In the blink of an eye, the wheel of history has come to the end of July, and Wang Zhenyu has returned to Wuhan from Shanghai. Under his intervention, although his old father Wang Longxian was not very happy, he still facilitated the marriage of Wang Zhenpeng and Yuan Jingxue. As for Wang Zhenpeng's work arrangement after marriage, Wang Zhenyu means respecting his younger brother's own wishes. At this time, the fourth batch of officers of the military inspection mission was about to go to Europe, and Wang Zhenpeng thought about it again and again and applied to join the military observation group to go on a business trip to Europe.

Since the military observer missions were carried to Europe by the ships of the China COSCO Company under the name of his father-in-law, Ye Zuwen, and these ships were arranged to do the business of the mission, these ships were much faster than traditional freighters. Those traditional freighters often go all the way to Europe, and it takes more than a month to reach Europe, while these ships arrive in Europe in about 20 days at most.

Wang Zhenpeng's application was approved, and Wang Zhenyu also gave him a privilege to allow Wang Zhenpeng and his wife Yuan Jingxue to go to Europe together, which can be regarded as a honeymoon. As for Wang Zhenpeng's job, Wang Zhenyu thought about it for a long time, after all, he was his own brother, and it was safer to leave him in the Ministry of Armaments.

At this time, the officers of the first batch of military observer missions, who had arrived in France for more than a month, were hiding in a sanatorium under the Alps, constantly exchanging their practical experience for more than a month.

General Zhao Hengti, the commander of the Military Observation Mission, complained to Bai Chongxi, the deputy head of the regiment, in distress: "I said at the beginning not to send the officers we brought to the front line to practice, because this battle is much bigger than what we are playing in China. As a result, after more than a month, we lost twenty-eight excellent young men. This, these people should not be used as creeps. ”

Bai Chongxi replied with a smile: "Teacher Zhao, is this also for their good?" How can you know what the war of the Europeans is going on without going to the front? Besides, if we are tossing so much now, the French are not much more polite to us, and they call us brothers and sisters every day, how good! Zhao Hengti was so angry that he vomited blood directly, and just when he came to call, he threw the head of the regiment to Bai Chongxi's agent, and he withdrew with the ship that sent the third batch......

It turned out that as soon as everyone arrived in France, they found that the situation here was very serious, and the German army was launching the most fierce attack on the French army in the Verdun area, and the worst battle of the whole World War was going on. The French were sending every young man they could to the front to fend off the Germans. In this case, Bai Chongxi ignored Zhao Hengti's opposition and forcibly demanded that the officers brought with him be grouped, those who should be sent to study logistics should be sent to learn logistics, Zhu Zhixin led the team, and those who should be sent to the front line were Frenchmen to say hello and sent to the front line to be small soldiers, and this is exactly what the French can't ask for.

As a result, a large number of officers between the ages of 18 and 21 who were personally named and sent by Wang Zhenyu were thrown into the trenches of the European war, like small soldiers, and engaged in bloody battles with the Germans on the opposite side. And thanks to the fact that the French were on the defensive, and if they were the attackers, these poor children would not have been overwhelmed by the Germans' machine guns in a single battle?

Now, these lads, who already knew what was going on in Europe, returned to the sanatorium prepared for them by the French, where they recuperated their tired bodies, mended their wounded hearts, and discussed and exchanged experiences casually.

The first to speak was naturally the survivors who were assigned to the front line as small soldiers, there were more than forty people in this group, plus more than one hundred people from the second batch, a total of one hundred and thirty-six people were extremely lucky to sit back, and there were twenty-eight people who died one after another in this month's battle, as for the way of death, it is roughly divided into three types: bullet hit, shell hit, and poison gas hit.

Speaking on behalf of this group were Xue Yue and Wei Lihuang, who were the three most effective performers in front-line combat practice this time, and for this reason the French even appointed two of them as acting officers to command about a company of French troops to guard the position.

The first to speak was Xue Yue, whose name is Boling, 20 years old this year, a Hakka family member in Shaoguan, Guangdong. This man is usually known in the military observation group for daring to speak, and is nicknamed Tiger Boy. Before entering the Military Observation Corps, he served in Chen Jiongming's First Division of the Guangdong Army, and later the Guangdong Army was reorganized, and I don't know what kind of luck this kid had, but he was personally summoned by Wang Zhenyu, and then became Wang Zhenyu's protégé.

