Zhao Dongsheng, the captain of the training team, is currently one of the fastest-rising officers in the Second Battalion. He used to be a deputy platoon leader under Hao Bing's command and was not even considered an officer. However, after Wang Zhenyu took charge of twenty military clubs for him at Qinduankou, Zhao Dongsheng broke through the ranks and became one of Wang Zhenyu's guards. Since then, he has risen rapidly and is now a lieutenant colonel, serving as both the captain of the training team and the captain of the guard team. Unlike many other military officers of his time, Wang Zhenyu is very cautious when promoting officers. Given the current small scale of the troops, he personally reviews and decides on every officer promotion. In contrast, in many militia teams, there are no rules governing officer appointments, and it's common for a brigade commander to appoint a regimental commander without considering the organizational structure. As a result, many places have seen an overabundance of lieutenant generals and major generals, with some militias even having more officers than soldiers, more soldiers than guns, and more guns than bullets.
But in Wang Zhenyu's case, the entire 9th Brigade had only one lieutenant general, which was himself. There were only two colonels, Yang Wanguo and Xu Yuanquan, three lieutenant colonels, Hao Bing, Song Xianfu, and Wan Yaohuang, and only two majors, Ma Xicheng and Zhao Dongsheng. The rest were all low-ranking officers, which is extremely rare in the entire militia system. When this personnel list was submitted to the garrison command, the staff officer responsible for receiving it even asked in surprise: "Is there anything missing?"
Another natural result of having fewer high-ranking officers is that the capable ones have to work harder. For example, Zhao Dongsheng, the captain of the training team, also served as the captain of the guard team. Moreover, considering the future, Zhao Dongsheng's focus was still on the fifty people in the guard team. When Wang Zhenyu went out, Zhao Dongsheng would follow him closely to prevent any unexpected events.
So currently, the main people responsible for guiding the team's training are the three deputy commanders Song Haomin, Tang Hairong and Zhang Xuanguang. These three people are currently all senior captains, but this is not a low-ranking military officer either. To know that there are less than twenty senior captain officers in Wang Zhenyu's ninth brigade, which is very rare.
Tang Hai Rong and Zhang Xu Guang were also in a special situation. Originally, according to Wang Zhen Yu's orders, the two of them should have been building the brigade's reconnaissance company and special operations company by now. However, due to the scarcity of qualified soldiers and officers, Wan Yao Huang, who was in charge of the entire brigade's reorganization, had postponed the formation of the two companies according to the principle of "better to be lacking than to be excessive". Therefore, for now, these two could only continue to stay in the training team feeling depressed. Now, on the training ground, shouting and practicing with his own troops was none other than the deputy commander of the second company, Tang Hai Rong.
Small matters in the coaching team can be decided by three people, and big things are not urgent. The guard team and the coaching team are next door to each other, so Zhao Dongsheng can always be found. Therefore, Zhao Dongsheng rarely appears in the daily training of the coaching team.
But today all the recruits saw their tall and powerful Captain Zhao, standing beside the Colonel, who was chatting with several Guangxi recruits in a kind and affable manner.
"Listening to Captain Song, your performance in training and learning is very good. You've been studying for several years, right? Are you used to being in the instructor team?" Wang Zhenyu was now a Major General and Brigade Commander, sitting in a higher position for a long time, his speech had become more elderly-like. But when he asked Li Zongren this question, it warmed his heart greatly. In any era, under any social system, when subordinates are cared about by their superiors, they rarely don't get excited. To put it simply, if you're walking on the street and suddenly run into a high-ranking leader who's often only seen on TV news broadcasts, and they stop you with an extremely kind tone to ask: "Fellow countryman, how's your day going? Is everything okay?"
At this time, even if you are a beggar, you will be extremely excited and involuntarily answer: Thank you leader, thank you Zhengfu, recently the days have been much better, every day I can get an extra half bowl of rice. Then with a proud face tell the leader that I am very happy.
