Chapter Nine: Leaps and Bounds in Development 2

July 23, 1938, Laojun Temple

According to intelligence received from the Eighth Route Army, there had been a sudden increase in espionage activities in the mountainous areas surrounding Heyuan County, especially targeting the Jin-Sui Army’s intelligence operations. This puzzled Wang Yue. Shouldn’t the Japanese have acted on their grudges by now? There was no reason for them to have struck once and then not retaliated for an entire month.

Wang Yue refused to believe that the Japanese were afraid. Heyuan County was no small town with just a squad stationed there. Colonel Hirata Ichirō commanded the military police troops, which numbered over two companies, and they had at least two Type 92 infantry guns. Along with the security regiment, special agents, reconnaissance teams, and the police station, there were well over a thousand troops in total. They had already dared to conduct small-scale sweeps. Given the brazen nature of the Japanese, they would not hesitate to engage even an entire division of the Jin-Sui Army, let alone just a few scattered units.

Helplessly, Wang Yue had to continuously strengthen defenses. The guard unit he formed was the bare minimum defensive force. Fourteen small turrets, once deployed, could block several mountain routes and provide fire coverage over a three-thousand-meter radius centered on Laojun Temple. With such firepower, the Japanese would be forced to call in heavy artillery and air support.

Even with air and heavy artillery support, success was not guaranteed. The turrets on the Zhen’er torpedo boat were quite small, making it difficult to directly hit targets three thousand meters away in mountainous terrain. Without direct hits, the 5 to 10-millimeter armored steel of the turrets was sufficient for defense. The same was true for air attacks; low-altitude bombing was impossible, so bombs could not accurately strike the position. As for aerial firepower, the impoverished imperialist Japanese air force’s weaponry was so weak it was embarrassing even to themselves.

The instructional unit Wang Yue set up was not for training officers but for technical gunners. He also had an M1935 60mm mortar and a Type 89 grenade launcher, which needed to be distributed to infantry squads. However, the timing was not right due to ammunition shortages: only four rounds remained for the M1935 mortar and eight Type 89 grenades for the grenade launcher. There were 23 rounds of Type 91 grenades, but those had very limited range. Other weapons like the Maxim M1892 heavy machine gun, Hotchkiss 37mm five-barrel rotary cannon, and FND light machine gun all required specialized training, which was highly demanding.

Wang Yue was perplexed. Other time travelers could assemble tens of thousands of troops within a month, but after more than three months, he had only managed to raise a reinforced company, and it was severely undertrained. Li Wula had become the most experienced officer under his command. No, there was also Jia Youfu, but he was an artillery officer and only a mediocre infantry commander.

Li Yunlong had offered to send veterans and officers to assist, but Wang Yue dared not accept. Although he was loyal to the cause, his background was darker than the worst criminals’, and if the Eighth Route Army ever learned the truth, they would likely tear him apart.

Nevertheless, Wang Yue was not anxious. The independent detachment’s size was manageable. Both Nalan Xinde and Wang Yue had real combat experience; besides inheriting their memories, he had also acquired some of their instincts, like the knack for soul searching and a penchant for beheading.

As for Ding Bu’er’s skills, they held no relevance to military matters. The only time he had fired a gun was during university military training, when he fired six rounds from a Type 56 rifle. Otherwise, he only read light novels and had no concept of how far a unit could march in mountainous terrain. Otherwise, the last ambush against the Japanese wouldn’t have been such a fiasco. In short, he had no confidence.

Still, Ding Bu’er’s skills were not entirely useless. Over time, Wang Yue had managed to produce small quantities of artemisinin, berberine, and allicin within Laojun Temple. Although they could not yet produce the miracle drug penicillin, these were sufficient for their needs.

Given the facilities crafted by local artisans at Laojun Temple, producing penicillin was not impossible. Ding Bu’er understood the cultivation process but had failed multiple times to isolate the most suitable bacterial strain. He lacked the conditions for physical or chemical induction. He had penicillin capsules on hand, with enough content to conduct laboratory work for a year, so there was no urgent need to proceed further.

Wang Yue had twice traded quinine with the Eighth Route Army, exchanging 50 bottles of quinine and 50 bottles of morphine powder with Zhang Wanhe for 10 FND light machine guns. Zhang Wanhe did not regret swapping the guns for medicine; these drugs were worth far more than ten FND guns. Of course, Zhang did not know that middleman Li Yunlong had pocketed kickbacks from 20 Dreise carbines sold through him.

Li Yunlong had not profited excessively. The day he traded the heavy machine guns for medicine, the brigade commander found out. Of the ten heavy machine guns, eight were reserved by the brigade commander, leaving only two for Li Yunlong. Fortunately, the previous two were not demanded by the commander, or Li Yunlong’s heart would have bled.

During this period, Li Yunlong frequently visited under the pretense of “maintaining camaraderie,” hoping to gain some advantage. Even if he couldn’t secure guns, a good meal was enough. The independent detachment’s rations were notoriously worse than those in the headquarters hospital wards, and this was after a reduction from previous standards.

After inheriting the original owner’s legacy, Wang Yue’s greatest surprise was discovering that he had been managing logistics while also generating income independently. He had a gunsmith named Du Gui, the last generation of craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department, with exceptional skill. Reloaded ammunition showed no signs of reloading, and he could handcraft parts for Mauser pistols. He could repair and fabricate components for nearly every firearm.

Given Wang Yue’s position, acquiring damaged or discarded firearms was easy. After minor repairs, these could be sold as good guns or directly supplied to troops. This approach was far more discreet than outright embezzlement. According to Wang Yue’s memories, the 68th Division had not received a single original pistol in recent years; all were high-quality replicas made by Du Gui, and the replaced weapons were all sold.

Using detonators dismantled from torpedo fuses and gunpowder extracted from 37mm shells, Du Gui’s workshop could reload over a thousand rounds of high-standard ammunition daily, as well as produce more than a hundred wooden-handled grenades. This production capacity rivaled that of the Eighth Route Army’s headquarters arsenal. Of course, the headquarters factory still had the edge, as many items required specialized equipment beyond what Du Gui and his small team could carry.

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