The aftermath went very smoothly, and because Chen Feng and the entire Eighth War Zone were behind him, the Japanese did not come to make trouble. After Yan Laoxi entered the soil for peace, Chen Feng immediately convened several bigwigs of the Jin Sui Army for talks to discuss how to deal with the Jin Sui Army.

Although almost all the senior officers of the Jin Sui Army hoped that Chen Feng could join the Jin Sui Army and take charge of Shanxi, Chen Feng himself had some concerns. On the one hand, it is because the Jin Sui Army is a warlord army, although it has become a climate, but it still adheres to some bad styles of the warlord army, and the good and bad in the army are uneven, and after taking over, it is necessary to carry out a thorough and all-round rectification of the entire Jin Sui army, which will not cause resistance from the officers of the Jin Sui Army.

In fact, the opinions of Chongqing and Yan'an, although Chongqing has not expressed its position, there are not only Jin Sui troops in Shanxi, but also more than 100,000 central troops. It is still unknown whether Chen Feng's acceptance of the Jin Sui army will cause panic among the central army in Shanxi, or even the entire Nationalist government.

The same is true for Yan'an, because of the strong rise of Chen Feng's department, although the strength of the Eighth Route Army is much stronger than in history, the regular infantry division alone has reached as many as 12, and the rest of the columns, independent regiments and other troops are also quite a few, plus the ubiquitous guerrillas and the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan, the total strength of the army led by Yan'an has exceeded 800,000.

However, due to the strong offensive capability of Chen Feng's subordinates, the territory of the Japanese army has shrunk by about half, especially in North China, and the territory of the Japanese army is only a calm area and a province of Shandong, and the direct consequence of this is that the scope of activities of the Eighth Route Army has been reduced.

According to the statistics of Yan'an. The Eighth Route Army's base area in Hebei was only one Jin-Cha-Ji base area, and the area was only about half of what it had been for 39 years, and the base areas in central and southern Hebei were directly extinguished, because Chen Feng's troops carried out various reforms and developed the economy after resisting these areas, and quickly won over a large number of people's hearts, resulting in the natural disappearance of the Eighth Route Army's originally unstable base area.

The same is true of Shanxi, but since Shanxi is the direct communication channel between the units of the Eighth Route Army and Yan'an, it is also unknown whether Chen Feng's troops will cause dissatisfaction in Yan'an after they enter Shanxi. Therefore, Chen Feng felt that it was necessary to have a good talk with Yang Aiyuan and others.

The Yan family's old mansion is very ordinary. It is a large courtyard with three entrances, and this format is very common in Shanxi. Since Chen Feng is only the son-in-law of the Yan family and has not officially joined the Jin Sui Army, Chen Feng invited Yang Aiyuan, Xu Yongchang and others to the Yan family's old mansion for talks in his personal name.

There were only 5 people in the study. Chen Feng, Yan Changxi, Yang Aiyuan, Xu Yongchang, Fu Zuoyi. All 5 of them were dressed in military uniforms. Even Yan Changxi also put on a major general's uniform, which shows that although the venue of this meeting is not particularly official, the things discussed must be very formal.

Really. After the greetings, the talks officially began, and at the beginning Chen Feng raised an issue that both sides were more concerned about - preparation!

According to the past practice, the acceptance of a new force by a force must be carried out by the original group, because only in this way can it be guaranteed that it will not be annexed. Just like when the old man annexed the Northeast Army, he transferred the Northeast Army to the east in batches and stationed them in southern Henan, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu. The Northeast Army was also reorganized and downsized, turning the large into small and the strong into weak, and reducing the Type A Army from four divisions per army to the Type B Army with two divisions and two brigades per division, with only the Second Cavalry Army retaining three divisions.

In the ensuing war, the Northeast Army was divided and used in various battlefields by Lao Chiang, and was gradually weakened, dismembered, and eliminated until it was all digested.

Chen Feng was dark and cold, and his speech was sonorous and powerful, he looked around at Yang Aiyuan and the others, and said: "Lord Yuezhang suffered this calamity, and every one of us is very sad in our hearts, but the deceased has passed away, and the living people are still alive, and we must look forward." It is my honor that Jin Suijun can think of me Chen Feng at such a critical moment. ”

"However, it is not easy for a huge military group like the Jin Suijun to completely integrate into the Eighth War Zone, and it must go through internal and external tests and transformations. You can think of me at such a critical time, which shows that each and every one of you trusts me very much, and shows that you really think about the land of the Three Jin Dynasty and hundreds of thousands of Jin Sui officers and soldiers, but there are many problems in the merger of the two major military groups, and some problems must be made clear in advance, otherwise it will not be good for both of us! ”

"Well, my uncle is right, since we all hope that my uncle can be in charge of Shanxi, and we all want to become a family, so we don't want to hide it, whatever we have to say will be put on the table, and everyone will talk about it openly and honestly! As the old man of Jin Suijun, I will first talk about Jin Suijun like my uncle. Then Yang Aiyuan took out a document and read: "The Jin Sui Army now has a total of 2 group armies, 4 armies and 15 divisions, with a total strength of 250,000 troops, including 210,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, 10,000 artillery, and more than 10,000 other arms. There are 3 generals, 22 lieutenant generals, 49 major generals, 3,800 colonel-level officers, and 8,721 lieutenant officers. ”

