Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"So, since we've decided to cooperate, let's not go back on our word, especially since it's with Mu Jin. If we back out this time, Mu Jin probably won't give us a kind look in the future." Commander Yan was still quite worried about this.

In fact, when it comes to reneging on a cooperation agreement, it depends on who it is. If he had known that the other side would develop so rapidly, he should have agreed to let them be transferred to other war zones. Now, they have become a threat.

If the Japanese are driven out in the future, it's hard to say whether he will still be in charge here.

"The commander is right." The major general nodded. After listening to what the commander said, he also felt that the 358th Regiment should not have been transferred back.

.........

At this time, Li Jin also summoned Li Yunlong and Kong Jie to the camp. This time, he did not have anyone summon Commander Zhang and the others, because their conversation should not be known to outsiders.

"Li Jin, what are you sneaking around for?!" Li Yunlong asked as soon as he arrived at Li Jin's tent.

"Commander, after this large-scale operation, I estimate that Commander Yan has a general understanding of our strength," Li Jin said slowly.

"Isn't this something we expected? They're not just sitting idly by; they have their own intelligence network." Li Yunlong thought it was normal. The Jin-Sui Army, after all, had some strength.

Moreover, the scope of their sabotage this time was very large, covering a wide area. Any intelligence personnel under Commander Yan, unless they were fools, could roughly guess what had happened by summarizing the general intelligence.

"Li Jin, are you worried that Commander Yan might cancel the cooperation or even transfer the 358th Regiment away?!" Zhao Gang thought for a moment and then said.

He felt that what Li Jin specifically brought up must be related to combat. If the 358th Regiment was transferred, their subsequent plans would also need to be changed.

The most critical problem is that they will have to abandon the attack on the 6th Division's command post and can only attack the Japanese in one direction because they don't have enough manpower.

"Damn it, they've already arrived and they want to be transferred?! I'll make them leave!" Upon hearing this, Li Yunlong started cursing before Li Jin could even speak.

“Old Li, if they really intend to leave, there’s nothing we can do to stop them. We can’t exactly point guns at them, can we?” Zhao Gang said.

"That means we have to point a gun at you! To be honest, I'm not good with words, I just like to use my hands!" Li Yunlong said with a roguish air.

In his mind, annihilating the Japanese in one direction was important, but taking down the Japanese of the 6th Division was equally important. If the 358th Regiment ran away at this time, their plan would fall through.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's not that serious. I was just saying it casually, I didn't mean anything by it," Li Jin quickly said.

If the 358th Regiment is really transferred, he naturally won't try to keep it, but then he can forget about any future cooperation.

"Besides, Commander Yan won't transfer the 358th Regiment because of this. He still doesn't want to offend me. If they encounter trouble in the future, I'm the only one who can help them solve it."

"When he transferred the 358th Regiment away, it meant he was cutting ties with me. From now on, we wouldn't interfere with each other, let alone talk about cooperation," Li Jin continued.

“Indeed, and if the Japanese secret forces aren’t dealt with, Commander Yan probably won’t be able to sleep soundly. So, he most likely won’t transfer the 358th Regiment.” Zhao Gang nodded in agreement with Li Jin’s statement.

Currently, only Li Jin is capable of dealing with that secret Japanese unit. If the 358th Regiment is transferred away, it will be difficult for Li Jin to free up more manpower to deal with the secret Japanese unit.

Moreover, Commander Yan already knew Li Jin's battle plan, so he was very clear that the 358th Regiment was playing an important role here.

"He's smart enough to know his place. If he really dares to transfer the 358th Regiment away, don't blame me for inventing a code telegram to scold him!" Li Yunlong said. He was a man of his word.

“Count me in, I’ll vent my anger too.” Kong Jie chimed in. If Commander Yan really did that, not only would Li Yunlong have to invent coded telegraphs, but he would have to do it too.

"They haven't even planned to withdraw yet, so you shouldn't be making unnecessary preparations." Political Commissar He said helplessly, "These two are just as capable of causing trouble as the other one."

Of course, when it comes to causing trouble, Li Yunlong is better, but when it comes to causing big trouble, in his opinion, Li Jin is more impressive.

