Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Taiyuan.

North China and Second War Zone Command Headquarters.

Those seated around the long conference table were all top officials who currently commanded the military, political, and logistical lifelines of the North.

Sun Weimou stood in front of a huge chart showing the trend of military industrial production capacity.

He held a red and blue pencil in his hand, gently tapping the suddenly rising curve.

Why was the counterattack so unstoppable?

Sun Weimou's voice echoed steadily in the conference room: "It's not simply because our soldiers are braver than ever before."

"Essentially, it's because we have enough heavy artillery, ample ammunition, and our logistical transport capabilities, as well as our military production capacity, have increased by 70 percent."

Chu Yunfei nodded and then said, "That's right, with enough ammunition, the battle will be easier."

"In modern warfare, defense industry is the core combat capability. Fighting a war is essentially about logistics, and the expansion of the defense industry remains the top priority."

Commander-in-Chief of the Second World War Zone, Chu Xichun, and Director of the Ordnance Department, Yu Dawei, both nodded in agreement.

Immediately afterwards, Chu Yunfei changed the subject, pulled a coverless document from his briefcase, and pushed it to the center of the table.

"But I have gathered you all here today not to discuss how to send the Japanese Empire to its end."

"Because the Japanese beast has already had its spine broken by us, its death is only a matter of time."

"We are talking about the near future."

"Based on top-secret intelligence obtained from the mountain city."

Chu Yunfei said, enunciating each word clearly, "Our first hypothetical enemy is the Russians to the north and the British to the southwest."

"hiss--!"

A collective gasp filled the conference room.

"Soviets?!"

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li's hand, which was holding a teacup, suddenly froze. A few drops of scalding tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he didn't notice.

As a seasoned politician who has been through many battles, he understands better than anyone the terrifying weight behind those three words.

"Your Excellency, this is no child's play!"

He Yanlin, the head of the ordnance department under the North China Construction Group, was deathly pale, and his voice trembled: "How powerful is the Russians now?"

"I heard that during the Great Patriotic War, they even held off the attacks of millions of German fascists and even launched a strategic counter-offensive."

"They have thousands, even tens of thousands, of tanks."

"Once the Soviet-German war ends, they will certainly reserve some military forces to move to the Far East."

He Yanlin swallowed hard, not daring to say anything more.

Chu Xichun also frowned: "Yes, the firepower of the Japanese army and the Soviet Red Army are not even in the same league."

"If we were to go to war with them in the Far East, or even just engage in sporadic local conflicts, it would be a large-scale battle of meat grinder scale."

Chu Yunfei met everyone's gazes without backing down: "It is precisely because they are powerful that we must prepare in advance."

"If we don't sharpen our swords now, once their armored torrents enter Northeast China, we'll be at their mercy at the negotiating table!"

Yu Dawei, the director of the Ordnance Department, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses.

As a pure defense industry technocrat, he immediately forced himself to detach from the shock and enter reporting mode.

"Since the General Headquarters has already set the strategic tone."

Yu Dawei opened his notebook and began to calculate rapidly with his pen.

"If we are to guard against the Soviet Union in two or three years, we must start now, under the banner of 'a full-scale counterattack against the Japanese army,' frantically purchase and stockpile massive amounts of bullets and artillery spare parts from the international community."

Yu Dawei raised his head, his eyes extremely professional and cold.

"At the same time, we must undertake large-scale construction projects in Chahar, Gansu, and the deep northwest regions."

"Establish a complete network of permanent fortifications, underground ammunition depots, and military train transport hubs to construct a multi-layered strategic buffer zone."

"But the total amount of this account is frighteningly large."

A few minutes later, Yu Dawei pushed over a piece of paper covered with numbers: "Based on the lowest possible estimate, completing this defense and stockpiling system will require at least 1.5 billion yuan of national currency."

"Fifteen billion?!"

Sun Weimou almost jumped up from his chair when he heard the number.

With a bitter face, he spread out the financial statements in his hand: "It is true that the autumn harvest in North China this year was a bumper crop, but the total annual income, after conversion, is barely enough for 1.5 billion yuan of national currency."

"But this 1.5 billion yuan is needed to feed, drink, relieve the two million troops at the front, pay their salaries, keep the war zone running, and maintain the basic raw material procurement for heavy industrial factories!"

“After this money was allocated, not a single penny was left. In fact, there was a deficit of 68 million and 5.6 million in debt interest that still needed to be paid, and there was no way to pay it.”

Commander Li frowned and interjected, "Isn't there also American economic aid and low-interest loans?"

"It's unusable."

