The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Second Company, First Battalion.

The fourth-term interns walked to the second company headquarters. After a while, the second company commander Fan Hanjie came back from the training ground.

Lin Biao: "Hello, sir!"

Fan Hanjie: "From now on, just call me Company Commander. Officers and soldiers in a regiment only address each other by their titles and given names. The simpler the better. What's your name?"

"My name is Lin Biao, fourth class, fourth team!"

Fan Hanjie turned to the second person: "What about you?"

"My name is Liu Zhidan, I'm from the third team of the fourth batch of students!"

"Wu Zhonghao, Team 1 of the fourth batch of students!"

"Zeng Zhongsheng, Team 1 of the fourth batch of students!"

"Duan Dechang, fourth batch of students, team four!"

"Wen Qiang, Team Six of the Fourth Batch!"

……

Xu Xiangqian: "Our regiment has received 18 interns from the fourth batch, divided evenly between the Second Company of the First Battalion and the Fifth Company of the Third Battalion. It seems that these students are all about the same now. Zheng Dongguo, it depends on whether you can bring them out."

The first battalion commander, Zheng Dongguo, looked at Lin Biao and then at Fan Hanjie: "This depends on the second company commander's ability to lead the troops."

"Li Guangshao!"

"To!"

"Come and get the person!"

The second battalion commander Xu Jishen also brought back a group of fourth-term students from the battalion headquarters and took them to the fifth company of the second battalion to be received by the company commander Li Guangshao.

Li Guangshao: "State your names!"

"My name is Hu Lian, from the fourth term, team five!"

"My name is Xie Jinyuan, fourth class student, team four!"

"Guan Huimin, Team 1 of the fourth batch of students!"

"Zhang Zongxun, Team Five of the Fourth Batch!"

"Li Mi, Team Six of the Fourth Batch!"

……

"Su Yu, second team of the fourth batch of students!"

Su Yu saluted.

In the spring of 1925, Su Yu was admitted to the Hunan Provincial Second Normal School in Changde. After entering Changde, he joined the "Student Union" led by the Chinese Communist Party and secretly circulated Communist Party ideological literature. Not long after, a student movement broke out at the school, and Su Yu joined in. After the movement, the Student Union suddenly conveyed a message from higher authorities: Xia Xi, Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, instructed the branches of the three normal schools in Hunan to select a group of potential student party members or progressive students and encourage them to apply to the Whampoa Military Academy.

After much consideration, Su Yu finally signed up on the last day and came to Guangzhou to take the exam.

So, Su Yu, who had left the Changde Second Division to join the army in 1927, half a year after the Northern Expedition began, was now in the fourth class of Whampoa Military Academy.

Chen Tianheng spent a lot of time sorting through the long list of more than 2,000 students from the fourth term. When he found Su Yu's name on the list, he drew two thick blue lines under the word "Su Yu" without hesitation.

Assign them all to the First Regiment, and then let them be tempered in the Northern Expedition.

Chen Tianheng actually didn't go looking for treasure today. He went to Dongguan with the Third Battalion and the First Regiment's Engineering Company.

...is to conduct a battalion-level river crossing drill.

Also accompanying him was a visitor or guest whom he specially invited: Zhu De.

Zhu De withdrew from the "jianghu" of domestic warlords and went abroad to study. He first went to Germany, joined the party in Germany, and later went to the Soviet Union for further studies according to the arrangement of the party organization.

He was "delayed" from studying in the Soviet Union because the Communist International found him unteachable...

Originally, Soviet schools could train an "internationalist" within a few months to six months. However, Zhu De was a veteran with nearly two decades of military experience, a seasoned veteran with his own unique perspectives. The Communist International, realizing that no amount of instruction could brainwash him, retained him for another semester, but still found the results unsatisfactory.

By this time it was April 1926. Borodin had resumed his post as chief adviser, General Galen had returned to Guangzhou, and the Northern Expedition was about to begin. It was necessary to send back this member of the Communist Party who might have the most military experience.

"Changzhou Island to Guangzhou City is a long, forced river crossing. Theoretically, this field force should be able to make a quick crossing, but the entire revolutionary army currently lacks pontoon bridge equipment. Dongguan has many small rivers and branches, making it suitable for current troop exercises."

Zhu De and Chen Tianheng watched the Third Battalion's river crossing and breakthrough combat drills from a high place.

"Your infantry's squad combat tactics in the field are very similar to those of the German Storm Troopers."

Zhu De pointed out the key point incisively.

Chen Tianheng: "We did draw inspiration from the Storm Troopers, as they were a relatively effective means of breaking through deep trench fortifications in the later stages of the European War. However, based on this inspiration, we also made modifications based on the current situation in China."

Zhu De: "At the same time, the volley drill manuals of your infantry companies and battalions are very similar to those of the British Army."

