Under Li Yunlong's instruction, all battalions and companies of the independent regiment left the base area and entered enemy-occupied areas. They bloomed on all sides and harassed the Japanese and puppet troops.
They entered various villages and towns to publicize anti-Japanese ideas and called on young people to join the underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces. In the areas on the edge of the base area, the underground party armed forces are active frequently and vigorously carry out publicity and education. Therefore, the recruitment of new soldiers is progressing relatively smoothly, and each battalion and company has basically recruited some people.
However, the number of villages and towns on the edge of the base area is small after all, and the number of recruits is far from reaching Li Yunlong's goal. So each battalion and company continued to penetrate deep into enemy-occupied areas.
With the deepening of enemy-occupied areas, the enemy situation became more and more serious. Troops who went out to fight often had fierce battles with the Japanese and puppet troops. Some troops fought relatively smoothly, while others suffered considerable losses.
When a company of the Sixth Battalion of the Independent Regiment attacked a stronghold of the Japanese and puppet troops, the resistance of the Japanese and puppet troops was very tenacious. They fought for a long time but could not defeat it.
While observing the enemy's situation, the company commander was accidentally hit by a stray bullet and died on the spot.
This angered the soldiers of this company. Under the leadership of the deputy company commander, they launched a violent attack on the enemy's stronghold. As a result, they suffered a lot of casualties.
Since this stronghold was close to the highway, a rapid mobile force of the Japanese army came over for reinforcements and launched an attack on the officers and soldiers of this company.
The Japanese and puppet troops in the stronghold saw the reinforcements arriving and took the opportunity to rush out.
Seeing that they were outnumbered, the officers and soldiers of the underground party had no choice but to retreat while fighting. After a bloody battle, they finally got rid of the enemy and returned to their base area.
When Li Yunlong heard that the army had been defeated, he came to this company. He saw that when the company went out, there were more than 110 people, but only more than 50 people came back. The company commander and deputy company commander were all killed, and the instructor was also seriously injured. , and lost a lot of weapons and ammunition, and he suddenly became furious.
Li Yunlong immediately ordered the troops to be assembled, dispatched the tank battalion, artillery battalion and three infantry battalions to the enemy stronghold, and defeated it forcefully, avenging the sacrifice of his comrades.
This incident happened to be known by a cadre of the Propaganda Department of Taiyue Military Region, so he reported it to the division.
The superiors were very angry about Li Yunlong's unauthorized actions and asked the brigade commander (later renamed commander) to hold Li Yunlong accountable and report the results to the division headquarters.
The commander was very angry, called Li Yunlong and scolded him, and then asked Li Yunlong to lock himself up for a day, saying that he would take good care of him.
Li Yunlong didn't care at all. He followed the commander's order and locked himself in a room. However, he had no consciousness of confinement inside, drinking some wine and chatting with others.
The commander is a protective person. Even though he reprimanded Li Yunlong and even put him in solitary confinement, he reported to the division that the independent regiment went out to fight with his approval, so the division also had no control over the matter. I didn’t ask any more questions.
Regardless, significant progress was made in recruiting soldiers for the independent regiment. During this period of outing fighting, more than 1,100 puppet troops were annihilated and more than 940 new soldiers were recruited. Li Yunlong acted as a regiment and added these new soldiers.
Even so, Li Yunlong was still not satisfied and felt that the number of soldiers was still a bit small, so he came up with Xu Dalong's idea.
Guancheng County.
Zhao Gang took the telegram sent by Li Yunlong and said with a smile: "Captain Li still has the same temperament and will not suffer at all. He asked us to add 500 people to them. What do you think we should do?"
Xu Dalong smiled and said: "The Independent Regiment is our natal family. They are going to expand into a new brigade. We must support it. I just have an idea that I want to discuss with you."
