Imperial warlords: Cannons are the only truth

Early the next morning.

Wanjiakou, the border between Youzhou and Jinzhou.

The 159th Regiment of the Jinzhou Army was stationed here.

The 159th Regiment, which received the order to be on alert in Jincheng last night, has set up fire defense points in the defense zone of Wanjiakou as instructed.

In terms of both light and heavy firepower, the 159th Regiment of the Jinzhou Army was quite good.

The entire regiment was equipped with as many as thirty-eight light and heavy machine guns.

Compared to the Youzhou Army during Zheng Kuiyong's time, the number of machine guns in the 159th Regiment was almost equal to the number of machine guns equipped in the entire 33rd Division of the Youzhou Army!

This clearly demonstrates the vast difference between the Youzhou army and the warlord armies of other provinces in the past...

Guo Tianlei, the commander of the 159th Regiment, yawned and smoked as he strolled around the front lines.

"How's it going? Any movement from the other side?"

"Reporting to the commander, so far no abnormalities have been found!" a captain reported to Guo Tianlei.

"It would be strange if something were abnormal!" Guo Tianlei casually threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it into the dirt. "Those country bumpkins from Youzhou dare to roam outside of Youzhou?"

"That's enough talk! Do you think they'd dare to do it even if you gave them a hundred lives?"

"If you ask me, we might as well just pull the team over there and start fighting!"

"Why is the chief of staff trying to use diplomacy before resorting to force with these bumpkins...?"

"Chief of Staff Luo is clearly just teasing them!" Zhao Dapeng, deputy commander of the 159th Regiment of the Jinzhou Army, smiled. "I heard that Youzhou sent us a notice to persuade them to surrender last night."

"They said they hoped we would surrender voluntarily..."

"Chief of Staff Luo laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up!"

"This Shen Moshen is a real 'talent'! Given how the Youzhou army is, they even have to count the bullets on their fingers when they fight, yet they still send us a notice to persuade us to surrender?"

As he spoke, Guo Tianlei raised his hand to look at the time on his watch: "Then let's have some fun with these country bumpkins."

"At eight o'clock sharp, if anyone from Youzhou dares to come, give them a good beating! Keep the machine guns firing and keep firing until they're dead, and make sure there's plenty of ammo!"

"Commander, I reckon they probably won't send anyone from over there."

Zhao Dapeng, deputy commander of the 159th Regiment of the Jinzhou Army, smiled and said, "This Shen Moshen who suddenly appeared out of nowhere doesn't know his own limitations. Do you think those brigade commanders of the 33rd Division don't know what their situation is?"

"Even if you send Gu Xingbang, the most capable fighter in the Youzhou army, would he dare to come?"

“That’s true.” Guo Tianlei said with a look of disdain, “I’ll send a telegram to Jincheng requesting permission to fight.”

“Our 159th Regiment can act as the vanguard to scout ahead for the main force.”

"My whole regiment can easily take on an entire division!"

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7:30 a.m.

Several planes flew over the 159th Regiment's position at Wanjiakou.

Leaflets rained down from the plane.

Before long, leaflets rained down and covered the 159th Regiment's position.

"Holy shit............."

"Fly...fly...airplane???"

Hearing the commotion, Guo Tianlei emerged from the field command post, his eyes wide with disbelief as he peered through binoculars at the plane that had dropped the leaflets and turned to fly away. His eyes were practically popping out of their sockets…

Completely shocked, Guo Tianlei reached out and grabbed a flyer that fell right in front of him.

"This is.............."

"A surrender leaflet from the Youzhou army?"

Guo Tianlei quickly glanced at the contents of the flyer, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Commander!" Zhao Dapeng, the deputy commander standing beside him, was also shocked. He looked at Guo Tianlei with the leaflet in his hand and said, "This...this really is a surrender leaflet from the Youzhou Army!"

"Were those planes that just flew by Youzhou army planes?"

"Holy crap! This is bad!" Realizing what had happened, Guo Tianlei immediately grabbed a staff officer next to him: "Quick! Go report the situation here to Jincheng!"

"Something's wrong! Something's really wrong!"

As Guo Tianlei walked towards the field command post, he said, "They've even sent out planes! This is definitely not simple..."

"No wonder the Youzhou army dares to be so arrogant, they've made a fortune by upgrading their weapons!"

"Commander! The few planes that flew away don't prove anything, do they?" Zhao Dapeng saw Guo Tianlei's strong reaction and hurriedly followed.

"Doesn't it prove anything?"

"What else are you trying to say? Didn't you see clearly what flew over our heads just now?"

"An airplane! An airplane with wings!" At this moment, Guo Tianlei's attitude had completely reversed.

It must be said that Guo Tianlei's logical reasoning ability was still very strong at this time!

"Luckily, it was just leaflets. If it had been a bomb, we'd probably be stunned by now!"

"Think about it—they've even managed to build airplanes, so how could the Youzhou army be lacking in weaponry and equipment?"

"I have a really bad feeling about this! There's definitely something fishy going on here!" Guo Tianlei had complete faith in his intuition and judgment: "Maybe Shen Moshen isn't out of his mind at all, and we've just misunderstood things..."

Guo Tianlei walked into the command post, spread out the battle map, and focused his gaze on the location of Wanjiakou: "To be able to climb to the position of a provincial governor, one must be quite capable! If they didn't have any powerful backing, would they dare to play like this?"

“I just realized—it’s been almost three years. It seems like we haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening in Youzhou at all during that time?”

"Three years is enough to change a lot of things!"

"Heaven knows how much the Youzhou army has developed in these three years! All I know is that they've even built airplanes..."

Did you guys see that just now?

"Those planes that were dropping off leaflets were definitely not cheap!"

"Commander, it's only three years... Even if the Youzhou Army receives covert support from foreigners during this period, it won't change much, will it?"

Seeing Guo Tianlei's tense demeanor, Zhao Dapeng thought the other party was overreacting and hesitated before saying, "Perhaps those planes were just rented to them by foreigners to bluff."

"Could it be that the Youzhou army can just drive their tanks over here...?"