The counteroffensive operation greatly surprised the devils, and at first it went smoothly, and naturally entered the second stage. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Taking advantage of the fact that the temperature was not too low and the land had not yet frozen, the New Seventh Army mobilized the people to completely destroy the railways and highways built by the devils while blocking and pinning down the actions of the Japanese troops in the county seat, thus achieving the goal of advancing the border guerrilla areas to the periphery of the county seat.

The Japanese army in Xuzhou mobilized the 54th Infantry Wing to Xiao County, which was originally planned to participate in the winter sweep, and the wing commander Takahashi Masao Osa.

At the same time, because Miyamoto only kept the county seat, but did not achieve any success, and the Xiao County garrison suffered heavy losses, Xuzhou was extremely dissatisfied with him, and issued an order to replace Miyamoto by Takahashi Masao, thus depriving him of command.

And even if Takahashi Masao took over the command, he cautiously launched the offensive and did not dare to stay away from the county seat. Obviously, the destruction of the Tanaka Infantry Regiment gave the devil a great shock and swept away most of the arrogance in his heart.

Moreover, the state of the battlefield at this time was very unfavorable for the Japanese army. The railways and highways that had been painstakingly built had been completely destroyed, most of the strongholds had been uprooted, the Eighth Route Army was in the north, and the New Seventh Army was in the west and south, and the guerrillas were still infiltrating and developing to the east of the county seat, and the patrols and vehicles on the road from Xuzhou to the county seat of Xiaoxian had already been attacked by mines and small groups of enemies.

As a result, Takahashi Masao, like Miyamoto, felt that the troops were insufficient, and frequently asked Xuzhou for more troops. At the same time, he first turned the main direction of attack to the north to deal with the poorly armed Eighth Route Army, and then strengthened the defense east of the county seat to ensure that communication with Xuzhou was not hindered.

At this point, the counteroffensive operations of the New Seventh Army came to an end for the time being. Although the battle was still ongoing, in the face of the Japanese army that was on the defensive, the New Seventh Army avoided a strong attack, but instead adopted flank attacks and intensified infiltration guerrilla attacks to reduce the pressure faced by the Eighth Route Army. The Japanese army was worried that it would be cut off by the New Seventh Army, so they did not dare to attack too far for the time being.

"Will the devil's winter sweep be halfway?" Yang Tianfeng sat in his temporary office in Mangshan Town, watching the staff officers mark the positions of the enemy and our armies on the map, and his thoughts flew around.

The counteroffensive of the New Seventh Army was only a partial operation, but the winter counteroffensive of the Kuomintang Army in 1939 was the first planned and large-scale nationwide counteroffensive operation in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the entire operation involved the troops of the Kuomintang Army in the 12 major theaters of the country (the 1st to 10th theaters, the Sulu and Jicha theaters), and a total of tens of thousands of Japanese troops were annihilated. In particular, the Kunlun Pass Campaign of the Fourth Theater and the counteroffensive operations of Baotou and Wuyuan by the Eighth Theater achieved the most significant results.

If you can delay the winter counteroffensive, and then rely on your own foresight, not to mention that you can take this opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the devils, at least the devils' sweep will be greatly contained, and it is very possible to cancel it.

And to contain the devil's sweep of the Yongcheng base area, Yuxi is a little beyond the reach of the whip, but Liao Lei in the Dabie Mountain base area can provide a lot of help.

This time it is to join forces with the Eighth Route Army to strike at the enemy in Xiao County, and then join forces with the 21st Group Army to launch an offensive in Huainan, Dingyuan, Fengyang and other places in eastern Anhui to attack the devil's other communication line - Jinpu Road, so as to mobilize the devil and make the winter sweep halfway, or even cancel it directly?

In addition to personal friendships, Yang Tianfeng believed that as long as the national government's major counteroffensive was ordered, the joint offensive of the New Seventh Army and the 21st Group Army would be 90 percent certain. Now, it's time to tilt supplies and strengthen friendly forces.

Weapons and materials alone are not enough, and Yang Tianfeng also has to increase the degree of support for the military industry of the 21st Group Army, which can also reduce his own pressure.

Up to now, with the full support of Liao Lei, the financial support of the Xingui Department, and the technical help of the Yongcheng Arsenal, the Dabie Mountain Base Area has built an explosives factory, a small steel-making plant, a bullet reloading plant and other production departments, which can manufacture flying mine canisters, mines, grenades, 60 mortars, 82 mortars, and related ammunition.

Of course, because of the gap in production technology, the mortars produced by the military industry department in Dabie Mountain are inferior to those of the Yongcheng Arsenal in terms of weight and performance. However, the problems of whether there are problems in the army have been solved, and they are still being continuously improved, and the level of equipment of the troops has been improved to a certain extent.

Light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, steel fists, Yang Tianfeng carefully made a list. These are all consumables, and he added a few machines and equipment in the back, I believe this is what Liao Lei needs more.

It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish. Buy with money and exchange things for things, how can it be more convenient and enjoyable to produce and manufacture by yourself.

Looking at the items on the list, Yang Tianfeng smiled, and couldn't help but feel a little proud.

