Chapter 108 Before this, we were the only ones!

"Replenishment camp?" If Cun Yunsheng hadn't reminded him, Meng Fanle would have forgotten the existence of this replenishment camp.

The original intention of establishing this supplementary camp was to house disabled veterans, giving them something to do and at least ensuring that they would not starve to death.

On the other hand, the consideration was that if there were heavy casualties in the battle in Burma, they could quickly recover through the replenishment battalion.

Who knew that the development of things was beyond their imagination. The Sichuan Army won victory after victory and even became a unit directly under the Allied Command. Although it suffered heavy casualties, with more than 400 people in total.

However, after absorbing a large number of defeated soldiers and the wounded left behind by the Fifth Army, it can be said that as long as there is a period of rest and recuperation, the combat effectiveness of the Sichuan Army Corps will not only not be weakened, but will become even stronger.

So Meng got tired of it and forgot about the replenishment camp.

"Yes, you haven't forgotten the replenishment camp in Zenda, have you? I remember that when we set out, there were more than 500 people. After that month, the number could have doubled, right? I left several thousand dollars there." Cun Yunsheng looked at Meng Fanle and said.

"A thousand men have been added. The various infantry battalions have always been short of manpower. Now that we have a thousand men, plus the defeated soldiers and the wounded, it shouldn't be a problem to fill up the battalions."

Hearing this, Meng Fan secretly clicked his tongue.

"I'm afraid your fully staffed infantry battalion is the same as other people's infantry regiments."

"A standard infantry battalion in the U.S. military is similar to our infantry regiment, with more than 3,000 soldiers in a standard regiment."

"Our Sichuan Army Corps is designed to match the standard U.S. military regiment, but our Sichuan Army Corps now has a difficult mission and needs more personnel, so I decided to expand it by two more infantry battalions." Cun Yunsheng counted on his fingers and explained in detail to Fanla.

"Five standard US infantry battalions? Not including the artillery battalion that will be expanded soon? The tank battalion?"

"If you add in the engineering company, the guard company, the communications company, and the medical team, you won't be able to stop them with just 5,000 people."

"The commander of a Type B division is not as generous as you." Meng couldn't help rolling his eyes in annoyance.

Hearing this, Cun Yunsheng shook his head and said.

"Have you heard of the Synthetic Heavy Armored Brigade?"

"What?" Meng Fanle always felt that the words his own commander blurted out from time to time made him very confused and he couldn't understand them at all.

"It is the various arms such as infantry, armored troops, artillery, etc., which form an integrated and three-dimensional combat system." Although Cun Yunsheng said it very simply, it was still too profound for Meng Fanle.

He was originally a lieutenant deputy company commander, how could he know so much?

"Forget it, you don't understand. You will understand it in the future. What we need to do now is to reorganize and let our infantry learn the coordination between infantry and tanks, infantry and artillery, and even coordinated operations between land and air." Cun Yunsheng felt that this theory was too profound and there was too much to say, so they probably didn't understand it at all.

So what he had to do was to slowly transform the Sichuan Army according to his ideas.

"There is one more thing. You are wrong. From now on it will not be a communications company, but a communications battalion, and you will be promoted to battalion commander." Cun Yunsheng looked at Meng Fanle, patted his shoulder, and said with a smile.

"There are also engineering battalions and so on, which all need to be expanded."

Hearing this, Meng Fanle couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Communications camp?
Engineer Battalion?
Is there still a guard battalion?

It seems that by then everyone in the Sichuan Army will be a battalion commander.

"Commander, do we need to expand the medical team as well? With the size of your army, I'm afraid you'll need a field hospital." Meng Fanle said sarcastically.

"Yes, you are right. We do need a field hospital, and the volunteer team also needs to be expanded. There are only a few hundred people, which is too few." Cun Yunsheng seemed to have not heard the other party's sarcasm at all. Instead, he thought that what Meng Fanle said made sense.

"Come on, do you think Stilwell will agree? Will the Allied Command agree?" Meng Fanle once again put forward his opinion.

"Don't worry, Stilwell would like us to have more troops and he would like to control more troops. This time, in addition to us, there is also the newly formed 38th Division that needs to be reorganized. If nothing unexpected happens, the division should be changed into an army, and Sun Liren will become a lieutenant general." Cun Yunsheng said calmly.

"Hiss, you became a corps commander so soon? Will those people in Shancheng agree? Strictly speaking, the newly formed 38th Division has left the army without permission and will be held accountable." Meng Fanle said hesitantly.

After all, the contributions made by the newly formed 38th Division were not that great, and it also violated Du Yuming's orders. Would Shancheng agree to it?
"Why not? As long as Stilwick is willing to pay a certain price, those people in the mountain city will swallow their anger."

"However, it's not that easy for them to expand." Cun Yunsheng said with a chuckle.

"What do you mean?" Meng Fan asked in confusion.

"We took advantage of Myitkyina and gathered a lot of defeated soldiers along the way. We also provided the Fifth Army with a large amount of supplies and gained their favor, which allowed us to expand so quickly," Cun Yunsheng explained.

"The newly formed 38th Division is not so lucky. If they want to expand, they can't just recruit those natives, right?"

"I'm afraid that on the battlefield, the first ones to turn against us will be these natives."

"So their expansion plan cannot be completed?" Meng Fanle looked at the other party and asked curiously.

"It can definitely be done, but it will be very slow. Now that the China-Myanmar Highway has been cut off, supplies can't be transported in at all, so we can only rely on the Hump Route."

