Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

After Zeng Jiwen and his team arranged their respective tasks, they set off with their troops.

At the same time, since the main task of the other two parts was to open up bases in the mountainous areas, the artillery battalion was not needed at this time, so the artillery battalion and the reconnaissance battalion directly under it were brought along, and the baggage battalion and the guard battalion were left together near Sandu Township. Zhang Wanhe from the logistics department was asked to conduct surveys in the mountainous areas of the other two places to find a suitable location to set up a logistics department. The guard battalion was responsible for protecting the surrounding security, and the baggage battalion was responsible for the transportation of supplies in the entire area.

On the evening of the 31st, Zeng Jiwen led the 782nd Regiment to Dajinggou near Dazhai Town and sent soldiers from the reconnaissance battalion to scout the situation in the Xiyang area. At this time, the town had been occupied by the Japanese army, but the Japanese had not yet built effective fortifications.

At this time, Zeng Jiwen and his regiment commander, Chen Zifeng, were in a civilian house that was being used as a temporary headquarters, looking at a map and thinking about how to break the deadlock. At the same time, he was thinking about forming another regiment-level unit this winter, or even more, to counter the Japanese offensive next spring.

At present, the entire brigade is configured with one chief and two deputy positions. In fact, there is no other way. After the reorganization, a large number of military chiefs were demoted, but the expansion of the troops is sooner or later. Zeng Jiwen plans to make all the deputy positions of each regiment regularized into brigade-level organizations within the next year, and restore all the battalion commanders to their original positions as regimental commanders. That means expanding to 24 regiments, which is obviously impossible. He can only rely on various bases to establish basic regiments, and then promote some regiments from the basic regiments as new main combat regiments.

According to the current staffing of the brigade, there are actually over 10,000 people. If we expand it at a ratio of one to three, once this goal is achieved, we can make great strides forward, which will definitely be much better than the development in the original time and space.

Thinking of this, Zeng Jiwen suddenly realized that once the reconnaissance battalion brought back intelligence from nearby areas, they would have to dispatch troops to develop anti-Japanese bases in various locations. Furthermore, they needed someone to develop near the county seat. The first person they chose had to be careful. They had to be near the county seat to attract the Japanese army's attention and buy time for the development of other bases.

At this moment, a candidate with a big head suddenly popped up in Zeng Jiwen's mind. When it comes to courage and carefulness, he is definitely the most outstanding one.

But if this guy asked him to go now, he would probably give up. They had finally seized and equipped a main combat battalion with Japanese equipment, and now he was transferred to lead a new regiment. I'm afraid he would feel very wronged.

However, after thinking about the candidates, it seemed that only Li Yunlong was suitable. This guy was quick-witted and would not be surrounded by the Japanese near the county town. He would have to take the main force and look for trouble with the Japanese in the Xiyang and Niangziguan areas to see if there was an opportunity to make another profit. After all, no one could have imagined that after an ambush, he would be attacked again.

The others are responsible for recruiting and training soldiers nearby. If Li Yunlong were to take on this task, who knows what trouble might arise.

Thinking of this, Zeng Jiwen said to Chen Zifeng.

"Zifeng, I plan to have Li Yunlong from the Third Battalion go to the village in front of Xiyang, near the county seat, to develop the army. I'll give him the designation of a basic regiment. Whether he can pull it off depends on him."

Chen Zifeng was not surprised to hear what the brigade commander said. After all, the brigade commander had discussed it with everyone at the brigade headquarters before the division of troops. He also knew that after following the brigade commander this time, the battalion commanders under his command would definitely be sent out to form a basic regiment.

I didn't expect that the first person the brigade commander thought of was Li Yunlong instead of Cheng Kang from the first battalion. But when I think about the good things Li Yunlong has done, I understand why he was sent.

"Brigade Commander, I have no objection. When the time comes, the deputy battalion commander of the third battalion can take over directly." Chen Zifeng said.

"Well, for now, I plan to have the Second Battalion stay in Dajinggou and establish a new recruit battalion. You will let Liu Gancheng take charge of these matters. Their main task will be to recruit soldiers and establish guerrilla forces in nearby villages. If there are any good candidates, they will be directly recruited. Currently, the Second Battalion's main task is to train new recruits. When the number of recruits is sufficient, we will expand it into a regiment based on the Second Battalion."

"The other two Japanese-equipped battalions will follow me and look for opportunities to ambush the Japanese a second time. We can also have good opportunities in the Dongzhi area, which is in the Japanese-occupied area. If we are lucky this winter, we can mobilize four regiments of troops here."

