Soon, Li Yunlong finished talking to Boss Chen and waited for Chen Feng to come to the new regiment headquarters in Zhaojiayu.
"Boss Chen is on his way. He will be there in about an hour."
Li Yunlong put down the radio, glanced at everyone and said.
Everyone smiled slightly, and their faces showed joy, just like old farmers who were about to have a good harvest. It was finally the time of year to harvest food.
Then, Li Yunlong looked at Xing Zhiguo and asked, "Has there been any change in the 1st Division recently?"
"Report to the leader, no!"
Xing Zhiguo said in a disdainful tone:
"After the 1st Division fled to Gaoyang County, its main force has been hiding in the county seat, but it has sent a lot of security troops and scouts to Datong."
"It is estimated that if there is any slight movement, the 1st Division will continue to flee eastward along Pingsui Road."
"The 1st Division is frightened by us." Wang Dehou's mouth curled up slightly, "It has become a frightened bird."
Xing Zhiguo continued: "After Datong was recovered by us, several counties around Datong became the territory of our regiment, as well as several counties north of Xinzhou, all of which have been taken over."
"In this way, it includes Datong, Hengshan and Wutai Mountain areas, three counties in northwestern Shanxi, and several counties north of Xinzhou."
"Our new group covers a total of more than a dozen counties, with a total population of more than 2 million."
With the current strength of the Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi, after regaining Datong, there is no need to worry about the Japanese taking it back.
The main force of the army stationed in Mongolia was wiped out, and the 1st Division became a frightened bird. Its combat effectiveness was less than half of its peak period, and the North China Front had no choice but to abandon Datong.
Although Datong was recaptured twice by the New Regiment in the past, Li Yunlong voluntarily gave up. He did not want to fight a defensive battle with the Japanese. Li Yunlong liked to take the initiative to attack.
After the Japs in Shanxi received reinforcements from five Japanese divisions, they expanded their territory.
Taking the Xinzhou Basin as the boundary, the north of the Xinzhou Basin is the territory of the Eighth Route Army, and the south of the Xinzhou Basin is the territory of the Japanese army.
The Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment each also obtained some territory.
Moreover, some troops from the Jinsui Army were attracted by Ding Wei and Kong Jie using some means.
Li Yunlong looked satisfied: "In this way, we will not be short of troops and human resources for the time being."
Judging from the map, the territory of the New Regiment is almost as large as that of the 129th Division of Southeast Shanxi.
However, northern Shanxi and northwestern Shanxi are sparsely populated, and the new regiment has been in northwestern Shanxi for less than a year.
But fortunately, every county has local units of the Eighth Route Army, and even the Eighth Route Army has county governments. Even when the Japs occupied these counties, the Eighth Route Army's county brigades, district squads, and guerrillas fought many battles with the Japs.
Although they did not achieve any decent results, these brotherly troops fighting behind enemy lines have very good combat experience!
Due to the limitations of weapons and ammunition, the combat effectiveness of county brigades, district squads and guerrillas is not strong.
But the main force of the new regiment brought sophisticated American equipment, and their combat effectiveness instantly increased by several levels.
At present, the main force of the new regiment has been fully equipped with Type 56 guns.
The large amount of American equipment that was eliminated gave Chu Yunfei a strengthened battalion of equipment, and gave Ding Wei and Kong Jie 10,000 American equipment each.
There are still about 30,000 American-style equipment left, and Li Yunlong plans to use these American-style equipment to recruit new soldiers.
In this way, after three to five months, the new regiment is conservatively estimated to expand to 30,000 troops.
More importantly, the local government and local troops have laid a very good mass foundation!
After the troops from the teaching battalion and the divisional battalions were stationed in these counties, coupled with the reputation of the New Regiment and Li Yunlong, and the amazingly good food of the New Regiment, the masses were extremely enthusiastic about joining the army.
When the national army recruits soldiers, they usually recruit strong men.
The Eighth Route Army recruits troops entirely on a voluntary basis.
The combat effectiveness of the troops on both sides is naturally not at the same level.
Of course, this is only one of the reasons. There are many factors that affect the combat effectiveness of an army.
Then, Li Yunlong looked at Wang Dehou: "Chief of Staff, summarize the situation of each battalion in the division and the teaching camp in each county as soon as possible, and then report to me."
At present, among the battalions in the division, except for the second battalion in the division, which will be picked up by Boss Chen's transport plane, the other battalions have been dispersed to various counties for garrison.
However, the main battalions and heavy weapons battalions are still in northwestern Shanxi.
If all the troops are dispersed, if the Japanese attack the base area in northwestern Shanxi, there will be big trouble.
The divisions and camps in each county are not scattered and developed like in the original drama.
Instead, each divisional battalion is responsible for training and flexing muscles, and then the new regiment's teaching battalion recruits new recruits and conducts unified training.
"Yes, Captain."
Wang Dehou straightened up.
Li Yunlong looked at Zhao Gang and asked, "Old Zhao, how is the bombing of the Taiyuan Japs by the flying brigade these days?"
"The situation is okay!"
Zhao Gang smiled slightly and responded:
"According to the report of the flying brigade, the Japs had no defense on the first day, and the Japs suffered relatively large casualties."
"In the following days, the Japanese gained experience in air defense, and their casualties were much smaller."
"It is worth mentioning that the napalm bombs provided by Boss Chen caused a lot of casualties to the Japanese."