What Xu Dalong means is that the Independent Brigade is, after all, a member of the Huang Xie Army. Although it has made great progress recently, the gap between it and the main force of the underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces is still not small. Xu Dalong wanted to recruit dozens of backbones from the independent regiment and transfer them to the independent brigade. At the same time, he would transfer a battalion of troops from the independent brigade to join Li Yunlong's new brigade.
Zhao Gang thinks this idea is very good. It not only adds strength to Li Yunlong, but also adds fresh blood to the independent brigade. The original veterans of the Independent Regiment have a fine tradition cultivated by the underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces for a long time. Their participation in the Independent Brigade can promote the transformation of the Independent Brigade and achieve the purpose of supplementing Li Yunlong's troops.
After the two discussed it, they called the independent brigade commander Wang Limin, deputy political commissar Gao Zhiyong, and chief of staff Huang Jingzhong to discuss the matter with them.
Of course Gao Zhiyong was very happy to be able to transfer some of the old underground party fighting backbones to the independent brigade, and he immediately expressed his approval.
Wang Limin and Huang Jingzhong were somewhat reluctant to transfer their troops to a battalion. However, Xu Dalong took good care of the Independent Brigade, added a large number of new soldiers to the Independent Brigade, and never treated him poorly in terms of materials, funds, weapons and equipment. Yes, so the two of them did not express any objection.
When Li Yunlong heard that Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang directly added a reorganized battalion to them, this was a combat force that had been tested by blood and fire, and it was more than a hundred times better than recruiting a group of new recruits Danzi. Not only that, Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang also brought over all the weapons and equipment carried by the troops of this battalion, which was equivalent to providing an additional battalion of equipment for Li Yunlong.
Li Yunlong was very happy and praised Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang for being good friends.
However, Li Yunlong was still a little distressed when he heard that he was asked to transfer 50 combat cadres from the independent regiment to the Mawushan base area.
You must know that the old fighting backbone of the Independent Regiment has been lost almost, and the current fighting backbone is also the general who was selected from the setbacks and constantly updated and cultivated.
The independent regiment was expanded into the new First Brigade, and the gap in the backbone was huge. 50 people had to be transferred at once, which made him feel very distressed.
Seeing Li Yunlong's look, Zhang Dabiao knew what he was thinking.
He said: "Captain, Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei are really good friends to us, and we can't treat them badly. I suggest that we follow their requirements and send 50 combat backbones over."
Li Yunlong is a particular person. Although he will take advantage of others, he has to treat Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang differently.
Seeing Zhang Dabiao exposing his secrets, he stared and said, "Zhang Dabiao, what do you mean? Did I say I won't send people to Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei? People must be sent. , we also need to select a group of elites, we can’t let Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei say that our independent group is stingy.”
Soon after, Xu Dalong sent Wei Monk and Wang Pao to escort the officers and soldiers of a battalion of the Independence Brigade to the Independence Regiment and handed them over to Li Yunlong. Not only that, in order to celebrate the expansion of the independent regiment into the new first brigade, Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang also asked Wei Monk and others to bring another infantry battalion's equipment and 5,000 oceans.
Li Yunlong and Zhang Dabiao were both very happy and asked Monk Wei to take care of them when they returned.
Li Yunlong was very good at mobilizing the emotions of the troops. In order to give Xu Dalong and Zhao Gang an explanation, and at the same time to mobilize the enthusiasm of the newly arrived independent brigade officers and soldiers, Li Yunlong decided to use the officers and soldiers of this battalion as the basis to expand into the newly formed first brigade. In the fourth regiment, all the backbones from battalion commander to squad leader and above have been promoted in their positions. This result made the newly arrived officers and soldiers of the independent brigade very happy.
The news reached the Independent Brigade. Wang Limin, Huang Jingzhong and the old brothers of the Independent Brigade were originally worried that the officers and soldiers of this battalion would be wronged when they arrived at the Independent Regiment. Seeing such a result, they were all happy for them.
