Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 199: 400 people is normal for a mixed company, right?
At the threshing ground of Majia Village, the Japanese squad leader Ono Hiroji brought more than 30 Japanese soldiers and a company of puppet troops to gather all the villagers here.

"Everyone listen carefully, the Locust King is here only to hunt down the Eighth Route Army. As long as you take the initiative to report the movements of the Eighth Route Army, the Locust Army can guarantee your safety!" shouted the traitor translator Hong Shu.

"Sir, sir, there are no Eighth Route Army soldiers in our village." When the village chief heard that they were looking for the Eighth Route Army soldiers, he immediately said anxiously.

Knowing that any connection with the Eighth Route Army would lead to revenge by the devils, Majia Village never got involved in any anti-Japanese activities.

"Bullshit! If there were no Eighth Route Army activities in this area, could the Locust Army come to sweep the area?" Hong Shu said bluntly.

"This is true! We have never cooperated with the Eighth Route Army's actions!" the village chief explained bitterly.

After listening to Hong Shu's translation, Ono Hiroshi didn't waste time talking to the villagers and directly ordered: "Search every house!"

Ono Hiroji simply did not believe anything the Chinese said. In his opinion, anyone who was Chinese was related to the Eighth Route Army, especially in the areas where the Eighth Route Army was active.

Upon hearing the order to search, the puppet soldiers immediately rushed into the house like wild dogs on the loose and began to rummage around. This was their favorite thing to do.

However, after searching for a long time, the puppet army and the devils took away some worthless things, but they did not find any interlayer, let alone the Eighth Route Army.

Having gained nothing, Ono Hiroji felt a little embarrassed, so he pointed at a villager and asked the soldiers to catch him and pin him to the ground.

"Mercy! Mercy!" The villagers were so scared when they were dragged out that they kept begging for mercy.

Looking at the villagers kneeling on the ground, Ono Hiroshi ignored his pleas for mercy and said viciously: "As long as you can tell me the whereabouts of the Eighth Route Army, you can live!"

After listening to Hong Shu's translation, the villagers cried out, "I really don't know! We don't have any Eighth Route Army here!"

If he knew the whereabouts of the Eighth Route Army, he would have told them long ago. However, because Majia Village did not want to have anything to do with them, the Eighth Route Army never came to Majia Village.

"It seems that you are really a tough nut to crack! I want to see how tough your bones are!" Ono Hiroji drew out his command knife and put it on the villager's neck.

"Now you have one last chance." There was madness in Ono Hiroji's eyes.

"I really don't know! I really don't know." The villagers had never spoken to the Eighth Route Army, so they couldn't make up a story.

Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of him, Ono Hiroji stopped talking and just raised his knife and struck.

Looking at the corpse on the ground, his mother almost fainted from crying. The other villagers were trembling with fear but dared not move.

Ono Hiroji's gaze swept over the villagers and fell on a child. The child had just learned to walk and was held in the arms of his grandmother. Based on his reaction just now, Ono Hiroji judged that this should be the family member of the villager he had beheaded.

Ono Hiroji pointed his finger and asked the soldier next to him to carry the child out.

The child's grandmother fell to her knees and kowtowed: "Please kill me, don't kill the child. I beg you, kill me, kill me!"

Faced with the old lady's kneeling plea, Ono Hiroji's expression did not change at all.

"If you want to save him, tell us the whereabouts of the Eighth Route Army." Ono Hiroji said coldly.

"There are really no Eighth Route Army soldiers here. I beg you, if you want to kill someone, just kill me. I beg you." The old lady now wished she was a Eighth Route Army soldier, so that the Japanese could kill her and spare the child.

Seeing that there was still no clue about the Eighth Route Army up to this point, Ono Hiroji knew that Majia Village probably had nothing to do with the Eighth Route Army.

If there really were Eighth Route Army soldiers here, they should have stepped forward by now.

Ono Hiroji looked at the child in his arms, thought for a moment, and then threw the child to the ground.

The child fell to the ground with a 'bang' and no other sound was heard.

His grandmother just knelt there motionlessly.

"Pack up!" Ono Hiroji waved his hand and left with the Japanese and puppet troops without looking back.

The threshing ground was eerily quiet at that moment, and no one dared to look at the old lady's eyes.

Everyone in the village knows that this old lady's daughter-in-law died two years ago due to complications from childbirth. The old lady and her son had finally raised the child to the point where he could walk, but now this kind of thing happened.

At this time, Chen Chengxing was leading the New Second Regiment across the Japanese highway and entering the guerrilla zone around Dayun Mountain.

On the way, Chen Chengxing asked Lu Ze in detail about the new gun.

Speaking of the new gun, Lu Ze suddenly became excited. He had never encountered such a powerful gun in his life.

Seeing Lu Ze's endless praise, Chen Chengxing interrupted him directly: "I'm asking if there is anything wrong!"

Chen Chengxing knew all the advantages of the 56 semi-automatic rifle without Lu Ze telling him. He wanted to know if there was anything wrong with the production of the gun. After all, the Erlangdong Arsenal was really simple.

"Disadvantages? I don't feel any at all." Lu Ze thought about it carefully. Compared with all the rifles he had touched before, the performance of this gun was much better than that of any other rifle he had ever used.

"If I have to point out its shortcomings, it's that it's not very long. Even with the bayonet, it's only 1.26 meters. It's really a disadvantage if you want to fight with a bayonet," Lu Ze added.

