Chapter 208 If you want to be rich, build roads first! (First update!)

It’s no wonder that Stilwell had such thoughts; this telegram was simply too shocking.

A task force was lost and a lieutenant general was killed.

No one would believe this if I told them.

If you tell others that there is no conspiracy, he will never believe it even if you kill him.

But after listening to Admiral Wavell's nagging, Stilwell fell silent.

Because only five people knew that the British army was going to send reinforcements, and even he didn't know.

Stilwell didn't expect that this guy would hide such a deep secret.

No wonder I made such a bold statement to him last time and told him not to regret it.

I was originally wondering what he would regret.

It now seems that if the plan succeeds, the situation of the Japanese army will become extremely difficult.

I'm afraid he was the one who regretted it at that time.

But now, the one who should regret it should be Admiral Wavell.

If he could put aside his pride and be polite to him at that time, he probably would not have recalled the New 1st Army so quickly.

"I'm very sorry, Admiral Wavell. I'm now the Chief of Staff of the Southeast Asia Theater, not the commander of the South Asia Theater. I feel a little sorry for what happened to you." Stilwell thought about it and rejected Admiral Wavell's proposal. At present, the New First Army occupied Mandalay, and there was no need to withdraw the troops.

What a joke! The situation in Southeast Asia is very good now. If you send troops to help the British army, isn't that crazy?
There was no way he would agree to this condition.

Who knows, Admiral Wavell shook his head.

"General Stilwell, our mission now is to defeat the Japanese, not those distant territories."

Hearing this, Stilwell was confused.

Is this something Admiral Wavell could say?

If he remembered correctly.

Not long ago, I should have said it myself.

At that time, he tried hard to persuade the British army to put aside their prejudices and defeat the Japanese army first.

The results of it?
This guy was obsessed with making the British and Burmese troops retreat.

In just a few months, a large number of colonies were lost.

And I don't feel sorry at all.

He was even asked to transport supplies to El Alamein.

What now?
I'm asking him for help again.

Things really are changing.

Who will God forgive?

"Admiral Wavell, we will definitely win this war. Now as long as we defeat the Japanese army in Southeast Asia, we can transfer more troops to India to support the British army, so please hold on for a while longer." Stilwell's words directly silenced Admiral Wavell.

He didn't expect that this old man would be so vindictive.

"General Stilwell, I must remind you that you must order the Sichuan Army to stop the attack. Borneo is a colony of the British Empire, and those yellow monkeys must not be allowed to occupy it..." Since Stilwell could not be persuaded, Admiral Wavell naturally had to make some harsh remarks.

Although it was temporarily occupied by the Japanese army, Admiral Wavell believed that as long as the Japanese army was defeated, it could be recaptured. But if it was occupied by the Sichuan Army, I am afraid that the US military would not hand it over to them at that time.

Because he has already seen that the US military now has the idea of ​​weakening them.

Hearing this, Stilwell sneered in his heart.

This old fellow Wavell is totally confused.

Don’t they know that if the British army doesn’t deal with the Japanese army now, they will completely lose India.

In view of the heavy losses suffered by the British army, Stilwell was too lazy to bother with this guy.

"Admiral Wavell, as for what to do with these colonies, we will have to wait until the end of the war to find out. Our most important task right now is to deal with the Japanese army." Stilwell advised again.

He suddenly realized that old guy Wavell was really a little crazy.

"No, our bottom line is Siam. After we take over Siam, they must stop and are not allowed to enter Borneo." Admiral Wavell's words were very harsh.

"That is our colony. Even if we want to take it back, it should be our British Empire that takes it back. It is not the turn of others to interfere."

"General Stilwell, this is my warning to you."

Hearing this, Stilwell's face turned extremely ugly. He knew that being the chief of staff of the Southeast Asia theater was not an easy job.

"Admiral Wavell, I am the Chief of Staff of the Southeast Asia Theater. I have the right to decide anything in Southeast Asia. This is a right granted by the Allied Headquarters. You are only the Governor-General of India. What you need to do is to drive away the Japanese troops in India, not to instruct me on what to do."

"Asshole...I will sue you..." Admiral Wavell said angrily.

"You're welcome anytime." Stilwell ignored him and hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, the adjutant next to him said with some concern.

