Chapter Ten Military Training

  Watching more than 500 devils pass by in front of their eyes, some warriors were very nervous. So many devils, can they be beaten? Look at the fierce momentum of these devils. Indeed, the devils are very ruthless in combat capabilities and marksmanship tactics.

  Li Baoguo sat on the ground, leisurely drinking water and chatting, not putting the devils in his heart at all. Seeing some soldiers were afraid, he comforted them: "Don't worry, with the captain here, don't mention these little devils, even if there are ten times more, the captain will have a way to solve it. Fighting is not just about numbers, you need to use your brain."

  The warriors didn't know Yang Guang at all. Listening to Li Baoguo's confidence in that quiet and weak captain, they couldn't help but change the subject.

  "Captain, look," said the soldier on watch, running over and pointing at a group of Japanese artillerymen slowly approaching in the distance.

  The transportation of the Japanese artillery had two ways, one was the most commonly used horse-drawn type, and the other was the motorized towing by trucks for mechanized units. However, many divisions, even combat divisions, lacked trucks, and some didn't have any at all. Therefore, Watanabe's artillery squad, due to Li Baoguo's landmines and shell craters, had a hard time keeping up with the main force along the way.

  Li Baoguo looked at the artillery squad, which was less than three miles away from the Japanese army, and exchanged a glance with Nan Wei. Both of them were fearless fighters who didn't mind taking risks. They smiled at each other: "You cover me, I'll launch the attack! Brothers, get ready, we need machine guns and hand grenades. Be careful not to blow up the cannons."

  Nan Erren quickly commanded the soldiers to ambush, and through the sniper scope, Nan Erren found that there were only more than 50 devils. He told the soldiers: "Take aim before shooting, two for each person, be quick."

  Li Baoguo and his warriors wore the devils' uniform, rode on the Oriental big horse, and rushed out of two miles. When they were not far from the devils, Li Baoguo shouted loudly in Japanese on the horse: "Command! Command! Order the artillery team to speed up!"

  The artillery squad leader found the messenger's awkwardness, but they were wearing their own uniforms and speaking their own language. While hesitating, Li Baoguo rushed forward with his men, and before he could speak, Nan Weiren gave an order, and the Japanese artillery squad leader fell to the ground with a thud. The artillerymen then fell one by one like cut corn stalks. Li Baoguo looked on as the enemy was quickly eliminated. Some soldiers behind him had just raised their guns when they discovered that the enemy had already been wiped out. For this, Li Baoguo was very angry: "On the battlefield, you must draw your gun quickly and be prepared at all times; killing the enemy is protecting yourself."

  Li Baoguo stood on horseback, took a look with binoculars, and saw the devils gathering in front of Kangjiatun. He excitedly said to Nan Weiren: "I'll command, you adjust the artillery, let's get them."

  "To the left, set up a machine gun position with Team One. To the right, set up a machine gun position with Team Two. You," he pointed to his own soldiers, "find your own firing positions and prepare for the enemy's counterattack. Be careful! Move out!"

  "Three teams come to learn how to fire cannons, four and five teams move cannonballs, quickly." Nan Weiren knew that Li Baoguo liked simplicity, so he organized his squad into five small groups of ten people each. It was convenient to command.

  Li Baoguo also found himself being too rash, and smiled awkwardly, walking to a high place to estimate the distance, reporting a series of data. Nan Ziren operated while explaining the meaning of the data to the soldiers, then loaded the cannonballs.

  Nan Wei Ren looked at Li Bao Guo and nodded. Li Bao Guo nodded back, then Nan Wei Ren waved his hand: "Fire the cannon!"

  Watching Watanabe gather troops, he suddenly heard gunfire coming from behind. Although it ended quickly, his heart skipped a beat as he thought of the artillery squad. He immediately broke out in a cold sweat and loudly ordered a small team leader: "You, lead your team to see what's happened to the artillery squad and protect them until they reach their position."

  However, the little devil team leader walked away not far, and Watanabe had to change his command again, because Nan Zai's big gun had accurately fired shells onto the devils' heads who were gathering. Suddenly, the devils' troops were in a great chaos, running around everywhere to find hiding places. The devils' gathering place was a relatively open area, but after all, they were well-trained and quickly dispersed their troops. Watanabe pointed behind him and said to the team leader who had not yet walked far: "Quickly, lead your men to retake the artillery position." Watanabe was still worried and dispatched two more teams of devils to join the battle.

  Li Baoguo stood at a high place, seeing clearly that they were coming to seize the cannon. He reported their position to Nan Weiren, and soon shells whizzed down onto the enemy's heads. Nan Weiren watched as the enemy's limbs flew in all directions, and he couldn't help but feel admiration for Li Baoguo. Estimating distances was child's play for him; it was a required course for snipers like Gun King. He hadn't expected Li Baoguo to be so accurate too.