Of course this is a bit exaggerated, but this is the normal reaction of humans when facing strong figures.
Li Zongren is now in this state, he didn't think that a later Guangxi soldier would actually be asked by the brigade commander himself, and he jumped up very quickly: "Report to the brigade commander, I studied at home for two years, I can recognize all the characters, and life in the training team is also very good, the squad leader and class leader are very concerned about us."
Wang Zhenyu was originally just passing by today, but coincidentally he ran into the end of the first squadron's training session. Some Guangxi recruits were sitting on the ground chatting idly. Li Zongren and others were speaking in dialect, which ordinary officers couldn't understand, but Wang Zhenyu, who had spent six years studying and working in Guangzhou, heard every word clearly. It was only then that he felt winning people's hearts wasn't so simple - it wasn't just a matter of giving them something to eat and drink, or treating them well. The Li Zongren before him still seemed like someone with ideals, or perhaps illusions.
It's easy to subdue the bandits outside, but hard to eliminate the bandits in one's heart. Wang Zhenyu suddenly became very interested in communicating with these newly joined Guangxi students who still had doubts.
"Just now I heard you mention the future of the revolution, and I'm very interested to hear more. Don't worry, I'm a very democratic person, so don't be afraid." Wang Zhenyu was actually around the same age as Li Zongren, but because he had a high-ranking position, it made these student soldiers unsure whether to stand or sit in his presence. Wang Zhenyu knew exactly what was going on and took the lead by sitting down himself, only then did the students dare to choose a lower step of stone stairs to sit down sideways.
Wang Zhenyu asked Li Zongren, who naturally replied first: "Commander, I'm a scholar-turned-soldier. It's not good to say too much, but I always feel that the revolution shouldn't be like this. How come after all the revolutions, it's still those Qing officials who hold power? What did we fight for?"
This was already very implicit, Wang Zhenyu nodded and didn't respond, but instead looked at Bai Chongxi.
Bai Chongxi hoped to leave a good impression on the new commander, so he immediately stood up and said: "Commander, I think this revolution is still in its early stages and there will definitely be changes in the future. For now, we are facing difficulties here in Nanjing. What we see and hear suggests that we are in trouble. At this time, the revolution is like a boat going upstream - if it doesn't move forward, it can only retreat. Moreover, that person from Beijing probably won't treat us militia with kindness."
Bai Chongxi's words didn't have any new meaning, most of the high-ranking officials in Nanjing Military Government shared this view. But if you look at Bai Chongxi's current status, a student soldier who was struggling with hunger and cold just over ten days ago could think of this point, it's really not easy. Wang Zhenyu thought to himself: That guy from Beijing didn't even plan to treat us sincerely, within a year, they will be sharpening their knives to deal with us, these treacherous officials.
Yu Zuobo, Liao Yue, and Li Pinxian also expressed their own views, all of which roughly believed that peace is still far away. It seems that people from the Republic of China era are not stupid compared to later generations. I guess Sun Yat-sen and others are not as naive as described in textbooks, but rather retreated and knew that they did not have the power to shake things up for the time being, so they went to rest and recover. Otherwise, a year later, the Nationalist Party, which had already handed over military power and was preparing to hold democratic elections, relied on what to launch the massive Second Revolution and persisted for two months under the attack of the Northern Warlords?
Thinking of this, looking at the five young Guangxi recruits in front of him with some tension and expectation in their eyes, the equally young Wang Zhenyu smiled and said: "Your views are all very reasonable, I agree. So, Dongsheng, you go give the order, suspend training, and assemble the entire instructional team, I have something to say."
A burst of footsteps, the quality of the instructor team members was quickly revealed, and everyone completed the assembly at the fastest speed. Most people looked at the brigade commander standing on the fixed training platform in front of them with great confusion, not knowing what he wanted to say. Li Zongren and others, however, looked at the brigade commander with some excitement, especially Li Zongren, who felt that the puzzle that had been puzzling him for several months might be solved, and perhaps he could get an answer from the brigade commander.
