Chapter 125: Advance on Bamo

And on a jungle road not far from Bamo, a massive convoy was moving silently through the rainy night.

All the headlights were out, and the driver stared intently at the treacherous, mud‑filled road ahead, with a cliff on one side and a sheer wall on the other; a single mistake would doom the whole vehicle. They relied on the faint light of the vehicle ahead to guide them.

The engine's low, rumbling roar was completely drowned out by the pounding rain.

The primordial forest of northern Myanmar in the night added an extra note of solemnity!

Jiang Anguo sat in the passenger seat of the lead Jeep, his whole body already soaked through. He held no umbrella, letting the icy rain stream down his cheeks.

At that moment, the convoy was traveling on a road churned into a mire.

Suddenly, a pitch‑black shape appeared in the middle of the road ahead, lying across it, and the thing seemed to be writhing.

"Careful!" the driver slammed the brakes, the Jeep skidded a few meters in the mud and barely stopped in front of the dark silhouette.

Jiang Anguo fixed his gaze, and his scalp instantly prickled as a chill shot from the soles of his feet up to the crown of his head.

It was a gigantic python!

About as thick as a thigh and several meters long, its scales glimmered coldly in the dim light. It seemed either to be crossing the road for warmth in the rain or out to hunt, lying brazenly in the middle of the road.

Just as Jiang Anguo's whole body broke out in gooseflesh, the snake's head actually turned toward him.

Its dark eyes shone unusually bright in the night, staring at Jiang Anguo's prickling scalp.

"Damn…" Jiang Anguo couldn't help muttering under his breath.

In this damned Myanmar jungle, everything except the Japanese is doomed.

Just as he was about to order his men to get out and deal with the road‑blocking beast, a transport vehicle behind the Jeep—perhaps its driver momentarily spaced out—failed to brake in time.

Fortunately the spot was relatively open, wide enough for two vehicles to sit side by side.

The downpour made the road too slick. The four‑ton CCKW-353 Truck, bearing massive inertia, roared forward.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud rang out, accompanied by the sound of bones shattering.

The massive python didn't even have time to twist its body before the huge tire rolled over it.

Jiang Anguo didn't intervene, but he could feel that the dying python, in its final moments, still had its head looking at him.

Then the second, the third…

When the convoy had all passed, Jiang Anguo glanced back; the dark silhouette had turned into a smear of indistinct flesh mixed with mud, impossible to tell where the snake meat ended and the sludge began.

"This is war!" a bizarre sense of absurdity rose in Jiang Anguo's mind; whether man or beast, the chance of surviving in this meat grinder was vanishingly small.

He withdrew his gaze and glanced at the watch on his wrist.

April 25, 23:35.

"Bamo is still five kilometers away."

Jiang Anguo wiped the rain from his face and whispered into the radio, "Everyone get out, conceal the vehicles, advance on foot!"

He made that decision because the nearer they got to Bamo, the more likely they would encounter Japanese Army reconnaissance posts. The transport vehicle's headlights and engine noise are absolute giveaways in the silent night. Even in the heavy rain the sound can be masked, but the vehicle lights cannot.

Jiang Anguo intended to catch the enemy off guard, slipping into Bamo like a ghost.

Over a thousand soldiers of the Independent Battalion leapt from the vehicles and vanished silently into the black rain curtain.

"The Special Forces Unit has already set out," Jiang Anguo thought to himself.

It was his first time truly deploying this Special Forces Unit on such a large scale. Originally, he had intended to reserve this blade for Watanabe Masao's 56th Division main force, to give that scheming Japanese a "big surprise." He had even planned a decapitation mission for Watanabe Masao.

But now the situation had changed; he could only use the Japanese forces at Bamo to practice.

Thinking of that, Jiang Anguo felt an unnamed fury rise within him.

The Japanese had already gotten a foothold, yet the Expeditionary Force's main body hadn't arrived! Logically the Expeditionary Force's main force should have reached Bamo, and Jiang Anguo could have encircled that small Japanese detachment there.

That left Jiang Anguo, who had been hoping for a two‑sided strike, utterly speechless.

What frustrated him most was that the plan to annihilate the Japanese 56th Division at Lashu had been completely shattered.

He of course didn't know that it wasn't the Expeditionary Force deliberately stalling, nor a command error by Du Yuming. In fact, the Expeditionary Force's main body had been sabotaged by that damned ally, the United Kingdom.

When the front‑line fighting intensified, Chongqing and Stilwell had to divert the two elite divisions originally assigned to guard the Expeditionary Force's northward retreat, sending them to western Myanmar to aid the surrounded British.

That caused Du Lvming to lose his own judgment, and even after learning Bamo had been attacked by the Japanese, he assumed the Lashu sector had already fallen.

So he led the Expeditionary Force's main body along a different route toward Myitkyina.

Jiang Anguo had constantly reminded Dai Anlan to confiscate the British weapons and equip his own troops with them.

Jiang Anguo hated the Japanese, and likewise he hated the British.

The British simply aren't fit to be allies.

And while Jiang Anguo was marching toward Bamo, he learned that the British were surrounded and the Expeditionary Force had sent troops to rescue them.

His first impression was sheer helplessness.

"If only I'd known about this…" Jiang Anguo gritted his teeth, clutching his submachine gun, "The first thing I'd do is seize those British bastards' weapons! These guys are infuriating!"

At that moment, Jiang Anguo felt not only anger but a deep sense of powerlessness.

It's one thing not to help fight the Japanese; it's another for them to constantly drop the ball at critical moments. Most hateful is that these British fellows keep getting in the way.

Several times the Chinese Army had already engaged the Japanese, battles were underway, and a encirclement was about to form, yet those British troops unilaterally withdrew to preserve their strength. It wasn't merely a retreat; it exposed the friendly flank to the enemy, leaving the Chinese Army vulnerable on both sides and suffering avoidable heavy casualties.

It was downright odious!

The most critical issue was the intelligence deception; to protect the British, they lied about a Japanese pursuit, causing the Expeditionary Force's elite divisions to flit back and forth around Mandalay, exhausted.

"Forget relying on others; better to rely on ourselves."

Jiang Anguo inhaled deeply, suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind.

Today's Bamo was merely a Japanese airborne unit, and even such a large target, the Lashu direction hadn't seen any Japanese reinforcements, indicating limited forces—a once‑in‑a‑lifetime opportunity.

"Full speed ahead!" he waved his hand in the darkness, like a leopard prowling through a rainy night, leading his troops toward Bamo.

Inside Bamo City, Kume Seiichi was still lost in his grand spring‑autumn reverie, awaiting "good news" from Myitkyina, unaware that the Grim Reaper's scythe had already been silently poised at his throat.