War of Resistance: Glory of the Beasts

Chapter 176: New Arrival (Thanks to 'Mu Lao Er' for the reward)
Yang Jingyu was holding a bowl of barley porridge, squatting beside a group of strangers in the military camp with his arms open. He was talking about something with the barley porridge in one hand and pickled kohlrabi in the other...

Now this has become his habit. Whenever Xu Chaoyang brings the troops to a new place, Yang Jingyu will use his affinity to greet and chat with the local people.

This is not in vain, often a lot of key information comes from his chatter...

"Brother, you usually..." Yang Jingyu squatted in the crowd, looked at the bowl of barley porridge in his hand, and tapped the edge of the bowl twice with chopsticks.

The brothers of the Northwest Army sneered: "This place is not comparable to the Fifth Military Region. How is Dao Wenbin treated? How are we treated?"

"Our entire 29th Army, with a size of 5 people, has only military expenses per month... Even so, it is paid on a monthly basis. It is no exaggeration to say that if we had not arrived in Chahar, we would hardly be able to afford food. Do you believe it?"

Yang Jingyu turned around and glanced at Xu Chaoyang who was eating with his brothers at the door of his barracks, and his heart shuddered.

The military expenditure is 5 per month, which means that the monthly expenditure per person in the 29th Army is less than two yuan, and this also includes military expenses and replacement of weapons...

What will be left in the soldiers' mouths?

Yang Jingyu turned around and saw the guns placed on the gun rack in front of the barracks. The Hanyang-made guns were considered relatively good. There were only two machine guns lying flat on the ground next to the gun rack!

"Is this your equipment?" Yang Jingyu asked tentatively.

"Hey, people are dying when compared to others. This is our company..."

In one company, Yang Jingyu didn't see even a bayonet on the gun rack, and in one company, there were only two machine guns.

"That's good. Some companies don't even have machine guns."

Yang Jingyu was a little afraid to open his mouth, for fear of hurting others, and he retreated back into the crowd in shame.

"Chaoyang?" Yang Jingyu squatted next to Xu Chaoyang and said, "This place is really poor!"

Xu Chaoyang sat on the threshold and nodded: "The 29th Army is indeed not rich..." He pointed at the bowl with chopsticks: "Even the problem of food can only be barely dealt with after we have the territory of Chahar and the intercepted tax revenue."

He remembered that in history, the 29th Army became wealthy after the Battle of Xifengkou. They were qualified to enter Pingjin and Hebei, and only then did they have a relatively prosperous territory, which enabled them to purchase foreign weapons.

The 29th Army had made great achievements at that time, and Nanjing was afraid that they would collude with the Japanese, so they treated them particularly well. In addition to providing a large amount of weapons and equipment, they also issued a large amount of subsidies every month. The Dagu Shipyard was also able to produce weapons, and Song Zheyuan also built his own arsenal in Peiping, so he could live a normal life.

But the 29th Army currently has nothing...

Don't say there is nothing. At least there is a blacksmith's furnace. Next to the furnace there are a bunch of blacksmiths hammering iron sheets day and night. Next to them is a mold for making swords.

Although Xu Chaoyang knew about the "big knife blade" of the 29th Army, he had never imagined such a scene.

The next day was even more terrifying. During the training, the soldiers of the entire 217th Regiment did not practice with guns but with broadswords. Each of them carried a circular broadsword with a red silk tied on it, and the instructor shouted at them, "Remember, when practicing with a broadsword, you must pay attention to your 'body, legs, hands, techniques, and eyes'!"

Xu Chaoyang didn't listen carefully, but that didn't stop him from swinging his sword in the open field, making a whirring sound and the vibration of the blade could be heard continuously.

The only gunshots heard on the entire training ground were from the pistol team. The old Mausers with 50 shots were hung in wooden and leather boxes. Three rows of soldiers were lying, squatting, and standing to hold their guns, aiming at the -meter target. Only occasionally would they fire a shot. Seeing this training method, Xu Chaoyang even felt that if he really got to the battlefield, his company would dare to fight against Wang Changhai's regiment!

Chang Zhan stretched out his hand to scratch his hair, and stood behind Xu Chaoyang who was watching the training of the 217th Regiment with a bit of annoyance, and asked: "Chaoyang, are we really following them?"

In the barracks, key members such as Yu Minghao, Liu Gener, Qu Yong, etc. who were resting all looked over, almost blinking their eyes loudly, waiting for Xu Chaoyang's answer.