As the Mawushan guerrillas, independent brigade and Jinsui Army took the initiative to attack, disrupting the Japanese army's combat deployment to attack the Mawushan base area, and unable to organize troops in a short period of time, the situation around the Mawushan base area was relatively stable for the time being. The small unit continued to go out to seize supplies and funds, and began to focus on the internal construction of the base area with Zhao Gang.
This morning, Wang Xiaohu came to Zhao Gang with his account book. He said worriedly: "Commissioner Zheng, our account will soon be out of money. You tell the team leader and find a way to get more money back, otherwise If so, it will soon be impossible to uncover the pot.”
Zhao Gang looked at the account book and felt a headache. Recently, a laboratory has been built and a large amount of medical equipment has been purchased, which has cost a lot of money. The Air Force's maintenance expenses are huge, and the arsenal's production of aerial bombs takes up a lot of funds. These extra expenses made Zhao Gang a little breathless.
Zhao Gang came to Xu Dalong and urged him to find a way to get a large amount of money back.
Xu Dalong also feels a little headache now. In the counties around the base area, due to the anti-Japanese armed forces' repeated seizures of Japanese and puppet assets, those wealthy Japanese and puppet personnel have fled. Therefore, even if we try to capture the county seat again, we won't be able to gain much profit.
If you go out to fight at a long distance, although you can seize a batch of funds, the cost of dispatching a large force is also not small, and the battle will also cause great losses.
According to the current method, it is beginning to seem a little inadequate to continue to rely on seizures to maintain the operation of the entire Mawushan base.
Xu Dalong knows that if Qingmei Su can be developed successfully, he will be rich in wealth in the future and will never be short of money. However, the development of Qing Mei Su has just begun. If he wants to truly develop it and put it into production, there is still one more problem. It is a very long process that cannot be expected at the moment. Not only that, but funds must be continuously invested in it.
Xu Dalong thought for a while and then said: "Zhao Zhengwei, don't be anxious. We can save as much as possible in the base area. I will find a solution for the nearest gap."
Xu Dalong really has no better way at the moment. He can only reach out and borrow money.
Li Kun received a telegram from Xu Dalong and came to the Chief of Staff of the World War II Zone to report Xu Dalong's request to him.
The chief of staff wrote a note without asking further questions and asked Li Kun to find the logistics department to negotiate and resolve this issue.
Soon after, Li Kun sent a telegram to Xu Dalong, saying that he had prepared 30,000 oceans, 50,000 French currency, and Shanxi painted faces worth 50,000 French currency.
After receiving the telegram from Xu Dalong, General Fu of the Zhongtiao Mountain Command was also very happy and sent someone to send 50,000 oceans and 50,000 French currency to Xu Dalong.
Chu Yunfei heard that Xu Dalong was in trouble, so he also sent 10,000 oceans and 30,000 French currency.
Whether it was the World War II District Chief, Zhongtiao Mountain Headquarters, or Chu Yunfei, they all said that Xu Dalong could use the money as much as he wanted. If he had enough money, he would return it to them. If he didn't have it, forget it.
Zhao Gang was very happy to see Xu Dalong being so respectable. With this money, he felt much more at ease.
When he saw that Xu Dalong had borrowed so much money, he wondered where he could borrow more.
He happened to see Wang Shuhuai, the logistics director of Huang Xiejun's Fourth Division, coming to the base area, so he borrowed money from him in the name of Xu Dalong.
Wang Shuhuai returned to Lingao City and reported Xu Dalong's request to Yan Guiwu. Yan Guiwu wanted to express his gratitude to Xu Dalong and get closer to Xu Dalong, so he asked Wang Shuhuai to send 50,000 yuan and a Shanxi painted face worth 20,000 yuan, and clearly told Xu Dalong that the money was not a loan. It was for Xu Dalong, but was given directly to him.
With money in his wallet, Zhao Gang suddenly became more confident. The wrinkles that appeared on his forehead due to worry miraculously disappeared, and his face returned to its rosy look.
