Chapter 18: Construction of the Plank Road in Ming (Three)

According to the plan that Zhao Zhenzhong had communicated with Zhou Mingyuan, in the future War of Resistance, the Yimeng base area will first expand outward to the triangle area east of the Jinpu Line, south of the Jiaoji Line, and west of the Gaoxu Highway, and expand to the periphery in subsequent battles with the Japanese army. After stabilizing the occupied area in Shandong, expand step by step in the south, west, and north directions.

The current conservative plan proposed by Zhao Zhenzhong is mainly based on several considerations:

First, after Han Fuju basically took control of Shandong, he had relatively strict control over Shandong areas outside the Yimeng base. The early expansion of the guards will intensify the conflicts between the two sides and provoke the war. This will break the hard-won relative peace that the people in Shandong are not conducive to the guards' support. After all, judging from the fact that Han Fuju was able to continuously crack down on the Communist Party of China when he was in charge of Shandong, and even made the party unable to establish a provincial party committee organization in Shandong since 33 years, South Korea's ability cannot be ignored. Some policies implemented by South Korea in Shandong are still quite popular. With Japan accelerating its invasion of China, the guards should not intensify conflicts with the Han Fuju authorities too early.

Second, considering the advantages of the Japanese naval and air force during future operations and the speed of the Japanese army advancing along the traffic trunk lines, and the speed of the Korean troops retreating, it is likely that the guards will find it difficult to reach the relevant areas and arrange effective defense lines before the Korean troops retreat and the Japanese army quickly attack. In this way, instead of fighting with the Japanese army on the coast of Shandong or outside the Yimeng base area, it is better to rely on the stable fortifications of the Yimeng base area to fight with the Japanese army.

Of course, relying on the base area to fight, the Japanese army can relatively calmly mobilize troops and increase their attack on the Yimeng area, which is also an unfavorable point.

Third, the guards had basically relied on fortifications to fight defensive warfare and attack combat capabilities in Shandong, especially in southwestern Shandong plains outside Yimeng, where the combat capabilities can reach the northwestern Shandong Plain. Zhao Zhen had doubts in the center.

In the early stage of the war, Japanese ground forces combined with Shandong's long coastline, could carry out landing operations in many places in Shandong and obtain strong support from land-based and sea-based air forces.

In the early stage, the air force of the Guards and the People's Army must be still in the initial stage. In the stage of exercising force, they will definitely not have an advantage in the number of aircraft and air force personnel, and they will be at a disadvantage in the consumption. This determines that the Guards cannot get much air support and can only make up for it by ground fire.

If the guards attacked the long-term with a short attack and competed with the Japanese army on the plains and coasts, they would likely suffer unnecessary and significant losses. Moreover, even if the guards paid a certain price in the early stage and achieved certain results, they would inevitably attract the attention of Japanese troops, land, sea and air, and attract revenge and attack from the main forces of the Japanese army.

It was precisely considering the various situations that Zhao Zhenzhong formulated a relatively conservative plan at the beginning. Zhao Zhenzhong sent Zhou Mingyuan, Xu Chaoyuan, Liu Jifeng, Lin Chenglou, Chen Hailan and others to Yimeng. In addition to personnel exchanges, the factors that allowed Gu Haichuan and others to study in the northwest were more important to Zhou Mingyuan to go to Yimeng to further lay a solid foundation for the future development of the guards in Shandong.

In this era, the only one who understands the future historical development trend and can make targeted arrangements in advance is Zhou Mingyuan, who is in the northwest. When he arrives in Yimeng, in addition to taking overall responsibility for the development and construction of the party, government and military here, Zhou Mingyuan is also responsible for the construction of radar stations and air defense forces, as well as implementing Zhao Zhenzhong's naval submarine force development plan. Whether it is an air defense force or a submarine force, it will have a decisive significance to the future War of Resistance in the Yimeng base area and even the entire Shandong, and will even have a profound impact on the War of Resistance in the coastal areas of North China.

