Thanks for the reward, Mistrasu.
After half a year of development, both the New First Regiment and the Vanguard Battalion have
seen significant improvements in their strength.
The New First Regiment has already become a main force regiment with five battalions,
and a total strength of five thousand personnel,
and this doesn't even include the Vanguard Battalion.
The New First Regiment has a total of four main force battalions and one new recruit battalion, established similarly to Qin Yangming's.
The soldiers in the main force battalions are equipped with either Type 38 rifles or Type 65 rifles.
The other battalions of the New First Regiment are not as well-equipped as Qin Yangming's.
Their standard infantry squad configuration is twelve men per squad,
with three squads forming a platoon,
each platoon equipped with one light machine gun,
and a total of forty men including the platoon leader and deputy platoon leader.
A company consists of three platoons,
one firepower squad equipped with three grenade launchers,
plus personnel for the cookhouse squad, medic, and others,
totaling one hundred and forty men.
However, not all companies in every battalion are configured this way.
Zhang Dabiao's First Battalion has six hundred men per company,
and each company is even equipped with its own heavy machine gun.
He has six such companies.
His First Battalion also has a machine gun and artillery platoon equipped with four 60mm mortars and three Type 92 heavy machine guns.
The Second and Third Battalions are similar, but they lack company-level heavy machine guns and mortars,
only having a machine gun and artillery platoon composed of three heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.
And each company only has five platoons.
The Fourth Battalion, formed later, follows the standard three-three system, with only one heavy machine gun.
However, even so, the Fourth Battalion's equipment is comparable to the infantry battalions of other main force regiments.
As for the Fifth Battalion, it is purely a new recruit camp,
used to supplement new recruits for the other battalions,
with weapons and equipment primarily consisting of Type 65 rifles and Hanyang-made rifles phased out from other battalions,
only a few light machine guns,
no heavy machine guns, and a few grenade launchers for training.
Furthermore, Zhang Dabiao managed to acquire a Type 92 Infantry Gun from somewhere.
Li Yunlong, using the four captured 90mm mortars from the Japanese devils provided by Qin Yangming,
managed to form a regiment-direct subordinate artillery company.
As for Qin Yangming, he spent 100,000 points to redeem all the weapons required by his established structure.
Originally, when he saw he still had 200,000 points left, he thought weapons weren't that expensive.
But when he redeemed ammunition, he spent 200,000 points and barely managed to prepare two hundred shells for each cannon.
Only then did he understand why firing a single shell required approval from the Brigade Commander, or even the Division Commander.
Artillery shells are truly expensive.
Especially for unfamiliar gunners, it often takes many shells to hit a target.
Qin Yangming also inquired at the arsenal if they could produce artillery shells.
As a result, the handmade shells produced by the arsenal had their outer casings break before they could even be fired.
Not only was the quality poor, but the calculated price was also twice as expensive as those from the system.
Finally, to improve the artillery experience, Qin Yangming had to rack his brain and thought of something from his previous life.
A device used to fire bullets from artillery pieces, developed during times of national poverty to save shells during training.
Although he couldn't replicate the exact device, the principle was similar.
He directly redeemed several brand-new Mosin-Nagant rifles, and by disassembling the rifle barrels and firing pins, he created a simple training device.
Indeed, the effect was quite good.
At least within the effective range of the artillery, half of ten shells could hit the target.
Unfortunately, this method was only applicable to direct-fire artillery like the Type 41 mountain gun or the Type 92 Infantry Gun.
Initially, Qin Yangming planned to use grenade launchers to train mortar crews.
However, considering that mortar shells for grenade launchers were not cheap either, he found a way to create training rounds for mortars.
It also helped that the main component of mortar shell casings was cast iron.
Furthermore, training shells didn't require much propellant, so Qin Yangming directly commissioned a blacksmith to forge a batch of large iron lumps as mortar shells according to his specifications.
As for the propellant, it was directly salvaged from bullets.
