Canteen System Assistance Notes

At this point, our army, which had reached the offensive limit of the campaign, was finally unable to attack anymore. The Japanese army was also extremely short of manpower and was unable to continue to dilute its forces and carry out any valuable counterattacks.

-―——----

But everyone knows that the actual meaning of this "tacit agreement to withdraw" between the two sides is completely different. For the Eighth Route Army, this withdrawal while the going is good was clearly intended to avoid over-exerting themselves.

Despite the continuous fighting and the considerable fatigue and equipment loss, the troops were in high spirits. The former Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, the former Shaanxi Army, and the current Eighth Route Army worked together to hammer the enemy's heads. Our superior air and ground firepower made the fighting particularly satisfying—"I've never fought such a satisfying battle before."—If the damage quota was relaxed a bit and everyone was motivated, the troops would clearly be able to continue charging forward.

But this went against the original intention of the Central Military Commission. If the Eighth Route Army had pushed forward again, they might have been able to take Zhangyuan City and wipe out the surrounding strongholds despite casualties. Then, perhaps the Japanese First Army would have abandoned their home base and rushed directly to Yunzhong to exchange bases with the Eighth Route Army. Then, our army would mobilize, and the Japanese army would further mobilize, involving an increasingly large area and ultimately leading to a full-scale decisive battle in North China. The Eighth Route Army was not yet prepared to fight this battle to this point.

Therefore, the Eighth Route Army stopped the battle here, not only out of caution to stop while the going was good and secure the gains, but also out of strategic considerations to a greater extent.

But for the Japanese, I'm afraid they don't have the luxury to consider the future.

The failure of the encirclement and suppression campaign in central Hebei cost Okamura the North China Front Army's most powerful and mobile mixed mechanized brigade, as well as the 32nd Division of the 12th Army, which had been suppressing the entire southwest of Shandong Province. It also nearly crippled the North China Front Army's reserve 27th Division. This depletion of mobile forces led to the Japanese losing Dezhou, a key junction on the Jinpu Road. After repeated sieges and assaults, Dezhou remains in Communist hands, and the Jinpu Road remains interrupted.

And because of the dissipation of the 32nd Division, the Communist Army in southwestern Shandong has begun extremely bold offensive operations. The last area in Shandong Province with "relatively good public security" is rapidly falling into a state of deterioration.

At that time, Okamura Yasuji had no choice but to ask the Central China Front Army for help, asking them to send troops to support. Finally, after a series of wrangling, quarreling, and exchanging of interests, the 13th Army, stationed in Modu and under less pressure to manpower, sent the 22nd Division guarding Modu and the 66th Division (formerly the 17th Independent Mixed Division) stationed in Lin'an to support the north by train.

But at this moment, the entire Mengjiang garrison army was gone.

Now, apart from the paralyzed First Army, the bleeding ulcers in Dezhou, and the rapidly "cancerous" Southwest Shandong, the entire bedridden North China Front Army has a new threat.

The Eighth Route Army had punched a hole in the outer defenses of the Pingjin perimeter, exposing the city of Zhangyuan. Given the Eighth Route Army's formidable combat power, which had decimated two divisions in just five days, relying solely on Zhangyuan to defend against the mysterious and terrifying Communist corps was like trying to block a large-caliber pistol prodding your temple with a frying pan—reality wasn't a game where a frying pan made you immune to all bullets.

It is necessary to send more troops to Zhangyuan, Huaian, Tianzhen, Weixian, Luanyuan and Lingqiu. At least the defense line must be upgraded from a "frying pan" to a "bulletproof vest"! The leaders of the North China Front Army don't want the city of Sijiu to be "overtaken by the Eighth Route Army for another 400-mile leap".

But... the North China Front Army has no more troops to deploy!

Should they rely on the remnants of the 51st Division (formerly the 2nd Independent Mixed Division), of which only a little over a battalion remained? Or on the disheveled, spirit-depleted remnants of the 27th Division, hunkered down in Tianjin? The defenses around Zhangyuan were only now being held together by General Okamura Yasuji, who had withdrawn the 64th Division from the Sijiucheng garrison. The direct result of this unprecedented withdrawal was that the only Japanese soldiers now maintaining law and order and standing guard in Sijiucheng were Japanese expatriates who had only been in uniform for a little over seven days.

