Chapter 89 Tell them to pack up and get out!
"Gold mine? You are so bold, Commander." Meng curled his lips in annoyance, thinking that his commander must have lost his mind. Gold mine?

"I guess it should be the armory. The British are really rich. We picked up so many weapons at the train station earlier, enough to equip two regiments."

Cun Yunsheng was too lazy to pay attention to Meng Fanle's words and just replied.

"Didn't you notice that the train station has all kinds of supplies except gold, silver and jade?"

"The British have been occupying Myanmar for hundreds of years. I don't believe they don't have any of these things."

Hearing this, Meng Fan was stunned for a moment, then he thought, that’s right.

Why are there no gold, silver and jade articles?
"Could it be that the English took them all away when they fled?"

"The Japanese army launched a surprise attack and captured Tangji. The British were so hasty and only cared about escaping for their lives that they had no time to care about gold, silver and jade." Cun Yunsheng said confidently.

It's no wonder he is so confident. After capturing Tangji, they have all kinds of supplies except gold, silver, jade and the like.

He even suspected at the time that the British army had already planned to retreat and had transferred all the money in advance.

Now that he heard the news, he felt that it was most likely a treasure base.

After all, there was no time to move so many things away in such a hurry, so the collected gold, silver and jade were hidden in advance.

"Okay, I'll take Long Wenjian and the guard company to take a look. You command the troops to pass through this town quickly. If anything goes wrong, open fire immediately. Tell Dong Dao to stay alert at all times. Japanese troops may appear from all directions now." Cun Yunsheng made some simple arrangements, then took the guard company and Long Wenjian to follow the natives towards the so-called cave.

"Commander, there won't be any problem, right?" Long Wenjian said in a low voice.

"It shouldn't happen. Tell the brothers to be alert. If anything goes wrong, shoot me with bullets. Don't be polite." Cun Yunsheng sneered.

"Yes."

The guard company that received the order immediately put their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot at any time.

The natives leading the way in front did not notice anything, but thought happily that this must be a great achievement, and that they would be able to ask the Japanese army if they could send them some weapons.

In troubled times, if you don't have weapons, you are just a lamb to be slaughtered.

Soon, they arrived at the so-called cave. If it weren't for the natives leading the way, they would not have noticed that there was a base inside even if they passed by.

With the help of dense trees, the entrance of the cave is perfectly concealed.

"This place is so damn well hidden. If it weren't for these natives, we really wouldn't have known about it. The British really know how to choose a place." Long Wenjian couldn't help but praise it.

"It's here. It's been sealed with cement." The native said with some regret.

Cun Yunsheng glanced at Long Wenjian, and after getting the signal, he immediately led his men forward, grabbed a handful of soil, squeezed it, and after confirming that it was new soil, he had his men start setting up explosives.

Soon, the entrance of the cave was filled with grenades and explosive packs.

"Blow up the entrance of the cave later. If you find anything wrong, open fire immediately and kill all the natives." Cun Yunsheng whispered to Xue Tian.

"Yes, Commander." Xue Tian nodded quickly.

boom!
boom!
Two violent explosions sounded in succession, and a gap half a person's height appeared in front of everyone.

"Blow it up again." Long Wenjian saw that the gap was too small and signaled to continue blowing it up.

boom!
boom!
boom!
This time the gap is as high as a person, so two people can easily go in and out.

The base was not very big, only about twenty meters deep. It didn’t take long before Long Wenjian returned with his men.

"What's the matter?" Cun Yunsheng did not enter the base immediately, but stood outside waiting.

"There are all kinds of things in there, but the most are gold, silver and jade. You guessed it right. When the British retreated in a hurry, they didn't have time to take them away, so they left all these gold, silver and jade here." Long Wenjian first gave Cun Yunsheng a thumbs up, and then talked about what he had seen and heard.

"Where are the natives?" Cun Yunsheng nodded and then asked.

"Everything has been solved as you ordered. Don't worry about me doing the job." Long Wenjian was not a kind-hearted person. He had no good feelings towards these natives, so he acted very decisively. He stabbed the opponent's heart directly with a knife, killing him instantly.

Those natives never understood until their death why the heavenly soldiers attacked them?
From beginning to end, they never mentioned wanting to share this wealth.

"What should we do with the stuff? I took a look and there's quite a lot of it, enough for half a year's military pay for the whole regiment." Long Wenjian was Cun Yunsheng's messenger, so he naturally knew that the other party was paying the military pay for the soldiers of the Sichuan Army out of his own pocket.

Now with this gold, silver and jade, the Sichuan Army’s problem of insufficient military pay can be greatly alleviated.

In fact, Cun Yunsheng already had his own ideas. Now in wartime, he can still rely on American aid. Once the war is over and he is no longer of any use, it will not be so easy to obtain American aid.

Therefore, he has always been on the lookout for talents in mechanics.

This is also why the volunteer team is recruiting more knowledgeable Chinese.

Everything is to prepare for what's to come.

The volunteer team is his backup, or retreat.

Although he still has a golden finger to replenish some weapons and ammunition, the demand increases as the number of personnel increases.

Especially the ammunition, which consumes even more.

There is a saying that it is better to make than to buy.

"Send someone to notify Meng Fan to weave some bamboo baskets and take all the things with him. When we get to Imphal, we will need to purchase machine tools and other things. Gold and silver will be the best choice." Cun Yunsheng said.

Purchasing machine tools?

Long Wenjian was stunned. What did he need that thing for?

If Krupp were here, he would instantly understand that his regimental commander wanted to produce his own weapons and ammunition.

"With so many refugees following us, what will they eat and drink? Will they always rely on relief?"

