Chapter 204: Myanmar Is Different

Jiang Anguo, on the dawn when he was about to leave Taunggyi, went alone to a newly built cemetery.

Here lie the brothers who fell in battle with the Eighth Company, as well as the brothers who died at Tonggu.

At that time Taunggyi was captured; Du Yuming personally led Dai Anlan and the elite of the Fifth Army to retake Taunggyi, and the regiment's Eighth Company seized it with a rear surprise, though they also suffered heavy losses.

The retreat order was urgent, leaving no time, and it was impossible to bring the comrades' ashes, not even time to cremate. All the regiment could do then was find a relatively flat plot outside the city, tearfully interring those broken, still warm bodies together.

They also made a marker to make future locating easier.

The only thing he could take away were the nameplates taken from the soldiers' chests, engraved with their names.

After the regiment returned to Lashu, they reported the matter to Jiang Anguo, so the first thing Jiang Anguo did upon reaching Taunggyi was to search for the bodies of those warriors.

At the same time Jiang Anguo ordered Tie Quan to build a proper cemetery at the highest point of Taunggyi.

A cemetery facing north.

No longer a hastily piled solitary mound, but rows of uniform tombstones. In front of each stands a small stone plaque bearing the names of the fallen soldiers.

Jiang Anguo himself matched each cold nameplate one by one and set them into the stone tablets.

That gave him a notion. He told himself, and the living brothers, that at least their families would have a place to pay respects after the war.

Their families are Jiang Anguo and all the soldiers of the Independent Regiment.

At this moment, Jiang Anguo stands in this quiet graveyard.

The morning mist has not yet cleared.

He carries a wine flask in his hand, steps lightly, fearing to disturb the peace here.

He walks to the first tombstone, bends down, and slowly pours the wine onto the ground before the grave.

He walks past each one, reciting their names one by one, uttering the idle words that will never be answered. He has said these countless times to himself in the Tonggu command post, on the retreat route, and during countless sleepless nights.

Finally, he stands in the center of the graveyard, looking at the small, orderly formation before him.

"Brothers, I'm sorry I couldn't bring you home."

"But I'm here, I've made a home for you. This place is also home."

He lifts the flask and pours the remaining wine into the air.

"I've recorded your grievances. I'll make them repay double."

After speaking, he straightens up and renders a long, proper military salute to the graveyard.

Since entering Myanmar, Jiang Anguo has never saluted anyone.

The wind rustles the leaves beside the graveyard, as if the silent brothers are responding to him.

Jiang Anguo turns and does not look back. The road ahead is still long, but his steps are firmer than before.

The C-47 transport's engine roars, its sound passing through the window to the Myanmar ground below.

Of course, the northern Myanmar territory now belongs to Jiang Anguo; he currently occupies only Lashu and Taunggyi, while Myitkyina and Bamo have been handed to the Fifth Army.

The continuous mountains are covered by primeval jungle, with winding rivers.

As for the villages on the ground, Jiang Anguo even feels a slight relief, for the atrocities committed by the 56th Division have emptied these villages, and now he needs people to repopulate them.

From the air looking down, everything appears so tiny.

His flight path is a direct line from Taunggyi to Lashu.

Originally, he wanted to detour, circle over Xibu's airspace, to see if Japanese forces were along the Corner Mei and Xibu line, to provide useful intel to the th Division.

Several regiment commanders in Taunggyi almost unanimously dissuaded him: Tie Quan, Hu Dali, Song Mengqin.

Chief of Staff Yan Xing also joined in urging him not to.

"Regiment commander, it's too risky!"

"We don't know how far the Japanese air‑defense zone extends!"

"You are now the core of the entire theater; there can be no 'what‑ifs'!"

Jiang Anguo also worries that Japanese fighter planes could appear like bald eagles, suddenly over Xibu.

So he abandoned the Xibu plan, flew east from Taunggyi, then north, directly to Lashu.

He ultimately accepted the advice; there was no need to risk it for fleeting curiosity. His life concerns the entire Independent Regiment.

The plane pierced a thick cloud layer, and the sunlight suddenly became blinding.

Jiang Anguo squinted, and a bold, even heretical thought, like a lightning bolt, split the fog in his mind.

Will this land one day belong to Huaxia? Or perhaps… to himself?

The system requires "within‑territory" population; only on land under absolute control can one earn civilian loyalty points.

In fact Jiang Anguo could expand the army, but exceeding the system's authorized strength yields no points; moreover, in Myanmar, conscription is hardest— recruiting Burmese, those guys aren't unified, better to become cold points.

If he returned home, gaining points would clearly be difficult.

There is an established government, tangled networks, countless historical issues. Even if he captured a city, it would belong to someone else.

Only it would not bear his name, Jiang Anguo.

But in Myanmar it's different.

This is a power vacuum. British colonial rule is on the brink of collapse, and the Japanese military occupation is extremely brutal.

Within three months Japan seized most of Myanmar; as occupiers they began to revel in the conquest, and started to brutalize the Burmese civilians on the taken land.

They stole valuable items—gold, silver jewelry, and of course women.

Yet they kept to rules; women only appeared in comfort‑women camps and were not taken back home.

In the comfort‑women camps, naked corpses were carried out daily for burial.

The Japanese acted like beasts, imposing their will in Myanmar, or more broadly employing harsh oppression across Southeast Asia.

As long as Jiang Anguo now occupies land with guns, the system counts it as his territory! The terrified Burmese, if he can provide them safety and order.

"System, how do we resolve the loyalty of these Burmese?" Jiang Anguo's extreme doubt about the Burmese people's loyalty, or rather, he never believed it.

"That's hard to say."

"System, are you a proper system?" Jiang Anguo felt a bit helpless.

"I only calculate the population; as for their loyalty, that's up to you, the Host, to decide."

Since the system says so, it seems that within the territory it only provides points, not raising every person's loyalty to a hundred; they won't be absolutely loyal to Jiang Anguo like the soldiers you personally Exchange.

British?

A cold smile tugged at Jiang Anguo's mouth corner. That former British Empire now can barely look after itself.

Churchill is still on England, overwhelmed by German bombings and submarine warfare, having no mind to pay attention to this forgotten corner. Those captured British officers are probably now pondering life in the POW camp.

Perhaps meeting God isn't impossible after all.