Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"Yes, in just over two years, he rose from a platoon leader to a regimental commander. I really admire him."
The key is that I am completely convinced. His achievements are countless, and countless Japanese soldiers have died at his hands! Blind Cheng nodded in agreement.

In the beginning, it was very difficult for them to fight the Japanese. It often took five or six soldiers to take down one Japanese soldier. This shows how difficult it was to fight the Japanese at that time.

But things are different now. Their troops have improved a lot in combat effectiveness and have strong firepower. When they fight the Japanese, their casualty ratio can reach three to one, which is already very impressive.

Even under these circumstances, Li Jin's troops maintained a crushing advantage over the Japanese, inflicting heavy losses and capturing numerous spoils of war.

They even attacked the Japanese transit station, capturing all the weapons inside, which greatly strengthened their troops.

Not to mention the later battles, the captured supplies were countless, allowing many units to be allocated firearms.

Now, almost no regiment in their troops is lacking in firearms and ammunition, and this is largely due to Li Jin.

"Li Jin is indeed very capable. If nothing unexpected happens, he will go much further in the future," Political Commissar He remarked. If Li Jin's merits were truly recognized and rewarded, his position would be much higher than it is now.

“That’s natural. If such talent can’t be given important positions, what will others think? So it’s only reasonable for the commander to value the Special Operations Regiment. If we were just as capable, we would naturally be valued just as much!” Blind Cheng knew very well that a talent like Li Jin would eventually rise to a higher position; it just wasn’t the right time yet.

"I heard that Li Jin went to Yan'an for a period of study before, but you didn't have the chance to go," Political Commissar He said with a smile.

"There's nothing I can do, I'm far from good enough." Blind Cheng was quite self-aware; although his abilities were decent, he was only in the middle tier.

Those who could go to Yan'an to study were at least at the upper-middle level in terms of ability; those below that level simply couldn't go.

"You can't say that. It's just not the right time yet. When we win this big battle and deal a heavy blow to the Japanese, we can prove our strength. Then it will be normal for you to go and learn from them," Political Commissar He comforted him.

The officers who went to Yan'an for training were all being groomed as future elites, so as long as Blind Cheng can win this battle, there won't be any problems.

"Let's wait and see, there's no rush," said Blind Cheng.

.........

Tianli Mountain Range, base area.

As soon as Li Jin returned, he used the walkie-talkie to notify the battalion commanders and told them to come to the conference room immediately for a meeting.

Xu Qingfeng was the first to arrive.

"Commander, I heard that Commander Yan has agreed to cooperate?" Xu Qingfeng asked as soon as he came in. Li Jin had already told him about this in a telegram.

"Yes, it took a lot of persuasion to get him to agree," Li Jin said with a sigh. It was indeed not easy to get a cautious person like Commander Yan to cooperate with them.

"I understand. I also guessed it wouldn't go so smoothly. Commander Yan's conditions probably require us to be able to draw away the main force of the Japanese army, right?!" Xu Qingfeng guessed.

In his view, a cautious person like Commander Yan would certainly not take too much risk, as evidenced by the fact that he had previously asked Commander Yan to fight against the 20th Division.

If Li Jin hadn't shown the Jin-Sui Army's deployment map, Commander Yan would never have fought the Japanese.

For them, such a battle was too risky, so Commander Yan would not agree unless absolutely necessary.

Li Jin now wants Commander Yan to cooperate, but since he can't threaten Commander Yan again, he can only let Commander Yan know that the risk of this cooperation is very small.

"Old Xu, you guessed right. That's definitely the only way to get Commander Yan to agree to the cooperation," Li Jin said with a smile.

"He should send someone to keep an eye on them, otherwise how can he be sure that the Japanese are really attracted by us?" Xu Qingfeng continued.

"Yes, I asked Commander Yan to transfer the 358th Regiment to cooperate with us in fighting the Japanese. At the same time, he also sent a trusted confidant to keep an eye on things. As long as there are no problems, that confidant will inform Commander Yan, and then Commander Yan will send people to take action." Li Jin did not hide anything and told him the story.

