Chapter 151: Demanding People
Su Yaoyang helplessly spread his hands toward Lu Shaobin: “I say, old Lu, now at the command headquarters, only Staff Officer Pi and I are left.
No people available, but two lives on the line. You might as well take us both away and see what positions to assign us.
These days, not just you, even old Li and old Huang have been nonstop asking me for people, but I’m not Sun Wukong, unable to pull out a hair and transform into a person. What do you want me to do?
Staff Officer Pi has already opened an officer crash training class. Can’t you wait a bit longer?”
“Can’t wait, my commander!” Lu Shaobin said with a bitter face: “You only gave us three months. If the time comes and we still can’t complete the training mission, will you and Staff Officer Pi mercifully let the task force off the hook?
Besides, I’ve heard that the Japanese troops in Meng County, Xiangding County, and even around Datong and Taiyuan are mobilizing frequently today. They might be coming for us. We could go to war anytime. How can I not be anxious?”
“Eh…”
Hearing this, Su Yaoyang and Pi Ruoyu exchanged a glance, both seeing the worry in each other’s eyes.
Finally, Su Yaoyang helplessly took a sip of water: “You go down first. Let me discuss this matter with Staff Officer Pi again.”
After Lu Shaobin left, Su Yaoyang pondered for a moment before saying to Pi Ruoyu: “Old Pi… this can’t go on. The troops are short of a large number of grassroots officers, especially squad and platoon leaders with combat experience.
Relying solely on us to train them is too slow. We need to think of a way.”
Pi Ruoyu said helplessly: “What way? This isn’t Xuzhou. There aren’t many places for us to shear wool from.”
Su Yaoyang gritted his teeth, “Damn it, I don’t believe it. Can a living person be choked to death by urine?
Here’s the plan… I’ll send a telegram to Commander Li Zongren, asking him to support us with one or two hundred officers. In a couple of days, I’ll go to Kedunanpo to visit our Commander Yan and see if I can shear some wool from him.”
Hearing this, Pi Ruoyu couldn’t help laughing out loud: “Commander Yan is the type who weighs even a sip of vinegar. Can you shear wool from him?”
“It’s up to people.” Su Yaoyang also laughed, “Anyway, it’s like beating a child on a cloudy day—nothing to lose. Even if we don’t get people, we lose nothing. What do you think?”
“Go to Kedunanpo?”
Pi Ruoyu shook his head repeatedly without thinking: “It’s not the task force stopping you, but Wuta County is over a thousand li from Kedunanpo. The road passes through who knows how many Japanese-controlled areas.
You are the backbone of our militia. If anything happens to you, our militia will fall apart.”
“This…”
Su Yaoyang thought for a moment and realized he had been a bit hasty.
Kedunanpo is at the southernmost end of Shanxi, while Wuta County is at the northernmost end. To get to Kedunanpo, who knows how many territories he’d pass through. He couldn’t fight his way through, and how many troops would that require?
He had barely transmigrated once. If something happened, there’d be no second big-headed baby to save him. He might really have to meet his ancestors.
“Alright.”
He thought for a moment: “Here’s the plan. I’ll personally send a telegram to Commander Yan, explaining our situation. Surely he can understand.
Also, our Commander Yan likes doing business. We can cooperate with him under the name of business and borrow some manpower along the way. That shouldn’t be too much, right?”
“Mm… this plan is good.” Pi Ruoyu agreed with the idea after hearing it…
Kedunanpo is located 30 kilometers northwest of Jixian County seat, originally just a loess hilltop with six households.
It consists of five parallel ridges from west to east and sloping from north to south, each with a patch of alluvial flat land, some planted with crops, others with peach trees.
Due to its gourd-shaped independent ridge surrounded by gullies on three sides and connecting to the plateau on one, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and hard to attack.
Therefore, after the Japanese occupied major cities like Datong and Taiyuan, Yan Xishan led Shanxi notables and Second War Zone military and political personnel here.
After nearly a year of construction, it became a mountaintop small city accommodating over 20,000 people, temporarily the military stronghold of the Second War Zone and the political, economic, and cultural center of SX Province.
In an unassuming cave dwelling at Kedunanpo, Yan Xishan, dressed in pajamas, was wearing reading glasses, sitting on the kang reviewing newly delivered documents.
At this time, a gentle-looking woman in a black skirt and blue blouse walked in with a folder and placed it on the small table on the kang.
“Old man… this is from the confidential office. Section Chief Ma says there’s an important telegram that needs your personal review.”
“Oh… what telegram has our Fifth Fresh personally delivering it?”
Yan Xishan joked with a smile, then put down his pen and opened the folder to start reading.
But as he read, his brows furrowed, and he was silent for a long time.
This woman whom Yan Xishan called Fifth Fresh was named Yan Huiqing, daughter of one of Yan Xishan’s uncles, ranked fifth, so playfully called Fifth Fresh by Yan Xishan.
Because Yan Huiqing was good at reading expressions and caring for people, she was assigned to attend to Yan Xishan.
Good at reading expressions, seeing him silent for so long, she curiously asked: “Old man… who sent this telegram? From Chongqing?”
“No.”
Yan Xishan smiled and shook his head: “It’s a telegram from a young fellow. He says he wants to do business with me.”
“Do business?”
Yan Huiqing couldn’t help but chuckle in surprise. She had served Yan Xishan for a year or two, and this was the first time she’d heard of someone proactively wanting to do business with him. Truly a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.
Seeing Yan Huiqing laugh, Yan Xishan said seriously: “Do you know what business this young fellow wants to do with me?”
Seeing Yan Huiqing shake her head, Yan Xishan couldn’t help but say with a grin: “He says his troops just expanded and he wants to borrow two hundred grassroots officers from me to bolster his troops. He really dares to think.”
“There’s such a thing?”
Yan Huiqing stopped laughing and opened her mouth wide, somewhat in disbelief.
Even if she didn’t understand military affairs, after years by Yan Xishan’s side, she knew some basics.
Whether a troops has combat effectiveness, besides the commander’s ability and weapon levels, the most important is the quality of grassroots officers.
If troops are likened to a person, soldiers are the flesh, grassroots officers the skeleton.
Solid skeleton means combat power, able to fight; unstable or floppy skeleton means done for. This shows the importance of grassroots officers.
