During the Republic of China, due to the colonial invasion of foreign powers, Shanghai showed abnormal economic prosperity, and was even considered to be the largest metropolis in Asia beyond Tokyo in Japan. But in the eyes of Hu Weidong, the industrial party, these industries, which parasitize the rest of China for sustenance, are not of much benefit to the national economy, especially since China is still a backward agricultural country.

However, even in terms of Shanghai's industry, there was still no other city in China that could compare with it. As a typical colonial city, Shanghai's industry is dominated by light industry, but even if it is a relatively small proportion of Shanghai's heavy industry, the mainland is still firmly in the first place before the Anti-Japanese War, and after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, due to the relative safety of Shanghai's "protection" by the great powers, a large number of wealthy people poured into Shanghai for refuge, and the Japanese military also had a lot of orders and even investment for the needs of the war, all of which made Shanghai's industry usher in a short golden period because of the pull of consumption and investment. Nowadays, the industrial scale of Shanghai has even exceeded the total industrial volume of the Kuomintang, and even Luoyang, the largest industrial center in the Central Plains border region, cannot reach the population of Shanghai with a population of millions if it does not include Gongxian and other surrounding counties

Therefore, Hu Weidong immediately proposed that Shanghai be included in the Central Plains Border Area, so as to give full play to the advantages of the Central Plains Industrial Zone in terms of Jishu and management talents. Since Hu Weidong's words were indeed reasonable, Wei Ren approved his request by consensus, and included southern Jiangsu and Nanjing, which were also more industrially developed and able to ensure security, into the Central Plains border area. Hangzhou, which was also a large coastal city, had no choice but to transfer Hangzhou's schools, factories, and ordinary citizens who were willing to leave as much as possible to Shanghai and southern Jiangsu, leaving only a small number of troops to maintain law and order in the city, so as not to suffer unnecessary losses due to a large-scale attack by the Japanese fleet

As we all know, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou are the most economically developed regions in China, and they are also very densely populated. After it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Border Region, the total population of the Central Plains Border Region has exceeded 100 million, and its total economic output accounts for more than half of the country's total. Coupled with the unparalleled strength of the 15th Group Army, this is almost a dominant situation. To this end, the great man also made a certain balance, and he sent a telegram to the Central Plains Military Region Command, asking the 15 th Group Army to draw out no less than 50,000 military and political cadres and jishu soldiers. In addition, no less than 30,000 elite infantry were merged with the current New Fourth Army to form the Jiangnan Military Region with a total strength of more than 600,000. Among them, there are 400,000 field troops, which are called the "Jiangnan Field Army." Since then, except for the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou Golden Triangle, the Jiangnan Military Region will be responsible for the defense and strategy of the war situation in other areas south of the Yangtze River, which means that the Central Plains Military Region will no longer have a major battle to fight under normal circumstances, and the focus of Hu Weidong's future work will also shift from military affairs to civil affairs

The personnel of the Jiangnan Field Army mainly came from the original New Fourth Army, and its backbone came from the 15th Group Army. However, the commanders and political commissars of the field army were Liu Bocheng and Deng Gong from the Eighth Route Army system, and Chen Yi and Tan Zhenlin, who were originally from the New Fourth Army system, served as deputy commanders and deputy political commissars respectively. Hu Weidong couldn't help but admire Taizu's skill in employing people after learning about it, because of the butterfly effect caused by his crossing, the New Fourth Army in this time and space now has no first-class famous generals, making the New Fourth Army incomparable with history in terms of development and achievements. On the one hand, Liu Shuai's own military command was outstanding, and on the other hand, he was also very good at discovering and cultivating military talents, and there was no second person more suitable for the Jiangnan Field Army. Now, after Deng Gong, who has won the trust of Taizu, becomes the political commissar of the Jiangnan Field Army and the secretary of the Jiangnan Bureau, he will definitely be able to quickly eliminate the negative influence on the New Fourth Army caused by Wang Ming's tenure as secretary of the Yangtze River Bureau, which is very important to the future of the Jiangnan Field Army

At the same time as the formation of the Jiangnan Field Army, other major field armies were also established one after another, including the Northwest Field Army of 300,000 people, with Mr. Peng as the commander and political commissar, also known as the First Field Army; The North China Field Army has 700,000 people, with General Lin as the commander and Luo Ronghuan as the political commissar, which is the second field army; The Northeast Field Army is 400,000 people, with Xu Xiangqian as the commander and Gao Yuan as the political commissar, which is the Fourth Field Army. The Liu Deng army in the south of the Yangtze River is the fifth field army, although it is the last in the sequence and its strength is relatively weak, but its development potential is very huge, because the south of the Yangtze River will be handed over to them to attack, which alone can be seen that the great man trusted and reused Liu Deng at this time.

The Central Plains Field Army, which is the Third Field Army, is undoubtedly the most powerful of the five major field armies, and although the 600,000 field troops are not the largest, they are second only to the North China Field Army, which was developed from the main force of the Eighth Route Army. Therefore, the central authorities issued an order to transfer the two divisions with the strongest combat effectiveness in the Central Plains Field Army -- Ma Zhongying's new 51st Division and Sun Liren's new 38th Division -- to the North China Field Army, where the main force was about to leave the pass, to help it recover the northeast. And instead of wasting time on the Central Plains border area, where there is no war to fight, it is better to let them go to the northeast battlefield to continue fighting devils

For the Central Plains Border Region, which has sufficient reserves, the loss of more than 50,000 people can be made up immediately, but the combat effectiveness of the newly formed light infantry units is not comparable to that of these two long-tempered ace heavy divisions. The North China Field Army also encountered a laughable trouble, because the logistical pressure of the heavy division was much greater than that of the light division, Lin Zong, who did not want to give up these two ace troops, had to grit his teeth and dismantle the 200,000 field troops (reduced to local troops, and some local troops were also reduced to basic militia. However, in this way, the North China Field Army's already seriously unbalanced "field troops-local troops-basic militia" strength ratio has been much more balanced, which is naturally not a bad thing for the North China border region that urgently needs young and strong labor for post-war reconstruction, and its most direct impact is that the construction progress of the Baotou Industrial Zone has been greatly accelerated (to be continued). )