Gao Zheng was very satisfied with his promotion.
Although it seems that he was still transferred from the deputy commander to the deputy commander, and he was still transferred from the deputy commander of the absolutely main 1st Division to the newly formed 6th Division, which did not even have enough recruits, as the deputy commander.
At first glance, it seems that not only was there no promotion, but there was also a demoted active duty.
But that's not actually the case.
When he served as deputy commander, his military rank was only major, while many deputy commanders of main regiments had the rank of lieutenant colonel.
With this transfer of duties, his military rank was also promoted to lieutenant colonel.
And more importantly, there is currently no regimental commander in the 24th Infantry Regiment!
Because before Gao Zheng took office, the 24th Infantry Regiment had just begun to set up an airs and had not even practiced a sentry.
The Sixth Division, like the Fifth Division, was only prepared for formation before the Chu Empire launched the cross-river campaign, which was only half a month ago.
In such a short period of time, it is impossible to completely build up the airs of the two divisions.
In order to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, the Baoxiang Army gave priority to ensuring the formation of the Fifth Division, and a large number of new soldiers and weapons and equipment were given priority to the Fifth Division.
The formation order of the Sixth Division is further back.
So far, the Fifth Division has accepted 7,000 recruits who have completed its one-month recruit training, while the Sixth Division has only accepted more than 3,000 recruits.
In the Sixth Division, priority is also given to the training work of the 21st Infantry Regiment and the 22nd Infantry Regiment under the 11th Infantry Brigade. Among the more than 3,000 new recruits, in addition to artillery, cavalry and baggage troops, Most of the ordinary infantry are concentrated in these two infantry regiments.
Of the two regiments under the 12th Infantry Brigade, only the 23rd Infantry Regiment was assigned more than 200 recruits, and the 24th Infantry Regiment only had a few dozen recruits.
The superiors brought him here as the deputy commander. In fact, they asked him to build up the regiment and train the soldiers.
If this job is done well, then there is a high probability that he can become a full-time employee and directly become the leader of the regiment.
On this point, Major General Wei Kaifu, the Minister of Military and Political Affairs, had made it clear when he met with him.
In other words, in about a month's time, when the 24th Infantry Regiment is initially formed, Gao Zheng will become the commander of the 24th Infantry Regiment. However, the military rank may not be promoted in a short time, but will He held the position of regimental commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Although most of the infantry regiment commanders under the main division are colonels, there are also lieutenant colonels. These two military ranks are the matching military ranks of the main division commander.
Gao Zheng, who was promoted, had done his best. He had just received the appointment letter and went directly to the Sixth Division's station to take up his post, accompanied by a director of the Military and Political Department.
After meeting Major General Zhang Malin, the first division commander of the Sixth Division, he started his work.
His first job was not to ask for new recruits, but to urge his superiors to quickly dispatch enough middle- and low-level officers and some key non-commissioned officers.
Today, the 24th Infantry Regiment, including himself, only has three officers and more than 40 soldiers, and they can't even put up a show.
Even now that the Ministry of Military Affairs has sent them one or two thousand new soldiers, Gao Zheng does not have enough officers to manage and train these new soldiers.
Gao Zheng urged his superiors and ran several times a day to the commander of the Sixth Division to pester Zhang Malin for officers, non-commissioned officers and other backbones.
And Zhang Malin also had a headache about this. If he had anyone under his command, he would have sent them to the 24th Regiment.
But there aren’t enough people!
For Zhang Malin, not only the 24th Infantry Regiment was short of men, the 23rd Regiment, the 22nd Regiment, the 21st Regiment and other artillery regiments, cavalry regiments, and baggage regiments were all lacking. Shortage of people.
Especially experienced officers and non-commissioned officers.
As a newly formed unit, the Sixth Division currently only has a total of more than 3,000 people, which is still a few thousand short of full strength, and hundreds of officers are needed.
In fact, the soldiers are doing fine. There are a large number of recruits being trained in Zhongxiang, Jiangling, Hanyang and other recruit camps. After these recruits complete the recruit training, except for some to supplement the shortages of the First Division, the Fourth Division and the Guards Division, most of them will still be able to Replenish the fifth and sixth divisions.
Based on the number of recruits in the recruit camps and the training time in various places, their Sixth Division is expected to obtain another 5,000 recruits within half a month, and all ordinary recruits of non-technical arms will be fully replenished within a month.
But officers and non-commissioned officers are not so easy to deal with.
Nowadays, during the period of great expansion of the Baoxiang Army, there is a huge gap for officers, especially experienced and capable officers, and non-commissioned officers are veterans who have fought in many wars.
These backbone forces are not those ordinary big-headed soldiers. They can be replenished by recruiting young men and training for a month. After being added to the army, they can adapt to training for a month or two and form combat effectiveness.
For officers and non-commissioned officers, their training period is longer and more difficult.