"General Stilwell, the Japanese offensive is too fierce. Will it affect the war situation in Southeast Asia?"

Who knew that Stilwell was not worried at all.

"Don't worry, it won't affect anything at all. It may even speed up the war in Southeast Asia."

"The White House has received intelligence that MacArthur is preparing to launch the Guadalcanal Campaign, so we must speed up and not fall too far behind."

Stilwell and MacArthur had never gotten along well, and he had already given up hope.

But he didn't expect that the Sichuan Army gave him hope, making the current war situation in Southeast Asia extremely smooth.

Speaking of which, the Sichuan Army is indeed his lucky star.

However, he understood clearly that he could support the Sichuan Army appropriately, but he must never indulge them.

Otherwise it will be easy to follow behind.

By then, it would be like raising a tiger to cause harm.

Even if the Sichuan Army behaved very submissively, it would be useless.

Thinking of this, Stilwell spoke.

"Send this telegram to the Sichuan Army Corps and tell them to speed up the attack on Siam. We don't have that much time to continue wasting time," Stilwell ordered.

"Yes, but the Sichuan Army sent a telegram asking if we can provide support with a batch of weapons and equipment, especially tanks." asked the adjutant.

Hearing this, Stilwell frowned slightly and tapped the table with his fingers.

"Didn't we just provide a batch of weapons? Why do you need more weapons?"

Hearing Stilwell's dissatisfaction, the adjutant hurriedly explained.

"They said that in the battle with the French army, they found that tanks could advance quickly and were very useful, so they hoped to have more tanks."

"Then allocate them another twenty. This is the final bottom line." Stilwell thought about it and decided to allocate another twenty M4 tanks.

Including the previous ones, there are seventy tanks in total, enough to equip a tank division.

It was mainly because of Wavell's words that made him extremely annoyed.

I originally wanted to save some face for the British army, but now it seems completely unnecessary.

Full speed ahead!
Take over Southeast Asia as quickly as possible.

He wanted to compete with MacArthur to see who could make the Japanese surrender first.

Not long after, Cun Yunsheng received a telegram from Stilwell.

After reading it, he sneered and said.

"The British are still as arrogant as ever. Deep down, they look down on us no matter what."

"What should we do?" Meng Fan asked in confusion. "Don't worry about it. The tens of thousands of Japanese troops are enough to give the British army a headache. When the Japanese army discovers the huge wealth and resources of India, they will probably not care about these poor people in Southeast Asia."

"It is even possible to transfer troops from the Chinese battlefield to Tianzhu." Cun Yunsheng sneered.

"It is better to be friendly to foreign countries than to be a enemy within the family." Meng Fanle suddenly said this, which made Cun Yunsheng agree with him.

"You're right. To the British army, we are thieves. They would rather let the Japanese occupy the place and continue to plunder the wealth than let us continue to attack."

"Fortunately, Stilwell has now awakened and knows how to fulfill his responsibilities."

"What should we do now?" Meng asked in annoyance.

"Tell Zhang Lixian to continue the attack and keep the high pressure on the French army. Don't let the French army relax. Hasn't Zhao He's tank regiment been formed? Let him lead the tank regiment to support Li Ula, find a way to capture Chiang Mai Province, and then deploy troops in the Bangkok area to make the Thai army panic." Cun Yunsheng said.

"Are you going to take action against those navy officers?" Meng Fanle immediately understood what Cun Yunsheng meant.

"Well, that's about right. Stilwell has become wary of us, so we have to speed up." Cun Yunsheng nodded.

In fact, he didn't want to, but there was no other way but to speed up.

"But before that, we need to solve the problem of the highway first. The highway leading to northern Myanmar is so bad that many things cannot be transported in in time. Let Duan Liguo take people to repair the road. He is very good at this." Cun Yunsheng thought for a while and said.

"Yes."

…………

"Everyone, take a break for half an hour and have some mung bean soup." On a road somewhere in northern Myanmar, a dark-skinned man shouted loudly.

Everyone tried hard to open their eyes blurred by sweat.

It was another hot day, and it rained in the morning, making it a little cooler.

Before noon, the sun came out and it was as hot as a steamer outside again. The construction site was more like a furnace.

The weather in June is no different from a furnace, it can be said to be extremely hot.

Faced with such high temperatures, the hungry people who had just arrived were still a little uncomfortable.

