Nanpo Village. This is Taihang Mountain, a mountain village at the southern foothills. It is located at the junction of mountains and plains. The land is not barren. In terms of the situation, the development here should be considered good. But it's still poor. The people who live here are still in a state of numbness. The reason is simple. This is a disaster that has never been seen before.

The plague doesn't seem to have affected the area, but the population is still deadlier than normal. Not only that, but they will also encounter all kinds of disasters.

For example, the military disaster.

"How do we live? Without food, how can I survive this winter? An old aunt knelt at the entrance of the village and cried loudly. A lot of men don't know what to do either. Their houses were set on fire a lot. If there is another white plague, I don't know how many people will die, and there will be food. That's the hardest part. Today they came a group of soldiers and horses from the imperial court. There were more than 300 people, and they took all the food in the village, and fortunately, all the women of the village ran away to the mountains. Otherwise.

"Jingle bell." The merchants of the cattle team quietly entered the village.

The villagers looked at the merchant's team numbly, this is the number of caravans seems to be huge, and the number of people is relatively large, there are more than five hundred, more than the number of people in the village, the village is less than five hundred. This is a very large team. For the villagers.

"Guys, we're all from the mountains. It's here to do business. A middle-aged man said politely.

"Oh. Do you want to ask for water? An old man stood up and asked.

"Yes. Just, here. The middle-aged man asked puzzled.

Then the old man told him everything that had happened here. It's a tribulation. There will be more suffering here. The area north of the Yellow River and south of the Taihang Mountains. This is a secondary zone of engagement that belongs to the war. This is not the main battlefield. In this direction, Dong Zhuo's military strength is very limited. In order to control these areas to the greatest extent possible, they were not used by the Kwantung coalition forces.

Dong Zhuo ordered a large number of local landlords, bandits, and other armed forces. Armed forces of unknown origin of various origins have been established in the area, and most of them have established various famous regiments. Security Corps. There are endless levels of various numbers. The number of people increased like locusts. Because as long as a team is pulled up, it can be called a military armed force. With this kind of power, Dong Zhuo will not give all kinds of financial support. Because this is not a descendant of the Republican Army. Nor is it their most important region. This leaves the IRA a loophole. But before this can happen, they need to suffer an even greater disaster.

Because of these so-called famous regiments, the security regiment does not have any financial support, and the landlords' armed forces are better, and they have a certain economic base to support them in building up armed forces, but more armed bandits, armed forces of unknown origin, how can their financial funds be guaranteed. They need more weapons, money, food. In such a situation, the only way is to rob, which is their habit. It is also what they do best, so a large-scale civilian looting operation was carried out in this area.

At first, the activity was only in the county seat, but with the number of lootings, the scope of the activity gradually expanded here.

The old man said all this helplessly. He had planned to make some preparations, but the disaster came too quickly. There was no time to react, and as a result, there was such a scene.

"This. Come, hurry up and distribute some of the food we have brought, eat it, and send out some blankets. Coats need more. Send someone to send it out. The middle-aged man then commanded.

The middle-aged man immediately began to rescue the village. The middle-aged man was an intelligence officer for the Republican Army. His main task is to spy on the military situation, establish the corresponding intelligence site, and open up a series of problems encountered in the advance channel in advance. In this case, their situation will become extremely favorable.

His number is less than two hundred, which is the largest level of personnel support in the intelligence service. The rest are recruited on a temporary basis. This is extremely difficult for the development of intelligence work.

But now, a series of circumstances have encountered this place, and the intelligence officer has started a new plan. Because the situation here is far more favorable than the kit he thought.

He decided to create a corresponding military guerrilla zone here, as well as a militia system. In the past series of military operations, the Republican Army has established a corresponding militia system to mobilize the local people to actively participate in them to the greatest extent. The IRA provided food, weapons, and logistical support, while the militia played a significant role in intelligence spying and assisting in defense.

In such a situation, the intelligence officer decided to report it immediately, changing the original practice of establishing a simple intelligence system to provide support from intelligence bases, and instead establishing extensive guerrilla zones and militia organizations to solve such problems, which required more military resources. But he believes the IRA can do just that.

