Artillery scouts are what Wang Xuexin values the most. They not only require high mobility but also good psychological quality and cultural quality.
This is somewhat different from modern times. In modern troops, every scout and even ordinary troops have these capabilities. When they find a valuable target, they will immediately contact the rear artillery unit via radio or telephone to knock it out.
In modern warfare, this kind of infantry-artillery coordination can only be regarded as a basic requirement for the troops. Each unit is required to be the eyes and ears of the artillery. In addition, reconnaissance aircraft, drones, artillery sighting radars, etc. can also be used to complete these tasks.
In fact, at this time, European and American troops were basically able to do this.
But the Eighth Route Army at this time was still far behind. Most of the soldiers did not know how to guide artillery, and there was no radio to contact them, even the scouts. Therefore, they could only organize artillery scouts to guide the rocket launchers on their own.
Each artillery reconnaissance team consists of ten people, all of whom are required to be able to ride a horse and ride a three-wheeler.
This is due to the consideration of high mobility. Some places are suitable for horse-powered maneuvers and others are suitable for three-wheeled vehicles.
In fact, you can go to most places with a sidecar, and you can also put the radio in the sidecar while maneuvering and communicating at the same time. It is a veritable mobile communication base station, very convenient and fast.
The disadvantage is that it is easy to be misunderstood as a enemy by friendly forces, especially at night.
For this reason, the chief of staff also issued a special order to the entire army, including the guerrillas, to pay attention to the small flag on the front of the vehicle when seeing a sidecar to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, and not to fight randomly.
The psychological quality requires them to remain calm in the face of danger and to be able to lurk in front of the enemy and calmly guide artillery.
This aspect is a matter of training, which is not difficult.
The difficult thing is cultural quality...
Laojiu and others did learn ballistic knowledge before, but now the calculations of rockets are more complicated and even have uncertain factors. More importantly, four teams plus one gun finger require strong calculation ability, which makes it difficult.
The level has been increased.
Laojiu complained to Wang Xuexin: "I'm talking about Xiaodongbei, each class of ten people requires four classes, and there is also a gun pointer, so it must be fifty or sixty people, right? But our group is connected to fifty.
There are only this number of gunners for the small artillery. If you transfer them all to the rocket launcher battery, won't there be no one to shoot the other cannons?"
"Old wine!" Wang Xuexin replied: "Who said these fifty people must all be gunners? Do you need two drivers for the three-wheel drive? Do you need two or three radio soldiers, and a few more combatants and gunners responsible for covering?
Isn’t it just two or three?”
Laojiu said "Oh" and replied: "That can be arranged!"
Wang Xuexin explained: "But that's it, these people are artillery scouts. We have to require them to have multiple skills. For example, drivers must be able to fight, and soldiers must be able to ride and ride horses. It is best to have a few people who can learn how to do it.
Report the coordinates and calculate the distance. Once a soldier dies, you won’t be in a hurry to do this or that!”
"That's right!" Laojiu nodded.
This aspect is not difficult for him. Who in the army doesn't know how to fight? He can even learn how to ride a horse or ride a tricycle. It's not a big deal.
The vehicle-mounted rocket launcher was installed two days later. Wang Xuexin did not require it to be able to automatically turn and aim like modern rocket launchers, but simply fixed the rocket launcher on the rear bucket of the car.
It's not that difficult. First remove the rear bucket guardrail of the truck, then weld a few metal strips to the rocket launcher mount to complete the screw holes, and finally screw them tightly to the rear of the chassis.
The reason why it is installed at the tail instead of the center is to facilitate loading... If the rocket launcher is installed in the center, loading requires a process of climbing into the vehicle, and the rocket tail flame may burn the rear of the vehicle.
But it sounds simple, but there was still a problem in this process. The reason was that Su Xin found that when the rocket launcher was steering, the gunner sometimes had to jump onto the vehicle and sometimes jump off the vehicle.
This would obviously cause trouble, so Su Xin simply added a few pedals to the gunner so that the gunner could rotate with the gun body.
After the modification was completed, the car was covered with canvas and pretended to be transporting goods before returning to Zhaojiayu.
The Seventh Company received the order to return to the army the next day.
On the one hand, the Seventh Company has completed their mission, and on the other hand, Wang Xuexin has to go back and be responsible for setting up the rocket launcher company.
The order was issued by the commander himself. He called Wang Xuexin to the headquarters and said happily: "Comrade Wang Xuexin, we have summarized this period and believe that the gap between us and the enemy mainly lies in three aspects: one is the aircraft in the sky, and the other is the ground.
tanks, and one is the enemy’s artillery!”
The chief’s summary is fine.
If we talk about other gaps, of course there are, such as rifles, machine guns, etc.
But the difference is not so obvious. It can be said that the Japanese have aircraft, tanks, artillery and other things but the Eighth Route Army does not.
Among them, although the Eighth Route Army has artillery, its range, quantity, shells, etc. are not proportional, and it is not much better than nothing.
"The way we thought before was wrong!" The leader raised his head to the chief of staff beside him and said: "We always thought that if the enemy has tanks, we should also build tanks, and if the enemy has artillery, we should also build artillery, so that we can
The Japanese were defeated. But now, Comrade Wang Xuexin has taught us a solid lesson!"
The chief of staff nodded and said: "Comrade Wang Xuexin, the leader said that he has learned a lot from you during this period, such as using rocket launchers to deal with tanks and rocket launchers to deal with enemy artillery. This can be said to have changed the entire war situation and turned our army from being passive to passive.
In guerrilla warfare, passive defense has been transformed into the ability to fight the enemy head-on! This is a great improvement!"
Wang Xuexin felt a little emotional. The words said by the chief and chief of staff, such as "taught a lesson" and "learned a lot", are not something ordinary leaders can say, even if this is indeed the case.
But the chief and chief of staff spoke very naturally and openly, as if that was how it should be.
"So we think we should pay more attention to rocket launchers!" The leader continued: "Its significance to us is not just a piece of equipment, but a strategic weapon with great strategic significance!"
Wang Xuexin understood what the chief meant.
In modern warfare, things that can play a role at the strategic level may be strategic bombers, nuclear bombs, nuclear submarines and the like.
But now, on the Chinese battlefield, rocket launchers are enough to rise to the strategic level and change the situation between the enemy and ourselves.
"We have thought about it for a long time!" said the chief of staff: "I think you are familiar with all aspects of rocket launcher performance and understand its role and significance, so we decided that you will set up this rocket launcher company. Are there any problems?"
"No problem!" Wang Xuexin stepped forward and replied: "I promise to complete the task!"