After the committee meeting ended, Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin did not immediately return to the "Qingyuan", but went directly up the mountain to the "Feilong Village", preparing to communicate with Qian Yuanshan about going to Youzhou City to accept the appointment of the commander.

When Qian Yuanshan, Zeng Zhilin and others heard that Wang and Zhang were coming, they hurriedly welcomed the two brothers out of the village and welcomed the two brothers into the "Juyi Hall". After everyone sat down, Zhang Weixin recounted the news from Youzhou City to Qian Yuanshan, and conveyed to him the committee's opinion that he should go to accept the appointment. Now that the committee has made a decision, Qian Yuanshan didn't say anything more, saying that he would go down the mountain tomorrow and go to Youzhou City.

Subsequently, Wang Kunjun announced to Qian Yuanshan and others the resolution that the committee had just made to demand that the Ministry of Science and Technology make every effort to produce rifles and corresponding bullets -- before the committee agreed to mass production of bullets, Li Junwu did not tell the brothers of the Military Department the news, so as not to be able to produce bullets normally because of the problem of raw materials, which would cause dissatisfaction among the brothers in the Military Department.

The brothers in the military department were overjoyed by this news, and Mutel even happily danced his own national dance. After some excitement, everyone calmed down their excitement and began to discuss the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Camp" -- this is also the purpose of Wang Kunjun's agreement to allocate a huge amount of money to the Ministry of Science and Technology to produce rifles and bullets.

In this regard, Qian Yuanshan and others have already planned for a long time. Qian Yuanshan said: "Regarding the issue of the expansion of the 'Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion', the Military Department has already started to formulate relevant jihua after we went to Youzhou City last time to accept the appointment of the Liao Imperial Court, but Xiao Siwen took the opportunity to ask us to assist in the compilation and training of the villagers. Our opinion is that the expansion of the army should be carried out simultaneously with the formation and training of villagers, and the method of light and dark lines should be adopted, and under the pretext of the Liao imperial court's training of villagers, we will select qualified young and strong people from among the local people and foreign refugees under our control, and those with average quality will be trained as villagers according to the prescribed number, and those with higher quality will be directly absorbed into the 'Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion'.

Of course, in order to avoid people's eyes, these young men who were selected into the 'pioneer battalion' could no longer stay in their original places as ordinary people, but had to settle in the 'Flying Dragon Village' and become pure soldiers. If these young men have family members, they should also be given a certain amount of preferential treatment, so that the young men can concentrate on serving as soldiers and their families can keep secrets. In this way, on the one hand, the committee needs to be able to provide financial support, and on the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant departments need to be able to continue to attract landless farmers to work as tenants or workers for the team. In this way, there will be no obvious change in the number of people we employ because many young people have been recruited into the 'Flying Dragon Pioneer Camp', which will make outsiders feel abnormal. ”

Qian Yuanshan's suggestion was supported by Wang and Zhang Weixin, who also said that some production workshops similar to those in the quilt factory could be considered to provide jobs for the families of the soldiers of the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion". This can not only further calm the mood of the soldiers, but also centralize the management of the soldiers' families and reduce the possibility of leaking secrets.

In this regard, Zhang Weixin, Qian Yuanshan and others all think it is a good way. In addition, considering that the number of family members may be relatively large, Zhang Weixin, on the basis of Wang Kunjun's suggestion, also proposed that the families of the soldiers of the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion" who could not enter the clothing factories and other workshops should be gathered together, a part of the land should be specially designated for them to cultivate, and some preferential grain rent should be given to them, so as to further strengthen the management and control of these family members.

Zhang Weixin's proposal was also supported by everyone, and Wang Kunjun nodded in agreement, and at the same time instructed Qian Yuanshan and others to summarize the suggestions just mentioned before the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion" began to expand the army on a large scale, draw up a detailed resettlement plan, and submit it to the committee for discussion. Wang Kunjun also particularly emphasized that this matter will be carried out after the completion of the "Tempering No. 1 Operation Jihua", so the relevant plan must be formulated as soon as possible.

As for the specific scale of the army expansion, Qian Yuanshan and others suggested that it could be temporarily divided into three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion, one ranger battalion, and one logistics battalion, with a total number of about 2,500 -- after removing the artillery battalion and logistics battalion, the remaining number of officers and men basically coincided with the number of rifles produced by the committee to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

For such a scale, Wang and Zhang believe that it is basically feasible. Wang Kunjun nodded and said: "I support your proposal, you will combine this army expansion Jihua and the family resettlement Jihua just now into one to form a complete and comprehensive army expansion Jihua and submit it to the committee." Note that in the jihua, it is necessary to list not only the approximate cost of relocating the family, but also the estimation of the various expenses required in the process of expanding the army, in addition to rifles and bullets, including the cost of adding various types of artillery, the daily living expenses of officers and soldiers, the cost of clothing and armor, and so on. At the same time, it is necessary to estimate the annual cost of maintaining this team after the expansion, so that the Ministry of Finance can allocate funds accordingly. ”,

Qian Yuanshan and others nodded their heads again and again, saying that they would definitely come up with a plan for the expansion of the army and a related budget plan before the end of the "Operation No. 1" and would never delay the expansion of the army.

