In early July of the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China (1938), Yue Weihan led the Baoshan Brigade to surprise Shimen. Zhengding succeeded and cut off the Ping-Han Railway in one fell swoop. At the same time, Sun Lianzhong and Yu Xuezhong also cut off the Jin-Pu Railway and the Long-Hai Railway.
, causing nearly twenty divisions of the main Japanese army on the Wuhan battlefield to be in trouble.
The Japanese base camp responded quickly and immediately transferred the 6th Division from the Central China Front. The 13th Division moved north along the Flat Line Railway. At the same time, the 20th Division originally stationed in Shanxi moved east along the Zhengtai Railway. The two armies
They will attack Shimen in an attempt to reopen the Ping-Han Railway and reverse the unfavorable situation of the Wuhan Battle.
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Shimen, Baoshan Division Headquarters.
Yue Weihan was discussing with Liu Yi the reorganization plan of the Baoshan Division.
The "division"-level units of the National Revolutionary Army have two specifications, commonly known as Type A divisions and Type B divisions.
A type A division has two infantry brigades under its jurisdiction. Each infantry brigade has three infantry regiments. Each infantry regiment has about 3,000 people. Therefore, a type A division has more than 18,000 infantry personnel, plus artillery, engineers, baggage troops and health personnel.
The total strength of non-combat troops such as corps often exceeds 25,000, or even close to 30,000.
For example, the Central Military Academy Teaching Corps, the 87th Division, and the 88th Division are the most typical Class A divisions.
The B division has two infantry brigades, and each infantry brigade has two infantry regiments. Each infantry regiment has about 2,000 people. Therefore, a B division only has more than 8,000 infantry, plus artillery, engineers, baggage troops and health personnel.
The total strength of the non-combat troops is approximately between 10,000 and 12,000.
For example, the 115th Division, 120th Division and 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army are all Category B divisions.
The Baoshan Division was born in the 98th Division. During the Nanjing Defense War, it was once affiliated to the Central Military Academy Teaching Corps. In terms of pedigree, it is definitely a direct line of the Central Army. It is just that it is not popular with Chairman Chiang now. But this time the situation is different.
Somewhat peculiarly, in order to squeeze out the military value of the Baoshan Division, Chairman Chiang pinched his nose and gave it the establishment of a Category A division.
However, Baoshan Division now has a total of 40,000 people, far exceeding the size of a Class A division.
Yue Weihan pondered for a moment and then said: "Chief of Staff, then form three infantry brigades and nine infantry regiments!"
"Third Brigade and Nine Regiment!?" Liu Yi changed his face slightly and said, "Military seat, I'm afraid Chairman Chiang and the Military Commission will not agree."
It is said that what Chairman Chiang hates most is the unauthorized expansion of troops by his subordinates. Yue Weihan expanded the Baoshan Division from two brigades and six regiments to three brigades and nine regiments without permission. How could Chairman Chiang agree? In other words, even if
If he agreed with a sniff, I'm afraid he wouldn't provide the extra equipment and military pay for the brigade, right?
"It's up to him whether he agrees or not, but it's up to me how to organize it." Yue Weihan said, "That's it."
After saying this, Yue Weihan said again: "Chief of Staff, why don't you hurry up and tell me how to reorganize?"
"Okay." Seeing that Yue Weihan had made up his mind, Liu Yi stopped trying to persuade him and said immediately, "Then we will take out more than 27,000 elite personnel from the existing personnel and organize them into three infantry brigades and nine infantry regiments. The remaining
More than 11,000 people were organized into directly affiliated units such as baggage trains, engineers, cavalry, artillery, and field hospitals."
Yue Weihan nodded and agreed.
A small unit of a company or platoon can be all combatants, but when the size of the unit reaches a battalion or regiment, it must be equipped with a considerable number of non-combatants, and the higher the degree of mechanization of the unit, the more non-combatants there are.
The higher the proportion, for example, in the German army or the US military, the proportion of non-combatants even exceeds 50%.
In modern Western military circles, there is a point of view that is often not accepted by the East.
This point of view is that when the combat attrition of a unit reaches 40%, it means that the unit has completely lost its combat effectiveness, and the remaining units can surrender with peace of mind.
From the perspective of the German army or the United States, this view is very correct.
Because the German army and the US military are highly mechanized, logistics personnel account for a large proportion. When the troop attrition reaches 40%, it means that the frontline combatants have basically suffered all casualties, and most of the remaining logistics personnel have
They are technical troops or non-combatants. Their mission is only fire support or logistics transportation, not front-line fighting. Therefore, when they raise their hands and surrender, there is no psychological burden at all.
But from the perspective of the Chinese army or the Japanese army, this view is completely wrong.
In the battle order of the Chinese army, there are almost no pure non-combatants. When necessary, even the cooks in the cooking class will rush to the line of fire with kitchen knives. Although the Japanese army also has non-combatants in the battle order, the Japanese army believes in
The Bushido spirit means that even non-combatants will often resist to the end.
Therefore, for the Western armies represented by the German army and the US military, when the number of troops is reduced by more than 40%, they completely lose their combat effectiveness. For the Eastern armies represented by the Chinese army and the Japanese army, even if the number of troops is reduced by more than 90%
, you can still continue fighting until everyone is killed!
