Jingle bells.

At dawn the next day, amid the sound of the bell on the neck of the big mule, Li Yunlong waved the horse whip in his hand and set off with a huge independent regiment transport team.

The independent regiment scattered and retreated from Shou County, although the combat troops were greatly reduced, but because of the preparations in advance, they avoided the blockade line of the devils by virtue of their speed, and the losses of the transport team and the big mules were very small.

Now the regiment still has 270 large mules, camels carrying dozens of tons of grain, two 120 heavy mortars, a large number of supporting shells, 100 Czech machine guns, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, and some grenades.

On the road, with the creaking of wooden carts, the convoy headed in the direction of the brigade headquarters.

"The brigade headquarters' personnel losses this time are not too serious."

On the way, Li Yunlong recalled the news that came when the brigade headquarters contacted him.

Because there are sufficient preparations in advance, and the weapons and ammunition of the main force have been qualitatively improved compared with before, although it is still far inferior to the devils, but compared with before, it is a day and a place, so the losses of the troops are not serious, after rough statistics, the main forces have been reduced by about one-third, which is still because of the cover of the transfer of the people, forced to fight several tough battles with the devils.

It won't take long to recover.

However, there are also serious problems.

Last year was a famine year, and although grain was buried before the large-scale transfer of troops, after the large-scale destruction of the devils and the influx of a large number of refugees, the losses were relatively large.

"Hey, hey, hey, at this time..."

"Five hundred tons of grain, two 120 heavy guns, two thousand shells, plus so many machine guns, bullets, and grenades, for forty officers, and two artillery squads of the brigade artillery battalion, it's not too much."

Nodding his chin, Li Yunlong thought about the price of going to the brigade headquarters this time.

Originally, he wanted fifty officers.

Cadres at the grass-roots company and platoon level need to be equipped with one for every 25 soldiers, and only in this way can the combat effectiveness of the troops be guaranteed, and he plans to form an independent regiment of 5,000 people, and even plans to try it out with 6,000 people, then he needs at least 300 officers and cadres.

The existing grass-roots officers of the Independent Regiment, plus the good seedlings that have emerged in the recent period, are less than 150 when they are fully counted, and the difference is 150.

But.

After thinking about it, I decided that there were only forty of them.

Now it's hard to get officers!

The officers of his unit suffered heavy losses, and predictably, other units were no better.

Each regiment is in urgent need of replenishment of officers, but each phase of replenishment of officers is just a little, and this time the headquarters has also been transferred together, I am afraid that the training of officers will also be affected, and fewer officers will come out than in the previous periods.

The demand is increasing, the supply is decreasing, and the regimental commanders still have to fight to blow their beards and stare at each other, eager to arrest each other and bring them back?

According to his estimates, forty of them are already all the new officers of the brigade headquarters, and if there are more, the brigade commander is afraid that he will be whipped with a whip.

For the rest, go to the headquarters and ask for it.

There are a lot of talents at the headquarters, so it's a pity not to come back.

"However, the brigade artillery battalion is the heart of the brigade commander, so you have to think about it carefully..."

On the carriage, Li Yunlong fell into deep thought.

······

Brigade headquarters.

Staff Officer Luo is busy right now.

Very busy.

With the release of the detailed statistical reports of the main regiments, the overall losses of the troops also came out, and the actual reduction of all troops, including the basic regiments, was about one-fifth.

This is much better than expected before the war.

Before the start of the war, the General Staff had predicted that this time it was estimated that the troop attrition would reach one-third or even one-half.

"This time, our troops have suffered little losses, and this kid Li Yunlong has made great contributions."

In the busyness, Staff Officer Luo sighed.

"Yes."

The brigade commander also nodded, and rarely recognized Li Yunlong's credit:

"This kid has a lot of time to block the attack of the devil's 10,000-strong army in Shou County, and has bought a lot of transfer time for the troops in other base areas, eliminating a lot of devils, not to mention, and bombarding the devil's Taiyuan airfield again, except for the first three days, there are almost no devil planes on our heads in the back."

"Without the interference of devil planes, the speed of retreat and transfer is much faster."

"In the later period, the devil also mobilized a large number of troops to reinforce Shou County, which gave many troops time to breathe."

"Hahaha..."

Staff Officer Luo also laughed:

"Do you want to give this kid another commendation?"

In this devil sweep, Li Yunlong did a lot of beautiful things, because of government restrictions and some other reasons, he could not be promoted, so he could only give Li Yunlong some commendation orders.

"Forget it."

The corners of the brigade commander's mouth twitched:

"Bombarding Taiyuan Airport, the headquarters has issued a commendation order, and holding Shou County for a month, containing a large number of devil troops, also mentioned together, and then praising this kid, labor and management are a little panicked."

