Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 152 Planning the Garrison in Mongolia

While Li Yunlong was bragging to his old comrades and the officers of the Independent Regiment, Zhao Gang was diligently learning from Chen Ming.

As Zhao Gang's questions were answered one by one, he felt he had gained a great deal.

The two are not on the same level after all.

Zhao Gang is the political commissar of the Independent Regiment, and at most he is in charge of the few thousand soldiers in the Independent Regiment.

Chen Ming is the commander of the independent detachment and also oversees the work of the fourth district, giving him a comprehensive perspective.

Every day brings different work and situations, so naturally, our perspectives on problems will also differ.

This is not to say that Zhao Gang lacks personal ability, but rather that his position naturally imposes limitations on him.

For example, in a school, one is the class teacher and the other is the principal.

The homeroom teacher only needs to manage the students' situation and studies, while the principal is responsible for coordinating all school affairs, development, and external relations.

"Commander, I have learned a great deal from you today," Zhao Gang exclaimed.

"Comrade Zhao Gang has outstanding personal abilities and a high level of political awareness. He is an excellent cadre," Chen Ming said.

"Not at all, there's still a lot I need to learn and improve. I'd like to ask you for more advice in the future."

"That's great! The Independent Regiment isn't far from my command post. Comrade Zhao Gang is welcome to come anytime he wants," Chen Ming said with a smile.

Li Yunlong was still boasting about his dating experience in front of Kong Jie and Ding Wei.

"Old Kong, Old Ding, Old Li is married now, shouldn't you two hurry up and get married?" Li Yunlong showed off in front of his two old comrades.

Upon hearing this, Kong Jie felt incredibly envious.

He had discussed with Chen Ming what kind of life he envisioned for the future. If they drove out the Japanese invaders and won the war, he would retire from the army and return to his hometown to marry a virtuous wife who would surely manage the household perfectly, and the rice jar would always be filled with the fragrance of freshly harvested grain.

Then a bunch of mud-covered babies, like freshly harvested wheat grains, squat on the doorstep eating their food. The older ones help the younger ones, and even if they fall, they don't cry. They just dust themselves off and chase after the chicks.

Ding Wei's expression didn't change much. Ding Wei and Kong Jie had different ideas, and he wasn't really interested in marriage.

"Our squad leader isn't even married yet, so why are we subordinates in such a hurry? Don't you all agree?" Ding Wei said with a smile.

"Yes."

"How did this get into me?" Chen Ming said with a laugh and a curse.

While chatting happily with Zhao Gang, Ding Wei suddenly brought up himself.

Isn't this nonsense?
"Team leader, you'd better hurry up too. If you don't get married, how can we subordinates have the nerve to get married?"

"Don't use me as an excuse if you can't find a wife. It's not like you can find wives just because I'm married," Chen Ming said with a smile.

Chen Ming was born in 1910, so he is only 31 years old now. If we consider the original timeline, many people of that age would not be married.

But nowadays, he's considered an older single man.

In this era, most people get married around the age of twenty, and people like Chen Ming are very rare.

However, Chen Ming did not get married, which was also due to his environment. He joined the revolution when he was young and was constantly on the move and fighting, so he had no time to start a family.

Even now, he still carries heavy responsibilities and has no time to start a family.

With so many things to handle every day, I don't have time to look for my wife.

As for marriage, Chen Ming can only leave it to fate or consider it after the war is over.

Everyone chatted and laughed, and before long the feast began.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, everything was kept simple. Those complicated ceremonies were not feasible at this time, and Li Yunlong himself did not have such an idea.

Just as Li Yunlong said, a wedding is simply a matter of the man and woman sleeping on the same kang (a heated brick bed).

The wedding feast was a little better than usual, with some meat dishes, which was a rare treat, and some of the drinks were even confiscated from the county town.

With Chen Ming around, Zhao Gang didn't even need to remind him this time. Once they had drunk enough, Li Yunlong took the initiative to suggest ending the meal.

