Anti-Japanese War: I have unlimited assistance

Chapter 471: Insufficient ammunition and firepower!

Upon hearing this, Yoshio Shinozuka paced back and forth in the yard with his hands behind his back, his eyes filled with thought.

In the past, the Eighth Route Army was dressed in rags like beggars, and most of the soldiers used the Hanyang-made rifles, which were products of the Hanyang Arsenal founded by Zhang Zhidong, a Qing Dynasty minister in the late 19th century. This type of rifle had poor accuracy and jamming was a common occurrence.

Ammunition was extremely scarce, and being able to capture a 38mm rifle from the Japanese was probably considered first-class equipment.

The Eighth Route Army did not dare to engage in direct combat with the Japanese Army. In a direct combat, the casualty ratio between the Japanese Army and the Eighth Route Army was about 1 to 3.

However, the Eighth Route Army was very cunning and good at playing to their strengths and avoiding their weaknesses. They rarely engaged in direct combat with the Japanese army, and mostly used guerrilla tactics such as sneak attacks, ambushes, and sparrow attacks. The casualties of the Japanese army and the Eighth Route Army were similar.

Although the Eighth Route Army was suspected of receiving assistance at that time, only the New 1st Regiment was well-equipped, while the rest of the Eighth Route Army was still equipped with inferior equipment.

but!

In just less than two years, the Eighth Route Army's equipment had reached such a high level that the Japanese army suffered much greater losses in combat.

Even the New 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army could achieve an astonishing casualty ratio of 10: with the Japanese army.

This is even more exaggerated than the 1:5 casualty ratio between the Japanese army and the National Army on the front battlefield.

The combat staff of the First Army have discussed that the New 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army should be one of the most combat-effective units in the entire combat sequence of the Chinese army.

Another unit with similar combat capability is the 129th Division in southeastern Shanxi.

The combat strength of these two forces far exceeds that of the Japanese Type A Division.

The two battles between the 20th Division and the 129th Division on Zhengtai Road are proof of this.

The individual quality of the New 129st Regiment and the th Division was weaker than that of the soldiers of the Japanese Type A Division, but the Eighth Route Army's individual equipment and artillery firepower could make up for the shortcomings.

Thinking of this, Yoshio Shinozuka couldn't help but feel terrified and his scalp went numb.

However, is it so easy to reform equipment?
"Have you ever thought about it, Yamamoto-kun?"

"Our country is resource-poor. If the locust soldiers are equipped with automatic weapons and have enhanced artillery firepower, the cost of combat will increase significantly."

"Based on the number of single-shot rifles carried, a single-shot rifle can support about a day of combat, while an automatic submachine gun may not be able to last for less than an hour."

"If the locust army is now equipped with one million submachine guns and the artillery firepower of the squadrons, battalions, regiments and divisions is comprehensively increased."

"Then, with our country's existing resources, productivity, transportation capabilities, and logistics systems, we need to expand them at least tenfold."

"Such a high-cost war is not something our country can afford at the moment."

Yamamoto nodded without commenting. It was an objective fact that Japan was short of resources. If it were not for this reason, there would be no need for Japan to fight this war.

Yamamoto Ikki said solemnly, "General, since the Manchurian Incident in 1931, China's three northeastern provinces have become the main military production and supply base for the British. Since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, most of North, Central, and South China have fallen into the hands of the British. The Locust Army has such abundant resources and cheap labor. The Ordnance Department should have increased the scale of production and research and development of weapons and equipment, and expanded productivity, transportation capacity, and logistics systems long ago."

"Our enemies are growing stronger, but the locust army remains where it is."

"Yamamoto-kun, you've successfully convinced me." Shinozuka Yoshio nodded. "The Eighth Route Army has reached this point in just two years. If they were allowed to develop for another two years, they wouldn't just be a threat to the First Army, but even the entire North China Front Army."

"I will personally send a telegram to headquarters regarding the attack on the Soviet army in the Far East and the renovation of our weapons."

"Yoshi." Yamamoto Ikki said, "Having a general offer advice and suggestions to the headquarters and Tianhuang will surely attract the attention of the headquarters."

After a pause, Yamamoto Ikki's eyes flickered as he continued, "And thirdly, our country should reform its army tactics."

The corners of Yoshio Shinozuka's mouth twitched. He had just successfully carried out a beheading, and Yamamoto started promoting his special operations again.

"I will also send a telegram to the headquarters, along with the results of Yamamoto-kun's decapitation operation."

Yoshio Shinozuka nodded.

Putting aside other things, Yamamoto Ikki's beheading this time was indeed beautiful and textbook-level.

In this special operation, 200 people from the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, including the division commander, were killed, and two members of the special forces were injured.

"The North China Front Command is very interested in the Eighth Route Army's anti-tank rocket launcher. Lead your special forces team to seize some from the Eighth Route Army as soon as possible and then send them to the ordnance department for research."

"Hey." Yamamoto Ikki lowered his head. "This Eighth Route Army anti-tank rocket launcher is very powerful. If our country's ordnance department can imitate it, the Eighth Route Army tanks will not pose such a great threat to the Locust Army."

"Also," Shinozuka Yoshio added, "send a combat team to the vicinity of Ping'an County in northwestern Shanxi to search for any small paths that could lead to infiltration into the Eighth Route Army base."