"How many people does Commander Yan plan to send?!" Xu Qingfeng asked, as he was particularly concerned about how many people Commander Yan would actually deploy once the question was resolved.

"Thirty thousand men, that's about the strength of two armies," Li Jin replied.

"Only 30,000?! Commander Yan is a bit stingy, or rather, overly cautious." Xu Qingfeng was taken aback and said.

He thought that Commander Yan would send at least 70,000 or 80,000 men to participate, but he didn't expect only 30,000, which was less than half of the number of men who fought against the Japanese 20th Division last time.

“Thirty thousand is not a small number. Moreover, if these tens of thousands of men can achieve good results, Commander Yan will probably send even more men. If not…” Li Jin shook his head helplessly as he finished speaking.

"That's true. Oh well, we didn't expect them to be of much help anyway. Thirty thousand men are better than none." Xu Qingfeng didn't dwell on it too much. It was already quite good that the other party was willing to send troops to cooperate. It was better not to have too high expectations.

"No, although their combat strength is a bit weak, they still have 30,000 men. As long as the commander doesn't make any stupid mistakes, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to achieve a decent result while the main force of the Japanese army is drawn to us," Li Jin said.

If the Jin-Sui Army cannot achieve remarkable results under these circumstances, then there is really nothing more to say.

"Yes, I'm worried that the commander will become arrogant and think that the Japanese are nothing special, and then he'll be caught off guard by the Japanese," Xu Qingfeng said.

Some officers in the National Revolutionary Army were not actually qualified for their positions; many had gotten their positions through connections. It could be said that the National Revolutionary Army was a place where personal relationships and favors were the most prevalent.

If you have the ability but no connections, it's practically impossible to get promoted. The credit you earn will likely be divided up among your own people to promote them, or you'll keep all the credit for yourself to gain more benefits.

As for those who make meritorious contributions, they naturally won't even get a taste of the soup, let alone a promotion.

Of course, if you encounter a good superior, that's fine, but such superiors are relatively rare.

“Speaking of which, Commander Yan asked me to send people to protect the people he sent, at least twenty people. Which battalion of soldiers do you think would be better to send?” Li Jin changed the subject, he hadn’t forgotten about this matter. “This is a bit difficult. The soldiers are probably all thinking about going to fight the Japanese, but you want them to protect people, and not even their own people.” Xu Qingfeng frowned upon hearing this.

Although the orders could be given, the soldiers must have felt uncomfortable. Everyone else was fighting the Japanese, but they had to protect someone who wasn't even one of their own.

“It’s a bit difficult, but I’ve already agreed, so we still have to send them,” Li Jin said, naturally understanding this point.

If it were protecting their own people, the soldiers would naturally have no complaints, but protecting the people from the Jin-Sui Army would probably make them uncomfortable.

"I want to know, how long will that person stay?!" Xu Qingfeng asked, as this was quite important.

“Once he’s sure we’ve drawn the main Japanese force away, he’ll naturally leave,” Li Jin replied.

“Then the problem isn’t too big. As long as they protect him until then, the mission will be over, and the soldiers protecting him can start fighting the Japanese.” Xu Qingfeng said after hearing this. If the other side stays until the end of the battle, then it will naturally be more difficult.

"We should also give them a commendation, otherwise it would be unfair to them." Li Jin added, after all, having the soldiers protect Commander Zhang meant that the soldiers had to stay by Commander Zhang's side to protect him until he left.

“That’s natural.” Xu Qingfeng nodded. “As for the soldiers protecting the enemy, apart from the reconnaissance battalion and the sharpshooter battalion, we can only randomly select twenty soldiers from other battalions. This is the fairest way.”

“We’ll do it your way.” Li Jin nodded. That was actually what he was thinking too. He could give the order directly, but that wouldn’t be good; it would seem unfair.

At this moment, footsteps could be heard outside, and the battalion commanders arrived one after another.

"Commander, Political Commissar!" They saluted Li Jin and Xu Qingfeng.

