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

Chapter 205 The Reorganization Plan of the Independent Detachment (Must Read)
In the following days, Chen Ming oversaw the post-war recovery efforts.

Once the major tasks are completed, the remaining minor tasks can be handed over to the comrades below.

Chen Ming received a telegram from headquarters, asking him to go to headquarters.

The process is well-known to Chen Ming and needs no further explanation.

The brigade commander had previously given Chen Ming a heads-up, and the general outcome was similar.

There are only a few things that are different from what the brigade commander said.

After Chen Ming reported his upcoming battle plan to the headquarters leaders, they were quite impressed.

They admired Chen Ming's long-term vision and lofty ambitions.

If Chen Ming's plan succeeds, its strategic significance will exceed the headquarters' original considerations.

Therefore, headquarters cancelled the plan to transfer the independent detachment away from the division headquarters and place it under the direct control of headquarters.

The plan is to split up the independent detachments, including He Jianxin's reinforced first battalion, Ding Wei's independent first battalion, Kong Jie's second battalion, and the remaining three battalions.

Based on these troops, and like the brigade commander's troops, the detachment headquarters and local forces were merged to lead the operations throughout the region.

In other words, after the split, the Independent Detachment would probably only have three ordinary battalions left: Wang Gui, Luo Jian, and Li Yousheng.

As for the other units, how to build a new reinforced First Battalion, which will become the Suichare First Division, Ding Wei's will become the Second Division, and Kong Jie's will become the Third Division.

Chen Ming's position as the military commander of his unit remained unchanged; he was still the commander of the independent detachment.

However, these are just plans and will take time to implement.

Chen Ming appealed to headquarters to postpone the reorganization.

After all, he planned to attack Datong a second time before 43, and take Guihua and Jining at the same time.

Break through the Japanese defenses built by Guihua, Datong, and Wucheng, and completely remove the obstacles to their northward advance.

It's not too late to make changes then, otherwise Chen Ming would really be embarrassed to take charge of the work in Suirecha.

Headquarters considered that Chen Ming was going to the rear to study for a few months, so the reorganization was not in a hurry and could be done slowly.

Good food is worth the wait.

It's not too late to carry out the operation after Chen Ming returns and the battle plan is implemented.

Besides matters concerning the military, the brigade commander's plan to go to the rear for training has also been finalized. It will begin around the beginning of July and end in early October.

This is pretty much what Chen Ming expected.

Three months is enough time for the troops to rest and recuperate, reorganize and restore their combat effectiveness, and digest the gains from this operation.

When Chen Ming returns to continue his work, he will lead an elite force with stronger combat capabilities, greater firepower, and a purer morale.

It is said that one should look at a person with new eyes after three days of separation, and Chen Ming was already looking forward to seeing how much the army would have developed when he returned.

After returning to his base from headquarters, Chen Ming organized a new round of reorganization.

Because of the significant casualties in the Battle of Datong, apart from the fallen soldiers, only about three thousand wounded soldiers were able to recover to their original fighting strength.

It can be said that the entire independent regiment of Li Yunlong was reduced in number.

It is important to understand that offensive and defensive battles are different. Offensive battles often result in the loss of elite troops, and only by concentrating the strength of elite soldiers can they break through the enemy's defenses.

If ordinary soldiers were replaced, it would likely lead to the front lines being unable to advance, resulting in a prolonged stagnation and a period of repeated attacks and defenses.

At that point, casualties would be even more uncontrollable.

Therefore, the Independent Detachment suffered heavy losses in the Datong Campaign, which could even be described as crippling.

Fortunately, Chen Ming followed the elite soldier route, and only soldiers with qualified personnel could enter the three main battalions.

Therefore, even with such heavy casualties, the combat effectiveness of the troops did not decrease much.

However, the Independent Detachment will face opponents that are no longer just the Japanese First Army and the two troops stationed in Mongolia.

As the planned operational area expands, they will face more Japanese troops and control more areas.

It won’t work if there are fewer people.

Recruiting soldiers is imperative.

This recruitment work was authorized by Chen Ming, so the cadres below could now go all out and recruit soldiers with full force.

Previously, Chen Ming had always controlled the size of the army and did not easily open up recruitment. The source of soldiers was basically the local troops who recommended soldiers to supplement the army.

Most of these soldiers were snatched up by He Jianxin and Ding Wei, leaving very few for other units.

One was He Jianxin's unit, which inherited the original Independent Second Regiment; the other was the cunning and shrewd Ding Wei.

How could Kong Jie, an honest man, possibly outmaneuver the two of them?

For Kong Jie, he wouldn't argue unless his superiors gave him an order.

