The Flames of Resistance Against Japan in Jiangnan

This time, the two deputy military commanders of each battalion were concurrently appointed as the chief military commanders of the two newly formed companies within their battalions, and the two deputy political commanders of each battalion were concurrently appointed as the chief political commanders of the two newly formed companies within their battalions. The same applied to other companies and platoons. While this couldn't guarantee absolute strength of the core force, there were readily available military and political commanders, and these individuals had at least five months of experience leading troops, so they wouldn't be too unfamiliar with leading these new recruits. Furthermore, these newly appointed grassroots leaders were themselves excellent, so there was no need to worry too much about their quality. Thinking this, I felt a sense of relief. Then I realized that in the future, these grassroots leadership positions should be configured with one chief and two deputy chiefs, including both military and political commanders; otherwise, further expansion would be necessary to avoid a shortage of core personnel. After a moment's thought, I felt it was necessary to establish a training battalion and accelerate the training of core personnel. Therefore, I temporarily revised the expansion plan. Having made up his mind, and seeing that everyone was seated again, he calmly announced his plan:

First, a new battalion will be added, which will be the training battalion. The deputy regimental commander in charge of military affairs, Bianjing, will also serve as the chief military officer of the training battalion; the director of the regimental political department will also serve as the chief political officer of the training battalion; the new deputy chief officers of the training battalion will be selected and promoted from the various companies under the regiment by the two chief officers of the training battalion.

Second, those battalions that suffered combat losses will be replenished, and the total number of personnel will also be restored to 350. There is no limit to the number of personnel in the training battalions; the actual number of recruits will be used.

Third, each regiment, including the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Special Operations, and Special Service Battalions, will have two additional companies, with each company having a strength of 100 personnel.

Fourth, among the prisoners, those who could operate heavy machine guns, as well as former light machine gunners and artillerymen, were all reassigned. Except for a portion assigned to each battalion, the rest were all concentrated in the regimental headquarters' directly subordinate fire support company.

Fifth, among the prisoners of war, those with expertise in engineering and cooking will be transferred to the engineering company and cooking squad, respectively. Those with good marksmanship will be transferred to the sniper company, which will be expanded with two new platoons, totaling 160 men.

6. Of the supply soldiers captured by the 47th and 53rd Regiments, except for a portion who were incorporated into the current independent regiment's directly subordinate supply company, the rest were all incorporated into active-duty combat battalions.

7. Personnel arrangements for all units must be completed by tomorrow morning at the latest. Each unit will hold a meeting and training session this afternoon. Military training will begin immediately the day after tomorrow. The main content of the training includes four aspects:

1. That is, ideological and political aspects;

2. Military posture;

3. Armored off-road capabilities;

4. Military technology and shooting.

All units should pay attention to identifying promising talents during this approximately two-month training period, so as to provide grassroots strength reserves for future force development.

8. All firearms will not be issued for the time being; they will be distributed uniformly after a month of training.

For every rule Xue Geming announced, the battalion-level officers would remember it. In fact, several battalion-level officers were originally illiterate, but Xue Geming's demands were so strict that they had to find time to learn. To this end, Xue Geming even hired two private tutors to teach everyone to read. Some of the literate officers from the original units were also taken in by Xue Geming like treasures and used as staff officers.

As for Xue Geming himself, he also read frequently. He brought all the books he had acquired from the landlord's house. He recognized some classical Chinese and traditional characters, making reading less tiring, but even so, his reading speed wasn't very fluent, so he intensified his studies. This trend of reading spread throughout the army.

Seeing that everyone had remembered, Xue Geming waved his hand, signaling everyone to adjourn the meeting and immediately attend to their duties. The matter was urgent, and without further ado, the battalion commanders took immediate action.

After everyone left, He Changgong discussed things with Xue Geming for a while, and then hurriedly left to go to the grassroots level to carry out his work.

Xue Geming didn't stop there; he sat down to carefully consider the next steps. According to his understanding and estimation, this time they had wiped out almost two entire enemy regiments, and those two regiments might have to be disbanded. Therefore, in a sense, this should have dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. That is to say, for a certain period—according to Xue Geming's estimation—the enemy wouldn't harass them, and the enemy would need time to adjust their military deployment.

But if it takes any longer, things might change. Therefore, I must seize this period to intensify training and consolidate control over the surrounding area.

Just now, during his discussion with Political Commissar He Changgong, at least three points were clarified:

First, He Changgong immediately activated the intelligence system to gather intelligence. As for the radios seized from the 47th and 53rd Regiments, they were immediately distributed to the radio platoon of the communications company, which was under the direct command of the regimental headquarters. Fortunately, although one of the enemy's two operators was stubborn, the other was willing to help the Red Army. Xue Geming decided to personally visit him later and appoint him as the deputy squad leader of the radio operator squad, responsible for training a group of people for the Red Army.

As for this group, given the current situation, it seems we can only select a batch from among the literate staff officers. Although Xue Geming isn't an expert in telegraph machines, he at least learned about radio technology in the division's special operations brigade. While not highly skilled, it's still a sufficient new technology for the moment, and it's not something that can be mastered in a day or two. Therefore, we need to strengthen the training of the telephone operators. Even if the training isn't guaranteed to be successful, at least some training is much better than no professional training at all. Those who can read at least a little will certainly have a much higher starting point than those who are completely illiterate!

Secondly, Xue Geming personally devised a plan to secretly purge several nearby counties, striving to bring them all under the Red Army's banner and establish a unified base area. The White Army had been wreaking havoc with its white terror; now it was up to the main force of the Red Army to destroy some of it. This also served as a valuable opportunity to train his troops.

Thirdly, it is crucial to expedite logistical supply and reserves. Sufficient quantities of weapons, equipment, clothing, and food must be guaranteed. Therefore, given the limited financial resources of Jinzhai County, it is necessary to expand outwards.

After drafting the initial plan, Xue Geming instructed Chief of Staff Wang Hanying to immediately organize the staff to develop a detailed operational plan, while he himself went to find the telegraph operator.

The telegraph operator was from Zongyang County, and his name was Qu Zhengpeng. Xue Geming had dinner with him and learned more about his situation. He immediately appointed him as the head of the third telephone operator shift. After a conversation, he thought the man was quite good; he was even a college student and had a lot of enthusiasm. He hadn't been with the army for very long.