At the Northwestern Shanxi Military Region Headquarters, operational staff members were coming in and out, and the phones were ringing constantly. It was a very busy scene!
The commander stood in front of the huge sand table, staring at it, motionless!
Every time the front-line troops kill an Eighth Route Army reinforcement force, one of the small sun flags representing the Japanese army will be pulled out from the sand table!
"Commander: We have killed seven of the twelve little devil return troops, and the remaining five are squadron-sized, and are also equipped with many Imperial Army troops! Seeing that the situation is not good, we decisively retreat to the high ground near the battlefield, and proceed from a high position.
If you stick to it, it will be very difficult to fight!" the combat staff reported standing nearby!
"Have all the artillery been mobilized?" the commander asked with a frown, obviously very dissatisfied with the performance of the front-line troops!
The combat staff quickly replied: "They have all been transferred! But the number is too small, and there are not many artillery shells, so everyone is afraid of using them!"
"I'm not only worried about running out of artillery shells, which will affect the subsequent battle! I'm also worried that the artillery shells will not be replenished after they are used up!"
"Those mortars and artillery shells have been hidden as treasures by each regiment. If they are asked to take them all out in one battle, they will definitely be reluctant to part with them!"
"Short-sighted!" the commander scolded with dissatisfaction!
But he quickly calmed down and took a deep breath to answer: "But it's my fault that I didn't tell them clearly before the war!"
"To be honest, I don't believe that the garrison can conquer Datong City in such a short time! That's why I didn't tell everyone that the ultimate goal of our counterattack is Datong, for fear of disappointing everyone in the end!"
“I didn’t expect that this concern would actually make everyone timid!”
"Immediately give an order to our participating troops: All troops should take out all their belongings, including artillery shells and heavy machine gun bullets, and shoot them all!"
"The garrison has just received a telegram. They have successfully entered the city with troops. There will be no problem in taking over Datong City tonight!"
"Tell all the regimental commanders that if they fire one artillery shell tonight, I will replenish them with three artillery shells after the battle! If a machine gun is destroyed, I will replenish them with two more!"
The combat staff officer's eyes flashed and he replied: "Commander, with this order from you, several regiments will definitely fight tooth and nail!"
Following the change of subject, he continued: "However, the financial resources of each group are very limited!"
"Even if they spend all their money to fight the Japanese, they can at most speed up the attack! It's still very difficult to resolve the battle quickly!"
The commander's frown deepened now!
He can't solve this problem either!
Seeing that the commander was silent, the combat staff could only sigh and prepare to give orders!
Before anyone could move, the chief of staff hurried in with a smile on his face!
"Commander, good news!"
"I have a way for each regiment to fight quickly and quickly eliminate the Japanese and puppet troops they surrounded!"
The commander's eyes lit up and he asked: "What can we do?"
"The garrison called urgently. They have captured Datong City. Although the battle outside Datong City is not over yet, we can already enter and exit Lingqiu City through the east gate!"
"Under the order of Commander Li of the garrison regiment, a main battalion of the regiment and troops directly under the regiment headquarters have entered the city."
"And the garrison regiment has handed over all the arsenals, material warehouses, and military police headquarters they occupied to the protection of the Sixth Regiment!"
"Except for the equipment of the ammunition factory and repair shop, the garrison doesn't want a single bullet!"
"The commander of the Sixth Regiment and Commander Li of the garrison sent us an urgent message at the same time: asking us to immediately organize troops to move into the city to carry the loot! We must move the food, weapons and ammunition out of the city before dawn!"
"The leader of the Sixth Regiment also sent a separate list of supplies!"
"The loot they have counted now includes 8 million kilograms of grain, nearly 3,000 rifles, 200 light and heavy machine guns, mortars, infantry cannons, mountain cannons, more than 50 pieces in total, and several million more.
Fire bullets and more than 20,000 rounds of various artillery shells!”
"This does not include what we captured on the battlefield and some scattered ammunition stockpiles!"
"If we add them all up, our Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army will definitely be able to replace all its guns with cannons!"
"I suggest: Immediately give orders to the battalion commanders who are still fighting on the front line, and immediately organize all the cavalry under them to enter Datong City from the east gate, go directly to the arsenal to collect bullets and artillery shells, and if possible, collect a few heavy machine guns and a few
Mortars will do too!”
"Directly strengthen the offensive firepower of the front-line troops, end the battle in the shortest time, and then enter the city to grab the loot!"
"Also, there are too many trophies in Datong City, and the troops alone are definitely not enough! I suggest that the headquarters immediately mobilize ordinary people, local guerrillas, and local troops to bring transportation tools and go to Datong immediately to help transport the trophies!"
"Because time is limited, we will first send the loot to the mountains near Datong to hide it, and then return it to the base after dark, like ants moving!"
On the Guantouling position, more than 200 Japanese soldiers and more than 300 puppet troops took advantage of the gap between attacks to build a ring of fortifications on the high ground!
Two heavy machine guns and fifteen or sixteen light machine guns are scattered in the fortifications!
Two mortars are placed in the middle of the ring fortification, ready to fire at any time to provide artillery support to the infantry!
The main force of the North Shanxi Military Region's Fifth Regiment besieging them were two battalions and nearly a thousand troops directly under their command!
In the eyes of the regiment leader Chen Xu, this battle was very frustrating!
The two main battalions took turns attacking as a company, four times already, and all ended in failure!
Two of the only three heavy machine guns in the regiment were destroyed by the Japanese!
