After the Armored Company expanded the Armored Battalion, replenishing the troops became an urgent problem that Zhou Cheng needed to solve.

Defend Jinzhong to the death, counter-encirclement and suppress the Japanese raid troops... Three consecutive battles caused nearly 7,000 casualties to the National Savior Army.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, the National Salvation Army had to fight against the Japanese while replenishing new soldiers, otherwise the total strength of the National Salvation Army would be greatly reduced to three or four thousand.

However, the new recruit battalion has limited troops. Even if all the troops are supplemented, the main force's vacancies will still exceed 4,000. If the new recruit battalion is filled with the unit, the national rescue army's vacancies will reach an astonishing 6,000.

The reason why there are not seven thousand people is that there are more than a thousand minor and serious wounded people who can recover from the team in the field hospital of the National Salvation Army.

"Captain, if we recruit 6,000 new recruits directly in the defense zone, with the current reputation of the National Salvation Army, it will definitely be fine to recruit them together. But it will definitely affect the proportion of young and middle-aged people in the defense zone, and finally affect the production strength of the defense zone!" Tang Yufeng is not only the logistics manager of the National Salvation Army, but also responsible for the production of the entire defense zone. No one knows the population ratio in the defense zone better than him. As soon as Chen Zhengyu proposed the idea of ​​recruiting 6,000 soldiers in the defense zone, his brows unconsciously frown.

Although there was no direct objection, the meaning was that there were too many 6,000 people, and the defense zone could not provide so many new recruits at one time.

Zhou Cheng understood and asked Tang Yufeng directly: "How many new recruits can the defense zone provide without affecting production?"

Tang Yufeng obviously had considered this issue for a long time. As soon as Zhou Cheng finished talking about it, he blurted out: "Three thousand people!"

"In order not to suppress the enthusiasm of the villagers to support our national rescue army, and to avoid affecting production, like pacifying, the two old defense areas of Xiyang will only be symbolically recruited 200 soldiers."

"Since the establishment of the National Salvation Army, these counties have provided us with no less than 2,000 new recruits. If we recruit a large scale, the young and middle-aged people in several counties will be taken away by us!"

"Yangquan is a large county with a large population and can recruit 1,000 new recruits."

"Shouyang is the defense zone we just captured. Although the population is not as large as Yangquan, we have not recruited soldiers here and can recruit about 800 people."

"The last thing is the new defense zone that the Xiyang garrison has just won. Without affecting production, it can also recruit 600 new recruits, a total of 3,000 people."

Zhou Cheng knew that Tang Yufeng would not joke with him about such a big thing, so he made a decision on the spot: "Since that's the case, the task of recruiting 3,000 new recruits in the defense zone will be handed over to Lao Tang!"

"I'll take charge of the remaining three thousand recruits!"

Zhou Cheng was very confident when he said this, but Chen Zhengyu was not as confident as him.

There are not a few hundred new recruits in Chen Zhengyu's eyes. In Chen Zhengyu's eyes, Zhou Cheng's so-called method is probably to attack coal mines and then mobilize absent from work to join the National Salvation Army.

Again and again, Zhou became a new recruit who had reserved enough for the national rescue army and had attacked Jingxing coal mine twice in a row, causing huge losses to the Japanese army.

In order to prevent the coal mine from being attacked again and stopped production, the Jingxing coal mine, which resumed production again, was directly built by the Japanese to build a military fortress.

With the current strength of the National Salvation Army, unless tanks and heavy artillery are used, they will definitely not be able to be taken down.

The regiment commander wanted to repeat the same trick and replenish new recruits to the troops by attacking coal mines. He could only retreat and attack small and medium-sized coal mines around Jingxing.

Although it can also save many absenteeism, the speed is too slow.

It may be possible to recruit hundreds or thousands of new recruits. It is very difficult to recruit three thousand new recruits at one time, and the possibility of success is almost zero.

After all, the Japanese army is not a fool. After one or two coal mines are attacked, other coal mines will definitely be more vigilant, and it will be difficult to conquer them.

Although he knew that his next words were too damaging to people, he decided to speak out for the safety of the regiment commander and the entire National Salvation Army.

Zhou Cheng laughed after hearing this: "Old Tang, who told you that I was going to go to the coal mine!"

"I understand the truth that things are just three, and the Japanese are waiting for the Jingxing Coal Mine. I will definitely not be so stupid that I hit them in the gun!"

Tang Yufeng was confused for a while before he reacted, stared at Zhou Cheng with a curious look on his face and asked, "Then where did you get back three thousand new recruits!"

"Send people to recruit soldiers in the enemy-occupied area!" Zhou Cheng did not deliberately conceal his thoughts.

"This is impossible!" Tang Yufeng's head shook like a rattle after hearing this, and he denied it on the spot.

Zhou Cheng smiled confidently: "There is nothing impossible. As long as we find a way, the impossible will become possible!"

"Old Tang, you have been managing the logistics of the troops during this period and are busy replenishing ammunition supplies to the participating troops. You should rarely pay attention to the situation in the defense areas and enemy-occupied areas, right?"

