"There's going to be a murderous show at Xihekou this afternoon! We have to go early to get a good seat. This kind of thing doesn't happen often..."
"It's so satisfying! Those opium dealers have ruined so many families. They deserve to die!"
"It is said that the revolutionary army will publicly burn the captured opium and tobacco. How much will that cost..."
"The Independent Regiment is a revolutionary team and a leader in the army. We don't care about the money..."
…
He Jing and Zhou Chongan, who had been drunk by An Yi last night, packed their luggage early in the morning and prepared to leave Kunshan and return to their respective newspaper offices after breakfast. The two of them went down to the restaurant on the first floor of Tianbao Hotel and just sat down when they heard that the place where they were dining was
The villagers and the dozen or so colleagues from various newspapers around them talked excitedly.
Zhou Chongan, who reacted quickly, immediately pulled He Jing out of the hotel door and squeezed into the crowd of onlookers to read the two notices on the wall carefully.
Ten minutes later, the two people, who were in mixed moods, squeezed out of the noisy and excited crowd, returned to the hotel restaurant, found a seat at the back, and ordered two breakfasts at random, then started discussing.
"Do you think it's legal for Xiaoyi to do this?" Zhou Chongan asked He Jing in a low voice.
He Jing nodded: "According to the relevant provisions of the National Revolutionary Army's wartime laws, this is completely legal. First of all, Xiaoyi's garrison area is only tens of kilometers away from the Anhui Sun Chuanfang Army on the north bank, which is in line with the implementation of wartime mandatory
Basic conditions for military control.
Secondly, his army is a regiment-level unit, and he himself is also a major general-level military officer appointed by the National Government and the Central Military Commission. Therefore, he also has the management and punishment powers of military and civil affairs in the garrison area.
Before the government is formed, temporary military courts can be established in accordance with the law to try various criminal activities in the garrison area.
From a certain point of view, as a general, Xiaoyi already has the right to kill first and then pay later. In this special period, his rights are much greater than that of an ordinary county man. But I didn't expect him to do anything to the parade.
With such strict and detailed regulations, it is a good thing that this is not a city such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Nanchang, etc. Otherwise, he is likely to attract attacks from public opinion and accusations from progressive groups. I am really worried about him."
Zhou Chongan thought for a moment and smiled slightly: "We don't need to worry about him at all. I know what Xiao Yi is thinking. This guy is powerful. Both his scheming and vision are far above ordinary people. He used the National Government very cleverly.
With the power given to him by the law, he used a combination of kindness and power to show his intentions. By burning opium and shooting criminals, he established the prestige of the revolutionary army and achieved the purpose of deterring potential hostile forces. At the same time, he introduced ten wartime regulations to regulate possible
The various parades and demonstrations that arrived laid a good foundation for him to stabilize social order and maintain the prestige of his headquarters during the period of garrison. He brought everything that might happen into his control in advance. This wit and foresight are not simple.
ah!"
"I understand, Brother Zhou has a broad vision." He Jing praised in a low voice.
Zhou Chongan asked curiously: "Has Xiaoyi's army always treated opium this way?"
He Jing nodded and told Zhou Chongan about An Yi's strict measures to eliminate opium, the methods of selecting soldiers, political education methods and some interesting stories, and finally concluded with emotion:
"To be honest, the various departments of the National Revolutionary Army are mixed. In some respects, like many old warlords, the behavior of smoking and selling opium is almost open. Only Xiaoyi's department has never smoked or sold opium since its establishment. They
His strict military discipline and strong combat effectiveness are both well-known in the army. Looking at the entire army, only An Yi has won unanimous praise and praise from all factions in the party. Otherwise, he would not have the title of model for the entire army, and there would be no
Developed the 'Model Battalion Spirit' which is known as a model in the military.
Secondly, he was very successful in reforming prisoners. You may not know that more than 80% of the officers and soldiers in his independent regiment were reformed through prisoners, including Yang Bin, the regiment-level chief officer we interviewed.
Ye Cheng, Qu Muchen and the battalion company commanders.
The political and ideological education in the model camp is very unique, emphasizing nationalism and patriotism. Yue Fei and Wen Tianxiang are the models they respect and learn from. The political textbooks they wrote themselves are very distinctive, and they describe the deep suffering that the European and American powers have brought to the people since the Opium War.
Connected with the real living environment, using simple and intuitive examples one by one, he clearly told the officers and soldiers the feudal colonial suffering caused by the collusion between reactionary warlords and imperialism, and then left a lot of questions for the officers and soldiers to discuss by themselves, among which
The two biggest questions are: What are our beliefs and goals? What kind of soldiers do we want to be?
