The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Chen Geng: "Actually, we did listen. Otherwise, the party would have split."

……

Chen Geng was right. Although the Guangdong District Committee had become a giant among the provincial Party branches, it had no intention of splitting up.

The reasons for this include the party constitution and party member discipline regulations, as well as Chen Duxiu's compromise and concession when the Communist International's resolutions were inconsistent with the Central Committee's opinions. Another reason that cannot be ignored is... the secretary of the Guangdong District Committee was Chen Yannian.

The change in the Party Central Committee now is that the 26,000 yuan spent by the Central Committee last year was all solved by itself, a small part of which was party dues from party members, and most of it was income from party assets.

However, in 1925, the Guangdong District Committee received as much as 11 yuan in funding from the Soviet Union...

Don’t think that the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Party of China received a lot of funding. In 1925, the Soviet Union provided the Kuomintang with equipment and ammunition to equip three infantry divisions, plus gold rubles worth 700,000 silver dollars.

"Hey, hey, you three," Ye Jianying said, "have you forgotten me again after all the mumbling? Tell me what's going on."

"Ok."

Chen Tianheng pushed aside the dish of chili sauce in front of him. "Instructor Ye, Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng are now members of the Communist Party of China Guangdong District Committee's Whampoa Military Academy Party and League branch. But before they attended Whampoa Military Academy, they, like me, had organizational affiliations with the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China."

In 1923, the KMT and the CPC began to cooperate. According to the instructions of the Communist International, the cooperation should be carried out in the form of all Communist Party members joining the KMT as individuals. General Secretary Chen Duxiu and several comrades of the Central Committee expressed their objections to this. However, as a subordinate branch of the Communist International, Chen Duxiu's opinion could not change the decision of the Communist International.

Another incident occurred in 1923. Mao Runzhi, then secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, launched and organized a series of peasant movements in several counties around Hengyang to cooperate with Tan Yankai in the upcoming Tan-Zhao War. General Secretary Chen planned to communicate and negotiate with Sun Yat-sen on this matter. However, the Communist International stopped General Secretary Chen's meeting with Sun Yat-sen and instructed the CCP not to communicate or collude with the Kuomintang without authorization.

"Due to a lack of communication with Sun Yat-sen, the Hengyang peasant movement was suppressed by Zhao Hengxi's army. The three of us were organizing the peasant movement at the Yuebei Peasants' and Workers' Union in Hengyang at the time. When Zhao Hengxi's army arrived to suppress it, we had to work very hard to evacuate the core members of the Yuebei Peasants' and Workers' Union."

"Due to these two events, at the end of 1923, when the Whampoa Military Academy was preparing and recruiting students, General Secretary Chen and Secretary Mao agreed that in addition to the open cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, it was necessary to launch a secret operation without informing the Soviet Union and the Communist International..."

……

Chen Tianheng started from the beginning, and Ye Jianying finally understood what was going on.

It turned out that there were two branches of the Chinese Communist Party running side by side at the Whampoa Military Academy: one belonging to the Guangdong District Committee and the other to the Hunan District Committee.

One is public and the other is secret.

One organization is called the Communist Party of China Guangdong District Committee Huangpu Military Academy Party League Branch, and the other...

"Is it called the War Research Society?"

Ye Jianying asked.

Chen Tianheng: "We use the War Research Association as a platform for our activities. But our organization has its own name under the Hunan Provincial Committee, the Military Commission of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China..."

"Cough! Cough!" Jiang Xianyun coughed two or three times beside him, frantically reminding Chen Tianheng to pay attention to something.

Chen Tianheng: "Well, actually it's called the People's Armed Forces Department of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China."

……

After returning to Huangpu and walking in the military academy, Ye Jianying felt that his perspective on the world had completely changed.

"Hello, Director Ye!"

An officer cadet walked over and saluted Ye Jianying.

"Yes, is it Lu Deming?" Ye Jianying returned the greeting and recognized Lu Deming.

