Chapter 405: Stilwell

The Fifth Army's other combat‑ready unit is the newly formed 22nd Division under Liao Yaoxiang, but the new 22nd Division and the newly formed 38th Division under Sun Liren are both in India at Yingpar.

Wanting to take part in this operation, crossing mountains and valleys, is obviously impossible.

From Bamo to Mandalay is over three hundred kilometers, which in principle isn't far, yet Stilwell probably doesn't even know where these units are.

It should be noted that from the start, Du Yuming's main force was retreating toward Myitkyina.

Even after more than a month, the Fifth Army's main force under Du Yuming was still in Myitkyina and had not moved toward Bamo.

Thus, when Stilwell issued the attack order, Du Yuming's troops still needed to prepare.

What to prepare? Personnel, weapons, and most critically, supplies.

Supplies!

This worried Du Yuming greatly: "General, don't you know that my troops' supplies all come from the Independent Regiment—no, now it should be the st Division."

Du Yuming didn't expect that at this moment the little old man in front of him was still thinking about a counter‑offensive on Mandalay.

Hearing Du Yuming say that, Stilwell was puzzled; he had been in Chongqing during this period, negotiating with Chongqing, hoping the Chongqing side could boost the Expeditionary Force's manpower to two hundred thousand.

Uh, that's a terrifying figure.

The Chongqing side currently won't consider the Myanmar direction, at least not in the short term, because they are still processing the Jianghan area that has just been retaken.

Defending Jianghan is now the top priority.

It was thought that Jianghan could not be retaken quickly, but after the Battle of Yichang under Jiang Anguo's command, a chain of reactions led to the entire Jianghan falling to the Huaxia forces.

Consequently, Jianghan now needs garrison troops.

After the previous lesson, this time it won't be so easily occupied by the Japanese.

The th War Zone has already pulled two army groups; of course this weakens the th War Zone, and similarly, since Jianghan lies on the west side of Wuhan, stationing two army groups here also deters the Japanese forces in the Wuhan area from moving recklessly.

It threatens Wuhan's flank.

At the same time, the Sixth War Zone is also sending personnel to Jianghan; the units that have arrived are Fangtian's 18th Army.

The Fifth War Zone's Li Zongren unit has also taken up the defense of Xiangyang.

When Stilwell opened the discussion, he demanded one hundred thousand men; given that the Expeditionary Force has already suffered one defeat, asking Chongqing to pull troops now is indeed hard to achieve.

Two hundred thousand— the Expeditionary Force didn't even have one hundred thousand when it entered Myanmar, and it has already lost over ten thousand there.

Now they are asking to add another hundred‑plus thousand troops, yet Kunming has made no preparations; if the 56th Division were to capture Lashu, Kunming had made no preparations at all.

It's not just about adding a hundred thousand; the Expeditionary Force is already facing a problem—food.

"Why?" Stilwell asked, clearly baffled.

Why must the main force's supplies be handed to an Independent Regiment, now the st Division?

"General, we have difficulties at home, and being in Myitkyina makes logistics especially hard. Colonel Jiang at Lashu has his own channels and can obtain supplies, shipping a batch here every seven days," Du Yuming said.

Of course, Du Yuming was also very curious, wanting to know where Colonel Jiang's supplies actually came from.

The supplies delivered were all canned food, with little fresh fare; only a few officers received fresh food that day, while everyone else ate canned food thereafter.

Most were pork canned, beef canned, various vegetable cans, and bottles of vitamins; at first everyone wondered why they were taking vitamins, but the sweet‑sour taste was actually quite pleasant.

A batch of supplies happened to arrive today, so Du Yuming led Stilwell to the stockpile.

The road alone is clearly insufficient; to feed Du Yuming's fewer than thirty‑thousand men, the mountain road in northern Myanmar and the transport vehicles are not enough.

For safety, a supply vehicle is never fully loaded, yet even so each trip carried three tons, far exceeding the authorized two tons.

That was already considered, because when Colonel Jiang first entered Myanmar, the transport vehicles on the road were all overloaded.

The road itself is hard to traverse, and with overload the Dian-Mian Highway's risk grew even larger.

Sometimes, personal safety becomes unimportant in the face of national survival.

Stilwell pointed at a box of Canned Spam.

"Du, you mean all your units' supplies are with the st Division?" Stilwell asked.

Du Yuming nodded, "Yes, General, so we need a long time to ready this war; first we must stock two months of supplies before my Fifth Army can advance on Mandalay."

He paused, then said, "General, clearly I don't have that much supply on hand."

Stilwell's head swelled instantly; he could truly only act as a battalion commander, no more.

When he eagerly went to fetch a batch of weapons stored in a warehouse and went to Lashu to see Colonel Jiang, the other side instantly saw they were bottom‑drawer items, which caused displeasure.

Stilwell knew clearly that war is about besieging strongholds and fighting stubborn battles.

Especially after a stalemate, it's about continuously building forces, replenishing weapons and gear, then using superior manpower and firepower to overwhelm the enemy.

However, Stilwell seemed to have nothing—no troops, no supplies. All units are now resting; the two Expeditionary Force units at Yingpar have suffered huge losses and are far less combat‑effective than the main force in northern Myanmar.

The key is that they cannot replenish the lost personnel; they can't simply recruit local Indians, which is clearly impossible.

Regarding manpower, Colonel Jiang himself feels overwhelmed; he relies on the WarSystem, but the system's current manpower allocation is limited. Of course the allocation grows as fighting continues, yet if he needs to recruit soldiers on short notice, Colonel Jiang has no means.

Unless they recruit local Burmese.

"Du, give me a moment to cool down." Stilwell felt his head about to explode.

Du Yuming nodded and said, "Alright."

Du Yuming walked quickly; he didn't want to linger before Stilwell, mainly because their ideas clashed.

However, Du Yuming wasn't speaking nonsense; the two‑month supply estimate was low—during Myanmar's rainy season they need at least three months of provisions.

The crux is how to move these supplies forward, which also requires massive manpower.

In the rainy season the roads are treacherous, and the loss of supplies en route is incalculable.