Even the veterinarians at the Peking Military Horse Farm and the ground crew at the Nanyuan Airport of the Army Aviation Corps went up to the city gate tower with guns: at least they still had regular rifles to use, while the overseas Chinese had

Even the "Mannlicher" that the Japanese found in the warehouse.

Oh, what can I do, what can I do?

Okamura Neiji pulled up the curtains, returning the room to darkness. He was not angry or impatient at all: in the past few days, he had already yelled and scolded

I've lost all my temper, but I still can't change the situation.

-An important part of the North China Front Army was eventually destroyed right under their own noses.

This emptiness after emotional exhaustion actually has a bit of Zen clarity...

On his desk lay a telegram from Shigetaro Amakasu, commander of the Mongolian Army. It began with an apology, then a series of connections and excuses, hoping that Commander Okamura would issue a transfer order for him. Demotion or reassignment to the reserves was fine; for such a serious crime, he accepted the punishment, but he probably didn't want to commit seppuku.

Um...veto.

Okamura Neiji smiled wryly. At this point, his junior still dreamed of getting away with it… Just wait patiently in office! Earlier, when Dezhou fell, a lot of people at headquarters criticized and challenged me, demanding I "take responsibility." But now? With the Mongolian troops gone, those accusations vanished instantly—isn't this situation clear?

"Commander," the orderly came in and reported, "a telegram from headquarters: the special plane carrying Section Chiefs Hattori Takushirō and Sanada Joiichirō is arriving soon."

“Right away? Arriving where?”

"Um...the telegram said we'll be arriving at Nanyuan Airport soon."

I understand. You are here to "ask questions."

"Okay, I understand. You can go out now."

Chapter 489: War Zone Chapter (1) Rice, Radish and Dried Fish

Two genuine Showa staff officers flew to Sijiucheng, bearing orders from Imperial Headquarters to review this "unprecedented and utter defeat that humiliated the Imperial Army and destroyed the lifeline of Manchuria and Mongolia." Therefore, they would likely continue to traverse Sijiucheng and Zhangyuan for quite some time.

However, the Eighth Route Army soldiers did not have the leisure to pay attention to the whereabouts of the two Showa staff officers. Several troops on the front line began to enter a defensive state, building fortifications and arranging fire support points, while most of the troops began to rest and recuperate - and when they rested and recuperated, they had to solve some big and small problems.

Among them, eating is a relatively important issue.

Food is the most important thing for the people, and eating is the most important thing. Similarly, the army must ensure that it can deliver enough steel to the enemy, and also ensure that it can deliver enough "chemical energy" to the soldiers.

The Eighth Route Army was equipped with four-wheeled cooking carts suitable for both motorized and animal traction. These carts were constructed from the framework of outdoor food stalls and canteen cooking equipment. They could accommodate fuels such as gas cylinders and honeycomb briquettes, and after modification, they could also use firewood. During breaks in combat, depending on the model, a cooking squad could use this equipment to produce enough food for 50 or 150 people in a single working hour, satisfying everyone's hunger.

However, during a war, especially when the pace of the war was so fast, meals were always kept simple - because the troops were constantly on the move, the meals provided by each kitchen team were basically very "simple", showing their ability to "make do".

Some kitchen teams cooked thousands of steamed buns in a row, steamed them in advance, and distributed them. At mealtimes, they would stir-fry dishes like scrambled eggs with tomatoes or diced cucumbers and mushrooms, and send them down with chili sauce and pickled vegetables, allowing the soldiers to "make their own buns and stuff them with vegetables" and eat them as they walked.

Some kitchen teams would mix flour into batter and dough, and then make large pancakes at mealtimes—filled with leeks and eggs, minced vegetables and meat, or mashed potatoes cooked in lard. When the pancakes were empty, the kitchen team would use diced vegetables and scraps of oil to make a rich, sauce-colored dish to go with the rice, which they would roll up for the soldiers to eat.