Zhou Mingyuan's actions after he arrived in Yimeng were indeed outstanding.

After sending Gu Haichuan and others to study in the northwest, Zhou Mingyuan first compared the situation introduced by Gu Haichuan, Zhang Gongyuan and others, carefully learned about the current construction of the Yimeng base area and had a clear idea.

Subsequently, Zhou Mingyuan convened members of the Central Committee of the People's Party from Yimeng and other parts of Shandong and alternate members to hold a plenary meeting of the Shandong branch, and determined the tasks of the People's Party in Yimeng and even Shandong in the next two years. After the meeting, on the basis of soliciting everyone's opinions, Zhou Mingyuan clarified all work:

Zhou Mingyuan is responsible for the party, government and military affairs of the Yimeng base area and the People's Party in Shandong;

Liu Jifeng, Xu Chaoyuan, and Liu Chengshan are responsible for assisting Zhou Mingyuan in the construction of the troops;

Among them, Liu Jifeng is responsible for the construction of active troops; Liu Chengshan is responsible for the construction of reserve troops; Xu Chaoyuan established the Yimeng Military and Political School based on the personnel brought from the northwest and the teaching brigade personnel, to carry out rotation training of relevant party, government and military personnel in the base area, and to increase efforts to train military and political personnel at all levels;

Chen Hailan is responsible for assisting Zhou Mingyuan in forming air defense forces and armored automobile troops;

Lin Chenglou is responsible for the construction of civil affairs and defense projects in the base area;

Ruan Mingbo, who returned to China in the second half of 2015 and entered the Dazhushan underground submarine base, will be responsible for the construction of underground docks and submarines at that time; Yu Wentian, who returned to China at the end of 2015, will be responsible for the military production of Zhou Mingyuan in the Yimeng base;

Ding Yicheng, who was originally in charge of public security in the Yimeng base area, will cooperate with Ye Sheng of the Special Forces Brigade to focus on security guarantees in the base area and further clean up possible potential "bed bugs";

...

After the mission was clear, the next step was to get busy. While Zhou Mingyuan was drawing personnel to form an armored vehicle unit, an air defense unit, and paying attention to the progress of various work in Yimeng, he did not ignore other matters that occurred in Shandong.

For Shandong, which has been in 35 years, the biggest thing after spring is that it is drought without rain. By the time of summer grain harvest, the winter wheat harvest in the two major plains of the northwest Shandong and southwest Shandong is less than half of that of previous years. Cotton and tobacco leaves are more serious. In the absence of food, people in some places in northern Shandong even fought to compete for leaves to feed. What is even more disturbing is that due to the drought, autumn sowing has been unable to proceed since the summer grain harvest. If several droughts continue, there is no hope for autumn grain, and I am afraid the chaos will be even greater.

When summer comes and precipitation occurs, the farmers from Han Fuju in Jinan to the bottom all breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was still time to replant autumn grain, and this year's season is not too bad.

Unexpectedly, after the summer, continuous precipitation, especially the flood peak formed by continuous rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, encountered large-scale rainfall from Henan to Shandong when it arrived at the lower reaches of the Yellow River. With the superposition of the two hatches, the Shandong section of the Yellow River broke near Linpuji in Juancheng on the evening of July 10. By July 13, the breach had expanded to more than 200 feet wide, and the roaring Yellow River water flowed towards Yuncheng, Juye and Yutai in the southeast.

If the Yellow River only had this breach, although the loss would be large, the scope would be limited, and the overall harm would not be too serious. However, the old saying goes, "Damage will not happen alone", and a new breach occurred in the Yellow River.

From the evening of July 12 to the morning of the 13th, heavy rain fell across Shandong Province, causing the Yellow River to rise sharply. In Yuzhuang, the Yellow River water surged from the breach of more than 600 meters wide and poured straight towards Heze.

