Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"continue."

"In the Japanese and puppet army's military warehouses, 1360 light and heavy machine guns were found, including 1080 light machine guns and 280 heavy machine guns.

"With so many light and heavy machine guns, our troops' firepower can be taken to the next level. When the Eighth Route Army was reorganized, the original idea was to equip each infantry company with six light machine guns and each battalion with a heavy machine gun company. But our Eighth Route Army was poor, so how could we afford so many light and heavy machine guns? Our 6th Division had some financial resources, but each infantry company couldn't even afford two or three light machine guns, let alone six. Now that we have so many light and heavy machine guns, our main forces can be equipped according to this standard."

Wei Hongjun was extremely excited.

1360 light and heavy machine guns—what a concept! The Eighth Column fought for so many years, captured so much material, and yet the combined total of light and heavy machine guns couldn't match this. Even the entire Jin-Cha-Yi unit captured fewer than 2000 light and heavy machine guns. The entire Eighth Route Army captured fewer than 4000 light and heavy machine guns during the years of the War of Resistance. But with the capture of Zhangjiakou, the Eighth Column suddenly possessed nearly 2000 light and heavy machine guns. It could be said that with so many light and heavy machine guns, the Eighth Column's firepower was instantly elevated to a new level.

"Then there were over 600 grenade launchers and 494 artillery pieces of various types. Among them were 71 Type 34 infantry guns, 28 flat-fire guns, and 6 rapid-fire guns. Then there were 8 Type 4 mountain guns, Type field guns, and Type howitzers. The rest were mortars.

"Where are the shells?"

Wei Hongjun has already felt the large number of weapons in Zhangjiakou.

Look at this big cannon.

Like mountain artillery, field artillery, and howitzers, we could deploy them to attack cities at will. City walls were nothing, we'd blow them down. And then there were the Japanese bunkers and the like.

Large artillery such as field guns and howitzers could be pulled out and blow up a fort or even several forts with one shot.

If that doesn't work, 71 infantry guns can be pulled out and fired at a Japanese brigade, without fear of them at all. Even such artillery equipment can suppress the enemy in a face-to-face collision with a Japanese guard division.

But a cannon is a cannon, and it needs shells.

Without shells, all these guns are just decorations. Li Shiping smiled mysteriously and said, "Political Commissar, guess what?

"Ten thousand rounds?"

This was Zhangjiakou, so Wei Hongjun reported the figures as high as possible. However, Li Shiping smiled and shook his head, saying, "Guess again."

"Thirty thousand rounds?"

"Guess again."

"Fifty thousand rounds?"

Wei Hongjun became more and more excited as he spoke.

Although I knew Zhangjiakou had many good things, I hadn't expected so many artillery shells. Wei Hongjun had mentioned 5 rounds, but Li Shiping's expression told him that the actual number was still unknown.

"Eighty thousand rounds?"

Wei Hongjun became bolder, so he directly increased the number to 30,000 rounds.

But Li Shiping still shook his head.

Wei Hongjun calmed himself down and said, "One hundred thousand rounds?"

"One hundred and ten thousand rounds."

Chapter 426: Sudden Wealth 2

Li Shiping gave the answer directly.

After Li Shiping finished speaking, Gao Weimin and Zheng Laishan both nodded.

Wei Hongjun stood up abruptly and walked around the room twice. He felt like a taxi driver who had never seen the world. His legs seemed to be disobedient. He wanted to stop spinning, but they kept spinning unconsciously. His hands were shaking slightly.

It should be said that Wei Hongjun was really scared.

Although I had thought Zhangjiakou was wealthy and had ample weapons and ammunition, I had never imagined it would be so rich. Wei Hongjun tried his best to remain calm, but he couldn't hide the shock and joy in his heart.

A smile appeared unconsciously.

After a while, Wei Hongjun finally said, "Are there really 110,000 shells?"

Li Shiping nodded vigorously.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with Wei Hongjun's reaction. When Li Shiping first saw so many shells in the armory, he was stunned for over half an hour. He could do nothing but laugh.

Li Shiping has been managing the army's logistics for so many years and understands better than anyone what so many artillery shells represent.

"Although we don't have the exact number yet, our rough calculations indicate that there were no fewer than 6000 artillery shells. The figures we reported are the most conservative. Of these shells, there were over 300 for infantry artillery alone, and over for howitzers. Of course, the largest number came from mortars and grenade launchers. Political Commissar, you haven't seen it with your own eyes. Those rows and rows were filled with artillery shells. The Japanese and puppet army's warehouse was ridiculously large."

Li Shiping is a scholar.

But now he doesn't know what adjective to use to describe it.

Anyway, it’s big and there are a lot of shells.

"With so many shells, not only our Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, but also the entire Eighth Route Army, can use them for a long time.

With so many artillery shells, the Eighth Column was no longer able to decide.

It's not even just a matter of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region.

