readx; "Ziqian, your task here in Shandong is very heavy!" Chen Jingyun sat on the top, his right hand habitually knocked on the armrest of the sofa, and continued to say to Xu Lishan: "You should have heard about the tension in Europe, and the General Staff has determined through various deductions that once a big war breaks out on the European side, it is very likely that it will affect our China, especially in the Qingdao area, and it is very likely that a war will break out!" ”

Xu Lishan thought to himself that I said how the German army in Qingdao has had so many strange behaviors recently, as far as he knows, the German army seems to have withdrawn most of the military personnel from various concessions in China, and even recently they have not even taken care of controlling the Jiaozhou Railway, and have retracted their forces back into Qingdao, although this phenomenon made Xu Lishan suspicious before, but he did not expect the possibility of a big war about to break out in the direction of Qingdao, although he was a little shocked in his heart, but his face remained unchanged and continued to listen to Chen Jingyun's words!

"In the event of a war in Tsingtao, the British and the two countries would attack Tsingtao and thus uproot this large German naval base in the Far East. www.biquge.info If they want to attack Qingdao, they will definitely land and attack Qingdao from other parts of Shandong, and this kind of thing is unbearable for hundreds of millions of our people! Chen Jingyun did not use a too incendiary tone, but used a calm tone as usual.

"And the task of the troops is to do everything they can to stop this from happening!" The meaning of Chen Jingyun's words is already obvious.

Xu Lishan even heard the determination hidden in Chen Jingyun's words, and Chen Jingyun was so calm and resolute when he announced that he was going to go on the Northern Expedition.

After Chen Jingyun's voice fell, he didn't need to tell Shen Gang to pick up the conversation: "The General Staff has already made relevant deductions, considering that the British and the two countries may take the initiative to attack Qingdao after the outbreak of the European war, so the General Staff has already made a plan of action, that is, once the European war breaks out, then our army will attack Qingdao before the British and Japanese armies." When the time comes, we must give full play to our army's manpower superiority and fearless spirit, and we must take Qingdao before the British and Chinese land in Shandong. ”

Xu Lishan frowned slightly when he heard Shen Gang's words, Shen Gang's words sounded like a normal combat arrangement, but as a senior general in the National Army, he understood Shen Gang's words very thoroughly, Shen Gang said that giving full play to his manpower advantage and fearless spirit was almost a clear requirement that the troops should take a strong attack at any cost, in other words, he was ready to exchange the surnames of a large number of National Army soldiers for victory, and Xu Lishan was not a person who loved soldiers like a son, But when he heard that he was going to consume a lot of his troops, he still couldn't bear it.

However, he did not refute Shen Gang's words, because he understood very well why Shen Gang would say such a thing, now there are nearly 10,000 people in Qingdao Fortress, and it is still increasing, and it is very likely that it will eventually reach 12,000 or 3,000 people. And the Germans of more than 10,000 people are holding the fortress, if the Nationalist Army wants to take Qingdao by force, there is no other way than to fill it with his surname, Xu Lishan has even deduced it himself, if he really adopts the method of strong attack, then his own side must at least exceed 100,000 troops to take a non-stop attack in turn to have the possibility of conquering Qingdao fortress in a short time. However, if there is no serious requirement for time, then they can take the form of siege, slowly consume their ammunition and other supplies, and the German army in Qingdao will naturally surrender without a fight for a few months.

Chen Jingyun did not ask Shen Gang to say the second plan prepared by the General Staff, and the second plan was not to fight the German army, but to start a war with the so-called Ben, who wanted to forcibly intervene in the situation in Qingdao, and once the fight started, it was very likely to turn into a full-scale war. And there is no need to let Xu Lishan, the army commander, know about this overall strategic deployment.

Although Chen Jingyun did not have the same military-sensitive surname as other generals, it was unrealistic and impossible for him to directly command the troops to fight, and Chen Jingyun had always been self-aware and did not interfere much in the specific operational plans arranged by his subordinates, but in the overall strategic direction, he always took his will as the keynote.

Speaking of which, this so-called strategic direction is actually Chen Jingyun saying who we are going to fight now, who we are going to fight in the future, as for how to fight, that is the matter of that group of generals, and the specific battle plan is naturally planned by a large number of officers in the General Staff, and when it comes to the level of planning the battle plan, any officer in it is far superior to Chen Jingyun's level.

This is the case now, Chen Jingyun has set a future goal for the General Staff, that is, Qingdao! The Nationalist Army had to carry out a series of deployments around Qingdao, and even the battles now taking place in Hubei and Henan were launched in advance for the sake of the situation in Qingdao.

