Devil's Army

Although the commander of the first regiment did not know why Commander Leng opposed their joint anti-Japanese war with the First Advance Column of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Region Advance Army.

Last time, they joined forces with the 141rd Regiment of the 723st Division of the government army to fight against the Japanese in Dehua County, and Commander Leng did not object. But he still carried out Leng Feng's orders to the letter.

He told Commander Kong: "The headquarters has a new battle plan. They can no longer join his advancing army to fight against Japan. I hope that one day we can fight side by side."

Kong Hechong didn't think much about it and waved goodbye to the captain and the others.

Afterwards, a regiment commander learned from Leng Feng that the First Advance Column of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Region Advance Army was a local armed force under the Nanjing government army. Its commander Kong Hechong was a senior Red Army general who betrayed the revolution. He was known as the "First Traitor of the Red Army."

The regiment commander said goodbye to Commander Kong and arrived at Xunkou, where the 52th Division of the 195nd Army was stationed, responsible for the defense of the area from Dayun Mountain to Xunkou.

The commander of a regiment met with the commander of the 195th Division, Tan Yizhi, at the headquarters and handed him the telegram sent by Yang Sen of the 27th Army to the troops below, asking them to unite with the 195th Division to fight against Japan and asking Tan to solve their food problem.

Commander Qin and the 27th Army Group belonged to different systems, so he could have ignored Commander Yang's orders. But he had heard of the name of the First Anti-Japanese Army. Having a fierce army to assist them in the fight against Japan would only benefit them, not harm them.

He asked the commander of a regiment: "How many people have come from your anti-Japanese army?"

"We have two main regiments of the First Anti-Japanese Army, with more than 6000 people. We have fought from Anqing to Dehua County, and there are still more than 3000 people."

After hearing this, Division Commander Qin was secretly delighted, as this was equivalent to adding two main regiments to their division.

He obtained the consent of the commander of a regiment and transferred a regiment stationed from Xunkou to Dayunshan to the Xinqiang River front, and the defense here was handed over to the troops of the First Army.

The commander of a regiment readily agreed, and his artillery unit had four 75mm mountain guns, which were deployed at the foot of Dayun Mountain. They could use the dense forests of Dayun Mountain to avoid reconnaissance and bombing by Japanese aircraft.

At night, Commander Qin arrived at the camp of the First Army. In terms of anti-Japanese war, their First Army can definitely be called the predecessor. The First Anti-Japanese Army started fighting the devils in 1932, and it has been six years now. But they are just starting to fight the devils now.

A regiment commander told Division Commander Tan that when the First Anti-Japanese Army was first established, there were only more than 40 people. After so many years of fighting, it has now conquered two bases including Tieling County, Jinzhou, and Tangshan with a total of to troops.

Commander Tan knew that the First Army had tied down more than 110 Japanese troops in North China and Northeast China. And it was still developing steadily. The troops that their government army put into the Battle of Wuhan were as high as 30 million troops, but they were defeated by less than Japanese troops. It was really embarrassing to say.

"You said that our 110 million troops are nearly four times more than the Japanese army, so why can't we defeat them?" asked Commander Qin.

“It’s not all about the number of troops.”

“What’s the problem?”

"First, it's a question of the quality of our troops. The Japanese army has been training them since they were children, but our troops rarely have live-fire training, and their military quality is not even close to that of the Japanese. Secondly, our troops' weapons and equipment are much worse than those of the Japanese. Soldiers are generally equipped with Hanyang rifles, which have a short range and poor accuracy."

The captain took a sip of water and continued:

"Comparing a Japanese battalion with one of our regiments, a Japanese battalion is equipped with about 9 heavy machine guns and 36 light machine guns. Although a regiment of our army has more soldiers than the Japanese, it has only 6 heavy machine guns. Although the number of light machine guns is more than that of the Japanese, there are 50 to 80, but the performance is poor and the ammunition is insufficient. The gap in artillery is even greater..."

"So how does the equipment of your First Army soldiers compare to that of the Japanese?"

"The equipment of our First Army is in no way inferior to that of the Japanese Army, and in some aspects is even more advanced than that of the Japanese Army."

"oh?"

"Take the 150mm howitzer as an example. Our army of more than 30 soldiers has more than 200 guns, while your army of more than 48 million soldiers only has guns. We also have Type rockets, imitation German Type tanks, Golden Eagle drones, supersonic fighters, and subsonic bombers. Moreover, the quality of our individual soldiers is not worse than that of the Japanese army."

Commander Tan had always heard that the First Anti-Japanese Army was very powerful, but he had never seen it. So he asked the commander of a regiment:

"Captain He, I have a suggestion."

"Commander Qin, please let me know if you have any suggestions."

"You said that the quality of your First Army soldiers is no worse than that of the Japanese Army. Can you let us see it for ourselves?"

"Oh? What does Master Qin want to say?"

"If we hold a military competition between the two armies, it can liven up the atmosphere and relieve the tension of the soldiers. It can also make our soldiers face up to their own shortcomings and strengthen their training in the future."

"Okay, no problem!"