The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 462: Motor Camp, Huangpu Students

In just a few days, all the weapons and equipment needed for the expansion of the Assault Corps were in place, completely solving the material prerequisites for the expansion of the Assault Corps. Within the following week, several new bloods joined the Assault Corps.

Needless to say, the Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion 3 was under the command of the Assault Corps after transporting weapons and equipment. The command and affiliation of the entire battalion fell into the hands of He Wei. After a comprehensive inspection of the battalion, He Wei was very satisfied with the situation of the battalion.

At present, the national army's motor vehicle units are mainly composed of two types of organizations: the transportation corps and the independent transportation corps battalion, also referred to as the transportation corps or the independent transportation battalion. The Independent Transportation Battalion 3 under the command of He Wei is an independent battalion-level unit.

The battalion is organized into a battalion headquarters, a special agent platoon directly under the battalion, a repair factory, three motor transport companies, and each motor transport company has three motor transport platoons, each platoon has three squads, and each squad is equipped with five transport vehicles. A motor transport battalion is equipped with 160 vehicles in total, and all of the battalion's equipment are Opel Lightning three-ton military trucks imported from Germany by the Kuomintang government before the Anti-Japanese War. They have excellent performance and were the main military transport vehicles of the German Army during World War II. Their performance is much better than those Japanese trucks captured by the Assault Corps.

In general, the battalion's hardware equipment is very good, with a sufficient number of vehicles and a repair shop with a certain degree of self-repair capabilities. He Wei is also very satisfied with its cadre and officer configuration and the training style of its soldiers. Most of the battalion's officers graduated from the former Army Transportation School and the current Army Transportation School, and all the drivers are cadets trained by the driving education regiments of the two military academies. They have a strong overall quality and a very good style.

Due to the special nature of the motor vehicle units, many of the Kuomintang's motor vehicle regiments could not be used as a whole unit, but were dispersed and assigned to serve in the vast war zone in companies and even squads. Such decentralized management directly led to the lax style of many motor vehicle units and even corruption. The rumor in the Kuomintang army that the motor vehicle soldiers had a bad style and were well-paid was not groundless.

Fortunately, the independent motor vehicle battalion 3 assigned to He Wei has been deployed near the temporary capital. The military transportation mission is very heavy, and it has been carrying out the mission in an integrated manner. Therefore, both its style and technology are excellent. He Wei was very pleased after the inspection. With such a motor vehicle battalion equipped with more than 100 trucks, the assault corps' logistics transportation capabilities and the troops' mobility in wartime will be greatly improved.

The vehicles of this battalion are enough to carry a reinforced infantry battalion of the assault corps in an emergency, allowing the reinforced infantry battalion to achieve motorized mobility and enhance its mobility and reaction speed. On a battlefield where the situation changes rapidly, rapid mobility and reaction speed are crucial, and sometimes can even determine the life and death of a battle.

He Wei was very satisfied with the battalion, so he gave it very generous treatment. After the battalion was placed under the command of the Assault Corps, all its financial management relationships were transferred to the Assault Corps. Originally, the battalion's funds were directly obtained from the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs, but now the Assault Corps is responsible for issuing and collecting funds on its behalf. The entire battalion's financial logistics are all handled by the Assault Corps.
From this perspective, such an administrative and financial management relationship is almost equivalent to the battalion entering the combat sequence of the assault corps, but it only nominally maintains a subordinate command relationship equivalent to being seconded to the assault corps.

He Wei treated the meals, living conditions and material supplies of the officers and soldiers of the battalion in the same way as those of the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps. Even though the treatment of the Kuomintang's motor vehicle soldiers was relatively high, it was still incomparable to the wealthy Assault Corps. In particular, the rich meals of the Assault Corps every day, which included both meat and vegetables, made the officers and soldiers of the Third Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion drool. Originally, these officers and soldiers of the motor vehicle unit had just arrived and had a sense of superiority because they were technical soldiers with skills and generous treatment. As a result, after being stationed in the Assault Corps' barracks for more than a week, the officers and soldiers of the Third Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion were all convinced by the Assault Corps' generous treatment in all aspects!

In addition, He Wei also discovered some problems in the battalion. That is, although the battalion was fully equipped with vehicles, it did not have any decent weapons. In the entire battalion, only officers had pistols for self-defense, and the special forces platoon directly under the battalion had a few Hanyang-made pistols. The entire battalion had basically no self-defense capability. Once it was attacked in wartime, it would have almost no ability to fight back.

