A Dream of Jinling Chapter 343 Retreat (20)

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The 24th Army received the order to retreat on August 10. Prior to this, the 24th Army wanted the Front Command to have a strong attitude and ask for permission to leave the Chicago area. By the time the order was given to allow them to retreat, the railroad that had been completely destroyed by the Chicago Fire was left unrepaired, and the troops immediately set off in trucks that had been repaired.

There are also people who look back at Chicago, and many more who don't look back at all. After the Chicago Fire on the night of July 25, the 24th Army was involved in two things. The first thing is to save people, and a part of the Americans has nowhere to go and runs around. The 24th Army had no choice but to arrest them all and put them in a concentration camp surrounded by barbed wire.

The second thing, naturally, is to destroy, and the Yankees are not marching fast. The 100,000 Federal Army troops who had gone to the aid of Sault Ste. Mary through Michigan were withdrawn, and the 24th Army participated in the battle to encircle and annihilate the federal army.

The brutal battle was fought in one fell swoop until August 6, and not only did the 100,000 people be wiped out in the encirclement. The 24th Army also participated in the encirclement and annihilation of two other US ** teams that came to the rescue. After such a fierce battle, the entire 24th Army no longer had the slightest will to fight, and the troops from top to bottom had only one wish, that is, to quickly leave the battlefield and return to the rear.

Chief of Staff Qi Rui sat expressionlessly on the truck, and the people in the same car were all personnel from the headquarters, and everyone was expressionless like Qi Rui. Various cultural education has been strengthened in the army, and many people in the North American army have seen the ethereal aurora in military training. The dreamlike beauty of the gods will also be explained by sober science, and people will not think that the fire tornado of the Chicago Fire that can be photographed is the will of the gods. What's more, if this is really God's will, it is also God's desire to tell the Americans through this giant pillar of flame that goes straight to the sky, and there is only one way to end up fighting China.

Of course, this is not to say that this strange phenomenon is not impressive. For the officers and men of the 24th Army, war was like eating a lot of strong-tasting food. The Chicago fires and the ensuing battle were the biggest and most flavorful super-dishes, and when the dish was forced into everyone's stomachs, no one had the slightest interest in the act of "eating" itself. The common idea of all is to escape from the "dining table".

The troops returned to Madison first, and then countless applications for discharge flew in. Not only the officers and men at the grassroots level, but even a quarter of the officers in the general staff, after submitting a large number of applications for retirement, took out their own retirement applications and put them at the top of the stack of applications.

Faced with such a situation, Qi Rui just rolled his eyes and said in an indifferent tone: "What's the hurry? I haven't judged it yet! When the credit is evaluated and the level is upgraded, I will never stop everyone! ”

What the chief of staff said was reasonable, and the comrades felt that it was acceptable. What's more, at this time, the 24th Army is getting farther and farther away from the battlefield, as long as it is on the way to escape from the fed up place of the battlefield, it is easy to talk about anything.

Of course, Qi Rui himself has no intention of retiring, but he feels that he is not opposed to the idea of retiring at this time. This is not the result of some rational consideration, but rather the emotional level that dominates his current thoughts is overflowing with such feelings.

"I just want to go home and see my parents right now."

"I want to go home and have a baby with my wife."

"We have a lot of people in Anhui, and the climate is not as good as in North America, so I want to stay in North America. But I'm going to bring my family here, and since we've made a contribution, my family won't be bullied if they work on the farm here. ”

"I just want to rest......"

"I want to go back and get an army scholarship and go to school."

"I want to go to a military school ......"

Qi Rui patrolled the troops along the way, preventing the troops from being too sloppy is of course the purpose of Qi Rui's inspection, chatting and talking with these ordinary soldiers with a relatively limited age difference, Qi Rui found that the attitude of these soldiers was inexplicably reassuring to him. After experiencing a fierce battle, Qi Rui felt that a huge change had taken place in his heart, for example, when he thought of Chu Xuelai, Qi Rui had a strong possessive desire for the first time, he just wanted to take the troops back to Nanjing and forcibly turn Chu Xue into his own person. Although he knew that he was just imagining, this impulse was too many times, which also made Qi Rui feel dissatisfied with himself.

Listening to the ordinary voices of the soldiers, Qi Rui naturally felt calm. These ordinary thoughts are not new to Qi Rui, even if his father is Wei Ze, even if his mother has always been very tight. But Qi Rui felt that it would be good to be able to visit them at this time. Now Qi Rui believes that he can easily cope with the situation when facing his parents. As for settling down, Qi Rui has not fantasized about living an idyllic life with Chu Xue, "you weave cloth and I will plow the fields, and the husband and wife will both return home". Compared with the expectations of the fighters, Qi Rui suddenly found that he was actually more unrealistic than the soldiers.

The 24th Army handed over all motorized equipment and heavy equipment to friendly forces that came to receive it, and all troops left Madison with only light weapons. It took four or five days to reach the starting point, the city on the north shore of Lake Superior. Seeing the starting point a few months ago, the troops couldn't help but cheer.

