In a blink of an eye, 37 years have passed, and on January 3, 38, the day before Ouyang Yun was preparing to leave for the United States, a group of guests came to the headquarters of the Cadet Army. What surprised him was that this was Bai Chongxi, an old neighbor with the title of "Little Zhuge ".

Bai Chongxi chose this time to meet Ouyang Yun with the idea of balancing public and private interests.

In the Battle of Nanjing, the Gui Department also sent the main force to fight, but the result was more tragic. Although the Katsura troops, who lacked experience in fighting the Japanese army, fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, in the face of the devil's aircraft and artillery, this desperate Saburo-style style of fighting only increased casualties and accelerated their own defeat. 50,000 Gui is the main force, and it was defeated in a battle, with more than 20,000 casualties, and the rest was contained and reorganized by other troops.

Before the Battle of Nanjing, Li Bai and the others responded to the call of Lao Jiang and went to the Central Committee to serve in the War of Resistance. This time, he came to Guangzhou, and it was on the order of Lao Jiang that he came to lobby Ouyang Yun and asked the Xuebing Army to send troops to participate in the defense of Xuzhou. And at the same time, he also had an idea, hoping that Ouyang Yun could look at the past situation and give the Gui family a little support, so that he and Li Zongren could enrich the Gui family again. The former is completely dependent on the locality, although there is never a shortage of soldiers, but financially because it is subject to the local economy, it is impossible to be like the student army, regardless of the battlefield attrition, and quickly get a new life.

When the Xuebing Army first came to Guangdong, Bai Chongxi was unimpressed with this young army. Although the two sides began to cooperate well, with the disagreement on the Fujian issue, it was very unpleasant for a while. Then, the Battle of Nanjing was a watershed - instead of being thinned, the Scholar Army took advantage of this battle to not be thinned, but instead gathered two powerful Sichuan army divisions, uprooted the original Fujian system, accumulated thick and thin, and completely completed the reorganization and reorganization, which not only dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese invaders, but also solved its own hidden dangers by the way, so that Lao Jiang suffered a dumb loss.

On the other hand, what about the Gui system? The 50,000 main force is gone, and now in Guangxi, there are only 20,000 regular troops that can still be used, which is already the most important family background of Li Bai and the others, and now it seems that they must also be invested in the defense of Xuzhou. Perhaps, after this battle, the few remaining troops will also become a thing of the past.

When Bai Chongxi calmed down, he also carefully analyzed the reasons. Why is it that the people are getting stronger and stronger the more they fight, and the more they fight, the more they can fight, but the Gui system and even the Central Army are bigger and weaker, and they are even vulnerable? It is true that equipment is a factor, and the advanced equipment of the cadet army is not inferior to that of the Central Teaching Corps! However, it is not enough to have equipment, but also to have the right tactics. At least one division in the Gui department is the equipment of the whole department, but what is the result? The plane cannon against the little devil was still beaten. He used all the intelligence and data he could obtain to study the performance of the student army in the Battle of Nanjing, and finally had to sigh: he was called Xiao Zhuge in vain, and he was not as good as a stinky hairy boy, in terms of tactical arrangement, it was a taboo for soldiers - without being equipped with controlled firepower, he actually dared to fight against the little devil, isn't that unpleasant for himself? Look at how smart Ouyang Yun is, no matter what kind of battle he fights, the defense work is always the first in place, with the smallest casualties to maintain the geographical advantage of the defender, and then equipped with a certain amount of control firepower, when the critical time to hit the little devil off guard, often can receive miraculous results. In addition, although in most of the confrontations, the student army is at a disadvantage in terms of troops, but it can always maintain a local superiority in strength in more critical and unexpected places, so that there is a geographical advantage, a military advantage, and a military advantage, and it is not inferior in weapons and equipment, and it is really difficult to win this battle!

The most classic battle of the soldiers and troops in the Nanjing Battle was nothing more than replacing the main force with heavy burdens and strong people, attracting the three main divisions of the Japanese army, and then forming a local advantage in the Bailinpu area, and using the tactics of crowds to offset the air superiority of the little devils, thus laying a solid foundation for the subsequent evacuation in one fell swoop.

Bai Chongxi had an idea after carefully studying this battle, maybe he could borrow some money from Ouyang Yun to rebuild the troops left behind in the Gui family, then, in time, the Gui family would definitely be able to stand on the stage of history again.

When Bai Chongxi and his entourage suddenly appeared in the city of Guangzhou, Ouyang Yun was watching the test flight of the XY130 helicopter named "Nightingale" at Baiyunshan Airport.

It was Ji Xingwen who called, and he asked, "Ouyang, do you want to see him?" ”

"See! Xiao Zhuge has nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace, I'll be back right away! ”

On the way back to Guangzhou, Ouyang Yun asked Chen Shichang, who had just returned from Fujian: "Guess what, what is Chief Bai coming for?" ”

Chen Shichang is now the chief of staff and director of the Political Department of the Fourth Army, and when he returned to Guangzhou this time, he was originally asked by Shan Renxiong to ask Ouyang Yun for equipment, but he was arrested by Ouyang Yun and wanted to go to the United States with him.

