Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 138 Bearing a Bullet to Plead Guilty
Of course, because they were leading warhorses, it was already dawn when Wang Gensheng arrived at Shibu with a hundred tons of ammunition.

Although it was already past midnight, the Lion Chief and the Lion Corps' advisors were still awake. After all, the entire Lion Corps had been fighting all day, and now that the battle was over, it was time to tally up the casualties and the spoils.

Upon seeing Wang Gensheng arrive, the Lion Chief immediately spoke in an annoyed tone:

"What can I say to you, you little rascal! You were so eager to have the radio and the telegraph operator, and then you didn't want to listen to the orders after you got the radio! What are you trying to do?!"

To the Lion Chief's tone of disappointment, Wang Gensheng smiled and said:
"Lion Chief, when a soldier is out in the field, he may not obey orders! Moreover, opportunities on the battlefield are fleeting, so he must make his own judgments to seize the best chance. That's why I've come here with my ammunition to apologize, Lion Chief!"

As Wang Gensheng spoke, he pointed to the boxes of ammunition on the backs of the cavalry regiment behind him.

Upon hearing Wang Gensheng's words and then noticing the ammunition boxes on the horse behind him, Lion Chief laughed:

"To plead guilty with your weapon on your back, that's an interesting thing to say. How much did you gain from taking Taiyuan City this time?"

"Hmm! Not counting capturing that old bastard Yoshio Shinotsuka alive, they managed to get about a hundred tons of ammunition from the Taihara Castle ammunition depot."

Don't underestimate the seemingly small amount of ammunition; a Japanese melon grenade weighs only a little over 400 grams, and a 6.5mm Type 38 rifle bullet weighs only about 20 grams.

So if 100 tons of ammunition were all bullets, that would be a full five million rounds!

Even if the entire Eighth Route Army of about 300,000 people were distributed among themselves, each person would still receive more than ten rounds!

At this time, the Eighth Route Army's strength had not yet reached its peak of one million, but was only around three hundred thousand, which was in a period of decline.

Indeed, the development of the Eighth Route Army was not without its challenges. Before its reorganization in 1937, the army numbered over 70,000.

Although they were only willing to provide three divisions with a total of 45,000 personnel, this meant that about 30,000 of them were considered "non-established" personnel.

However, organizational structures are rigid, but people are flexible. Therefore, independent regiments were set up in each division, and division-level and even army-level directly subordinate units were also established. As the number of base areas behind enemy lines continued to increase, coupled with the Japanese devils' unbridled persecution of the people in the occupied areas,

As a result, the Eighth Route Army, which developed behind enemy lines, gained widespread support from the people. Consequently, the number of regiments with various designations increased rapidly, such as the New First Regiment, the Independent Regiment, and the New Second Regiment. In addition to the increase in the number of regiments, the number of people in each regiment also increased. It was not an isolated case that a regiment like Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment had more than 10,000 people.

So, on the surface, by 1940, although the Eighth Route Army was only organized into twelve regiments with more than 40,000 men, it actually had more than one hundred regiments and its strength had increased to 400,000 men.

However, behind the rapid development was a decline in the quality of soldiers. At that time, the individual combat quality of 400,000 soldiers was not comparable to that of soldiers who had crossed the grasslands.

Especially after the Hundred Regiments Offensive in 1940, the Eighth Route Army mobilized almost all of its regular troops, with approximately 400,000 soldiers participating. Although they were victorious, they suffered heavy casualties. The aftermath of the Hundred Regiments Offensive was the Japanese army's frenzied retaliation. From 1941 to 1942, the Japanese concentrated heavy forces to carry out mopping-up operations against the base areas, putting immense pressure on the troops and causing significant losses.

Although the special cavalry company created by Wang Gensheng, a time traveler, achieved outstanding results in the entire mopping-up operation, eliminating thousands of Japanese soldiers, such achievements were a drop in the ocean compared to the overall war situation and could not change the fate of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield.

Therefore, the situation was quite severe at this time, so the policy of elite troops and breaking up large units into smaller ones was adopted, consciously reducing the size of the troops and breaking up the larger units.

By the first half of 1944, the entire army had 199 infantry regiments, including 34 Class A regiments, 74 Class B regiments, and 91 Class C regiments.

At this time, the strength of a Class A regiment was generally less than 2,000 men, while that of a Class C regiment was only a few hundred men. Therefore, the total strength of nearly 200 regiments was only 220,000 men. In addition, there were more than 100,000 local troops, bringing the total number of men to about 300,000, which was a decrease compared to the 400,000 men in 1940.

Of course, although the number of people has decreased, their combat effectiveness has not decreased at all, but has increased, because these are warriors who survived the great mopping-up operation and have experienced many major battles. Their combat skills and spirit are naturally incomparable to those before.

However, in 1944, the situation in the War of Resistance against Japan reversed, and a counter-offensive behind enemy lines began. As the area of ​​the base areas expanded and the conditions for combat improved, the size of the troops also increased. Within six months, the strength of the Eighth Route Army had grown to more than 500,000.

The reason for this reversal was the Battle of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, in which the Japanese navy was no match for the US navy and ultimately lost the Mariana Islands.

This caused the core defensive perimeter built by the Japanese to fail, allowing the US B-29 bombers to take off from the Mariana Islands and bomb the Japanese mainland directly. This is why the Japanese battlefield situation collapsed precipitously.

It is important to know that the munitions carried by the B-29 bomber are terrifying, capable of carrying more than nine tons of munitions at a time. This is an order of magnitude greater than the bombs that ordinary fighter jets can only carry a few hundred kilograms of. It was precisely because of the continuous bombing of the Japanese homeland that Japanese factories were destroyed, war materials were lost, and the safety of ordinary Japanese civilians was not guaranteed. Therefore, the Japanese people's anti-war sentiment naturally rose.

By four or five years later, the Japanese army's fighting strength had been further weakened, and the intensity of their counter-offensive behind enemy lines had increased, with the size of their forces growing larger. By the time of the major counter-offensive, their strength had increased to 910,000. After the major counter-offensive, their strength increased to over one million.

Therefore, the Eighth Route Army's strength did not increase continuously. The most significant expansions occurred in the early and later stages of the War of Resistance Against Japan, especially in the later period, when its numbers increased several times over in just over a year. However, in the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the number of Eighth Route Army troops actually decreased.

Looking at the more than 100 tons of ammunition that Wang Gensheng had brought, Lion Chief smiled and said:
"Why did you bring everything without keeping any for yourself!"

Wang Gensheng smiled and said:
"All spoils must be turned over to the public! Besides, enough ammunition is sufficient; carrying too much ammunition is just a burden for the cavalry regiment!"

"Alright! Unload the ammunition and go back! As for your disobedience on the battlefield, I need to discuss it with headquarters before deciding on your punishment!"

Seeing that the Lion Chief was chasing people away, Wang Gensheng naturally didn't linger. He unloaded Yoshio Shinotsuka and a hundred tons of ammunition at the Lion Chief's place and then left.

After Wang Gensheng left, the Lion Chief quickly reported that Wang Gensheng had seized 100 tons of ammunition, after all, 100 tons of ammunition was no small amount.

Moreover, this time when Li Yunlong attacked Ping'an County, the troops blocking the reinforcements were not just the 129th Lion Army!
(End of this chapter)