Speaking of this, Wang Kunjun asked about the implementation of the "Temper No. 1 Operation" and wondered when the Military Department planned to carry out the second step of the jihua -- sweeping away the "Zishi Village."

Qian Yuanshan asked and hurriedly replied: "I have discussed this matter with several brothers, and according to the rest and recuperation of the soldiers, we have decided that the operation against the 'Zishi Village' will officially start four days later, that is, on the twelfth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. ”

"Are the teams from last time still participating in the operation? If so, have the attritions caused by the last operation been replenished? Wang Kunjun asked.

"Considering the purpose of all-round training, the Military Department has made certain adjustments to the teams participating in the operation this time," Qian Yuanshan replied, "Our Jihua is the first squadron, the ranger squad, the artillery squad and the logistics squad continue to participate in this operation, while the second squadron that participated in the 'Baihuazhai' operation last time only dispatched one main squadron this time, and the third squadron, which did not participate in the operation last time, sent two squadrons to participate in this operation." In this way, the number of troops dispatched in this operation is the same as last time. ”

Wang Kunjun nodded when he heard this, and said: "This arrangement is good, after alternate rotation, it can ensure that after the end of the 'Operation Tempering No. 1', all the teams will be trained in actual combat." ”

After that, the brothers chatted for a while before ending the meeting.

That night, Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin lived in the "Flying Dragon Village". Early the next morning, the two went down the mountain with Qian Yuanshan and rushed back to "Qingyuan". However, Qian Yuanshan did not stay in the "Qingyuan" for a long time, and after lunch, he continued on the road and rushed to Youzhou City to accept the appointment of the commander.

Qian Yuanshan's trip to Youzhou was relatively smooth, he arrived in Youzhou City on the evening of the ninth day of the sixth month, and after resting in the "Yanyuan" for one night, he rushed to the left-behind mansion the next day, and obtained the relevant appointment documents and official certificates and seals from Xiao Siwen. Then there was no delay at all, and he left Youzhou City in the afternoon and arrived at the "Qingyuan" in the evening.

As soon as Qian Yuanshan entered the gate, he went straight to the small conference room to meet with Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin, who were already waiting there, to discuss an unexpected situation encountered when he went to Youzhou to accept the appointment this time - in addition to the appointment of the commander, Xiao Siwen also handed him several blank official certificates.

These blank officials have already filled in the official positions of deputy commanders and envoys, and Qian Yuanshan only needs to fill in his names to appoint subordinates at all levels, as long as the list is submitted to the Nanjing Metropolitan Military Department for the record. Originally, according to Xiao Siwen's intention, he hoped that Qian Yuanshan could immediately fill in the names of the lower-level officials he planned to appoint, and he would transfer the list to the General Military Division on his behalf. However, considering that Xiao Siwen can easily judge that the above people have military experience through this list, this is not consistent with the principle of identity confidentiality that the crossing team has always emphasized. Therefore, Qian Yuanshan politely refused Xiao Siwen's request to give a list on the spot on the grounds that he could not make the decision on this matter.

Because Qian Yuanshan had already reported the matter to the "Qingyuan" side through the radio before leaving Youzhou City, before he came back, Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin had already discussed the matter with Li Junwu and Yang Xin through the radio. Although the four committee members all believe that Xiao Siwen's move may be suspected of taking advantage of the opportunity of appointing a deputy to probe the internal information of the team. However, because the reason given by Xiao Siwen this time was very sufficient, and it could be called an upright conspiracy, the people who crossed the country knew that his purpose was not pure, but they could not refuse it -- it was not advisable to fill in the names of people indiscriminately, because the other party was likely to make an irrefutable request to meet with these new military attachés, and judge from this that there was a falsehood. In this way, it will make the traversing team more passive.

Therefore, when Qian Yuanshan met Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin, the committee replied to him that there was no need to be pretentious, and that he only needed to fill in the information according to the actual situation. As for the specific appointments, after consulting Qian Yuanshan's opinions, the committee decided that Zeng Zhilin and Muttel would serve as deputy commanders, and Tang Chao would serve as Yu Hou's envoys.

Subsequently, Zhang Weixin wrote and filled in the names of several people on the blank official certificates. And conveyed the news to Zhao Dawei in Youzhou City through the radio, and he sent the list to Xiao Siwen through Feng Cheng, and then Xiao Siwen transferred it to the Military Department of the Metropolitan Commandery.

After solving the problem of official appointments, all the attention of the military department was focused on the matter of extinguishing the "Zishi Village."

On the 12th day of June of the lunar calendar of the sixth year of the corresponding calendar, the main force of the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion" that had been resting for many days left the "Flying Dragon Village", and after nearly three days of trekking on mountain roads, marching more than 150 miles, they arrived at the Baiyang Valley, which was only 10 miles away from the "Purple Stone Village" of Baima Mountain, in the afternoon of June 15.

With the assistance of Chang Shengjun, Qian Yuanshan chose a place in the valley that was on higher ground and not far from a stream that passed through the valley as the camp site. Subsequently, while commanding the soldiers to start building a camp, he sent a number of scouts to investigate the movement of the "Zishi Village".

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