Chapter 153: This Isn’t The Outcome He Wanted
Just as Su Yaoyang was still finding Old Man Yan’s stinginess amusing, a piece of good news arrived. After receiving the telegram sent by Su Yaoyang, Li Zongren quickly assembled more than two hundred grassroots officers from the officer training class in Anhui. After more than twenty days of forced marching, they arrived in Wuta County.
The arrival of these officers solved Su Yaoyang’s urgent problem, greatly accelerating the expansion process.
The weather in July was exceptionally hot and stuffy, with dust flying everywhere on the training ground, and the scorching sun heating the steel until it was red-hot.
John stood on the track of a tank, the rough metal surface pressing against his military boots. He took off his sweat-soaked military cap and knocked on the tank armor. The dull metallic sound instantly quieted the noisy crowd.
“See this sloped armor?” His finger slid over the front armor plate of the tank, and rust immediately embedded in his nail crevices. “The Japanese monkeys’ armor-piercing rounds will ricochet when they hit, but don’t count on this to save your lives—only you yourselves can save you!”
The tank under John’s feet was the M4 Sherman tank newly equipped to the tank battalion.
When John first saw this tank, he felt despair: nearly three meters tall, crude craftsmanship, and a gasoline engine that caught fire with a single hit—it was just short of shouting at the enemy: “One hit and it burns, every hit burns!”
For this reason, John even went to Su Yaoyang and strongly demanded a tank replacement, even if it meant going back to the original Renault tanks.
But as expected, his request was rejected by Su Yaoyang.
Su Yaoyang’s exact words were: “Either drive the Sherman into battle, or drive the tractors from the logistics department.”
John, who was so angry he was yelling, could only grudgingly and helplessly accept these big guys.
The new tank soldiers listened to John’s lecture with their heads tilted up, their faces still flushed from training. One young soldier was secretly wiping away tears caused by the engine fumes with his sleeve, leaving his face streaked with black.
Accompanied by the roar of the gasoline engine, John jumped down from the tank, kicking up a cloud of yellow dust.
“Now, group practical training!”
His roar even drowned out the engine noise. The tank crews scattered like startled rabbits and jumped onto their respective vehicles.
One clumsy kid almost got his pant leg caught in the rotating track, but quick-handed John grabbed his collar and yanked him back.
“Kid… if you’ve lost confidence in life, I can send you to the infantry unit, where you can carry a rifle, strap on explosives, and go down with the Japanese monkeys.
But please don’t die here. I never want to write those damn casualty reports again, got it?”
After saying that, he shoved the rookie away and jumped onto his own tank.
John slumped into his position, feeling like he had worried himself through a lifetime’s worth in these past days.
“Rumble…”
The tank group started up, billowing clouds of black smoke rising. With the engine ignition, a wave of heat hit like a blast furnace, fine sweat immediately seeping from his back and forehead.
“God… I never want to be this damn tank soldier again.” John slapped his forehead, his eyes full of numbness and despair.
July and August were when the autumn tiger raged most fiercely, with ground temperatures reaching thirty or forty degrees, and inside the tanks even hitting fifty degrees. The discomfort of operating in such conditions was imaginable.
Tank soldiers often fainted during training, so much so that they had to prepare large amounts of fresh water inside the tanks.
First, to replenish body fluids anytime, and second, to cool the body.
After resting a bit, he stood up from his seat, put on his headset, leaned out to look at the chaotic tank formation around him, and a nameless fire surged up. He roared into the headset.
“Third Company… Third Company… your formation should be behind me. If I see you ahead of me again, I won’t mind making your whole company clean toilets for a week!
First Company, what the hell are you doing? Those who know you’re driving tanks might think you’re taking a shit. God… can you just take all these idiots away and never let them appear in front of me again.”
While John was frantically training those rookie tank soldiers, more than ten staff officers in the militia headquarters were busy, the atmosphere exceptionally tense.
“Sir, this is the intelligence coming from the Taiyuan and Datong directions these past few days.”
Pi Ruoyu placed a folder on Su Yaoyang’s desk, containing a thick stack of intelligence reports.
He continued: “After compilation and analysis, we unanimously believe that the Japanese army will have a major combat operation soon, and the biggest target is us.”
“Reasons?”
Su Yaoyang didn’t look at the intelligence but turned to Pi Ruoyu.
“Three reasons.”
Pi Ruoyu continued: “First, since last month, the Japanese have been stockpiling large amounts of military supplies in Xinkou County, and the original garrison there has increased from one company to one regiment, which is extremely abnormal.
“Second, according to intelligence, the 20th Division, originally guarding Taiyuan and Datong, has begun mobilizing and is assembling in the Shouyang area.
Keep in mind, Shouyang is only over four hundred li from our Wuta County. Once the Japanese decide to move against us, they can reach Wuta County in one or two days.
Third, garrison mobilizations across Shanxi are very frequent. Based on the above intelligence, I believe the signs that the Japanese are about to act are already very obvious.”
Su Yaoyang stood up and sighed lightly: “Looks like Meizumi Kiyoshi can’t hold back anymore.”
Pi Ruoyu said helplessly: “Meizumi Kiyoshi has been patient enough to hold off until now before acting.”
“Staff officers… have you made any plans?” Su Yaoyang suddenly asked.
Pi Ruoyu said: “The staff department has made two plans. The first is active defense: strengthen defenses and increase troops at various strongpoints, absolutely not letting the devils come over comfortably.
The second is to assemble forces and strike preemptively, hitting the Japanese hard before they attack us.”
“I like the second method.”
Su Yaoyang chose without hesitation.
Seeing Su Yaoyang decide without even thinking, Pi Ruoyu couldn’t help but worry: “Sir… our troops haven’t finished training yet. Most of them are new recruits.”
“So what about new recruits?” Su Yaoyang sneered: “Who wasn’t a recruit once? Fight a few battles, and they’ll become veterans.”
For Su Yaoyang, passively waiting for the enemy to attack was never his style. Offense is the best defense—a saying so overused in later generations that even kids understand it.
What’s more, after several months of governance in Wuta County, everything was just getting on track. If a battle broke out here, everything might be reduced to ruins again, which was not the result he wanted.
