The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 496: First Meeting with Chief Du

In the Battle of Nanjing, He Wei not only commanded his own troops (Nanjing City Defense Special Battalion) in a bloody battle with the Japanese army, but also received reinforcements from a tank company and a tank defense artillery platoon of the former National Army Armored Corps. In the Battle of Nanjing, these troops originally belonging to the Army Armored Corps cooperated very well with He Wei and achieved quite impressive results.

During the retreat, He Wei also tried his best to preserve the equipment and personnel of the Army Armored Corps. All the undamaged artillery and tanks were brought across the river by He Wei and followed him all the way to Wuhan.

After He Wei led his troops to retreat to Wuhan, the Army Armored Corps stationed in Xiangtan, Hunan was ordered to expand into the 200th Division. The National Government planned to build it into China's first mechanized force equipped with a large number of tanks. The armored corps troops stationed in Wuhan with He Wei were also ordered to advance to Xiangtan.

The chief officer of this unit, which had cooperated with He Wei and fought hard in Jinling, specially handed over a letter of thanks from the commander of the 200th Division to He Wei before withdrawing.

The writer of this letter of thanks was Du Yuming, the then commander of the 200th Division, former commander of the Army Armored Corps, and current commander of the Fifth Army.

The content of the letter mostly expressed gratitude to He Wei for his care and cover for the tank troops during the Battle of Nanjing. After all, without He Wei's full cover and assistance, the tanks and tank defense guns that the Armored Corps left behind in Nanjing to participate in the war would have no chance of being preserved, and the officers and soldiers would certainly have suffered heavy losses. He Wei's protection of the Armored Corps troops during the retreat phase of the Battle of Nanjing was equivalent to preserving a large number of extremely valuable advanced weapons and equipment and officers and soldiers with rich practical experience for Du Yuming.

At the same time, Du Yuming also expressed his appreciation for He Wei in the letter and extended an olive branch to He Wei, stating that the 200th Division was in the process of great development and had a bright future. He hoped that He Wei could come to work in the 200th Division and guaranteed that as soon as He Wei, who was then a major and battalion commander, took office, he would be immediately appointed as a lieutenant colonel chief of staff or a lieutenant colonel in charge. The words in the letter were quite earnest and sincere.

It can be said that by protecting the armored corps assigned to his command during the Battle of Nanjing, He Wei, a junior from the 11th class of Whampoa Military Academy, won great favor from Du Yuming, a senior from the 1st class of Whampoa Military Academy.

Of course, He Wei politely declined Du Yuming's invitation. After all, He Wei had just fought in the Battle of Nanjing and made great contributions. He was planning to do something big on his own and didn't want to work for someone else at all.

Now, times have changed. The National Army Armored Corps during the Battle of Nanjing has completed several major expansions, transforming from the Army Armored Corps to the Army Mechanized 200th Division and then to the Fifth Army. He Wei has also transformed from a small major battalion commander to the commander of the assault corps with nearly troops.

He Wei thought that Du Yuming's enthusiasm for cooperating with the Assault Corps must have been due to an opportunity more than a year ago, and this opportunity naturally laid a good tone for the collaborative cooperation between the Fifth Army and the Assault Corps.

After driving for nearly two hours, the huge convoy finally arrived at the Fifth Army's base on the outskirts of Quanzhou. Since Commander Du Yuming was so enthusiastic about the cooperation between the two armies, He Wei's attitude must not be bad. Therefore, he decided to meet Du Yuming immediately and pay him a quick visit.

After coordinating with Huang Xiang, he temporarily handed over the assault corps to the command of Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling. Wang Yuanling communicated and coordinated with all the staff sent by Huang Xiang to settle the assault corps in the barracks prepared in advance by the Fifth Army as soon as possible. He Wei, under the leadership of Huang Xiang, went straight to the headquarters of the Fifth Army.

The Fifth Army's organization is extremely large, and so is its headquarters. Therefore, the scale of its headquarters' base is also quite large. He Wei looked all the way and estimated that the Fifth Army's headquarters barracks was probably not much smaller than the entire barracks of the assault corps. Along the way, various vehicles and soldiers coming and going were everywhere, but ordinary people were hardly seen.

He Wei only felt that the suburbs of Quanzhou were full of officers and soldiers of the Fifth Army, which had become an oversized military camp. Although his assault corps was also strong, there was no such scene near its base. It can only be said that this damn army is different because of its large organization and grand appearance.

