The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 455 Inspection
On November 11, in Chongwen Township, on the outskirts of CQ city, a black Ford sedan with a military license plate was driving steadily on the road.

Under the bright sunshine, there are dense villages and lush forests on both sides of the road, a sea of ​​​​green, beautiful scenery and pleasant views. Stone castles left over from the Ming and Qing dynasties are also dotted on both sides of the road.

Several surrounding mountains rise up from the ground, standing on the earth like a tiger crouching and a dragon coiling. On the road, various cars and charcoal trucks with extra-large exhaust pipes are coming and going in an endless stream. Farmers, pedestrians, sedan chairs with parasols, chicken buses, and carts along the road are also coming and going, creating a bustling scene.

The two regiments in Ba County and Fuling designated by Minister He for He Wei were not far from the urban area of ​​the temporary capital, which was in line with the principle agreed upon by He Wei and the Military Command that "the assault corps should be stationed in the suburban counties near the temporary capital".

Ba County is even directly adjacent to the secondary urban area and close to the economic center of the urban area. In addition, since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, a large number of military and political institutions and refugees have evacuated from the front line to the secondary capital. Some military and political leaders have also chosen to build villas in Ba County, which is adjacent to the secondary urban area.

As a result, the population in the county has increased dramatically, rural government offices have sprung up, official residences and villas are scattered all over the place, and even a number of new settlements have appeared. The total population in the entire county is close to 700,000, and it seems to be experiencing a kind of abnormal prosperity.

This can be seen from the bustling situation near the highway.

He Wei sat in the back seat of the car, looking at the beautiful scenery passing by on both sides of the window, and his frown relaxed.

These days, while the troops were resting and recuperating, He Wei spent a lot of time reading through the information sent by the Military Service Bureau of the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs. These materials were all related to the position of director of the two regiment management areas of Ba County and Fuling and the first supplementary soldier training department that he was about to take charge of.

Needless to say, the regimental administrative districts were one of the largest conscription agencies established across the country. He Wei already had an idea of ​​the operating model and organizational structure of the regimental administrative districts. Reading the materials was nothing more than a further understanding of the population, geography, nature and economic conditions within the jurisdiction of the two regimental administrative districts. However, the position of the director of the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department was more interesting than He Wei had expected.

Originally, He Wei got the position of director of the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department. Although he was very satisfied with this unexpected surprise, he did not know much about its specific organizational structure, functions and operating procedures.

Moreover, He Wei's attention was focused on the two regiment command areas in Ba County and Fuling. Therefore, he did not attach much importance to this position. It was not until this period of time, after reading the current military service law documents sent to him by the Military Service Bureau and the documents compiled and organized by the Supplementary Soldier Training Department, that He Wei realized that the value of this position was very high. It can be said that it is no less than the position of regiment command area commander, or even division command area commander!

It turns out that the conscription model of the National Army in the initial stage of the War of Resistance was that when a division command area received a conscription task, it would assign the task to the subordinate regiment command area, and the regiment command area would order the townships within the subordinate county to recruit able-bodied men according to the assigned number. When all the able-bodied men were gathered, they would be sent to the division command area, and these able-bodied men would then be concentrated by the division command area and sent to the receiving troops at the front. The division command area had thus completed the process of replenishing new recruits for the front line. However, although the able-bodied men sent by the division command area were sufficient in number, they basically had no training. They were only responsible for conscription and not training.

Although such a continuous stream of new recruits can provide able-bodied men, the front-line troops receive only able-bodied men who have no combat skills. If they are not trained, they cannot be deployed to fight. Moreover, the front-line troops have heavy combat tasks and there is not enough time to train the received able-bodied men. Naturally, the combat effectiveness of the troops will be greatly reduced.

In the long run, this replenishment model had a serious impact on the front-line operations, so the Supplementary Soldier Training Department came into being.

Under the original supplementary model, the division command area responsible for conscription was basically responsible for conscription but not training. In order to make up for the missing training function, the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs ordered that in addition to the original division command areas and regiment command areas, supplementary soldier training offices be established in various parts of the country, and a general supplementary training office was established above the supplementary training offices.

Among them, the General Supplementary Training Department is an army-level organization, with several supplementary soldier training departments under it. The supplementary training departments under it are adjusted as needed and there is no fixed sequence. The supplementary soldier training departments under the General Supplementary Training Department are equivalent to division-level organizations, and the directors of each supplementary soldier training department are also major generals or lieutenant generals.