Not only did he recognize Lu Deming, but he also saw the small badge on his chest, which was the badge of a member of the War Research Society.

The Young Military Officers' Union and the Red Star Society were two common Whampoa student organizations, from which the War Research Society recruited only the brightest and most gifted Whampoa cadets. Previously, Ye Jianying knew that the War Research Society admitted both Communist Party members and non-Party members. Now, he knew that Chen Tianheng and his trio had enrolled some students in the Whampoa Party and League branches, while others, more cunning and secretive, joined Chen Tianheng's branch, publicly appearing as ordinary cadets.

He's smart, has military talent, and is cunning enough to hide secrets. Oh my god.

"Hello, sir!"

Two soldiers passing by saw Ye Jianying in his officer uniform and stood at attention to salute him. When Ye Jianying returned the salute, he noticed the "Blue Sky, White Sun Number One" cloth armband on the two soldiers' uniforms, which was the unique unit insignia of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division.

The "Blue Sky, White Sun, Number One" insignia, also known as the "Heavenly Number One" patch, features a blue sky, white sun with a red wing and a "①" embedded within it. Because of this patch and the various stories surrounding the 1st Regiment's military exploits, the 1st Regiment has also been informally referred to as the "Heavenly Number One Regiment."

1师1团强到了什么程度？听说2、3师有的团组建的时候想从1团挖点人，结果1团的排长都不愿意跳槽到其他团当连长。

This is no wonder, as more than half of the official members of the War Research Society are in the 1st Division and 1st Regiment.

"Hello, sir!"

Two more soldiers passed by.

Ye Jianying: "Hmm?"

These two soldiers also had armbands. They were cloth patches, too. The design was quite similar to that of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division: a blue sky with a white sun and a red wing, with a "④" embedded in it.

Ye Jianying: "Oh my god, that wretch Liu Zhi is secretly doing something bad."

……

Two days later, Ye Jianying entered the city again.

"Hello, Minister Mao."

This was the first time Ye Jianying met Mao Runzhi in private.

Mao Runzhi: "Hello, Director Ye. Xia Xi is the current Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, but he returned to Hunan immediately after the Second National Congress. If there is any organizational work at the Hunan People's Armed Forces Department that requires the intervention of the Provincial Party Committee leaders, I will be acting as its agent. Instructor Ye, I have received your application, and I have also read the investigation materials written by Chen Tianheng about you."

"On November 21 last year, the Young China Association announced a reorganization, meaning it was disbanding and parting ways. I was once a member of the Young China Association, so I also received a reorganization questionnaire."

"In the questionnaire, there was a section asking me to fill in my current political stance. I filled it out like this:"

"I believe in communism and advocate proletarian social revolution. However, the current internal and external oppression cannot be overturned by the power of one class."

"Advocating a national revolution with cooperation among the proletariat, the petty bourgeoisie, and the left wing of the middle class, implementing the Three Principles of the People of the Kuomintang, in order to overthrow imperialism, overthrow the warlords, overthrow the comprador landlord class, and realize the joint rule of the proletariat, the petty bourgeoisie, and the left wing of the middle class, that is, the rule of the revolutionary people."

"Personally, I think that today, for a revolutionary who aspires to change and save China, his revolutionary philosophy should be exactly these."

Ye Jianying: "Minister Mao, I completely agree with what you said above."

Chen Tianheng didn't come today. Ye Jianying alone was enough. This meeting couldn't be known to outsiders, so the fewer people involved, the safer it was. Furthermore, since Ye Jianying's application to join the Party had already been accepted, only Mao Runzhi and Ye Jianying would be needed for today's interview.

The two continued to talk for a long time. Ye Jianying agreed with Mao Runzhi's peasant revolution theory and expressed his willingness to provide all possible help - the Peasant Movement Training Institute was in dire need of military instructors.

