Chapter 7: Rivers and Mountains (7)

Chiang Kai-shek's mistake in digging the Yellow River at Zhaokou greatly annoyed him, and he ordered Cheng Qian to no longer have the kindness of women, and that the Yellow River must be dug before the Japanese army fully attacked, divert the river into the Huai, and block the Japanese east of the Huanghuai Plain with a surging flood. When Tang Ruru, who woke up from the wine, told Mo Di the news, Mo Di smiled and said, we can't get drunk every day!

Yes, it is true that you can't get drunk every day, because the army has recruited new soldiers, and the 176th Division incorporated the Song Shike Department of the Northern Anhui Security Corps, appointed Song Shike as the commander of the 525th Brigade, and scattered his more than 2,000 people in various departments of the 176th Division, and Qiu Qingying, the former commander of the 525th Brigade, was transferred to the 171st Division as a front-line military commander. The 176th Division has the return of the invincible division, coupled with the integration of the Song Shike Division, it has become a master of more than 8,000 people in one fell swoop.

The 526 Brigade was the least affected unit in this readjustment, only Wei Gaozhen's 1051 Regiment increased by more than 500 men and completed the formation, and the other departments remained unchanged, Li Baicheng's artillery battalion was transferred to the 176 Division directly under the regiment and upgraded to an artillery regiment, with the regiment commander Colonel Li Baicheng and the deputy regiment commander and director of the Political Department Colonel Li Jingliang. Mo Enemy suggested to the brigade commander Ma Weixin that even if there was only one artillery, the artillery battalion of the 526 Brigade should be ensured, so Huang Tianhua concurrently served as the commander of the artillery battalion, although there was only one Type 92 infantry gun and five Type 70 mortars below, and the total number of people was less than one platoon, the banner of the artillery battalion was still raised. Ou Shounian also knew that it was unrighteous to snatch an artillery battalion for nothing, so he still allocated the military salary of the artillery battalion to the 526 Brigade to let them eat empty salaries legally.

He doesn't care about this empty salary, he has a lot of money in his baggage team, and the big head is on Xu Ping's side, if he wants money, just say it.

Ma Weixin is different, he has no land for himself, he has these hundreds of legal vacancies, he is so happy that he can't find the north, and immediately pulls Mo Di to the restaurant.

The restaurant in Lu'an, because of the entry of the 48th Army during this time, has been very prosperous. Liao Lei and his people, there is a law to lead the army, and the army is never allowed to disturb the people, fair trading, no donations, eating restaurants and paying according to the price, and arrears have never happened.

Let Xiao Er serve two dishes, a plate of small river wild fish called "granite plate", one is braised goose meat, the taste is good, a pot of local liquor tastes average, fortunately, the concentration is not low.

The cubicle environment facing the street is very good, the exquisite carved window breeze comes slowly, the street outside the window is bustling, because the two officers and bigwigs are drinking here, there are no people sitting at the surrounding tables, but the small environment is very quiet, a few orderlies opened a small table on the side, not angry and arrogant. After Xiao Er served the good food, he left lightly, not daring to disturb more. Ma Weixin said: "I am a Hui person, I don't eat pork, Tianzong eats with me, and it is more difficult to eat meat elbows." ”

"Hehe, I don't care." Mo Di smiled and said: "It's just a little curious, if you fight for many days in a row, make ends meet with dry food every day, and finally have a day of leisure, and kill a pig in logistics to improve your food, you can endure it and not eat?" ”

"I can hold back." Ma Weixin said: "This is a kind of faith, and the power of faith is very great. Sexual goodness, food can help people to work hard, to have the courage to do the way; If something is not good, it will be corrosive and good, so that things will be perverse. ”

"Oh!" Mo Di asked curiously, "Which animals are good and which are not?" ”

Ma Weixin clasped his fingers and counted a lot of them, encroaching on them, such as eagles, eagles, crows, and magpies; violent and vicious species, such as tigers, wolves, lions, and leopards; Slippery species, such as bears, monkeys, foxes, and rats; embezzlement, such as dogs and pigs; Disorderly groups, such as donkeys, mules, and elephants; Insects, such as turtles, crabs, clams, snakes, ants, bees, silkworms, etc.

