Chapter 243: Half the Artillery Battalion’s Appearance Fee
"Ask me to be the referee?"
In an ordinary small mountain village in Taihang Mountains, the brigade commander listened to what Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming said and found it a little unbelievable.
"Hey, you guys, especially you, Li Yunlong, used to be like mice seeing a cat and wanted to run away ten miles away when you saw me.
Now they are actively inviting me to be a referee?"
"Tell me, why do you want me to be your referee?"
After the brigade commander finished speaking, he took out a cigarette and gave one to each of them. He hit Li Yunlong's hand hard when he was about to put the whole box of cigarettes into his pocket, then he held the cigarette between his legs and looked at the two of them with a smile.
Listening to the brigade commander's question, Li Yunlong gave Qin Yangming a look.
"Xiao Qin, you have a good relationship with the brigade commander, you say."
"That's right, Brigade Commander. This is the last time the Japanese Yamamoto Special Forces carried out a decapitation operation against us.
I was thinking about whether I could let the assault platoon give it a try and see if they could do the same as Yamamoto's special forces and conduct a decapitation operation.
So I plan to conduct an exercise with the Independent Regiment, the New 1st Regiment, and the New 2nd Regiment.
As for the two sides of the exercise, the independent regiment was responsible for defense, while our assault platoon was responsible for carrying out decapitation operations against the headquarters of the three regiments.
If the assault platoon is completely wiped out, the Third Independent Regiment wins; if the command post is destroyed, the assault platoon wins. "
Listening to what Qin Yangming said, the brigade commander understood what Qin Yangming meant.
This was not an exercise at all. It was clearly an attempt to use Fu'an County to practice and prepare for entering Taiyuan to carry out a decapitation operation.
"Okay, no problem. How are you going to let me be the referee?"
Although he guessed Qin Yangming's idea, the brigade commander was really interested in the special operations proposed by Qin Yangming. He had never really seen what Qin Yangming's special operations meant.
Now that he had the chance to see it for himself, he naturally wouldn't refuse.
"Brigade Commander, we have made up our mind. You will be the chief referee, and everyone in the brigade's guard battalion will act as referees and be responsible for record keeping.
After all, we are just conducting an exercise, not actual combat, so we can't really shoot or anything like that.
So sometimes we need referees to help confirm the combat situation, whether there are casualties, and make the exercise as close to actual combat as possible."
"Well, no problem from my side. When does your exercise start?"
"Commander, if it's convenient for you, we can start tomorrow. You can go there and make preparations today."
"Commander, during the exercise, the outer defense work will be in the charge of the Vanguard Regiment. The Vanguard Regiment will be on high alert for the next two days, so I hope you can notify the brother troops not to come to our defense zone for the next two days."
Listening to Qin Yangming's words, the brigade commander nodded and continued.
"Okay, no problem. I can help you solve all these problems. But I'll be frank with you. My appearance fee is quite expensive. How much are you prepared to pay?"
It would have been fine if money wasn't mentioned, but as soon as money was mentioned, Li Yunlong instantly became angry.
"No, Brigade Commander, you still want us to pay for this? After the guard battalion goes there, all the food and necessities are ours... Brigade Commander, our four regiments will be expanded soon, and our three main regiments will have to support the new second regiment and help it quickly improve its combat effectiveness.
We don't have any extra guns now!
Besides, we handed over most of the spoils from the last time we wiped out the 4th Brigade of the Japanese. Commander, you can't do this."
As soon as Li Yunlong mentioned the Japanese Fourth Brigade, the brigade commander's face immediately became gloomy.
"Li Yunlong, you are so good, it would be better if you didn't mention this, but now that you have mentioned it, I will give you a good talk!
The Japanese Fourth Brigade has nearly 10,000 troops, and your four regiments only captured 300 prisoners?
I can understand that it is difficult for the New Second Regiment to capture prisoners. Your three regiments are quite capable, with one hundred prisoners captured per regiment.
Pretty good.
Before the war started, I warned you repeatedly to be careful, to be careful. After all, it was a big war, and we had to publicize our victory. And yet, you guys just captured 300 prisoners?
What? You want me to write in the report that the Japanese had a strong will to fight and would rather die than surrender, so we couldn't capture any prisoners? !
Do you believe this?
People who don't know might think that we have falsely reported our military achievements. With nearly 10,000 people, I won't even mention several thousand prisoners of war, but it should be no problem to capture a thousand or so.
It's impossible that all the nearly 10,000 people in the Japanese Fourth Brigade are combat personnel, right?