Zeng Jiwen continued, thinking carefully, and for the sake of being conservative, he decided to expand the army into four regiments, then form two columns, each with two regiments. Then, after the Japanese army returned for a large-scale sweep next year, he would establish several core regiments.

In this way, at least by the end of next year, we will have two brigades and several directly affiliated regiments in the Yangquan and Xiyang areas, which will be enough to launch some large-scale raids against the Japanese army by the end of the year.

About a week later, news from the headquarters showed that the Battle of Taiyuan was about to come to an end and the Japanese army was about to occupy Taiyuan. The order from the headquarters instructed the 389th Brigade to open up a rear battlefield in Xiyang and Heshun areas and assist in the establishment of the Border Region People's Government. The 129th Division moved south with the headquarters to near Changzhi and established anti-Japanese revolutionary bases in Liaoxian, Licheng, Shexian, Qinxian and other large areas.

About a week later, the commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Hu Di, returned with his men. This reconnaissance battalion was no ordinary one; it was Zeng Jiwen's lifeblood.

Since the Northern Expedition, Zeng Jiwen has started to build a reconnaissance battalion, from squads, platoons, companies to battalions, and has collected a lot of good talents over the years.

For this purpose, Zeng Jiwen also specially taught classes for the reconnaissance battalion. It can be said that in the reconnaissance battalion, even an ordinary soldier can read and draw combat maps. At the same time, in order to cultivate their special operations command knowledge, he spent a lot of effort and brought back automatic firearms, teaching materials and equipment from the Soviet Union, as well as special equipment for replenishing and repairing these equipment.

It can be said that every person released inside is the elite among the elite. I don’t know how many people have set their sights on the people inside, but when they think of Zeng Jiwen’s dark face, they shake their heads. Zeng Jiwen is probably going to fight him to the death.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was exactly what Zeng Jiwen might need these men for; otherwise, they wouldn't have been assembled into a battalion. They were truly precious. Only one man, who had intended to leave the reconnaissance battalion behind at the Xiang River, was beaten half to death by Zeng Jiwen. It was clear he truly intended to kill. Afterward, no one said anything; that incident was truly horrific.

The entire reconnaissance battalion appears to be organized at the battalion level, but in reality, there are only nine combat forces, each with 12 people. The remaining three or four hundred people are all supplementary forces for these nine small forces.

During this reconnaissance, General Hu Di sent out all nine small units, covering the entire north and even thoroughly investigating the Japanese defense forces on the Pingding Line.

Hu Di looked very embarrassed at this moment, but Zeng Jiwen knew that although they had been sleeping in the open air for the past half month, they must have gained a lot.

When Hu Di saw the brigade commander, he took out a map from his pocket and spread it on the table.

"Commander, over the past two weeks, the brothers have thoroughly surveyed the area around Xiyang and Pingding. The Japanese troop deployment and equipment are all marked."

"At present, the Japanese army has different strengths in the two counties. Pingding has been completely occupied by the Japanese army. Brigade Commander, the Japanese army is not human, they are beasts!" Hu Di said gritting his teeth.

It turned out that Hu Di had sent four teams to Pingding to scout the Japanese troop composition in that area, but he did not expect to encounter the Japanese army burning, killing and looting near Pingding County.

When the reconnaissance team was in Guyipu, a small detachment of the Japanese army came to the countryside to carry out a sweep, killing many innocent villagers, including women, children and the elderly. Not satisfied yet, the Japanese army advanced towards Xinguan Village, throwing bombs at the innocent villagers of Xinguan Village, destroying their houses and looting every house.

When those small teams saw this situation, their eyes turned red, and they directly cooperated to send this small army to meet their damn emperor.

When the people in the brigade heard such a tragic scene, their eyes turned red and they cursed the Japanese devils.

Zeng Jiwen clenched his fists tightly, and the blue veins on his hands showed his inner uneasiness at the moment.

"We will have to settle this account with the Japanese sooner or later." Zeng Jiwen was silent for a while, feeling that he must teach the Japanese a lesson.

Hu Di then briefed the brigade headquarters and others on the enemy situation nearby. Currently, the Japanese army had approximately one regiment stationed in Pingding, apparently preparing to advance southward to completely occupy Xiyang. Meanwhile, a battalion of Japanese troops had already departed from Jiulong Pass to the east, heading directly towards Xiyang.

After hearing the news, Zeng Jiwen did not dare to delay and immediately reported the intelligence to the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and requested to clarify the relevant situation. If they were really heading towards Xiyang, then Zeng Jiwen had already made up his mind and he would eat up both routes of the Japanese army.