Chu Xichun shook her head and continued, "Every aid and loan from the Americans has a specific purpose and is subject to extremely strict regulations on how the funds are used."

“The audit team sent by Stilwell was keeping a close eye on things. If the aid was diverted to build infrastructure to defend against the Soviet Union instead of using it for the war against Japan, then the aid could be cut off at any time.”

This is indeed an unsolvable deadlock.

To protect against polar bears, you have to spend a lot of money.

But the country is currently struggling to even cope with the current war.

Sun Weimou sighed, pulled a pen from his sleeve, and crossed out several non-urgent livelihood expenditure items on the report.

"Your Excellency, since this matter is absolutely necessary..."

Sun Weimou gritted his teeth and said resolutely, "I'll go back and try to squeeze out more money. For the first phase of the project, I can only spare a maximum of 87 million yuan."

Chu Yunfei nodded slightly: "Eighty-seven million, although not much, can be used to further improve the infrastructure in the Northwest. Can the railway be merged?"

“It’s a bit difficult, but I will try my best. I will find a way to form a new construction team from the Northwest to be involved in these tasks.”

Sun Weimou paused for a moment, then offered a suggestion that was extremely shrewd for businessmen: "In addition, we cannot let the Americans quote the prices for bullets and shells."

"Our newly equipped American-trained divisions use rifles and machine guns that are completely compatible with those of the US military."

"Your Excellency and Stilwell have a good relationship."

"Could we negotiate with the Americans to lower the unit price again under the guise of joint bulk procurement and reducing the marginal cost of arms production?"

"If the unit price can be reduced by 20%, we can save at least 15 million yuan."

"This is a good suggestion. I will recommend that the Chairman delegate the task of negotiating lower procurement prices to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Chu Yunfei made the final decision.

Seeing that the funding issue was starting to be resolved, Yu Dawei closed his notebook, his expression becoming even more serious. He looked at Chu Yunfei and brought up another major issue that had been weighing on his mind all day.

"Your Excellency, in addition to dealing with the external stockpiling of supplies..."

Yu Dawei deliberately lowered his voice: "Regarding the endogenous potential of the military industry, we still have several extremely urgent bottlenecks to solve."

"For example, the supporting infrastructure for electric furnaces for special steel still needs to be improved."

"Furthermore, there is the outline of the 'National Armament Division' reorganization plan that the Ordnance Department is currently secretly drafting."

"cough"

Commander Li was drinking tea when he heard those three words, and his throat suddenly choked, causing him to cough.

He abruptly turned his head, staring intently at Yu Dawei with a shocked expression, before his gaze swept sharply towards Chu Yunfei in the main seat.

"National-level weapon engineer?"

Commander Li put down his teacup, his voice revealing undisguised astonishment and doubt: "Yunfei, isn't the current plan to reorganize 'sixty American-equipped divisions' nationwide?"

As the deputy commander-in-chief, Commander Li was fully aware of the allocation of the thirty American-equipped divisions of the expeditionary force that were provided by the United States, as well as the remaining thirty American-equipped divisions in China.

Generals across the country had long been fighting tooth and nail for these quotas of American-made weapons.

But now, out of the mouth of the director of the Ordnance Department, a term "National Ordnance Division" that had never been heard of before has suddenly appeared.
It should be noted that since taking office at the Army Reorganization Office, military reforms across the country have been almost nonstop.

Every six months marks a new stage.

The earliest division-level organization was established in 1936, and the system was established in 1938. At the same time, due to the repeated defeats in the war against Japan, He Yingqin and others promoted the rating and classification of combat troops in various regions by the Ministry of Military Affairs.

Following this were Chu Yunfei's proposals for equal treatment, as well as the Class B group army applicable to strategic defensive postures and the Class A group army applicable to strategic offensive postures.

The reorganization plan for the 60th Division of the US Armed Forces had been implemented for less than two months.

Where did this National Armaments Engineers program come from?

Previously, when the organization of the Class A and Class B army groups was adjusted, it only meant that domestically produced and Japanese-made weapons were transferred to second-line combat units and Class B combat units.

If someone is using a complete makeover as a pretext...

Secretly, however, they were using Shanxi's terrifying industrial capacity in recent years to build a large military force completely independent of the mountain city and armed with purely domestically produced weapons.

So, to whom does this army truly serve?
The military strength and political ambitions hidden behind this were so great that even Commander Li, a seasoned veteran of the Guangxi clique who had seen many storms, felt a chill run down his spine.

The atmosphere in the operations room instantly became extremely delicate.

