Chapter 204: Composite Battalion Officially Launches!
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The application report for establishing the Combined Arms Battalion submitted by Division Headquarters underwent more than three months of seminars at the Military Region and finally had a final result.
In response to the Military Commission’s informatization reform, the Military Region approved the application report submitted by T Division.
The official document regarding the establishment of the Combined Arms Battalion was formally issued from the Military Region to the Division, with T Division taking the lead and being responsible, piloting the Combined Arms Battalion in Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment.
The Division Commander immediately forwarded this good news, along with the relevant documents, to Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment.
Chen Jun, as the core initiator of the Combined Arms Battalion, was immediately invited by Regiment Commander Wang to the Regiment to receive this long-awaited document together.
With anticipation and excitement, Chen Jun carefully read through the document once.
Overall, it was good, with no major issues.
However, there were quite a few minor problems.
Because the official document issued by the Military Region clearly specified the status of the Combined Arms Battalion in this military reform, along with a specific implementation plan for establishing the Combined Arms Battalion.
It was this already finalized implementation plan that hid quite a few potential hidden dangers.
Because this plan was not the one written by Chen Jun; accurately speaking, it was merely based on Chen Jun’s plan, and after multiple discussions at the Military Region seminar, it was ultimately modified and adjusted into a completely new plan.
Pooling wisdom has its benefits, and it cannot be denied that more people mean greater strength.
But when a large group of outsiders, plus a large group of people with superficial knowledge or half a bucket of water, gather together to discuss something.
It was mixed with too many personal assumptions, and too many one-sided personal ideas.
None of it had any verification; it was just “I think…”
More people are not necessarily a good thing!
Self-righteous experts or scholars are not only everywhere in society, nor limited to the 21st century; they exist even more in this 1990s era.
Especially for the Combined Arms Battalion under the major background of military reform, once it is established and passes assessment successfully.
Its potential value is very exaggerated.
Since everyone knows in their hearts the maximum value that the Combined Arms Battalion can bring, regardless of their mentality, they naturally all want to get involved.
Even if just one suggestion is adopted and finally proven feasible, everyone will flock to it.
Because as long as the suggestion appears in the Combined Arms Battalion, it means they contributed to its establishment; once the pilot Combined Arms Battalion succeeds, that contribution will turn into merit and yield considerable returns.
Faced with such huge temptation, who can resist?
Chen Jun, with the mature Combined Arms Unit system from later generations, plus his decades of accumulated experience in the Troops, wrote a Combined Arms Battalion establishment plan.
Not to say it was flawless and impeccable, but at least in this era, it was the most advanced.
As a result, after a round of discussions at the Military Region seminar, these participants, whose thoughts were limited to this era yet had strong desires to perform, proposed suggestions that actually had problems.
And these problematic ideas of theirs, forcibly added to the Combined Arms Battalion establishment, would only have counterproductive effects.
Everyone thinks they are right, and the wife thinks she is right.
They all want to add everything in!
The originally well-organized establishment plan was changed into a messy pot of porridge.
Chen Jun read through it from beginning to end and found that many of his plans had been altered beyond recognition; the good mood from receiving the establishment order completely disappeared from his face.
“It seems that the path to establishing Combined Arms Troops is far more complex than I imagined; the road is long and obstructed!”
Looking at the plan that turned out like a dog trying to draw a tiger, Chen Jun couldn’t help sighing inwardly; with so much bloated stuff added, it would really take effort to cut it out later, perfectly describing what it means to create trouble where there is none.
Fortunately, the main line of the Combined Arms Battalion establishment hadn’t changed; it was still based on the plan written by Chen Jun.
This gave Chen Jun, who was having a headache from the plan, a bit of psychological comfort; at least following it, the Combined Arms Battalion could be brought into existence.
As for the various strange additions, he could only think of ways to clean them up later.
First pulling up the venue is the biggest priority.
Otherwise, if Chen Jun disagreed with the new plan, tried to communicate with the Division Commander, then reported to the Military Region, and finally held another meeting for discussion.
Not to mention whether it would improve after discussion, fixing the current problems.
Just going through another round would take at least a few more months.
What Chen Jun cared about most was time; he really couldn’t afford to waste it like this.
So Chen Jun didn’t raise any opinions; he temporarily ignored the things he didn’t like and began discussing the establishment work with Regiment Commander Wang.
The foundation for this Combined Arms Battalion establishment was based on the original Seventh Reconnaissance Combined Arms Company, expanding into a new battalion.
