My client Li Yunlong

"Yoshi!"

"Yoshi!"

"The locust army will win!"

"His Majesty the Emperor is in pieces!"

Mazhuang Village is located east of Chixian County and five kilometers away from the county seat.

Soldiers from the 27th Division of the North China Front and the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Central Alliance brandished 38-gauge rifles with bayonets that were much taller than their height.

hysteria.

Elated.

It's like being at a bonfire party.

In the center of these more than 700 Japanese soldiers forming a circle were five Sherman tanks.

Three vehicles were severely damaged.

The vehicle was burnt black and full of coke. It seemed that the fire had detonated the ammunition inside the tank. Even the turret was gone, leaving only a broken body surrounded by scattered road wheels and tracks.

The front side of one was blown off, revealing the damaged engine inside. All kinds of broken parts were scattered on the ground. The entire tank lay low, and the gun barrel hung down feebly.

The left side of another vehicle was bombed and collapsed, and track parts were scattered within tens of meters on the left side. The right side was still intact, and even the tracks were still connected to the road wheels. Only one connecting plate was damaged and a few parts were broken.

However, two of them are very well preserved.

On one vehicle, only the side track was broken and the road wheel fell off.

Even one of them is almost intact and is suspected to be able to drive directly. Several technicians are busy and the engine has been started. It is most likely because there is no fuel and we have to give up.

"Yoshi!"

"Onboard!"

"Long live the Japanese Empire!"

Groups of 700 Japanese soldiers were still surrounding the five tanks, dancing, hysterical, celebrating and cheering.

after all,

Repulsing the attack of more than a dozen enemy tanks, and destroying and capturing five tanks, one of which was almost complete, and another that could be driven with a little repair, this was an unprecedented victory.

···
The joyous atmosphere of cheering for the great victory did not affect Abe Hiroshi.

His expression was full of sadness, and he stood on the edge with a lonely expression, looking at the celebrating soldiers in front of him, and he was out of tune with everything.

He is a military doctor.

Military surgeon of the 27th Division, the Central Regiment, and the Regiment Headquarters.

He graduated from the Imperial College of Medicine and has been serving in the army for one and a half years.

The empire did not pay much attention to the construction of military doctors.

Among the brigades with a size of 1,000 people, only the brigade headquarters has a military medical department, with a total of four to five military doctors. For brigades with less than 1,000 people, some even have only one or two military doctors. Even the regiment does not have a field rescue center, which is seriously lacking. The only ambulance equipment is some individual soldier treatment equipment and medical supplies.

Only brigades and divisions will be equipped with frontline field hospitals, equipped with rescue instruments and equipment, as well as medicines.

no way.

lack of resources.

Therefore, Hiroshi Abe is the only military doctor of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Central Alliance.

Due to the shortage of personnel, the army has been rapidly expanding recently. Although the soldiers have been gathered together, and each brigade is filled with a thousand people, there is a serious shortage of military doctors.

However, there are actually two military doctors in the Third Infantry Brigade.

After all, the 3rd Infantry Brigade is an infantry brigade with a size of more than 1,000 people, and even has a total strength of 1,370 people. It is a main field brigade.

but.

Abe Hiroshi lowered his head and looked at the ground.

Under him was a mutilated corpse.

The head had been crushed, the brains were scattered on the ground, and the skull was broken into pieces. Judging from the traces, it was crushed by the track. Only the torso was left. The torso was intact, with almost no damage.

This is the second military doctor of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, his subordinate, and the new military doctor he taught step by step - after all, before joining the army, he was just a student who dropped out of the health college before graduating.

cause of death.

Not for rescue.

But when he was holding an explosive pack to blow up a tank, he fell down and was crushed to death by an Eighth Route Army tank - in fact, he didn't even open the fuse of the explosive pack.

Abe Hiroshi sighed and gave up the idea of ​​containing the body.

The head was so broken that special bags and tools were needed to contain it. Otherwise, the body under the head would have to be moved into a body bag. For Imperial soldiers, this meant that the soul could not return to its hometown.

It is the cruelest way to die.

Abe Hiroshi looked around.

Scattered around the more than 700 warriors of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, there were not only five tanks and five advanced tanks from Tubal Road, but also the corpses of nearly 500 imperial warriors.