On July 16, the flooding Yellow River water entered the canal, Weishan Lake, causing the canal and the lake water to rise sharply

Because the water potential of the canal in Shandong section is high, under normal circumstances, the water volume of the canal will flow along the river channel to Jiangsu and other places to the south. However, after learning about the previous disaster in Shandong, Jiangsu localities built embankments in the canal area to ensure their own safety.

After entering the canal, the Yellow River water cannot go south, and it stays in the area of ​​the canal, Weishan Lake and Nanyang Lake. Then, on the night of the 22nd, Nanyang Lake broke in a strong wind and in Niuwangzhuang, northwest of Nanyang Town, Yutai. The water was 8 feet high and flooded the Yutai and Jin counties to the west. On the 23rd, the Jining section of the canal flooded the embankment, and then broke at the east bank of Xindian at night...

Starting from July 10, the Yellow River first broke, and the canal was broken, and there were also multiple crashes. In addition, the Tuhai River, Majia River, Zhang River, Canal, etc. in northern Shandong were flooded, as well as the disaster areas on the north bank of the Yellow River. After the rainy season at the end of September, the area of ​​flooded areas in Shandong Province alone had an area of ​​32,500 square kilometers, and at least 41.25 million mu of flooded farmland. In addition, about two-thirds of the province's districts and counties suffered in spring and summer. Preliminary estimates are that more than 3.5 million victims in Shandong Province have been affected by disasters in more than 3.5 million people.

After the disaster, the lives of the victims were extremely miserable. In his "Life Interview", Xiao Qian, a reporter from Ta Kung Pao, once recorded the scenes of the victims in Jining, Jinan and other places: "...... In addition to the treetops and roofs, Jining was completely submerged in the flood... The victims were concentrated on the train station, and they could not see the edge... The parents were forced to throw their children aside as orphans, and cried for a day before they were picked up by the people in the shelter station to feed them a full meal... In the early morning of October in late autumn, it was already bone-cold. In front of a shelter... the children who were completely controlled by instinct stomped their feet weakly, shouting 'cold, cold'... The old woman in her 80s couldn't sleep because she was so cold that she couldn't sleep every night, so she would not hesitate to compete with a little girl for a piece of slap felt... "

Regarding the disaster in Shandong, Zhou Mingyuan and others, who were in Yimeng Mountain, not only learned about the external situation from radio broadcasts, but also learned about the disaster from the special combat brigade personnel sent to reconnaissance. Teng County, south of Fei County, Yimeng Base, was also seriously affected by the Weishan Lake breach this time. Zhou Mingyuan can infer the general situation of the disaster in Shandong based on the disaster situation in the two counties.

However, after Zhou Mingyuan got the relevant situation, he thought not only to rescue the victims, but also to consider the future development of the guards in Shandong. He knew very well that there are only 6 counties in the Yimeng base area, and the population is now close to 4 million. Although there is no shortage of daily supplies such as food and clothing, considering the future war, the population density in Yimeng is already quite large, and the number of people can be accommodated is not large.

"If we can get several surrounding counties near Yimeng from Han Fuju, we can not only rescue and take in more victims, but also further expand and consolidate the base."

One afternoon in mid-August, Zhou Mingyuan stood on the top of the turtle and looked at the sky under the dark clouds in the south, but was thinking about how to combine the development of the base with the current disaster relief, and then prepare for the future war in advance. Of course, he also knew that his thoughts just now were a bit whimsical, and Han Fuju would not give away several counties to the guards for free.

Zhou Mingyuan believed that if Han Fuju had not suffered from the escort army before, and knew that after years of construction of the escort army in the Yimeng Mountains, Han would have become a barbed iron shell that cannot be chewed, after controlling most of Shandong, he would definitely have mobilized troops to attack Yimeng. Moreover, due to the previous holidays between each other, the escort army now made any suggestions to Han Fuju, even if it was a suggestion that was of great benefit to him, Han Fuju would have broken it, rubbed it carefully, and carefully weighed the pros and cons of it before he would give a reply. And it is also very questionable whether this reply would meet Zhou Mingyuan's original expectations.

