Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 144 People fear becoming famous, pigs fear growing fat
Upon seeing the supplies, Kong Jie immediately thought of the time when Chu Yunfei's men had asked for help.

He immediately said:

"These supplies you stole from the bandits won't be easy to take! I just ran into Chu Yunfei's soldiers who were robbed by Xie Baoqing, and I promised them I'd get them back!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Gensheng immediately said:
"That's easy. I find it troublesome to carry these supplies around anyway, so I might as well do the old commander a favor!"

Seeing how easy Wang Gensheng was to talk to, Kong Jie immediately realized that his promotion back then was indeed the right decision, and so he immediately smiled and said:
"You just said you were going to attack Dagu Town, but I think you don't need to go, because Dagu Town has already been occupied by Chu Yunfei!"

In fact, Wang Gensheng had already guessed it when he met Xie Baoqing, and now, upon hearing Kong Jie say this, he immediately said:

"It seems it's the same everywhere! The battle of Ping'an County seems to have woken up the Japanese! Not only Dagu Town, but also several smaller strongholds like Qingyun Town have seen the Japanese retreat! Only large cities like Taiyuan are left heavily guarded!"

Kong Jie smiled and said:
"Isn't this a good thing? These little devils are like grasshoppers in autumn, they won't be able to hop around for much longer!"

Then Kong Jie changed the subject:

"But since you're already here, why don't you eat before you leave? We can go back to our old regiment, the Independent Regiment, and see how much profit Li Yunlong made from the last attack on Ping'an County!"

Hearing Kong Jie say this, Wang Gensheng naturally couldn't refuse, so he led the more than one hundred men of the assault team to follow Kong Jie's cavalry company to the headquarters of Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment.

However, upon arriving at the Independent Regiment's headquarters, he discovered that not only Wang Gensheng and Kong Jie had arrived, but also Ding Wei from the New First Regiment.

It's estimated that they've already made an appointment with Kong Jie to come and collect a debt from Li Yunlong!
Wang Gensheng seemed to remember a scene in the original Bright Sword storyline where Kong Jie and Ding Wei came together to collect a debt from Li Yunlong.

However, it must be said that Li Yunlong was quite polite. When he saw Kong Jie and Ding Wei coming over, he actually prepared several hearty dishes for lunch. It seems that Li Yunlong did indeed acquire a lot of good things after taking over Ping'an County.

At a small eight-immortal table, Wang Gensheng, Kong Jie, Ding Wei, and Li Yunlong each sat facing one direction.

As soon as Li Yunlong sat down at the table, he picked up his wine bowl and said he would drink it first. However, as soon as he put down his bowl, Ding Wei spoke first and questioned him:

"Hey Lao Li! You're really not being fair! You started attacking the county town without a word. There was a chance to make a fortune, and you didn't even tell me or Lao Kong. When did you learn to hog everything? We fought for so long, you have to give us some compensation!"

In response to Ding Wei's words, Li Yunlong said:

"No problem, no problem, no problem! We're brothers, we're all in this together! If my brother has a bite to eat, you'll have half a bite too!"

Seeing that Li Yunlong agreed so readily, Ding Wei didn't want to ask for too much, so he said:

"Alright! Then I'll charge you for the errands! Four Type 92 rifles, eight Type 96 light machine guns, and four mortars—that's a fair price, isn't it?"

As soon as Ding Wei said this, Kong Jie, who was standing to the side, also spoke up:

"Alright! My wages are the same as Lao Ding's, not a penny more, not a penny less!" Wang Gensheng consciously kept quiet about Ding Wei and Kong Jie asking Li Yunlong for their wages, and instead lowered his head to eat the few hearty dishes that Li Yunlong had prepared.

To be honest, Li Yunlong really went all out for this hospitality. Although there were only a few dishes, they were all top-quality dishes. For example, the large bowl of braised pork in the very center looked so appetizing that it made Wang Gensheng's mouth water.

Besides braised pork, there was also braised chicken and steamed goose. In addition, there was even a bowl of spicy rabbit meat. All of them were meat dishes. As for the vegetarian dish, there was a bowl of peanuts to go with the drinks.

Wang Gensheng tasted them all, and I must say his skills were top-notch.

Just as Wang Gensheng was silently eating, Li Yunlong spoke up:

"Look at you guys, so pathetic! You only ask for this much? Anyone who didn't know better would think I, Li Yunlong, can't afford to pay you! Don't even mention this little bit, I'd give you double the amount!"

Li Yunlong's words immediately widened Ding Wei and Kong Jie's eyes. It was hard to believe that Li Yunlong had become so generous, not only making the wages negotiable but also doubling them!
Ding Wei even said in disbelief:
"Hey Lao Li! There really is a huge armory in Ping'an County! Otherwise, it's hard to believe you'd be so generous!"

However, Li Yunlong responded to Ding Wei's words as follows:

“Ping’an County doesn’t have a large armory, but Taiyuan City does! Compared to my small matter of attacking Ping’an County, you should wait and see Comrade Wang Gensheng take Taiyuan City, capture Yoshio Shinozuka alive, and empty Taiyuan City’s armory! That’s what a big deal!”

Upon hearing Li Yunlong's words, Kong Jie and Ding Wei immediately looked at Wang Gensheng, who was engrossed in eating. Kong Jie, who was most familiar with Wang Gensheng, exclaimed in surprise:
"Hey Comrade Wang Gensheng, so it was you who raided Taihara and captured Yoshio Shinotsuka! You're really good at hiding things!"

Indeed, the news of Wang Gensheng capturing Taiyuan and taking Yoshio Shinotsuka alive was not publicized, because Wang Gensheng also understood the principle that people are afraid of becoming famous, just as pigs are afraid of getting fat.

Just look at Li Yunlong. Because of excessive propaganda, the Japanese easily obtained information about Li Yunlong, which resulted in retaliation from Yamamoto's special forces.

Therefore, if Wang Gensheng's special cavalry regiment is publicized, then both the Japanese and the other side will be able to ambush them in a targeted manner in the future.

For example, if Yoshio Shinotsuka knew that the Eighth Route Army had such a special cavalry regiment, and that they were eyeing Taiyuan and Yoshio Shinotsuka's life, would they deliberately set a trap, such as burying several tons of TNT in the Taiyuan County government office in advance and then detonating it when Wang Gensheng stormed the county government office?

Even if Wang Gensheng's assault team were all wearing bulletproof vests and were impervious to bullets and knives, they could not escape the fate of being blown to pieces.

Therefore, it was Wang Gensheng who took the initiative to ask the deputy commander not to publicize the credit too much, as it was done by his special operations cavalry regiment, which is why Kong Jieding and Wei Cai were unaware of it.

As for how Li Yunlong knew, it's very likely that the head eunuch told him. After all, everything started with Li Yunlong, so it would be perfectly normal for the head eunuch to tell him why Yamamoto Ichiki suddenly released Yang Xiuqin.

Therefore, in response to Kong Jie's complaints, Wang Gensheng said:

"It was I who deliberately instructed the command to publicize it extensively. My special operations cavalry regiment is all about surprise attacks. If it becomes famous, everyone will be watching my special operations cavalry regiment, and then how can I launch surprise attacks? Look at our Regiment Commander Li, his regimental headquarters was almost wiped out by the Japanese. It's all because Regiment Commander Li is too famous. In the eyes of the Japanese, he has become a thorn in their side. That's why they didn't even bother attacking the Eighth Route Army's command to take down Regiment Commander Li's regiment!"

(End of this chapter)