Mo Di laughed, pointed to the two dishes in front of him, and said, "It's rare to find two good dishes here that are not on the list." ”

Ma Weixin talked for a long time, from the good and evil of the Hui people to the polygamy system of the Hui people, and talked about Bai Chongxi's lust and Ma Bufang's lewdness, which opened Mo Di's eyes. In the end, the topic finally came to the empty salaries of the more than 300 people in the artillery battalion.

Mo Di knew that it was that he was coming, and before eating this wine, he discussed this issue with Huang Tianhua and Jiang Chunyang, and Huang Tianhua told him that it was the tradition of the national army to eat empty salaries, and it was unthinkable for officers who did not eat empty salaries in the national army, and some troops, known as a division of the first type, had an establishment of 12,000 people, but in fact there were only 7,000. The above does not know this situation, when assigning the task, it is still considered and planned as a 12,000-strong force, so it is inevitable that the operation will not achieve the goal, this is the case on the south bank of the Yellow River, taking Huang Jie's Eighth Army as an example, in August last year, the Tax Police Corps (later renamed the 40th Division, Division Commander Luo Lirong, A Division) and the 166th Division (Division Commander Gao Ziju, B Division) formed the 8th Army, and the Tax Police Corps fought very bravely in Songhu, with serious casualties, Sun Liren, the commander of the Fourth Regiment of the Tax Police Corps, repelled the Japanese troops who forcibly crossed the Suzhou Creek seven times at Zhoujiaqiao, fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army for two weeks, suffered 13 wounds, and fainted for three days. After the Battle of Songhu, there were less than 4,000 people left in the tax police corps, and they were not completely replenished, but continued to use these 4,000 people to carry the banner of the 40th Division, and the real strength was not as good as a 526 brigade. In this way, the strength of the Eighth Army is not as good as the tax police corps in its heyday, and using such a force to complete the tasks to be completed by an integrated army is doomed to fail at the beginning of the plan.

The 1056 regiment is an outlier in the national army, not only has no empty pay but also unplanned personnel, and the top and bottom can make themselves very fat without having to eat empty salary. However, Ma Weixin is different, he has been out for almost a year, and there is no other income except for a few rewards given above, and there are a lot of wives and children at home, just waiting for him to provide for him, and the pressure is not small. The so-called people have no windfall and no wealth, horses have no night grass and no fat, if such a good opportunity in front of him is given up in vain, he is not an officer of the national army.

How to deal with Ma Weixin's requirements, Jiang Chunyang believes that since the 1056 regiment has returned to the establishment, it must not be unconventional, but must be integrated with everyone, and join forces with each other. Jiang Chunyang's words were unanimously recognized by everyone, and he was a small regiment, so there was no need not to be a big head, and there was no need to pretend to be the boss of the Northwest Army, Feng Yuxiang.

"What do you mean by the brigade is that this artillery battalion is enough to keep a platoon or so?" Mo Di asked.

"That's not necessarily, if Shangfeng gives us people to replenish the artillery, it is okay to set up an artillery battalion." Ma Weixin said: "It's just that it is not easy from the current point of view, the Hanyang Arsenal is working overtime, and it is unable to cope with the huge military expenditures, and the arsenals in Shaoguan, Guiping, Guiyang and other places are all integrated into the Military Commission, and it is impossible to guarantee the self-sufficiency of armaments, and Madame Chiang went to the United States, hoping to get international support." Judging from the recent time, this is the last time we are replenished, and in the future, we can only fight fewer and fewer people, and the guns will be more and more broken. ”

Mo Di understood that Ma Weixin was not going to build another artillery battalion in the 526 Brigade, and the empty salary of the artillery battalion could be eaten for as long as he could. Mo Di nodded, he didn't want to set up an artillery battalion in the 526 Brigade at all, but wanted to set up another supernumerary artillery company in the 1056 Regiment, as long as it could play a role at the critical moment, as for the personnel, it could be said that it was borrowed from Xu Ping.

