Chapter 182: Regimental Commander Li, Congratulations On Getting Rich!
This is a military train transporting cargo, not a troop transport vehicle.
Even if there are Japanese soldiers escorting this military train, their numbers are not many.
Under the 772nd Regiment’s storm-like raid, all the escorting Japanese soldiers were wiped out.
“Hahaha, quick quick quick, open the carriage doors and see what’s inside!” Cheng Xiazi laughed heartily, taking the lead and opening a carriage door first.
With a clatter, the carriage door was pulled open.
Inside were bags stacked neatly one on top of the other.
“Could this be sugar?” Cheng Xiazi asked with great anticipation, quickly opening a bag.
The bag was opened, revealing not the snow-white crystals of sugar, but fertilizer.
“How can this be fertilizer!” Cheng Xiazi was greatly annoyed. Was this Japanese transport officer out of his mind, or had he taken the wrong medicine?
With the railway line restored to smooth operation, shouldn’t your military trains prioritize transporting weapons and ammunition and rations and supplies?
What the hell are you transporting this fertilizer for!
You’re delaying my business.
Seeing this, Li Yunlong also pretended to curse along: “Damn it, it can’t be that all these carriages are loaded with fertilizer, right? If so, wouldn’t we be in a bind?”
Officer Yan Kai from the Jin Sui Army and Chu Yunfei’s guard company are watching from behind. We can’t let them see any flaws.
We can’t let them know the significance of fertilizer to our arsenal.
If we let them know that fertilizer is very important to us, they will definitely investigate. Once the secret of the fertilizer is leaked and the Japanese invaders catch on, if they stop selling fertilizer, won’t our arsenal lose an important source of high explosive raw material!
In Li Yunlong’s view, if this whole trainload is fertilizer, then we’ve struck it rich.
Taking this much fertilizer to the arsenal, our arsenal probably won’t have to worry about explosive raw materials for the next two years.
What worried Li Yunlong was.
If this entire train is transporting fertilizer, then we don’t have enough manpower; we can’t take all the stuff back.
“Old Li, stop cursing and see what this is.” Soon, Ding Wei’s excited voice called out.
Li Yunlong and Cheng Xiazi both went over, grinning from ear to ear.
Cheng Xiazi jumped up, laughing: “These grenade launcher mortars add up to over three hundred, and there are several hundred boxes of shells too. Finally, something to look forward to.”
Divided among these three regiments, each would get over a hundred grenade launchers and mortars, plus plenty of shells; they’d eat their fill.
Li Yunlong also laughed: “These little Japanese devils are putting down such a big stake, clearly planning retaliatory raids on us. Heh heh, I’ve taken the stuff; let’s see the little devils try to raid now.”
“Regiment Commander, Regiment Commander, there’s more good stuff!” Zhang Dabiao soon shouted from his side.
Hearing this, Li Yunlong, Ding Wei, and Cheng Xiazi all ran over.
This time, the three men’s expressions were even more delighted.
Cheng Xiazi excitedly spat as he spoke: “These are all Type 92 Infantry Guns. One, two, three…”
Cheng Xiazi counted them: a total of twelve Type 92 Infantry Guns.
Plus three or four hundred boxes of shells.
“Hahaha.” Cheng Xiazi excitedly hugged Li Yunlong and spun him around. “Master, we’re rich, we’ve struck it rich!”
Originally, there had been some tension between Cheng Xiazi and Li Yunlong.
But now with this big windfall, that tension was nothing; it vanished into thin air.
Forget having Cheng Xiazi call Li Yunlong master; even calling him ancestor twice would be no big deal.
The Type 92 Infantry Gun is a mountain gun, very suitable for mountain warfare, lightweight with good mobility.
The 772nd Regiment suddenly getting four Type 92 Infantry Guns—hahaha, the 772nd Regiment can finally hold its head high, with enough capital for operations.
“Cheng Xiazi, damn it, put me down, put me down.” Li Yunlong struggled hard in Cheng Xiazi’s arms, cursing: “You son of a bitch, now you’re finally willing to call me master again? I don’t want a disciple like you.”
When Cheng Xiazi enlisted, it was Li Yunlong who taught him to shoot hand-to-hand.
Combat command was something Cheng Xiazi learned by following Li Yunlong.
Later, Li Yunlong got into too much trouble and frequently lost his regimental commander position.
So Li Yunlong ended up as commander of a garrison regiment.
Meanwhile, Cheng Xiazi became commander of a numbered main regiment.
There had always been a chain of scorn between garrison regiments and main regiments, so Li Yunlong and Cheng Xiazi were no exception.
Still, though Li Yunlong cursed, his mood was actually quite good.
Think about it!
Main Regiment Commander Cheng Xiazi admitting he was taught by me, a garrison regiment commander.
Doesn’t that indirectly prove that my abilities as Li Yunlong surpass those of a main regiment?
Saving those people from whispering behind my back: “What’s so great about you, Li Yunlong? If you’re so capable, why didn’t you become a main regiment commander?”
My disciple is a main regiment commander—that’s enough!
Ding Wei calmly reminded from the side: “You two, you’re celebrating a bit too early.”
Hearing this, Li Yunlong and Cheng Xiazi separated and turned to him: “What do you mean?”
“There are quite a few grenade launchers and mortars, totaling three hundred. Then there are these twelve Type 92 Infantry Guns.” Ding Wei listed them like treasures, his tone serious. “These are all artillery pieces, and we don’t have that many artillerymen.”
Ding Wei had more to say but held back.
