When they received the telegram from the commander-in-chief about the other party's reply, Yang Zhen and Guo Bingxun had just completed the summer campaign, which lasted more than half a month, but the ending was not very satisfactory, and they had just returned to the headquarters located in Xingshan Fortress.

In the summer offensive campaign that had just ended, Yang Zhen and Guo Bingxun were each responsible for one side, and respectively commanded the summer offensive campaign to expand to the east and south on the basis of the 1st and 2nd regiments, with the cooperation of the two divisional backbone regiments, and the strengthening of the 1st and 2nd regiments.

Taking Suibin and Tangyuan and taking all the jurisdictions of the two divisions was a battle plan that Yang Zhen had already set. Now the troops that have grown to tens of thousands of people are gathered in Luobei and Heli, two small counties with a combined population of no more than 100,000, and even if you add parts of Foshan, they are only within a narrow area of less than 200,000.

Most of the terrain of the two counties is the Xiaoxing'an Mountains, although the topography and topography are favorable to Yang Zhen. But in other words, this terrain also means something else, that is, the land is vast and sparsely populated. As the last area to be developed in the entire Northeast, most of these areas are mountainous, and most of them rely on mineral resources or forestry to absorb foreign manpower.

With the exception of the gold diggers and loggers and their families, it is mostly mountainous and has few attractions compared to the Songnen Plain on the west side of the Xiaoxing'an Mountains and the rich Liaohe Plain further south. Compared with Kannai, the vast and sparsely populated Northeast attracts more people from the Kanto region.

The rich black soil of the Northeast grows grain everywhere. There is no need for the Chinese to come to this small border county where the climatic and geographical conditions are even harsher than the Songnen Plain and the Liaohe Plain. Not to mention that it's just a river away from the murderous Big Nose.

Obviously, compared with Little Japan, the common people of Northeast China, who suffered from the invasion of Tsarist Russia, burned and plundered, have little affection for the original Tsarist Russia and the current Soviet Union in the north. If it weren't for the fact that the Kwantung Army drove some peasants from the interior of Northeast China to pioneer here in the name of land reclamation in order to plunder land for the so-called pioneer group, I am afraid that the population here would be even sparse.

It is sparsely populated, and it is difficult to replenish supplies. The grain produced by the entire several counties north of the Songhua River is not even enough for their own use. There was still room to supply Yang Zhen's tens of thousands of troops. Although Yang Zhen wanted to calm down and train the troops. But the harsh realities forced him to expand outward.

In the past, the size of the army was small, but it was nothing. Now the size of the army has reached tens of thousands, and even if these people eat, they can eat the sparse population of Luobei, and it can even be said that it can be said that it can be eaten down by the resource-based small county in the thirties of the twentieth century.

If you can't take advantage of the fact that the Japanese army is attracted by the situation in Nomenhan in the west, take Suibin, and wait for the Japanese army to react, it is very likely that you will be closed in Luobei. Not only the supply, but also the strategic maneuver space is extremely narrow. In Yang Zhen's words, even if you adjust your buttocks, you feel that the place is too small.

To the surprise of Yang Zhen, who originally thought that the Japanese puppet army would desperately resist, the initial development of the campaign was extremely smooth. On the second day of the campaign, Yang Zhen occupied Suibin County almost bloodlessly. The Japanese troops in the city had already withdrawn, and the remaining puppet Manchu soldiers and police surrendered without any resistance at all.

After occupying Suibin County, Yang Zhen used field artillery battalions in the Songhua River estuary area northwest of Suibin County to adopt the tactics of mobile ambush with the cooperation of two companies of infantry artillery and rapid-fire artillery, and after a fierce artillery battle that lasted for three hours, he sank in one fell swoop the three ships of the puppet Manchurian army on the river, Jimin, Limin, and Jiangtong. The two ships of Jiangqing and Lisui were heavily damaged, and the Datong ships that ran aground in a panic during the artillery battle were captured.

In the three-hour artillery battle, Yang Zhen defeated the main fleet of the puppet Manchurian army stationed in the Heilongjiang valley in one fell swoop at the cost of a field artillery battalion being severely damaged, destroying eight field artillery pieces and killing more than 200 officers and men. He killed and wounded more than 700 officers and men of Lieutenant General Yin Zuoqian, commander of the puppet Manchurian Jiangshang Army, who was personally on the front line to supervise the battle, and routed the 3rd Marine Regiment of the puppet Manchurian Jiangshang Army stationed in Fujin who came to seize the stranded Datong ship.

