War of Resistance: Glory of the Beasts

Chapter 602: He can't be stingy! (Thanks to 'Shanxia Shutong' for the reward!)

How rich is Yan Laoxizi?

This point can be discussed in detail. First of all, in the heyday of Yan Laoxizi, he controlled four provinces, namely Shanxi, Suiyuan, Chahar and Hebei, plus the two cities of Tianjin and Beijing. So until Xu Chaoyang's era, there were still people on the Internet arguing about who was the real king of North China among Yan Laoxizi, Song Zheyuan and Lao Zhang.

In fact, the answer to this question is simple. Yan Laoxizi's peak period was from 1927 to 1928. Not long after that, the Central Plains War began. This war almost destroyed the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.
Then came the peak period of Northeast Army General Zhang;

The last one is Song Zheyuan.

They are from the same era, but their peak periods are not at the same stage.

It was not until 1917 when Yan Laoxi went to Beiping to attend the Supervisory Corps meeting and saw the accuracy of the Hanyang rifles and artillery that he began to focus on the development of military industry. For this purpose, he specially got to know Liu Qingen and invited Liu to Shanxi for guidance. This led to the rise of the "Shanxi Machinery Repair Factory"!

Later, Yan Laoxizi sent people to study at the Hanyang Arsenal and set up a Copper Coin Bureau to prepare talents. This is the origin of the "Shanxi Military Craft Training Factory", and the "Shanxi Military Craft Training Factory" is the "Taiyuan Arsenal".

From then on, Shanxi had a bullet production line. The source of everything was not so much the arsenal, the newly purchased equipment, or the recruited talents, but rather the sharp vision of Mr. Yan who established the "Bronze Coin Bureau."

Shanxi has copper, which is a place that many warlords envy. However, the reason why Yan Laoxizi can become bigger and bigger in the future is not just relying on copper.

Even when he lost Shanxi, he still ordered his subordinates to act like "Tian Heng's Five Hundred Men". In order to prove that he was a noble minister who would not serve two masters, more than 40 people committed suicide by taking poison after Yan Laoxizi lost Shanxi.

Judging from this point of view alone, it is impossible for Yan Laoxizi to be stingy!

Because he, Old Xizi Yan, could still make his subordinates be loyal to the feudal dynasty in this era. How could a stingy person do this? Why do people think he is stingy? This story starts from when Old Xizi Yan was the richest...

What kind of situation could Yan Laoxizi achieve when he was the richest?
In 1925, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army expanded for the second time, and Yan Laoxizi now had a total of 11 artillery brigades, artillery brigades!

In 1927, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army expanded for the third time, and Yan Laoxizi added another 8 artillery regiments. At that time, the artillery regiments were equipped with the Jin Type 13 75mm mountain cannon.

In addition, during the heyday of Yan Laoxizi, the Taiyuan Arsenal had more than 3800 machines and equipment of various types, and more than 35 employees. If the production capacity was pushed to the peak, the monthly production capacity could reach guns. It is said that the peak daily bullet production of the Taiyuan Arsenal was rounds at that time. Of course, we are talking about the peak here, not the endless production.

So how did he become poor?

The Central Plains War!

The Jin Army has a very obvious weakness, when it comes to fighting... uh... to be precise, the Jinsui Army is a bit nostalgic.

If the Jin army were fighting in Shanxi, it would be fine, but if they left here, everything would change immediately.

In the Central Plains War, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, armed with weapons far superior to those of other local warlords, was defeated in the war. After leaving Shanxi, they seemed to have no idea why they were fighting. In that war, Old Xizi Yan had to pay for weapons and ammunition, expensive military pay, and food for the soldiers, and in the end he had to pay for the pension himself. It was a gamble that went wrong and he lost everything.

What was Yan Laoxizi like in 1937?

Let’s put it this way, it is still the best among local armed forces!

After so many years of development, the Taiyuan Arsenal at that time had gradually expanded into a giant military industry consisting of an electric power plant, machinery plant, smelting plant, foundry, acid plant, explosives factory, smokeless gunpowder factory, bomb factory (they also researched aircraft), artillery shell factory, gun bullet factory, shell factory, cannon factory, fuse factory, and cannery.

