Anti-Japanese War: I have unlimited assistance

Chapter 101 New guns for the Red Army veterans!

At the same time, Li Yunlong also brought 300 Red Army veterans back to the New st Regiment’s headquarters.

There were exactly 300 Red Army veterans, not one more, not one less.

These 300 Red Army veterans were temporarily transferred from the 115th Division. They were all veterans from the First Red Army and veterans who had walked through the -mile Long March.

In the threshing ground, Li Yunlong looked at the faces of these soldiers.

I knew that Commander Lin did not fool the head of the headquarters. He selected only veterans, not new recruits.

The Red Army veterans who experienced the Long March generally looked a few years older than their actual age.

Although these veteran soldiers did not bring their weapons and their uniforms were worn, their military appearance was neat.

Their cheeks were thin, but every soldier had an unyielding will, firm eyes and a resolute face.

The Eighth Route Army is divided into the Old Eighth Route Army, the New Eighth Route Army and the Local Eighth Route Army, and the combat effectiveness of the three is also different.

Tubalu refers to a local force that was selected from the militia of each base area through village squads and district squadrons. Its purpose was to persist in local guerrilla warfare, and its combat effectiveness was relatively poor.

The Eighth Route Army's large-scale expansion of its troops, known as the New Eighth Route Army, remained the main force, boasting high military and political prowess. However, due to poor weaponry and insufficient logistical supplies, their combat effectiveness was in great need of improvement, and only after experiencing bloody battles did they achieve a complete transformation.

The old Eighth Route Army were old Red Army soldiers who had gone through the test of the Long March or fought guerrilla warfare in northern Shaanxi, and initially became the 115th, 120th and 129th Divisions.

These troops have rich combat experience, strong fighting spirit and powerful combat effectiveness.

These soldiers in front of me were obviously old Eighth Route Army soldiers. They were dressed in rags, and some of them were even wearing only single clothes and straw sandals, with their toes red from the cold.

Li Yunlong was trembling with heartache, these were the best soldiers of the Eighth Route Army.

"Are there any machine gunners? Even if you've been one before, that counts!"

Li Yunlong asked loudly.

Although these soldiers did not bring their guns, Li Yunlong was not panicked at all because he had no shortage of guns.

When he was at the brigade headquarters, Li Yunlong had already introduced himself to the soldiers.

The soldiers also knew that the famous Li Yunlong in front of them was their new regimental commander.

"Have!"

"I'm a machine gunner!"

"I was a machine gunner!"

"..."

The soldiers responded very actively, and immediately more than a dozen machine gunners or soldiers who had served as machine gunners stood up.

The style is decisive and efficient, without any drag.

Standing next to Li Yunlong was Zhao Gang, and there was a hint of respect in Zhao Gang's eyes as he looked at the group of soldiers.

Looking at the dozen or so machine gunners who stood up, Li Yunlong nodded with satisfaction.

These machine gunners are veterans with at least three to five years of experience in machine gun shooting and actual combat, and are very suitable for using MG42.

"very good."

Li Yunlong looked at the machine gunners and continued with satisfaction:

"Every machine gunner here will be given a machine gun shortly. You will select one assistant gunner and one ammunition handler from among these people to form a machine gun team."

The machine gunners looked delighted and quickly found their comrades to serve as assistant gunners and ammunition handlers.

Some of them are comrades who have been together for many years and have a tacit understanding with each other. Just by lifting their buttocks, they can know whether their comrades want to defecate dry or watery stool.

After the machine gunner selected the assistant gunner and the ammunition handler, he stood on the other side of the threshing ground with a smile on his face.

"Captain, what about us?"

An old soldier asked enviously.

Li Yunlong said loudly: "Everyone will have a share. Later, each person will be given a Type 200 rifle, 6 rounds of Arisaka rifle ammunition and foreign-made pineapple grenades."

"real or fake?"

One veteran soldier wasn't quite convinced.

These veteran soldiers generally have good marksmanship, but the rifles they use are of poor quality. They are still in use even when the rifling is worn out, and there are not enough bullets, so it is difficult for them to exert their true strength in battle.

But at present, even the main force regiment cannot provide each person with a Type 38 rifle. Some units of the main force regiment also have two soldiers sharing one rifle, and one rifle with dozens of bullets is already considered very rich.

The New 1st Regiment is a basic regiment. Can it give everyone a Type 38 rifle?
It can also be equipped with 200 rounds of ammunition and 6 pineapple grenades?

Many soldiers didn't quite believe it.

"It's just over 200 Type rifles, right? How could it be fake?" Li Yunlong said, "Look, the soldiers from the logistics department have brought your weapons and ammunition here."

The soldiers turned their heads and saw that mule carts appeared from the corner of the village, loaded with bundles of Type 38 rifles with bayonets.

Wow... The soldiers suddenly burst into an uproar. Some veteran soldiers looked at the brand new rifles as if they had seen gold ingots. Their eyes suddenly widened and their eyeballs almost fell out.

"In addition to a Type 200 rifle, 6 rounds of rifle ammunition, and six hand grenades, each person will also be given a cotton coat, a steel helmet, and a pair of rubber-soled shoes. There will be plenty of ammunition in the future, and it can be replenished at any time."

