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

Chapter 255 The Second Batch of Aid: The Armory Takes Off!
Chen Ming was extremely shocked. The advance team was in such an environment that they were able to capture three tanks safely, which greatly exceeded his expectations.

It should be noted that the advance team was located in the heart of Rehe, surrounded by countless Japanese and puppet troops.

In addition to the earlier report from the advance team that the Japanese Kwantung Army had made large-scale mobilizations, the number of Japanese troops in the Rehe area has further increased.

The enemy forces surrounding the advance team numbered at least ten times their size.

Under such circumstances, the fact that they were still able to capture three tanks and drive them away was truly beyond Chen Ming's expectations.

"That Liu Tengjie kid is a real talent!"

Chen Ming couldn't help but sigh.

"Something's not right. Where in the advance team would someone know how to drive a tank?"

Chen Ming suddenly thought of something.

"Call back immediately and ask about the specifics," Chen Ming said.

"Yes."

Not long after, the advance team sent back a telegram.

Chen Ming understood immediately upon reading the telegram.

The advance team was quite lucky; they managed to recruit the armored troops left over from the Northeast Army.

No wonder there are soldiers who can drive tanks.

Moreover, Liu Tengjie was able to transport the tank back even when surrounded by a large number of Japanese troops, which shows that he was indeed quite capable.

Chen Ming felt that his decision to send a small elite force to form an advance team into the Northeast region and to choose a reconnaissance battalion as the core was absolutely correct.

In situations like that of the advance team, even a special operations brigade might not be able to make a difference.

Intelligence is of paramount importance in operations behind enemy lines, and special operations are highly dependent on intelligence.

Sending reconnaissance troops does indeed have a greater advantage in intelligence than special operations troops.

They were all elite units of independent detachments, and their combat effectiveness was beyond question. However, the reconnaissance units, with their even stronger intelligence capabilities, had a much greater advantage as the vanguard.

Which team is closest to Rehe right now?

Chen Ming inquired about the staff of the General Staff Department.

"Report: It's a battalion from Ding Wei's unit, currently in the northeastern part of the Yanshan Mountains, about 130 kilometers from the advance team."

"There is also a cavalry battalion of the cavalry detachment, which is currently operating near Duolun, about 140 kilometers away from the advance team's location."

A staff officer from the General Staff immediately replied.

After listening, Chen Ming tapped his fingers on the table in the command room, deep in thought.

After a long while, he made up his mind.

"Order: The cavalry battalion in Dolon, move eastward to support the advance team."

"Ding Wei's infantry battalion in the northeastern part of the Yanshan Mountains moved eastward toward Longhua, raising flags to create a disturbance and attract the attention of the Japanese."

"After the cavalry battalion received the advance team, they transported the tanks back via the supply transport route."

Chen Ming issued the order.

The value of the three tanks is already very high.

In the past, Chen Ming would never have gone to such great lengths to transport these three tanks back.

Because they previously lacked the necessary conditions to use tanks, it would increase the pressure of the Japanese army's mopping-up operations, forcing the troops to make adjustments.

But now the independent detachment has its own armored force and the necessary conditions are in place.

The value of the three tanks increases, enabling them to enhance the strength of the armored battalion.

With the special forces unit becoming one of his trump cards, Chen Ming will be more confident in facing the challenges ahead.

Once the tanks are transported to the Chahar region, the Japanese will be helpless.

Without knowing the number of tanks lost, the Japanese dared not rashly send a large force into Chahar and other areas without preparation.

Warfare is all about logistics, and independent detachments have a natural logistical advantage in areas without railway lines.

The Eighth Route Army was renowned for its ability to mobilize the people.

Once the Japanese invaders engage in a decisive battle with the Independent Detachment in the Chahar region, the entire population of the Independent Detachment's base area will become part of the logistics force.

Moreover, even disregarding logistical issues, the Japanese would not dare to engage in battle lightly.

The balance of power has indeed shifted in certain regions.

Sending troops rashly to pursue Chahar could lead to them running headlong into the arms of the main force of the Independent Detachment, without reinforcements from other directions.

The pursuing troops were truly helpless, with no one to turn to for help.

After Chen Ming issued the order, the troops immediately sprang into action.

Currently, in independent detachments, radios have been equipped at the battalion level, and in some special units, they have been directly equipped at the company level.

If other units hadn't been short of radios, Chen Ming would have handed over some of them to other units that lacked them.

Otherwise, given the situation of an independent detachment, it would indeed be possible to achieve radio communication at the company level, enabling more efficient command.

