The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Chen Tianheng glanced at the Huangpu River. It was completely dark. Warships and civilian ships had become black shadows, but the neon lights of the Bund were particularly bright.

"Commander, the Second Division has captured Suzhou. Today we received news that the Northern Expedition Army will attack Nanjing from the east and west," said Chen Mingren.

"Taking Nanjing doesn't actually require that much effort," Chen Tianheng shook his head. "Attacking from the east and west will cause many complications beyond the battlefield, such as the Jiangzuo and Jiangyou armies vying for credit, who will occupy and defend the city after the siege, and how the captured spoils will be distributed. I think the most likely solution is to monitor from Suzhou and attack the city from upstream."

Chen Mingren: "So, are we really going to help train Liu Zhi's troops? Liu Zhi called and said that all the officers and soldiers of his artillery battalion are ready."

"Of course. Remember, officers above the battalion commander level interact normally; officers and soldiers below the battalion level communicate in depth.

Chapter 52: Meeting on the rooftop

Zhabei District, Guangfu Road.

Bank of Communications warehouse.

(Not the Sihang Warehouse, which was not started until 1931. The Sihang refers to four banks pooling their money to build a large vault.)

Looking out from the rooftop, you can see the International Settlement across the Suzhou River, with rows of Western-style buildings and busy streets.

The Zhabei District behind us is a little different. The buildings are small and old, but the streets are still bustling with traffic.

Zhabei District was originally a wasteland, but because it is adjacent to the northern edge of the concession and is the terminus of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, it developed rapidly after the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. There are many manufacturers in the district. Although the cityscape looks messy, it is actually as prosperous as the old city of Shanghai in the south.

Downstairs was a squad from the First Division's Guard Company. Today, the squad consisted of about a dozen people dressed in plain clothes and spread out widely.

Chen Tianheng enjoyed the breeze on the roof for a while, and then Chen Duxiu came up.

He looked around at the movement on the rooftop and took off his sunglasses: "Chen Tianheng.

Chen Tianheng stepped forward, shook hands, and hugged him: "General Secretary Chen. It's been three years since we last met, in the blink of an eye."

"I didn't expect that meeting on the rooftop is quite suitable. There are no outsiders eavesdropping and no one can see us. It's just that the wind is a little strong." Chen Duxiu laughed.

"Not only the rooftop, the entire building has been booked by the First Division today. Secretary Qian, hello." Chen Tianheng waved and greeted Qian Zhuangfei who had just reached the roof.

Today, Qian Zhuangfei accompanied Chen Duxiu to the meeting. On Chen Tianheng's side, several people also came up from the fourth floor to the top floor. They were dressed in neat military uniforms and lined up in a row. They looked to the right and looked forward.

Salute Chen Duxiu: "Hello, General Secretary!"

"...Good. Comrades, comrades,

Chen Tianheng made his eyes and mouthed hints, and Chen Duxiu continued, "Comrades, thank you for your hard work."

Chen Mingren: "I am the Chief of Staff of the First Division, Chen Mingren!

"The First Division's Party Representative and Director of the Political Department, Yuan Zhongxian!

"Lu Deming, Chief of Operations of the First Division's General Staff!"

"Chief of the Intelligence Department of the First Division General Staff, I am humble and humble!

Chen Duxiu: "Humility is like a constitution?

Chen Tianheng: "Yes, Qiandeng Ruoxian is a Mongolian comrade. He was also the first member of the Communist Party of China in Inner Mongolia."

"Director of the Training Department of the First Division's General Staff, Yu Chengwan!

"Director of the Logistics Department of the First Division's General Staff, Huang Wei!

"Now that the Northern Expedition has completely occupied the area south of the Yangtze River, the Fourth and Seventh Armies of the National Revolutionary Army are now recognized as the 'Three Aces of the Northern Expedition,' or, in the words of Japan's Asahi Shimbun, the 'Three Fierce Tigers of the Red Army.' The Fourth Army is known as the Iron Army, the Seventh Army as the Steel Army, and the First Division of the First Army as the 'Great Sword of Revolution.' Well, that translates to 'Sword of Revolution.'"

The Asahi Shimbun also discovered that within the First Army, only the First Division had exceptional combat effectiveness, far surpassing its seven other divisions. The Fourth Army's offensive power was Ye Ting's 25th Division, while the veteran Guangdong Army's 12th Division was also quite capable. The Seventh Army's four brigades heading north to participate in the battle were fairly evenly matched in combat effectiveness.

“Now, our First Division and the Fourth Army’s ace attack division are all Communist troops.