The Military and Administrative Department has a headache every day about how to arrange for officer vacancies in various ministries.
If it weren't for the confirmation of an experienced and capable officer, the superiors would not have directly transferred Gao Zheng, who was still just a major, to the 24th Infantry Regiment, and would not have sent the company commander and would have directly asked him to keep an eye on the deputy commander. The name of the group leader will do the group leader's work, and he plans to directly promote Gao Zheng to the group leader after he has accumulated a few months of experience.
This is all due to lack of people.
However, in the face of the entanglement between Gao Zheng and Zhang Malin, and at the same time, the training work of the Sixth Division could not be delayed any longer. The people from the Military and Political Department were picky and picky, and cobbled together a hundred officers for the Sixth Division. .
About a dozen of them were assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment. Among the dozen or so newly assigned officers, there was a young major with an immature face that caught Gao Zheng's mind.
Looking at the introduction, I saw, good guy, this is Wang Yongnian, a young major who is only 18 years old and has a very scary resume.
This boy was born in Tongsheng, was literate in Dongwen, and was a native of Luoyang. After a disaster occurred in his hometown, he was kidnapped by bandits and ran all the way to Nanyang Prefecture. After the bandits were defeated by officers and soldiers, he directly joined the army to protect his hometown during his escape.
At first, he worked in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but soon he was sent to work in the Ministry of Military Affairs.
This kind of example of transferring civil servants to serve in military institutions was very common in the early and middle stages of the Baoxiang Army. After all, the Baoxiang Army had a small job and few people at that time, and the distinction between civil and military officials was not actually too obvious. At that time, Luo Zhixue Transfer a large number of personnel from administrative agencies to serve in the four major military ministries.
Major General Hu Hongzhuo, Minister of Ordnance Department, Yu Xiujie, Minister of Logistics Department, and Major General Wei Kaifu, Minister of Military Affairs Department, are the most typical examples.
None of the three of them had a military background...
In the early days, they were said to be doing camp logistics and other work in the Baoxiang Army, but they were actually civilian staff. However, they were not appointed as ministers of the three major ministries by Luo Zhixue later.
Among the five military ministers of the Chu Empire today, only Xu Zhixian, the Chief of Staff, and Brigadier General Lu Xingye, the Navy Minister, are from military backgrounds. The other three are from civilian backgrounds and have never even been on the battlefield...
And there are a lot of people who have similar experiences to them. Otherwise, why would there be a large number of officers who were children and scholars in the Baoxiang Army?
When people first turned to thieves, most people would not immediately choose to pick up swords and guns to fight. Most people still preferred civilian jobs.
After all, most of them turned to thieves in order to earn a living, not to fight for their lives.
But later he was transferred to a military institution by Luo Zhixue to serve as a civilian officer first, then learn military theory, and then slowly became a general leading troops...
Before they surrendered to thieves, they probably would never have dreamed that one day they would command thousands or even tens of thousands of troops in battle.
Wang Yongnian's transition from civil service to military service was almost the same process. He first worked in the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs as the deputy section chief of a certain section.
Then when the Military Academy recruited the first batch of formal class students, he was selected into the first batch of formal class because of his excellent cultural level...
After enrolling in the official class, I didn't know that this person was a top student or had excellent military talent.
During the learning process, the results of each course have always been ranked first, and students in the school, formal classes, and even advanced classes and accelerated classes have won the first place three times in a row in the school sandbox simulation competition.
During the period when he was studying military theory at school, the Army Officer Academy held a total of three school-wide sand table deduction competitions, and he won first place in each of the three times.
His defeated generals include a large number of battalion commanders, deputy regimental commanders, and regimental commanders of the main force who came for further training.
After completing three months of theoretical study, this person ranked first among more than a hundred people in the final military theory examination, and was personally awarded the title and sword by Luo Zhixue.
With excellent grades, he was awarded the rank of major and began his internship. Before that, he served as a combat staff officer in the 1st Division Headquarters.
This person was also the first batch of staff officers in the division-level troops of the Baoxiang Army. At that time, the Baoxiang Army had just begun to implement the staff system in the division-level troops.
During his internship, he participated in almost all military operations of the First Division. From crossing the river to attacking Wuchang City, he participated in the formulation and even command of various combat plans at the First Division headquarters.
After the internship, he was assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Division as the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the regiment.
The problem is, this man has never been in the army before...
However, such a person who has only played sandbox simulations in the military academy, formulated strategies and tactics, and commanded in the division headquarters, and has never actually led troops or been on the front line, was directly sent to the 20th Army by the Ministry of Military Affairs. The Fourth Infantry Regiment served as the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion.
To be honest, Gao Zheng was frightened.
To bring in such a young man who seems to have an amazing resume, but is a complete novice in actually leading troops, if something goes wrong with the First Infantry Battalion, wouldn't it be doomed?