Even if you add up all the artillery shells currently in the hands of the entire Eighth Route Army, there are still fewer than the shells in the Zhangjiakou arsenal. Many Eighth Route Army units have captured artillery, but have had to abandon it because they have no shells.

Some main armies, though equipped with artillery, generally avoided using them because they had too few shells. Why did the Eighth Route Army use modified mortars during the Hundred Regiments Campaign? It was because they had a few more mortar shells. If the Eighth Route Army had sufficient infantry artillery shells, why would they have considered modifying their mortars?

Of course, there are few infantry artillery shells, and there are actually not many mortar shells either.

Therefore, during the Hundred Regiments Campaign, many troops were still worried about mortar shells and did not dare to use mortars extensively during the attack.

Mortars are only used against bunkers and watchtowers that are truly difficult to capture.

Now that we've captured so many artillery shells, we can use our artillery to our heart's content against the Japanese blockhouses. Let the Japanese bully us because we don't have artillery and build blockhouses everywhere. Those blockhouses built by the Japanese can be destroyed with a single volley from our infantry artillery.

And mortars.

With so many shells, the mortar can be used as a conventional weapon.

Blow you little Japanese to death.

Wei Hongjun finally understood why Guo Tianmin, after arriving in Zhangjiakou, had said that the Japanese army had so much supplies that they could fight for another eight years. It was simply because they had so much good stuff.

There were 110,000 artillery shells alone.

How could the country bumpkins emanating from the mountains have ever seen so many wonderful things? The chaos of Zhangjiakou in history is baffling to later generations. Not only was there chaos during the capture of Zhangjiakou, but even more so after entering. Even after the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region headquarters moved to Zhangjiakou, the chaos persisted, and even more so during the evacuation. It can be said that the history of the Eighth Route Army, from the capture of Zhangjiakou to its evacuation, was characterized by chaos.

Although some later called Zhangjiakou the "second Yan'an," it simply couldn't compare to Yan'an. The Jin-Cha-Ji troops, during their year in Zhangjiakou, failed to properly manage the city, leaving it in constant chaos. The people of Zhangjiakou also failed to truly identify with or accept the Eighth Route Army. As a result, when the Jin-Cha-Ji Eighth Route Army withdrew from Zhangjiakou, many residents looted its logistical supplies and the families of the soldiers. Conversely, after Fu Zuoyi's troops entered Zhangjiakou, they spared no harm to the families of the Jin-Cha-Ji Eighth Route Army who hadn't been able to evacuate.

To put it bluntly, a bunch of country bumpkins from the mountains suddenly saw all the good things in Zhangjiakou and were completely overwhelmed. They had no idea what to do. Before arriving in Zhangjiakou, the Jin-Cha-Ji Eighth Route Army had no contingency plan. So, they were dazzled by Zhangjiakou's prosperity.

Even someone like Wei Hongjun, who was well prepared, felt a little uneasy when he saw so many artillery shells. What's more, those Eighth Route Army cadres in history had never seen so many good things.

"Where's the bullet?"

"Political Commissar, you probably can't imagine. There are three warehouses full of bullets. Pistol bullets, rifle bullets, light machine gun bullets, heavy machine gun bullets, it's dizzying to look at. We did a simple count, and there are more than 3 million rounds of bullets in these three arsenals alone. Political Commissar, 700 million rounds, all of them are bullets. In addition, we have seized 700 rounds of bullets from barracks, stations, positions, and other places in the city. Together with the bullets we seized in the old warehouse, we have seized nearly 70 rounds of bullets so far. But we don't know if there are more. The Japanese army has too many warehouses in Zhangjiakou, and we haven't discovered some of them yet."

Wei Hongjun had been frugal for years at the Eighth Column, and at his peak, his ammunition reserves were only about one million rounds. Consider Yang Quanwu, commander of the First Division, who commanded tens of thousands of troops. Yet, he bargained with Wei Hongjun for only 200,000 or 300,000 rounds of ammunition.

Because bullets were so precious to the Eighth Route Army, some regiments only had a few thousand rounds in stock.

But now that they have entered Zhangjiakou, they have captured nearly 200 million rounds of ammunition. If the Eighth Route Army had so many rounds of ammunition during the Hundred Regiments Campaign, the number of Japanese casualties could have been doubled. The Hundred Regiments Campaign involved more than 200 regiments, but they fired less than million rounds of ammunition.

Because of the lack of bullets, many units of the Eighth Route Army did not dare to fight major battles.

If there is not enough spoils after the battle, the troops will completely lose their combat effectiveness.

"The others?"