"In order to prepare for the future situation, in the next few months, the Training Department and the Equipment Department of the General Staff Department, as well as the Logistics Department, will give priority to the replenishment of troops and armaments of the Third Army, and strive to achieve full capacity as soon as possible and improve the combat effectiveness of the troops!" Chen Jingyun said so, and Shen Gang beside him also said: "The recruits of the Xuzhou Recruit Training Camp and the recruits of the Bengbu Recruit Training Camp here in the Training Division have completed the three-month recruit training, and these two batches of recruits with a total of 3,000 recruits will be allocated to all units of the Third Army. ”

Chen Jingyun also said: "In terms of ordnance, Nanjing also has a batch of mountain artillery produced by the Fuzhou Arsenal, although the number is not much, but it can also be transferred to the third division of twelve pieces, and other light and heavy machine guns will also be supplemented accordingly!" ”

When Xu Lishan heard this, his face immediately appeared happy: "If it can be replenished, it is naturally a good thing, if my third army can be fully equipped, it should not be a big problem to take Qingdao!" ”

Although this is a bit false, with the current strength of the Third Army, a Third Division, the 18th Mixed Brigade, and the 28th Division of He Zonglian of the Beiyang Army, plus the 1st Reading Artillery Regiment directly under the Third Army, there is no problem at all in dealing with domestic warlords, but there is still a certain gap when it comes to dealing with the German army or the army of foreign powers. However, Xu Lishan couldn't care about anything else at this time, just because Chen Jingyun decided to give priority to replenishing the Third Army, he couldn't show any confidence at all.

You must know that there is now a guard division, 29 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, and 25 mixed brigades in the Central Army of the Nanjing Republican Axe. Among these troops, the vast majority belong to the national army system, including Chen Jingyun's descendants, including the two surrendered divisions of the Beiyang Army and the two divisions and one brigade in the northeast. The number of troops under the national army system has reached nearly hundreds of thousands. There are dozens of divisions and brigades, and even the command structure at the army level has reached as many as six.

There are now ten armies in the Nanjing Republican Axe, namely Lu Rongting's Fifth Army, Tang Jiyao's Sixth Army, Seventh Army (Note 1), and Yan Xishan's Ninth Army. And the rest of the 1st to 4th, 8th, 10th armies. Those troops of Lu Rongting, Tang Jirao and Yan Xishan naturally did not say that they were only nominally subordinate to the axe of the Nanjing Republic, but in fact they were all doing their own thing, and Nanjing would not pay them a dime for their military expenses.

Among the so many troops raised by Nanjing, the total strength is as high as hundreds of thousands, and even with the greatly increased financial resources of Nanjing, it is still very difficult to raise such a large number of troops, and in addition to the war period, except for the troops fighting on the front line, the troops in the rear are basically unlikely to remain fully manned, except for the special exception of the guard division.

The third division under Xu Lishan has experienced many battles since crossing the river in southern Jiangsu last year, and the soldiers and weapons and equipment have been lost a lot, although it has also been replenished to a certain extent, but the national army needs to replenish too many troops, and there is not much to give to the third division, so the current third division is not full, the soldiers are only more than 10,000 people, and the artillery regiment has only more than 20 artillery pieces, and it is not even as good as the artillery force of the 28th division of He Zonglian's troops of the Beiyang Army who surrendered.

This was not only the case with the Third Division, but also with most of the other units of the Nationalist Army that were not on the front line, and even the Ninth Division, which was used as the number one trump card in the Northern Expedition and had been strengthened by firepower, has now been greatly reduced, and the artillery regiment has been transferred to the Seventh Division to cooperate with a field artillery battalion to supplement and strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Seventh Division, and the number of soldiers has also dropped to only 10,000 after many losses.

If he can fully equip his Third Army, Xu Lishan's confidence will be much greater.

"In addition, the Second Reading Artillery Regiment deployed in Jiangbei is ready to leave for Shandong, and when the time comes, it will be temporarily assigned to the Third Army like the First Reading Artillery Regiment, I hope you are ready!" Chen Jingyun continued to say slowly,

After Xu Lishan heard that Chen Jingyun had prepared the only 150-millimeter heavy artillery regiment of the Nationalist Army to be assigned to the Shandong region, he understood in his heart that Chen Jingyun had made up his mind to take Qingdao back this time.

Chen Jingyun, Xu Lishan and Shen Gang discussed for most of the night before they dispersed, and the content of the detailed discussion between the three of them was naturally top secret, and it was impossible for outsiders, even those division commanders and brigade commanders to know. On the third day after arriving in Jinan, Chen Jingyun inspected the camp of the 18th Mixed Brigade stationed in Jinan, and delivered a passionate speech as always. During this period, he naturally met with many military and political dignitaries in Shandong, and almost all the officers above the regimental level Chen Jingyun personally met one-on-one, although everyone only had a hurry for ten minutes, but it was enough for Chen Jingyun to have a preliminary understanding of the core middle-level officers of these national troops, and this understanding is extremely important.

After staying in Jinan, Shandong Province for five days, Chen Jingyun's presidential train once again set off for the north, and the next stop was naturally Yanjing!