Comrade, your ingredients are too complicated.

May 1942, 5, Luoyang.

As the saying goes, if a soldier is a raging enemy, a general will be raging in the nest.

After the end of the Zhongtiaoshan Campaign, the former commander-in-chief of the First War Zone of Guosu was ruthlessly dismissed by Shancheng Guangtou due to many issues including the failure of large-scale battles and his personal ideological stance.

An army cannot be without a commander for a day.

The new commander who replaced him was, of course, General JDW, who was well versed in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, and who always had a personal urologist by his side.

With the appointment of this Five Tiger General, the First Battle Zone of Guosu, which had been fighting back and forth with the Japanese 12th Army, completely turned into a hopeless bandit state.

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In the city, the First War Zone Headquarters.

"Three days! Northern Henan has been fighting for three whole days, and your intelligence department hasn't even collected a single bit of useful military intelligence!"

"You are a bunch of useless people who just want to eat and wait for death. Could it be that all the activity funds I allocate to the three departments every quarter are spent by you on women's bellies? If the thirteen counties in northern Henan fall into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, how will I explain to the Shancheng authorities!?"

"Get out, all of you! If there's still no definite news before dark, every one of you will be shot!"

After speaking a series of Southern dialects with a strong hint of motherhood to his subordinates, the flying general's bad mood seemed to be relieved a little.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. When he saw the group of staff officers gathered in the corner of the combat meeting room, pretending to be busy, his face immediately fell again.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Now is a time of trouble. As the staff of the First War Zone, don't you need to analyze the battlefield situation and make suggestions for the country? I only say this once, get to work!"

If you were to use one word to simply summarize the command system of the First War Zone, it would definitely be "chaos".

The above summary is not an attempt to slander someone's innocence.

After all, the enemy's 35th Division and the theoretically friendly Fifth War Zone had both given almost identical evaluations.

This conclusion is definitely of great value.

There is no way, the top layers of the preserved fruits are basically rotten.

The staff officers at all levels of command did not receive daily training, and all their duties were neglected and unprepared. When the war broke out, they were completely in the dark.

The grassroots units were willing to kill the enemy, but the troops at all levels were seriously lacking in professionally trained staff officers, so they could only end up with a tragic outcome where they were powerless to reverse the situation.

Under such harsh circumstances, being able to put together a makeshift team was considered a military miracle.

Facing his bewildered subordinates, General Fei suppressed his inner anger. He strode to his chief of staff and said sternly:

"The Eighth Route Army's standard equipment includes aircraft, artillery, tanks, and infantry with outstanding combat capabilities. The Japanese only have one division plus two brigade-level troops, and it is highly likely that they will not be able to stop their offensive."

"Move for me!"

"Before dark, I need you to work out a detailed horse racing plan based on the assumption that the Japanese army is defeated. If we can recover the lost territory without spending a single soldier, I'm sure the people of the whole country will look at our First War Zone with new eyes!"

After receiving the order from their superiors, the staff officers, who were already frightened, took immediate action.

However! Since there was not even the most basic military sand table and enemy situation map in the combat meeting room, they had to start from scratch, and the progress was naturally incredibly slow.

Faced with the absurd scene, General Fei could only clench his fists with red eyes, and his chest kept rising and falling with the heavy breaths coming out of his mouth. Anyone could see that this was a sign of anger.

"Bastard."

Just as JDW was about to start scolding, there was a sudden noise of footsteps outside the house, interrupting his spellcasting.

After a while, a middle-aged man in a general's military uniform swaggered into the combat meeting room of the First War Zone Command.

Behind him, there was a large group of Central Army soldiers following.

When enemies meet, their eyes turn red with envy. After seeing who the newcomer was, the Flying General immediately stopped scolding his men and immediately greeted them in a sarcastic tone:
"Oh, isn't this our busy businessman Tang? What brings you here from the border area of ​​Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan? Come and sit down."

"What instructions does our deputy commander have today? Why is there such a large mobilization of troops? Could it be that there is something important going on in the mountain city?" The current First War Zone of the Preserved Fruits is a magical place no matter how you look at it.

The commander-in-chief, Fei Jiangjun, is essentially a commander without troops. The deputy commander, TEB, not only has a "powerful" direct line of troops, but also has an independent territory with rich resources.