It is naturally not feasible for the escort army to come forward, but what if it is proposed in other names? Just like the way to start an industry in the name of Huamei Company in Baode to provide disaster relief for industry and industrial disaster relief? Of course, it is too late to start an industry and industrial disaster relief. It is okay to use labor for relief?

After touching the inspiration on the turtle top, Zhou Mingyuan rushed back to the headquarters of the guards in Mengyin County that evening and asked Lin Chenglou to discuss.

Lin Chenglou was responsible for the related content of labor-for-relief in Baode, and also learned engineering and construction. Therefore, after hearing Zhou Mingyuan's idea, he nodded and agreed: "This idea should be feasible. However, if you want to take advantage of the opportunity to rescue disasters to develop forces on both sides of the Yellow River and the canal, you must deal with all aspects. Han Fuju cannot discover the relationship between Huamei Company and us, and we cannot expose our intentions."

"That's right. To accomplish this, you must keep it highly confidential." Zhou Mingyuan nodded and said, "My initial idea is to expand three lines at the same time. Americans or overseas personnel come back to negotiate with the Shandong authorities and reach an agreement; and our domestic personnel in the Chinese and American system will cooperate to organize and carry out relevant projects; at the same time, we secretly supplemented with capable personnel from Yimeng to develop reliable personnel in the construction of the young and strong people, and then secretly expand to the Yellow River and the two sides of the canal. These three lines are independent and carried out in parallel."

"Then are we going to build the road or something else?" Lin Chenglou asked, "The flood is not over yet, but at present, there are many roads, houses, etc., and there must be a certain direction of intervention."

"We don't choose roads or house reconstruction." Zhou Mingyuan shook his head and said, "If we want to choose, we choose one with a long construction cycle and a lot of manpower, so that we can get things done. I mean, Huamei Company came forward to reach an agreement with Han Fuju to achieve a labor-for-relief agreement, and undertake the task of rebuilding the Yellow River and the eastern section of the canal. The price that the Jinan authorities are coping with is to agree that Huamei organizes manpower to reclaim wasteland along the river. Except for the land rent and tax stipulated by the government, no other fees will be charged within 10 years."

"The Yellow River, Canal River Embankment in Shandong?" Lin Chenglou was stunned and said in surprise, "This project is too big. If it is completely rebuilt from beginning to end, it will be fast enough to complete it within five years."

Lin Chenglou does not know how long the Yellow River and canals are in Shandong. However, from the map, the length of the two rivers is about 3 Jiaoji Lines, and the Jiaoji Line is about 400 kilometers long. In this way, the length of the two rivers in Shandong is about 1,200 kilometers, while the river banks on both sides are more than 2,400 kilometers. Considering the traffic conditions, anti-seepage projects, foundation reinforcement, etc., even with sufficient manpower and material resources, it is absolutely fast to complete the reconstruction project of the two rivers within 5 years.

"It will take a long time to go." Zhou Mingyuan smiled, "This way we can take the opportunity to develop more reliable personnel and the future development of the guards will be better. In the past few days, you should think more about it and see what else needs to be supplemented. Pay attention to keeping it confidential."

Although I don’t know what Zhou Mingyuan sold in the gourd, Lin Chenglou could roughly guess from what he said just now: Even if this is not as important as the Baode Industrial Zone, it is also crucial to the future of the guards. At this moment, Lin Chenglou responded solemnly: "Don’t worry, I will never say what I shouldn’t have said."

In the following days, Zhou Mingyuan and Lin Chenglou added some supplements and improvements to the details of the plan. When Zhao Zhenzhong called in late August and hoped that Yimeng could accept some disaster victims, after careful consideration, Zhou Mingyuan sent Zhao Zhenzhong the plan he and Lin Chenglou considered, suggesting that work-for-relief be implemented in Shandong.

