Chapter 280 Power comes from the barrel of a gun! “Forget it, no matter how much we discuss these things, what will it matter? We have a regiment commander and a regiment political commissar, so there is no need to discuss these issues. Let the brigade commander and division commander discuss these matters. What we have to do is to train the troops well and complete the tasks assigned to us by the higher-ups... Sigh, soldiers should be more pure." Kong Jie listened to Zhangye's question about whether the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army would assassinate the Eighth Route Army, and shook his head in annoyance. Kong Jie's cultural level was not very high, although it was not so bad as Li Yunlong said that he didn't know where to put the carrying pole when it fell. However, his cultural level is limited to the ability to recognize and write. If we discuss politics, Kong Jie's cultural level is definitely not as good as that of Zhangye. As a group leader, it would be a big problem if you couldn't even recognize the characters. A group leader needs to know a lot of external information, and at this time most people rely on newspapers to learn about the external information. If you don’t even know the characters, how can you read the newspaper or study? If you don’t even know how to read, you basically can’t take the position of group leader. Otherwise, you won’t even know when you’ll be cheated by someone.

It is not the case that the Eighth Route Army’s soldiers are mainly composed of farmers, or farmers’ children, the so-called mud-legged people among the upper class. However, this only means that the cultural quality of the Eighth Route Army's soldiers is not high, but it does not mean that the Eighth Route Army's cultural level is insufficient. The idea is that among all the troops, the Eighth Route Army has the highest average cultural level. Every unit of the Eighth Route Army, whether it is a local unit, a county brigade, a district squad, or the main force, will have a literacy class. In addition to being responsible for the ideological education of the troops, political officers such as political commissars, instructors, and counselors also need to take on the task of literacy in the troops. In the main force, after each day's training, the company instructor would usually take the lead in conducting literacy work for the soldiers in the company and platoon, working with the clerks of each platoon. In the local forces, there will be local agencies that specially organize personnel to carry out literacy work for the basic militia and the ordinary people in the garrison. Among them, the main forces, such as the Pioneer Regiment, the Independent Regiment, the New First Regiment, and the New Second Regiment, which have their own recruit camps, will carry out literacy work in the recruit camps. Although literacy work cannot make the soldiers know everything about astronomy and geography, it is still no problem for them to be able to read and write basic words, recognize some common words, and be able to write some common words. In particular, Qin Yangming invented pinyin to make it easier for the soldiers to learn to read. If the work of font simplification had not been difficult to promote, Qin Yangming would have wanted to carry out the work of font simplification. There is no way. As a modern man, Qin Yangming knows the traditional Chinese characters of this era, but it is a bit difficult for him to write them. So whenever there was a need to write a report or something like that, it was basically Qin Yangming who would say it and Zhangye would be responsible for writing it. If we didn’t know that Qin Yangming could read and understand several foreign languages. Zhangye even began to doubt whether his commander was an extremely rare or even the only illiterate commander in the Eighth Route Army. Fortunately, Qin Yangming's handwriting was very ugly, so the brigade commander and others could understand why he asked Zhangye to write for him. In the words of the brigade commander, Qin Yangming's handwriting has never been very good since he was a child, even though he had been taught to write calligraphy for a period of time. But the writing is still horrible. In the words of the brigade commander, Qin Yangming is quite suitable to work with him.