This bizarre situation, coupled with the fine tradition of preserved fruits, must have made the two of them confused.

In order to gain a firm foothold, the former could only continue to win over the miscellaneous troops and pull several groups of the Sichuan Army and the Northwest Army into its own camp, while also recruiting a large number of bandits.

In order to become the king of Central Plains, the latter spent a lot of money to bribe officials at all levels, making the entire war zone a mess.

It was under this premise that 1+1=-∞ that the First Battle Zone of Preserved Fruits in the original timeline suffered a world-shocking rout on the eve of victory.

As for the meaning of Mr. Tang the businessman?
It’s just what it means.

While this guy was being beaten while leading his troops, he used his power to suck blood at will in his own territory, and in just one year he built a business empire spanning many industries.

According to the records on the wall of the Holy Trinity, in the whole year of 1941 alone, the businessman Tang earned million French francs.

There is no way, because making money is the most popular elective course in Huangpu. The current top executives of preserved fruits are all top experts in this field.

Faced with the ridicule of his colleagues, the big businessman Tang just showed a sarcastic smile, not caring at all about the soft knife in the other party's words.

In his opinion, the Flying General was just a loser who had fought with him for power. To have a verbal dispute with him was to lower one's status.

"Heh, Third Brother Ming, it seems your intelligence capabilities are still so backward."

"As early as thirteen hours ago, the Japanese troops in northern Henan cut off their arms to survive and joined the 35th Division in Kaifeng. Calculating the time, the devils are almost out of the province."

"As for the idea of ​​​​horse racing and grabbing land? I advise you to put away your naive ideas. The Eighth Route Army now has armored units. No matter how fast the war horses are, they can never be faster than the galloping light tanks."

As soon as these words came out, General Fei's face suddenly became extremely ugly. Being slapped in the face by a competitor was more painful than giving up sex and gambling.

Fortunately, he was thick-skinned enough and adjusted his mood in just a few seconds.

The other party took the initiative to visit and disclosed first-hand information directly, which meant that there must be a certain degree of cooperation intention. With the idea that it would be a bastard not to take advantage of an opportunity, he took the initiative to speak:
"Brother Keqin, you and I are old acquaintances, and we have also served together in the same war zone to defend the country. If you have anything to say, you might as well make it clear."

As expected, the Flying General's direct advance brought about the desired effect.

Tang Dashang waved his hand, signaling all the idle people in the combat meeting room to leave. When there were only two people left in the room, he sat on the armchair and said:

"Brother Ming, we have to admit that the Eighth Route Army has developed very quickly in the past two years. In a sense, the other side has already vaguely possessed the strongest momentum of the Republic of China."

"However, the amount of food needed to maintain a large army is astronomical, and they are bound to face the problem of food shortage."

"After all, Shanxi Province is also a disaster-stricken area, and Suiyuan's grain production can only barely feed the people of the province. So, even if the bandit army occupies half of Henan Province, it will not last long."

"What we need to do is just to speed up the process of collapse for the other party."

In order to make his words more convincing, Tang Da Shangren took out the investigation files of the provincial security commander.

The report clearly states in black and white that this year's wheat harvest in the province is only 30% of that in previous years. The province cannot save itself from this disaster by itself.

At this point, General Fei understood the deeper meaning of his colleague's words.

It was nothing more than spreading rumors to the victims, allowing endless numbers of ordinary people to pour into the Eighth Route Army's controlled area and eat up the other side's few remaining food reserves.

Although this tactic is despicable, it is indeed effective. After all, the bandit army keeps saying that they love the people like their own children.

Well, the commander-in-chief was making contributions in public, while the deputy commander secretly sent the "guerrillas" to sabotage. Afterwards, the results were split 50-50, which was very reasonable!
After his thoughts came to light, General Fei rubbed his chin and added in a sinister and vicious tone:
"The winter wheat harvest is from late June to early July. With so many refugees pouring in, the other side will definitely not be able to balance maintaining order and summer harvest."

"In this way, the Eighth Route Army will collapse without a fight."

"That's right, Brother Keqin's clever plan kills two birds with one stone. It really is the reincarnation of Jia Xu. Okay. I'll make the arrangements now." (End of this chapter)