It meant adopting Chen Jun’s independent plan, making the Combined Arms Battalion independent from the other three battalions of Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment, turning Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment into a regiment with four battalions.
While the establishment of the Combined Arms Battalion had some changes, overall it still followed Chen Jun’s plan.
As for the comprehensive establishment work after the Combined Arms Battalion launch, the Military Region’s execution plan subdivided it into detailed front and rear four stages.
The first stage had two things.
The first thing was that the Military Region’s Engineer Battalion would enter Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment by the end of January and begin constructing barracks at the selected location.
The barracks, training ground, and temporary supplies warehouse for the five companies of the Combined Arms Battalion were expected to be completed in three to four months.
The second thing was that all supplies, equipment, devices, daily necessities, etc., needed for the five companies of the Combined Arms Battalion would arrive successively during the barracks construction period and be stored in the temporary supplies warehouse.
The various supplies needed for the five companies, put together, were no small amount.
To ensure the safety and maintenance of this batch of supplies, the Military Region assigned this task to Steel Seventh Company; the large parade ground behind the Seventh Company building, as big as a soccer field, would be covered with tents and overall transformed into a temporary supplies warehouse.
There would be supplies coming in and out every day needing registration, plus many posts to guard the entrances and exits, and a lot of time spent on maintenance.
It was destined that Steel Seventh Company basically wouldn’t be able to conduct company training for the next few months.
Although this greatly affected company training, the Combined Arms Battalion was expanded based on Steel Seventh Company, meaning these supplies belonged to Steel Seventh Company.
This was the task Steel Seventh Company needed to undertake.
It was impossible for Steel Seventh Company to expand into a battalion with everyone in the company grinning from ear to ear.
While the dirty and tiring work was left to other companies.
…
When the Combined Arms Battalion camp construction is fully completed and all needed equipment and supplies are in place, the second stage work will start.
The core content of the entire second stage work is actually just one thing—
That is “people”!
Also divided into two aspects.
First is establishing the Combined Arms Battalion headquarters, from selecting the Battalion Commander and Political Instructor candidates at the top, to every Staff Officer at the bottom, all needing careful selection.
And the Combined Arms Battalion is no longer on the same level as when the Combined Arms Company was established back then.
At that time, the Military Region’s reform hadn’t officially started, Combined Arms Tactics hadn’t yet become one of the reform’s cores, and the Combined Arms Company’s level was too low to take the big stage, only having some influence at the Division level.
Now the informatization reform has begun, and the reform direction is very clear.
The value of Combined Arms Tactics is already known to everyone.
The Staff Officers and deputy positions in the battalion headquarters would undoubtedly become hot cakes without thinking; no matter which position, there would be a pile of people competing for it.
Even the eyes of the Military Region leaders would be on this piece of cake.
They couldn’t use it themselves.
But their own people could.
Especially the two chief officers of the Combined Arms Battalion—the Battalion Commander and Political Instructor—the competition would inevitably be even more intense; people with ordinary backgrounds wouldn’t even get a chance.
One must know this was the first Combined Arms Battalion in the entire Group Army, even across the entire army.
Even as a pilot, it was still a Combined Arms Battalion.
The chief officer of the entire army’s first Combined Arms Battalion—that title alone was full of weight.
One could guess with their toes…
No need to wait for the second stage work to unfold; just with the pilot order for the Combined Arms Battalion issued now, many people were probably already starting to exert efforts.
And the next three or four months would be an intense competition comparing strength and background.
Chen Jun believed that Gao Cheng, as Steel Seventh Company Commander, plus his father being the Top Commander of the Group Army, could definitely secure a Deputy Battalion Commander position no problem.
But for the other positions left in the battalion headquarters, Chen Jun still wanted to strive for them.
At least get Shi Jin into the battalion headquarters as Logistics Staff Officer.
This way, even as a non-commissioned officer, Shi Jin could participate in the battalion command system and have some right to speak at the Combined Arms Battalion level.
This would lay the most solid foundation in advance for entering higher command posts later.
Non-commissioned officers’ ceiling was much lower than officers’; if not taking this opportunity to help, Shi Jin would inevitably fall behind Chen Jun and Gao Cheng’s pace later.
Shi Jin was definitely an organizational talent; it would be too much of a pity to drop out of the top team.
Compared to the inevitable bloody storm in the battalion headquarters, the selection of Combined Arms Battalion warriors for the five companies below formed a stark contrast.
