Anti-Japanese War: I have unlimited assistance

Chapter 251: Old Li is now a real local rich man!
Yamamoto Ikki was slightly stunned when he heard this.

Now there are two paths before him: follow Yoshio Shinozuka to the Shanxi First Army, or return to the Kwantung Army Headquarters with the special forces team.

Now Yamamoto and his special forces team still belong to the Kwantung Army's combat sequence.

He was only borrowed by Yoshio Shinozuka as a military advisor, and his special forces team was responsible for training soldiers for the 10th Division.

According to his idea, his special forces should go to the mountain city to attack the official residence of the Chairman of the National Government and capture the bald Chairman alive.

In this way, he and his special forces will become famous all over the world.

Yamamoto was definitely unwilling to return to the Kwantung Army, because even the Yamamoto Special Forces was directly under the Kwantung Army Headquarters.

However, no one in the Kwantung Army took Yamamoto's special forces seriously, and they were ignored.

However, Yamamoto Ikki was a little arrogant, so even if he wanted to follow Shinozuka Yoshio to the First Army, he was not in a position to speak up.

Shinozuka Yoshio saw what Yamamoto Ikki was thinking: "Yamamoto-kun, if you don't want to return to the Kwantung Army Headquarters, you can come with me to the First Army. I can assure you that you and your special forces team will be strategic-level troops of the First Army."

"The Kwantung Army is out of action. Only by fighting on the front lines can you unleash the true strength of your special forces."

"Once you lead the special forces to great success, no one in the entire Imperial Army will oppose your special operations."

Yoshio Shinozuka touched upon Yamamoto's sore spot.

Yamamoto Ikki is obsessed with special operations and wants to innovate tactics for the Imperial Army, but Yamamoto's influence is not influential and the Yamamoto Special Forces has no record of any battles, so no one pays attention to him.

"Hi!" Yamamoto Ikki bowed his head and said, "Your Excellency General, Yamamoto Ikki and the special forces are willing to go to the First Army."

"From now on, I will be willing to sacrifice my life to repay the General's kindness."

If the special forces want to carry out special operations, they must have the support of the military, at least at the army level.

Tactically superior weapons, accurate intelligence, and military supplies support are all necessary conditions for carrying out special operations.

Obviously, Yamamoto Ikki and his special forces team alone cannot handle these things.

Yamamoto Ikki's gaze was sharp and resolute. Shanxi and the First Army...will be the stage for me and the special forces to showcase our skills and promote special operations. It will also be the starting point...

"Yoshi."

Looking at Yamamoto Ikki's statement, Shinozuka Yoshio smiled slightly.

He didn't care at all whether Yamamoto Ikki and his special forces could successfully promote special operations.

He only cares about his own interests.

Although Yamamoto Ikki has not yet achieved any victory, the other party has always been very arrogant and has been threatening to behead Principal Chang.

In fact, Yoshio Shinozuka was also gambling. Even if Yamamoto Ikki failed, he would not lose much.

But what if Yamamoto Ikki succeeded?
It will be the honor of Yoshio Shinozuka then.

……

Time passed by inadvertently, and in the blink of an eye, it went from July 1938 to September.

During this period, both the New 1st Regiment and the Jinzhong Military Region underwent significant changes.

First, the military strength of the Jinzhong Iron Triangle was expanded from more than 8 people to more than 2 people.

After Li Yunlong sent troops to avenge the villagers who died at the hands of the Japanese puppet army's machine gunners and completely solved the food problem, the enthusiasm of the villagers in the Jinzhong Military Region to join the army was immediately boosted, and the three Jinzhong regiments quickly recruited their full quota of new recruits.

The young and strong people who were not selected for the main force also actively participated in the militia. Now the Jinzhong Military Region has a main force of 2 people and more than 1 militia.

After Li Yunlong handed over 9 120mm mortars and 55 bazookas, he took the opportunity to apply to his superiors for a group of officers. His superiors allocated 30 officers to Li Yunlong, but the number of troops expanded this time was a bit too large, and this number of officers was not enough.

Fortunately, the night school founded by Zhao Gang gave Li Yunlong a surprise. The soldiers who volunteered to attend the night school grew rapidly. Some soldiers and officers have reached the level suitable to serve as company commanders and platoon leaders, and there are even several officers who can serve as battalion commanders.

This relieved a lot of pressure on Li Yunlong.

The New 3500st Regiment was expanded from a main force regiment of more than 7500 people to a reinforced regiment of more than people.

In terms of organization, the original new regiment had 3 main infantry battalions, 1 artillery battalion, 1 cavalry battalion, 1 guard company, 1 machine gun company, 1 special forces company, reconnaissance platoon and 1 special forces unit.

After the expansion was completed, Li Yunlong had 6 main infantry battalions, 2 artillery battalions, 1 cavalry battalion, 1 guard battalion, 1 machine gun battalion, 1 special service battalion, 1 special forces, 1 reconnaissance company and 1 logistics support battalion.

Each main infantry battalion has about 600 people. There are a total of 8 infantry battalions, including the main battalion, special service battalion and guard battalion.

Each main infantry battalion is composed of one machine gun company, three infantry companies, and one logistics support company. The machine gun company is equipped with 1mm machine guns, 3mm and 1mm mortars. The logistics support company is basically composed of new recruits, mainly equipped with 20 large mules, and is responsible for logistics and transportation tasks.

