Chapter 477: This Is Definitely Not An Army

Shu County!

After He Guoguang, Liu Wenhui, Pan Wenhua, Deng Xihou, and others discussed it, they added that Fan Shaozeng requested to leave Chuan to fight every time.

This time, the Sichuan Army Second Route Army chose Fan Shaozeng's 88th Army to leave Chuan and head to the Wuhan Battlefield.

Now, the war in Wuhan has attracted the attention of the whole world; after the fall of Jinling, Wuhan became the stationing place of the National Government.

International eyes are also looking toward Wuhan; currently, on the Wuhan Battlefield, the newly formed units are simply unable to resist the Japanese Army's offensive, and many newly organized units collapsed quickly when facing the Japanese Army's attacks.

Now, the Wuhan region needs soldiers; for the sake of the nation and the country, the Sichuan Army, without hesitation, mobilized another army to leave Chuan.

Even He Guoguang himself did not expect that Liu Wenhui, Pan Wenhua, and the others would actually agree to let Fan Shaozeng leave Chuan, and furthermore, the entire 88th Army is leaving Chuan, not leaving behind a single regiment or battalion.

One must know that now, the major generals of the Sichuan Army have all left Chuan, and there are not many powerful generals left in Sichuan Province.

Fan Shaozeng frowned slightly; even his own confidants do not know how many people are in the 88th Army?

This makes things a bit difficult for Fan Shaozeng; as the saying goes, troops and horses move, but provisions and fodder go first. Now that it is unclear how many people are in the 88th Army, how can he manage the provisions and ammunition!

With no other choice, Fan Shaozeng can only wait for the troops to assemble. Fortunately, Fan Shaozeng's troops are scattered across several counties and cities, not far away, and can arrive within two days.

Two days passed very quickly!

Originally, according to the establishment given by the Military and Political Department, the 88th Army was originally under the jurisdiction of the New 20th Division and the New 21st Division, with each division having an establishment of 12,000 men.

In particular, these local garrison brigades are trained in transporting ammunition and heavy equipment, their field combat capability is not bad at all, and some garrison brigades are trained entirely as newly organized units.

Old Fan visited the Arsenal in Shancheng; the 98K rifles, Czech Light Machine Guns, Type 26 General Purpose Machine Guns, and M2 Heavy Machine Guns stored in the warehouse could equip a force of over 40,000 men.

At the military meeting, Fan Shaozeng asked his confidants how many people the troops currently have.

"Army Commander?" said Zhang Hu, one of Fan Shaozeng's confidants, "We also don't know how many people the troops have now."

Moreover, many people knew they were going to leave Chuan to fight the devils, and one after another they ran to Fan Shaozeng's office, asking Old Fan to be sure to take them out of Chuan to resist the war.

After Fan Shaozeng arrived in Shancheng, he began to summon his confidants.

The 88th Army finished assembling; Old Fan saw the 88th Army under his command and caught sight of the dense crowd, and he was also startled.

A brief military meeting was held at the headquarters of the 88th Army; because Fan Shaozeng had the troops train separately, until now, he himself did not know how many people the 88th Army possessed.

When did his own troops have so many? This is definitely not the personnel of one army!

After a round of counting, Old Fan discovered that his 88th Army had already become the "88th Group Army"!

However, this time Fan Shaozeng did not leave a single soldier behind, taking them all out, and Pan Wenhua, Deng Xihou, and the others did not require Fan Shaozeng to leave troops behind to guard the house.

The Sichuan Army Non-Commissioned Officer Academy was expanded from the previous Jiangwutang; in the school, those giving lectures were all officers with rich experience in fighting against the Japanese.

He Guoguang has dealt with the Sichuan Army for many years; according to his understanding of the Sichuan Army, the Sichuan Army should have left behind quite a lot of troops to guard the house when leaving Chuan.

The illiterate soldiers then underwent training to get accustomed to the horses!

First of all, when the garrison brigades were training before, the rifles they were equipped with were always Zhongzheng Rifles; although this model is equipment of the Central Army, for the Sichuan Army, they could produce Mauser 98Ks.

