Beacon starts from the departure of a strong man

Chapter 403 The fifth wonder of the world

Today, the Second Army has two armies, the No.30 Army and the No.40 Second Army.

Tian Zhennan, Commander of the No.30 Army, and Feng Anbang, Commander of the No.40 Second Army.Among them, Tian Zhennan was born in the Baoding Army Crash Academy, Feng Anbang was born in the army, and worked step by step from the bottom of the army.

In the Second Army, there are three divisions and one independent brigade.Huang Qiaosong's 27th Division, Zhang Jinzhao's 30th Division, Chifengcheng's 31st Division, and Wu Pengju's Independent 44th Brigade.

At the same time, the Second Army now also has an artillery regiment belonging to the army. This artillery regiment has 24 Type 12 infantry guns and 150 [-]mm mortars.

This batch of artillery is also part of the Second Army. During the battle at Niangziguan in Jin Province, part of it was seized from the Japanese army, and part of it was donated by the Sichuan Army in cooperation with the Sichuan Army.

Therefore, Sun Lianzhong is now guarding Taierzhuang, with almost no pressure in his heart, and he has a solid family background and confidence.

"Okay, okay..." Li Delin was very happy to see Sun Lianzhong agreeing.

For the defense of Taierzhuang, Sun Lianzhong's Second Army had only three divisions and one brigade, which was a bit thin. You must know that the Japanese army assembled four or five divisions on the northern front.

If one or two divisions were to come in, Sun Lianzhong's strength would probably not be able to stop them, and Li Delin would have to mobilize an army as a reserve force for Taierzhuang.

Li Delin looked at Lu Han, "Old Lu, how about the 60th Army of the Dian Army as the reserve team for Taierzhuang?"

Lu Han stood up: "No problem, my Yunnan army went north to fight the war."

Seeing Lu Han's quick agreement, Li Delin continued: "Well, the Taierzhuang campaign will be under the full command of Sun Lianzhong, the commander-in-chief of the Second Army."

"The No.60 Army of the Dian Army is under the control of Sun Lianzhong. Brother Lu, if you have any objections to my arrangement, we can discuss it again."

Lu Han nodded, "No problem, I have no objection to Mr. Li."

In this way, Li Delin was very happy, and the arrangements for the Taierzhuang battle were more secure.

滇军No.60军下辖三个师，第182师、183师、184师。全军共计4万多人，而且，No.60军还是滇军当中的精锐。

The No.60 Army is equipped with weapons imported from Gaul, light and heavy machine guns and mortars, all of which are magic weapons. Soldiers also wear steel helmets, and even have special anti-virus troops.

In the face of national justice, Lu Han is still willing to obey the arrangement of Li Delin of the Guangxi Clan.Even when the Guangxi faction and the Yunnan army were fighting in a melee, the two sides had a life-and-death enmity.

However, now that the Japanese invaders are ferocious, Lu Han still attaches great importance to righteousness.Even though it is now under the control of the Second Army of the Northwest Army, Lu Han still has no complaints in his heart.

Since the July [-]th Incident, Long Yun from Yunnan Province has mobilized elite troops out of Yunnan. Originally, the first battle of the Yunnan Army should have been the defense of Jinling.

However, this Jinling defense battle took place at about the same time as the original time and space, and the Dian army failed to catch up, so they did not participate in the battle.

Since the Sichuan army occupied the Langxi line in the south of Jinling, the defenders in the city broke out from the south and joined the Sichuan army. When the Dian army arrived in Hankou, they received the news that the defense of Jinling was over and the defenders had withdrawn to Anhui Province.

The Dian Army is temporarily stationed in Hankou, waiting for the latest notification from the Jinling High Command. The Fifth Theater is short of troops, so Li Delin called Chang Kaishen.

Lao Chang then dispatched the Dian Army to the north to support Xuzhou. Therefore, for the first battle of the Dian Army, Lu Han felt that as long as it could be fought well, it would be under the command of the Guangxi Clique, and it would be fine to be restrained by Sun Lianzhong.

He only hoped that his troops could achieve results in the fifth war zone and bring good news to tens of millions of ordinary people in Yunnan Province.

Let the common people in Dian province understand that the Dian army they paid for did not disappoint them. Now hundreds of thousands of common people in Dian province have tightened their belts, ate chaff and vegetables, and left their money and food to the troops for the war of resistance.

In addition, after the July [-]th Incident, when Chang Kaishen invited various local princes to discuss plans for the War of Resistance.

Long Yun, chairman of Yunnan Province, proposed to everyone at the military meeting that in view of the strength of the Japanese navy, the coastal areas of our country would be in danger of being completely fallen.

Once the coastal areas are blocked by the Japanese navy, the foreign resources our country needs will be cut off, and a road must be built to connect to Nanyang.

This will prevent the materials needed for the War of Resistance from being transported in by road after the coastal areas are blocked by the Japanese navy.

At the meeting, the Yunnan Army's proposal was endorsed by many generals, and Chang Kaishen also agreed to the plan, expressing the central government's support.

However, as soon as the Songhu battle started, the national government’s funds were like flowing water. Regarding the construction of the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway, Chang Kaishen said that the central government could not provide money, and he hoped that the local government of Yunnan Province could solve the funding problem.

Although the central government has no money, the Jinling High Command can provide various equipment for road construction. After receiving the news, Long Yun was also very helpless. He proposed to see if he could invite a well-known international company to bid.

Although China has no money, tung oil and bristles are military supplies, and China is willing to provide these supplies as replacements.

Bristles and tung oil are very attractive to Western countries. International countries such as the United States, Gaul, and the British Isles also participated in the bidding.

They sent technicians to Yunnan Province to conduct surveys, and concluded that it would take at least six or seven years to build such a road, which is the fastest result.

Six or seven years?When the road is repaired, the daylily will be cold. What China lacks now is time, and it simply cannot afford to wait.

Therefore, Longyun in Yunnan Province and the Jinling High Command decided to do it by themselves, planning to spend a year building and opening it to traffic.

In January 1938, the Yunnan-Burma Highway Construction Bureau was established in Kunming. At that time, the Chinese side recruited some intellectuals from the southwestern hinterland who had escaped from the war along the coast.

These intellectuals went to work after simple training, and gradually became the technical backbone of the Burma Road construction personnel.

Yunnan Province mobilized more than 30 people to participate in the road construction, many of whom were women, children, and the elderly.

In August 1938, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was completed and initially opened to traffic, and officially opened to traffic in October.

During this turmoil, China built and completed the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway at such a fast speed. Many countries did not believe it at first, because China was so backward.

Both the United States and the British Isles are estimated to take six to seven years, but China only took nine months to build it. This is simply a fantasy.

When Roosevelt learned about it, he sent ambassadors to investigate, and so did the British side. After the on-site inspection, the ambassadors of both sides were deeply moved.

They praised the Chinese people for building the road with their own hands. This is unbelievable. This is the fifth wonder of the world. This road is like an Egyptian pyramid.

The British "Times" praised: "Only the Chinese can complete such a huge project in such a short period of time."

The US ambassador to China, Johnson, said after returning to China, "The Yunnan-Myanmar Highway is a huge project, but it lacks machinery. It is purely manpower development. It all depends on the hard-working spirit of the people along the way. This spirit is beyond the reach of any nation in the world."

Some foreign friends also praised: "This is a road carved out with fingers."And compared the Burma Highway with the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal.

Some domestic newspapers praised the Burma Road as another miracle of the Chinese nation after the Great Wall and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Now with the aid of Sichuan Province, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was built three months earlier than the original time and space, and it took half a year to complete.

(End of this chapter)