When the morning sun rose the next day, everything in the military camp was as usual. After a brief speech by "Xie Jinyuan", the military flag began to be raised.
As a senior intelligence officer of the Japanese Intelligence Section in China, Yuta Watanabe has been working in the concession for more than 2 months. He is also used to taking out a telescope from the window of his rented house at 7:10 to observe.
The situation of the Chinese military camp 350 meters away.
This situation has happened 60 times in the past 60 days. Although he did not fully understand the futile efforts of those ragged soldiers, as a soldier, he still admired these soldiers.
It is said that they have persisted in this behavior for more than 270 days. Not everyone can maintain the unique probability of soldiers in a 'prison', but this group of Chinese soldiers who are extremely looked down upon by the Japanese navy and army are doing this.
arrive.
The raising of the military flag this morning was still the same as before. No matter how casual Watanabe Yuta was, the process he had repeated 60 times had left a deep impression on his mind.
There was no change in the process of today's flag-raising ceremony, but the senior Japanese intelligence officer always felt that there was something strange. However, after looking through the telescope for a long time, he could not see any clues.
After all, although the 4x high-power telescope made his line of sight long enough, it was not enough to allow him to clearly see human facial expressions at a distance of 350 meters.
Maybe it was because he dreamed about the rice balls made by his mother in his hometown yesterday! As a result, he woke up in the middle of the night, interrupted his sleep for a long time, and woke up very early, which caused some confusion. Watanabe Yuta found an acceptable reason for himself and quietly observed
After returning to the military camp where there was no obvious abnormality, I went to wash up.
After all, as a senior intelligence officer, his job in the concession was not just to observe this lone army that had been imprisoned in the Western concession. Westerners should be very aware of the gap between the Empire of Japan and the soon-to-be-defeated China.
This is the most typical idea of the Japanese. They believe that they have worked hard to learn and catch up with Western countries, and the developed Western countries should recognize Japan enough.
But unfortunately, that's just what they think. Those white people really don't think so. Let alone yellow skin, even in the future, the Russians who also have white skin will be eager to kneel down, and they will not get the West.
Recognized by mainstream countries.
Therefore, the senior Japanese intelligence officer who felt a little weird did not know that just last night, with the cooperation of two big figures in the Western Concession, 260 recruits entered the military camp and exchanged identities with the officers and soldiers of the 542nd Regiment.
.
The group of people who raised the military flag and sang the military song this morning are no longer the "old people" that Yuta Watanabe watched 60 times. The military appearance of the refugee recruits who have only been trained for only a week can really be compared with those of the elites who have fought all battles.
.
That is to say, the concession authorities understood that the Japanese spies could only observe from a few hundred meters away at most. If they were allowed to get closer than a hundred meters away, they might find loopholes.
Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese expected that the Chinese government's vigorous negotiation would be less effective than the tens of thousands of U.S. dollars sent by Tang Dao and the two favors owed to them. The Western Concession used Tang Dao's method of hiding people from the truth.
Stolen out.
According to Xie Jinyuan's own request, he took Yang Ruifu, the former major battalion commander who has now been promoted to lieutenant colonel deputy commander, and several school-level civilian officers, under the protection of a special operations team led by Yang Zongdao's confidants.
, sitting on an American freighter, following the Huangpu River into the Yangtze River, and heading straight to Jiujiang.
Let me mention here that although the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River estuary are both firmly controlled by the Japanese army, the right of passage of Western countries has not been lost, and they can even continue to trade with the interior of China, as long as they are not transporting arms, and as long as they hang the flags of various countries
The national flag, Japanese warships and patrol boats patrolling the river are at best doing routine inspections. If they want to board the ships for inspection, a very high-level headquarters will issue military orders, otherwise it will cause passivity at the diplomatic level.
At this time, Japan has not grown enough to dare to challenge the Western powers that have already entered the industrial revolution. The reason why Japan will dare to attack Southeast Asia in the future and even stab American cowboys in the buttocks is because of the energy shortage.
The helpless behavior that drove them crazy, coupled with the German Empire's triumphant advancement on the European battlefield, also gave them an unrealistic illusion that I can do whatever I want.
The root cause of all this must be that "China has no oil". It has occupied millions of rich lands and has everything except oil. The Japanese who do not have such things on the island think that this is not normal.
The hardship.
In addition, after soliciting their opinions, almost all of the more than 270 officers and soldiers of the 542nd Regiment headed by Shangguan Yun were willing to follow Tang Dao to fight north.
