Chapter 735: Isn’t it just a box of camels? (Thanks to ‘Wei Sheng K’ for the reward)
The entire 217th Military Region and the entire Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region were all busy…

In the wilderness outside Xin County, the newly formed county brigade and district squad, under the leadership of the county head, set up stoves and pots to stir-fry gunpowder. This gunpowder was used to make homemade explosives and earth mines, so there was no upper limit requirement. However, the work of stir-frying explosives was too dangerous, so it was handed over to the militia after training.

The common people who had benefited from the 217 unit were cutting firewood in the mountains and forests to make charcoal, which provided basic materials for gunpowder. While Xu Chaoyang was developing high-end weapons, he also did not give up on earthen weapons. After all, he wanted all the weapons that could cause harm to the Japanese invaders.

When the people heard that their work performance would be recorded and that it might be related to the distribution of land in Ekou, Fanzhisi, Daying and Tuanchengkou outside Xinkou at the end of the year, they worked even harder.

This group of disaster victims, who had seen countless people “starve to death”, once saw that the 217th Military Region was really distributing land, and that those who were allocated land had already harvested food and cooked the food, and were living their own lives, they all worked very hard, just waiting for the county magistrate to call their names at the New Year’s “party”…

At the same time, the enthusiasm of the victims also stimulated the original victims in Xinzhou. For a time, the whole Xinzhou was driven by a wave of positive emotions!
Some people began to be willing to go to Tuanchengkou to help our party and army soldiers dig fortifications. This was something Xu Chaoyang had never dared to think about before. He was almost stopped in the city by the people in Tailai. Who knew that the situation that water can carry a boat or overturn it would appear so soon.

The people of Tailai and Xin County are all “people”. The gap between those who have felt warmth and those who have not is so huge!

After these people joined in, the destroyed Zhongzhuangpu was converted into a defensive position with fortifications. Even though Qu Yong had originally planned to build simple fortifications, the progress of the project after the arrival of the people reached a level he could not imagine.

Remember, it’s winter, it’s winter!

Although the land in Shanxi was not as frozen as in Northeast China, it was still winter!

In the middle of winter, the common people rushed to Tuanchengkou with pickaxes in their hands. They spent the whole day digging on the hillside of Tuanchengkou with pickaxes. In a short time, simple bunkers for individual soldiers buried underground were built…

What, no construction in winter?

Will the construction cause the moisture in the concrete to freeze, preventing it from drying and causing quality problems with the project?

Who used concrete? Where did Xu Chaoyang get concrete?
The so-called single-soldier bunker is just a hole dug on the hillside, covered with loose soil supported by wooden stakes. The space inside is just enough for one soldier to live in…that’s all.

Otherwise, how could it be possible to build a project like the four defensive fortifications around SH near Tuanchengkou in such a short period of time?

Since we know this thing is not strong, why bother repairing it?

Of course Xu Chaoyang has his own uses!
“Report to the chief!”

When the signalman rushed into the Xin County headquarters, he said with a look of surprise on his face: “Here we are! The weapons have arrived!”

“A full one hundred M1910 heavy machine guns and a large amount of bullets have been transported here!”

“The ones transporting the weapons and ammunition are none other than the 769th Regiment!”

It’s the troops that launched a surprise attack on Yangmingbao Airport!
Upon hearing this, Xu Chaoyang immediately rushed out of the headquarters, and when he reached the street outside the door, he looked towards the city gate. He saw soldiers in grey clothes escorting a group of civilians driving mule carts and pushing carts, delivering ammunition boxes to this side!
The commander of the 769th Regiment and Xu Chaoyang were both from the 385th Brigade. They were not polite and shouted, “Commander Xu, you have to treat us this time!”

“More than a thousand soldiers from our regiment have come from northern Shaanxi to Shanxi to escort your weapons. You can’t just ignore the food!”

The villagers with towels wrapped around their heads all smiled when they heard this. The sheepskin coats they were wearing didn’t look any whiter than the lamb’s skin. The wool on the outside of the coats was yellow and gray due to the dust. Their thin bodies held the handles of the wheelbarrows and walked forward. There were at least four ammunition boxes on each wheelbarrow, and the mule and horse carts were piled high with ammunition boxes.

Xu Chaoyang finally experienced firsthand what the power of the “people” is!

“Hurry, help! Notify everyone in Xin County who can be mobilized to help!” Xu Chaoyang was the first to rush over, picking up the ammunition box and carrying it on his shoulders. Without these people’s help, it would take who knows how long it would take for the red sickle to reach Shanxi…

Coincidentally, it was also from this period that the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region opened up the first base behind enemy lines on the border of three provinces. The Pingshan Regiment was commended by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region for its bravery in combat and was awarded the title of “Soldiers Defending the Nation, Defending the Border and Defending the Hometown”. This was also the first unit in history of our army to be awarded the title of “Soldiers”. At that time, it was called “Three Defending Soldiers”, and later it was changed to “People’s Soldiers” in the mouths of the leaders.

The troops awarded the title are almost all composed of young people from Pingshan County, and have extremely high cohesion and combat effectiveness.

Now, the people have come to help the people’s soldiers. Although Xu Chaoyang has not been awarded the title of “sons of the people’s soldiers”, his troops include a large number of people from Xinxian County, Henan Province and Chahar, who are also the people’s soldiers.

At this moment, he could clearly see the intimacy and simplicity in the smiles on the people’s faces.

“Beat the rice!”

“Yukui, tell the kitchen staff to beat the food immediately!”

“What time is it…”

“Don’t worry about the time, just do whatever you can. Bring out all the canned food we captured from the Japanese and let the villagers have a taste. Hurry!”

The two gangs were mixed together in the busyness, the soldiers were busy snatching ammunition boxes from the civilians’ cars and moving them to the headquarters, and the civilians were scrambling to carry them on their shoulders, as if they were afraid that if they were too slow they would not get a job. At that moment, there really was a sense of integration like a fish falling into water, this is the so-called close relationship between the military and the people.

This was the first time that Xu Chaoyang had experienced such help at such a close distance. In the past, when he was under the National Government, he had seen the so-called “comfort delegations”, and he had somewhat of a feeling that they were “high-ranking officials” coming to “show off”. Even when the student delegation saw the soldiers covered in wounds and with dirt on their faces, they wanted to hide away. This was completely different from what was happening now.

“My fellow countryman, give it to me, I’ll come…”

“Uh, I can do it.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming…”

“Um, can I do it? Can I do it?”

Later, in the scramble, the fellow villagers became unhappy with the work, as if you looked down on them if you didn’t let them work.

Xu Chaoyang let go of his hand after seeing this, took out a cigarette from his pocket, handed it to the leader of 769 and said, “How can we lose this?”

He really couldn’t think of any reason why the National Government could seize the country from our party and our army. Being able to show the trend of dominating the world from the development of one region, from ancient times to the present, I’m afraid only these people can do it, right?

The head of the 769th Regiment raised his hand and put the cigarette that Xu Chaoyang handed over into his pocket…

“Hey!” Just when Xu Chaoyang was about to blame this kid for being greedy for small gains, the commander of the 769th Regiment said while puffing smoke: “The BT-5 light tank should be here tomorrow… Are you happy?”

Forget it, bear with it.

Xu Chaoyang forced himself to grin. The BT-5 was finally here. Wasn’t it just a box of Camel?

(End of this chapter)