Chen Tianheng: "Volley fire is also an effective tactic in contemporary China. In the Battle of Mianhu, we relied on disciplined volley fire to intimidate Lin Hu's troops. This prevented large-scale hand-to-hand combat and reduced casualties. At the time, we were so sensitive to casualties that half of the battalions in the training corps were cadets from the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy."

Zhu De: "When I was studying in Germany, my job involved collecting and studying the military theories and tactics that emerged from various countries during the European War. After the European War, many tactics that had previously been effective were proven ineffective. However, many warlords in our country still fight according to the old rules. In the future, having an advanced tactical system will be a huge advantage on the battlefield."

Chen Tianheng: "The Northern Expedition is imminent, but despite several expansions, the National Revolutionary Army only has 200,000 men, and not all of them can be deployed. Right now, quality trumps quantity. Quality here encompasses organization, political work, morale, tactical systems, staff capabilities, and equipment integration. We must achieve excellence in every aspect. Special Envoy Zhu, therefore, I would like to invite you to stay and serve as a special advisor to the First Regiment."

Zhu De: "I have been appointed as a special commissioner by the Military Commission. This means my position is confirmed. I will be going to Sichuan soon. I am afraid I can no longer stay in Guangzhou."

Zhu De returned to Guangzhou in May 1926. At that time, the general situation in Guangzhou was that there was no place for Zhu De in the National Revolutionary Army.

The Third Army was originally part of the Yunnan Army, and its commander at the time was Zhu Peide. Both Zhu and Zhu De were students in the first class of the Yunnan Military Academy. Their excellent academic performance earned them the nickname "The Two Model Zhus." Zhu Peide was currently doing well as commander and had a good relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (the two were even sworn brothers), so there was no reason to replace him.

There was no position for Zhu De in the Third Army of the Yunnan Army, let alone the other armies.

In fact, the powerful factions within the National Revolutionary Army were still trying to get Zhu De to leave Guangzhou because of his extensive experience in the Xinhai Revolution, the National Protection Movement, and the Protection of the Law. Giving him the title of "Special Commissioner" meant sending him to Sichuan, where they could use their old connections to incite Yang Sen's Sichuan Army to revolt and mobilize him for the Northern Expedition.

Later, Zhu De entered Sichuan with a few followers and actually mobilized the Sichuan Army. Together with Yang Angong and Liu Bocheng, he launched the Lushun Uprising to support the Northern Expedition.

"Our First Regiment is also known as the First Party Army Regiment, the Eastern Expedition Meritorious Regiment, and the Mianhu Meritorious Regiment. But we also have another nickname: the First Rifle Regiment of Changzhou Island," Chen Tianheng said. "The entire regiment only has guns: rifles, machine guns, and submachine guns."

Zhu De: "China's military cannot compare with that of Western countries, nor with the Japanese army. According to theoretical organization, an infantry regiment is equipped with a battalion of about 75mm mountain artillery, but now even the divisions of the National Revolutionary Army may not have a mountain artillery battalion."

Chen Tianheng: "Yes, the First Army currently has six divisions, but only four mountain artillery battalions. However, Special Envoy, European countries now have a relatively lightweight trench gun or mortar. What a pity... If we could get one of these, the First Regiment would have some ability to project firepower."

"I know about trench guns. They weren't discovered in Europe. The Yunnan Army bought a batch of them before."

Chen Tianheng: "Ah? Really? But I didn't see any trench artillery in the Third Army."

Zhu De: "I don't know about that. It's possible that these Yunnan Army soldiers were displaced from Yunnan to Guangxi and Guangdong and lost along the way. But I did see them when I was in the Yunnan Army."

……

"Xu Xiangqian, Huang Wei, let's discuss this."

When Chen Tianheng came back, he immediately found Xu Xiangqian and logistics staff officer Huang Wei.

"Today I met Zhu De, a veteran of the Yunnan Army. He said the Yunnan Army was once equipped with trench guns. But the current Third Army doesn't have them. After the Yunnan Army arrived in Guangzhou, it was first split up. Later, Yang Ximin's rebellion to seize power was suppressed. Then, the Yunnan Army was split up again, and finally became the Third Army. I suspect the Yunnan Army's trench guns were lost during all the turmoil. You all know about trench guns, right?"

Huang Wei: “I know.”

Xu Xiangqian: "Then we need to ask the former Yunnan Army non-commissioned officers and officers who were recruited by the First Army."

Chen Tianheng: "Let's go to the Second Regiment. I know there's a former Yunnan Army major in the Second Regiment."

"You mean those small, short-range cannons? I've seen them, but they weren't from our battalion." Staff Officer Tan of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division, though a major, was quite old, in his forties. He said he'd seen these small cannons in friendly units around 1918.