According to the document issued by the Military Service Bureau in He Wei's hand, basically each supplementary soldier training department has four or six supplementary regiments, and each supplementary regiment has a strength of 2,400 officers and soldiers. The source of the new recruits is designated by the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs to recruit able-bodied men from each division and regiment command areas, and each supplementary training department receives able-bodied men recruited by the division command areas near its base.

When the supplementary training department has received all the able-bodied men, it will immediately begin military training and wait for orders from the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs to send the received and trained men to the front and hand them over to the waiting troops on the front line.

Generally speaking, the division command area is responsible for conscription and obtaining a sufficient number of able-bodied men, with a focus on conscription, while the supplementary training department focuses on training, with the goal of training the able-bodied men conscripted by the division command area into new recruits with basic combat capabilities, so that these able-bodied men can fight immediately after being added to the front-line troops, with a focus on the development of combat effectiveness.

Therefore, from this perspective, He Wei's position as the director of the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department is theoretically much more valuable than two regimental command areas.

Moreover, when He Wei looked at the organization table of the Supplementary Soldier Training Department issued by the Military Service Bureau, it was clearly written on it that a Supplementary Soldier Training Department had four to eight supplementary regiments under it. Its scale was extremely large. Theoretically, the number of establishments was more than that of a fully-staffed infantry division. Moreover, considering that the Supplementary Soldier Training Department not only had a large organizational structure, but also had the function of training, He Wei even felt that the Supplementary Soldier Training Department already had some meaning of a combat unit.

In fact, the supplementary soldier training department with several supplementary regiments under it does have some characteristics of a combat unit. In the original history, some supplementary training departments with larger scale and higher training level were even directly reorganized into division-level field troops and sent to the front line to participate in the war.

For example, the New 30th Division of the New First Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in India, which annihilated the enemy in the counterattack in northern Burma, was directly reorganized from the Supplementary Soldier Training Department. It can be seen that He Wei's judgment was indeed correct.

Now He Wei is also looking forward to his future position as the director of the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department. Although He Wei's First Supplementary Soldier Training Department certainly cannot have four to eight supplementary regiments like other normal supplementary soldier training departments, He Wei is still very confident in pulling out a large number of organized supplementary soldiers. In short, what He Wei has in hand now is much more than he expected before, and the situation is very good. As for his coming here by car today, he is preparing to make a forerunner for the construction of two regiment management areas and the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department. Since he has grasped two regiment management areas and a supplementary soldier training department, both the construction of the regiment management areas and the establishment of the supplementary soldier training department must be carried out within the county areas of Ba County and Fuling County, and the assault corps will be moved to the county areas of the two counties sooner or later.

In addition, He Wei also has a farming plan, so it is necessary to go down to the grassroots to conduct an on-site inspection, take a walk and have a look. On the one hand, it is to contact the local county personnel in advance, communicate well, and prepare for military-civilian cooperation. On the other hand, He Wei is also preparing to select sites for the assault corps’ base and a series of construction projects in the farming plan.

"Brother, there is one thing I really don't understand. Why don't you just ask those two counties to send people to Peidu to find you? If you have any arrangements or measures, just send them directly and let them do it. Why bother making this trip yourself?"

Colonel Chen Zhen of the Military Affairs Department, who was sitting in the back seat of the car with He Wei, looked at the noisy crowd and the endless stream of vehicles outside the car and said to He Wei.

As early as five days ago, He Wei had sent a notice to Ba County and Fuling County through the Military Service Bureau of the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs, requesting them to cooperate with his inspection and a formal letter requesting accompanying and receiving him. The Military Command Department also attached great importance to He Wei's trip and specially sent Colonel Chen Zhen to accompany He Wei.

He Wei shook his head and said with a smile, "Brother, seeing is believing. You have to go and see some things in person to have a clearer understanding. Besides, I will be the director of the Supplementary Soldier Training Department, and I will have two regiments under me. I will have to deal with the local government when recruiting soldiers. It is safer to go and see it in person."

"That's true, haha."