The all-NCO battalion needed support from the entire T Division, meaning people had to be transferred from other regiments to complete Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment’s Combined Arms Battalion.
And only the most excellent non-commissioned officers.
No Regiment Commander would be willing!
Regiment Commander Wang was a prime example; when Tie Lu came with the order to take people, he didn’t even want to let one go, let alone the most excellent warriors.
Regiment Commander Wang was like this; other Regiment Commanders were the same.
Even with Group Army orders, going empty-handed to demand people would probably be difficult.
As the saying goes:
There are policies at the top, countermeasures at the bottom.
If other regiments’ Regiment Commanders were unwilling, even with orders, it wouldn’t have much effect; they had a million ways to evade.
Just playing some small tricks inside would make the Combined Arms Battalion suffer later.
How to successfully get people from other regiments, and the most excellent non-commissioned officers, was no small difficulty; it would inevitably be a challenge.
Chen Jun thought of problems in this aspect and had been thinking of effective solutions.
But currently, he had no clues!
Fortunately, there was still plenty of time before the second stage; Chen Jun had enough time to think.
The second stage was scheduled for one month, during which the Military Region would send people specifically to assist in completing personnel allocation in one month.
With the needed people gathered in the second stage, plus the supplies and camp area preparations from the first stage, the third stage work could smoothly unfold.
Training, training, and more training.
That was the only focus of the third stage work!
Whether the Combined Arms Battalion could ultimately become a formal establishment depended on whether the battalion-level Combined Arms Tactics in this third stage could truly form combat effectiveness.
This was also the most critical and core stage in the entire Combined Arms Battalion establishment process.
Therefore, this stage was very long; the higher-ups gave a full year for training to maximize the Combined Arms Battalion’s combat effectiveness.
After one year of training ends, the Combined Arms Battalion establishment time would reach sixteen months.
Next would be the final fourth stage.
The fourth stage would conduct a high-intensity confrontation exercise on the trained Combined Arms Battalion to verify if it was truly feasible.
If the Combined Arms Battalion passed the confrontation exercise, the Group Army would formally incorporate it.
With its own dedicated designation and establishment!
If the Combined Arms Battalion failed the final assessment, it would mean the pilot ended in failure, and Chen Jun’s Combined Arms Troops dream would end there.
Having spent so much energy and time, no one wanted the Combined Arms Battalion to ultimately end in failure.
Therefore, for the Combined Arms Battalion pilot work, the entire Group Army from top to bottom was highly positive, and advancement work in all aspects was also very rapid.
In just two or three days.
Work representatives sent from the Division and Military Region had already handed over with Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment and Steel Seventh Company, formally starting the first stage work.
It was under this circumstance, with the Combined Arms Battalion officially launching and the entire Group Army revolving around it, that A Detachment’s recruitment work also began.
January 28,
Tie Lu and Yuan Lang, the big and small kings of A Detachment, brought a team of old A wearing A Detachment’s distinctive military uniforms and sunglasses, looking exceptionally cool, to the Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment training ground.
More than two hundred warriors on Tie Lu’s list were all assembled on the training ground, not one missing.
“They all came?”
Tie Lu saw everyone on the list, especially those seedlings he was concerned about, all in the ranks, and was genuinely a bit surprised.
Based on his understanding of Regiment Commander Wang’s character, he was sure Regiment Commander Wang would play some small tricks.
He had already discussed with Yuan Lang in advance: if the seed seedlings on the list weren’t present, Yuan Lang would go find them.
But now all the seedlings were there, completely foiling Tie Lu’s prediction.
“It must be Chen Jun again.”
Yuan Lang beside him hit the nail on the head, then frowned and said: “That guy Chen Jun is sly; it’s impossible for him to obey so obediently like this—there must be something off; I just don’t know what tricks they’re playing.”
“Life rarely encounters evenly matched opponents; this is quite interesting too, haha.”
Tie Lu seemed to know something but didn’t say it out; after a hearty laugh, he arranged: “Everyone’s here; let’s start then.
I’ll leave the work here to you; I’m going to personally chat with Chen Jun.”
Tie Lu had always appreciated Chen Jun and always wanted to pull him into A Detachment, but hadn’t had a private chat with him yet.
To understand Chen Jun more deeply and also probe what medicine was in Chen Jun’s gourd.
Tie Lu felt it necessary to specially go chat with Chen Jun.
