Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"The task of exchanging prisoners this time will most likely fall on the New 1st Regiment. At that time, it would be safer to let the Special Operations Regiment provide assistance." The political commissar suggested.

The task of exchanging prisoners is still very important. We must be on guard to prevent the Japanese from attacking them after the exchange is completed.

"Of course, the Japs may not be so trustworthy." The leader also responded with a serious face. He would not trust the Japs no matter who he trusted.

The mission will basically fall to the 386th Brigade, so a strong force must be sent to carry it out. The New 1st Regiment just meets the requirements, and if the Special Operations Regiment is added, it can be considered a layer of insurance.

As long as the Japs dare to play tricks, we will kill them directly.

"Actually, I think we can wait until we have exchanged the prisoners, then send people to ambush the Japanese on their way back and kill these Japanese pilots directly." The political commissar said after thinking for a while.

"Forget it. There's no need to rush. If we really do this, the Japanese will probably throw dirty water on us." The leader shook his head. It was okay at normal times, but at this time, it was not appropriate to do such a thing.

"That's right." Upon hearing this, the political commissar gave up the idea and decided to let those devils live a little longer. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.

"Chief, Chief, please go to the communications room quickly. The boss is calling you!" A communicator ran in hurriedly.

"Okay, I'll go right away." The leader immediately stood up and walked out quickly, and the political commissar followed quickly.

Soon, the two came to the communications room.

"Boss." The chief took the phone.

"After our discussion, this exchange mission will be carried out by the New 1st Regiment of the 386th Brigade, with the Special Operations Regiment providing secret assistance." Came the boss's voice.

"I understand! Boss, what are the terms of the exchange? Have you discussed it with the Japanese?!" The leader nodded and asked.

"It has been agreed that in addition to exchanging prisoners, the other side will also be required to give 3,000 rifles, 40 light machine guns, 20 heavy machine guns, and 100,000 rounds of rifle bullets.

100,000 rounds of bullets for both light and heavy machine guns, 300 boxes of grenades, 50,000 kilograms of food, plus various medicines, etc.

When the time comes, someone will send you the list. You will give it to Zhao Gang of the New 1st Regiment and ask him to send someone to count it. "The boss said everything he wanted and gave more instructions.

It would be better to let Zhao Gang, a college student, handle the inventory. Li Yunlong, a rough man, doesn't know how to do this.

"Yes!" the leader nodded.

"You can talk to them face to face about the follow-up matters," the boss continued.

"Yes! I will tell them some precautions." The leader responded quickly.

"Remember to tell Li Yunlong to behave himself. This mission is very important. If he gets into trouble, I will definitely kill him!" the boss warned.

There is no other choice but to assign the task to the New 1st Regiment, because the combat effectiveness of the New 1st Regiment is the strongest except for the Special Operations Regiment.

Although it would be safe to send a special operations regiment to take over, the soldiers of the special operations regiment have too strong aura. Once they appear, the Japanese will probably know that the so-called Northeast Army is actually their people.

"Don't worry, boss. I will give Li Yunlong a good beating and will never let him cause any trouble." The leader said in a serious tone.

"Well, we are still studying the specific exchange address, and we will send someone to deliver it to you later." The boss said that they are still studying the exchange address and have not confirmed it yet.

"Yes."

"That's it for now." The boss hung up the phone.

The chief put down the phone.

"What are the terms of the exchange?!" The political commissar was a little curious. He had expected that the mission would be assigned to the 386th Brigade, but he didn't know what conditions the boss had put forward to the Japanese.

"Let's talk outside." The leader walked outside.

"The condition is..." The leader slowly told the political commissar the terms of the exchange.

"This condition doesn't seem to be very profitable." The political commissar frowned after hearing this. There were only a thousand rifles, and the light and heavy machine guns didn't seem to be enough.

"It's already very good. Dozens of pilots can be exchanged for so many weapons and other things. It's a great profit. The Japanese will not give more." The leader was very clear about this. If they asked for too much, the Japanese would not choose to trade.

Although dozens of pilots are of great value, when the things they are exchanged for exceed their own value, there is no point in continuing the exchange.

Moreover, the Japs were also afraid that once their firepower increased, they would have to pay a greater price if they wanted to attack them. After weighing the pros and cons, it would be better not to exchange.