"In the eyes of the Americans, these refugees are not human beings at all. It is none of their business if they starve to death." "But since they choose to follow us, we must find something for them to do when the time comes."

"Buy some machine tools and equipment, let them produce something to sell, and make sure they don't starve to death."

"We can also make some money and give some subsidies to the brothers. I can't let the brothers follow me and starve."

Cun Yunsheng made up an excuse on the spot, which frightened Long Wenjian. After a long time, the other party gave him a thumbs up.

"Commander, you really have a kind heart."

"Even in this situation, you still don't forget your brothers."

Hearing this, Cun Yunsheng was too lazy to pay attention to him and asked him to move all the things out as soon as possible.

I have to say that the British were better at plundering. They took almost 300 kilograms of gold and 5,000 kilograms of silver.

"There must be a gold mine nearby, otherwise there wouldn't be so much gold." Cun Yunsheng's eyes turned red. This was just a small city, but it had such a huge amount of wealth. If it were any other city, it would definitely be even bigger.

In fact, this is very normal. It is popular to worship Buddha in Myanmar, and all the Buddhas are made of gold. Later, the Japanese army became jealous and looted all these golden Buddhas.

It is enough to see how much gold is produced here.

"Commander, you guessed it right. It really is a gold mine." Meng Fanle was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that it was actually a treasure cave.

"Okay, let someone carry all the things and tell the brothers that when we arrive in Myitkyina, these things will be the capital for us to settle down and make a living." Cun Yunsheng said.

"Yes, Commander." Meng Fanle nodded, and then asked people to start moving the gold, silver and jade artifacts.

The subsequent march went very smoothly. After all, the Japanese army's target after capturing Lashio was no longer northern Myanmar.

At this moment, the Japanese army focused on gaining a foothold, so it did not send troops to continue attacking northern Myanmar.

Instead, the main force was left behind, and the Matsushita Detachment was formed with the main focus on searching the 56th Regiment, with the goal of attacking western Yunnan along the China-Burma Highway.

The purpose is to completely cut off the expeditionary force's route back to the country and strive to completely annihilate the expeditionary force on the eastern front.

The reason why the main force stayed behind was to absorb Tang Ji's experience. The city was empty and was counterattacked by the expeditionary force.

Lashio now has a huge amount of supplies, enough for the Japanese army to use for two years, so the Japanese army now begins to advance steadily and no longer takes risks in advancing.

The other route was to encircle the left side of Mandalay and try to destroy the main force of the British army and the Western Expeditionary Force.

In fact, the British army was still the main force. After all, the Western Expeditionary Force had few troops and they were all newly formed troops, so the Japanese army looked down on them.

At this time, the British army immediately moved back after receiving the news.

Only the newly formed 38th Division was left in Mandalay to wait for the Japanese army.

This act of betraying teammates at a critical moment almost made Sun Liren so angry that he vomited blood.

Not to mention that he couldn't return home, it was really insidious that he ran away without saying goodbye, leaving the newly formed 38th Division to act as the rear guard to cover the British army's retreat.

But Alexander looked indifferent. His mission was to withdraw all the main British troops from Burma.

"Commander, what should we do now?" The subordinate looked at Sun Liren, who had a gloomy face, and asked cautiously.

"What else can we do? Retreat, abandon Mandalay and retreat to Imphal." Sun Liren said gritting his teeth.

Although he had promised Luo Zhuoying and Stilwell to withdraw the newly formed 38th Division to Imphal.

But this betrayal of allies and forcing them to serve as rearguard troops really made him very angry.

As long as the British army took the initiative to send a telegram to discuss whether they needed a rearguard unit or compensation after retreating to Imphal, he would accept it.

So he was really angry, and sent a telegram to report the British army's betrayal of its allies to the Allied Headquarters.

Stilwell was also very annoyed when he received the telegram. He had already warned Alexander to restrain himself, but who knew that this guy agreed on the surface but continued to do as he pleased.

"Bastard, damn Alexander, he is a bastard born of a bitch." Stilwell couldn't help but curse. He had originally planned to evacuate to Imphal by plane.

As a result, because of Alexander, he decided to retreat to Imphal on foot with the newly formed 38th Division to show his determination that he would advance and retreat with the soldiers of the expeditionary force.

"Where is the Sichuan Army?" Lashio was lost, the British troops on the western front fled, Mandalay could no longer be held, and the entire situation in Burma was in a complete mess. Stilwell knew that it could not be held, so now he only hoped that the Sichuan Army was safe and hoped that they could withdraw to Imphal as soon as possible.

As for the plan to retake Lashio, he had abandoned it long ago.

Even if they took it back it would be useless because the Japanese 18th Division was rushing to support Lashio.

The Sichuan Army Corps of 2,000 people had no choice but to be defeated when faced with tens of thousands of elite Japanese troops.

It would be better for them to withdraw to Imphal as soon as possible, regroup, and fight again another day.

"They sent a telegram not long ago saying that they were going to retreat to Myitkyina. According to the itinerary, they should be near Bhamo at this time. However, according to aerial reconnaissance, the Japanese army is also attacking western Yunnan." The adjutant said quickly.

"Send a telegram to the Sichuan Army immediately, ordering them to withdraw to Myitkyina as soon as possible and hold Myitkyina." Stilwell said immediately.

"What about the British troops in Myitkyina?" the adjutant asked hesitantly.

"Tell them to pack up and get out," Stilwell yelled.

It is enough to see that Stilwell was really angry this time, otherwise he would never say such words that hurt the relationship between the allies.

The adjutant also felt Stilwell's anger, so he didn't dare to say much!

The Sichuan Army, which received the telegram, had just arrived at the outskirts of Bhamo.

"Let us take over Myitkyina? Is old Stilwell crazy? Will the British agree?"

(End of this chapter)