"Hi." Yamamoto Ikki lowered his head.

……

Pingan County.

The headquarters of the New 1st Regiment. "Headquarters sent a telegram saying that Yan Laoxi convened the Qiulin Conference in Qiulin Town and openly proposed abolishing the political commissar system of the New Army, attempting to unify the New Army with the Old Army."

As soon as Li Yunlong entered the regiment headquarters, Zhao Gang handed him a telegram from the headquarters:
"Two months ago, Chiang Kai-shek held the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee in Shancheng. While discussing continuing the war of resistance and strengthening the Kuomintang, he also proposed a series of measures to prevent, limit, and dissolve the Communist Party."

The new army was formed by the Sacrifice Alliance with the consent of Yan Laoxi and was provided with weapons and equipment.

This unit adopts the political commissar system, and there are also Yan Laoxi's people. Both sides are fighting for control of this unit.

Li Yunlong sneered: "It seems that Yan Laoxi, that bastard, is preparing to take action against the new army."

Zhao Gang said, "But Yan Laoxi certainly wouldn't dare to take action now. I guess Yan Laoxi would only dare to take action when the Japanese invaders attack northwest Shanxi."

"That's what I thought." Li Yunlong nodded. "That son of a bitch Yan Laoxi is really fucking sinister."

Zhang Dabiao said from the side: "Captain, why don't we just send a special forces team over there to kill Yan Laoxi directly, so that he won't stab us in the back."

"No," Zhao Gang rejected immediately. "Yan Xishan is still officially the commander of the Second War Zone. After all, he hasn't sided with the Japanese. Doing so would cause chaos."

Although the Blade Commando and the Sword Commando have that strength now.

Both the headquarters and Boss Lin can provide support in terms of intelligence about Yan Laoxi's whereabouts.

but.

Now, in name only, everyone is still cooperating in the war of resistance. If they do so, they will be accused of destroying the united front of the national war of resistance.

Li Yunlong glanced at Zhao Gang unhappily. He had actually thought about this: after killing Yan Laoxi, he would annex the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

But it's just a thought.

Just then, the intelligence staff came in and brought the latest information about the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army's strength, weapons and equipment, and garrison locations.

“晋绥军一共有8个步兵师，2个骑兵师、16个步兵旅、1个骑兵旅、10个炮兵团、三个直属步兵团。”

"The total force is approximately 12, with dedicated arsenals and an average of 2000 rounds of ammunition per soldier."

"The various troop bases..."

Li Yunlong asked, "What is 12 people times 2000 rounds of ammunition?"

Zhao Gang immediately came to a conclusion: "2.4 million rounds of ammunition."

"Fuck!" Li Yunlong was shocked. "Is Yan Laoxi so rich?"

Zhao Gang sneered, "Before the Battle of Taiyuan, Yan Laoxi commanded 20 troops, seven artillery brigades, and an average of 7 rounds of ammunition per person. After the Battle of Taiyuan, although the Taiyuan Arsenal fell into Japanese hands, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, in addition to transporting some equipment to western and southwestern Shanxi, must have also taken away a large amount of weapons and ammunition."

Yan Laoxi still had a lot of weapons, equipment and ammunition in Taiyuan that had not been transported away, and many of them were seized by the Japanese. This move was tantamount to aiding the enemy.

If you can't transport the weapons and ammunition, you can just blow them up.

Zhang Dabiao analyzed: "In the past two years, the Japanese First Army has been suppressed by our Eighth Route Army and has no time to pay attention to the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, but Yan Laoxi has been developing secretly and intends to reap the benefits."

"It seems that our foundation is still too weak."

"Our new regiment has about 4 people, but a total of just over 2600 million rounds of ammunition, with an average of only 650 rounds per soldier."

"He, Yan Laoxi, isn't fighting the Japanese, so why does he have so many ammunition?"

Li Yunlong frowned slightly, and suddenly felt that his troops were short of ammunition and their firepower was a bit weak.

After the battle, Li Yunlong earned equipment for 18,000 people, and gave equipment for 3,000 people to Ding Wei and Kong Jie. He still had equipment for 15,000 people, which was about five main regiments.

Of the five main regiments, Li Yunlong asked for the equipment of four main regiments and the equipment of one air defense regiment.

With this batch of equipment, he planned to expand four infantry battalions and one air defense battalion.

The ammunition for these equipment is five basic quantities, that is, each semi-automatic rifle is equipped with 500 rounds of ammunition and each light machine gun is equipped with 2500 rounds of ammunition.

Not to mention compared with the Japs, even compared with Yan Laoxi, the New 1st Regiment looks shabby.

Fortunately, Li Yunlong was quite satisfied with the reserve of artillery shells, and Boss Lin also reimbursed him.

"This is only temporary." Zhao Gang knew that Li Yunlong's fear of insufficient firepower was at work, so he smiled and comforted him, "Once our Northwest Shanxi Arsenal is established and we can produce bullets ourselves, we will gradually have more bullets."

"Damn it!" Li Yunlong said angrily, "After our arsenal is built, each of our soldiers must be equipped with at least 1 rounds of ammunition, and each gun must be equipped with at least 5000 rounds of ammunition."

(End of this chapter)