These things are very filling and taste pretty good, but they are not "proper food" after all. Now that the troops have settled down a little, many old-timers are eager to make some delicious food for their comrades. As soon as the regiment headquarters notified them to collect the ingredients, the comrades in the kitchen team rode their tricycles or motorcycles and happily went to the logistics point to collect the things.

Then, they all turned into wooden figures.

-―――――-—-

"What is this?"

"Salted fish, dried kelp... and radish..." The comrade from the logistics department pointed to the wooden barrels and hay boxes that had been unloaded from the truck and piled into a small mountain, and rolled up his sleeves. "Every company has some, everyone come and help! After you get the food, there are also seasonings - soy sauce, fermented black bean sauce..."

"Wait, wait! Comrade, I don't understand. Why are all these things delivered this time?"

The soldiers in the kitchen squad, bewildered, began to move supplies down from the mountain of supplies. In fact, there were far more items than the logistics department had mentioned. In addition to salted fish, kelp, and various radishes, each company even received a large amount of rice—the rice was stamped with "Tianmen Station," clearly requisitioned from Tianjin by the Japanese and then brought over by train.

So, these things are probably...

"Yes, this is not the supplies that were delivered, but the food captured from the Japanese."

The logistics officer pointed to the words on the wooden barrels and sacks and confirmed, "These past few days, our troops have taken control of the Japanese's 'field supply warehouses'! Some of the food will be distributed to the people to help them through the famine, some will be put on the market to stabilize prices, some will be stored... and some will naturally be distributed to us."

Oh, that makes sense. "Being able to take food from the enemy" is always a good way to reduce the pressure on the logistics department. Troops stationed in the area will always need to eat. Rather than wasting gas transporting these dried fish and radish back, it's better to consume them locally.

That is... the soldiers in the kitchen kept feeding Hua Yazi: so much salted fish, so much radish, and so much kelp. It looks like we will have to eat for a long time.

Yes, this will take a long time to eat.

Although the Mongolian Army was under the name of the North China Front Army, its origins could be traced back to the Kwantung Army; and as a cavalry-based unit, its supplies were better than those of ordinary infantry units. The Eighth Route Army had destroyed three division-level units and five cities, and naturally seized a large amount of logistical supplies - the troops responsible for the local defense would definitely have to deal with these things for a while.

The first "problem" was rice.

Given the Japanese's strange obsession with rice, the troops stationed in Suiyuan, Mongolia, did not follow the First Army's example and purchase millet locally. Instead, they insisted on requisitioning rice from the Jinmen Station, using the same rations as Yuan Weiting's new army. For the former Anti-Japanese Allied Forces fighters in the Mobile Corps, this was a rare delicacy, something they rarely enjoyed on a regular basis. However, for many soldiers in North China, it was a bit of a challenge.

"This rice isn't tasty, it's too hard... the key is that it doesn't satisfy my hunger."

Many soldiers in North China, especially in Shanxi Province, complained. Although these soldiers knew full well that "this stuff is good stuff," they had grown up eating grains and millet, with occasional meals and a half-starved, half-full diet, and indeed had rarely eaten rice.

Instructors and political commissars at all levels immediately went down to the soldiers to do ideological work, telling them that rice is not edible for ordinary people, and we cannot forget the hard-working and plain spirit of the Long March after having enough to eat for a few years. "The people in southern China eat rice, and when the time comes, we will cross the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River to liberate all of China. Learning to eat rice is a means of early adaptation."

Soon, the attentive instructor discovered the core of the problem -

In the companies with the most complaints, the majority of the cooking squad members didn't even have soldiers from the "rice district." As a result, no one in the entire squad knew how to properly use the stove and large pot to cook rice. The rice they cooked was either undercooked, burnt on the bottom, or even both burnt and raw!

No wonder people don’t like to eat it.

With the core of the problem identified, a solution emerged. The participating troops quickly launched a campaign to recruit "all-round cooks," rotating chefs from all corners of the country who specialized in steaming rice, making porridge, and even rice noodles with those who specialized in pasta. This allowed the team, which had little experience with rice, to learn how to properly use the stove and large pot to cook delicious rice, rice porridge, and even rice noodles, thus resolving this "happy problem."

