Chapter 156: National Socialist Party (I)

  At the end of October, Anjiang was already in early winter. The thick fog reduced visibility to less than 20 meters. Nevertheless, on October 30th, the whole city of Anjiang was bustling with people because everyone knew that Wang Zhenyu, the master of Anjiang, who had just been promoted to the position of Military Governor of Xianggui, would hold a grand celebration ceremony today and inspect his invincible troops in public.

  The entire Anjiang model city has been under large-scale construction since August 1912, and after fourteen months, the basic infrastructure of the whole city has been completed. Ten thousand residents have moved in, and the four major districts are all connected by trams, with very convenient transportation facilities. At the same time, the more than 200-kilometer-long Antong Railway was constructed through the efforts of 30,000 workers and several hundred Chinese, Belgian, and German technical personnel working on different sections. Miraculously, it was completed six months ahead of schedule. Of course, Wang Zhenyu spent an additional 1.2 million taels to purchase thousands of tons of TNT for blasting mountains.

  Wang Zhenyu and his party arrived at Tongdao on October 28 and took a special train to Anjiang Railway Station. Along the way, he also personally inspected the Jingzhou Huitong section and learned about the operation of the railway through Song Xianfu and General Manager Weng Wenhai of the Railway Corporation. He was generally satisfied with the speed of 40-50 kilometers per hour and ended his inspection of the railway.

  On the Anjiang side, Ye Zuwu led the military and political officials who stayed in Anjiang to collectively welcome 21 American-made open-top Ford cars (actually T-type cars) lined up at the entrance of the European-style Anjiang Railway Station. Zhou Lian led the constabulary team to personally take charge of the security work for the entire station.

  Wang Zhenyu looked at these T-type cars, which still had some differences with modern cars, and his heart was slightly excited to finally see the cars. These cars were all obtained by Du Yuesheng from Americans because of Anjiang's wide roads. The entire Xiangxi Town Guardian Mansion purchased a total of sixty vehicles for official use last month. Ye Zuwen took a photo of Wang Zhenyu shaking his head repeatedly, "Ah, ah, official-use cars are just symbols."

  However, he wouldn't raise any objections because he also wants to ride in the cars and know that in his later years he didn't have money to buy a car but now he has sixty cars under his name. Unfortunately, there are no smartphones yet, otherwise, he would take a few selfies and post them online to show off his wealth. What's the point of being rich if you can't flaunt it?

  The first car was naturally left to the commander, Wang Zhenyu. When he got on the bus, he made a shocking move. He suddenly grabbed Zhao Yuting's hand in front of everyone and pulled her onto the bus, sitting next to him. All the officials who came to greet them were stunned, and after a moment of surprise, they all looked at Ye Zuwen, Wang Zhenyu's father-in-law. But Ye Zuwen, as his father-in-law, didn't show any expression on his face, completely ignoring what had just happened.

  Some people with good intentions have also pushed out a somewhat reasonable logic that Ye Zuwu is likely to lose power.

  The motorcade slowly departed from the station square, proceeding along the riverside road. Every five meters, there was a constable standing upright in black and gray uniform with a canvas constabulary hat, on high alert.

  Wang Zhenyu specially named the general managers of the three major banks, Song Han Zhang Gongquan Chen Guangfu, as well as the persons in charge of the Anjiang Steel Mill and other factories, and even the scholars from that big-name but small-scale scientific research institute to all participate in the military parade. It has been proven in later generations that this is a trick to deceive people. At this moment, the troops participating in the military parade, the entire Guard Brigade, have already lined up at the intersection of Chenyuan Avenue and Alongjiang Road, waiting for inspection. The whole Anjiang was empty, all factories and mines were closed, and everyone rushed to the streets to watch the military parade.

  Zao Dongsheng's Guards Brigade was a very special army. At the beginning, this unit was reorganized from the Honor Guard of the Tiger Regimental Headquarters Battalion. Its combat experience and personnel quality were all superior to other combat units.

  However, with the large-scale expansion of the Xiangxi Defense Team, many officers and soldiers in this unit were either transferred to other combat units as grassroots military officers or sent to military schools for accelerated learning (and after completing their studies, they were also assigned to other units). The soldiers who were later supplemented were also different from those in other units. Other field armies, such as the 1st Division, 2nd Division, and 3rd Division, all came from the 801, 802, and 803 new recruit bases, while the Guards Brigade was not this unit did not receive any troops from any of the new recruit training bases.

  Wang Zhenyu positioned the Imperial Guard as a new recruit training base. A large number of officials, rich merchants, and clan leaders from various counties and villages in western Hunan were forcibly recruited into this army to receive regular military training. Such people accounted for about one-third of the entire Imperial Guard, or around 2,000 people.

  Wang Zhenyu's meaning is very clear: everyone is tied to the same rope, and no one should think about jumping around randomly.

