On the evening of July 6, 1914, when the sky had already darkened, and the dull sound of thunder signaled that a heavy rain was coming, Sun Wu, the commander of the 14th Division, who had abandoned his subordinate command car and insisted on driving on foot (and sometimes on horseback) with the headquarters organs, stood still and asked the chief of staff who was following behind, "How far is it from the scheduled camp?" ”

"Report to the division commander, it's less than five miles." Chief of Staff Bai Yuping replied quickly. He'd just looked at the map.

"Work hard, go to the camp and rest." Sun Wu looked up at the dark and dreary sky, and with a chill on his neck, the rain finally came.

"Speed up, we'll be at camp soon." Sun Wu shouted loudly to the exhausted marching column.

The guard had already handed over the military raincoat, but was pushed away by Sun Wu. It was so hot that he even wished he had a rain shower.

It was these five miles that the pouring rain drenched Sun Wu into a chicken in soup.

The lights in the distance were near, and the logistics director greeted him, "Division commander, Shandong fellow is really good, and we have prepared a ...... for us."

"Thank you." Under the guidance of a flashlight, Sun Wu wiped the rain from his face and said to a man in civilian clothes with an umbrella.

"The general is polite. It is our duty to welcome the army across the border...... "The man is the head of the village, and he saw clearly the two gold stars on the collar of the soldier opposite, what a big officer! "Come with me, general, everything is ready."

"Go down and try not to disturb the villagers...... The Judge Advocate General's Office was called to inspect the implementation of military discipline. ”

Every time he arrived at a camp, Sun Wu gave the same order.

followed the man into the village office and stood under the eaves. Sun Wu took off his soaked military uniform and shouted happily shirtless.

After receiving the order of the General Staff Officer, Sun Wu did not choose to take the waterway to Nanjing and then transfer to the train to go north to Jinan, but decided to march on foot with all the division and complete the assembly on the way. This is a good way to test the combat effectiveness of the troops. After entering the territory of Shandong, the troops clearly felt the difference; after all, it was a model province, the people's enthusiasm for supporting the army was extremely high, and the level of organizational work of the local government was not comparable to that of Hubei and Henan, and the troops marched in strict accordance with the predetermined marching plan. Everywhere I went. All received thoughtful and meticulous reception.

His current seat is in Changshe, north of Zhucheng. This village was the intended place of residence for the division headquarters. For the divisional organs, the arduous march was finally over. In two days at most, all units of the 14th Division will arrive at their designated positions...... Sun Wu listened to the latest report of the General Staff Office on the progress of various departments, and compared it to the map for a while. I feel a lot more relaxed. It will be three days earlier than the time set by the General Staff.

Sun Wu took over as commander of the 14th Division in the winter of 1912. Teacher Li Yuanhong became the governor of Jiangxi. Say goodbye to the military. It was a major reshuffle, with many generals leaving the army and moving to localities, and some field unit commanders being transferred to the Ministry of Defence, the Department of the Chief of the General Staff or the Joint Logistics Headquarters. Including Feng Guozhang. However, when he had already found his senses in the General Staff Headquarters, he was unexpectedly appointed commander of the 14th Division of the Army and took over the command of the Second Division of the National Defense Army, which was reorganized from the old foundation of the Hubei New Army.

He was born in the Hubei New Army, and his background is counted as a line of the League. Rumors of a purge of the military and elimination of dissent by the president did not apply to him. During the two years he worked in Beijing, he did not have a single personal relationship with the president, and he said less than 10 sentences in total, all of which were greetings at some meetings. However, before he took over the 14th Division and was about to leave Beijing, he was accompanied by Deputy General Commander Zhang to Haiyantang for a meal, and the president explained some of his important tasks in administering the army, which were just clichés.

In the spring of 1913, Sun Wu was promoted to major general in the army.

The order was issued on 10 June, requiring all members of the 14th Division to enter Shandong in full gear to participate in the "Peace Fortress" exercise organized by the General Staff Department. In this way, nearly 20,000 officers and soldiers of the 14th Division bid farewell to Hubei and traveled thousands of miles to Shandong. What made Sun Wu strange was that this large-scale exercise of unprecedented scale (four divisions were expected to participate, two of which were Division A) did not issue a plan!

As soon as he arrived at the camp, Sun Wu immediately ordered the radio station to be turned on and reported to the Central Military Region Command, which served as the general headquarters of the "Peace Fortress" exercise, that he had arrived at the designated location. It is said that the commander-in-chief of the exercise, General Feng Guozhu, commander of the Central Military Region, is a difficult master to serve, and he must be careful.

