Chapter 81 Tempting Plan (Subscription Request)
Qin Yangming took out the intelligence, and after the brigade commander took a look at it, he took a few people directly to the brigade headquarters operations room.
After reading Qin Yangming's intelligence and topographic map, the brigade commander walked to a map hanging on the wall in the operations room, looking at it and thinking.
"Your target is this horse farm, right?"
The brigade commander pointed to a mark on the map and spoke to Li Yunlong.
Li Yunlong took a look and nodded in confirmation: "Yes, Brigade Commander, our target is this Junggar Horse Farm."
"Brigade Commander, are you also planning to take over this horse farm?"
Li Yunlong looked at the circle drawn on the brigade’s map at the location of the horse farm. He felt a little curious, but at the same time, he felt vaguely worried.
The brigade commander shook his head and said, "It's not me who wants to take over this horse farm, it's the 115th Division."
Li Yunlong became anxious when he heard what the brigade commander said.
"Brigade Commander, then this horse ranch has nothing to do with us, right?"
Qin Yangming was also a little anxious. He had finally found such a horse farm. If it was taken by the 115th Division, it would take an unknown amount of time for his cavalry company to be formed.
If he had a complete cavalry company at Baihu Ridge, not only would he have been able to defeat the Ono Regiment, he would have even been able to annihilate the entire Ono Regiment.
After listening to Li Yunlong's words and looking at the expressions of the two men, the brigade commander shook his head and pointed at the map with a stick and analyzed it to Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming.
"That's not the case. The 115th Division is indeed eyeing this horse farm, but they can only mobilize two regiments from the Pianguan base, which is not enough.
Our only troops here are the 120th Division and our 120th Brigade. The th Division has to protect the northwestern Shanxi base and cannot be transferred at will.
So the 115th Division wanted our th Brigade to help block the attack."
"Brigade Commander, why does the 115th Division want to take over this horse farm?
They don't need horses as much as we do, right?"
The brigade commander shook his head and explained, "They have no shortage of poor horses, but they lack war horses."
"After the Japanese North China Front Commander Tada Shun implemented the Three Alls Policy and the Cage Policy last year, the pressure on the 115th Division became very great."
"The Japanese used artillery towers and strongholds as locks and roads and railways as chains, hoping to completely lock down our base."
"Because the 115th Division's bases are mostly in plains, once they attack a certain artillery tower, the Japanese can quickly support the attack area with cavalry, bicycles, cars, and railways.
The fastest one only takes fifteen minutes.”
"And the 115th Division doesn't have enough heavy firepower. It usually takes two hours to capture a stronghold or artillery tower, even if they have an advantage in manpower."
"Moreover, the Japanese cavalry constantly launched attacks on various bases. Because they were fast, we could neither catch up with them nor had any good way to stop them."
"So the 115th Division wanted to form cavalry to fight against the Japanese cavalry."
Qin Yangming listened to what the brigade commander said, thought for a while and said, "Brigade commander, how many cavalrymen will the 115th Division form?"
"They are planning to form a wing cavalry regiment, and the battle plan has been submitted to the headquarters."
"Brigade Commander, does the 115th Division have any specific information about the Junggar Horse Farm?"
Qin Yangming thought that since the 115th Division also wanted to take over Junggar Horse Farm, they must have more detailed intelligence.
Sun Desheng and his team just went to look for a horse farm and drew a specific route map, but they did not have any detailed information about the horse farm.
The brigade commander took out a piece of intelligence from the table and handed it to Qin Yangming and Li Yunlong.
"The 115th Division has some specific information. There are horses at the Junggar Horse Farm, of which have been bred and can be used directly as war horses, and more than adult horses that have not yet been tamed."
"According to intelligence, a cavalry regiment of the puppet Mongolian army is responsible for the protection and training of the Junggar Horse Farm."
After reading the intelligence, Li Yunlong spoke to the brigade commander.
"Commander, since there are so many horses at the Junggar Horse Farm, plus the horses of the puppet Mongolian cavalry, the 115th Division just wants to form a cavalry regiment, and at most horses are enough. What about the remaining horses?" The commander listened to what Li Yunlong said and glanced at him. "Not only you, but I want the remaining horses too."