Mao Runzhi stated that even after joining the Party, one would need to remain secret for the time being and that it would be best not to come to the Peasant Movement Training Institute if possible. He suggested that Ye Jianying use his position as a Whampoa Military Academy administrator to persuade Communist Party instructors at the Whampoa Military Academy—namely, Yun Daiying, Xiao Chunv, and Xiong Xiong, who served under the Guangdong District Committee—to come to the Peasant Movement Training Institute to teach military tactics. Mao Runzhi had previously proposed this, but the Guangdong District Committee showed little interest.

When the conversation was almost over, Mao Runzhi picked up Ye Jianying's application to join the party and filled in the following information from the party introducer:

"Introducer Chen Tianheng"

Mao Runzhi: "Director Ye, you seem to be the first instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy to join the People's Armed Forces Department branch of the Hunan Party Committee through Chen Tianheng's introduction."

Chapter 77

"Chief of Staff Zuo! Huang Wei reports in!"

Huang Wei, the new logistics officer of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division’s General Staff, came to see Zuo Quan.

Zuo Quan responded, "We're all in the same regiment and see each other every day, so I won't bother with the polite words. The General Staff now consists of five people, including me. Zheng Dongguo and I are the combat staff officers; He Zhonghan is the intelligence and communications staff officer; Yan Kui is the training staff officer, and you will take over as Liu Chouxi's logistics staff officer."

"Logistics Staff, the work style and workload during training and combat are completely different. There are regulations for logistics staff work during combat, as well as the documents and notes left by Liu Chouxi. They're all here. By the way, the regimental supply battalion hasn't been withdrawn from the 1st Regiment yet, so you should focus more of your daily work on it. Manage and train the supply battalion well during training so you'll have logistical support when you go out on the battlefield."

"Yes!" Huang Wei got into the state and prepared to take over Liu Chouxi's stall.

"By the way, General Zuo, the 34th Regiment came looking for people, and Commander Chen agreed without hesitation to allocate a group of brothers to them, including Liu Chouxi. Why is Commander Chen suddenly so generous?"

"You may not know this yet," Zuo Quan said in a low voice, "the 34th Regiment of the 12th Division of the 4th Army is a newly formed organization. The regimental commander, Ye Ting, is one of ours."

"Oh." Huang Wei nodded to show that he understood.

The Fourth Army, formerly the Guangdong Army, was reorganized into the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army last year. Following the resignation of Xu Chongzhi, the Fourth Army was effectively dismantled. For example, the 3rd Division of the 1st Army was removed from the Guangdong Army and moved under the 1st Army. Following this dismantling, some units were rebuilt, and the 12th Division was one of them.

Ye Ting went abroad to study and study, and returned from the Soviet Union last September. He first served as a staff officer of the Fourth Army, and is now assigned to lead the 34th Regiment. When Ye Ting first took office, the 34th Regiment had nothing but a designation. Ye Ting used his seniority and connections to recruit personnel from various units.

Ye Ting recruited the Grand Marshal's Guard Battalion/Armored Vehicle Team he had previously led, which now formed the core of the 34th Regiment, with Zhou Shidi as the battalion commander. However, the armored vehicle team was only expanded to the size of a battalion, so Ye Ting had to find two more battalions.

After He Yingqin's nod and consultation between Ye Ting and Chen Tianheng, nine officers, including Liu Chouxi, the logistics staff officer of the 1st Regiment, and Cai Shenxi, the deputy battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, were transferred to the 34th Regiment.

"Captain Ye, this is our regiment's headquarters and staff."

Chen Tianheng took the visiting Ye Ting to visit the 1st Regiment's camp and training ground.

"The 1st Regiment's staff was generally organized according to the Soviet Army's structure, but slightly more streamlined than a Soviet infantry regiment. The main difference was that it adopted a system where the chief of staff was responsible, with the rest of the staff serving as assistants. There was a chief of staff and four main staff officers, the 'four major divisions', in charge of operations, intelligence and communications, training, and logistics, respectively."