Tang Yufeng was puzzled again and didn't understand the purpose of the group leader's sudden words.

But he nodded instinctively: "This anti-sweeping campaign, we not only sacrificed a large number of soldiers, but also lost a large number of weapons and ammunition. In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, I have been dreaming about replenishing food and ammunition for the troops during the night, resettling the wounded, and organizing the people in the defense zone to strengthen the walls and clear the fields. I really rarely pay attention to the situation in the enemy-occupied areas."

"But Deputy Commander Zheng is in charge of intelligence, and every move of the surrounding Japanese and puppet military defense zones cannot escape his eyes."

"If there is any emergency in the Japanese and puppet army, he will definitely inform the regiment headquarters as soon as possible. However, the regiment headquarters has not received relevant information in the past few days, so I think there should be no emergency in the enemy-occupied area during this period!"

When he said the last sentence, Tang Yufeng's confidence was obviously not that strong.

The regiment commander was not a targetless person. He suddenly asked himself if there were any emergencies in the defense zone and the enemy-occupied area. There must be reasons why he didn't know.

Sure enough, as soon as I finished speaking, I saw Zhou Cheng shook his head: "You guessed wrong this time!"

"During the anti-sweeping raid, the lively level of the enemy-occupied areas was no less than that of our defense areas. It was just that this sudden accident had nothing to do with the war, so the intelligence department did not pay much attention! If they took a step back, even if they paid attention, we were concentrating all our manpower and material resources to fight the Japanese, and the regiment headquarters had no time to take care of the intelligence."

Tang Yufeng nodded in approval.

During the anti-sweeping campaign, I was devoted to the logistics supply of the troops and rarely paid attention to information that had nothing to do with the war situation.

I immediately asked: "Captain, don't keep it a secret. What accident happened in the enemy-occupied area? What does it have to do with our recruitment? Why do I become more confused the more I listened to it?"

"Drought!" Zhou Cheng replied.

"After the autumn harvest, the drought in North China has not only not eased at all, but has become more and more intense."

"In order to deal with our National Salvation Army and the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese formed a large number of puppet troops in the enemy-occupied areas. These puppet troops had to eat and had to receive military pay. In addition, the Japanese's own grain supplies also came from the occupied areas. Japan no longer provided them with food, so the Japanese could only continue to increase their plunder of the enemy-occupied areas."

"It was a little better before. The Japanese occupied a very large area. After the Japanese were divided into each county, the people could barely bear it."

"Not now. We and the Eighth Route Army are fighting stronger and stronger behind enemy lines. Our defense areas and Eighth Route Army base areas are also getting bigger and bigger, and the occupied areas belonging to the Japanese are getting smaller and smaller."

"The food gap is getting bigger and bigger, but there are fewer occupied areas that can be used to collect grain. Lao Tang, what kind of situation do you think will occur in the enemy-occupied areas?"

Tang Yufeng blurted out: "That's more important than that, of course, it is to increase the proportion of grain collected in the enemy-occupied areas and collect more grain from the people!"

Speaking of this, thinking about the drought that the regiment commander just mentioned, Tang Yufeng suddenly reacted: "I understand, the drought is getting worse and worse, and the food in the hands of ordinary people will definitely be less and less. But the amount of grain collected by the Japanese did not decrease due to the continued drought, but it is getting higher and higher!"

"No one can survive without food! The Japanese squad increased the proportion of grain collection at this time, which was to force the people to the dead, hoping that they would starve to death at their own homes."

"Since you can't escape death if you find a way to resist the Japanese and give them food to the Japanese, you might as well die with a little backbone. Fight with the Japanese and try every means to save some food. Maybe there will be a glimmer of hope in the end!"

Zhou Cheng nodded and continued, "The Japanese in the enemy-occupied area forced the people to a dead end step by step, so that the people could not survive. But we have food in our hands. If we take the food to recruit soldiers in the enemy-occupied area, what do you think the villagers will react?"

Tang Yufeng understood completely, and suddenly realized his mind and replied: "I don't have food in my hand, so I can't even survive this winter."

"If I were an ordinary person in the enemy-occupied area, I would work hard for anyone who gave me fifty kilograms of food!"

"Fifty kilograms of food are not only enough for them to survive the cold winter, but after someone in their family joins our National Salvation Army as a soldier, they will have less food in the next day, and the limited food can also last for a longer period of time."

"If an accident occurs in a family member who is staying in the enemy-occupied area, at least one person will survive because he joins our National Salvation Army and will not be cut off from the rear!"

"You have a good method, you can use food to recruit soldiers from the enemy-occupied areas. You can indeed make up for the shortage of our national rescue army at the minimum cost!"

"If everything goes well, not only can the main force be filled in the gaps, but the new recruits can also be fully reorganized!"

The national rescue army divided its troops and recruited troops in the enemy-occupied area with food on their backs. It was very popular. In just three days, news spread to the Japanese army headquarters in Taiyuan.

The intelligence officer's expression was very serious, and he was already familiar with the information content. The next thing he needed to do was to express the information without angering the army commander.

