Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 353 Setting an Example (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote)
A few days later, looking at the telegram in his hand, Luo Ping couldn't sit still any longer.

"The Second Independent Detachment?! Old Chen, what's going on? Why did they give us this designation?"

"Isn't this just going backwards? This is a guerrilla detachment, not a local force!"

“The Second New Regiment didn’t make any mistakes!” Luo Ping held the telegram, his face full of disbelief.

The reorganization of the various units of the Eighth Route Army has now been basically finalized.

The military region is composed of columns, and each column is composed of main combat brigades.

Only those local guerrilla groups would be merged and reorganized into independent divisions or independent brigades.

According to the standard, even an independent division only has three independent regiments.

The total number of people is only three to five thousand, which is far less than that of the new Second Regiment.

"Old Luo, take a good look first," Chen Chengxing said.

He had already read the telegram and was initially dumbfounded.

However, after careful consideration, he discovered something different.

Upon hearing Chen Chengxing's words, Luo Ping read the telegram over and over again several times.

However, no abnormalities were found.

"Old Chen, hurry up and tell me, I'm getting impatient!" Luo Ping said anxiously.

“There are only two unusual points in the telegram,” Chen Chengxing said.

"First, we separated it from the D Column, which was reorganized from the Jin-Sui Military Region."

"Secondly, there was a sentence in the telegram that the brigade's organizational structure was to be drafted independently and then submitted to the field military region."

"In other words, there is no limit to the number of positions we can fill."

After hearing this, Luo Ping immediately looked at the telegram again.

"So we have three main regiments under our command?" Luo Ping was a little uncertain.

Normally, a brigade consists of two regiments, and a division consists of three regiments.

But three main regiments aren't many.

Despite being only a regiment, the New Second Regiment now has three main regimental-level brigades, plus a bunch of independent regiments.

Although the Independent Regiment was a local force, the Independent Regiment under the New Second Regiment still had considerable combat power.

If we wanted to reorganize them, we could create several main regiments.

"There are three, but they are not the main force."

"I've decided to organize it into six regiments!" Chen Chengxing affirmed.

"Of course, for ease of command, every two regiments are combined into a detachment, with a detachment headquarters and a directly subordinate mortar."

"If Chiang Kai-shek can do it, why can't I, Chen Chengxing?"
If Chiang Kai-shek could create a reorganized division, there's no reason why the Communist Party couldn't.

Now I'll set an example for Chiang Kai-shek.

"Sixth Regiment? What's the difference between that and a column?" Luo Ping was dumbfounded.

Furthermore, the two regiments were divided into detachments, which is essentially a brigade.

According to the instructions from higher authorities, the column consists of three main brigades.

"The difference is huge!"

"Your rank and mine are too low!" Chen Chengxing explained.

"."

That's it?

Seeing Luo Ping hesitate, Chen Chengxing said directly:
"Don't worry about it too much. Let's submit the staffing report first and let the higher-ups decide."

"Okay, then that's settled."

Luo Ping is now unsure what his superiors mean.

The new Second Regiment has not made any mistakes, so it is impossible for them to be reduced in size arbitrarily.

"See? I told you Chen Chengxing wasn't going to be polite." Chief Commander Liu handed the telegram to the political commissar.

“If we follow his organizational method, and the unit is fully staffed, wouldn’t a single detachment have 25,000 men?” the political commissar said.

The field military region has four columns under its command, with the D column of the Jin-Northwest Military Region having the largest number of personnel.

The other three columns had anywhere from four or five thousand men to just over ten thousand.

“If he didn’t make it up like this, would those people in the new Second Regiment be able to let it go?” General Liu said with a smile.

"And this kid is very clever; in order to reduce the number of people, he actually cut off the supply train."

"It seems he is very confident in the prestige of our army among the people."

The Second Independent Detachment will no longer be fighting within the base area; logistical support will become its top priority.

According to the report sent by Chen Chengxing, although each regiment of the Second Independent Detachment had a logistics officer, there was no unit specifically responsible for transportation.

If the Second Independent Detachment were included along with the supply troops, the number of personnel would be even greater.

"Then approve it like this?" the political commissar said.

"Approve it this way." General Manager Liu nodded.

"Wait a minute," Mr. Liu suddenly remembered.