  However, as a result, the Imperial Guard Brigade, although it was a field army organization, could no longer be sent to the front line. Although these local forces did not have a big opinion about you taking their sons to join the army, if they were really killed in battle, it would be hard to explain. Just look at what happened to Taizu later on. So, these poor children, apart from playing with guns in the military camp in Anjiang and enjoying themselves, only had left to do formation drills.

  If a person can do one thing repeatedly well, he becomes an expert. The Imperial Guard is roughly in this situation. Now if the Imperial Guard were to be taken out to fight, they would probably collapse. But if they stand at attention and form up in ranks, they would claim to be the second-best army in the world, with no one daring to claim first place. Wang Zhenyu's comment on this is also very direct: a group of flower vase soldiers are best used to intimidate people.

  As the motorcade turned a corner on the riverside road, six thousand Guardsmen appeared by the roadside. It was already 10 am and the thick fog had lifted. The Guards' uniform was spotless and beautiful, with white uniforms that dazzled in the sunlight. Their sleeves were all embroidered with gold thread, and they wore golden sashes across their chests. In their hands, they grasped brand-new Hanyang-made rifles from the first year of the Republic of China, which had been improved by Luxembourg engineers to have lower jamming rates, better durability, and resistance to wear and tear.

  The officer on duty of the Guards Regiment shouted loudly with his unique loud voice: "Attention!"

  The military music "Forward, Forward, Forward" immediately sounded. Almost at the same moment when the first note sounded, all the officers and men of the Guards Brigade gave a standard rifle salute to the motorcade.

  With a loud noise, the effect of 6,000 people's movements was amazing. Even Wang Zhenyu was very proactive and stood up in the car to give a standard military salute to the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard Brigade. At this moment, Wang Zhenyu seemed to have returned to the time when he came to this era to participate in a military parade, where he stood at the position of the officer on duty and reported to Huang Xing, the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army. It has been two years since then.

  In that small rice shop in Guilin, Zhao Yuting grew up and had never seen such a scene. Her face was flushed as she sat beside Wang Zhenyu, not daring to move at all, but only thinking in her heart that the man sitting next to her, known as "Da Shuai" by everyone, was really majestic; while sitting in the deputy seat was Wang Zhenyu's number one bodyguard, Vice Director of the Guard Bureau, Major Wang Chenhao, who had never been afraid of tigers but saw this scene for the first time and almost got excited to pull out his pistol.

  At this time, a car drove towards the fleet. Wang Zhenyu, who was sitting in the lead vehicle, naturally knew what it meant. This process had been personally reviewed and arranged by him on the train, and he had asked his fifth brother, Wang Zhenbang, to rush back to Anjiang ahead of schedule.

  "Commander Zhao Dongsheng, who was also in charge of the Anjiang Garrison, stood on the platform and shouted loudly through a megaphone: 'Report to the Inspector: The troops have formed up for review. Please inspect them.'"

  Wang Zhenyu's car didn't have a horn, and he couldn't help but want to laugh when he saw Zhao Dongsheng shouting into the megaphone. After controlling his emotions with great difficulty, he returned a military salute to signal the start of the inspection. Zhao Dongsheng's car then turned around and followed Wang Zhenyu's No. 1 vehicle on its left rear side to accompany the inspection.

  Wang Zhenyu took the loudspeaker handed over by the officer on duty and shouted loudly to the officers and soldiers of the Guard Division, "Brothers, good!"

  He shouted and even he himself felt strange

  The officers and soldiers of the Guards Brigade all replied in unison: "Huang Taai is well"

  "Hard work, brothers!"

  "Long live the great marshal mighty tiger"

  The motorcade quickly passed through the sixty reception formations and entered the Chenyuan Avenue, which was 80 meters wide and 230 meters long. The tens of thousands of Anjiang people cheered from the bottom of their hearts when they saw Wang Zhenyu. They were able to enter the factory, receive a substantial income, and live a life with water, electricity, and toilets (囧), all thanks to the kindness of this wise and intelligent general who had never lost a battle. So the crowd's cheers were indeed heartfelt. However, Wang Zhenyu couldn't help but sigh: "The Chinese people are really too kind-hearted. I just gave them a job that could keep them alive, with wages and benefits that weren't even as good as those of a new recruit. Yet they still felt grateful and tearfully thanked me. What kind of government would push its people to the point of rebellion in such a country?"

  Wang Zhenyu's No. 1 car finally stopped on the pedestrian path between Neizheng Road and Chenyuan Avenue, where a rostrum had been set up in Qianyang Square. All participants in this congratulatory ceremony were waiting on the rostrum for the guards to march through Chenyuan Avenue and line up in Qianyang Square to wait for their own speech. But what Wang Zhenyu didn't know was that Zhao Hengti, who had become a wanted man by the Beiyang government of Yuan Shikai, was already on the rostrum. With nowhere else to go but Xiangxi, Wang Zhenyu decided to continue showing his loyalty and protected Zhao Hengti, hiring him as an advisor with a monthly salary of 200 yuan.

  Twenty-two cars took their positions one after another, and the grand infantry march was about to begin.