Canteen System Assistance Notes

Miki Taro understood the underlying meaning of this order. Furthermore, he understood the crucial reason the entire infantry unit remained safe and well-fed in the current situation. He called the cheerful corporal to the bridge and dug out two bags of canned food from the unit's cellar. These were the kind of food everyone would normally be reluctant to eat, but now, they each carried a bag from the cellar. The others pretended not to notice and resumed their afternoon training and work.

Miki carried a few Yamato-don, while Qiaoxia tied seven or eight sweet red bean rice, red bean rice cakes, and the only Morinaga milk powder to the back seat and handlebars of his bicycle. The two of them waved to the sentry, then rode out of the stronghold with a jingle, heading west.

Yes, the core rule for the survival of the entire Lukou stronghold is to do business and do odd jobs in Kangjia Town, the so-called "maintenance village".

After an unexpected obstruction during charcoal kiln repairs, the entire 90th Independent Infantry Unit reached a sort of tacit understanding with the village's small landlords, militia, and village committee. While the Eighth Route Army wasn't yet preparing for a full-scale invasion of Shanxi Province, Kangjia Town allowed the Japanese troops from this unit to come and work, earn money, and engage in "barter trade."

Over the past few years, Miki Taro and his colleagues have repaired roads in the village, cut down trees, helped build houses, and even helped sick villagers buy "glucose injections" that were only sold to Japanese residents. At the same time, with the tacit consent of the entire team, he has also traded canned meat, candy, Rendan summer-heat-relieving pills, and even ammunition here, in exchange for sorghum and millet for the team's kitchen during the lean period. Now, his technique of making sorghum rice porridge was learned from the villagers in the village.

And...actually based on my experience in the past few years, no one is a bad person, in fact, everyone is the same.

With a red cloth tied around his forehead as a mark, Mikitaro rode his bicycle leisurely, letting his thoughts wander. Like his hometown in the mountains of Kofu City, farmers in China lived in relative poverty. Even the well-off family of Kang Fugui, a small landowner in Kangjia Town, couldn't afford daily meals of white flour and meat.

Since we are all the same, why do we have to fight? Wouldn't it be better to be friends and understand each other like we are now?

Why start this war?

Aren't we all poor? Why do we have to fight with each other? Why was I inexplicably sent to these mountains thousands of miles away from home by a postcard, becoming an invader, attacking a group of good people who are so similar to me?

"Miki-senpai! We're almost there!"

Time passes very quickly while thinking about things and riding a bike.

The sun was high in the sky after midday, but the March weather didn't make the ride unbearably hot; it was even quite chilly. Soon, Miki Taro and Hashimoto Takenouchi finally reached their destination. The 40-li distance wasn't too far with the help of their bicycles. At the village entrance, Miki Taro braked, untied his red headband, and shook it vigorously.

He knew that this token could protect him from the militia's 6.5mm bullets and was his "card of immunity from war; however, this short belt was, in a sense, like a bond," connecting him with people in the same situation in this strange land.

"Fellow villagers of Kangjiazhuang, don't fire! I am Sanmu!" he shouted.

Chapter 602: A fragile and fleeting peace

Kangjia Town is actually a village; although it is a village, it is quite large, with more than a hundred households.

A river, more than 400 acres of land, and several birch forests support hundreds of people in the village and more than 20 people in the Lukou stronghold, including Mikitaro.

I greeted the militiamen at the village entrance, carrying secondhand Type 38 rifles, and, facing their slightly disdainful yet familiar looks, I trotted all the way to the district office, or rather, the "maintenance association" in name only. "Mr. Village Head, Mr. Director, this time, we've brought these."

Like peddlers, Miki Taro and Hashimoto Takenouchi, without their uniforms, unloaded their packages and lined the table with cans of Japanese-style food, sweet red bean rice, red bean rice cakes, and Morinaga milk powder. Over the past few years, Miki had learned basic conversational Chinese and, after some hesitation, could communicate.

"This time, we want to exchange for some meat.

"Let's do business."

Just as the gifts of life are always implicitly priced, transactions in communist villages are also determined by the "implicit price" T. The two parties in a transaction do not use currency as a medium of exchange, but simply barter, adhering to customary invitations and tacit understandings to exchange materials of equal value.

Among these, arms are naturally the most valuable supplies.