"There are still a lot of things. Pistols, grenades, and explosives are in huge quantities, but we haven't had time to count them yet. So far, we have discovered 71 military warehouses in Zhangjiakou, and they have all kinds of things. There is nothing that the Japanese warehouses don't have, except for the unexpected. Gasoline, cloth, food, military uniforms, sugar, salt, medical equipment, medicine, these things, everything. Our people have counted that there are more than 40 bottles of canned meat and 5 barrels of gasoline in the warehouses alone. There are so many other kinds of supplies that it is impossible to count them. Some large warehouses cover dozens of acres and are full of good things. If we want to register everything in these warehouses, even if our th Column Logistics Department works non-stop, it will take at least a year and a half to complete the statistics."

There were too many supplies, and the 8th Column's Logistics Department, which had never handled so much supplies, was completely short of manpower.

“Has the grain been counted?”

The arsenal is definitely the most important.

But food is also an indispensable good thing.

Li Shiping nodded and said, "We also did a simple count of the grain.

The warehouses were overflowing with food, including over 3 bags of rice and over 1 bags of flour. Besides the food stored in the warehouses, the Japanese military camp also had a small warehouse with over 3000 bags of rice. We recently investigated warehouses owned by Japanese and traitorous merchants, and found a large amount of food there as well. However, we haven't yet had time to count the food.

Wei Hongjun sighed.

It's clear that the Japanese army was accustomed to eating rice, so they stockpiled a large amount of rice. However, rice cultivation was not common in Zhangjiakou, or in several northern provinces. Only a small portion of arable land was used for rice cultivation.

They all ran to the Japanese army.

No wonder the Japanese army did not allow the Chinese to eat rice in the areas they controlled.

However, the Japanese army's rice reserves were really huge. More than 3 bags of rice, enough for the entire th Column to eat for two months.

If you save some food and mix it with coarse grains and wild vegetables, you can eat it for four or five months without any problem.

If this rice could be exchanged for more coarse grains, it would be enough to provide the Eighth Column with food for a year. Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "We can't just let so much material gather dust in the warehouse. We need to find a way to use it. Life is very difficult for our troops in Jin-Cha-Ji, and the troops in other military regions are no different. Even in Yan'an, the situation isn't much better. We need to sort out these things as quickly as possible and send them to the various military regions to alleviate their difficulties."

Wei Hongjun never thought of taking all the good things in Zhangjiakou for himself.

If the Eighth Column had amassed so much good stuff for itself, it would undoubtedly suffer from indigestion. If it truly had, not only would its fraternal units be disgruntled, but Yan'an, the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region would likely have condemned the Eighth Column to death. Someone who only carves out a small fortune and lacks a grasp of the broader situation has no future in the Eighth Route Army. The futures of Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun would also have come to an end.

Historically, after the first wave of Jidong troops entered Northeast China, they seized many valuable resources and expanded their forces. This situation caused many veteran troops to become ill and made Marshal Lin extremely dissatisfied. As a result, the cadres of the Jidong troops later became increasingly narrow-minded.

Wei Hongjun would never do that kind of thing.

Zhangjiakou has so many good things, but the Eighth Column doesn't have such a big appetite. If the Eighth Column swallowed all the things, who knows how long it would take to use them up. Maybe some of them would go bad before the Eighth Column finished using them.

Just like in history, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei troops were said to eat canned food every day.

They ate the food for a whole year, and even the cans were spoiled, but the Jin-Cha-Ji troops still hadn't eaten it all. You can imagine how staggering the amount of food stored in Zhangjiakou was.

"Political Commissar, we can organize and count the items while we transport them out. This way, we can speed up the counting process and allow each unit to quickly reap the benefits.

Zheng Laishan replied.

Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "Yes. But we must ensure that the supplies are not distributed indiscriminately. We must open as many warehouses as we have resources. As we move things away, we must also register them. Comrade Zheng Laishan, you will be responsible for this. Remember one thing: there must be no confusion. Director Li, you can put the warehouse matters aside for now. Start tomorrow with your team to sort out the traitors' assets."

"it is good."

Chapter 427 Support

After the meeting with the logistics department, Wei Hongjun immediately convened a column meeting. He wanted to discuss the issue of supplies in the Zhangjiakou warehouse with the column cadres. Wang Qiuyun had little interest in the other warehouse supplies. She simply flipped to the armory to see how many weapons and ammunition had been seized.

He took a deep breath as he looked at the number of weapons and ammunition sorted out. His eyes widened in disbelief, much like when Wei Hongjun first heard about the weapons and ammunition in the arsenal. It was a while before he passed the statistics to Xu Luomin. The moment Xu Luomin saw the data, he too was excited. The Eighth Route Army was dirt-poor, having always fought in the mountains. How could they have ever seen so many good things?

I never could have imagined such a large number of weapons and ammunition before.

Our Party's army, since the days of the Red Army, has always been built step by step in difficult circumstances. Seeing so many good things now, I'm really excited. So much so that Xu Luomin's hands are shaking.

If Xu Luomin had not trusted Wei Hongjun, Li Shiping and others and had not lied, he would never have believed that the Eighth Column suddenly had so many good things.

Everyone who saw the data later had the same expression. No one was calm.

There are so many good things.