After receiving Zhou Mingyuan's re-encoding, Zhao Zhenzhong carefully learned about the relevant situation in Yimeng from Gu Haichuan and others, and supplemented and improved the original plan. Then, Zhao Zhenzhong sent the supplemented plan to Zhou Mingyuan at the end of August.

"Old Zhao is really a big deal." After reading the new plan sent by Zhao Zhenzhong, Zhou Mingyuan praised it and said to himself: "I have done something now."

On the morning of August 30, Zhou Mingyuan first convened Xu Chaoyuan, Liu Jifeng, Lin Chenglou, and Liu Chengshan to hold a meeting to convey the relevant plan.

After circulating the long message from Zhao Zhenzhong to everyone, seeing that everyone was still shocked and recalling it, Zhou Mingyuan said: "Now the Japanese are becoming more and more arrogant in North China. The cowards of Nanjing authorities were frightened by the other party's exercises, and even the Party and Central Army were evacuated from North China. If the Japanese attack in the future, the Nanjing authorities and the various military leaders in North China will definitely not be reliable. This call is to us to seize the opportunity and mobilize all forces to accelerate development in all aspects. If we do not rely on the sky or the earth, we rely on our People's Party to be the backbone of the future to defend our country."

After calming down his tone, Zhou Mingyuan looked at the people present whose emotions were mobilized and asked again: "I'm talking about brothers, do you have confidence?"

"Of course there is," Liu Jifeng said first, "In the three years of the Republic of China, Dongyang Xiaojizi started to do evil in Shandong, and later there was a Jinan tragedy. Now he occupied the Northeast and wanted to North China, so he couldn't ask them to go to Shandong to cause disaster."

"Jifeng is right," Xu Chaoyuan also said immediately, "During the Jinan tragedy, Chiang Kai-shek could ignore his companions who were tortured by the Japanese army. The Japanese army occupied the three eastern provinces, but Chiang Kai-shek was busy fighting the civil war. The one-two-eighth and the Great Wall War of Resistance were also frustrated. Let's look at the Tanggu Agreement and the Hemei Agreement that just came out. This Nanjing government's entire group of soft fans really fought, and we have to rely on ourselves."

"We have worked hard for many years to establish today's Yimeng base. Such a good home cannot be harmed by those beasts. When the little Japanese comes, it's just a fight." Liu Chengshan, who was in his thirties, was still passionate, although his children could make soy sauce, but he still had a passion.

"I fully agree with the instructions of the headquarters." Lin Chenglou has been engaged in base construction over the years, and his behavior is more calm than the few who led the troops. "If we want to implement the instructions of the headquarters, it is not enough for us to just meet the enlarged meeting of the Party, Government and Military of the Shandong Branch, and convene the division, brigade-level command personnel and county-level government staff to convey and implement the instructions of the headquarters, and then implement them at all levels. Of course, the contents of future military operations are now top secret, so I will talk about them later."

"Indeed, we can only make preparations now. It is a bit too early to say the future combat plan." Zhou Mingyuan nodded in agreement, "Then we will gather the divisions, the chief officers of the brigade, and the chief officers of the county, and the chief officers of the county to arrive here at 10 a.m. tomorrow for a meeting."

...

At 10 a.m. on August 31, the enlarged party, government and military meeting of the Shandong Branch of the People's Party was held at the headquarters of the Mengyin Guards.

At this meeting, Zhou Mingyuan first introduced the domestic and international situation to everyone, especially the Japanese army's aggressive advance in North China, and clearly told everyone: "According to the judgment of the Party Central Committee, the day when the Japanese army launched a full-scale invasion of China will be in the next few years. From now on, Yimeng will gradually enter the wartime track."

Seeing everyone's expressions focused, Zhou Mingyuan raised his voice and said: "In order to defend his home, the Party Central Committee clearly requires us to complete two major tasks in the next two to three years: First, based on the existing combat troops, we will form another 10 reserve divisions, and in two years, each division's standards will basically be in line with the existing main division; second, based on the existing six county-level government working teams, we will increase the training of government staff at all levels, and strive to have at least 60 counties' government staff in two years."