The continuous improvement of this measure since its implementation has been astonishing. It is under this continuous education that his officers and soldiers have formed strong cohesion and combat effectiveness, and they do not need to be mobilized at all to fight a war."
After hearing this, Zhou Chongan was filled with emotion: "It seems that my gains from the few days of interviews are really limited. It is difficult to fully introduce An Yi and this model army to readers. What a pity!"
"I plan to stay for one more day and go back after covering the opium-burning feat and the trial. This is the best and most exciting news. How could you miss it so easily? Judging from the strong reaction of the people at the door just now,
One can predict how much shock this incident will cause among the military and people across the country." He Jing quickly made a decision and politely thanked the waiter who served breakfast.
Zhou Chongan picked up his chopsticks and said with a smile: "Eat quickly. After eating, I will go to Xiaoyi's regiment headquarters with you. I hope he will not refuse our interview. After this incident, I estimate that most people in Kunshan City will
None of my colleagues would choose to leave today."
Zhou Chongan and He Jing, who rushed to the headquarters of the Independent Regiment after breakfast, were quite disappointed. Like the more than 30 reporters from domestic newspapers who had not yet left, they could not see An Yi because An Yi left for various newspapers early in the morning.
Fortunately, the two of them, like other reporters, showed their credentials for registration and received a temporary interview pass stamped with the seal of the Independent Regiment. With this pass, they could be allowed to visit
Photographed and observed the entire trial process from a distance, and received care and protection from the officers and soldiers of the Independent Regiment.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Xihekou execution ground was crowded with people. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life gathered in front of the makeshift high platform to listen to the decision and sentence shouted out by the Revolutionary Army military judge Li Zhengming with a tin trumpet.
An Yi, wearing a general's uniform, sat in the center of the rostrum, flanked by Hu Jialin, Yin Jinan, Yang Bin, Qu Muchen and others.
As Li Zhengming's execution order was issued, 147 boxes of opium worth more than 300,000 yuan were piled on a huge firewood pile directly in front of the high platform. Four law enforcement officers with red armbands on their left arms picked up large barrels of kerosene.
As they poured water on and around the pyre, eight officers and soldiers holding torches stood far away on all sides of the pyre.
Subsequently, seven heinous murderers and drug dealers were brought in front of tens of thousands of people. Each of them was held down in front of the pyre by a group of three law enforcement officers. Seven shiny black shell guns were slowly pressed into the back of the death row prisoners.
superior.
"Light the fire! Execution——"
Eight torches flew neatly to the firewood pile, and with a "boom" sound, they stirred up flames several feet high. Thick smoke rose into the sky, and the unique rich smell of opium smoke drifted to all directions. All the people were excited and cheering.
, the student group took the lead in shouting the slogan "Eradicate Opium, Long Live the Revolution" and was echoed by the audience. The railway workers' union was not to be outdone. Revolutionary slogans such as "Long Live the Northern Expeditionary Army", "Down with all reactionaries" and "Down with imperialism" were sounded one after another.
, the earth-shaking cheers were like an overwhelming wave after the seven gunshots, and the trial meeting reached its climax.
The fire slowly extinguished, and thousands of people chanted slogans with excitement and exited in an orderly manner. Representatives of various social groups on the rostrum warmly shook hands with An Yi and other generals and said goodbye.
While An Yi's temporary control measures burned opium and punished criminals, they also gained everyone's understanding and cooperation. After all, everyone needs a stable and orderly lifestyle. What's more, An Yi is not banning the activities of social groups, but demanding
All activities must be carried out under effective supervision to avoid conflicts or even bloodshed and casualties between different forces due to activities.
The next day, major newspapers across the country reported on the heroic deeds of the Kunshan Revolutionary Army, and spoke highly of and praised the Revolutionary Army's Independent Regiment, Model Battalion and General An Yi. Shanghai's "Shenbao" and Tianjin's "Shenbao", which are famous for their prudent and objective newspapers,
Ta Kung Pao published the smoke-burning act of the Revolutionary Army An Yi Regiment on the front page, accompanied by a special editorial. An Yi's name was once again familiar to all walks of life across the country, as a "model in the military", "revolutionary general", and "Northern Expedition"
The aura of "famous general" made An Yi's heroic image appear extremely tall, and An Yi has since become a famous figure in the country.
Having achieved his goal, An Yi turned his energy to the training and ideological education of his headquarters. As the 500 non-commissioned officers selected from each division of the First Army arrived one after another, Tongfeng Camp, the station of the model camp next to the regiment headquarters, was bustling and loud.
Bugles and majestic passwords kept ringing.