This is not to say that Tang Dao's personality is charming, but that during these nine months, the officers and soldiers in custody were all very angry.
At that time, there was a military order on the battlefield, telling them to go to the last position in Songhu to conduct defensive operations. As Chinese soldiers, guarding the country and protecting the people, even if it was a dead end, it was only natural.
But in the end, they received military orders to evacuate. As a soldier, it is your bounden duty to obey military orders. Although you are unwilling to do so, you can only obey the orders.
But they are human beings, not marionettes. They followed military orders and arrived at the concession, but were detained for no reason. If Tang Dao hadn't come to rescue them, it might have been many more years.
What about the person who gave them military orders? He was never seen again.
It can be said that a few months ago, this group of iron-blooded troops had been extremely disappointed with the principal and their former commander, and many of them had even considered disbanding and returning home.
But when Tang Dao, an old comrade in arms, appeared in front of them and said that he would take them away, the blood that had almost stagnated began to surge again.
They are the glorious 542nd Regiment, the defenders of the last position in the Battle of Songhu. The blood and lives of their brothers were spilled on this land. The living people must not sacrifice for those brothers who died.
Do something?
It just so happened that without their military uniforms and ranks, they, who had lost their identities, no longer had to worry about it. They followed Tang Dao to North China and killed the enemy with a new identity.
It is really not easy to digest the replacement of three company-level officers at the major level and five platoon-level officers at the lieutenant level with other infantry regiments, but in the Four Lines Regiment, which has more than 8,000 soldiers, it is not too simple.
Tang Dao even had the idea of forming a fourth infantry battalion, so he reorganized an infantry battalion with more than 270 people from the 542nd Regiment as the backbone. His old boss Shangguan Yun was the best candidate for battalion commander.
Even the rest of the new recruits were not all selected from the public, at least 500 of them were from the prisoners of war exchanged with the Japanese this time.
Tang Dao had specifically greeted Brigadier Geng. This time, the 17th Division requested 4,000 prisoners of war, of which 1,000 were secretly supplied to the Four Lines Regiment.
After all, the 17th Division currently has only over 7,000 personnel at full capacity. Replenishing 3,000 prisoners of war is already the limit. If more prisoners of war are taken, the proportion of prisoners of war will be too large. Management in the short term will definitely give all the officers a splitting headache.
Son.
Both Commander Zhao and Brigadier Geng were well aware of this truth, so they initially considered recruiting 3,000 people. After hearing what Tang Dao said, they naturally followed the trend and returned Tang Dao's favor.
In that negotiation with the Japanese, Tang Dao made a lot of money for their 17th Division. The 4,000 prisoners of war were basically from the original 29th Division and 39th Brigade, not to mention four full infantry regiments and equipment, and the 17th Division was hard-pressed.
The equipment of an entire infantry regiment and an additional 2,000 rifles were requested.
This is almost equivalent to the addition of a full infantry regiment and a light infantry regiment to the 17th teachers and students. As long as the ideological work of those prisoners of war is done well and integrated into the entire infantry division, the combat effectiveness will be almost the same as the heyday of Niangziguan in early October last year.
The times are worth fighting for.
In other words, the 17th Division, which had been completely crippled, was resurrected with full health in just 10 months. How can you say that the division commanders of the 17th Division should not be grateful to Tang Dao!
No matter how nice the words are, it's useless, it still depends on the actual actions. Tang Dao is the kind of person who talks nice, but the actual actions are even more awesome.
Moreover, everyone in the 17th Division thought that Tang Tuanzuo was only good at robbing people and weapons from the Japanese? That was wrong.
In less than a month, the equipment and ammunition of a German armored infantry regiment will be given to them by Tang Dao.
That is the most coveted equipment of the Chinese army's German weapons reorganization division. Light machine guns are for infantry squads, mortars are for battalions, and heavy machine guns are as high as 6 for a battalion and 18 for a regiment.
Just ask, when did the 17th Division, who came from the Northwest Army, become so wealthy?
What's even more awesome is that despite the high ammunition consumption of the German Arms Division, Tang Tuanzuo, who was divided into three German Arms Division infantry regiments and equipped them, promised that he only needed the 17th Division and the 80th Army to pay the cost, and he was responsible for all the ammunition.
supply.
Cost? Isn’t that the so-called lowest price? So much ammunition has been sold out, why can’t we snatch something back from the Japanese?