Five hundred.

Almost every enemy tank destroyed cost the Empire the lives of nearly a hundred soldiers.

Although not all of them are from the 3rd Infantry Group, some are from the 2nd Infantry Group.

As for the Eighth Route Army, he has not found one so far.

However, the Third Infantry Brigade still paid the price of at least 300 casualties. With more than 300 injured, more than half of the Third Infantry Brigade suffered casualties and a quarter died.

The final death toll has not yet been calculated.

Due to the insufficient number of military doctors and insufficient transportation capacity, until now, there are still hundreds of seriously injured people wailing at the wing headquarters, waiting for the train to transport the wounded to arrive, and then transported to the hospital in Shimen for treatment.

Only there can the lives of these soldiers be saved.

But what Abe Hiroshi didn't understand was.

It cost 500 lives and more than 500 lightly and seriously injured people to destroy five enemy tanks. Is this considered a great victory?
Is this worthy of celebration?

He could clearly see that when they arrived in Chi County, there were twenty-seven enemy tanks, at least twenty of which had completely retreated.

If the empire had to pay the price of one hundred people for each tank, then for those twenty tanks alone, the empire would have to pay the price of two thousand people.

How many soldiers does the empire have that can withstand attrition?
How many tanks does the enemy have?
Is this considered a victory?

Is it also worth celebrating?
Almost every soldier, almost every officer, does not care about his own life, nor does he care about the lives of others, whether they are comrades or enemies.

What kind of army did the empire form?

Abe Hiroshi sighed.

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity built by such a force would probably be hell!
···
a few days later.

"Sherman."

"U.S. codename M4."

Shimen.

North China Front Army, inside the temporarily established frontline weapons research institute.

Da Tengshan Er looked at the enemy tank maintenance manual found in the tank, and then looked at the brand new tank in front of him, which had been repaired and was almost intact and could be put into combat directly.

I was stunned for a long time.

He really didn't expect that the tank in front of him was actually an American tank, the latest model.

M4 Sherman.

As a technical expert sent by the General Staff Headquarters of the base camp, he knew that the Americans were studying the Sherman tank. However, it was not yet in service and the specific technical indicators were unknown.

Even if the imperial intelligence department tries its best to spy on it, it cannot know its specific technical specifications.

But in front of me, the real thing actually appeared.

"How terrible!"

Da Teng Shan Er sighed with emotion.

He couldn't help but sigh at the terrifying power behind the Eighth Route Army.

Through the maintenance manual, he has been able to confirm that these two tanks, even if they are not Shermans, are advanced American tanks - because they have strong American technology inside.

The empire has been very successful in this regard and has acquired a lot of American technology.

Although the forces behind Tubal Road are very powerful in technology.

But being able to completely obtain the advanced American tanks...

The two represent completely different things.

"How is the empire's latest tank different from this one?" Okamura Neiji asked.

"It's big."

After a long silence, Da Tengshan Er replied:

"The gap is huge, huge."

"Whether it's power system, armor, or artillery, the Empire's tanks are far inferior to the Sherman in front of us."

"His main armor is seventy-five millimeters, and the armor is of better quality, faster, more reliable, and has more firepower."

"As for the Empire, let alone the 37mm caliber anti-tank gun in active service, even the Type field gun cannot penetrate the main armor of this tank from a distance of meters."

Okamura Neji fell into silence.

He has already seen the offensive capabilities of this tank.

Thirty-seven tanks attacked.

He dispatched more than 10,000 troops and paid a price of more than 3,000 people to intercept them, including more than 1,500 Yushang. Among them, the most tragic incident was the Yamazaki Brigade.

Only more than 200 people escaped.

In fact, he knew very well that the enemy retreated on his own initiative because the subsequent ground troops could not keep up.

Even when they retreated, they took away all the wounded and the remains of dead soldiers. They retreated in an orderly manner without any rush.

The enemy has no means of blowing up or destroying the missing tanks.

It shows that this kind of tank is not advanced.

Also normal.

Whether it is a Taihang truck or a fighter jet with a speed of more than 800 kilometers, they are weapons that make the empire despair, and they are far more advanced than the weapons currently in service in America.

