Chapter 70: The Empty Lashu

Hu Xianqun, holding two boxed meals, walked over to Jiang Anguo's side.

"Brother, I have to say the food here is really not bad; I'm shamelessly coming to your camp for a meal." Hu Xianqun's easygoing manner didn't look like shamelessness at all.

Hu Xianqun, Regiment Commander of the Expeditionary Force's th Division Armored Regiment, a graduate of the sixth class of the Central Military Academy, studied abroad in the United Kingdom after graduation.

"You're joking, brother; it's not like I'm also helping dig trenches," Jiang Anguo said jokingly.

Jiang Anguo is a Colonel, and Hu Xianqun is a Colonel; in fact they are senior and junior, but neither belongs to the other's unit, so they address each other as brothers, Hu Xianqun.

Hu Xianqun sighed and said, "A perfectly good Tank Regiment, yet now fewer than three tanks are operational."

Hu Xianqun longs to display his prowess on the Myanmar battlefield, but in reality they have no supplies and no means; now the entire Tank Regiment is trying to repair tanks, hoping to get a few moving.

Earlier, the tanks Dai Anlan brought to the front were cobbled together, repaired for many days before entering battle, and fortunately they were transported by train; had they driven the tanks over, those machines likely wouldn't have held up.

"Red-braised pork is good, right?" Jiang Anguo picked up a piece of red-braised pork; today it was radish‑cooked red-braised pork.

The soldiers ate with oil dripping from their mouths; the duty soldiers' stomachs growled from the aroma, yet they still stood there on patrol, hoping for a quick change of post.

"Brother, this food really is this," Hu Xianqun gave a thumbs‑up.

Hu Xianqun piled a large bowl for himself, plus a big bowl of white rice; a bite of meat, a bite of rice—truly something even immortals wouldn't trade away.

Moreover, they could eat fresh meat, vegetables, and even have canned food.

Expeditionary Force soldiers indeed are not lacking food, especially those stationed at Lashu, but everyone has regulations; even Hu Xianqun, as a Colonel regiment commander, is subject to them.

The rear is truly difficult; all supplies must be shipped to the front.

These days, Hu Xianqun has been working closely with Jiang Anguo's Supplement Battalion; Hu Xianqun's Tank Regiment has exerted physical effort to help Jiang Anguo's troops build fortifications.

Hu Xianqun also doesn't understand why fortifications are being built at Lashu; his information is delayed, and he may still think the Expeditionary Force is in the Tonggu era.

In fact, the Expeditionary Force is about to retreat to Mandalay; of course, Jiang Anguo doesn't know the news, but his guess is similar.

Don't be fooled by the large scale of the Myanmar War; in reality, from start to finish it lasted less than two months.

Of course, from preparation to the final great withdrawal took about five or six months.

Jiang Anguo merely told Hu Xianqun to be prepared for any mishap, so that if the Japanese launch a surprise attack on Lashu, they have a plan.

It's truly empty; Lashu is vacant, and the Expeditionary Force's rear has no troops to defend it.

Perhaps the deployment by Lin Wei, commander of the Eastern Front, also shows it; it's really not great, having formed a Single Line Long Snake Formation on the Thailand‑Myanmar border.

The Japanese like to break through a point and then pour in heavy troops.

When that happens, once the breakthrough occurs, the Senary Army's units won't have time to return to defense, and the combat effectiveness of the forces remains worrisome.

Indeed, Jiang Anguo finally realized that although the Expeditionary Force is commanded by Du Lvming, the operational area is too vast. This is why Lin Wei's Staff Corps remains at Lashu instead of the front line in Mandalay.

In fact, he is commanding the Eastern Front's Senary Army, as well as the th Army behind.

This left Jiang Anguo quite helpless; the Expeditionary Force's original commander was Wei Lihuang, but Wei Lihuang never arrived, so Du Lvming acted as commander, and Lin Wei and others also joined the headquarters.

And now the commander has become Luo Zhuoying, a last‑minute change of command, which is a military taboo.

The Chairman's intention was to let Du Lvming and Stilwell coexist peacefully, so he made Luo Zhuoying the intermediary; however, he gave Luo Zhuoying too much authority, resulting in every order now appearing in duplicate.

The troops below don't know whose orders to follow, and some don't even realize their superiors have changed.

Jiang Anguo learned from Hu Xianqun that Luo Zhuoying plans to move the New 28th Division to Mandalay, and the New 29th Division, whose location is still unknown, is also being prepared for transfer to Mandalay.

"Madman, does Luo Zhuoying not realize Lashu is the Expeditionary Force's rear? If Lashu falls, that'll be trouble." Upon hearing this, Jiang Anguo was so angry he wanted to scold him.

"Brother, quiet, Commander Luo is the Expeditionary Force's superior," Hu Xianqun grabbed Jiang Anguo.

Fortunately, at that moment no one else was around, only the soldiers of Jiang Anguo's Guard Company.

Jiang Anguo had already guessed that Luo Zhuoying was still planning the Mandalay Battle with Stilwell, and wondered if he didn't know how dangerous the situation had become.

Is Mandalay really that important? Perhaps Jiang Anguo wasn't positioned there.

He is only thinking about preserving the Expeditionary Force, while Luo Zhuoying is still concerned with the rear supply line; once Mandalay is captured, China's resistance would truly become difficult.

The Expeditionary Force Headquarters now knows that the Japanese Army has deployed three divisions in Myanmar, numbered the 33rd Division, the 56th Division, and the 55th Division.

Jiang Anguo truly doesn't understand; the three Japanese divisions total over 60,000 troops, yet Luo Zhuoying still talks about annihilating the Japanese, despite having no armored support and no air support.

How can the Expeditionary Force's flesh‑and‑blood bodies win this war?

Moreover, intelligence work is lacking; British lies are endless, causing the Expeditionary Force's strongest th Division to shuttle back and forth between the east and west fronts.

One could say the th Division fought from the moment it entered Myanmar until the end of the Myanmar Campaign, fighting from start to finish.

After two months of continuous combat, personnel received no rest nor reinforcements; casualties were severe, and even though the fighting spirit remained stubborn—like the battle at Tonggu—the th Division was essentially rendered useless.

The combat losses were huge; after withdrawing from Tonggu, the th Division kept fighting, continuously losing personnel and receiving only scant ammunition resupply.

If it were another unit, such losses would make sustained combat impossible.

With this command structure, foreign orders may be ignored, but the problem is that even so, every major matter still requires approval from Chongqing, and the radio's back‑and‑forth speed is not that fast.

Even though the Myanmar Campaign is of utmost importance, Chongqing receives so many messages each day that…

"Brother, which direction shall we dig trenches this afternoon? I've got a hundred‑plus jin of meat for you to use as you wish." Sated, Hu Xianqun was also very satisfied.

Hu Xianqun brought the entire Armored Corps along.

Jiang Anguo nodded; the trench‑digging tasks were all assigned to Engineer Company commander Liu Sheng, as were the arrangements of Machine Gun Positions and mortar positions.

Mainly, Jiang Anguo didn't fully understand; many of the trees shading the mountain had been cut down, some directly used to construct fortifications, inserting timber into both sides of the trench so that even artillery shells wouldn't cause collapse.

Often, an unreliable position would have the trench collapse from a single shell.