Republican Era: From Militia Commander to Sichuan Army Marshal

[Transmigration] [Republican Era] [Military] [Warlord Era] Southern Sichuan, 1921. Lu Zheng, commander of a local militia, has thirteen rifles, nine bullets, and forty farmers. Routed Yunnan troops have burned a neighboring town and now have their guns trained on the militia headquarters. The county magistrate is so terrified that he wants to hand over their weapons to buy peace. The whole militia is waiting for Lu Zheng to decide what to do. Lu Zheng slams a battered rifle onto the table. “From now on, you’re soldiers, not conscripts.” While others round up conscripts just to fill the ranks, he trains a professional army. While others smoke opium and draw pay for nonexistent troops, he establishes a military academy, an ordnance workshop, and a salt administration. While others fight over territory, he turns southern Sichuan into the safest place in a war-torn land. Fourteen years, from militia commander to commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army. On the night three hundred thousand Sichuan soldiers march out of the province, he stands at the front. The Yunnan Army, the Guizhou Army, the warlords of central Sichuan, the rivalry between the two Liu clans, the Northern Expedition, Japanese invaders crossing the border: the waves of chaos rise higher and higher, but he holds fast to one principle. Guns must be in the hands of those who can protect their people.