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

The temporary camp of the Expeditionary Force Headquarters was shrouded in a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere due to the continuous rain and the successive defeats in battle.

Outside the tent, the groans of wounded soldiers and the hurried footsteps of messengers mingled together; inside the tent, the military map was covered with dense red and blue markings.

"Sir, our radio intercepted an urgent telegram from the Japanese 18th Division. The technical team worked through the night to decipher it, extracting only a few key words. We've come to report to you." A communications staff officer strode into the tent, clutching a newly deciphered telegram in his hand. He walked quietly to Du Yuming, bowing respectfully.

Upon hearing this, Du Yuming, who had been frowning and anxious, paused for a moment and slowly raised his head.

During this period, he was so worried that he couldn't sleep at night and hardly closed his eyes. The British army's betrayal and unauthorized retreat directly exposed the expeditionary force to the Japanese army's encirclement. The front-line units suffered heavy losses, and battle reports came one after another, each one filled with blood and tears.

According to the latest military intelligence, apart from the newly formed 38th Division led by General Sun Liren, which decisively withdrew to India with relatively few casualties, the main forces, including the newly formed 22nd Division and the 96th Division, were all ambushed by the Japanese army, suffering more than half of their casualties and losing almost all of their heavy weapons. Several scattered covering forces were almost completely wiped out.

That's an expeditionary force of 100,000.

As a result, due to the selfishness and willfulness of the British army and their desertion in the face of battle, more than half of them were lost in a foreign land. This caused Du Yuming great distress, but he was powerless to reverse the situation. He could only keep this bitterness to himself and suffer day and night.

What troubled him even more was the news about the 200th Division.

General Dai Anlan's 200th Division was ambushed by Japanese troops during a breakout retreat. He was seriously wounded by bullets and remains unconscious to this day.

Upon hearing the news, Du Yuming felt even more guilty. If he hadn't insisted on ordering a full-speed breakout, perhaps the 200th Division wouldn't have ended up in this situation. This self-blame almost overwhelmed him.

"What keywords?" Du Yuming asked, his voice hoarse and dry as he looked at the other person.

At this time, Japanese radio communication was frequent, mostly about the deployment of encirclement and interception of the expeditionary force. It was common for them to be able to decipher scattered words, so he didn't take it seriously at all and just asked casually.

"Sir, it's the words '**military force, British-made weapons, powerful firepower, the regiment is being held back**." The communications officer quickly read out the telegram, his tone tinged with confusion, clearly unable to grasp the connection.

Upon hearing this, Du Yuming frowned, his face full of confusion. He was completely baffled as to how these seemingly unrelated words could appear in a top-secret Japanese telegram.

He pondered it over and over in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

A local militia? Equipped with British standard weapons? And with firepower so great that it hindered the Japanese army? This is simply a fantasy.

If you say that out loud, wouldn't it just be a joke?

When did the Japanese army become so weak that it couldn't even defeat a local militia?

As for the level of local militias in China, he knew it all too well. Most of them were security forces organized by local gentry, armed with old-fashioned rifles and homemade guns. Some of them couldn't even put together a complete set of uniforms. Their discipline was lax. They would have a hard time even dealing with small Japanese detachments, let alone fighting against a Japanese Class A division. How could they possibly be equipped with standard British equipment and make the Japanese suffer?

He shook his head vigorously, banishing the absurd idea from his mind, assuming it was a deciphering error or a false intelligence deliberately released by the Japanese army.

"Your communications team has checked repeatedly, and it's just these few words? What's your opinion?" Du Yuming looked up at the communications staff officer and asked in a deep voice.

"Sir, our technical team has been pondering these words all night, but we still can't figure out the connection between them. The reason we were able to decipher them is because the Japanese radio repeatedly transmitted around these words at an extremely high frequency, which allowed us to capture the key words. The rest of the encrypted content is too complex to decipher for the time being," the communications officer replied truthfully. "We suspect that perhaps the Japanese army encountered harassment from a small armed group, exaggerating the enemy situation, or that there was a deviation in the message deciphering."

"Could it be that the Japanese army was routed and unable to advance an inch by a local militia?" Du Yuming's lips curled into a bitter smile, his tone full of self-mockery and jest as he casually joked.

The pressure of the past few days made him want to use this joke to ease his tense nerves.

Upon hearing this, the staff officers and adjutants inside the tent also shook their heads with wry smiles and chuckled softly, taking it entirely as a joke to relieve stress, and none of them took it seriously.

In everyone's mind, this was absolutely impossible. The fighting power of the Japanese army was obvious to all. How could they be held back by the local militia? It was just a self-comforting joke.

"Alright, no need to waste energy on this telegram that's hard to tell if it's real or fake. The Japanese are just playing tricks." Du Yuming waved his hand, the smile on his face instantly disappearing and replaced by a heavy expression. He leaned forward slightly, his tone becoming serious.

"Let's put that aside for now. Is there still no news about the 200th Division?"

"No, there hasn't been any news since the last telegram was sent. I don't know if the radio is silent or if something happened." The communications officer quickly shook his head.

Upon hearing this, Du Yuming's heart skipped a beat. If it was the former, that would be fine. Once the 200th Division found an opportunity, they would definitely turn on the radio, and then they would be able to make contact.

But if it's the latter, then that's troublesome.

This means that the 200th Division was still being pursued by the Japanese army, and it was questionable whether they could safely reach China.

More importantly, how is Dai Anlan's injury, and has she received proper treatment?

These are all things he cares about very much.

After all, it was he who ordered the 200th Division to retreat.

"Continue the radio call." Du Yuming took a deep breath, suppressing his inner unease, and gave the order.

"Yes," the communications officer replied immediately.

At that moment, the operations staff officer ran over with a beaming smile.

"Your Excellency, good news!"

"What good news?" Du Yuming showed no emotional fluctuation; for him, there was no news that could be considered good news.

"It seems that the pursuing Japanese regiments have temporarily stopped their pursuit." The operations staff officer quickly relayed the information gathered by the scouts.

Stop the pursuit?

Du Yuming was taken aback. His keen sense as a soldier told him that there was definitely something wrong here.

Otherwise, why would the Japanese army give up this opportunity to annihilate them completely?

But what exactly happened?

He thought about it for a while, but still couldn't figure it out.

"Sir, do you think it might be that the Japanese army's logistics were in trouble, which forced them to stop?" The operations staff officer voiced his thoughts.

"Logistics?" Du Yuming paused for a moment, then quickly walked to the map.