"But it's not that easy to bring those horses back, so we discussed at the beginning that we should just let the 115th Division take all the horses away, and then bring them back from the Yizhong Military Region after we return to Jindong."
"Brigade Commander, in that case, will our independent regiment still have a share of those horses?"
"what are you thinking?
It's not just the independent regiment that's short of horses.
Which regiment in each army now does not want to form a cavalry to improve the mobility of the troops?
It’s not even certain whether our 386th Brigade can be assigned a cavalry battalion.”
Qin Yangming looked at the route marked on the map and said, "Brigade Commander, you mean that since it is difficult to bring those horses from the horse farm to the 115th Brigade, we have to let the th Division take all the horses away."
"If we can bring the horses back, then will our independent regiment have a share of these horses?"
The brigade commander nodded and said, "That's right. If you can bring back a batch of horses, then the horses will belong to our 386th Brigade, and I will be the one to divide them up when the time comes."
"I have seen your plan. The best way is to capture Qinghe County and bring the war horses back from Qinghe County."
"And if we take Qinghe County, the Northwest Shanxi base will be able to connect with the Pianguan base, and the food support from Hebei will not have to go through the Taihang Mountains and Taiyue Mountains to reach Northwest Shanxi, which can save a lot of food."
"If we take Qinghe County, then Pianhe will become a natural barrier for the base area in northwestern Shanxi."
"Relying on the terrain of Qinghe County and its natural defenses, it will be easier to defend northwest Shanxi.
If the situation changes in the future, we can send troops south to attack Xinzhou and oppress Taiyuan.
Or he could go north to capture Shuozhou and then threaten Datong.
By then, half of Shanxi will become the strategic area of our Eighth Route Army, and northwest Shanxi will become the rear area of our Eighth Route Army..."
The brigade commander pointed at the map and analyzed to Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming the various benefits of taking over Qinghe County and the various future development scenarios.
According to the description of the brigade commander, if the Eighth Route Army captured Qinghe County, a gateway city into Mongolia, then they might be able to move north into Mongolia.
Seize the Mongolian area south of the Yellow River, breed war horses for the Eighth Route Army, raise cattle and sheep, provide meat, and thus enhance the overall combat effectiveness of the troops.
The brigade commander became excited and took out a bamboo stick and pointed at the map.
"I have talked with the boss and our commander before. If we can gain control of the Mongolian area south of the Yellow River, we will not only have the natural barrier of the Yellow River and the Yinshan Mountains.
And there is an even greater benefit. If our Eighth Route Army develops quickly and accumulates enough strength, we can then form a large-scale cavalry unit, cross the Yin Mountains, break through the Great Wall, and attack the Northeast directly!"
"Think about it, this is the Northeast. The Northeast is so rich. I don't need to say more about this, right?"
"And with the Northeast, the supplies that Big Brother needs to support us won't need to go through XJ. They can be sent directly to the Northeast via the Siberian Railway. By then, with Big Brother's help in the north, most of our forces will only need to focus on the south."
"As long as the situation changes, the Eighth Route Army, with its accumulated strength in the Northeast, can march southward, drive the Japanese out of China, and liberate the country."
After the brigade commander told Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming about the plan he had discussed with the general and the division commander in his spare time, he shook his head helplessly.
"But our Eighth Route Army does not have that strength yet. With the forces we can mobilize now, even taking Qinghe County is not easy."
After the brigade commander finished speaking, he took a sip of water and then quietly looked at Li Yunlong and Qin Yangming who were thinking.
Li Yunlong was thinking about how much force would be needed to capture Qinghe County based on the intelligence about Qinghe County given to him by the brigade commander.
Qin Yangming was thinking about the plan mentioned by the brigade commander.
It has to be said that the plan proposed by the brigade commander is extremely difficult to implement, but if the plan is successful, the benefits it brings are really tempting.
If the Eighth Route Army really took over the Northeast, it would take less than a year for the Eighth Route Army to raise an army of one million with the various resources of the Northeast.
By then, when a million Eighth Route Army troops enter the pass, the war may be able to end faster, and the time it takes for China to return to its peak will be greatly shortened.
(End of this chapter)