Since at this time, five chief officers including Ye Cheng, Qu Muchen and Yang Fei had already departed for the Nanchang headquarters to participate in the military selection examination for studying in European and American academies, An Yi had to take on the role of instructor himself without anyone to replace him.
Positions of team leader and NCO training course director.
An Yi urgently appointed regiment deputy Hu Jialin and regiment instructor Yin Jinan as deputy directors and instructors of the training class. He also transferred the fourth battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gu Changfeng, and guard company deputy captain Yan Kaitai to serve as non-commissioned officer training.
The instructors were divided into three temporary companies of engineers, scouts, and mortars according to the personal wishes of the noncommissioned officers, and began the intense military teaching task.
What made An Yi extremely headache was that due to the continuous reports in newspapers and the hot sales of the book "Model Camp", thousands of passionate young people flocked to Kunshan and gathered outside the gates of Tongfeng Camp and the Independent Regiment Headquarters.
Applications for joining the army and invitations from colleges and universities piled up on An Yi's desk. Among them, more than 200 girls who graduated from normal schools and colleges across the country gathered in front of the regiment department.
The girls who had been waiting for three days claimed that if General An continued to fail to receive him and approve their enlistment, they would sit in front of the gate and go on a hunger strike until the matter was resolved satisfactorily.
…
On April 3, after Chiang Kai-shek, who had essentially broken with the National Government in Wuhan, held a "special meeting of the Kuomintang Central Supervisory Committee" that was not recognized by law at 29 Molière Road in Shanghai, he immediately warmly invited the powerful military leader Li Zongren.
Negotiated and negotiated with Wang Jingwei, who had just returned to Shanghai from Paris, in an attempt to draw these two people into his own camp, fight against Tang Shengzhi, Zhang Fakui and others in Wuhan, and then fight and win.
Li Zongren did not come to see Chiang Kai-shek directly, but drove to the former enemy commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army and Songhu garrison headquarters in Longhua to discuss with Bai Chongxi.
The car was still a few blocks away from Bai Chongxi's headquarters, but it was blocked by a crowded parade of tens of thousands of workers. Li Zongren happened to not be wearing a general uniform, so after waiting for a long time, he could only get out of the car and blend into the crowd.
Under escort, he slowly moved towards Bai Chongxi's headquarters.
After finally entering the headquarters through the side door, Li Zongren saw Bai Chongxi and asked:
"Jiansheng, what's going on? Why are tens of thousands of workers outside so excited?"
Bai Chongxi replied angrily: "When there was a small conflict between the army and the people in Shanghai, the workers mobilized troops and came to ask the younger brother to come forward to meet and explain clearly. How unreasonable! How can I, a dignified general of the revolutionary army, accept this threat and degrade myself?"
Li Zongren nodded and sighed: "It's completely out of control, out of control! This is not only the case in Shanghai, but also in Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, and Nanchang. All worker and peasant movements are controlled by the left. They do nothing but demonstrate all day long, which paralyzes all industries and makes them slightly unsatisfactory.
Then they gathered a crowd to threaten, with tens of thousands of people at every turn not stopping. Even the two military depots of our Seventh Army in Changsha and Wuchang were forced to close, and supplies and soldiers from the rear could not be transported.
If the headquarters of our Seventh Army had not moved to Hankou in time to live next to the Central Party Headquarters, I am afraid that the officers and soldiers stationed there would not even have food to eat. If timely relief was not provided, the more than 40,000 soldiers of our army would probably be trapped in hunger and cold.
"
Bai Chongxi led Li Zongren into the inner room and had tea and secret discussions. In the previous phone call, he already knew the purpose of Li Zongren's visit, but he did not expect that Li Zongren and the Seventh Army, which he relied on to start his career, would reach such a point. He was surprised and asked in a low voice:
"Aren't our two military stations in Tang Mengxiao's defense zone? How could they be forced to close?"
"Forget about Tang Shengzhi, a sanctimonious hypocrite who repays kindness with revenge. If he hadn't secretly inspired and incited him, how could there be so many people who didn't know the truth and surrounded our military station? These so-called revolutionary people shouted to knock down the warlords and expel the foreign troops.
The demonstrations gradually developed from the initial demonstrations to cutting off water and electricity, cutting off the supply of vegetables and rice, forcing our military station to evacuate, and then stopped. During this period, no one from Tang Shengzhi's department came forward to maintain order, and they tried to evade my several phone inquiries.
Pretending not to know, alas... If I had known today, why bother doing so in the first place!" After Li Zongren said this, he shook his head in pain.
Bai Chongxi was filled with anger in his heart, but now that this had happened, he no longer had time to be angry and lament. He could only quickly figure out how to raise food and pay for his Seventh Army as soon as possible and tide over the difficulties.