As soon as the two major tasks were spoken out, the participants sucked in a cold air.

The Guards now have 5 full-scale main divisions in Yimeng, as well as 1 heavy artillery brigade, 1 teaching brigade, 1 special combat brigade, and 1 Dazhushan garrison brigade. In addition, the five air defense regiments and 5 armored automobile regiments that are being formed in the future will be assigned to 5 main divisions, with a total force of more than 120,000. After the new troops are formed, the organization of each main division will reach an unprecedented nearly 20,000 troops. If 10 reserve divisions are formed according to this standard, the Guards will reach more than 320,000 troops in two years.

As for the 60 counties, government staff at all levels, calculated by 500 staff per county, 30,000 people need to be trained or promoted.

In other words, whether it is the expansion of the troops or the expansion of the government, just judging from the number of personnel, it is really not easy to complete these two major tasks in more than two years.

"In the formation of the reserve force, except for the selection of some candidates from the active forces, the command personnel at all levels are all personnel who have been fighting, training and learning in the northwest for several years; and the soldiers will be composed of retired personnel in the escort army and advanced personnel in militia reserve training. After the reserve division is formed, it is usually composed of command personnel at all levels and backbone soldiers. The soldiers are not out of stock and use slack farming to carry out various military training. Once a major war occurs, the reserve divisions can complete the formation within one month, rectify and go to the combat area."

The Reserve Division is usually just a proviso division, and its daily maintenance personnel are the main reserve division's forces. However, since the backbone of the Reserve Division is the personnel who have retired from the escort army in recent years, and those with outstanding performance in the militia reserve, their combat effectiveness will not be poor after a certain intensity of military training.

Of course, Zhao Zhenzhong proposed to form 10 reserve divisions in Yimeng because it is an old base, with a good mass base, a high proportion of young and strong, and sufficient militia reserve training. In addition, Shandong has a large population base, so this decision has been made. Not to mention other things, through the construction of these years, illiteracy has been basically eliminated in the Yimeng base area from children of appropriate age to men and women under 50 years old. Moreover, in the more than four years of implementation of the Military Service Law in Yimeng, there have been about 100,000 retired personnel alone; and the number of men and women who have conducted militia training has reached about 1.4 million, accounting for more than one-third of the total population of Yimeng.

"In addition to selecting personnel from the existing six counties, the other government staff will select outstanding personnel from retired personnel, village committees, and militia reserves, and then trained and familiarized themselves with relevant government affairs in each county. This matter will be under the responsibility of Lin Chenglou and assisted by the heads of each county. We must strictly control the situation and select truly suitable personnel."

It is not easy to select 30,000 middle-aged and young government cadres who have a certain level of culture, are familiar with the policies of the Guards, and can take the lead, but it is easier than to form 10 reserve divisions.

After this meeting, the Yimeng base area became busier. On the basis of the 10 reserve divisions mentioned by Zhao Zhenzhong, Zhou Mingyuan reported to Zhao Zhenzhong for agreement and added the establishment of technical troops. After all, in addition to the main division and reserve division's air defense forces in the future, in order to achieve the combat goals scheduled by Zhao Zhenzhong, the technical troops must have sufficient reserve troops. Now, taking advantage of the high cultural quality of the people in Yimeng, more radar operators will be trained, and some air defense forces, artillery troops, armored automobile troops, etc. will only have benefits and no harm in the future. However, in this way, coupled with the labor-for-relief plan that will be launched in Huamei, the escort army's strength may exceed 400,000 in three years.

Although everything that has been done now will be implemented by Gu Haichuan and others in the future, which is more or less regretful, Zhou Mingyuan believes that with such a force, coupled with the foundation laid by Huamei Company for the river embankment construction that will begin this fall, and the ability to block the coastline in the next few years, it is impossible for the Japanese army to go south along the Jinpu Road to invade the entire Shandong province in the future...

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