"Currently, our flying brigade has zero casualties."
"Well done!"
Li Yunlong looked satisfied, took out a commendation letter from his pocket and handed it to Zhao Gang:
"The head of the headquarters has agreed to award the new regiment's flying brigade with first-class collective merit. You can find an opportunity to give it to the flying brigade."
Then Wang Dehou also took out a banner from a sack.
The banners read "First Class Merit of the New 1st Regiment Flying Brigade of the 18th Army" and so on.
Zhao Gang is the political commissar, so it is up to him to do this kind of work.
Zhao Gang took a look at the letter of commendation and saw that the letter of commendation read: The New 1st Regiment Flying Brigade was brave and decisive in the battle to kill Yoshimoto Sadichi and completely annihilate the North China Front Army aviation unit, performed outstandingly, and achieved great results. After the tenth The Political Department of the Eighth Group Army made a decision to award the New Regiment Flying Brigade first-class collective merit...
"good!"
Zhao Gang nodded and smiled slightly.
He expected that the flying team would win first-class collective merit, and even have a chance to achieve first-class merit.
If this record is achieved by one person, he will definitely get special merit, but if it is a group, there is a high probability that it will be first-class merit.
"By the way, how are you going to fight this big counterattack?"
"Has the battle plan been finalized?"
After putting away the letter of commendation and the banner, Zhao Gang then looked at Li Yunlong and Wang Dehou, with a hint of expectation in his tone.
"This time, it is a serious counterattack. The main force of the 129th Division has been deployed. All other fraternal military region troops in North China must cooperate in the fight."
Li Yunlong narrowed his eyes slightly and looked fiercely:
"The Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment are still under my command. Let's attack the Japanese in Taiyuan from the north!"
This time, Li Yunlong only commanded the 129th Division in name, allowing the 129th Division the opportunity to airdrop supplies and reimburse ammunition, and the actual command power rested with the division commander.
After the last big battle, Li Yunlong also communicated with Boss Chen.
In view of the relatively large results of the Eighth Route Army last time, it was agreed that Li Yunlong would nominally command the troops of the 129th Division.
Because it is a nominal command, there are restrictions, and it can command up to one division of troops.
The main force of the 129th Division plus the militia has a total strength of 300,000 to 400,000. The establishment is one division. There is no problem in commanding the 129th Division.
But if you add other troops such as the Jizhong Military Region, it won't work.
If he was not commanding in name but actually commanding, Boss Chen would reimburse Li Yunlong for any number of troops he commanded and arrange for airdrops of supplies, even if he was commanding millions of troops in combat.
Li Yunlong continued: "According to intelligence, the main force of the Japanese in Taiyuan is the 41st Division, the 5th Division, and the 24th and 28th Divisions transferred from the Kwantung Army."
"Coupled with some miscellaneous troops of the First Army, the total strength is about 75,000."
"In addition, there are the 40th Division transferred from the 11th Group Army and the 56th Division transferred from the Southern Army, stationed in Shouyang and Yangquan respectively."
The Pacific War is still in its early stages.
The little Japanese fought against the US military on the Pacific battlefield and gained some advantages.
He even won a big victory in Southeast Asia and made a huge fortune.
It happened that Li Yunlong sent a clear telegram to kill 16 Japanese generals, which made the Japanese base camp feel a great shame.
Tian Locust was even more furious, so he ordered Tojo Hideji to remove the elite troops and allocate combat supplies to eliminate Li Yunlong and his new regiment.
Okamura Neiji has already made a battle plan to attack Li Yunlong and the new regiment in northern Shanxi.
However, the plan failed to catch up with the changes. Li Yunlong took the lead in launching a spring offensive against the Japanese army, wiping out the main force of the troops stationed in Mongolia, beating the already crippled 1st Division even further, and annihilating the 33rd and 37th Divisions.
Under such circumstances, Okamura Neiji naturally did not dare to attack northwest Shanxi again, but was prepared to vent his anger on the Central Hebei Military Region.
In fact, Okamura Neiji knew that it was best to take out his anger on the National Army. He could win a great victory with a small number of troops. Unfortunately, the National Army was too far away from the North China Front and could not reach it at all.
Li Yunlong stared at the map and continued his analysis: "The total strength of the Japs in Shanxi is about 105,000, and the puppet army does not exceed 150,000."
"The total strength of our main forces in northwestern Shanxi and southeastern Shanxi exceeds 300,000. If we add in the militia, the total force exceeds 500,000."
"It seems like that." Zhao Gang's eyes lit up, "Our Eighth Route Army has a huge advantage."
The advantage that Zhao Gang said is very big, which is very different from the advantage that Lao Jiang said is mine.
Nowadays, many of the Eighth Route Army's militia, guerrillas, county brigades, and district squads have considerable combat effectiveness. Their equipment is similar to that of the Eighth Route Army's basic regiments two years ago. It is difficult to deal with the Japanese, but it is no problem to deal with the puppet troops.
Regardless of its military strength, equipment and firepower, the Eighth Route Army crushed the Japanese and puppet troops in Shanxi in all aspects.
And there is air superiority.
Both Li Yunlong and the head of the headquarters are full of confidence in this major counterattack.
Even in the last battle that completely annihilated the 33rd and 37th Divisions, the Eighth Route Army did not use all strategic weapons.
And this time the big counterattack is a real show of strength, with all the trump cards revealed.
