The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Due to the failure of the last three-way siege of Zhang Chi's troops, the former commander of the 15th Army, Shojiro Iida, was blamed and dismissed early.

So, with some efforts, Mutaguchi Ren'ya actually became the new commander of the 15th Army a year ahead of schedule.

But recently, he has been feeling a little uneasy.

It's not that he encountered any difficulties. He was promoted and the difficult defense problem was handed over to General Aung San's puppet army. He was very happy recently.

It's just that he has been a little too proud of himself recently, going to Fuso Ryotei to drink wine and to Western restaurants to eat steak too frequently, and he has actually gained nearly 20 kilograms in weight.

This made the chair left by Shojiro Iida in his headquarters a little too small for his buttocks, or as the saying goes, it was stuck.

Even after changing several chairs, he still felt uncomfortable.

Eventually he could only work standing up.

Recently, Zhang Chi's troops have been unexpectedly well-behaved, and all kinds of attacks have decreased significantly. Therefore, even when he was standing while working, Mutaguchi Ren'ya was in a obviously good mood.

Taking advantage of this rare opportunity of quietness, Mutaguchi Renya focused his energy on two things.

First, continue to strengthen the defense of Songshan Fortress, add anti-aircraft guns, stockpile ammunition, and prevent the Qian army on the other side of the Nujiang River from attempting to reopen the Burma Road.

As for why not store food and fodder in the fortress?

"Baga, the warriors of the Locust Nation can overcome some difficulties and feed themselves. All transportation resources must prioritize the transportation of combat-related supplies!"

Mutaguchi Ren'ya, with his belly swollen from eating too much steak and drinking too much red wine, used the "Double Peaks Piercing the Ears" move to knock the staff officer who raised the question to the ground.

The second is to prepare for an attack on Sindhu.

Are Zhang Chi’s troops in the mountains difficult to deal with?

Then Mutaguchi Ren fully demonstrated his academic spirit. When he encountered questions he didn't know how to answer in the exam, he would skip them and do the questions that he would know how to answer later.

John's colonial troops are so weak. If you want to win military merit, just skip Zhang Chi's troops and attack John.

Why are we never able to gather enough supplies and soldiers for the attack?

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The middle of 43 was not a comfortable year for the Japanese 15th Army stationed in Pegu.

At the beginning of the year, the Battle of Guadalcanal was defeated, and domestic troops and supplies were shipped by sea first to replenish the Solomon Island front. Mutaguchi Renya expressed his understanding.

Afterwards, the transport ships were busy transporting oil workers to Borneo to restore the large oil fields left by the Dutch East India Company there. This oil was the lifeline of the army's advance. Mutaguchi Ren also expressed his understanding, but why was this oil distributed to the navy after it was extracted and refined?

After that, it was finally his turn to deliver reinforcements, weapons and ammunition to him stationed in Pegu, but...

The White Eagles’ submarine is coming.

Uncle Sam, who had fully activated his war machine, not only launched dozens of escort aircraft carriers, but also produced countless submarines. These underwater killers roamed the vast Pacific and South China Seas, wantonly hunting down the Fuso transport ships that lacked escorts.

Mutaguchi Ren'ya stood at his desk and looked at the report in his hand. Last month, only 73% of the transport ships sent from the mainland arrived at the port of Yangon smoothly, and the rest were "missing".

Of course, Mutaguchi knew what the word "missing" on this document meant.

He really wanted to go to the Navy Department and bang on the table and say, "Where are the Navy's escorts? Where are the destroyers? Help me?"

You have to know that those ships were loaded with soldiers and ammunition that were originally intended to replace the 15th Army's losses in the previous battle. Now, the men of the Locust Country have gone to sea to feed the turtles without even seeing the enemy.

After much deliberation, Mutaguchi Ren'ya felt that he had to speed up the process, so he finally called his trusted adjutant Takuto Takekawa.

He took out a small suitcase filled with local specialties of Pegu, and also took out a plane ticket to Singapore and a boat ticket from Singapore to the mainland that he had handled in the name of official business, and handed them to the other party.

"Takekawa-kun, please."

Mutaguchi Ren'ya, whose bow legs had improved slightly due to long hours of standing at work, held the hand of his confidant and told him to exercise after returning home with a serious look.

After the last event, Mutaguchi Renya became the army commander as he wished.

He believed that after this activity, the reinforcements he had longed for, the 2nd Guards Division, would definitely come to support him.

The predecessor of the 2nd Guards Division, the 3rd Guards Regiment, previously followed Yamashita Tomoyuki and relied on bicycle assaults to defeat John's army in Malay and Singapore, earning the prestigious title of "Silver Wheel Force".

As long as he has the assistance of this powerful army, it will be easy for him, Mutaguchi Ren'ya, to lead the 15th Army into the Ganges Plain and be promoted to general!

However, unlike Mutaguchi Ren who ate high-end cuisine every day, the food crisis among the grassroots Japanese soldiers in Pegu was becoming increasingly serious.

The food originally provided by neighboring Siam was successfully transported to Pegu less and less after the Allied wolf packs appeared at sea.

In order to improve this situation, the Japanese Southern Army had to speed up the construction of the railway from the capital of Siam to Pegu and Rangoon.

This meant that the railway, which was built by forcing 62,000 Allied prisoners of war and even more laborers, was completed in just 17 months, while it was originally planned to take six years. Of course, the cost was the extremely high death rate among the workers.

This railway is the famous "Death Railway". (The movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" tells this story, you can watch it)

Before the railway was completed, the more reinforcements Mutaguchi Ren'ya wanted, the less food he would have. Of course, how could the devil Mutaguchi care about the lives of the lowly soldiers?

On the basis of the 2nd Guards Division, he planned to ask the headquarters for an additional independent brigade to expand the garrison in Pegu to more than 90,000 people.

-----

So what was Zhang Chi busy with in June when the Japanese were busy deploying troops?

He originally planned to focus his energy on four areas: water conservancy, agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides, in order to lay a solid foundation for establishing modern agriculture after the liberation of Pegu in the future.

However, the arrival of an unexpected guest caught his attention.

Jason, director of the Intelligence Department of the OSS, secretly flew to the Xinwangping Base as a chef of the White Eagle instructor team.

As a cook, it is difficult for him to attract attention.

However, when the people in charge of surveillance in the Security Department discovered that those guys who had been exposed and suspected of being White Eagle intelligence personnel had secretly visited the cook, they immediately realized that a big fish had come.

However, before the security department could arrest Jason, Jason went directly to Zhang Chi through the introduction of Lieutenant Colonel James.

Zhang Chi was extremely wary of the guys in the Intelligence Bureau who would be almost synonymous with awakening agents in the future.

After all, to the southeast of the area under his control is the future famous "Three-Slope".

Is this kid here to ask me to plant some special goods? I won’t do such a thing as giving birth to a son without any eyes!