Sources of heavy weapons

A month passed in a blink of an eye, and unexpectedly, hundreds of thousands of troops of the East China Field Army completely occupied the entire northern Jiangsu region. As General Matsui Ishine thought, he did not take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the Japanese Central China Front was empty of troops to mobilize heavy troops and go south to Nanjing.

Instead, with Huai'an City as the administrative center, in the shortest possible time, the administrative organs of the base areas in various parts of northern Jiangsu will be organized, and the entire northern Jiangsu region will be turned into a base area of the East China Field Army, a real source of materials and soldiers, when the Japanese Central China Front is not yet capable of counterattacking.

Huai'an City, after a month-long construction of tens of thousands of troops, in the blink of an eye, has changed from a ruin to the most prosperous administrative center in the entire northern Jiangsu region. In the General Headquarters of the East China Field Army, Commander-in-Chief Liu Hua, Political Commissar, Chief of Staff Zuo Quan, and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Wang Zhen were gathering in the small conference room of the headquarters to hold the first meeting since the establishment of the base area in northern Jiangsu.

"Political commissar, chief of staff, deputy commander Wang. In the blink of an eye, a month has passed. Looking outside, our base area in northern Jiangsu has also undergone earth-shaking changes in this month's time. In civil affairs, I believe that with the political commissar in charge here, there will definitely be no problems. Therefore, the theme of this meeting is still combat troops. As the President once said, 'Power comes out of the barrel of a gun'. Only when we have a strong armed force can we have sufficient ability to defend our base areas and defend the fruits of our victory. ”

Immediately afterwards, Liu Hua's words changed sharply, and he asked Deputy Commander Wang Zhen who was directly opposite: "Deputy Commander Wang, in this month's time, you are all responsible for the reorganization of the troops. You should first inform us of the specific reorganization and combat effectiveness of the various units at present..."

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief...."In reply, Wang Zhen had already taken out a document that had already been prepared and read it.

"The commander-in-chief, the political commissar, the chief of staff....the situation is like this, after a month of reorganization, the total strength of our East China Field Army has changed from 100,000 at the beginning to 220,000 today..."

"Wait a minute...."As soon as Wang Zhen spoke, Liu Hua waved his hand, interrupting him, and then asked with a suspicious expression.

"Lao Wang, as far as I know, after the First Battle of Huai'an, plus all the directly subordinate troops and logistics troops, the total strength of our East China Field Army is less than 90,000 people. The strength of 90,000 troops, even with the addition of 40,000 imperial troops captured on the battlefield. The maximum number of troops was 130,000. Where did you come from, the remaining 90,000 people..."

"Hehe, commander-in-chief, this, you have underestimated the support of the people in the base area for our party and our army...."As he spoke, the corners of Deputy Commander Wang Zhen's mouth were filled with a hint of excitement.

"Since the troops, in accordance with your orders, have carried out a major clean-up of the expatriates, Han Jiān lackeys, and landlords in the entire base area. The huge base area will be completely new immediately. The common people who have been redistributed to land and houses can be said to applaud in the face of the tax policy of the government in our base area, which cannot be lower. The level of support for our party has also reached an unprecedented level... In the face of such a good situation, we duly threw out the news that the troops were about to be expanded to defend the fruits of victory in the base areas..."

What is unthinkable is that in less than half a month, more than 90,000 young and middle-aged people in the small base area took the initiative to sign up for the army. Finally, if we were not worried about the loss of a large number of young and middle-aged people in the base areas, which would have an adverse impact on the development of the base areas, we would have taken the initiative to stop recruiting soldiers. Maybe in this month's time, our total strength will become a staggering 300,000 men..."

After a short period of contemplation, Commander-in-Chief Liu Hua, who had always had in his heart the idea of "soldiers are not too many," immediately discovered that the blind expansion of the army might have a huge impact. Then, frowning at his brow, he continued to ask rhetorically.

"200,000 troops, the total strength has doubled compared to the original....one is not good, it will have a very huge impact on the combat effectiveness of the troops....Lao Wang, how did you arrange these 200,000 people?"

Regarding Liu Hua's question, Deputy Commander Wang Zhen seems to have been prepared for a long time. As soon as his words fell, as the supreme person in charge of the reorganization of the troops, he replied confidently.

"Commander-in-Chief, don't worry. We thought about this question before the expansion of the troops...."

"In order not to affect the overall combat effectiveness of the troops, let these recruits, in the shortest possible time, form combat effectiveness. It took us a week to carry out a major reorganization of the whole army. “

"Requirements: Each infantry regiment guarantees a combat strength of a thousand people. Among them are half veterans, half recruits ....each infantry division, three and a half thousand people. There were 12,000 men in each corps and 40,000 men in each corps. Together with all the directly subordinate units of the Field Army, the total strength of the entire East China Field Army has reached the current 220,000 men..."