"I was holding my position on this side of the Maas, and the Germans were attacking us across the river, and our task was to hold our position. Hit his lungs, where is this fighting, it's just a massacre, that cannon, it is estimated that there are not so many cannons in the entire Beiyang, and his ears are going to be deaf. The poison gas bombed, wearing a gas mask is to save your life, and if you are unlucky, you will rot your skin and die of disgust. ”

Bai Chongxi knocked on the table: "Don't talk to me about your battlefield experience, talk about the point." ”

Although nicknamed Tiger Cub, Xue Yue was still a little afraid of such a cold-faced tiger as Bai Chongxi, he hurriedly swallowed his saliva and continued: "Then I'll talk about this fortification, I think the fortifications dug by the French are very reasonable, there are anti-artillery holes and everything, and this firepower point is also very well concealed, generally unless the shells hit the trench directly, otherwise it is very safe." The second is their defense, pay attention to the depth of firepower, the level of firepower is clear, anyway, basically there will be no dead ends, and the fight is also decent, in fact, if you want me to say, this battle is not interesting at all, it is to fight firepower, both offensive and defensive sides are in strong fortifications, and there is no result in fighting back and forth. I think it's important to retreat appropriately, and it's the way to get the enemy in and fight hard. As for my acting company commander, it was because I organized some men to play a night raid, captured a German officer, and killed four or five German soldiers. Speaking of which, the tiger boy was actually a little embarrassed, so much so that everyone applauded and praised Xue Yue for his courage. Especially the newcomers who came later, they didn't have a chance to feel it at all, and Bai Chongxi didn't plan to throw everyone to the front line to gain experience with their lives, because now the experience was already there.

Seeing Xue Yue arching his hands and clenching his fists at everyone in the middle, Bai Chongxi said very unhappily: "Sit back and replace the next one." ”

The next is Wei Lihuang, the word Junru, he is from Hefei, Anhui Province, what he wants to say is not the same thing as Xue Yue: "This time my luck was not very good, I was directly assigned to an ancient castle to guard, fortunately, the location of the ancient castle is relatively high, otherwise I would have been buried in it." However, the company commander I was in was lucky, he was the only officer in the company who died, according to the French, it was very unlucky, and there was no one to replace me, so I was elected acting company commander, hahahaha."

Everyone laughed along, even Bai Chongxi was no exception.

Wei Lihuang also put forward a new concept: "In fact, if positional warfare is fought like the Europeans, then our quartermaster will probably lose all his hair." If I were to command, I would use a fortification like a fortification like an ancient castle as a point, and a point to radiate the surface. As long as this point is still there, it is not so terrible that the surface is breached. After all, a strong army also needs logistical support, and if he leaves me alone, I will attack him from time to time to see if he is uncomfortable or I am uncomfortable. So I think these European powers are fighting with each other, and they don't have any rules at all. This is also based on their strength, and if we want to change us, it is estimated that the chairman of the committee will have to ask for food with his pants in a few days. ”

Another burst of laughter......

And the group sent to the artillery study was the safest, a total of twelve people, all of them came back with all arms and legs.

Their representative Chen Cheng's speech aroused Bai Chongxi's great attention: "Here, the cannon is the real king of the army, and when I got here, I knew that the cannon we used to play was the level of firing artillery and playing mahjong." The real artillery is a jishu class, and when I saw the artillery of the French, I knew how big the gap was between us and the great powers, and I used to always think that it was very easy to beat people away, but now it seems that we are too naïve. For example, after the German artillery bombardment, the French artillery observer only needs five minutes to accurately judge the position of the German artillery according to the sound, and then give an accurate counterattack. When I was at home, I heard that the artillery of the 4th Division had twice destroyed enemy artillery positions. But these two times have nothing to do with the sound test, one is a coincidence, and the other is a report from the reconnaissance unit. Therefore, the future development direction of our army's artillery should be to look at the artillery of the European powers, use this war to learn from their advanced jishu, and make our artillery stronger. ”

Bai Chongxi took the lead in applauding: "Classmate Chen Cheng, you write a report immediately, and I will send it directly to the Wuhan Military Committee, this matter must be taken seriously, and he will directly decide the life and death of our army." ”

This report then appeared on Wang Zhenyu's desk, and what Chen Cheng did not expect was that Wang Zhenyu immediately gave instructions for the establishment of a special artillery command after reading it, and Zeng Jiwu, who had retired from active duty as director of the Hunan Provincial Construction Department, was also urgently recalled and returned to active duty as an artillery commander with the rank of lieutenant general.

Zhu Zhixin's group was almost the safest, he took a group of officers away from the front line of artillery fire, walked between the towns in France, and fully observed how the French mobilized for war, how they raised all kinds of materials, and how they managed and transported. And they are also very lucky, because of the war, the French girls can love as long as they have bread......

To Zhu Zhixin's surprise, Bai Chongxi attached great importance to this, and did not forget to help them sort out the materials together after the meeting.

During Bai Chongxi's six months in France, his greatest contribution was to organize everyone to compile the "European War Booklet". This pamphlet provided valuable experience for the later Chinese Youth Expeditionary Force......