Ye Ting: "I heard that your staff's work rules and regulations are also different from those of the Soviet Army."

Chen Tianheng: "Yes. Liu Chouxi knows all the procedures set by our General Staff, but if you want to use the full set of Soviet military regulations, Liu Chouxi can also adapt to it."

Ye Ting: "What does this portable document rack contain?"

Zuo Quan: "Combat Orders. These are contingency plans drawn up based on the General Staff's pre-planned deductions. When a combat mission is received that is the same or similar to a previously deduced case, these ready-made or semi-ready-made orders are pulled out."

Ye Ting: "This must be the ingenious plan prepared in advance."

"Haha, I wouldn't necessarily call it a silver bullet," Chen Tianheng said. "Some combat plans are brilliantly designed, but most probably don't have some elusive 'flash of inspiration'; they're the result of a tremendous amount of meticulous work. Their purpose is to allow the military to quickly issue orders, complete combat mobilizations and deployments, and so on, without any major omissions in deployment decisions."

Zuo Quan: "For example, switching positions with friendly forces and withdrawing alternately involves the mobilization of the entire regiment. More than a dozen military orders must be issued, moving infantry, artillery, and baggage to their corresponding positions in a strict time sequence, and reconnaissance units must change their reconnaissance areas. If a unit is omitted when issuing military orders, it will cause chaos on the battlefield. You may lose that unit, or it may retreat on its own, making it impossible to find it. Now, with a pre-made plan, this situation will not occur. Because after opening the military order book, you must fill in all the blank orders inside and issue them."

Ye Ting continued to look at the file rack that could be easily disassembled and moved, as well as the file bags on it.

There were words written on the file bags and file racks: "Military Orders No. 1 - Formation March", "Military Orders No. 2 - Rapid March", "Military Orders No. 3", "Military Orders No. 4"

“Why is this blank?”

Ye Ting discovered an area where the file rack had "Military Order Collection No. 66" written on it, but there was no file bag with the same words "Military Order Collection No. 66" in the corresponding location.

"Military Order No. 66," Chen Tianheng pointed to his head. "It's in my head. Because it's quite confidential, I won't compile a collection of military orders in advance."

……

"Captain Ye, see you later."

After visiting the 1st Regiment, Ye Ting returned to the Huangpu headquarters to talk to Chiang Kai-shek and see if he could be given some troops from other units of the 1st Army. Coming out of Chiang Kai-shek's office, he saw Chen Tianheng again.

"Captain Chen, are you going into the city today?"

Ye Ting discovered that during the more than one hour he was talking with Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Tianheng had changed into casual clothes.

"Yes," Chen Tianheng grinned, "to Guangdong University."

The School of Medicine (Medical College) of Guangdong University, formerly Guangdong Public Medical University, was merged into Guangdong University in 1925.

Last December, the School of Medicine received a huge donation of 200,000 silver dollars. The donor was a public welfare organization, and the boss behind it was Chen Ying.

According to the charity organization, 10 yuan of the donation will be used to improve teaching conditions in the School of Medicine, and 10 yuan will be used to establish a medical laboratory.

"Hello, Director Zhong."

Zhong Zaiquan, the director of the medical department, also served as the director of the medical laboratory. On the one hand, Zhong Zaiquan was indeed one of the most famous Western medicine and pharmacologists in China today, and on the other hand, his sponsor had given him too much money.

"Hello, Mr. Lu. I never thought that Mr. Lu is such a promising young man."

Chen Tianheng used the pseudonym Mr. Lu. At the charity organization, the manager did not say anything extra to Zhong Zaiquan. He only told him that Mr. Lu was in charge and that daily management and operations would follow the laboratory's rules. However, if Mr. Lu had any additional requirements, he would do it.

Zhong Zaiquan: "There are no effective anti-inflammatory drugs that can kill bacteria that invade the human body in the current Western medical system, although many Western medical laboratories are researching them."

