Film and Television World Life Record

The Japanese soldiers strained to open their mouths wide, trying to get some oxygen. But with each deep breath, they inhaled only choking gunpowder smoke.

The scorching smoke from the burning and exploding explosives raged through the throats and lungs of the Japanese soldiers. It seemed to be squeezing their chests to burst. Many soldiers coughed violently, some even bending over and spitting out mouthfuls of blood and ruptured internal organs.

Finally, the explosions stopped, and hell seemed to have returned to the human world, but the scene before us showed that hell was nothing more than this.

Many of the Japanese soldiers who had narrowly escaped death had contorted faces, as if they had crawled out of hell.

Inoue struggled to his feet, only to find the battlefield completely flattened. Their carefully constructed fortifications had collapsed, bunkers and houses were shattered, and all standing buildings had turned into rubble.

He stared blankly at everything, knowing it was all over, completely over. Could Japan possibly conquer a country with such powerful weaponry? His heart sank, and he collapsed limply to the ground.

It wasn't just Xiaobenzi who was shocked by the explosion; Xue Laohu was equally stunned. He never imagined that just a few gasoline drums, along with some incendiary materials and explosives, could produce such enormous power.

"Promote it! We must promote it! We must spread this weapon throughout the country and let those little devils taste it..."

After that, things became simple. With Xue Laohu's order, countless men rushed towards the First Regiment's defensive fortifications.

However, the scene before them was quite astonishing.

Corpses were everywhere, especially in some underground fortifications and trenches, piled up in heaps, some curled up in the soil, some with half their bodies sticking out of the ruins.

Some soldiers also discovered a well-preserved car nearby, seemingly containing Japanese soldiers. When a group of men cautiously approached with guns drawn, they found the Japanese soldiers inside were already dead. There were no external injuries; they had clearly been killed by the shockwave.

In this battle, the First Regiment of the Doiyu Division was completely wiped out, except for a few hundred men who were far away and escaped with their lives.

Next, under Xue Laohu's command, tens of thousands of soldiers marched along the defensive line, directly attacking the vital points of Doiyu's division. In coordination with the more than 100,000 troops on the perimeter, after a day and a night of fierce fighting, except for a thousand or so survivors who managed to escape, the entire 14th Division, including Doiyu's, was annihilated.

Another veteran Japanese elite division has been completely wiped out.

Chapter 443 Old Li is rich!

After the battle, Li Yunlong walked triumphantly across the smoke-filled battlefield with his hands behind his back, watching the soldiers collecting spoils of war. His mouth was practically crooked with a grin.

This time, they've really struck it rich.

The collection alone includes more than 20,000 firearms, such as Type 38 rifles, Nambu pistols, Type 92 heavy machine guns, and Type 99 light machine guns.

Of these, more than 16,000 were intact, more than 5,000 were slightly damaged, and more than 4,000 were completely destroyed.

Of these firearms, the Type 92 heavy machine gun and the Type 91 light machine gun alone accounted for a small portion, totaling nearly two thousand pieces.

These alone made them incredibly wealthy; they had never seized so many spoils of war before, including their base.

In addition, more than five million rounds of various types of bullets were also seized.

This only includes individual soldier equipment. More than a thousand grenade launchers were captured, nearly a thousand of which were intact; more than two hundred mortars were also captured, and more than one hundred and fifty of them could be repaired and reused.

They also captured fifty or sixty field guns, but what pained Li Yunlong was that another seventy or eighty were completely destroyed. These were all treasures; in the past, an entire regiment might only have one. Now, so many spoils of war were ruined, and his heart was bleeding.

In addition, tens of thousands of artillery shells of various types were also captured, making Li Yunlong grin from ear to ear once again.

Next, Li Yunlong's mood was like a rollercoaster, sometimes happy, sometimes disappointed, sometimes heartbroken, and sometimes joyful.

