Chapter 355 Supplementary Plan for Rest

With the capture of Chuzhou by the third division led by Gu Lanyu and the retreat of Duan Qirui's fourth division to Jinling, it can be said that the Jiangbei battle that the Feng army has been carried out for more than three months has come to an end. Although Zhang Huaizhi is still in the area of Liu'an Prefecture and Anqing Prefecture in central Anhui, there is no longer worrying.

The Lu army under Zhang Huaizhi's command was originally weak. The 10th Brigade of its 5th Division was severely damaged by the Feng army in the Jinan Campaign. Although Zhang Huaizhi reorganized the brigade in the following months, the reorganized 10th Brigade was no longer the combat strength of the old Beiyang era and was reduced to the same as the provincial army.

In a series of subsequent battles such as Suzhou and Mengcheng, the Fifth Division was once again damaged. After retreating to Hefei, the Fifth Division had less than 7,000 troops and almost lost heavy weapons.

As for Zhang Huaizhi's command, thousands of other provincial troops are even less worth mentioning.

So there are tens of thousands of Zhang Huaizhi in central Anhui, but it is almost a fool's dream to stop the Feng army from going south.

Zhang Huaizhi himself knew this, so after learning that Duan Qirui retreated from Chuzhou, he once again retreated from Hefei and other places in central Anhui with the remaining Lu army and ran all the way to Anqing.

"As of yesterday, the first army of our army has successively captured Hefei, Liu'an and other important prefectures in central Anhui, and the fourth mixed brigade of the striker has entered Anqing. Our second army has successively conquered Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong and other important prefectures and counties, and the front troops have arrived in the surrounding area of Jinling!" When Fang Biyong said this, he showed a happy face.

In the past few months, more than 100,000 Feng troops have continued to fight hard in Jiangbei, and now they have finally taken down the huge Jiangbei region, and the importance of Jiangbei to the Soviet system is beyond doubt. Taking Jiangbei is equivalent to completely stabilizing the rule of the Soviet system in the north and Central Plains. If you add the northern part of Shanxi and Hubei controlled by Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen, who have been loyal to the central government and have reached an alliance with Zhao Dongyun.

So for the Northern Republican government, it has barely controlled China north of the Yangtze River.

In the minds of many people, taking the whole area north of the Yangtze River, the Soviet system has laid the foundation for hegemony. In the future, as long as they cross the Yangtze River and continue to go south, the unification of the whole China is just around the corner!

In this case, many Soviet military and political dignitaries are jubilant, and they all dream of becoming founders and famous in history.

But for the actual rulers of northern China, the Soviet leaders, taking Jiangbei is just the beginning. They still face many problems if they want to completely unify China. Duan Qirui and the Southern Federation are still their big troubles, and it is not so easy to take them down.

Zhao Dongyun knows very well that he is not only facing more than 100,000 enemies under Duan Qirui's command or hundreds of thousands of enemies of the Southern Federation, but also needs to face his own problems.

Since entering the customs in June, the war that lasted for half a year has exhausted almost all the finances of the Soviet Union. At the beginning, the military expenditure of the Feng army could still rely on the foundation accumulated in the three eastern provinces in the past, but in the subsequent battle to the south, especially in the Jiangbei war, in fact, the Soviet system could not afford to support it. War can only rely on the issuance of patriotic bonds and misappropriate funds from other directions.

In order to raise war funds, as Zhao Dongyun's financial steward, Premier Xiong Xiling has been playing with the demolition of the east wall and repairing the west wall that he has been sitting for many years, not only misappropriating administrative funds from other departments, such as officials' salaries, education funds, etc. Even the operating profits of the Beijing-Feng Railway and the profits from several officially controlled enterprises were misappropriated by him, causing the Beijing-Feng Railway to free up money to continue the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, and even the salaries of the employees of the enterprises were about to be released.

Now that the war in Jiangbei has stopped for a while, Xiong Xiling and other officials of the financial system are relieved. Although everyone knows that the war is not over, it is extremely rare to breathe a sigh of relief.

It's just that when Xiling thought she could calm down, the commander-in-chief department put forward the so-called rest and supplementary plan, which cost 20 million yuan in one mouth, which made Xiong Xiling almost spit blood after knowing it!

"President, although it is appropriate to prepare for the war, you are also aware of our current situation. The Ministry of Finance has been in arrears with the salaries of officials for three consecutive months, and it is really difficult to raise additional military expenses!" Xiong Xiling did not say anything against the expansion of arms and preparations, but blindly said that he had no money.

It's not once or twice that Xiling said that he has no money. Every time he has to spend money, Xiling is like this. Whether he has money or not, he doesn't want to take it out anyway. Such Xiling makes those high-level military generals very dissatisfied, especially Zhao Dongping, the military's financial manager, and Xiong Xiling. Turn around again.

