The third edition of the World Cup in France kicked off on June 4, but Meng Xiang did not receive news because of his assassination. Until he woke up, but because he was busy with the Yellow River embankment, he couldn't care about it.

It wasn't until the 13th that Meng Xiang remembered the Chinese football team in France.

A shadow company arranged there sent back the news, and there was a translator next to him who was ready to translate.

At this time, the football players did not have number plates. But Yu Hengzhi at the scene served as a commentator.

It's been three of the previous games. At this time, they are all directly playing the knockout round.

The Chinese team drew a good draw at the beginning against the Dutch East Indies.

Although there was some time difference in flying to France, after four or five days of adjustment, plus the fight against the same group of mud monkeys, Li Huitang and they still won easily.

In particular, Li Huitang's kick directly caused the goalkeeper to fall to the ground with his chest, and it took a goalkeeper to let the game go on. This kick also broke their morale, and they had already heard of Li Huitang's name. The rest of the game was close to being one-sided. The score was finally locked at 6-0, killing them all.

And Hungary, which was supposed to be against them, and Sweden, which was originally vacant and promoted, drove Sweden out of power with the same 5 to 1.

The most notable part of this round was Germany vs. Switzerland. By this time, Germany's arrogance had already set half the sky on fire, but football was round, anything could happen, and the game ended up 1-1. In the extra round, Switzerland eliminated Germany 4-2.

Switzerland's victory over the Austro-German Empire made headlines! Almost the entire city of Paris celebrated the Swiss team's victory. The favourites Brazil won 6-5 in extra time against Poland, and Leonidas came out on top, with an impressive performance on the field.

In the second round, the Chinese team faced Cuba, which also came up temporarily. Cuba drew 3-3 with Romania in extra time in the previous round and eliminated Romania 2-1 in extra time.

This time, they were full of confidence against the Huaxia team, but after the Huaxia team slaughtered the Dutch East Indies in the last round, their bodies and mentality returned to their peak state.

The two sides launched a confrontation, but it was clear that the Chinese team was superior. In the 15th minute of the first half, Sun Jinshun made a powerful volley, and although the goalkeeper hugged it, he was brought into the net by the strength of the football and opened the scoring.

In less than five minutes, Sun Jinshun hit again, the goalkeeper touched his aching chest, and his heart was worried, and he hit a volley and penetrated the door of the Cuban team again.

At the 40th minute, Li Huitang and Sun Jinshun made a cooperation, shook the goalkeeper, and easily pushed the goal.

As soon as the second half began, Li Huitang crossed high and far away, and Tan Jiangbai, who was ambushed there, made a header and broke through the goalkeeper's ten fingers.

In the next fifteen minutes, Ye Beihua and Feng Jingxiang each scored a goal.

Li Huitang motioned to the players to stabilize their emotions and prepare for the next game.

The game slowed down appropriately, but the Cuban team seized a chance and scored a goal to boost morale.

But Li Huitang immediately used the color to connect the three people, and finally faced the attacking goalkeeper, quickly got up and pierced the crotch into the net. At once, he poured another glass of ice water and poured it on their self-confidence, causing them to shrink quickly.

Li Huitang arranged for a few novices to come to workout, and the score of 7-1 lasted until the end.

The opponents in these two rounds were not very strong, but in the quarter-finals, the Chinese team met the Hungarian team, the original historical runner-up team.

Hungary eliminated Switzerland 2-0 in the last round. The host French team met the previous champion Italy team and was eliminated 1-3.

Reached the semi-finals, which has exceeded Meng Xiang's expectations, although the British and Uruguay, Argentina and other countries did not participate, but the semi-finals of the World Cup are still very golden, which is much better than the soy sauce team in another time and space. In this regard, Meng Xiang specially sent a message of encouragement.

At the beginning of the game, the Huaxia team, which had won two games in a row, opened up a little and started to attack the Hungarian team at the beginning. The two sides go back and forth, but the defense of each team is also in place. It wasn't until the 32nd minute of the first half that Lee Hye-tang opened the scoring with a volley. This brilliant goal also won the cheers of the crowd.

But then the Hungarian team immediately returned the color, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Chinese team to celebrate and the personnel were not in place, and scored a goal. It was a 1-1 draw, but the goal also caused a wave of goals from behind.