Under the guidance of Huang Xiang, He Wei sat in the car, moving and looking along the way. After a long time, he finally stopped in front of an exquisite and elegant dark green building.

"Captain He, please come in. I'll take you to see CEO Du right away."

After He Wei and Huang Xiang got off the car, Huang Xiang pointed to the small building with plaques that read "Fifth Army Headquarters" and "Return Our Homeland" and said to He Wei.

He Wei glanced at the plaque, then at Huang Xiang's badge and armband with the words "Return My Homeland" and said with a smile, "I just noticed that Huang Canzuo's badge and armband had the words "Return My Homeland" written on them. I didn't expect that your army's headquarters also had a big sign with such words. It seems that Commander Du attaches great importance to the patriotic and spiritual education of the troops."

"Indeed, our Commander Du believes that the technical and tactical education and spiritual education of the troops are indispensable. In terms of training, we should emphasize courage, intelligence and skills in terms of technology, and strengthen patriotism education in terms of spirit, and strengthen the spiritual combat effectiveness of the troops. Commander Du also emphasized: "The playground is the battlefield", "More sweat in peacetime, less blood in war", and requires all officers and soldiers of our Fifth Army to do five eliminations and three habits, that is, eliminate arrogance, laziness, hypocrisy, desire, evil, and cultivate excellence, diligence and honesty. Only in this way can we build a strong army."

He Wei nodded slightly, thinking that Du Yuming was indeed a figure who left a significant mark in history and he indeed had his own set of methods for training troops. Although he did not know the actual effect of the training principles Huang Xiang had mentioned, judging from the fact that the Fifth Army won first place in the Military Commission's review, Du Yuming must have some ideas for leading and training troops.

Immediately, under the leadership of Huang Xiang, He Wei entered the headquarters building of the Fifth Army. After making many turns and passing through, he met the commander of the Fifth Army, Du Yuming.

When Du Yuming learned that it was He Wei who came, he was very happy. He immediately stopped his official duties and sent someone to vacate a large meeting room to meet He Wei alone.

In the reception room, He Wei saluted the tall and burly Army Lieutenant General in front of him with a standard military salute and said, "Report to the commander. He Wei, the commander of the Army Assault Corps, has been ordered by the Military Commission to come and join your Fifth Army to form an advance detachment into Guangxi. Now all the officers and soldiers of our corps have arrived in Quanzhou in full gear!" "Very good. All the officers and soldiers of our Fifth Army have also been waiting for your unit for a long time and are eagerly waiting!"

Du Yuming returned the greeting warmly and responded in Mandarin with a Shaanxi accent (Du was from Mizhi, Shaanxi).

It was not until then that He Wei saw Du Yuming's appearance clearly. He only felt that this man was tall, with a square face, a broad forehead and high eyebrows, his eyes were shining, and he was full of vigor and vitality. Obviously, this 35-year-old commander of the National Army's top elite mechanized army was at the peak of his career, a time when he was full of ambition and high spirits.

He Wei thought, perhaps this is the bearing of being in charge of the unique mechanized force in the entire national army's combat sequence.

During the Battle of Nanjing, Du Yuming was only the major general commander of the Army Armored Corps. During the Battle of Wuhan, he had been promoted to lieutenant general and division commander. Now, he is a lieutenant general. In a way, Du Yuming's promotion speed, or the expansion speed of his troops, in He Wei's opinion, is smoother and faster than his own.

In fact, Du Yuming's military career and his road to success were far from as smooth as He Wei could see from these performances. It could even be said to be full of twists and turns. After graduating from the first term of the Whampoa Military Academy, Du Yuming was assigned to the grassroots troops as a platoon leader. However, because the requirements of leading troops were too harsh, he was not very happy with his job as a platoon leader. Later, Du Yuming was sent to the north to help run a military academy, and he did a terrible job there.

Afterwards, he transferred to the political department to do propaganda, but he still didn't do very well. It's no exaggeration to say that he was not good at anything. Du Yuming just muddled along like this and simply returned to his hometown in Shaanxi to work for a large landlord's militia. Later, he joined the Shaanxi Army and served as a company commander in Gao Guizi's team. He could be considered to have made a name for himself.

However, Du Yuming's personal life during this period was also muddle-headed, and he indulged in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. He even gambled away all the company's military pay.

