Chapter 15: Suppressing bandits and clearing villages

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However, Zhao Zhenzhong only paid a little attention to the news sent back by Sun Yaoming and others who were active in the Longdong area, and then put it aside, and then went to work on other things.

During the more than 20 days since the Chun Festival, Zhao Zhenzhong was extremely busy. Even though the Baode Highway officially started construction during the period, Zhao Zhenzhong only met with engineers such as Lao Zhichang, and then assisted the relevant matters by Li Yuntian and Liu Chenglin. He stayed in the Dongsheng area under the pretext of paying attention to material transfer, and reorganized the northbound personnel who arrived in batches and arranged tasks.

In order to avoid people's eyes, more than 37,000 people who went north this time arrived in Dongsheng area in multiple batches within more than 20 days. Zhao Zhenzhong had to take the approach of arriving in one batch, rectifying one batch, and then sending away a batch, reorganizing the combat troops and township staff from 12 counties. Fortunately, the Dongsheng area is located on the edge of the Kubuqi Desert and the Máo Suwu Desert. It was originally a vast place and sparsely populated. In addition, the people who fled for years were fleeing all of them. It is now the cold season again, so it is not unaware that the reorganization of the northbound personnel here will be reorganized here.

After comprehensively considering the proportion of veterans, new recruits and political staff, Zhao Zhenzhong compiled the following revisions of the northbound personnel:

The 20,000 veterans transferred from the five combat divisions of Yimeng and 1,000 northbound personnel from Xu Chaoyuan's teaching brigade were organized into three columns, each column had the chief of the first column and the deputy column captain; Liu Jifeng and Xu Mingyi served as the chief of the second column and the deputy column captain; Xu Chaoyuan and Dong Bicheng served as the chief of the third column and the deputy column captain;

The headquarters special column was formed by Yang Tianming's 4,200 special combat brigades northbound personnel; Yang Tianming and Chen Hailan served as chief and deputy column leader;

The 600 jing-savvy personnel who had been transferred from the Yimeng divisions to the north in advance with Yang Tianming's special combat brigade were evenly assigned to these three columns; assisting the three columns to get familiar with each other as soon as possible, grasp the situation in Ningxia and Longdong, and prepare for the subsequent actions;

The 1,000 cadres selected from the northbound personnel of the teaching brigade were grouped into the teaching column of the People's Army Headquarters; because Zhenshan served as the column leader;

The headquarters artillery column will be formed by 1,000 personnel from the heavy artillery brigade to form the headquarter; Wang Fengshan will be the column leader;

After the backbone of each department was put up, Zhao Zhenzhong assigned 7,000 recruits and 6,000 township political staff:

Select 600 new recruits with excellent performance in all aspects to supplement them into the teaching column;

Select 1,000 new recruits to join the artillery column;

Go to the other second and third columns;

Among the political staff, 500 followers and coaching columns were transferred to action;

700 people were dispatched to follow the special column to operate;

The other 4,800 staff formed three working groups, following the first, second and third columns respectively.

The People's Army Headquarters was established, and Zhao Zhenzhong was the commander-in-chief, and Zhang, Yang, Liu and Xu assisted Zhao Zhenzhong in handling all matters of the People's Army; when Zhao Zhenzhong was not present, the four people negotiated, and Zhang Mingrui was the general responsibility; in terms of logistics, Fang Yunzhong, who was transferred from Gu Haichuan Division, was specifically responsible;

Special columns, artillery columns, teaching columns are troops directly under the headquarters of the People's Army;

...

On March 21, after confirming and completing the organization of each department, Zhao Zhenzhong breathed a sigh of relief and said to Zhang Mingrui and others who stayed there: "The organization of the army will be like this for the time being. After we have a stable base here, we will make specific adjustments."

"Sir, how big is this column? Why is Mingrui and his team a column with about 10,000 troops, Tianming has more than 4,000 troops, and I and Zhenshan have one, two thousand people, and I have also a column?" Wang Fengshan, who was appointed as the captain of the artillery column, scratched his head and asked.

"I think it's not just you, but Mingrui, Tianming and others are full of doubts, right?" Zhao Zhenzhong smiled, "If we suddenly reveal the 3 or 4 divisions of the divisions we have just arrived here, it will definitely surprise the surrounding forces, and maybe some nearby forces will form a group to deal with us. And our use of the vague title of column can at least make some surrounding forces unable to understand our specific situation in the short term. The more they can't make our specific situation clearer, the more conducive it will be for us to settle here and take root."

"Besides, the column is just a title, so we don't have to worry too much about it. Also, the column should not be easily known by others. Before we establish the second base, it is better to use the name of "a gust of wind" for a while."

"We are our own people, and I can't make a difference with these different columns, so the enemy will definitely be even more confused." Wang Fengshan said with a smile.

Zhao Zhenzhong smiled and said, "Although a People's Army headquarters has been established now, just like the Guards' headquarters, in the future, the headquarters will basically be a stance and mainly work on your columns."

"Mingrui, Jifeng, Chaoyuan, you three will be responsible for the specific combat operations of the three main columns, and you will definitely not have much time at the headquarters. In addition to carrying out some combat tasks at the headquarters, Tianming will also be responsible for a very important task, which is to investigate and punish people who violate discipline within us, and at the same time prevent other forces from entering our team."

"In order to cooperate with Tianming's work and maintain the unity and purity of our team, the recruitment, training and other work of soldiers and political staff in a certain period of time in the future will be uniformly carried out by Tianming's special column and the education column of Zhenshan. Other departments shall not recruit or train personnel without permission."