After dinner, he was going to check on the lodgings of the various offices of the headquarters, who might have to stay in the area for a while. But Chief of Staff Zhang Liansheng came over, "Division commander, the command called back." I want you and I to rush to Weifang tomorrow for a meeting, and we must arrive before 18 o'clock. ”

"Oh?"

"I asked about the road, a horse cement road, three hours by car. I have already arranged for the guard company to prepare, and tomorrow we will have breakfast and leave, and we will arrive at noon. ”

"Sit, you say, what is the reputation of this exercise?"

"Where do I know? I thought about not losing the face of our 14th Division. You see, the 1st and 6th Divisions needless to say, although the 16th Division is a second-class division, it has been reequipped, and the artillery is definitely stronger than ours......"

Indeed, the 14th Division is not the main force among the field divisions of the whole army, even in the Southern Military District, and the status of the 14th Division is not as good as that of the 8th Division. It was only a few years ago that he showed his face in the flood fighting and rescue and was commended by the Ministry of National Defense.

"Tell the chiefs of the headquarters to come to the meeting." Sun Wu was a little unsure. The deputy division commander who walked with the baggage regiment was still behind, and tomorrow after he and the chief of staff left, it was necessary to designate the person in charge of the unit and arrange the urgent affairs of the unit.

Sun Wu went to bed very late. He did not associate the "Bastion of Peace" exercises with the dramatically changing situation in Europe. Europe is so far away. But even today, when Kaiser Wilhelm II received a message from the German ambassador to Vienna, Henrik Henrik. Feng. After Chershki's telegram about the Austro-Hungarian Empire not to act aggressively against Serbia, Kaiser Wilhelm II was furious and shouted, "Nonsense! Nonsense! Who gave him the power to do that? Serbia must receive punishment! And do it right away! ”

The Kaiser's clamor immediately gave Austria-Hungary a boost in arms.

Henrik. Feng. Chilshki was an old-school aristocrat who actually favored a tough attitude. But as ambassador to Vienna. Austria-Hungary, a dual empire with complex internal affairs, has a more intuitive and deep understanding than those big people in Berlin, Austria-Hungary is already a second-rate country, and it is weakening at a visible rate! Henrik. Feng. How many times have I asked myself, is it worth dragging in this way that all the joints creak in this way in a letter from Chhershky to a friend?

Henrik. Feng. Chirshki was aware of the insecurity in Germany. Germany, located in the heart of Europe, has always been in danger of fighting on two fronts: France in the west, the huge European rolling mill in the east, and Britain in the east, which has fallen into the Franco-Russian camp. And the allies of their own homeland have only one Austria with "all the joints squeak"!

Henrik. Feng. Chershki especially misses the "old captain" Bismarck. If the rudder of the great ship of the German Reich had remained in Bismarck's hands, Germany would not have faced such a dire situation. Bismarck had a miraculous ability to always be keen at opportunities and to magically turn enemies into friends. Unfortunately, the man who had united a torn Germany into a thriving world power was gone. He was ousted by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who succeeded him to the throne. Wilhelm II clearly did not have the broad-mindedness of his ancestors. If Bismarck's diplomatic line of thought is continued. The German Empire may not have a powerful hostile bloc.

The Sarajevo affair is gliding in an unknowable direction. However, almost all the upper echelons of Berlin were frantic about the assassination of Sarajevo, and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was fermenting. This is not a matter of Serbia and Austria, this damned assassination is dragging the whole of Europe into uncharted territory!

After harshly criticizing the ambassador to Austria. Just on the local event July 5. The Kaiser and Acting Foreign Minister Zimmermann met with the Vienna envoy. The Kaiser explicitly sued Austria specially. This time action must be taken against Serbia, and quickly! Whatever help Austria needs, Germany provides. That's a blank check. Austria judged that Germany would stand with Vienna at any cost.

German Military - Minister of War Erich. Feng. Falkingham met the Austrian envoy and met with the Austrian Emperor Vlatz. Joseph's letter later concluded that Austria had not made up its mind, and Falkingham and most of his colleagues believed that it was likely that only a stimulus approach would get the Austrians to act. The German military based two assumptions, the first was that Austria could easily defeat Serbia, and the second was that the Russians, Serbia's protectors, would not intervene and that they were not ready for the war (or more appropriately a punitive military operation) to be over before the Russians could react.