Li Yunlong's words once again stirred up the old soldiers, and their expressions were filled with joy. The Type 38 rifles that were captured were all used by the Japanese, and Li Yunlong had basically handed them over.

These Type 38 rifles prepared for distribution to veterans of the Red Army came from Boss Lin. They were all brand new and had higher precision, lower failure rates, and better workmanship than those produced by the Japanese themselves.

As for cotton-padded clothes, they were mainly made from the devil's military coats or bought with silver dollars.

The steel helmets and rubber-soled shoes were captured from killing the Japanese.

This group of veteran soldiers will be the grassroots officers and backbone personnel of the new regiment in the future, so Li Yunlong will naturally not treat them unfairly.

Some soldiers who still missed their old units immediately gave up the idea of ​​returning to their old units after seeing this scene.

Sorry, Captain, I can't go back.

The new leader gave too much.

"Captain, where are our machine guns?"

Seeing this scene, a machine gunner couldn't wait to ask.

Li Yunlong: "Old Wang, send someone to bring over those 12 general-purpose machine guns. Give each machine gun crew a 300-round ammunition belt and fire them all at the back mountain shooting range so the crew can get familiar with the new guns faster."

One machine gun fires 300 rounds of bullets in one training session, and with 12 machine guns, that's 3600 rounds.

This is absolutely a luxury in the Eighth Route Army. If the leaders of the headquarters knew about it, they would definitely call Li Yunlong a prodigal son.

However, Li Yunlong's financial backer, Boss Lin, can reimburse the ammunition consumed by these 12 machine guns. When the battle is won, Li Yunlong can ask Boss Lin for reimbursement.

The prerequisite is victory.

A big battle was imminent, and in order to allow the machine gun crew to become familiar with the use of the new machine gun as quickly as possible, Li Yunlong was reluctant to use bullets.

Wang Youcai, the director of the logistics department, said, "Commander, we have 15 machine gun crews here, and 12 general-purpose machine guns are not enough."

"If that's not enough, get three more Maxims from the warehouse."

Li Yunlong's tone remained unchanged:
"I'm going to start a machine gun company."

"Yes!"

Wang Youcai immediately sent logistics soldiers to get general-purpose machine guns.

"Old Wang, this is the new combat staff officer, Zhao Gang."

"Zhao Gang."

Li Yunlong immediately looked at Zhao Gang standing beside him:

"You and Director Wang from the Logistics Department will be here distributing ammunition to the soldiers."

"Yes."

Zhao Gang straightened his body, turned around and greeted Director Wang.

Li Yunlong led his guards towards the regiment headquarters.

After a while, the soldier sent by Lao Wang to get the general-purpose machine gun brought the general-purpose machine gun and ammunition over in a mule cart.

The soldiers in the machine gun team almost popped their eyes out of their heads when they saw the new machine guns they had never seen before and the countless bullets.

"The regimental commander has specially approved 300 rounds of live ammunition for each machine gun crew. Everyone is now going to the shooting range in the back mountain to use them up."

Wang Youcai's voice made the entire threshing ground instantly quiet, and you could hear a pin drop.

"Captain, are you really going to let us fire 300 rounds of live ammunition?"

An old Red Army machine gunner swallowed his saliva with his throat rolling, his expression showing a complex mixture of disbelief and anticipation.

Test firing 300 rounds of live ammunition!
In previous battles, a machine gun crew could not fire more than 300 rounds of live ammunition in a single battle.

Here, 300 rounds of live ammunition can be fired in just one training session.

What kind of army is this? Aren't they too wealthy?
Wang Youcai said loudly: "Comrades, now that you have arrived at the New 1st Regiment, you no longer have to worry about running out of ammunition."

Wang Youcai was also a veteran of the Red Army. He was wounded in a battle, but his leg injury prevented him from going to the battlefield, so he took up logistics work.

The number of weapons and ammunition of the new regiment was top secret, and only he, the regimental staff and several battalion commanders knew about it.

"This is the commander's order."

Wang Youcai added another sentence.

"That's right." Seeing that some soldiers were still a little unconvinced, Zhao Gang also said, "I am Zhao Gang, the combat staff officer of the regiment headquarters. I can testify that this is indeed the order of the regiment commander."

Since it was the regiment commander's order, the soldiers had no choice but to carry it out even if they were reluctant to give up their bullets.

The discerning veteran machine gunners discovered that the Mauser pointed bullets were of extremely high quality, with more stable trajectory, higher accuracy, and longer effective range. In the past, when ammunition was insufficient, they had used reloaded bullets.

The threshing ground suddenly became lively. The soldiers of the machine gun team put on ammunition belts, carried general-purpose machine guns and Maxim rifles, and walked towards the back mountain.

With new guns and sufficient ammunition in their hands, the veterans of the Red Army became more resolute and resolute in their expressions and eyes, and the smiles on their faces became more intense.

After receiving good equipment and sufficient ammunition, the Red Army veterans became more confident in winning the battle, and their morale immediately saw a qualitative improvement!
(End of this chapter)