"Hahaha..."

Staff Officer Luo laughed.

From his point of view, in fact, no matter how much you give Li Yunlong a commendation order, this thing is useless now, and Li Yunlong doesn't care, but it will be of great use in the future.

In the past, Li Yunlong's foundation was not clean, and he often did some troubled things, such as the time when the soldiers grabbed food, although it was suppressed, but the impact was great, and now with the great merits and rewards one by one, the impact of these troubled things has been eliminated.

However, his temper, coupled with the current overall strategy, made the above dare not completely loosen him.

"How's the food problem?"

The brigade commander changed the subject:

"Have you bought any food?"

With the retreat of the devils, the base area has now entered a stable period, but the problems brought about by the sweep have also appeared, the devils have failed to eliminate the main force of the army, so they have turned to destroy farmland, burn down the houses in the base area, drive and kill the common people, and look for buried grain everywhere.

The little devils bribed traitors in large quantities and secretly spied on the intelligence of the base areas, resulting in many places where the grain was buried being found by the devils, and the food losses in the base areas were serious and urgently needed to be replenished.

"I bought a little, but not much."

Speaking of this, Staff Officer Luo's tone was a little worried:

"There is a big shortage of food in our base area, we need about 1,000 tons to get through this period of time, so much food, it is not easy to buy, and it is also difficult to transport it into the base area, although the devils have retreated, but the blockade has not been relaxed."

"It's also ····· over there in the national government"

As the troops become stronger and stronger, the national government is also becoming more and more prepared, and the blockade of supplies is no worse than that of little devils.

"Do you want to let Li Yunlong..."

Staff Officer Luo said suddenly.

He knew the situation, and it was the end of December, and this year alone, Li Yunlong had provided almost more than 1,000 tons of grain to his base areas, including the headquarters and brigade headquarters.

That mysterious friend, who only contacts Li Yunlong, is very powerful.

Those refugees who have poured in, replenished the population of the base area, and brought their own food and clothing, and do not need too much rescue, are suspected to be the work of this person.

"Zhao Gang reported the situation, the independent regiment is reduced by half of the soldiers, and the officers are lost by two-thirds, right?"

The brigade commander said suddenly.

"Yes."

Staff Officer Luo nodded yes, and at the same time sighed in his heart.

The other troops were well, and the losses were far lower than expected, but Li Yunlong's losses were very large, and from the perspective of the entire brigade base area, this was a major retreat of the troops, and Li Yunlong stayed to fight and block the attack.

"When will the training officers from the Kang Da Border Region come over?"

The brigade commander continued.

Speaking of this topic, the brigade commander and Staff Officer Luo smiled a little at the same time.

All along, the army has faced a serious shortage of officers at the grassroots level.

For this reason, the head of the headquarters has also made a lot of efforts, the headquarters has organized officer training classes, and Kang Da has also organized officer training schools, but the conditions were difficult before, and they could only be trained on a small scale, and the output has not been high, far from meeting the needs of the troops.

But now that the conditions are improving, especially after Li Yunlong got the devil's three tons of gold this year, the troops have made great efforts, spent a sum of money, and with the help of the foundation of Kang Da, set up a grassroots officer training school, and sent some outstanding veterans from the main force regiment to participate in officer training.

In the past two years, the casualty rate of the troops has visibly decreased, and many veterans have accumulated, and as many as 800 people participated in the first batch of training.

"Our brigade has won one hundred and sixty, and we will be there this afternoon."

"There are also tank soldiers and automobile soldiers that you asked the border area for before, and seven of them will come over this time, and there will be three tank groups among them."

Staff Officer Luo replied.

Because of Li Yunlong, the first batch of officers was the largest group of officers to the brigade headquarters.

"Hey, hey..."

The brigade commander suddenly smiled, and then lit a cigarette: "New officers, let them all stay on the side of the brigade headquarters for the time being, as for the request of the main regiments to replenish the officers, you reply and ask them to wait first." ”

"Yes."

Staff Officer Luo understood what the brigade commander meant.

·····

The next day.

Morning.

Li Yunlong's convoy arrived at the brigade headquarters, and after passing through the perimeter guards, Grand Master Li asked the convoy to slow down, and he himself waved his horsewhip and hurried to the brigade headquarters.

He had to find out about the brigade first.

For example, what is the loss of the artillery battalion, how is the equipment now, what is the food situation at the brigade headquarters, how many new officers are there?

Knowing the hole cards of the opposite, it is good to bargain!

"Brigadier Commander."

"Counselor Luo."

Before anyone entered, Li Yunlong tore open his loud voice.