Fortunately, as time went by, they gradually got used to this damn weather.

Since Duan Liguo came to the Sichuan Army Corps, he had experience in the construction of the China-Burma Highway.

So he was assigned by Cun Yunsheng to build the road.

Apart from the railways connecting various cities in northern Myanmar, the rest are mountain roads.

There are no decent roads at all.

It greatly affects the logistics transportation of the troops.

So after meeting with Milong, Cun Yunsheng decided to form a construction battalion specifically for building roads.

The purpose is to improve infrastructure and speed up logistics supply.

However, road construction is very labor-intensive, and casualties occur every day.

Even though Duan Liguo thought of many ways, it was difficult to improve the situation.

There is no way. Even if the labor intensity is reduced, accidents will always happen.

In fact, for these hungry people, having enough food to eat is enough.

As for accidents, not many people care.

After all, it is not easy to have enough food these days.

At this time, Wang Tieniu wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve and looked into the distance. The hill in the distance was still far away from them.

There are many mountains here, so road construction is very difficult.

But it can’t be repaired!

“Iced green bean soup is here!”

Old Li, who was in charge of logistics, had a loud voice and everyone gathered around him after he shouted.

"Is it really iced? Where does the ice come from in such a hot day?" someone asked in surprise.

someone teased.

"Don't you know that the landlord has an ice cellar?"

"Oh, those are the soldiers stored for the winter? The Sichuan Army is really generous. They give us such luxurious things." Someone said enviously.

"Okay, you just fool them and they don't know anything." Old Li, who is in charge of logistics, shook his head and said.

“We make all this ice ourselves.”

"Can we still build soldiers?"

"How can we make ice ourselves in such a hot day?" Many people looked at each other and asked.

"Saltpeter!" Old Li laughed and gave the answer.

This thing is not some advanced technology. As long as you are willing to use saltpeter, you can make a lot of ice in the hot summer. As for whether there will be any side effects.

unimportant!
It's such a hot day and we still have to do such heavy work.

Without ice water, it is easy to die of heat.

Faced with side effects and death from heat stroke, I'm afraid no one would care about the side effects.

"Tie Niu, it's your turn to be on guard." At this time, the platoon leader who was in charge of guarding this area shouted loudly.

"Yes, platoon leader." Wang Tieniu responded immediately.

The management system of the construction battalion is based on that of the main force.

Wang Tieniu, who took over the guard post, climbed up a small earthen slope, looked up, and looked at the hill in the distance again, but unexpectedly found a team in the distance.

"Something's happening!" Wang Tieniu shouted.

The workers who heard the shouts immediately dispersed, looking for their respective teams and seizing advantageous formations, while the combat team responsible for safety quickly rushed to the front with weapons at hand.

"What's going on?" Platoon Leader Song asked in confusion when he came in front of Wang Tieniu.

"There is a team approaching ahead, but we can't tell whether they are friend or foe." Wang Tieniu pointed in the distance and reported quickly.

Because of his good eyesight, he was assigned to be on guard, and it came in handy this time.

Hearing this, Platoon Leader Song quickly rushed up the small mound, raised the telescope hanging around his neck and looked in the direction he pointed.

"Don't panic, it might be one of our own. Level three alert." Although Platoon Leader Song could roughly see through the telescope that the person in the distance seemed to be one of his own, he still gave the order to alert.

"Yes!"

There was no way. This was a jungle. Sometimes wild beasts would come out, and sometimes some natives would attack them.

Anyway, things happen from time to time.

So in order to ensure the safety of these workers.

Duan Liguo suggested that a special guard force be set up in the construction camp.

The purpose is to protect the safety of these workers.

Because he had experience in building the China-Myanmar Highway, Cun Yunsheng accepted all the suggestions put forward by Duan Liguo.

"They might be from the labor camp." Platoon Leader Song raised the telescope again and observed the team coming from a distance. He found that they did not look like natives. Then he remembered something and spoke.

"Labor camp?" Wang Tieniu asked curiously.

"They are some captured prisoners, who might be Siamese natives or some other natives. They are specially used to build roads to reduce the casualties of the laborers." Platoon Leader Song said.

"The higher-ups felt that our construction speed was too slow, so they sent a group of prisoners to build the road, with the goal of increasing the speed."

(End of this chapter)