Chen Tianheng: "Commander Tan, did your troops carry this kind of artillery when they entered Guangzhou?"

Staff Officer Tan said, "In the tenth year of the Republic of China, we went to Guangzhou to seek employment. At that time, our equipment was still complete. As for what happened after that, I'm not sure. If you ask Division Commander Zhao Chengliang, he would definitely know."

Xu Xiangqian: "Zhao Chengliang was already fucking dead."

In June 1925, Yang Ximin of the Yunnan Army launched a rebellion, and Zhao Chengliang was the only division commander to join him in the rebellion. Upon discovering that some of the Yunnan Army had rebelled, the Nationalist Navy launched an artillery attack on the Yunnan Army camp. The Zhongshan warship fired only seven or eight shells, but one of them struck the courtyard where Zhao Chengliang was holding his headquarters, killing him and thus ending the Yunnan Army rebellion.

The question is whether the trench gun existed and whether it could be found in Guangzhou. The only person who knew about it was killed in the explosion...

Staff Officer Tan said, "This gun has no wheels, which is quite troublesome. We packed it in wooden boxes and put it on carts pulled by horses. Maybe it was mistaken for ordinary baggage and dumped in a warehouse somewhere."

Chapter 90

(Chapters 72 and 74 have been revised)

"Oh, good stuff, good stuff!"

"But, Commander, the guns haven't been found yet."

Near Tianzi Wharf in Guangzhou. This was not the former base of the Yunnan Army, but it was the gathering place of the industries (or the places under their control) that the Yunnan Army had set up in Guangzhou. These industries included workshops, shops, and warehouses.

Chen Tianheng learned that after the Yunnan Army was split and reorganized, the camp where the Yunnan Army was stationed in Guangzhou was completely searched by the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government and all the things were emptied out, so he led a treasure hunting team to Tianzi Wharf first, and searched here first - the possibility of finding the Yunnan Army's lost equipment was the greatest here.

Hard work pays off. The treasure hunting team found a large number of wooden boxes in an unattended warehouse among a pile of sacks of Yunnan New Army uniforms from the 1910s (which were no longer worn after 1917).

These were all artillery shells. When I opened them, I saw they were 81mm shells from the British Stokes trench gun.

This made Chen Tianheng overjoyed. Although the location of the gun was still unknown, the model of the Yunnan Army's trench gun was confirmed to be Stokes, which was considered the most useful trench gun before the appearance of the Brandt Mle 27.

The Brandt Mle 27 is the forefather of the modern mortar. The primitive mortars produced by various nations before it were naturally highly imaginative, fully demonstrating biological diversity. Some mortars were rifled and breech-loaded, resulting in an extremely slow rate of fire; others were even propelled by compressed gas. For one person to fire the mortar, two people would be nearby, using a device similar to a bicycle pump to inflate the compressed gas tank. Their range was limited to 300 to 400 meters.

The Stokes mortar is the closest to the modern mortar style, and its similarity to the Brandt Mle 27 has reached 90%. To be honest, if it was an inflatable mortar shell, Chen Tianheng might want to throw it away on the spot, but the Stokes is definitely useful.

So the good news is that in the next few months, the Beiyang Army facing off against the First Regiment will have to endure a hail of bullets from Stokes mortars.

The bad news is: we need to find the cannon.

Chen Tianheng: "Find a vehicle and transport the shells back first. I think the shells are in this area. Huang Wei, lead the team to continue searching."

……

Xia Xi came to Guangzhou again.

The Kuomintang Central Executive Committee held an interim plenary meeting two days later to approve the Northern Expedition and the "Declaration of the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army." As the Communist Party's Hunan Provincial Committee Secretary, head of the Kuomintang's Hunan Provincial Party Committee, and an alternate member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee, Xia Xi naturally had to attend the meeting in Guangzhou.

At Mao Runzhi's residence, Chen Tianheng, Xia Xi and Mao Runzhi held their last meeting before the Northern Expedition.

"Did General Secretary Chen Duxiu really consider withdrawing from the Communist International?" Chen Tianheng said.

Xia Xi: "Yes, but in the end, under the persuasion of Li Dazhao and Chen Yannian, Chen Duxiu temporarily stopped mentioning it and decided to wait until after the victory of the Northern Expedition. Now we are a member party of the Communist International, and the Kuomintang is an observer party of the Communist International. If we withdraw from the Communist International, but the Kuomintang remains an observer party of the Communist International, it is really hard to predict what will happen next."

Mao Runzhi: "It was hard to predict what would happen during the Northern Expedition. In Guangzhou, Wang Jingwei's Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang were arguing endlessly. One was in charge of the party, the other of the army, and the two were never on good terms. How could they achieve unity?"

