Wang Zhenyu took a sip of tea and said, "You don't have to be nervous, in terms of age, you are still older than me. If it weren't for official business, I wouldn't mind calling you 'big brother'."

  He Jian hastily stood up and said: "Your subordinate dare not, your subordinate dare not..."

  Wang Zhenyu secretly delighted in his heart: You don't dare to scold me. But he said kindly, "Sit down and talk, sit down and talk, don't stand."

  He Jian sat down again, and then heard Wang Zhenyu say: "This time in the Hongjiang War, you military personnel have made great contributions, there's no need to be modest about this. But in my opinion, the military department can actually play a bigger role, it's just that because of its short establishment time, it doesn't yet possess this capability."

  Nor did he need to show his attitude, Wang Zhenyu continued to say: "The scope of work of this military department should be broader, and it should not be limited to the acquisition and transmission of intelligence. It should also involve multiple aspects such as the counter-espionage of Hongjiang's civilian armed forces, assassination, protection, and even the identification of internal personnel."

  When he said the last word, He Jian's heart skipped a beat involuntarily. The commander's meaning was very clear, wasn't it? Was such a military intelligence agency just an intelligence department? What would be the consequences if they had the power to investigate internally? The first word that came to mind for He Jian, who was well-versed in history, was the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

  He was about to speak, but Wang Zhenyu signaled him to continue listening: "I said earlier that we don't have this condition yet. When doing things, we need to take it one step at a time. Eating rice is done mouthful by mouthful, isn't it? So our first step now is to perfect this organization and set up intelligence stations in Changsha, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and other provincial capitals. The future of the Měng Hǔ Lǚ shouldn't be limited to just Xiangxi, but should look at the whole country."

  He Jian got somewhat excited, he was very clear that he had found the right person.

  "The regulations and systems for intelligence work need to be established, the source of funding needs to be clear, and personnel recruitment and training need to have a plan. Director He, time is not waiting for me, I am working over 10 hours every day now, just afraid of being eliminated, you people in charge of intelligence work also need to have this awareness, understand? Alright, I won't keep you for dinner, hurry up, get this done and come see me. Go!"

  Wang Zhenyu gave the order to see off the guest, and He Jian immediately stood up, bowed, and left with a strong and powerful stride.

  Watching He Jian's gradually disappearing back, Wang Zhenyu suddenly let out a long sigh and said, "This person is not easy to control. It seems that I must set up an intelligence system to restrain him." He suddenly shouted loudly: "Song Haomin, go and call my cousin, I'll invite him to lunch today..."

  After lunch, Ma Xicheng left with a serious face. Wang Zhenyu, on the other hand, joked with Song Haomin: Deputy Song, since you were transferred from the training team to my side, it's been almost three months now, do you want to go back and lead your troops?

  "After some thought, Song Haomin replied truthfully: 'I really want to, but I'm only 17 years old and already a junior colonel. Many people are older than me. I think I'll work under you for one or two years before going down to lead troops.'"

  "Hmm, I didn't say it's going to be immediate, just giving you a heads up so you can prepare. Go get Zhao Dongsheng and Captain Li from the training team, I have tasks for them. Oh, and if Wan Yaohuang and others arrive, bring them in directly to see me, no need to report."

  As soon as Song Haomin left, Wang Zhenyu lay down on the rocking chair and began to study a map of Hongjiang drawn by the Chamber of Commerce.

  For a very long time in the future, I may have to stay in Xiangxi, and I must choose a place with a good location as my base. Jingzhou is obviously not feasible, the transportation is not qualified, and looking at the whole Xiangxi, the location of Jingzhou is also too biased.

  Hongjiang is not bad, the first of Wulong River, but unfortunately it has become a place for business. I couldn't possibly be like some department in later generations and forcibly demolish it, so I'd better find it on the map instead.

  What should the foundation of his own be like? What kind of architectural style, how wide the roads should be, how many factories to build, how many people there should be, what kind of transportation should be the main focus, should railways be built? How long should they be? These questions hung over Wang Zhenyu's head like a fog.

  These problems still need to be helped by experts, otherwise, even if it is from the future self, there will be many omissions.

  There are still too few talents in our hands, and there are only two real experts, Qu Qu, who are also in the field of geology. It's complicated, let's solve it one by one.

  The top priority is still to return to the issue of power and consolidate everything that has been obtained.

  With this in mind, Wang Zhenyu calmed down and asked his guard, Wang Hu, to spread out a piece of paper for him. He then picked up the Parker pen he had bought in Nanjing and began writing a letter to Zhao Hengti. The letter simply recounted what had happened with Hong Jiang without asking for any help.

  But when the letter arrives at Zhao Hengyu's place, the other party will naturally understand his meaning. It's easy to deal with smart people.

  Just after finishing writing the letter, Zhao Dongsheng and Li Zongren came in one after another.

  Wang Zhenyu handed the letter over to Song Haomin and asked him to arrange for someone to deliver it as soon as possible.

  Then he asked Zhao and Li to sit down, smiling and asking: "The commander asks you a question, is Hongjiang good or is Jingzhou good? Don't think too much, there's no hidden meaning, just tell the truth."

  Zhao Dongsheng replied to Hong Jiang without thinking, while Li Zongren thought for half a day but couldn't think of a reason, so he had to answer Hong Jiang truthfully.

