Having said that, Hu Weidong was still a little surprised that Xu Shuai in this time and space was so reused by Taizu, and it must be known that although the strength of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation is still relatively weak, the Northeast is the most Haode region in China (even the Central Plains border region, which is changing with each passing day, will not be able to surpass the three eastern provinces in terms of total industrial output value until the next year. Moreover, the arable land is vast, the land is fertile, and the population is not too small, so the development potential of the Anti-Japanese Union is only below the 15th Group Army, and it is likely to become the second most powerful field army under the Red Party in the future. Hu Weidong also realized how huge the butterfly effect brought about by his own crossing was, because the 15th Group Army, or the Red Third Front Army system, was unprecedentedly powerful, so that Taizu could let go of several other systems and let them fully develop without worrying about hidden dangers that would affect national stability in the future

But Taizu still trusts Hu Weidong very much, otherwise he would not let Gao Yuan, who was once under Hu Weidong, serve as the secretary of the Northeast Bureau, and his status is even higher than that of Xu Shuai, the old chief. However, this also reflects Taizu's good knowledge, although Xu Shuai is very powerful in the use of troops, but his personality is very modest, and he will not be dissatisfied because of the former subordinates climbing on his head, this arrangement seems to have a clear division of labor, after which the plateau is responsible for organizing and building base areas and guerrilla warfare in the three eastern provinces, and Xu Shuai is in charge of the training and operations of field troops, so that the Northeast Anti-Japanese Federation soon ushered in the second opportunity for rapid development. The difference is that the roles of Zhang Hao and Hu Weidong are just opposite, and at the same time, military command at the campaign level is relatively rare, mainly under Su Yu, the deputy commander-in-chief of the 15 th Group Army, and the leaders of each army have considerable decision-making autonomy

As soon as Xu Xiangqian arrived, he made a decision that surprised everyone. He was in the spirit of "I'd rather wait for a gun than a gun." The idea of a large number of militia conscripted into the regular army, so that the total strength of the North Manchurian Anti-Japanese Federation increased to more than 250,000 within half a month, with an average of only one rifle for every 3 people, that is, almost one-third of the soldiers have no guns available (rotation during training, and the soldiers who have guns during the battle are sacrificed or injured and carried down, they have guns, and the Red Army has always been like this, but the ammunition of the Anti-Japanese Federation is relatively sufficient). And the quality of the troops has declined sharply. But what is even more unbelievable to the Anti-Japanese Federation is that Xu Xiangqian actually surrounded Qiqihar with such a force, the main reason is that the cold winter is coming, once the Songhua River is completely frozen, the Japanese army can directly cross the river to the north to attack the base of the Anti-Japanese Federation in Beiman, and the Anti-Japanese Federation is difficult to predict the enemy's main attack direction, so it is necessary to leave enough mobile troops, if the nail of Qiqihar in the ribs is not pulled out, it will become a huge threat at that time. And if you don't hit Qiqihar now. After entering the harsh winter in the Northeast, it is bound to be more difficult to win the Anti-Japanese Federation. What's more, who knows when the main forces of the Kwantung Army in South Manchuria will be freed up? As for the sudden conscription of so many militiamen into the regular army, on the one hand, it is to ensure that nothing goes wrong, and on the other hand, it is a long time of slack time for a long time anyway, and it would be a pity not to make good use of it

Speaking of which, it is also thanks to Gao Yuan who knows how powerful the old chief is in using troops and fully supports him unconditionally, otherwise it is really difficult to say whether the newcomer Xu Shuai can carry out a major military decision that is difficult for others to understand. On the other hand, the Japanese army did not know the details, and thought that the Anti-Japanese Union had received assistance from the Soviet Union and was able to expand its army on a large scale. For a while, everyone was shocked.

Since the main force of the Kwantung Army was still encircling and suppressing Yang Jingyu's troops in South Manchuria, and the Korean guerrillas were also involved in a large number of troops, the only target for the Japanese army in Qiqihar was the 23rd Division of the Japanese Kwantung Army, which was stationed west of the Daxing'an Mountains and spanning the four provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Chahar, and Rehe (Note 1). This division is said to be a division, but it also has the puppet Manchurian Xing'an Army (under its jurisdiction 4 garrison armies, mainly composed of Mongolians and other Mongolian-speaking ethnic minorities, but it belongs to the puppet Manchu army in terms of organization, and the Xing'an Division is a field force composed of elite soldiers selected from the Xing'an Army. and some puppet Mongolian troops were restrained by it. Even though the 23rd Division itself and the elite Puppet Manchurian Xing'an Division were not yet formed, the total strength still exceeded 100,000.

However, in order to guard against the powerful Soviet forces in the Far East, Lieutenant General Michitaro Komatsubara, the commander of the 23rd Division of the Japanese Kwantung Army, did not dare to advance eastward with the whole division, but only sent the 72nd Infantry Wing, which had the strongest combat effectiveness in the division. In addition, the first part of the puppet Manchurian Xing'an Division, and then a large number of soldiers were drawn from the four garrison armies of the puppet Manchurian Xing'an Army, and together with them, they were mixed into a special detachment with a strength of more than 30,000 troops, and under the command of Major General Da Neizi, the chief of staff of the 23rd Division, they crossed the Great Khing'an Mountains to rescue the besieged Qiqihar.

Although the Ouchi detachment has uneven troops, and its strength is far less than that of the Anti-Japanese Federation, Komatsubara Michitaro can only send so many people now, and secondly, the combat effectiveness of this unit is not as weak as it seems, on the contrary, it can even be said to be a strong force

Note 1: The 23rd Division belongs to the public security division in terms of establishment, but its combat effectiveness is very strong, not even inferior to some permanent divisions, and its backbone unit, the 72nd Infantry Wing, is one of the elite units of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Although the level of training and equipment may be inferior to that of permanent divisions, most of them are composed of unmarried young people, are deeply poisoned by militarism and have no family concerns, and their super will to fight is enough to make up for the lack of military quality and actual combat experience (in fact, some public security divisions and regiments have been tempered because of their high frequency of participation in wars, and the gap in this regard can almost be ignored). The lack of heavy firepower can be strengthened before the war, and with the low level of mechanization of the Japanese army and the mountainous terrain of China, many times the Japanese army cannot bring heavy artillery for the sake of mobility, and the equipment disadvantage of the security division is not obvious in this case.

It is precisely because of this that the combat effectiveness of some of Japan's third-grade divisions and regiments surpasses that of the second-grade ad hoc divisions, and even approaches or even reaches the level of permanent divisions. This kind of unit was also the first squadron during the Anti-Japanese War, but it didn't want to be opposed, and it was difficult to deal with, and there were few captures

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