Chapter 472

  Seeing the swift horse approaching, Li Bin smiled and said to Xiao Bo: "Good! I said so, how could Brother Xiao be so at ease, letting me command your men? It turns out you had made preparations early on!"

  "Hahaha, yes! We fight if we can win, and run if we can't!"

  After mounting his horse, he galloped westward all the way.

  On the road, Li Bin admired Xiao Bo very much. This man was very meticulous and considerate in doing things. And Xiao Bo also admired Li Bin, saying: "Brother Li is not simple! Not only does he know how to deploy troops, but he can also invent something like a loyalty book to make that traitor suffer, haha! It saves bullets and eliminates an enemy! He really has a business mind!"

  "Modest, modest! When it comes to doing business, who dares to compare with Big Brother Xiao!" Li Bin said with a smile.

  Two people laughed "haha" and rode their horses westward.

  However, after leaving the devils' controlled area, Xiao Bo's next move made Li Bin so angry that he almost fainted:

  After arriving at the safe area, everyone got off their horses. Li Bin bowed to Xiao Bo and bid farewell: "Xiao brother, thank you for your help! And also thanks to Brother Li for the few good hands!" After finishing speaking, he prepared to get back on his horse to return to Jinzhou. However, he heard a voice saying: "Wait! We still have an account to settle!"

  Li Bin turned around to see Xiao Bo holding an abacus in his hand, and his heart sank: trouble, this sly merchant was calculating something. He only heard Xiao Bo operating the abacus, saying as he calculated: "Brother Li, we two collaborated and captured two Czech-style machine guns together. You can take the guns, but you have to split the cost with me 50/50. The original price of the two machine guns is 2,000 big yuan, so half would be 1,000 big yuan. In addition, we captured 40 rifles, each worth 100 big yuan, totaling 4,000 big yuan. Since you used my men, you have to give me half, which is 2,000 big yuan. There are also bullets and hand grenades, equivalent to 1,000 big yuan, and you need to give me 500 big yuan. We consumed 100 rounds of machine gun ammunition, an unknown quantity of rifle ammunition, an unknown quantity of submachine gun ammunition, a certain number of pistol bullets, and 12 hand grenades, totaling 400 big yuan in ammunition consumption. You owe me that! Oh, and there are the 12 horses I gave you! So, Brother Li, this time you owe me a total of 4,000 big yuan! I've got this account recorded! Next time we pay for military supplies, you'll have to repay me!"

  Looking at Xiao Bo's harmless smile, Li Bin secretly scolded in his heart: "Damn Bone Zhe! It seems that you should change your name to Bone Breaker! A complete rogue! Just like Li Yunlong in later TV dramas, he is a master who only takes advantage and never loses!"

  However, Li Bin still thought that Xiao Da was indeed a talented person. If he could be used for himself, as his advisor and logistics minister, managing money and accounts, it would be very good. So, thinking of this, he bowed to Xiao Bai and said: "Xiao brother, I won't owe you a single penny! But I have a request, I don't know if Xiao brother can agree?"

  Xiao Bo smiled and said: "You go first, let's see if your request is reasonable."

  Li Bin made a request: "I hope Xiao Dage can join my Righteous and Brave Army, as the logistics minister, specializing in managing supplies and finances. I don't know if Xiao Dage is willing to agree?"

  "Hahaha!" Xiao Bo burst out laughing, "Want me to join the Righteous Brave Army? I'm not opposed! But can you afford me? My salary is very high! Forget it, you can't afford me, I'll just stick to being a arms dealer!"

  Li Bin was stunned by Xiao Bo's words, his mouth wide open and unable to utter a single word. After a while, Li Bin finally said: "Xiao brother, but now the country is in trouble, it would be a pity if someone with your talent didn't join the anti-Japanese cause."

  Xiao Bo stopped laughing, his face turned serious as he said to Li Bin: "I may be a swindler, but I won't forget fighting against the devils and traitors! Alright, brother, let's part ways here! Remember you owe me money, don't forget to pay it back!"

  As Xiao Bo rode his horse away, he stopped after a few steps and turned to Li Bin: "Considering you're a big customer, I've already given you ten talented people, which is very generous! As long as you come back to buy my weapons in the future, I'll help you recruit more people for free!"

  "Xiao Da Ge rest assured, when I have money, I will definitely invite you!" Li Bin smiled and replied.

  "Good! I'll be waiting for the day you strike it rich!" Xiao Bo smiled, then lashed Ma Pi's rear end with his whip and rode off into the distance.

