Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 222 Wuhu Training
East of Wuhu, unnamed slope

Company commander Yue Wanli was leading the team in a training session on building field fortifications. It was already freezing cold in southern Anhui in late December. It was indeed uncomfortable to dig trenches in such cold weather, so it was understandable that the soldiers kept saying strange things.

"All I do every day is dig holes. I'm here to fight the Japanese, not to kill rats. The few steamed buns I made this morning were consumed in less than an hour. Not even a drop of feces is left."

"Er Gouzi, just be content. You still have white flour buns to eat when you join the guerrilla column. It would have been a blessing for you to have wowo buns to eat before.

Don’t be so ungrateful. What’s wrong with the local rats? They can save your life at the critical moment!
Hurry up and work for me. If you don’t finish your work, don’t even think about eating lunch. I heard there’s meat for lunch!”

When everyone heard that there was meat to eat, they instantly became excited, especially Er Gouzi, who immediately said with wide eyes:
"Squad leader, don't bluff me. These days, eating meat is like sacrificing half your life. There's no war going on, so where can we get the meat?"

It’s no wonder that Ergouzi didn’t believe it. In the National Army, they were only given meat to eat when they were charging and fighting. If they could have a dry meal at other times, they were considered good soldiers.

Squad leader Gray was an old member of the 527th Regiment. He was just an ordinary soldier before the reorganization. In order to strengthen the combat power of the supplementary detachment, many veterans were transferred from the original 88th Division to serve as squad leaders. Gray was one of them. He was a man who had seen the world and said disdainfully:
"That's another unit. It's common to follow Commander Yue (generally referred to as an official position) to eat meat. I've already found out. For lunch, there's pork stewed with vermicelli, one bowl for each person, and white flour steamed buns - all you can eat!"

Everyone cheered. There was really nothing that couldn't boost morale with a bowl of meat. If that wasn't enough, then two bowls would do!

Er Gouzi was drooling over the pork stewed with vermicelli. White flour buns and pork vermicelli were the landlord's New Year celebrations, and his work became more efficient.
But his mouth was not idle, and he continued:
"Squad leader, I heard that our company commander is the regiment commander's brother, a family member. So when we eat meat, do we have to eat an extra bowl?"

After hearing this, Gray laughed and scolded:
"All you do is eat. You talk a lot but do the least. I think you should cut the meat in half."

When Ergouzi heard that they were going to cut his weight, he got angry and swung the shovel in his hand faster. The squad leader was an old man close to the regiment commander and he couldn't afford to offend him.

"Gray, why are you showing off your squad leader power again? You always cut off the soldiers' flesh. I think the one who deserves to be cut off is you."

Gray was about to scold me, "I'm in charge of the soldiers, why are you talking nonsense?" But when he saw that it was the company commander, he immediately changed his expression and explained:
"Captain, how dare I deprive these ancestors of food? I was just teasing them. Er Gouzi is a more weird guy than me."

Yue Wanli was also a commander, so he would naturally give the squad leader some face, so he said:
"No matter how many weird words you say, you can't deprive Er Gouzi of his meat!

Brothers, Squad Leader Ge is right. There is meat for lunch and everyone has a share.

Digging this rat hole is indeed tiring, but it can save lives at critical moments. Only by saving your life can you eat meat.

I just checked, your standards are far from satisfactory, let alone with 75mm cannons, you can't even handle mortars - dig again, or you won't get any meat."

Yue Wanli left after saying something cruel. Er Gouzi stammered:

"Squad leader, why is Yue like this? He was speaking very nicely just now, but now he changes his attitude faster than turning the pages of a book. He wants to cut off the flesh of the whole company."

Gray yelled with a dark face:
"Don't you know that people who have studied are all evil-minded? If you want to eat meat, hurry up and make your hands clean - go back to work!"

In order to eat meat, Er Gouzi had to stop talking nonsense and dig hard at the frozen soil with a shovel.
After working until they were sweaty, they simply took off their cotton-padded clothes and continued to work. The cotton-padded clothes they wore were stripped from the corpses of the Japanese, which was very warm. The biggest disadvantage of the National Army in fighting the Japanese was the lack of heavy firepower. In many Central Army units, the firepower of a division was not as good as that of a Japanese battalion, not to mention the miscellaneous units;

Even the guerrilla column could barely make use of its heavy firepower under Yue Qianli's reckless efforts, but the Japanese had absolute air superiority, and each division had dozens of field artillery, which was beyond the reach of the guerrilla column in terms of both quantity and quality.

Therefore, he could only spend more time on defense. The Nationalist army did not pay much attention to civil engineering. The main reason was that digging fortifications was very physically demanding, so the soldiers ate more and got hungry faster.

The National Army basically only had two thin meals in peacetime, and only in wartime could they see dry food. With such a guarantee, it was difficult to dig complex circular fortifications, let alone simple linear fortifications.

There will definitely be people who say that the volunteers also had poor food, so how could they dig tunnel fortifications that could withstand the terrifying firepower of the Americans? Yue Qianli can only tell you that the army had faith and had more soldiers per capita, there was no comparison.

Now the troops under his command are mostly deserters, so they have to be well fed during the training. For this purpose, he specially asked the deputy commander Tian Yuanxi to purchase dozens of pigs from the surrounding areas to improve the food for everyone.

Dozens of pigs may sound like a lot, but that means a few thousand pounds, and tens of thousands of people share it, so each person only gets two ounces of meat.

If there is not enough meat, use vermicelli. If there are not enough vermicelli, use cabbage and radish. Make sure there is enough meat and enough oil and water.

When Er Gouzi was exhausted, he finally heard the hoarse voice of the cook squad leader calling out:

"Brothers, it's time to eat. We're going to have pork stewed with vermicelli. The chunks of meat are so big they'll make a dog cry!"

Er Gouzi's eyes lit up, he threw away his shovel, took out his military lunch box (captured from the Japanese), and ran straight to the lunch station;

From a distance I could hear the head cook yelling:
"Everyone, line up for me, do you understand the rules?

Each person gets a ladle, and everyone gets a share, even those who squeeze in at the front get the same amount. If you wait quietly at the back, you might even get an extra ladle of soup."

The cook squad leader's words really worked. The chaotic situation changed instantly. Several long and crooked lines formed. At this time, Yue Wanli came over with a dark face and said loudly:
"Have you never eaten meat? I feel ashamed to see you pigs eating like this. Are you not following the rules during field training?
I give you three minutes to get into battle formation. Whoever gets to line up first gets to eat first!"

When the platoon leaders saw that the company commander was angry, they immediately began to organize their troops. Their behavior just now was indeed a bit unlike what the Central Army should have. They were all greedy for meat and couldn't remember how long it had been since they had eaten meat.

The formation was quickly arranged, and then they waited for Yue Wanli to speak. It was a rare opportunity to eat meat, and he didn't want to spoil the brothers' appetite, so he decided to only talk about three points;
There were more than a dozen small dots extending from the bottom of the three big dots. Ergouzi's stomach protested. It was too difficult to eat Yue's meat, so he could only force himself to listen to him nagging. Anyway, he would not dare to snatch the meat from him in the future. He wanted to crawl into the ground after hearing what Yue Laosan said.

"Okay, I'll just say these three points. Don't delay us. Let's eat!"

Even a veteran like Gray couldn't help but complain:
"Damn it! You don't want to delay me! I'm starving!"

The chapter that was reviewed last night has passed. If you haven’t read it, you can go and read it now. The plot of bombing Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko to death is very exciting.

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(End of this chapter)