It was really very difficult for the independent division to go north to Henan, and more than 3,000 new recruits were added to the ranks, and the missing soldiers had to be made up along the way. There was also a gap in the number of troops in the two main regiments, and Zhou Min only wanted to use chicken feathers to describe the nearly 20-day long journey.

There were only so many cars in the baggage battalion, except for the senior officers and the wounded, who had the right to sit in the cars, everyone else had to walk, and the baggage and weapons of the whole division needed to be pulled by cars.

The team of veterans is okay, with the old leading the new, and the discipline is strict, the new corps is miserable, and it can't keep up with the team at all. You must know that most of them were not soldiers and had not been trained a few days before they went north. In order to avoid the bombing of the Japanese army, it was often day and night, and after arriving at the border of Henan, the military appearance of this independent division was not ideal, and everyone looked dish.

However, after such a long period of rapid marching, the new regiment went from all kinds of confusion at the beginning, and even lost soldiers, and then barely kept up, and it really kept up with the main force completely, which is also a lot of progress. Specific training can only be done after settling in.

At this time, the commander of the first theater was Wei Lihuang, and Wei Lihuang's general Zhou Min knew that he was also a well-known patriotic general in history, and the supreme commander of the Japanese army in North China, Kazuki Kiyoji, called him "the tiger general of China". Stilwell called him the most capable general in the Kuomintang army in his memoirs, and the "Dictionary of Chinese Names" published in the United States called him a "victorious general." But Zhou Min's deepest impression of him is that he has a cautious relationship with Yan'an, and he has played a high-level Yan'an executive in the movie, and he appreciates him a lot.

In his memory, Zhou Min remembered that the commander of the First War Zone was concurrently held by Chairman Chiang, and when was he replaced? Later, when did he ask Zhou Tao for advice, he learned that with the passage of the war, the First War Zone had been divided several times.

It was first divided in August 1937; After the Japanese army quickly occupied Beiping and Tianjin, and the government of the Republic of China decided to make peace with Japan, the division of the first theater in the same year was to take the areas of Hebei and Shandong provinces that had not yet been occupied by the Japanese army as the main theater scope. The commander-in-chief of the First Theater was originally the chairman of the National People's Congress Chiang Kai-shek, but soon after, Chiang Kai-shek was fully involved in the Battle of Songhu and handed over the commander-in-chief of the First Theater to Cheng Qian. In addition, in terms of troop formation, there were the 1st Group Army led by Song Zheyuan, the 2nd Group Army led by Liu Zhi, and the 14th Group Army led by Wei Lihuang.

In 1938, reinforcements quickly gained an advantage in North China and, after the capture of Shanghai, cut off the Chinese army's transportation routes to North China. For this reason, in the 1938 battle sequence of the National Revolutionary Army published in January of the same year, the area of the first theater was slightly changed, and it became Chengqian to the connecting line from Beiping to Wuhan, that is, the strip expansion area along the Pinghan Railway. The armies under its jurisdiction consisted of the 20th Army led by Shang Zhen and the 1st Army led by Song Zheyuan; A total of 25 infantry divisions, 2 infantry brigades, and 2 cavalry divisions are constituent units, with 8,000 people in the integrated division, and the number exceeds 200,000.

In January 1939, Wei Lihuang was appointed as the commander of the First Theater of Operations, and at the beginning he was still the deputy commander of the Second Theater, the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, the commander-in-chief of the 14th Group Army, and the commander-in-chief of the Jicha Theater. Later, he served as the chairman of Henan Province. In the land of northern China, this is definitely the most powerful.

Listening to Zhou Tao say this, Zhou Min only had three words in his heart: so complicated, so powerful.

As the commander of the First Theater of Operations, General Wei Lihuang also served as the deputy commander of the Second Theater and the commander-in-chief of the Jicha Theater, so it is no wonder that he had a good relationship with the Eighth Route Army and Yan'an. But he was not afraid of arousing the disgust of Chongqing when he was in contact with the Eighth Route Army so intensively?

