Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

When the weapons are good enough and the soldiers are elite enough, it is possible to defeat the majority of enemies with a small number of troops, even in a head-on battle.

Therefore, as the ancients said, quality is more important than quantity.

The current situation is that the Japanese puppet army only has more than 1,000 soldiers, and their strength is not even as large as that of the Second Battalion. Their equipment and individual soldier quality cannot be compared with that of the Second Battalion. The equipment level is also a generation behind. They don’t even have a geographical advantage, nor do they have the conditions to take the initiative. They are still the ones being beaten...

The combination of many conditions resulted in the main forces of the 772nd and 16th Regiments being able to eliminate only a few survivors and then instantly turning into corpse-collecting teams.

The charge sounded throughout the battlefield, which also affected the Second Battalion, so Guo Liandong directly ordered three of the four companies on the north side of the valley to go down and help clean up the battlefield.

As the ancients said, everyone should clean up the blood in front of their own door and not worry about the frost on other people's roofs.

Two hours passed in a flash, the battlefield had been cleaned up, the Japanese puppet troops had been buried on a hill in the north, and the captured supplies were piled up in a large row on the battlefield. According to past practice, the Second Battalion did not take the weapons, but only replenished the ammunition from the previous battle, and then picked up the valuable items and stored them separately, and did not want the rest.

Moreover, these valuable items were not left by the Second Battalion, but were handed over to the Taiyue Military Region for classification and distribution by Political Commissar Wang. For example, the military region needed specialized personnel to analyze and translate the written materials to extract important information. In addition, the military region also needed to exchange gold, silver, jewelry, French currency, and Japanese yen for supplies through commercial channels.

In short, the Second Battalion only needs to take care of fighting matters. They don’t have to worry about logistics or anything else. It’s very worry-free!
The 62nd Division's devils are of course not just on this route, there are several other routes in the east of Shili Township, and they are now attacking in the direction of Qinshui. According to the analysis of the devil's movements after the war, the devils here do not know that the devils here have been eliminated, and are still moving forward in the original direction.

Ma Bi, in a temporary meeting room, some cadres from the Taiyue Military Region and the Second Division sat together to analyze the current situation.

"The Second Battalion fought quickly and decisively this time, with direct and comprehensive firepower coverage, not giving the Japs any time to ask for help! I'm afraid the Japs won't have time to send a telegram for help until they die!"

"Hearing is deceiving, seeing is believing. We have underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Second Battalion, and also underestimated the power of a company equipped with four 4mm mortars! I propose that after this anti-mopping-up operation is over, we should apply to equip the main regiments in our Taiyue District with 60mm mortars. Even if we can't have four per company, equipping us with two will be fine!"

"We will talk about the 60mm mortars later. Now we are discussing the situation of the Japanese and the next steps! But I have a piece of news. According to the headquarters, Beishan can produce 60 130mm mortars per month! We now have 4 military divisions, 12 main regiments, and 108 infantry companies. We only need 216 mortars! This is just the production capacity for two months!"

"That's 11! The 16th Regiment is going to be transferred..."

"Now that the 16th Regiment is gone, we can just build another one. The First Division has seized so many weapons, and this battle captured more than a thousand of them. We can't just leave them to rust, right? The mortar needs a train axle, which is hard to make. When we fight on the outside, we have to find a way to rob the enemy's train! A train has so many wheels and so many train axles. One train axle can make a lot of guns!" "Ahem, let's get down to business. When we attack the railway, we will attack on two fronts. The Baijin Line and the Tongpu Railway are both our targets! But when we fight on the outside, let's first eliminate another wave of the enemy who have penetrated deep into our base! The news just received is that at noon, the First Division had completed the annihilation battle against the enemy and puppet troops coming out of Huo County!"

"That is to say, our northern base is safe! We can transfer the 38th and 25th Regiments from Division ! Judging from today's battle, the Japanese are powerless in the face of our powerful firepower! Of course, the ammunition consumption is a bit high, so we need to save the consumption of artillery shells in the next battle. This should be noted.

"Saving ammunition does not mean not using shells in battle! The 60mm mortar is very good, but the shells we brought are used up as they are used up, and there is no way to temporarily replenish them! But our 82mm mortar shells are fine, and our own ammunition factory can produce mortar shells! If time permits, it is not impossible to produce 60mm mortar shells!"

"Now it's just a matter of time! By the time the shells are made, the Japanese will probably have been driven away. There's no point!"

"Can we use them first? Let's use up all the 60mm mortar shells that the Second Battalion brought. We'll make them as soon as possible and supply them when they return!"

"This method is also feasible. Then we can add the 60 mortars! That means we now have three main regiments, a second battalion, and 82 mortars... plus the artillery battalion of the 386th Brigade, we can definitely fight a large-scale battle with the devils of the 62nd Division in Shili Township!"

"Don't those people always say that we are guerrilla fighters who only fight without fighting? Although this is a slander, it's not like we can't fight a large-scale frontal battle!"

"The Hundred Regiments Campaign has already proven the power of large-scale battles. Some people just pretend not to see it! But I agree that we should look for the Japanese mopping-up teams near Shili Township and give them a good fight! In fact, we don't even have to look for the Japanese teams. As long as we select a few hilltops and show our teams, the Japanese will come looking for us!"

"You're right. The Japs today are not the same as they were a few years ago! The Japs in the past had reconnaissance planes flying in the sky all day long, and they would mobilize bombers to bomb at any time! The Japs today rarely have bombers on the battlefield! Without the threat of airplanes, we are facing the 62nd Division, which has no organized artillery team. What are we afraid of? Shoot them!"

"Ahem, the predecessor of the 62nd Division, when it was the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade, also had a mountain artillery battalion! But in Yangquan, Li Yunlong snatched it away, and then turned the guns to shoot the Japanese! Haha, so when the Japanese formed a new division, they simply didn't equip it with mountain artillery. Anyway, it's a bargain for us if they equip it!"

"Yeah... it's a pity that our brigade commander went back to northern Shaanxi, otherwise... forget it, let's not talk about it. It's not easy for the independent regiment either! I just heard that the mountain artillery captured by Li Yunlong is now the equipment of our division's mountain artillery regiment! But the division headquarters supplied the independent regiment with 6 120mm heavy mortars and set up a heavy mortar company for the independent regiment!"

"Okay, let's not worry about Li Yunlong for now. Let's choose a place and have a good fight with the devils..."

In the middle of gossip and serious conversation, everyone easily switched the topic, and then combined with the terrain near Shili Township, they quickly selected a very good battlefield for the Japanese. Then, it was time to deploy troops... (End of this chapter)