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

Chapter 222 Chen Ming: The Second Matchmaker Under the Brigade Commander

Chen Ming sat on the wooden chair in the command office, recalling Jia Gong's report just now, and couldn't hide the smile on his lips.

"Engineer Jia really gave me a great gift today."

Chen Ming sighed softly, his fingertips tracing the densely packed names on the statistics table.

From mechanical engineers to chemical researchers, from Mandarin teachers to agricultural experts, each name represents a substantial pool of talent.

He knew better than anyone that in this era of war, intellectuals were more precious than guns and ammunition.

Intellectuals who have received systematic education are different; they can quickly establish themselves in their own bases.

As long as they feel they can showcase their talents and work comfortably here, they will actively invite friends, relatives, classmates, teachers, and students who are scattered all over the country and have unique skills but no place to use them.

Chen Ming recalled the scene when he first received this group of people.

They were just a dozen or so passionate young people who had crossed the occupied zone, carrying simple bags and filled with anger at the invaders and a desire to save their country, before finally arriving at the base of the Independent Detachment.

Now, just over a year later, the number has exceeded two hundred, more than ten times the previous number.

This growth rate is almost unbelievable; it's practically like a pyramid scheme.
One person came and thought it was good, so they went back and brought a whole group of them.
After settling down, this group of people contacted each other's acquaintances, and their numbers grew bigger and bigger like a snowball.

"It is thanks to these intellectuals that our arsenals and schools have been able to develop so rapidly."

Chen Ming put down the statistics sheet and looked out the window.

The distant roar of machinery could be faintly heard from the direction of the arsenal; that was the sound of military workers producing weapons.
On the playground not far away, the sound of children reading aloud drifted on the evening breeze; it was the students of the base area primary school having class.

These are the future of our country, and education must start from childhood.

He knew perfectly well that the arsenal had evolved from simply repairing firearms to now being able to independently produce artillery and rockets.

They even began to try to develop special gun steel, relying on the technology and experience brought by these intellectuals.

The school has grown from just a few mud-brick houses and a few teachers into a comprehensive school covering all aspects of education.

Their dedication is also essential to the systematic teaching of cultural knowledge and military theory.

What made Chen Ming even more gratified was that the rear also noticed the development of the Fourth Division and continued to send support to this area.

In just the past six months, fifteen cadres with teaching experience and more than thirty teachers have been sent here.

The arrival of these people not only filled the gap in educational resources in the base area, but also brought more advanced teaching methods, further enhancing the educational level and talent cultivation capabilities of the Fourth District.

Furthermore, this is further enhanced by Chen Ming's "abnormal" badge set.

The quality of students graduating from schools in the fourth district is exceptionally high.

Every time graduates are assigned, people from various military units and regions would come to them in advance, vying for these graduates who were both well-educated and had excellent military skills. Sometimes, they would even argue heatedly over the allocation of positions.

"The matter with Jia Botao is now settled. We should focus on handling the affairs of the base."

Chen Ming stood up and stretched, trying to bring his thoughts back to work.

He knew that Jia Botao now had Jia Gong doing the work for him, along with the efforts of the cadres in the base area.

It was practically a certainty that this military industry expert would ultimately remain in the base area.

With Jia Botao, a leading figure in the military industry, the research and development work of the arsenal will surely reach a new level.

Then the soldiers on the front lines will be able to use more powerful and efficient weapons and ammunition.

With that in mind, Chen Ming picked up the documents on the table and began to process them one by one.

There were raw material procurement lists submitted by arsenals, reports from schools requesting additional training equipment, and reports on training progress from various military units.

As he read, he made annotations on the paper, occasionally pausing to think for a moment. The only sound in the office was the scratching of his pen on the paper.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away at the headquarters of the North China Expeditionary Army, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Okamura sat behind his large desk, his fingers gripping a telegram tightly, his knuckles turning bluish-white from the force.

Every word on the telegram was like a sharp knife, stabbing deeply into his heart.

The tank camp outside Jining was attacked by an independent detachment from 100 kilometers away. More than 30 tanks and a large amount of supplies were looted, and the Japanese squad responsible for guarding the camp was wiped out.

