Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 213 Plot
As the scale of industry in the border areas continues to expand, the production capacity of automobiles, guns, and factory equipment has all doubled or even increased several times. The border area resources that were once felt to be sufficient are now beginning to become stretched.

If Ren Zhong had not started mining mineral resources in Ikh Ju League ahead of time, the supply of raw materials would have been unable to keep up with this wave of industrial expansion.

Even so, Ren Zhong feels that the current resource structure is quite unhealthy. Although Jiuyuan in the northern part of the Great Wall has been opened up and huge resource reserves have been found in Bayan Obo, it is not possible to build a large-scale mineral base there in the short term.

Moreover, the northern part of the Great Wall is bitterly cold and sparsely populated, with most of the inhabitants being herders. Now, due to the war, it is not a problem to mobilize hundreds or even thousands of people to build a large industrial base with a population of tens of thousands, but it is simply not realistic now.

This means that most of the working labor force still relies on the Suimeng Autonomous Army and the Saibei Military Region to work hard to build mines and factories outside the Great Wall.

However, there are still serious problems with agricultural production and food supply in Jiuyuan. Now during the spring plowing season, the border area has to send two Type B regiments with light equipment to go up there to farm!

After all, the area outside the Great Wall is remote, and military forces are already tight in the border areas. Sooner or later, farmers and workers will have to be sent there to replace them.

When Ren Zhong discussed this matter with Staff Officer Ye, they both felt it was a very difficult issue.

"Staff Officer Ye, I don't think it will be possible for the development of the northern border to form a scale that can support our border industry in a short period of time." Ren Zhong looked at the map for a long time, drew a few places on the map, and then said to Staff Officer Ye.

"How strong are the troops in these places now? If not, let's take over Luliang Mountain, Wutai Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain completely!"

“Brother Ren, this step you’re taking is a bit too big.” Staff Officer Ye took a deep breath when he saw that Ren Zhong had drawn nearly half of the land.

"There is no other way. We can only rely on ourselves for resources. According to our organization's investigation, 90% of the iron ore in Shanxi is distributed in the Wutai Mountain area and the Luliang Mountain area, 95% of the copper ore is concentrated in the Zhongtiao Mountain area, and 75% of the bauxite is distributed in Luliang and Xinzhou." Ren Zhong said to Staff Officer Ye, "We had no way to fully control these areas before, but now after the reorganization, the strength of the troops has increased rapidly. We should have a chance to take over these mountainous areas that are temporarily useless to the Japanese. After all, the Japanese didn't react much after we took Luzhou."

Ren Zhong understood the overall dynamics of the Japanese better than Staff Officer Ye. He knew that because the navy suffered losses, the Japanese in Southeast Asia had to deploy more army allies to fight for the islands.

Although this world has undergone some changes compared to the original historical time and space, the overall strategic thinking of both sides has not changed.

The huge historical inertia made the Japanese devils focus their attention and resources on Southeast Asia.

After their combined fleet suffered heavy losses, the costly shipbuilding operation has never stopped, and the limited resources have been bet on the combined fleet.

Because the Japanese headquarters knew that if they lost Nanyang again, they would have no choice but to wait for death!
Without precious strategic materials such as oil, the huge air force and navy are just a pile of scrap metal!
The news of the discovery of an oil field in the border area once attracted some attention from the Japanese high-ranking officials, but they soon lost interest after learning about the output.

A small oil field with an annual output of only more than 10 tons (the output before General Shi donated sets of oil production equipment), although it has some value, but considering that in order to take over the border area, given the current strength of both sides, at least five or six field divisions and more than half of the air force in North China must be dispatched. For the Japanese in North China now, there is no possibility of withdrawing this force.

They could only draw troops from the Kwantung Army, but mobilizing a huge force of nearly 100,000 just for an oil field of more than 10,000 tons would be too disrespectful of the troops' consumption.

Now that they have taken over the British Burma and Sumatra oil fields, the Japanese can obtain 900 million tons of crude oil a year in Southeast Asia. In comparison, the oil fields in the border areas are almost negligible. With the same five divisions, the effect they can achieve in Southeast Asia is much better than in the poor and remote areas like the border areas.

This was also the purpose of Ren Zhong controlling the pace of oil production in the border area. More than 2500 tons was enough for the border area, which had only more than a thousand cars at the time. According to the current refining technology level, these more than 6000 tons can be refined into more than tons of gasoline and more than tons of diesel.

A car can run non-stop for a maximum of 10 kilometers a year. For example, the old Le Hongxing Daliwang and Victory I, which were the main forces in the border area in the past, have a 1.1-liter diesel engine and a 1.8-liter diesel engine respectively. The combined fuel consumption per 20 kilometers is about 10 liters. For 1.6 kilometers, basically, the diesel consumption is more than 1.7 tons but less than tons, which is enough for the vehicle.

The excess oil was also used in a large number of diesel rotary tillers, which brought forward the process of agricultural mechanization in the border area. Otherwise, it would have consumed a lot of labor to cultivate 200 million mu of high-yield farmland. According to the border area's population of more than 140 million, most of the labor force would have to be invested in it.

"Brother Ren, has your organization ever considered whether, if we launch a large-scale attack on the Japanese in Shanxi at this time, it will cause changes in the entire North China, leading to a full-scale attack by the North China Front Army and even the Kwantung Army on our Eighth Route Army?" Staff Officer Ye said to Ren Zhong with a serious expression.

