Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 243: Strategic Shift, Going North to Fight the War

After hearing what Monica said, Yue Qianli was not as ecstatic as she expected, which made Monica a little confused. She couldn't help asking:
"Yue, aren't you happy? China's war of resistance is very difficult now, and what we lack most are weapons, equipment and supplies;
With the full support of the United States, you can arm hundreds of thousands of American-equipped troops. Even if the Chongqing government surrenders, we can still fight the damned devils. "

Yue Qianli said calmly:

"China's war of resistance can only be carried out under the leadership of the National Government. The banner of the united war of resistance cannot fall. Only the whole nation can win the war of resistance. Therefore, I will not become a warlord now or in the future.

I am very grateful for your help, but you should support the Chinese government, not me personally.

When the guerrilla column needs weapons and supplies, they will spend money to buy them, and the Yue Group will pay for them. Friendship is friendship, and business is business;
The guerrilla column and I owe you a favor, but we cannot let you suffer any loss. We will pay every penny you owe.

You were able to sell us equipment and supplies during China's most difficult period, which was the greatest help. The Chinese people have always been grateful and repaying kindness."

George's words were beautiful, and Yue Qianli's words were equally beautiful. It was taboo to accept foreign aid in the name of individuals and guerrilla columns, but it was different to buy it with money. The difference could only be understood;
Although Monica couldn't understand it, she knew Yue Qianli was rich, and she thought it was good to talk about business, so she didn't dwell on this issue and said directly:
"Yue, you will need to stay in Wuhu for a while. If you need to purchase supplies, the United States can send them to you from Shanghai.
We can clear the checkpoints along the way and send it over by ship under the British flag, but the price will be 30% higher. It takes money to deal with the greedy Japanese."

Monica was indeed from the Morgan family, so they started talking about business. Yue Qianli still liked this approach, so he ordered a batch of submachine guns, Mauser rifle bullets, 81mm mortar shells, and a large amount of field rations, dried meat, etc., with a total value of more than 200 million Eagle dollars, which was paid for by the Yue Group.

With the steady progress of Roosevelt's New Deal, the domestic economy of the United States began to recover, and the Yue Group's previous investment had yielded rich returns;
This year's revenue has exceeded 1 million Eagle Yuan, and the total market value is close to 10 billion Eagle Yuan. It is already seeking to go public, so 200 million Eagle Yuan is nothing to Yue Qianli.

Yue Qianli didn't have a fixed territory at the moment, so he didn't plan to make large-scale purchases. Besides, the captured equipment plus the replenishment from the government was enough for him to use for a while.

He has already found someone to contact a buyer and is preparing to sell a batch of obsolete weapons, all of which were eliminated from the hands of defeated soldiers. These are all equipment of the Central Army and are very popular in the country.

The secret buyer that Yue Qianli chose was naturally the New Fourth Army. They had just been established and were short of equipment. He half-sold and half-gave away several thousand guns and corresponding ammunition, which was enough to replace the equipment for the New Fourth Army of more than 1 people.

After placing the order through Monica, the guerrilla column continued to rest in southern Anhui. In order to expand the guerrilla column's activity space, Yue Qianli also sent a large number of troops to several surrounding cities;

With General Chen's protection, no one dared to say anything even though the guerrilla column occupied the entire southern Anhui. After all, it takes territory to support tens of thousands of troops.

Regarding Yue Qianli's behavior of grabbing territory, the local garrison took the case to the Military Commission, but the case was never resolved. It was normal for the central army to grab territory.

The guerrilla column controlled the territories including Xuancheng, Wuhu and Tongling. In order to facilitate subsequent crossing of the river, Yue Qianli sent a supplementary detachment to cross the river first, control the Jiangbei area of ​​Wuhu and Tongling, and form a confrontation with the remnants of the 18th and 13th Divisions that retreated to southern Jiangsu.

After completing the deployment, the 88th Division continued its training in southern Anhui until January 38.
Since the "non-expansion faction" and the "expansion faction" in the Japanese headquarters had been arguing, and Yu Ren could not have the final say, he gave the Five War Zones sufficient time to deploy their defenses.

The guerrilla column also won the longest period of rest. Yue Qianli took advantage of this rare opportunity to reorganize the troops, adopting the model of old soldiers leading new soldiers, so that the defeated soldiers could be fully integrated into the guerrilla column system.

During this period, he also organized the officers above the company level to go to the training team for rotation training in batches. He and several detachment leaders gave lectures. After the rotation training, only those who passed the assessment could keep their positions. Those who failed the assessment were demoted. This greatly improved the command level of officers at all levels. This comfortable life lasted for nearly a month until Lin E sent the intercepted confidential telegram, and the training work came to an end.

The military situation was urgent, so Yue Qianli called together several detachment leaders and battalion commanders for a meeting. One day a battle was about to start, and everyone was extremely excited. They were ready to fight and clamoring to teach the Japanese a lesson, and their morale was very high.

Yue Qianli looked around and said:

"Brothers, this time the Japanese have concentrated the 9th, 13th, and 114th Divisions to besiege Wuhu.

Although these divisions were defeated by the 88th Division, this time three divisions advanced together, with the 3th Division as the reserve, with a total force of more than 18, and they were ready for a decisive battle;

The previous strategy is no longer applicable. If we continue to fight hard, it may change the direction of the enemy's attack and disrupt the strategic deployment of the National Government, so this time I decided to give in."

Duan Yulin took over and said:
"I agree with the commander's decision. The commanders of the Japanese divisions like to defeat the superiors with the inferiors. They have three divisions in the southern corps. I'm afraid they might get carried away and attack Wuhan directly, which would be troublesome.

The National Government needs to use the Battle of Xuzhou to hold back the Japanese and buy time for the relocation of industry and population, so a decisive battle in Jianghuai is more in line with the interests of the National Government. "

The others all expressed their agreement. Seeing that the general policy had been decided, Yue Qianli continued:
"We really can't afford to offend the three divisions of the devil, and we have already completed the mission assigned to us by our superiors.

I have decided to follow the orders of the National Government and march north to fight the devils in Jianghuai!"

Next, Chief of Staff Chen Zhongyuan read out the marching order to the north. In order not to affect morale, this time it was not called a retreat, but a "strategic transfer, march north to fight the war."

After the meeting, the guerrilla column began to evacuate the masses to prevent the devils from retaliating, while the column headquarters took the lead in crossing the river northward from Wuhu;
Then the various detachments crossed the river one after another and advanced towards northern Anhui. They very prudently gave up Wuhu and withdrew the troops to Bengbu, officially joining the combat sequence of the Fifth War Zone and taking charge of the defense of the southern line.

Bengbu straddles both sides of the Huai River and is a strategic point on the southern line of the Jinpu Road. As long as Bengbu is defended, the Japanese army's plan to advance from north to south will not be implemented.

To defend the Yangtze River, one must defend the Huai River. Commander Li of the Fifth War Zone deployed a large number of troops along the Huai River, but he was still not at ease. He repeatedly proposed to the Military Commission that a guerrilla column should guard Bengbu so that he could concentrate on the decisive battle with the North China Front Army on the northern line.

The Military Commission agreed to his request, which led to the guerrilla column's trip to Bengbu.

After learning that the guerrillas were in place, General Li was very happy and immediately decided to hold a military deployment meeting and specifically asked Yue Qianli to attend;
Yue Qianli was a little surprised. He was just a regimental commander. Since there was a military order, he could only hand over the troops to Wang Jianfei and go north to Xuzhou to attend the military deployment meeting.

(End of this chapter)