The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 494: Set off! Kill the enemy!
Indeed, all the people under He Wei were warmongers. The reason why they were doubtful about being transferred to Guangxi was largely because Guangxi was not a major battlefield at the moment, so if they went there, they would probably not get to fight. If they did not get to fight, how could they have the opportunity to defeat the Japanese army on the battlefield? How could they have the opportunity to make achievements?

But the company commander of the assault corps who spoke first immediately dispelled the doubts of the officers in the conference room about going to Guangxi to fight.

Just as the officer said, it was absolutely right to follow Captain He. The officers of the Assault Corps had already formed unconditional belief in and extreme admiration for He Wei after repeated victories on the battlefield. Seeing He Wei's extreme confidence and full of faith when reading out the order, the officers knew that the Assault Corps's going to Guangxi to fight had been approved by He Wei.

In this case, as I said before, it’s definitely the right thing to follow the captain. The captain has agreed, and we will definitely be able to fight in Guangxi this time.

At this time, Chen Xinsheng, the artillery battalion commander of the assault corps, also spoke in a heated atmosphere: "That's right, this time we must let the devils have a taste of our power. The three mountain artillery companies and one field artillery company of my battalion have 24 guns, which are enough for the devils to drink a pot. I and my brothers are itching to get our hands dirty. This time we must satisfy our desire and use the 24 mountain and field artillery of my artillery battalion to give the dog-days a pot of steel broth."

Fu Chen, the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion, also said: "Our infantry battalion can't wait to fight the damned ones. We have added an infantry company to each battalion and added rifle grenades to our weapons. It's a good time to practice with the damned ones."

Wang Yuanling, the chief of staff of the assault corps, who was always calm and measured, suppressed his surprise and shouted, "No matter where we go, we must fight the devils to the death and show them how powerful our corps is!"

The other officers also echoed enthusiastically, cheering loudly, and all clamoring to beat the Japs hard!
Obviously, after the speech of the artillery battalion commander Chen Xinsheng, the atmosphere in the conference room heated up again. He Wei just watched it all with a smile. He liked this kind of performance of the officers very much. How they commanded offense and defense on the battlefield was another matter, but they could have such a high desire for war and full spirit before the battle. When the time came to fight the enemy with real swords and guns, the enemy would certainly not expect to get the upper hand easily against the assault corps!
At this moment, Major Li Youcai, the director of the logistics department of the assault corps, coughed lightly and said, "Captain, is there anything else we need to do in terms of logistics before our corps sets out this time?"

He Wei nodded to Li Youcai, waved his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said: "The series of orders I issued before to prepare ammunition, weapons, reserve winter military uniforms, medical supplies and food are to make logistical preparations for this expedition. Director Li still needs to coordinate with the General Affairs Office to make good preparations in the next few days. The food must be enough to guarantee the consumption of the entire corps for one month. Canned food, biscuits and other field foods should be carried in half a month's amount. Winter military uniforms must be carried according to the standard of two sets per person in the entire corps. In addition, the wounded officers and soldiers in the combat units of the assault corps must be screened out as soon as possible and sent to the wounded hospital in the rear for recuperation. The vacancies left will be filled by the first supplementary soldier training department to ensure that our corps can set off with all members fully equipped and in the best condition. Director Li must coordinate and arrange these matters with Director Ding and the chief of the logistics section of the corps' staff office."

After that, He Wei looked at the head of the Logistics Section of the General Staff Office and said, "Regarding the replenishment and adjustment of military equipment, the Logistics Section of the General Staff Office must ensure the integrity of all weapons and equipment and spare parts of our corps before departure. Any equipment that has problems or is damaged must be replaced with new ones. Regarding ammunition, you should bring more artillery shells and various caliber mortar shells of the infantry battalion. As for the machine gun bullets used by the infantry, you don't need to bring more. Just bring the imported machine gun bullets in the warehouse. When we arrive in Guangxi, the machine gun bullets will be replenished there."

"Yes!"

"understand!"

"Yes!"

Li Youcai, Director of the Logistics Department, Ding Lunshi, Director of the General Affairs Department, and the Chief of the Logistics Section of the General Staff Department responded respectively.

These three people are considered the three main backbones maintaining the logistics operations of the assault corps. Among them, Ding Lunshi, who is in charge of the General Affairs Office, is responsible for the production and storage of bedding, various medicines and food, and the procurement and storage of smuggled goods. The Logistics Section under the General Staff Office, although named the Logistics Department, is mainly responsible for the storage and replenishment of weapons and ammunition, as well as the declaration and collection of funds for the various units of the assault corps and the required bedding, supplies, and food.