In hand-to-hand combat, an inch longer is an inch stronger. The new rifle is 40 centimeters shorter than the Type rifle. In a bayonet fight, this distance can almost determine life or death.

Chen Chengxing already knew about this length issue, but there was nothing he could do about it. The size of the barrel was closely related to the properties of the bullet. The Eighth Route Army currently had no ability to test the effect of changing parameters on performance. In this case, keeping it still was the best option.

After all, a gun is used for shooting first and for bayoneting second.

Seeing that Lu Ze could no longer say anything, Chen Chengxing simply waved his hand and signaled him to leave.

After entering the territory of the New Second Regiment, the large force dispersed along the way.

By the evening, when he returned to Hongni Bay, Chen Chengxing was left with only half of his guard company, a row of mountain artillery, and several hundred horses that had just been captured.

Before Chen Chengxing entered the house, Luo Ping had already heard the sound of horses coming out.

"Wow, so many horses? This must be a cavalry battalion, right? Where did they come from?" Luo Ping said excitedly. He had never thought that the new second regiment could have a cavalry battalion.

"Cavalry battalion? What cavalry battalion? I plan to set up a cavalry company!" Chen Chengxing immediately corrected.

But I dare not say it to the cavalry battalion. If Commander Chen hears it, it will be impossible not to bleed.

"Cavalry company?" Luo Ping was stunned when he saw more than 300 horses.

A cavalry company normally has about a hundred people. What are all these horses for? Are they going to be handed over to the military district?

Even if you beat him to death, he wouldn't believe it.

"Hehe. I have thought about it. I will turn the cavalry company into a rapid response mixed company, and incorporate the reconnaissance platoon into it, changing it to a mounted reconnaissance platoon. Then, I will form five cavalry platoons, one machine gun platoon, one artillery platoon, and add 5 horse-drawn carriages to build a support platoon."

"I've counted it. Excluding the support platoon, there are exactly 350 horses." Chen Chengxing said with a smile.

According to Chen Chengxing's plan, a platoon would consist of three cavalry squads and one machine gun squad, with 10 people in each squad.

The machine gun squad is composed of three light machine guns, the machine gun platoon is composed of three heavy machine guns, and the artillery platoon is equipped with three 3mm mortars.

Together with the company headquarters, the war horses seized this time and the horses previously allocated to the reconnaissance platoon were just enough.

"400 people in a company?" Luo Ping's eyes widened. What's the difference between this and a cavalry battalion.

"Mixed Company, Mixed Company." Chen Chengxing said quickly, "Lao Luo, don't say anything nonsense!"

Why did he use the 358th Regiment as a cover? It was just to conceal the truth for a while. After a month or so, the truth would be set.

Hearing this, Luo Ping knew what Chen Chengxing meant. It was just about reducing the establishment so as not to attract the attention of the superiors.

Sure enough, this is the Chen Chengxing I know.

"Okay, then I will report the cavalry company's organization when the time comes." Luo Ping said with a smile.

The difference of just one word gives people a completely different feeling. Moreover, as the political commissar, he did not cover up anything. He reported the plan of the new second regiment to build a cavalry company immediately.

"But this cavalry is not the same as the infantry. We don't have professional talents." Luo Ping said.

Even though cavalrymen now mostly travel on horseback and fight on foot, the necessary horseback combat skills are still needed.

"It's been prepared for a long time. I borrowed someone from the New 1st Regiment." Chen Chengxing said as he pulled Sun Desheng next to him and introduced him.

"Sun Desheng was originally a subordinate of Shi Yousan. He had been in the cavalry for more than ten years and was a good fighter. It would be a waste of his talent to follow Li Yunlong to serve as an infantryman, so I took him over.

In addition, I also need a mortar expert, that is him, Wang Chengzhu." Chen Chengxing also pulled Wang Chengzhu over and introduced him to Luo Ping.

"Li Yunlong? Can he give it to you for free?" Luo Ping expressed his disbelief.

"Hahaha, I just used a little trick and Old Li fell into it." Chen Chengxing told Luo Ping the situation with a smile.

"Disobeying orders on the battlefield? Li Yunlong really did it!" Luo Ping nodded, "But you didn't go to Yujialing with the New Second Regiment, would you..."

"Well, don't worry. The order given at that time was not a death order. It only said to support the New 1st Regiment. I didn't disobey the order. The New 1st Regiment broke through from the front. I predicted Li Yunlong's choice." Chen Chengxing said.

"That's good." Luo Ping breathed a sigh of relief. If Chen Chengxing also disobeyed orders on the battlefield, he would have no chance of becoming the regiment commander.

Afterwards, Chen Chengxing asked Wei Dayong to arrange dormitories for Sun Desheng and Wang Chengzhu first.

Veterinarians and other personnel brought back from the Wanjia Town Cavalry Camp were also handed over to the Political Department, and the staff were asked to organize training. A cavalry company would not be able to do without professional veterinarians.

Sun Desheng had nothing to say. He would first appoint him as the acting company commander of the cavalry company and let the entire regiment freely select soldiers. Once the cavalry company was well-organized, the next step would be training.

As for Wang Chengzhu, after thinking about it, Chen Chengxing set up a mortar training team and assigned him a platoon of soldiers. He asked him to lead the mortar companies in various battalions in training, striving to raise the mortar level of the New Second Regiment to a higher level.

The mortars fired accurately, which not only greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the New Second Regiment, but also saved more artillery shells.

(End of this chapter)