After the staple food problem was solved, the kitchen teams at all levels began to think of ways to deal with other captured ingredients.

The dried kelp the Japanese brought from Tianjin wasn't a problem. Although many of our soldiers had never seen the sea, the kelp shipped by the canteen system was always a staple on everyone's menu as a preventative measure against goiter. The kitchen staff washed and soaked the kelp, then shredded it with a machine, blanched it, and mixed it with a hot and sour sauce, creating a popular appetizer.

The Japanese's radishes posed a minor problem for the soldiers. As a staple vegetable in Japanese rations, the Japanese had a vast stockpile of "daikon" (big roots), including fresh radishes, dried radishes, salted radishes, vinegar-flavored radishes, and a variety of other varieties, all savory, sweet, sour, and spicy. Consequently, for a month, every kitchen staff would find ways to incorporate radishes into their meals.

In order to avoid food waste as much as possible, they started with fresh radishes and ended with pickled radishes, and came up with a series of dishes such as fried radish slices, stewed radishes in gravy, stir-fried peas with diced radishes, radish stew, and spicy stir-fried radish strips.

These radishes, big and small, became the side dishes for the Eighth Route Army soldiers' morning porridge, made their way into their lunch stews, appeared as a foil in their dinner stir-fries, and even became the night snacks of their sentries - shredded radishes were added to meat fillings and stuffed into buns.

Countless "heroes" swirled and rose, transforming into a galloping steed, dashing left and right among the pots and pans, ultimately crashing into the soldiers' stomachs, as if it were their destiny. For a time, many soldiers dreamed of flying radishes of all colors.

But all of this was bearable. No matter how many radishes there were, they were still familiar radishes. After all, once winter came, cabbage and radishes would be available for a long time. What truly baffled the now-powerful kitchen staff wasn't the myriad of strange and varied radishes, but the dried fish piled in the corner of the warehouse, still untouched.

Carp, horse mackerel, salmon, squid... even if you search carefully, you can find a few pieces of whale meat jerky as hard as stone, but there are very few red meat products. The Eighth Route Army was a little disappointed - they had originally thought they would find a lot of canned beef and other things, which tasted quite good.

Then, under the coordinated arrangements of the logistics department, most of this dried fish was thrown into Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, a small portion was sold in the market, and some was also distributed to the Eighth Route Army. "My dear comrade, this stuff smells bad. Will eating it really not cause diarrhea?" a comrade from the Shanxi Province kitchen team asked heartfelt questions.

No problem, comrade, I told Li that this dried fish is especially delicious when cooked!

Chapter 490: Battle Zone Chapter (⑵) Battle of the Border of Life and Death

"Look! Good boy! Lady luck must have been on your side—the bullet missed the artery in your thigh by less than a centimeter."

A doctor with sunken eyes mumbled a long string of English, leaving the captain of the investigation on the bed a bit confused. In reality, his head was already dizzy from the procaine anesthetic, and his legs were in a strange state of both pain and no pain, numbness and no numbness, and coolness and no coolness. He couldn't even hear the nurse's translation clearly.

However, he knew what had happened: the bullet that had lodged in his thigh had been removed intact. The doctor in a white coat grabbed a pair of curved-nosed pliers, held the bloody and twisted bullet, took a look at it, and then threw it into the iron plate that was as big as a kidney with a "ding" sound.

Not long ago, this captain led a guerrilla force to hunt down a small group of Japanese soldiers. Among the Japanese soldiers, there seemed to be an officer of some rank, a captain. Several of them took a child who was on sentry duty from the Children's Corps hostage, occupied a room, and confronted the militia.

Later, when the negotiations clearly failed, the Japanese soldiers, knowing their time was running out and that they would be held accountable even if they surrendered, prepared to hack the hostages to death and then commit suicide. The reconnaissance captain, wearing a fragmentation suit, led the charge. With rapid bursts of fire, he killed three Japanese soldiers blinded by stun grenades and saved the child, but he himself was shot twice—one pistol bullet was blocked by the steel armor on his chest, and the other lodged in his thigh.

"Doctor, is my leg okay? Are you going to saw it off?"

