Chapter 366 Yang Deming and the Fourteenth Division

In contemporary China, there are many people with the rank of general in the army. Whether the Beiyang system is the Soviet system, the Anhui system, the Jin system, the Hubei system and other armies, these armies that also belong to the Beiyang system, regardless of whether they are hostile to Zhao Dongyun, but the big guys still belong to such a large system as Beiyang, at least to see So far, Duan Qirui still recognized the Beijing Communist Party of China as the only government, but he did not recognize Zhao Dongyun, the president.

So, not only did Wang Yingkai, Zhao Dongyun, Duan Qirui and other Beiyang warlords fight with each other last year, but they did not declare any independence or anything. Zhao Dongyun did not do it before entering the customs, and Duan Qirui did not do it after Zhao Dongyun took office as president.

Therefore, there are still only two governments in contemporary China, namely, the 'Chinese Federal Empire' led by Zhang Zhidong and the 'Chinese Republic' established by the Beiyang system.

In this case, although Duan Qirui and others are at war with Zhao Dongyun, Duan Qirui himself is still a registered general of the Beiyang Republican Government.

At present, there are many army generals officially registered and recognized by the Beiyang Republican Government, such as Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen, Wu Fengling, Wang Ruxian, Zhang Huaizhi and others, but there is only one general belonging to the Soviet system, that is Meng Enyuan.

Although Xu Bangjie and Chen Guangyuan were awarded the rank of lieutenant general plus general, this rank still belongs to the lieutenant general in essence and only enjoy the etiquette of general.

Today, Zhao Dongyun awarded Xu Bangjie, who made outstanding achievements in the battle to the south, to commend Xu Bangjie for leading the Second Army to win the battle in Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

Although Xu Bangjie had expected before entering the customs that if everything went well, he was very likely to reach the peak of his life and become an army general in the unification war, but he did not expect that it would come so soon. The unification war has not been completed yet. It must be a lie to say that you are unhappy.

And he didn't know that the reason for his promotion to general was that in addition to his own military achievements, Zhao Dongyun also had other considerations, that is, to stimulate military morale and prepare for the next step of crossing the river.

He wants to let the military generals see hope: as long as you win the war and have achievements, then I, Zhao Dongyun, will never be stingy. Whether it is power or honor, I can give it to you!

With Xu Bangjie being awarded the rank of general, Zhao Dongyun also awarded military ranks to many other generals of the military. For example, Liu Tinggui, the commander of the 13th Division, was awarded the rank of Major General and Lieutenant General to Xue Yiping, the former Chief of Staff of the 10th Division and the current commander of the 29th Brigade, awarded him the rank of Major General. For example, Lin Pingxiong, the new commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade, was awarded the rank of Major General and Lieutenant General.

In addition, many people have newly obtained or upgraded their ranks. For example, Chen Guangyuan was promoted from three to two. Gu Lanyu, the commander of the third division, will be awarded three. Last year, several generals of the First Division, Lu Yongxiang, the commander of the First Division, was awarded three medals, and Zhang Dianru, the commander of the 16th Division, was also awarded. Three Xun, Bao Guiqing, the commander of the First Mixed Brigade, was promoted from Major General to Lieutenant General of the Army. At the same time, he was also awarded four medals, and even Liu Chaolu, commander of the 31st Brigade, was awarded four medals.

These generals with troops into the Fengjun system have basically received reputation. The division commanders are officially awarded the lieutenant general, three, and the mixed brigade commanders are awarded major generals plus lieutenant generals. Even ordinary infantry brigade commanders can get five medals. . However, although their military rank and rank are high, everyone knows that this is Zhao Dongyun's gesture to attract more enemy generals.

In this promotion and award ceremony of dozens of people, Xu Bangjie was promoted to general of the army, followed by not Gu Lanyu and others, but a junior in the eyes of everyone: Yang Deming.

He was promoted to major general and lieutenant general by Zhao Dongyun for taking office as the commander of the 14th Division. Although he was not awarded a medal, it is still eye-catching.

Why is he so eye-catching? It's surprising that he is the only division commander without a rank among all the division commanders and mixed brigade commanders of the Feng Army!

In other words, people were not surprised that he did not have a rank and was even promoted to a major general, but that he was appointed as the commander of the 14th Division.

At present, there are only a few infantry divisions in the Feng army. Including the sincere troops and empty troops, there are only nine divisions. The main forces of these nine divisions are the 3rd Division, the 9th Division and the 10th Division. The second-line troops are the 1st Division, 11th Division and 12th Division, and the 8th and 16th Divisions behind will be first class again.

However, the newly edited 14th Division and 15th Division, the current 15th Division is still an empty shelf, not even the division commander, but this 14th Division is different!

Although the division is newly formed, it is different from the 11th and 12th Divisions that were hastily trained in the early days. This division has sufficient time to train, and it has directly transferred many units from the 7th Mixed Brigade, the 9th Mixed Brigade and other units, and its weapons and equipment, especially heavy weapons, are sufficient. A whole regiment of the latest artillery imported from Germany.

You can see how important this division is in Zhao Dongyun's mind just by looking at the composition of the officers in it. The two brigade commanders of the division, four infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, and the commanders of a cavalry regiment even include the chief of staff of the division and the chief of staff of the two infantry brigades.