Hungary's style is sharp attack, and Meng Xiang, who saw the top four, also encouraged the Chinese players to play offensive football.

Hungary was attacking like a tide and quickly scored the second goal, but after three points, in the counterattack organized by Li Huitang, Zhang Fei Chen Zhenhe rushed all the way, rushed into the Hungarian penalty area, and stabbed Li Huitang who followed up, Li Huitang took advantage of the situation and transferred it to Sun Sijing, who was inserted. Sun Sijing picked the goalkeeper's thigh and attacked the top right corner to score in the net.

2-2 draw.

In the second half, the Hungarians won the offensive in the first six minutes, 3-2. Then only 2 minutes later, Li Huitang passed to Ye Beihua outside the penalty area, Ye Beihua paused slightly, picked it again, and sent it into the penalty area. Tan Jiangbai, who was crowded in front of the goal, jumped high, overpowered those Hungarians with tall horses, and directly shook his head into the dead corner of the upper left and scored.

3-3 draw.

In the 15th minute, the Hungarian army pressed and bombarded the goal for five minutes, and in the chaos, stabbed into the net. The goalkeeper of the Huaxia team was kicked in the forehead and bled and replaced, replaced by teenager Zhang Banglun.

In the 26th minute, Sun Jinshun took the ball through the half, and at a distance of 60 meters from the goal, he volleyed vigorously, and the goalkeeper who was caught off guard could not save it, and the ball went into the net.

At this time, the physical strength of the Chinese team decreased a little, and some players of several teams such as the Nanhua team and the Bac Ninh team still lacked tacit understanding, and the Hungarian team scored another goal. In the last two minutes of the game, Li Huitang turned the tide, relying on his personal skills, shook four people in a row, went to the meeting alone, shook the goalkeeper, and sent the ball into the door of the Hungarian team. The game went into extra time.

The final score ended 4-4.

In the extra round, the physical strength of the Chinese team dropped too much, although Li Huitang scored another goal and completed a hat trick, but in the end he lost 1-2 to the Hungarian team and stopped in the final.

Meng Xiang listened to the surging blood on the side, such an attack was much more refreshing than the noodles and duck eggs in the later generations. Even if you lose, you are a real hero.

"Don't be discouraged, you have to compete for the third place in two days, and you must continue to play your own style and momentum. That's good! When you come back, I'll give you a drink to celebrate! Meng Xiang continued to encourage.

At this time, the devils who were meeting and studying in Beiping still did not discuss the next offensive target. The Central China Dispatch Army and Navy insisted on shrinking their forces to attack Wuhan, the 2nd Army to fight the vanguard army, and the 1st Army to attack Zhengzhou first.

Not only is it noisy here, but the base camp is also arguing over who to hit first.

"We should stabilize our existing territory and slowly encroach on China, instead of continuing to wage war. At this time, we should be fully prepared to deal with Soviet Russia! This kind of truce is also very popular in the country.

Meng Xiang only paid for the lives of two spies, which made the relationship between Yue and Su tense all of a sudden. Even the two newly formed and transferred regiments in the country were sent to the northeast. The original aviation forces also began to concentrate to the northeast, and the tank brigade did not go south again, continuing to defend the border with the Soviet Union.

Now there is not enough spare strength to compete with the air force and tank units of the vanguard army, and even if the vanguard army is defeated, the losses will be large. In the face of the threat of Soviet Russia, he did not dare to let go of the planes and tanks in his hands easily.

"Now is the weakest time for the political axe, and if you put more effort at this time, he may collapse. Their elite army was also consumed a lot. This point of view is specifically aimed at Lao Jiang, who believes that as long as the Central Army is defeated, the war in China will be basically over, and all that remains is to watch the warlords in various parts of China fight for the first place. Judging from the problems of the domestic economy, they are more inclined to occupy the golden belt of the Yangtze River valley in China.

In the eyes of these people, the Central Army has always been the biggest threat. If the Central Army pooled its resources to supply 100,000 people, it would not be much worse than the Vanguard Army. Quantitative superiority can sometimes become a qualitative advantage.