Anyway, even Kong Jie didn't dare to mess with Li Jin because he couldn't handle the trouble he caused.

"Actually, whether the 358th Regiment is transferred or not, we still have to fight, it's just a little more troublesome," Li Jin said. He didn't think that just because the 358th Regiment was transferred, he would be powerless against the Japanese command.

"That's settled then, let them go if they want," Li Yunlong said, though he was still a little angry at the thought that Commander Yan might transfer the troops away.

After all, their plan was already quite sound, and once executed, the probability of success was very high. However, if the 358th Regiment was missing, Li Jin would need to lead fewer soldiers to attack the Japanese command post, which would unnecessarily increase the danger.

“It’s been two days now. Once our intelligence personnel return tomorrow, we should probably start making our move,” Li Jin said. The Japanese have already begun their operation, so they need to prepare as well.

"Let's get started as soon as possible, lest the 358th Regiment be transferred away at the crucial moment," Li Yunlong said, though he was still somewhat worried about that.

"That's natural, but it's hard to say whether Commander Yan will send troops to cooperate later," Li Jin said. The probability of the 358th Regiment being transferred is not high, but the probability of them not sending troops is quite high.

"Never mind him, as long as the 358th Regiment isn't transferred away so our plan can be completed," Li Yunlong said. In any case, Commander Yan only planned to send 30,000 men, and the targets they could strike were far smaller than theirs, so whether the enemy came or not didn't really matter.

"Hmm." Zhao Gang nodded. Taking down the Sixth Division's command post was more important.

.........

At the camp of the 358th Regiment, Chu Yunfei sat outside the tent. He was also curious about the progress of the Eighth Route Army, after all, several years had passed.

I remember when we first cooperated with the New First Regiment, there were only two or three people in the regiment. Now there are more than five thousand people. The speed of development is quite fast.

So, overall? How many regiments did the Eighth Route Army develop, and how many people did it have?

"Commander, aren't you resting so late?! Are you worried about this operation?!" Fang Ligong came up to Chu Yunfei at this moment. He had come out to use the restroom, but he didn't expect to see that Chu Yunfei was still awake.

"No, not really. I was wondering, how many people does the Eighth Route Army have now?!" Chu Yunfei didn't hide anything and answered directly!
"How fast can they grow in just two or three years?! The Eighth Route Army only had tens of thousands of soldiers back then, and now it's at most doubled. That's even including Mu Jin's help. Growing to over a hundred thousand in a few years isn't slow at all," Fang Ligong said. In his view, the Eighth Route Army was severely lacking in supplies, so rapid development was actually unlikely. Reaching over a hundred thousand was already quite impressive.

"It's hard to say. They might grow to two or three hundred thousand people," Chu Yunfei said, feeling that the Eighth Route Army was quite capable.

"Commander, you're overthinking it. Two or three hundred thousand people? Even if they have that many, they still need to be able to support them! With Mu Jin's help alone, they can't possibly support so many people." Fang Ligong said with a smile after hearing this.

He admitted that Mu Jin was very capable and had helped the other side a lot, but Mu Jin was already very capable of doubling the business there.

If it were them, they probably wouldn't have been able to multiply the number of troops several times over.

"That's true. Perhaps I'm overthinking it. But if their numbers are only a few hundred thousand, as you say, how could they dare to launch a large-scale attack?!"
It's important to understand that the Japanese weren't pushovers, especially since they included three Class A divisions, whose fighting strength far surpassed that of soldiers in Class B divisions.

Even if Mu Jin's troops are strong enough to draw away most of the Japanese, the rest are still beyond the Eighth Route Army's ability to handle, right? So I really think their numbers are more than a hundred thousand.” Chu Yunfei began to analyze.

Although he didn't quite believe that the development there would be so rapid, his intuition told him that the development there would definitely exceed his expectations.

"I still think it's unlikely; they can't develop that quickly," Fang Ligong insisted, maintaining his opinion.

"Brother Ligong, do you remember what I said when Mu Jin talked to us about the Eighth Route Army giving us a surprise?!" Chu Yunfei asked in return.