"Everyone, I'm sure you're all curious, why have I gathered you all here?"
Just now, a soldier told me that he was very confused. Why did we launch this revolution, but the result is that Beijing's former bureaucrats seized power in Zhongyuan? Didn't our soldiers shed blood and sweat, suffer hardships in vain? Now I want to answer this question. Comrades, our revolution this time is not thorough enough, and it is quite not thorough enough. As suspected by the soldier just now, the fruits of our revolution have indeed been taken away by others.
The recruits below were in an uproar, but the strict training they had received from the drill team this week immediately quieted them down. Each of them stared at the captain with wide eyes, obviously eager to know what he would say next.
He was very satisfied with this, and continued: "As soldiers, we are not discussing the right or wrong of this matter today. But I ask you to think about a question: why did our revolutionary fruits get picked away? Why were tens of thousands of Nanjing militiamen starving and freezing in the past few months, including the 48 Guangxi students standing here today who had no food or pay just over ten days ago? Why is this so? Is it because you are not devoted enough to the revolution? No, you are the most loyal revolutionaries. You wore straw sandals and walked thousands of miles from Guangxi. Who dares to say they are more loyal to the revolution than you? It was precisely because of your loyalty that the Manchu emperor had to abdicate. But our revolution has not yet succeeded. In Beijing, in this corrupt and decadent city, the powerful have colluded with various forces and sold out the country's interests to foreigners. With these, they still control a strong army. And within our own revolutionary ranks, some people felt that after the emperor abdicated, the revolution had already won, and it was time to pursue personal glory and wealth. They wavered, betrayed the revolution, oppressed Mr. Sun and Huang, forcing them to hand over the fruits of victory to those in power in Beijing. And they themselves could use their reputation and experience gained during the revolution to collude with the shameless officials in Beijing, become new nobles, and continue to suck the blood of our motherland."
The recruits and ordinary soldiers are different, these reasons for them to speak clearly now each person's face is filled with various complex expressions: despair, anger, anxiety, etc., Li Zongren's hands even clenched into a ball.
"Are you afraid? Are you angry? I can tell you, anyone can be afraid, but you, absolutely cannot. Anyone can be angry, but you, absolutely cannot. Because in your hands is the gun of revolution; on your shoulders is the future of the entire nation. You must be brave, you must be calm. I can responsibly tell everyone that the road to revolution has never been smooth sailing, the revolutionary cause has never been a one-time thing. Revolution has always been tortuous and circuitous, not letting evil blood flow dry, not making the greedy feel afraid, no one will voluntarily give up their own interests. Therefore, this revolution is only just beginning, not ending. Any idea that thinks everything is peaceful now, we can put away our swords and guns, and let our horses graze on Mount Nan, are extremely laughable and dangerous. The future Republic of China will fall into all sorts of chaos due to the incomplete revolution before us, various clowns, lowly politicians, shameless warlords will all take the stage. And to make them scram, we must rely on a truly revolutionary army. And your purpose in training hard here is only one, that is to build a truly revolutionary army, use the guns in your hands to push this revolution to its final victory, use the guns in your hands to bring peace and prosperity to humanity and the nation. Every single person here please remember, our revolution has not ended, but has just begun, please believe me, follow me, fight for the Republic of China, long live the Republic of China! Long live the Tiger Troop!" Wang Zhenyu's last sentence was shouted out hoarsely.
The young soldiers, after listening to Wang Zhenyu's speech, suddenly felt a strong sense of mission for the times. Being young and energetic, they were immediately stirred up by his words and shouted in unison: "Long live the Republic of China! Long live the Brave Tiger Troop!" The cries shook heaven and earth.
In a two-story villa not far away, Tian Yingxun, who was smoking a big cigarette, was awakened by the shouting: "This Wen Zheng, he just knows how to make trouble, and there's never a day of peace."