"The artillery pieces captured by the Second New Regiment are still in Chen Chengxing's hands."

"This is a bit troublesome," said General Manager Liu, sounding troubled.

In any case, it's impossible to put so many heavy artillery pieces in the Second Independent Detachment.

However, the Second Independent Detachment was allocated as a whole.

They can't just come and take the cannon away; that's not a pleasant thing to say.

Besides, the Second Independent Detachment was on the leader's radar.

Based on this point alone, I cannot easily remove the cannon.

Upon hearing about the artillery, the political commissar laughed:
"Our Chen Dasijin has made a terrible move."

He could easily understand Chen Sijin's subtle and intricate schemes.
Meanwhile, Chen Sijin, who was being talked about by the two, was sighing continuously.

The Second Independent Detachment was not under his command, so the artillery could not be mobilized!
The duck only smelled it, didn't even lick it, before it grew wings and flew away.

"But it's simple."

As the political commissar spoke, he picked up a pen and wrote a line on Chen Chengxing's report.

"The higher-ups actually agreed." Luo Ping was a little surprised.

"And they even added two independent artillery regiments to our organization?"

"If it's at full strength, wouldn't the Second Independent Detachment have nearly 30,000 men?"

The organizational structure they submitted was basically approved by their superiors, with only minor changes made to the artillery structure.

"Just take a look. Don't be fooled by the fact that this is from the Independent Artillery Regiment, which is under the designation of the Second Independent Detachment."

"But we can't touch a single one of those heavy artillery pieces!" Chen Chengxing said, somewhat frustrated.

If the artillery were moved away directly, the Second Independent Detachment could at least retain some technical personnel.

As a result, the current organizational structure is that of the Second Independent Detachment.

That person has to pay for it themselves, but even if they say so, it doesn't count for them afterward.

What's going on?

If it weren't for the help of the Japanese from the 4th Division, the mountain guns of the 2nd Independent Detachment would probably all be out of commission.

“Even without an independent artillery regiment, our division is probably unique,” ​​Luo Ping said.

"The higher-ups have approved the reorganization plan, so we need to hurry up and finalize it."

"However, with this organization, we won't have enough manpower and equipment." "Especially mortars and rocket launchers."

With the 4th Division's weapons, there shouldn't be any problem with rifles and light and heavy machine guns.

But the Japanese didn't have mortars or rocket launchers.

Moreover, field troops are different from local troops, and not all soldiers in the independent regiments and supplementary regiments can meet the standards.

"Let's set up the framework first, and then we can take our time with the rest," Chen Chengxing said.

Things are different now; local forces and main forces are now distinct.

Chen Chengxing could no longer draw troops from local county brigades and guerrilla units.

If we want to replenish our troops, we can only wait for the higher command to make adjustments.

As for weapons, Chen Chengxing was even less worried.

Yan Xishan absolutely cannot tolerate Taiyuan being in the hands of the CCP.

He won't back down until he's had a few matches.

They will naturally send the weapons over when the time comes.

In addition to Japanese weapons, the Jin-Sui Army also had American weapons.

Moreover, after integrating the equipment in Taiyuan, weapons such as mortars and rocket launchers, which are relatively simple to produce, will definitely see a surge in production.

"Okay, then it's settled." Luo Ping nodded.

Subsequently, the Second Independent Detachment quickly began a major reorganization.

Because of the independent artillery regiment, the engineering units of the Second Independent Detachment and the directly subordinate units of each regiment were all only in the form of a shell.

The reorganization was primarily focused on combat units.

In order to facilitate the next step of mobile warfare, the infantry regiment did not follow the same pattern as before.

Chen Chengxing chose to distribute the rocket launchers down to the platoon level, with one squad per platoon and three rocket launchers.

However, the regiment's artillery battalion was downsized.

All the 120mm heavy mortars were pulled out.

The system was changed so that each infantry platoon was directly subordinate to a heavy mortar battalion, which consisted of 12 120mm mortars.

Now each infantry regiment has only one artillery battery with six infantry guns.

The 120mm heavy mortar weighs about the same as the Type 92 infantry gun.

However, when it comes to marching, the two are not the same concept.

The Type 92 infantry gun does not have horses, so it can be towed by people during marches.

