The target of Zhang Xueliang and his troops was the Mongolian-Horqin steppe.

Thousands of miles of fertile fields, cattle and sheep everywhere...... It used to be a fertile area, but since the end of the Qing Dynasty, it has been invaded by Tsarist Russia in the north, and with constant wars, it has also become barren.

During the Northern Expedition, the Mongolian general Batu led the cavalry to leap thousands of miles and entered here to quell the rebellion of the King of Fan, and then in order to prevent the attack of the Soviets, the army did not withdraw after the rebellion, but stationed here on the spot, and sent a guard force to the border between Mongolia and Soviet Russia to stabilize the border.

When the Chinese and Soviet armies clashed in northern Xinjiang, there was tension here, and the two sides set up hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the border between northern Mongolia and the Soviet Union, and the Ministry of Industry specially built a railway to go here.

The presence of troops brought popularity here, and various trade fairs began to rise in the gathering places of people, and traders from Shanxi, Northeast China, and Anhui came here with carts and knowledgeable heads to buy cattle and sheep; There are also traders who bring all kinds of industrial goods from the southern cities, such as record players, machine-woven cloth, and matches, to make the place lively and prosperous......

Later, the situation of the war with Japan was forced and Sino-Soviet relations warmed, coupled with the mechanization of the army's redress, most of the iron cavalry that was brave and good at fighting in the past have now been abolished, and even the Mongolian man Batu in the army has been transferred to the construction force as the commander.

Nowadays, there are few soldiers on the grassland, and a lot of trade caused by the gathering of officers and soldiers in the past has also faded, but the breeding industry here is still developed, and a large number of merchants come here every autumn, bringing tinkling silver dollars here and pulling away tons of cattle and sheep here.

During this time, the Soviet Union began to provide assistance to China in the war against Japan, and it became a transfer station for equipment, and for a time there were more soldiers.

Zhang Xueliang and the remnants of the Northeast Army led by him came here under these circumstances. When the special train arrived at the Horqin grassland, it was just in time for noon, and the front of the railway station was busy, and all kinds of traders were in an endless stream, and their clothes were very uniform with those outside the Guan, except for some wearing Mongolian robes, most of them were wearing leather coats and dog skin hats.

Zhang Xueliang glanced through the car window, and there was an incomparable sense of intimacy, this place was too familiar to him, and the people and things here were similar to when he was in the Northeast, I hope most of the brothers think the same way.

After the train stopped, Rong Zhen walked over from another carriage, Zhang Xueliang was leaning on the sofa and looking out intentionally or unintentionally, and Zhao Yidi next to him was also fiddling with the coffee in the carriage.

Rong Zhen asked, "Young marshal, when you arrive at the station, do you want the brothers to get off the train and gather first?" ”

"Okay......" Zhang Xueliang wanted to agree, but he still felt that something was wrong, so he got off the bus immediately at this time, tens of thousands of brothers were not joking, he shook his head and said: "Don't get down yet, you see that the flow of people here is very dense, if you get off the bus, I'm afraid it will be crowded, you first contact the local people, and go directly to the barracks after getting off." ”

"Okay, I'll arrange it." After Rong Zhen finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards the other carriage.

Not long after these words were spoken, the guards walked over with a few people in lapel-collar national uniforms in a carriage, and they introduced themselves as people from the Horqin local railway station, who were here to pick up Zhang Xueliang and the Northeast Army brothers.

Zhang Xueliang didn't think much about it, put on his coat and prepared to go down with them, who knew that when they first entered the carriage, they pulled out their pistols and prepared to shoot.

The guards beside Zhang Xueliang threw Zhang Xueliang to the ground, Zhao Yidi's frightened face turned out and screamed, and the other guards hurriedly fought back.

"Don't beat him!" The frightened Zhang Xueliang shouted loudly, but it was too late at this time, several guards had already hit the vital point of these people with two shots out of self-defense, and they stopped moving after twitching on the ground for a while, they were all people who were crawling and rolling on the battlefield, and naturally knew that such a person was hopeless.

"Check! Be sure to check it out. Sun Mingjiu, the chief of the security department who hurried over, scolded loudly, and the group began to get busy.

Zhang Xueliang sat there and sighed, waved his hand and said, "You guys go out first, let me be quiet for a while." ”

was assassinated as soon as he arrived here, and Zhang Xueliang must have panicked in his heart, but he didn't know who sent the assassin.

He grabbed Zhao Yidi's hand and said softly, "Don't be afraid, it's okay." ”

Zhao Yidi obviously didn't completely come out of the fright just now, she took Zhang Xueliang's hand and said, "Han Qing, who did you say sent them?" ”

Is it Japanese? Or is it a mutinous force within the military? Or is it Nanjing? …… Zhang Xueliang shook his head, he didn't know.

Zhao Yidi was a little frightened, and she hugged Zhang Xueliang tightly.

