expect the Japanese to come so quickly and attack so quickly, resulting in many of our measures being useless." Fortunately, you suggested that you give the Germans a batch of weapons and equipment on credit, otherwise I really don't know how to maintain the war in the future! ”

Wu Ming stopped and said solemnly: "Chairman, I have a request, please be sure to agree!" If the chairman does not allow it, it is estimated that our arsenal will stop production soon! ”

"Oh!? What is so serious? ”

Chiang Kai-shek frowned, for fear that Wu Ming would give him some problems.

"Chairman of the committee, our arsenal has a large production capacity, but the consumption of raw materials such as steel and copper is also extremely alarming, and I ask the committee to approve our procurement of production materials from the surrounding areas of Quzhou." Wu Ming had a bitter face, and his voice was quite pitiful.

"Didn't you hoard a batch of supplies before the war? Exhausted so quickly? Chiang Kai-shek asked with some disbelief.

"Chairman, just the little things that are hoarded, where can they withstand large-scale consumption!" Wu Ming said aggrievedly: "Take bullets as an example, the copper needed is by no means a small amount, although we have a batch of copper reserves before the Battle of Songhu, but it is far from meeting the production demand. The number of bullets shipped to Xuzhou this time is not much! ”

Wu Ming recounted the difficulties of the arsenal: "There are many copper mines in Jiangxi, and in the past ten years, the central and local governments and various consortia have opened a large number of smelters, and the copper produced can fully meet our needs!" However, the Jiangxi provincial government has asked the smelters not to sell copper to us, citing the ban from the central government......"

"As a result, our bullet production can't keep up. You also know that a gun without bullets is not as good as a burning stick! ”

"How can the party-state major events be such a child's play?"

Chiang Kai-shek kept a straight face and reprimanded loudly. However, Chiang Kai-shek knew very well in his heart that Jiangxi Provincial Chairman Xiong Shihui was completely following his orders, and only by blocking the supply of raw materials from the Phoenix Mountain Arsenal could he prevent the New Second Army from developing and growing unrestricted. However, Wu Ming's request could not be ignored, after all, Xuzhou was still waiting for weapons and ammunition to be rescued, so although Chiang Kai-shek did not give Wu Ming any promise, he said that he would definitely order the Jiangxi Provincial Government to ensure the supply of raw materials for the arsenal.

Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek visited the workshop of the bazooka factory and had a cordial conversation with the workers. It was the first time that these workers came into contact with the chairman of the National Committee, who was equivalent to the "emperor" in ancient times, and behaved extremely restrained, not knowing what to say, but fortunately, Chiang Kai-shek only needed to show his pro-people side, and did not really want to listen to the workers' voices, so it did not affect his Yaxing.

After leaving the arsenal, Chiang Kai-shek, who was very interested, went to the mountain training ground located halfway up the mountain to watch the daily training of the New Second Army.

The soldiers were strong and swift in their movements, and the officers and men performed military training subjects for Chiang Kai-shek, such as climbing obstacles, climbing barbed wire, and hand-to-hand combat.

Chiang Kai-shek and his entourage were fascinated, and Major General Feng Shengfa, the chief officer of the Chairman's Guard, gave Wu Ming a thumbs up: "General Wu really has a set of leading troops to fight, and Feng is convinced!" ”

After watching the training, Chiang Kai-shek came to the large school field at the Phoenix Mountain base and prepared to personally present the flag of honor to the New Second Army.

The troops temporarily drawn from various brigades have been lined up in phalanxes, and the officers and men are standing as tall as green pines, their faces are serious, their spirits are strong, and their bodies reveal a murderous aura, which makes the central officers on the rostrum feel cold in their vests. At the front of the queue were Wu Ming, Long Shaogang, and Zhang Dongning, who were dressed in clean generals' uniforms, wearing "Zhongzheng Sword" around their waists, with sharp eyes and sharp edges.

Fang Youchun led the Quzhou party and government officials to watch the ceremony, sitting behind the central officials, while the gentry and representatives of the people took their seats in the audience seats around the school grounds.

There was silence all around, and Chiang Ching-kuo, who was presiding over the ceremony, cleared his throat and loudly announced the start of the ceremony. Chiang Kai-shek came to the microphone, looked around at the columns of officers and soldiers on the school ground, and solemnly announced:

"Now, on behalf of the ******** Military Committee, I officially award the New Second Army the 'Flying Tiger Flag', which is the banner representing the highest honor of the army, which means the No. 1 martial art of the national army, and thus the New Second Army has also become the first army in ******** to receive this honor. I hope that you will make persistent efforts, create new glories, and strive to drive the Japanese devils out of China at an early date. ”

"Wu Ming!" Chiang Kai-shek roared.

"Here!" Wu Ming replied with his head held high.

"Come forward and receive the Flying Tiger Flag!"

"Yes!"

After answering, Wu Ming quickly climbed the steps, came to Chiang Kai-shek on the rostrum, stretched out his hands, bent down and solemnly took the Flying Tiger Flag, unfolded it and waved it a few times, only to see the two thousand soldiers in the audience shouting: "New Second Army!" The first army in the world! ”

The reporters filmed Wu Ming wildly, Wu Ming was in high spirits, and the scenery was unique for a while.

After the flag awarding ceremony, Chiang Kai-shek took the lead in leaving the venue, and Wu Ming asked Long Shaogang and Zhang Dongning to command the troops to disperse, just trying to keep up with Chiang Kai-shek's pace, but was blocked by a group of reporters.

"May I ask General Wu Ming, how do you feel about your new Second Army being awarded the Flying Tiger Banner?"

"The Flying Tiger Banner is the highest honor awarded by the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government to the collective of the National Revolutionary Army units that have made outstanding and great contributions on the battlefield of resistance against Japan. We must live up to the expectations of the party and the state and make greater contributions on the battlefield of resistance against Japan! ”

The interview in the base continued, and on the road leading from the Phoenix Mountain base to Maoliangwu Town, Wu Zhe was carrying out martial law with his independent regiment.

Nomura Nakasa pulled Wu Zhe to the corner of the mountain, and handed Wu Zhe a letter with a cruel smile: "Wu Sang, don't worry, you don't have to do it yourself, this letter contains a check for $100,000 from Citibank in the United States, as long as you listen to us, you will have a good life soon!" ”

"Okay!"

Wu Zhe took the envelope weakly.

"The convoy of Chiang Kai-shek and Wu Ming is coming over soon, don't be discouraged, the next scene will definitely shock the world!"