Taiyuan, the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese North China Dispatch Army

After Yamamoto Kazuki took over the post of commander of the First Army, he immediately launched the rectification of the First Army, relying on ruthless means, quickly taking control of the troops, eliminating some stubborn diseases that had existed in the First Army for a long time, and greatly strengthening the cohesion of the First Army, but the improvement in combat effectiveness was not great, for no other reason, the problems of the First Army were too many. 33

First of all, there is a serious shortage of personnel, whether it is a garrison or a field unit, they are facing a huge shortage, and the actual shortage of many troops has even reached forty percent, and the impact of the Eighth Route Army's large-scale attack here is only one aspect, and more is the accumulation over a long period of time, and some units have experienced two or three commanders in recent years who have not been able to make up for the losses in 1938, and the limited number of troops has long been weak, and it is simply a miracle that the current situation can be maintained. If the Eighth Route Army did not become stronger, Yamamoto Kazuki might have turned a blind eye to this situation, but the fact is that the Eighth Route Army is constantly strengthening, and if it does not replenish its troops, the situation of the First Army in Jin Province will inevitably collapse.

Secondly, corruption, the most prominent is the issue of military salaries, after the Japanese army entered China, there was a tight situation in military spending, so the structure of military salaries has also changed, will use a part of the military tickets, Federal Reserve Coupons instead of military salaries, which gives his subordinates room to operate, by 1940, the first army's soldiers' salary structure is 40% yen, 30% Fed coupons, 30% military bills, but in actual implementation, ordinary soldiers can only get 10% of the yen, 20% of the Federal Reserve coupons, the remaining 70% In some units, privates can only receive 6 yuan a month for military tickets, and as for "working on duty," they don't even think about it; in this case, the morale and military discipline of the grassroots units of the First Army have been greatly affected.

Again, the lack of food, in fact, as early as before the 1940 raid, the Chinese army's attack on the Japanese army's lines of communication was the norm, coupled with the repeated grain requisition and anti-grain requisition struggles on both sides, the Japanese army has not much military rations in the hands of the reserves, such as the First Army, except for the area other than Taiyuan, most of them only have half a month's military ration reserves, so that the First Army Headquarters has to frequently send supplies, which gives the opponent more opportunities to attack, and the continuous grain requisition in the control area also makes the people's resistance high, A vicious circle was formed, but even so, the troops still did not have enough to eat, and ordinary soldiers may not be able to eat rice once a month, and even the rice balls during the war were made of sorghum rice.

Finally, there was a shortage of weapons, and the impression was that the Japanese army had always been well-equipped and well supplied, but in fact it was impossible to do it at all. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese army arrogantly believed that it could quickly end the war, so it stopped production at the Taiyuan Arsenal, so the weapons and ammunition of the first army needed to be transported from the northeast or the mainland, not to mention the long cycle, and the quantity could not be met at all, which made many troops have very little ammunition reserves, in many places, the soldiers did not even have backup ammunition in addition to the ammunition they carried, and they did not dare to take the initiative to attack. Do you dare to think that the Japanese army is actually searching for and building 65 rifles for their own use? As for the Imperial Army, it was even worse, a company of 100 people only had more than 40 rifles and a machine gun, and such a configuration could not even compare with the current guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army.

At this time, Yamamoto Kazuki is studying with the new chief of staff of the First Army, Ichiro Hirata, how to break the current situation.

"Hirata-kun, the military department once again rejected the request to add an armored division regiment to the First Army, and Lord Shinozuka said that he could not convince the military department either." Throwing a telegram on the desk between the two, Yamamoto Kazuki looked very powerless, he used to feel that he couldn't change the current situation just a humble statement, but now he has become a senior general of the empire, but he still can't completely reverse the situation, which makes Yamamoto Kazuki, who has always been arrogant, very frustrated.

"Your Excellency, you should look at the benefits, after all, the military department has recognized our losses in the process of supporting Beiping." Hirata Ichiro persuaded in a low voice that the First Army definitely did not support Beiping, but after the war, Yamamoto Kazuki advocated his act of sacking the base area as a military operation to attack Beiping, and at the same time reported all the shortages of the First Army at one time, so that the heroic First Army lost 20,000 imperial troops and 30,000 imperial troops in the process of rushing to aid Beiping, and a large number of weapons and ammunition losses were reported.

In the past, the military department would definitely directly remove the person responsible, but Yamamoto Kazuki is different, this is the new star of the Imperial Army, the favorite general of His Majesty the Emperor, if it is really removed and investigated because of "this loss", what will the face of the army do? What should I do with His Majesty's face, the First Battle of Beiping has already made the army disgraced, if Yamamoto Kazuki is taken again, the Imperial Army will really have no face, in view of this, the military department can only pinch its nose and recognize Yamamoto Kazuki's battle report, but for Yamamoto Kazuki's request for more troops, it was directly refused.

What are you kidding, those soldiers are indeed worthless, but the problem is that equipment costs money, and it costs money to raise soldiers, and all aspects involved in the transfer of a division to the First Army are definitely not a little money, plus the losses of the North China Dispatch Army during this time, the underwear of the Imperial Army will be taken off, and Yamamoto Kazuki proposed to ask for reinforcements from a division at this time, which is simply unsightly to the extreme.

"Hirata-kun, it seems that if we want to improve the strength in our hands, it will eventually fall on the Huaxia people." Fingers tapped rhythmically on the desk, and Kazuki Yamamoto muttered as if to himself.