"Baka!" Gangcun slammed the telegram on the table, his voice filled with barely suppressed rage.

But after the anger subsided, a deeper silence followed.

This marks the third time the Independent Detachment has brought "surprises" to the North China Expeditionary Army.

Every time, they humiliated him and disrupted his plans.

He closed his eyes, and the plan to form the 3rd Tank Division came to mind.

The original plan was to allocate more than 200 tanks to form a tank division capable of quickly breaking through battlefield defenses.

But now, with just one surprise attack, more than thirty vehicles have been lost, a seventh of them gone in an instant.

This may seem like only "moderate damage," but Okamura knew in his heart how much it would affect the 3rd Tank Division.

From a tactical perspective, the loss of more than thirty tanks will significantly reduce the unit's ability to make rapid breakthroughs.

The original plan was to use armored forces to break through the enemy's defenses and then coordinate with infantry to expand the gains.

The effectiveness has now decreased, forcing them to increase infantry support and lose the mobility advantage of armored forces;
From a campaign perspective, the 3rd Tank Division could have independently undertaken the main attack mission, but now it could only cooperate with other units and coordinate with the infantry, which greatly reduced the Japanese army's offensive efficiency in the North China battlefield.
From a strategic perspective, this exacerbated the shortage of armored resources in the Japanese army, such as the inability of the 3rd Tank Division to reinforce the Pacific theater in 1944.

What made Okamura most uneasy was the intelligence he gathered from the Jining battlefield.

Intelligence indicates that the independent detachment deployed this time is a mechanized force with no fewer than ten tanks.

The more than 30 tanks that were captured were also driven away directly by this unit.

what does this mean?
This means that the independent detachment not only possessed a considerable number of tanks, but also trained a group of armored soldiers capable of driving tanks.

Moreover, these armored troops already possess combat capabilities and can quickly form combat effectiveness.

"The existing armored forces of the Independent Detachment, plus the more than thirty tanks captured this time, have become a force to be reckoned with."

Gangcun opened his eyes, his gaze filled with solemnity.

He could imagine that with these tanks, combined with the already elite cavalry of the Independent Detachment, they would be a formidable force.

The entire puppet Mongolian, Suiyuan, and Chahar regions will likely become the Independent Detachment's "backyard."

They could attack wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, while the Japanese army could only passively defend and was unable to form an effective containment force.

"Noon Saburo is a traitor to the empire!"

"I said through gritted teeth," Okamura said.

If Noon Saburo hadn't already committed seppuku after the defeat in the Battle of Daido, he really wanted to personally fly to Takeshiro.

Send this incompetent guy to a military court and make him pay for his failure.

After this incident, Okamura completely lost trust in the troops stationed in Mongolia.

The credibility of the troops stationed in Mongolia in his mind had been reduced to a negative number by the Independent Detachment.

This unit disappointed him far too many times, even more than the First Army, which suffered repeated defeats.

Although the First Army had few victories in its battles against the Independent Detachment, it at least managed to hold the main defensive line.

Even if cities and territories were occasionally lost, it was due to objective reasons such as insufficient troops and supply shortages, which were "forced by circumstances".

But what about the troops stationed in Mongolia?
Not only did they lose the strategic location of Datong, but the Independent Detachment also took the opportunity to send troops directly to Wucheng, north to Jining, and west to Baotou, turning the entire defense zone of the Mongolian army upside down and making it impossible to control.

"Because of the incompetence of the troops stationed in Mongolia, my large-scale mopping-up operation, which I had been preparing for for more than half a year and which consumed a lot of manpower and resources, was stillborn."

Okamura felt a tightness in his chest whenever he thought about it.

During that large-scale mopping-up operation, he originally planned to concentrate the main force of the North China Expeditionary Army to carry out an "iron wall encirclement" of the Jizhong base area and strike at the war potential of the Eighth Route Army. But what was the result?

The Japanese army lost Datong, forcing them to return to defend it, and the planned large-scale mopping-up operation had to be cancelled.

The impact of this on the situation in North China is simply immeasurable.

If Japan were to lose the war and try to shift blame during the post-war debriefing, it might very well arrive at the following conclusion:
The collapse of the situation in North China was all due to the defeat of the commander of the Mongolian army, Noon Saburo, in the Battle of Datong.