"A veteran with a recruit ... If you make this arrangement, I will be much more relieved....How about the troops being doubled all of a sudden, is there any big gap in terms of weapons and ammunition?" Liu Hua's nervous heart had just been put down, and another question came to mind, and then he asked.

"In terms of light weapons, the original weapons of our East China Field Army, coupled with the capture of the Huai'an Campaign, and the capture of the Japanese puppet local troops in the entire northern Jiangsu region, are enough for us to equip the whole army. In terms of ammunition, with our existing reserves, we can also sustain at least two large-scale campaigns. But..."Wang Zhen said.

"But what?" Liu Hua's brows furrowed again, and he asked.

"Commander-in-chief, commissar, chief of staff. As you know, since the formation of the East China Field Army, the troops are very short of heavy weapons, and this decisive battle of Huai'an said that although some mountain artillery was captured. However, these mountain runs, for the existing artillery weaving of our army, cannot even reach five percent. More importantly, there is almost no heavy artillery used at the corps level in our army. ”

"In this Huai'an Campaign, the reason why my Seventh Corps suffered so much loss. The most important reason for this is that it has suffered losses in the enemy's heavy firepower. And in this battle, we faced only the Japanese garrison brigade equipped with mountain running, and we paid such a big price. I can't imagine what a huge price we will pay next time we face a Japanese field division equipped with heavy artillery. Thinking of the losses suffered by the troops in this battle in terms of insufficient artillery fire, Wang Zhen's face was sad.

Of course, as the deputy commander, he still reacted at the first time, and then continued to speak: "Commander-in-chief, political commissar, chief of staff." In any case, we cannot afford to let the troops suffer such a big loss in the next battle. Therefore, I, Wang Zhen, strongly urged the headquarters to find a way to equip the troops with a batch of heavy weapons. At least artillery support at the army level must be ensured...."

Obviously, Wang Zhen's answer deeply touched Liu Hua's heart. As soon as Wang Zhen's words fell, Liu Hua said very approvingly:

"Deputy Commander Wang is right, heavy weapons, and now it seems that they are definitely a great weapon for the troops to break through the combat effectiveness in front of them. I think that at the beginning, when we were in the Northeast Field Army, we relied on the advantage of heavy firepower in our hands to completely annihilate one or two elite divisions of the Kwantung Army, and the losses would not be too great. And now, just in the face of a few local garrison brigades of the Japanese army, it has paid a huge price, and it has not been completely annihilated. In general, this is what the gap between heavy weapons is caused ...

Just when Deputy Commander Wang Zhen thought that Liu Hua in front of him would immediately agree with his opinion. Liu Hua changed his words, followed closely, and said helplessly.

"But, Wang, you let me equip you with heavy weapons now. To tell the truth, there is no ....although, the Northeast Field Army has a sufficient number of heavy weapons. However, because of the long distance and the lack of sufficient air power, there was no way to transport it. As for the heavy weapons produced by the Taiyuan Arsenal in North China, the first to be equipped was the Eighth Route Army... So"

"But, commander-in-chief, should we let the troops fight under the enemy's artillery fire, and let the enemy's artillery fire rage on our positions..."Wang Zhen continued to ask with an unwilling face.

"Of course not...."Liu Hua replied in the affirmative.

"When did you see me Liu Hua, I suffered a loss in front of the enemy. I promise that as long as I am Liu Hua here, I will not let hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the East China Field Army fight under enemy fire...."

"There's no way from the superiors, then we'll find a way in the hands of the little devils....Chief of Staff, record an order immediately."

"The Special Operations Division, all the intelligence departments under the East China Field Army, immediately reconnoiter the various artillery units of the Central China Front of the Japanese Army. At the same time, it is clear that the source of the weapons and ammunition of the Central China Front of the Japanese Army...."Liu Hua decisively ordered. At the same time, a thick murderous aura also appeared on Liu Hua's face for the first time.

"Commander-in-chief, you are fighting the idea of the little devil artillery unit...", the chief of staff Zuo Quan, who had finished recording the order, asked thoughtfully and rhetorically.

"Fighting the idea of little devil artillery, this is only the first step. After all, seizures cannot be carried out for long. There is only one way to develop the troops in the long run, and that is to produce them themselves. So, order all the intelligence departments to reconnoiter the entire Central China region, the location of the Japanese arsenal....'" Liu Hua replied.