The War of Resistance: My Expedition, My Country

New Year's Day, 1943, arrived quietly, accompanied by the deafening roar of artillery fire. The entire globe seemed ablaze with war. Beyond the desolate, frozen expanses of North and South America and Antarctica, even the oceans were shrouded in smoke. The shadow of war loomed like a thick, dark cloud, suffocating the people.

As for the Chinese Army in India, with the arrival of the 30th and 50th Divisions by air, the strength of the troops reached nearly 10. In terms of organization, it was still set up as two armies (the New 1st Army and the New 5th Army). Among them, the New 1st Army was under the jurisdiction of the 30th, 71st and 200th Divisions. Huang Wei was the army commander with the rank of Major General + Lieutenant General. Kuang Zhengqi was promoted to Major General and served as the commander of the 200th Division; the New 5th Army was under the jurisdiction of the 14th, 38th and 50th Divisions. The army commander was still Liao Yaoxiang. There were also some changes in the chief officers of each army and division. At the strong request of Stilwell and General Merrill (because of his military exploits this time, he had been promoted to Major General), some conservative officers such as Hu Su were transferred, and the old chief of staff of the 200th Division, Zhang Zhige, was transferred back to take over the post of chief of staff of the New 1st Army. Wu Bairen, the former chief of staff of the 600th Regiment, returned from injury and took over as chief of staff of the 200th Division.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Congwu was appointed as the director of artillery of the Indian Army Command, and was actually responsible for the command of the three newly formed artillery regiments. Chiang Kai-shek finally could not resist the persuasion of a number of senior officials and only gave him the rank of colonel + major general. According to the intention of He Yingqin of the Military Affairs Department, this was equivalent to the rank of brigadier general in the United States and Britain.

Chiang Kai-shek knew that the US and Britain looked down upon the numerous senior Chinese military officers. Although they were allies, a major general in the Nationalist army was only equivalent to a brigadier general in the Allied forces, and a lieutenant general was equivalent to a major general. This was also the arrangement of officers in the Allied theater of operations.

Of course, there were exceptions, such as Sun Liren, Yang Hong, Liao Yaoxiang, and Huang Wei, who were treated as equals by the US and Britain. For example, Zheng Dongguo, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, was even considered inferior to Liao Yaoxiang in the eyes of Mountbatten and Wedemeyer. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek simultaneously awarded Zheng Dongguo the ranks of Lieutenant General and General, and Yang Hong the ranks of Major General and Lieutenant General.

In fact, Chiang had done a very good job in this regard. He worked very hard to suppress the disorderly emergence of senior generals, especially the Whampoa students. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, no matter how great your achievements were, the highest military rank was lieutenant general.

The three newly formed artillery regiments of the Indian Army differ from those of previous units: the Howitzer Regiment, equipped with 36 155mm heavy howitzers; the Mountain Artillery Regiment, equipped with 48 105mm mountain guns; and the Rocket Artillery Regiment, equipped with 24 six-tube 6mm vehicle-mounted rocket launchers and 203 eight-tube 24mm vehicle-mounted rocket launchers. It should be noted that these rocket launchers were originally produced by the US military using Soviet technology. After receiving the "W" principle provided by China, they immediately abandoned the Soviet design's shortcomings and adopted a cylindrical layout. This increased ballistic stability, reliability, and range, and also facilitated maintenance, storage, and transportation. This brought the technology of this World War II weapon forward by more than a decade.

The Americans kept their promise and provided the first batch of 160 official-issue 9-barrel 107mm short-barreled lightweight rocket launchers to the Chinese Army in India. Of course, the US military, under the pretext of experimentation, has already used them first in North Africa, achieving impressive results. The existence of the 107mm lightweight rocket launcher nearly cost Rommel his nickname "Desert Fox" prematurely. The US and British armies have also begun distributing these equipment to their army battalions and companies.

After consultation with Huang Wei, Liao Yaoxiang, and Wang Congwu, Zheng Dongguo distributed these 160 rocket launchers to the main combat battalions, giving each battalion four rocket launchers, enough to form a reinforced firepower platoon. Meanwhile, American 4/60mm mortars and 81mm bazookas were assigned to companies and platoons. This way, each army would have ready access to heavy artillery support from a directly affiliated artillery regiment. Each division had a mixed 59mm and 105mm artillery battalion, and each regiment had an artillery battery consisting of 75mm mortars and 150mm rapid-fire guns. The firepower of the Chinese Army in India far surpassed that of the Japanese Army of the same period, even surpassing in some areas the firepower of the Japanese Type A divisions during the 37 invasion of China.

That day, Huang Wei gathered several of his colleagues in the Indian Army to discuss the recent arrival of a large number of US military engineers. This was clearly the beginning of preparations for the construction of the China-India Highway and the official start of the Indian Army's campaign.

During the meeting, Liu Wu maliciously envied Pu Zhengsong and Cai Yong, who were far away in Jida. After the battles at Idgan on the southern front and the counterattack at Silger, the Allies' attitude toward the First Army shifted again. The New 38th and New 28th Divisions were reorganized to resemble reinforced US divisions. With the incorporation of numerous overseas Chinese and US military specialists, the New 38th Division's organization was restructured to include the 112th and 113th Brigades, with their own tank and artillery regiments, and specialized arms such as supply and engineering. The New 28th Division comprised the 114th and newly formed 115th Brigade, along with their subordinate units. By this time, the New 28th Division's strength had reached 2, while the New 38th Division had reached a staggering 2.5.

As the leader, Huang Wei understood Liu Wu's feelings. He had transferred him and Luo Bing from the First Army back to the 200th Division out of consideration for future development. Liu Wu's original name was Liu Molong, but everyone used to call him by his birthright, so he was always called Liu Wu. He had now successfully taken over as commander of the 200th Regiment of the 600th Division, holding the rank of colonel.

Kuang Zhengqi quickly consoled him, "Liu Wu, since we brothers have already set our goals, we must proceed accordingly. Pu Zhengsong, Yang Hong, and Cai Yong will follow the Allied forces and join the island war, and may even enter the Pacific theater. Our targets are Burma, French Indochina, and especially Vietnam, a potential future threat that must be eliminated!"

Huang Wei nodded: "So, transferring Luo Bing to assist Qin Shi is to allow the Burmese Guerrilla Column to eventually expand into the Southeast Asian Chinese Guerrilla Army, and eventually become the Chinese in this region's own armed forces!"

Wang Congwu, who usually spoke very little, nodded and said, "Big Brother, Second Brother, you formulate the overall policy, and we brothers will execute it! I know that Liu Wu and I are mainly responsible for controlling the 200th Division, our founding army. No matter what, this is the military academy and cradle for the core members of our brothers!"

Kuang Zhengqi looked at Liu Wu and said, "Look, Wang Congwu understands everything. What's there to complain about? You should know that General Merrill was very concerned when he transferred you back to the 28th Division from the new 200th Division. In his eyes, you even have more say than some other division-level generals. And look at the 600th Regiment now. With nearly 4000 men, we're no match for any Japanese regiment. If we go into battle alone, we can easily destroy a Japanese regiment!"