The streets of Wuzhou City returned to their former liveliness, early in the morning, the lower board of business opened, small merchants and hawkers with burdens on their shoulders shouted along the streets, and all kinds of steaming snacks began to be sold.

Huang Ke ordered that all personnel except the patrol force should not leave the barracks without authorization, and those who violated the order would be severely punished.

When he first entered the city, a few soldiers went to the tavern to drink and did not give money, Huang Ke knew that he personally came to apologize, and said to the soldiers in front of the shop: "Hurry up and apologize, stand here and recite the "Minutes for the Soldiers", and memorize it until the boss is satisfied." ”

The supreme commander spoke, and several soldiers naturally did not dare to slack off, they stood in line at the door, and loudly recited the "Minutes for the Soldiers".

"Standing on both sides, blocking the door, and not letting people do business?" Huang Ke yelled at a few soldiers again.

Several soldiers recited even louder, and this scene attracted many people to come and watch.

Huang Ke arched his hand and said to the shopkeeper: "Boss, I'm sorry, it's our fault for these soldiers to play tricks and not give money for dinner, I apologize to you on behalf of them, this is the day's meal money." ”

When the boss inquired later, he learned that it was Huang Ke, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary New Army, who came to apologize, and he couldn't help but give a thumbs up after hearing it.

Relying on this steely discipline, the ranks quickly stabilized, and some of the newly recruited people in the army did not feel used to this, but the military orders were like a mountain, and no one dared to violate them.

After the capture of Wuzhou, the main force of the Gui army has been lost, Huang Ke began to think about besieging the remaining Gui army with the Dian army, and the old Gui army was only left near Guizhou.

The battle against Nanning was particularly tragic; After defeating Lu Rongting, the revolutionary new army has occupied the western half of Guangxi, and most of the rest are occupied by Shen Hongying and others.

At this time, the new revolutionary army already had three armies and nearly 40,000 troops, and the strongest combat effectiveness was the new first army with Jiang Xianyun as the acting commander.

Jiang Xianyun was originally only a regimental-level officer, but Huang Ke knew this person's ability, and after organizing the New First Army, he was exceptionally promoted to lead soldiers in the New First Army, while the New Second Army and the New Third Army were led by Wang Maocai, Cui Wu and Yang Yibing; After absorbing a large number of Gui troops, Batu's cavalry team also expanded to more than 1,000 people, Huang Ke said to him at the time, "Lao Tzu now give you the establishment of the first cavalry brigade, and after conquering the three provinces of Guizhou, Guizhou and Yunnan, you must bring the troops to a division, otherwise you will go down as a groom to feed the horses." ”

Batu patted his chest and said with the unique boldness of a Mongolian man: "Commander, what if I can expand to one division?" ”

"Lao Tzu gives you the establishment of a division, and you will be the division commander at that time!" Huang Ke said it was also refreshing.

Batu smiled after hearing this: "Commander, you wait. ”

Bold employment has always been the impression left by Huang Ke to the outside world, a hairy boy can be a battalion commander in his hands, and even the head of the staff department, in fact, only Huang Ke himself understands in his heart that this is all because of his crossing.

Because he knows the details of these people, he is particularly bold when employing people.

Jiang Xianyun's appointment as army commander was quite controversial at first, but no one was unconvinced after the battle in Nanning; When besieging Nanning, the First Army was the main force, and Jiang Xianyun led the troops to focus on one place, not caring about the gains and losses of one pool and one place, and the ultimate goal was to destroy the enemy's living forces.

Shen Hongying's two armies were placed in front of him, and Jiang Xianyun led the troops to concentrate a little, and they had to tear the opening; That night, after the order for the general attack was launched, Lin Zuoda and Hu Zongnan each led a regiment to attack, and almost all of their subordinates were Guangxi soldiers, many of whom had just been replenished when they captured Wuzhou.

I don't know what kind of ecstasy soup the revolutionary new army poured into them, the soldiers who didn't fight much in Lu Rongting's hands before, when they arrived in the new army, they became warriors who were not afraid of death, after the battle began, the Wuyang team rushed up in a straggler line, accompanied by the charge and bullets, wave after wave, completely not afraid of the heavy machine guns in the enemy's fortifications, and the defenders' several water-cooled Makqin heavy machine guns were gone, but the new army still charged.

On the front line of the battle, Shen Hongying raised the binoculars to check the position, and after looking at it, his face turned pale, he threw the binoculars aside, and stammered a little: "Damn, this group of people is crazy!" ”

After the capture of Nanning, the new army received a large number of replenishments from prisoners of war, which was Huang Ke's request, called local materials, he knew that Guangxi soldiers could endure hardships and fight, but they were not used well in the hands of warlords.

However, those who did not want to fight did not force it, and sent them home, and those veterans who went home still had lingering palpitations when they talked about the battle of Nanning decades later, saying that Huang Ke's team was like a curse, and they screamed and died when they started fighting.

When the new first army attacked Nanning, Wang Maocai and Cui Wu's 2nd Army waved westward and had already begun to attack, Batu and Yang Yibing also led their troops to advance, and the three-way army defeated the remnants of Shen Hongying with the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, and the whole of Guangxi was also defeated.