  "Hurry, or the devils will be upon us!" The machine guns defending the position also opened fire. Nan Wei-ren's sniper team played a crucial role, taking out several devil squad leaders as soon as they appeared. Any devil who showed signs of command was taken care of. The devils who charged forward did not retreat despite losing their commanders, and a few of them managed to approach the artillery position under cover of each other's fire. Li Bao-guo cursed: "Damn it, if I don't give you a good scare, you'll think I'm nobody!"

  The two shells of Nan Ren's immediately hit the target accurately, with an elevation angle of almost 85 degrees. Li Baoguo was delighted in his heart, even if he could smash these few devils to death. Anyway, the shells were seized.

  Because these artillerymen temporarily took the stage, they could only be unified in command. The shells of the two large cannons almost flew out in parallel, and indeed, the huge explosive force tore those devils into pieces, also shattering the last hope of the devils who still had a few lucky ones left. The remaining devils finally couldn't withstand it and began to retreat. The artillery fire extended accordingly, starting to plow through the devil's main position.

  Yang Jue was observing the enemy's situation through binoculars in Kangjia Town when he suddenly heard cannon fire and the enemy became disorganized. He knew that Li Baoguo's situation had changed, so he said to Chen Zhihao: "Wait a minute, I'll lead the charge with my men, you bring all the soldiers to clean up the remaining enemies and try to annihilate these devils in one go, what do you think?" Chen Zhihao knew that Yang Jue had made up his mind and didn't decline, nodding in agreement and ordering his men to gather. Yang Jue immediately ordered all machine gunners and grenade throwers (selected soldiers who were skilled at throwing grenades far and accurately) to assemble, twenty machine gunners and sixty grenade throwers stood in a row, Yang Jue was fully armed, holding a machine gun in his hand, with Gao Junping following behind him. "Brothers, I won't say any more nonsense, one sentence: 'On the battlefield, narrow roads meet, the brave are invincible'. Follow me, eliminate the devils, protect our home!"

  Li Ying commanded on the wall of Kangjia Town, arranging all the grenade launchers in a row to cover the front line of the enemy's position. Although not many enemies were killed, it effectively covered Yang Jie and his men as they rushed out of Kangjia Town, cleared the minefield, and took cover in the craters created by the grenade launchers. After Nan Wei-ren had plowed through the enemy's position, Yang Jie quickly led the soldiers to rush out of the craters, with machine gun fire and hand grenade explosions filling the air. Watanabe saw that the situation was going against him and led his troops in a desperate attempt to break through, but was shot in the forehead by Zheng Xiulin, splashing blood and brains onto the face of another enemy soldier behind him, who fainted from shock. This was reportedly the only surviving enemy soldier in the entire Kangjia Town battle. Chen Zhihao led his men to see Yang Jie scattering the enemy and immediately ordered his soldiers to form groups of three to encircle and annihilate the enemy. Watanabe's troops were now down to less than a hundred men, being pursued by over a thousand people. Despite the enemy's desperate resistance, they were vastly outnumbered and were either lured forward and stabbed in the back or killed with stones, with some even using hand grenades as stones, with one soldier reportedly using a hand grenade to bludgeon an enemy soldier to death.

  Ma San had long since discovered the danger, seeing the devils fleeing into the mountain forest, quietly leading the little spies to escape to Huanhua Creek riverbank. As soon as they arrived at the riverbank, they saw a man wearing devil's uniform, but not carrying a big gun, only carrying a large package of hand grenades, chasing after them. Knowing it was a guerrilla squad, they could have opened fire and killed this lone intruder, but Ma San was cunning, fearing that opening fire would bring the guerrillas' pursuit, shouting to the spies: "Don't open fire, jump into the river quickly!" He took the lead in jumping down, and the spies behind him hadn't had time to jump when a hand grenade accurately landed among them. The spies who weren't killed by the blast didn't care about inviting revenge either, and they opened fire one after another. However, their opponent had already moved to a different location, and several hand grenades immediately blew these spies to death.

  The team member was happily sweeping the battlefield, collecting the special agents' guns, when he suddenly heard a noise behind him. He quickly rolled forward and found that there was a Japanese soldier standing behind him with a large gun pointed at him. The team member stood up, smiled at the Japanese soldier, took out a hand grenade from his back pocket, pulled the pin, and threw it at the Japanese soldier's crotch. The Japanese soldier instinctively lay down, and the team member laughed as he ran two steps forward and lay down. "Boom!" The Japanese soldier's lower body was blown off. The team member looked at the bloody corpse of the Japanese soldier, collected his guns and ammunition, and said: "The captain's method really works."

  Facing the mangled corpses of the devils, the psychological endurance of the warriors was what Yang Jie talked about the most in these five days. For anyone who had never killed before, the first time is always the most terrifying, fearful and difficult hurdle. However, the iron law of survival on the battlefield is either you die or I live. No matter whether it's your own people or the enemy's gruesome dead bodies, you can't be afraid, tremble, vomit, otherwise the next one will be you.

