Chapter Fifteen Rebuilding the Troops

  Two days later, in the defense zone of Zhang Village, the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, Li Xinmin was conducting daily training with his soldiers. A horseman rushed from outside the village and soon entered the village.

  "Comrade! Where is your battalion commander?" A soldier jumped off his horse and asked the sentry at Zhang Village about Li Xinmin's arrival.

  "The battalion commander is training at the east end of the village!", said the soldier, pointing to the east direction of the village. The soldiers heard and quickly mounted their horses and ran towards the east of the village.

  At this time, in the village of Dong, Li Xinmin was conducting daily training with the soldiers, mainly physical training and bayonet training. The soldiers were doing each movement neatly together with Li Xinmin.

  "Excuse me, is this Commander Li?", a soldier ran up and asked beside Li Xinmin.

  "It's me! What's up?" The warrior immediately gave Li Xinmin a salute.

  "Hello Captain Li! I was sent by the headquarters leader to inform the third battalion to go to the headquarters location! The leader said that you will know the specific situation after arriving at the headquarters!"

  "Alright! Let's have a meeting to discuss this matter!" Li Xinmin said, and immediately gathered several subordinates together to discuss it. After arranging everything, Li Xinmin led the team to move towards the headquarters' location in Wuxiang County, Wangjiayu Village. Before leaving, Li Xinmin specially took several subordinates to bid farewell to the comrades of the 772nd Regiment. After passing through the defense zones of several brother units, they finally arrived smoothly at the headquarters in Wuxiang County, Wangjiayu Village.

  As they watched the stretcher-borne warriors and those still wrapped in bandages approach, the soldiers defending headquarters all felt a pang of sadness. They more or less knew about the situation of the Third Battalion and had developed a sense of reverence for them in their hearts.

  "Good job, kid!" The commander patted Li Xinmin on the shoulder. Seeing the situation of the third battalion with his own eyes, the old commanders couldn't help but sigh. The loss this time was really too great, most of them were wounded.

  "Your three battalions will temporarily rest in Zhangzhuang, which is closer to headquarters and has the protection of brother units around. There you can replenish your troops and let the wounded soldiers recover."

  "Yes! Thank you, Commander, for your concern! Although the number of people in the Third Battalion is not many now, Li Xinmin believes that once these wounded soldiers recover, the Third Battalion will still be an iron army."

  In the following days, Li Xinmin put all his work on recruiting soldiers and training soldiers. Since ancient times, Shanxi men have been known for their bravery! I believe that under Li Xinmin's training, his three battalions will become an iron army again.

  The devil training of the three camps has officially begun. Li Xinmin adopted a one-to-one teaching method, with classes as units, and an old soldier corresponding to a new soldier. The old soldiers were responsible for guiding the new soldiers' training, and if they couldn't solve it, the class leader would be responsible for teaching, followed by the platoon leader and company commander. These old soldiers were quite familiar with the training, which allowed the new soldiers to quickly integrate into the troops and learn Li Xinmin's knowledge more quickly.

  In physical training, Li Xinnian adopted a modern-style physical fitness training method. In the absence of facilities, Li Xinnian had his men build their own exercise equipment to help soldiers train their bodies better. Li Xinnian equipped each soldier with a helmet and required them to wear it every day, along with their weapons and prescribed ammunition, and run around the perimeter of Zhangzhuang three times, completing two laps each time. For obstacle training, Li Xinnian had his men train in the woods, running through dense forests to improve their reaction ability and judgment.

  On the fitness equipment, Li Xinmin had people find many stone bars and had soldiers practice lifting these stone bars to exercise their arm strength. There were also small walls built next to the training grounds for soldiers to practice overcoming obstacles, and the remaining exercises were push-ups and sit-ups.

  In weapons training, Li Xinnian's training was even more intense. Each soldier was required to hold a rifle horizontally, with the muzzle tied to a stone block with a rope, and train motionlessly for over an hour. This training was extremely torturous. To stimulate the soldiers' enthusiasm for training, Li Xinnian took reward measures for soldiers who exceeded the required time, encouraging all soldiers to break through his predetermined time. Under Li Xinnian's arrangement, the soldiers of the third battalion gradually increased from 10 minutes to one hour, and some soldiers even broke through two hours. Li Xinnian also found many stones according to the weight of hand grenades, letting soldiers use stones as hand grenades for throwing training. He required soldiers to practice throwing 100 times a day, each time exceeding the 70 meters required by Li Xinnian. Those with excellent results would receive Li Xinnian's special reward, a can of Japanese beef.

  In terms of skills training, Li Xinmin required every soldier to be proficient in the use of the Zhongzheng rifle, the enemy's Type 38 Arisaka rifle, grenade launchers and infantry artillery. This would enable soldiers to switch weapons at any time during combat and respond better to battles. As a result, the three regiments no longer had specialized machine gunners and artillerymen, every soldier was able to use these weapons, and in battle, if there were situations that arose in any link, other soldiers could fill in promptly.

  Li Xinmin incorporated training into actual combat by having soldiers gain experience in battle, dividing them into three companies with each company led by a captain. When going out to fight, veterans protected new recruits and passed on their experience. Additionally, Li Xinmin required that every company that went out to fight must do so under the coordination of special forces, further ensuring the safety of new recruits. Their initial training target was the puppet army fighting for the Japanese devils, using intelligence sent by village communicators to lay ambushes at predetermined locations and wait for the puppet army to enter before conducting live-fire training exercises, with special forces and other veterans handling mop-up operations. The soldiers initially struggled against the puppet army but later became able to easily counter the enemy's attacks, engaging in direct firefights with the Japanese devils. With the help of countless puppet army and Japanese soldiers, the third battalion's soldiers now possess a certain level of combat capability, able to withstand strong firepower and counterattack in direct confrontations with the Japanese devils.

  After more than three months of training, the Third Battalion has undergone a complete transformation and its combat effectiveness has become extremely strong. If it continues to be trained for some time, the Third Battalion will surpass the original troops. The unconventional training of the Third Battalion is no longer surprising at headquarters, where many people came to watch their training when they first started, but now everyone is used to it and doesn't continue to watch. However, the Third Battalion has become neat in military posture, majestic in military appearance, and the soldiers standing there have an indescribable momentum, with a strong wind blowing. Zhangzhuang is only more than two miles away from Wangjiayu, where the headquarters is located, and sometimes the leaders of the headquarters also come to watch the training of the Third Battalion, giving it extremely high praise.