It can be said that all the combatants were killed, but what about the logistics personnel?
Why, those little devils with shovels were too threatening, so we had no choice but to kill them?"
"How did you know that? That's exactly what happened. We all wanted to capture prisoners, but the Japs kept rushing forward like crazy. We couldn't stop them at all!"
"Okay, okay, don't talk about those useless things. I don't care about them. This time, you captains have to thank the 771st and 772nd Regiments.
Their two regiments chased the Japanese and fought fiercely, capturing more than 600 prisoners and killing over a thousand enemies!
With the more than 600 prisoners of war on their side, plus those on your side, there are at least more than 1,000 of them. Otherwise, I don’t know how to write my battle report.
In order to clean up your mess, all the equipment of the 4th Brigade was sacrificed. The division commander took a batch, the general took a batch, and only a little was left in my hands.
I am also going to set up the Taihang Military Sub-district as a subordinate military district of the Shangdang Military District. Would you like to express your opinions?"
The brigade commander knew more about the financial situation of the three main regiments of Li Yunlong, Qin Yangming and Ding Wei than any of the three regiment commanders.
Especially the vanguard regiment. When the Japanese were strong in the past, they even set up some mule and horse teams to cover up.
Now, taking advantage of the night, more than 20 large trucks and dozens of trucks carrying supplies were pulled out of Baihu Ridge using large trucks.
The brigade commander was shocked when he saw the long convoy. He wondered why he had to stay in the brigade headquarters all the time and why he didn't go around Baihuling and find the vanguard regiment's supply warehouse.
However, considering that the boss was at Baihu Ridge, in order not to alarm the boss, resulting in the materials that were originally supposed to be divided between the two parties being divided among three parties, the brigade commander had to quickly ask the brigade guard battalion to help cover up the traces.
Otherwise, the vanguard regiment’s supplies would have been intercepted by the brigade commander long ago.
Now the Taihang Military Sub-Region has been established, but the division commander did not allocate a lot of supplies to the Taihang Military Sub-Region, so the brigade commander set his sights on Qin Yangming and others.
These three main groups are each fatter than the other.
Instead of letting them pile up the supplies in the warehouse to rot, it is better to let them take out the supplies and hand them in first, replenish the warehouses on the military district side, and set up several columns of the military district first.
Originally, the brigade commander was still thinking about whether he should trick Li Yunlong when the time comes to do so, to see if he could find a suitable excuse to get the supplies out.
After all, Qin Yangming is a good boy. As long as he asks, Xiao Qin will send the supplies up, but Li Yunlong is simply a miser.
Before I could even think about it, Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming had already given me an excuse.
When Li Yunlong heard the brigade commander talking about the Taihang Military Region, his eyes immediately lit up.
"Brigade Commander, um, when will the credit for the last annihilation of the Japanese Fourth Brigade be given?"
Li Yunlong had not forgotten what Ding Wei said, that he would most likely become the commander of a column under the sub-military region. Hearing Li Yunlong asking when the credit for the complete annihilation of the Japanese Fourth Brigade would be given, the brigade commander instantly understood Li Yunlong's thoughts and rolled his eyes at him.
"I see you don't want to know when the credit for annihilating the Japanese Fourth Brigade will come out, but when the appointment notice of your column commander will come out, right?"
"Hey, the brigade commander is wise!"
"We are still discussing it. The Taihang Military Region has three columns, two independent brigades, and one directly affiliated regiment... Xiao Qin, do you want to reorganize the Vanguard Regiment into a directly affiliated guard regiment of the military region?"
"Brigade Commander, I still prefer to be on the front line..."
“Okay, I’m just teasing you. Placing such a powerful force of the Vanguard Regiment in the rear would be an insult to the Vanguard Regiment.
I won't do such a stupid thing, Xiao Qin, please lend me your artillery battalion for a while.
I built the artillery regiment directly under the military region."
The brigade commander naturally would not reorganize the vanguard regiment into a guard regiment directly under the military region, as that would be a sheer waste of the vanguard regiment's combat effectiveness.
The brigade commander's goal was to see if he could temporarily lend the vanguard regiment's artillery battalion to the military district so that he could set up the military district's artillery regiment.
The artillery battalion of the vanguard regiment is something that everyone would covet. Although it is an artillery battalion, it can be used as an artillery regiment.
Anyway, the Vanguard Regiment doesn't use cannons much during this period, so there's no problem in borrowing them temporarily.
We can return it after the artillery regiment is formed in the military district.
Hearing the brigade commander asking him to borrow the artillery battalion, Qin Yangming asked with some concern.