That’s too bad!
Xu Chaoyang didn't even need to comment on the 217th Regiment. Just the group of people who followed Xu Chaoyang out of the Northeast could see that the 217th Regiment was really inferior.

Xu Chaoyang also couldn't understand how they won the battle at Xifengkou with these equipment.

This... looks depressing.

The old Hanyang rifle was only for practice, not for shooting. The old Mauser had to be trained to save bullets. All the steps related to firearms training were completed in a short time. The rest of the time, everyone was swinging a big knife...

The old Han in Shandong who is obsessed with martial arts doesn't train his troops like this!
If he hangs out with them for a year, wouldn't all the shooting accuracy that the hundreds of people under his command have worked so hard to develop have to be returned to him, Xu Chaoyang?

"Captain Xu!" "Captain Xu!"

Outside the military camp, a soldier came jogging towards them. Xu Chaoyang frowned when he saw him.

He could tell that the soldier was here to deliver a message, but the messenger didn't even have a horse...

"Captain Xu, Captain Wang wants to see you!"

Xu Chaoyang glanced at him and asked, "What did you say?"

The messenger pointed to the top of his head and responded, "Here comes the boss!"

……

Regiment headquarters, on high alert!
A pistol team surrounded the regiment headquarters, and there was a soldier standing guard in the middle of the regiment entrance with a shiny Czech-style gun. That guy looked as impressive as he could be.

Inside the regiment headquarters, a fake foreigner wearing a suit and glasses was examining a rifle carefully. After he finished looking, an old master took another look.

After reading it, they both lowered their heads towards the man sitting in the hall.

"Speak?" Wang Changhai stood in the hall, staring at the two men anxiously: "What do you two want to do here?"

"Do you know that this thing is now the life of our 29th Army?"

"Do you know that the Japanese are in Tongliao and can enter Chahar with just a few steps?"

"I, your mother..." Wang Changhai raised his hand, and the man sitting at the table groaned: "Changhai!"

Wang Changhai then withdrew his hand. It seemed that in this era, there was no custom of respecting craftsmen.

The man nodded at the two men in front of him and said, "Tell me, what do you think of the gun?"

The man in the suit spoke first: "The design is exquisite, and the changes in many positions are incredible. The gun must be a good gun..."

Wang Changhai already had a smile on his face, but the only man sitting in the hall said, "Just say but!"

"However, such a sophisticated design structure is still too complicated. Let's not talk about whether we can make the lever, gas cylinder and other parts. Sir, just the money for shipping the parts of this gun from overseas, do we have the 29th Army prepared?"

After saying this, he even glanced at Wang Changhai.

The man sitting in the house looked at the old master in front of him again, and the old master continued: "It's too heavy. The first feeling this gun gives me is that it doesn't feel good in my hand, and the second feeling is that it is heavy... Commander, but if you let me reduce the weight of this gun..." He turned his head awkwardly and smiled at Wang Changhai. The meaning was already very clear. With his technical level, he had no idea what should be reduced!
"Also, I heard from Wang Tuan that this gun has some flaws? For example, it is prone to problems in harsh environments?"

"Yes, as long as the overall quality of firearms is improved, these problems may be solved. But our problem is that the machines in the military repair shop are all from the Beiyang Manufacturing Bureau. They can barely produce box guns. This thing..."

The man sitting in the hall picked up the gun and rubbed it back and forth in his hands for a long time before he concluded from the two people's descriptions: "Guns, I like them."

"This gun is like a particularly beautiful woman. It is rare for any man."

"Changhai, but I'm not afraid to tell you the truth!"

"After our 29th Army entered Chahar and solved the problem of food, I saved up a little money, but this money is probably not enough to research this kind of firearms. But if we take out this money, we can buy a lot of ready-to-use weapons from the gravedigger Sun Damazi."

"What are you thinking about?"

At this moment, three pairs of eyes in the room looked at Wang Changhai at the same time, as if these people had pushed all the problems to him...

Just when Wang Changhai didn't know what to say, a voice came from outside the door: "Why spend money on buying things from a gravedigger? The 29th Army is so poor that they can only eat corn porridge, where can they get money? Can't we just borrow from him? If you borrow it based on your ability, why should you pay it back?"

　Thanks to 'Mu Lao Er' for the reward. Thank you very much. I am very grateful.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)