In the mountainous area west of Yuanbaoshan Town, under the cover of the other two battalions, the advance team's third battalion has successfully entered a safe zone with supplies.

The Japanese troops' speed of movement and search range at night made it difficult to accurately locate the advance team soldiers who wanted to hide in the mountains.

The other two battalions, after completing their mission, also broke up and disappeared into the night, moving towards their designated meeting point.

The First and Second Battalions were both elite reconnaissance units. With their skill level, once they broke into smaller units, the Japanese could not detect them even from within a hundred meters.

The search of over 16,000 Japanese and puppet troops seemed like a lot, but the dense ranks couldn't even fill a football field.

The area south of Chifeng was so vast that it could be described as sparsely populated.

Finding the advance team soldiers hiding at night was nothing short of wishful thinking.

However, the Japanese soldiers were indeed quite skilled.

After three hours, following the tracks left by the tanks, they finally found the tanks that the battalion had destroyed and sunk in the river.

"Baka! We've been tricked!"

Upon seeing this scene, the Japanese regimental commander leading the troops immediately understood what was going on.

(Note: The Iron Stone Unit was a puppet army unit, but its officers were Japanese soldiers. In the Manchukuo army, they were called regimental commanders.)
When they first arrived in Yuanbaoshan Town, they saw the scene after the puppet army armored battalion had been attacked.

The ground was littered with corpses, all of them puppet troops and some Japanese soldiers, as well as some tanks that had been destroyed in the shelling and attack.

However, judging from the number of corpses and tanks at the scene, the armored battalion does not seem to have been completely wiped out and may have broken through.

Of course, there is another possibility: the armored battalion was completely annihilated, the enemy captured some prisoners, and drove away the remaining tanks.

In the past, the Japanese would never have believed the second possibility, because the Eighth Route Army did not have anyone who could drive tanks, and even if they did, they would not have deployed them to the front-line troops.

But the current situation of the 3rd Tank Division in Baotou clearly tells them that the Independent Detachment has a sizable armored force.

Thus, the second possibility exists.

Now, the Japanese officers, looking at the tanks that had been blown up and sunk into the river, knew perfectly well that this was a preemptive strike team using the tanks to distract the armored battalion and take the opportunity to break out.

This will leave the Japanese soldiers with nothing but losses. "Immediately notify other units to strengthen their defenses and prevent the Eighth Route Army from taking the opportunity to break through the encirclement."

"At the same time, keep a close eye on any traces of the Eighth Route Army, and report immediately if any tank tracks are found!"

The Japanese officer immediately issued the order.

It's dark now, and the river is frozen over. There are many marks on the ice, so he can't know exactly how many tanks are in the river.

Judging from the fact that the advance team was able to drive so many tanks to this side and sink them in the river, the advance team has the ability to drive the tanks away.

The Japanese officers were worried that the tanks in the river, plus the tanks destroyed in Yuanbaoshan Town, did not represent the entire armored battalion's tanks.

The advance team may have seized some tanks and secretly transported them away.

For the Japanese soldiers, the punishment for having their tanks destroyed was far less than the punishment for having them captured.

If the advance team secretly took away some tanks, even just one, many people would be in trouble.

Therefore, the Japanese had to confirm that the advance team had not brought the tanks back.

However, it's too late for them to strengthen their encirclement now.

The advance team of the 3rd Battalion had already broken out of the encirclement with supplies and tanks.

The soldiers of the first and second battalions also disappeared after completing their mission, leaving the Japanese with only the vast darkness.

After daybreak, the Japanese planes were finally able to take off.

The Japanese Kwantung Army dispatched more than twenty reconnaissance planes to search the Chifeng area.

However, most of the planes were searching south and east of the Yuanbaoshan area, which was the direction in which the first and second battalions were providing cover.

Only a small number of reconnaissance aircraft searched west of Yuanbaoshan Town.

But the troops that have already hidden in the mountains are not easy to find by plane.

A battalion of troops can hide in any forest or gully, making them difficult for reconnaissance planes to detect.

It's not like we're in a plain or with thousands of troops deliberately hiding, so reconnaissance aircraft aren't that efficient at searching.

Of course, there's another crucial point—it's started snowing again.

After the snowfall, the Japanese planes' visibility was severely obstructed, rendering them largely ineffective, and they dared not fly low.

If you accidentally crash into a mountain, the result will be a total loss of life and property.

The heavy snow also concealed the traces of the advance team's nighttime retreat, leaving the Japanese with no way to track them down.

