Chapter 1 Arrival in Your Honorable Territory (Part 2)

  At present, the Japanese have occupied Suzhou and Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, and sometimes they have a tendency to attack and capture all of Zhejiang. In this area, the third war zone has deployed several armies, including the temporary 66th division stationed in Wuzhen, which is a newly formed army that was established less than two months ago. The main task of this new division with more than 6,000 people is naturally to defend Wuzhen and the important place of Baimaguan 20 miles north of Wuzhen. Several main forces are deployed behind the defense line of the temporary 66th division. In other words, in the minds of those big figures in the war zone, the main task of the temporary 66th division is to serve as cannon fodder, and while being crushed by Japanese tanks, use the bodies of these 6,000 miscellaneous soldiers to block the Japanese edge, consume the Japanese spirit.

  It's no wonder that the officials in the war zone arranged it this way. In the third war zone, it is well-known that the supreme commander tacitly divided several million troops into three levels.

  The first batch is naturally the 19th Army under Luo Zhuoying, which is the backbone of the Chiang's own faction, the Whampoa Clique. It was heavily damaged in the Battle of Shanghai and is currently being reorganized and replenished behind the front lines. Some war zone troops directly under the command also enjoy the same treatment, such as the Ningbo and Wenzhou garrison troops.

  The second echelon was the Tenth Army Group, mainly composed of Hunan troops, led by Liu Jianxu. On the one hand, the combat effectiveness of the Hunan army was relatively strong. Although He Jian had already stepped down as governor of Hunan Province, his influence still lingered. The central government naturally held Liu Jianxu's forces in high esteem as He Jian's trusted followers among local troops.

  The third echelon is naturally the 23rd and 28th Group Armies, which are composed entirely of Sichuan troops. The equipment level, training degree, and combat effectiveness of the Sichuan Army not only lag far behind those of the Central Army but also fall short of those of the Hunan Army. Although they are nominally two group armies, in reality, they are just two armies with some directly affiliated units. Moreover, their big boss, Liu Xiang, the commander-in-chief of the 7th War Zone, fell ill on his way to resist Japan and is now hospitalized in Hankou. The Sichuan Army has become a scattered sand without a leader, and its combat effectiveness is weaker than that of the Hunan Army, which is valued by the central government.

  The temporary troops like the 66th Division are not among the top three echelons, but are super miscellaneous fish troops that can be used to block bullets for the main force at any time. In terms of troop deployment, the bigwigs in the war zone also fully reflected the intention of the highest commander-in-chief. The miscellaneous troops like the 66th Division were naturally placed at the forefront, and the configuration of other troops also made it clear that the war zone was carefully planned. Basically, the configuration was based on the closeness or distance of the troops to the central government, with the more central troops being placed in safer positions, while the first- and second-line defense forces were almost all local military units.

  Of course, there were also troops with lower status than the 66th Division in the Third War Zone. That would be the newly formed Fourth Army. Although nominally a direct subordinate of the war zone, due to well-known reasons, the high-ranking officials of the war zone would not allow the sworn enemies of the Chairman to truly enjoy the preferential treatment of being a direct subordinate troop. At least in terms of daily expenses and logistical replenishment, they could not be treated equally with other troops. As for combat missions, the New Fourth Army was always assigned the most arduous tasks, under the guise of "those who are capable will work harder". In terms of assigning combat missions, the war zone headquarters and the highest command were extremely trusting of the New Fourth Army, treating it as a fully equipped main force army. Of course, post-war replenishment was not even worth thinking about.

  Compared with the New Fourth Army, which could only get 75% of the full-strength brigade's expenses every month and had no replenishment of food and ammunition for its personnel, the temporary 66th division was naturally much happier. Although it was also seen as a cannon fodder unit to consume the Japanese army, belonging to the stepmotherly treated units, at least it was still a Nationalist Party unit, with some replenishment every month, and the 500,000 yuan in expenses were still fully allocated from the war zone. Because of the newly formed troops, from top to bottom, they wore the same style of uniforms as the 24th year of the Republic of China, which was an imitation of the German-style new army uniform. When marching, it looked very majestic and powerful. It is worth noting that only a few units of the Central Army had completed the replacement of the new-style military uniforms in the 24th year of the Republic of China, and if not for the fact that the clothing warehouse in the war zone only had this type of new uniform, the temporary 66th division would not have been able to wear these uniforms. No matter how strong the actual combat effectiveness of this unit was, which was expanded from the Zhejiang South Security Forces, on the surface, the temporary 66th division looked very impressive. However, both the upper and lower levels in the war zone understood that the combat effectiveness of units like the temporary 66th division, which were mostly new recruits, was only slightly stronger than that of a new recruit battalion. Not to mention comparing it with the Central Army's elite troops, even compared with the Sichuan army, which was known for its weak combat effectiveness and chaotic organization, it was still somewhat inferior. Although the Sichuan army had poor equipment and personnel, at least they had some actual combat experience from fighting in the civil war for 20 years. As a result, the temporary 66th division, which was newly formed after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, got the nickname "horse dung egg", meaning that it looked impressive on the outside but was empty inside. Even the commander of the temporary 66th division, Xia Weimin, publicly strongly refuted this statement while privately acknowledging that there was some truth to it. The temporary 66th division currently had a strength of 6,000 men, which, although not comparable to the Central Army's elite units such as the 36th and 88th divisions in terms of numbers, was still considered a full-strength brigade among local troops. However, its actual combat effectiveness was indeed not worthy of praise.

  Xia Weimin himself had carefully calculated in his heart that the current temporary 66th division, if it were to go into battle, would probably not be able to defeat even a single brigade of the Central Army, let alone engage in a frontal battle with the Japanese army. This was mainly because there were too few veteran soldiers. Xia Weimin's original unit had not received any reinforcements for many years before the Anti-Japanese War and had fewer than 2,000 people. After this expansion into the temporary 66th division, among the more than 6,000 people, less than 30% were old soldiers, mostly concentrated in the division and brigade headquarters, while the proportion of old soldiers in frontline combat units was even lower. The rest were all strong-armed recruits, and it would be a blessing if they didn't flee in disarray as soon as the battle started. In fact, over the past few months, more than 300 new recruits had run away, and the combat effectiveness of such an army could not be high.

  At the same time, Chu Yuan also basically understood the origin of the 66th Division from these people. His cheap brother-in-law Xia Weimin was a native of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, graduated from Baoding Military Academy's seventh period, and was originally a brigade commander under Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Zhejiang Province. During the Northern Expedition, he was absorbed by the Nationalist Party and became a division commander of the National Revolutionary Army. He made military achievements during the second Northern Expedition against Zhang Zongchang, and was promoted to army commander of the 53rd National Revolutionary Army at the end of 1929.

  If it weren't for the July 7th Incident, the formation of the national anti-war front, this team would never have been remembered by the highest commander. After becoming a security force for seven years, they became a regular national army. In a way, Xia Weimin should thank the Japanese people. If not for them, the highest commander would never have allowed Xia Weimin to command this motley crew and expand its development. As far as Chu Yuan knew, this was also one of the most ironic black humor of that era. It was the bloody battles of millions of local troops that blocked the Japanese army's invincible war chariots with their flesh and blood, while the existence of the Japanese army on Chinese soil was precisely the basis and premise for the survival and development of these local troops. Once this point is understood, it is not difficult to understand why many local troops who fought to the death against Japan in the early stages of the war became traitors in large numbers during the middle and late periods of the war.