Chapter 66: Headquarters Astounded: Who on Earth is Attacking the Japanese Stronghold?

Just as Liu Changqing and his men experienced in early June, the forces led by Zhang Yun encountered no trouble when attacking the Japanese and puppet troops' strongholds in the mountainous areas across Yuci, Taigu, and Yushe counties.

Currently, the Japanese forces were still concentrating their attention on the main battlefront. Although the Battle of Lanfeng had drawn to a close, the Battle of Wuhan—the largest military showdown between China and Japan in 1938—was about to erupt.

The Japanese army concentrated nearly 300,000 troops across two armies and 11 divisions to engage in fierce fighting with 1.1 million Chinese soldiers across four provinces surrounding Wuhan, lasting from June to October. As a result, although the Japanese forces captured Wuhan, they suffered 40,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries. However, the Kuomintang and various warlord factions also paid a heavy price of over 400,000 casualties.

Although the Battle of Wuhan shattered Japan's attempt to swiftly conquer China—causing the Japanese to shift toward a strategy focusing primarily on political subversion of the Kuomintang and secondarily on military struggle—it also prompted the Japanese to redirect their attention from the front lines back to the occupied territories. Subsequently, the Kuomintang abandoned its resolute anti-Japanese stance, turning instead to passive resistance against Japan and active opposition to the Communists. Consequently, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army encountered numerous difficulties in developing their anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines.

Nevertheless, during this phase in late June, the Japanese North China Area Army shifted a massive number of troops northward to support the Wuhan battlefield, drastically thinning their forces in Shanxi. The Japanese and puppet strongholds relied entirely on their previously established terror-inspiring reputations and solid stone blockhouses to control the surrounding towns and villages.

Under normal circumstances, such strongholds rendered guerrillas helpless, leaving them to sigh in despair at the sight of the blockhouses. However, when confronted with the unreasonable and heavily armed Zhang Yun, the Japanese and puppet strongholds suffered absolute disaster. The blockhouses were blasted to pieces by infantry guns, the soldiers inside were killed, and any Japanese or puppet troops lucky enough to survive the artillery barrage were picked off one by one by the ensuing machine gun and rifle fire.

Next came the routine deep dives into various villages to conduct propaganda and recruit soldiers. At this time, the Japanese around the Taiyuan Basin were using weapons previously captured from the Central Army and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army to arm numerous puppet troops, while actively propping up traitorous organizations like maintenance associations in towns and villages. When Zhang Yun and his men went to propagate policies, they suppressed these elements all at once, effectively eliminating pests for the nation.

By the beginning of July, Zhang Yun's detachment had "swept" through more than a dozen towns and villages across Yuci, Taigu, and Yushe counties before turning back toward Shouyang to rendezvous with Liu Changqing.

Goodness gracious! The Independent Detachment had set out with barely over 800 men, but by the time the two forces united, their numbers had swelled to over 1,600, having recruited nearly 800 new soldiers along the way.

Following that, Zhang Yun and his men swept along the Zhengtai Railway line, attacking and dismantling 9 strongholds and destroying over 80 kilometers of the railway. Had the Japanese not deployed armored trains and converged from both directions of Taiyuan and Yangquan, Zhang Yun would have intended to obliterate every single blockhouse along the entire railway line.

Realizing that substantial reinforcements from both eastern and western Japanese forces were converging to encircle them, and considering that the main force of the Independent Detachment was encumbered by too many newly recruited soldiers, Zhang Yun wisely accepted his gains, led the troops deep into the mountains, and circled back to their base via mountain trails.

This offensive lasted for over ten days, resulting in the destruction of 27 blockhouses, the elimination of over 1,400 Japanese and puppet troops (including more than 1,000 puppet soldiers), and the execution of over 70 traitors. In reality, they captured over 900 firearms and more than 16,000 rounds of ammunition. Additionally, through Zhang Yun's system cash-outs, he acquired over 1,000 rifles and machine guns, 4 mortars, and more than 90,000 rounds of ammunition.

As for the spoils stored in his inventory space, Zhang Yun's harvest was simply staggering. He secured 24,000 tons of grain, 1.4 tons of gold, 13.6 tons of silver, 35.6 tons of copper, over 5,000 tons of steel and iron, alongside more than 500 rifles, 24 machine guns, over 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and 12 grenade launchers.

Upon returning to the base, the handover of the new recruits sparked another lively scene.

Deputy Commander Xing instantly felt the crushing weight of enormous pressure upon seeing that nearly 800 fresh recruits had been added to the Independent Detachment. Aside from a few outstanding soldiers who had already been transferred to supplement regular combat units, the New Recruit Company now held over 1,500 trainees. Merely accommodating these men in the barracks was a monumental logistical task, let alone arranging their meals, uniforms, training, and organizational structuring. Fortunately, Deputy Commander Xing possessed extensive prior experience and was specially assigned three staff officers for assistance, enabling him to sort through these matters as quickly as possible.