Unable to find the advance team, the Japanese soldiers could only vent their anger on the local people, which was their usual practice.

Throughout the 14 years of the War of Resistance against Japan, the people of Northeast China suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese invaders.

Ultimately, the Japanese had no choice but to report that their armored battalion had been completely annihilated and all their tanks destroyed.

As for the tanks in the Laoha River, they were not all salvaged due to the influence of a mysterious force.

If we salvage them all, we'll know the exact number of tanks!
How will they report the losses then?

If the number of tanks is sufficient, there's not much of a problem. But if a few are missing, then it becomes a huge problem.

With the tacit understanding of Japanese officers at all levels, the matter of retrieving the wreckage of the Laohahe tank was left unresolved and dragged on indefinitely.

It was delayed from the end of October until the beginning of spring in 43, and then it continued to be delayed until the Japanese surrendered, but they still hadn't managed to retrieve it.

It wasn't until later, after our army entered Northeast China and reviewed the records, that they discovered this incident and organized manpower to salvage the tank wreckage inside. But that was all in the future.

Mid-November.

The temperature was already very low, but for the Far Eastern Army, the winter in Chahar was nothing special.

In Siberian winters, temperatures can drop below minus sixty degrees Celsius in extreme cases.

Boiling water splashed into the air can freeze instantly, steel can crack like glass, and exhaled breath can freeze eyelashes and hair immediately.

The temperatures in places like Chahar were nothing to the Far East Army; in fact, they were even somewhat "warm."

In mid-November, the Far Eastern Army delivered the second batch of supplies, along with twenty T-26 tanks.

This batch of supplies mainly consists of industrial equipment and military technology.

In previous negotiations, the aim was to enhance the combat capabilities of the independent detachment and alleviate pressure on the Far East Army.

The elder brother decided to provide a batch of technology and equipment to help the independent detachment establish a complete production line.

It mainly involves the production of commonly used bullets and shells, and improving logistical supply capabilities.

This also includes the 76mm field gun shell production technology that Chen Ming has been most concerned about.

The Fourth Military District Arsenal was capable of producing 75mm mountain gun shells, but the output was very limited, and the amount of ammunition that could be supplied was insufficient, so the shells had to be used sparingly.

Now that we have a complete set of technologies and equipment, it means that the arsenal's production can enter a fast track.

The base of the independent detachment had plenty of iron, coal, and manpower, making it fully capable of mass-producing weapons and ammunition.

In addition, Baotou and Datong, which Chen Ming plans to liberate next spring, also possess abundant mineral resources.

It is rich in minerals such as iron, molybdenum, copper, gold, and manganese, and has enormous potential for military industry.

Once Chen Ming takes over Datong and Baotou, he won't have to worry about resources anymore.

With the help of the Big Brother, production efficiency can be greatly improved.

The base of the Independent Detachment was still quite far from the Far East Army.

For a considerable period of the year, transportation remains difficult.

Taking advantage of the fact that the independent detachment had cleared the route, the loving father decided to enable the independent detachment to have its own ability to generate revenue, instead of repeatedly consuming manpower and resources to transport aid.

In the loving father's mind, these were just small-caliber artillery shells and bullets, nothing to the Soviet Union.

Giving it to an independent detachment wouldn't have had much of an impact.

Little did he know that Chen Ming had a cheat code, and that he himself already possessed considerable production and research capabilities, which he had simply been keeping hidden.

Hiding something is a tradition in our army, and sometimes we hide more than one thing, maybe several.

The Fourth Division's arsenal is the best proof. If the situation at the arsenal were to get out, it would absolutely shock a lot of people.

No one could have imagined that a military unit that had always been penniless could build a military production factory in the harsh conditions of Dashanzi.

Even though this factory has limited production capacity and an incomplete product range, it cannot be denied that it is a miracle.

If the loving father had known that the Independent Detachment possessed such capabilities, he would never have readily agreed to provide assistance with weapons production technology.

When the equipment and technology arrived in Jining, Chen Ming immediately went there to personally receive the important equipment and technology.

Of course, there are also twenty tanks, which is the equipment of half an armored battalion, and Chen Ming naturally attaches great importance to them as well.

In addition to demonstrating his commitment, Chen Ming also planned to negotiate a deal with the Soviet military representatives.

Given Xu Desheng's level, he is not quite qualified.

This is also because many officers of the Independent Detachment went to the rear for training; otherwise, many more would have been able to come and negotiate.

For example, the soon-to-be-appointed chief of staff of the independent detachment.

(End of this chapter)