Li Youcai's Logistics Department was above the General Affairs Department and the Logistics Section, and was in charge of all the funds for the Assault Corps, or He Wei's small group.

The production funds of the General Affairs Office, the funds needed by the assault corps' combat units as calculated by the Logistics Department, and all the funds needed by the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department need to be negotiated at Li Youcai's Logistics Office. The food, military uniforms and other supplies of each unit are also raised by the General Affairs Office and then submitted to the Logistics Department for unified distribution.

The Logistics Department is managed by He Wei, and all accounts, business transactions and material replenishment will be checked regularly by He Wei.

Such logistical organizational relationships not only enable the logistics systems of various departments under He Wei to run smoothly at optimal efficiency, but also the organizational structure that separates various links such as production, distribution, and financial management into different departments can ensure the occurrence of corruption to the greatest extent possible.

He Wei thought for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "By the way, Director Li, we don't need to use the funds in our corps' account to finance our expedition to Guangxi. Our superiors attach great importance to our operation, so they directly issued us a cash draft of 600,000 French francs. You can take the draft to the central bank in the accompanying city to exchange it for cash. The money will be directly deposited into our corps' account after it is brought back. This is the money in our account. When we go to Guangxi to prepare for the war this time, try not to spend the cash and gold in our account, and spend as much French francs as possible."

As soon as He Wei finished speaking, the conference room fell silent and everyone gasped. Although the amount of 600,000 French francs sounded light when it came out of He Wei's mouth, it was indeed a huge sum of money.

Originally, the Secretariat was going to allocate 500,000 yuan of French francs to He Wei, which would be used specifically for the expenses of the Assault Corps, or the advance detachment where the Assault Corps was located, in order to use gentle economic means to increase the influence of the French francs in Guangxi.

Later, for some reason, perhaps the higher-ups felt that the amount of 500,000 French francs was not enough, so they increased the amount by another 100,000 yuan, causing the amount of the French franc bill that He Wei received to be directly upgraded to 600,000 yuan.

What does this amount of money mean? Before the war, the Central Army's elite divisions only had a monthly budget of about 200,000 yuan. This amount of money was enough to supply an elite division for three months. At this time, it was enough for a division to spend two months and still have some left. It was definitely a huge sum of money. The conference room suddenly fell silent. Even Li Youcai, who was used to seeing expensive things and was in charge of huge sums of money, couldn't help but take a breath.

The treatment of the Assault Corps is very generous. Against the backdrop of all army units across the country receiving discounted national crisis pay, the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps all receive full pay, and on major holidays and anniversaries, the officers and soldiers are even able to receive holiday pay.

After the Assault Corps shined in the last Military Commission's review, the Ministry of Military Affairs further increased the monthly funding standard for the Assault Corps. Currently, the monthly funding for the Assault Corps is slightly more than that of an infantry division, which can be said to be very wealthy.

Despite such generous treatment, everyone in the conference room was still extremely surprised. Even the logistics director Li Youcai, who was used to seeing expensive things, was stunned. He never expected that such a large sum of money would be allocated at one time. As for Ding Lunshi, who was born a foreign comprador, he was stunned on the spot with gold in his eyes.

He Wei looked at the performance of his subordinates, smiled in his heart, and said, "This money is a reflection of the high regard our superiors have for our headquarters. It is because our troops are good at fighting and have made achievements in the battles ahead that the superiors have awarded us such honors. This time when we go to Guangxi to fight the devils, you all have to fight and kill as hard as you can, and don't let your superiors down. You know, some troops can't even afford to pay for straw sandals, and the guns they use are the old 79 Hanyang-made ones. The military pay is the national emergency pay, and they can't even eat meat for a few meals. The superiors allocated so much money to us at once. This is all the hard-earned money of the people. If we don't make a name for ourselves on the battlefield, we will really let our ancestors down."

All of a sudden, the people in the conference room were even more excited, and their admiration for the huge sum of money suddenly turned into a heavy responsibility like a thousand pounds. The cadres present in the conference room felt the burden on their shoulders while their blood was boiling.

Of course, He Wei would not explain to his subordinates in detail that the money was actually given to him by his superiors for carrying out indirect "currency invasion" in Guangxi. Instead, he changed it to be issued by his superiors, containing combat expenses with high expectations for the assault corps.

