[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 116: Do it yourself

After a week of discussion and study in the Suicha base area, the plan for expanding the 7th Independent Division was finally released.

The anti-Japanese base area behind the enemy line was not canceled because of the number of the 7th Independent Division, the base area still existed, and the 7th Independent Division was just an armed force in the base area.

According to the regulations of the Nationalist Government, the 7th Independent Division has two brigades, namely the 7th Independent Brigade and the 12th Independent Brigade, each of which has three regiments.

However, Ma Zheng felt that this kind of establishment was very problematic and did not conform to the current situation of the Duqi Brigade, so after some discussion, Ma Zheng decided to turn the two brigades into three brigades, namely the Duqi Brigade, the Dudu 12th Brigade, and the Cavalry Brigade. In addition, the division headquarters directly under the artillery regiment, cavalry regiment, engineer regiment, guard regiment, special operations brigade, automobile transport team, and field hospital.

Ma Zheng is the commander of the 7th Independent Division, Yun Jian is the political commissar, Huang Sicheng is the chief of staff, Wang Hansen is the logistics minister, and the position of propaganda minister is temporarily vacant.

Huang Bingyan, commander of the 7th Independent Brigade, and Wu Xiuda, deputy brigade commander, have jurisdiction over the 200th and 201st regiments, cavalry battalions, artillery battalions, guard battalions, and engineer battalions directly under the brigade headquarters.

Chen Xudong, commander of the 12th Independent Brigade, and Lu Ming, deputy brigade commander, have jurisdiction over the 202nd and 203rd regiments, cavalry battalions, artillery battalions, guard battalions, and engineer battalions directly under the brigade headquarters.

Ma Desheng, commander of the cavalry brigade, and Zhou Lieyang, deputy commander of the cavalry, have the first and second cavalry regiments under their jurisdiction.

Wang Zhan is the commander of the cavalry regiment directly under the division, Li Mingda, the head of the artillery regiment, Xue Haibing, the former deputy commander of the engineer regiment, Xu Hu, the head of the guard regiment, Hu Zhiqiang, the captain of the automobile transport team, Tie Niu, the captain of the special operations brigade, and Li Haiyan, the director of the field hospital.

Although the reorganization plan came out, the shortcomings of the Seventh Division's lack of military and political cadres were all exposed, and it took only half a year to expand the unit from company to division, which was unprecedentedly fast. Many cadres were grassroots officers a few months ago, such as Huang Sicheng and Wang Hansen, but now they have become divisional leaders. What's even more outrageous is that people like Wu Xiuda and others, who were just a group of bandits without any military qualities before, have now become brigade-level officers.

This made Ma Zheng very worried about whether the ability of these people could control such a large number of troops, you must know that any brigade of the Seventh Division, two infantry regiments, plus four directly subordinate battalions, the total strength of more than 6,000 people. With such a large force to be led by a group of people who have not undergone formal military education, to be honest, Ma Zheng has no bottom in his heart.

Although during this time he often gathered these officers for training, telling them how to train and how to fight. But after all, the time is too short, and Ma Zheng himself doesn't know how much these people can learn, and it is really a risk to rashly put them in such an important position now.

But Ma Zheng can't help it, the expansion of the army is too fast, and there are really not many people available on his hands. Even so, there is still a shortage of officers in all units, but fortunately, now that the Japanese army has been beaten, it will not launch an attack on the Suicha base area for a while and a half, and he still has a period of time to train and adjust personnel.

Along with the expansion plan, two other orders were issued, the first of which was a conscription order. Although not many soldiers were killed in this battle, more than 4,000 were wounded, and more than 5,000 people were killed in the battle, leaving only a little more than 11,000 out of 17,000.

According to Ma Zheng's expansion plan, the full strength of the division was 22,000, and even if you count the wounded, there is still a vacancy of six or seven thousand. Although the Nationalist Government decided to mobilize two regiments from Sun Weiru's department and assign them to his command, these two regiments are just flowers in the moon mirror in the water, and they may arrive when they will arrive!

