jdhmnovel Chapter 251: Tianjin City Strategy
Chapter 251: Tianjin City Strategy
Tianjin Zizhulin Military Camp
This was the first time Li Shaoyi came here. At 7:30 in the morning, many vehicles outside had returned. The vehicles went out for training on time at 6 o'clock. The location was not fixed, but it would definitely be seen by most people in the Zizhulin Concession.
When they saw Li Shaoyi standing at the gate of the military camp and saluting, the drivers and artillerymen also saluted in the car. Some of them were seeing the commander-in-chief for the first time and were a little excited.
"Don't worry, Commander. You can't tell at all."
Zhao Tiezhu knew why Li Shaoyi made this trip. It was because all the elite artillerymen had been transferred away. Our brigade was established not long ago. Although we were not stingy with artillery shells, it still required long-term training. Therefore, the only outstanding artillerymen that the entire brigade could find were the group that day.
They also had to go north to resist the 12th Division, so how could they stay in Tianjin all the time? So a few days ago, all of them were transferred away.
But in order to keep the people in Tianjin obedient, a group of new artillerymen were transferred from other places. These artillerymen were indeed not very good at firing artillery attacks, but they had no problem driving cars and pulling artillery around.
"Your Empty City Strategy is indeed quite good, but you must be well prepared during training to prevent spies from other countries from noticing it. Just let them hear the cannon fire, but don't let them see the results of the training."
Li Shaoyi nodded when he saw that this was a good job of saving face. It was purely because we were short of manpower. If we had enough, Li Shaoyi would not have transferred those excellent artillerymen away.
"Don't worry, we'll go out for a march every morning, and then start live-fire training nearby in the afternoon. You can faintly hear it in Tianjin. It won't disturb the residents, but it will let everyone know that our artillery is training."
Zhao Tiezhu was very concerned about this matter. With this batch of artillery, no matter what he did in Tianjin, the foreign powers would cooperate. Therefore, he had to perform the empty city plan excellently, not even good enough.
"Also, you can't stop your infantry training. Although we've occupied all of the autonomous government's territory, except for the initial six county towns, all other places are empty shells. If anything really happens, don't expect any support in the short term. You'll have to rely on your men."
Li Shaoyi had a worried look on his face. A telegram from the Nanjing National Government also arrived, allowing Li Shaoyi to occupy the 22 counties of eastern Hebei, but apart from this official document, there was no other support.
Regarding the request to reorganize the 72nd Brigade into the 72nd Division, the Jinling side neither said yes nor no, and simply put it on hold.
Later, more than a dozen new security groups were organized, all of which were agreed to by Jinling. The Jidong Security Command was also established, and Li Shaoyi was appointed as the security commander.
"Don't worry, Commander. Nothing's going to happen in Jincheng. If the reorganized battalion still stayed in the city, with two battalions totaling nearly 3,000 men, I wouldn't have dared to make such a boast. But now they only have one battalion left, plus some assorted Japanese soldiers, there are only about 1,700 or 1,800 men at most. If we can't suppress them, our Third Regiment will be nothing more than a mere figment of our imagination."
Zhao Tiezhu has not been idle during this period. With the cooperation of some of Natasha's subordinates, he has already figured out the situation in Jincheng City.
One division of the 29th Army.
A Japanese infantry battalion.
The combined number of embassy guards from all Western countries is only about 1,500.
There are also some scattered armed forces, about two thousand people, but they are scattered in various government offices and cannot be gathered together at all. The most powerful combat force in Jincheng City belongs to our Third Infantry Regiment.
"Don't be careless. This is a seaport. Take the Japanese for example. They can transport thousands of people here at any time. If those foreign devils change their minds and secretly let these devils land, you must be prepared."
Li Shaoyi never trusted the Japanese and Westerners. These people said one thing to one person and another thing to another, which had to serve as a warning to Zhao Tiezhu.
"I've made preparations. I've bought a few houses at the junction of the Zizhulin Concession and the Chinese Concession. These houses are being secretly renovated. After the renovations are completed, I will install some heavy machine gun positions inside. Our people will usually wear casual clothes and live like they do here. If there is any change, these machine gun positions can hold out for a while."
Zhao Tiezhu asked someone to bring a map and marked several locations on it.
"That's what we have to do. We have to take control of everything. We can't rely on these foreigners. They'll take care of them sooner or later."
Looking at the concession where foreigners gathered in the distance, a frost appeared on Li Shaoyi's face.
Zhao Tiezhu also understood our brigade commander's thoughts. The brigade commander once said that the foreign devils who appeared on our land in this era have basically drunk our blood, and sooner or later they will all be tied up and slowly bled out.
"There's one more thing I need to report to you. Since our army has been stationed here, some young people have always come to ask if they can join the army. We don't have the right to conscript soldiers, so we haven't dared to do anything rash."
Zhao Tiezhu pointed at some people at the camp gate and said that these people also wanted to serve the country. Some of them were defeated soldiers who had been dispersed in the past, some were local young students, and there were even active soldiers and officers of the 29th Army.
They were serving in the 29th Army, and whenever they encountered the Japanese, they had to retreat. They had been feeling very frustrated. They had no choice before, but now there were people from the 72nd Brigade next to them. If they didn't seek change, then there would be no ideals.
"We can set up a conscription office, but after recruiting people, we need to hand them over to the training department for unified training and uniform assignment. Also, if there are active-duty officers and soldiers from the 29th Army, we won't accept them for the time being."
Li Shaoyi would not allow his subordinates to become bigger and stronger, nor would he allow the emergence of factions. Therefore, even if a conscription office was set up here, people from the conscription department would be sent there, and the Third Regiment would only provide a venue.
Zhao Tiezhu nodded. He also knew what Li Shaoyi was thinking and did not continue to discuss the matter. As for not wanting the active officers and soldiers of the 29th Army, it was because he did not want the relationship between the two sides to become too bad.
Zhao Tiezhu's Third Regiment was stationed in Tianjin. The officers of the 29th Army did not come to congratulate him, and Zhao Tiezhu did not bother to show his appreciation.
In short, everything was going on, but I didn’t know...