Especially when I saw more than 100 armored vehicles and tanks, more than 80 of which were destroyed, more than 30 of which needed major repairs, and only 20 or so that were still operational, they were also badly damaged, it broke my heart.

These were their spoils of war, how come so many were destroyed? If they had been intact, how much combat power could they have added to the army?

Fortunately, Li Yunlong's mood improved considerably afterward. The tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery were destroyed; in wartime, these weapons should naturally be destroyed.

The trucks, tricycles, and tractors used by the Japanese army to transport weapons, ammunition, and soldiers did not suffer much damage and many were preserved.

The Doiyu Division is highly mechanized, and naturally, it has a variety of vehicles.

Li Yunlong had someone count them, and there were over two hundred trucks of various kinds that were still operational, along with over a hundred sidecar motorcycles and dozens of artillery tractors...

Such a huge pile of spoils of war was dazzling to Li Yunlong.

"I, Lao Li, have really struck it rich this time."

Looking at the damaged weapons with a heavy heart while thinking about the piles of spoils of war, the feeling was bittersweet.

Suddenly, Li Yunlong saw a soldier collecting spoils ahead, kicked a cannon barrel that had been blown in half on the ground, and walked away.

His face hardened, and he roared, "Which unit are you from?"

Upon seeing Li Yunlong, the soldier immediately saluted and said, "Reporting to Commander Li, I am from the Independent Regiment."

Li Yunlong cursed, "So it's that bastard Kong Jie's Independent Regiment. I thought it was some rich landlord. Why didn't you pick up the cannon barrels?"

The soldier looked bewildered and said, "Didn't it get blown up? It can't be used!"

Li Yunlong said with a stern face, "So what if it's blown up? It's still our spoils of war. As long as it's our spoils of war, we'll take it all."

"Even if it can't be used as a cannon, we can melt it down and make two iron pots for the cooks."

The soldiers realized that such a large piece of steel could indeed be used for many purposes, so they quickly ran over and picked up the cannon barrel.

Li Yunlong nodded, then noticed a discarded tire lying there all alone, seemingly untouched.

He quickly directed a nearby soldier to pick it up. Such a large tire, even if unusable on the vehicle, could be used in many other ways. If all else failed, cutting off a few shoe soles would be better than straw sandals.

However, after going around in circles, Li Yunlong realized a problem: the soldiers collecting spoils were too hasty. They seemed to only see the usable weapons and subconsciously ignored many weapon wrecks and scattered parts.

For Li Yunlong, who was used to hardship, this was unacceptable. He would pick up every single bullet casing left behind by Xiaozhun.

You should know that even bullet casings are very precious in the base area! Due to the lack of bullets, after the battle, all the bullet casings had to be preserved, handed over in a unified manner, and refilled repeatedly.

Sometimes, soldiers would even be punished for losing spent bullet casings.

This kind of wasteful behavior cannot be allowed to happen; everything must be packed up and taken away.

……

When Brigade Commander Chen saw the mountain of spoils, even though he had seen a lot in his life, he was so surprised that he almost cried out.

"Li Yunlong, there are so many spoils of war?"

Li Yunlong laughed and said, "That's right. Don't you know who I am? I've scrambled three feet of the Japanese territory, leaving not a single bullet casing behind."

"If we send these to the rear base and repair those damaged weapons, the strength of our entire base will be greatly improved."

Brigade Commander Chen said, "It's good that you think that way, but this credit doesn't belong to us alone. The people in Nanyang also deserve a lot of credit."

"Half of these spoils belong to them."

Li Yunlong said, "I heard that Nanyang is incredibly wealthy. Look at the equipment they've provided us, and the equipment for the Security Army—it's much better than what we have in Japan. Do you even need it?"

Brigade Commander Chen said, "Whether they like it or not, they should get half of the spoils. This is a matter of principle."