However, no matter what the senior military generals have of their feelings for Xiong Xiling, and even belittled this person many times in Zhao Dongyun, the outside world did not see Zhao Dongyun's intention to replace him.

To be honest, Zhao Dongyun himself is also a little dissatisfied with Xiong Xiling's attitude, but not to mention that Zhao Dongyun really doesn't want to replace him. Xiong Xiling said that he had no money every time, but he would not fall off the chain at the critical moment. No matter whether he issued bonds to borrow money or misappropriated it, he would always take out money to maintain military supplies at the moment of shutdown.

If you simply look at the accounts of the Ministry of Finance, the deficit of the Soviet finances has already reached more than 40 million yuan. If others were in charge of the Soviet finances, it would have been presumed that they would have been blinded long ago. However, this Xiling still barely supported the Soviet finances that did not go bankrupt. When Fengjun fought fiercely and urgently needed ammunition on the front line, He can always raise hundreds or a million to buy ammunition on the front line.

Simply speaking of the ability to demolish the east wall and repair the west wall, Zhao Dongyun really can't find a second person who can compare with Xiong Xiling.

With this hand, Zhao Dongyun has to continue to use him, and it is still reused!

Relatively speaking, there are many other political officials in the Soviet government who play finance, such as Zhou Xuexi, the current chief of the Ministry of Finance, who is also very good at it, but he is good at banking and industry. Another example is Zhao E, who has been trained for many years and is also good at foreign affairs. He is very good at developing the economy, industry and commerce. For example, the Director of the Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance, who gradually entered Zhao Dongyun's vision after Feng Jun entered the customs. This person is very good at tax affairs and has made a lot of contributions to the sorting out the Soviet tax system.

But none of the above can maintain the normal operation of the Soviet regime and the continuous battle of the Feng army in such a difficult situation as Xiong Xiling.

Zhao Dongyun is still a very realistic person. Although he personally doesn't like Xiong Xiling, this does not prevent him from reusing Xiong Xiling.

However, Fang Biyong looked at Xiling and said, "We also know the difficulties in the cabinet, but now the current situation is difficult, and the supplementary plan for rest and recuperation proposed by others is also formulated according to the current actual situation!"

At this time, Fang Biyong put his eyes back on Zhao Dongyun and said respectfully, "President, our army has experienced countless battles in the past six months, especially in the three-month Jiangbei war, which has consumed all the ammunition and ordnance of the military's stockpiles. Now the southbound troops are in urgent need of ammunition."

Maybe he felt that he could not convince Zhao Dongyun by saying this, Fang Biyong continued: "The third division, one of the main forces going south, after many battles, although the division is still intact, it is seriously lacking in ordnance and ammunition. According to the following report, the division has only 2,000 75mm shells, with an average of less than 40 rounds per gun. Its 60mm mortar shells are less than 15 rounds each, and there is a shortage of bullets.

In addition, many mortars and machine guns were lost in the battle, which need to be supplemented one by one!

If it is not supplemented, it is difficult to exert the original peak combat power with the current state of the Third Division!"

Fang Biyong continued: "This situation is not only unique to the 3rd Division, but also the 9th Division and 10th Division and other participating troops have the above problems!

In order to restore the previous combat effectiveness of the troops, our colleagues from several departments have jointly formulated this plan, aiming to restore the combat effectiveness of existing departments and restock enough ammunition to support the future southward operations!"

As soon as his words fell, Xiling sneered and said, "Even if the ammunition is replenished, it is 20 million yuan. Besides, we just gave 2 million yuan to the military to buy ammunition last month, and as far as I know, this batch of newly purchased ammunition has not been sent to the southern combat troops!"

Fang Biyong immediately said, "The ordnance purchased with that money is used to belong to the new 14th and 15th Divisions, and has nothing to do with the southward combat troops!"

Xiong Xiling immediately smiled and said, "Your military wants to supplement the ordnance of the southward combat troops and expand the new troops at the same time. But have you considered whether our current financial situation can support your generosity. Besides, the 14th and 15th Division have cost no more than three million before and after this, but it is still an empty shelf. I would like to ask, where did you spend that money? Have you been full of selfishness?"

Fang Biyong originally had a good temper, but when he heard Xiling's words, he didn't look good now: "The progress of the new two divisions is slow, not because you have been procrastinating and refusing to pay. The first three million funds only arrived last month, most of them are used to order field guns, and the rest of the money is needed to recruit soldiers. The house payment is not enough.

Xiong Xiling said again, "It's not my fault that this batch of funds are late for more than half a month. You said that the southern combat funds asked me to give you money to buy ammunition and winter clothes first, which misappropriated the money for half a month!"

"You!" When Xiong Xiling said this, Fang Biyong almost cursed, but even if he was angry, he knew that Zhao Dongyun was next to him, and immediately snorted coldly.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun also said, "They are all people with faces outside. Why are they still like a hairy young man!"