First, there is a shortage of supplies, so there isn't enough alcohol to drink. Second, during wartime, soldiers can't get drunk; a little is enough.

After the wedding, Chen Ming led his men back to the command post overnight.

The arsenal is currently in full swing with production, and Chen Ming is also preparing to readjust the defense zones of various units.

To defend against the Independent Detachment, the Japanese deployed two heavy artillery companies and a regiment of troops in the Guoxian and Shuiquan areas, providing strong firepower and ample defense.

The Japanese First Army was very wary of the Independent Detachment, making it difficult to find an opportunity for them in the short term.

Therefore, Chen Ming set his sights on the troops stationed in Mongolia in the north.

The troops stationed in Inner Mongolia controlled the strategic area of ​​Zhangjiakou-Datong-Guihua, while the First Army focused on suppressing the hinterland of Shanxi Province. The two belonged to different combat orders and their defense zones did not overlap.

The Independent Detachment had few encounters with the troops stationed in Mongolia, and the troops stationed in Mongolia were not as proficient in fighting the Eighth Route Army as the First Army, so their defenses against the Eighth Route Army were not as strict as those of the First Army.

In addition, the main force of the 26th Division stationed in Mongolia has been transferred to the Pacific theater, and the remaining troops have been compressed and reorganized, leaving the defense vulnerable.

Chen Ming felt this was an opportunity.

Anyway, it's all about fighting the Japanese. Fighting the First Army is the same as fighting the troops stationed in Mongolia!

Therefore, after careful consideration, Chen Ming reported to headquarters and made the following adjustments.

The two main battalions of the Independent Detachment, Kong Jie's unit, were responsible for the defense of the base area. Together with Wang Gui and Li Yousheng's units, they formed a triangular relationship to suppress the Japanese troops in Shuiquan.

He Jianxin's troops, located south of Shuoxian, can cooperate with Ding Wei's troops to launch a pincer attack on Shuoxian from the north and south, or they can threaten Shenchi and Ningwu to the south.

The brigade commander's troops from the Fourth Military Sub-district of the Taiyue Military Region, Luo Jian's Fifth Battalion, returned to the Wutai area, responsible for suppressing the Japanese forces in Shuiquan and Dingxiang from the east. Wang Gui's Fourth Battalion was positioned west of Shuiquan, threatening the Japanese forces there.

Ding Wei's troops are active around Ying County, and could threaten Datong to the north and Shuoxian to the south.

Li Yousheng's Third Battalion conducted mobile operations in the Daixian area.

The special operations brigade and the sharpshooter brigade were deployed by Chen Ming to operate south of Suiyuan, in preparation for future strategic deployments.

If the Independent Detachment wants to continue to develop, it must move beyond the heart of Shanxi Province and operate to the north.

They were waiting for an opportunity to seize strategic locations such as Datong and Suiyuan.

On the map, city names came into Chen Ming's view.

“Datong, Suiyuan, Mongolia, and Chahar are all important regions. If we want to fight the troops stationed in Mongolia, we must consider these places,” Chen Ming thought.

After making the decision, Chen Ming began adjusting the troops.

Mid-January.

The special operations brigade and the sharpshooter brigade took the lead and began to clear out the resistance forces in Shuoxian and Yingxian counties to the north.

Ding Wei's department and He Jianxin's department followed closely behind.

Chen Ming planned to use a three-pronged approach, gradually encroaching on key county towns to isolate them from the Datong region.

He Jianxin's troops marched along the east side of the Tongpu Railway toward Ying County.

He was a veteran of the Independent Detachment and familiar with the area north of Wutai Mountain. When he led his troops to attack from this direction, the results were better than those of other units.

Ding Wei's troops attacked from the west side of the Tongpu Railway, forming a pincer movement with He Jianxin's troops to attack Shuoxian and Yingxian.