Li Yunlong nodded quickly: "The brigade commander is right. I, Old Li, am not confused. Regardless of whether they need it or not, half of the spoils should be given to them. It's a matter of attitude."

"I'll go and call people to divide the spoils."

Brigade Commander Chen smiled with satisfaction: "Go!"

……

In Nanyang, after listening to his adjutant Xu Weixin's report, Li Mu said, "We don't want the spoils of war, we don't need them, let's give them all to them."

"Talk to them again and tell them that in the future, when we fight the Japanese devils, we will not participate in the distribution of the spoils of war. We will give them all to them. All we need to do is kill more Japanese devils!"

Xu Weixin saluted: "The department will remember this and will send a reply immediately."

Li Mu nodded, watching Xu Weixin leave. With the Battle of Lanfeng over, he now focused his attention on Huayuankou, having already dispatched men to monitor the area. He was determined to detect any suspicious activity immediately.

Furthermore, in order to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy, Li Mu has cooperated with the north to spread rumors that the Japanese army had suffered a defeat and was going to bomb the dike.

If things really come to that, we can evacuate people in advance and save as many as we can.

……

The Doiyu Division has been completely wiped out this time. It's unknown whether things will escalate to that point.

The Japanese army's next main target was Wuhan, and eastern Henan was only a secondary target. As long as eastern Henan was defended and the Japanese army was not given any opportunity to advance westward, and the Central Plains and Wuhan could not be threatened from this direction, the situation was not impossible to avoid.

The key is how to defend eastern Henan, so as not to give the Japanese army a chance, nor to give Guo Fu a chance to make a mistake.

If the notebook is too far from Garden Entrance, and the surrounding area is guarded by the government troops, then there's no point in bombing it.

On the other side, Li Yunlong was overjoyed to receive the news that Li Mu did not want any spoils of war and that all spoils were theirs to dispose of as they pleased.

He found the brigade commander and said, "Brigade commander, look at them, they are so generous. They just give up so much equipment. If it were anyone else, they would be heartbroken."

Brigade Commander Chen said, "Their refusal is a sign of their noble character and support for our war of resistance. We must not be arrogant or complacent. We should kill more Japanese devils in the future. They invited us here to kill Japanese devils, not to take spoils of war."

Li Yunlong's expression turned serious, and he saluted: "Understood, Brigade Commander. I promise to kill more Japanese devils in the future."

At this point, he leaned closer and chuckled, "Brigadier, with so much spoils of war, we can't just send it all back to the base, can we? Shouldn't we reinforce our troops' firepower...?"

The brigade commander glared at him: "Your firepower is still not strong enough. It's all original foreign weaponry, which is much better than before. You're still eyeing the Japanese weapons."

Li Yunlong said with a smile, "Weapons? You can never have too many."

He paused for a moment, then said, "We don't need much else, just keep the heavy machine guns and field artillery. It would be even better if we could keep those twenty-odd tanks."

The brigade commander glared at him: "You wish! Do you know the current situation in our base area? How many soldiers can't even get an old-fashioned rifle and are still using spears and broadswords? How many units lack heavy weapons and can only risk their lives to fight the Japanese?"

“Sending these weapons back will significantly boost the strength of our base area, giving us more confidence to face the Japanese. Our firepower is already good enough; keeping these weapons here would only be icing on the cake. Sending them back will allow them to play a much greater role.”

Li Yunlong was naturally aware of the situation in the base area. Compared to them, who had Li Mu providing logistical support, the situation there was much worse, with everything lacking. Sending these weapons back would indeed allow them to play a greater role.

He was very perceptive and immediately said, "Brigade Commander, you're right, I'll listen to you."

Brigade Commander Chen laughed and said, "Not bad, you're aware of the situation. However, I didn't ask you to send them all back. We still have a lot of battles to fight, and we do need to strengthen our firepower."

"Keep a few dozen heavy machine guns and twenty or thirty field guns to form an artillery battalion in preparation for the upcoming battles."