When such supplies appeared, buyers would often dispatch the village militia captain or security director to meticulously inspect the munitions for quality. Sellers, on the other hand, were often initially terrified, then grew accustomed to them, and finally, relished them with increasing enthusiasm. It's unclear whether this was due to a strange sense of guilt as they became accustomed to them, or perhaps due to a mental foresight of their potential fate. In short, the old Jin-made flintlock rifles carried by the core militiamen of Kangjia Town were replaced with Type 38 rifles, likely the work of Sanmu and his colleagues.

Of course, before receiving the order to ship the weapons, Miki found a file and carefully ground off all the chrysanthemum patterns as a form of "all-out" resistance.

Besides munitions, Japanese-made medicines were also popular. Although the Communist army had once sold medicine at affordable prices, it could never fully satisfy the Chinese people's medical needs. Furthermore, being on the front lines, the Lukou stronghold, physically closer to the village, sometimes had a "geographical advantage" in supply, successfully selling Rendan pills for heatstroke and headaches, aspirin for rheumatic leg pain, and a small amount of tetanus vaccine to combat the "seven-day wind."

The medicines will basically be used to save lives in the end, so Miki Taro's psychological pressure is much less, and it is definitely not because the medicines can be exchanged for food that far exceeds its weight.

As for canned products like today, they must be classified and priced differently.

"Red bean rice and red bean rice cakes are just ordinary grains, but they are sweet after all, and they are added with sugar. No matter what, they are also nutritious.

Miki Taro bargained skillfully, "It's too little to exchange for something of equal weight."

Give more, give more."

"Mr. Miki, your Yamato-ni is from the 40s. It's not as good as the 39 product. There's less meat. You have to discount it a bit."

"How about this can of milk powder? It's an absolutely precious commodity, something we wouldn't even eat. It's so rare! Director, at least this should be exchangeable for some meat, right?"

"Meat? Haha, Mr. Miki, meat isn't that easy to come by unless it's a festival." The district director laughed and shook his hand, as if to dismiss the funny idea. "Last month, a donkey in the village fell into a ravine and died. That was the only time we had meat. How can we bear to eat meat on other days?"

"You are so greedy for 'meat', but the only thing you can have is 'unborn meat'."

The eloquent and well-written district office director begs the question, but Sanmu knows that this unborn flesh is the precious delicacy of Jin—eggs. However, it is not meat after all. It does not taste, feel, or have the same enjoyment as meat.

But it is also a good thing, and I shouldn’t be dissatisfied.

Back when the army went to the countryside for sweeps, many veterans enjoyed catching chickens. Groups of them would chase the skinny chickens from the village for wandering around, only to have their legs tied and hung from their rifles. As a new soldier at the bottom of the food chain, I probably wouldn't get to eat any of the good chickens. If I was lucky, I might find a few eggs by rummaging through the grass piles, walls, and broken tiles of the houses where I'd found chickens.

Then, boil the eggs in boiling water, break them in half, and you can eat them. If you find some soy sauce, pour it on the steaming yolks.

Suddenly, several grief-stricken, desperate faces he had encountered before surfaced in his mind: they were Chinese people who had lost everything, and ultimately their lives, during the rural sweeps. Then, inexplicably, these faces overlapped with those of the folks in Kangjia Town...

Miki Taro shuddered, his whole body shaking as if he had been electrocuted: This is too evil! This is too abominable! This is too much! How could I have done such a thing before?

Why would I do such a thing?

He took a few deep breaths, determined to drive this nightmare-like scene out of his mind: I will never do such a thing again! "By the way, Mr. Miki."

The district office director, who was in charge of receiving them, interrupted Miki's wandering thoughts. The transaction was complete. Miki and Hashimoto had traded their two bags of canned goods for several kilograms of eggs—these eggs had been collected from several households in the village and kept for sale at the market. The director called in the accountant, who managed the finances, and bought the eggs with colorful Communist Army banknotes. He then traded the eggs for Miki's canned goods.

"You two came here on bicycles. If the eggs are in a cloth bag, don't smash them."

The director spoke affably. Several people were already at the district office. The village's only veterinarian and barefoot doctor had come to buy Morinaga's milk powder on credit. Lei Sang, the leader of the basic militia, had also arrived with a few men, taking cans of "Yamato Niwa," "Red Bean Rice," and "Red Bean Rice Cake" to distribute to several families with elderly people and children. The director stood up and dug out some cardboard from a box in the corner.

"Here are some cardboard boxes for eggs. You can put your eggs in them, put them in the basket, put some straw on it, and then you can take them back."

"Ah, thank you, thank you, Mr. Director. Hashimoto-kun, come and help!"

"Hey! Here it comes!"