Looking at Qin Yangming's calligraphy, it is possible that Qin Yangming is the only one in the world who knows what he wrote. For the copied poems, even the authors themselves had to guess to recognize that they were their own poems. So in terms of cultural level, there were basically no illiterate soldiers in the Eighth Route Army, from senior cadres to the real main force soldiers, especially the sentries. If an Eighth Route Army soldier, especially a sentry on guard duty, says that he cannot read, nine out of ten times he is just joking with you, or there is some reason that prevents him from learning to read temporarily. Are you kidding? The sentry can't read. What if someone comes over with a pass and he can't read the words? How can he tell where the pass is from? What if a spy is let in? Therefore, Kong Jie's cultural level is not low compared to the Chinese of that era, and can at least be considered as an elementary school education. If we take into account Kong Jie's experience of studying at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University branch of the 129th Division, then he can also be considered a college student. It’s just that Kong Jie’s focus is on military affairs. The political commissar is responsible for handling political affairs, and he only needs to do a good job in military affairs. "Soldiers should be more pure... But, I'm sure you, Captain Kong, can understand the truth that power comes from the barrel of a gun." "When they first joined forces, the Fourth Front Army had more troops and guns than the Central Army, so they asked to move south... If we say that our Eighth Route Army has more soldiers than the Japanese, more guns than the Japanese, and more cannons than the Japanese. So does the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army still have the guts to stab our Eighth Route Army in the back? If the Eighth Route Army is strong enough to eliminate all the warlords in China, would the people in Shancheng still dare to target our Eighth Route Army so brazenly as they do now?" Listening to Kong Jie's words, Zhangye spoke to Kong Jie without comment. "Captain Kong, in my understanding, a soldier should be just as you said, a soldier should be pure. A soldier's duty is to defend the country. And it shouldn’t be involved in any bullshit… But in this situation, if the regime is not protected by the military, the regime cannot be guaranteed at all…” Zhang Ye did not finish his words. The relationship between him and Kong Jie was just that of comrades-in-arms. Some things should be said, and some things should not be said, there is no need to say them. If it is about Qin Yangming, Zhangye can say it to Qin Yangming. Because Qin Yangming's ideology is quite positive. If Qin Yangming was not bad at ideological work, the Vanguard Corps might not even need to arrange a political commissar, and Qin Yangming could handle both military and political affairs by himself. The most important thing is that everyone feels at ease when Qin Yangming is doing the work, whether he is the brigade commander or the headquarters. Although Qin Yangming often makes some bold moves. But in general, no matter how tortuous the process was, Qin Yangming was always able to complete the tasks assigned to him well. In addition to Qin Yangming's own reasons, the higher-ups have great trust in Qin Yangming. Zhangye still remembers hearing the brigade commander and the brigade political commissar teasing Qin Yangming. It is said that even if Qin Yangming put on the uniform of the puppet army one day and publicly announced that he had joined the puppet army.

Then they would not doubt whether Qin Yangming was really a traitor. They were definitely wondering how many good things Qin Yangming could get back from the Japanese. Therefore, with this level of trust, Qin Yangming would have no objection even if all the military and political power of the Vanguard Group was handed over to him. In fact, as long as Qin Yangming is willing, he can directly take over the military and political power of the entire Vanguard Corps. To put it nicely, the political commissar of Zhangye is the political chief of the vanguard group. In fact, he is just Qin Yangming's deputy. The main task is to help Qin Yangming deal with those things that Qin Yangming does not have time to deal with. It’s about helping to deal with it, not discussing it with Qin Yangming. Normally, if something major happens in a regiment, whether it is a military or political matter, the regiment commander, the political commissar, and the chief of staff must form a three-person group to discuss it. But the Vanguard Group is different. Qin Yangming can make all decisions on the Vanguard Group's matters, no matter how big or small, by himself. On the one hand, it was because the personal worship of Qin Yangming by all the soldiers of the Vanguard Corps had risen to an irreversible level. It can be said that all the soldiers of the entire vanguard regiment, except for the newly recruited soldiers, will not obey orders from anyone else except Qin Yangming's. Except Qin Yangming, no one can command the vanguard group. The reason why Zhangye is now able to command the entire vanguard regiment is because of Qin Yangming's order. Qin Yangming temporarily handed over the command to Zhangye, so those battalion commanders would obey Zhangye's orders and help Zhangye command the vanguard regiment. Therefore, even if Zhangye had opinions about the affairs of the vanguard group, it would be difficult for any soldier to obey him. On the other hand, because the higher-ups trusted Qin Yangming too much, they did not interfere with the situation where Qin Yangming had the final say in the Vanguard Group, and just let it go. On the other hand, although Zhangye was actually only Qin Yangming's deputy, on the surface Qin Yangming still treated Zhangye as his partner and the political chief of the vanguard group, and did not really treat Zhangye as a subordinate. If there is any problem, they will take the initiative to discuss it with Zhangye, and can even directly hand over the regiment’s guard company to Zhangye for arrangement. If there is any problem, we will report it if necessary and deal with it if necessary. We don't act arrogantly just because we are respected by our superiors. Up to now, the most common and biggest mistake Qin Yangming had made was killing prisoners on the battlefield. But killing prisoners on the battlefield... this kind of thing is just a trivial matter if it is not brought to light. What's more, as long as you are not caught in the act, you can simply deny it to the death. Moreover, killing prisoners on the battlefield, especially among the main front-line troops who often fight tough battles with the Japanese, who can guarantee that they have never done this? It's just a matter of doing more or less. The Vanguard just did a little more. The rest are minor issues that are not worth mentioning, such as excessive troop expenses, and do not need to be reported. As for Qin Yangming's personal issues, up to now, Zhangye has never seen Qin Yangming commit any personal problems. Zhangye could see that Qin Yangming was also a heavy drinker. Being a heavy drinker often means that this guy likes to drink very much. But Qin Yangming only drinks with them during festivals, when there is no fighting, when things are settled, and when other people come over to get together. At other times, he would never take the initiative to drink when he has time like Li Yunlong did.

