Chapter 74 Eat his food and drink his food!
"A bunch of bastards, all idiots. They couldn't even hold a division for a few hours? Their commander should be shot." At the Allied Headquarters, Lieutenant General Stilwell looked at the telegram in front of him and roared angrily.

The Provisional 55th Division lost the Luoyikao line, resulting in the fall of Tangji.

It made him extremely angry.

In just three days, the situation had deteriorated to this extent, beyond anyone's expectations.

"Du, Luo, tell me, why can't a division hold out for even a few hours?" Lieutenant General Stilwell looked at Du Yuming and Luo Zhuoying in front of him and asked in a cold tone.

Ever since the anti-climax of the Battle of Tonggu, Stilwell had no good feelings towards the two of them.

If he hadn't considered that the expeditionary force was still needed to resist the Japanese attack, he would probably have kicked these two people out.

Even so, Stilwell did not treat the two men well.

Hearing this, Du Yuming and Luo Zhuoying looked at each other, with a hint of helplessness in their eyes.

This old guy Stilwell really doesn't understand China.

Does he think that any random division would be the same as the 200th Division?
More than 9,000 people can hold off a Japanese division for more than ten days?

There are only a few such troops in the whole of China.

As the name suggests, the Provisional 55th Division is a temporarily reorganized unit with all new personnel.

To put it bluntly, it is a cannon fodder unit.

Otherwise, they would not have been transferred to the rear to guard the supply lines and occasionally suppress the local natives.

They don’t believe that old guy Stilwell doesn’t understand the meaning of this?
To be honest, Stilwell really didn't understand. He thought that the 200 expeditionary forces should be capable troops like the th Division or the Sichuan Army Corps.

I would never have thought that there would be cannon fodder or something like that.

This is why he was angry.

Of course, he also automatically overlooked one point, that is, more than 10,000 British troops were scared away by more than 1,000 Japanese troops.

After all, compared with the British Army, the Expeditionary Force is still pretty good.

But they were too embarrassed to expose other people's scars in this kind of situation.

"General Stilwell, the Provisional 55th Division is a newly formed unit. It is undermanned, lacks weapons, and has low combat effectiveness. In addition, the Japanese army launched a surprise attack, so they lost their positions."

"From the perspective of the overall tactical deployment of the Provisional 55th Division, there was no problem. They relied on the terrain to resist step by step. But no one expected that the Japanese army would have a large number of trucks and tanks to quickly break through these defense lines." Du Yuming is not a good-tempered person, otherwise he would not have been neglected.

Naturally, he would not indulge Stilwell and directly implied that the Japanese army's trucks and tanks were provided by the British.

The British would rather throw it to the Japanese than share it with the Expeditionary Force. Is this what allies should do?
As the Allied commander, you cannot simply blame the expeditionary force.

After hearing this, Stilwell was a little embarrassed. He also knew what was going on with those trucks and tanks.

The British army evacuated in a hurry, leaving all the trucks, tanks and everything else to the Japanese army.

This was the reason why the Japanese army captured Tonggu City and reached Tangji in less than three days.

The British Army played an indispensable role in the rapid progress of the Japanese Army.

"Now we need to retake Tangji, otherwise the Japanese army will cut off Lashio and the Eastern Expeditionary Force will be completely destroyed." Stilwell took a deep breath and decided not to dwell on this issue any further.

"I need the 200th Division to turn to Tangji and retake Tangji as quickly as possible."

Upon hearing this, Du Yuming did not refute, because he knew that not taking Tangji would mean the loss of Lashio.

Once Lashio is lost, the entire Eastern Expeditionary Force will be destroyed, and he will be the biggest sinner.

Thinking of this, Du Yuming pondered for a while, then agreed with Stilwell's suggestion and sent a telegram to the 200th Division.

However, he also asked Stilwell to immediately replenish a batch of weapons and ammunition for the 200th Division.

Stilwell did not refuse this request.

After the other party left, Stilwell sneered and then asked where the Sichuan Army was.

"Near Tangji?"

Hearing this, Stilwell frowned, then looked at the map and pondered for a while.

"Send a telegram to Cun Yunsheng and tell him to lead his troops to Tangji Airport as soon as possible and find a way to hold on to the airport. I will send a transport plane to provide him with supplies."

Stilwell was still very concerned about the direct troops under his command.

Especially now that he has no soldiers at his disposal, the other side seems even more valuable.

More importantly, he always felt that something bad would happen next. Once Lashio was captured by the Japanese army, this Sichuan Army would probably be doomed.

Letting him rush to the airport means that if the worst happens, he can consider using transport planes to pick up the Sichuan Army.

It can be said that Stilwell worried a lot about this unit.

"Yes, sir," the adjutant responded immediately.

On the other side, the Sichuan Army, which had been in the jungle for most of the day, finally walked out of the endless primeval forest.

"I really want to set this damn forest on fire." If it weren't for the guide, it would probably take several days to get out.

Cun Yunsheng finally realized the despair of the 200th Division walking in the Wild Man Mountain. There were endless trees and no high-tech navigation to use. It was too difficult to rely solely on the stars in the sky to determine the direction.

At this time, everyone in the Sichuan Army was hungry, tired and hungry.

Cun Yunsheng in particular swore that once the situation stabilized, he would ask Stilwell for jeeps, trucks, and tanks and never walk again.

