You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you brought out a Tiger tank?

Several soldiers jumped onto the truck and skillfully lifted a metal box that was more than half a person tall.

On the other side, someone was running uphill with a folded antenna.

His movements were so skillful and fluid.

Liu Yongnian and the chief of staff were both stunned.

"You...your battalion has a radio station?"

Liu Yongnian couldn't help but ask a question.

"yes."

Qi Liang answered casually, his tone completely calm, without the slightest hint of showing off:

"Each battalion in our division is equipped with a radio, so the battalion headquarters can maintain contact with the regimental headquarters and the division headquarters at any time."

Liu Yongnian gasped.

You're a unit called a guerrilla division, and you've even issued radios to the battalion level?

Does he brag without even thinking?

But the skilled movements of the communications soldiers setting up the antenna made him swallow back the doubts that were on the tip of his tongue.

Qi Liang saw through their thoughts, walked over to the radio station that was being set up, and patted the metal box.

"Brigadier General, Chief of Staff, this is a Hans Torn.Fu.d2 radio, with an effective communication range of fifteen kilometers."

Our battalion was equipped with two radios in total. The high-powered one was with the battalion command post, and the other was a small, backpack-type radio with the elite company.

In addition, each platoon also has a short-range walkie-talkie, so during an attack, the company commander can directly call for fire support from the mortar platoon and heavy machine gun platoon behind them...

After Qi Liang finished speaking, Liu Yongnian opened his mouth but couldn't close it for a long time.

Having served in the military for over twenty years and fought in hundreds of battles, he knew all too well what a radio meant on the battlefield.

In the vast majority of the Nationalist Army, radios were only issued to the division level, and even the brigade level rarely received them.

As for the portable mini radio and this walkie-talkie that I've never heard of before, I've never even seen one.

In reality, communication between grassroots units of the National Revolutionary Army relied more on shouting and wired telephones.

Once the telephone lines are destroyed on the battlefield, and if the messenger's horse also malfunctions, then each unit becomes essentially deaf and blind, with no one knowing where the other is.

If the messenger had to run on his own two legs, by the time the order reached the front line, the soldiers on the position might have already died.

And the guerrilla division of the 33rd Army Corps has even been equipped with these small radios at the company level?!

This is what they call a guerrilla force?

If you ask me if I'm envious, I'm absolutely fucking envious!

At this moment, Liu Yongnian wished he were also one of Commander Lin's soldiers!

Qi Liang watched Liu Yongnian's expression shift from surprise to embarrassment to awkwardness, and then to remorse, and smiled.

"Brigade Commander Liu, our Commander Lin said that the brothers of the Independent 45th Brigade have fought for most of the day and have worked hard."

This section of the position will be our battalion's responsibility to attack.

You and your brothers will be watching from behind.

Liu Yongnian did not answer, but just looked at the radio that was making calls.

His gaze swept over the 1st Guerrilla Division soldiers, who were carrying weapons and moving with practiced agility, and watched them quickly deploy in the open space.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the anti-tank guns on his own position, which had been reduced to scrap metal by the Japanese heavy artillery.

After a long pause, the honest man from Northwest China sighed and wiped the sweat and blood from his face with the back of his hand.

"Commander Qi, I'm sorry."

When I first heard your designation as the 1st Sulu Guerrilla Division, I thought you were just a group of armed forces reorganized from local security regiments.

Who would have thought that a battalion that Commander Lin could casually pull out was better equipped than an elite division of the Central Army!

We've acted like petty people; please don't take offense.

Then he thought of how Old Tang treated their Independent 45th Brigade as cannon fodder that could be used at will. He coldly watched his charging brothers fall into pools of blood, but he didn't even send a single reinforcement.

But Commander Lin, whom they had never met before, took the initiative to send troops to help them conquer the mountain stronghold.

In comparison, I felt even worse.

Just then, the operator loudly reported:

"Report! We've made contact with Commander Lin's forward command post!"

Qi Liang handed the microphone and earphones to Liu Yongnian.

Liu Yongnian put on his headphones, took the microphone, and took a deep breath:

"Commander Lin, I am Liu Yongnian, the commander of the 45th Independent Brigade."

"Brigade Commander Liu, I have learned about the casualties in your unit."

Don't worry about the wounded. I'll send a logistics convoy over immediately to take all your wounded soldiers to the 33rd Army Corps' logistics hospital.

"Medicine and surgery are all free. You can reassure the brothers that our military doctors will do everything in their power to save their lives."

Liu Yongnian bit his lip, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, forcing back the sob that was rising in his throat.

He stood at attention facing the microphone, raised his right hand, and gave a perfect military salute. As if using all his strength, he spoke each word clearly:

"Commander Lin, I am deeply grateful and cannot express my thanks."

Today, we are deeply grateful to you for saving the lives of all the brothers in our Independent 45th Brigade.

"If there is ever a need for me, Liu Yongnian, or for the brothers of the 45th Brigade, I will go through fire and water without hesitation!"

The last sentence was almost a breath, yet it carried the weight of a thousand pounds:

"On behalf of all the brothers in the brigade, both living and fallen, I salute you!"

After the call ended, Qi Liang finally spoke:

"Brigadier Liu, just wait and see what happens next."

After saying "Let's watch the show" to Liu Yongnian, Qi Liang turned around and began to assign combat tasks.

Soon, a squad of soldiers crouched low and set off from the position.

They split into three groups of four, moving swiftly and stealthily, using the shell craters and scattered bushes on the hillside as cover, and crept toward the hilltop occupied by the Japanese.

At the same time, the four mortars under Qi Liang's battalion began firing rapidly.

"Thump thump thump—"

After a series of muffled thuds, several shells flew in parabolic arcs toward the Japanese positions.

The shell landed and exploded, but instead of sparks and shrapnel, it burst into a large cloud of thick white smoke.

The white smoke spread rapidly, soon enveloping the Japanese forward positions in a white fog.

"Smoke bombs?"

Inside the command post, Liu Yongnian, holding up his binoculars, saw this scene and couldn't help but mutter to himself.

He knew what a smoke bomb was; he'd seen it in artillery textbooks at military academy.

But after serving in the military for over twenty years, he had never used it in actual combat.

The reason is simple: this thing is too expensive, and it's inconvenient to transport.

Even the elite units of the National Revolutionary Army often lacked artillery shells. Who would be willing to waste their precious artillery shell quota on ammunition that could not directly kill the enemy?

"Chief of Staff, how many mortar shells does our brigade have left?"

Liu Yongnian did not put down his binoculars, but asked directly.

The chief of staff flipped through the supplies register in his hand and gave a wry smile.

"Commander, our entire brigade only has five 82mm mortars manufactured by the Shanghai Arsenal. Each mortar has twelve rounds of ammunition left, all of which are high-explosive shells. This is our brigade's most valuable heavy firepower."

"We don't have any smoke bombs, incendiary bombs, or flares."

Liu Yongnian sighed, shook his head, and said nothing more.

Five mortars and dozens of shells—that's all the heavy firepower the Independent 45th Brigade has, except for the four anti-tank guns that have already been destroyed.

Every shell must be used at the most critical moment; every shell fired is one less shell available.

In Qi Liang's guerrilla division, a battalion commander could fire a bunch of smoke bombs from four mortars just to cover a single reconnaissance mission.

The gap is so large that it makes one's heart ache.