Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

Five days later, Qin Huaiyi had recruited enough new soldiers.

In the combat command room, Su Zhengyang finished reading the equipment list and soldier roster of the security regiment in his hand, and slowly said: "The original security regiments 1 to 1 battalions will be assigned to the st Brigade of the st Combat Division of the Northwest Revolutionary Army, plus new recruits. The commander of the st Brigade will be Wang Hua, Fang Zhengfei will be the chief of staff, and Li Yuan will be the deputy brigade commander."

"The former 9th to 12th battalions of the security regiment were assigned to the 1st Brigade Reinforcement Regiment of the 1st Combat Division of the Northwest Revolutionary Army. Han Jiang will be the regiment commander, with Wang Jia as the chief of staff and Liu Ershun as the deputy regiment commander."

"Your 1st Brigade, including the reinforced regiment, is composed entirely of veterans of the Security Corps. You are also the strongest fighting force of our revolutionary army. What I want is for you to fight hard battles for me! Win battles! Make the Guo faction's troops terrified!"

Wang Hua stood up, saluted Su Zhengyang and said, "Please rest assured, Commander. Our 1st Brigade will always be the sharpest knife in the Northwest Revolutionary Army!"

Su Zhengyang nodded in satisfaction and spoke again: "The Second and Third Brigades and their security regiments can only absorb a large number of new recruits to fill the troops. However, we can adopt the strategy of old soldiers bringing up new soldiers and transfer some of our backbone veterans to the Second and Third Brigades to serve as officers at various levels. In the shortest possible time, we must train these new recruits and form reliable combat effectiveness."

"The commander of the Second Brigade will be Nie Xiaogang, the former commander of the Fourth Battalion of the Security Regiment. The chief of staff will be Sun Changdong, and the deputy brigade commander will be Wu Zhengkui."

"The commander of the Third Brigade will be Hao Zhaolai, who was recommended by Lao Qin. Commander Hao, Lao Qin has boasted about your prowess to me a lot. Whether the Third Brigade can become the backbone of our Northwest Revolutionary Army in the future depends on you."

Hao Zhao, the former deputy commander of the 358th Regiment, who had just surrendered to the Security Corps under Qin Huaiyi's persuasion, stood there in shock, sitting on the bench without moving.

Qin Huaiyi glared at Hao Zhao and said, "Brother Hao, did you hear that? The commander said that you will be the commander of the Third Brigade. Why are you still standing there in a daze?"

Hao Zhao suddenly realized that the surprise came too suddenly, causing him a huge psychological impact.

He originally thought that he was just a surrendered soldier from the 358th Regiment, and it would be good enough if he could earn a living and become a middle-level officer here. Unexpectedly, Su Zhengyang directly gave him the important position of commander of the Third Brigade.

Hao Zhao stood up solemnly, looked at Su Zhengyang and said, "Thank you for your recognition and promotion, Commander. I will definitely train the Third Brigade to become the backbone of our revolutionary army! I will do my best until my death!"

There are many good horses but few good horse trainers. Hao Zhao, now in his thirties, has wasted seven or eight years in the 358th Regiment. It is obvious that his abilities far exceed those of a fool commander like Du Xiaojun, but he has been stuck as deputy commander and has made no progress. Su Zhengyang's sudden appreciation and trust made Hao Zhao feel like tears welling up in his eyes.

Su Zhengyang patted Hao Zhao on the shoulder and said, "Once you join our Northwest Revolutionary Army, you are all brothers. There is no need to be so reserved."

"Old Hao, except for formal occasions, we get along with the commander like good brothers."

Liu Gangding's words caused the Northwest Revolutionary Army officers present to burst into laughter.

Su Zhengyang believes that professional matters should be left to professionals and he never appoints people based on personal connections. Qin Huaiyi was just a company commander of the 358th Regiment before, but now he is the chief of staff of the Northwest Revolutionary Army. Logically speaking, this position should be given to Liu Gangding, after all, Liu Gangding is the person Su Zhengyang trusts the most.

But Su Zhengyang discovered the characteristics of Qin Huaiyi. He took care of everything, no matter how big or small, and managed the logistical affairs of the entire regiment in an orderly manner. Although commanding troops was Qin Huaiyi's weakness, the most difficult thing for Qin Huaiyi was that he could always keep a calm mind to think about and face problems, and he could be cautious and careful in any situation.

"Each unit of the Northwest Revolutionary Army is organized into platoons. Each platoon must have two heavy machine guns and four light machine guns. All officers above the rank of deputy squad leader are equipped with Bergmann submachine guns. Except for a logistics platoon in each battalion, all combat units are equipped with 98K Mauser sniper rifles. Regimental units must have their own direct guard platoons, brigade-level units must have guard battalions, and division-level units must have guard regiments."

"The reinforcement regiments of each brigade must double their firepower! The role of the reinforcement regiment is to serve as a sharp knife force that can tear apart the enemy at any time on the battlefield. Cheng Hai, you must intensify the training of the artillery. After training a group of qualified artillerymen, we can use the current 32 artillery pieces to form an artillery battalion."

"Fully enclosed three-door commander's car, except for the headquarters and the 1st Division headquarters, each brigade-level headquarters will be issued one. Military jeeps, except for the headquarters and the division-level headquarters, each brigade will be temporarily equipped with two. Military trucks, ten for each of the three brigades."

"As for those sidecars, keep them for now. When there are enough of them, I will form a motorized infantry regiment for our Northwest Revolutionary Army."

Liu Chengxu pondered and said, "Commander, I have another idea."

Su Zhengyang nodded and said, "Everyone can speak freely and pool their wisdom. If you have any ideas, you can speak out."

"Commander, we always recruit new soldiers for training at the last minute. Once the main force on the front line suffers large-scale casualties, the combat effectiveness of the troops will immediately encounter a vacuum period."

"My idea is that our security group can send a group of veteran backbones to form local militias in the villages and towns under the jurisdiction of Sanjiang County and Honghe County. First, these militias can perform some simple local defense and garrison tasks. Second, once there is a manpower vacuum in the front-line troops, these trained militias can be used as reserves at any time to fill the front-line troops."

Su Zhengyang's eyes lit up and he nodded in agreement. Liu Chengxu's idea perfectly solved the problem of having to recruit new soldiers on a temporary basis every time and spending a lot of time on training. In this way, the front-line troops of the Northwest Revolutionary Army would have a long-term and stable source of reserve soldiers.

"Your idea is very good. It points out our current shortcomings. Regarding the specific ideas of the local militia, you can tell us so that we can refer to them together."

Liu Chengxu slowly said, "There are six towns under the jurisdiction of Sanjiang County, including Tashan, Kuanyan, Yanlin, and Changxiang. Each town has at least a dozen villages under its jurisdiction. We can form a militia platoon of about 40 people in each village. In addition to maintaining local public security and cooperating with the actions of our Northwest Revolutionary Army, they will also receive long-term training. In this way, we will have 4,000 to 5,000 reserve soldiers who can be deployed to the main battlefield at any time in Sanjiang County alone."

Qin Huaiyi said thoughtfully: "In this case, not only do we need to set up recruitment points in each village, but we also need to build training grounds, do ideological work for the local villagers, and pay the militia. This is another big expense. I'm almost going bald from worrying about this every day."

"These militias can use our discarded Type 88 Commission rifles. We have a huge reserve of Commission rifles, and we can continue to do arms business with other forces. This is also a stable way to make money."