That battle will be defined as a turning point in the anti-separatist war in North China.

From then on, the Japanese army gradually lost the initiative in North China, while the Eighth Route Army gradually gained control of the battlefield.

"Order! Send another batch of tanks to North China. This time I will personally command them!" Gangcun took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and gave the order.

He knew that now was not the time to assign blame; the immediate priority was to replenish the lost armored forces and revise the operational plan against the independent detachment.

On the other side, at the special operations detachment's base of the independent detachment, a scene of intense training was unfolding.

Since the establishment of the special branch, the troops have been engaged in high-intensity training day after day, with almost no breaks.

Especially the tank battalion, which is the main force for breakthroughs in the special operations, undergoes extremely rigorous training.

During the day, the tank engines almost never stop, roaring from dawn until dusk, and sometimes even training continues until late at night.

Zhou Weiguo, dressed in a dusty military uniform, stood on the training ground, holding binoculars and carefully observing the training progress of each tank.

As the chief of staff of the special branch, he was well aware of the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

Chen Ming entrusted him with the most mobile and strategically powerful unit in the entire army, a trust that moved him but also put him under immense pressure.

He knew perfectly well how important the position of chief of staff was.

In the military, the chief of staff is the "third-ranking officer," second only to the military commander (the number one officer) and the political commander (the number two officer).

Responsible for core tasks such as formulating operational plans, arranging training, and analyzing intelligence.

The fact that he was appointed as the chief of staff in such a special unit as the Special Branch is enough to demonstrate Chen Ming's recognition and regard for him.

"We must train the troops into an iron army in order to live up to the trust of our leaders."

Zhou Weiguo wished he could spend 24 hours a day in the army.

During the day, I train with the troops, and at night I have to work in the office to develop training plans and analyze training data. Sometimes I'm so busy that I can only get a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night.

Chen Ming saw Zhou Weiguo's "desperate efforts" and felt deeply pained.

He would often take time to visit the special branch's headquarters, and each time he would advise Zhou Weiguo to rest more.

That afternoon, Chen Ming came to the training ground again and saw Zhou Weiguo squatting on the ground, studying tactical maps with several tank soldiers. His forehead was covered in sweat, and the back of his uniform was soaked with sweat.

"Wei Guo, take a rest. Your health is the most important thing."

Chen Ming walked over, patted Zhou Weiguo on the shoulder, and said with a smile.

"A person is not like a tank, which can keep running as long as there is fuel and the parts are not broken."

You still need to rest when you need to. Health is the foundation of everything. If you collapse from exhaustion, what will happen to the special support team's training?

Zhou Weiguo looked up, saw it was Chen Ming, quickly stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said with a smile:

"Sir, I'm fine. Seeing these tanks in our unit makes me feel at ease, and I don't feel tired no matter what I do."

Besides, I need to learn from Comrade Jianxin. His troops haven't fallen behind in training, so I can't fall behind.

"Haha, I know you're targeting me."

Chen Ming laughed heartily.

“I will keep an eye on Comrade Jianxin’s situation, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

However, you must also remember that a balance between work and rest is essential to improve training efficiency; brute force alone won't work.

Since the last large-scale military exercise, He Jianxin has begun the troops' reorganization and training.

Not only did they correct conduct and discipline from top to bottom, but they also raised the intensity of training to a higher level.

He also led his troops to the abandoned villages where he had previously lost to Kong Jie to review the game.

They simulated the battle scenario repeatedly and analyzed the reasons for the failure.

In He Jianxin's view, he was a "protégé" personally trained by Chen Ming, but he lost to Ding Wei and Kong Jie, two "outsiders," in this grand martial arts competition, which was a great disgrace to Chen Ming.

For He Jianxin, who regarded Chen Ming as his mentor and admired him wholeheartedly, it was unacceptable to embarrass Chen Ming in this way.

However, losing to Kong Jie and Ding Wei in succession was also a growth experience for He Jianxin—he learned to face his shortcomings and truly achieved "shame before courage".

Chen Ming didn't care about He Jianxin's idea.

