Section 247 The thirty-second year of the Republic of China

Time flies, time flies! In the blink of an eye, the stone and the independent regiment have been in Liucheng County for nearly two years, such a long rest, such a long period of peaceful days, is not imagined by all the soldiers of the independent regiment, including the stone, at the beginning, in the stone expectation, to be able to stay here for a year, it is already a luxury.

However, who doesn't want to live a peaceful life? Who wants to go to war? To be able to live peacefully in this place, Stone was naturally very happy, and he even wished that his life would go on like this, and that he would never go to war with his brothers again. However, this is really just a luxury, because these days, he has already felt the coming of war from the documents transmitted by the military department, and he has felt the posture of the mountain rain coming and the wind filling the building.

In fact, when they were resting and training here in Liucheng, the fighting in various places did not stop. At the end of the 30th year of the Republic of China, the Japanese attack on Changsha ended in a crushing defeat. Although the Japanese army reached the outside of Changsha as the last time, the troops of the Ninth Theater, which had already suffered a defeat, were ashamed and brave. General Xue Yue once again offered his mastery of the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" to meet the enemy, but this time, the secrecy of communication and liaison between the various units of the Ninth Theater was very good, and it was never overheard by devils. Some careless Japanese troops immediately plunged headlong into the trap of Changsha and could not extricate themselves, and several divisions were once besieged in the surrounding areas of Changsha and could not move. In other words, it was a national army, and under such circumstances, it would be difficult to escape the doom of the entire army, but the equipment of the Japanese army was advanced after all, and through the continuous airdrop of supplies and reinforcements by the air force, they really broke out of the encirclement. According to statistics, the loss of the Japanese 11th Army was about 30,000, which was the largest loss in several encounters with the Ninth Theater in recent years.

Since then, the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army have never dared to face the troops of the 9th Theater of Operations, and they seem to have been frightened all of a sudden. Places such as Xiangbei and Jiangbei also began to calm down at that time, and even places such as Guibei, where the 74th Army was located, were in a relatively safe state because of the existence of front-line barriers.

However, although the 11th Army did not dare to attack the defensive area of the Ninth Theater for the time being and reined in its edge, the battle in other places was still being fought. In the 31st year of the Republic of China, the Battle of Jinburma Road, the Battle of Zhejiang-Jiangxi and other battles were also one after another, in addition to the battles on the land of China, the Japanese army launched an offensive against Southeast Asian countries and the Southwest Pacific at the end of the 30th year of the Republic of China.

According to intermittent news from all sides, the Japanese army's offensive in Southeast Asia can be called devastating, and in just half a year, it occupied several countries in Southeast Asia and conquered a place as large as the Chinese region occupied today. This was definitely an extremely terrible result, because in this way, the Japanese army was tantamount to sandwiching the Nationalist troops from the east and west. It's just that the area in the middle is too big, and there is still room for tossing and turning. Especially in the southwest direction, because there are several natural hazards, there is no need to worry about being broken through by the Japanese army in a short time.

Of course, the past two years have not been all bad news. The great victories of the Japanese army in Southeast Asia and other places were in stark contrast to the successive defeats in the Pacific. In February of the 31st year of the Republic of China, when the Japanese army attacked the Australian defenders stationed on New Britain Island and the port of Rabaul, they lost one aircraft carrier and the other was heavily damaged, although the Japanese also sank an American aircraft carrier, but the outcome of the battle was that the Japanese army was the first to withdraw from the battle. This was the first defeat of the Japanese army in the Pacific Theater, and it also showed that the Japanese army was not as invincible as the legend said.

By April of the 31st year of the Republic of China, Allied American planes could take turns bombing Tokyo, Japan, and the base camp of the Japanese army suffered heavy losses. Such an attack naturally became unbearable for the Japanese army, and the Japanese navy then gathered forces to attack Midway Island in the hope of inflicting heavy damage on the Allied forces here. However, the result of the battle was that the Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, and more than 330 aircraft. This battle was Japan's first crushing defeat after launching the Pacific War, and it also lost its air superiority in the Pacific War.

When the news came, the land of China was jubilant, and although such a great victory was not fought by itself, this battle undoubtedly greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the Japanese troops. From the beginning of the Battle of Songhu, the troops of the Nationalist Army have always suffered heavy losses under the bombardment of the heavy artillery of the devil's planes, especially after the air force units of the other side have been completely annihilated, the planes in the sky have become a pain in the hearts of the officers and men of the Nationalist Army. How can you not be happy that so many planes have been lost in one battle? Of particular importance was the fact that the Japanese air force and navy, having lost so many troops, could no longer stop the threat in the Pacific, and Allied planes could already bomb the entire Japanese island and deliver devastating strikes on the Japanese mainland.