"I don't really like using the term 'Western medicine' here," Chen Tianheng interrupted. "I think 'modern medicine' is more appropriate. The opposite term is classical medicine, including classical Chinese medicine, classical Western medicine, classical Arabic medicine, and classical Indian medicine. So, what research and development directions are the lab considering right now?"

Zhong Zaiquan: "The lab has held several seminars and concluded that there are two general directions for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs: chemical synthesis and biosynthesis. Well, some scholars have also proposed looking for them in traditional Chinese medicine formulas, but this is a bit... how should I put it..."

"No," Chen Tianheng said, "This is also a method that can be considered as biosynthesis followed by purification in a broad sense, but with empirical prescriptions as a source of inspiration. I suggest that the laboratory also allocate some resources to this area."

……

The entire earth is full of bacteria. From the top of the atmosphere to three hundred meters underground, various pathogens are everywhere.

disinfecting bacteria that are outside the body or attached to the surface of the body is simple: just wipe with an alcohol cotton ball. However, it is much more difficult to disinfect bacteria that have already invaded the body and are growing wildly in various tissue cells and blood.

Current medical treatments rely on waiting for the body's white blood cells to slowly eliminate the invading bacteria, commonly known as "hard-core resistance." There are also some medications, most of which are ineffective. A few that are effective, however, only inflict significant damage. For example, the mercury treatment, which President Jiang probably wouldn't even consider hearing about right now, is effective.

The three directions mentioned by Zhong Zaiquan all have the potential to produce antibacterial drugs. Sulfonamides can be produced through chemical synthesis, penicillin can be produced through biological synthesis, and allicin injection can also be found in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.

But Chen Tianheng wasn't an expert in this area. For example, he knew that sulfonamide antibiotics had several (dozens) derivatives with anti-inflammatory effects, but he couldn't write the chemical formula for any of them. Furthermore, he also had to develop a process for efficient, high-yield synthesis.

Fortunately, although Chen Tianheng cannot do it himself, he can use his money power to ask others to do it.

"Mr. Zhong, I'm sure many people won't accept my suggestion that Western medicine should be called modern medicine instead of Western medicine. This is because today's Western medicine and its technologies were almost entirely developed by Westerners. Is it wrong to call it Western medicine? ... Unless you can prove to the world that not only Westerners can invent medicines, but Chinese can too. In the future, the world's most widely used medicines will include both Western and Chinese-developed medicines. Only then can we more convincingly adopt the term 'modern medicine'."

Although already in his forties, Zhong Zaiquan's heart still surged when he heard Chen Tianheng's words. "Mr. Lu is right. I should work hard for this."

Chen Tianheng: "Pharmaceutical research and development isn't something that happens overnight; it requires years of accumulation and continuous trial and error. I still hope to have some of the best medical school graduates work in the lab. Of course, they can't just be retained. Graduates can easily earn 300 or 400 RMB a month as doctors after five years. To keep outstanding graduates in this field, besides providing spiritual incentives, there shouldn't be too much of a gap in material benefits."

Zhong Zaiquan: "Besides staff salaries, running a laboratory also involves equipment procurement and material consumption. I'm also worried about this because, well, before new drugs are discovered, the laboratory needs to invest huge amounts of funds every year..."

"That's not a problem," Chen Tianheng said. "As long as I'm sure the lab is headed in the right direction and in line with the institution's will, the institution will provide you with huge funding every year. Mr. Zhong, you know how powerful the antibiotics we want to develop are. This is actually a gamble. As long as the drug is developed, all the investment will be worth it."

Zhong Zaiquan: "Yes, we will make a lot of money by then, and we can also hold our heads high in front of foreigners."

"It's a relief, yes," Chen Tianheng smiled. "But sometimes, we can't do without foreigners..."

……

Saying penicillin is a money-printing machine is a literary figure of speech. Penicillin is not money; it is penicillin, a highly effective antibiotic.