In the contemporary Soviet army, the graduates of the Army University still call themselves advanced students and claim to be Zhao Dongyun's most direct officer. When they meet, they do not call the president and generals with other generals, but teachers and salute disciples.

This small group of students is undoubtedly a group of loyalty and the highest quality under Zhao Dongyun.

And the middle and senior positions of this 14th Division are all control by further students, which is enough to show that Zhao Dongyun attaches great importance to this division.

Not only paid attention to senior officers, but also to middle and low-level officers. Six of the top ten outstanding graduates of the ninth March crash class graduated from Fengtian Military Academy in the winter of 1907 were assigned to this newly established 14th Division.

One-third of the twelve infantry battalion commanders have had experience in Germany, and all of them have participated in southward operations, with excellent young officers with rich combat experience.

Although the 14th Division, which has gathered a large number of elite talents and spent a lot of money to build, has not been officially announced as an army, people inside the Fengjun know that this division is the main division carefully built by Zhao Dongyun, hoping that this division can have comparable to the third and ninth division. The 10th Division even exceeds the combat effectiveness of the above three divisions.

For the position of division commander, to be honest, many Feng army generals have peeped, such as Li Chun, He Zonglian, Cao Kuong and Liu Tinggui, and even Gu Lanyu said in private that if the general wants to transfer him to the 14th Division, then he is confident to bring out a new one. The third division is coming.

However, what many people did not expect was that the 14th Division had not officially become an army. On the eve of this award ceremony, Zhao Dongyun suddenly recalled Yang Deming, the former director of the combat department and later commander of the 17th Brigade on the southern Anhui front line, and returned to Beijing. After Yang Deming returned to Beijing to meet Zhao Dongyun, the next day was announced Bu took office as the first commander of the 14th Division.

At this time, people remembered why Zhao Dongyun transferred Yang Deming from the position of director of the combat department to an ordinary infantry brigade commander, in order to let this person accumulate combat experience and qualifications. To put it bluntly, he is to let him go to gold. Now he After half a year of transitioning to the position of brigade commander, Zhao Dongyun finally let Yang Deming lead a large army.

Looking at the president who put on his new military rank, Yang Deming's feelings are very complicated!

Although he knew earlier that his journey to the army would be much smoother with Zhao Dongyun's attention, he did not expect that Zhao Dongyun would pay so much attention to him and let such a junior surpass many Fengjun predecessors as the commander of the 14th Division.

Even after the ceremony, he was still in a trance on his way back after receiving congratulations from a group of colleagues. All this came too fast!

When I joined the army, how could I have thought that I would become a famous general such as Gu Lanyu and Ren Cunggao so soon!

He didn't know that Zhao Dongyun raised him as the commander of the 14th Division so quickly, which was also a division that there was nothing he could do. According to Zhao Dongyun's original intention, he should let Yang Deming exercise for a period of time and accumulate enough combat experience before serving as a division commander.

However, with the increasing number of troops under his command, it is more and more difficult to find the talents under his command, especially those who can serve as senior generals.

Contemporary Zhao Dongyun can solve the problem of the shortage of grassroots officers in a short period of time. The group of middle-level officers has the support of further trainees, and some Fengtian military students and Beiyang military students with experience in combat. The problem is not too big, but in terms of senior generals, it is extremely lacking.

If there are useful talents under him, why should he let Lin Yongquan, a civilian and undercapable, always serve as the commander of the Ninth Division? Looking at the many brigade commanders of the contemporary Feng army, almost all of them have been following Zhao Dongyun for many years. Now they have become division commanders and brigade commanders. These people have qualifications, but their abilities are lacking. After all, the level of military school education received by these brigade commanders and regimental commanders is relatively low, and they did not continue to study after entering the army. In terms of military quality, there is a considerable gap between them and those who have received higher military education.

Even these people are extremely scarce for Zhao Dongyun. Although the overall quality of these people is poor, they are all generals who have been in the army for many years and have experienced in combat. The most obvious is Xu Bangjie. He is a veritable veteran in the army. He is not only old, but also He has never received any new military education, but it does not prevent him from commanding tens of thousands of troops to fight south.

And there are not many people like Xu Bangjie, Meng Enyuan and Cao Kun!

And Zhao Dongyun doesn't want people with vulgar ability to take charge of the 14th Division with high expectations, so he is the one who intends to recall Yang Deming, a fellow student, from the Jiangbei front line and entrust him with an important task.

As a top student of the Berlin Military Academy and Zhao Dongyun's junior, his military quality can be squeezed into the top three in the whole Feng army. During his tenure as the director of the combat department, Zhao Dongyun would not have shown good talent. Otherwise, Zhao Dongyun would not have specially let him go to the 17th Brigade as the brigade commander. It is to pave the way for him.

Although Yang Deming's appointment as the 14th Division has caused a little wave within the Feng army, the current Soviet system is in a state of rising prosperity. Although many people are in their hearts, they do not have the courage to question Zhao Dongyun's decision. At most, they are just a few words of complaint in their hearts.

After officially becoming the commander of the 14th Division, Yang Deming continued to train troops to wait for the inspection of the command department and officially form an army. Once it is officially formed, the division will follow the pace of other Feng troops to go south!

And Yang Deming is also very clear that after fighting south, it is time to really test the combat effectiveness and ability of the 14th Division!