He Wei had already decided to pretend to obey the task assigned to him by his superiors to deal with the Guangxi clique in the military operation to Guangxi.

Why? In fact, it was a bit redundant to ask him to carry out this task. The purpose of the higher-ups was nothing more than to allow the central army's direct troops and legal currency to enter Guangxi in order to increase the influence of the central government in the originally ironclad Guangxi clique's territory.

But in He Wei's view, the Japanese army was bound to invade Guangxi. After the Japanese army took action in the direction of Guangxi, it was inevitable that the Central Army's direct troops that had long been identified would enter Guangxi. Once the Central Army entered Guangxi on a large scale, it would be natural for the influence of the National Government in Guangxi to increase.

By then, those armies would certainly spend a lot of money on food and drink. In other words, the tasks assigned by the superiors to increase the influence of the Guangxi clique were actually based on the premise that the Central Army troops would not enter Guangxi on a large scale. In He Wei's view, this premise was a complete false proposition. The Japanese invasion of Guangxi was inevitable, and the large-scale entry of the Central Army troops into Guangxi was a foregone conclusion. Without the premise, there was no need for He Wei to complete those special tasks.

Therefore, He Wei naturally "shamelessly" took the money for himself. Normally, the money should be shared by the advance detachment composed of the assault corps and the 200th Division and other Fifth Army troops, but what kind of army is the Fifth Army? The only so-called mechanized army in the entire national army, the monthly budget is several times that of ordinary army-level units, and it can be said that it is even richer than the assault corps.

He Wei planned that after the advance detachment was formed, he would take out a small portion of the money and give it to its friendly forces as a token of his appreciation. Anyway, the Fifth Army was wealthy and well-funded. In comparison, the Assault Corps needed the money more for development and expansion. So it was no wonder that he, He, withheld the money from the Assault Corps.

Then, He Wei said, "This time we are going to Guangxi to form an advance detachment with the troops of the Fifth Army. This money should be used by our headquarters and other friendly forces of the advance detachment, but what kind of army is the Fifth Army? It is the only army in the country, so, ahem, they are not short of funds. Therefore, I will make my own decision. Most of this money will be kept in our headquarters, and only a small part will be delivered to the friendly troops of the Fifth Army of the advance detachment. You are all my confidants, He Wei, and people I trust very much. Therefore, I hope that everyone knows this matter by themselves, and keep it to yourself. If anyone leaks it, don't blame me, He, for turning against you!"

Everyone in the conference room looked solemn upon seeing this. They looked at He Wei's dignified face without saying a word, but they felt warm in their hearts. They all thought that since Captain He could tell them such a secret, it showed that their superior really regarded them as confidants and trusted ones.

Therefore, everyone was determined not to reveal even a single word of the secret of this sum of money.

He Wei nodded, slapped the table heavily, then stood up and said loudly: "The specific arrangements are like this. All departments should step up their preparations for various battles. The assault corps should march forward with full combat status and extremely high morale. Although the five recruit battalions and the General Affairs Office of the First Supplementary Soldier Training Department who are left behind will not go to the front line, they must also perform their duties and do their own business well. This time the assault corps will go to Guangxi to fight. If the battle is fierce and the casualties are heavy, I will also transfer people from the rear to make up for the casualties. Therefore, everyone must strictly abide by their posts and prepare for departure as soon as possible. We have dealt a great blow to the Japanese in Nanjing and Wuhan. Now we are strong in men and horses. This time we are going to Guangxi to fight, it is our time to make achievements and serve the country. At that time, we must carry forward the brave and tenacious spirit of our department and strike hard at the invading enemy."

Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling, who was sitting next to He Wei, suddenly stood at attention and said loudly: "All officers and soldiers of our unit are willing to fight the Japanese army to the death. Please give the order, Captain!

"Okay! Director Wang, I say the same thing again. Each department should perform its duties and prepare for the departure as soon as possible. The General Staff Office should immediately compile a transportation plan and coordinate with the railway department and the Military Commission to ensure that everything goes well. Give the brothers more food these days, so that they can eat and drink enough. When we arrive in Guangxi, kill the enemy as much as you can!"

As soon as the words fell, everyone in the conference room stood up and shouted, "Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy!"

Three days later, the assault corps, having completed its preparation mission, officially set out.

(End of this chapter)