The production and manufacture of weapons and ammunition is of course important, and the continuous progress of the Yongcheng Arsenal from outsourcing to being able to make its own machinery and equipment, from simple to complex, from rough to precise, is undoubtedly more exciting.

This means a significant increase in industrial production capacity, a significant increase in output, and a faster implementation of the explosive model in Yang Tianfeng's plan.

From recruitment to conscription, this is an inevitable path. The steady expansion of the army, the continuous opening of special training classes, the training of junior officers and veterans, and the attractiveness of military treatment are all the foreshadowing that Yang Tianfeng intends to make.

And that's not all.

Since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the government has implemented a compulsory military service system, that is, according to the armor protection system, the household registration and population are surveyed, and then the men of military service age who have reached the age of 18 to 45 are registered. Every year, the chief of the security department uses a lottery method to decide who will join the army.

The basic principle of the lottery is "three to draw one, five to draw two, and the only child is exempt". However, whether a man is of the right age, whether he is healthy or not, whether he is an only child, who will be a soldier after the lottery is drawn, and so on, is almost all decided by the township, the security chief, and the army recruitment officer. Special power breeds corruption, and the recruitment process of the national army can be described as rotten and corrupt.

Since corruption is rampant in the process of conscription, and the children and relatives of wealthy officials and eunuchs evade military service in large numbers, they have to use the method of arresting and pulling strong men from poor families to make up for the shortfall. Later, "arresting and pulling strong soldiers" even became the main method of conscription in most areas.

The fate of the strong men who were forcibly conscripted into the army was even worse, they were subjected to all kinds of inhuman abuse, and millions of strong men died on the way to the army and in the training camp before they could go to war. Even in many areas, less than 20 percent of the total number of strong men who can reach the front line in the end. Even if there are deserters on the road, the death rate is between 40 and 50 percent, which is a staggering figure.

As Bai Xiude said: "The Chinese are not afraid to work hard for the country, and the people's patriotism has never diminished." It's just that they all know what the Zhuangding camp is like. ”

It is precisely because of these kinds of bad habits that Yang Tianfeng must be patient and not impatient. The honesty and efficiency of government officials, the impartiality of grassroots officials, the ability to convey information to the public, and the detailed and accurate household registration must all meet the conditions before he dares to change his recruitment to recruitment, so as not to make it a harsh government with boiling public resentment.

The targets to be conscripted will first be selected from the already universally established Joint Defense Force organization. These half-soldier, half-peasant joint defense team members (similar to militia) experience training for a short period of time every day, but the span is long. In a few months, the initial military skills can still be mastered. This reduces the amount of time currently recruited recruits have to go through intensive training, perhaps in a month, or even less, before they can be added to the army and become soldiers.

So far, there are as many as 200,000 of them. To put it mildly, a quarter of them meet the conscription criteria, that is, 50,000 or 60,000, which is more than the entire number of people in the New Seventh Army now!

In other words, after such a long period of foreshadowing and preparation, Yang Tianfeng has been able to expand the existing force to nearly 100,000 or even more in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, it's relatively easy to explode, and there is a gap in weapons. But the war zone was pulled, captured and repaired, and the Crouching Tiger Gang Gun Factory produced three or four thousand shotguns per month. It won't take too long for the weapons and equipment to be complete.

If according to the standards of other anti-Japanese armed forces, holding a broadsword, a spear, an earthen gun, or issuing two grenades is considered a soldier, then the old guns and unicorns used by the joint defense forces are brought in as they are, and they can be called troops.

The prospects are bright, although there are still difficulties in the short term, and it is necessary to delay or deal with the sweep of devils. However, the structure has been formed, the military, political, and economic work has been rolled out in an all-round way and is on the right track, the foundation is solid and stable, and the development is also orderly and rapid.

Yang Tianfeng raised his head, stared at the battle map that had marked the situation of the enemy and the enemy, and slowly narrowed his eyes.

……………

Blue sky, white clouds, intoxicatingly quiet.

The plane soared briskly through the air, flew over the yellow fields, skimmed the shining river, circled twice over the city, flew some distance east, and then turned around and flew south along the railway line.

This is a Japanese-style two-seat reconnaissance aircraft, and no one will have doubts. Unless you look at it at a close distance on land, you will find that the weapon under its belly is not a 7.7mm machine gun, but a 12.7mm heavy machine.

Gao Fengge skillfully maneuvered the plane and maintained its altitude, while the observer behind him held a telescope and looked towards the ground, recording the reconnaissance.

"Sir, it seems that the enemy in Suxian has increased its troops?" Flight student Li Keyong said with some uncertainty.

Gao Fengge was noncommittal, and only after a while did he speak: "Reconnoiter again on the return trip, I will fly lower." ”

It is not only a reconnaissance plane, but also a training plane, and with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun and piercing explosive bombs and incendiary bombs, it can also defeat the reconnaissance plane of the devil. This Nakajima reconnaissance plane, which was the first to be owned by the New Seventh Army, can be said to be capable of everything. Before the counterattack on Xiao County, Gao Fengge and others flew planes to reconnoiter the enemy's situation twice, providing accurate information for the army's movements. (To be continued.) )