"So if the newly formed 38th Division wants to expand, it can only rely on the Hump Route to transport soldiers."

"But if we transport them that way, the efficiency is too slow. We can only transport a few hundred people at a time."

"With just a few hundred people, Stilwell has to exchange weapons and equipment for them. Otherwise, don't even think about expanding." Cun Yunsheng's words made Meng Fan silent for a long time. He didn't expect that there would be so many twists and turns here.

"So in the next one or two years, we will be Stilwell's biggest support. He wishes we had tens of thousands of people now, so you don't have to worry about Stilwell having other ideas because there are too many of us."

"Yes, I understand." Meng Fanle responded quickly. On the other side, the news that the Sichuan Army occupied Myitkyina and successfully prevented the Japanese attack reached Zenda.

Director Wang of the shelter looked at the newspaper in his hand and couldn't help but be surprised.

Originally, he had almost forgotten the existence of the Sichuan Army. After all, there had been no contact for so long, and he thought the Sichuan Army had long disappeared.

After all, what use is a cannon fodder group of two thousand people?

The only pity is the remaining supplementary battalion.

Originally there were still several thousand dollars, but during this period the front line suffered a disastrous defeat and there were many more deserters in the shelter.

Zenda had previously consumed most of its food reserves because the Sichuan Army went on an expedition. Now it was a time of famine and every family had little food, so the defeated soldiers had to survive entirely on banana leaves.

There was basically no meat or fish to be seen, so some defeated soldiers ran to the supply camp in order to survive.

According to the order left by Cun Yunsheng at that time, the supplementary battalion was expanded to one thousand people.

Therefore, the supplementary battalion commander Xing Jiuhong selected some people from the defeated soldiers.

The result was out of control. The current replenishment battalion has more than 1,500 people and is still increasing.

The situation we are facing now is that the ocean is about to disappear.

Although the food in the replenishment camp cannot be compared with the previous one, it is much better than that of these defeated soldiers who only eat grass.

At least one dry meal a day, and some meaty food during the week.

But it could not withstand the increasing number of defeated soldiers and the ever-increasing prices.

"I didn't expect that only half of the 100,000 expeditionary forces returned, and even a general was killed in the battle." Stationmaster Wang couldn't help but sigh after reading the newspaper.

"Old Xing, how long can your replenishment camp last?"

If it were before, he would not have asked at all, because now the Sichuan Army has become rich and it is said that they have the support of the Americans behind them, with endless food and endless bullets.

As a result, the strength of the supplementary battalion has also increased, and recently more and more defeated soldiers want to join the supplementary battalion.

Even the gentry in the city sent chickens, ducks, geese and other things as a token of their goodwill.

"We can still hold on for seven days, but I just received a telegram from the regiment commander asking me to lead the replenishment battalion to Myitkyina. I came to you today to say goodbye to you. No matter what, I still have to trouble Stationmaster Wang during this period of time." Xing Jiuhong shook his head, and then said that he came to say goodbye.

Now it was Stationmaster Wang's turn to be confused. Are they leaving now?
He now regrets that he didn't build a good relationship with the other party in the past few months.

"How about staying a few more days? They say another group of defeated soldiers are about to arrive. Can we recruit some more then?" Stationmaster Wang said hurriedly.

There are too many deserters, and if anything happens, he will be held responsible.

Especially now that there is a shortage of food, Zenda is unable to provide food, and the paper money issued by the superiors is not enough for the soldiers to eat, so he can only let them get banana leaves to make do.

If the supplementary battalion could take away a part of it, he would be much more relaxed, and he could even secretly embezzle a lot of the funds.

"We still have to recruit soldiers. This is what our regiment commander asked me to pass on to you." Originally, Xing Jiuhong didn't want to pay attention to this guy, but the telegram named him and asked him to give the other telegram to Stationmaster Wang.

When Stationmaster Wang heard that it was a telegram from Cun Yunsheng, his eyes suddenly lit up. He quickly took the telegram and started reading it.

The more I read, the more frightened I became.

Not really a big deal.

The purpose was to allow him to send more defeated soldiers to the Sichuan Army.

After all, his position as the director of a shelter for defeated soldiers makes it very convenient for him to do this.

Cun Yunsheng even said that in order to prevent him from suffering a loss, he would give three dollars to a defeated soldier, and if he encountered any technical soldiers, he would give more.

What frightened him was that this guy had such a big appetite.

Even if some people were lost in the battle in Burma, now the replacement battalion is sent across the river with 1,500 people, which means two to three thousand people. Which regiment has so many people?
Isn’t this nonsense?

But Cun Yunsheng really gave too much, only three dollars for each soldier, and if it was a technical soldier, he would get more.

When I thought about the huge expenses of supporting so many people, I gritted my teeth and decided to do it.

"Okay, I got it. Tell Commander Cun for me that I will definitely do what he tells me to do." People die for money and birds die for food. There is not much profit in the shelter. Apart from withholding the food of the defeated soldiers, there is no other way to make money.

Now that such a good opportunity is in front of him, he will definitely not give it up.

As long as he can do a few jobs, he will have money. At worst, he can spend some money to transfer himself away.

"Okay, I'll tell the commander." Xing Jiuhong nodded, and then went back to reorganize the replenishment battalion. He wanted to bring these thousand people to Myitkyina safely.

Moreover, many soldiers were very excited when they learned that they would cross the river to Myitkyina.

They have heard that the Sichuan Army Corps is now directly under the Allied Command, and its food and weapons and equipment are all top-notch.

　Update first and then modify! Sorry for the delay! I need to figure out today's plot!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)