Regarding artillery, the garrison brigades were also only equipped with 60mm mortars and 82mm mortars, as well as the Japanese Army's Type 92 Infantry Guns; not a single mountain gun or field gun was equipped.

By organizing garrison brigades this way, adding up the garrison brigades of several counties and cities, they can now scrape together an army.

As for machine guns, the garrison brigades all used imitation Czech Light Machine Guns and imitation Maxim Heavy Machine Guns; like the Type 26 General Purpose Machine Gun and the M2 Heavy Machine Gun, the garrison brigades were not equipped with them.

The Sichuan Army really does not like to use the Zhongzheng Rifle; compared to the Mauser 98K, it is much worse.

"After all, according to your instructions at the beginning, we developed separately; now we really don't know how many people we have under our command."

There were even European military officers in the school!

As for the textbooks of the Sichuan Army Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, they were the two "castrated" divine books that Yu Hua had previously presented to Liu Dashuai: the "Militia Military Training Manual" and the "Friend of Dual-Use Military and Civilian Talent."

"That's right... Army Commander! We don't know either!"

The 88th Army possessed many horses and vehicles; after the literate student soldiers enlisted, they began to undergo training to get accustomed to the artillery and automobiles.

"Army Commander, as for how many people, we can only know after the troops have all assembled."

Since the Sichuan Army 88th Army was leaving Chuan to fight, He Guoguang had completed his mission; he also bid farewell to Pan Wenhua, Deng Xihou, and the others, and incidentally reported the relevant situation to the National Government in Wuhan.

As for the extra people, it would be said that they were local garrison brigades of the Sichuan Army, used as reserves for the two Sichuan Army group armies and Sun Tongxuan's Third Group Army.

For this reason, the melancholy Old Fan sent a telegram directly to Yu Hua, asking how to solve it.

Especially after splitting the troops, the 88th Army was training separately in various counties and cities; training troops always needs a pretext, so they organized local garrison brigades.

With such a large number of people heading to the Wuhan Battlefield, how should they pass the hurdle of the Military and Political Department?

Ever since the 88th Army was organized, Fan Shaozeng followed the method Yu Hua mentioned, splitting the troops into several counties and cities for training.

Therefore, Fan Shaozeng's 88th Army possessed quite a few student soldiers, and many student soldiers were given priority to go to the Sichuan Army Non-Commissioned Officer Academy for training.

In this way, it could both reduce the Japanese spies' investigation into the Sichuan Army's troop strength and reduce the logistical pressure on the troops.

Because the Sichuan Army repeatedly annihilated the Japanese Army on the battlefield and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese Army, many students who migrated to Sichuan Province had joining the Sichuan Army as their first choice.

This is not some local garrison brigade; this is completely a regular army, damn it!

Now the Sichuan Army has opened factories and various enterprises in Sichuan Province, and in addition, the enterprises that moved into Sichuan Province have also resumed production.

The horses, vehicles, and various types of artillery hidden in the several counties around Shancheng began to continuously converge toward Shancheng.

His 88th Army had been stationed in Shancheng for nearly eight months, and during the stationing period, they were constantly training.

The current Sichuan Army is very wealthy and does not lack soldiers, provisions, or Weaponry at all; Fan Shaozeng is very melancholy, as his 88th Army has a full 60,000 people.

After Fan Shaozeng received the order to leave Chuan, he rushed toward Shancheng without stopping.

After pondering for a while, Yu Hua decided to let Old Fan take all 60,000 people to the Wuhan Battlefield.

Although the commanders of the two newly organized divisions still held the title of Division Commander, the soldiers under their command had completely turned into an army.

Wanjialing!

After Yu Hua received Fan Shaozeng's telegram, he was also stunned for a moment; he did not expect that Fan Shaozeng's 88th Army had actually turned into a group army, a full 60,000 people.

After obtaining the method of resolution, Old Fan also began to arrange the provisions and Weaponry for the troops.

As for the artillery, the 88th Group Army only needs to be equipped with six Type 41 Mountain Guns and six Type 94 Mountain Guns per division, plus one army-affiliated Schneider Mountain Artillery Regiment.

The number of mountain guns could also be met; after the 88th Army re-equipped in Shancheng, it began to set off for the Wuhan Battlefield.

(End of chapter)