Zhou Tao was very helpless about Zhou Min's question, he didn't understand why Zhou Min wanted to have anything to do with the Communist Party, and he was worried about people. According to Zhou Tao's meaning, she should be worried about herself, because of the recruitment, she has been exposed to the sun, and it is estimated that the Japanese spies know that she is in the army.

But Zhou Min didn't care, just told Zhou Tao: Shanren has their own tricks.

After arriving in Henan, Zhou Tao immediately went to the theater headquarters to report that General Wei Lihuang still liked this young reserve very much, for the simple reason that his father Zhou Yaozu. Zhou Min felt more and more that her father was not as simple as she saw on the surface, and he was definitely not as simple as a simple businessman.

"Zhou Tao, sit down, I haven't seen you for many years, and you have become a pillar of the country in a blink of an eye, haha"

"The commander exalts me too much, you are the pillar of the country, compared to you, I can only be regarded as the brick and mortar of the country. ”

"Haha, like your father. I heard that your sister is also in your army, so I called her in the evening and came to the house to have a meal with me. ”

"Then bother the commander. ”

Zhou Min learned that he was going to the famous Commander Wei's house for dinner in the evening, so he hurriedly pulled Li Ruyu to help pick out some gifts. The younger generation visits the elders, and the lower officials visit the upper officials without gifts.

Knowing that Commander Wei was from Anhui, the two went to the street to buy some Anhui specialties, and went to the pharmacy to buy a ginseng with a good vintage.

At 5 o'clock in the evening, Zhou Tao and Zhou Min, brother and sister, arrived at the appointment on time, brought gifts, and came to Commander Wei's house in casual clothes. Commander Wei's "home" in Henan is very good, at first glance, it is the house of a large family, covering an area of not small, antique.

"Master Zhou, please"

The adjutant warmly entertained the two, and after entering the living room, Zhou Min saw a middle-aged man about 50 years old, not tall, with a round face and a pair of round glasses. With a thick mustache on his lips, an inch head, and a long gown, he doesn't look like the fierce general on the battlefield in Zhou Min's imagination, but he has the temperament of Chen Yunzhang and his second uncle Master Chen. The literati temperament is very strong.

"Hello Commander," the two brothers and sisters said hello together.

"Commander, this is a small gift, please accept it, it is an Anhui specialty and some parts that Min Min bought for you. It's some of the thoughts of the younger generations. ”

"Haha, since it's the intention of the juniors, then I'll accept it. Sit down, brother and sister. ”

"Brother Yao is blessed, both children are still so good, don't call him the commander, just call Uncle Wei in private. ”

"Yes, Uncle Wei" The brother and sister glanced at each other and hurriedly agreed.

"Zhou Min, you are also in the army now, are you still used to it?"

"Uncle Wei, I am now working as a military doctor in the field hospital of the army. It's kind of a habit. ”

"It's okay for a military doctor, Zhou Tao, how are you expanding?"

"The expansion is quite smooth, but there are more new recruits, and the combat effectiveness of the whole division has dropped a lot. ”

Since the winter of 1939, they have used railways and highways as the pillars to carry out frequent sweeps of the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, and have attempted to cut off the ties between the strategic areas of Taihang and Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei, compress the combat space of the Eighth Route Army, and implement the so-called "cage policy" of "taking railways as pillars, highways as chains, and pillboxes as locks." There will be a rebound under the heavy pressure, and maybe a big war will break out between the devil and the Eighth Route Army. ”

How can this term be so familiar? Zhou Min pondered hard, where had he heard of it, sweeps, railways, highways, and prison cages; Zhou Min's eyes lit up, and he remembered that there was a battle of 100 regiments. Mr. Peng is the most famous in two battles in his life, one is the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, and the other is to resist US aggression and aid Korea.

If the Eighth Route Army and the devil get together, Commander Yiwei's position should be able to help.

"Uncle Wei, if the Eighth Route Army fights with the devils, are we going to help?" Zhou Min asked with a pretended naïve look.