In order to enhance the self-defense capability of the 3rd Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion, He Wei specially issued a batch of rifles and pistols to the battalion, which greatly improved the battalion's self-defense capability when performing transportation missions during wartime.

He Wei's series of measures soon made the officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion of the Independent Motorcycles feel a sense of belonging to the Assault Corps. This new unit gradually began to merge with the Assault Corps.
Of course, there must be more than one fresh blood joining the Assault Corps. Not long after the Third Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion arrived at the camp of the Assault Corps, the 100 graduates from the 13th and 14th classes of the Whampoa Military Academy who graduated from the Chengdu Main School of the Central Military Academy (i.e. the Chengdu Main School of the Whampoa Military Academy) and were assigned to the Assault Corps also gathered to report to the Assault Corps. The arrival of this group of newly graduated officers made He Wei happy for a long time.

After the bloody battle in Wuhan, the assault corps suffered a lot of officer shortages and casualties, and was in urgent need of reinforcements. In addition, He Wei's First Replacement Soldier Training Department was going to set up five replacement battalions, which also required a large number of officers. Therefore, He Wei currently had a huge demand for grassroots officers. The arrival of this group of graduates from the 13th and 14th classes of the Whampoa Military Academy was like a timely help.

After this group of graduates arrived, He Wei also investigated them, but the results of the investigation made He Wei not very satisfied.

Among these one hundred graduates, forty are graduates of the 13th term of Whampoa Military Academy. This group of students is quite special. The main campus of Whampoa Military Academy was originally located in Guangzhou. After the National Government established its capital in Nanjing, the Whampoa Military Academy was moved to Nanjing in 1928 and renamed the Central Army Officers School (abbreviated as Central Military Academy, and its informal name is still Whampoa Military Academy). It began to run schools and recruit students in Nanjing. The 8th, 9th, and 10th terms of Whampoa Military Academy, as well as the 11th term where He Wei was, all enrolled and graduated in Nanjing. It was not until 1937, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, that the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing had to move westward.

During these nine years, the political situation was relatively stable, the school facilities were complete, and the educational plan was rigorous. It can be said that this was a rare "golden time" for the Whampoa Military Academy. The quality of education at the academy was also extremely high. The students of the Whampoa Military Academy during the Jinling period were extremely strict in terms of the quality of students, the strictness of admission, and the length of each term. For example, for the 11th term of Whampoa where He Wei was, all applicants had to be junior high school or high school graduates, and there were also many university graduates. In many places, the admission rate was eight to one or even ten to one, and it was very difficult to pass.

The duration of these sessions is as long as three years, and there are many German advisers among the military academy instructors. The overall education level can be said to be very good.

Therefore, after traveling through time, He Wei was really contemptuous of those people in later generations who would always say that the Whampoa Military Academy was at the level of a technical secondary school, or that all Whampoa students were the products of some inferior crash course for officers that lasted only a few months. It was really a speechless and outrageous statement to make a final judgment on the Whampoa students regardless of the period without discussing the matter objectively.

The 13th batch of students from the Whampoa Military Academy were the last batch of students recruited by the Whampoa Military Academy during its Nanjing period. Their basic qualities were also very good. They were all junior high school and high school graduates. Among those assigned to the Assault Corps, there were several who were graduates of prestigious universities before entering the military academy.

However, the full-scale war of resistance against Japan broke out soon after this group of students enrolled. The Whampoa Military Academy had to move westward from Nanjing, and this group of students followed the military academy to Sichuan Province. In order to provide grassroots officers for the front line as soon as possible, the original three-year school system of the 13th batch of students in the military academy was shortened to two years. The two-year school system, coupled with the turmoil of the relocation of the Whampoa Military Academy during the war, meant that this group of students only received about one year of real officer education, which was still less than the 11th batch where He Wei was.

Of course, compared with the other sixty graduates of the 14th class of Whampoa Military Academy, the educational level of the 13th class was quite good. After He Wei asked those graduates of the 14th class of Whampoa Military Academy, he learned that their 14th class of students was the first batch of students admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.

There is an urgent need for officers on the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In order to provide enough officers to the front line as soon as possible, the military academy has to shorten the academic system. The 14th batch of students enrolled are divided into two levels, A and B, according to their educational level. Among them, Level A students are those with high school education or above and have received military training before entering the military academy. For this group of students with high education and military training foundation, the military academy directly provides them with a short-term one-year military education and then allows them to graduate and be assigned to the front-line troops.