After a while, Sun Mingjiu walked in, and when he saw the young marshal and Miss Zhao Si like this, he didn't come in directly, but Zhang Xueliang stood up and called him before he came in.

"Did you find out?" Zhang Xueliang asked.

He said to Zhang Xueliang with a serious face: "The identities of those people just now have been clarified, they are indeed the staff of Horqin Station, but it is not them who picked up the station today, the person who picked up the station has just arrived, and I have now asked the brothers of the guard battalion to detain them and are reviewing them." ”

"Okay, you can arrange the interrogation." Zhang Xueliang continued: "By the way, you go and tell Rong Zhen and ask him to get the troops off and enter the camp according to the original plan, and I will go down later." ”

"This ...... Young marshal, this side has just been attacked, and the personnel at the station have not yet conducted a complete investigation, if you let the brothers go down, will it? Sun Mingjiu hesitated.

Zhang Xueliang shook his hand and said, "Don't worry, these are not problems, let's go according to the original plan." ”

……

Huang Ke was very shocked when he learned that Zhang Xueliang had been assassinated in Horqin, and he was surprised that there had been more assassinations against senior government generals recently, which had to be said to be inseparable from the Japanese, and at the same time reminded him that it was time to pay attention to the movements of some people in China, because these assassins were often insiders instigated by the Japanese.

Thinking of this, he felt a little uneasy in his heart, he picked up the phone and called Yang Yibing, ready to let Yang Yibing come over to take a look, but the person who answered the phone told him that Yang Yibing went to Kaifeng, Henan, and now there has been further progress in the military case, which involves many corruption issues such as Tang Enbo and the chairman of Henan Province concealing reports, and Yang Yibing has taken people to Kaifeng in person.

Only then did Huang Ke remember that he had received a telegram from Chen Liewen two days ago, saying that the recovery of the robbery of the Henan army had been carried out almost in the past, but in the investigation, he had encountered a lot of resistance, and there was all kinds of evidence that the chairman of Henan Province and the commander of the provincial garrison, Tang Enbo, had excessively taxed taxes and concealed the disaster and failed to report it.

Presumably, Yang Yibing went to conduct a secret investigation.

"This Yang Yibing is also a busy man." Huang Ke muttered to himself, and then he picked up the phone on the desk and called the people from the secretariat, asking them to take one of their documents and give it to the Pre-Cadre Office and the Military Investigation Section of the War Department, and ask them to check on some recent assassinations.

When it was almost time to eat at noon, Huang Ke packed up as usual and prepared to go to the canteen to eat, Huang Ke insisted on leading by example on weekdays, basically as long as he didn't go out or went home, he would basically solve it in the canteen, and even when he received some foreign affairs, he would also bring people to visit the canteen, and taste the food in the canteen by the way, of course, the canteen would definitely add some more dishes on that day.

In general, Huang Ke didn't go to the canteen to eat for show, but really to save time, and he didn't think the food in the cafeteria was anything bad.

The secretary brought Huang Ke's rice bowl, and just as the two were about to go down, the phone in the office rang. Huang Ke knew that it was the special line of the secretary desk, he thought that the secretary desk was calling to inquire about the meal, so he walked out without answering, and as soon as he arrived at the door, he saw Chen Shaokuan and Gui Yongqing from the Admiralty coming.

Huang Ke thought that the phone call just now should be the secretary desk to notify the call.

According to Chen Shaokuan's level, they can go directly to Huang Ke's office without an appointment, but the secretary desk will also call Huang Ke first out of politeness, of course, in addition to these, there are major military situations that can also be reported directly without an appointment, but those are generally the affairs of the intelligence department and the general staff.

Chen Shaokuan has been inspecting shore artillery and inland river defense for a long time, so he hasn't seen him for a long time, but this reunion of the old man after a long absence is not happy, and Chen Shaokuan and Gui Yongqing's faces are full of sorrow.

Huang Ke looked at their sad faces, and knew that they must have encountered some problems, the War of Resistance had entered the most difficult stage, and the navy was even more so.

The previous few naval battles have already caused them to lose everything, not to mention Chen Shaokuan's plan to build an aircraft carrier formation, that is, it has become a big problem to be able to assemble a fleet to compete with the Japanese Navy on the Yangtze River, but the navy cannot do without, and the spirit of the navy cannot be lost, which Huang Ke is very firm.

"Chief ......" Chen Shaokuan was full of sadness.

"It's time to the hotel, let's go! Let's go to the cafeteria first, let's talk while eating. Huang Ke said to the secretary desk again: "Vacate a small box and arrange a few dishes, I haven't seen Minister Chen for a long time." ”

After saying that, the three of them walked to the cafeteria downstairs. There were already a lot of simple dishes in the small box in the canteen, Huang Ke asked people to serve rice, and the three of them ate the food.

"Tell me what's going on." Huang Ke asked while using chopsticks to put vegetables in Chen Shaokuan's bowl.

Chen Shaokuan put the bowl down lightly and sighed: "The Zhongshan ship has been sunk!" ”