"Yes, dozens of machine guns are already a lot. It would be even better if we could have a few more infantry guns or mortars," said the political commissar.

"What are you thinking? The Japanese are willing to give us so many machine guns, which is already a huge loss." The commander didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If possible, he would like to have a few powerful howitzers to keep the brigade in check.

"Haha, anyway, we exchanged those soldiers back and got so many weapons, so it's a profit." The political commissar laughed.

"Let's call Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang to a meeting first, and explain the transaction between the two of them." The leader said, and explain it to the two of them in advance.

"Why not ask Xu Qingfeng where they are, and then ask him to come to the brigade headquarters with Li Yunlong and tell them what happened." The political commissar suggested.

"Well, that's fine. Then you can ask the telegraph operator to send a telegram to Xu Qingfeng to ask." The leader nodded in agreement.

"Okay." The political commissar turned around and walked towards the communications room again. He immediately asked someone to send a telegram to Xu Qingfeng of the special operations regiment. In fact, Li Jin and Xu Qingfeng also had numbers, which were specially given to the two of them to prevent the Japanese from deciphering the telegram and causing accidents.

After the chief returned to the conference room, he picked up the newspaper on the table and started reading. It was a newspaper from the National Army, reporting that the 358th Regiment of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army had recaptured Fucheng.

"358th Regiment, this Chu Yunfei seems to be quite capable. He graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, so he can be considered a junior fellow." The chief picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea.

Li Jin still has some favorable impression towards Chu Yunfei. If the other party had no ability, he probably would not be highly regarded by Li Jin.

However, it only has some ability. If the two sides really fight, there is a high probability that they will not be able to defeat even the New 1st Regiment. Their combat effectiveness may be similar to that of the Independent Regiment, or even slightly stronger than the Independent Regiment.

After this incident, Chu Yunfei might get promoted. It was so hard to find such a talented person, and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army would definitely make great efforts to train him.

"Commander, Xu Qingfeng said that they will arrive at the headquarters of the New 1st Regiment tomorrow morning. I have told him to come to the brigade headquarters with Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang." The political commissar came in and informed him of the situation. "Yes." The commander nodded.

"What are you looking at?!" asked the political commissar.

"The newspaper that was just delivered today is about the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army's 358th Regiment capturing Fucheng. I haven't had time to read it yet. You should have finished reading it." The leader replied.

"I've finished reading it. It praises Chu Yunfei as a future military talent. Judging from the situation, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army will focus on training Chu Yunfei." The political commissar sat down. He had read the newspaper when it was first delivered to him.

The newspapers exaggerated Chu Yunfei's abilities, as if no one could be Chu Yunfei's opponent.

"If it weren't for the help of Xu Qingfeng and the others, Chu Yunfei would not have been able to capture Fucheng, let alone a small county town! The newspapers didn't mention the contributions of Xu Qingfeng and the others at all." The political commissar shook his head after saying this.

"What is there to mention? If there was anyone who could mention it, it would have been mentioned when Li Jinpei and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army annihilated more than 20,000 Japanese devils." said the leader.

If this is mentioned, how can we take the credit for our own people? Besides, there is no point in mentioning it.

"That's true. But they are praising Chu Yunfei so much, aren't they afraid that Chu Yunfei will fall to his death?" said the political commissar. If a person is praised too highly, once an accident occurs, it is easy for this person to fall to his death. If he didn't know that the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army attached great importance to Chu Yunfei, he would have suspected that this was a case of praising to death.

"Needless to say, the person who wrote it wanted to show off in front of his superiors, but ended up exaggerating too much." The chief could probably guess what happened.

The people from the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army are not fools. The only possible person to show up is someone else.

"Don't say that, this possibility is really quite high." After hearing this, the political commissar also felt that what the leader said made sense.

There is no shortage of people like this everywhere, but the result is often that the flattery goes against the horse's legs, and that person is probably being scolded now.

.........

Taiyuan, in Itagaki Seishiro's office.

