Li Guotao was indeed full of doubts, according to the usual practice, the sudden establishment of a column by the Eighth Route Army was most likely due to some important military deployment.For example, after the formation of the third column led by Commander Meng, it immediately advanced into the Jizhong Plain and opened up the Jizhong base area.Another example is that a few months ago, the Eighth Route Army had just been established from the first column, and after the establishment of the first column, it immediately set out from the southern Hebei region to Shandong to open up the anti-Japanese base area in Shandong.The same was true of the other second and fourth columns.It can be said that these columns of the Eighth Route Army are all shouldering important missions, and every time a column is established, it shows that the Eighth Route Army is about to carry out a new large-scale strategic deployment.But this time, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army only ordered Li Guotao's department to be reorganized into the Seventh Column of the Eighth Route Army, but did not specify any tasks, which made Li Guotao unable to help but have doubts.Commander Lu smiled and said, "I know what you're thinking about, but I can't answer you.Because I don't know what new strategic deployment the headquarters has this time, but I know that this time the movement is not small. ”"How can you see it," Li Guotao asked with a frown.Commander Lu explained with a smile: "Because this time, the Eighth Route Army did not set up a seventh column, but set up three columns at once, namely the sixth, seventh and eighth columns, each column is a strength of tens of thousands of people, and they are all formed by elite troops from all over the country, do you say that this action can be small" "Three columns" Li Guotao was slightly surprised, and after thinking about it, he said: "The Eighth Route Army has concentrated three columns this time, with more than 30,000 troops, is it possible that it is going to carry out a local counteroffensive somewhere. ”"I can't rule out this possibility, but we don't have to guess here, what is going on, it will be clear after a while."
Commander Lu waved his hand and said, "Your main task now is still to reorganize the troops as soon as possible, further improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, and wait for orders at any time. ”"It's a guarantee to get the job done."
Li Guotao replied respectfully.Commander Lu nodded with satisfaction and said: "My ugly words can be said in front, although your Seventh Column is now directly under the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, but after all, you are a unit that has gone out from my Jizhong base area, no matter where you go, you can't smear my Jizhong base area, otherwise I will definitely not spare you." ”"Please rest assured, commander.Our troops, no matter where they go, will be a tiger and wolf division that makes the little devils fearful, and will definitely not smear our Jizhong base area or the commander's face. ”Li Guotao assured with a serious face."
Haha, with your words, then I'm relieved."
Commander Lu couldn't help but laugh and said.Commander Lu came this time mainly to convey this order, and after the transmission was completed.Accompanied by Li Guotao and others, Commander Lu visited the stations of the Fourth Brigade and the Seventh Brigade respectively, and was very satisfied with the current situation of the troops.Commander Lu stayed in Anguo for only one night, and the next day he hurried back to the military region headquarters.After sending off Commander Lu, Li Guotao summoned Changde, Li Yongfu and others to discuss the reorganization of the troops.Li Guotao said with a serious face: "This time, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army ordered us to form the seventh column, and there must be an important task to be handed over to us.In order to be able to successfully accomplish this important task, we must complete the task of reorganizing the troops as soon as possible. ”"Guotao, in terms of training troops and reorganizing troops, you should be the best at this, don't hide it, just say what you have planned" Li Yongfu said with a smile.Li Guotao said with a serious face: "Since I received the order yesterday, I have also been thinking about this issue.Now it's just a rough plan.I have already drawn up a training plan for each unit, and the training plan of the troops must not be delayed, and we must continue to implement that plan. ”Seeing that everyone nodded, and no one objected, Li Guotao continued: "Next, let's talk about the reorganization of the troops.I have decided that the two brigades under our Seventh Column will not make major adjustments for the time being, but will only carry out some corresponding reinforcements.The Fourth Brigade still has Li Yongfu as the brigade commander, and the Seventh Brigade is Changde as the commander.These two brigades, with the same establishment, have two infantry regiments under their jurisdiction, each with a full strength of more than 2,000 people, plus the artillery battalion, engineer battalion, baggage battalion, and guard company directly under the brigade, and each brigade will reach more than 5,000 people when it is fully established.In addition, our Seventh Column will set up an artillery regiment directly under the column, and all cavalry units will be transferred to form a cavalry regiment, and a guard battalion will also be set up to establish a field hospital.The original Seventh Brigade Special Operations Brigade and the Special Operations Brigade directly under the military sub-district were combined into a single special operations brigade, and its name is still called the Excalibur Special Operations Brigade. ”Li Yongfu couldn't help frowning: "Old Li, although your plan is good, I'm afraid it will be a little difficult to implement it, not to mention weapons and equipment, even in terms of soldiers, there is a big gap, after all, our Seventh Column left Jizhong, and the Fourth Army Division had to leave some troops behind, I roughly calculated that the troops we could take away were only 10,000 at most." ”Li Guotao nodded and said: "You are right, the Fourth Army Division, it is indeed necessary to leave a part of the troops, yesterday I also mentioned this matter to Commander Lu, the commander said, after we retreat, the military region headquarters will transfer two regiments of troops to support our Fourth Division."
In this way, we don't have to worry about the security of the four service divisions.There is also the fact that when we fought Dingzhou before, we captured nearly 3,000 puppet soldiers, some of which can be completely transformed into our Eighth Route Army, although those puppet armies are good and bad, but they are all young and strong people, even if they can't enter the combat army, it should be more than enough to be a baggage soldier.Our relevant departments are also actively doing the work of these puppet armies, striving to let more puppet armies join the ranks of our Eighth Route Army, so that the problem of soldiers will be basically solved. ”Li Guotao glanced at everyone present and saw that everyone had no other questions, so he continued: "There will definitely be difficulties, but no difficulties can stop us, as long as we work together, we will definitely be able to overcome any difficulties."
Time is running out for us, and I hope that all comrades will join me in making concerted efforts to complete the task of reorganizing the troops as soon as possible. ”"Yes," everyone replied in unison.aa2705221: