Back to the Republic of China as a commander

In the sixth year of the Republic of China, March 1917, 3, a day worth remembering for the Chinese nation.

In the port of Marseilles in France, the busy wharf is receiving all kinds of materials sent by African and Asian colonies through the Mediterranean Sea. These materials are the basis for supporting the French to continue to lay down.

There are no Frenchmen to be seen on the pier. In France, all men under the age of 50 are sent to the front line, where they will fight the Germans until their last drop of blood is shed.The workers on the pier are all yellow-skinned and black-eyed Asians, to be precise, Chinese.

These cheap laborers were hired from China at the expense of the British and French governments. They were hard-working and could work [-] hours a day without complaining about their treatment or picking jobs.This satisfied the French bosses who were used to strikes: "These Chinese from the East are much more industrious and willing to work than the Arabs and blacks. These people are really good natural workers."

In fact, the French bosses misunderstood. In fact, the reason why these Chinese laborers who lost their land in their hometown worked so hard was because they wanted to save more money to go home and buy land, and second, they were oppressed by the foreman.If they dare not work hard, the French may have nothing to do with them, but these reactionary foremen will bring their thugs to beat themselves and others.

Yu Ba and Xiong Er are representatives of this kind of reactionary foreman. They jointly control all [-] Chinese laborers at the port of Marseille.But their foreman was not appointed by the national government, but self-appointed.

Speaking of which, when Yu Ba and Xiong Er set off in China, they were like all laborers, or even worse.Both of them are from Tianmen, Hubei, and they originally lived a prosperous small-scale peasant life in their hometown with "huguang familiarity with the world".However, these two are well-known idlers in the village, stealing chickens and dogs, helping others in fights and never leaving alone, even though they are 30 years old, they are still single.Originally, I just wanted to eat and drink, and it would take me a lifetime to tease the widows in the village. Unexpectedly, one day, the village came to the work team and wanted to forcibly buy the land of the wealthy Wang family in the village, saying it was a military farm.How could this be possible, the land was taken away, and the brothers went to eat whatever they wanted, Yu Ba and Xiong Er took the lead in making trouble.The result is naturally a tragedy. Wang Zhenyu's youth army is even more vicious than the demolition brigade of later generations. A group of security forces beat Yu Ba with batons. As for how ruthless it is, these two will see later When he saw the blue-gray military uniform of the youth army, his calves trembled wildly.

There is no way, the strong laborers in the village who are capable of farming and feeding are incorporated into the military farm as agricultural technicians, and those who seem to be honest and responsible are sent to the Wuhan factory as workers.And Yu Ba, who has neither ability nor craftsmanship, is sorry, there is no place to ask for it. In the end, the two signed up to work as laborers in Europe.

The life on the ship was miserable, and all the British and French could do was to ensure the supply of fresh water and food for these laborers.During the two-month long voyage, if someone gets sick, I'm sorry, although I won't throw it into the sea to feed the sharks like slave trade.But they will also be immediately quarantined and kicked off the ship at the next port, and they will be dismissed just by losing a little living expenses (many years later, the Chinese Human Rights Commission made a human rights memorandum on this and requested compensation from the British and French governments).

But after arriving in France, Yu Ba and Xiong Er, two Hubei natives, showed their shrewdness.They quickly found their own way. First, they gathered a group of thugs from the laborers to form a so-called gang to protect the laborers and help the laborers. They successfully controlled the laborers in the entire port, and obtained the income from the laborers. power.Then they secretly smuggled daily necessities and luxury goods by establishing personal relationships with freighter sailors, and then transferred them to wealthy locals in France at high prices.You must know that the French government has begun to control the national economy and the distribution of materials during this period. Daily necessities are materials controlled by the state, and many French families are struggling on the line of food and clothing.

Relying on this method, Yu Ba and Xiong Er turned from laborers to wealthy locals in France, and lived an extremely enviable life in this turbulent and war-torn era.

"Brother Yu, I heard that you went to find that big-breasted Camille last night? How about it, isn't that girl very exciting! Why don't you change your brother and try your hand?" Xiong Er asked lying on the beach Yu Ba rested on the chair.

"Never mind your business, don't think that I don't know, that tall Mary was captured by you, so don't try to trick me and women." Yu Ba, as expected of the eldest brother, taught Xiong Er a lesson without hesitation.

Xiong Er said with an unhappy face: "Well, isn't she just a girl? As long as they have bread and money, they don't kneel and beg us to do it! Besides, these girls all have men, but they All the men are on the front line, so I don’t know if they can come back? What’s wrong with our brothers swapping and playing, and it’s not a loss..."

At this moment, the whistle of the ship entering the port came from a distance like a competition, making Yu Ba and Xiong Er who was talking nonsense sat up in surprise and looked into the distance.Both of them thought to themselves: "What day is it today? Why are there so many ships entering the port? It seems that the time has come for our brothers to make a fortune."