"Sir, it is impossible to recruit reliable personnel from the local area without more than half a year of inspection time. In addition, the personnel training time, we may not receive any additional personnel here for a year." Yang Tianming was a little embarrassed.

"The east side is not bright, and the west side is bright. In the next year, we can consider selecting suitable personnel from the victims who return home for training." Zhao Zhenzhong said, "In order to rush to work, when we built docks in two places in Qingdao and Tianjin, we hired more than 50,000 victims to take turns to work. Moreover, for the sake of management, I asked Yuntian and Ma Renming to register the relevant situation of migrant workers in detail, and also made some records of the words and deeds of migrant workers during work. Among these 50,000 migrant workers, more than 10,000 are around 20 years old. You can find ways to turn these young migrant workers into one of us. This can reduce the inspection time by at least half a year."

"In addition, we should also pay attention to the intake, rescue and education of orphans under the age of 15. After a few years, they will become our reliable force. Of course, we can also train new people through the Yimeng base area to supplement and strengthen ourselves. The military replenishment and growth are not a big problem."

Yang Tianming and Yu Zhenshan suddenly became enlightened.

"Sir, what are the specific requirements for the combat missions and activity areas of our departments?" Zhang Mingrui asked.

"Before demarcating the activity areas of your units and placing corresponding combat missions, there is one more thing to do." Zhao Zhenzhong looked at Yang Tianming and smiled, "The 3,000 people who went north in advance now have more than 6,800 war horses and more than 2,300 pack horses. This is an amazing achievement. However, now that there are so many troops going north, you must also develop your style and give it a portion to other troops."

"No problem, they are all their own family, and everyone uses it the same!" Yang Tianming said readily, "If it is not enough, we will just do a few more tickets in a gust of wind."

"You can't let Yang Dazhu bleed too much. After all, the combat effectiveness of the special column must continue to be maintained." Zhao Zhenzhong quipped.

Then, Zhao Zhenzhong made specific allocations of existing horses among the teams:

The special column has 4,200 people, each retaining one war horse; the other third columns have 700 horses in each unit, and the 200 people assigned to the three columns to advance north as the backbone, each establishing a cavalry battalion; 200 horses are allocated to the teaching column for training; the rest are given to the artillery column.

In addition, there are more than 2,300 pack horses, 500 each of the three main columns, special columns, teaching columns, artillery columns, and artillery columns, and the remaining more than 100 will be controlled by the headquarters. In this way, each department can establish a mobile force, which is conducive to later operations.

After dispatching the horses, Zhao Zhenzhong made arrangements for the activity areas and combat tasks of each unit:

The first column, commanded by Zhang Mingrui, is responsible for resolving hostile forces in Ningxia and east of Helan Mountain;

The second and third columns are commanded by Liu Jifeng and Xu Chaoyuan respectively. The two units cooperate with each other to resolve the hostile forces such as Chen Guizhang and Yang Wanqing in the Longdong area. At the same time, they must also guard against the enemies on the west side of Yang Hucheng tribe in Shaanxi and Liupanshan and Qu Wushan in Gansu;

The special column was in Chen Hailan's unit in Linhe area to assist the First Column in solving the enemy troops in Hexi, Ningxia; the Sun Yaoming's unit, which was engaged in Haiyuan, Huanxian and other places, was responsible for assisting the Second Column and the Third Column in solving the enemy troops in Longdong; the Zheng Jiantao's unit, which was engaged in the northern Shaanxi area, assisted the teaching column to identify the trainees; this time the special column went north as the headquarters reserve team, commanded by Yang Tianming.

The teaching column and artillery column are all deployed in Huanxian area. In addition to monitoring the Jing Yuexiu division in northern Shaanxi, they must also be prepared to support the second and third columns at any time.

"The specific combat command is up to Zhang Mingrui and others on the front line to decide on their own. However, the relevant combat plan must be reported to the headquarters so that the headquarters can understand the relevant situation in a timely manner." After a pause, Zhao Zhenzhong said again: "Before May, we will not launch the Longdong and Ningxia battles. In addition to further accumulating combat materials, another important reason is to take into account chun farming and chun planting. If possible, it is best for us tens of thousands of people to farm and try to achieve self-sufficiency in terms of food."

"In addition to Longdong, the specific timing of the Ningxia Battle is decided by the headquarters, during this period, each department can carry out bandit suppression activities through small-scale forces such as cavalry battalions in the name of a gust of wind. Try to clear away various forces in this area and prepare for the battles in Longdong and Ningxia in the future."

"I know that your three main columns now have two mortar companies, but I would like to remind you that in the process of suppressing bandits, you can only use rifles, pistols and light machine guns, and you cannot use heavy firepower, so as not to arouse the alertness of other forces too early."

Zhang Mingrui and others nodded.

After Zhao Zhenzhong deployed the combat mission, he saw that Yang Tianming was strange and asked, "Yang Tianming, what does your expression mean? If you have any opinions on the combat mission, just say it."

"Sir, I have no objection to the combat mission." Yang Tianming couldn't help but smile, "I just felt it was a bit weird to let the 'Yei Feng' go to suppress the bandits. In Longdong, Houtao and Hexi, Ningxia, 'Yei Feng' is now a well-known bandit gang."

"It's just that the bandits are just getting together." Xu Chaoyuan smiled, "The bandits in our Yimeng Mountains had a lot of getting together."
Chapter completed!