"Brigade seat, the role of artillery is sometimes very large!" Mo Di said with a look of regret.

"I know, it's not a big problem." Ma Weixin arrived very easily: "The artillery regiment directly under the division was sent by our brigade, and we have places where we need to use artillery, and the division commander will give this face." What's more, now our brigade is the main brigade of the 176th Division, and if the troops directly under the division are not worthy of us, who can they give to us? You can rest assured, the artillery regiment was given to the division headquarters, and there is only advantage and no disadvantage for us. ”

Ma Weixin's opinion is completely agreeable, and this veteran ruffian is not completely stupid.

The conversation between the two sides was very speculative, and it was finally decided that Ma Weixin should be assigned 150 of the 300 empty salaries, 100 of Mo Weixin, and 50 of the other personnel of the brigade headquarters. The matter of the artillery camp will never be mentioned again.

The little wild fish was eaten up, the braised duck was only a few bones, and after drinking the last drop of wine in the clay pot, the two stood up and walked out of the shop with their shoulders on their backs.

Xu Ping and Song Erhu's wine was much more depressed, after receiving the telegram from Mo Di, Xu Ping was taken aback, Jin Tongxuan told him that if the Yellow River is dug up, the water of the Yellow River will come up from the sky, and it will be rushed until the Huai River will be seized into the sea, which is an extremely dangerous thing, and the Yinghe vortex river basin in the northwest will all become the flood discharge area of the Yellow River, and the people in this area will be displaced, their families will be destroyed. Xu Ping didn't dare to slack off, rushed to Bengbu overnight, and discussed with Song Erhu if he rescued the people, Song Erhu also gathered all his people, and used a lot of tricks to deceive and coax the people on the north bank of the Huai River in the Huainan area to the south bank, but after waiting for two or three days, the flood did not come as scheduled, Song Erhu and Xu Ping became a typical example of deceiving the people, they were bad guys who worked hard and hurt money, and they were bad for people. The people who have moved to Huainan are scolding and returning to Huaibei with a scolding that the winter wheat harvest is imminent, and this kind of joke cannot be afforded.

Xu Ping and Song Erhu, who were unhappy, were scolded by the people so much that they couldn't raise their heads, they didn't go out for two days, they hid in Song Erhu's house and drank stuffy, they woke up drunk, woke up drunk, drank so dark that they couldn't tell the difference.

Jin Tongxuan, who followed Xu Ping to Bengbu, breathed a sigh of relief, visited the workers and fishermen by the Huai River, and learned about the situation of the Yellow River diverting to Bengbu several times in history, and finally concluded that even if the Yellow River enters the Huai, the south bank of the Huai River will be fine, but the small Bengbu on the north bank is definitely in a catastrophe. The Bengbu railway bridge is still in full swing to repair, the Japanese in order to facilitate the transportation of materials from Pukou to the Xuzhou Guide area, all the materials that were placed on the south bank before were sent to the north bank by ferry, these days are still getting up early in the dark ferry, if the water really rushes down, I am afraid that these things are all soaked in the water. The substitution of water for troops did have a certain coagulating effect on the Japanese attack, but because of this, Jin Tongxuan was gloomy because of the disregard for the survival and life of the people.

Just when Xu Ping returned to the Wolf's Nest Mountain with a bored face, ready to accept Qin Jishi's comfort, he received a notice from the Military Command Bureau: In the early morning of June 9, 1938, Jiang Zaizhen's department successfully dug the Yellow River at Huayuankou, and poured the front of the Japanese army located only 30 kilometers away from Zhongmu into the water.

"Hahahaha! I'll fuck you, I've finally got it done, this time I'm no longer a liar! Xu Ping shouted happily, Jin Tongxuan and Qin Jishi on the side looked at him pitifully, and a thought popped up in their hearts: Such a tragic thing, he can laugh out loud, this person is also crazy!