Zhang Wei and the others have not done anything else every day since they came to Xuzhou, just training, eating and practicing, practicing and sleeping, and then practicing and eating. It's been more than a week, and it's just a bird.

There was no order from above, Qiu Qingquan was gone, and there was no news.

Zhang Wei touched an 82 mortar, and Dong Erli beside him stroked the shell, as if his wife was in his arms.

"Company commander, it's finally a mortar squad now"

Zhang Wei was also very happy that a lot of weapons and ammunition had been sent in the past two days, not only ammunition, but also 40 brand-new Zhongzheng rifles, six brand-new Czech light machine guns, and a Jinling-made 82 mortar.

Looking at the approval slip of the weapon, it was directly transferred by the Fifth Theater Command, which is indeed big enough, the Zhongzheng rifle and the 82 mortar were transferred from the warehouse of the Fifth Theater, and the Czech-style light machine gun was drawn from the arsenal of the 31st Army of the Gui Army in Xuzhou.

Li Zongren is very concerned, although the six Czech light machine guns are not much, but they represent his heart, and now the front line is in full swing, and he does not take the account of the warehouse of the fifth theater, and is directly transferred from the 31st Army of the Gui Department. is also thinking about himself, or Qiu Qingquan and the 200th Division to show goodwill, so that the layers of goodwill can make his request for the Central Army more likely to succeed.

Zhang Wei was naturally not polite, he accepted it all, he first used these formal rifles to replace the Hanyang made brought by Tuan Ding in the team, as well as the previously captured 38 type, after the replacement there were still seven or eight leftovers, he gave these guns to the veterans, and replaced the relatively dilapidated medium formal rifles in their hands.

Six Czechs were added so that each squad had a light machine gun, and the soldiers from the security regiment had never seen such a good gun, and they drooled greedily.

This 82 mortar is the most valuable, first of all, it is a weapon that is lacking on the front line. And Zhang Wei's people are at best a company-level unit, a company-level unit is not equipped with curved firearms (mortars and grenadiers) according to the current establishment of 37 and 38 years, and the 82 mortars belong to the equipment of the battalion mortar platoon and the regimental mortar company, and it is really a great reward to give Zhang Wei a door.

Of course, this cannon was given to Dong Erli, and Dong Erli saw the cannon. Immediately arrange for the use and training of your soldiers. Originally, Dong Erli and his men did not have mortars, so they could only use the captured Japanese grenadiers to make up the numbers, but now with the artillery, the grenadiers are no longer needed.

Zhang Wei ordered the grenadiers to be sent to each infantry squad to operate and use the grenadiers trained by Dong Erli's people, seven grenadiers, which could not meet the needs of the four platoons, so Hao Zhong, He Kun, and Qiu Wei were each equipped with two in the three platoons, and the other sentence was given to Xu Yi's platoon to show that they were treated equally.

After such a reorganization, the order of the troops was as follows: Zhang Wei's company headquarters directly governed a command squad and a mortar squad, and the company had four infantry platoons, the first platoon commander, Qiu Wei, the second platoon commander, He Kun, the third platoon commander, Hao Zhong, the third platoon commander, and Xu Yi, the fourth platoon commander.

Each infantry platoon has three blind infantry squads, the platoon headquarters consists of two heralds, each infantry squad is equipped with a light machine gun, six of the nine infantry squads in the first, second, and third platoons are equipped with one grenadier canister, and the fourth platoon is equipped with grenadiers because there are many regiments of recruits.

The company had a total of 177 personnel, and the supporting firearms included 13 light machine guns, 82 mortars, and seven grenadiers. Plenty of ammunition, a bayonet for each person.

The configuration and firepower of this company level are not comparable to the national army and the Japanese army, Zhang Wei's large infantry company directly has more than the strength of a platoon of them, all in all, as long as Zhang Wei does not mess around, it is still very good.