That is, with such a huge haul now, we definitely won’t be able to hold onto it when we get back.
The brigade commander will definitely want a share of the wealth.
But the most pressing issue is still the artillerymen.
Hearing this, Cheng Xiazi immediately said: “Don’t we have plenty of shells? If we run into Japanese invaders or puppet troops, who cares if we hit accurately—just fierce bombardment, push right through. We’ve got the capital; we can afford to fight lavishly.”
“Damn it, you spendthrift, shut up!” Li Yunlong glared and kicked Cheng Xiazi, cursing: “We’ve captured a lot, but we can’t waste it like you suggest. With direct fierce bombardment, aren’t you afraid the soldiers will miss the enemy and bomb our own people?”
“Master, then what do you say we do? We can’t just waste all this artillery.” Cheng Xiazi took Li Yunlong’s kick without getting angry.
After all, Li Yunlong was speaking the truth.
If you don’t know how to handle artillery, you really shouldn’t mess around.
Just like new recruits who don’t know guns—fumble around, the gun goes off and hits your own people.
Li Yunlong said to Ding Wei: “Don’t our two regiments have grenade launcher and mortar crews? Have them quickly teach the new recruits right away—teach as many as we can, get them trained as much as possible.”
Earlier, in combat, Li Yunlong and Ding Wei’s troops had captured grenade launchers and mortars, and during rest at regimental headquarters, the artillerymen had been assigned.
“That works.” Ding Wei nodded but added: “We can teach the grenade launchers and mortars, but these Type 92 Infantry Guns will be tough—no infantry gun crews in the troops.”
Earlier, when dismantling heavy cannons from the Japanese iron turtles, we’d looked, and even among the direct lineage captives, there were no infantry gun artillerymen.
“Leave this to me.” Li Yunlong glanced at Yan Kai behind him.
This guy had watched our hell cannon fire and quickly noted something in his notebook.
Li Yunlong judged that Yan Kai probably understood artillery research.
Since he understood artillery research, he definitely knew how to handle Type 92 Infantry Guns.
In short, twelve Type 92 Infantry Guns—that’s ample artillery cover. We must get it sorted in the shortest time possible!
“Alright then, Old Li, it’s yours.” Ding Wei also glanced at Yan Kai, understanding Li Yunlong’s idea.
Cheng Xiazi and Ding Wei assigned men to continue clearing the military train, while Li Yunlong walked toward Yan Kai.
Cheng Xiazi and Ding Wei soon opened all the other carriages of the military train.
They found over thirty Type 92 Heavy Machine Guns, over two hundred Type 11 Light Machine Guns, and over two thousand four hundred Type 38 Rifles.
Bullet boxes were stacked in one and a half carriages, with the quantity temporarily uncountable.
In addition, there was white rice, white flour, and other supplies.
In short, this military train was rich as could be, overflowing with rations and supplies and weapons and ammunition.
Li Yunlong, Ding Wei, and Cheng Xiazi’s three regiments would eat till their mouths ran oil but still couldn’t digest it all.
“Hahaha, it’s New Year, this really is New Year!” Cheng Xiazi was so happy his mouth wouldn’t close.
“Quick quick, those who can swap gear, swap now; take as much ammunition as you can!” Ding Wei calmly urged the three regiments’ troops to re-equip quickly.
The swapped-out equipment and the supplies from the military train would be transported back together by the transportation team.
After all, these three regiments came to rob the military train prepared to strike it rich from it.
So they’d organized the transportation team in advance.
“Regimental Commander Ding, the transportation team doesn’t have enough manpower.” The transportation captain said to Ding Wei.
“Where’s it short? Looks just right to me.” Ding Wei pointed.
Though there was a lot of stuff, the transportation team’s manpower seemed just about sufficient.
“Regimental Commander Ding, don’t we still need to pull up railroad tracks and sleepers for the arsenal? We can’t spare the manpower.” The transportation captain explained.
The transportation team’s task was to dismantle the railway.
This huge batch of supplies took up all the manpower, leaving no one to dismantle the railway.
“No problem.” Ding Wei said calmly. “We’ve got bigger plans ahead. You transportation team take the stuff back first, then I’ll give you a chance to dismantle the railway.”
This stuff was very important and had to be transported back.
But dismantling the railway was equally important.
After all, if we didn’t paralyze this railway line for the little Japanese devils, their military trains would still transport supplies over.
As long as we cut off the Japanese invaders army’s supply replenishment, any retaliatory large-scale sweep they wanted would be a pipe dream!
“Regimental Commander Ding, if you say so, I’m relieved. Then I’ll take the men to transport the stuff back first, and rendezvous with you later.” The transportation captain was reassured and got busy.
Meanwhile, Li Yunlong had walked up to Yan Kai.
Seeing Li Yunlong approach, Yan Kai congratulated him enviously: “Regimental Commander Li, congratulations on striking it rich.”
The profits from this military train’s supplies were simply too abundant.
Three hundred grenade launcher mortars, twelve Type 92 Infantry Guns, two or three hundred light and heavy machine guns, two or three thousand Type 38 Rifles, plus ample ammunition and countless supplies—this really made Yan Kai incredibly envious.
If only the Jin Sui Army had taken this military train.
“What riches? Compared to your Officer Yan’s family fortune, this is not even a hair.”
Li Yunlong pointed at the transportation team moving the fertilizer, feigning self-deprecation while probing: “You’ve seen it—we’re poor and desperate, treating worthless fertilizer like treasure and hauling it back. Mr. Yan Kai, you’ve had a good laugh at us.”