因为20毫米机关炮和迫击炮的数量不够，特务营和警卫员各下辖1个冲锋枪连、3个步兵连和1个后勤保障连。炮兵1营装备18门120毫米迫击炮，下辖3个炮兵连和1个后勤保障连，每连装备6门120毫米迫击炮，营长依旧由王承柱担任。

炮兵2营装备6门82毫米迫击炮、4门92式步兵炮、12门博福斯75毫米山炮，下辖4个炮兵连和1个后勤保障连，营长由张双林担任。

Zhang Shuanglin studied under Zhao Zhangcheng and was the deputy battalion commander of the artillery battalion of the New 20st Regiment. He led the mortar unit to bombard the th Division headquarters in the Guangyang ambush and performed outstandingly.

With the expansion of the new 2st regiment, Zhang Shuanglin was naturally promoted to the commander of the nd Artillery Battalion of the new st regiment.

The machine gun battalion is equipped with 36 20mm machine guns, and is composed of 3 machine gun companies and 1 logistics support company. The remaining machine guns are assigned to the infantry battalion. Its main task is air defense, and the battalion commander is still Wei Daxun.

The Blade Commando also carried out a wave of recruitment. Among the more than 100 elite soldiers selected from the three regiments of the Jinzhong Iron Triangle, 20 people stood out and became members of the Blade Special Forces. The Blade Commando increased from 40 to 60 people.

The logistics support battalion of the new regiment has more than 700 people, mainly composed of new recruits, equipped with more than 700 large mules. The battalion commander is Comrade Wang Shoujin, the logistics staff officer.

Li Yunlong did not dilute too much the veterans and officers of the original three main infantry battalions to ensure the combat effectiveness of the Jinzhong Military Region.

The more than 4000 newly recruited soldiers were mainly assigned to various logistics support companies and logistics support battalions due to insufficient weapons and ammunition.

But even for the soldiers in the logistics support force, two soldiers can still share one gun.

The advantage of such distribution is that it not only ensures the combat effectiveness of the original main infantry battalion, but also ensures that the newly formed infantry battalion has sufficient weapons and ammunition, and it can also ensure that the soldiers of the logistics support force have guns and bullets for training, and have a certain self-protection ability when encountering danger.

When there are enough guns and ammunition in the future, the soldiers of these logistics troops will be replaced by militia, and then these logistics troops can be directly organized into the main force.

Including the Blade Commandos, the New 59st Regiment now has 1 companies, and only one more company left to reach 60 companies.

Although not every soldier had a gun, most of them had guns and had sufficient bullets.

There is still a big gap in weapons such as machine guns, small-caliber mortars, and bazookas.

However, today's weapons, equipment and strength are far different from what the New 1st Regiment had when it crossed the Yellow River to the east.

In Li Yunlong's words, we, Old Li, are now real local rich men.

However, Li Yunlong felt that his strength was far from enough and needed to be strengthened.

Neither the manpower nor the firepower met his expectations.

At the same time, Ding Weixin's Third Regiment and Kong Jie's Independent Regiment were also not idle. After all, their abilities were not much different from Li Yunlong's.

The total strength of the New Third Regiment and the Independent Regiment also took advantage of this opportunity to expand to more than 6000 people.

The troops of the two regiments were actively training, stockpiling weapons, ammunition and food, building reinforced concrete bunkers and artillery towers, developing agriculture and animal husbandry, and building roads, and were very busy.

Li Yunlong ordered the special forces to cooperate with the infantry battalion and artillery battalion to recapture the county seat of Mengxian.

Two squadrons of devils and one regiment of puppet troops were completely wiped out, and a lot of food, weapons and ammunition were seized. Part of these weapons and ammunition were given to the militia and part to the soldiers of the logistics support force.

mid-September.

Taiyuan First Army Headquarters.

War room.

"Your Excellency, Commander."

Major General Mutaguchi Ren'ya, Chief of Staff of the First Army, reported to Shinozuka Yoshio:

"The First Army's Japanese blockade of the Jinzhong Military Region has basically been completed."

"During the past two months, the locust army has built eight large strongholds, 8 medium-sized strongholds, and 19 small strongholds around the Eighth Route Army's so-called Jinzhong base area, including more than 28 reinforced concrete bunkers and artillery towers!"

Mutaguchi Ren'ya was also transferred from the Kwantung Army Headquarters after Tanaka Takayoshi was killed in the bombing and Katsuki Seiji stepped down.

Originally, Mutaguchi Ren was going to serve as chief of staff of the 4th Army, but the 1st Army urgently needed a chief of staff, so Terauchi Hisaichi asked him to go to the 1st Army.

During the July 1937 Incident, Mutaguchi Ren was the commander of the 7st Regiment of the Infantry Brigade of the China Garrison Army of the Japanese invading army. On July 7, , Mutaguchi Ren was the highest commander of the Japanese army at the Lugou Bridge scene, and it was he who issued the order to open fire on the Chinese defenders. He became the culprit who provoked the conflict of the July Incident.

At 4:23, Mutaguchi Ren'ya ordered the artillery at the sand dune position in Dazaoyuan, Shagang Village, to fire at Wanping City. Mutaguchi Ren'ya also fired the first shot at Lugou Bridge, personally igniting the war.

For this, Emperor Hirohito personally awarded Mutaguchi Ren'ya the Order of the Golden Eagle, Third Class, and promoted him to major general.

Yoshio Shinozuka sat on the armchair, and Colonel Ikki Yamamoto stood beside him with an expressionless face.

"Yoshi." Shinozuka Yoshio said in a relaxed tone, "We can apply to the North China Front Army to mobilize combat supplies. In addition, the military equipment and raw materials from the Taiyuan Arsenal can also be fully transported to Beiping."

"I guess by now many of the Eighth Route Army and Chinese civilians in the Jinzhong base area have starved to death. Coupled with the locust army's blockade of strongholds, Li Yunlong is definitely unable to cause trouble in the near future."

(End of this chapter)