In order to raise as much funds as possible, Xu Dalong contacted the Taiyuan Underground Party Intelligence Station, the Shanxi-Sui Army Intelligence Station, and the Military Reunion Taiyuan Working Group, asking them to provide valuable economic goals. If there were suitable goals, Xu Dalong would send special agents The team goes to grab it.
After a period of time, the three intelligence agencies did not find any suitable targets. There are many Japanese companies in Taiyuan City, and there are many valuable goods in their warehouses, but there is very little cash, because most of the cash is stored in banks.
This is not what Xu Dalong wants. He could only ask for cash, and even if he grabbed other supplies, he couldn't bring them out, so the goals they provided were not ideal.
On this day, Xu Dalong and others were holding a regular meeting, and Lin Xueying came in with a telegram.
The telegram was sent by Wang Yaohui, leader of the military reunification Taiyuan working group, saying that the Taiyuan working group had insiders in the Japanese Zhengjin Bank in Taiyuan and could provide information about the internal situation of the bank. He suggested that Xu Dalong send people to rob the Japanese bank.
Sun Desheng said happily: "It's good to rob a bank! I heard that the bank is full of money, too much to count. We can rob a lot of money at one time, which is much more exciting than going out to fight piecemeal."
Wang Chengzhu was similar to Sun Desheng. He didn't know much about banks, but he heard that there was a lot of money there. He also agreed with Sun Desheng's opinion and suggested that he rob the Japanese bank directly.
Wang Limin and others also thought this was a good idea, but they were worried that there were too many Japanese and puppet troops in Taiyuan, and it would be very difficult to rob a bank. They agreed, but reminded Xu Dalong to be cautious about this matter.
Zhao Gang needed money very much now and was very tempted by this proposal. He just felt that there was something wrong and he hadn't figured it out yet, so he didn't express his position.
Everyone looked expectantly at Xu Dalong to hear what he had to say.
To everyone's disappointment, Xu Dalong shook his head and said: "You can't rob the bank's money."
Sun Desheng asked in confusion: "Why can't you rob it? That's the kid's bank. If you don't rob it, it's nothing."
"Yes, why can't we rob the Japanese bank?" Wang Chengzhu asked in confusion.
Everyone didn't understand why Xu Dalong said this for a moment, and they all cast doubtful glances at him.
Xu Dalong said: "It is true that the bank has money, and there is no problem that Zhengjin Bank was founded by the little devils. However, the money in the bank is not just the little devils' own money, most of it is deposited by the people in Taiyuan City.
If we go and rob this money, the little devils will not be responsible for it. What we will lose is the people's money. If we do this, we will definitely be scolded by the people. "
"So that's it. Then this bank really can't be robbed." Sun Desheng said regretfully.
Everyone also felt a little discouraged.
Zhao Gang originally felt that something was wrong. After hearing what Xu Dalong said, he suddenly understood and said: "What the captain said makes sense. We are a team of common people. We must always think about the common people and never do anything that harms the interests of the common people." .
The captain considers issues very comprehensively. In the future, everyone must learn from the captain and think of the interests of the people at all times. No one can do anything that damages the reputation of the underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces. "
After the meeting, everyone left. Zhao Gang was a little unwilling because he couldn't find a suitable target to steal money.
He said to Xu Dalong: "The intelligence station in Taiyuan City can't provide any suitable targets. Yan Guiwu's Huang Xiejun is in the enemy-occupied area. They know the local situation. Let them provide some targets. What do you think?"
Xu Dalong felt that what Zhao Gang said made sense. He nodded and said, "You have a good idea. The Fourth Division of Huang Xiejun has a large jurisdiction. They have a good understanding of the local Japanese and puppet situation and should be able to provide valuable clues."
Zhao Gang did what he said and immediately drafted a telegram and asked Lin Xueying to send it to Wang Shuhuai.
