Resistance against Japan: Starting with the local militia

Chapter 283 Holding a Meeting

After the Independent Brigade's logistics regiment withdrew from Wolongshan County with supplies, the Japanese troops attacking Qingshan County and Lingshui County also retreated! For the Japanese, since the Independent Brigade had already completely retreated, there was no point in continuing the attack.

This battle began with the Independent Brigade's attack on Lingshui County and ended with the attack on Wolongshan County, ultimately resulting in a complete victory for the Independent Brigade.

The results of this operation far exceeded Tang Weiguo's expectations.

In this battle, the Independent Brigade successfully captured Lingshui County. From then on, the Independent Brigade controlled two county towns.

Moreover, Lingshui County and Qingshan County face each other across the distance, forming a strategic defensive position. Once the Independent Brigade controls these two counties, it can ensure the safety of the entire northern region of Wolong Mountain.

Moreover, during this battle, the Independent Brigade seized a favorable opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Wolongshan County, sweeping away all the supplies stockpiled in the Japanese armory in Wolongshan.

The supplies captured from Wolongshan County not only fully compensated for the losses in this battle, but also provided ammunition for the Independent Brigade for a long time to come.

After the battle, Tang Weiguo immediately made post-battle arrangements to consolidate the gains of the victory.

He ordered Tang Xiaohu to lead the reinforced regiment to garrison Lingshui County, while Tang Dazhuang replaced Tang Xiaohu and garrisoned Qingshan County. The reconnaissance regiment, volunteer regiment, and guard regiment returned to the Wolongshan brigade headquarters to closely monitor the movements of the Japanese troops in Wolongshan County. Li Debao and Zhou Liansheng's two regiments returned to their respective base areas to consolidate their positions.

By the time the troops were mobilized, a week had passed since the battle ended.

One week after the battle ended, the conference room at the headquarters of the Wolong Mountain Independent Brigade was brightly lit. The room was filled with officers of all ranks from the Independent Brigade.

"It has been a week since the end of this battle, and the post-battle troop movements are basically complete."

"So, I've called everyone together for a meeting today. First, to summarize the results of this operation and the casualties of our troops. Second, to introduce the next steps in the development plan of our independent brigade."

"Now, please let Deputy Brigade Commander Zhang give us an overview of our operation," Tang Weiguo said to Zhang Haoshan.

"Yes," Zhang Haoshan said, standing up.

"First of all, this was not only an ordinary combat operation against the Japanese, but also the first time since our independent brigade was expanded that we have taken the initiative to launch an attack on the Japanese."

"The outcome of this battle will directly affect the subsequent development strategy of our independent brigade, so the impact of this battle is significant."

"In this battle, all of our brigade's troops except for the engineer regiment were involved. This was a test of the entire brigade's combat capabilities."

"I am pleased to inform you that everyone has withstood the test of this war and fire, and all units have completed their combat missions excellently."

"Everyone performed exceptionally well in this battle, and I am proud of you all."

"In addition, I would like to give special praise to the support team led by Liu Hao and the guard team led by Cao Yingjie."

"These two units are new units in our independent brigade and have not been tested in combat."

"However, both units withstood the test of fire in this battle."

"It made an important contribution to our capture of the Japanese arsenal at Wolong Mountain."

"Now let's give them a round of applause." After Zhang Haoshan finished speaking, Tang Weiguo led the applause.

"Thank you for your trust, Brigade Commander and Deputy Brigade Commander Zhang, and thank you all for your support," Liu Hao said, standing up somewhat embarrassedly along with Cao Yingjie.

“This is an honor that your two units deserve,” Zhang Haoshan continued.

After the meeting room quieted down, Zhang Haoshan continued.

"We achieved our objectives in this battle. First, we captured Lingshui County, expanded the base of our Independent Brigade, and consolidated the security of the northern part of Wolong Mountain. This is of great significance to the future development of our Independent Brigade."

"Besides capturing the county town, another gain from this battle was that we captured a large amount of military supplies, including the Japanese supply depot in Lingshui County and the Japanese munitions depot in Wolongshan County."

