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Sichuan and Kang provinces were the strong backing for the Tang Dynasty's persistence in the War of Resistance. Without the contributions of the people of these two provinces, perhaps the National Guard would have been defeated.

This is the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, which has strong strategic depth.

But in fact, Xikang Province has a very low presence. It was established to buffer the conflict between Tibet Province and Sichuan Province. Its territory is mainly sparsely populated with mountainous areas that are rarely visited by people.

In addition, Xikang Province was established not long ago, so the people of the Tang Dynasty included Xikang Province when they talked about Sichuan Province.

Even after the outbreak of the full-scale war of resistance against Japan, many people only knew about Sichuan Province and did not know about Connecticut Province.

But there is one thing about Xikang Province that cannot be ignored, that is, it is rich in iron ore resources!

For example, the Xu family army in the past, although it only had a small piece of territory as big as the Acropolis, there was a fairly large iron mine within its jurisdiction. This iron mine was also the capital for Xu Le to lead the troops to go to war.

Without the support of this iron mine, Xu Le would not be able to equip his soldiers with rifles.

Since the first month the troops entered Shanxi Province, the Logistics Department has sent a returning team back to the Acropolis every month, bringing back the soldiers' family letters, captured spoils, military pay, and so on.

If you ask anyone who has been to the area under the jurisdiction of Xu's Army which army is the richest in the Tang Dynasty, they may not be able to tell you, but Xu's Army is undoubtedly the second richest.

When the soldiers become rich, the people in their hometown will naturally become rich.

After two years of continuously bringing supplies and money back to his hometown, Weicheng is now the most prosperous city in Xikang Province. Its urban area is more than twice as large as it was two years ago, and its overall strength is not much weaker than Chengdu.

Almost all families with someone serving in the Xu family army built a two-story house.

No one served in the Xu family army, and everyone made a lot of money because of the rapid development of the Acropolis, so every household lived a very wealthy life.

The chairman of Kang Province even proposed to change Kang Province's provincial administrative center to Acropolis, but it was later rejected.

Because Xu Le disagrees!

The returning team brought back not only ordinary supplies and money in the second year, but also various industrial equipment seized from the Japanese.

One part of them is mining equipment. The Acropolis Iron Mine has long been mined on a large scale and now has multiple mines with an average monthly iron ore output of about 3000 tons.

However, the iron ore here is not stored directly, but smelted into pig iron by the Acropolis Steel Plant. Only a small amount of pig iron is deeply processed into various steels for urban construction, and most of the pig iron is stored.

This is Xu Le’s plan. The iron mines in Jin Province will be used on the front line, and the Acropolis will be the army’s last guarantee.

When Xu Le's helicopter landed at the deserted Xu family compound, naturally many people witnessed it with their own eyes. Needless to say, it was very popular. In order to deal with the requests from all parties, Xu Le spent 5 days to deal with them.

This cannot be shirked. The people of Weicheng are the roots of Xu's army. Most of the veterans of the 176th Division are now in the 176th Armored Division, and some have been promoted to officers and assigned to other divisions.

These people in the Acropolis are the breadwinners of the soldiers, the breadwinners of Xu's army, and even more so the breadwinners of Xu Le.

"System, exchange all the iron for military merit points!"

"Ding, the amount of this exchange is relatively large and is being calculated!"

"Ding, exchange successful, congratulations to the host for obtaining 1920 million military merit points!"

Personal panel:

Host: Xu Le

Military Merit Points:

Title: Millionaire [Host's business ability is enhanced by 50%, and subordinates are enhanced by 20%]

Mission: Great Wall Watch [Lead the army to conquer the world and establish your own country, the deadline is 10 years, the remaining deadline is 9 years...]

Space: J-5 fighter jets [28], H-5 bombers [76], J-5 training aircraft [20], gold [26 tons], silver [107 tons], some antiques, some ammunition, some fuel...

As the pig iron that had been stored for a year was completely devoured by the system, the balance of military merit points reached an all-time high.

In the following period, under the leadership of the Chairman of Kang Province, Xu Le visited more than a dozen major cities in Sichuan and Kang provinces.

There are two purposes: first, to mobilize the people, encourage them to join the army, and publicize the various benefits of joining the Xu family army! Second, to negotiate with companies including several mining companies and reach a number of cooperation agreements.

Although the sphere of influence of Lu Ningyi, deputy director of the Intelligence Department, has not yet completely penetrated into the Japanese-occupied areas, he has established a firm foothold in the provinces behind the Tang Dynasty, mainly doing business.

And with the system's millionaire bonus, almost all businesses are flourishing.

Afterwards, various businesses between Xu’s army and Sichuan and Kang provinces were naturally handled by Lu Ningyi’s capable men!

Mainly, Xu Jiajun provides equipment, technology and a small amount of financial support, while the local company is responsible for maintaining operations.

Xu Le made a rough estimate that starting from next month, the monthly pig iron revenue in Sichuan and Kang provinces alone will reach 1 tons, and starting next year it will reach about 1.5 tons, and will continue to rise.

It's pig iron, real military merit points, not iron ore!

Faced with Xu Le's blatant poaching, the Chairman of Sichuan Province was naturally dissatisfied, but when he sued Xu Le to the Military Commission, the Military Commission's reply was to let him do his own thing and not to cause trouble, and there was also Commander Jiang's personal signature on the letter.

Obviously, Commander Jiang pretended not to see what Xu Le did.

But this was not gained in vain. The Burma Road had been cut off for several months, and the National Guard's own military supplies had long been stretched to the limit.

Before returning to the Acropolis, Xu Le contacted Commander Jiang and explained that he wanted to utilize the resources in Sichuan and Kang.

In return, Xu Le provided the National Guard with 2000 million bullets and 10 artillery shells every month.

Given the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, these ammunitions are enough to replenish the hundreds of thousands of main forces on the front line. Commander Jiang agreed without even thinking about it.

He even felt that the price Xu Le paid was a bit too high, so he privately wrote a secret letter to the chairman of Yunnan Province, asking him to turn a blind eye and, as long as Xu Le did not do anything to betray his country and surrender to the enemy, let him secretly prepare troops for Xu Le.

But Commander Jiang had no idea that 2000 million bullets and 10 artillery shells only required Xu Le's 3000 military merit points, which was not enough to buy even a Type 69 tank.

On September 9, under the leadership of Bai Shiyi, naval soldiers including marines set out from Fenglingdu to Yunnan Province. The more than 8 people left at the base were all new recruits and had to continue training.

Xu Le also left Acropolis on the 12th because he received a call from Wei Li.

While the Japanese army was mobilizing heavy troops to defend northern Myanmar and other places, it also mobilized another group of elite army troops to launch an attack on British India in the west. At the same time, the Japanese naval fleet also set out from the sea to the Indian mainland.

Admiral Wevil, then commander-in-chief of the British Army in India, first asked Commander Jiang for help, but the National Guard was facing a large-scale attack by the Japanese in central and southern China and had no time to withdraw to provide support.

But Commander Jiang implicitly told Wei Wei'er that there was an army famous in the Tang Dynasty that might be able to help him.

Wei Wei'er understood it immediately, so he sent one of his trusted men to lead an elite team through the Japanese-occupied area and come to Wanding to ask for help from Xu's army.