  Wang Zhenyu didn't say anything, just smiled and said to the two of them: "Thanks for your hard work, take the training team back to Jingzhou. Let Yang Shouzhang and Xu Dechang lead the first battalion and headquarters to move to Hongjiang together. Also, help me bring my family over. Oh, and there's Ding Wenjiang and Weng Wenhao, those bookworms. As for the families of others, don't move them for now, Hongjiang doesn't have that many empty houses temporarily. Then, De Lin, you take the training team to garrison in Jingzhou, no need to return to Hongjiang. Later, Wan will go over there, I plan to establish a new recruit training base on that side, you guys do some preparatory work for me."

  Zhao Dongsheng and Li Zongren finished their respects and left to carry out the order. Wang Zhenyu only then felt a bit tired, so he chose to take a nap.

  As a result, Wang Zhenyu was shaken awake by Song Haomin in less than a moment. This made him very angry, but Song Haomin's one sentence extinguished the fire: "Director Wan, Captain Song, and Captain Hao have arrived."

  "Quickly, come in quickly!" Wang Zhenyu immediately shouted, and then he himself hastily got up to welcome them.

  The three men had already stepped out of the threshold and saw the commander stand up, immediately saluting and asking how he was doing.

  Wang Zhenyu waved his hand and returned the courtesy: "The three heroic commanders of the Battle of Ma'an pay their respects."

  The whole process of the Ma'an battle, Wang Zhenyu had already obtained the report through other channels. To be honest, he had opinions about Song Xianfu and Hao Bing. These two were among the earliest to follow him, and from the beginning, they found that these two took pride in being uncultured and shameful for having culture. At that time, a small team of 100 people didn't feel like there was anything wrong, but now it's not okay. The team has expanded, and according to his own expectations, the team should expand to at least 10,000 people or more. Under this scale, there are clearer standards for the quality of military officers. Although these two have climbed from ordinary soldiers to regimental commanders with great difficulty, in Wang Zhenyu's heart, their overall quality is not up to standard. If they continue to let the two serve as regimental commanders of field troops, they will suffer greatly and create big problems in the future.

  It was precisely from this point on that Wang Zhenyu made his consideration and abandoned his old feelings, deciding to change the team leader.

  However, what is called management is about paying attention to methods and approaches. If you think you are the greatest and can get things done just by saying something, then congratulations, you are heading for a tragedy.

  For example, if the team leader is replaced and announced at a meeting, it is likely that the person being replaced will feel not only lost but also completely humiliated, which may lead to intense backlash. In history, there have been numerous cases of personnel changes mishandled, resulting in serious political incidents. Without going too far back, during the Xinhai Revolution, Wu Luochen, who planned and organized the Yanjin Army's entry into Beijing, met a tragic end. As for Jiao Dafeng and Chen Zuoning's stories, they are all inexplicable tears.

  So before the formal replacement, Wang Zhenyu felt it was still necessary to have a separate conversation with Song and Hao, after all, this move was very big, and Wang Zhenyu's idea of building an army also needed to be thoroughly implemented at this time.

  Wang Zhenyu's idea of building the army is very clear: to de-warlordize and warlordize. Sounds contradictory, but actually not at all.

  What is meant by demilitarization is not to play the tricks of this era of the Republic, a big warlord relies on small warlords, and small warlords coax small military leaders. The army can only have one big boss.

  What is meant by warlordization is that through the establishment of staff headquarters, joint logistics departments and other institutions, as well as through future party-ization reforms, the military will be transformed from a loose armed force into a party-guarded armed group with a certain quality. In simple terms, Wang Zhenyu wants to become a big warlord.

  So today I will take the first step.

  "Wu Xiao (Wan Yao Huang's courtesy name), you did a great job this time!" Wang Zhenyu said as soon as he sat down, which made Wan Yao Huang very happy. But what followed made him even happier: "So this time, I have decided to promote you to Senior Colonel. As for your position, there will be a new arrangement. The main reason I asked you all to come today is that the task needs a new arrangement."

  Three people immediately sat up straight, their eyes fixed on Wang Zhenyu. Wang Zhenyu's heart was delighted, now that he had a foothold, the team was expanding, and everyone's minds were also lively. Thinking back to when he first came to this era, as a broken pipe, holding meetings and assigning tasks, Song Xianfu and Hao Bing had never been seen taking it seriously, but now they were all obedient.

  "I plan to expand our team, and I will go to the provincial city to contact them again. However, the new soldier work must be implemented immediately. My idea is that after this unit, the teaching team will change from an officer training unit to a new soldier training unit. The cultivation of officers still needs to be done through regular military schools. In the past, short-term training was also a temporary measure, but now that we have stabilized, it's not suitable to do so anymore.

  The work of the military school is my opinion that Wu Xiao and Xu Deputy Commander should take charge together, but for now, the first step is still to complete the recruitment of new soldiers. So I think I'll ask Wan Director to go to Jingzhou to preside over the creation of the new soldier training base in Jingzhou.

  In the future, each department will not be allowed to recruit new soldiers on their own, and unified recruitment, training, and distribution will be done by the Command Department. This is still a very fresh thing in our country, so Wu Xiao must create a model in the shortest time this time."

  Wan Yao Huang's heart was also invigorated by these words, the commander meant to let him take charge of new recruits and reserve officers in the future. This is a big job, if done well, his connections in the military system will not be comparable to ordinary people. Thinking of this, he immediately stood up and said: "Please rest assured, Commander, I will definitely not disappoint you."

  Wang Zhenyu smiled with satisfaction: "If you are willing to go, then there is nothing that can't be done. Now, go and prepare, later you will follow Li Zongren, Zhao Dongsheng and others to Jingzhou. I still have a conversation with Old Song and Old Hao."