Shadow Spy

Chapter 247 The chief of staff begins to behave

After the reports from various ministries, Li Junhao first reported the current situation in Europe and clearly stated: There will be no war before next spring, so the situation in Shanghai will not change much.All ministries must seize the time in the past few months and work hard to train their troops in order to be ready to deal with more severe situations...

The following is the speech of the new staff officer Yang Shixiong who appeared in front of everyone for the first time. He did not say much about the current training of the three regular legions, but focused on the training of the merchant corps of all nations and the municipal guard.

He said that during previous exchanges with Colonel Panson, the commander proposed the idea of ​​merging the two militia forces and suggested reorganizing and expanding them into the "Shanghai-Hai People's Army Self-Defense Corps." He thought this was a good idea.

This idea was indeed proposed by Li Junhao first, but in order to establish prestige for Yang Shixiong when he first took office, he was originally allowed to say that it was his own intention. However, unexpectedly, Yang Shixiong, who has an upright personality and did not want to take advantage of others, told the truth anyway. .

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

In the plan, the People's Army Self-Defense Corps was established on the scale of two lightly armed divisions, each with a strength of 1.2 people. One division was permanent, fully trained, and formed according to the model of a lightly armed force;

The other division is the shelf division, which adopts a formation model similar to that of the merchant corps of all nations. The officers and key members are permanent, and the other members train twice or three times a week. When needed, the full complement will be on standby...

However, in this way, the scale is a bit too big. The various officials who participated in the meeting felt that it was too difficult. The main reason was the issue of troop sources and weapons and equipment. If there was no such plan in the country, there would be no funds allocated, and the funds of the Ministry of Industry and Affairs could not meet the needs. This request...

At this time, Li Junhao intervened and said: He will solve the problem of weapons and equipment. The chief of staff will explain the problem of troop sources. Don't worry.

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

"The reason why I proposed this plan of up to 2.4 troops is that I am confident in the source of troops. It can be said that if I were not worried that Commander Panson would lead too many military forces and cause bad ideas from his superiors and the outside world, the expansion of this number would be Twice is no problem!

"Even in terms of funds, there is no need for funds from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce - as long as people in the concession know that the self-defense militia is established to protect the concession and citizens, donations from all walks of life can definitely meet the military expenditure requirements! Of course, how to turn this fund into Commander Panson needs to find a way to equip the weapons."

When several chief officers 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 Shanghai!After hearing this, their interest aroused and they continued to listen carefully.

During the year that Yang Shixiong lived in the Shanghai Concession, he was really not idle. He had a thorough understanding of the situation here. At this time, he could make full use of it and teach these foreigners!
In his explanation, everyone heard a lot of new information, some of which was even beyond their expectations.Before the all-out Anti-Japanese War, there were nearly 10 foreigners from more than 160 nationalities and more than [-] million Chinese in the two major concessions in Shanghai. However, this was only the registered population, that is, the population paying concession taxes, and did not include Floating population; at that time, the concession did not restrict the entry of outsiders, and the floating population numbered at least hundreds of thousands.

Before and after the August 170th Incident, a large number of citizens from Suzhou, Hebei and Shanghai rushed to the south bank to seek refuge. The population of the concession increased sharply from 300 million to over 1939 million. As of December 12, the total population of the concession has reached 400 million, including foreigners. There are more than 15 expatriates.

At present, there are three main sources of foreign expatriates in Shanghai. The first one is the nearly [-] expatriates from Europe, America and other countries who have come to Shanghai through normal channels over the years. They mainly live in the concession area;
The second one is more than [-] Belarusians. Most of them fled to China after the Russian October Revolution. Most of them live in the central part of the former French Concession, that is, Masinan Road, Father Jin Road extending westward to Bi Xun Road. , within the large and narrow area of ​​Qiqi Road;
Another small number live in the Tilanqiao area of ​​Hongkou within the public concession.

In addition, there is a special ethnic group - the Jews.

In the 30s, when European countries were excluding and persecuting Jews, Shanghai, as one of the few places in the world, hosted more than 3 Jews who had fled from Germany, Austria, Russia and other countries. Currently, they are relatively concentrated in what has become a Japanese concession. Hongkou area, but there are also many wealthy people living in the concession area.

All these foreigners are the same as the Chinese. Less than [-]% of them are truly prosperous and have no worries about life. Most of them still work every day to survive. After years of living and working, they have very close contact with the Chinese citizens. Close, there are even many cases of intermarriage.

These foreign nationals living in Shanghai also have completely different attitudes towards survival. European and American foreign nationals attach the most importance to laws and regulations and are more involved in the management of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau.

Belarusians have a very bad phenomenon. They are keen to organize their own gangs. While confronting local gangs, they are also fighting with each other and even bullying their own compatriots. This is definitely a gangster nature.

The experience of the Jews was quite painful. They came to Shanghai in desperation. Most of them cherish their current life. They have formed relatively close relationships in the form of religion and are the most united expatriate group. But now most of them live in Shanghai. Within the Japanese Concession, I wanted to move to the Public Concession because I had a family with me, but I couldn't.

Yang Shixiong believes that there are nearly 1 foreigners, not counting Belarusians and Jews. Because they have lived in a country where guns are not allowed since childhood and are keen on gun violence, it is not a problem to organize a militia of more than [-] people!
Not to mention the more than 3 Jews who now basically live in the Japanese Concession, among the more than 1 White Russians in the Concession, nearly half are Russian petty nobles, Cossack cavalry, small and medium-sized bureaucrats, etc. from the former Tsarist dynasty. They include With a strong sense of uneasiness and life pressure, when given the opportunity to join the official armed forces of the place where they live, they are very positive!If necessary, it is not a problem to draw a team of [-] people.

If only these foreign nationals are selected from the best, there will be no problem in forming one or two divisions!

(End of this chapter)