Besides, Tang Dao, a local tycoon, if we can't get supplies and money for the time being, why don't we allow him to write an IOU or something to owe him first? What about Commander Zhao Shoushan of the 17th Division and the senior officers of the 80th Group Army?
They are all old foxes who have been on the battlefield for a long time. They all have different personalities, but their minds are all clumsy.
Anyway, if one day you really owe too much and you can't pay it back, then take the initiative to go to Tang Tuanzuo to eat and drink, and then say straight up that you need money to get it! There is a head in these several kilograms, why don't you play with it
Son?
The typical one is laid flat, broken, and no longer pretending!
In the future, Tang Tuanzuo will often encounter this kind of situation. Although Tang Tuanzuo is supported by the huge profits from the sale of penicillin in the United States and does not care about the small money, but in the face of these big bosses who are "living down and lying down",
I've never gotten used to it.
You owe more than you can pay, right? Okay, it doesn’t matter. If you can write poems, you can pay off the debt with handwritten poems. A pair of poems will cost you two thousand yuan, and you also need to sign your name and stamp it. If you don’t have a stamp, it doesn’t matter. Tang Tuanzuo is early
I'll do it for you.
No, it doesn't matter to a rough guy like Wang Xiaoqiang who was born as a tough guy. Come and have a meal, drink, and take a photo with the officers and soldiers of the Sixth Regiment who have served in combat, and write "gift" on the photo.
Heroic comrade so-and-so' signed his name again.
Regarding Tang Tuanzuo's "bad taste", the elders who are destined to leave their names in the sky of Chinese history first expressed their disdain with righteous words, saying that they would pay off the debt even if they sold the iron, but they would never do it.
You can learn to do such vulgar things as exchanging talents for money.
But the gap is often broken from within. Mr. Zhao, who is very good at writing poems, spent one night writing 20 poems through wholesale, and even began to shamelessly steal the poems of his colleagues who had always known each other. In the end, he was exempted from up to 100,000 yuan.
After Dayang's debt, the bosses of the Eightyth Army began to write poems wholesale, fearing that someone would pirate them before it was too late.
However, a group of rough guys headed by Wang Xiaoqiang are fine with the idea of paying off their debts by just taking photos and eating and drinking. The only painful thing is that they really have trouble writing on the back of the photos.
It feels a little inconsistent.
But Tang Dao didn't mind at all, and demanded that the letter must be written in handwriting and refused to be ghostwritten. This also caused the senior officers of the 80th Army to practice calligraphy for a while, just so that the words on the photos sent out would not be so embarrassing.
The news finally reached the ears of a scholar who was good at poetry. The interested trustee asked Tang Dao how much his calligraphy could pay for his debt. Tang Dao directly offered a sky-high price of 20,000 yuan to cancel the debt.
This made the man laugh out loud, and he spent a few days repairing 10 pairs of Tang knives in one go, and personally signed each pair with the words "To our friendly troops, and I wish you new achievements on the anti-Japanese front line!"
But Tang Dao was so happy that he looked like he had taken advantage of him. Those who knew the inside story of this incident couldn't help but smile.
In their opinion, this is just Tang Dao's move to help the friendly troops and save face for the friendly troops. They all agree with this, but Tang Tuanzuo shouldn't be so into it! You can't eat these if you really need them.
It's the same thing as something you can't drink.
In war years, is there anything more important than materials and money?
Then they were wrong. Tang Dao's joy came from the bottom of his heart.
200,000 yuan, just to buy the big boss's written approval, isn't that taking a huge advantage?
Tang Dao's 'good deed' lasted for several years, and he accumulated an unknown number of calligraphy and photos of the elders. Tang Dao sent them to the officers of all sizes in the Four Elements Regiment, ordering them to be careful.
custody.
One day in the future, these will be the best evidence that the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army Regiment worked side by side with the Eightyth Army and fought hard against the Japanese invaders. Even the King of Heaven, I, cannot discredit them.
To put it bluntly, this is an amulet. Tang Dao not only protects himself, but also protects his comrades who are with him through life and death.
If you plan for a rainy day decades in advance, there will probably be no one else but Tang Dao.
Of course, these are all things for later. Because of Yang Zongdao's involvement, Tang Dao could not send Xie Jinyuan away from Songhu, but he personally sent Shangguan Yun and others to the German freighter that sailed from Songhu Port.