After the artillery battle, the heavily battered puppet Manchurian army on the river all withdrew from the Suibin section of the river in Foshan, Heilongjiang. Activity on the Songhua River has also been greatly reduced. Although he paid a heavy price, Yang Zhen ensured the smooth and safe passage of water transportation through Guò Heilongjiang in the future.

At the time of Yang Zhen's fierce battle with the puppet Manchu army at the mouth of the Songhua River, Guo Bingxun, who was also on the southern front at the same time, also occupied the county seat of Tangyuan at a small cost, with the cooperation of the 2nd Division's backbone regiment, which had been greatly replenished, after winning the lumberjacks to join the army in Tongguò.

Guo Bingxun's battle to liberate the county seat of Tangyuan was almost the same as Yang Zhen's occupation of Suibin. The Japanese troops in the county town of Yubara had also withdrawn, and the remaining puppet Manchu military and police surrendered with only a slight resistance.

Although the first attempt of the campaign was achieved almost effortlessly, whether it was Yang Zhen or Guo Bingxun, the subsequent campaign attempt encountered a comprehensive setback.

Yang Zhen's attempts to forcibly cross the Songhua River on the northern line met with stubborn resistance from the Japanese puppet army along the line. The Japanese army took the initiative to abandon the county seat of Suibin, but deployed heavy troops along the line of the Songhua River. Even the Japanese army did not hesitate to weaken the strength of the East Manchurian region, and transferred the main force of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army to the north to participate in the war.

The main force of the regiment, which successfully smuggled south of Suibin County, also encountered the siege of the main force of the Fourth Division and the puppet Manchurian Seventh Army on the east bank. Under the all-out encirclement and suppression of the Japanese puppet army, with planes and tanks and heavy artillery, Wang Guangyu could not stand still at all and was forced to retreat to the west of the Songhua River.

At the same time that Yang Zhen's attempt to advance eastward was subjected to the stubborn sniper of the Japanese puppet army, Guo Bingxun, who continued to go south to take Tangyuan County on the southern front, captured the entire territory of Fengshan, but encountered a heavy siege by the Japanese puppet army whether it was southward to Tonghe or westward to Tieli. After several hard battles, Guo Bingxun, who was never able to make a breakthrough, and was threatened by the puppet army of Suileng on the Western Front on his flank, could only turn to the defense on the spot.

The progress in both directions failed one after another, which made Yang Zhen's somewhat hot mind gradually calm down. He now understood that the Japanese army's current strategic intention was to trap itself in the relatively narrow strategic space of the Xiaoxing'an Mountains west of the Songhua River.

Most of this area is undeveloped primary forest, and with the exception of Yubara, the rest of the area is almost entirely sparsely populated mountainous area. The population of one county in Fengshan County is even less than 30,000, and the combined population of several counties is only a few hundred thousand. Such a population base simply cannot afford to support an army of tens of thousands. This situation is the last thing Yang Zhen wants to see.

The occupation of Fengshan, Tangyuan, and Suibin counties was a great deal of room for maneuver, but it failed to change the embarrassing status quo of a sparse population. Even among the rescued laborers, more than 10,000 people, including their families, who were no longer suitable for serving in the army due to their age or physical reasons, were formed into a production and construction unit. But it takes time for the seeds to grow into food.

It was almost impossible for an army of tens of thousands to fight on captured food. The problem of food has replaced the problem of weapons and equipment and the combat effectiveness of the troops, and it has almost become Yang Zhen's biggest headache.

An army of tens of thousands, not wrong. After occupying Xingshan Street and Xingshan Fortress, Yang Zhen carefully selected more than 20,000 laborers who had been rescued from Xingshan Fortress and large and small coal mines in the Heli area and incorporated them into the army. In addition to filling the gap in troop casualties, three supplementary regiments were formed.

After its rapid expansion, in just over a month, Yang Zhen's department has swelled into nearly 40,000 ** troops. The expansion of the army is of course a good thing, but the follow-up impact is a little bit of a feeling of anxiety for Yang Zhen, who is the head of this army.

The matter of weapons and equipment can be said to have been basically resolved after Ma Chunsheng revealed the secrets in his heart. Even a certain reserve was kept. But the 40,000-strong troops, not counting other supplies, are an astronomical amount of food and drink every day.

Even according to the minimum standard of one pound of grain per person per day to maintain combat effectiveness. The 40,000-strong troops alone consume nearly 40,000 catties of food a day, not counting other necessary materials such as military uniforms and non-staple food. And this scale is simply not affordable for a few sparsely populated prefectures other than Yubara.