As for students who do not have an A-level education, their study period will naturally be extended and they will graduate later.

The sixty students from the 14th batch of Whampoa Military Academy assigned to He Wei were Class A graduates, and they had only studied in the military academy for one year. Therefore, less than two months after their seniors from the 13th batch graduated, these students from the 14th batch also graduated. This shows how great the demand for grassroots officers is on the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japan.

He Wei values ​​the one hundred students from the 13th and 14th classes assigned to him. These officers will definitely become the backbone of the assault corps in the future, but their current military command ability and officer education level do not meet He Wei's requirements. In this case, He Wei will not use these students immediately, and must strengthen their education before they are assigned to lead troops.

Therefore, He Wei immediately decided to set up an officer education brigade to carry out centralized education for this group of newly assigned military academy graduates. The captain of the education brigade would be Zhao Zhanhai, the chief of the combat training section of the staff office of the assault corps, and the instructors would be company and platoon officers of the assault corps.

The purpose of establishing this officer education brigade is, firstly, to help this group of military academy graduates make up for the shortcomings that they failed to learn in the military academy, and secondly, to unify their tactical thinking with the tactics used by the assault corps. After all, the tactics currently adopted by the assault corps are quite different from the tactics they learned by rote in the military academy, so it is imperative to strengthen their education.

Shortly after this group of military academy students arrived at the Assault Corps, Li Youcai, the director of the Assault Corps' logistics department, who had been stranded in Wuhan, also brought the wounded soldiers of the Assault Corps and more than 400 wounded soldiers from other troops. After many twists and turns, they finally arrived at the temporary capital and successfully reunited with the main force of the Corps.

At this point, all the units allocated to the Assault Corps, whether it is the original Assault Corps stranded in other places or the newly assigned ones, are now fully ready, and the expansion and construction of the Assault Corps will usher in a new stage.

In He Wei's office, Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling was sitting on a chair with a whole stack of documents in his hand, meticulously reporting to He Wei on the recent affairs of the corps. He Wei also sat upright, listening to the report from his right-hand man.

"Captain, the training and education work of the Officers' Education Battalion has been fully launched. In addition to the one hundred military academy graduates, the names of newly promoted officers reported by the battalions and companies have also been reported. They are all senior warrant officers and sergeant squad leaders who have fought meritorious service in previous battles. I have reviewed them one by one. There are no problems. They can be promoted to second lieutenants. I think it is better to incorporate these people into the Officers' Education Battalion. These newly promoted officers are all from the military, have never attended military academies, and have low cultural levels. It is better to send them to the Officers' Education Battalion for training. On the one hand, it can improve their tactical level and command ability, and on the other hand, let them work together with those military academy graduates, learn from each other, and make up for each other's shortcomings. What do you think, Captain?"

"Yes, those who graduated from the military have rich combat experience but low cultural level. Those who graduated from military academies are just the opposite. It would be good to let them communicate more."

Wang Yuanling nodded, handed the document in his hand to He Wei, and took out another military document, saying: "Captain, the education of officers is already on the right track, and I think the sergeants cannot be left behind. Some soldiers in our corps will also be promoted to sergeants and serve as squad leaders. These new sergeants need training. In addition, although the wounded soldiers from other troops brought back by Director Li are also veterans and sergeants who have been on the battlefield, they are not familiar with the tactics and fighting methods of our assault corps. So I think in terms of the education of sergeants, should we also follow the example of the Officer Education Brigade and organize a training unit?"

He Wei asked, "Brother Yuan Ling, do you mean to set up a sergeant training brigade to train the new sergeants of my corps, new squad leaders, and those sergeants who defected from other units?"

"Yes, Captain, my staff has also drafted the organizational structure of this sergeant training brigade. I think it would be a good idea to let Captain Yang Biao of the special agent company take over as the brigade commander. The instructors of the sergeant training brigade will also be a group of veteran squad leaders from our entire corps. The veteran sergeants will train them. It will be a temporary training unit that can be organized quickly. It will also be of great benefit to improving the quality of our corps' sergeants and unifying tactical thinking."

"No problem, I agree. Let's form the team as soon as possible and get the sergeant's training on track."

He Wei readily adopted Wang Yuanling's suggestion, thinking that the education of officers and sergeants had already been launched, the troops assigned to the assault corps had also arrived, and the additional equipment and ammunition filled the warehouse of the assault corps camp. The next step was to organize the recruitment of new soldiers as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)