Chapter 179 Preparation before the war
Lijiazhuang…a very ordinary village name.

But something unusual happened in this village.

……

“Let me tell you, it was in this village, in this house, that the regiment commander led us to kill a major general of the Japanese army!
I even killed a Japanese officer, a colonel at that, with my own hands.

He is a regiment commander of the Japanese devils!

This is the highest-ranking Japanese soldier I have ever killed.

It’s a pity that the lieutenant’s sword was taken away by Li Yunlong, the former commander of the New 1st Regiment, otherwise I really want to send the sword back to its hometown.

Let my parents see how many Japanese devils their children have killed.”

On an open space in Lijiazhuang.

A group of Eighth Route Army soldiers are checking their equipment.

From the equipment on these Eighth Route Army soldiers, it is easy to tell that they are not ordinary Eighth Route Army soldiers.

An ordinary soldier of the Eighth Route Army’s main force, even a soldier of the vanguard regiment, would only wear a blue-gray Eighth Route Army uniform and a blue-gray canvas hat or the Japanese devil’s steel helmet.

He wore a canvas bandolier slung across his body that could hold up to sixty bullets.

A grenade carrier made of canvas that can hold four or five wooden-handled grenades is tied around the waist.

Then there are auxiliary equipment such as water bottles and bayonets.

When traveling long distances, you will carry a backpack or something like that.

The main weapon is a rifle, such as the Type 38 rifle, the Jin-made Type 56 rifle, the Zhongzheng rifle, etc.

As for the Hanyang-made or old-casing rifles, they were basically mainly equipped to local troops, militia forces, recruits or some newly formed basic regiments.

But this group of soldiers is different.

Each soldier was wearing a combat uniform that looked somewhat like desert camouflage combat uniforms.

The shoes on his feet were not cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles, but very delicate and durable suede leather shoes.

On his head is a German-made M35 helmet!

In addition to this basic clothing and equipment, each soldier also wears a yellow bulletproof vest of similar color to his clothes!
The ammunition carriers on the soldiers are not canvas belts, but are made of pure cowhide and are tied to the chest.

Each soldier’s ammunition carrier was filled to the brim with six magazines.

The reason why it is a magazine carrier instead of a bullet belt is because the weapons in the hands of these soldiers are not bolt-action rifles like the Zhongzheng rifle.

It was a German-made MP38 submachine gun!
In the entire unit, only a few soldiers carried a Mauser 98k sniper rifle equipped with a scope, or an mg42 light machine gun, while the rest of the soldiers were equipped with MP38 submachine guns!
In addition to the main weapons such as submachine guns, light machine guns, and sniper rifles, all soldiers have a holster tied on their thighs or waists, which contains a Browning High-Power pistol that fires the same bullets as the submachine guns.

The backpack he carried was also a specially made cowhide backpack, which contained some bulk submachine gun bullets, explosives, some tools for repairing guns, and some replacement parts.

Some of the stronger soldiers even had an ammunition belt with a bullet chain tied to the side of their backpacks. These were bullets specially carried by machine gunners.

Several soldiers were carrying a long iron pipe with a funnel-like object at one end.

It can be said that the equipment of this group of soldiers can be described as being armed to the teeth!

It is easy to determine the identities of the Eighth Route Army soldiers from the luxurious equipment they carry and the conversations they have.

These soldiers are none other than the assault platoon trained by Qin Yangming himself!
The vanguard regiment prepared to leave Baihuling to launch an attack on the Japanese 4th Brigade.

However, launching an attack would not allow us to ignore everything and just mobilize the entire vanguard regiment to charge forward.

Baihu Ridge is some distance away from Tongshi Town, and due to the terrain, the Eighth Route Army near Tongshi Town has already withdrawn.

So now the Eighth Route Army is not clear about the situation in Tongshi Town.

Under such circumstances, if the troops want to prepare to launch an attack, they naturally need to send out a vanguard force to conduct reconnaissance and find out the road conditions.

The Vanguard Regiment was established not long ago, so naturally it has not yet formed a reconnaissance company or a special agent company to explore the way.

So this task naturally fell to the assault platoon transferred back from the headquarters.

Lijiazhuang, where the assault platoon is now located, is the outermost defense line of Baihuling. As long as they take Lijiazhuang, they will enter the scope of Shiquan County. After walking another seven or eight kilometers, they will almost be in the scope of Tongshi Town.

