When I came to the canteen of the headquarters, dozens of cadres were already waiting there. When Liu Hua walked in, everyone greeted him one after another, and after everyone sat down, the political commissar stood up, first of all, to celebrate the victory of the Zhengtai Railway attack and the battle of Xiangtangpu, and secondly, to welcome Comrade Zuo Quan, deputy chief of general staff of the Eighth Route Army, to the Jindong revolutionary base area to guide the work

Amidst bursts of applause, dinner began. Due to the large amount of materials captured in the Battle of Xiangtangpu and the long-term reserves of the Reading Brigade, the houses in the Jindong base area are now very rich. Therefore, the dinner prepared for this celebration was very rich, with canned beef, pork, and mule and horse meat, which made the cadres who had been fighting outside for nearly a month couldn't help but keep their saliva and ate it in a big gulp, regardless of the strange eyes of others.

Chief of Staff Zuo looked at the big bowl of meat in front of him, and cast a puzzled look at Guan Xiangying, the political commissar next to him. You know, even at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, it is impossible to see such good and sumptuous food

Seeing that the chief of staff was puzzled by the food on the table, he immediately understood why? As a revolutionary cadre born in the old Red Army, he knew that it was wrong and resolutely put an end to waste, and he also knew the current living conditions of various other troops, so he hurriedly leaned over.

"Chief of Staff Zuo, this time the troops won the battle and captured a large amount of supplies, so I discussed with the commander, the troops will hold a general meeting dinner tonight, and all the comrades outside can eat" Political Commissar Guan Xiangying hurriedly explained After listening to the political commissar's explanation, the chief of staff's ugly face became better, and began to talk and laugh with everyone, and at the same time, he looked forward to the results of the two battles in Jindong and tonight's meeting

The dinner was very busy and smooth, and everyone who had finished the dinner did not become lazy because they had just finished eating, but still maintained the temperament of a soldier, and walked into the conference room of the headquarters in turn.

First of all, the political commissar announced the agenda of the meeting, and secondly, Secretary Xiao Ping, as the top leader of the local government, introduced the construction of the base area in the past month. Through the introduction of Xiao Ping's notice, Liu Hua learned that in the month since he set out on the expedition, the people's livelihood work in the base area has made great progress. First of all, the scope of the base area has been expanded by more than a dozen villages in the course of the garrison regiment's training. Second, great progress has been made in the establishment of the militia in the base areas, and in each of the dozens of villages in the old areas, a militia contingent has been established, with a company for the largest number and a platoon for the few, and all of them have received basic training

What made Liu Hua happiest was that during the month he went on the expedition, the devil once came to a squadron to sweep up, and in order to retaliate against the Eighth Route Army, he killed all the people in a village. In order to eliminate the influence and arouse the enthusiasm of the common people to resist the rebellion, almost all the garrison regiments and the guard units of the headquarters were dispatched, and after bloody battles, they completely annihilated this group of devils and avenged the dead people.

The most important impact of this incident was not the annihilation of the enemy, but that after this tragedy, the common people in the base area no longer believed in the deceptive propaganda of the army, and followed the Eighth Route Army one after another. The people who used to oppose the Eighth Route Army's excavation of tunnels are now resolutely supported, and the hearts of the people in the base area have finally been condensed by the Reading Force Brigade.

The so-called popular will is available, in the case of the enthusiasm of the people, the excavation work of the tunnel can be said to be progressing rapidly, most of the villages have completed their own prescribed tunnel network, and even some places have made certain improvements according to their own experience and exploration

After listening to Comrade Xiao Ping's speech, Liu Hua was very excited. If the tunnels in the village are really available, then in the face of this encirclement and suppression by the devils, the base area will definitely lose very little, on the contrary, the devils will definitely pay the biggest price for their actions

Then Wang Daoguang, director of the logistics department, introduced the logistics situation of the troops, and now that all the land reclaimed by the troops has been sown, they are waiting for harvest. And there is a certain storage of logistical materials

The most important of these is the great achievements of the arsenal under the Logistics Department. Comrade Liu Bo of the arsenal made use of the existing equipment and the steel rails brought back by Regiment Commander Sun to process and manufacture a set of precision machine tools, which can not only be used to reload and produce bullets, but can even be used to produce small-caliber shells if there is a certain amount of technology.