A cheerful figure walked over to the bridge, carrying eggs. Together, they began to stuff the eggs from the basket into the khaki cardboard tray, one by one, like they were loading a cannon barrel with shells. Mikitaro glanced at his junior, his head bent over his work, then glanced up at the director and the militia captain, who were chatting. A strange thought began to form in his mind.

How could I do this? This goes against the moral principles of the Imperial Army and the soldier's code!

But why do I think so?

As if by some strange coincidence, Mikitaro walked away from the bridge where the eggs were being packed, and approached the district director and the militia captain who were discussing which family to deliver the canned eggs to.

I don't want this situation to be destroyed by war; I don't want the places where I once worked and interacted with people to be destroyed by war; and I don't want the good people who helped and saved me and my friends to die in a wrong war...

He mustered up his courage and said without thinking, "Mr. Director, Mr. Captain, "A war is about to begin."

"Oh? That's strange, Sanmu, you little... little guy, isn't the war going on all the time?" The militia captain said strangely, adjusting the Type 38 rifle on his back. "Oh, I see, Mr. Sanmu, the war is indeed about to start - you guys should pack the eggs and go back early, it will be dark soon, which is not good."

Yes, it’s getting dark. I hope we don’t meet on the battlefield then.

Miki Taro slung a basket of eggs padded with hay onto his back and began praying to Buddha, Guanyin, Amaterasu, and the imaginary "God of Communism." "Miki-senpai, how about we have an egg rice bowl tonight?"

Under the bridge behind him, people were enjoying a variety of egg dishes, but Miki Taro was not in the mood. At the time of parting, the profound answer given by the Director of Kangjia Town had left him a little uneasy.

He had never felt such aversion to fighting and firing. Miki was even a little envious of his junior Takenouchi Hashimoto, who was a little silly and only thought about eating. Like him, at least he didn't have to torture himself with these annoying thoughts all the time.

"Miki! Under the bridge!"

The stronghold was already within easy reach, only a kilometer or two away, when suddenly a Japanese soldier, covered in dust and wearing a grass ring, suddenly jumped out from a tree beside the road. Miki Taro braked and stopped, then took a closer look. Wasn't it Nakamoto, the veteran of the detachment?

"Nakamoto-senpai? What are you doing here?" Miki knew this senior, a former charcoal burner, was quite humorous. He'd even teased Qiao Xia earlier that morning about whether he wanted to eat his spareribs. "What happened?" "Something bad," the veteran said, his expression unusual. "This is a serious matter."

"What is it?" Miki Taro suddenly became nervous. He looked towards the Kamado base and was immediately filled with suspicion. But he quickly tried to calm himself down. "Nakamoto-kun, what happened?"

"Someone's coming from the battalion headquarters in the city, bringing a bunch of people with him. There's a mix of people from the combat squadron and Koreans from the supply department," Nakamoto Tetsuichi said quickly and hurriedly. "I was standing guard outside with that kid Kawakami when I heard the leading lieutenant call out Captain Ishii and tell him to return to our unit and go to Jinyang to carry out our training mission!"

"Training now, training the Imperial Army? A war is about to break out, and what good can come of it?" Veteran Nakamoto's eyes were venomous, but a rare hint of anxiety shone through his words. "The detachment commander must have heard something, and he immediately lost his temper and contradicted the lieutenant. As a result, those guys took the detachment commander away. Kawakami, that kid, was ignorant, so he was also taken away..."

"Oh no! Miki, under the bridge! Those guys at the squadron headquarters might want to send us to our deaths!"

Chapter 603: The battle enters the second stage

(Update)

A week has passed quietly, and the battle is still progressing steadily from an objective and realistic perspective.

The Battle of Jin Province was massive, stretching over 600 miles from east to west and over 1,000 miles from north to south. It was truly a major engagement. Therefore, unlike the "left hook"-like Battle of Mengxi, this campaign would inevitably be divided into several battlefields and phases. The Eighth Route Army could no longer execute lightning-fast raids and hundred-mile leaps like in the previous battle. Instead, it would have to be conducted across multiple battlefields and phases.

So now, if the generals of the Soviet advisory group to China, who had long been withdrawn, could observe the entire war situation from a God's perspective, they would probably be moved to tears - their Chinese students would finally make a plan, firmly implement it, advance the offensive step by step, and successfully resolve various unexpected problems that arise in the middle.

Oh, the former students of the Soviet Advisory Group were preserved fruits, so that’s okay.

In March 1942, the battlefield in Shanxi Province seemed to have gradually recovered from the flames of war that had spread everywhere at the beginning. The fighting between China and Japan was no longer fierce, but seemed to have entered a new normal of war.

