The War of Resistance: From Overseas Chinese Mechanics to King of Nanyang

"Are they using us as cannon fodder? Or are they using us as cannon fodder?" Along the railway line south of Lashio, weeds grew thick and trees formed a natural cover. On the open ground next to the railway, several cannon fodder dressed in military green uniforms squatted together, their heads close together, their voices lower than mosquitoes, muttering with dissatisfaction.

A stubble-faced cannon fodder frowned, his words full of complaints. He glanced into the distance and said, "With just over five hundred of us, most of us are new recruits. You want us to hold off Japanese reinforcements? What's the difference between that and sending us to our deaths?"

"Exactly, I strongly suspect they're sending us to our deaths."

"you do not say!"

"What can we do? We can only endure it. In this foreign land, we can't even desert."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.

"Keep your voice down! Keep your voice down!" The cannon fodder next to them quickly tugged at their arms.

Clearly, they were very dissatisfied with the arrangement, but they only dared to mutter to themselves, because not far away, Long Wenzhang was inspecting the positions dug by the cannon fodder. Although he still had that joking look on his face, the sharpness in his eyes made people not dare to underestimate him.

"Dig that bunker deeper!" Long Wenzhang pointed with a wooden stick at a shallowly dug bunker, his tone stern, yet unlike the other officers' overbearing manner. "The Japanese shells are no joke. At this depth, one shell will blow you to bits, leaving you without even a complete corpse!"

"Yes, yes, sir, I'll dig deeper right away!" The cannon fodder dared not argue and immediately replied.

As he spoke, Long Wenzhang walked to another bunker. Looking at the pitted and irregularly shaped bunker, he frowned and tapped the edge of it with a wooden stick: "And you, does this bunker look like it was dug by an old soldier? It's crooked and twisted, it can't even protect you, yet you expect it to stop the Japanese bullets? Dig it again, make it neater, leave firing ports on both sides, do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir!"

"You, and you, stop slacking off!" Long Wenzhang then looked at the two dawdling cannon fodder not far away, his tone rising a few notches. "The regimental commander provides you with meat, eggs, and milk, enough to fill your stomachs every meal, and he's even equipped you with weapons and ammunition. He didn't send you here to slack off! Dig properly, and after we drive back the Japanese, we can continue to eat well. If you dare to slack off, don't blame me for being merciless!"

Upon hearing this, the cannon fodder became much more efficient in their actions.

It must be said that Long Wenzhang's ability to lead troops is truly remarkable, and his mentality is even more absurdly good.

Previously, he had impersonated a regimental commander, directing a group of people to run around. Now that he has been exposed, he has become a small captain in charge of more than 500 cannon fodder, but he has no complaints and still manages things in an orderly manner.

His face showed no sign of disappointment or dissatisfaction; he still wore that same carefree grin, as if impersonating the regimental commander was nothing more than a trivial matter to him.

With that mindset, none of the cannon fodder present could achieve it.

Most of them were conscripted laborers or defeated stragglers, already accustomed to currying favor and living a life of mediocrity. If it were them, they would probably have become despondent and resentful long ago.

"Why do you want me to be your deputy?" an impatient voice rang out. Meng Fan limped behind Long Wenzhang, his face full of reluctance. The wound on his buttocks had not fully healed, and he still had some difficulty walking.

He still hasn't recovered. He trusted Long Wenzhang so much back then, regarding him as the hope that could lead everyone to survive, and was even willing to risk his life for him. But in the end, he found out that the other party was actually an imposter.

Every time he thought of this, a surge of anger would rise in his heart, and he would curse himself for being blind: Young Master is really blind, how could he not see that this guy is an imposter?

So when Meng Fan learned that he had been sent back by Huang Zurong to become Long Wenzhang's deputy, he felt nothing but malice. He never imagined that he would have to follow this imposter again and even take orders from him.

He wanted to refuse, to turn around and leave, but he simply couldn't refuse: putting aside the fact that Huang Zurong was his current superior, just considering the favor of treating his buttocks, if it weren't for the other party, these miraculous medicines would never have been used on his buttocks.

So he couldn't bring himself to refuse, and in the end, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow Long Wenzhang to this railway line to carry out this seemingly suicidal ambush mission.

"I told you, you have to stay within three meters of me, not leaving my side for a second." Long Wenzhang said with a grin, his tone slightly teasing.

To be honest, he didn't expect Huang Zurong to send Meng Fanle back. Although Meng Fanle was talkative and had a bad temper, he was a rare helper, so he deliberately teased him to see the boy's reaction.

Upon hearing this, Meng Fan was speechless for a moment, rolled his eyes, but then frowned and repeated what the cannon fodder had said.

"Are they really using us as cannon fodder?"

"What do you mean?" Long Wenzhang squinted at the other person.

"Didn't you see? Just us? Are you kidding me? This is just sending us to our deaths!" Meng Fan was clearly a bit sensitive. Having experienced too many life-and-death situations, he was already full of aversion to this kind of "suicide mission." In his view, Huang Zurong was treating them, these cannon fodder, as disposable items, using their lives to delay the arrival of Japanese reinforcements and buy time for the main battlefield.

"Why would anyone think it's suicide? This is clearly an opportunity for us to prove ourselves," Long Wenzhang offered a different perspective.

"Think about it, if they really want to use us as cannon fodder, why not send us to the front lines? The battlefield is under constant artillery fire, wouldn't the death rate be even higher? They could just send us there and have the 200th Division act as the supervisory force. If we show even the slightest sign of desertion, do you think the Central Army would let us go? They would just shoot us in the face."

Upon hearing this, Meng Fan paused for a moment, carefully considering Long Wenzhang's words, and felt that they seemed to make some sense.

Yes, if we really wanted to send them to their deaths, we should have just sent them to attack from the front. There was no need to send them here to ambush.

"Not to mention, this Commander Huang is so generous. Have you ever seen an officer be so generous to cannon fodder?" Long Wenzhang looked at the landmines being laid and said they were pressure cooker landmines that could blow up even tanks.

Meng Fan looked in the direction he pointed and saw several soldiers carefully burying modified pressure cookers in the soil beside the railway. The pressure cooker's fuse was gently pulled out and hidden under the weeds, making it extremely well concealed.