It was already autumn after this battle, and the revolutionary new army not only did not shrink during the war, but fought bigger and bigger, and then he waved his army to take Guizhou and Yunnan, and the Guizhou overseers Liu Xianshi and Tang Jiyao knew that they would be difficult to defeat Huang Ke's revolutionary new army, so they simply came to surrender their guns and take refuge, saying that they were obeying the dispatch of the revolutionary government in Guangzhou.

Huang Ke knew what these people thought, what obedience to the command was just superficial obedience, but Huang Ke took a fancy to both Yungui's territory and the team in their hands. In order to stabilize the situation in the southwest, he sent troops to Guizhou and Yunnan to reorganize the armies of the two places on the one hand, and on the other hand began to carry out land reform in Liangguang and other places.

People in the Guangzhou government impeached Huang Ke, saying that he wanted to do a red political party, but Huang Ke didn't care, he was not a party of any kind, not to mention that the president also said that he wanted to equalize land rights?

Although there was a lot of talk outside, Huang Ke insisted on going it alone, and he set up grassroots self-government organizations in the rural areas of Liangguang and Yunnan-Guizhou, re-measured and distributed land according to population, and stipulated that land belonged to the state and no one was allowed to buy or sell it.

However, Huang Ke's approach was relatively mild, and he did not fight the local tyrants and landlords, and the landlords' families also distributed land according to the population; But even so, many landlords' interests began to oppose it, and some people even made up nursery rhymes to scold Huang Ke for cutting off his children and grandchildren; Huang Ke didn't care, because he didn't belong to this era at all.

Huang Ke simply arrested those who made trouble and resisted for half a year, and while carrying out land reform, Huang Ke made a lot of publicity in the media under his control, and publicized that such reforms would be implemented throughout the country, causing an uproar for a while.

The enthusiasm of the peasant children who have newly joined the army has increased, and who is willing to give up the land that has just been allocated?

The pressure came, and countless people inside and outside the government had already impeached him, some people said that he was a new warlord, Huang Ke had no scruples at this time, he wanted to spend half a year to reorganize the original warlord's team into a new revolutionary army, and prepare for the next Northern Expedition.

At this time, northern China was also in chaos, everyone began to grab territory, and few people took Huang Ke seriously; Zhang Zuolin first sent troops into Beijing (Beiping was changed in the 17th year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1928), and lived in the Shuncheng palace in Beijing.

Feng Yuxiang swallowed his anger at first, but a group of soldiers under him quit, and a group of generals agitated, shouting that they would mutiny against Zhang Zuolin's family and have a hard fight with Zhang Zuolin's team.

Zhang Zuolin left Beijing for Tianjin after hearing the news, and the Feng army also withdrew part of it to Guanwai, so that most of Beijing fell into the hands of Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army; Jiangsu and Zhejiang are not peaceful, and the whole of China is a mess.

After receiving the news of Huang Ke's survey of Guangxi, President Sun of Guangzhou sent a telegram to congratulate him and invited him to return to Guangzhou to begin preparations for the next step of the Northern Expedition.

The breeze in Guangdong in early autumn is coming, and the humidity blowing on the sea surface makes the autumn tiger no longer so powerful; At noon, President Sun and Liao Zhongkai came to Zhanjiang to inspect the navy here; After waiting for Huang Ke to return, President Sun will leave here and set off for the north.

Sitting on the rattan chair under the parasol, President Sun took off the sunhat on his head and looked at the sea in the distance with great interest: "Zhong Kai, what do you think of Huang Ke?" ”

Mr. Liao didn't know what the president meant, but he replied sincerely: "He is brave and strategic, but he is too young, and some things are a little idealistic, and many people are dissatisfied with him in the land reform he is carrying out now." ”

The president did not answer directly: "Idealization is not in the way, revolution is idealization; I mean, what do you think of this person's leadership skills? We all see him in leading troops to fight, and no one in our revolutionary ranks can compare with him, but what do you think about governing the country? ”

After President Sun finished speaking, he stood up, he put his hands behind his back, in front of him was the rough sea, a gust of sea breeze hit, he couldn't help coughing a few times, and the secretary standing on the side hurriedly put on clothes for him to keep out the cold.

"What do you mean, President?" Mr. Liao also understood what the president meant, and the president really looked far ahead, and now he has thought about the things that will happen for many years to come.

The president turned around and sat down next to Mr. Liao again: "My health is getting worse and worse, but I am unwilling to realize the great cause of the revolution, and I want to find a person with both virtue and ability for the burden of the revolutionary republic. ”

Mr. Liao understood what the president meant, and it seems that he had already planned to choose a successor from among many revolutionaries, which contained too many of his good intentions.

"Huang Ke is an upright person, I first introduced him to the revolutionary ranks, and my evaluation of him is naturally unfair, and everything still needs the president to think more and decide."

The president nodded: "During this time, people have kept saying that he is a warlord and still engages in the Soviet Union; However, I still agree with his approach in general, but there are some areas where he is not comprehensive enough, so let's wait for him to come back, and we will discuss it together when he comes back. ”