The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 476 Unexpected News
Tianxi Township, Longyan Mountain

The early morning of spring in Longyan Mountain is the best time of the year. The light mist gives birth to the lush greenery all over the mountain. Gusts of spring breeze blow by, stirring up the mist and blowing it away. The trickling wind carries the light white mist and continuously diffuses it among the mountains.

As the sun rises, the morning mist gradually dissipates, and the lush trees and tangled branches on the cliffs of Longyan Mountain become clearer and clearer, revealing a beautiful and misty mountain scenery. It is truly a unique sight.

He Wei stood on a high mountain, admiring the beautiful scenery all around him, breathing the air mixed with the fragrance of grass, and was quite amazed in his heart. Such beautiful scenery was extremely rare for him before he traveled through time. Or, in other words, in the extremely fast-paced life and work conditions of his previous life, he rarely had the mood to relax and appreciate the scenery. After traveling through time, he had been fighting on the front line with his troops, struggling on the line between life and death every day, and he also rarely had the mood to appreciate the scenery.

Today he got up early to inspect the construction progress of the industrial enterprises in the rear of the assault corps, but he did not expect to see such a beautiful land. For a moment, He Wei's heart was filled with emotion, and the recent pressure and fatigue seemed to have disappeared a lot.

It seems that it was well worth the trip I squeezed out to visit Longyan Mountain today.

After the assault corps was expanded into an army, the training intensity of the corps was even more arduous than before. After the supplementation and expansion of various departments of the corps were completed, what followed was the overall coordinated combat training based on the corps. All units within the corps, including infantry, artillery, and various support units had to be integrated together for coordinated tactical drills. In order to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of the corps, He Wei formulated an extremely strict and rigorous training plan.

Therefore, the assault corps has been training very intensively recently. Almost the entire corps goes out in full force every day, led by He Wei to the wild, to conduct various large-scale coordinated tactical exercises of attack, defense, pursuit, and retreat.

Large-scale live-fire shooting training is continuous. The field live-fire shooting and cluster shooting exercises of mountain artillery, field artillery, tank defense guns, and machine guns are carried out once a week, and the field live-fire shooting of infantry units' machine guns, rifle grenades, and mortars is carried out once every five days. On the day of live-fire training, the vehicles of the Third Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion have to pull ammunition from the ammunition depot of the Assault Corps to the field training ground in batches. The sounds of gunfire, artillery, and various firearms can be heard all day long. The wooden targets and target paper consumed in a day's live-fire training of the infantry units have to be pulled by vehicles, not to mention the artillery units. After a month of formation, the training ground for live-fire shooting of mountain artillery and field artillery has been bombarded with bullet craters and the soil has been turned up.

The frequency of live-fire shooting shows the current training intensity of the assault corps.

As for field forced march training, mountain marches relying on nearby mountains, mountain combat subject drills and night combat training are also carried out frequently. The entire assault corps has entered a high-intensity full-speed operation state. These heavy subjects are naturally aimed at improving the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the assault corps.

In addition, in order to welcome the inspection of the Military Commission, a joint combat exercise plan for the entire corps was formulated by the General Staff Office and approved by He Wei. The drills of various subjects in this joint combat exercise plan were also gradually added to the daily training and exercise schedule.

The Assault Corps has been established for a month, and June is just around the corner. There is only a little over a month left before the Military Commission comes to review the Assault Corps, so all work to prepare for the review must be carried out as soon as possible.

With one exercise mission and training plan after another coming down one after another, the entire corps was under high-pressure training state. Even He Wei, the "originator" of the training plan, felt great pressure. Organizing a large force with a total strength of more than 7,000 people to conduct high-intensity combat training was not an easy task, and it was even more tiring and stressful than commanding a small-scale battle.

The reason why He Wei was able to come to Longyan Mountain to take a look and take a walk today was because today was the assault corps' weapons and equipment maintenance and rest day. Today all officers and soldiers did not need to go out of the barracks for training, but rested and maintained their weapons and equipment in the barracks. This was why He Wei had the free time to come to Longyan Mountain.