So this is the situation, and the higher-ups have more trust in Qin Yangming. At the same time, because of Qin Yangming, this small brigade political department cadre in Zhangye has become the famous political commissar of the vanguard regiment in the entire Eighth Route Army. Therefore, in many aspects, Zhangye mainly follows Qin Yangming's opinions. As long as there are no principled errors, Zhangye will help deal with them. If it couldn't be handled, at most Qin Yangming would go to the brigade headquarters and get scolded. Zhangye is very grateful to Qin Yangming. If Qin Yangming had not always protected him, then with his qualifications and abilities, he would never have been able to become the political commissar of such a large and strong vanguard regiment. In fact, Zhangye was just an ordinary cadre in the political department of the brigade. When the brigade commander first assigned Zhangye to us, the vanguard regiment was still just a vanguard company. With Zhangye's ability, there is no problem for him to be an instructor. Later it became a vanguard battalion, and Zhangye followed and learned from it and was also able to serve as an instructor. But later the Vanguard Battalion was expanded into a Vanguard Regiment, and Zhangye's capabilities could no longer keep up. Whether in terms of political or military ability, it is somewhat difficult for Zhangye to serve as the political commissar of a regiment, especially a large regiment with an overstaffed staff like the Pioneer Regiment. And the most important thing is that the combat effectiveness of the Vanguard Regiment is so strong that it is comparable to an Eighth Route Army brigade. For a regiment with such strong strength, Zhangye’s qualifications are still too shallow to be in control. Zhangye is not a veteran of the Long March. Zhangye was originally a member of the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army, and at the beginning he was just an ordinary teacher. Moreover, Zhangye has always been involved in politics and has not learned much about how to fight a war. It is a big problem if the political commissar of a regiment, especially the political commissar of a main regiment, cannot fight. Even though Zhao Gang of the Independent Regiment looks like just a scholar, he is actually a serious student of the Anti-Japanese War. He has systematically studied how to fight, but he lacks some practical experience. After arriving at the independent regiment, Zhao Gang quickly made up for his lack of practical experience. There is a plot in "Bright Sword". Li Yunlong, the division commander, did not stay in the division headquarters, but ran to the front to lead the assault team. After Zhao Gang arrived at the division headquarters, he quickly discovered the problem with the battle. And made very appropriate battle arrangements again. Therefore, when the brigade commander and others were preparing to send a chief of staff to the vanguard regiment to help Qin Yangming command the troops, they also considered whether to re-select the political commissar of the vanguard regiment. But it was Qin Yangming who said that he and Zhangye were used to working together and did not want to change the political commissar. In addition, the superiors' trust in Qin Yangming and the dispatch of a political commissar to the troops were actually due to their concern that the regiment commander's own cultural level was not high enough, which led to him making a big mistake unknowingly. If there is a political commissar, he can remind the regiment leader in time and correct him when he makes a mistake. Qin Yangming himself had a very high level of education, so there was no need to worry about his ideological awareness. Therefore, the higher-ups did not replace Zhangye and continued to let him serve as the political commissar of the vanguard regiment. (End of this chapter)