"Uncle, Jin Suijun's belongings are roughly only these, and now that the marshal is gone, there are three of us in charge of the army for the time being. And Cichen (Xu Yongchang) is still mainly working in Chongqing, so matters in the army are generally resolved by me and Yisheng! ”

Although Chen Feng knew that Xu Yongchang was the head of the Zhonglao County faction of the three major factions of the Jin Suijun, he was still serving as the minister of military orders of the Nationalist Government. And this Minister of Military Orders is a general with real power, and He Yingqin, Minister of Military Affairs, Bai Chongxi, Minister of Military Training, and Chen Cheng, Minister of Political Affairs, are known as the four giants of the Military Commission. If it weren't for the fact that the marshal had something to invite him back this time, I'm afraid Xu Yongchang might not have been involved in this matter.

"Although Brother Cichen holds an important position in Chongqing, after all, it is from the Jin Sui Army, so this matter must be attended by Brother Ci Chen, after all, this is related to the life and death of more than 200,000 officers and soldiers of the Jin Sui Army, and it is also related to the happiness of tens of millions of people in the land of the Three Jin Dynasty!" Chen Feng said.

Xu Yongchang smiled and said: "Uncle has won the award, and it is also a blessing for our Jin Suijun to be in charge of the Jin Suijun Army, and my uncle's name is not even in Chongqing." ”

Chen Feng said: "Regarding the merger of the Jin Suijun Army and the Eighth War Zone, I personally agree in principle, but there are several issues that must be explained clearly to you. First of all, on the issue of the number of the troops, because the Eighth Theater carried out the most reorganized half a year ago, and all the numbers and the like were replaced with unified numbers, which are different from the numbers of the current National Revolutionary Army, so the numbers of the Jin Sui Army need to be changed after the merger."

"Secondly, there is the issue of the establishment of troops. At present, the Eighth Theater has begun to implement the military region system, that is, the establishment of large corps. A military region was set up under the Ah Theater, under which were integrated divisions, and the integrated divisions of the Eighth Theater were equivalent to the armies of the Nationalist Government. Therefore, it is impossible for the Jin Sui Army to become a strategic group with the same status as the Eighth Theater as before, and the strength of the Jin Sui Army is at most a military region, which is one of them! In addition, the eighth theater has almost all replaced new equipment, and the use of new equipment requires a period of adaptation and training, in order to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, I will transfer a part of the Jin Sui army out of Lu, which is similar to Lao Jiang's mixed sand, I hope you can understand! ”

"Secondly, on the issue of personnel appointments, due to such a large-scale operation, personnel appointments will definitely change, including a few of you, so we will need your support at that time!"

"The last point is the issue of the reorganization and training of the troops, the Saibei Department can rise from a security regiment in less than 5 years, which has a lot to do with my method of governing the army, what I need is a force with strict military discipline and dare to fight, not a unit with loose military discipline and wanton disturbance of the people, so after the merger, all the troops must be trained in this way, and the content of the training is that soldiers drill officers and learn from them."

Xu Yongchang thought for a while and said: "Uncle, we have discussed these issues before, although they are more strict, but they are not unacceptable, but I hope that my uncle can promise me a few conditions!" Or a couple of requests! ”

"Please!"

"First, for those officers with criminal records, you can not blame the past, second, don't suppress the officers and soldiers of the Jinsui Army, let alone treat them as cannon fodder, and third, treat the people of Shanxi well!" Xu Yongchang said.

Chen Feng said solemnly: "For those officers who have had a bad record, I can not blame the past, after all, many of them are also affected by the general environment, but they need to make their own guarantees, strictly abide by the regulations of the military, don't leave anything to chance, once a violator is found, he will be severely punished!" ”

"As for the second point, you can rest assured, there is no such thing as what you said in the Eighth War Zone, because in the composition of the soldiers in the Eighth War Zone, more than 25% of the soldiers are prisoners of the puppet army, and the number is about more than 300,000 people, and part of the army I started from is refugees, and the other part is bandits and horse bandits, even these people have not been suppressed in any way in the Eighth War Zone, many senior officers are former bandit leaders or puppet army officers, and the background of the Jin Sui Army is much better than these people who don't know how to do it, you can rest assured!"

"The third point is that you don't need to worry, how the people of Saibei Province live, I think you yourself know in your own hearts, I will treat the people of Shanxi equally!"

The talks were so successful that on 6 December, the Eighth Theater and the Second Theater sent a telegram to the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, requesting agreement to merge the Second and Eighth Theaters. The telegram only said that because the commander of the Second Theater was assassinated by the Japanese army, the Second War Zone was leaderless, and the defense areas of the Second War Zone and the Eighth War Zone overlapped in many places, so they requested to merge.

But anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is Chen Feng, as the aunt of the Yan family, officially began to receive Yan Laoxi's inheritance, and Shanxi and Jin Suijun are the most important inheritances. (To be continued......)