After Lin Xueying left, Zhao Gang was still thinking about whether there were other sources of intelligence.
He thought of Li Yunlong and wanted to say hello to him to see if there were any suitable goals that the two families could work on together. But he knew Li Yunlong too well. If there was such a good thing, he would probably do it himself. Thinking of this, he smiled bitterly and turned his thoughts to other places.
Xu Dalong knew what Zhao Gang was thinking about. Now that Zhao Gang is the real housekeeper of the base, Xu Dalong knows how much pressure he is under.
He said: "Commissioner Zheng, don't you have many classmates? Find a way to contact them. Our sights should not be limited to Taiyuan. We can also focus on the areas surrounding our base and other big cities, such as Peking or Baoding. , SJZ, all can be considered.”
Zhao Gang heard this and said in agreement: "This method can be considered. Let me think about it carefully and see which classmate to contact first, and then contact other classmates through them. I think there will always be a chance."
Zhao Gang did not consider Li Yunlong, but Li Yunlong had the same idea as Zhao Gang.
The newly established First Brigade Headquarters.
Li Yunlong desperately expanded his army. Now his new first brigade has four infantry regiments, a tank battalion, an artillery battalion, and a team directly under the brigade headquarters, with more than 8,000 troops.
There were more people in the army, and he was indeed very prestigious as the brigade commander. However, with so many people opening their mouths to eat, and a lot of expenses in other aspects, Li Yunlong was also under great pressure.
On this day, Li Yunlong was discussing with Zhang Dabiao where to get a sum of money to support the expenses of the newly established First Brigade.
Zhang Dabiao suggested: "Brigadier, our new brigade has just been established, and the original independent group's family resources are simply not enough. You should contact Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei and let them help first."
Li Yunlong shook his head and said: "It's true that we have difficulties, but Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei's stall is much bigger than ours, and they are under greater pressure. We can't cause them trouble."
Zhang Dabiao asked worriedly: "Then what should we do?"
Li Yunlong smiled and said: "What should we do? We still have to go to the little devils and puppet soldiers to get it. You think about it and see what the target is. Let's go and rob them again."
As chief of staff, Zhang Dabiao must consider all aspects, especially intelligence work, which is one of the most important tasks of the chief of staff.
He shook his head and said: "This is also very difficult. Around our base area, there are currently very few Japanese and puppet assets. Even if we send troops, we won't be able to get much money. If we want to seize a large amount of funds, It’s better to go to a big city.”
Li Yunlong said: "You should contact Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei to see if they have any goals. Our two families can work together."
Zhang Dabiao got in touch with Zhao Gang, and the result was predictable.
Li Yunlong stood in front of the map, considered it carefully for a while, and said, "Zhang Dabiao, how about you come and take a look here?"
Zhang Dabiao scratched his head after reading it and said: "Linfen is a good place and a big city in Shanxi. There must be a lot of oil and water there, but it is more than 500 kilometers away from us, and there are enemy-occupied areas in the middle. How can we get there? "
Even though Li Yunlong's mind was spinning fast, looking at such a long distance, he felt that he might not be able to do this. If nothing else, the superiors would never agree to take such a large team away from the base area and such a long distance.
Li Yunlong turned his attention to Yucheng again and said, "Yucheng is only more than 220 kilometers away from us. It is also a big city. What do you think we do here?"
Zhang Dabiao said: "That's where the Japs' 108th Division is located. There must be 20,000 Japs in the city, plus the Japs in the surrounding areas. That's the Japs' field force. Just one brigade of ours can't fight." Don’t come down.”
Li Yunlong also felt that Zhang Dabiao was right, but he was unwilling to accept it, so he stared at the map and pondered.
Not to mention, his mind was spinning so fast that he finally came up with a way.
After making up his mind, Li Yunlong said: "Zhang Dabiao, send a telegram to Brother Dalong and Zhao Zhengwei, and discuss with them, let's work together."