Until 1948, when American reporters went to Taiyuan Arsenal for an interview, Taiyuan Arsenal still had the largest 75mm mountain cannon production line in the country.

At this moment, Xu Chaoyang could only watch, he couldn't eat!
Shanxi has copper, arsenals, and mature military industry for domestic local armed forces... How tempting!

Xu Chaoyang watched the radish dangling right in front of him, but no matter how hard he tried to chase it, he couldn't bite it. In the end, he could only attack Hao Mengling.

Who asked you to ask for help?

In fact, Xu Chaoyang did not want to embarrass Hao Mengling. It was because the 217th Regiment was too poor after the battle of Xinkou and had no other options. Outside the 16th Brigade camp, in the bushes under the shadows of the trees, the entire 688th Regiment lay down along the hillside bushes all the way to the plain. Everyone stared at the Japanese tents that filled their sight.

"Brigade Commander, are you really going to use artillery fire from Hao Mengling?"

"Ah, what's wrong?"

"It shouldn't be."

Xu Chaoyang turned around and looked at Lao Han, and asked, "What shouldn't be done?"

"The division commander told me that before the Battle of Shanxi, our people contacted Yan Laoxizi, hoping that he would provide some ammunition support, but he directly declined..." This is why Yan Laoxizi was called stingy. Not only did he not provide aid to the Sichuan Army, he was also extremely stingy to us. But if you say it from other people's perspective... well, they are not allowed to say it.

"Nonsense." Xu Chaoyang said in disbelief, "Didn't they say they gave us 500,000 rounds of ammunition?"

"That's because they couldn't hold on after the battle at Tuanchengkou started."

"How did you know?"

"Who in the 115th Division doesn't know about this? The division commander was so angry at that time..."

The commander of the 115th Division never said anything about this to Xu Chaoyang, just like an old father who would not tell his child about his predicament even when the child made unreasonable requests. He exuded a sense of doting from the inside out.

In fact, thinking in this way, Xu Chaoyang felt that it was really possible. In real historical facts, our army became a little richer only after the Pingxingguan victory. Then the commander of the 115th Division was injured. When Wei Lihuang visited him, he said that what he lacked most was bullets.

"Let's talk about it after the war!"

Xu Chaoyang had no time to verify history now. He had already laid right under the noses of the Japanese. The position where they were lying was the location of the Japanese mechanized troops discovered by the scouts, which was in the middle of the 16th Mixed Brigade camp. Moreover, this mechanized force was sandwiched in the middle by the three Japanese battalions in a "品" shape. It was estimated that after Wang Jinshan's sneak attack on the 2nd Mixed Brigade, these bastards learned their lesson.

……

Xu Chaoyang arrived and led 217 out of the pass under the cover of night. After leaving Shiling Pass, they plunged into the mountains.

In the dark night, the 217th marched over mountains and across ridges in the mountainous area. The road they took was a natural danger for the Japanese and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army!
But the Shiling Pass was right under 217's feet, so they continued on their way. They held hands almost all the way on the steep mountain roads, marching arduously through the mountains where ordinary people had difficulty walking.

This is the resilience of our Party and our army, especially the 688th Regiment, which was responsible for building roads through mountains and bridges across rivers. They could run in the mountains with the wind under their feet. Even though they often slipped and fell, thanks to the support of their comrades in front and behind, few of them slipped and fell off the cliff.

At this time, at the edge of the Japanese army camp, several of our soldiers who had lowered their bodies rushed out from inside. They were the soldiers of the reconnaissance company who were sent by 217 to investigate the situation in the Japanese army camp again.

These people lifted up the barbed wire between the wooden stakes outside the Japanese army camp with their bare hands, and let their comrades crawl out from the inside of the barbed wire. After these people left the camp and crawled into the wild grass, they began to crawl on the ground...

"Commander, I understand!"

When Xu Chaoyang turned his head to look at the scout lying beside him, he saw that the back of his hand, which was stretched out in the moonlight, was still oozing with blood after being pierced by the barbs of the barbed wire!

"Tell me, what's going on."

"It's not easy..."

　Thank you '山下书童' for the reward of 10,000 yuan. Please don't reward me anymore, really, brother, you have given enough, we won't reward me anymore, oh.

　　I have seen what you said. I will do my best. Don't worry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)