"The supplies we captured this time are enough to meet the needs of our independent brigade for three months of continuous combat." Zhang Haoshan grinned with joy as he thought of the mountains of supplies piled up in the warehouse.

"In addition, we also dealt a significant blow to the Japanese army's manpower in this battle."

"In this battle, we almost completely annihilated the Japanese troops stationed in Lingshui County. In the blocking battle, we also inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese."

"In this battle, our independent brigade killed more than 3000 Japanese collaborators and traitors, effectively striking a blow to the arrogance of the surrounding Japanese troops."

"Of course, our independent brigade also paid a heavy price for achieving such brilliant results." Zhang Haoshan said with a sad expression.

"In this operation, the Independent Brigade suffered 1983 casualties, 2378 wounded, and 11 missing."

After Zhang Haoshan uttered these numbers, he fell silent.

He was only stating cold, hard numbers, but in reality, they represent countless vibrant lives. Behind those numbers, so many families have lost their loved ones.

Zhang Haoshan felt a heavy weight in his heart when he thought about this.

"These soldiers fought for their homeland, for their country. Their sacrifice deserves to be remembered forever!" Tang Weiguo's sorrowful voice suddenly rang out in the conference room.

"A minute's silence for the fallen soldiers."

Upon hearing Tang Weiguo's words, everyone stood up, took off their hats, and observed a minute's silence in memory of their fallen comrades.

After the moment of silence ended and everyone sat down again, Tang Weiguo continued.

"Tang Guo, your soldiers' service department must do a good job in providing compensation for the fallen soldiers."

"Yes, our soldiers' service department guarantees that we will do a good job in providing compensation for the martyrs." Tang Guo stood up and answered seriously.

"Yes, the matter of providing compensation to fallen soldiers is listed as the highest priority of the Independent Brigade. All departments must cooperate with the Soldiers' Service Department to complete the work of providing compensation to fallen soldiers."

"We must ensure that our soldiers have no worries when fighting the Japanese!" Tang Weiguo said, staring at everyone.

"Yes!" everyone answered in unison.

"Tang Guo, how are the preparations going for arranging for the fallen soldiers to be buried in the martyrs' cemetery?" Tang Weiguo asked.

"Reporting to the brigade commander, everything is ready, and the ceremony can be held at any time," Tang Guo said.

"okay."

"Please stay one more night, everyone, and attend the ceremony for the martyrs to be laid to rest in the cemetery tomorrow morning."

"Yes."

After explaining these matters, Tang Weiguo gestured for Zhang Haoshan to continue.

"Our battle in Lingshan County yielded both great gains and lessons."

"According to the tradition of our independent brigade, we summarize the experience and lessons learned from each operation after it ends."

"I won't repeat the advantages; everyone should keep up the good work and maintain them. Now I want to talk about the shortcomings that were exposed in this operation."

"First, our command structure is not adapted to the current size of our troops. Our brigade headquarters has now expanded from the original regimental level to the brigade level."

"However, our actual troop strength has reached nearly the size of a division, which is a huge challenge for our commanders and soldiers at all levels."

"We have upgraded from using battalions as our combat units to using regiments as our combat units."

"The scale of the operation has been further upgraded."

"This operation revealed our shortcomings in large-scale operations."

"Besides the command level issues, another problem is logistics and transportation. Our existing logistics and transportation system does not meet our current operational needs."

"If our brigade's logistical transportation capabilities can be further improved, we won't be so passive when we need to transfer supplies next time."

"These two key issues are the lessons learned from the experiences of all levels of our independent brigade this week. In the next stage, everyone should cooperate with the brigade staff to improve our troops' capabilities in these two aspects," Zhang Haoshan said to all officers and soldiers.

“Yes. Deputy Brigade Commander Zhang is right. This battle exposed our shortcomings in large-scale operations, so in the coming days, everyone should cooperate well with the staff to conduct targeted training!” Tang Weiguo stood up and said.

"Yes!"