After the reports of various ministries, Li Junhao first reported on the current situation in Europe, and clearly pointed out: Before next spring, there will be no major war, so the situation in Shanghai and the Strait will not change much. All departments should seize the time of the next few months and strive to train their troops well, with a view to preparing them to cope with an even more grim situation......

The following is the speech of Yang Shixiong, the new staff officer who appeared in front of everyone for the first time, and he did not say much about the current training of the three regular regiments, but focused on the training of the International Business Group and the Municipal Guard.

He said that when he communicated with Colonel Pan Sen before, the commander proposed the idea of merging the two militia units and suggested that they be reorganized and expanded into the "Shanghai People's Army Self-Defense Corps." He thought this was a good idea.

This idea was indeed put forward by Li Junhao first, but in order for Yang Shixiong to establish his prestige when he first took office, he was originally asked to say that it was his own intention, but he did not expect that Yang Shixiong, who had an upright personality, did not want to plunder the beauty of others, so he still told the truth.

However, at the subsequent reorganization of the Self-Defense Corps, Yang Shixiong put forward his own ideas and formulated the plan in great detail, reflecting his level as chief of staff.

In the plan, the People's Army Self-Defense Corps will be established according to the scale of two simple divisions, each with a scale of 12,000 people, and one division will be permanent and fully trained, and will be formed according to the model of lightly armed troops;

The other division is the shelf division, which adopts a formation model similar to that of the International Chamber of Commerce, with officers and key members standing on a permanent basis, and other members training twice or three times a week, and then full on standby when needed......

However, in this way, the scale is a bit large, and the various chief officials attending the meeting feel that it is too difficult, mainly because of the problem of troop resources and weapons and equipment, and if there is no such plan in China, there will be no appropriation, and the funds of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau will not be able to meet this requirement......

At this time, Li Junhao interjected: He will solve the problem of weapons and equipment, and the chief of staff will explain the problem of troop resources, so don't worry.

Yang Shixiong continued: "Compared with everyone, although I have only lived in the concession for one year in this Chinese, I have come into contact with more ordinary citizens and know more about the current grassroots situation in the concession and even in Shanghai......

"The reason why I put forward this plan of up to 24,000 people is that I am sure in terms of troop resources, and it can be said that if it were not for the fear that Commander Pan Sen would lead too many military forces and cause bad thoughts from his superiors and the outside world, it would not be a problem to triple this number!

"Even, in terms of funds, there is no appropriation from the Ministry of Industry and the Bureau at all - as long as people in the concession know that the formation of the Self-Defense People's Army is to protect the concession and the citizens, donations from all walks of life can definitely meet the military expenditure requirements! Of course, how to turn this money into weapons and equipment will require Commander Pan Sen to find a way. ”

When several chief officials heard this, they looked at each other, could this be the case? Even Colonel Cole, who has lived in the concession for several years, does not fully understand the grassroots situation in Huhai! Hearing this, their interest was aroused and they continued to listen carefully.

Yang Shixiong has lived in the Huhai Concession for a year, he has really not been idle, and he has a thorough understanding of the situation here, and he can make full use of it at this time to teach these foreigners a lesson!

In his explanations, everyone heard a lot of new information, some of which were even unexpected to them.

Before the all-out war of resistance, in the two major concessions in Shanghai and Haihai, there were nearly 100,000 foreign nationals and more than 1.6 million Chinese from more than 50 countries, but this was only the registered population, that is, the population who paid the concession tax, not including the floating population; At that time, the concession did not restrict the entry of outsiders, and the floating population was at least hundreds of thousands.

Before and after the August 13 Incident, a large number of citizens from Suzhou and Hebei in the urban area of Shanghai poured into the south bank for refuge, and the population of the concession increased sharply from 1.7 million to more than 3 million, and by December 1939, the total population of the concession had reached 4 million, of which more than 150,000 were foreign nationals.

At present, there are three main sources of foreign nationals in Shanghai: the first is nearly 90,000 expatriates from Europe, the United States and other countries who have come to Shanghai through normal channels for many years, and they mainly live and live in the concession area;

The second is more than 50,000 White Russians, most of whom fled to China after the October Revolution in Russia, and most of them live in the middle of the former French Concession, that is, Ma Sinan Road and Jin Shen Road extend westward to Bixun Road and Qiqi Road.

A small number of others live in the area of Tilanqiao in Hongkou, which is within the public concession.

There is also a special ethnic group - the Jews.

In the thirties, when European countries excluded and persecuted Jews, Huhai, as one of the very few places in the world, sheltered more than 30,000 Jews who fled from Germany, Austria, Russia and other countries.

Like the Chinese, less than 10 percent of these expatriates are truly rich and do not worry about their lives, and most of them still work every day to live, and after many years of living and working, they have very close ties with Chinese citizens, and even many cases of intermarriage.

These expatriates living in Shanghai and Haihai also have completely different attitudes towards survival, and European and American expatriates attach the most importance to laws and regulations, and have a high degree of participation in the management of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau.

There is a very bad phenomenon among the White Russians, they are keen to organize their own gangs, and while fighting against the local gangs, they are also fighting with each other, and even bullying their own compatriots, which is absolutely gangster.

The Jews had a painful experience, and when they came to Shanghai in desperation, most of them cherished their present life, and they formed a relatively close relationship with each other in the form of religion, and they were the most united diaspora group; But now most of them live within the Japanese Concession, and because they want to move to the Public Concession because they want to move to the Public Concession with their families, they can't do it.

Yang Shixiong believes that these foreign nationals, not counting the Belarusians and Jews, are nearly 100,000, because they have lived in a country where guns are not banned since they were children and are keen on gun violence, it is not a problem to organize a militia of more than 10,000 people!

Not to mention the more than 30,000 Jews living in the Japanese Concession, nearly half of the more than 50,000 White Russians in the Concession are Russian nobles, Cossack cavalry, and small and medium-sized bureaucrats from the former Tsarist dynasty. Pulling out a team of 10,000 people is not a problem if needed.

Only these foreign expatriates, if you choose the best of the best, there will be no problem in forming one or two divisions!

(End of chapter)