The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 500: Orders given, ready to march

The 5th Army had already attached great importance to organizing an advance detachment to enter Guangxi, and the order brought by He Wei made the 5th Army Commander Du Yuming pay even more attention to the advance detachment.

Therefore, just two days after He Wei visited the tank regiment directly under the 5th Army, the advance detachment into Guangxi, jointly organized by the 5th Army and the Assault Corps, was announced to be formed.

该入桂先遣支队的具体编成，则包括陆军突击总队全部、第5军下属的陆军第200师全部、第5军战车团下属的战车第1营、第5军战车团所属修理工厂派出的一个战车修理队，以及第5军战车团的直属输送连。

The name of the advance detachment into Guangxi may sound ordinary, but its total strength is quite impressive. Needless to say, He Wei's assault corps has a total strength of nearly 8,000 people. It has a large scale, a complete organization, and its firepower is enough to dominate the Chinese army.

The strength of the 200th Division was also quite powerful. After the old 200th Division was expanded into the 5th Army, the 200th Division was no longer the original armored division number, but was changed to the number used by an ordinary infantry division.

However, as an infantry division under the elite 5th Army of the Chinese Army, the number of officers and soldiers, as well as the level of equipment of this division are also first-class in the national army. The division has a total of three field infantry regiments, namely the 598th Infantry Regiment, the 599th Infantry Regiment, and the 600th Infantry Regiment.

In addition, the 200th Division also has a field replacement regiment, which can be used as an infantry regiment in wartime. In other words, the division has a total of four field infantry regiments.

In addition, the 200th Division also directly has an engineering battalion, a baggage battalion, a communications company, a special service company, a cavalry company, a field hospital and a mortar battalion, with a total strength of more than troops.

The 1st Tank Battalion under the advance detachment had a total of 26 Soviet-made T35B tanks and Italian-made Fiat CV ultra-light tanks, in addition to more than various auxiliary combat trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles.

As for the tank repair team assigned to the advance detachment, it is composed of nearly two hundred officers and soldiers, carrying a large number of tank repair tools, equipment and consumables. Needless to say, the mission of this unit is to undertake the repair and support tasks of the 1st Tank Battalion after entering Guangxi.

In addition, Du Yuming also incorporated the transport company of the Fifth Army Tank Regiment into the advance detachment. This transport company had more than 81 officers and soldiers and vehicles of various types. The company's mission was to move mainly by trucks loaded with tanks during marching and maneuvering, and it had the ability to transport a tank company at a time. The reason why Du Yuming incorporated this company into the advance detachment overnight was naturally for those precious tanks.

Although tanks are powerful, they are also very delicate and valuable. The biggest cause of tank losses other than combat damage is damage caused when the tanks rely on their own power to march on tracks.

Therefore, in order to reduce the marching losses of the tank troops assigned to the advance detachment, Du Yuming simply gave the transport company of the 5th Army Tank Regiment to the advance detachment. The load-carrying vehicles equipped by this company can carry an entire tank company at a time. The tanks can be pulled by the load-carrying vehicles and do not need to rely on their own power for tracked mobile marches. In this way, the losses of the tank troops during the mobile march can be greatly reduced, and the combat effectiveness of the tank troops can be maximized.

At this point, the advance detachment entering Guangxi, after completing its organization, has actually become a multi-service mixed force with a total strength of more than 20,000 troops. Its manpower, strength, and firepower are quite powerful.

The personnel arrangements for the advance detachment into Guangxi were also in place. The commander of the advance detachment was undoubtedly Dai Anlan, the commander of the 200th Division, and He Wei was appointed as the deputy commander of the advance detachment. The departure time of the advance detachment into Guangxi was also determined by the telegram order forwarded by the Military Commission entrusted by the Chairman's Office. According to the telegram order, the advance detachment into Guangxi should be set off into the hinterland of Guangxi as soon as possible after its formation. The earlier the troops set off, the better, and the latest departure time should not be later than October 10.

In other words, for the newly formed advance detachment, there were only a dozen days from organization, reorganization, preparation to departure. This was definitely not enough time for an army of more than 20,000 people equipped with artillery, trucks, and tanks. The order issued by the Secretariat was undoubtedly the intention of the Standing Committee Chairman. From the hurried departure time, it can be seen that the Standing Committee Chairman was impatient for the Advance Detachment into Guangxi, a direct line of the Central Army, to enter the hinterland of Guangxi and the core territory of the Guangxi clique.

He Wei was also happy to see this happen. He was also eager to enter Guangxi as soon as possible. According to his memory, in another time and space, the Japanese army seemed to have landed in Guangxi in November. The earlier the troops could enter Guangxi, the more time they would have for combat preparations.

Similarly, in the telegram, the Secretariat also made a full explanation of the target departure location and command system of the advance detachment into Guangxi. The command of this advance detachment was assigned to the Guilin Camp. In name, this advance detachment was to obey the command of Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Camp. But in fact this was not the case at all. Although Bai Chongxi, the Little Zhuge, was appointed director of the Guilin Camp and was responsible for commanding the defense of the southwest region, the chief of staff of the Guilin Camp who presided over the daily work of the camp was Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, Lin Wei, deputy minister of the Military General Staff. Bai Chongxi had no real power, and he could only command the Guangxi Army and the Guangxi military and political personnel.

To put it bluntly, the advance detachment, a direct line of the Central Army, was nominally under the command of Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin Headquarters, but in reality it was under the command of Lin Weilai, chief of staff of the Guilin Headquarters. What was finally formed was the command chain of the advance detachment - Lin Weilai, chief of staff of the Guilin Headquarters - the chairman's attendant room.

According to the order of the Secretariat, after reaching the hinterland of Guangxi, the advance detachment will go directly to Nanning, an important city in Guangxi, and use Nanning as the starting point, waiting for an opportunity to advance to the south towards Qinzhou Bay to guard against possible landing attacks by the Japanese army.

Under the current circumstances, if the Japanese army wants to launch an attack in the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi, the most likely means they will use is to launch a landing attack along the coast. The most important port in the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi is in Shantou, which has a deep-water port and is close to the Hong Kong Island, the logistics base of the war zone. However, this port has long been lost.

The second is Guangzhou Bay on the Leizhou Peninsula in southwest Guangdong. It has excellent port conditions and roads leading to Qinzhou, Beihai and Nanning. The third is Beihai Port, located in Hepu County, Qinzhou Bay, west of Guangzhou Bay. It is not as important as Guangzhou Bay because it is far away from Hong Kong Island and land transportation is more difficult.

Therefore, the Guilin camp focused its defense on Guangzhou Bay and ignored Qinzhou Bay. As a result, the defense line in the direction of Nanning and Qinzhou Bay was very empty.

It was for this reason that the advance detachment that entered Guangxi in the name of strengthening the defense of southern Guangxi was deployed in the direction of Nanning to Qinzhou Bay to fill the empty defense there.

He Wei was even more pleased to see this order come to fruition, because, in another time and space, the Guilin Headquarters also adopted a defensive deployment that focused on Guangzhou Bay and neglected Qinzhou Bay. The Japanese army finally seized this pain point and launched a landing directly on the Qinzhou Bay line, catching the Guilin Headquarters off guard and defeating it miserably.

The arrival of the advance detachment just corrected the improper strategic deployment of the Guilin camp, greatly strengthening the Chinese army's defense capabilities in southern Guangxi.

For He Wei, this will also be a stage for him to show his skills. With the power he currently possesses, if the Japanese army continues to launch a landing operation on the Qinzhou Bay line and then attacks towards Nanning, he will certainly let the Japanese army understand what a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood means.

(End of this chapter)