Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 273 Promotion by three ranks, reward of 100,000 silver dollars!
(Note: The commander of the 217th Regiment of the direct line is Feng Zhihui. The author wrote Han Guanping instead in Chapter 260, which was a typo and has now been corrected.)
Directly affiliated 217th Regiment

"Commander, there's a new development in the Kumamoto Division's sweeping operation, something we can't quite figure out," the deputy commander said to Feng Zhihui, commander of the 217th Regiment, with a suspicious tone.

"What new situation?" Feng Zhihui looked up at the deputy regimental commander. "Could it be that they failed to seize five truckloads of tungsten ore from the Eighth Route Army?"

“No.” The deputy regimental commander shook his head and said, “The Japanese army did manage to seize those five truckloads of tungsten ore, but after they got the tungsten ore, they did not continue to sweep through the Eighth Route Army, nor did they send anyone to transport the five truckloads of tungsten ore back. Instead, they adopted a defensive posture on the Eighth Route Army’s side, like a turtle hiding its head.”

"Really? That's really a bit hard to understand." Feng Zhihui blinked upon hearing this. "Even if the Kumamoto Division's sweeping force had to spare a brigade to deal with the Jin-Sui Army and the Eighth Route Army outside, they still had plenty of troops left. Now that they've captured the tungsten ore, they should be transporting it back quickly. With enough troops, why are they stopping their sweeping operations and acting like cowards? What are those little devils in Kumamoto up to?"

This is five truckloads of tungsten ore, a strategic metal.

Your Kumamoto Division's army abandoned its sweeping operation earlier and rushed over with all its might, wasn't it all for the purpose of seizing these five carts of tungsten ore?

You've got five truckloads of tungsten ore, why aren't you hurrying to take them back? What are you doing, cowering and defending over there?
The deputy commander then added, "And the Eighth Route Army's actions are also very strange."

"What's strange about the Eighth Route Army's movements?" Feng Zhihui asked.

"The Kumamoto Division's sweeping force has adopted a defensive posture, and the Eighth Route Army, contrary to its usual practice, has stopped its guerrilla tactics and is instead provoking and harassing the Kumamoto Division's sweeping force head-on," the deputy commander said. "It looks like a group of ants are toying with an elephant."

Ants teasing an elephant?

Upon hearing this, Feng Zhihui was immediately dumbfounded: "This is too strange. Judging from this, could it be that the Eighth Route Army has some secret weapon that scared the Kumamoto Division's sweeping army, so tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers and traitors chose to become cowards?"

The deputy commander said, "If the Eighth Route Army had any secret weapons, they probably would have already used them. But the intelligence officer said that the Eighth Route Army uses conventional weapons and ammunition, at most the bombardment of hell cannons, and the quantity is not large."

"That's really strange," Feng Zhihui said, scratching his head. "What exactly happened in the Japanese army...?"

Before Feng Zhihui could finish speaking, an intelligence officer rushed over: "Reporting to the commander, we have just received urgent news."

"What urgent news?" Feng Zhihui asked hurriedly.

"Half of the Japanese soldiers who were chasing the Jin-Sui Army and the Eighth Route Army outside have been separated and are heading towards the Kumamoto Division with a lot of supplies," the intelligence officer replied.

"Did they send half of the men and supplies towards the Kumamoto Division?" Upon hearing this, Feng Zhihui immediately became suspicious.

If half of the Japanese soldiers are going to help the Kumamoto Division, they should travel light and not bring any supplies, because the Kumamoto Division has enough supplies.

Carrying supplies would slow down the march, but half of the Japanese soldiers were carrying supplies, which clearly indicates the problem.

The deputy commander muttered to himself, "Could it be that the Kumamoto Division's logistics for its sweeping army were attacked by the Eighth Route Army?"

With its logistics cut off, the Kumamoto Division was unable to continue its sweeping campaign against the Eighth Route Army, so it was reasonable for it to temporarily adopt a defensive posture.

Upon hearing this, Feng Zhihui was still stunned: "With such a large force under the command of the Kumamoto Division, the Eighth Route Army must have also deployed ample troops to protect its logistics and supplies. It probably won't be so easy for them to launch a sneak attack, will it?"

“Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be easy for the Eighth Route Army to attack the Kumamoto Division’s logistics and supplies,” the deputy commander nodded and continued, “but not easy doesn’t mean the Eighth Route Army can’t do it. Otherwise, why would the Kumamoto Division be lying low and acting like cowards…”

Jingle Bell!
Before the deputy commander could finish speaking, the telephone on the table suddenly rang.

Feng Zhihui walked over and picked up the phone: "I am Feng Zhihui, the commander of the 217th Regiment."

"Feng Zhihui, you immediately lead your troops to join our army in seizing tungsten ore from the Kumamoto Division." The direct order came through the phone.

Upon hearing this, Feng Zhihui was instantly shocked.

To seize tungsten ore from the Kumamoto Division?
This is no joke.

Those were 60,000 Japanese devils and traitors.

Should we deploy a large army?

Remembering something, Feng Zhihui immediately asked, "Commander, has something happened at the Kumamoto Division?"

"The Kumamoto Division's logistics and supplies have been destroyed by the Eighth Route Army. Now these Japanese traitors only have one day's worth of rations." The tone on the other end of the phone was very serious. "For us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seize tungsten ore. And!"

There was a pause on the phone, then the voice continued, "And when the opportunity arises, we can search the Eighth Route Army's territory and see if we can find their border region arsenal. We can then take advantage of that to raid this arsenal as well. The authorities in Chongqing have said that whoever can capture and bring back that formidable military expert from the Eighth Route Army will be rewarded with 100,000 silver dollars and promoted three ranks!"

