Songhu: Never Give Up

The First Battalion sent a large number of armed working groups to the villages in the Yimeng Mountains. The central task of these working groups was to promote the policy of rent and interest reduction, publicize the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement, establish village committees, militia companies (platoons), women's rescue associations and other organizations, mobilize the masses and arm the masses;
According to the intelligence obtained by the column headquarters, the main forces of the Japanese who participated in the Battle of Wuhan have gradually returned to North China, and the Japanese high-level policies toward China have also undergone a major change;
In order to adapt to the new struggle situation, the column headquarters held a high-level meeting. The leaders of the detachments that were developing outside were ordered to return to the column headquarters. Yue Qianli saw that everyone who could come had arrived (Gao Zhisong was absent), so he said directly:
"Comrades, according to the intelligence reported from my hometown, the Japanese have made major adjustments to their China policy after the Battle of Wuhan.
On the front battlefield, only the 11th Army was retained for combat readiness and attack. Facing millions of Kuomintang troops in central and southern China, they could not make much waves.

Although we lost Wuhan, Guangzhou and other major cities in the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese also paid a heavy price, especially the consumption of strategic materials was astronomical, and the national treasury was emptied;
They were no longer able to organize a major war involving hundreds of thousands of people on the front battlefield, so they shifted their strategic focus to the rear and implemented a strategy of fighting to support the war.

Anyone who has read Sun Tzu's Art of War knows that the strategy of relying on the enemy for food is extremely harmful to China's long-term resistance to the war;

If we allow the Japanese to digest the occupied land, the price China will have to pay to defeat them will increase exponentially, so we cannot let the Japanese succeed in their conspiracy.

The main battlefield in the future will shift to the enemy's rear. The Japanese are forming a large number of garrison brigades. These brigades directly command several infantry battalions and an artillery battalion. Although their combat power is very different from that of field divisions, they are more mobile and flexible and can be deployed at any time. This puts higher demands on the security of the base areas.

The enemy is changing, and so am I, which is why I propose to build an armed system that integrates the main force, garrison force, and militia."

Yue Qianli's speech lasted for more than an hour, covering all aspects of base construction and armed struggle behind enemy lines. These were successful experiences gained from guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in another time and space at the cost of the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians.

Promoting it from the very beginning would avoid many detours and minimize the losses of soldiers and civilians in the battlefield behind enemy lines. He is no longer hiding it now, and many of his policies are exactly the same as those of the Eighth Route Army, or even more Eighth Route.

In Zhongtiao Mountain, Wei Junru was known as "Seven and a Half Roads". Now another one has appeared in Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui. This should be enough to give the government a headache.

Subsequent suppression is inevitable, and may even lead to death, but Yue Qianli doesn't care. Nothing is more important than defeating the Japanese.

At the meeting, Yue Qianli reorganized the guerrilla route and introduced the concept of military divisions. Shandong was divided into five military divisions: Southwest Shandong, Central Shandong, Northwest Shandong, Southeast Shandong, and Coastal Shandong.

These military sub-districts were actually local anti-Japanese governments under military control, headed by battalion commanders, with one main battalion and several garrison battalions. The town level had garrison battalions and militia battalions, and the village level had militia companies.
These five military sub-districts were directly led by the Third Detachment and the Fourth Detachment (formerly the Guerrilla Detachment). The level of the military sub-district was battalion level, the detachment was still at deputy regiment level, and the column was at regiment level. The National Government only gave the regiment organization, so Yue Qianli could only organize troops within the framework of the regiment.

This is actually nothing. The brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Brigade Commander Chen eventually developed into a regular army of more than 100,000, plus hundreds of thousands of local troops and militia. The first-term leader was only a major general brigade commander with hundreds of thousands of troops at the end of the War of Resistance. He was content to be a colonel regiment commander in the sixth term. The most important thing is strength.

Finally, Yue Qianli waved his hand and said:

"Comrades, don't look down on a military sub-district battalion commander. As long as you have the ability, I will accept you even if the main battalion has tens of thousands of people. I will not think it is too few if the garrison battalion is expanded to ten or eight, and I will not think it is too many if twenty.

But one principle must be grasped: we must strictly control the quality and rather have too few soldiers than too many. Having too many soldiers is not necessarily a good thing. Maintaining an army requires money and food, and even more so a large amount of equipment.

The construction of the base must be carried out step by step and steadily, and the training of the troops must keep up. The standard for your assessment is not who leads the troops, but how strong their combat effectiveness is.

Three military sub-districts will be set up in northern Jiangsu, eastern Henan and northern Anhui outside Shandong, under the unified leadership of the First Detachment. Two east and west military sub-districts will be set up on the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains. The direction of Zhongtiao Mountain remains unchanged and will still exist in the form of a detachment. I will send a separate message to Lao Gao about the specific development.

Each military sub-district independently undertakes the combat mission of the base area. The mopping-up operations below a garrison brigade are the responsibility of the detachment. Only when the Japanese use division-level mopping-up operations, the column will assemble the main force according to the actual situation to fight a campaign-level mobile warfare with the Japanese.

From now on, I will only be responsible for military production and economic construction, and I will be your storekeeper, ensuring your equipment and supplies. Half of your usual captured items must be handed over to the column headquarters for unified allocation, and the same applies to food and supplies. You must not create small mountaintops."