They will go to Jincheng by sea, and then go from Jincheng to HD's Fengfeng Coal Mine in the name of Krupp Matheson's workers. Finally, they will be arranged by Gong Shaoxun, who is already in charge there, to go to Taihang Mountain.
"Dear Tang, there are still many defeated troops from your country living in the concession in the concession. Do you need them?" Mr. Rockefeller, the chairman of the board of directors of the Western Concession who personally accompanied Tang Dao to send him off, suddenly had an idea.
What is a businessman's mind? This is it.
Of course he knew what Tang Dao wanted. Tang Dao obviously wanted soldiers and sent them to the northern front to fight the Japanese.
And these are available in the concession!
The Battle of Songhu broke out in August last year. China and Japan invested millions of troops and beat the metropolis of Songhu to pieces. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died in the battle. The Western Concession located on the edge of the war even more
Because of this, I was under tremendous pressure.
The pressure does not come from the terrifying naval guns with a caliber of more than 200, nor does it come from the bombs dropped by Chinese and Japanese fighter planes that are constantly flying in the sky to meet the enemy, but from the large number of Chinese refugees who fled into the concession to avoid the war and who were separated from the troops.
The Chinese, who did not choose to hand over their weapons and entered the concession, were defeated.
In just a few months, the population of the concession increased by hundreds of thousands, and daily management was much more difficult than before.
Especially for the group of defeated soldiers, for the sake of so-called humanitarianism, they could not send those people to the Japanese to be slaughtered in front of them so that the media could have news to write about, but they could not let them go and could only let them stay in the concession.
As a result, security incidents have increased sharply.
"Yes, as long as you are a soldier, I want as much as I want for 10 US dollars per person." Tang Dao agreed without hesitation.
"Okay, as you Chinese would say: a gentleman's words!" The top talker in the Western Concession smiled broadly.
Those broken soldiers would only cause trouble when placed in the concession, but now they are sent out in the name of labor and can be sold for money. Killing two birds with one stone, anyone on the board of directors who hears about this business will think that he is a genius.
"It's hard to chase a horse!" Tang Dao held this man's hand, feeling equally happy.
These defeated troops are valuable assets. Even though they are scattered, after the test of the Songhu Battle, their battlefield survival experience is much stronger than that of retrained recruits. After a period of re-training, their combat effectiveness must not be underestimated.
.
The price of $10 is really not too cheap.
What is win-win cooperation? This is it.
Maybe the only one that was betrayed was Japan, but does that matter to the Chinese and Westerners?
And for Tang Dao, this is not the only thing that makes him feel happy.
Yang Zongdao, who reported to the summit and finally successfully rescued Xie Jinyuan and others, received a commendation from Director Dai personally and was promoted to major general, which meant that his status within the system was further improved.
The surprise promised by the major general of the Xinke Intelligence System finally arrived. When he personally took Tang Dao to a warehouse in the concession and opened the door, Tang Dao was almost blinded by the object in front of him.
It was not a weapon, but its value was no less than that of an infantry regiment.
Because it was a high-precision equipment originally belonging to the Jiangnan Arsenal. It was a Martin furnace originally produced by Siemens in the German Empire. It was the only steel-making furnace in China that could refine gun barrel steel.
Before the evacuation of Songhu, this equipment, which was purchased at a high cost, had no time to be transported away, so it had to be transported into the concession, and finally fell into the hands of the military intelligence system stationed in Songhu.
In peacetime, countless state-owned materials will be resold, let alone in war-torn times. As the top person in charge of the military command stationed in Songhu, with just a touch of the data, this equipment worth hundreds of thousands has become a consumable item.
, no one will care about its whereabouts anymore.
But this device, which can disappear easily, is too important for Tang Dao, which is planning its military industry.
Having this thing means that the Dakouzidong Arsenal has the ability to assemble mountain cannons. It can also use high-quality steel to start the '107 rocket launcher' test. The individual rocket launcher is not just on the drawings.
Moreover, there is no need to place all hopes of manufacturing MG42 machine guns and imitation Soviet 12.7 mm heavy machine guns in the ‘Laboratory No. 1’ located in HD.
No matter how he attracts Dr. Grunov with his high salary and so-called ideals, he is also a German after all. The interests of the motherland are above all else. This is not only true for Chinese people with ideals, but also for many Westerners.
This high-precision equipment will help Dakouzidong Arsenal break many constraints on materials.
This gift from Yang Zongdao truly surprised and delighted Tang Dao.
