Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 22 The calm before the storm

Yan Laoxi nodded slightly: "Cui Ya, what do you think of this Wang Feng?"

Sun Chu was stunned for a moment, then said cautiously:

"This young man is quite courageous, but courage alone is probably not enough for a war..."

Yan Laoxi stroked his chin and looked at the portrait of the President hanging on the wall:

"This person graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy. Do you think he could be an undercover agent sent by Nanjing?"

Sun Chu frowned and spoke ambiguously:
"His ancestors were all from Shanxi and he was considered to be quite influential in the local area. But it is hard to understand why such a person traveled thousands of miles to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy."

Yan Laoxi sighed:

"Okay, I get it. The Pingxingguan area must not fall into the hands of the Japanese army. You and Xingru must work together."

Sun Chu lowered his head: "I understand."

The Xingru mentioned by Yan Laoxi is Yang Aiyuen, commander of the Sixth Army Group, a fellow villager from Wutai County, Shanxi Province.

"Wait a moment!"

Just as Sun Chu was about to walk out of the office, Yan Laoxi stopped him.

Then he thought and hesitated:

"Allow 50,000 rounds of ammunition and 5,000 grenades to Wang Feng's First Temporary Brigade and send them directly to the Tuanchengkou position."

……

After two days of marching, the Temporary 1st Brigade arrived at the Tuanchengkou position on the north side of Pingxingguan.

Gao Guizi personally walked out of the command center and led a group of officers to greet Wang Feng.

"Brigade Commander Wang, you are finally here!"

As soon as the troops stopped, Gao Guizi came up to them with a smile.

Wang Feng jumped off his horse and saluted: "General Gao, the first brigade is here to report!"

Gao Guizi was so happy that his mouth almost stretched to his ears, and he nodded repeatedly in agreement.

The 17th Army and the 84th Division fought continuously with the Japanese invaders in Nankou, Guangling and Weixian.

For nearly two months, there was no rest or replenishment.

Now, after waiting for a long time, the reinforcements finally arrived.

Gao Guizi looked behind him and saw the Type 92 heavy machine guns on the shoulders of the soldiers. He couldn't help but joked:
"Your brigade is really generous. The heavy machine guns in this brigade are almost as many as those in my entire division!"

Wang Feng smiled calmly: "I made a little fortune a while ago, not much, how can it be compared with your army?"

Gao Guizi was a man of iron will from Shaanxi. He didn't talk too much and directly pulled Wang Feng to his command center.

"Commander Wang, let me tell you about the current battlefield situation."

After entering the house, Wang Feng looked at the sand table on the table. There were small flags stuck on it, and there were many signs of being turned over.

"Come, Brigade Commander Wang, please have a look."

"At present, there are only two of our troops stationed in the Tuanchengkou area."

"Pingxingguan is composed of two independent brigades and the 33rd Division of your 73rd Army."

"You must have known all this, so I won't go into details."

"There is another troop behind the main force of the Japanese."

"It is the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army."

"The force is currently on standby and the command is developing an active offensive plan."

"The Japanese army is currently launching a massive attack on the front of Pingxingguan, and the fighting has not yet reached Tuanchengkou."

"But from what I have observed, if the Japanese army fails at Pingxingguan, they will most likely change the direction of their attack, and Tuanchengkou will then be the front line of the battle."

Wang Feng nodded.

When he became the head of an army, Gao Guizi's strategic vision was truly impeccable.

In real history, the 21st Brigade was indeed frustrated in its attack at Pingxingguan and was forced to shift the front line to the Tuanchengkou area.

After explaining the situation, Gao Guizi looked a little embarrassed:

"Commander Wang, the situation of our 17th Army is very critical at the moment. We may need your troops to take on more frontline defense tasks."

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Brigade Commander Wang."

Wang Feng nodded and accepted it with pleasure. On the way, he passed by the positions of the 17th Army and had a clear view of the specific situation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the 17th Army has been an iron army so far, and it is an army capable of fighting tough battles.

After all, we fought the Japanese army for two months in a row.

But it is also true that morale is low and on the verge of collapse.

Any army that suffers two months of consecutive defeats and has not received any reinforcements will have its morale plummet.

I just saw the soldiers of the 17th Army huddled in the trenches. Most of them had lifeless eyes, and they seemed to be very numb to this war.

Military supplies were also scarce.

There were few heavy machine guns on the entire position, and even the number of light machine guns was very limited.

Food reserves were also decreasing rapidly.

When there were no combat missions, the soldiers only had one meal a day, and the amount that one person ate before the war was shared equally by two or three people.

It is hard to imagine that this is a military-level unit of the Central Army.

Wang Feng was even afraid that what happened when defending Tianzhen would happen again.

After walking out of the command center, Zhao Fangyuan was waiting at the door.

"Commander, Commander Yan sent someone to deliver a batch of military supplies. Here is the list."

Wang Fengli touched his cuffs and looked at the numbers on them, feeling a little surprised.

Fifty thousand rounds of ammunition and five thousand grenades.

Although it is a drop in the bucket, it is still astonishing.

Has Yan Laoxi changed his nature of deducting Wang?

Is it the first day of departure to the west coast?

Zhao Fangyuan showed a trace of helplessness on his face and handed over a newspaper: "Captain, why don't you take a look at this..."

Wang Feng took it and glanced at it briefly, and a few black lines flashed across his forehead.

Yan Laoxi reported this military aid in the most conspicuous place in the newspaper.

The general meaning is that as long as your front-line troops fight bravely and make the Japanese cry out in pain, it will bring honor to my Second War Zone.

You can get "sufficient" military supplies.

Doing business?

We even started bartering...

Wang Feng threw the newspaper away and said, "Forget it for now. It's rare for Commander Yan to be so generous. Please distribute the bullets and build a defensive position as soon as possible."

"Be prepared to resist the Japanese raid at any time!"

The garrison position of the Temporary 17st Brigade was located on the right wing of the th Army.

The first regiment is the main force, responsible for defending the pass at the front of the position.

The left wing is handed over to friendly forces.

The Second Regiment was responsible for the defense of the right wing.

Upon hearing that there would be a combat mission, Zhang Hu became very excited and ran directly to the front of the battle line to instruct the new recruits in building the battle line.

"The heavy machine guns should be placed diagonally to the rear. Don't put them directly in front of the position. Move them to the back."

"Put them on the left and right, cross them. If you still don't understand what I'm saying, I'll beat you up!"

All these military command knowledge were taught to him by Wang Feng in his spare time.

Not only Zhang Hu, but almost all the original soldiers of the 414th Regiment have received various trainings from Wang Feng.

But most have had little effect.

The few people who were effective were entrusted with important tasks at that time.

It was the three battalion commanders and Chief of Staff Zhao Fangyuan.

Among them, Zhao Fangyuan performed the best, followed by Song Wenjie and Liu Zhijian.

The dumbest one is Zhang Hu
But this guy is brave in combat and has strong execution ability.

If Wang Feng points east, he will never go west.

(End of this chapter)