When Kong Jie and Ding Wei heard this, their eyes lit up.
"Make a fortune?" Kong Jie said, "Old Li, does the sun rise in the west today?"
Ding Wei also said: "Lao Kong and I came to you before, but you only gave us soup. Why are you taking us to make a fortune today?"
Li Yunlong said: "You two, don't be too happy too early. Including making you rich and giving you two 75mm cannons, labor and management give you such a heavy gift, but there are conditions."
"I knew that this guy was so kind-hearted all of a sudden, so he must have been holding his shit in!" Kong Jie looked at Ding Wei and said.
"Then it depends on what conditions you propose. As long as they are not too excessive, I, Old Ding, can try to satisfy them." Ding Wei said in a deep voice.
With a smile, Li Yunlong said: "It's not too much at all. Our Lao Li's condition is that when our three regiments have the opportunity to fight together in the future, your new second regiment and the independent regiment must accept the full command of our Lao Li."
"You want us to accept your command? Why?" Kong Jie's eyes widened, "Just because your head looks like a chamber pot?"
"That's right!" Ding Wei also said, "You still want to command us two, thinking that you are a brigade commander? If you want to stop being a brigade commander and recruit troops yourself, it won't be difficult to get thousands of guns from your aid channels, right?
?What’s the point of commanding us?”
Li Yunlong hummed: "To tell you the truth, labor and management will open up recruitment, and our new regiment will already have more than 5,000 troops."
"I have food, wages and weapons. I just need to raise my arms and the people who want to join our new regiment can line up from here to Taiyuan."
"Do you know why I don't recruit troops?"
"Why?" Kong Jie asked. He knew that Li Yunlong's words were true. Li Yunlong's reputation was really great now.
Ding Wei also had curiosity on his face. If he has food and guns and doesn't expand, wouldn't he be a fool?
Li Yunlong said: "Do you still remember that last year and the year before last, our Eighth Route Army expanded too much and the veterans were diluted too much? Some basic regiments only had one company of veterans, and the strength of the troops increased more than ten times, and the ammunition and food were all gone."
Insufficient, the combat effectiveness of the troops has plummeted. Some basic regiments only have two to three hundred guns, and each gun has less than 5 rounds of ammunition. It is difficult to even pull out a turret."
"That's why you don't recruit your own troops, but keep asking the brigade commander for new recruits for the militia and training regiment?" Ding Wei asked.
"Yes, blindly expanding the number of people is not a good thing. Improving the combat effectiveness of the troops is the key." Li Yunlong said.
"It makes sense." Kong Jie also nodded.
Weapons and equipment are important to win the war, but strategies and tactics, commanders' tactical command, and soldiers' combat literacy cannot be ignored.
"That's too far away." Li Yunlong asked, "How about you two, will you accept our Lao Li's command?"
"If you don't accept it, you, Lao Li, are not qualified to command us two," Kong Jie said.
"I'm not qualified?" Li Yunlong glared, "When you, Lao Kong, were still a new recruit in the army, our Lao Li was already a veteran who had been in the army for ten months. When you, Lao Ding, were using old sleeves, what did I use?
It's a speed machine, not to mention Blind Cheng. I was the one who taught him how to fire a gun back then."
"Yes, you, Lao Li, have the qualifications, but you are not the brigade commander." Ding Wei said, "If you were the brigade commander, we would have nothing to say and we would definitely obey your command. Who makes you not the brigade commander?"
"That's right, this is a matter of principle. Old Ding and I will never compromise." Kong Jie also said, "You, Old Li, want to command us two, but there is no way."
"I said Lao Ding and Lao Kong, you misunderstood, we Lao Li didn't mean that." Li Yunlong said hurriedly.
"Then what do you mean?" Kong Jie asked.
"I just wanted to get rid of the brigade commander's addiction. How about this, just once?" Li Yunlong said.
"Not even once!" Ding Weidao said, "This is a matter of principle."
"That's right!" Kong Jie also added, "What's the point of thinking that the brigade commander wants to expand his own troops and command the two of us?"
"You still can't meet these requirements and conditions? There is no free lunch in this world. If you can't meet my conditions, I won't take you to play with me. Damn it! You still want to get rich? Just follow your mother's spring and autumn dream," Li Yunlong
Niu's eyes widened and his expression became serious.
"So, our 75mm mountain artillery field guns are gone?" Ding Wei asked.
"Old Li spits a nail, and the cannon will still give you two, but I didn't promise to give you two cannonballs..." Li Yunlong's tone was slightly cold, "My cannon and cannonballs were not blown by the wind, so I will give you two for free."
An infantry cannon is interesting enough, but if you want cannonballs, you must first agree to my conditions."
"What a fool!" Ding Wei scolded, "There are cannons but no shells, what's the difference between having smoke but no fire? What about my old comrades? You have tens of thousands of shells in your warehouse, and I can't even give you 200 shells.
I don’t want to give it up. I think you should just ask Rich Man Li to get it. I think you are richer than the landlord."
"Hey, hello, Mr. Li!" Kong Jie greeted Li Yunlong matter-of-factly.
"Look at you singing harmony." Li Yunlong said, "For those who don't know, they think you two are singing a big show?"
With a chuckle, Li Yunlong said again:
"Forget it, forget it, if our three regiments have the opportunity to fight together in the future, your two regiments will have to cooperate with our new regiment to fight."
"Is this all right?"
"Isn't this condition too much?"
"If you don't agree to this condition, then I'll take the cannon back wherever it came from, and I won't take care of you two."
"This condition is not too much." Kong Jie nodded and looked at Ding Wei.
"Okay, if that's the case, then I have no problem." Ding Wei nodded.
"That's okay with me," Kong Jie said.
If you cooperate in one battle, you will get a 75mm mountain cannon and the opportunity to make a fortune. It's a real profit, right?
"Then it's decided!" Li Yunlong nodded widely and smiled happily.
Ding Wei and Kong Jie looked at each other, why did they feel like they had fallen into a pit?
Next, Li Yunlong discussed some details about making a fortune with Kong Jie and Ding Wei.
After the new regiment has finished resting and recuperating, it will cut leeks at the Japanese defense points on the Yuliao Highway and Baijin Railway, capture and distribute them to Ding Wei and Kong Jie, and give aid to Li Yunlong.
But Ding Wei and Kong Jie were not captured in vain, they needed to send troops to help the new regiment to fight for reinforcements.
Ding Wei and Kong Jie were naturally happy and agreed on the spot.
Li Yunlong then asked the cooking team to prepare food and wine, and treated the two of them to a meal with good wine and meat.
Then Li Yunlong took out his shotgun and showed it. The huge power made Ding Wei and Kong Jie envious.
This is what old comrades in arms are like. Just after a quarrel, they can immediately put on a pair of pants again.
In the end, Ding Wei and Kong Jie each took away a 75mm gun and artillery shells.
Although the performance of Ding Wei's Italian gun was not as good as that of Kong Jie's, it had more shells than Kong Jie's, with more than 300 shells.
…
The brigade commander, deputy brigade commander Han and chief of staff Zhou received news that after Li Yunlong was robbed of five mountain cannons by the division commander, he assembled a mountain cannon battalion.
However, the brigade commander was not prepared to rob Li Yunlong.
The reason is also very simple. Once he robs two mountain artillery batteries from Li Yunlong, the division commander will definitely rob at least one mountain artillery battery from him after knowing about it.
And if he doesn't rob Li Yunlong, then Li Yunlong's mountain artillery battalion is the mountain artillery battalion of the 386th Brigade, and he can call it in at any time.
Time passed by inadvertently, from mid-May of 1940 to mid-July in the blink of an eye.
During this period, the new regiment changed a lot. First, the number of troops expanded from more than 1,700 to more than 2,500.
After being robbed by the division commander of five mountain artillery pieces, Li Yunlong asked the division commander to recruit company and platoon-level officers. The division commander asked him to promote him from his regiment. Li Yunlong took the next best step and asked the division commander to approve Li Yunlong to go to the 385 brigade units to select key elite soldiers to recruit new recruits for the sword unit.
, the division commander agreed, but each regiment could only let Li Yunlong choose 5 people at most.
Currently, the 385th Brigade has three regiments, namely the 13th, 14th and 769th Regiments.
Li Yunlong sent Lu Yingjun to select a total of 15 veterans from these three regiments, and five more from the new regiment. Now Lu Yingjun has more than 50 soldiers under his command, and it has been expanded into a sharp sword squadron.
Of course, the Sword Squadron is still a company-level organization.
Then the artillery company was expanded into an artillery battalion, equipped with 12 M1A1 American 75mm mountain guns.
The original 1 infantry gun and 15 mortars were issued to each battalion and expanded into a battalion-direct artillery platoon. Together with the bazookas equipped by each battalion, the battalion and company-level firepower was greatly enhanced.
However, Li Yunlong still felt that the firepower was not enough and needed to be increased.
In addition, the guard platoon of the new regiment was also expanded into a guard company.
Now the company directly under the new regiment has three main infantry battalions, a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion, a machine gun company, a heavy machine gun company, a guard company, and a sharp sword special squadron.
Including the Sharp Sword Special Forces, there are a total of 19 organic companies. If we add in the artillery platoons directly under each battalion except the artillery battalion, there are 3 artillery companies in total, and the total company exceeds 20 companies.
In Li Yunlong's words, we, Mr. Li, are now a real rich man!
Next, Li Yunlong began to attack the Baijin Railway and Yuliao Highway.
The Japanese brought cement and built 11 reinforced concrete strongholds on the Yuliao Highway. It would be difficult to bombard them with infantry.
However, the New Regiment is no longer what it used to be. It is equipped with 12 75mm mountain guns. If there are enough shells, these reinforced concrete strongholds are the coffins the Japanese have built for themselves.
There is no suspense in the ending.
These Japanese strongholds on the Yuliao Highway were wiped out by the New Regiment within half a month, including the strongholds around Yushe County and Liaoxian County.
More than a dozen Japanese strongholds on the Baijin Railway were also wiped out.
The New Regiment wiped out more than 30 Japanese strongholds within a month, which was equivalent to the assistance of 90 machine guns.
Ding Wei and Kong Jie also benefited. In addition to the captured equipment, they each obtained 5 machine guns and 5 bazookas from Li Yunlong.
Of course, the big head belongs to Li Yunlong and his Xinyi Tuan.
Just when Li Yunlong was thinking that it was time to take over the two county towns of Yushe and Liao County.
The Eighth Route Army headquarters began major operations.
Li Yunlong was called to the headquarters for a meeting. As a result, the meeting lasted for several days.
…
(I originally wanted to fight against the Japanese strongholds on the Baijin Railway and Yuliao Highway for a few more chapters, but after thinking about it, the things I wrote before are not much fun anymore, so I just started the Hundred Regiment War.)