"There was also Director Ye Jianying, who served as the Chief of Staff of the 20th Division stationed in Guangzhou. The 20th Division also housed many members of the War Research Association, mainly outstanding students selected by me from the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes of the Whampoa Military Academy.

"In addition to the regular army, we have established our own peasant armed forces in Hunan and Xi'an. There are 2,000 to 3,000 peasant soldiers who can serve in full-time service. They are led by graduates of the Peasant Movement Training Institute and some officers and soldiers who have recovered from injuries in the 1st and 25th Divisions. There are more than 40,000 armed peasant guards who are not on duty. Mao Runzhi may know the specific number better. The information here is a little delayed.

Chen Tianheng briefly introduced the military forces currently controlled by the Party or the Central Military Commission.

Chen Duxiu had been studying military general knowledge recently, and he could basically understand the military terms that Chen Tianheng introduced.

"Three years ago, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party collaborated to establish the Whampoa Military Academy on Guangzhou's Changzhou Island. It was you who first proposed it to me. Later, Mao Runzhi and I agreed it was feasible, so you concealed your Party membership and applied to attend. What was I envisioning at the time? Shide Zhonganxin had no such grand plans at the time."

Chen Duxiu sighed.

At that time, Chen Duxiu's views on the Chinese revolution were different from those of the Communist International and Mao Zedong Thought.

Chen Duxiu believed that China lacked a substantial proletariat at that time, and that the Soviet-style path of urban uprisings to establish a proletarian regime was unattainable. China needed to first undergo a bourgeois revolution, allowing capitalism to develop and the proletariat to grow stronger before a proletarian revolution could take place. Chen Duxiu believed that the Communist Party's mission at this stage (the period of KMT-CCP ​​cooperation) was to facilitate China's bourgeois revolution while preserving the seeds of proletarian revolution for the future.

Mao Zedong believed that proletarian urban uprisings like those in the Soviet Union could not be carried out in China, but revolution was not limited to the Soviet model. The peasant war led by the party was China's proletarian revolution.

In other words, the two had differences, but they also had a consensus: the Soviet-style revolution would not work in China.

In 1924, Chen Duxiu believed that selecting and sending Communist Party members to the Whampoa Military Academy was also a move to preserve "seeds". Among them, Chen Tianheng, whose identity was not made public, was a seed among seeds, just in case.

Chen Duxiu's thinking in 1927 was different from that in 1924. In short, he realized that the Chinese national bourgeoisie did not have the power to complete a revolution of its own.

After the Northern Expedition's military expenditure crisis eased from October to November last year, Chiang Kai-shek's Eastern Route Army and Jiangzuo Army had actually received a large amount of donations from the wealthy gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to supplement their military expenditures. It was just that Chiang Kai-shek himself did not publicize it, and Wang Jingwei in Wuhan knew about it but pretended not to know.

At the same time, the operation of several companies and enterprises run by the Party Central Committee also made Chen Duxiu realize that even if China established a bourgeois regime, it would probably not be able to develop capitalism.

Therefore, during these three years, Chen Duxiu's thoughts were actually in conflict with Mao Runzhi's.

close.

Just a few days ago, Chen Duxiu met with Wu Zhihui, a member of the Supervisory Committee. Wu Zhihui asked Chen Duxiu: "How many years do you think it will take for China to achieve Leninist communism?

Chen Duxiu replied: "Three hundred and three years.

Wu Zhihui: "Why 303 years?"

Chen Duxiu: “Because after emerging from the old system and establishing a bourgeois state, it will take another three hundred years to build a developed capitalist industrial society.

In reality, Chen Duxiu was thinking: If Leninist communism is the only way to achieve revolution, it might take three hundred years before it can be achieved. Upon hearing this, Wu Zhihui exclaimed, "Hahaha, this is so interesting."

"if".

Chen Duxiu was just following Wu Zhihui's line of thought. You were clearly asking about "Leninist communism", so there's nothing wrong with my answering 303 years.

"Some time ago, under the instructions of the Communist International, the Party established the Military Department. Ah, this Military Department was established even earlier than the Central Military Commission."

"Secretary Chen, the news of the CCP establishing a military department has been known to the top leaders of the Kuomintang. It has even reached my level.

Chen Duxiu:".

"The Military Department has now established three special committees in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan. I attended the meeting to discuss the routine work of the Shanghai Special Committee," Chen Duxiu continued. "They were planning a Shanghai workers' uprising in January, but I pointed out that their preparations for the uprising were not sufficient. Later, they made more detailed preparations, and then you took Shanghai. But as far as I know, the work of the Shanghai Special Committee is the most pragmatic among the special committees in these three cities.

