On this day, Wang Xuexin was notified to go to the headquarters with Li Yunlong for a meeting.
This time the meeting is scheduled for the evening.
The reason is that during this difficult period, in addition to the headquarters, even government agencies and units have to go to the fields to farm. In other words, in response to the call of "production and working at the same time," they take a hoe to open up wasteland at dawn during the day, and return to their residence at night to light kerosene.
The lights do their job.
At this time, in the border area, groups of soldiers and civilians went up the mountain with their hoes as soon as the sky dawned. Looking around, there were reclaimers everywhere. On the hillsides and in the ditches, red flags were fluttering and hoes were flying. Singing, laughter, and slogans were heard.
The sound of cheering comes one after another.
At night, the oil lamps lit up again, and everyone was busy spinning, spinning, weaving and doing various kinds of work all night long.
Therefore, when Li Yunlong and Wang Xuexin walked into the conference room, in addition to the smell of soot from the kerosene lamp, there was also a strong smell of sweat... Many regiment leaders and cadres had just come back from the fields and rushed to the meeting.
.
Soon, the chief and chief of staff hurried in.
The chief excitedly waved a bunch of things in his hand towards the cadres and said: "I have good news for everyone, our border area has its own money!"
The conference room was quiet for a while, then suddenly burst into warm applause and cheers.
The leader and the chief of staff handed out stacks of brand-new border coins on both sides. As they were passing out, they joked: "These border coins can be exchanged for Guanghua coupons on a one-to-one basis. Comrades, take a look and don't hide them secretly!"
This statement immediately made the cadres laugh.
What Wang Xuexin received was a five-yuan denomination.
On both sides of it, "五元" is written with patterned strokes.
The pattern in the middle is a city gate building, with a few fellow villagers in cotton-padded clothes walking in front, seeming to be busy and talking.
Above the pattern is written "Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Bank" in traditional Chinese from right to left, and below it is written "Thirty Years of the Republic of China".
Wang Xuexin had some feelings. During this period, the base area was being plundered by recalcitrant soldiers and Japanese soldiers using legal currency, and they were unable to fight back. The soldiers and civilians in the base area were suffocating in their hearts. As soon as they came out of the border area, they finally let out their bad breath!
Other cadres have similar ideas to Wang Xuexin. Most of them know what the issuance of district coins here means.
Only Li Yunlong had a different idea. He took a ten-yuan border coin and shined it under a kerosene lamp. He squinted at it for a while and asked: "Chief, can this piece of money be exchanged for a jar of wine?"
"All you think about is wine!" The chief scolded with a fierce look: "The dozens of jars of wine that flew from Chu Yunfei to Niao a few days ago are not enough for you to drink?"
Li Yunlong was like a child who was caught stealing candy. He replied awkwardly: "Then...how can it be called blackmail? It was obviously given as a gift!"
Zhang Wanhe added: "You, Li Yunlong, can even pluck out a few hairs from wild geese flying by. Is this a gift from the wild geese?"
The conference room burst into laughter again.
Li Yunlong's character of "not taking advantage enough, but suffering the consequences" is well known to everyone in the Eighth Route Army. Of course, everyone understands what the so-called "giving away" is.
The chief waited for the venue to become quieter, and then continued: "This time I called comrades, and one of them talked about the border currency. We have six kinds of currency in the border area with four denominations. Comrades, please remember clearly. They are:
One dime, two dimes each, five yuan, ten yuan each. I will publicize it with the soldiers when I go back. From now on, legal currency will be banned from circulation!"
The chief of staff interjected at this time: "Speaking of which, we have to thank Comrades Li Yunlong and Wang Xuexin! Everyone has heard that they sold three rocket launchers for six million jins of grain. Six million jins?
…This laid a solid foundation for the issuance of Border Coin! Thank them!”
The applause suddenly started.
Wang Xuexin quickly stood up and saluted.
He understood what the chief of staff meant by "laying the foundation."
As mentioned before, with food, especially in this difficult period, you have the right to make decisions.
For example, if these six million kilograms of grain are distributed to various places and it is stipulated that only border area coins can be used to exchange for grain, then the fellow villagers will have to think of ways to earn border area coins.
Over time, the purpose of using border currency to drive out legal currency was achieved.
Li Yunlong sounded a little confused. He didn't know what the connection was between grain and the issuance of border currency. However, he still stood up amidst the applause and cupped his hands around while saying with a smile: "You're welcome!"
Then the chief changed the subject and said with a serious face:
"Comrades, although our army has achieved great results in this battle, many problems have also been exposed during the battle."
"The most serious thing is that our army is accustomed to charging forward in a group and in a dense formation."
"The target is too big. The enemy's artillery and machine guns fired a few shells and bullets and knocked down a large area. The losses are too great!"
"So, it's time for us to think about our tactics. I think we should fight in a dispersed formation to reduce our army's casualties and losses on the battlefield as much as possible! Only in this way can we fight better and better!"
The cadres nodded in agreement. What the leader said was actually a common problem in the Eighth Route Army at this time.
Due to the rapid expansion of the Eighth Route Army and the vast majority of its troops being workers and farmers without military training, the Eighth Route Army often fought in a swarm, just like a group fight.
Wang Xuexin was deeply touched by this aspect.
As a soldier, he had noticed problems with the tactics and quality of the Eighth Route Army since he first came to this world.
Sometimes he felt a little strange. They said that the battlefield was the best school and training ground. For example, during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, many recruits became veterans after fighting a few battles on the battlefield, and then fought in a decent manner. Why did the Eighth Route Army fight?
After a few battles, it's still the same.
After thinking for a moment, Wang Xuexin understood.
The period of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea was a period when tactics were relatively mature. When new recruits entered the army and fought with veterans, they learned standard things that were proven to be useful on the battlefield, so they grew very quickly.
But the Eighth Route Army... their tactics were still in their immature primary stage, and what the veterans said was not necessarily correct, and some of them even contradicted themselves. So the recruits imitated them randomly and fought indiscriminately after a few battles.
Therefore, Wang Xuexin believes that we must first have a correct tactical guidance, and then practice in the right direction to be effective.
Can modern tactics be used in the Eighth Route Army?
Wang Xuexin soon discovered that this seemed inappropriate.
For example, in modern times, emphasis is placed on infantry-artillery coordination. Infantrymen play more of an "artillery observer" role, that is, they serve as the eyes and ears of the artillery. They report the target's position to the artillery through radio and use artillery to destroy the target, and follow the instructions that can be used.
Artillery does not use the combat principle of infantry charge.
But this is obviously not feasible for the Eighth Route Army. Not to mention that it does not have such advanced communication equipment, and even if it does, there is not that many artillery to coordinate.
Another example is the modern use of skirmish formations to charge... This is also not suitable for the Eighth Route Army.
The reason why the advance of skirmishers is possible is because the unit area equipped with assault rifles has enough firepower to impact the enemy's defense line.
If the Eighth Route Army uses skirmishing formations, its weak firepower will form a weak refueling tactic, that is, it is not enough to pose a threat to the enemy, but it adds troops one by one to death.