This is not the end. At that time, Du Yuming participated in the famous Battle of Nankou as part of Gao Guizi's unit. Du led his troops in the battle and achieved considerable success. After the war, Gao Guizi ordered Du Yuming to hand over the captured weapons and equipment, but Du Yuming was so stupid that he refused to hand over the captured weapons. Naturally, this angered Gao Guizi, and he was directly ordered to be dismissed by Gao Guizi.

Judging from his various behaviors, Du Yuming, who had just joined the army, was a complete idiot. Not only was he not a qualified junior officer, he couldn't even obey orders, and he did a lot of illegal and disorderly things.

And that's not all. Du Yuming, who was kicked out of the Shaanxi Army, then ran to Wuhan in disgrace to join the Huangpu Northern Expedition Army. He was appointed as a company commander by his old boss Zhang Zhizhong. At that time, the struggle between the Nanjing National Government and the Wuhan National Government was the most intense. During a troop gathering and training, when it came to shouting slogans to express determination, Du Yuming, as the company commander, did not set an example and had a very cold attitude. As a result of this performance, Du Yuming's loyalty as a company commander was naturally greatly doubted. He lost his job, was put in solitary confinement and almost shot. He finally escaped.

Of course, people always change, or in other words, they gradually mature through one beating and training after another. Du Yuming, in a desperate situation, ran to Zhang Zhizhong to make a living. After so many setbacks and failures, Du Yuming finally changed his ways and his temperament changed greatly in all aspects. This time he finally did something worthwhile. He served in several team positions in the Central Military Academy under Zhang Zhizhong. After Zhang Zhizhong was transferred to be the commander of the Second Teaching Division, Du was appointed the commander of the Sixth Regiment of the division.

Afterwards, the Second Teaching Division was reorganized into the Fourth Army Division, and the division commander was replaced by Xu Tingyao, who was known as the father of the National Army's mechanized forces, while Du was changed to the commander of the 20th Regiment of the division.

At this time, Du Yuming had completely changed and became a capable officer with strict military discipline and excellent moral character. After Xu took office as the division commander, he saw that most of the regiments of the 4th Division were loose and in a mess, but Du Yuming was the only one who followed his instructions seriously, and all aspects of education and training were well organized and the drills were skilled. Therefore, Xu Tingyao praised Du highly. Therefore, after being promoted to commander of the 17th Army, he recommended Du Yuming as the commander of the 73rd Brigade of the 25th Army Division and he participated in the famous Great Wall War of Resistance while in office.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. After the Great Wall War of Resistance, Du Yuming, who had been promoted to deputy commander of the 25th Army Division, had a conflict with his immediate superior, Guan Linzheng, the commander of the 25th Division of the National Army. He was openly and secretly squeezed out of the 25th Division. However, this time, Du Yuming relied on the connections of his old superior Xu Tingyao to win a new opportunity in life.

After Du Yuming resigned, Xu Tingyao recommended him to Chiang Kai-shek to serve as the captain of the student team at the newly established Nanjing Army Transportation School, responsible for training officers to command mechanized troops in combat and starting the construction of mechanized troops. After Du Yuming got in touch with the mechanized troops, he seemed to have opened his eyes and in 1937 he officially became the commander of the National Army's first mechanized unit - the Army Armored Corps.

Later on, he became the commander of the 200th Division and the commander of the Fifth Army. He rose to prominence like a rocket, and the size of the troops under his command expanded rapidly, which led to his current status. It can truly be said that he has gone through many ups and downs and been tempered through countless trials and tribulations before becoming a great man.

Therefore, at this moment, Du Yuming, who was the most successful and ambitious person in He Wei's eyes, actually had a very bumpy and tortuous road to promotion.

Of course, He Wei had no idea about these old stories. After exchanging a few simple polite words with Du Yuming, he quickly started talking to him. Du Yuming's attitude was indeed very warm. He did not put on any airs of superiority towards He Wei at all, and he addressed He Wei very affectionately as "brother".

Du Yuming repeatedly expressed his gratitude to He Wei for his help to the Army Armored Corps in the Battle of Nanjing, and also showed great interest in He Wei's previous achievements and results, as well as the Assault Corps. During the conversation, He Wei could sense that Du Yuming's enthusiastic attitude was not fake, and he could also intuitively feel the Shaanxi native's straightforwardness and heroism in him.

Du Yuming's performance made He Wei more confident about the joint operation with the Fifth Army. Since Du Yuming treated him with sincerity, He Wei had to show his attitude as well. So, He Wei quickly took out two heavyweight gifts for Du Yuming.

(End of this chapter)