Resistance against Japan: Starting with the local militia

Chapter 38 troop allocation

"Commander, Commander, I heard we recruited some student soldiers this time?" Zhao Zhu rushed to the team and asked.

"You're well-informed. I just brought him back and you all already know about it," Tang Weiguo said, taking a sip of water as he sat down.

"Yes, Commander, the news has spread throughout our regiment. I ran here as soon as I heard the news," Zhao Zhu said, pouring himself a glass of water from the kettle on the table.

"Why are you running around here so late? Why don't you go check on those student soldiers?" Tang Weiguo rolled his eyes.

"I also want to see what student soldiers are like, but if I want to be assigned to them, it still depends on you, Commander. As soon as I thought of this, I immediately ran to you, Commander, to ask you for people."

"My lord, these days college student soldiers are highly sought after. If you're late, there won't be any left. Commander, is my execution up to par? Am I the first one here?" Zhao Zhu said, glancing at the door as if wary of others coming.

"No, Li Qin just left, you're the second one to arrive."

"Damn, being close to the water tower gives you an advantage. It's so convenient to be near the regimental headquarters. What's she doing here? Could it be that she has the same purpose as me?" Zhao Zhu said cautiously.

“You’re really smart. You have the same goal as me: to recruit student soldiers. Their communications department needs student soldiers to learn how to operate radios.”

"Ah, it's okay, it's okay. If I'm not first, then I'll definitely be second. It makes no difference."

"Commander, could you assign me a few student soldiers? The communications department already has them all, so I'd like to apply for a few more." Zhao Zhu nervously rubbed his hands together.

"Why would you be a student soldier? Your replenishment regiment probably doesn't need student soldiers, it's lacking experienced veterans. Hey, how are those veterans who were wounded and assigned to your replenishment regiment as instructors doing?" Tang Weiguo suddenly remembered this and asked.

"That helped me a lot. Those little brats were jumping around like crazy, and their fighting power increased by leaps and bounds."

"From now on, our regiment must cultivate the fine tradition of veterans mentoring new recruits, and you must grasp this point."

"Commander, no problem, all set."

"By the way, what do you need student soldiers for?" Tang Weiguo asked.

"Commander, the two small mountain guns we captured during the last ambush on the Japanese were damaged, so I asked Old Li from the arsenal to try and fix them."

"I just received news a few days ago that it's almost fixed, which made me so excited. I was planning to wait until it was fixed before reporting the good news to the commander, but I didn't expect the commander's good news to come out before mine."

"Commander, you have no idea, operating a mountain gun is much more difficult than operating a mortar. Our current artillerymen are not well-educated, so I'm working overtime every day to train them."

"My boss, when it comes to working overtime, don't you have to give me some overtime pay?" Zhao Zhu said with a greedy look on his face.

Seeing his expression, Tang Weiguo couldn't help but smile and say, "As long as you train our regiment's artillery to hit exactly where you point it, money is not a problem."

"Commander, I'm relieved to hear you say that."

"So, Commander, could you give us two student soldiers? I don't need many, just two will do. Each of us will be responsible for one mountain gun. Then I'll get you a mountain gun company. Commander, then our company will have a mountain gun company. How impressive would that be?" Zhao Zhu said confidently.

"Goodness, Zhao Zhu is quite the talent. He's even dangling empty promises in front of me. I've only ever heard of superiors dangling empty promises in front of subordinates, but this is the first time I've ever seen a subordinate dangling empty promises in front of a superior," Tang Weiguo thought to himself.

"I was originally planning to assign four or five to your artillery units, but I didn't expect you to want two. This really solves my big problem of allocation. I just happen to be wondering how to get back to those combat battalions," Tang Weiguo said deliberately.

"Ah, Commander, no! Just call for five people. Don't listen to my nonsense, two people aren't enough!" When Zhao Zhu heard the commander say this, he wished he could slap himself for talking nonsense.

"Alright, I'm not kidding anymore. I already allocated four student soldier slots to you," Tang Weiguo said with a smile.

"Really?" Zhao Zhu cried tears of joy.

"That's definitely true, but I have one request: you must improve the artillery's capabilities. By the way, you need to train those two Japanese mountain guns you mentioned properly; we'll have heavy firepower now."

"Commander, don't worry, our mountain artillery company can hit any target we point at," Zhao Zhu said with a smug look on his face.

"Alright, go and meet your new recruits. The personnel list is with Professor Zhao; ask him for it. Professor Zhao is a highly educated intellectual, our treasure; treat him with the utmost respect," Tang Weiguo instructed again.

"Commander, don't worry, I promise I won't fight back or utter a sound." With that, Zhao Zhu dashed back.

Just as Tang Weiguo was about to take a break, Wang Qiang from the arsenal walked in.

"Commander, I heard that our regiment has recruited a group of student soldiers," Wang Qiang asked with a simple and honest expression.

"How strange, the winds of recruiting student soldiers have even reached you." Tang Weiguo said with surprise to Wang Qiang, who rarely left the arsenal.

"I heard it from Director Bi. He mentioned it when he came to our arsenal to receive weapons and ammunition. I was thinking of asking if there were any students studying mechanical engineering or chemistry who could join the arsenal to improve its production capacity."

"Director Wang, don't worry. It's been arranged for your arsenal a long time ago. It's a coincidence that there's a chemistry student named Lin Zhenglei. I have a pretty good impression of this young man."

"Studied chemistry? That's great! It'll be perfect for us to research high-performance explosives. The landmines we make with homemade gunpowder aren't powerful enough." Wang Qiang thought of the last ambush, where the landmines from the arsenal didn't play a significant role because of their low power.

"That's what I was thinking too. Let's see if we can modify the gunpowder formula to increase the power of our explosives." Tang Weiguo had long ago discovered that the power of homemade gunpowder wasn't great enough, and the only way to increase its power was to increase the amount of gunpowder, but this placed higher demands on the storage and transportation of the explosives. Unfortunately, he hadn't studied chemistry in his previous life and didn't know how to make explosives. So, this matter was temporarily put on hold.

This time, there happens to be a chemistry student among us, so we should make good use of his knowledge.

"Yes, Commander, with more powerful explosives, we can fight the Japanese better."

"Director Wang, go find Bi Shoucai and have him take you to see Professor Zhao. I've already given all the instructions."

"That's great, Commander, I'll go right now." Wang Qiang walked out happily.

"Sigh, there are still too few student soldiers. Hospitals, communications departments, artillery units, and so on all need students."

"I wonder if we can rely on them to bring more new student soldiers to the militia through training. This is something I need to think about carefully."

"By the way, since Professor Zhao has been a teacher for so many years, he must have countless students. I'll go ask him for help."

"Let's go tomorrow. Professor Zhao is probably busy today too."

"Professor Zhao is a professor of civil engineering. We'll need him to redesign the defensive fortifications for the Wolong Mountain military camp."

"We have to let the senior professors shine a little." Thinking of this, Tang Weiguo couldn't help but smile at his own exploitation of the old professor.