Although when occupying Tangyuan, Fengshan, and Suibin, more than one million catties of grain hoarded by the Japanese were seized. But even by the minimum standard, this grain will not last until the end of the year. Knowing that in order to recover the extremely weak bodies of the rescued laborers, the ration of one pound of food per day was simply not enough.

When the eastward advance attempt failed, after Yang Zhen withdrew to the general headquarters at Xingshan Fortress, he could only shake his head and smile bitterly at Guo Bingxun, who had withdrawn from his feet before and behind him. It is not easy to feed the troops, whose scale has reached tens of thousands.

Yang Zhen is not out of the question of solving this problem, but this must depend on winning the battle. Although the Japanese army has not moved yet, it does not mean that they do not pay attention to themselves. The heavy encirclement and suppression encountered by Fujin and Tie Li is already very revealing.

Looking at Yang Zhen, who was a little puzzled, Guo Bingxun handed him a glass of water and explained: "Old Yang, you don't have to be too anxious, the materials we have on hand at present are enough to last until the first winter." It's only June, and we still have time. ”

"Besides, the setbacks we're having now aren't necessarily a bad thing for us. Don't you think we've been fighting too smoothly since we went north? Whether it is cadres and fighters at the grassroots level or some middle and high-ranking commanders, even in our heads, there is a phenomenon of underestimating the enemy to a greater or lesser extent. In the long run, this will only be harmful to us. ”

"To speak with a conscience, Lao Yang, when you marched east to Fujin, if you had made sufficient preparations and conducted battlefield reconnaissance many times, it was impossible not to find that part of the Japanese 11th Division had arrived in the area north of Fujin County to deploy defenses. And the great changes in the Fourth Division are also something we did not imagine before. ”

"It's not just you, I'm a little careless. If I had taken Fengshan County, defended in the south and launched in the west, and attacked Suileng first, I am afraid that the current situation would not have occurred. Even if I take Fengshan County, I will be more vigilant against the Japanese puppet army in the direction of Suileng, and I will not lead our army to a comprehensive setback on the southern front. ”

"I didn't expect that the puppet Manchu army in Suileng would dare to sneak attack us at night with inferior troops. A main company of the 2nd Regiment was actually crushed by a battalion of the puppet Manchu army, which had strengthened part of the forest police, under the condition of occupying favorable terrain. As a result, we can only say that we have paralyzing thoughts from top to bottom. ”

"Seeing that in addition to a military police squad, the Japanese puppet army in Suileng only had a small number of puppet Manchu troops plus forest and railway police, so he was careless. Ignoring the threat of the puppet Manchu army to our army. Maybe the previous battle was too smooth, and we all despised the puppet Manchu military and police too much. ”

"These ordinary cadres and fighters below can't think of forgiveness, but those of us who are commanders can't think of it, it's incomprehensible. The current temporary setback can not only kill the arrogance of the troops, but also calm our heads. To be honest, we launched this offensive somewhat hastily. ”

"The reason for the setback is not just the fact that the enemy is underestimated. Our troops were attrition in the previous stage and have not yet been fully replenished. Looking at it now, the shelf of the troops is not small, but the number of experienced veterans has dropped sharply. Although the number of recruits in the Xingshan area is large, they still need to be trained. ”

"The combat effectiveness of our previous troops was based on the backbone trained in the secret camp of the old black top subordinate, and the training that was short but intense was extremely overloaded. But the effect of a month's training for these current recruits is simply not comparable to when they were in Qunce Mountain before. ”

"When we were in Qunce Mountain, we could almost describe it as a book of inconsiderate work. At that time, the training of the recruit queue was only held at night, and during the day, in addition to the marching training, it was the training of weapons operation. Half a month later, they even began to conduct tactical coordination training in squads and platoons. ”

"But now a month has passed, and the recruits have only completed the queue and basic weapons handling training. Even the live firing was just beginning. The addition of such recruits to the troops is not called an increase in combat effectiveness, and it is already very polite not to say that it is a burden. ”

"Of course, this situation has to do with the fact that our current backbone has too many casualties in front of us, and we can't allocate too much manpower to train new recruits. But it didn't ease down a little because of the shape shì, and there was no sense of urgency when I was in the Qunce Mountain. So Lao Yang, I feel that the current setbacks are not all bad things for us. At the very least, it can help us recognize the shape and calm our minds. ”

"Now it is more important for us to take advantage of this rare period of calm to fully reorganize and train the troops than to expand and survive. Only when the troops are strengthened and the combat effectiveness is improved can we hold our territory. Otherwise, we will not be able to regain those areas. Sooner or later, someone has to get it out. ”