Within seven days, the 42nd Army was indeed formed.
The 42nd Army has jurisdiction over the 52nd Army and the 53rd Army. The Army has independent tank divisions, artillery regiments, baggage regiments, communication battalions, cavalry battalions, reconnaissance battalions, quick reaction brigade, field hospitals, etc. The total strength has reached 62,000 people. .
The 52nd Army has jurisdiction over the mixed 521st Division, the 522nd Infantry Division, the army's armored infantry regiment, artillery regiment, baggage regiment, communications company, cavalry company, reconnaissance company, quick reaction brigade, medical brigade, etc.
The 53rd Army has jurisdiction over the mixed 531st Division, the 532nd Infantry Division, the army's armored infantry regiment, artillery regiment, baggage regiment, communications company, cavalry company, reconnaissance company, quick reaction brigade, medical brigade, etc.
In order to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of the 42nd Army, Xie Tian ordered a group of capable commanders to be transferred from the 41st Army to the 42nd Army to serve as leading cadres of each army division.
Guo Kaiming, the former commander of the 102nd Division, was transferred to the commander of the 52nd Army.
Ding Wei, the former commander of the 302nd Division, was transferred to the commander of the 53rd Army. This time, the cadre team of the original 386th Brigade was gradually disrupted. A group of cadres were also transferred to the 53rd Army along with Ding Wei. They were the generals appointed by Ding Wei himself.
Ge Dazhuang, the former deputy commander of the 41st Group Army Tank Division, was transferred to the commander of the 42nd Group Army Tank Division. Zhang Dabiao, the former deputy chief of staff of the 301st Division of the 51st Army of the 41st Group Army, was transferred to the deputy division commander of the 42nd Group Army Tank Division and became a partner with Ge Dazhuang.
The team has gathered together, and the first thing to solve is the problem of weapons and equipment.
More than 3,000 guns of various types were confiscated from the private sector. The types of guns were of all kinds, and the calibers were also messy.
Fu Zuoyi originally thought that Xie Tian would allocate this batch of weapons and equipment to him, but with a wave of his hand, Xie Tian made all the weapons and equipment available to the local security forces, and none of them were wanted by the regular army.
Xie Tian gave an order to transfer 25 Vulcan rapid-fire machine guns, 77 imitation Japanese Type 94 heavy machine guns, 300 light machine guns, and more than 2,200 rifles from the arsenal.
These weapons are of high quality, but they are not enough to equip an army, far from it.
However, the production capacity of the arsenal has now reached its limit. There are plenty of people, but not enough machines.
In fact, Fu Zuoyi is very satisfied with this. The army has so many weapons and equipment just after its establishment. Not counting the tank division equipped with 72 tanks and armored vehicles, the firepower intensity of these weapons and equipment is now comparable to that of Fu Zuoyi's original Seventh Group Army. The intensity of firepower is about the same.
Then we have to talk about how weak the Seventh Army's combat effectiveness is.
How to demonstrate combat effectiveness?
First of all, it must be weapons and equipment. Without good weapons and equipment, how much combat effectiveness can the soldiers exert no matter how high-quality they are?
That would be like fighting a Japanese tank, artillery, and machine gun with a broadsword and spear. This battle is impossible to fight.
Moreover, most of the troops in the national army's battle order have been corrupted to an appalling level. An American reporter once took a set of photos during an interview. The US congressmen who saw this set of photos couldn't help but shake their heads. It is strange that the army can win the war.
In the photo, seven or eight national army generals are enjoying their lunch in the forward command post. There are seven or eight meat and vegetable dishes on the table, as well as a pot of soup. The generals are eating deliciously and standing behind the generals. There were two orderlies with sallow faces and thin muscles. The orderlies closed their mouths tightly, but their eyes were fixed on the food on the table.
In another set of photos, scrawny National Army soldiers were sitting on the ground eating their lunch, each holding a bowl with only brown rice and a few vegetable leaves. The brown rice was also artificially mixed with grains and even... Gravel, the soldiers joked that they were eating eight-treasure rice.
In this set of photos, there is also a female soldier who is smoking. The female soldier looks dull and confused, as if she cannot see the future and hope at all.
Eating empty pay and withholding military rations is a normal thing in the battle order of the national army.
The polarization of treatment between officers and soldiers is like poison corroding the combat effectiveness of this unit.
In such an army, how many soldiers are willing to sacrifice their lives to fight for those officials?
Fu Zuoyi's original Seventh Army was pretty good. It was a sidelined unit with similar conditions among the officers and soldiers. They couldn't even get enough of the military supplies given by Yan Xishan, and they were not worth deducting.
It’s no wonder that the five armies of Fu Zuoyi’s Seventh Group Army actually have more than 60,000 people when they only have more than 10,000 people on the roster. If there are more on the roster, Yan Xishan will always give more when allocating military supplies. Some, if more than 10,000 people are actually registered, then the military supplies allocated by Yan Xishan will probably be enough for a regiment for a few days, and the team will not have to fight, and the soldiers will starve to death.
But having said that, Xie Tian’s current People’s Liberation Army is also very watery. Take the tank divisions of these two group armies as an example. According to the standard configuration, a tank division must be equipped with three tank regiments, a self-propelled artillery regiment, an armored infantry regiment, and an armored infantry regiment. The air defense regiment is equipped with no less than 330 tanks.
When Li Changshun's tank division only had about 30 tanks and 20 armored infantry vehicles, it was upgraded to a tank division. Not even a tank regiment is qualified.
But now Xie Tian has added forty X-1 main battle tanks to Li Changshun, and mixed with the Type 94 and Type 97 captured from Little Japan, it can barely equip two tank regiments and one armored infantry regiment.
The same is true for the tank division that Xie Tian equipped to the 42nd Army. It has a large structure and only has two tank regiments and one armored infantry regiment.
This is the consistent style of Mr. Xie. When he first organized the team, even a bare-bones commander dared to fly the banner of the People's Liberation Army's independent regiment. He would scare you to death if he couldn't beat you to death.
But having said that, the People's Liberation Army's tank divisions still have a trump card. They have equipped each division with a self-propelled anti-aircraft firepower battalion. Each battalion is equipped with 27 armored vehicles equipped with Type 01 close-in defense guns and Reaper cannon rapid-fire machine guns. Not only can The 20 mm caliber close-in defense cannon is enough to deal with the Japs' Zero fighter jets and the Japs' Type 97 tanks. It can also be used as an assault vehicle at critical moments.
Going a step further, Xie Tian not only prepared these weapons and equipment produced by the arsenal for Fu Zuoyi, he also transferred a large number of weapons from the 49th Army and the 50th Army, enough for Fu Zuoyi to arm the 42nd Army to the teeth.
In the Battle of Yangquan, the 49th Army completely wiped out the 41,000 Japanese troops of the Miyamoto Division and captured a large amount of weapons and equipment. In addition to the damage and personal use, there was also a lot of surplus.
Now the 49th Army has been issued weapons to even the cooking squad soldiers and grooms. It is simply rich. If the excess weapons are not used, why are they piled up in the warehouse and rusting?
The 50th Army defeated the Nakamura Division in the first battle at Pingxingguan and captured a lot of weapons and equipment. It is also capable of supporting Fu Zuoyi. At least Xie Tian will not worry about weapons and equipment.
