Chapter 83: Placing A Heavy Bet
Border Region Arsenal
The Brigade Commander took Li Yunlong and Ding Wei away. Li Muzhi said to Zhang Wanhe, “Minister Zhang, although combat troops are handling the locomotive snatch, transporting the stuff back will still put a lot of pressure on the transportation team. You need to prepare more people and transportation tools for the transportation team.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be guaranteed to be solid.” Zhang Wanhe nodded heavily.
Our mass base is strong; setting up the transportation team is no big deal.
We’re just worried that snatching the Japanese invaders’ train won’t have enough profits, and the transportation team’s manpower will be idle… Oh, no it won’t!
If there’s no profit on the train, there’s still some on the railway.
Pull up the railroad track; the sleepers can also be brought back. The transportation team won’t have idle manpower.
“Minister Zhang, I’ll go get busy then.” Li Muzhi flashed the notebook in his hand and said, “The cannonball test data is back; I still need to take a good look at it.”
“Alright, alright, you go busy, you go busy. I’m off to get busy too.” Zhang Wanhe nodded and left.
Li Muzhi returned to the office.
He carefully reviewed the test data for the four new cannonballs and confirmed there were no issues.
“Lao He.” Li Muzhi called Lao He over and instructed, “The Hell Cannon’s new cannonball test data has no problems. Produce cannonballs for the big cannons at full capacity according to the revised data.”
“Yes, Factory Director.” Lao He rubbed his fists eagerly.
Leaving Lao He in charge of producing the new cannonballs, Li Muzhi went to several key personnel, who were still seriously studying the locomotive structure diagram.
Seeing Li Muzhi come over, the several key personnel stopped and looked at Li Muzhi: “Factory Director Li, there’s still an issue.”
“What issue?” Li Muzhi asked.
“Even gathering tools from all the arsenals, we’ll probably still be short.” One key personnel said.
“No problem with that. The 386th Brigade just sent a batch of scrap metal; we can hurry and select from it for processing.” Li Muzhi said.
“Really? That’s pretty good then. Once the follow-up skilled workers behind us arrive, we can immediately have them hurry and modify it.” These people all said.
They were just the first batch of leaders to arrive; the large group of technicians was still behind.
“Good, good.”
……
Heyuan Japanese Gendarmerie
“Captain, Regimental Commander Kuroshima and Regimental Commander Ueno have arrived.” His confidant walked over and reported to Fujita Ichi.
Fujita Ichi immediately went out to greet them: “Regimental Commander Kuroshima, Regimental Commander Ueno, you’ve had a hard journey.”
Given the Eighth Route Army’s repeated attacks on Heyuan County Town, treating it like a public toilet.
So, Fujita Ichi had the encirclement troops stationed in Heyuan County Town.
First, it could prevent Heyuan County Town from being insulted by the Eighth Route Army again!
Second, it would also provide some security for his own safety.
Third, Fujita Ichi’s bait was about to be deployed, and with the encirclement troops stationed near Heyuan County Town, setting up the ambush formation would be the closest.
Kuroshima Morita and Ueno no Mura’s troops were fast, so they arrived first; the 22nd Regiment was infantry and would arrive a day late.
“Captain Fujita, have you found any leads on the Eighth Route Army here?” Kuroshima Morita and Ueno no Mura’s tones were extremely annoyed.
After fighting Chu Yunfei, the two had taken some hard losses.
Now calming down and thinking about it, damn it, they’d fallen for the Eighth Route Army’s scheme!
The Eighth Route Army had deliberately passed through the edge of Chu Yunfei’s defense zone, deliberately tripping them up.
“You two, stay calm.” Fujita Ichi soothed, “Where the Eighth Route Army is now isn’t important. What’s important is I have a way to lure them out. At that time, I hope you all can…”
Before Fujita Ichi could finish, Kuroshima Morita interrupted in fury: “What way do you have to lure them out?”
Kuroshima Morita was really furious.
What the Eighth Route Army did was really excessive. I could understand robbing rice, flour, oil, salt, and such supplies.
But taking horse feed too was really too much!
“I’ve already had people preparing the bait.” Fujita Ichi explained, “Once Kasahara-kun’s troops arrive, the bait can be deployed. Then your three regiments set up an ambush formation; no fear of not catching fish.”
“Good.” Kuroshima Morita’s emotions stabilized a bit, “As long as this Eighth Route Army can be lured out, we can wash away the shame of being toyed with!”
They were really exhausted from all the running; they didn’t want to keep going back and forth and just wanted to settle it once and for all.
Ueno no Mura looked at Fujita Ichi: “What’s the chance of the Eighth Route Army biting the hook?”
“One hundred percent!” Fujita Ichi was confident.
“That high?” Kuroshima Morita and Ueno no Mura still had some doubt after hearing it.
On the battlefield, there’s no such thing as absolute one hundred percent.
You, Fujita Ichi, say the Eighth Route Army will one hundred percent bite the hook; isn’t that a bit too overconfident?
Have you forgotten that you were just toyed with by the Eighth Route Army too?
Kuroshima Morita asked suspiciously: “What is this bait?”
“The Eighth Route Army’s arsenal can only make reloaded bullets, meaning they fundamentally lack the ability to make their own bullets…” Fujita Ichi’s words trailed off.
Kuroshima Morita couldn’t help but widen his eyes: “Captain Fujita, you’re not joking with us, are you? You want to use bullet manufacturing equipment as bait?”
Ueno no Mura was also shocked: “Aren’t you afraid this batch of stuff really gets lost?”
With the island country’s material shortages and the war machine ramping up, demand for ammunition grows daily.
In this context, how could bullet manufacturing equipment be easily used as bait?
“You two, I also wanted to use regular supplies as bait, but that’s not possible now.” Fujita Ichi shook his head.
In Fujita Ichi’s original plan, the Eighth Route Army lacked everything, so bait could be regular rations and supplies.
But the Eighth Route Army had robbed another haul in Ping’an County Town, equivalent to being full, so they wouldn’t easily bite again.
The Eighth Route Army also knew it was dangerous outside, with three regiments waiting for them, so they wouldn’t come out easily.
To make a full and alert fish bite again, one must work on the bait and go all in.
If you don’t give up the child, you can’t trap the wolf!
To make the fish know that even if there’s a hook in the bait, they can’t resist risking a bite.
Fujita Ichi continued, “The Eighth Route Army isn’t stupid either; without heavy bait, they won’t easily bite the hook. As long as I make this bait enticing, even if they clearly know there’s danger, they’ll have to take the risk. What do you think?”
Kuroshima Morita and Ueno no Mura looked at each other, also sensing Fujita Ichi’s pressure.
If the pressure weren’t so great, how could bullet manufacturing equipment be easily used as bait.
Whoever takes this gendarmerie captain position, the mess is hard to clean up.
Can’t use the cavalry regiment’s horses or the mechanized troops’ armored vehicles as bait, right.
Hunters hunting can’t go empty-handed.
“That makes some sense.” Kuroshima Morita and Ueno no Mura both nodded.