In his eyes, whether it was He Jianxin, Zhou Weiguo, Ding Wei, or Kong Jie, they were all outstanding cadres under his command.

They were all working hard to resist the Japanese invaders and to build base areas; there was no distinction between "direct descendants" and "outsiders."

However, he also understands that some things may not exist subjectively, but may exist objectively.

For example, the soldiers would subconsciously feel that He Jianxin and Wang Dafei were closer to Chen Ming, while Ding Wei and Kong Jie were "later" members.

Chen Ming could not completely eliminate this subtle atmosphere, so he could only pay more attention in his daily work and try his best to stop the trend from developing.

Just as Chen Ming was pondering these things, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a woman secretly looking in his direction from under a large tree in the distance.

Upon closer inspection, he recognized the woman—none other than Chen Yi, who had been transferred from the central Hebei region with Zhou Weiguo.

When Chen Yi followed Zhou Weiguo to the Independent Detachment, it was obvious to everyone that she had feelings for him.

Later, Zhou Weiguo was transferred to work in the district government, and the two had more opportunities to meet.

Chen Yi would often come over under the guise of delivering documents or supplies, and the affection in her eyes when she looked at Zhou Weiguo was even more undisguised.

Regarding Chen Yi.

In the plot of "Snow Leopard", the core spirit represented by Chen Yi is the sublimation of intellectual women in the "Awakening Era" "from individual emotions to collective beliefs".

She transformed from a female student pursuing personal happiness into a revolutionary fighter striving for national liberation.

Her "calm yet fiery passion" makes her an indispensable symbol of the "snow leopard spirit."

Perhaps compared to Xiao Ya, Chen Yi is not as gentle and likable.

But after getting to know Chen Yi, Chen Ming felt that she was an independent, resilient, and thoughtful revolutionary female fighter.

Not only is he conscientious and responsible in his work, but he also cares a lot about the soldiers' lives, making him very popular in the army.

"Perhaps we could consider bringing Chen Yi and Zhou Weiguo together."

This thought suddenly popped into Chen Ming's mind.

Many people in the army could see Chen Yi's feelings for Zhou Weiguo; the two were very compatible in terms of personality and ideals.

Chen Ming already had a plan in mind: once he returned from his studies in the rear, he would start to resolve Chen Yi and Zhou Weiguo's personal issues.

Although according to the "258th Regiment" regulations (that is, only those who are 25 years or older, have been Party members for more than eight years, and hold a rank of regimental level or above can get married).

Zhou Weiguo does not yet meet the requirements—although he holds the position, his party membership is still far from sufficient.

However, the higher authorities never issued any clear and unified regulations for the "258th Regiment".

Most decisions were made independently by each base area based on its own actual situation, and the implementation standards could be flexibly adjusted.

Zhou Weiguo is now considered a senior cadre in the Fourth Division, and it's not good for him to remain single.

Solving Zhou Weiguo's personal problems was both a matter of Chen Ming's personal concern for him and a political consideration; it was an important political task.

Only when cadres' personal problems are resolved can they devote themselves to their work with greater peace of mind, and the cohesion of the troops can be strengthened.

Therefore, after returning from his studies in the rear, Chen Ming planned to personally approve the two men's issues.

He now possesses that power as well.

Thinking about this, Chen Ming couldn't help but think—truly, karma is cyclical.

He hadn't even resolved his own personal problems yet, and many leaders in the base area were worried about them.

But when it came to him, he started to care about the personal problems of other cadres, which was exactly the same thing he had said to Zhou Weiguo earlier:
"You all said the same thing when you were advising me before, so why don't you listen to me now that it's your turn?"

"It's true that where you sit determines where you think; people's thoughts change depending on their position."

Chen Ming shook his head, sighing inwardly.

Previously, he was just an ordinary commander who only needed to consider how to fight a good battle.

Now, as the supreme commander of the independent detachment, he has to consider not only the troops' operations, training, and logistics.

We must also care about the growth and lives of our cadres, and even keep their personal issues in mind.

P.S.: Did you all vote for other authors with your monthly tickets? It's okay, this junior author will find a way to earn money through other means (╥﹏╥)
(End of this chapter)