"No, no, how could that be possible? When you recover, you'll be a brave man again." He breathed a sigh of relief and said vaguely, "Can I take this bullet that injured me with me?"

"Don't worry, comrade. The Japanese's bullet didn't hit any vital blood vessels or bones. Doctor Bai performed the surgery personally, so you can rest assured," the male nurse in charge of translation reassured him. "It will be painful once the anesthetic wears off, so you should be mentally prepared. But we'll give you some painkillers."

The nurse thought for a moment and added:

"Although bullet heads are usually processed uniformly, if you really want them, we can give them to you later."

--―--——-

Such scenes were very common during the Battle of Mengxi, and even continued for a long time afterwards. After all, to some extent, this was also a fierce battlefield.

On the front lines of the battlefield, guns, artillery, and explosives—powered by chemical energy, inflicting damage through projectiles, fragments, or shock waves—are pointed at each side, each charged with taking the other's life in order to protect their own. Yet, beyond the reach of surface explosions and stray bullets, a war against blood loss, toxins, bacteria, and viruses also rages.

There was no smoke of gunpowder here, but the battle situation was still tense. Even because the Eighth Route Army had a higher level of medical care, the battle situation on this "second front" became more intense. In the Battle of Western Meng, our army annihilated and captured about 7 Japanese and puppet troops, and also suffered about 2 casualties in combat and non-combat.

If the Nationalist army had suffered 2 casualties, more than half of them would have been classified as "killed in action", and the medical system would have faced the pressure of treating less than 1 people; but of the 2 casualties of the Eighth Route Army this time, only about 3000 died on the battlefield.

This means that the Eighth Route Army needs to deal with an onslaught of more than 17,000 casualties in a short period of time!

Although the Eighth Route Army's medical services had made rapid progress since the canteen system was established in 1937, and had completed a series of special projects to improve the health levels of the military and civilians, such as the "Patriotic Health Campaign" and the "Health Front Reform", and had also experienced the actual combat baptism of the Taihang Anti-encirclement and Suppression Campaign and the February Incident, the influx of more than 17,000 patients, mainly suffering from trauma and blast wave injuries, in just one week was enough to overwhelm any modern hospital.

Therefore, in this situation, it is necessary to mobilize soldiers and the masses from the bottom up to contribute to battlefield rescue and medical treatment.

The widely distributed "minimalist medical kit" has become the first line of defense to prevent the loss of life.

After the reduction, the only medical supplies in each soldier's backpack were triangular bandages, sterile gauze, tourniquets and markers.

A few things are enough for the front-line soldiers to receive "first aid" in the squad when they are injured.

Emergency hemostasis for "protecting warriors".

Although there are inevitably some negative cases of amputation caused by mechanically understanding the function of tourniquets and ligating limbs for a long time, more people have been pulled back from the brink of death from excessive blood loss and shock.

Next, battalion- and company-level first aid stations provide the first line of triage and emergency care for all types of combat casualties. The high-end medic's first aid backpack contains everything from zeolite hemostatic agents, fracture fixation straps, and saline solutions. Medical personnel at this level not only receive casualties transported from the front lines but also provide first-line emergency care and triage—some minor injuries can be temporarily deferred for evacuation, while others requiring immediate transport by stretcher team and ambulance to the regimental dressing station.

Then, the dressing stations established within regimental units can provide initial treatment, rather than emergency care. While they can't directly operate operating rooms and perform major surgeries like the more affluent US military, they can divert minor injuries that don't require major surgery. They review the injury classifications performed by the battalion and company levels and complete injury status cards. Those with minor injuries who can resume daily activities in the short term are disinfected, have their dressings exchanged, and then are diverted to recuperation. Seriously injured patients who urgently require further surgery receive injections such as cardiac stimulants and hemostatic injections, and after being kept warm, expanded, and immobilized, they are evacuated.

Eventually, these wounded would leave the battle zone and arrive at field hospitals located along the lines of communication. Here, the Eighth Route Army medical system, led by Fu Rixin, Jiang Weiping, and Yin Xipeng, and the International Brigade medical team, represented by Norman Bethune, Dwarkanath Kotnis, Yang Gu, and Ji Ruide, worked together to establish multiple operating rooms and perform intensive surgeries lasting several days, saving many lives.

