Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 77: Preparing to Promote Chen Ming, the New Political Commissar Arrives
After the Hundred Regiments Offensive, our army broke the enemy's "cage policy".

They destroyed over 2000 kilometers of railway lines, including the Zhengtai, Tongpu, and Pinghan lines, and eliminated approximately 3000 Japanese strongholds, thus paralyzing the Japanese blockade system in North China, which was based on railways as pillars, highways as chains, and bunkers as locks.

This forced the Japanese army to disperse its forces from "points and lines" to "areas," creating space for the expansion of its base areas.

This battle resulted in the deaths and injuries of over 2.5 Japanese and puppet troops (approximately 2 Japanese soldiers), and the destruction of hundreds of facilities including coal mines, bridges, and railway stations, leading to a 40% reduction in the Japanese North China Area Army's material reserves.

This forced the Japanese army to withdraw three divisions from Central and Eastern China to reinforce North China, delaying their plan to advance south into the Pacific theater and indirectly supporting the Allied forces.

However, although the battle was very successful, it also had some negative consequences.

This battle depleted the Eighth Route Army's resources, consumed a large amount of weapons and ammunition, and left various units in a situation of lacking weapons and ammunition to varying degrees.

The Eighth Route Army's display of more than one hundred regiments and hundreds of thousands of troops greatly aroused Chiang Kai-shek's vigilance.

While outwardly praising them, the authorities secretly ordered restrictions on the Eighth Route Army's ammunition supply and strengthened the blockade of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, escalating friction between the two parties.

The Eighth Route Army's lack of weapons worsened.

Yan Gongji of Shanxi Province was also surprised by the strength shown by the Eighth Route Army, and he felt deeply uneasy.

Unexpectedly, the Eighth Route Army grew to hundreds of thousands of troops right under his nose!
Yan Gongji couldn't sleep at all and decided to send a group of senior officers to the Eighth Route Army, ostensibly to observe their tactics and learn from them, but in reality, to test them.

Headquarters was well aware of this and instructed all units to keep their core skills hidden so that others wouldn't learn them.

When the Japanese army learned that there were 300,000 to 400,000 troops hidden in the occupied areas, posing a serious threat to transportation lines and strongholds in various places, they were shocked.

Yoshio Shinotsuka was running out of patience.

He decided to give Yamamoto's special forces one last chance, demanding that they complete a special operation as soon as possible, carrying out a decapitation strike against the Eighth Route Army headquarters to destroy the Eighth Route Army's command system in one fell swoop.

He will then launch another large-scale mopping-up operation to deal a devastating blow to the Eighth Route Army, which has lost its command system.

Yoshio Shinotsuka invited junior officers from various units in North China and a Japanese major general brigade commander to form an observation group to watch Yamamoto's performance up close.

The location of the Second Independent Regiment.

After learning that the Jin-Sui Army had sent a high-ranking officer corps, Chen Ming knew that the Japanese observation group was coming.

He wasn't interested in the Japanese soldiers in the observation group; the route and trajectory of the Japanese observation group were absolutely top secret.

It was pure luck that Li Yunlong was able to run into him.

Chen Ming didn't believe he had the same kind of incredible luck as Li Yunlong.

He had no interest in having Chu Yunfei join his Independent Second Regiment.

The Second Independent Regiment is now a treasure to the commander-in-chief and the division commander. It is a large regiment of more than 3,000 people, fully equipped with weapons and equipment, and even has an artillery battalion.

Among regimental-level units, the Second Independent Regiment is undoubtedly the best.

How could such an elite force be known to the Jin-Sui Army?

Our army has always adhered to the tradition that good things must never be known to outsiders.

Once such behavior is proactively displayed, it means that our military has acquired even stronger trump cards.

Inside the Second Independent Regiment, Chen Ming was organizing the new recruits' training.

The officers the brigade commander promised have arrived, and with these officers, the shortage of officers in the independent regiment has been resolved immediately.

In addition, headquarters also sent a political commissar to the Second Independent Regiment.

This person was Chen Ming's classmate during his studies in Yan'an. His name was Zhang Zhengze, and he lived up to his name, being upright and principled. (Guest appearance by a reader)

The arrival of Political Commissar Zhang Zhengze was only made after the General took Chen Ming's opinion into consideration.