The research work on yellow explosives has made a breakthrough in the few days after his expedition, and now it is being produced in small batches, and there is a certain amount of reserves, under the special explanation of the commander, after a month of production, the arsenal has now stockpiled more than 3,000 stone mines, iron-shelled mines, but due to the limitation of explosives, the ammunition of the thunderbolt has not been produced, and the original stock remains unchanged

After listening to Director Wang's words, Liu Hua expressed a certain degree of affirmation, and praised the personnel of the arsenal, especially the staff who developed the machine tools, and even said that he would give credit to the personnel of the arsenal

However, as the deputy chief of general staff who was an observer, his face was full of surprise, and when he first heard about the construction of the base area, he was not surprised; as a cadre from the original Soviet area, the chief of staff knew the benefits of establishing a militia, but after listening to the report of the chief of the logistics department, in addition to being shocked or shocked, he must know that now the ammunition of the entire Eighth Route Army still relies on seizure and distribution by the Kuomintang, while the Reading Brigade has the ability to produce ammunition from Reading Force, and the reserve of ammunition is so large

After Liu Hua's words were finished, the next thing was that Director He Tie of the Recruit Training Department stood up

"Report to the commanders, chiefs, due to the expansion of the base area, within a month, we have recruited a total of more than 1,800 qualified soldiers inside the base area and outside the base area through various means, of which the Kuomintang stragglers have formed two companies, and all of them have passed the examination, and there is no bad behavior, the soldiers of the two companies have been handed over to the garrison regiment for actual combat training, and the remaining 1,460 people have all received basic training at the recruit training office, and can be supplemented into the garrison regiment at any time

After listening to He Tie's words, Liu Hua, who was annoyed by the lack of personnel in this campaign, finally relieved that the troops could return to full strength

"Comrade Li Qing, chief of staff, will introduce the results of the Xiangtangpu Battle and the losses of our army." The words of the political commissar woke up Liu Hua, who was thinking, and the cadres below, after listening to the words of the political commissar, some were happy, some were excited, and some were full of expectations

Li Qing stood up and picked up the report in his hand: "Comrades, the Battle of Xiangtangpu is the largest battle that our army has fought since the beginning of the war, and at the same time, it is also the battle in which the enemy has been annihilated the most. However, this battle was also the one in which our Reading Brigade suffered the most losses. In this campaign, there are many things that we should carry forward, and at the same time, there are many things that should be corrected. Therefore, comrades must sum up this battle well after they go back, and seriously reflect on it, if we still encounter the same battle, can we fight better" After speaking, Li Qing looked at the silent crowd, and then said, "First of all, I want to inform you of the results of this battle: The entire Xiangtangpu Campaign, including ambush warfare and blocking warfare, we eliminated a total of 2,640 devils, including a total of 215 vehicles that destroyed devils transporting supplies, which dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of devils. Favorable support was provided to friendly forces on the front line and to our units of the Eighth Route Army.

In this battle, we captured a total of 13 heavy machine guns, 35 light machine guns, 38-type rifles, a total of 1,526 pistols, 10 mountain guns, 8 mortars, 40 grenadiers, and a total of 120 vehicles of devil materials and ammunition, including a large number of rifle machine gun bullets and grenades. Artillery shells., among which there are also a large number of medicines, food, etc., which are in short supply in our troops, and most importantly, the commander led everyone to successfully capture the devil's 5 cars, that is to say, from today onwards, the first automobile company in our Jindong base area will be established

After listening to the chief of staff's words, everyone spontaneously applauded, and the two people who applauded the most belonged to Wang Daoguang, director of the logistics department, and the deputy chief of the general staff. The reason why Wang Daoguang was so excited was because all the seized materials had to be transferred to his logistics office, and most importantly, the first automobile company of the Reading Force Brigade should be established, and perhaps this automobile company was also the first automobile company of the Eighth Route Army. The current director of the logistics department looked at the eyes of the commander Liu Hua, and his face was full of admiration when he was excited

And the deputy chief of the general staff is because of excitement, such a great result, if the whole country is reported, it will definitely cause a shock again, more than 2,000 devils, basically twice as many devils as the devils eliminated in the Pingxingguan Battle, more importantly, the troops have captured 120 cars of materials, so many materials, for the Eighth Route Army, which lacks guns and ammunition, it is tantamount to sending charcoal in the snow. Before coming to Jindong, the commanders of the three main divisions all said that the reading brigade in Jindong had sufficient ammunition and sufficient supplies, and they didn't believe it very much, but now they heard that so many materials had been captured, and now they finally believe it, if there is no sufficient ammunition and materials as a guarantee, can the reading brigade eliminate so many devils?

However, at this moment, a question arose in the mind of the chief of staff, how great should the loss of the troops be if so many devils are eliminated! You must know that in the Pingxingguan ambush battle, the losses of the enemy and us were basically equal, thinking of this, the chief of staff looked at Li Qing, who continued to read.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on himself again, Li Qing then read: "Although we have achieved an unprecedented victory, the price we have paid is also very huge, after a day of fighting, our army has lost a total of 486 people, a total of 183 people who have been seriously injured and lost their combat effectiveness, a total of 126 people who can recover from serious injuries, and a total of 680 people who have been slightly injured but do not affect their combat effectiveness.

Among them, the cavalry battalion lost 83 people, the second regiment lost two companies in combat effectiveness, the third regiment lost two and a half companies, the new second regiment lost one battalion of troops, the new third regiment lost two companies, and each department needed to replenish a total of 800 people

In this battle, our army consumed a total of 130,000 rounds of ammunition for rifle machine guns and 240 shells. Grenades are consumed in total

(To be continued)