But everyone knows that this "normality" is only temporary, unstable, and short-lived. One could even say that the current Shanxi Province itself is far from peaceful. Compared to the initial all-out assault, the current offensive seems more targeted.

On the northern front of the battlefield, after a five-year hiatus, the roles of China and Japan reversed, with China attacking and Japan defending. In the Hutuo River Valley, with our troops breaching the Ningwu Mountain Road and Yanmen Pass, the Japanese defenses along the Great Wall were completely destroyed. The Japanese defenders at Ruyuekou were forced to cease their pointless defense and retreat toward Fanshi County.

After our army captured Yuanping in one fell swoop, it immediately focused on repairing the railway and restoring transportation, while the main offensive force took the opportunity to rest and regroup. The reserve forces, previously inactive, turned northward and launched a counterattack, coordinating with the forces in the Wutaishan base area to drive the Japanese army from the southwest to the northeast.

With the roar of tanks and the firing of mountain artillery, the Japanese troops in Daixian and Fanzhixian disappeared like snowflakes, and the remaining Japanese troops had to "turn and advance" eastward and eastward.

But such a shift eventually came to an end - Pingxingguan, which blocked the last route for the Japanese army to escape to Lingqiu County.

"I never thought that we would fight the devils here again."

Song Jiyao, former commander and political commissar of the Yanbei Detachment and current commander of the Beiyue Base Area Field Force, stood in front of the familiar Fanzhi Pass, watching his troops cleaning up the remaining positions of the Japanese army and preparing to reset the defense line to catch the last remnants of the Japanese 52nd Division who were fleeing here.

Five years earlier, this place had hosted the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, led by the 101st Division, and part of the Japanese 21st Brigade. In that battle, the 115th Division, newly equipped with Soviet-era weapons, attacked the Japanese through ambushes, encirclements, and ultimately bayonet-to-hand combat. At the cost of 1500 casualties, they annihilated 2300 Japanese troops and captured the eminent Japanese monk Major General Miura Toshiji, shattering the myth of the Japanese army's "invincibility."

At that time, Song Jiyao's unit crossed Yanmen Pass to open up the Pingxi base area and did not appear in that battle. Now, five years later, the Eighth Route Army is leisurely rebuilding fortifications, setting up defense lines, deploying light and heavy firepower, waiting for the panicked enemy to come to them.

"Master Lin didn't have so many good conditions back then." Song Jiyao sighed, looking towards the dusty west. "Times have changed."

The central line of the battlefield, with the Zhengtai Line as the core, replaced the scene of heavy artillery fire during the first Yangquan offensive with continuous small-scale battles.

As a key node on the Zhengtai Railway, Yangquan was not actually a good place to defend. It was a small basin nestled in a mountain valley, housing a railway station disguised as a city. Almost all the surrounding hills were higher than it, offering better views.

During the Hundred Regiments Campaign in the original time and space, Chen Lianfu, commander of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, led his troops in an attack on Yangquan. After a hard-fought battle to capture Lion's Head Peak, a commanding height outside the city, the Eighth Route Army, with few artillery pieces, successfully suppressed the Japanese artillery fire within the city through direct fire alone. However, due to a shortage of ammunition and ammunition, and a lack of reinforcements, coupled with a trainload of returning Japanese soldiers stopping there and urgently mobilized to join the battle, the offensive failed at the last moment.

But now, after launching an offensive with only two field army regiments and several local independent regiments, the commanding heights around Yangquan County quickly changed hands within a few days. Although the Japanese 53rd Division (formerly the 4th Independent Mixed Division) launched several counterattacks in an attempt to retake the commanding heights, the Japanese, forced to attack from above, were repeatedly defeated as their artillery fire was suppressed by the 160th heavy armored vehicles and their vanguard units encountered light and heavy firepower and flamethrowers.

During the day, artillery fire flew across the sky under the guidance of observation; at night, tongues of fire surged under the magnesium light of flares. The trapped 53rd Division headquarters could only gather its last forces and try to break out.

They initially intended to attack eastward, heading for the closer Shimen City, hiding within the 110th Division's control zone. However, under our army's tight blocking and artillery barrage, only a few escaped under cover of darkness, forcing the rest of the troops back into the city. The Japanese could only burn their flags, smash their radio stations, and advance westward through the opening we had left, toward Jinyang City. Even though they understood this was a classic tactic of "encircling three sides and leaving one behind," and knew our army would undoubtedly deploy numerous obstacles along the way, the 53rd Division ultimately rushed towards that slim hope, only to fall one by one along the way.

