Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

According to the previous method, a part of the troops were drawn from various local regiments, and a part of the main force was drawn from them. They were trained for four or five months. At the same time, the troops were trained by ambushing puppet troops and Japanese strongholds in the surrounding areas. Basically, combat effectiveness could be formed before the Japanese army launched a large-scale sweep of the base.

According to Zeng Jiwen's previous weapons planning for each main regiment, a standard combat regiment was slightly modified after adjustment. It was configured according to a three-three system of 12 people per squad, with light machine guns equipped in the squad. A battalion had three infantry companies and one machine gun company. The machine gun company had three heavy machine gun platoons equipped with six heavy machine guns and two mortars, plus a guard company with six 60mm mortars, etc. The total number of people should reach more than 1800.

The regiment had a total of 810 guns, including 90 light machine guns, 18 heavy machine guns, 180 pistols, 28 grenade launchers, and four grenades per person. This firepower, both light and heavy, was comparable to that of a Japanese regiment, but it was inferior to the Japanese in terms of artillery, with a significant shortage of both grenade launchers and mountain artillery.

However, compared with the Chinese army of the same period, only the German-equipped infantry regiment can surpass it in heavy firepower configuration. For the current 389th Brigade, this is sufficient to carry out routine combat missions.

If a large-scale battle is needed to encircle and annihilate the Japanese heavy troops, it will be completely sufficient to mobilize several regiments directly under the brigade headquarters and cooperate with the main regiments in combination with the current artillery.

Before this operation, according to the original plan, the direct regiment had a total of 2300-2500 people, more than 1800 guns, 153 light machine guns, 18 heavy machine guns, 402 pistols, 136 grenade launchers, and a direct artillery company. If an artillery company was brought with it during a field battle, it would be completely capable of suppressing or even destroying a Japanese regiment.

However, for Zeng Jiwen, the captured rifles and grenade launchers are currently completely sufficient, but the light and heavy machine guns are particularly troublesome. In the past two months, the various direct regiments had barely fully staffed the entire regiment through small-scale ambushes and some battles in the surrounding areas.

However, the new regiments formed later have only been half-staffed so far to make up for the shortfalls in other regiments. Light machine guns are barely enough for one and a half regiments, heavy machine guns are only enough for two regiments, and 60mm mortars are enough for three regiments at a configuration of six guns per regiment. This is a huge gap from the quota of six regiments.

Finally, everyone discussed and decided to set up the framework of these six regiments first, and start to draw new personnel from the main regiments and local regiments. Each regiment was equipped with about 30 light machine guns and 12 heavy machine guns. The remaining grenade launchers were just enough for each regiment to distribute, and three mortars were also equipped.

This configuration was far superior to other detachments. Some regiments lacked even guns, let alone heavy or light firepower. The rest would be left to the regiments to figure out within the next three or four months. After all, the brigade couldn't handle everything.

At the same time, the number of artillery pieces captured this time is relatively large. Excluding the more than 40 pieces that were surrendered and used to support other brother units, the entire brigade’s current artillery pieces can be fully organized into a regimental level.

Therefore, after discussion among everyone, it was decided to split the artillery battalion. The Type 92 infantry guns captured this time and the 16 infantry guns before were formed into an artillery regiment, numbered 180 Regiment. The 21 75mm mountain guns were formed into an artillery regiment, numbered 181 Regiment. The remaining 8 Type 41 mountain guns, four 90mm artillery guns, and six 150mm heavy mortars were formed into an artillery regiment, temporarily numbered 182 Regiment, and would be split up again when new ones were available in the future.

Although it does not meet the standard of 36 artillery pieces for a fully staffed artillery regiment, there are not so many artillery pieces on the current battlefield for Zeng Jiwen to form three fully staffed artillery regiments. Currently, he can only expand the regiment to train artillery.