This has nothing to do with the personal courage of the soldiers and is entirely caused by the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.
For example, although the German army surrendered hundreds of thousands to the Soviet army during World War II, no one would doubt the strong combat effectiveness of the German army, let alone the courage of the German soldiers;
Only a handful of people surrendered on the frontal battlefield, but no one would think that the Japanese army was more courageous than the Eighth Route Army, the National Army or the US Army.
As for Liu Yi, he slightly modified the list of brigade and regiment commanders, troop composition, equipment and other information that had been prepared in advance and handed it to Yue Weihan.
Deputy Division Commander: Lu Xiufeng (Major General)
1st Brigade (approximately 9,000 men)
Brigadier: Cao Xinglong (Major General)
Chief of Staff: Huang Baocheng (Colonel)
2nd Brigade (approximately 9,000 men)
Brigadier: Chi Chengfeng (Major General)
Chief of Staff: Liao Yaoting (Colonel)
3rd Brigade (approximately 9,000 men)
Brigadier: Li Yulong (Major General)
Chief of Staff: Wang Qing (Colonel)
Guard regiment (about 3,000 people)
Leader: Hua Hanlin (Colonel)
Deputy Commander: Tang Dashan (Major)
Artillery Regiment (about 3,000 people)
Regiment leader: Niu Dagen (Colonel)
Deputy Commander: Zhang Guowei (Major)
Baggage group (about 3,000 people)
Regiment leader: Meng Bozhao (Colonel)
Deputy Commander: Zhang Zhongyi (Colonel)
Cavalry regiment (about 1,000 riders)
Regiment leader: Liu Fengsheng (Colonel)
Deputy Commander: Zhao Youting (Major)
Special Agent Group (approximately 1,000 people)
Regiment leader: Liu Tiezhu (Colonel)
Deputy Commander: Liu Xin (Lieutenant Colonel)
Force composition and equipment:
Each infantry brigade has three infantry regiments, each with approximately 3,000 men;
Each infantry regiment has four infantry battalions (each infantry battalion has about 500 people); one fire support battalion, about 400 people (has four heavy machine gun platoons and two grenade companies, equipped with 8 Type 92
heavy machine guns and 16 grenade launchers); a guard company, about 300 people; a cavalry company, about 150 people; a health team, about 150 people.
The guard regiment is actually an infantry regiment, with the same organization and equipment as the infantry regiment.
The artillery regiment has an artillery battalion (12 Type 92 infantry guns); a mortar battalion (24 Type 80 mortars); a combat artillery battery (4 37mm combat artillery); a field artillery company (6
75 field artillery).
The baggage regiment has three baggage battalions and a truck battalion (20 trucks).
The cavalry regiment consists of three cavalry battalions (each battalion has 240 cavalry) and one infantry battalion (320 men).
The special agent regiment consists of a special operations brigade, a reconnaissance battalion, a communications battalion, an intelligence office, a propaganda team, and a field hospital. Unless an unpredictable situation occurs, the special agent regiment must follow the division headquarters.
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Yue Weihan quickly read the information and said: "Then just report it to the Military Commission."
When Liu Yi turned around to leave, Yue Weihan suddenly stopped him again and asked: "Chief of Staff, have you made statistics on the composition of our Baoshan Division's troops?"
"I just made a rough count of this." Liu Yi said, "Our division currently has about 38,000 soldiers, including about 6,000 veterans from the Baoshan Brigade. The Central Army, Shanxi-Sui Army, Shandong Army and the 29th Army were scattered on the North China battlefield.
There are about 17,000 soldiers, and among the remaining 15,000 people, bandits, Huidaomen armed forces and major family armed forces each account for one-third."
Yue Weihan asked again: "After the troops entered the city, was there any burning, killing, looting or looting?"
"Yes, yes," Liu Yi said hurriedly, "Two companies composed of bandits robbed two banks in Shimen City, and a company composed of Huidaomen armed forces robbed a jewelry store in Zhengding County. However,
, the owners of the two banks in Shimen City and the jewelry store in Zhengding County have all defected to the Japanese..."
Yue Weihan suddenly raised his hands and said: "Even if it is a traitor's asset, it is not their turn to plunder it!"
After saying this, Yue Weihan said again: "This matter must be severely punished, and the three company commanders who committed plunder must be shot."
After the Battle of Qinghe and the Battle of Shizheng, the Baoshan Division has initially formed an army, and the morale, fighting spirit and cohesion of the troops have been significantly improved.
Especially the Central Army, Shanxi-Sui Army, Shandong Army and the 29th Army that were broken up on the battlefield in North China. Most of these broken troops were veterans. They had lost their morale and morale because of consecutive defeats before, but they joined the Baoshan Brigade.
After that, they won two great victories in a row, and even recovered Shimen and Zhengding. The morale of the troops was immediately restored!
However, the military discipline of the Taoist armed forces and bandit armed forces has not improved significantly.
Now, it is time to impose strict discipline on this group of stragglers. If you want to build the Baoshan Division into an iron army that cannot be dragged down or defeated like the old Baoshan Regiment, strict discipline is necessary.