"I remember you said that Mu Jin thought the strength of the Eighth Route Army would exceed our expectations!" Fang Ligong said after thinking for a moment.

When Mu Jin discussed cooperation with the commander, that's what he said, in order to increase the possibility of cooperation. But the commander felt that Mu Jin was just bragging for the other side.

If they were really that powerful, why would they wait until now to take action against the Japanese?

“Mu Jin isn’t one to boast, and he definitely knows about the situation with the Eighth Route Army. Although he might not know everything, he probably knows quite a bit, which is why he said those things to the commander,” Chu Yunfei said.

Although he hadn't spent a particularly long time with Mu Jin, he didn't get the impression that Mu Jin was the kind of person who liked to boast.

"Now that you mention it, it does seem somewhat possible." Fang Ligong fell into deep thought after hearing this, and only spoke after a while.

"Things are actually a bit troublesome. If their development surpasses ours, and if the Japanese are driven out one day, will this place still be Commander Yan's territory?!" Chu Yunfei said.

When there were only tens of thousands of people there, they forced that person to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to besiege them, and in the end, they still failed. If they really grow to hundreds of thousands of people there now, then their future troubles will definitely not be small, and Commander Yan will probably find it very troublesome.

It's one thing for Mu Jin to develop so rapidly, but the Eighth Route Army's development is also so fast, it's really frightening.

"That's hard to say." Fang Ligong's expression also turned serious. Chu Yunfei's words really gave him the creeps, and his hair stood on end.

"Forget it, it's all just speculation right now. Let's see what the commander says for the specifics." Chu Yunfei shook his head. They didn't have a chance to find out the general situation there, but it was definitely not simple.

"Yes." Fang Ligong nodded.

"If they really find so many people over there, will the commander order us to withdraw now and stop letting us help?" Fang Ligong asked.

With such a huge threat in front of him, Commander Yan probably wouldn't be able to sleep soundly, so it's possible that the commander would transfer them away.

"Probably not, or rather, definitely not." Chu Yunfei's tone was somewhat uncertain at first, but then became more certain.

"Why?!" Fang Ligong asked in confusion. How could Chu Yunfei be so certain that Commander Yan wouldn't transfer them away?

"Because the commander still wants to continue cooperating with Mu Jin in the future, what do you think Mu Jin will think if we are transferred away this time?!" Chu Yunfei asked rhetorically.

"Then we can forget about cooperating in the future. After all, the plan has been agreed upon and the people have arrived. Now all that's left is to take action against the Japanese. If we are withdrawn, Mu Jin may never think of cooperating with us again."

"We might not even be able to leave even if we wanted to. We know the plan very well, and they probably won't dare to release us until things are settled." Fang Ligong said, then fell into deep thought again.
He had a feeling that things were getting more and more complicated.

"Commander Chu, Chief of Staff Fang, the division commander wants you to go to him. You must be quick." At this moment, a messenger came over and informed them of the matter.

"Okay." Chu Yunfei didn't delay and quickly got up to go to Commander Zhang's tent with Fang Ligong.

At this moment, Commander Zhang sat expressionless at the table, staring at a piece of paper on it. He only looked up when Chu Yunfei and Fang Ligong entered.

"Commander!" Chu Yunfei and Fang Ligong quickly saluted Commander Zhang.

"Sit down," Commander Zhang said, glancing at them before gesturing for them to sit down and talk.

"Commander, what happened?! Could it be that the Commander regrets sending us here to cooperate and wants to transfer us away?!" Chu Yunfei asked, this was his immediate thought.

"No, take a look at this telegram." Commander Zhang handed the item to Chu Yunfei, while Fang Ligong also leaned over to read the contents of the telegram.

"What?! There are two or three hundred thousand people over there?! How is that possible?!" Fang Ligong's tone was full of shock. He hadn't expected that things over there had really developed to this extent.

"I don't want to believe it either, but it was sent by the commander," said Division Commander Zhang, which is why he kept staring at the telegram after reading it.

Because he also wondered if the telegram was fake, it turned out that the content of the telegram was true.

"What instructions did the commander give us in this telegram?! Like, to do something else?!" Fang Ligong thought for a moment and asked. (End of Chapter)