A reward of 100,000 silver dollars and a promotion of three ranks!
Upon hearing about this final reward, Feng Zhihui's eyes immediately lit up with excitement.

I'm short of money right now.

Of course, Feng Zhihui had been stuck in the regimental commander position for quite some time, and he dreamed of being promoted. If he could just get close to that military expert at the Eighth Route Army's border arsenal, he could be promoted three ranks in a row—who wouldn't be envious of that!
what?
Some might say, "Aren't we undermining the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party? Isn't this supposed to be a united national front?"
Pull it down.

As I've said before, the united front against nationalism is just a banner raised by the mountain city side, with the aim of using the Japanese army to eliminate dissidents.

Back in January of this year, when more than 9000 New Fourth Army soldiers were moving north from southern Anhui, didn't we still send out seven divisions with a total of more than 7 troops to attack them?

If we can't use the Japanese to kill someone else, then we'll do it ourselves. What's the problem?

"Commander, do you have any information or photos of this military expert from the Eighth Route Army?" Feng Zhihui asked hurriedly.

"According to intelligence, after the Japanese attacked Yixiantian, the Eighth Route Army's border region arsenal was also attacked. The original director of the arsenal was injured, and the Eighth Route Army replaced him with a new director," the voice on the phone said. "And the Eighth Route Army's border region arsenal has produced the Hell Cannon. It is precisely at this moment that their border region arsenal has begun to develop rapidly. Therefore, the intelligence department initially judges that the new director of this border region arsenal is a military expert from the Eighth Route Army."

"Do you have a photo of this person?"

"We don't have any photos yet, and we don't have any other information either," the voice on the other end of the phone said.

"Commander, those people in the intelligence department are really useless. Don't they have even the slightest bit of information?" Feng Zhihui asked.

Without photos or other information, how can we find the person?

"The mountain city authorities are also very dissatisfied with the intelligence department's capabilities and want to replace them with capable personnel," the voice on the phone said. "But that's not something we can worry about right now. You need to summon the troops over immediately. It doesn't matter if we don't know the information about the factory directors of the Eighth Route Army's border arsenals. As long as we can find their arsenals, grab the workers and ask them, we won't have to worry about not knowing who the factory directors are."

"Yes, Commander." Feng Zhihui nodded emphatically.

After the call ended, Feng Zhihui put the telephone receiver back on the shelf and quickly called over the messenger: "Go and relay my order: except for the troops remaining on duty, all other troops should take their weapons and ammunition and assemble immediately."

"Yes, Commander." The messenger hurriedly ran to relay Feng Zhihui's order.

The deputy commander hurriedly asked, "Commander, what happened to the Kumamoto army? And what about the Eighth Route Army's military experts?"

Feng Zhihui quickly said, "The division commander said that the Kumamoto army's logistics supplies were destroyed by the Eighth Route Army. They only have one day's worth of rations left. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seize tungsten ore. As for the Eighth Route Army's military experts, if we have the chance, we should take the opportunity to search their territory. If we can find the director of the Eighth Route Army's border region arsenal, capture him alive and bring him back. He will be promoted three ranks and rewarded with 100,000 silver dollars!"

"A promotion of three ranks, with a reward of 100,000 silver dollars!" Upon hearing this, the deputy commander paused, realizing the reward was far too generous.

"So let's hurry up and get moving," Feng Zhihui said quickly.

"Yes, Commander!"

……

Thus, a large number of elite troops seized the opportunity to launch a swift attack, their forces heading straight for the sweeping army in Kumamoto.
-
Taiyuan First Army Headquarters
"Baka! No need for a cannon barrel, the shells can be fired just by placing them in a crater? That's utterly ridiculous!"

First Army Commander Yoshio Shinotsuka looked at the intelligence report in his hand and simply couldn't believe it.

It turned out that the Kumamoto army's logistical supplies were missing, and Yoshio Shinozuka still had the Kumamoto division commander submit the reason.

As a result, this is what was presented to us!
This was a telegram from Kitano Chuuji relayed by the Kumamoto Division Commander.

Miyano Michiichi, Chief of Staff of the North China Expeditionary Army, nodded in agreement: "This is simply too mythical of that military expert from the Eighth Route Army's border region arsenal. For hundreds of years, artillery shells have always been propelled out of the cannon barrel by enormous chamber pressure. Now that the Eighth Route Army's border region arsenal can produce artillery shells that can fly on their own, wouldn't that change the way artillery is fired?"

"Once this crisis is resolved, we must severely punish that damned bastard Kitano Chuuni!" Yoshio Shinotsuka was furious. Losing a large amount of military supplies and then fabricating such a ridiculous lie to deceive them was simply incorrigible.

"Commander, the most urgent task is to mobilize the available aircraft to airdrop reinforcements to Commander Kumamoto's division." Miyano Michiichi's tone was very solemn.

In Miyano Michiichi's view, it was still a bit difficult for Commander Okamura to request airdrop reinforcements from the Kwantung Army.

We should still send transport planes from the nearby war zones to airdrop reinforcements.

"If the fighting in the nearby war zones weren't so intense, these planes would have been sent as reinforcements long ago." Yoshio Shinotsuka was annoyed. The Empire had a considerable number of planes, but most of them were in the hands of those stupid idiots in the Navy.

The empire's battle lines are stretched too thin. The fighting in the nearby war zones is in full swing, and the other sides are too busy to take care of their own problems.

In the First World War Zone, Yoshio Shinotsuka planned to ask Iwane Matsui for two or three reconnaissance planes, but only one arrived.

“We still need to communicate with them as soon as possible,” Miyano Michiichi said. “I have a very bad feeling.”

"What premonition?"

(End of this chapter)