Devil's Army

The first thing Wulang had to do was to assign the more than 7000 recruits trained in Jixian County to various brigades and let the veterans of each brigade lead the recruits to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

Wu Lang calculated the current situation of the First Army in the North China Base Area: the newly arrived Third Brigade and the Twelfth Brigade had participated in relatively few battles and were relatively complete. There should be 17,000 people at present.

The 7000th Brigade participated in the defense of Xiaoguanzhuang and the battles in Jixian, Fengrun County, Sanhe County, etc., but the losses were not too great, and the main force is still there, with probably more than people.

His Second Brigade and Fifth Brigade were supplemented with a batch of new recruits some time ago, and currently the two brigades should have nearly 10,000 people.

The weakest is the Sichuan Army 364th Brigade, which had only 2500 people when it came. Now it has participated in the Luanxian blocking battle. The first and second battalions of the 728th Regiment suffered heavy casualties and now have less than 2000 people.

If the special forces are not counted, their six brigades have a total of more than 11 people. With the addition of more than new recruits, the total strength is nearly , which is comparable to the strength of the Japanese Fifth Division and the th Mixed Brigade.

Wu Lang incorporated more than 1300 new recruits into the 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army, and 6000 of the other 3000 men into the nd and th Brigades respectively.

Miao Nana also knew that the army was currently short of manpower, so she applied to Wu Lang for permission to perform in big cities such as Peking and Tianjin to recruit more new recruits.

Wu Lang refused outright. Although Beijing, Tianjin and other big cities could recruit more new soldiers, the risk was also greater. He could not afford such a risk.

Wu Lang knew that Miao Nana often did out-of-line things, so he ordered Captain Chen of the Second Squadron of the Special Forces, who was in charge of security, to stop training new recruits, keep an eye on Miao Nana's anti-Japanese drama troupe, and not allow them to leave the base to perform.

Brigade Commander Wang of the 364th Brigade was grateful to Commander-in-Chief He. They had no way out of Sichuan to fight against the Japanese and no hope of getting supplies. Deputy Commander-in-Chief He and the Commander-in-Chief of the First Anti-Japanese Army not only gave them the opportunity to fight against the Japanese, but also provided them with ammunition and food.

But their troops were too few. After the blocking battle in Luan County, they now have less than 2000 troops left, which is less than the strength of a regiment of the First Anti-Japanese Army.

The First Anti-Japanese Army adopted the organization of the Northeast Army. They implemented the brigade system and did not set up division-level combat units. A brigade was equivalent to a division in other forces.

Just as Brigade Commander Wang was lamenting about his insufficient military strength, the guard came over to report: Commander-in-Chief He had arranged a team of new recruits to supplement their troops.

Brigade Commander Wang hurried out of the command room and saw more than a thousand soldiers standing on the playground in front of the military camp.

As soon as Commander Wang walked onto the playground, an officer in charge stepped forward and said:

"Report to Brigade Commander Wang, the former commander of the 45rd Battalion of the Independent Brigade of the 125th Division of the th Army of the Sichuan Army, Wang Huazhu, has been ordered to lead the new recruits to report here!"

"Are you all Sichuan troops?" Brigade Commander Wang asked excitedly, tears welling up in his eyes when he met fellow villagers in a foreign land.

"No, the forty-five idiots on my left are from Sichuan. The others are not."

Brigade Commander Wang asked with a little disappointment: "Four company commanders of the 728th Regiment died in the Luanxian blocking battle. How about you be the company commander of the first battalion?"

"Commander, we left Sichuan to fight against the Japanese, not to become officials. If we wanted to become officials, we would have stayed in Sichuan and had wives."

"Great! We are Sichuan men!"

"Deputy Brigade Commander Wei, you will assign the new recruits to the 727th and 728th Regiments. Follow the method of the First Anti-Japanese Army and arrange for one veteran to lead one new recruit. Let these new recruits form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

With the addition of more than 364 new recruits, Brigade Commander Wang’s th Brigade has more people than when they first arrived.

Brigade Commander Wang returned to the command room humming an out-of-tune Sichuan opera.

After a while, Deputy Brigade Commander Wei handed the list of new company commanders recommended by the 728th Regiment to Brigade Commander Wang for approval, and asked whether he would report to Commander-in-Chief He.

After reviewing the report, Brigade Commander Wang sent it to Deputy Brigade Commander Wei, asking him to submit it to Commander-in-Chief He for review. He also instructed:

"We are now part of the First Anti-Japanese Army's operational sequence, and we still have to follow the procedures."

Wu Lang saw the report handed over by Deputy Brigade Commander Wei and signed it without thinking too much. He let Brigade Commander Wang handle the internal affairs of the 364th Brigade and he didn't want to get involved too much.

Wu Lang ordered the soldiers to call Eighth Route Army Platoon Leader Song to the operations room.

When Platoon Leader Song rushed to the operations room, Wu Lang said to him:

"You can see that our Tangshan base is about to face a major war. You have almost learned all the skills you need to learn. You will set off tomorrow and return to the 129th Division's base."

"Commander-in-Chief He, if there were no battle, we might leave. But now that a war is imminent, we will definitely not leave. I have already informed our headquarters of the situation here. Our headquarters may be on the periphery to support the resistance in Tangshan."

"They have already supported us. They have tied down more than 30,000 Japanese troops in western and southern Shanxi. And the Japanese army has to continue to send more troops."

Since Platoon Leader Song was unwilling to leave, Wu Lang did not force him to do so. He could only order the troops to continue to strengthen their preparations for war.

But what surprised him was that more than a week had passed and Commander-in-Chief Murotenai Hisaichi had not yet launched the Kokansho battle aimed at destroying them.