At the far end of the sea level, twelve [-]-ton freighters are waiting in line to enter the port.If Yu Ba and Xiong Er had binoculars, they would have found that the tiger flags belonging to the youth army were flying on these freighters.

When the first freighter docked at the port, there was no change in the Chinese laborers working on the pier. They were still loading and unloading the goods numbly. Bags of cashew nuts from Vietnam were loaded onto the truck and then left the pier for their destination. .

A group of Chinese workers who got ready to pick up the goods came to the side of the boat only to find that the French tally supervisor who usually scolded them did not follow, but lit a cigarette in violation of the regulations and smoked it. .

Immediately afterwards, a mobile wooden ladder passed by, and the person who walked down was actually a Chinese.

It would not be surprising if only the Chinese arrived, as laborers were sent here from China almost every day.But this time was different. The workers who received the goods were surprised to see that the people coming down were Chinese soldiers wearing blue-gray military uniforms and fully armed. queue up.There is almost an infantry battalion on each ship. Looking at these energetic soldiers, the workers suddenly realized that this is our own Chinese army.

I don't know who started it. The workers who were originally mentally numb and blind-eyed suddenly shouted long live excitedly. They stepped forward to take a look at these soldiers from the motherland. At this moment, they felt the pride of being Chinese. .And not far behind them, the French tally supervisor took a deep drag on his cigarette, then threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out with his foot, then turned and left.

Yes, since the Opium War in 1840, this is the first time that the Chinese army has gone abroad and appeared on the land of the great powers.This is the first division of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, the No.20 Second Field Division of the Future Youth Army. They are very honorable to become the first squadron to appear in Europe.Looking at those compatriots cheering for them, they feel that the burden on their shoulders is heavy.

At this moment, on the lighthouse not far from the port, General Bai Chongxi, who had just been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the European Expeditionary Force by the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, tried his best to restrain his emotions, gently put down the telescope in his hand, and then used someone else An almost inaudible voice said, "Although it's late, it's finally here."

The officers behind him were equally excited. Bai Chongxi seemed to have sensed their maneuvering, and softly ordered: "Liao Lei, Zhang Zizhong, why don't you go and take over your troops?"

Liao Lei and the other officers couldn't bear it any longer, and after hearing this, they gave a military salute and trotted down the tower.It made Bai Chongxi and other officers laugh out loud.

At the moment on the pier, Brigadier General Jiang Zhongzheng, the political director of the First Division, was standing at the forefront of the queue in a brigadier general's uniform, waiting for the arrival of Commander Liao Lei.According to the requirements of Britain and France, the number of the first expeditionary force to arrive was 23, which happened to be 9 field divisions.

The commander of the expeditionary force, Bai Chongxi, immediately divided the nine divisions into three armies:

Liao Lei, the commander of the First Army, under the jurisdiction of the First Division, the Second Division, and the Third Division

Li Pinxian, commander of the Second Army, under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Division, Fifth Division, and Sixth Division

Tang Shengzhi, the commander of the Third Army, under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Division, the Eighth Division, and the Ninth Division

He Yingqin, Xia Wei, Ye Kaixin, Zhang Zizhong, Li Hongkui, and Zhou Zhengming served as division commanders, and the other three division commanders were concurrently served by army commanders.

Wei Lihuang, Chen Cheng, Luo Zhuoying, Serious, Deng Yanda, Gu Zhutong, Hu Zongnan, Zhang Fakui, Zhang Zhizhong, Xiong Shihui, Xue Yue, Zheng Jiemin, Wang Tianpei, Sun Zhen and other 36 people served as the team leaders.It is worth mentioning that after the resolution of the Southwest Incident, a large number of soldiers from the Sichuan Army, the Guizhou Army, and the Yunnan Army were not added to the 21th to [-]st divisions, but mixed with recruits and entered the expeditionary army.In particular, many regiment and battalion level officers mostly use these people.Among the regiment leaders, Wang Mingzhang, Wang Zanxu, Luo Zezhou, Wang Lingji, Pan Wenhua, Tang Shizun, Tian Songyao, Fan Shaozeng, Guo Xunqi, Wang Jialie, Long Yun, and Lu Han were all from the southwest, and this time they were also sent to the European front.

At first, Bai Chongxi thought that Wang Zhenyu meant to take the opportunity to consume these non-direct descendants. After contacting for more than a month, he discovered that these people have a common characteristic, that is, they are very talented, and all of them are bold and careful. host.Therefore, Bai Chongxi did not shy away from these people's previous backgrounds, and all of them were promoted to become team leaders.The current problem of the expeditionary force is not the lack of officers, the graduates of the military academy have filled all the positions, but the lack of military directors, who can lead the troops to victory at critical moments.The most basic requirement for this type of people is to be familiar with the European battlefield. The above-mentioned people only arrived at the end of December last year. Originally, they could not be reused, but because of the late arrival of the expeditionary force, they finally overcome this problem. . .