Luckily, Zhang Yun had anticipated these issues beforehand and, leveraging the convenience of ongoing engineering construction, built a large number of new barracks and dormitories near several villages surrounding Xiaowang Village. Every day, the new recruits were dispersed to practice drill formations and tactical movements, after which they were unified at the rear mountains to undergo shooting and mortar training.

Simultaneously, through the two offensives, they had captured (including system conversions) over 1,800 rifles, more than 50 machine guns, 1 infantry gun, 1 mountain gun, and over 140,000 rounds of ammunition. The captured weaponry and ammunition not only fully equipped the new recruits but also left a surplus capable of supporting neighboring guerrilla forces.

By this time, counting the new recruits, the personnel strength of Zhang Yun's Independent Detachment had exceeded 2,700 men, reaching the troop level of a standard Eighth Route Army regular regiment.

However, Zhang Yun had no immediate plans to report for duty or seek a regimental-level designation. First, the base was too far from the brigade headquarters, and making the trip would take too much time. Second, the development of their base camp had only just begun; if the brigade or division headquarters learned of such a massive and exorbitantly expensive project, they would likely object.

Zhang Yun intended to continue expanding his forces, making full use of more than a hundred company and platoon-level officers, and grow the unit to over 5,000 men—matching the scale of Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment—before proudly declaring themselves a regimental-level unit to the outside world.

...

Upon returning to the base, all departments of the Independent Detachment resumed their bustling activities.

In accordance with prior deployment, the New Recruit Company put the raw recruits through 30 days of rigorous military training, supplemented by intensive live-fire shooting practices to help them quickly grasp battlefield survival and combat skills.

The regular troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Companies not only continued their military training but were also assigned by Zhang Yun and Deputy Commander Xing to assist local villagers in harvesting grain and digging irrigation canals, as well as constructing concealed concrete fortifications and tunnel networks at key points along nearby mountain paths to enhance the base's defensive capabilities. Meanwhile, the Mortar Company was busy prioritizing selections from the New Recruit Company to continuously expand its establishment, training additional personnel for mortar, infantry gun, and mountain gun branches.

Director Tang of the Logistics Department had the hardest job of all. He was responsible not only for the food, clothing, housing, and distribution of weapons and ammunition for the soldiers, but also for organizing the provisions and supplies for the military arsenal and construction workers, arranging grain and material procurement, commissioning villagers to manufacture military uniforms, and handling a myriad of other affairs, leaving him so busy his feet barely touched the ground. However, what reassured him was that the vast quantities of captured wealth, grain, and textiles not only covered the material expenditures brought by the arrival of the new recruits, but the Independent Detachment's overall material reserves were actually growing. Furthermore, the commissioning of the military arsenal ensured a steady, continuous production of mortar shells, grenades, bullets, and other ammunition, gradually filling the Independent Detachment's armory.

The Ordnance Department was equally a scene of frantic activity. Although the arsenal was still located in a makeshift workshop behind Xiaowang Village, with the arrival of massive amounts of equipment and supplies, military production had steadily stepped onto the right track, and the number of arsenal employees now exceeded 190. Sustained by Zhang Yun's continuous provision of basic production materials such as pyrite, saltpeter, ordnance steel, steel plates, and lead blocks, along with crucial chemical compounds like mercury fulminate and lead azide, the arsenal could now daily produce 1 ton of TNT explosives, 3,000 grenades, 200 mortar shells, and 3,000 rifle bullets. As the production procedures were gradually streamlined, output was poised for an even greater leap forward!

The Communications Department did not have an overwhelming workload, yet it extensively laid field telephone lines. Through hidden underground telephone wires, all departments at the base and several surrounding villages achieved telephone connectivity. During the two offensives, Zhang Yun and his men had captured dozens of telephones and a vast quantity of telephone wire, and these field telephones and wires were now put to good use. Well, truth be told, Zhang Yun's inventory space contained radios, but he preferred to cash them out to strengthen communications with headquarters only after the base construction was fully completed. Thus, the Communications Department of his Independent Detachment remained configured with human couriers and field telephones.

The Medical Department was still in its nascent stage. Battlefield doctors were exceedingly difficult to find, and training programs for battlefield first aid were hard to implement. Zhang Yun could only instruct them to purchase large quantities of sweet potato liquor and other local spirits to distill high-proof alcohol for disinfection supplies. The Eighth Route Army headquarters was scheduled to organize a medic training program in August, and Deputy Commander Xing was already inquiring about how to register, intending to dispatch 20 people to learn at once.

...

While Zhang and his men were hard at work amid the bustling activity, a certain staff officer of the Eighth Route Army headquarters asked those around him in utter bewilderment:

"Just who on earth is attacking the Japanese strongholds?"