However, as many beautiful things are often fleeting, He Wei's enjoyment of the beautiful scenery and his self-relaxed state of mind did not last long, as the hustle and bustle at the foot of Longyan Mountain changed his thoughts and attracted all his attention.

He Wei was standing on a natural boulder, looking down at the scene below the mountain. Longyan Mountain not only had beautiful natural scenery, but this place, which he personally selected for the construction of a series of rear-line industries of the assault corps, was indeed unique.

The towering mountains stretch endlessly, and the mountains are generally crescent-shaped. There are large open areas on the front of the mountain and in the crescent-shaped "depression" area. These large open areas surrounded by the Longyan Mountain happen to be the construction and layout areas of a series of rear-line industries of the Assault Corps. There is also a large natural cave in the mountain, which can be used as a natural warehouse for storing various materials. The lush mountains and the location in the suburbs of the temporary capital can also avoid the Japanese air raids to the greatest extent, providing a relatively stable environment for the Assault Corps' clothing factory and hospital.

The area selected by He Wei is extremely advantageous in terms of topography and terrain.

At this time, dozens of sheds of various sizes have been built in the open area of ​​the crescent-shaped depression of Longyan Mountain. A large number of workers are digging the earth and digging pits in the open area, excavating the foundation. Various raw materials for factory construction, such as wood, stone, earth, cement, etc., are piled up like mountains. Dust, earth and rocks are flying into the sky. The workers are sweating profusely, and the sounds of calls and shouts are heard one after another.

Although this construction scene looks and sounds a bit noisy, if you look closely, you can find that this hot construction is busy but not chaotic, tight and orderly.

Looking down from the top of the mountain, the ground in the area where the factory was planned to be built had been divided into several areas by piled sandbags and lime powder. In each area, there were corresponding workers working on the construction. It was a kind of "piecemeal contract" work mode. The backbone commander was the key personnel with experience in bedding production and manufacturing brought by Huang Shengmo, the director of the bedding factory. The work order of the entire construction site was very methodical and orderly. Next to He Wei, Huang Shengmo, the director of the bedding factory, smiled and said, "Sir, at present, the recruitment task and factory construction work of my bedding factory have achieved initial results. After recruitment, my factory has recruited a total of 1,000 bedding factory workers in this county and neighboring counties, including 754 female workers, and an additional 1,500 construction workers. These are the migrant workers you see who are starting construction. Except for the female workers, the remaining male workers are all recruited from other counties. The lack of recruitment of men from Ba County and Fuling will not affect your recruitment plan."

"Very good, very good. You should build this factory well. I am not in a hurry to put it into production. After all, we have just ordered a large number of beddings from Hong Kong Island, which are enough for current consumption. So remember not to affect the quality of the factory construction in order to start production as soon as possible. You must build the factory steadily."

He Wei warned.

"Please rest assured, sir. The quality of the bedding factory's construction will definitely not be a problem. The people I brought with me have rich experience in the industry. In addition, our bedding factory is of moderate size, so the quality of the construction and the construction period are not a problem. According to the planned construction plan, we can start trial production in about two months. The current trial production plan has been completed, and the factory can start construction immediately after it is completed. The recruited bedding factory workers have also begun training."

Huang Shengmo looked confident and apparently did not take He Wei's concerns seriously. He Wei knew that Huang was an expert, so he naturally felt relieved when he saw that Huang dared to make a guarantee.

Looking at the bustling scene of people working hard and sweating at the foot of the mountain, and thinking that a complete clothing factory will be built here, He Wei suddenly felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. Thinking of the recent development of the assault corps and the rapid progress of the corps' various industrial construction, He Wei standing on the top of the mountain also developed the ambition to achieve great things and the heroic spirit of letting the sky be high and the birds fly freely.

Recently, the industrial construction of the Assault Corps has made considerable progress. Needless to say, the clothing factory has already started construction. Other industries are also progressing steadily. The construction of the rear wounded hospital and the field hospital is progressing smoothly. With the efforts of Major Ling Zhi, director of the Medical Department of the Assault Corps and director of the field hospital, enough medical personnel and medical talents have been recruited. During this period, Ling Zhi used his connections to send out heroic invitations to recruit a large number of medical talents for the Assault Corps.