This is no joke. The Eighth Route Army is now just getting better. The border areas and the three major bases of Taihang and Saiwai are not too short of food, weapons and ammunition. The Jin-Cha-Ji, Ji-Lu-Yu, and Hubei-Anhui-Jiangsu bases are still having a hard time, but they are better than in the past. The level of autonomy and supply of weapons and ammunition have undergone qualitative changes.

But compared with the strength of the Japanese, it is still not enough.

Life is the best in the border area, but after trying everything, they have only reorganized 8 Type A regiments, 16 Type B regiments, and 24 Type C regiments. But relatively speaking, there is no such thing as regional guerrillas in the border area. Basically, the troop manpower is just over 8 people. After all, the population of the entire border area is only more than 150 million. If it weren't for the rotary tillers, it would be difficult to spare so many people from their jobs.

What's more, the factories are able to absorb a lot of labor. There are now more than 10 industrial workers, and the base factories near the Dawn Research Institute account for nearly 2!
This was also the reason why Ren Zhong strongly demanded a wave of expansion. In the past, the country was poor and did not have enough food to feed the large population. But now the food problem is supported by 2 million mu of base food, and the border area no longer has any worries.

It’s just that the population cannot grow as quickly as crops.

Taihang reorganized 2 Type A regiments, 5 Type B regiments, and 15 Type C regiments. Taiyue Military Region reorganized 5 Type A regiments, of which Li Yunlong's military sub-district occupied 1 Type A regiment quota (Independent Regiment, New 771st Regiment and New 772nd Regiment, 9st Regiment and 13nd Regiment) and Type B regiments (New rd Regiment and New th Regiment). Taiyue Military Region reorganized a total of Type B regiments and Type C regiments.

Due to the occupation of Luzhou, a relatively affluent area, the population was increased by more than 100 million, and the population of the two military regions connected reached more than 600 million. In addition, thanks to Ren Zhong's resource restructuring plan, the production capacity of the five major ordnance bases doubled, and the strength of the Taihang and Taiyue Military Regions also expanded rapidly.

Because there are many areas bordering the Japanese occupation, and the guerrilla zone still has more than 100,000 independent guerrilla battalions and district squadrons that are not full-time, compared with the border areas, the Taihang and Taiyue Military Regions have the best potential.

After the reorganization in northwestern Shanxi, relying on the supply of weapons from the border area, 2 Type A regiments, 7 Type B regiments, and 11 Type C regiments were reorganized, connecting northwestern Shanxi with the border area, and life became better.

Things were not going well in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei area. In 42, the Japanese launched a large-scale mopping-up operation, and the base area shrank a lot. After the reorganization, 5 Type B regiments were pulled out, and the rest of the troops had to be reorganized into Type C regiments according to the mission standards. The Eighth Regiment of the Hebei-Central Military Region was finally reorganized into a Type C regiment. A total of 42 Type C regiments were reorganized in the entire military region, but the combat effectiveness of the main force made great progress after the reorganization.

The secondary main forces such as the supplementary regiments and basic regiments that were originally insufficient in strength will be directly assigned to become local guerrilla battalions and will not be disbanded for the time being.

Thus, in North China, there are 17 Type A regiments, 42 Type B regiments, and 105 Type C regiments directly under the command, which means that there are more than 70 full-time troops. Although there are less than Type A and Type B main regiments with heavy weapons, the combat effectiveness has at least increased several times compared with last year!
Of course, compared with the North China Front Army with more than 20 field forces and the Japanese with almost the same number of puppet troops, this strength is not enough to compete head-on. However, there is no longer the situation in the past when the Japanese could just use one or two brigades as the main force to form a regiment and bring a few thousand puppet troops to sweep deep into the base area.

Even in the relatively weak base of Jin-Cha-Ji, with the popularization of mortars, the ability to annihilate the Japanese battalions or even regiments has increased dramatically. The Japanese have not assembled into a brigade-level heavy force group and now dare not go deep into the base.

In this way, the effectiveness of the Japanese mopping-up operations became much worse. The mopping-up routes were full of loopholes, which allowed our main forces to move around, leaving them with almost no chance of catching our main forces.

However, the comprehensive property and food losses caused by the Japanese raids were difficult to avoid.

Therefore, the Japanese invaders usually launched their raids in Shanxi, Chahar and Hebei during the winter and autumn wheat harvests, making the base areas very nervous about the harvest.

Of course, these are all off-topic. What Staff Officer Ye wanted to know was whether the Japanese North China Front Army would launch a full-scale retaliatory attack if the three major mountainous areas and nearby cities designated by Ren Zhong were captured.

This is a very critical issue. If they attack and capture these places, the main force of the Eighth Route Army will inevitably be exposed. Then for the Japanese, the Eighth Route Army will not only be a potential force, but will become their strongest opponent.

Although it is impossible for the Japanese North China Front Army to concentrate its main forces, we must know that there are 70 Kwantung Army behind it that have not made any moves. If the Japanese are really made to feel that the Eighth Route Army is a serious threat that needs to be eliminated at a strategic level, it will be very scary if the Japanese concentrate their forces.

After all, the Japanese are still in their heyday, and their overall strength is simply not comparable to that of the Eighth Route Army.

As the saying goes, a single move can affect the entire body. It depends on whether it is worth moving.

First update!
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(End of this chapter)