In the southern part of the battlefield, fierce fighting continued.

There is no need to say much about the siege battle of Changzhi County. In the southern Shanxi Basin, after closing Tieling Pass and cutting off the passage of the Japanese army in southern Shanxi to Zhongtiao Mountain, Liu Mingzhao took the lead of the Japanese army and dispatched troops to defeat the garrison in Wenxi County, seized the Japanese army's originally planned attack starting point, and changed to a defensive position in the direction of Linfen.

This move completely disrupted the 37th Division's breakout plan, and the division commander, Yuichiro Oino, found himself caught in a blatant conspiracy.

Now, if they didn't want to surrender, the entire division had only two options: either abandon all baggage and weapons above the Type 99 rifle level, head east over the mountains and take a small path to Yuanqu to link up with the 36th Division's reinforcements; or charge into the inverted V-shaped pocket laid out by Liu Mingzhao, allowing the enemy to seize the advantage of time and place, waiting for them to escape the encirclement!

Should I admit failure? Times have changed and I have been forced to this extent.

He clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and then suddenly opened them.

"chief of staff!"

"Hey! Your Excellency, your orders!"

Formulate an offensive plan! First, conduct a fire preparation with twice the usual projection power. After probing the Communist army's weak points, unleash all the artillery shells. Finally, launch a series of battalion-level attacks, continuing until the troops are exhausted—this operation!"

He swayed a bit and emphasized, "There's no need to keep ammunition, no need to keep reserves, no need... no need to keep hope of survival!"

"The Communist army has met us with a magnificent battle array. We must persevere in the battle with the will of a warrior—to fight to the death. Comrades, please follow me and advance!" "We will meet again at Zhongtiao Mountain or Jiudanzaka!"

———―———-

The vast land of Shanxi was engulfed in flames of war. In the early spring, the mountains and rivers were filled with smoke. The invaders and the anti-invaders, the fascists and the communists, the offensive and defensive sides of the war tried their best and did their best. With strategies, plans and plans as the cornerstones, and reconnaissance, intelligence and information as the guidance, they drove steel and gunpowder, pushed the war machine forward, and fought hard for the goal of regaining their homeland or escaping.

However, sufficient equivalents were no match for greater equivalents, and the frenzy of a trapped beast fighting to the bitter end was no match for the unwavering revolutionary will. After a few days, even the flames of war in southern Shanxi gradually subsided. "The 52nd Division is finished, and so is the 37th Division?"

Yes, it's over. The young soldier pulled the cleaning rod out of the rifle chamber, inspected it, and tucked it back into the storage compartment under the barrel. "The instructor said those devils fought tenaciously, coming in wave after wave, stepping over the bodies of their own men as they charged forward. Even with several machine guns firing, they couldn't suppress them..."

"The Japanese can occupy half of our country, so they must have something." "Yes."

The two who had spoken fell silent. They were both veterans, and they knew that even in the most favorable and advantageous battles, a person still had two arms and two legs, a head and a shoulder to support them. A bullet would kill them, and no matter how weak the enemy, a bullet would still take their lives and the lives of their comrades.

"If we go any further, we'll have to fight north. I don't know if Pingyang is easy to capture." "I think it'll be a bit difficult, little comrade. What's wrong? Are you scared?"

The questioner showed an expression of great interest. "I heard that Pingyang has been a fortified city since ancient times. The city walls are 20 to 30 feet high and more than ten feet thick! Old West Yan called it 'the most powerful pass in the world.' After the Japanese occupied it, they built many more fortifications and called it 'the impregnable pass.'"

"Then, the city of Jinyang hiding behind Pingyang is even stronger than it."

"How can it be so amazing? Don't play tricks on me." The young soldier showed a suspicious expression, but quickly reacted. He proudly showed off his submachine gun. "What's so scary about this? The Chiang Kai-shek army boasted about the city of Gaojing, but in the end, we still beat them to pieces!"

Chapter 604: Pingyang Campaign (1) Not Taking the Pass

Pingyang, also known as "Lying Cow City", got its name because the entire city is located on a mound, which looks like a lying cow.

She controls the passage from the Jinnan Basin to the Jinzhong Basin, manages the south gate of Shuque Valley, and is a forward post in the macro-defense of Jinyang City.

Since the city was built in the Northern Wei Dynasty, successive rulers have favored this fortress.

Add, add bricks and tiles, and build carefully.