Take a deep breath, quickly pass the content you are about to report in your mind, and choose the key report as much as possible.

"Sir, because the drought in the occupied areas is getting worse and worse, this autumn harvest, the grain harvested in the occupied areas is less than 60% of the previous years. However, the grain we need to collect is at least 30% more than in previous years because of the increase in the Imperial Army."

"In addition to the layers of deductions from officials at all levels, the actual food we collected from the Chinese in the occupied area was two more layers than planned, resulting in many Chinese in the occupied area being completely out of food!"

"The National Salvation Army proposed to use food to recruit new recruits. After the news spread in the occupied areas, the Chinese were very enthusiastic about signing up. In less than three days, more than a thousand people joined the National Salvation Army!"

"Those Chinese people left the Imperial Army-occupied area under the pretext of fleeing famine. With the help of the National Salvation Army, they entered the National Salvation Army defense zone and joined the National Salvation Army. This made us have no reason to retaliate against their families. We could only watch a large number of young and strong men enter the National Salvation Army defense zone from the Imperial Army-occupied area and increase the strength of the National Salvation Army!"

After hearing this, the commander caught a keyword in the report, and then frowned and asked: "The reason why the National Salvation Army can recruit a large number of new recruits in our occupied areas is that food is the most important."

"The Chinese in the occupied area have run out of food. The National Salvation Army has food in their hands. The two sides have supply and demand relationships. This hit it off, resulting in a large number of Chinese in the occupied area joining the National Salvation Army using the excuse of fleeing famine!"

"Sir, wise!" The intelligence officer took the opportunity to flatter the army commander.

The army commander's expression was calm and he stared at the intelligence officer and continued to ask: "Since the key to the problem is food, then tell me what the food is going on!"

"North China has a severe drought, and our food shortage has increased instead of reducing, so the Chinese in the occupied areas will naturally have less food. Then why does the National Salvation Army have food in their hands and their defense areas are also suffering from drought. Shouldn't the grain production be reduced like us? Why do we have excess food to recruit new recruits in our occupied areas!"

The intelligence officer looked helpless and wanted to say, "Isn't this all caused by yourself?"

The commander believed in the proposal that the National Salvation Army might be swept to become the Imperial Army by the Shanxi garrison, and took out a lot of food to trade with the National Salvation Army, which led to the National Salvation Army not being short of food due to drought.

In addition, in the months before the autumn harvest, whether it was the Shanxi garrison or the national rescue army, they were accumulating strength for the next big battle.

However, in addition to reorganizing the troops and increasing their combat capabilities, the National Salvation Army also mobilized the people to build water conservancy projects in the defense zone, reclaim large-scale wasteland, increase the area of ​​grain planting, and slow down the impact of drought on food. This also alleviated the food shortage of the National Salvation Army to a certain extent.

The first reason is that the intelligence officer dared not say even if he beat him to death.

The commander was angry and now told him that the reason why the national rescue army did not lack food was caused by himself, which was like adding fuel to the fire and asking for trouble.

Therefore, the intelligence officer could only focus on the second reason.

After saying that, he saw the commander frowning and falling into deep thought.

After a while, I sighed: "Sometimes I really doubt that Zhou Cheng has the ability to predict the future!"

"When the troops were preparing for war, they did not forget to build water conservancy projects. They bought food from us through various means a year in advance and cheated on food... It seems that all this was prepared for the drought in front of them, otherwise why would only the national rescue army not lack food!"

Despite his feelings, the commander did not forget that Zhou Cheng was his biggest opponent.

Asked immediately: "Have you estimated how much food the National Salvation Army has reserved? If the drought continues, how long will the food in their hands last?"

The intelligence officer hesitated and replied: "At least 30 million kilograms!"

The commander snorted coldly: "Isn't that too much?"

The chief of staff on the side thought he had heard it wrong, so he quickly reminded: "Sir, 30 million kilograms of food are indeed not much for us. But don't forget that there are only five or six thousand people left in the National Salvation Army. In addition to the local troops, the wounded, and the new recruits they just recruited, the full amount is less than ten thousand."

"They can eat with great energy in the next days, and 30 million kilograms of grain will be enough for three years."

"It is equivalent to the National Salvation Army not requiring a grain from the defense zone in the next three years. The reserve of grain alone is enough to maintain the daily needs of the troops and greatly reduce the pressure on the defense zone."

The commander did not deny the Chief of Staff’s reminder, but the expression on his face did not change. He continued to speak in a sarcastic tone and said, "You are right. For the National Savior Army with less than 10,000 people, 30 million kilograms of food is indeed a lot."

"But if we turn more than 10,000 people into 50,000 and 600,000, or even millions, this little food will be a drop in the bucket!"

"I remember you said that after the grain collection in the occupied areas was over, Chinese people from all over the country caused us a lot of trouble in order to survive, which led to a large number of garrisons having to become guards to maintain public order. I decided to transfer these troubles to the National Saving Army and let them destroy the National Saving Army by the way."
Chapter completed!