Chen Ming is an outstanding military and political cadre. He has served as the regimental commander and political commissar for almost a year, and the Second Independent Regiment has been developing better and better, with no problems in discipline or ideology.

Headquarters wanted to assign a political commissar to the 2nd Independent Regiment for two reasons. First, they wanted to relieve Chen Ming of some of the pressure; managing a large regiment of over three thousand people was indeed very energy-consuming. Second, it was indeed inappropriate for a military commander to concurrently serve as political commissar in a unit for an extended period.

Thirdly, the boss is planning to promote Chen Ming and give him more responsibilities. He will first send a political commissar to familiarize him with the work so that he can share the burden with Chen Ming in the future.

However, in order to prevent conflicts between Chen Ming and the newly arrived political commissar from affecting the development of the Independent Second Regiment, the headquarters consulted Chen Ming in advance.

Rather than saying that headquarters assigned Chen Ming a political commissar, it would be more accurate to say that after the boss told Chen Ming about this idea, Chen Ming took the initiative to ask Zhang Zhengze, who got along well with him, to be the political commissar.

"Old Zhang, I've missed you so much."

At the headquarters of the Independent Second Regiment, Chen Ming saw the new political commissar, Zhang Zhengze, and warmly stepped forward to hug him tightly.

"Old Chen, from now on we're partners. We'll learn and grow together."

Zhang Zheng patted Chen Ming on the back.

"Come on, let me show you our future home."

After the hug, Chen Ming took Zhang Zhengze to learn about the current situation of the Second Independent Regiment.

"This is the artillery battalion of our Independent Second Regiment, equipped with sixteen mortars and two Type 92 infantry guns."

Chen Ming said to Zhang Zhengze.

"This is the sharpshooter company of our Independent Second Regiment. The whole company are sharpshooters. They can take down a Japanese soldier with a single shot from 200 meters away."

"This is the heavy machine gun company of our Independent Second Regiment, with a total of 15 heavy machine guns, and each heavy machine gun requires eight soldiers to take care of it."

"This is our maintenance company, responsible for repairing damaged weapons. And let me tell you a secret, our maintenance company can also manufacture mortar shells! But we can only produce ten a day."

"And this is the technical talent training class I set up. In another month, after practical training, they will become qualified officers and be sent to the military region."

Chen Ming explained the situation of the Second Independent Regiment to the political commissar in detail.

From now on, he will be the head steward of the Second Independent Regiment, and Zhang Zhengze should know and understand these things.

Zhang Zheng was utterly shocked after hearing Chen Ming's introduction.

He had heard about the Second Independent Regiment from the commander-in-chief, but when he actually arrived at the Second Independent Regiment, he realized that the Second Independent Regiment was actually very well-off.

Is this still the Eighth Route Army soldier he used to know?
After introducing Chen Ming's main treasures, Chen Ming summoned all the officers above the company level in the regiment.

"I believe you all understand why I called you here today. This is Comrade Zhang Zhengze, who will be the political commissar of our Second Independent Regiment from now on. Please welcome him."

"Clap clap clap!"

The cadres clapped enthusiastically.

"Hello everyone, I am Zhang Zhengze. From now on, I will be a member of our Second Independent Regiment family. I hope my comrades will take good care of me and make progress together."

Zhang Zheng then began by introducing himself.

There was another round of applause from the audience.

"From now on, if you have any problems in your life, you can go to the political commissar. If the political commissar can't solve them, then come to me. If I find out that any of you dare to disobey the political commissar, I'll skin them alive!"

Chen Ming spoke up.

He and the political commissar had agreed on a division of labor: the political commissar would handle the daily life matters, while Chen Ming would take care of the military affairs.

If there are any disagreements, the two of you can discuss them together.

Chen Ming had his eye on his partner since they were studying together; he thought she was a perfect partner, and now his wish had come true.

P.S.: Three chapters totaling 8,000 words today, please vote! I'll put anything else I want to say in this chapter, otherwise I'll have to charge an extra penny for exceeding the word limit for the P.S., and I'll get scolded by the readers.

(End of this chapter)