After listening to the speech, everyone was excited and full of expectations for the future. They all rolled up their sleeves and prepared to work hard.
Zhu Chi said excitedly:
"Since ancient times, whoever controls the north controls the world. We were so frustrated in the frontal battlefield before. We retreated from Shanghai to Nanjing, and then from Nanjing to Xuzhou and Wuhan.
The brothers made many sacrifices, but they kept losing in the end. They almost lost all their beautiful territory, and there was still no hope of victory.

Since we went north, it took us only one month to gain a firm foothold in the vast mountainous areas of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui. As long as we repel the enemy's counterattack, no one will be able to drive us away from our base!"

Duan Yulin also took over and said:
"That's right, the land that Lao Yue has set his eyes on is really a good place, with a large population, rich resources, and an important geographical location;
To the south, they could compete with the Japanese for the Jianghuai area, to the north they could attack Manchuria, and to the west they could cooperate with the Eighth Route Army in Jidong, Jinan, and Hedong, thus completely grasping the strategic initiative.

What we need to do now is to calm down and seek development, make a fortune, constantly mobilize and arm the masses, and build the base into an iron wall. If the devils dare to come, we will drown them in the ocean of people's war. "

Wang Jianfei said jokingly:
"It seems that Lao Yue has given you a lot of special training during this period. You have thoroughly understood the essence of guerrilla warfare and people's war.
I also agree with what Lao Duan said. The most important thing for us at present is to dig deep holes, store up grain, and the military and civilians should work together to build an unbreakable base.

Our base is already large enough, so we must avoid blind expansion. Taking too big a step could easily lead to disaster. We also have enough main forces. More would increase the burden on the people in the base. The local foundation is too weak, and many villagers don't even have overnight food. We should rest and recuperate now.

My opinion is that the garrison battalion should be sufficient, and based on the existing personnel and equipment, we should strengthen training and improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. "

Wu Qiujian saw that the other captains had spoken. He had come all the way from the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains. This was a rare opportunity, so he naturally wanted to make his own voice heard. So he said:

"I deeply understand what Lao Wang said. The people in Dabie Mountain are also very poor. In the previous battle in the northern foothills, the Japanese did a lot of harm to the people in order to collect food locally. Many villages were looted by them and many villagers were killed.

It is no exaggeration to say that almost every family in the Dabie Mountain base area is in mourning, and not many people have food enough for the winter.

If it weren't for the suppression of bandits and the implementation of the rent and interest reduction policy, I don't know how many fellow villagers would not have survived this winter;

Therefore, rest and recuperation is necessary. I think that we should not only limit the blind expansion of the troops, but also allow the troops to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land to support themselves.

The war caused many landlords to flee to the southwest, and many families were killed by the Japanese, so a lot of wasteland was left.
As long as the troops plant crops on these lands, they will be self-sufficient in the next summer harvest."

Yue Qianli had already finished his closing statement, but after listening to everyone's words, he couldn't help but say:
“What the comrades said was very good, especially the suggestion of self-reliance put forward by Lao Wu at the end, which was very good!

The troops should also focus on training and production, be self-reliant, work hard, and try their best to solve the problem of food.

Not only do we have to farm and grow vegetables, but once we have food we also have to raise chickens, pigs, and sheep to improve the food.

Not only the militia, but also the garrison battalions and main forces should be both combatants and producers, integrate with the villagers in combat, production and life, and deeply root themselves among the people. Only in this way can the army never be defeated! "

Yue Qianli's speech once again won the applause of the crowd. This meeting started very timely and the effect was very good.

Not only did they agree on the development direction for the next stage, but they also unified their thoughts and determined the guiding ideology of the people's war. The guerrilla column gradually transformed into a people's army and reshaped the military spirit.

Linyi City, the Japanese Garrison Headquarters

The activities of the guerrilla column in the surrounding mountains were gradually reported to the headquarters. Previously, Colonel Ishii Kazuyuki had been forcing himself to be a turtle;
It was impossible not to do so. There were not many soldiers in Linyi City. Not to mention sending troops out to clear out the rebellion, they could hardly even protect themselves.

As the main forces that participated in the Battle of Wuhan gradually returned, his regiment was also restored. The main forces were still resting, and he could not wait to send troops to wipe out the guerrillas who were making unruly trouble.

Senior staff officer Kenji Watanabe couldn't help but persuade:

"Sir, from the intelligence we have, the guerrillas are quite numerous. They have occupied all the surrounding towns and villages, and there are several thousand of them.

The Imperial Army only has three garrison battalions, leaving one battalion to defend the city, and only a thousand warriors can be used for combat. The military strength is too weak, so we should be cautious and wait until the main force has rested before moving forward. "

清末时山东有10个府、3个直隶州、8个散州、96个县，国府成立后“废府存县”、“州改县”，为107县；
Subsequently, the "Pu-Juan division" newly established Juancheng County, making a total of 108 counties, in addition to the three cities of Jinan, Qingdao and Weihai.

These 108 counties were further divided into six levels according to population and size. Linyi County was a first-class city with an important strategic location and a large population, so the Japanese deployed a garrison regiment in the city with a total strength of about 2 people.

(End of this chapter)