"As soon as they opened their mouths, they demanded 5,000 rifles, 100 light machine guns, 50 heavy machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, howitzers, ammunition, various medicines, and 100,000 kilograms of food! They must be crazy!
They really dare to ask! We dare to give these things, do they have the courage to ask for them! Although those dozens of pilots are valuable, they are not worth so many things! "The Japanese major general who was in charge of negotiating the terms said angrily.

With so many things, it is enough to form a reinforced regiment with strong firepower. If they are really given out, I don't know how much the firepower of the Eighth Route Army will be enhanced.

Trading these things for dozens of pilots, only a fool would do that.

"Keep calm, they are just asking for a sky-high price and waiting for us to bargain." Itahene Seishirō saw it clearly, and the other side also knew that those dozens of pilots were not worth so many things.

But in order to gain more benefits, I ask for such a high price. What if they agree, I will make a lot of money. Even if they don’t agree, it won’t affect anything.

"Then division commander, how should I bargain?!" asked the Japanese major general.

"Tell them that we will never give them mortars, grenade launchers, or howitzers. We will only give them 3,000 rifles, 40 light machine guns, and 20 heavy machine guns.
Ammunition, medicine, and food, cut in half, don't waste time talking to them, if they agree, then they agree, if they don't agree, then there's no need to exchange, I'm too lazy to talk to them for so long." Itaheng Seishiro thought for a moment and directly stated his bottom line.

He has made the bottom line clear. There is no need to talk about more. There are already a lot of supplies. If we continue to talk, there is no need to talk further.

"Division Commander, isn't this still a bit too much?!" The Japanese major general was stunned when he heard this. He felt that it was still too much.

"Let's exchange the people back first. It's still difficult to train experienced pilots. They are worth the price, so let's exchange them back as soon as possible." Itahira Seishirō was also somewhat helpless. His superiors were already very dissatisfied with him. If he didn't handle the prisoner exchange well, he would really be fired.

"Hi!" The Japanese major general nodded.

At this time, in the conference room, the two officers sent by the Eighth Route Army to negotiate terms were also a little uneasy. After all, they were now in the Japanese base camp, and if anything unexpected happened, they would not be able to get out.

"Old Feng, are the conditions we proposed too high? Will the Japanese just drive us away later?!" said one of the middle-aged men.

"Lao Zhang, calm down. Those pilots are still very important to the Japanese. Although our offer is high, they can bargain.

The task given by the boss is to get at least 2,500 rifles, 30 light machine guns, and 15 heavy machine guns, plus ammunition, food, and other supplies. "Old Feng responded calmly.

As long as they can complete the tasks assigned by the boss, they will have made a great contribution.

"Actually, I feel that these Japanese pilots may not be worth so many things." Lao Zhang said after hesitating for a moment.

"Why not?! The value of training a pilot is more expensive than building an airplane. If the airplane is destroyed, it can be quickly rebuilt. If the pilot dies, it will take more time to train him.

Especially pilots with combat experience, like the Japanese pilots at Taiyuan Airport, most of them are pilots with combat experience, and their value is even greater!" Lao Feng explained.

Every pilot with air combat experience is a treasure. How could the Japanese give up exchanging those pilots so easily?

"Damn, this pilot is so valuable?!" Lao Zhang was shocked. He knew that pilots were valuable, but he didn't expect it to be so valuable. He thought that dozens of pilots could be exchanged for those captured soldiers, and some guns and ammunition would be a lot. Now it seems that he still underestimated the value of those pilots.

"What do you think? So, we can definitely get these things in this mission." Lao Feng said confidently.

"With such weapons, the strength of our troops can be enhanced a little bit." Old Zhang couldn't help but feel happy when he heard this.

At this time, footsteps were heard outside.

The Japanese major general pushed open the door and walked in.

"Our division commander said that it is impossible to give us so many weapons, just a flat price..." the Japanese Major General Seishirō Itakune told the two men.

"Major General Yoshida..." Lao Feng started to speak, but was interrupted before he could finish.

"The division commander said, if you don't agree, then we don't need to exchange anymore!" said Major General Yoshida.

"I have to report to my superiors and can't make the decision on my own." Old Feng said quickly after hearing this.

In fact, when he heard the conditions offered by the Japanese, he wanted to say that he agreed, but he still had to pretend.

"Okay, I'll wait for you!" Major General Yoshida turned and left.

(End of this chapter)