  Li Bin bid farewell to Xiao Bo after that, he brought Wu Congyu, Huang Hua and a batch of new recruits, together galloping towards Jinzhou.

  On the road, Wu Congyu quietly told Li Bin when Huang Hua and others were not paying attention: "Xiao Bo is still a good person, but he is too greedy for money and too stingy! He has made a deal of 600,000, but he is still calculating several thousand dollars."

  Li Bin smiled and replied, "That businessman is not stingy! Xiao Dage has a point too, otherwise he would have gone bankrupt long ago! Actually, it doesn't matter, as long as we can resist the Japanese, that's all that matters."

  After returning to Jinzhou, Li Bin first settled down Huang Hua and the nine new recruits. To take care of them, Li Bin specially arranged for the ten people to live in one room. However, when receiving their bedding, Huang Hua said to Li Bin: "Brother Li, you don't have to arrange it for me, I'll just go sleep in the firewood room by myself." After saying that, he picked up his bedding and was about to head to the firewood room.

  Watching the yellow flower disappear into the distance, Wu Congyu thought to himself: This person is also strange, why doesn't he want to sleep with everyone else? Looking at him again as he walks away, his thin and weak body, could it be that...

  Li Bin settled down the yellow flowers and the nine new warriors, then began to worry about the progress of his "earth tanks". Because he had already ordered machine guns from Xiao Bo, at that time, most of those machine guns would be mounted on the "earth tanks".

  Li Bin walked into the "Tutankhamun" processing plant, and Wang Zihao saw Li Bin and came forward: "Report to the captain, the first prototype has been modified according to your drawing requirements, please come and take a look."

  Wang Zihao took Li Bin to a newly modified "earth tank". He looked at the Gilka car and saw that the driver's cab had been dismantled, with steel plates with observation ports and shooting holes installed. In front of the driver's cab, a row of iron railings was added as per his request. On the rear carriage, a metal canopy was installed, and above the driver's cab, another row of iron railings was installed, just enough to protect the position of the metal canopy. According to this design, when encountering light artillery attacks, the iron railings may be able to block the shells, which is the same principle as the US military installing iron railings on tanks later on.

  Steel plates were installed on the wheel hubs to prevent bullets from hitting the tires and forcing a stop.

  Li Bin boarded the carriage, and after entering the carriage, he found that the sandbags were still piled up around the carriage according to his requirements. At the front of the carriage, there was a shooting hole where a Type 24 heavy machine gun could be mounted. On both sides of the carriage, there were three shooting holes each, which could mount two Czech-style machine guns. In addition, it could accommodate two submachine gun soldiers and two rifle soldiers. In this way, the carriage could accommodate four machine gunners and four infantrymen in total. The driver's compartment was arranged for two people, one of whom was the driver, and the other was a machine gunner who also served as a substitute driver.

  Li Bin turned his head and asked a worker: "Master, can this car withstand the weight with such modification?"

  The worker master replied, "Alright! This car weighs 2.5 tons on its own and has a maximum load capacity of 3.5 tons. After we install steel plates above the rear trunk's bottom plate, the conservative load capacity can reach 6 tons, and even 10 tons is no problem. And the steel plates and sandbags we installed only weigh around 5 tons in total, which fully meets the requirements."

  At that time, this chariot will become Li Bin's own command vehicle.

  Apart from the renovation of the "Tutankhamun", there are many other things that make Li Bin's head ache. Those things, including sniper training, special forces training, cavalry training, infantry training, and digging trenches, all require Li Bin to worry about.

  Especially the deployment of defensive fortifications is a big problem. Li Bin, who is familiar with history, knows that the Japanese have a great advantage in heavy weapons and they have air superiority. According to the fortifications deployed by the Nationalist army at that time, it can only be under the enemy's air firepower and ground artillery strikes, turning soldiers into cannon fodder!

  In two months, the Kwantung Army will launch a large-scale attack on Jinzhou. It will be a bloody battle! How to arrange fortifications to survive under the enemy's superior artillery and air bombing is the most worrying problem for Li Bin.

  After all, it is now October, and the construction work must be started. If not, after the snow falls and the soil freezes, the difficulty of construction will increase greatly at that time.

  Now start digging fortifications, after the snowfall, just sweep away the snow every day, and pile up the swept snow outside the fortifications. When the sun shines on the snow to melt it, and freezes again at night, the fortifications will become even more solid! By next January when the Japanese come to attack, they will face a batch of exceptionally strong ice fortifications!

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