Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 31: Divide Food and Land

Baili Xiu was somewhat dissatisfied with Wang Gensheng for letting the maintenance chairman escape:
"Captain Wang, why let him go? He'll definitely tip off the Japs when he gets back!"

Regarding Baili Xiu's concerns, Wang Gensheng smiled and said:
"We need to get the message out. We must lure the Japs out and give them a good beating. Only then will they be frightened and not dare to come to the countryside and harm the people again!"

As he spoke, Wang Gensheng changed the subject and said:

"Oh right! Now that the chairman of your Baijia Village Maintenance Committee has run away, who's in charge of Baijia Village now? We need to elect a village chief as soon as possible and develop a militia so we can be prepared when the Japanese suddenly attack!"

Soon, a more respected and capable person in Baijia Village was chosen as the village chief, and this person was Baili Xiu's father. Because Baili Xiu and his father were both hunters, they lived a relatively wealthy life.

However, unlike the previous maintenance chairman surnamed Huang, before the Japanese came, this maintenance chairman surnamed Huang was actually a big landlord in Baili Village. More than half of the land in Baili Village was in the hands of this chairman Huang.

In fact, during the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, most of the people who served as maintenance presidents for the Japanese were local landlords and evil gentry, such as President Huang, who took the initiative to send food and women to the Japanese in order to maintain his landlord status in Baili Village.

In fact, it is normal for landlords and evil gentry to become traitors, because historically, the wealth and land of landlords and evil gentry are based on the exploitation and oppression of peasants, so it doesn’t matter to them who is the ruler, as long as their interests are not harmed.

This is not much different from the early Yuan Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, and it was even the same in the era before Wang Gensheng traveled through time. For example, a certain businessman sold dozens of ports without regard for the interests of the country.

But what they don’t know is that once this oppression reaches a certain level, once it collapses, the first to be hit will be these landlords and evil gentry.

Although the Eighth Route Army did not adopt the strategy of fighting against local tyrants and dividing land during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it adopted the strategy of demanding rent and interest reduction from the landlords in the base areas.

However, they don't have a good face towards people like the maintenance chairman who defected to the Japanese.

With the fall of Chairman Huang, the land under his name would naturally be divided equally among the villagers of Baijia Village. As for the grain found in the warehouse at Chairman Huang's home, half of it was given to the villagers of Baijia Village on the spot, and the other half was distributed to the New Second Regiment.

Although Baijia Village is a mixed-surname village, unlike Lijia Village where people only live with one surname, its population is much larger than that of Lijia Village. The total population of all ages and young people is more than 2,000.

Therefore, after Wang Gensheng said that the Eighth Route Army wanted to recruit soldiers, more than 300 people signed up. If Wang Gensheng accepted all of them, the Third Battalion would be fully staffed immediately.

But Wang Gensheng also understood that these more than 300 young and strong men were the main force of Baijia Village. Therefore, Wang Gensheng finally selected only one-tenth of them, that is, more than 30 people. The remaining people were organized on the spot to become the militia of Baijia Village. They usually engaged in agricultural production. Once the Japanese attacked, they would be responsible for organizing the evacuation of the villagers of Baijia Village.

After all, for ordinary villagers, fighting is secondary, and producing food to survive is the main thing.

So when he came, Wang Gensheng only led one class, but when he left, the number of people under Wang Gensheng's command had become a platoon.

Furthermore, there were five donkey carts loaded with grain. This grain was naturally the grain found in Chairman Huang's home. Don't underestimate these five donkey carts. Each one carried 500 kilograms of grain, so the five carts had a total of 5,000 kilograms of grain.

Of course, although these 5,000 kilograms of food may seem like a lot, they are only enough for the New Second Regiment of more than 500 people to consume for more than half a month. If mixed with wild vegetables, sweet potatoes, etc., it can be eaten for one or two months.

Of course, these 5,000 kilograms of grain are actually only one percent of the grain stored by the landlord President Huang.

It is really hard to imagine that a landlord in a small village with only 2,000 people could store more than 500,000 kilograms of grain.

You know, in the granary of President Huang’s house, some of the grain has even become moldy, and it is unknown how long this grain has been old.

The reason why Wang Gensheng only brought back 5,000 kilograms of grain was, firstly, because there were not enough donkey carts, and secondly, because he considered that the Japanese would come to retaliate soon. If he brought back so much grain, there would be no place to put it. If the tunnel was breached by the Japanese, too much grain would just be lost to them.

However, Wang Gensheng did not immediately give guns to the platoon of young people from Baijia Village who were willing to join the Eighth Route Army when they came back with him.

Because these people have not received any formal military training, and they can't even follow the most basic orders and stand in line, so if they are directly fired at this time, they may even kill themselves.

Of course, because it was the period of the Anti-Japanese War, the basic training time of the Eighth Route Army was very short, usually only a short month. During this month, they trained in formations and even basic shooting skills.

This is incomparable to the Japanese soldiers. You have to know that the Japanese soldiers' training time was as full as ten months. Of course, this was only in the early stage. In the later stage, the Japanese soldiers didn't even have three months, let alone ten months. This is why the Japanese soldiers' combat effectiveness was so poor in the later stage of the War of Resistance.

However, what Wang Gensheng did not expect was that this little Japanese was quite patient. Instead of retaliating immediately, he waited for more than a month until the new recruits brought by Baijia Village completed their training before arriving.

What made Wang Gensheng happy was Baili Xiu, who was brought from Baijia Village. He was indeed the best hunter in Baili Village, and his marksmanship also shocked Wang Gensheng.

Without a scope, he could actually hit the target ten out of ten times with a Type 38 rifle at a distance of three hundred meters. If he had this kind of marksmanship and was equipped with a Type 98K rifle, he would definitely be a sniper!
Of course, there is still some gap between Baili Xiu's marksmanship and that of Zhao Gang of the independent regiment. After all, Zhao Gang can use a Type 38 rifle to shoot the Japanese mortar gunner in the head at a distance of 500 meters.

Although the Japanese this time only had a battalion, they were not something that the New Second Regiment, which only had more than 500 people, could confront head-on. So facing the aggressive Japanese, Kong Jie asked with some concern:
"Well! Are you sure this time?"

Wang Gensheng didn't care about Kong Jie's worries at all and said:
"Whether you're confident or not, we'll have to fight to find out. Besides, there's a passage leading out of the village. If we can't win, can we just run away?"

After all, this tunnel warfare was not originally intended to be used for a head-on confrontation with the Japanese, so it is unrealistic to expect that this tunnel warfare can eliminate the Japanese. This test is mainly to see the defensive capabilities of the tunnel.

(End of this chapter)