As Boss Chen arranged the delivery, the sky in the northwest of Jinxi, as well as the sky in the southeast of Jin, was buzzing all day long.

A variety of large transport aircraft and fighter jets soar.

When the devil's reconnaissance plane and fighter plane saw it, they didn't dare to touch the porcelain at all, turned around and stepped on the accelerator to the end without looking back.

The North China Front Command soon learned about the situation.

"Your Excellency, Commander, there are many transport planes transporting war materials to the Eighth Route Army in the northwest and southeast of Shanxi."

In Beiping, Iron Lion Hutong, the headquarters of the North China Front.

Chief of Staff Tanabe Moritake reported to Okamura Ninji, who was wiping the katana, in a solemn tone:

"According to the reports of our pilots, there are at least 500 sorties of large transport aircraft every day, transporting combat materials to the Eighth Route Army bandit area."

When Okamura Ninji heard this, his face was as black as the bottom of a pot: "A large transport plane with 500 sorties a day? ”

"Yes!" Tanabe Moritake bowed his head, "And according to the pilot's judgment, these large transport planes carry no less than 10 tons of cargo per sortie!" ”

Moritake Tanabe knew why Okamura Ninji had an ugly face.

Because the Japanese army's latest L2D zero transport aircraft, the maximum cargo capacity is only 5 tons, and there are not many of them.

The large transport planes that transported goods to the Eighth Route Army carried 10 tons of combat materials each time.

In other words, the Eighth Route Army will receive 5,000 tons of war supplies every day, which is extremely bad news for the North China Front.

"Did you find the airfield of the Eighth Route Army?"

Okamura asked in a deep voice.

If the airfield of the Eighth Route Army is discovered, Okamura Ninji will definitely send fighters and bombers, even if the pilot commits suicide, to destroy the airfield of the Eighth Route Army and prevent the Eighth Route Army from obtaining war materials.

The transportation of so many combat materials to the base areas of the Eighth Route Army every day should not be an airdrop.

"The airfield of the Eighth Route Army has not yet been discovered."

Moritake Tanabe replied:

"The large transport planes that transported goods to the Eighth Route Army, each transport plane had machine guns and aviation machine guns, and the firepower was very fierce."

"And there are fighter escorts, our planes don't dare to approach at all, let alone track ......"

Okamura Ninji took a deep breath, and the expression on his face flashed with helplessness.

It's angry, but there's no way.

I could only watch as those large transport planes transported combat materials to the base area of the Eighth Route Army.

And the most infuriating thing is that the Japanese army has no idea where these large transport planes come from, where these war materials come from, and which side of the force they belong to.

"Yaga!"

Okamura Ninji flashed sharply, and suddenly exploded, and the blade swept by, smashing the blue and white porcelain vase beside him with a snap.

Then, Okamura Ninji was in a slightly better mood and retracted the sword from its scabbard.

"Empire, Empire..."

The war has reached this point, and Okamura Ninji does not have much optimism about this war in his heart.

In the Pacific Theater and the Southeast Asian theater, the beautiful country did not return to the negotiating table as expected, but increased its forces in the Pacific and Southeast Asian theaters.

put on a posture of going to fight the Japanese army to the end.

And in North China, with the rise of the Eighth Route Army, it has threatened the North China Front, and even the Kwantung Army and the Central China Dispatch Army.

North China is indeed a vast country, and the area and population of the five provinces in North China alone exceed that of the whole of Japan.

The Japanese army had occupied North China for nearly five years, and had obtained a large amount of mineral resources and grain and other materials urgently needed by the empire in North China.

However, in the more than four years since the Japanese army occupied North China, in order to maintain law and order, it had to invest a large number of troops and war materials, as well as resources such as steel and cement.

However, the public order situation has not been improved, and the Eighth Route Army has grown from 30,000 or 40,000 a few years ago to a total strength of 450,000 today, and the speed of development can be called terrifying.

Coupled with the sudden appearance of external assistance two years ago, the strength of the Eighth Route Army soared like a rocket.

The current Eighth Route Army is already able to fight with the North China Front Army in a frontal large corps.

If it weren't for the five divisions mobilized by the base camp to go to North China and barely stabilize the situation, perhaps the entire First Army and the Mongolian army would have been wiped out at this time.

According to reliable intelligence and staff analysis.

Every time the Eighth Route Army wins a big battle, its strength will increase by a large margin, and some weapons of mass destruction will appear.

This time is no exception.

The strength of the Eighth Route Army has risen sharply, while the strength of the North China Front Army and even the entire Imperial Army has stagnated or even regressed.

This time, the five divisions mobilized from the base camp barely stabilized the situation.

What about next time?

At present, the war in other battlefields is tight, and it is impossible for the empire to continuously mobilize troops and war materials to North China, and even transfer troops from North China to the outside world.

However, even though the war situation was so unbearable, Okamura still believed in the courage and fighting power of the Japanese, and he firmly believed that they could achieve victory.

At this moment, the deputy chief of staff, Yousue Seizan held a telegram in his hand and walked in quickly:

"Your Excellency, General!"

"The base camp called back, rejecting the request to mobilize combat troops and combat materials to North China, as well as to withdraw the First Army from Shanxi."

"And urge our North China Front Army to launch a sweeping operation against the Eighth Route Army in the northwest of Shanxi as soon as possible, eliminate Li Yunlong, and eliminate the new regiment..."

