Within three days, all the food robbed by Zhao Yi from the surrounding villages was returned, as well as the property. However, when it comes to money, Zhao Yi doesn't grab much from the surrounding area, and it's basically all legal tender.
The ocean gold bars seized by the county brigade were all accumulated by Zhao Yi during half a lifetime of robbery.
Well, instead of returning all the grain to the villagers, Liu Yu also used money to buy excess grain from them at a discount. The animals killed by the bandits were also bought at a discount as compensation for them.
The rising reputation of the county brigade and Liu Yu in the surrounding areas will naturally bring many benefits.
First, when the county brigade was buying grain, all the people took out their own surplus grain.
Secondly, many young men from the surrounding area came to Yangcun and begged to join the Eighth Route Army.
Some admired the Eighth Route Army from the bottom of their hearts, while others were forced to come by their elders at home.
However, Liu Yu did not have many weapons at hand to arm more soldiers. As a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he would be uncomfortable if he saw that his soldiers did not have guns in their hands.
Wu Hongbo made a suggestion: recruit some trainees first, form two companies of new recruits, and send a squad of veterans to train with them, and not participate in combat missions for the time being.
This approach has two advantages. First, when weapons are available and the size of the army needs to be expanded in the future, these trained recruits can pull out the weapons and fight.
The other thing is that it can be used as a supplementary force for the current first company.
It is impossible to fight against the Japanese with zero casualties like the last time we fought against the bandits. There will definitely be losses. When the time comes, we can select soldiers from these recruits to supplement them.
After thinking about it, Liu Yu agreed to Wu Hongbo's plan.
Since then, including Myolie Yang’s logistics team, the total number of people in the county team has reached 381!
Among them, the first company of the main force has 117 people. Because 10 veterans were temporarily transferred to the new company as the backbone, the number has decreased.
The second company of recruits has 128 people, the third company of recruits has 125 people, and the logistics team has 11 people.
The number of people looks intimidating, but if you encounter Japanese soldiers, to be honest, the only ones who can fight are the 30 or so veterans who first came out of the 771st Regiment.
The rest, even the new recruits who participated in the battle against the bandits and have been trained for more than a month, will probably be delayed on the battlefield.
Liu Yu has no other advantages, but that he keeps his head clear at all times and does not drift away just because the team is so large.
Therefore, he also put forward his own ideas at the new company headquarters meeting and decided that in the future, the county brigade will take preserving and improving its strength as its main task and avoid direct contact with large-scale Japanese troops on the frontal battlefield.
This meeting also set a work plan for the next three months. Since the food problem has been solved, the next task of the county brigade will mainly be training, supplemented by low-intensity and small-scale guerrilla operations, so as to increase the combat effectiveness of the first company. After reaching a certain level, the next step of development planning can be carried out.
Liu Yu's proposal was initially opposed by several squad and platoon leaders. They believed that now that the first company was fully staffed and "well-equipped", they should go out and clear out a few Jaap strongholds so that people from all over the country would know. Our county brigade is not the Tuba Road, but the main force!
Another point of view is that the equipment captured from fighting against the Japanese can further strengthen the strength of the county brigade.
But Liu Yu simply ignored their opinions.
As an outstanding soldier of later generations, he would not let his soldiers go to war before they fully mastered combat skills.
This is irresponsible to your subordinates.
Maybe other current Eighth Route Army commanders don't have Liu Yu's awareness, but that's because they have a lot of capital. For example, the Shandong base area that was just established was built by more than 2,000 veterans of the 115th Division as the backbone!
If Liu Yu had that kind of capital, he would just expand his troops to 10,000 people without saying anything, and then fight non-stop!
Once there are more veterans, things will be simple. If there are enough veterans to take them, first of all, there is no need to worry about the decline in combat effectiveness after the army expands. Secondly, the most valuable thing these days is human life. When recruits first come in, they are recognized as cannon fodder. And when there are a large number of veterans at the base, there is no need to worry about too many casualties among the recruits. In this way, after fighting a few battles, you can survive Those "cannon fodder" became elite veterans again.
Of course, there is a premise for this, that is, the survival rate of veterans must be guaranteed!
If you go out with 2,000 veterans and challenge a Japanese regiment in the first battle, they will naturally become weaker and weaker with each passing day!
Didn’t Principal Jiang just make this mistake?
In the Battle of Songhu, more than 300,000 elite veterans of the Central Army were killed, which almost wiped out Chiang Kai-shek's base. Later, he was reluctant to drag out the few elite soldiers he had left to fight against the Japs.
This is not to say that the Battle of Songhu should not be fought. Generally speaking, the Battle of Songhu was of great significance. It consumed a large amount of the Japanese army's active forces and strategic resources, and at the same time allowed the Japanese army to shift its main strategic attack point, laying the foundation for the subsequent strategic stalemate!
However, the excellent strategic decision-making could not cover up the serious mistakes made by Principal Jiang in tactics. He let the elite of the National Army fight the Japanese army on the Bund, which resulted in the entire National Army position being exposed to the range of the Japanese Navy's naval guns!
Principal Chiang was a master at the strategic level, including his later plan to send troops to Burma, but in terms of tactics he was simply speechless!
Naval naval guns are not comparable to those small guns in the hands of army artillery. Let’s take the most common 14-inch naval gun at the time (356 mm caliber, the main gun of the Japanese Navy’s Kongo-class battlecruisers, Fuso-class battleships and other battleships). When the cannon comes down, there will be absolutely no living person visible within a radius of 30 meters!
Not to mention that there were two ships, Nagato and Mutsu (410 mm main guns) participating in the war.
In other words, the Japanese Navy's battleship can kill at least one platoon of the National Army with one shot!
Principal Chiang's mysterious operations later caused heavy losses to the national army, directly paving the way for the failure of the subsequent battle to defend Nanjing.
I'm going a bit far, but let's get back to the topic!
All in all, Liu Yu would not use the little capital he had to fight the Japanese.
It is easy to pull out a stronghold, but it will inevitably lead to a raid by the Japanese.
According to Liu Yu's plan, he would not blindly provoke the Japanese until the county brigade had the strength to resist the Japanese alone as a squadron.
Of course, this time will not be too long. After three months, these recruits will be completely transformed. At that time, Liu Yu will lead a company to kill the Japanese and equip other recruits.
If there is a system, you don’t have to worry about the equipment at all. Then you have to carefully consider the survival rate of the soldiers.
It is really sad to take the lives of this group of soldiers to exchange guns for the next group of soldiers.