"Please sit down," Li Jin gestured for everyone to take their seats.

"This meeting will continue to focus on the operation." Li Jin pinned a map of the Zhengtai Railway to the blackboard.

"Our mission is clear: after eliminating the commander of the 6th Division, we must sabotage the Zhengtai Railway and the nearby highways as much as possible."
"Although the Japanese can repair what's damaged, if they damage enough, it will take them a long time to completely repair it, which is more than enough," Li Jin said slowly.

To break the Japanese army's confinement plan, they had to destroy the railways, highways, and pillboxes that the Japanese had built.

"I understand!" Everyone nodded.

"After that, I went to the Jin-Sui Army and persuaded Commander Yan to agree to cooperate. They also sent the 358th Regiment to help."
This means we can mobilize around 20,000 people! You know what that means, right? Li Jin's lips curled into a smile as he finished speaking.

"That means we can kill more Japanese devils!" Liu Changshun laughed. Although the 358th Regiment's combat strength was not as good as the New 1st Regiment, it was stronger than the Independent Regiment.

Therefore, if the 358th Regiment can be of great help, then fighting the Japanese will be even simpler.

“That’s right. With the addition of the 358th Regiment, our operation will definitely go more smoothly!” Li Jin said. In fact, he didn’t particularly care whether Commander Yan cooperated or not.

All he wanted was for Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment to come and help. If they could, there would be plenty of things they could do.

"Old Xu, what's the situation with the Sixth Division?!" Li Jin changed the subject. Although he didn't have any intelligence personnel in Taiyuan, he still had people outside the city.

"The Sixth Division has been gradually deployed along the Zhengtai Railway. They even deliberately sent their troops out late at night, as if they were worried that we would find out their whereabouts," Xu Qingfeng explained.

"This basically confirms that the Japanese were indeed trying to set a trap for us. They knew perfectly well that our people were watching us day and night."

"The fact that they've resorted to such self-deceptive tactics is suspicious; it would be truly bizarre if there wasn't a trap. Furthermore, the fact that they haven't sent anyone to patrol outside the city or check for suspicious individuals makes it even more suspicious," Li Jin said slowly.

“Yes, that’s what I think too. Their actions seem to be guiding us to investigate the specifics of what happened.” Xu Qingfeng agreed with Li Jin.

The Japanese were deliberately trying to lead them to send people to investigate the 6th Division's headquarters.

"Furthermore, the 6th Division is quite scattered. I suspect they deliberately created this illusion for us, to lull us into a false sense of security and make us believe there are no bombs there."

"So they attacked the Sixth Division's command post. The Japanese really pulled a clever trick." Xu Qingfeng sneered.

"If we find that the troops near the 6th Division's command post are that far away from the command post again, under normal circumstances, we would definitely take action against the command post."

"Then we'll be in trouble. Their trump card is that secret unit. They're confident they can hold us off, allowing the Sixth Division and other units to encircle us!" Li Jin said.

The Japanese were actually gambling that if they saw that the command post would be unable to get support from other units in a short period of time, they would definitely succumb to the temptation and choose to attack.

"Yes, if we hadn't known in advance that the Japanese had a secret unit, and if we hadn't discovered that the Japanese command couldn't send reinforcements in a short time, we might have actually taken action," Xu Qingfeng remarked.

Given the opportunity to wipe out the Japanese division command post, how many people could resist taking action?

Therefore, good intelligence is extremely important for warfare. If you choose to attack the enemy without knowing anything, then they will be the ones who suffer.

"Yes, the Japanese plan was quite ingenious, but unfortunately, we already knew what their trump card was," Li Jin said, adding that he also had to thank some good comrades who were working undercover in the Japanese army.

Without the intelligence delivered by that unknown comrade, Li Jin might have been caught off guard by the Japanese.

"Well, it's not a big problem. Besides, the Sixth Division is heading towards the Zhengtai Railway, so there's no conflict between destroying the Sixth Division's command post and sabotaging the Zhengtai Railway. We can even support other units at the same time!" Xu Qingfeng nodded and added.

(End of this chapter)