Chu Xichun looked down at the tea leaves in her teacup, while Sun Weimou and Yu Dawei pretended not to see anything.

After a brief but extremely oppressive silence.

Chu Yunfei smiled gently: "Lord De, please don't be surprised."

"This is just a suggestion put forward by Director Yu and his team in order to make more efficient use of our production capacity during their military operations."

"After all, the 60th Division, equipped with American weapons, was essentially a deal between the Americans and us. These combat units would be used to fight the Japanese."

"The domestically produced weapons that the expeditionary force combat units were re-equipped with would naturally be handed over to other combat units for use."

"Based on the current configuration of the eighteen main divisions of the expeditionary force, all of them are equipped with some domestic weapons, which can at least arm another thirteen division-level combat units."

"Of course, the General Staff's intention is to stop expanding troop strength and instead seek to phase out and upgrade outdated equipment, such as those old rifles."

"Since this has not yet been put on paper, it is an extremely immature internal deduction."

"Naturally, no one would dare to disturb Your Excellency's peaceful hearing with such vague and ethereal things."

Commander Li nodded slowly, accepting the fact, and then looked at Yu Dawei: "Director Yu, how many combat troops and weapons in the country urgently need to be re-equipped?"

"The current estimated need is 1.4 million standard rifles (referring to the Type 24, Type 65, and Type 38 rifles manufactured in Shanxi).

"Those who changed out of their clothes"

Yu Dawei seemed to have guessed what Commander Li wanted to ask, and immediately responded: "The old-fashioned, miscellaneous rifles and homemade guns that have been replaced will be dismantled and the unusable parts will be destroyed."

"This is also to maintain local stability. The three-phase mobilization system previously established to counter the Japanese offensive also needs to be appropriately reformed and adjusted. For example, in addition to absorbing some of the local militia who are trained part-time, the rest will return to production."

"We made a preliminary estimate that we could recruit about 120,000 young men with some training background. After three months of training at the new recruit training center, they can reach a well-trained level."

Chu Yunfei paused for a moment, then continued, "In addition, North China also built two new general training centers in Henan and Hebei last year, and planned four new training bases as sites for subsequent soldier training. The construction is now nearing completion, and the division-level administrative areas will be re-designated and connected. The General Headquarters plans to establish a new department to take charge."

"Then what about this money?" Commander Li frowned. He was naturally very clear about the money in North China's accounts.

The construction of the new recruit training center also cost a lot of money, but fortunately it was mostly local construction, so the labor costs were negligible.

The materials were mostly shipped from Shanxi, so it didn't cost much.

These are all necessary constructions of the national defense mobilization system, and also essential expenditures.

Even if it's necessary to improve and build the national defense industry system, these funds cannot be used.

We must grit our teeth and push forward simultaneously.

"The Chairman plans to reorganize the domestic debt and issue another batch of bonds."

People like Chu Xichun and Sun Weimou may not have known the extent of the financial pressure on the Nationalist government.

But after hearing what the chief consultant said, I didn't ask any more questions.

In fact.

Chu Yunfei wasn't sure either.

There's no problem with managing the internal debt.

But in his view, issuing bonds again was impossible.

There's no other reason; in the short term, simply "internally" can't squeeze out any more "money."

"There's one more thing. A few days ago, the Chairman asked me about Aung San's request to build an armory in Upper Burma and a shipyard and arsenal in Lower Burma. Chief Advisor, what's your opinion?"

"The US has provided strong support for the shipyard and is willing to provide technical and financial assistance, but we cannot rush into the arms factory project."

After a moment of silence, Chu Yunfei pointed out the stakes involved: "Aung San is quite ambitious. Toungoo has not yet held a referendum to annex it, so this matter needs to be put on hold."

"I still suggest that Toungoo continue to vigorously develop agriculture (with rice, tea and sugarcane as the main industries) and appropriately develop light industries such as textiles. We can also transfer some obsolete equipment from the country to support their development."

"Besides that, what is the progress of mineral resource negotiations in Toungoo and Siam?"

Yu Dawei shook his head: "This matter has been handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and there has been no progress so far."

"We need to urge them on."

Chu Yunfei turned to Li Jingzhong, who had been taking notes, and said, "Send a telegram to the Chairman to inquire about the progress of this matter. It would be best to establish a Southeast Asia Resources Committee to coordinate all parties and departments as soon as possible. The war has been over for a year, and production has not yet fully recovered. How can they do things like this?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, I will take care of it after the meeting."

Chu Yunfei cleared his throat and then asked again, "Regarding the assistance in building the aircraft manufacturing plant..." (End of Chapter)