Moreover, each shell weighs only 3.8 kilograms, and a box contains 5 shells, totaling 19 kilograms including the box.

Any soldier could easily carry a box of artillery shells on a march, and also carry weapons for self-defense.

If you're strong enough, you could easily carry two boxes.

However, heavy mortars are completely different; a single 120mm shell weighs seventeen kilograms.

To guarantee a certain number of shells, too many horses are needed.

Previously, when fighting within the base area, the marches were generally only a few dozen miles.

If things get urgent, the militia can be mobilized, with each person carrying a shell up the mountain.

But in the future, these will often involve mobile warfare covering hundreds of kilometers.

Chen Chengxing couldn't possibly assign several hundred men to carry ammunition for an artillery battalion.

Although Chen Chengxing has unique characteristics, the Second Independent Detachment also prides itself on being based on mules and horses.

But humans are not horses.

Chen Chengxing now has only one requirement for the infantry regiment.

That means that when there are no horses, mobile warfare can be carried out entirely by human power.

Of course, without horses, one cannot carry too much ammunition, and firepower cannot be sustained.

To unleash their full potential, the only options are to increase manpower transport units or to receive ammunition replenishment from higher command.

Just when Chen Chengxing was so busy he barely had time to rest.

Yan Xishan finally gathered up the surrendered Japanese and puppet troops, and then he couldn't hold back any longer.

Half a month after leaving Taiyuan, the Jin-Sui Army began to gather troops in the direction of Taiyuan again.

Upon receiving the news, General Liu immediately convened a meeting at the Taiyuan headquarters.

"According to intelligence, the Jin-Sui Army now has more than 35,000 troops in the Chongqing area."

On the wall of the operations room hangs a map of the Chongqing area.

The Jin-Sui Army not only forced the people in this area to hand over their supplies, but also recruited puppet troops as accomplices.

They also relentlessly levied various taxes and levies on the local people and insulted women.

They committed countless evil deeds, and were not much worse than the Japanese invaders.

"General Manager Liu, the leader is currently in Chongqing for negotiations."

"If the Guo army attacks, shouldn't we fight back?" Si Jin from the C column asked.

Yan Xishan's massive troop reinforcements are definitely not for a birthday celebration.

But what about the safety of the commander if a fight breaks out?
"I have already sent a telegram to the commander about this matter," General Liu said.

"There are clear instructions from our superiors that we cannot fire the first shot."

"However, if any invaders come, we must stand on the side of self-defense and resolutely annihilate them!"

"The better we fight, the safer the commander will be."

"Do you have any other questions?" General Manager Liu asked.

"In that case, we will resolutely fight back!"

Once everyone heard that their leader had already explained everything, there was nothing more to say.

If the Jin-Sui Army dares to make a move, then we'll teach them a lesson they won't forget.

Just as General Liu was assigning tasks to the various units, a staff officer walked in and handed General Liu a piece of intelligence.

After glancing at the intelligence report, General Manager Liu slammed his hand on the table.

"Hmph! No need to wait!"

"The Jin-Sui Army launched a preemptive attack on Xiaojiadian, causing heavy losses to the local comrades!"

Xiaojiadian is a town located 15 kilometers south of Taiyuan.

Seven or eight kilometers past Xiaojiadian lies the outermost defensive point of Taiyuan.

"Chen Chengxing, send your cavalry to Xiaojiadian and deal with that Jin-Sui Army unit."

"The rest of you, assemble the troops! I'm going to cut off the Jin-Sui Army's outstretched hand and send them back to southern Shanxi!"

"yes!".
After leaving the headquarters, Chen Chengxing immediately relayed orders to Sun Desheng.

He was instructed to lead the cavalry to Xiaojiadian.

During the previous conflict in Taiyuan, Chen Chengxing captured a battalion of horses from the Jin-Sui Army.

Although the number of horses in this battalion is only half that of the cavalry battalion of the New Second Brigade.

However, Chen Chengxing also took this opportunity to reorganize the cavalry battalion into a cavalry regiment.

At this time, Sun Desheng's cavalry regiment had a third battalion.

Of course, the first and second battalions are not under construction, but rather the framework has been erected and they are currently training.

Upon receiving the order, Sun Desheng didn't waste any words and led the Third Battalion straight to Xiaojiadian.

(End of this chapter)