The meeting ended, and Xiao Yun arranged for someone to see the guests off.
The 399th Division's "seeing off" was truly seeing off - after leaving the division headquarters, they were directly put into black cloth bags.
They were taken around the division headquarters in a carriage for several large circles, until they completely lost their sense of direction, before heading towards the outside of the base.
Only after they were sent out of the base would the guests' hoods be removed.
The 399th Division and Xiao Yun, who had inflicted significant losses on the Japanese in two encounters, were now thorns in the eyes of the Japanese, a thorn in their flesh, whom they desperately wished to eliminate.
The location of the division headquarters needed strict confidentiality!
To be honest, Xiao Yun wasn't at ease with the Jin Sui Army!
Even if the other side didn't have the intention of leaking information, their internal structure, which had been infiltrated by the Japanese like a sieve, could easily transmit intelligence to the Japanese side.
Therefore, it was better to be cautious, after all, it's better to be safe than sorry!
..........................
Yan Lao Xi sent the people over quickly, or rather, he was already eager to seize control of Shuizhou.
A few days after sending off the Jin Sui Army colonel, the 300 skilled workers from the former Taiyuan Arms Factory agreed upon in the transaction were sent to the 399th Division's Jinbei base.
However, Yan Lao Xi had some reservations – the 300 people sent were those who were slightly less skilled among the workers he still had.
But even those who were slightly less skilled were still elite after several rounds of elimination.
They were invaluable talents anywhere!
Even the 399th Division, whose arms factory had already been set up and was operating stably, could not take them lightly.
The arrival of these workers, along with the passionate intellectuals who were coming from all over the country to join the army and the group of workers trained by the base itself, formed a reliable reserve force for the 399th Division's military industry and logistics.
Although their existence did not increase the strength of the arms factory on paper due to the limited number of mechanical equipment.
It merely allowed the manual production line for 20 rifles per day to operate.
However, it gave the arms factory the potential to continue growing.
It's worth mentioning that after much deliberation, the final production task for that manual rifle production line was the imitation production of Type 38 rifles.
There were two reasons for this: first, the largest number of rifles in the 399th Division's current arsenal was the Type 38 rifle.
Unifying the rifle caliber as much as possible would help reduce logistical pressure.
Second, the performance of the Type 38 rifle was actually quite good; among the Japanese's many weird and wacky light weapons, it was one of the few that kept up with the mainstream of the world.
It was much better than their infernal designs like the Wang Ba box, the 歪把子 (Wai Ba Zi), and the Type 92.
Although its power was slightly weaker than the Zhong Zheng Shi (Central Formal) rifle manufactured by imitating the Mauser 1924 rifle, it had a longer range and higher accuracy.
And the barrel was long; when equipped with a bayonet, it was nearly 1.7 meters long, which was very advantageous in white-blade combat!
However, in Xiao Yun's vision, the Japanese-made weapons currently equipped by the 399th Division were just a temporary transition.
When they had the opportunity, they would definitely eliminate all these Japanese weapons.
Of course, this would require his good subordinates to work hard and make a fortune!
Late at night, Xiao Yun wrote a future development plan while smiling and thinking about it.
...............................
On the other side, at the New 1st Regiment/Independent Regiment headquarters, Li Yun Long/Kong Jie returned to his kang (brick bed) to sleep after checking the last patrol, suddenly feeling a shiver.
He touched it in confusion and found that the kang was still warm, and the firewood underneath was burning brightly.
They could only attribute this to their physical fitness not being as good as when they were younger, with a touch of middle-aged melancholy, they went to sleep in their clothes.
....................................
"Li Gong, this is Shuizhou City, after so many years, our Jin Sui Army has finally returned here!"
After receiving the 300 technicians from Yan Lao Xi, Xiao Yun also faithfully handed over the Shuizhou area to the Jin Sui Army and let them defend it.
In the end, the task of defending Shuizhou City was entrusted by Yan Lao Xi to the 358th Regiment of Chu Yun Fei, one of the more capable units in the Jin Sui Army.
The 358th Regiment was a reinforced regiment with 5,000 men and a mountain artillery battalion, making it Yan Lao Xi's trump card.
You know, Yan Lao Xi only had about 40,000 men in total.
Although Chu Yun Fei was only a regiment commander, his actual status within the Jin Sui Army was very high.
They also gave other relatively capable units in the Jin Sui Army some counties and towns.
As for why Yan Lao Xi didn't personally take charge?
He was just red-eyed, not stupid!
Anyone with eyes could see that the Japanese wouldn't just sit idly by and watch the Jin Sui Army occupy the Shuizhou area; the Jin Sui Army and the Japanese were bound to have a fight sooner or later.
However, with the 399th Division, a formidable enemy of the Japanese, in front of them, it was unknown whether the Japanese would spare any effort to deal with the Jin Sui Army?
With Yan Lao Xi's shrewdness, he naturally wanted to wait until Chu Yun Fei and the others he had sent out had withstood the Japanese pressure in the Shuizhou area and established themselves before moving his Second War Zone headquarters there.
Otherwise, if they just moved in and were chased back to the county by the Japanese not long after, would he, Yan Lao Xi, the King of Jin Province, not care about his face?
Although he had 200,000 well-equipped troops under his command, he had been beaten back and forth by the Japanese, so he didn't have much face left anyway.