Chapter Forty-Six Transfer

  Along with Zhao Dengyu, there was also a middle-aged man who looked quite stylish, with an old-fashioned eight-character beard, looking quite dignified, but his complexion wasn't very good.

  Yang Feng took one look at the military uniform and was startled, three stars.

  "Commander?!"

  "Assistant General?!"

  ……

  As soon as he walked into the command center, a burst of exclamations erupted.

  It was Zhang Zuoxiang, the commander of the Sixth Army Corps, and he was also the nominal commander-in-chief of the Second Army Group, with five, six, seven, and eight army corps under his command. Of course, in reality, apart from his nephew and Sun Dianying, he couldn't command anyone else.

  For example, Tang Yulin's fifth army corps, which is his sworn brother, and Fu Zuoyi's sixth army corps, which is still unknown where it is now, and Yang Jie's eighth army corps, which has nothing to do with him, are all central troops. I reckon they haven't even reached Beiping yet!

  So after Tang Yulin abandoned Chengde, he could only follow and run together. As a result, they met Zhao Dengyu, who was on his way to pick up Yang Feng in the north, halfway through. He might have thought it would be too humiliating to run back to Guan Nei like this, and besides, he was also the commander of the army, so he came to Chifeng with Zhao Dengyu. Of course, it's also possible that he felt safer running with tens of thousands of troops than with his own thousand-strong guard team.

  "What a shame! What a great shame! In just a few days, our army of hundreds of thousands was defeated and scattered like fallen flowers and flowing water. I'm so angry that I could die!" He pounded his chest and stamped his feet in anger.

  This was not him being sentimental, Tang Yulin did indeed prepare a gun for himself after he ran away, later let Shi Wei take the gun away from him and then forcibly stuffed it into the car.

  "Commander, why blame yourself? Look at the various armies on the front line, who else is doing better than us? They've all run away, haven't we not run yet? Not only have we not run, but we've also beaten the little Japanese until they're defeated and fleeing!" Sun Dianying said with a big tone.

  He and Feng Zhanhai's achievements had long been reported to the newspaper according to Yang Feng's draft. The 63rd Army of Harrah captured a Japanese armored vehicle on the day of capture, coordinated with the cavalry to raid the Japanese army, annihilating a large Japanese team, and used incendiary bottles to destroy seven Japanese tanks. Then Yang Feng very maliciously changed the driver of the armored vehicle into an original Northeastern Army tank soldier. Feng Zhanhai's rough and generous son didn't notice it, but Sun Dianying sneered at it.

  Then the 63rd Army defended the Yingjin River, and the Japanese army found it difficult to advance. At this time, General Sun of the 41st Army received a report that the Japanese command center was located at Haradoukou, so he concentrated all the cars, used the dare-to-die squad to raid the Japanese command center, and killed the Japanese Major General Brigade Commander Shu Jutsu. Later, the two armies concentrated their cavalry outside the city and ambushed them, defeating a Japanese cavalry brigade in one fell swoop, killing nearly a thousand enemies, with only a small number of enemy troops being rescued by the reinforced enemy army. Unfortunately, the great achievement was not achieved.

  Yang Feng didn't know what effect this telegram would produce for the time being, but the shattered glasses were probably no less than when Sun Dianying defended Huaiyang.

  So now Sun Dianying speaks with an unusually loud voice, with a somewhat self-important tone.

  "Still, Old Kui is indeed good at leading troops! If all the Rehe armies were like the 41st Army, there would be no worry about not defeating the Japanese!" Zhang Zuoxiang naturally wouldn't stint on praise.

  "Hey, actually it's all thanks to Yang brother's help. His armored car was like a hot knife through butter in the Japanese army, and even Mao Ze Dong had him hang the gate of the vehicle on his way back." Sun Dianying naturally wouldn't hide the truth either, if he didn't say it, Feng Zhanhai would have said it anyway.

  "These useless words, let's not say them again. Let's consider what to do next!" Yang Feng couldn't bear these people flattering each other and hurriedly said to Zhang Zuoxiang: "General, although this is a military matter and I shouldn't speak out of turn, but since we're now in the same boat, there's no need to hold back on what should be said."

  Now the Rehe is actually left with only the Sixth Army, and the Japanese army estimates that at this time it may have already reached the Great Wall. If we enter the pass, the road will be dangerous.

  In the younger generation's opinion, why don't we head to Duolun instead? After the Japanese army captures Rehe, their goal will be to either go south along the Great Wall or west into Chahar. Duolun is right at the entrance of Chahar. If the Japanese army advances westward, we can use Zhangjiakou as a barrier to attack them from behind; if they advance southward along the Great Wall, then we can launch a surprise attack on their rear flank. Isn't this better than rushing to the Great Wall together?

  Moreover, after I return to Beiping, I will organize another batch of military supplies and when the time comes, we can provide support from Zhangjiakou.

  What he said is actually the same as Sun Dianying and Feng Zhanhai, who also suffered losses, especially Feng Zhanhai's troops, who have been at the forefront all along. The 63rd Army of 20,000 people now has less than 15,000 left and urgently needs to find a place to catch its breath.

  Sun Dianying has already made enough contributions, and naturally he is also unwilling to go to the Great Wall, that would be a real fight to the death for him, preserving his strength is the most important thing.

  Zhao Dengyu also welcomes this point, Chahar is the territory of the 29th Army, and now the main force has been transferred to Guan. If the Japanese army attacks Chahar, it will indeed be impossible to defend without troops. With these tens of thousands of people stationed in Duolun, Zhangjiakou will be safe.

  "In a place like Toronto, I'm afraid it can't support so many people." Zhang Zuoxiang said with a worried tone.

  "General, isn't this a slap in the face for our 29th Army? Can we still let our brothers starve when we arrive at Chahar?" Zhao Dengyu said.

  "What is the assistant worried about? If it's ammunition, then I can only say that I'll do my best. If it's food, then I'll put the words here, if one of my brothers goes hungry, then Yang Feng will let him give me a gun."

  "Brother Yang, can you really get a lot of grain?" Zhang Zuoxiang asked in surprise. Chahar and Rehe are poor places that have always been short of food, especially in recent years when Tang Yulin has been planting opium everywhere, making the shortage even worse. Chahar is not as good as here.

  "Oh dear, let me say something that you may not want to hear. Nowadays, we Chinese people are all like frogs at the bottom of a well, always fighting over our own little patch of land. Why don't we go out and take a look around?"

  In the United States, mechanized farming and large-scale use of fertilizers have led to a situation where tens of millions of farmers are feeding the entire country, yet grain is still being sold at a loss. Ships full of grain are being dumped into the Mississippi River, and some crops aren't even worth harvesting, with fields simply being set on fire.

  "I'm not hiding it from you all, I've already ordered a shipload of flour in the US, and it's expected to arrive at Tianjin Port in just a few days. Even if there's more than enough for the tens of thousands of you, it won't be a problem to last half a year. When the time comes, we can directly transport it to Zhangjiakou by train, and the rest is up to you to figure out. Of course, when it comes to money, you can't cheat me. As I always say, as long as it's not cash, gold, silver, antiques, or medicinal herbs are all fine."

  Just give them a thousand or eight hundred tons of flour, casually find a flour factory, and it's probably just a week's output. Anyway, this time when we go back, there won't be as much cargo to transport like last time. The foreigners don't lack meat food, these guys aren't good kids, they can solve their own problems besides grain, at most give them ten tons of salt.