So when He Jianxin's unit had eight battalions and Ding Wei's unit had seven battalions, Kong Jie's unit still had the original five battalions.

Despite the long period of time the unit has developed, Kong Jie's unit has only expanded by a few hundred people.

He Jianxin and Ding Wei couldn't stand how honest Kong Jie was, so they assigned him to Kong Jie.

As an old comrade-in-arms, Ding Wei often taught Kong Jie: "You have to take the initiative to fight for it. If you don't fight for it, others will take it away. There are only so many things."

Kong Jie retorted, "I did fight for it. I fought for it every time we fought, but I couldn't beat the two of you."

"I'm saying that besides fighting, you also need to compete in other areas, otherwise how can we develop?" Ding Wei said, exasperated.

"The higher-ups naturally have their own considerations. I'm not as capable as you or Lao He. I know my own limitations," Kong Jie always said.

Ding Wei was at a loss as to what to do about Kong Jie. People's personalities are just like that; changing a person is harder than climbing to heaven.

Ding Wei could only share some food with his old comrade-in-arms, Kong Jie, after he had eaten his fill.

After all, we can't just watch our old comrades-in-arms go like this, can we?
If Kong Jiedu was like this, then the other brigades of the Independent Detachment were even more so.

They basically couldn't get any soldiers.

Li Yousheng's Third Battalion was in a better position because the proportion of puppet troops in the unit was relatively high. Some of the reformed puppet troops, after passing political review and meeting the quality standards, would be added to his Third Battalion.

Therefore, Li Yousheng's Third Battalion was the only one of the three ordinary battalions to have four infantry battalions.

It's no longer the days when we could expand our workforce several times over in just a few months.

But now things are different. The old leader is going to the rear to study, and when he returns, he will make sweeping changes and plan for next year's operations.

They can finally recruit soldiers without restraint.

Although Chen Ming still set the scale of the expansion, at least he could recruit on his own without having to wait for the local troops to recommend a small number of soldiers.

However, a few days later, Chen Ming caught Ding Wei and gave him a good scolding.

"Do you know who just called me? You want to recruit soldiers? We have so many people and local troops in our base area, aren't they enough for you?"

"They've gone so far as to poach talent from central Hebei and the Jin-Cha-Ji region. How dare they?"

"Just now, two of my bases called me and said, 'Chen Ming, you've poached people from my vegetable garden. Should I send a whole cooking crew over there, cooks and all?'"

"What am I supposed to say? Huh? I'm ashamed to even say that."

Chen Ming showed no mercy and gave Ding Wei a thorough dressing-down. That's just how Chen Ming is; if you do something good, he'll praise you to the skies.

But if someone makes a mistake, they'll be severely reprimanded without hesitation.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, in order to unite all anti-Japanese forces and to maintain the organization and discipline within the army.

The expansion of the armed forces can be carried out by absorbing armed forces outside the system, or by integrating local forces into the main force.

However, it is prohibited to "poach key personnel" from other units or friendly forces without approval.

Chen Ming would be happy to recruit the "backbone" of the brigade commander's troops in Taiyue, and it would be best to recruit all of the brigade commander's elite troops.

After all, Kong Jie and Ding Wei were both recruited by Chen Ming from the brigade commander, so recruiting a few more wouldn't hurt.

The brigade commander congratulated himself on making a fortune so many times, so what's wrong with poaching a few people?
Commander Xu is allowed to congratulate himself on his fortune, but I, Chen Ming, am not allowed to poach people.

No, it can't be called poaching. They were all subordinates of the brigade commander; it was just a normal "transfer".

Ding Wei, on the other hand, poached people directly from their old base areas and the Jin-Cha-Ji region.

The situation in central Hebei is better. Ding Wei used to be the commander of the 28th Regiment there, so it's like he's going back to his hometown.

Ding Wei has no connections in the Jin-Cha-Ji region, yet he's even trying to poach people from there.

It was only because Chen Ming covered for him that the matter ended there; otherwise, Ding Wei would have been punished one after another.

When Chen Ming caught him and scolded him, Ding Wei stood up straight and didn't say a word, just like Li Yunlong when he made a mistake and was scolded by his brigade commander.

Although I was thinking to myself, "Didn't you just recruit a county brigade from central Hebei?"
I only dug up a few people, so why is it that only officials are allowed to set fires while ordinary people are not allowed to light lamps?

However, Ding Wei only dared to think about it in his heart, without even considering who Chen Ming was.
Chen Ming can transfer people from Jizhong first, and complete the procedures later. Can Ding Weineng do that?
After Chen Ming finished scolding him, that was the end of the matter.

As a result, with Ding Wei as the example of the one who stood out, the other cadres all gave up their ideas.