Therefore, Ma Zheng issued conscription orders to all counties, and began to open military stations in various places in the base areas to recruit aspiring young people to join the army.

In view of the need for a large number of officers to fill the gaps in the troops, and in order to give all soldiers and grassroots officers a chance, Ma Zheng ordered the selection of grassroots officers to be carried out throughout the division. The selection conditions include three aspects, one is personal performance, and the remaining two are military literacy and cultural level.

As soon as these two orders were issued, the entire Suicha base area suddenly became lively, and the seven counties controlled by the Duqi Division, Jining, Chayouqianqi, Fengzhen, Xinghe, Shangdu, Shangyi, and Zhuozi were full of recruiting stations set up by the troops, and as long as they were young people with clean backgrounds, they could join the army.

With the continuous achievements of the Duqi Division, coupled with the previous military parade and the memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers, the reputation of the Duqi Division in the southern area of Chanan was completely opened, so when the public conscription order of the Duqi Division was issued, a long queue formed in front of each recruiting station.

At the same time, the soldiers of the veteran units also rejoiced, and as soon as the order for the selection of grass-roots officers was issued, the soldiers were eager to try and actively apply to their respective superiors, and in less than two days, the division headquarters received 987 applications for registration.

At the same time, some of the aspiring young people transferred from Yan'an this time also hope to go directly to the front line to fight devils, and many of them were commanders and fighters of the Red Army before. After knowing that the Seventh Division was going to select grass-roots officers, 200 of the 500 people signed up.

After receiving these application forms, the division headquarters immediately organized a jury composed of division commanders, political commissars, chief of staff, and other high-level officials to evaluate and interview the applicants. After two days and three assessments, a total of 427 soldiers passed the assessment and became reserve officers of the Seventh Division.

Subsequently, Ma Zheng gathered these 427 reserve officers together with all the officers of the division and conducted all-round intensive training for them.

Ma Zheng's idea is very simple, since the above can't solve this problem, then he will solve it himself. Do your own thing, do it yourself, and have enough food and clothing.

Anyway, the officers of this era were not as picky as later generations, and they did not need to be highly educated, nor did they need to know much professional knowledge, as long as they were literate, and at the same time had a strong physique and extraordinary courage.

Just when Ma Zheng was tinkering in the base area, the headquarters of the Mongolian army and the North China Front also completed the strategic arrangement, and the two sides decided to jointly send troops to attack the second war zone, forcing Yan Xishan to hand over the body of Liannuma Pan.

On May 22, 1938, 11 days after the end of the Battle of Zhangjiakou, the Mongolian army consisted of the 26th Infantry Brigade, the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, the 5th Cavalry Division of the Puppet Mongolian Army, and the 1st Cavalry Brigade.

At the same time, more than 10,000 people from the 109th Division and the 1st Division of the 20th Division of the Japanese Army, with the cooperation of aircraft and artillery, divided the troops into two routes, attacking Qingxu and Fenyang all the way, and the troops were directed at Luliang. The other way is to attack Lou Fu out of the ancient Jiaojiao, with the intention of pincering the mountain where the headquarters of the Second World War Zone is located.

When the Japanese army attacked, the headquarters of the commander of the Second World War Zone naturally became nervous, and Yan Xishan, the commander of the Second War Zone, immediately convened the commanders of all group armies to discuss the strategy of retreating from the enemy, and soon the battle plan was formulated.

Since the Japanese army had only more than 20,000 people in the three-way army, the headquarters of the Second War Zone mobilized more than 70,000 people from 3 armies and 8 divisions to fight against it. In view of the heavy losses suffered by Ma Zheng's troops in the last battle, the Second War Zone did not issue any combat orders to Ma Zheng's troops.

However, the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army stationed in the northwest of Shanxi received an order from the Second War Zone, requiring them to cooperate with Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army and Zhao Chengcheng's troops to intercept the Japanese army on the front line of Shenchi and Ningwu.