Chapter 141 The Fourth Brigade On the outskirts of Shiquan County, after receiving the order from Yoshio Shinozuka, Yongfu Pinglu led the 4th Brigade stationed in Jinzhong and went along the railway to Shiquan County. Although the 4th Brigade was one of the first four independent brigades to be formed, it not only had two separate infantry regiments, but also two independent infantry battalions and an artillery battalion, with a total strength of more than 8,000, nearly 9,000 people. However, during the attack on Cangyun Ridge, the Sakata Regiment of the 4th Brigade was severely defeated by the Shin-1st Regiment, the regiment commander Sakata Nobutsu was killed, the regiment flag was seized, and the organization was directly disbanded. The remaining surviving soldiers of the Sakata Regiment were taken away by the 21st Brigade. Therefore, the 4th Brigade has not been able to reorganize another regiment until now, and can only form two independent infantry battalions to maintain the brigade's strength at about 6,000 people. Moreover, these two newly formed independent infantry battalions are all composed of new recruits. They may not have any problems fighting a security battle, but when it comes to field battles, their combat effectiveness simply cannot keep up with other battalions. And for this reason, the North China Front Army also wanted to transfer the 4th Brigade from the field brigade to the garrison brigade sequence. The treatment between the field brigade and the garrison brigade is very different, not to mention the military pay and various supplies. If it becomes a garrison brigade, when other field troops are short of people and it happens to be an emergency, the field brigade can directly draw reinforcements from the garrison troops. The garrison was short of men and could only wait until the field troops had replenished their forces before it was their turn. Not to mention whether there will be new recruits for the garrison troops after the field troops have been replenished.
Even if there are new recruits, the field troops have already been selected, and the quality of the remaining recruits is definitely the worst. Their combat effectiveness may be similar to that of the security forces. Other aspects are even worse. The military pay is not as good as that of the field troops, and even the scale of equipment is not as good as that of the field troops. Good equipment is given priority to field troops, while garrison troops basically use second-hand equipment replaced by field troops, and it is difficult to get new ones. Moreover, because the treatment between the troops varies so much, the soldiers of the 4th Brigade will definitely not feel comfortable. As time goes by, under the continuous influence of these reasons, the combat effectiveness of the 4th Brigade will surely decline sharply. If a war breaks out and the 4th Brigade loses, his position as major general will be over. But he still wants to be promoted to lieutenant general. After all, his father was a lieutenant general before he retired. This operation of convincing the direct retainers of the department to swallow up the soldiers of the Sakata Regiment was equivalent to indirectly cutting off the future of Pinglu Yongfu. Ruining someone's future is no less than killing their parents. That's why Hiraru Yufu targeted Hattori Naoomi so much. If the other side had not swallowed up almost a thousand of his veterans, the 4th Brigade would not have been able to form only two independent infantry battalions composed of new recruits. If the thousand veterans returned to the 4th Brigade, he would have to find a way to form an independent infantry regiment. By then, even if the combat effectiveness of the 4th Brigade has declined, it will not have declined to the level where it needs to be evaluated for conversion into a garrison force. It can be said that Pinglu Yufu even wanted to kill Hattori Naoomi. But his father was only a lieutenant general, while Hattori Naoomi's family was a noble family, and his father was once a general... Therefore, the reason why Pinglu Yongfu led his troops to Shiquan County so quickly was that he wanted to take over Shiquan County as soon as possible, then disband the Yamazaki Battalion, and add these defeated soldiers of the Yamazaki Battalion to the 4th Brigade. At the same time, he also wanted to destroy the Eighth Route Army's arsenal and use military merit to persuade the higher-ups not to turn the 4th Brigade into a garrison force. Because not all troops of the 4th Brigade were in one area, Pinglu Yongfu only led the main force of the last regiment of the 4th Brigade to the outskirts of Shiquan County to begin pre-war preparations and wait for other troops to arrive. Especially the half artillery regiment and a tank squadron that Shinozuka Yoshio supported him. Shinozuka Yoshio also invested a lot to prevent the 4th Brigade from becoming a garrison force. You should know that the Japanese garrison in Shanxi only had two independent artillery regiments, one field artillery regiment and one mountain artillery regiment. Both artillery regiments are composed of four artillery battalions.
Among them, the field artillery regiment was equipped with 48 Type 90 field guns. The Mountain Artillery Regiment was equipped with forty-eight Type 94 mountain guns. The half artillery regiment that Yoshio Shinozuka handed over to Isamu Hiraru was two field artillery battalions. Including the 4th Brigade's own artillery battalion, the number of field artillery reached thirty. Including an artillery company under Kasahara Koizumi's infantry regiment, there were a total of eighteen mountain cannons. The tank squadron assigned to him by Yoshio Shinozuka consisted of three Type 94 light tanks and six Type 95 light tanks, a total of nine tanks! It can be said that the current equipment of the 4th Brigade alone is enough to rival the equipment of a Type B division. It can be said that the current 4th Brigade is almost as good as a Type B division except that its number of personnel is less than that of a Type B division, but its equipment, especially heavy weapons, is almost as good as that of a Type B division, especially tanks. Type B divisions will not be equipped with tanks or combat vehicles, at most they will be equipped with some armored vehicles. It was these equipments that gave Pinglu Yongfu the courage and confidence to rely on the nearly 8,000 troops to break through Shiquan County, rescue the Yamazaki Battalion, destroy the Eighth Route Army arsenal, and cooperate with the other two brigades to annihilate the Eighth Route Army in Linyuan County and Shiquan County. Finally, the Shangdang area was recaptured. This was also Yoshio Shinozuka's purpose. He planned to use the 4th Brigade as the vanguard, break through Shiquan County, and then go straight into the heart of the Eighth Route Army's Shangdang Military Region to completely disrupt the Eighth Route Army's troop deployment. Finally, the other two brigades launched an attack from Linyuan County and Shiquan County, retaking the Shangdang area and seeing if they could destroy the Taiyue Military Region of the Eighth Route Army. Even if we cannot completely wipe out the Eighth Route Army's troops in the south of Shanxi, we must inflict serious damage to the Eighth Route Army in the south. The Eighth Route Army no longer had the strength to organize a large-scale battle like the attack on the Shangdang area. Because the area north of Shiquan County was still under the control of the Japanese, and with the help of trains and roads, the Japanese of the 4th Brigade soon gathered together again. When Pinglu Yongfu saw that all the troops were in place, he directly ordered his troops to launch an attack on the mountain defense positions north of Shiquan County. Even though the 771st Regiment dug trenches and artillery holes on the mountain, they did not expect the Japanese firepower to be so fierce. There were 42 mountain and field artillery pieces alone, which was enough to fully reach the scale of an artillery regiment. There was only one company of the 771st Regiment plus the reorganized county brigade of Shiquan County responsible for defending the mountains. Although the 771st Regiment had the advantage of terrain, it was basically impossible for them to completely block the powerful 4th Brigade with only more than 100 people. (End of this chapter)