Of course, there were some mistakes and problems along the way.

For example, some frontline paramedics and aid stations rigidly adhered to sterile standards, mixing soapy water, potassium permanganate, alcohol, iodine, sulfa powder, oiled gauze, and dry gauze when changing soldiers' bandages. This not only resulted in chemical reactions between the various disinfectants, causing toxicity, but also led to rapid depletion of supplies, preventing subsequent soldiers from receiving adequate bandages. Another example is that some stations failed to correctly identify artillery shockwave injuries during injury classification, applying "green" classification bandages to soldiers who appeared uninjured but were suffering from internal bleeding. This ultimately led to delayed medical treatment and the unfortunate loss of life.

But this ultimately cannot change the overall situation of the entire medical battle.

Leveraging the border region's industrial capacity and a futuristic canteen system, the health system was able to administer "WaX"-prepared saline solutions to most bleeding soldiers to maintain effective blood circulation. Seriously wounded soldiers received transfusions of 28-day-old fresh whole blood stored at 4°C. Co-trimoxazole, derived from coal tar, was widely available to combat infection. The widespread use of disinfecting ultraviolet lamps, Kangfuxin recovery fluid, and pre-packaged sterile surgical instruments also significantly improved battlefield treatment efficiency and reduced casualties during combat wound recovery.

This somewhat crude but still tenaciously functioning medical system ultimately managed to treat approximately 17,000 war wounded and saved almost all of the lightly wounded. Even among the seriously injured and critically injured, who accounted for about one-fifth of the wounded, more than half were brought back from the brink of death.

Countless grassroots medical workers and mobilized civilians rescued the soldiers on the battlefield and evacuated them one by one. With their dedication and even selfless fighting, the Eighth Route Army also achieved a surprising victory on this battlefield:

Of the approximately 17,000 wounded, only 1800 died on this second battlefield without the smoke of gunpowder; the total number of casualties in the entire battle ultimately remained at around 5000. The identities of these soldiers were identified one by one, and they were properly placed in a safe place.

Their deeds and reasons for sacrifice were also recorded in the book, which served as an important basis for posthumous awards, pensions and other follow-up treatment.

The dead are gone, and the living will continue to move forward.

Chapter 491: Inter-war Zone Chapter (3) A New Call on the Banks of the Yellow River

The Yellow River, the big yellow river.

This simple name, even with a superficial understanding of the meaning, allows one to quickly grasp its key elements, evoking countless concepts from deep within one's memory: mother, disaster, shipping, and natural barrier, all manifested in her. Therefore, the people living along the Yellow River often have simple desires for various river deities—hoping for water during droughts and no flooding during rains, and for calm winds and smooth river crossings.

Of course, given the consistent attitude of the domestic people towards gods, the job of a god is not easy. Not only do you have to manage things in your main field, but you also have to do your side job well: the river god often has to take part-time responsibility for a series of tasks such as agricultural production increase, smooth travel, children's education, family health, etc., which makes him a relatively busy civil servant.

Just now, next to Dashuwan, south of Lucheng, the local villagers gathered together spontaneously. The village found several bands playing gongs and drums and began to "invite" a new river god into the new temple.

This story has to start with the first offensive campaign launched by the Eighth Route Army.

In the first phase of the Battle of Western Meng or the Battle of Suiyuan, in order to quickly break through the obstruction of the Yellow River and deliver enough troops to the Japanese and puppet army's defense line on the north bank, the Eighth Route Army not only organized a team of boatmen and used 25-ton motorized flat-bottomed boats, but also dispatched three "heavy engineering brigades" including a pontoon bridge training unit.

These three specialized pontoon-bridge engineering brigades comprised a pontoon-bridge regiment, a vehicle regiment, a maintenance battalion, a guard battalion, a training unit, an air defense company, and even their own logistics unit. Each brigade carried a set of heavy-duty pontoon bridge equipment specifically designed for crossing rivers. By combining these equipment, they could rapidly construct a 350-meter-long 16-ton bridge or a 180-meter-long 70-ton bridge, reaching the average level of the world's military powers.