Therefore, the assault platoon is making final preparations in Lijiazhuang. After the rear troops are ready to set off, the assault platoon will go ahead to investigate the situation ahead.

Avoid the large force being ambushed by the Japanese halfway.

Not long after the assault platoon arrived at Lijiazhuang, Xu Laoliu remembered that Lijiazhuang was the village where Qin Yangming led them to kill a Japanese major general.

So he brought several soldiers who had just joined the assault platoon to the open space in front of the house which was originally chosen by the Japanese commander of the Kimura Brigade as the headquarters, and began to introduce the decapitation operation against the Kimura Brigade that Qin Yangming had led them to carry out.

Xu Laoliu was holding his sniper rifle wrapped in cloth, pointing it at a house in front of him and telling the new soldiers in the assault platoon the stories that had happened in the village.

Several new recruits who had just joined the assault platoon listened to what Xu Laoliu said and looked at him with envy.

“Captain Xu, do you think the regiment commander will lead us to carry out a decapitation operation against the headquarters of the Japanese Fourth Brigade this time?
The highest ranking Japanese soldier I have killed was a second lieutenant, and I also want to kill a Japanese lieutenant commander.”

A new recruit from the assault platoon listened to what Xu Laoliu said, tightly gripped the MP38 submachine gun in his hand, looked at the house pointed at by Xu Laoliu with a look of longing, and asked.

Xu Laoliu listened to what the new recruit said, shook his head and spoke.

“I’m not sure about this, but I think the leader will not lead us to carry out a decapitation operation this time.”

As to whether Qin Yangming was going to carry out a decapitation operation against the Japanese Fourth Brigade this time and replicate the attack he had launched against the Kimura Brigade, Xu Laoliu naturally had no way of knowing.

However, Xu Laoliu made a certain guess based on his experience of following Qin Yangming on missions many times.

That is, this time Qin Yangming is very likely preparing for a head-on battle with the Japanese Fourth Brigade.

“Although you have all just joined the assault platoon, you are also veterans of the vanguard regiment.

As you have seen on the way here, our vanguard group has emptied out all its resources this time.

The regiment commander most likely wants to have a head-on battle with the Japanese Fourth Brigade.

What’s more, Tongshi Town, where the 4th Brigade is located, is not suitable for carrying out a decapitation operation against the Japanese command due to its terrain.

The terrain of Tongshi Town is flat, and there are basically no shelters. Our assault platoon has no way to get through. It is basically impossible to succeed in a decapitation operation in this kind of terrain…” But Xu Laoliu was also a little unsure, because when the assault platoon set out, Duan Peng was called away alone by Qin Yangming.

Duan Peng is the platoon leader of the assault platoon. Now is the time of war. Calling Duan Peng away alone is definitely not to ask Duan Peng whether he has eaten.

Xu Laoliu speculated that it was very likely that Qin Yangming had some particularly important combat mission to assign to Duan Peng, but this combat mission could not be made public and needed to be kept confidential, so he only called Duan Peng.

I just don’t know whether that combat mission was for the entire assault platoon or Duan Peng alone.

The assault platoon is now staying in Lijiazhuang before setting off. In addition to waiting for the main force to be ready, they are also waiting for Duan Peng to arrive in Lijiazhuang and meet up with the assault platoon.

……

In a small room next to the combat command room of the commander of the 386th Brigade.

The room that was originally used as a reception room was now used by Qin Yangming as the headquarters of the vanguard regiment.

There’s no way, there are only so many rooms on Baihu Ridge.

The underground armory was used by the boss as the headquarters, and the original vanguard regiment headquarters and combat command room was used by the brigade commander as the brigade headquarters and combat command room of the 386th Brigade.

So Qin Yangming could only choose this reception room to temporarily serve as the headquarters of the vanguard group.

After all, there are too many troops in Baihuling now… the direct troops of the 386th Brigade and the reserve troops.

The troops directly under the headquarters…are basically at the regiment level.

Many military regiment headquarters or organizations directly used bunkers or watchtowers as temporary offices.

Even the reception room of the Vanguard Regiment was lent to Qin Yangming by the brigade commander because the Vanguard Regiment would only stay for one night.

Let Qin Yangming have a place to handle the affairs of the vanguard group, and by the way, have a place to rest for a while.

“Lao Zhang, after this battle is over, the reorganization plan of our vanguard group will begin.