The Republican Army established a telegraph stronghold near the mountains. According to the original plan, the IRA was to build a telegraph line with the intelligence base. Now that's where it comes in.

Staff.

"The establishment of a militia system is extremely beneficial to us. Not only do we have an advantage in military intelligence, but it will be even more advantageous to advance into the enemy's depths in defensive operations. This is the best way to ensure the safety of our flanks on a difficult level. A lieutenant colonel staff officer said.

The others nodded.

The Republican Army in the Zeju direction, planned to put the strength of an infantry corps. About three infantry divisions and one separate brigade. Three infantry divisions would be deployed in a zigzag pattern, and one separate brigade would become a reserve, to be used in the central direction, with the main target being Luoyang.

Never before had the General Staff of the Republican Army carried out such a large-scale advance with a depth of more than two hundred miles.

The staff officers were extremely worried about their flanks, as their logistical supply lines were extremely weak in the event of a military action by the Kwantung coalition forces. Attack from the flanks. Or if Dong Zhuojun takes action, the weak logistical supply line will be cut off. An army will be trapped.

However, the actual situation is that the strength of the newly formed Fifth Army of the Republican Army in the direction of Zezhou is only two infantry divisions, and the temporary increase in the number of troops can only barely form a separate special brigade, and the number of troops still exceeds 3,000. In this case, the large-scale southward movement and the practice of advancing into depth will make their already weak flanks and logistics supply lines extremely unsafe, and once the logistics supply lines are threatened or cut off, the Republican Army will lack the necessary strategic reserves in this direction. The situation is extremely unfavorable.

Therefore, the staff officers generally carried out worries about this military operation. Feel a lot of risk.

In the past, most of the Republican offensive was controlled at the regimental level, and two infantry divisions were not used at one time like this. Moreover, it is a large-scale advance into the depth of the enemy. This kind of large-scale offensive at the strategic level is a problem that the Republican General Staff has never encountered. For the issue of flank security. They still haven't found a good solution, after all, there aren't too many troops. Plus supplies from logistical supply lines. All of this is extremely difficult for the Republican Army.

But now, that seems to have changed a lot. Because they can mobilize local people to join the militia, use guerrilla tactics, and if they cooperate with a certain number of militias, they can ensure the maximum security of the Republican flanks and logistical supply lines. The number of militias is enormous.

But there are also those who believe that their situation does not seem to be optimistic. The reason is very simple, it depends on how much of a role the local militia can play, you know, they have not received formal military training, which seems to be very difficult to complete such a certain degree of military operations, this is an extremely passive situation, in such a situation, it seems that it is still difficult to achieve a greater degree of development.

War Department.

"I believe that it is very necessary to launch an expansion of the guerrilla zone, and this will have great prospects for the development of our future operations." Shang Wu said.

"The most important thing is that the security of our flanks is greatly ensured, and the staff is repeatedly worried about the lack of troops. At the same time, they want us to build a strategic reserve again. It is possible to ensure that there is enough power to be put on this direction. Jia Xu said.

"Well, but for now, it's going to be hard for us to pull in more troops to do that." Shang Wu said helplessly.

The Republican Army has nine infantry divisions, but most of them are understaffed, except for three infantry divisions that have been placed in the theater of operations, which are fully manned. The reason is that the IRA needs to restore their economy. Instead of restoring the military, maintaining a huge military scale. It will increase the financial burden. This is not conducive to the long-term development of **. In fact, a large amount of resources have been concentrated in the military field for a long time. In itself, it is an extremely serious blow to the economy, and the longer this blow lasts, the greater the trouble of economic decline. This is for anyone. It's a big, big trouble. In such a situation, they will lose more than any time. Therefore, the republican army can only devote a certain number of troops in local operations, and cannot maintain the existence of strategic reserves. This comes with a lot of adventure. But it has to be something they have to do. Because the Republican Army, because of economic factors, has constrained the long-term development of the military.