The troops in the Sulu theater have been fighting calmly throughout the winter offensive. In other theaters, they either beat the enemy to the point of jumping on the enemy, or they regained lost ground. That was a frequent success story.
It is a pity that although the troops in the Sulu Theater were also ordered to fight, they almost spent three days fishing and two days drying nets. They often fought with the Japanese for one day and spent the other two days wrangling with the theater for supplies.
Their main purpose of fighting was to take the opportunity to get more weapons, ammunition and supplies from the war zone. Because the fighting conditions behind enemy lines were difficult, they had to be careful.
If all the troops are really wiped out, how can they defend the territory they managed to gain in the enemy-occupied areas? If they fail to conquer the cities occupied by the Japanese, they will be scolded at most, but once their territory is lost, it will be a big sin.
It's time to take a shot.
Therefore, the commanders of each army also understand the importance, so they don't use all their strength to fight against the Japanese. They will not do the business that is losing money.
Although they did not fight the Japanese with all their strength, they shouted fiercely in the telegram requesting supplies and ammunition, exaggerating the intensity of the battle and exaggerating the damage.
Many troops even took advantage of the large-scale military operations of the Winter Offensive to start a business of reselling arms.
When they reported the damage to their weapons to their superiors, they would break down the loss of one gun into three, and then request supplies, otherwise they would not be able to fight.
Now the troops in the occupied areas are not in the same place, and the officers cannot take the risk and waste time to check the real situation on the spot. Therefore, they can only replenish ammunition and supplies according to the battle damage of the troops below.
In fact, the battle losses of each unit are exaggerated. When the weapons and ammunition from above are supplied, the excess guns and ammunition can be resold to local gangs and some country squires.
In order to sell their guns at a good price, many military commanders even sell some good guns and leave bad guns for the troops.
If when the superiors come down to check, they see that the weapons and equipment used by the troops are terrible, they might be able to take the opportunity to complain and resupply them.
The result of the deception by the commanders of each army was that no decent battles were fought, because the weapons and equipment of the regular troops and guerrilla troops were not even as good as those of the local gangs, and they were completely vulnerable to the elite Japanese.
Although the troops cannot win the war, the officers of each army are extremely rich, because the money from reselling guns and ammunition is put into their pockets, and they don't care so much about whether they can win the war, because all the troops are rich.
If the battle is not won, the law does not blame everyone, and the theater headquarters cannot do anything to them.
But now the series of victories of Yang Ling and the Northern Jiangsu Corps have made these corrupt army officers unable to sit still.
They received the most supplies and had the most troops on paper, but they won the fewest battles. Compared with the Northern Jiangsu Corps, they were suddenly in the sky and on the ground.
On the other hand, Yangling's Northern Jiangsu First Guerrilla Corps, because it was a newly established unit, the theater headquarters did not pay much attention to them. Not to mention weapons, equipment and supplies, they were not even given a single soldier.
Yang Ling was an optimist and did not count on the theater headquarters because he sent several telegrams requesting supplies, but each time there was a shortage of supplies. Other troops were still queuing up and asked them to wait.
But we couldn't afford to wait for the war, so Yang Ling simply didn't go to the theater headquarters to ask for supplies of weapons, equipment, and supplies. Since the commander wouldn't provide them, he had to find a way on his own.
So Yang Ling first used a thunderous force to sweep away the armed gangs such as the Big Sword Society, the Little Sword Society, and the Zodiac Sect that were causing trouble in the area, and seized a large amount of food and supplies.
In addition, they asked the landlords and rural gentry in the area under their control to raise funds for anti-Japanese resistance. The Northern Jiangsu Corps promised that their fields and property would be safe and would not be snatched away by the little devils.
Because Yang Ling and the others have a good reputation, this has become a stable source of income for them.
The most important thing is that they were captured from the Japanese and puppet troops. Because of the hard work of the brothers, the main battalion of the Northern Jiangsu Corps is now equipped with Japanese-style equipment, all of which were seized from the Japanese.
Yang Ling and others continued to grow and win battles without receiving supplies from the theater headquarters, but those troops who received supplies could not win the battles. As long as the theater headquarters is not stupid, they will know what is going on.
Therefore, after the victory at Jieshou, all friendly forces were attacking one after another. The fighting was quite lively and even harder than during the winter offensive. In fact, it was largely due to Yang Ling and the others' forcing.
Because if they don't fight, how will they explain it if the theater headquarters accuses them, and how will they need weapons and equipment supplies in the future?
Because a great victory for Yang Ling and the others also caused a series of chain reactions. No matter what the military purpose of each unit was, they were mobilized instead of hiding and hiding their strength.
The theater headquarters was also very pleased, feeling that the victory at Jieshou had boosted the morale of the troops. However, in fact, when the army commanders ordered the troops to attack, they were secretly cursing Yang Ling.
If Yang Ling and the others were safe and sound, everyone wouldn't be struggling to fight in this cold winter. Wouldn't it be nice to just wait for the Chinese New Year?
All units were on the offensive. For several days, more Japanese and puppet artillery towers were destroyed than in the entire winter offensive, and countless bridges and roads were destroyed.
The puppet troops and Japanese soldiers who thought that the guerrilla troops in the occupied areas would cease after the winter offensive were also stunned by this sudden large-scale attack and suffered heavy losses.
The entire Sulu war zone was once again filled with smoke and smoke, but the Northern Jiangsu Corps, which had just won a battle in Jieshou, seemed particularly low-key. This time it did not attack again, but chose to lie dormant.
The most important reason is that although they destroyed an infantry brigade of the Japanese at Jieshou, their own losses were also extremely heavy, so it can only be regarded as a tragic victory.
"In this battle in Jieshou, we killed a total of 1,093 Japs without taking any prisoners. We seized 41 light and heavy machine guns, four Type 92 infantry guns, 600 usable rifles, and only a few rifle bullets.
There are only more than 10,000 rounds, 2,000 rounds of heavy machine gun bullets, grenades..."
In the temporary headquarters of Jishou, the staff officer in charge of post-war statistics held documents in his hands and reported them one by one.
Hearing that so many weapons and equipment had been seized, the battalion and company-level officers present at the meeting were all happy. Although fewer bullets were seized due to battlefield consumption, there would still be quite a lot of these weapons if they were distributed to each battalion.
They have already begun to calculate how much they can get.
"In this battle, we had a total of 615 soldiers killed, 100 seriously injured, and 730 slightly injured. As for the officers, three battalion-level officers were seriously injured, five company-level officers were killed, and the platoon was killed.
Twenty-one senior officers..."
Hearing such heavy casualties, the officers who were happy because of the capture all suppressed their smiles. There was silence in the dim room, and the atmosphere seemed particularly solemn.