The Yunnan horses that we purchased earlier have almost all been slaughtered during the march in the past few days.

There is no other way. Dry food alone cannot replenish the huge amount of physical energy consumed.

Therefore, Cun Yunsheng asked Milong to slaughter the Dian horses to replenish the soldiers' physical strength.

Fortunately, the previous breakout consumed most of the ammunition, and the logistical pressure was greatly reduced.

Otherwise, if so many shells were carried, there would probably be even more non-combat casualties.

Even so, many soldiers fell ill.

Fortunately, he had the life-saving drug Penicillin, and with the supplement of horse meat, overall, the casualty rate of the soldiers was not very high.

More than 300 defeated soldiers were gathered on the way. In total, the Sichuan Army now had more than 2,500 people.

This does not include Sun Yunfei's volunteer team.

If they are included, the number would far exceed 3,000, plus Zenda's reinforcement battalion of more than 1,000 people.

Although it is called a regiment, it is actually stronger than an ordinary Type B division.

All these newly recruited defeated soldiers were organized into a supplementary battalion, with Cun Yunsheng as the battalion commander, but actually managed by Long Wenjian.

Since Cun Yunsheng didn't have many officers at his disposal, he had to make do with what he had.

Some artillery, signalmen, motor vehicle soldiers and the like were grouped together separately, given a simple training, and then incorporated into various battalions.

Cun Yunsheng treats these technical arms as his treasures.

They even completed the tank platoon's staffing, which made Zhao He, who had always wanted to be the tank platoon leader, very excited.

He pesters Cun Yunsheng every day, asking him when he can get a tank.

For this reason, Cun Yunsheng said that if we wait for a while, there will be tanks.

"Commander, the airport is ahead." Long Wenjian pointed to the airport in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief.

When the others heard that the airport was right in front of them, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that they could finally rest.

My originally tense nerves finally relaxed a lot.

The Sichuan Army, which was about to die just now, was now as energetic as if it had been injected with chicken blood.

"Pass on my order, speed up, spend the night at the airport, and let the British prepare delicious food and drinks for us." Cun Yunsheng said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes."

Morale suddenly rose, and some soldiers even started shouting.

The echoes of ghosts' cries and wolves' howling made the forest extremely terrifying.

The British soldiers guarding the main entrance of the airport road couldn't help but show fear on their faces when they heard the howling of ghosts and wolves coming from afar.

"Joe, did you hear anything?"

"Damn it, stop it, I heard it."

"It's not some devil, is it?"

"I heard from the natives that there are demons, wild beasts and other things in the forest at night."

"Shut up, I don't want to hear this."

"Wait, that sounds like a person shouting."

"Could it be that the Japanese army is attacking?"

"impossible."

The British troops stationed at the entrance did not understand the difference between Chinese and Japanese, and as it was getting dark, they could not see clearly what was in the distance.

But they could still hear the screams and howls of thousands of people.

In addition, Tangji had already been captured by the Japanese army, so it was natural to think that the Japanese army would attack the airport.

If it were them, they would definitely attack the airport.

In fact, the Japanese army did want to attack the airport.

But there are not enough troops.

The military's order was to advance quickly, capture Lashio, and cut off the expeditionary force's retreat route, thereby completing the strategic plan of annihilating the expeditionary force on the eastern front.

Therefore, in order to ensure that Lashio could be captured as soon as possible, the Japanese vanguard had to abandon the airport.

This is when the situation emerged: Tangji had failed, but the airport was still in the hands of the British army.

"The Japanese army is coming." Finally, the shouting was getting closer and closer, and a British soldier couldn't help but let out a roar of surprise.

Just like a virus, it spread everywhere, and more and more British troops were trembling with fear. In the blink of an eye, all the British troops in the fortifications ran away.

I never thought about defending anything.

Word spread quickly, and soon all the British troops at the airport knew about it.

"The Japanese are attacking?" Colonel Rogers, the highest commander of the airport, seemed very calm, as if he had already anticipated the arrival of the Japanese army.

"Yes." The subordinate nodded.

"Have people prepare flags and prepare to surrender." Colonel Rogers had no will to fight.

For him, coming to this godforsaken place was just to make money.

But it was not for those natives that we fought bravely against the enemy.

In other words, making money and gilding the lily were the common ideas of all British troops.

Fight to the end?
No, no!
That's unwise!

This is just a colony!

They have many more colonies like this one!

I don’t care if I lose one or two pieces!
Colonel Rogers' only request was that the Japanese army abide by the Geneva Convention and ensure that his private property was sacred and inviolable.

But he seemed to have overlooked one point, that is, the Japanese army did not sign the so-called "Geneva Convention".

Therefore, if he really wanted to surrender to the Japanese army, he would certainly lose his property.

After thinking it over, Colonel Rogers felt that surrendering was not an embarrassing thing.

"Order everyone to lay down their weapons and not to damage the airport facilities. We must leave the facilities intact to the enemy." Colonel Rogers felt that in order to avoid misunderstandings among the Japanese army, everyone must protect the airport facilities.

I believe that the Japanese army will treat him well after seeing what he has done.

"Let the soldiers who know how to play musical instruments form a military band, and let us go to welcome our enemies." After saying this, Colonel Rogers picked up his hat and walked out gracefully.

No matter what, surrender must be dignified and gentlemanly.

　I will update it first and revise it later, as there will be more to do later because I have to send my child to cram school.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)