Chen Tianheng: "If the most pragmatic Shanghai Special Committee is doing this, then what are the Wuhan and Guangzhou committees doing?"

Chen Duxiu: "Chen Tianheng, the Military Commission's current goal and mission is to cooperate with the National Revolutionary Army to complete the Northern Expedition, overthrow Zhang Zuolin, the last direct agent of imperialism in China, and achieve the unification of China. At the same time, pay close attention to the dynamics within the Kuomintang clique, because the Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek cliques within the Kuomintang are degenerating into new agents of imperialism, and the possibility of them taking an anti-people stance is increasing.

Chen Tianheng: "Yes!"

"During the Northern Expedition, we should expand our own forces, accumulate strength, contact allies, and gain more support.

Chen Duxiu: "Well, in the Party documents, the three members of the Military Commission... your comrade is a democratic consultative group, not a strict hierarchical relationship. The temporary pseudonym used in the Party documents is "Number Three."

It seems that this was a pseudonym that Chen Duxiu came up with on the spur of the moment when he was drafting the document. He didn't even use a name like Wu Hao that looked like his real name, but simply called it "No. 3."

After Chen Duxiu and Qian Zhuangfei left, Chen Tianheng came down from the Bank of Communications, withdrew the guards, and returned to the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau. Then the director of the Shanghai Arsenal came to report that the four field guns required by the First Division were ready.

"Our artillery battalion can be renamed an artillery regiment," Huang Wei said. "The 75 mountain artillery already has three companies, and the field artillery used to have one company, but now it has become two companies. It's normal for an artillery regiment to have two artillery battalions, one mountain artillery battalion and one field artillery battalion.

Chen Tianheng: "We'll use it as an artillery regiment, but it'll still be organized as a battalion. For now, we'll maintain the five-company artillery battalion structure. How much communications equipment has the Shanghai Arsenal provided?"

Huang Wei: "We got six more telephones and over ten kilometers of telephone line. We also got two standard radios and two portable radios. The good news is that these portable radios are much better than the ones our reconnaissance battalion used before. They're not World War I-era radios, but Telefunken models from 1924, with a range of up to 120 kilometers."

Chen Tianheng: "Ship them all to the Songjiang camp. The main camp will come to take over the arsenal in a few days to inventory the assets.

Chapter 53: Strike, Strike

Four imitation Krupp 75mm field guns.

How many days' production did the Shanghai Arsenal produce these 4 guns?

..120 days. Four months.

上海兵工厂现在月产仿克虏伯75毫米山炮4~6门仿克虏伯75毫米野炮1门。

When the First Division captured the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the arsenal's field gun workshop only had two nearly completed 75mm field guns. These were part of the four guns originally scheduled for delivery to Sun Chuanfang on April 1st. They were stored in the workshop before a battery was assembled. Li Baozhang did not remove these guns, so Chen Tianheng took advantage of them.

Chen Tianheng and his men searched the workshop, factory, and warehouse and found two rifled 75mm 29-caliber gun barrels. He then gave the workers triple overtime pay and had them work two shifts, day and night, to turn these two barrels into cannons. Otherwise, the arsenal, as large as it was, wouldn't have been able to assemble a four-gun artillery company before the Lunar New Year.

Compared with the pitiful output of artillery, the ammunition production capacity of the Shanghai Arsenal is still acceptable, especially the mortar shells. The Shanghai Arsenal has a workshop for producing Stokes mortar shells. After the First Division discovered it, it immediately emptied the inventory.

After the Northern Expedition captured Shanghai, Soviet-aided ammunition freighters were immediately unloaded on the Huangpu River, as the First and Second Divisions were still major users of Soviet ammunition. Chen Tianheng estimated that the large amount of Soviet 76mm mountain artillery shells unloaded was enough to easily reach Beijing.

However, the ammunition was stockpiled, the troops found a place to train quietly, and the fighting was temporarily stopped.

Chen Tianheng speculated that the Jiangsu-Zhejiang consortium must have reached some kind of behind-the-scenes agreement with Chiang Kai-shek: "I'll provide you with military funds, but you must station the First Division in Shanghai. No other troops will work."

Furthermore, the Northern Expedition was currently tackling Nanjing, and only after conquering Nanjing could it advance northward along the Jinpu Railway. This explains why, after the First Division captured Shanghai on January 16, the headquarters had not issued any transfer orders or plans for the next phase of the battle until January 26.

