It is impossible to get free help from Suiyuan with shame, so Ma Hongkui had to settle for the second best, hoping to obtain supplies from Suiyuan at market prices. Fu Zuoyi agreed to Ma Hongkui's request. However, he still reminded Ma Hongkui to implement settlement as early as possible and strive to achieve self-sufficiency in the autumn. After all, if the epidemic in Shaanxi spreads and foreign materials cannot be transported into Suiyuan, everyone will probably have hard life to live later.

Ma Hongkui was still a little grateful to Fu Zuoyi, his rival. After thanking Fu Zuoyi, Ma Hongkui returned to the temporary station of the 15th Army in Heliangtai.

On the way west, Ma Hongkui listened to the endless sound of the Yellow River nearby and felt a lot of emotion. After the Central Plains War, Ma Hongkui was full of energy, but since he suffered a defeat in Yimeng, he has been regarded as unlucky this year. This time, after going from Tai'an to the northwest, Ma Hongkui felt that he had suddenly become 10 years older.

"Junru, Dongfeng, do you think we can still recover Ningxia in this way?" Ma Hongkui asked Ma Quanliang and Luo Zhen who were following him with some regret.

"Commander-in-chief, don't be surprised." Ma Quanliang hesitated for a moment and continued, "Our 15th Army now has more than 20,000 troops, and the People's Army is said to have 560,000 troops. It is probably difficult for us to restore Ningxia alone."

Luo Zhen, chief of staff of the 15th Route Army, thoughtfully, "Our strength alone is a bit weak, but isn't the central government planning to let Yang Hucheng and Yan Xishan join forces to restore the northwest? Taiyuan has a festival, so we might as well contact Yang Hucheng more. Besides, aren't there any uncle and nephew of the Ma family in Qinghai? If two "ma" can't be written in one stroke, the commander-in-chief might as well contact them more. If all parties join forces, Ningxia may not be restored."

"The Qinghai side cannot protect itself, and I'm afraid there is no spare energy to support us." Ma Hongkui pondered, "However, what Dongfeng said is reasonable. Contact all parties, even if they can restrain more of the "civilian bandits" at that time."

"Commander-in-chief, before fighting, we should not only consider the supply of the troops, but also pay attention to preventing the spread of the epidemic in Shaanxi." Luo Zhen reminded, "It is best to think of some preventive medicines and pay more attention to diet."

"Dongfeng reminded me." Ma Hongkui was shocked, patted his forehead and said helplessly, "But now we still have to rely on Suiyuan. It's hard to say whether we can get the medicine. We can only do our best."

The old saying goes, "There will be a major epidemic after a major disaster" still makes sense. From 28 to 30 years of drought and 31 years of national floods, millions of people were killed. After a large number of people died, the remains were not treated in time and became the source of the epidemic. Especially last year, the national floods washed out the shallow bones buried in many places, causing further pollution of the water source. By the summer of 2012, it seemed that the epidemic in various places was brewing, and the epidemic in various places seemed to be brewing.

There was a total outbreak. Not only did cholera appear in Tongguan and Guanzhong, but from Jiangsu in the east to Gansu in the west, from Heilongjiang in the north to Guangdong in the south, and by early August, cholera occurred in 18 provinces across the country! Among them, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Suiyuan and other provinces that Zhao Zhenzhong often travels or passes are affected by the epidemic. The transportation of the Pingjin Railway and Pingsui Railway were affected. Even the Tongpu Railway, which is being stepped up, has also reduced the progress of the project due to the prevention of the epidemic.

Unlike floods and droughts, which make people understand the consequences from the occurrence of floods, droughts, wars and other tangible disasters, people can hide from places where disasters have not occurred, but for epidemics spreading everywhere, people do not know where to hide from them.

When a person has symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, it is already indicated that the person has been infected with cholera. As for where to spread it, it is mostly unknown in this era. However, the panic caused by this unknown is more serious than the panic caused by floods, droughts, and even wars.

When they saw the cholera epidemic around them, in panic, many people fled to places they thought were safe. This purposeless and unruly flow of people further aggravated the spread of the epidemic.

Zhao Zhenzhong was prepared for the outbreak of this epidemic. The information compiled by Zhou Tian last year included a related introduction to the epidemic, but the descriptions based on historical records are far less shocking than reality. Because this cholera occurred in summer and some places suffered from floods, the consequences were even more serious when the disasters were added.

Fortunately, Zhao Zhenzhong prepared a lot of items such as bleaching in advance for disinfection. The food and urination and drowning were strictly managed on each construction site, and no cases of cholera have occurred. The two bases also followed Zhao Zhenzhong's telephone order and closed the external passages in advance, strictly prohibiting people from entering and leaving, and took precautions with prepared medical supplies to minimize the possibility of an outbreak.

As for other places, Zhao Zhenzhong, in addition to providing some essential materials to several epidemic areas through the charity association led by Zhu Qinglan in the name of Huamei Company, could only sigh with Zhu Qinglan and do nothing. With this nationwide outbreak, the authorities did not give full efforts to rescue them. Relying on limited materials transported from Huamei Company from overseas to save all living beings is obviously a drop in the bucket and cannot achieve the goal.

For the Luoyang authorities and provincial governments, the epidemic across the country is not something that people can manage. It is good to ensure that they and people in some important places are not infected. As for the most severe but remote rural areas, those who want few people will really take it seriously.

In original history, perhaps it was the natural disasters and man-made disasters since the establishment of the Nanjing government that made the Chinese people disappointed again and again. In addition, internal and external troubles have exhausted the hearts and strength of the people. Chiang Kai-shek was not lucky and was in the same two opposing camps as the talented and stubborn Mr. Mao, so he finally hid on the island and looked west with sadly?

