Chapter 21 Preparing to Attack the County At the headquarters of the new 1st regiment, Li Yunlong sighed as he looked at the sand table placed in the center of the hall. "Oh, you are indeed a young man, your brain is very useful. This thing is much better than looking at a map." "I've only seen this sand table in the general's command post. The brigade commander doesn't have one." Zhong Zhicheng on the side looked at Li Yunlong with some doubt: "Captain, you have been watching here for a whole morning, where do you want to attack?" "Majia Town stronghold?" Zhong Zhicheng pointed to a stronghold on the sand table that was closest to the base of the New 1st Regiment and asked curiously. "Humph, the Majia Town stronghold only has about a hundred Japanese soldiers and three hundred puppet troops. If we, Old Li, want to attack them, is it necessary to look at the sand table for so long?" "With just this one stronghold, let alone the main battalions like the First and Second Battalions, even the Fourth Battalion can take it!" “This is my goal!” Li Yunlong pointed the bamboo stick in his hand at a fortress representing the county town on the sand table and looked up at Zhong Zhicheng.
"Either don't fight, or if you're going to fight, fight a big one." Li Yunlong took a newspaper from the side and handed it to Zhong Zhicheng. "Don't be fooled by the beautiful words in the newspapers about the great victory at Kunlun Pass. In fact, I'm afraid we will lose the Battle of Southern Guangxi." "I'm sure that once the war in the south is over, the Japanese will immediately shift their focus to the north again." “In two months at most, that is, before the Chinese New Year in December, the winner in the South will definitely be decided. Given the character of the Japanese, if we continue to expand here, we will definitely face large-scale retaliation after the Chinese New Year." "I heard that the Japanese North China Front Army Commander Tada Shun is in Yibei. Places like Yizhong implemented the "Three Alls" policy to deter anti-Japanese forces." "This guy is a radical. He will never tolerate the rampant expansion of our Eighth Route Army." "So we need to collect enough supplies before the New Year to prepare for the subsequent sweep." "If we capture a county town, even though it's a small county town, the supplies we have are not comparable to those of a village or a town." "Our occupation of the county seat not only allows us to meet the needs of our troops, but also to provide support to friendly neighboring troops." Zhong Zhicheng was stunned when listening to Li Yunlong's analysis. He came from a political background. Not very good at fighting. However, he also knew his own level of combat proficiency, so he basically did whatever Li Yunlong said. As long as it does not violate discipline, he will not object. Basically, as Li Yunlong said, he was responsible for fighting, and Zhong Zhicheng was responsible for life and logistics. But when he heard Li Yunlong say that he wanted to attack the county town, Zhong Zhicheng was still a little worried. "Captain, there is another battalion of the Japanese in the county town, about 800 people, a regiment of puppet troops. Should we report this to the brigade headquarters?"
"In this case, we can also ask for support from friendly troops." "Our pressure will also be much less." Listening to what Zhong Zhicheng said, Li Yunlong smiled and said, "My great political commissar, I, Old Li, would also like to ask the brigade commander for instructions. But don’t we have a radio station? Last time, the little bastard brought back three radios. The brigade commander said that they were large military radios and that they were not needed at the regiment level, so he took them directly to the headquarters. If we had a radio, we would definitely contact the brigade commander. The brigade commander is now more than 200 kilometers away from us. By the time he comes back with instructions, the opportunity will be gone. As for the friendly troops, Tell them that I, Old Li, cannot endure hardship and am going to the county town to enjoy the best of life. If they also want to drink and eat meat, they should listen to me, Lao Li." "Believe me, the brigade commander won't blame us when he finds out. Do you think the brigade commander didn't see that?" "The reason why the brigade commander left us was because In fact, it was to develop with the 77th Group. It also acquiesces to our next move.” "As long as we capture the county town and the troops suffer few casualties, the brigade commander will definitely not blame us." "Huzi, go inform all battalions, companies and platoons to return to their bases immediately. Tell them that there is an important military operation going on!" After making the decision, Li Yunlong acted quickly. He immediately ordered the guard Hu Zi to have the communications platoon send people to notify all battalions and platoons to return to base quickly. Because of the large number of people, several battalions of the New 1st Regiment had already been dispersed. If Linyuan County is divided into four areas: southeast, northwest, and northeast. The headquarters of the new 1st Regiment, the 5th Battalion, and all its subordinate teams are located in the west. The first and fourth battalions are located in the south of Linyuan County. The second and third battalions were located to the north. The Pioneer Camp is located to the east. The entire regiment formed a huge encirclement, surrounding Linyuan County in the middle. However, the Eighth Route Army basically operated in various villages, or at most in a certain township. The Japanese didn't notice this situation. Under Li Yunlong's order, the commanders of each battalion and company led their troops quickly back to the regiment headquarters. Qin Yangming, who was leading his troops to attack a stronghold for training, was listening to the information sent by the communicator and guessing what the other party wanted to do. "Let me return with the vanguard battalion?" "Hiss, is the captain planning to attack the county?"
"I think it's possible." Listening to Qin Yangming's mumbling, instructor Zhangye at the side also echoed. Originally, Zhangye was a deputy director of the political department of the brigade. He was somewhat unhappy when he was sent to a battalion of a basic regiment as an instructor. He knew very well what the basic group was. When he came down, he was already prepared to endure hardships. But when he arrived at this so-called pioneer camp, he was really shocked. A battalion actually has 3,000 soldiers and an artillery company that is more powerful than the brigade's artillery company. In order to retain the Vanguard Camp, he tried his best to cooperate with Qin Yangming's work. Make sure that other trivial matters will never disturb the other person or interfere with his or her work. Let Qin Yangming feel his own abilities, and never let him feel that he is not capable enough and ask the brigade to replace him. Thanks to Zhangye's hard work, the entire pioneer camp was kept in good order. Even Sun Zhigang happily handed over all the logistical work to Zhangye. Zhangye is indeed an expert at doing these kinds of work. At least in terms of logistics, Qin Yangming originally felt a headache when he looked at those records of income and expenditure and account books. While he was commanding the battalion, he also had to take care of some logistical work. He was so busy that he lost two kilograms. After coming from Zhangye, all these tasks were handed over to the other party, and Qin Yangming never worried about the rations of his soldiers again. He was also able to focus entirely on commanding his troops in battle. "Hehe, it seems our leader is thinking the same thing as me." Qin Yangming originally planned to find Li Yunlong in a few days to discuss the attack on the county town. Unlike Li Yunlong who found the information from newspapers, Qin Yangming relied on his memories from his previous life. However, unlike Li Yunlong who wanted to get supplies, Qin Yangming simply wanted to use the county town to fight the Japanese. It would be impossible for the troops to escape intact in the face of a large-scale raid of that magnitude. Now our army has more than just one or two thousand people. As long as we hide in the mountains, the Japanese will have no way to stop us. The army now has nearly 8,000 people. It is such a large army. It is simply unrealistic to hide in the mountains. With so many people, the amount of food consumed every day is not a small amount. If the Japanese launched a long-term siege, the New 1st Regiment would either starve to death or be trapped to death. Since I can't hide, I can only fight.
It is better to occupy a county town and rely on various defensive fortifications within the county town area than to fight in the wild. And you don’t necessarily lose even if you fight! With the current strength of the Shinichi Regiment, at least it will not be like in the TV series "Bright Sword", where the Shinichi Regiment was directly defeated by the Sakata Unit. Maybe they can even turn around and swallow up the Sakata Unit in one gulp! (End of this chapter)