"It must be a lobbyist!" Chen Shichang thought about it for a while and said affirmatively.

For Chen Shichang, Ouyang Yun has always admired him, and has listed him as one of the young heroes that the headquarters deliberately cultivates, and deliberately tested him, saying: "Be specific! ”

"It should be for the Battle of Xuzhou, right? In the Battle of Nanjing, if we did not suffer major losses, the Central Department and our student army, it should be someone who is not worried about us sitting alone. After all, the success of Operation 'Let's Sink' has temporarily put us in the hands of the initiative in the war situation in South China. ”

"And do you think we should accede to their request?"

In fact, as early as a week ago, the Military Council sent a telegram demanding that the Cadet Army send at least one army to participate in the upcoming Battle of Xuzhou. Whether Xuzhou can be kept within a certain period of time will have a very important impact on the deployment of the Military Commission in the next stage of the Anti-Japanese War. Ouyang Yun is well aware of this, and the reason why he has not replied for a long time is of course because the current situation in Guangzhou is not optimistic, and on the other hand, he is in deep consideration. The Xuebing Army has grown up so far, and it is no longer his word, and it is ridiculous that a considerable number of people who were called the Yun Party by Jiang at the beginning have now become the force that restricts Ouyang Yun. The emergence of this situation, presumably those bigwigs in the central government would never have thought of it, even Ouyang Yun did not expect it. Of course, this is also the inevitable growth of the cadet army from a simple armed force to a political force. When the student army becomes a complex of interests, it will inevitably be divided into two or more interest groups because of different values, and these interest groups will naturally proceed from their own standpoints and consider the interests of their own groups when making major decisions.

Ouyang Yun has always had a good impression of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, a very important reason is because no matter how fierce they usually quarrel with Lao Jiang, they will resolutely choose to be consistent with the outside world in the face of national disasters, which is what these old warlords are worthy of him to learn from, and it is also the ultimate guide for the development direction of the student army he formulated.

Chen Shichang obviously knew this, and replied without hesitation: "Of course." Isn't the purpose of the establishment of our student army to resist the Japanese invaders and restore the rivers and mountains? Even if we can't catch it, we must resolutely send troops, otherwise, even if we can hold Fujian and Guangdong, once the rest of the country falls, what is the point? ”

"Well said!" Ouyang Yun patted him on the shoulder, glanced at the other people in the car, and said: "You remember, whether it was in the past, now, or in the future, the existence of our student army has only one value - to protect the family and defend the country, to benefit the people, whether it is a foreign enemy or a national sinner who destroys the unity of the country, it is the target that we must resolutely eliminate and fight." We are the soldiers of the people, and this people refers to the common people of China, they are the relatives we need to protect, and they are the only concern we have in this world! ”

"Yes!"

In the city of Guangzhou, Bai Chongxi and his entourage slowly marched between various construction sites under the leadership of Ji Xingwen, facing the construction scene in full swing, including Bai Chongxi, everyone was moved by the indomitable enthusiasm of the people of Guangdong - Bai Chongxi sighed so emotionally: "Now I understand what the student army will not be able to defeat and defeat, right?" This morale of the people, what if the Japanese attack the city of Guangzhou? Did you really kill all the Cantonese people? The Japanese may not be afraid to do this, but what are the consequences of this? ”

He visited the headquarters of the Scholar Army, in addition to several brigade commanders of the Gui Department, there were more than a dozen special people, including Zhang Kexia and Su Zhijie, two old men of the Northwest Army from the Zhang Zizhong Department of the 57th Army. At this time, they had already talked with Ji Xingwen, and they were talking about their respective anti-Japanese journeys since the separation of Jicha.

The Cadet Army was forced to abandon North China and move to the southeast, which was not a good thing for the 57th Army. Although the 57th Army was able to build its first armored brigade with a few more arsenals, the drag on them from the widespread power vacuum was no less troubling. In the battles of Tianjin, Beiping, and Shijiazhuang, due to the lack of effective air defense measures, the 57th Army was defeated in successive battles and was almost defeated. If Zhang Zizhong hadn't made a decisive decision and decisively chose to evacuate, he and the 57th Army would have repeated the mistakes of that time and space and were accused of humiliating traitors.

Ouyang Yun and Zhang Zizhong have a deep personal relationship, but that's all. The position where the buttocks of the two sides sit determines that the 57th Army and the Cadet Army can only sit on an equal footing, and thus it is doomed that the 57th Army cannot advance in the direction of the growth of the Cadet Army. Facts have proved that the system that the cadet army is engaged in in Jicha is realistic, feasible, and very targeted. The 57th Army, the nature of the troops is different, which determines that they can only follow their own old path, although they can also win the trust and sympathy of the people, but they cannot obtain the most fundamental change - once an armed force loses a stable financial channel, once it is forced to fight in the four directions, its development space is also doomed.

As a former old man of the 29th Army, Ji Xingwen knows this very well, but in the face of his old friends, he can only sympathize with him from the bottom of his heart.