Although the tanks in front of them were powerful, they would not make the empire despair.

"It seems that the tanks they equip should be used for soldier training."

Okamura Neji speculated.

It's easy to understand.

Unlike airplanes,
The tank force needs to form a certain scale and requires a large number of logistics personnel to form combat effectiveness. With more and more advanced weapons, the talents of the Eighth Route Army are exhausted, which requires large-scale training of tank talents.

as well as!

With the influx of a large number of preserved troops, spies will inevitably be mixed in. Less advanced weapons can effectively prevent the leakage of advanced technology.

That's probably what it's like?

Okamura Neji speculated in his mind.

"Transport them back to the country."

Okamura Neji shook his head.

Only China has the ability to conduct further research on these tanks, so as to absorb and digest the technology of these tanks and research new anti-tank weapons.

Okamura Neji left quickly.

This time the enemy suddenly brought out tanks, which made Neji Okamura see the seriousness of the problem - it was foreseeable that the enemy would inevitably bring out more tanks in the future.

Ishihara smiled and did not leave.

He looked at the tank in front of him, and a thought flashed through his mind.

America's most advanced tanks on the other side.

Is it intentional?
It’s intentional!
The empire's southward strategy is about to begin. At this time, this tank appears in front of the empire...

···
a few days later.

Homegrown.

Weapons Research Institute.

"Sherman."

Saito Oyama, director of the Army Weapons Research Institute, breathed a sigh of relief.

Although I don’t know how the Army obtained it, but...
"Yoshi!"

"Yoshi."

His voice was full of surprise and joy.

Fortunately, I got it now. Fortunately, I got it now.

otherwise··
otherwise!

When the empire encounters such tanks in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, then...

Thinking of this, his spine became cold and he broke into a cold sweat.

All the current weapons of the empire, all anti-tank weapons, including those currently in service and even those being studied in the laboratory, can no longer penetrate such tanks at long distances.

Once this kind of tank appears on the battlefield...

"Apply to the General Staff Headquarters to study new anti-tank artillery immediately."

"immediately!"

"immediately."

"Hi!"

"Also, ask someone from the Ordnance Administration Headquarters to come over and hold a technical meeting on new tanks."

The Sherman is more advanced than the most advanced tanks in the Empire. Why not use the Sherman as a model to develop a new generation of tanks in the Empire!

···
"Unload the ship."

at the same time.

Osaka.

A whole shipload of machinery and equipment purchased from the United States arrived here.

Escorted by soldiers from the 1st Division.

Machinery and equipment worth fifty million US dollars followed the railway to a newly built factory deep in Osaka.

$50 million,
In later generations, this amount of money would not even be able to buy equipment for a small steel plant, but at this time, it was possible to purchase and build a factory with an annual output of thousands of tank engines.

After all, a large engine used in a tank at this time only cost a few thousand dollars.

"Seat ten."

The accompanying imperial industrial officials wrote down the number of factories in their notebooks.

This is the tenth factory this year.

This is the tenth large-scale factory built in the empire this year.

There is also a large steel plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons.

Worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Because the technology is very advanced and it is the latest product, the seller actually hesitated for a long time. The empire even used its gold reserves, but failed to get the other party to agree.

but,

After launching an offensive on the front line in North China, the empire added three divisions to the North China Front and organized a new round of recruitment of five divisions, the seller agreed.

It even comes with technical services.

Because this factory was purchased directly, it had a complete set of equipment from a foreign factory, and it took several years for the empire to fully expand its production. With sufficient preparation work and a relatively sufficient number of skilled workers, it could be put into production soon.

"Report."

At this moment, a guard ran over and said to the technical officer:
"Orders from the General Staff Headquarters."

“Let’s get ready to take over a big tractor factory.”

"Large tractor factory?"

The technical officer's eyes lit up.

tractor factory.

As the core of heavy industry, it is now the factory with the highest technological content. The Empire has always wanted to buy it, but the seller will not sell it. No matter how high the price is, the Empire will not buy it. There is nothing the Empire can do.

Why did you let go this time?
"Tractor Factory."

The technical officer suddenly thought of a previous meeting, a meeting at the Ordnance Administration Headquarters on the research of new tanks. (End of chapter)