The dark clouds in Okamura Ningji's heart became thicker and thicker, and the group of guys in the base camp couldn't see the situation in front of them clearly at all.

Judging from this operation, the Eighth Route Army had an advantage over the Japanese army in all aspects, whether it was strategy and tactics, weapons and equipment, and logistical supplies, and the North China Front Army took the lead in attacking?

"Your Excellency, General."

"In addition to the 2nd Flying Team, the 1st Flying Team, which is equipped with Zero fighters, will also be transferred from the Kwantung Army to North China."

Seeing that Okamura Ninji's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, Seizo Arisue told him good news.

"Oh?"

Okamura's eyes finally lit up slightly.

At present, the Zero fighter is mainly equipped with the Japanese Navy and is the most important carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese Navy, but at present, the Japanese army is not equipped with many Zero fighters.

At the beginning of the Pacific War, the Japanese Navy had 300 Zeros, of which 250 were used in the Pacific theater of operations, and participated in battles such as the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the Philippine Raiders.

Due to the superiority in maneuverability and endurance over the F2A, F4F, CW-21B, Hawker 75A, P-40 fighters, etc., coupled with the lack of preparation of the allies and the lack of a correct analysis of the characteristics of the Zero, the adoption of the wrong air combat tactics of the World War I system led to the Zero fighter shining in the months after the start of the war.

"The Zero fighter may be able to deal with the fighter called by the Eighth Route Army." ”

Okamura asked, "When will the 1st Sentai Flying Team arrive in North China?" ”

"We'll have to wait until next month." "The 1st Flying Squadron has just been equipped with Zero fighters, and it still needs a period of training, and it will arrive in North China at about the same time as Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadachi took office as commander of the First Army. ”

"Yo Xi!"

Okamura Ninji nodded, after the flight team 2nd team arrived in North China, Okamura Ninji did not let it return to Manchuria.

Even if the 1st Sentai is equipped with Zero fighters, it won't change the battle situation much.

However, it can make the Japanese army's air supremacy more stable, and even deal with the fighter without propellers called by the Eighth Route Army, destroy its large transport planes and airfields, and cut off its air supply channels.

……

Zhaojiayu Village.

The regimental headquarters of the new regiment.

Li Yunlong was lying on the table, calculating how many troops would need to be expanded this time.

The expansion of one rocket artillery battalion equipped with 18 Katyusha rocket launchers requires more than 1,100 people.

The expansion of a howitzer battalion equipped with 24 B4 heavy howitzers requires more than 1,300 people.

The expansion of one tank battalion requires tank troops, logistics personnel, automobile troops, and armored troops, totaling more than 1,100 people.

The expansion of one 105-mm howitzer battalion requires a total of more than 1,300 artillerymen, logistics personnel, and automobile soldiers.

The expansion of 3 cavalry battalions required more than 2,000 people.

To replenish the infantry battalions with fighters lost in battle, more than 3,000 people were needed.

In addition, four new car companies with more than 400 people will be built.

In this way, the new regiment needs to replenish almost 10,000 people.

Because of the special technical study and training mechanism for the artillery, tank, and automobile arms, the technical arms have been cultivated one by one, and there is not a shortage of new technical arms in the new regiment.

At present, the main shortage is the logistical support troops of the technical troops, such as those who carry artillery shells, who are responsible for guarding the artillery on the battlefield.

Li Yunlong was ready to adopt the old method and use American-style equipment to replace Ding Wei and Kong Jie.

However, instead of replacing the recruits who kept up with the previous time, they changed the militia, and the training battalion of the new regiment trained these militia into new recruits and expanded the new troops.

At present, the personnel suitable for joining the army in the new regimental defense area have basically been absorbed into the army.

However, the pace of expansion of the new regiment cannot be stopped, because there is still even greater business in the future.

But.

Sooner or later, the young and strong men in the defense areas of the new Second Regiment and the Independent Regiment who are suitable for serving as soldiers will also be sucked dry by the new First Regiment.

"If this development continues, the pace of troop expansion is still too slow."

Li Yunlong frowned slightly.

In less than a year since the new regiment arrived in the northwest of Shanxi, it has grown from more than 6,000 people to more than 50,000 people today.

But now, as the young and strong men in the new regimental defense area have been drained, and there are fewer and fewer recruits in the training battalion, the speed of the expansion of the unit has visibly slowed down.

The new regiment captured a large amount of Japanese-style equipment on the battlefield, and all of this equipment was used to equip the militia, so to speak, all the people were soldiers.

The common people are very enthusiastic about joining the army, and if the new regiment is willing, it can be expanded by tens of thousands of people at any time, but it can't do that.

"If you want to quickly develop the troops, there are currently two ways."

"The first way is to open up new sub-district base areas."

"The second way is to recruit the national army!"

Li Yunlong thought to himself.

With the weaponry, equipment, and food of the new regiment, as long as Li Yunlong shouts loudly, there are a large number of puppet troops who are willing to take refuge.

However, Li Yunlong looked down on the puppet army, and he disliked it when he sent it to the door in vain.

At this moment, Huang Erhu ran in, saluted Li Yunlong and reported: "Report to the head of the regiment, Chu Yunfei, the head of the 358th Regiment of the Jin Sui Army, has arrived!" ”

Li Yunlong's expression moved: "Please!" (End of chapter)