No slogans, no speeches, only cheers. Qi Rui can understand the feelings of these comrades-in-arms, and the moment he jumped from the side of the boat to the dock, two words popped up in Qi Rui's heart: "Go home"! A few years ago, Qi Rui would never have considered the northern shore of Lake Superior, which had been owned by the Republic of China at that time, to be Chinese territory, let alone his homeland. For Lieutenant Qi Rui at that time, the north of Lake Superior was a complete wilderness. However, when he left the United States, Qi Rui felt that this wild land had become a dear hometown. Even if he felt funny, Qi Rui still felt his sincere mood at this time.

There were also no decent settlements north of Lake Superior, and the troops got on the train again, and it took more than a week to get back to Xinxiang from the front. The return of these tired soldiers, especially Senior Colonel Qi Rui, who had a bright future, to Xinxiang made Shen Xin, the political commissar of the North American Theater in Xinxiang, very happy. At least for the next few months, he won't have to worry about it anymore.

This retreat also marked the beginning of a major retirement, with a total of more than 2 million troops in the Restoration Army starting to be incorporated into the reserves, and in the next three years, the total number of active and reserve forces in the Liberation Army will reach an unprecedented 5 million. The Japanese side has made it clear that it is willing to provide 1 million servant troops, and after receiving the money from China, the Goryeo government has also readily expressed its willingness to provide 200,000 servant troops. With a total of more than 6 million troops, and 6 million troops that can be effectively commanded, the Republic of China has undoubtedly made history. It was the largest known army in Chinese history.

Shen Xin, the nominal commander of the largest army, would inevitably not be cranky, and of course he would not come up with any tricks to seize the earliest command of this army. Not even talking about the existence of wireless telegraphy and cable telegraphy, just because the Liberation Army led the army with the party, Shen Xin had no chance to seize the command of this army. The members of the Party Committee of the North American Theater of Operations were to rely on the great merit of annexing North America to establish their personal great achievements, and regardless of such imminent benefits, they braved the wind of killing their heads to fight against the Governor of Weze, whom everyone sincerely admired and never failed? These members of the party committee will probably report the case to those who propose rebellion as soon as possible.

Shen Xin imagines his future prestige in history, and history will record those soldiers who were active on the front line. For example, Qi Rui, the chief of staff of the 24th Army, who was about to be promoted to major general in a few days, this young man was invincible along the way, and on the first night of the siege of Chicago, Chicago was destroyed by fire. Shen Xin also saw the photos of those fire tornadoes, and the grandeur even had a religious-level flavor.

But as the supreme commander, Shen Xinyi is commanding behind the scenes, how will future generations describe Shen Xin? Shen Xin was curious about this and looked forward to it.

Unlike these subordinates and children who were romantic, Wei Zedudu still chatted with Uncle En's with the characteristic calmness of a materialist. Both of them enjoyed this kind of conversation, and it was valuable to gain wisdom from the other, and to feel the materialistic mode of thinking that the other used was a kind of satisfaction. For these two guys, knowledge and insight are not what they lack, what these two people lack in life is the feeling of a very high-quality mindset.

"Your Excellency is simply to withdraw your troops and then launch a more powerful attack on the United States. Do you think this is a retreat? Uncle Enn asked Wei Ze.

Wei Ze seemed to be a little inattentive, and the ease brought by talking to Uncle En often promoted some of his active thinking, at least to get real relaxation. So he replied: "For now, retreat is retreat." Later, when the offensive begins, it will naturally be counted as an offense. Many years ago, when I was younger, there was an excuse that bad things are good things. Now I'm not going to say anything more. ”

Uncle En understood that two different things could not be confused by sophistry, he just wanted to test whether Wei Ze was a little confused. Seeing that Wei Ze was not confused, Uncle Enn asked a question he was very concerned about, "I thought that the Americans would start a people's war, but the result of the Sino-American war surprised me. I don't know what your attention thinks about this. ”

"Mr. Engels, if you ask me to fight Europe like this, I will definitely not fight. The people of Europe have a thousand-year-old history in that land, and it is natural that I will encounter a people's war after I enter it. If I were to cross the Appalachian Mountains and get into the East Coast of the United States, I wouldn't do it. If you kill it, you will encounter a people's war. But in the western part of North America, the Americans have been beaten by only a few decades or even a dozen years since we did. They relied on strongholds, and as long as they eliminated American strongholds and the scattered farms and ranches that were close to them, there would be few Americans left in those areas. It's not that the Americans can't afford a people's war in those areas, but that the United States is at most immigrants in those areas, not the people. ”

Uncle En also had some thoughts about this before, and after Wei Ze said this, he did not object. After thinking for a moment, Uncle En's asked Wei Ze, "Then what does Your Excellency think is the difference between immigrants and people?" ”

"Immigrants, their purpose is to have better land, better transportation, and a better life. And the people, no matter how barren the land and how difficult the transportation, they think they belong to the land. So they will try their best to survive in this land. Having seen the Chinese people's feelings for the land and setting off a wave of Chinese immigration, Wei Ze did not hesitate to talk about the difference between the two.

Uncle Eun was silent after hearing such comments and did not ask new questions.