  After sweeping the battlefield, Yang Jie ordered Li Baoguo to lead a team of 50 people each, with Li Baoguo heading towards Weixian County, Nan Wuren heading east towards Beiping, and Gao Junping heading north towards Zhuoxian. At the same time, a batch of special warfare soldiers was trained, and two months later, they were assembled for examination and rotation training.

  When Yang Jie heard Li Baoguo's report that he agreed to promote 20 team members as squad leaders, Yang Jie gathered these people who were about to set out and were trained as special warfare soldiers and announced: "No matter who, as long as you have the ability to recruit personnel, you can be an official of whatever size. There is a saying, remember: 'A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier.' When fighting, it's about skills, if you have skills, show them off, I will give you ample opportunity. But remember, you are special warfare team members, being timid is not allowed, not being willing to kill the enemy is not allowed, being too selfish is not allowed. Alright, I wish everyone can become a regiment commander or battalion commander." The team members were stirred up by his words, who wouldn't want to be a general when fighting? This sentence was too stimulating.

  Li Baoguo led the team to the vicinity of Xiyangkou and said to the soldiers beside him, "According to what the captain said, who else can pull the team? Come out and we'll divide it up." Seeing that several people were eager to move but too embarrassed, he said, "How can those who achieve great things be afraid of wolves in front and tigers behind? If you can't pull the team, it's not a big deal, no one will laugh at you." The few people who spoke out blushed and stood up.

  "Captain, aren't you afraid we'll take the team and go solo?" a team member asked in a low voice.

  Li Baoguo smiled and said, "Do you know how a drop of water can avoid drying up?" He looked at the team members seriously and said, "A drop of water will only not dry up if it is placed in the ocean. Who is our ocean? It's the common people. You can lead your own troops to fight independently, but don't forget to fight against the devils (Japanese). The ocean of common people will protect you, and I won't pursue you either, let's just say we're brothers with no fate; if you lead your troops to harm the common people, even if the team leader doesn't pursue you, I won't let you off."

  "Don't worry, Captain Li, we'll be back on time just for you," the team members said in unison.

  Li Baoguo gazed at his comrades disappearing into the jungle and said to the soldiers behind him, "Let's go take a look around for devils nearby."

  Yang Jie sent off the three special teams and returned to the villa area with Chen Zhihao and Li Ying, starting a two-month military training. Yang Jie first improved the food for the soldiers to the best, saying: "The body is the capital of revolution, if the food is not good, how can we have energy to train?"

  Then conduct a quality test on the warriors and divide them into skill training groups and quality training groups based on their scores.

  The special warfare training standards were further simplified, focusing on practicality and effectiveness, with intensified training for those who excelled in skills training. These individuals would then train and assess the entire team. To motivate the warriors, a reward system was also introduced, where the winner of the final competition would be appointed as the deputy commander.

  At the same time, Li Ying wrote a book called "Commander Must-read", which combines various modern warfare experiences and provides strategic guidance to the entire team. At the same time, an assessment was conducted, and those with excellent results were rewarded.

  For the quality training group, in addition to increasing the intensity of supervision, special rewards are given to diligent and hardworking team members, mobilizing team members to learn and summarize training techniques on their own.

  For political work, Chen Zhihao has a lot of methods, but he doesn't have time. At 5 am, he runs with a full load for 20 kilometers, followed by combat training in the morning, shooting theory or live ammunition practice in the afternoon, and strategic studies at night.

  Despite this, he was still confident in Yang Wei, as he was witnessing the formation of an iron army. Yang Wei's words were not wrong, and within two months, these originally slack and lazy villagers who knew nothing about military affairs had transformed into vigorous warriors after days of training. Especially the soldiers' bayonet skills, since Yang Wei didn't understand bayonets at all, he simply evolved a few moves to counter the enemy's bayonet techniques from martial arts, although they didn't look very good, Chen Zhihao knew they were very effective, as they were simple and unexpected overall.

  Li Ying, in addition to co-authoring "Commander's Must-Read" with Yang Jue, devoted a great deal of energy to building an intelligence network. Yang Jue knew that intelligence was the key to victory and spared no expense in investing manpower and resources. He even personally went to Liu Liangzi Gou to invite an old man who could train birds to come and train the intelligence team's carrier pigeons and magpies.

  In the villa, Yang Jie, Chen Zhihao, Li Ying and Jia Zhenghao were discussing the personnel arrangement of the two squads they were going to form. Yang Jie said: "The first squad is easy to say, let Zhou Shicai be in charge, and we can conduct actual combat testing in two days. The specific personnel arrangement can be studied with Zhou Shicai at that time. The second squad is not yet possible, although the quality has improved significantly in the past two months, but the combat technology still needs to be strengthened for a month, and we must find a good captain to support this team and bring out a tiger wolf team."