Shanghai residents rarely see soldiers of the First Division these days. Li Baozhang's scattered troops surrendered one after another on the third day after Shanghai's liberation. After completing the process of evacuating the defeated soldiers, the First Division retreated to its two main camps/bases. Within the city limits, only one squad of soldiers remained on guard at each of the four "ports" connecting Shanghai and the concessions.

"General Chen, I have been ordered to inform you that the cruiser HMS Effingham will lead the squadron out of China. The departure time is 4:00 this afternoon. I believe this is reassuring news for you."

At the dividing line between the concession and the central control area, Lescott and Chen Tianheng opened a precedent.

Although the British Consulate General has not yet responded to the National Government's proposal to start negotiations on the recovery of the concessions, the defense adjustment notification system between the First Division and the International Settlement Garrison has begun.

Chen Tianheng nodded. "The Huangpu River's waterway is finally much wider. Where will the Effingham fleet go for vacation? Singapore? Ceylon?"

Lescott shook his head: "Three cruisers will go to Hong Kong for vacation.

Chen Tianheng: "Oh, they were only heading to Hong Kong. They didn't leave China."

"General Chen, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula are overseas territories of the British Empire." Lescott put one hand on his waist again and laughed.

Chen Tianheng: "From the perspective of national sentiment, I think it is still Chinese territory.

This was the only thing that needed to be reported in the regular meeting between the two parties. After the report, they exchanged a few words, then stood up, shook hands, and went their separate ways.

According to the information reported by Lescott, the three British cruisers in the Far East left the Yangtze River estuary and headed south to Hong Kong, which shows that Britain believed that Shanghai, Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Hankou were safe.

No, there was actually something wrong in Hankou, but the smallest of these three ocean-going cruisers was more than 4,000 tons, and it was impossible for them to go up to Wuhan waters.

"Strike, strike, strike"

"Let's go, let's go!"

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you leaving? Don't leave!

Chen Tianheng looked over and saw a group of workers gathered not far away.

This is Zhabei District, where there are many labor-intensive small factories and dock workers in the old Shanghai city (this is more so in the central control area). When Chen Tianheng went there, several soldiers from the First Division were already in front of the gathered workers.

In accordance with the prevailing rules in the city, the soldiers did not stop the strike. Shanghai is so large that there are always two or three strikes of varying sizes every day.

"Are you on strike?

"Yes."

Chen Tianheng: "What the hell is going on? The strike is unprofessional. How can we just go home after the strike? What are your demands?"

The leading worker said: "Our strike demand is to return the pigs immediately.

Chen Tianheng: "."

"We're demanding a four-hour workday. I'll see if the capitalists accept it. If they don't, they can just hold it in," said one of the workers at the front, who looked like a small leader. "From eight in the morning to noon, the time is up, and it's time to get off work.

"Leave! I'm telling you, if you dare leave, your salary won't even be raised! It'll even be cut in half!"

The factory owner shouted at the door. The sign above his head read "Jiangxin Chemical Factory."

The young worker leader said: "I'm telling you, Feng Siyan, from now on, you'll work four hours a day and your salary will remain the same!

Chen Tianheng: "My fellow workers, if I'm not mistaken, you first asked for a double salary, and when your boss refused, you cut your working hours in half, to just four hours a day, before leaving, right?"

"Not double it, sir, they're going to triple it!"

The young worker leader asked: "What's wrong with doubling it? Isn't that unreasonable?"

The boss pointed in the distance and said, "Do you see that Xinyi Factory? The workers at Xinyi Factory wanted their wages doubled, and the boss ran away in anger. You know what Xinyi Factory is like now, don't you?"

Chen Tianheng looked at the worker who looked like a small leader and asked: "Are you a party member?"

Worker: “I can’t tell you that, sir.

Chen Tianheng: "What kind of factory is this? It's just a chemical plant. I thought it was an aviation plant. If a shabby factory like yours can work 4 hours a day without losing money, then the boss should have become the richest man in Shanghai after all the years of working 8 hours a day. Regardless of whether you are a party member or not, your strike was definitely not requested by higher-level organizations. If it was a strike organized by higher-level organizations, they would have told you that the ultimate goal of the strike is to get the capitalists to agree to your demands, not just make a request and then call it quits if they don't agree to a 4-hour workday."

"Even if the higher-level organizations didn't ask for this, is there anything wrong with the workers wanting to do this? Sir, how would you know about our higher-level organizations? You can't control our higher-level organizations... You don't even know where they are.