Chapter 58: Speculation

  The result of the trial of penicillin was naturally without suspense. Lucas carefully followed Yang Feng's instructions, mixing a dose of penicillin into a bottle of saline solution, and then dividing this medicine among ten soldiers who were most seriously infected. As a result, just half a day later, these ten soldiers, who had been on the brink of death, were already able to discuss the structure of the female body with Yang Feng in high spirits.

  "What on earth is this?" Lucas asked, his face shocked. As a military doctor who had participated in World War I, he was naturally well aware that the most lethal thing in that war was not the enemy's bullets, but bacterial infections of wounds. If there were such medicine at that time, at least several million people would have been saved.

  "Secret!" Yang Feng said with a sly smile, Fleming discovered penicillin afterwards, but didn't take it too seriously, can't let people know that this is penicillin, still keep some mystery for now, at least wait until he made enough money before revealing the secret.

  What should I name it? Life No. 1? Too common! Chinese Divine Water? Why does it sound like Indian God Oil?

  I see!

  Yang Feng suddenly had an idea.

  Heaven gives birth to water, no, it's Heaven gives birth to divine water.

  Whether it's better to be serious and professional or to joke around, Yang Feng is a bit torn.

  He was there, gazing up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, striking a pose of worrying about the country and its people, when he saw a horse-drawn carriage rush into the hospital, and then the civilians on it hastily lifted down an injured person, running and shouting: "Doctor, doctor, quickly save Captain Wang!"

  The one being carried was Wang Runbo, the commander of the 149th Regiment. In history, he died at Gubeikou and his body was blown to pieces, but this time he was stabbed by a Japanese bayonet in close combat.

  The Japanese army, which had been fighting for a long time without winning, due to insufficient troops, had already sent Zhang Haipeng's puppet army to the front line. These guys still had some sense of guilt towards the Northeast Army, but they had no psychological burden on the Central Plains Army at all. Under the supervision of the Japanese army, they fought fiercely and broke through the ancient North Mouth. The outnumbered 25th Division retreated to Nan Tianmen, he was in charge of covering the retreat, but was stabbed twice, one knife in the abdomen and one under the ribs, with a gunshot wound on his leg as well. The soldiers beside him risked their lives to rescue him back.

  "Can he be saved?" Yang Feng asked Lucas cautiously, undoing the simple bandage outside to reveal a sight that made it hard to believe this was still a living person.

  Lucas, wearing a mask, didn't say a word and pointed upwards with his hand.

  The old guy was very fast, and the operation was over in half an hour. The bullet was taken out, several shrapnel were cleaned up from his body, the two most fatal wounds were sutured, and then the whole person was wrapped like a mummy.

  "It must be sent to Beiping immediately, the conditions here are too poor." The old drunkard took off his mask and solemnly said to the dean.

  "I'll find a car right away!" said the principal, who had just remembered Yang Feng.

  "Mr. Yang, you see..."

  "Anyway, I should go back!" Yang Feng readily agreed before he could finish speaking.

  Apart from Wang Runbo, there were six other seriously injured people who had to be transferred to Beiping. They were all placed in the rear carriage, and Helen stayed inside to take care of them. Yang Feng led his team directly back to Beiping, sent the wounded to the hospital, and then left a few boxes of penicillin for Helen. Yang Feng then sent the two women back home before rushing off to find Xiao Zhenyan.

  He wanted to know how many Japanese troops were lost during this period, how many fake armies appeared on the front line, and whether the Japanese army continued to increase its forces.

  "Now adding up the battle reports from all sides and subtracting the water content, the total loss of the Japanese army is probably between 7,000 to 8,000. Pseudo-military forces were found in all three places, with the most at Gubeikou. The Japanese army at Xifengkou has actually lost its ability to attack and can only switch to defense. Our attacking ability is also insufficient, and we are unable to launch a counterattack, so we are still stuck in a stalemate. In the direction of Lengkou, it was not the focus of the Japanese attack from the beginning, and Shang Zhen's department defended very stubbornly, so it is also at a stalemate. Now the Japanese army's strategy should be to concentrate its forces to break through Gubeikou."

  "As for the reinforcements, I haven't heard anything about it yet. Japan's domestic economic situation is also very tense. If I'm not mistaken, their strategy isn't to take down Pingjin, but rather to force us to sign a treaty of surrender, making us acknowledge at least the Great Wall as the boundary line. After all, before they can digest the Northeast, they don't have the strength for an all-out war, and with various countries' interests entangled within the passes, they also don't have the guts to confront all the Western powers. So it's very unlikely that they'll continue to send reinforcements from home," said Xiao Zhenying.

  "The Japanese army is all on the Great Wall line, and now they have also withdrawn the puppet army. That means Rehe is almost defenseless. Why not take advantage of such a good opportunity?" Yang Feng said with a sly smile.

  "You mean to let Sun Dianying launch a counterattack? He Jingzhi already has this meaning, but Sun Dianying is currently haggling with him. You also know that since Zhang Zuoxiang resigned, Feng Zhanhai's troops have actually been listening to his command. This guy has also absorbed many defeated soldiers from Tang Yulin's unit, and now the total number of troops is close to 50,000. It's clear that he's no longer satisfied with just being a division commander." said Xiao Zhensheng.

  "Ah!" Yang Feng stroked his chin, thinking if he should urge these bandits a bit. Sun Dianying's cannons were still in his hands, and the food supply was still dependent on Tong Lin Ge transporting it from Zhangjiakou to Duolun. It wouldn't be a problem to put some pressure on him at the right time, of course, he couldn't exert himself for nothing, he had to gain something in return.

  "You mean we should help Sun Dianying send troops and then get some benefits from He Jingzhi? What kind of benefits do you think are suitable?" Xiao Zhenxuan was also a cunning old man, and he naturally understood the implication.

  "My brother has an idea, to be honest, whether it's the 29th Army or Sun Dianying, they are both targets that should be weakened or eliminated for Nanjing. Now that the Japanese threat is imminent, there's no problem, but once the Japanese threat subsides, they will definitely turn on you. Since that's the case, why don't we all unite?" said Yang Feng.

  "Who's in charge? In the Central Plains War, we united and what was the outcome?" Xiao Zhenye said with a bitter smile.

  "Why must there be a leader? I just don't understand, why do we Chinese people always have to find a leader for ourselves before doing anything, and then fight each other to the death to become the leader, exhausting our energy, only to be caught off guard when others attack. Why can't we form an alliance and discuss everything together?"

  The Japanese ambition for North China is now clear, Rehe has already been taken, the next step will definitely be Chahar, after taking Chahar, the next step will be Suiyuan, after taking Suiyuan, it will be Pingjin, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, at that time, none of us can escape. The core of the Central Army is in the south, even if they lose North China, it won't have much impact on them, but we can't afford to lose, our home is here, look at how miserable the Northeastern Army was after losing the Northeast, do you want to end up like them?

  We cannot rely on the Central Army, to protect ourselves we must unite together, that is to say resist Japan and guard against Nanjing. Not only the 29th and 41st Armies, but also Yan Xishan, Han Fuju, Yang Hucheng, if the Northeastern Army had a decent leader then add them too, form an alliance in North China, directly declare externally that we refuse to fight internal wars, only defend against Japan.