  Li Ying pointed to a piece of paper and said: "Next is Tang Ningyu, second in overall score, good at strategy."

  Chen Zhihao shook his head, glanced at Yang Gong and said: "High scores don't necessarily mean anything, Xiao Tang is a good strategist but indecisive, with a somewhat narrow mind, not the demeanor of a great general."

  Yang Jie nodded: "I agree with Old Chen's opinion, Little Tang is indeed not suitable for being the commander-in-chief, he can be a consultant but lacks the demeanor to be the main general. What about Qin Yahai? His political stance is unclear."

  Qin Yahai ranked fifth, good at nothing in particular. As a result, Li Ying found that Qin Yahai's scores were basically the same, and there was no specialty. She couldn't help but take a look at Yang Wei, knowing that Yang Wei had already set his sights on this person.

  "Political attitude is important, the party commands the gun, I think it's necessary to let Old Chen Ge have a thorough talk with him." Li Ying followed Yang Wei and called Chen Zhihao "Old Chen Ge", supporting Yang Wei's meaning.

  Chen Zhihao understood that Yang Wei actually hoped he could do the ideological and political work of Qin Yahei, take charge of the second branch team, and also knew that Yang Wei was apologizing to himself. Political work had always been Chen Zhihao's responsibility, but because Yang Wei overemphasized military affairs and neglected the education of political ideology.

  Chen Zhihao nodded: "Alright, Qin Yahai is from the Northeast Army, and it's inevitable that he has some bad habits from his old unit. I think I'll talk to him first, then assign a political commissar to guide him, how about that?"

  Yang Jie said: "The political workers sent by the central government cannot pass through the railway, delaying their journey. Where is the political commissar?"

  Chen Zhihao looked at Jia Zhuohuang and said: "Comrade Jia Zhuohuang has always hoped to develop in the troops, he himself is from an old Red Army background, both politically and militarily are very strong, I think it's better to let Old Jia be the political commissar of the Second Brigade."

  Yang Ji heard this and knew that Jia Zhuohao had already communicated with Chen Zhihao, so he said excitedly: "If Old Jia can join the team, then there's no need to go to the second branch. I think it would be great for Zhou Shicai to serve as the political commissar. In two days, when the first branch is established, we will begin combat training and we are in urgent need of a political commissar to guide us. The second branch can still rely on Old Chen to take care of things, let's wait until the people from Yan'an arrive."

  Jia Zhuohuang certainly knew what kind of team a branch team was. With some polishing, their combat effectiveness was not inferior to the main force of the Eighth Route Army. They dared to fight against the devils one-on-one with knives. After listening to Yang Wei's words, he looked at Chen Zhihao with excitement and said: "I obey the organization's decision and resolutely complete all tasks assigned by the party."

  Li Ying secretly smiled at Yang Cong's cunning, using both carrot and stick to win over Chen Zhihao's heart while also buying off Jia Zhuohuang's.

  Yang Jie saw Chen Zhihao nod in agreement, and said to Li Ying: "Inform Li Baoguo that the first battalion will be conducting military exercises at Xiyangkou two days later. Have him prepare all kinds of intelligence and topographic data."

  Li Ying nodded and smiled, "Li Baoguo has become quite the dignitary. Now when he enters or exits the Weizhou city gate, even the devils don't dare look him straight in the eye. The puppet army's secret agents all call him Li Baye."

  Everyone laughed. Each of them walked out of the villa and arranged their own work. Yang Jue sent someone to find Qin Yahai, and they talked about various topics for an entire afternoon. Qin Yahai gradually understood Yang Jue's meaning in his subsequent conversation with Chen Zhihao: politically leaning towards **, militarily striving for democratic centralism, and pursuing a higher realm of life. After Qin Yahai grasped Yang Jue's thoughts, he admired the captain who was five or six years younger than himself from the bottom of his heart, whose mind was so broad, vision so far-sighted, and interests so pure and noble. Qin Yahai felt a sense of relief in finding his spiritual home, knowing that he had finally found a "wise lord".

  Qin Yahai did not actually show his true strength, Yang Jiong discovered this when watching the game and only then noticed him. Later, after Yang Jiong spoke up, Qin Yahai finally said what he had been holding back in his heart and made up his mind to follow Yang Jiong from then on to make revolution.

  Two days later, two messages were received. One was that Yang Wei's Western Camp at Xiguan had been taken by Li Baoguo's troops without a fight, and they requested the headquarters to send personnel to transport supplies and ammunition. The other was from Nan Weiren, who reported that while pursuing and attacking a group of bandits at Caojia Slope, he had surrounded a remnant of the National Army in the Lao Ye Shan area, and asked for instructions.