"Brigade Commander, can I not lend it to you?"
"What do you think?"
"How about half of that?"
"Half, give it to me?"
"Commander, look at what you said, when have you ever returned something that has come into your hands?
I remember that you took someone to see the boss, and while someone else was reporting on their work, you took advantage of the opportunity to knock down all the dog-head dates in the boss's yard."
"Hahaha... your brigade commander was trying to make excuses at that time and put the blame on Xiao Qin, saying that Xiao Qin wanted to eat, but Xiao Qin was not there."
The political commissar, who was drinking water, listened to what Li Yunlong said and laughed so hard that the water in his mouth sprayed out.
"Li Yunlong, if you don't speak, no one will think you are dumb."
"Brigade Commander, as for the artillery battalion, we will need it here after a while. If you need it, it may take some time."
Qin Yangming thought about taking action against Ping'an County in a while, so he temporarily declined the brigade commander's idea of borrowing the artillery battalion.
Listening to Qin Yangming's words, the brigade commander looked at Li Yunlong and said.
"No problem. There's no rush for the artillery camp. You guys, please don't cause any trouble for me. The two county towns are enough for your four regiments to not starve. You are absolutely not allowed to do anything out of line."
"The 772nd and 771st Regiments are still in Shiquan County and haven't come yet. Strictly speaking, our Taihang Military Region only has four of your regiments now. You four regiments are the foundation of our Taihang Military Region now. Don't give up all of them!"
The brigade commander naturally understood what Qin Yangming meant. It was simply that they were preparing to take action against Ping'an County.
If Li Yunlong was not there, Qin Yangming, Ding Wei and Kong Jie might not have any ideas about Ping'an County.
But if Li Yunlong were there, the four regiments would instantly turn into four hungry wolves!
And Li Yunlong is the leader of these four wolves!
There is such a big piece of fat meat in front of Li Yunlong, Ping'an County. If Li Yunlong doesn't touch it, then he is not Li Yunlong!
Therefore, the brigade commander had already guessed that Li Yunlong and others wanted to attack Ping'an County when he mobilized four regiments.
"Brigade Commander, don't worry. I promise I won't cause any big trouble. Don't you know who I am, Li Yunlong?"
"It's because I know who you are, Li Yunlong, that I'm worried!
The Japanese's 11th Brigade is at Shuiquan, and they are absolutely not allowed to mess around!
In the past month, we have been focusing on stability and absolutely no risk-taking is allowed!"
"Yes!"
"Political Commissar, I'll leave the military district's affairs to you. I'll take some people over to referee them."
"Well, don't worry, leave it to me.
The appearance fee of half an artillery battalion, Brigade Commander, your appearance fee is quite expensive."
"What are you talking about? I didn't ask for the price. This was given to me by Xiao Qin. If you don't believe me, ask Xiao Qin."
……
After dealing with the brigade commander, Qin Yangming and Li Yunlong returned to their respective troops.
"Put your mind on the spot! If Xiao Qin's assault platoon takes down our three regiment headquarters, we will be totally disgraced!"
After returning to Fu'an County, Li Yunlong immediately called Ding Wei and Kong Jie and began to discuss the defense plan.
If the regiment headquarters was suddenly attacked and destroyed when we were unprepared, we can still use the excuse that we were unprepared.
But now Qin Yangming has made it clear that he wants to conduct a decapitation operation drill and has given their three regiments time to prepare. If, at this level, the headquarters of their three regiments are taken down by Qin Yangming and his assault platoon, that would be a lot of fun.
"Old Li, should we disperse? If so, even if Xiao Qin leads the assault platoon into Fu'an County, they won't be able to defeat all three of us in the first place.
We each disperse. In this way, if Xiao Qin kills one of them, the other two can still organize troops for defense, and Xiao Qin's decapitation operation will still fail."
Kong Jie put forward his own suggestions.
Listening to Kong Jie's suggestion, Li Yunlong nodded.
"This method is fine, Lao Kong, this is your regiment headquarters. Lao Ding and I will each find a place to stay. In this way, Xiao Qin will have to waste a lot of time even if he finds us, let alone a decapitation operation."
"Okay, I suggest that we temporarily close the city gates for the next two days and not let anyone in or out. If Xiao Qin wants to enter the city, he will have to climb the city wall.
Although Fu'an County is very large, we have a lot of people. If we mobilize all the troops to the county, we will definitely be able to stop Xiao Qin outside the county."
"Enter the city? Isn't that too unfair? Normally, we can't abandon all outer defenses and mobilize all troops into the county town."
(End of this chapter)