"Commander, why don't we use cannons too!" the chief of staff reminded anxiously!
We are all old people, and our own family members know their own affairs!
The Eighth Route Army has limited ammunition, and what the Japanese are most in need of is ammunition. The longer the encirclement and annihilation war lasts, the more disadvantageous the Eighth Route Army will be!
The regiment leader shook his head and replied: "What's the use? We only have two mortars and eight shells, and we can't even hit them for half a minute. Don't forget that if you don't hit the Japanese after firing, you will be killed instead!"
A look of helplessness flashed across the chief of staff's face, and he lowered his head and fell into deep thought!
He has no way to solve this problem!
Suddenly, the military radio operator rushed over!
"Report to Commander Chen, the commander ordered: Let you assemble all the cavalry and war horses in the regiment, and enter the city from the east gate of Datong City to collect weapons and ammunition from the sixth regiment first!"
"The garrison has taken Datong with our cooperation. Our Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army is about to replace its guns with cannons!"
The horses were very fast. Chen Xu waited for less than two hours before the cavalry platoon and regimental communications squad returned. Each soldier carried a large package on his back, and two ammunition boxes were hung on both sides of the saddle!
"Captain, we are rich!" the cavalry platoon leader jumped off his horse and shouted, his face already full of joy and smiles!
"There are a lot of weapons and ammunition in the Datong Arsenal! I have been fighting Japanese for so long, and I have never seen so many. They are piled together like a hill!"
The regiment leader's face was quickly shrouded in surprise. He stared at his subordinates and asked, "First tell me how much equipment and ammunition you brought back!"
The platoon leader quickly replied: "Because the horses are limited, in order to ensure speed, we only brought two mortars and one hundred rounds of artillery shells! Two heavy machine guns, three boxes of six thousand rounds of heavy machine gun bullets, and twenty boxes of thirty thousand rounds."
Fire machine gun bullets!”
"If the leader still needs it, we can make another trip!"
"The commander of the Sixth Regiment asked me to tell the commander: The commander is on his way to Datong City. He will personally distribute the weapons and ammunition at that time to ensure that each main regiment has six mortars and six heavy machine guns! The main regiment
Each platoon is equipped with a crooked gun, and each company is equipped with two grenade launchers!"
"As long as we kill the little Japs in front of us, we will take the troops to Datong City to change their equipment. All the rifles will be replaced with uniform 38-type caps. Then each soldier will be equipped with fifty rounds of rifle bullets and two cantaloupe grenades, and then we will participate in the looting.
!
Replacing a shotgun with a cannon...
This is what every Eighth Route Army commander in northwestern Shanxi dreams of!
Due to the barren land, the Japanese puppet army and the severe blockade of Chongqing, the Northwestern Eighth Route Army of Shanxi is definitely the worst equipped among all the Eighth Route Army except for the troops left behind in Yan'an!
Facing this pie-in-the-sky surprise, Chen Xu's face was directly covered with a smile!
He immediately shouted to the chief of staff beside him who had not yet recovered from the shock!
"What are you still doing? Immediately distribute the weapons and ammunition they brought back. Let's have a grand battle tonight!"
"Tell Commander Zhang of the artillery platoon to give him all the shells and mortars we just brought back. Don't save ammunition for me. The battle is over tonight and I will promote him to the artillery company commander tomorrow!"
"Boom boom boom..."
The four mortars roared quickly, and the shells rained down on the hilltop. Soon the entire hilltop was shrouded in gunpowder smoke!
"Heavy machine gun fire, fire with all your strength, cover the attacking troops and press forward!"
"The first battalion and the third company, the second battalion and the fifth company, and the guard company, all come on for me!"
"All the crooked weapons in the whole regiment are given to them to be strengthened. Each company is equipped with five, which can be hung on the chest as a submachine gun!"
"Under the cover of mortars and heavy machine guns, they get under the noses of the Japanese. As soon as the shelling stops, rush up to me!"
"I want to kill the remaining little Japs on the mountain in one assault, and let the little Japs have a taste of what it means to be raining down bullets!"
At the Japanese ammunition factory in Datong City, Xiao Yuan greeted Li Hao as soon as he walked to the door, followed by a middle-aged man wearing glasses!
"Hello, Captain, the commando team successfully completed its mission. This is Comrade Li Yunshan, the leader of a production team at the ammunition factory that we found overnight. He is an underground party member and one of our own, and he knows all the conditions of the ammunition factory!"
"And he has mobilized more than 20 workers to come back overnight to help us dismantle the equipment!"
Li Yunshan was shocked by Li Hao's youth, and it took him a long time to react!
Salute, he reported with excitement!
"Hello, Chief, I have been lurking in the ammunition factory for almost a year. I finally got the main force to come, so I can leave this hellish place and get rid of the control of the little devil!"
"Hello Comrade Li Yunshan, as long as you are willing, I will immediately report to my superiors and appoint you as the deputy director of the arsenal that will be established in our garrison, specifically responsible for the production of ammunition!"
"I do!" Li Yunshan quickly replied!
Li Hao turned around and ordered: "Chief of Staff, please contact me about this matter!"
"Comrade Li Yunshan must be affiliated with the northwest Shanxi base area. They are old base areas with many veterans. What we lack most are veterans. If you explain the situation clearly to them, they should agree!"
After speaking, Li Hao ordered Li Yunshan: "Comrade Li Yunshan, since you are an old man in the arsenal, tell me about the situation of the ammunition factory. The more detailed the better!"