Chen Tianheng: "On my way here, I discovered that the Guangdong District Committee had organized a parade praising Wang Jingwei, and the slogans held by the parade included "Down with Chiang Kai-shek" and "Recall the Northern Expedition Army." What's going on? Have they ignored the instructions of the Shanghai Party Central Committee and the Communist International?"

Mao Runzhi: "Many actions of the Guangdong District Committee were spontaneously organized by the Party branches and groups below. These spontaneous activities did not seem to follow the direction from above. The Communist Party organizations were interfering in the Kuomintang's party struggles."

Chen Tianheng: "I said Chen Yannian wouldn't do this. This is lowering the level of the Guangdong District Committee."

Xia Xi: "Let's talk about the peasant movement in Hunan. The 8th Brigade of the 7th Army has already reached the north of Hengyang. The Gui army is very powerful. In Hengshan, one brigade and one division defeated two divisions of the Hunan Protection Army. I estimate that by the time we finish this meeting, the Gui army and Tang Shengzhi's 8th Army will have surrounded Changsha. However, the 7th Army is not enthusiastic about land reform in Hunan, as if our rural organizations and farmers' associations do not exist."

Chen Tianheng: "The backbone members of the peasant associations trained at the Peasant Movement Training Institute should have led quite a few peasant armed forces."

Xia Xi: "We have mobilized people, and the backbone members can organize them to go out for a walk, but I don't know if they can withstand the battle. These people only used the teaching materials you provided at the Peasant Movement Training Institute. There is a lack of professional instructors to teach them, and they are basically self-taught."

Mao Runzhi: "Don't confront the enemy head-on. The enemy here includes both reactionary warlords and large-scale landlord armed forces and militias. If you can't defeat them, just move on quickly, from one village to another. As long as you ensure that the peasant armed forces are not lost, they can gradually mature. Don't let the troops be lost in vain."

Chen Tianheng: "From what I heard from the principal, Hunan and Hubei will be handled entirely by the 4th, 7th, and 8th Armies. Chiang Kai-shek prefers to hold the 1st Army in place until the Northern Expedition breaks through Hunan and enters Hubei. The 1st, 2nd, and 6th Armies will then attack Fujian or Jiangxi from the east. Also, there's a problem now: both Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist government view the Northern Expedition as a simple military issue. So, um, I have an idea."

"Secretary Mao, Secretary Xia, can either of you submit a proposal at this KMT Central Executive Committee meeting, suggesting that the National Government immediately draft and promulgate the 'Land Law of the Republic of China'?"

"If there's no time to enact a complete law, at least we should promulgate an 'Outline of the Land Law of the Republic of China.'"

……

Tianzi Wharf.

After Chen Tianheng left, Huang Wei and the treasure hunting team searched all the warehouses in the area for most of the day, but did not find any mortars or wooden boxes that looked like they could contain mortars.

Until the end, when the horse-drawn carriage they rented had almost moved all the boxes of ammunition piled up in the warehouse, the engineering company commander You Buying discovered something unusual.

"The floor of this warehouse has been dug up and filled back in. There's something underneath."

Chen Tianheng had been in Guangzhou all day. Coming out of Mao Run's house and arriving at the 2nd Division's headquarters, You Buying was already waiting at the door. Seeing Chen Tianheng, he ran towards him.

"We searched Tianzi Wharf thoroughly and couldn't find it anywhere else. However, the warehouse where the mortar shells were found had something buried underground. Given the Yunnan Army's habit of hiding things, the mortars might be there," You Buying said. "The only problem now is that the warehouse landlord is preventing us from digging up the ground."

Chen Tianheng: "Is it likely that the mortar is down there?"

You Buying: "The possibility... is not small. Commander, according to the pattern of burying things by the Yunnan Army and ordinary people, if there are no mortars underneath, then the Yunnan Army must have hidden gold bars and silver dollars..."

"So no matter what, it's worth digging it up, right?" Chen Tianheng interrupted You Buying, "Buy that warehouse. No need to report it to the division, I'll pay for it."

You Buying rode his bicycle back to Tianzi Wharf and told Huang Wei, who immediately asked the landlord to prepare the contract.

"Staff Officer Huang, how come Commander Chen just bought a warehouse like that?" You Buying said with a click of his tongue, "It costs over two thousand yuan."

Huang Wei: "Don't worry about it. Captain Chen has the money anyway."

Huang Wei had been to the Faith Center and was a member of the People's Armed Forces Department of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. Of course, Chen Tianheng didn't tell Huang Wei everything, but a few days ago he told Huang Wei that before the Northern Expedition began, he would personally pay for improvements to the First Regiment, and the money came from a donation from his cousin.

This statement was partly true and partly false. The truth was that the money had indeed been transferred from Chen Ying's company. But what Huang Wei hadn't told him was that, according to the verbal agreement between Chen Tianheng and Chen Ying, the money belonged to Chen Tianheng of Yingzhe Company.