On July 7, Sun Wu and Zhang Liansheng traveled to Weifang in a car escorted by a platoon of guards. The road conditions were indeed very good, and the two senior officers, who were accustomed to traveling on horseback, had a new understanding of cars. From 1913, more and more cars of various types began to equip the troops, replacing the old horse-drawn carriages, which brought a series of problems to the management of the troops. For a time, Sun Wu was distressed by the lack of car repair soldiers in Yanzhòng, and the 1.5-ton and 2-ton trucks delivered to the troops were always out of order, and he also complained about it below. But the "long-distance" trip on July 7 gave Sun Wu a new understanding of automobile transportation, and if it was like the road conditions in Shandong, the new means of transportation of the car was simply great.

Military control has been imposed in the vicinity of Weifang, and they are constantly under cross-examination wearing military military armbands, and the woods southeast of Weifang are covered with dark green military tents, like green mushrooms. Sun Wu even saw a huge mortar parked on the side of the road - he knew in the General Staff that the Wehrmacht had purchased six super cannons with a caliber of more than 200mm from Germany to destroy the fortress. Could it be that these heavy artillery, which are under the direct jurisdiction of the Artillery Command of the General Staff, will be used in this exercise?

Sun Wu and Zhang Liansheng were the last designated attendees to arrive. As a result of their early arrival, the military meeting was convened in the afternoon of the same day rather than the following day, and all attachés were not allowed to enter the heavily guarded conference room, except for the designated participants. The conference room of the exercise headquarters was set up in the principal's office of a primary school (which had been out for the summer), and Sun Wu saw the tired head of General Situ Jun, who nodded to him and said hello. Major General Sun Wu saw that there were not many people in the conference room, and most of them knew each other, and it was thanks to his experience working in the Operations Department of the General Staff that he got to know most of the generals in the whole army. But the last three officers who came in in light blue air training uniforms did not know each other.

Admiral Feng Guozhu, who had a stiff face, walked to the front of the stage and glanced at Situ Jun, who nodded, and the admiral knocked on the table, and the room fell silent, "Now for the meeting." The meeting was classified as top secret. No recording, no communication. Feng Guozhu majestically glanced at the division commanders, chiefs of staff and senior officers of the headquarters who had opened the record book, and saw that they had put away their notebooks one after another, "On the orders of the Ministry of National Defense, the 'Peace Fortress' exercise is now in the implementation stage. The following divisions report on the build-up of troops, the 6th Division! "General Feng first pointed out the ace troops of the Central Military Region.

Major General Qu Hongxiang stood up, "According to the order of the military region, the headquarters is fully loaded and has arrived at the designated position. ”

Next is the 16th Division, which has also been deployed. However, it will take two to three days for the two "guest" divisions, the 1st Division from the garrison and the 14th Division from the Southern Military District, to arrive.

Waiting for the final report, Admiral Sun Wu finished his report. Feng Guozhu nodded, "Very good, all the departments have guaranteed the battle assembly time." Special praise was given to the 1st and 14th Divisions, which strictly enforced military discipline and maintained the honor of the Mengshan Army in the process of marching thousands of miles. According to the order of the Ministry of Defense, from now on, all the above-mentioned units will be under the command of the Central Military District and will enter a wartime state. Next, I would like to ask Chief Situ to convey the general plan for the exercise. ”

"I now convey the gist of the President-approved Bastion of Peace program." Situ Jun personally pulled open the dark blue velvet, and a huge topographical map of the war zone was displayed in front of the generals present. With Situ Jun's cold tone, Sun Wu's heart set off a thousand waves! This is not a drill, but a war!

The "Bastion of Peace" exercises were based on the assumption that a full-scale war would break out in Europe over the assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne. Japan will throw the Franco-Russian side into declaring war on Germany and Austria. They would use this to attack Tsingtao - for good reason, for there were 6,000 German troops and a decent detachment. But Japan's aim is not Germany, but China. Shandong's military industry and oil industry caused unease in Japan.

"Two scenarios, first, the Germans cede Qingdao." Situ Jun's voice was a little hoarse, "Our army will take over Qingdao peacefully, and only deal with the Japanese army coming across the sea." The second is relatively unfavorable, the German army will hold on to Qingdao, and our army will first seize Qingdao by force, and then deal with the Japanese army. This is the true intention of the 'Fortress of Peace'. All previous transfers were covered up with exercises and were not to be communicated downward without the approval of the command! Situ Jun said sharply. (To be continued......)