Chapter 79: Railway Line

Jiang Anguo looked at Huang Ping; he was not only a hunter, but also a Sniper.

From their position to the water barrel was at least five hundred meters, and Huang Ping took only three seconds to adjust before firing.

The oil barrel was indeed a bit larger, but this was five hundred meters, and there was no scope.

He is a born Sniper.

"Huang Ping, do you want to fight the Japanese Devil?" Jiang Anguo asked.

Huang Ping nodded, "I do. My home was destroyed by the Japanese Devil, and many relatives died under the Japanese Devil's guns."

Huang Ping had witnessed Japanese cruelty, and because he spent years hunting and had a strong body, he could carry his mother on his back, with a knife and a bow, and travel such a long distance.

"Alright, this rifle is yours. From now on, you are also a member of my Expeditionary Force th Division."

Jiang Anguo saw the worry in Huang Ping's eyes and immediately reassured, "Don't worry, your mother is staying at the camp; once she recovers, she can help in the cooking Squad, it's fine."

"Thank you, Commander," Huang Ping said.

Jiang Anguo nodded, then said, "Alright, later go to the quartermaster to collect two sets of uniforms and change into them."

Looking at Huang Ping's tattered clothes, he was also a poor person; in Lashu he had no house, living instead inside a temple, and Burmese temples truly number several per village.

"Commander, when I was hunting east of Lashu, I encountered a few strange Burmese people; they didn't seem to be hunting, more like scouting," Huang Ping, about to follow Xiao Si, recalled something and said to Jiang Anguo.

"Very good, credit you with a merit, Xiao Si, later give Huang Ping a Canned Beef," Jiang Anguo said, seeming that the Japanese were about to move on Lashu.

As for the exact timing, Jiang Anguo truly didn't know; he kept Lin Yi watching the radio, and whenever useful information came, it would be reported to him immediately.

Jiang Anguo exchanged the remaining points from killing spies for food and fruit, a total of over thirty thousand jin of provisions, enough to last many days.

The perishable items were dealt with first, of course, and many of these are canned goods.

Canned food is the dinner each night.

Jiang Anguo had Xiao Si send that fawn over to She Pigu for processing; this matter, if you ask Jiang Anguo to handle it, he isn't very adept either.

From Chen Xiao came another bad news: the two regiments of the newly arrived 28th Division at Lashu were moved out before they even got comfortable, apparently heading toward Mandalay.

Chen Xiao, Company Commander of the Reconnaissance Company of Jiang Anguo's Independent Battalion.

Jiang Anguo nodded; Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying really knew how to employ troops. He didn't think Du Lvming had such limited vision; otherwise they wouldn't have fought the Kunlun Pass campaign.

His own rear route, didn't he know?

Jiang Anguo roughly understood why several leaders of the Expeditionary Force were eager for the Mandalay Battle: not only could Lashu retreat to Yunnan, but actually the rear of Mandalay—Myitkyina and Bamo—could also fall back to Yunnan.

The key is Myitkyina, and the railway from Mandalay to Myitkyina.

"Indeed, the map reveals some things," Jiang Anguo said, noting that the map had already been repaired by Lin Yi.

The railway from Mandalay to Myitkyina does allow a retreat, but the force to withdraw would be the Expeditionary Force's main body—at least forty to fifty thousand troops—plus later‑joining units; in reality the number of troops in Mandalay would exceed sixty thousand.

Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying were surprisingly confident.

Lashu's defenses were so weak that, to Jiang Anguo, an outsider, they seemed hopeless; a single Japanese Army battalion could capture Lashu.

So far Lashu has only a few battalions defending it; the strongest might be Hu Xianqun's tank regiment, but the regiment lacks much weaponry.

Indeed, there are hardly any rifles; mainly the tanks are broken and unusable.

Perhaps Luo Zhuoying and Lin Wei never considered how bold the Japanese were in cutting off the Expeditionary Force's rear—daring a division's strength to push deep into Lashu, then march north, seize Bamo and Myitkyina, and successfully advance into the interior of Western Yunnan.

The Expeditionary Force didn't anticipate, and perhaps the Japanese didn't either, that the Little Devil's 15th Army's set objective was to push to the Mandalay line; since the Expeditionary Force had three retreat routes, what no one expected was that Watanabe Masao, a gambler, led a division‑sized force to seize all of the Expeditionary Force's rear routes.

Jiang Anguo stroked his chin, pondering.

"Commander."

"Oh, it's Zhang Bing. Is there something?" Jiang Anguo asked.

Zhang Bing, Company Commander of the Tank Company.

"Commander, these are the supplies needed by the tank regiment; please review," Zhang Bing said, having already taken people to the tank regiment and listed the required items in a table.

Jiang Anguo glanced, nodded, "Understood, later you can go to the Logistics Department to collect them."

The Logistics Department is actually the Transport Company; its Company Commander is Yang Qi, who is also a System Exchange Company Commander.

Since the Transport Company was staffed with his own men, the items Jiang Anguo exchanged have become much more convenient; soldiers within the system have no doubts about these exchanged items.

Of the thirty Soviet T26B Tanks, after Zhang Bing's inspection, about twenty‑six should be operational; that number is substantial enough to form a Tank Battalion.

As long as the Japanese have no fighter or bomber presence, the firepower of those twenty‑plus tanks would be enormous.

Kang Ya returned with the Transport Company personnel, and this time they brought back 1,123 wounded soldiers; one can imagine how rapidly the front line suffered casualties.

According to Jiang Anguo, the Expeditionary Force numbered 110,000, with combat losses of just over ten thousand, while non‑combat casualties exceeded fifty thousand—a terrifying figure.

And these people remain forever in the Myanmar jungle.

Facing so many wounded, the original Medical Team was already insufficient, with only twelve Doctors and a hundred health workers, clearly unable to meet the current demand.

"System, exchange me ten Doctors and fifty health workers."

A Doctor costs 50 points each, whereas in the first‑level system they cost 100 points, and a health worker costs 10 points.

It's not that Jiang Anguo is stingy; the influx was simply too great, but once all the wounded are treated, Jiang Anguo's unit won't need so many Doctors, and the surplus will have nothing to do.

Everything must still be based on the actual situation.

"Alright, Host, the exchange is complete. Where shall we deploy them?" the System said.

"System, just appear inside my tent; don't materialize too many at once—ten will do," all materialized out of thin air in Jiang Anguo's tent, which was too small to accommodate them.

Soon, sixty medical personnel materialized from Jiang Anguo's tent and went to work.

Gunshot wounds, as long as they're not severe, can be surgically treated fairly quickly; if organs are damaged, however, it becomes troublesome.