Ding Wei is a wise general with a broad perspective. He has an advantage over He Jianxin in dealing with the more complex situation of the Japanese troops stationed in Mongolia, and he is able to maneuver effectively against the Japanese in the surrounding areas.

The last force was Li Yousheng's Third Brigade, which cut off the connection between Guoxian and Shenchi counties in the Daixian area.

Wasn't the Japanese using an iron wall encirclement to gradually erode our army and shrink our living space?
Chen Ming also employed a strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside to control the areas surrounding the county towns, turning the counties occupied by the Japanese into isolated cities.

This forced the Japanese soldiers to either hold the county town or have their supply lines cut off by the Independent Detachment.

They either went out of the city to fight in the field, only to be wiped out by the independent detachment's superior forces gathered from several directions.

The Pacific War took away a large number of the Japanese's elite troops, and the Japanese's fighting strength is no longer what it used to be.

As long as the Japanese don't deploy division-level troops or heavy artillery.

With the current strength of the independent detachment, Chen Ming is really not afraid.

After the order was issued, Zhou Weiguo of the Special Operations Brigade and Li Yong of the Sharpshooter Brigade began to act according to Chen Ming's plan, infiltrating the Yingxian and Shuoxian areas.

Both units are the elite of the independent detachments.

Sending them to attack rural areas where the Japanese had relatively weak control was like a game of cat and mouse.

To enhance their fortified warfare capabilities, Chen Ming also equipped each of the two units with two mortars and one infantry gun.

The Japanese infantry guns were really good; they could be disassembled into parts, which the soldiers could carry around.

Once assembled, it was incredibly effective at taking down Japanese pillboxes.

With their elite troops and artillery, the two forces, acting as the vanguard, advanced into the Yingxian and Shuoxian areas.

These two county towns are located in a plain area, and do not have many terrain features that are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

If the Japanese soldiers and their puppet troops wanted to hold out, they could only hide in cities or strongholds.

There are too many Japanese and puppet troops in the city, so we're not considering fighting them for now.

However, the puppet troops and Japanese soldiers in the surrounding strongholds suffered.

Special forces and sharpshooters sniped them during the day and fired artillery at them at night, and one blockhouse after another was taken down.

Unfortunately, the Japanese troops in the city came out to provide support, but they not only failed to capture the elite special operations brigade and sharpshooter brigade, but also suffered heavy losses due to the guerrilla warfare.

Left with no other option, the Japanese had to order a portion of their troops in the stronghold to retreat back to the city, while the remaining troops, along with their puppet forces, held their ground and refused to allow any further retreat.

They wanted to use strongholds and puppet troops to wear down the main force of the Independent Detachment and wage a war of attrition.

In any case, the Japanese didn't consider the puppet troops as human beings, so they didn't care how many they lost.

If it weren't for the fear that the puppet troops would desert and surrender without supervision, not even Japanese soldiers would be left in the stronghold's pillbox.

However, after the Japanese withdrew most of their troops, their goal of using puppet troops and independent detachments to wage a war of attrition was not achieved.

Even a rabbit will bite when cornered, let alone a puppet soldier who is actually a human.

Driven to desperation by the Independent Detachment, many of the puppet troops in the strongholds turned against them, tying up a small number of Japanese soldiers and surrendering directly to the Independent Detachment.

One was a powerful and numerous independent detachment, while the other was a Japanese force of only a dozen or even a few men.

In this situation, you shouldn't hesitate too much when making a choice, right?

Moreover, there's Li Yousheng, a former puppet army prisoner who is now the commander of the main force battalion of the Independent Detachment, who has come forward to provide firsthand testimony.

They called on the puppet troops not to fight for the Japanese, but to join the revolutionary ranks to fight the Japanese. They said that even if they died, they would be anti-Japanese heroes and would be the first to receive offerings.

With Li Yousheng as an example, the fighting spirit of the puppet troops was broken, and they began to surrender in batches.

P.S.: I've been so busy revising my thesis since the defense, I'm so sorry. I'll definitely catch up during my break.

(End of this chapter)