After submitting the methods of "using guns as substitutes for artillery" and "training shells," Qin Yangming received another commendation.
What made him happiest was that someone in Yan'an wrote him a letter, thanking him for the penicillin he sent.
Since most of his points were converted into ammunition for the troops' consumption, Qin Yangming currently only had five thousand points left for emergencies.
Seeing his dwindling points and thinking that the Japanese devils would organize a large-scale sweep in about three months, he felt the need to earn more points.
However, he couldn't enter the county town now, or rather, he couldn't enter the county town through the main gate normally.
This was because the Japanese devils at the Linyuan County armory had seen Qin Yangming before.
At that time, due to time constraints, Qin Yangming hadn't eliminated them all.
Consequently, his identity information had been leaked.
It was unavoidable; a person with a height of two meters and arms thicker than others' legs would have a very distinctive physique.
The Japanese devils weren't idiots.
To prevent Qin Yangming from sneaking over the city wall to raid the headquarters, the Japanese devils had even installed electric lights on the city walls.
The entire city wall became incredibly bright at night, making it impossible to enter by climbing over.
Moreover, the Japanese devils had issued a stern warning: if he dared to enter the city to kill Japanese devils again, they would kill the common people.
Qin Yangming was so enraged that he led his men to raid six blockhouses belonging to the Japanese devils consecutively.
He hung the corpses of the Japanese devils from the six blockhouses as a warning to the enemy.
He declared that if the Japanese devils dared to harm the common people, he would decapitate every Japanese devil he encountered.
After that incident, a tacit understanding seemed to be reached between the Japanese devils in Linyuan County and Qin Yangming.
As long as Qin Yangming didn't assassinate Japanese officers, they wouldn't harm the common people.
Of course, the main reason was the pressure exerted by the Japanese commander in Shiquan County on the Linyuan County Japanese devils.
After all, the six blockhouses Qin Yangming had raided belonged to Shiquan County.
If Qin Yangming continued at that pace, they would all be dismissed.
As for using the methods of Linyuan County to threaten Qin Yangming.
Heh, they still hadn't figured out who was responsible for the artillery bombardment of their headquarters in Shiquan County.
They wouldn't dare to offend a ruthless individual who single-handedly infiltrated the county town and raided the headquarters.
Such a ruthless individual would have many ways to enter the county town if he wished.
If they pushed him too far, he might come to Shiquan County and do the same to them, which they couldn't afford.
Especially those two individuals who had just been promoted from Lieutenant to Major.
These two were the ones who exerted the most pressure on Linyuan County.
For a time, the entire Linyuan County seemed to enter an era of peace.
The Japanese devils no longer dared to bully the common people when they went out. To prevent their blockhouses from being raided by Qin Yangming again,
the Japanese devils in Linyuan County directly withdrew all their personnel from the blockhouses into the county town or important strongholds,
acting like turtles retracting into their shells and no longer venturing out.
Even when delivering supplies, they had to hand over half of their provisions before they could reach their destination smoothly.
If they weren't afraid of the Japanese devils becoming desperate and directly robbing the common people,
Li Yunlong, true to his nature, wouldn't have let any supplies pass through to the Japanese devils.
Even the puppet troops no longer dared to be arrogant and overbearing.
If the Japanese devils were arrogant, they might be able to get away with it.
But if the puppet troops were arrogant, well, they were all locals.
If you now act against the Eighth Route Army, which was at the height of its power in Linyuan County, weren't you just asking for death?
After half a year of development, Li Yunlong also felt it was time to test the combat effectiveness of his troops.
Of course, the most important reason was that the brigade headquarters had moved, relocating to the 771st Regiment's area.
With the New First Regiment no longer under the brigade headquarters' watchful eye, Li Yunlong was like a fierce tiger unleashed from its chains.
Finally, with nothing to restrain him, he could unleash his full potential without any reservations.
Just one month after the Brigade Commander's departure, Li Yunlong set his sights on Linyuan County.
Not a specific stronghold in Linyuan County, but Linyuan County town itself!