Such an offensive undoubtedly allowed the officers and men of the national army to see the dawn of victory, see hope, and the mood of the War of Resistance also rose to the peak. With the division of Allied forces in the Pacific and the counteroffensive in the western Pacific, the expeditionary force sent by the Military Commission at the invitation of the British authorities in the early stage cooperated with the Allied forces to win several battles, and the situation in Southeast Asia was gradually improving.

Of course, these news have little to do with the stones they have here, because no matter what the battle at sea looks like, the devils in front of them are still like an insurmountable mountain, only by defeating the devils in front of them, can they have the hope of recovering the lost territory, and only when their own strength is enhanced, can they have the capital to deal with the devils.

It has to be said that the nearly two-year period of rest and recuperation has greatly restored the 74 th Army, which has been fighting continuously for several years, and the strength of the whole army has been greatly enhanced; after all, the continuous bloody battles have left all units without time for systematic training, and although the effect of training in combat is excellent, the casualties are also large, and the tacit understanding between the personnel and others who have been temporarily replenished must be lacking. Now that the training has been for so long, not only has it been cooperated, but also the individual combat ability has also been greatly improved. More importantly, the physical and mental exhaustion of being on the battlefield for a long time was recovered from this kind of rest.

And a unit like the 58th Division, where almost the vast majority of its personnel are reorganized, is afraid that if there is no such long-term training, it will be vulnerable to attack on the battlefield. Now, although I dare not say that the strength has been completely restored, with the training of a battle-hardened general like Zhang Lingfu, the troops have basically been kneaded into shape, which is enough for a battle.

Speaking of which, the Independent Regiment does not seem to have changed much in the past two years. Of course, this view is only for others who do not know much about the situation of the independent regiment, including Chen Yu, the chief of staff who is directly in charge of the independent regiment. To say that Chief of Staff Chen is also quite worried, originally, he planned to care about the independent regiment after the battle of Changsha, in public and private, the independent regiment is also worth his more energy to cultivate, after all, the strength of this army brought out by the stone is too amazing, who does he care about?

But what he didn't expect was that the kid Shi actually played tricks again. After being stationed in Liucheng County, he actually moved the regiment headquarters to the ghost place west of the Rongjiang River, and he had to take a boat to cross the river, not to mention that the conditions there were also extremely poor. Although Chen Yu didn't care much about this, after all, he was also here at this age, and he was instinctively a little afraid of trouble. He also went to the supplementary camp to see it, and saw that the stone had really recruited enough people to train, and he was relieved.

And in the past two years, only Shishi, Lin Xiufeng, Wu Zihuai and others know how far this precious time has enriched the independent regiment.

In terms of troops, there is actually not much room for adjustment of the independent regiment, although the first battalion, the second company and the cavalry battalion suffered relatively large losses in the last bloody battle, but the soldiers of the supplementary battalion can completely fill such a personnel vacancy. These soldiers of the supplementary battalion are also troops who have participated in the battle of Shanggao with the army, have already felt the fire of war on the front line, and even fought a small battle, experienced the experience of war, and after being added to the army, under the leadership of the veterans, it is enough to quickly mature in the future battles. And the reason why the independent regiment can be as strong as it is now depends on the number of veterans.

Although there are not many veterans who have survived from the Songhu battlefield or even the Nanjing battlefield to the present, the independent regiment has fought too many battles, followed by the stones, and has never lost a battle at all. Such a unit, not to mention anything else, is not comparable to ordinary troops.

When the independent regiment left Yifeng, the arrangement made by the stone finally had an effect. He unconditionally gave the farm he set up at the beginning to the county magistrate Hu to take over, and sent 20 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition to the county government for Hanyangzao, which had long been used in the regiment, which really made Hu Linglong grateful to Dade. In the end, it also helped Shi solve the problem of lack of soldiers, that is, the subordinates of the remaining rich merchants in Yifeng were requisitioned to each family for one or two.

If you want to say that this rich family is good, the people under the family are all selected and powerful people, and now that the county magistrate Huda has come forward, coupled with the prestige of the stone in Yifeng, naturally no one dares to say a "no" word, so that the problem of the shortage of the supplementary battalion has been solved, which is also the reason why the independent regiment stayed in Yifeng for a few more days, after all, there are a lot of people this time, and they have to travel far away, so naturally there are more busy things.

The strength of the soldiers of each battalion of the Independent Regiment has not improved much in this kind of training, but in the past two years, the wealth accumulation of the Independent Regiment is really amazing, which is the reason why Shi and others are smiling.