At that time, you will need to put more thought into expanding the cavalry company into a cavalry battalion, and transfer some people from the assault platoon to form a reconnaissance company.

There is also a telecommunications platoon responsible for radio and telephone, and a special agent platoon responsible for investigating spies in the base area…”

At this moment in the regiment headquarters, Qin Yangming was drinking tea while supplementing Zhangye with the reorganization plan of the vanguard regiment.

Zhangye listened and wrote at the same time, occasionally offering some suggestions of his own.

Hearing Qin Yangming say that he wanted to form a reconnaissance company and a special agent platoon, Zhangye looked up at Qin Yangming in surprise and asked.

“Captain, what are the main responsibilities of the reconnaissance company?
There is also a special agent platoon? Shouldn’t it be a special agent company?

In addition, should the assault platoon be expanded?
We have expanded from a battalion to a regiment, should the assault platoon be expanded to an assault company?”

Hearing Zhangye’s question, Qin Yangming immediately thought that the various units of the Eighth Route Army did not have a special reconnaissance company that was dedicated to performing reconnaissance missions as in later generations.

Now, when the various units of the Eighth Route Army carry out reconnaissance missions, they often randomly select a unit, or simply select a part of the soldiers from the direct units of each unit to conduct reconnaissance.

There is no reconnaissance company specifically responsible for reconnaissance missions.

The only units that are similar in nature to the reconnaissance company are the special forces companies or platoons of each unit.

However, the main task of the special forces company or platoon of each unit is to check the base to prevent spies or traitors from entering the base to gather intelligence about the base.

At the same time, he was responsible for sending people to gather intelligence on the Japanese or traitors, contacting those puppet troops who were willing to provide intelligence to the Eighth Route Army, or performing some protection tasks, mainly providing intelligence support and counter-espionage for the troops.

When he was still the battalion commander, Qin Yangming naturally didn’t need to worry about these things. When the vanguard battalion was dispatched, the assault platoon could take on the reconnaissance mission.

Then each other unit has its own methods, and the presence or absence of a dedicated reconnaissance company has little impact on the various units of the Eighth Route Army.

Because the Japanese also did not have a dedicated reconnaissance force.

What’s more, the training methods of specialized reconnaissance troops are very different from those of ordinary troops.

Many units of the Eighth Route Army are now wealthy, but not yet wealthy enough to develop several training methods.

After all, not everyone has a system like Qin Yangming, or is as good at making extra money as Li Yunlong and Ding Wei.

Most of them are similar to Kong Jie. Unless it is necessary, they will not mobilize troops without orders from their superiors.

Thinking of this, Qin Yangming began to explain to Zhangye what the reconnaissance company was.

“Lao Zhang, it’s like this. Later on, our Vanguard Group will have a base that is entirely under the jurisdiction of our Vanguard Group.

If there is a combat mission at that time, there will definitely not be support from other troops like before.

We can only rely on ourselves.

However, every time the troops go into battle, they need to send out a troop to act as the vanguard to see if there are any ambushes ahead.

So I wanted to form a special force, and then provide corresponding training, and use this force as the vanguard.

Because the main task of the vanguard troops is to conduct reconnaissance of the terrain and whether the enemy has ambushes, I named this unit the Reconnaissance Company.

As for the special forces platoon, it’s because of manpower issues… We don’t have enough relevant personnel, so we can only form a special forces platoon first.

When your classmates come over, if there are talents in this area, we can expand it into a special forces company.

As for the assault platoon… the organization of the assault platoon needs to be changed. I plan to change the original assault platoon into a regiment-affiliated unit, the special operations team!

The special operations team, as the name suggests, is a force that specializes in carrying out special combat operations, such as decapitation operations… The number of special operations team members is set at 48, and I will lead them personally.

Then those soldiers who did not meet the standards of special forces but were stronger than ordinary soldiers were incorporated into the assault company.

The assault company is like the sharp knife of our vanguard regiment, responsible for breaking through the enemy’s defenses and rushing to the front to boost the morale of the other soldiers in hand-to-hand combat…”

“Captain, in this case, our Vanguard Regiment may have too many direct-affiliated troops… Special Agents Platoon… Special Operations Team… Assault…”

“Assault platoon leader Duan Peng is here to report!”

Just as Zhangye was speaking, a loud voice sounded at the entrance of the regiment.

(End of this chapter)