Now with 82 mortars and grenadiers, Zhang Wei and they can still engage in infantry and artillery coordination, and this training is relatively difficult. The biggest problem is the observation and communication between the artillery and the infantry, the infantry must send signals to the artillery in a timely manner, and the artillery must open fire and cease fire in a timely manner.

"He Kun, what are you doing, hurry up and control the distance."

"Dong Erli, you're blind, didn't you see that the infantry charge distance hadn't arrived, and you still fired, you want to collaborate with the enemy."

"Qiu Wei, can we slow down a little more, your speed is exactly the opposite of He Kun."

was so noisy, Zhang Wei and the others didn't dare to practice with mortars, and directly took the grenadier to hit the grenade, after all, the grenadier hit the wrong one and still had some reaction time, and the accident happened directly on the mortar.

When the battle is about to go, it is enough to familiarize the soldiers with mortars, after all, they do not have the time, energy, and resources to carry out systematic infantry and artillery coordinated training.

The sound of explosions and gunshots sounded on the training ground all day and night, and these basic training subjects were repeated repeatedly, and in the end, it was the soldiers of the original regiment under Xu Yi, who shot more than seven out of ten shots, and as for those veterans, they fought like playing.

Now it is the soldiers who are strong and strong, and the military is flourishing, but the steel helmet is a bit insufficient, and the soldiers without the steel helmet can only take the 90 steel helmets that captured the devil to make up the number.

Zhang Wei is busy here day by day, and he sees that half a month is about to pass.

Zhang Wei is very idle here, but there is a danger outside, and the mountain rain is coming.

On February 17, 1938, the Japanese Second Army instructed the 10th Division to repel the Chinese troops near Wenshang and Jining west of the canal; The 5th Division advanced in the direction of Yishui with a detachment and cooperated with the 10th Division.

The 10th Division, which formed the Nagase Detachment, began a counterattack against the Chinese troops on the Jining side on the 17th, and on the 19th, the Japanese captured the town of Anju, and on the 22nd, broke through the position of Cao Fulin's 55th Army.

On the 25th, the Japanese broke through the Xinghua Village position, and on the 26th, they crossed the canal and occupied Jiaxiang. The defenders were forced to withdraw to the line of Xiangliji, Yangshanji, and Juye. However, Li Zongren deployed a large number of troops on this line and constantly flanked the enemy in the southern section of the northern section, so that the enemy army could not move south in this area, and temporarily stabilized the battle situation. The 5th Division formed the Katano Detachment and occupied Weixian on the 23rd, and then the detachment was incorporated into the Sakamoto Detachment to continue its southward advance, and on March 5, it occupied Tangtou.

At this point, the Japanese army officially began to carry out the task of attacking the east and west in the Xuzhou area. The main attacking force was organized into two detachments, Seya and Sakamoto, with the 21st Brigade of the Fifth Division and the 33rd Brigade of the 10th Regiment as the backbone, and reinforced special units such as artillery, engineers, baggage, and armored troops.

The two detachments swept and attacked from different directions in the area of Zaozhuang and Taierzhuang, where the Chinese army was stationed. The goal is obvious, to prepare for the assault on Xuzhou, and at the same time to greatly kill the living forces of the Chinese army

The Chinese side is also making great preparations, the Fifth Theater officially issued an order to block the enemy, and the Northwest Army and other units that had fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army strengthened their garrison, and tried to cooperate with other units to prevent the enemy from attacking.

The Battle of Taierzhuang kicked off

On the one hand, Li Zongren, commander of the theater, asked more troops to participate in the operation on the Jinpu Road, and his target was the 20th Army Corps of Tang Enbo in the Bozhou area, and on the other hand, the new 200th Division.

The problem of the Tang Army should not be big, the 200 division, his requirements are not high, as long as the 200 division's combat defense artillery is transferred to a few companies, this kind of thing is the most expensive, of course, if more comes, the better, the more the merrier.