"Your Excellency, the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Cooperative Army may be improved, but the situation in Jin Province is too complicated, we cannot put an end to the infiltration of the Eighth Route Army, and blindly expand the scale of the Imperial Cooperative Army, but it is very dangerous." Hirata Ichiro couldn't help but convince that the defections of the Imperial Allied Army in recent years can be said to be commonplace, even platoon-level mutinies occur every day, and even divisional and brigade-level mutinies are also common, so that the Japanese army has been weakening the equipment of the Imperial Allied Army in recent years.

At its peak, the Imperial Allied Army was equipped with cannons, heavy machine guns, and even chariots, but now the Imperial Allied Army, a company only has dozens of old guns and a light machine gun that can be fired, and the Japanese army does not have many of its own standard weapons in its hands, but the captured national army equipment is not lacking, and it is definitely not really not equipped to the Imperial Allied Army, in the final analysis, it is worried that the Imperial Allied Army will defect.

"I'm not talking about the soldiers of Jin Province, I want to recruit 'indoctrination soldiers' in Hei Province through the 'Manchukuo' government." Yamamoto Kazuki looked at a huge map next to the two of them as he spoke, and his heart was full of emotion, compared to China, Japan is still too small, and the two are not at the same level of strength at all, originally, after occupying China's Goryeo Province, Bay Province and the four eastern provinces, it is possible to make up for the lack of imperial army strength with the local population, but for various reasons, the empire has not done well in this regard, and now it only dares to recruit soldiers in Goryeo Province and Bay Province, but where are those soldiers comparable to the four eastern provinces, at least, In terms of physical fitness, it can't be compared.

"Your Excellency, the military department has assessed this matter many times, and it is generally believed that it is not feasible, you must know that even the anti-Japanese coalition army led by the Eighth Route Army is still fighting with the imperial army in the four eastern provinces?" Ichiro Hirata was not without a worried reminder.

"First of all, I hope to recruit soldiers between the ages of 15 and 18, who have been educated by the Empire, have a certain foundation in Japanese, and are not very hostile to the Empire, and are more reliable than the veterans of the Northeast Army of the Manchurian Army.

Secondly, if you have a household registration, a family, an estate, and a guarantor, this kind of 'four youths' will be more considerate, and more worried that they will affect their families, as long as we control their families, these soldiers are even more reliable than those mountain people in Bay Province.

Finally, it must be the residents of the northern part of the Black Province, which is far away from North China, and even if a soldier wants to be a deserter, it is difficult for him to return to his hometown on his own, and they can only rely on the Empire, the First Army, and you and me. Kazuki Yamamoto said a lot.

In the past, Yamamoto Kazuki looked down on the Imperial Allied Army at all, but since Qian Bojun led his troops to join Yamamoto's troops, he gradually changed his views on the Imperial Allied Army, in fact, the Imperial Allied Army can also have combat effectiveness, as long as the soldiers do not have too many messy ideas, and at the same time cut off their retreat, they can also fight, not to mention that compared with the elite troops of the Imperial Army, at least the current Qian Bojun's troops have the ability to face the Osaka Division.

"Your Excellency, you are talking about the 'Eduarization Army' and not the Imperial Army, in what name are we going to recruit and organize troops?" Hirata Ichiro nodded, and also felt that Yamamoto Kazuki was reasonable, but he immediately discovered the problem, the 'indoctrination soldiers' belonged to the battle sequence of the Japanese army, which needed to occupy the establishment, but after the military department supplemented the personnel of the first army, the first army was no longer lacking.

"His Majesty the Emperor once said that the Yamamoto unit can organize a temporary force on its own on the scale of a brigade, and I intend to use this to form a new unit within the framework of the Yamamoto force." Yamamoto Kazuki feels that he is also getting better and better at playing, of course, this is also thanks to the new chief of staff of Yamamoto's troops, Yuichi Watanabe, and it is with Yuichi Watanabe's constant reminders that Yamamoto Kazuki's current decision is made.

"But the establishment of a brigade is only more than 1,000 people at best?" Hirata Ichiro was a little puzzled, a brigade of more than 1,000 people is only a few people, with Yamamoto Kazuki's current status, it is no problem to form a purely Japanese brigade, and there is no need to go to the Black Province to recruit troops at all.

"I plan to recruit 100,000 people and form a hundred temporary brigades!" Yamamoto Kazuki smiled and said the answer in his heart, the situation in Jin Province is actually far from being solved by a single division, since he wants to form a new army, he plans to put it in place at one time and increase 100,000 "indoctrination soldiers".

"100,000 people! Your Excellency, the military department will have an opinion. Hirata Ichiro couldn't help but exclaim, and immediately reminded in a whisper, he was also startled by Yamamoto Kazuki, his own boss is ruthless, and if he increases the number of troops by 100,000 at once, the military department will go crazy.

"The original Imperial Association Army in Jin Province must be rectified, and the Imperial Association Army should also be 'four youths', rather than the current state of being dominated by ruffians and routs, and during the rectification of the Imperial Army, I need troops to maintain the situation in Jin Province, I believe the military department will understand, and the newly formed troops will not ask for additional military funds and materials." Yamamoto Kazuki smiled confidently, the bigwigs of the military department will not come to Jin Province, there is still room for them to operate, and as for the original Imperial Army, it will not really be canceled, but will continue to be strengthened.

Some people died, but not completely......