However, although we can no longer recruit key personnel from other brother units, it doesn't mean we can't recruit them from the brigade commander.

then
"Damn it, Chen Ming, you're something else. First you got rid of my Kong Jie, and then you took the entire New First Regiment, people and all."

"Now you're trying to poach my talent again. Why don't you just give me your position instead?"

The brigade commander got the phone number and transferred it to Chen Ming's command post.

"Brigade Commander, how could that be? There's no such thing as poaching people, or 'yours' or 'mine.' Aren't they all your subordinates?" Chen Ming said, suppressing a laugh.

"Stop trying to fool me, send my men back right now."

"Tell me, with so many elite soldiers under your command, why are you only eyeing what I have?"

"Do you think it's easy for me to train some cadres?" the brigade commander said on the phone.

"Yes, yes, brigade commander, I will definitely send him back to you, but it's really not possible right now."

"I'm going to Datong for an inspection soon. Could you give me a few days' notice? Please give me a few days' grace."

"Hello, hello, brigade commander, can you hear me? Hello?"

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ming laughed heartily and soon left the command post to go on an inspection tour.

Once something is in their bowl, according to their inherited tradition, there's no reason to return it.

Chen Ming was once a soldier who was a master of the artillery, and even the brigade commander hasn't returned the favor yet.

The brigade commander smiled as he watched Chen Ming pretend the telephone line was malfunctioning; he wasn't angry.

Damn it, what goes around comes around.

After Chen Ming went down to investigate, he first met with the Wuyi County Brigade, which had been transferred from the Jizhong base area.

seven days ago.

Li Dabenshi led his troops to wipe out another Japanese stronghold, and then went to his superiors:
"Sir, we've won another victory this time. Could you give us a unit designation?"

"Without unit numbers, the comrades couldn't fight the Japanese with much more force. When the enemy asked which unit they were from, the soldiers didn't know what to say."

This is Li Dabenshi asking for a number again.

He dreamed of having a unit designation; after fighting so many battles, his unit didn't even have a proper designation.

"Want the code number? Sure, here's an opportunity."

"Really?" Li Dabenshi's eyes lit up.

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"Good, excellent, sir. Just assign any task to our county brigade, and we will do our utmost to complete it."

"For the sake of the designation," Li Dabenshi said, making a guarantee.

This is a code number! He's thought about it for ages, all to get a proper code number.

"There's no mission assigned to you. Comrade Chen Ming from the Independent Detachment sent someone to say he wants to transfer you there and wants to know your thoughts."

"Comrade Chen Ming said that after you are transferred there, you will be incorporated into the main force, and then you will have a unit number."

Upon hearing this, Li Dabenshi felt somewhat puzzled.

"Commander Chen of the Independent Detachment, how did he come up with the idea of ​​our Wuyi County Brigade?" Li Dabenshi asked.

Although Chen Ming repeatedly transferred troops and personnel from the Jizhong base area, those were all special troops.

For example, Zhou Weiguo, a household name, and the special operations brigade he led, which was a heroic unit.

For example, during the Battle of Datong, Chen Ming transferred soldiers and cadres who were proficient in tunnel warfare; those people all had their own specialties.

The Wuyi County Brigade was just a local armed force; at most, they could be described as having some clever tricks and schemes.

Chen Ming actually knew about their Wuyi County Brigade and even sent someone to communicate with them to get their brigade over.

Li Daben couldn't understand why.

"Didn't you hold off a Japanese battalion before? That battalion was one of the Japanese reinforcements sent to Datong."

"The Wuyi County Brigade fought brilliantly. Comrade Chen Ming was very impressed with the resilience of your brigade after learning about your deeds."

That's why we specifically sent someone to communicate and prepare to transfer you over.

"Now I need to ask for your opinion. If you don't want to go, I will politely decline Comrade Chen Ming's offer," the leader said.

Upon hearing this, Li Dabenshi was overjoyed.

We absolutely have to go! That's the main force of the Independent Detachment. Who wouldn't want to go to the main force of the Independent Detachment and kill the Japanese devils to their heart's content?

The reputation of the Independent Detachment was forged with the countless corpses of the Japanese soldiers.

"Boss, this..." Li Dabenshi wanted to say he wanted to go, but he didn't want to say it directly, as that would be too tactless.

"Alright, I can tell from your expression. Just wait for the notification; you'll receive the transfer order soon," the leader said with a smile.

"Thank you, leader. I, Li Chishui, will resolutely obey the organization's arrangements!"

P.S.: My computer broke down, but it's been fine for years without cleaning the dust. Today, on a whim, I went to clean the dust, and it turned out that one of the fans wasn't spinning. If I had known the computer could run normally, I wouldn't have bothered with it.

(End of this chapter)