A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 302 Contact and Planning

After Lu Cheng led his troops to occupy Nantianmen, the first thing he did was not to clean up the battlefield, but to carry out large-scale disinfection to eliminate all possible sources of the epidemic.

Even if the generals of other troops wanted to share some of the credit, they did not dare to lead their soldiers to charge into the Nan Tianmen, which was already a hell.

All the Japanese corpses were burned, quicklime was sprinkled everywhere, and the remaining useful weapons, equipment and ammunition were collected.

Unfortunately, the Japanese soldiers on Nantianmen destroyed a lot of ammunition and artillery when they held their ground to the end, which greatly reduced the gains of this victory.

After the cleanup, Lu Cheng ordered the engineers to bury explosives at various support points and ventilation holes inside the Nantianmen Mountain, and then completely blew up the entire Nantianmen, causing its height to drop a lot. This completely cleared the battlefield and cut off the source of the epidemic.

It took three days to deal with all this.

At this time, Xingtian Ferry had been repaired, and the main force of the Sixth Army had successfully crossed the Nujiang River and was recovering the surrounding towns and county towns.

Although Lu Cheng, the brigade commander who had just made a contribution, was promoted and awarded medals and became a major general division commander, the order from his superiors was to station them in the Heshun Town area to reorganize and expand the army, recuperate, replenish troops, and complete the structure of a division.

It was obvious that someone was trying to trip Lu Cheng up behind the scenes, fearing that Lu Cheng would take all the credit.

Moreover, Lu Cheng's previous easy annihilation of two Japanese battalions also created a false impression for friendly forces, as if the Japs were already too weak and were no match for their well-trained Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force.

In response, Lu Cheng also laughed.

Although they had wiped out two Japanese battalions and captured Nantianmen, Lu Cheng's brigade suffered very few casualties and there was no need for them to rest and recuperate.

Moreover, Lu Cheng's brigade now has six or seven thousand soldiers. Even compared with some divisions, it is not much different. At most, it can be supplemented with one more regiment. There is no need to stay.

Of course, Lu Cheng did not show any dissatisfaction. He stayed honestly near Heshun Town, reorganizing his troops and recruiting new soldiers.

Now, the designation of the 39nd Brigade of the 42th Division of Lu Cheng's Sixth Army has also been changed to the newly formed 52nd Division.

After entering Heshun Town, Lu Cheng selected a group of middle and lower-level officers from each of the three infantry regiments, appointed a new regiment commander, and formed his own fourth infantry regiment mainly based on the Japanese equipment seized from the Nantianmen.

Of course, there are not so many soldiers to recruit now, and it is difficult to form a complete infantry regiment in a short period of time.

However, Lu Cheng was not in a hurry. During the training period, he sent out the special operations platoon and the spearhead company to find out the situation in the towns and counties on the west bank of the Nujiang River in advance, contact and absorb guerrillas from all over the place, and expand his military strength while fighting guerrilla warfare.

Now, the special operations platoon has expanded to fifty or sixty people, plus the spearhead company of more than one hundred people. They are the most elite personnel under Lu Cheng and can do a lot of things.

At the end of October 1943, the New 10th Division of the Indian Expeditionary Force captured the largest Japanese stronghold in the Hukawng Valley, Xinpingyang. The Sino-Indian Highway also began to be built towards Xinpingyang, and Stilwell also continued to move the Allied headquarters forward.

Northern Myanmar and western Yunnan were both at war or preparing for war, but Lu Cheng was enjoying the peace in Heshun Town, not caring at all whether he was sitting on the bench or not.

On this day, Xia Chen, the captain of the special operations team who had been promoted to major, quietly came to Lu Cheng's front-line command post with a familiar person.

"It's you? Little bookworm? I haven't seen you for a long time, and you have changed a lot. Where have you been in the past year?"

"General Lu, I also have a name. My name is Li Xudong. As for this year, I went to northern Shaanxi, where I found the answers I wanted."

"So, you came here with a mission this time?"

"Of course. General Lu has been helping our guerrillas so much. The organization sent me here to thank General Lu and to invite him out for a talk."

"Let's talk, but it's not impossible..."

In fact, ever since they learned about Lu Cheng and understood how entering the city would help the guerrillas on the front line, they have been wanting to send someone to make contact with him. However, northern Shaanxi is too far away from here, and Lu Cheng has been running around as an instructor all year round, so they have never found a suitable opportunity to make contact.

Afterwards, Xia Chen sent the little bookworm away and returned alone. He asked his most trusted men to stand guard outside, and then he hesitated and asked, "Master, what do you think? Do you really want to contact them?"

Lu Cheng smiled and said, "Xia Chen, if I were in a different position, what would you do?"

"Wherever the master goes, I will go. I believe in the master's choice, and I believe that I have not followed the wrong person."

Lu Cheng did not speak, but walked out of the yard and looked at a big tree outside: "Xia Chen, look at this big tree, the trunk is thick and the root system is well developed, but many of the branches above are withered. Why do you think this is?"

"It's simple. There's something wrong with the inside of this big tree. It's even rotten."

"Yes, a rotten tree, no matter how big its branches are, how long can it survive? Look at the tree over there, although it is much smaller than this big tree, it is full of vitality and flourishing. Xia Chen, why don't you guess which tree I like more?"

"I understand what you mean, Master. If I were Master, I would also like this young and energetic tree more."

Lu Cheng laughed and said, "You are still a little young. If it were me, I would probably find another place with fertile soil and plant a tree of my own with my own hands."

Hearing this, Xia Chen's eyes lit up: "No matter where you want to plant trees in the future, Xia Chen is willing to be a shovel in your hand, to open up wasteland for you, dig holes and plant trees. If someone stops us from planting trees, Xia Chen can also dig holes for you to bury people."

"Not bad, not bad. You are a teachable young man. By the way, pay attention to the mood of the brothers recently, and pay special attention to the new recruits who have joined and are relatively active."

"Yes, Master."

At this time, the battle on the west bank of the Nujiang River was not progressing smoothly. Although the troops on the front line were ready for battle, the leaders in the rear were still arguing.

How to distribute supplies? How to plan the route of advance? How to coordinate between different armies? How to allocate offensive targets? These are all problems.

In politics, war is just a means to win more political chips.

Victory on the front line is important, but when and how to win in order to request more resources and materials from the Allies is also important.

If the war goes too fast and goes too smoothly, it would be difficult for the Allies to invest large amounts of supplies, right?

Therefore, after the front-line troops gained a foothold, they did not receive the order to attack for a long time.

The leaders in the rear discussed for two or three months, from autumn to winter, before they finally came up with a new battle plan.

At this time, New Year's Day of 44 years had passed.

Fortunately, the Japanese army had entered a strategic defense at this time and was exhausted and unable to launch a counterattack.

Otherwise, some of the towns recovered on the east coast might be taken back again...