Buying things will eventually run out one day. When the weapons purchased by the vanguard army are all used up, where will they raise funds to continue to support them? And where do they have so much money to continue to expand? Even if there is someone behind it, the development to 150,000 should be the limit of the vanguard army.

According to the statistics made within the empire, even if the vanguard army is equipped by the empire, it is already very difficult to support 150,000 people. They do not believe that the Vanguard will be able to supply the expenses of these weapons for a long time. Fighting with the vanguard army at this time is exactly what those supporters behind them want. They can finish the fight in one go and let go of the burden of the vanguard army.

And if it drags on, just the usual consumption of these weapons and troops can also drag down Shandong's finances.

Moreover, their planes and tanks need a lot of fuel every day. If they don't have enough fuel, they won't be able to get started. In this regard, I specially discussed with the British and American oil companies. In the face of the preferential conditions proposed by this large oil user and the opening of the vanguard army, the British and American oil companies quickly turned around, and even the oil resources promised to the vanguard army to use for civilian chemical industry were delayed.

"Three months, as long as there are three months, they will run out of fuel, how can their planes and combat vehicles still move?" Three months of oil savings is already a large conservative estimate.

"Their general is still unconscious, maybe they are going to break out in civil strife."

"Tighten the blockade of the vanguard army and strictly control the import of fuel and weapons. Woo the factions within them. Go on the offensive in Zhengzhou! "The decision to base camp has finally been made. After fighting Zhengzhou, it is not too late to decide on Wuhan or the vanguard army.

As the remobilization of the devils approached Zhengzhou, Lao Jiang issued an order for the vanguard army to transfer troops to Henan to rescue.

But Pharmacist Tang excused himself on the grounds that Meng Xiang was unconscious and unable to perform his duties.

Then Lao Jiang temporarily appointed Fan Chong to temporarily act as the 54th Army and sent troops to Henan. Without waiting for Fan Chong to issue the order to send troops, Niu 13 jumped out first to object, and Niu Yi also led the troops to watch and did not move. Even Xie Chengrui complained a lot about Lao Jiang.

"At this time, the vanguard army is surrounded by Kou Hu, and Commander Meng's life and death are uncertain, and his self-protection is insufficient, how can he still copy the back road of the 16th Division? The remnants of the 10th Division are still in Luxi, and there is also a 13th Division in Xuzhou. There were three more divisions to the southeast. There is a division in the east and a division in the north, so how can the vanguard army allocate manpower to support? Xie Chengrui scratched firmly.

Zhang Lingfu was silent beside him, and he always felt the weight of this Meng Dashuai in the minds of these pioneer soldiers.

Every time he paid money, he had never heard of a lack of deductions. Even the rumors that the officers of the 81st Division were charging for equipment and clothing were quickly dealt with.

Dead soldiers also began to implement a lucrative pension system. The pensions of the hundreds of soldiers who died in his regiment had been paid on time, and he had specially inspected more than a dozen of them, and all of them had already received the first pensions paid quarterly.

All of this was given by the vanguard army, and the Central Army directly allocated 50,000 yuan for military expenses.

Now in the eyes of these soldiers, there is only the vanguard army and no central army.

"Warlord!" Such a word came to Zhang Lingfu's mind, but the more he understood the achievements of the vanguard army, the more surprised he became. The vanguard army's anti-war record is already comparable to that of the entire Central Army. Moreover, life in the SAR is stable and peaceful. The large-scale erection of porridge shacks to ensure that people do not die of hunger, the six-year compulsory education for the whole people, the erection of new factories everywhere, and the busy soldiers and civilians on the land they have seized are all manifestations of the difference between the vanguard army.

"What kind of warlord is this?" Zhang Lingfu thought of Meng Xiang's young smiling face in his heart, and he was confused for a while.

"If I don't obey this order, I will become a big warlord!" Meng Xiang smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"If you don't disobey orders, you're also a big warlord!" Fan Chong laughed beside him. He, the acting army commander, didn't work, but Lao Jiang's 56th Army that mobilized Gu Liangmin couldn't be mobilized either. Gu Liangmin has more excuses, and the excuses of these veterans are ridiculous and make people see their insincerity at a glance.

"Alas, warlords are warlords! I resigned myself to my fate. ”