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

"Monocular ranging, scientifically known as the saccadic ranging method, is a commonly used ranging method in the military! So when you see a Japanese veteran pointing his thumb at you, he's not praising you, he's aiming at you!"

A loud voice was heard, so loud that it seemed to burst the eardrums, and even had a hint of intimidation.

Zhang Chi looked in the direction of the voice and saw the artillery sergeant "Mountain Cannon" explaining to a group of mortar gunners with his hands and feet gesticulating excitedly.

This artillery sergeant, who was still a wounded soldier when Zhang Chi first met him, has basically recovered after nearly half a month of rest.

His nickname is loud, but no one knows his real name. All they know is that he once worked in the artillery of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, and later for some reason he ended up in the Expeditionary Force. Now Zhang Chi personally promoted him to be the artillery company commander of the independent regiment.

In the entire newly formed artillery company, he is the only one who knows how to use Zhang Chi's newly acquired John QF 25-pound howitzer to conduct indirect fire or even slow-moving barrage strikes.

Therefore, Zhang Chi also needed him to teach the skills of operating howitzers as soon as possible to those mortar gunners who had some indirect fire experience.

After all, Zhang Chi didn't want his artillery company to be like the early White Party artillery, which only knew how to put bayonets on cannons and engage in close-range shooting.

That would be a complete waste of the QF 25-pound howitzer's extremely long range of 13 km.

Compared with the Japanese Type 91 105mm howitzer with a range of only 10km, the lighter QF 25-pound howitzer can bombard the Japanese outside the fire range of the Japanese division artillery.

Zhang Chi was thinking about how to use the QF 25-pound howitzer in his hand when he saw the mountain cannon running towards him.

The mountain gunner saluted with a standard military salute and shouted, "Report to the commander! We have a problem!"

Zhang Chi's eardrums felt a slight pain from the volume of his voice. He rubbed his temples and thought helplessly: These guys have been firing guns all day long, so their ears must have been half deaf for a long time.

"Ask ahead." Zhang Chi replied calmly, his eyes still fixed on the QF 25-pound howitzer.

The artillery-loving Guoshan Pao chuckled, a hint of flattery on his face: "Commander, how many of these John's big guns do you have? Just a four-gun battery isn't enough. I think we should form a 12-gun battalion, what do you think? Then the Japs will just blow us all away."

Zhang Chi listened, his lips curled up slightly, and he said, "The number of artillery pieces in stock is a military secret, so I can't tell you casually. However, I can promise you that if you can train a battalion of qualified artillerymen, I will make you the battalion commander."

Guoshan Pao's eyes lit up instantly, as if he saw an endless barrage of firepower crisscrossing the battlefield. He patted his chest and shouted, "Commander, what if I train an artillery regiment? We'll get 36 heavy artillery pieces, and I guarantee the Japanese won't even find a bone."

Zhang Chi coldly retorted: "You still want to be the leader? How about I give you the position of leader and call you the commander?"

Guoshanpao realized that he had gone too far, so he quickly restrained himself, saluted with a hint of embarrassment, and then ran back dejectedly to continue teaching.

Watching his back gradually walking away, Zhang Chi sighed in his heart. Although this artillery fanatic was a little crazy, he was indeed a talented artilleryman.

He turned around and continued to stare at the howitzer, and suddenly his brows furrowed.

Although the cannons were good and the ammunition was sufficient, transportation became a big problem.

At this time, the artillery regiment of a Japanese division was only equipped with an artillery battalion with 12 105 howitzers.

Is it that the Japanese don't want to equip their divisions with more heavy artillery? Is it simply that the Japanese army is poor?

Zhang Chi knew the answer clearly - no.

The real reason that limits the Japanese divisions from equipping more heavy artillery is transportation capacity.

Heavy artillery of the 105mm level all weigh more than one and a half tons, and some even weigh up to two tons.

To tow this level of heavy artillery, you either need a truck or 8 Japanese horses.

The logistical capacity of a Japanese division was simply not enough to maintain the transportation of more heavy artillery. This was the reason why the Japanese division was so stingy and only had 12 105 heavy artillery pieces.

As for the heavier 150mm-level artillery, the Japanese directly organized it into an independent heavy artillery regiment at the army level, relying on the logistics of the entire army to maintain it.

Zhang Chi's independent regiment now has a lot of artillery pieces stored in warehouses, but there are only 17 Bedford trucks responsible for transportation.

Even if Kang Huojian could train enough truck drivers, Zhang Chi's mechanized troops would still lack trucks.

Suddenly, Zhang Chi came up with a weird idea.

He might try to remove the turret of the M13 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and restore it to an M3 half-track vehicle to serve as transport for his independent regiment.

He will not waste the dismantled twin-mounted M2HB machine gun turret, and can deploy it around the base as a machine gun bunker or anti-aircraft machine gun tower.

----

Time flew by, and after a few days, some defeated soldiers who had been rescued from the Savage Mountain came to Xinwangping Village one after another.

At this moment, Lieutenant Colonel Tan Zhijie was sitting in a tent in the temporary camp outside Xinwangping Village, eating canned luncheon meat.

Until now, he still couldn't believe that he actually survived.

He put down the can and gently stroked his bandaged left leg with his fingers. Recalling his experiences over the past ten days, his expression was mixed with shock and relief.

More than ten days ago, as a staff officer of the newly formed 219th Division, he, like most of the other members of the division, abandoned his baggage and headed into the Savage Mountain with only five days' worth of dry food.

But the horror of the primeval forest was far beyond their expectations.

Soon, they lost the ability to distinguish directions in the primeval forest during the rainy season.

The compass was spinning wildly, influenced by something unknown.

The rainstorm mercilessly swallowed up the sky and blocked out the sun.

Having no experience in crossing primeval forests, they were completely lost due to the steepness of the mountains and the attacks of mudslides, and wandered around in the mountains like headless flies.

To make matters worse, the five days of dry food were quickly eaten up, and people fell down or went missing one after another due to drinking raw water, being bitten by poisonous mosquitoes, or falling off a cliff.

Finally, during a day's march, he missed a step and fell off a cliff.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying in a stream with wounds all over his body.

Having lost his direction and strength, he could only follow the stream, hoping to find a glimmer of hope.

He actually walked out of the Savage Mountains and returned to the Kingdom of Pegu before starving to death.

Fate finally favored him - when he was about to starve to death, he accidentally walked out of the Wild Man Mountains and set foot on the land of Pegu Kingdom again.

Then, he was rescued from coma by friendly forces and brought back to the camp of this strange "independent regimental battle group".

Although he had never heard of this "independent regimental-level combat group", he still followed those people back to Xinwangping Village obediently.

He had never heard of the existence of this independent regiment in the expeditionary force, but the facts before him forced him to believe that there was actually an organized Qian army in the north of the Pegu Kingdom.

There really is plenty of food here, and even rare medicines.

His leg, which had become infected and festered due to an injury, was now gradually getting better, which made him feel grateful.

"I thought this leg was broken, but I didn't expect it could be saved." He muttered to himself, with an incredible glint in his eyes.

For a professional soldier, losing a leg is no different from losing his life.

He knew that he now owed Colonel Zhang Chi two lives.

Why is it that the name of the leader of this independent regiment is exactly the same as that of his junior who doesn’t do well in school?