In addition to paying attention to the epidemic and disaster situation in several places, Zhao Zhenzhong reminded Zhang Mingrui, Yang Tianming and others to prepare for the second encirclement and suppression of the enemy in autumn. From the analysis of all aspects, Zhao Zhenzhong judged that the enemy's encirclement and suppression of this time would not be less than 90,000.

From mid-Mahjongkui's troops, more than 20,000 troops arrived in Baotou at the speed of transporting one battalion every day, and then gathered in the Heliangtai area. The troops of this unit were determined to attack all the Hexi area in Ningxia.

Although they suffered a lot of losses last year, after nearly a year of training and replenishment, it was not difficult for the Yanghucheng and Jing Yuexiu, Shaanxi to raise about 50,000 troops. And they must launch an attack on the base areas from the Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia borders again. However, it is still unknown where the two units will launch an attack this year.

Similar to the situation in Shaanxi, the three horses in Qinghai, which suffered serious losses last year, should be able to dispatch about 10,000 troops, and the Longnan Lu Dachang division can mobilize more than 6,000 troops.

In addition, Yan Xishan, after his comeback this year, is likely to send Suiyuan's Jinsui Army to participate in the siege of the base. In Suiyuan, there are Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army, Wang Jingguo's headquarters of the 70th Division of the 34th Army, and Zhao Chengshou, the commander of the Jinsui Army's cavalry, with a total force of more than 40,000. Of these forces, at least 10,000 will be dispatched.

Overall, the total strength of these encirclement and suppression troops should be between 90,000 and 120,000.

If the Clan had not overcome difficulties after the war last year, they had trained 90,000 new recruits in one go, and based on the original troops last year to deal with the enemy's encirclement and suppression, it would have really been possible that the enemy would take advantage of their military strength to exploit loopholes and break into the base area. Now, more than 80,000 qualified recruits have been added in the northwest base area, but the combat force has reached more than 150,000. In addition, after the heavy equipment seized from Yang Hucheng and Jing Yuexiu's troops last year was repaired, the four main columns had an artillery detachment, and it was no problem to break the enemy's encirclement and suppression.

However, Zhao Zhenzhong did not underestimate the enemy's encirclement and suppression. In addition to reminding Zhang Mingrui, Yang Tianming and others in advance in terms of encirclement and suppression of troops, he also specifically reminded the northwest base areas to pay attention to air defense. Earlier this year, in order to strengthen the connection with the northwest, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Ma Buqing to build a simple airport on a deserted rock beach three or four kilometers south of Suzhou City. In addition, several airports in Xining, Xi'an and other places, Suzhou, Xining and Xi'an, can not only facilitate contact, but also provide conditions for dispatching aircraft to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the northwest base areas.

Of course, it is impolite to come without going. In addition to breaking the enemy's encirclement and suppression in this battle, Zhao Zhenzhong also assigned clear tasks to Zhang Mingrui, Yang Tianming and others:

1. The original direction of Suiyuan and Shaanxi has maintained an active defensive situation;

2. This battle will solve the Qingma forces in Huangzhong, Huangyuan and other places in Qinghai and around Qinghai Lake;

3. In the direction of the Hexi Corridor, advance to the Suzhou line;

4. For the remnants of Qingma and Ningma, if the time permits, they can be forced into Xinjiang.

...

The direction of the Hexi Corridor could have been further advanced, but considering the major earthquake before the end of 32 years, Zhao Zhenzhong decided to temporarily advance the troops to Suzhou. It would not be too late to find an opportunity to take them down after the earthquake or after the spring next year.

After making some arrangements for the northwest base, he entrusted the affairs of Baode to Liu Chenglin. In late August, Zhao Zhenzhong boarded a truck for transportation of materials from Baode to Tianjin and prepared to go to Qingdao via Tianjin.

The branch line from Tongpu Railway to Baode has been completed and put into use in June this year. Since then, there have been two trucks running in between Baode and Tianjin every day, which further accelerated the speed of material transportation.

Zhao Zhenzhong returned to Qingdao this time to welcome Zhou Tian and Zhou Hao and his party who returned from the United States. In 25 years, 146 people who went to the United States to study in 26 years have all obtained master's degrees or above, including 97 doctoral degrees. Among the 146 people who have achieved success in this academic performance, in addition to 61 people who stayed in the United States and went to Australia, Nanyang and other places, as well as 17 people who returned to China last year, the remaining 68 people will return to China together on Huamei Company's freighter at the end of August.

According to the plan, most of these 68 people will first enter the Yimeng base area to engage in technical guidance and corresponding discipline construction in various industries, and cultivate a group of qualified technical backbones for the base area. At the same time, after the practice in Yimeng, some of these discipline leaders must enter the northwest base area to lay a solid foundation for various construction there.

Zhao Zhenzhong believes that with the addition of this group of discipline leaders, the basic industries related to Yimeng and the Northwest Base Area can develop quickly. In the future, with the increase in the number of people returning to China after graduation and various equipment that have been secretly transported into the two base areas, the various constructions of the two base areas will show an explosive development process.

In addition to the excitement of Zhao Zhenzhong after returning from overseas students after graduation, returning to China, which would bring new impetus to the two base areas, he was also eager to see the sweet face he often missed as soon as possible. On the way, when Zhao Zhenzhong remembered Zhou Luxue's "Jian Gua" that "female return, auspicious, and lizhen", as well as Zhou Luxue's explanation and his instructions to him, his heart was filled with an inexplicable excitement and joy: My bride is coming back!...

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