Chen Zhen continued, "Brother, I still don't understand. If you want to go down and take a look, that's fine, but why don't you go to the villages near the auxiliary capital and go directly to the poor and remote areas in the east of Ba County? Even if you don't want to visit the large villages near the auxiliary capital, you can also go to the villages in the west. The villages in the west of Ba County are also doing well and prosperous. For example, Qingmuguan is doing very well now. There are schools and youth training groups. Everything is very good. You might as well go there and take a look."

He Wei looked at the golden sunlight outside the car window and said with a smile: "Both Fuling and Baxian regiments are under my jurisdiction. I can't just take care of Baxian, I have to take care of Fuling County as well. The townships to the east of Baxian happen to be at the junction of the two counties. Don't forget, my brother, the regiment I am in charge of is going to recruit soldiers. At that time, the recruitment, replenishment and training of able-bodied men will be inevitable. It will be easier to dispatch them at the junction of the two counties. Besides, you have led soldiers before, and you should know that the closer the troops are stationed to the city and the prosperous places, the harder it is to lead them. On the contrary, the poorer and worse the place, the more suitable it is for training troops."

"Yes, that's the truth, absolutely!"

He Wei wanted to go down for inspection, so he naturally couldn't rush around like a headless fly. There were so many towns and villages under the jurisdiction of Ba County, and he didn't have the time to visit them one by one. Taking into account that he was in charge of two regiment management areas in Ba County and Fuling, based on the principle of proximity, He Wei still thought that it would be more appropriate to base the troops at the junction of Ba County and Fuling.

He also studied the map carefully. The northern part of Ba County is adjacent to the secondary urban area, and there are three townships in the eastern part of Ba County, namely Fengsheng Township, Tianxi Township and Shuangmeng Township. These townships are adjacent to Fuling and are very far away from the urban area, which just meets He Wei's needs of taking into account the two regiment management areas of Ba County and Fuling, and keeping the troops away from the bustling urban area.

Of course, He Wei had two reasons that he didn't tell Chen Zhen. First, he wanted to launch a large-scale farming plan and build clothing factories, farms, etc. Although it did not violate any regulations for a field army to carry out such rear-line construction, He Wei still wanted to keep the construction as secret as possible to avoid criticism.

Secondly, He Wei also knew that the city would suffer heavy bombing by the Japanese army in the future, and the urban area would be the worst hit. In order to avoid air raids, He Wei had to keep his troops away from the urban area as much as possible.

Otherwise, the troops would not need to be trained, and would have to hide from air raids every day in fear. It would obviously be safer to move the troops to remote areas, far away from urban areas.

Therefore, based on various considerations, He Wei has actually locked in the location of the future troop station and the implementation of the construction plan within the scope of Fengsheng, Tianxi and Shuangmeng townships. If there are places that can accommodate the stationing and construction of the assault corps within these three townships and their required jurisdictions, then He Wei can directly decide on the specific location of the station.

Due to the traffic congestion nearby, the driving speed was not very fast. He Wei set out early in the morning and did not arrive at his destination, Fengsheng Township, until noon.

Judging from the map, Fengsheng Township, Tianxi Township and Shuangmeng Township selected by He Wei are arranged from north to south. The northernmost Fengsheng Township borders Tianxi Township in the south, Changshou County and Fuling County in the east. Tianxi Township borders Fengsheng Township in the north and Fuling County in the east. Shuangmeng Township borders Tianxi Township in the north and Fuling County in the east.

When the car entered Fengsheng Township, He Wei did not need to look carefully. As soon as he entered the country, he found a car, a truck and a dozen sedan chairs near the road. There were at least a hundred people standing near the car and the sedan chairs.

There were people wearing Zhongshan suits, some wearing Ma褂 and melon-shaped hats, and some wearing black security uniforms, carrying guns on their backs, looking like bandits. It was a noisy and crowded place, and when the car that He Wei was in approached, a large group of people came directly to greet them.

He Wei leaned out of the car window and looked at the crowd coming in front of him. Chen Zhen on the side said calmly, "Brother, it must be the county magistrate of Ba County and the local township and county officials. Haha, they have official letters from the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Military Affairs, so they definitely dare not neglect it!"

Soon, a crowd came up and the car stopped. As soon as He Wei and Chen Zhen got out of the car, two middle-aged men with slicked-back hair and wearing Mao suits came up to them with smiles on their faces.

(End of this chapter)