Ling Zhi already had a deep network of connections within the military medical system. Coupled with the generous treatment offered by He Wei and the title of the Assault Corps, his recruitment process was naturally very smooth. In just half a month, he found dozens of military doctors or doctors from civilian hospitals. These doctors were either graduates of military medical schools or graduates of local medical colleges and foreign medical colleges. This immediately set up the framework of the Assault Corps' rear wounded hospital and the front-line field hospital.

In addition, Ling Zhi also requested more than one hundred nurses trained by the Army Medical School. With the arrival of these doctors and nurses, plus the foundation of the original Assault Corps Medical Team, the medical personnel needed by the Assault Corps' rear wounded hospital and the front-line field hospital were immediately replenished.

There are sufficient medical talents, medicines and equipment. Ling Zhi, who was previously unable to give full play to his medical professional talents due to hardware limitations, is now gearing up and ambitiously building up the rear hospital and field hospital of the assault corps. He is ready to do a great job and his ambition is extremely high.

After all, the medical and health conditions of the Chinese military are very poor. The military hospitals in the rear are okay, but to put it bluntly, the field hospitals of the front-line troops are only at the level of a bandage station medical team. They lack doctors and medicines and equipment, and cannot guarantee the health services of the troops. Many military medical talents are therefore unable to give full play to their expertise. Under such circumstances, the rich medical and health service conditions of the Assault Corps become even more rare.

Ding Lunshi not only bought various in-demand medicines, surgical instruments, and optical equipment from Hong Kong Island, he even obtained more than a dozen lightweight X-ray machines through smuggling channels. In addition, the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs also issued some medical supplies. In addition, there were also miscellaneous medical equipment among the captured items of the Assault Corps. Therefore, the basic material conditions of the Assault Corps in terms of hygiene and medical care were very superior.

Such strong material strength is beyond the reach of even many hospitals in the rear areas. With such conditions, both Ling Zhi and the recruited doctors have a feeling that they have found their place and are eager to set up two hospitals immediately and devote themselves to the construction of the health service of the assault corps. Their work enthusiasm is very high. According to this progress trend, as long as the hospital buildings are completed, the rear wounded hospital and the field hospital will soon be put into operation.

The farm for the wounded soldiers used to accommodate disabled officers and soldiers was also doing well. Farm land that could be used for reclamation and cultivation, as well as a batch of livestock, corresponding farm tools, equipment, and houses had been purchased under the coordination of Ding Lunshi. Immediately afterwards, more than one hundred officers and soldiers of the assault corps who were unable to continue serving in the front-line troops due to war injuries or disabilities moved into the farm. The director of the farm for the wounded soldiers was Ge Guicai, the old squad leader in the platoon when He Wei had just crossed over and was a platoon leader.

This old squad leader, who had served in the army for more than ten years and participated in various battles such as the Eastern Expedition and the Northern Expedition, the Central Plains War, etc., gave He Wei great help at the beginning of his time travel. He then followed He Wei in his battles and his rank was promoted from sergeant to warrant officer. When in Nanjing, Ge Guicai served as the warrant officer baggage platoon leader under He Wei. After the Battle of Nanjing ended and the assault corps was established, He Wei arranged for him to help in Li Youcai's logistics department.

He Wei had great respect for this old squad leader. He had a lot of experience, was simple and honest, and was a typical old soldier who worked hard. Now that He Wei had been promoted to colonel, he naturally could not forget his old brother and had to give this old squad leader, who was nearly 40 years old, a way out. After comprehensive consideration, He Wei gave him the position of director of the Wounded Soldiers Farm. This arrangement by He Wei was a good thing for Ge Guicai and the disabled officers and soldiers at the Wounded Soldiers Farm.

After visiting the clothing factory, He Wei went to the wounded soldiers' hospital under construction, the field hospital's building construction site, and the wounded soldiers' farm. After inspecting and understanding the progress of various construction projects, he returned to the headquarters camp in the evening with satisfaction.

As soon as He Wei returned, Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling told He Wei the first piece of news that surprised him. It turned out that the Military Commission had just sent a notice that the Chairman's Secretariat would also send people to participate in the Military Commission's review of the Assault Corps in July.

(End of this chapter)