My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Chapter 370: Japan invades China 5 years ahead of schedule

He only ordered the logistics department to deliver supplies to them in time and to bring back the wounded. As for the rest of the matters, he left them entirely to themselves.

After that, he continued to recruit soldiers and train them, and at the same time he had people open mines, build roads, and develop industry and agriculture in the three provinces of Hubei, Guizhou and Yunnan.

Another month passed in a flash, and Jack came back again.

This time when he met Jiang Li, he did not take out any strange agreement, but instead took out a list of goods.

"After seeing your shopping list and your reasonable request, His Majesty the Emperor discussed it with the ministers and agreed to your request."

"Commander Jiang, please take a look. This is the list of goods I brought this time."

Jiang Li took it and looked at it, and immediately saw what was recorded on it. There were indeed some tanks, cannons and airplanes at the front, and some industrial equipment at the back. The most important thing was that the prices were all marked!

What makes Jiang Li most curious is that the prices are similar to those in other countries, and some are even cheaper.

This made Jiang Li confused. After all, according to his guess, if Dai Ying wanted to make money to recover losses, he should not set the price of the goods so low.

You know, these are not civilian goods in great demand, so there is no reason for them to adopt the strategy of small profits but quick turnover!

So he simply asked directly, "I have seen all these products. I don't know what the price is. Could these be the inventory you found in the warehouse?"

Jack immediately denied it upon hearing it, "Commander Jiang, what are you talking about? How is this possible?"

"These are what we captured on the Tianzhu battlefield. Although they are not brand new, they are all our current weapons and equipment. They are the most advanced in the world!"

This statement is of a very high level. It is true that they were captured and they are indeed in service, but it is not right to put them together.

Because this batch of weapons are the weapons currently in service in the colony of India, and the colonial weapons were originally discarded by local soldiers.

Therefore, this batch of weapons was several levels behind the equipment of British soldiers, but they were prepared to sell them at the price of new weapons.

But Jiang Li doesn't care about these now, as long as it can be used. Anyway, his opponents are those warlords with backward weapons and equipment.

Even if we use these equipment against Japan, I think we can at least be on equal terms with them, if not crush them. This is because their planes and tanks are notoriously thin on the outside but large on the inside.

After thinking it over, Jiang Li decided to buy it without hesitation, but of course he would not accept the price and quantity on the list.

Instead, he picked out the products he could produce and those with obviously too high prices, and finally let Han Yong and Jack argue back and forth.

Finally, the price was lowered by 20 percent and the deal was made.

After the contract was signed, Jack took Han Yong's fleet to Guangzhou to transport goods.

Jiang Li, on the other hand, originally wanted to go home to spend time with his wife and children, but instead he received shocking news.

That is, Japan actually started its full-scale invasion of China several years in advance, ten days ago.

It turned out that Japan had learned that Britain's economic strength had declined significantly after World War I and the Indian Civil War, and that it had already made major military cuts and was looking for money everywhere.

They would never have any idea about their small island country, so they decided to send troops immediately. It turned out that their intelligence department had discovered.

Jiang Li, the big warlord in the south, now controls six provinces and is also sending troops to three surrounding provinces at the same time.

If he successfully takes over these provinces and then rests for a while, I'm afraid he will have the strength to fight against Japan.

Therefore, after discussion, the Japanese high-ranking officials decided to take advantage of the civil war to send troops immediately, catch China off guard, and then destroy China in one fell swoop.

When Jiang Li got the news, he almost jumped up, because the timing was too bad.

On the one hand, his industrialization has not been completed, and on the other hand, he is now at war with the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian and Sichuan at the same time.

Not only were a lot of supplies consumed, but the army was not in its best condition.

He was so anxious that he didn't care about those trivial matters. He sent a telegram directly to summon all senior generals at all levels to discuss the next plan of action.

When everyone arrived, Jiang Li stood up from his chair and said loudly to everyone: "I just received news from the intelligence personnel."

"It is said that Japan requested to enter Beiping City to search for a missing military dog ​​ten days ago. After being rejected by the local garrison, they brazenly launched an attack on Beiping City. They may have occupied Beiping by now!"

When these words were spoken, everyone present was stunned, but then they were filled with endless anger.

"Fuck, those Japanese are so shameless that they actually used a dog as an excuse to start a war. They are simply not human beings!"

"Yeah, son of a bitch, that dog must be someone's illegitimate child, otherwise why would you react so strongly?"

"..."

For a moment, the whole audience was indignant, their words were highly coded, and their emotions were extremely excited.

But at this moment, Jiang Li didn't have time to listen to their cursing. He slapped the conference table hard, making a big hole in it.

Then he withdrew his hand and said coldly: "If you want to curse me, go back and do it. Now I want to discuss with you how to deal with it."

Everyone immediately fell silent upon hearing this. Seeing this, Jiang Li continued, "Everyone should understand our situation."

"We have just occupied three provinces, Hubei, Guizhou and Yunnan, which requires a lot of manpower and resources."

"At the same time, we are still at war with the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian and Sichuan, so we are quite passive in the face of the invasion of Japanese pirates. I called you here this time to discuss how to deal with these things!"

"Now, if you have any opinions, please speak up!"

When everyone heard what Jiang Li said, they stopped cursing and immediately started discussing in a low voice with people they were familiar with.

Jiang Li did not stop this scene, but waited quietly for their opinions, while he was also thinking about countermeasures.

After a long time, everyone stopped talking and started expressing their own opinions.

Some immediately sent troops north, while others ignored the Japanese pirates for the time being and first increased their forces to conquer the three provinces of Sichuan, Jiangxi and Fujian, and then concentrated their forces to fight against the Japanese pirates.

There were also calls to withdraw troops immediately and negotiate with the warlords in the three provinces, inviting them to fight against Japan together. In short, there were all kinds of opinions.

However, their methods all have some limitations, and seem to lack a sense of the overall situation.

However, Jiang Li called them here not to ask for advice, but to test their attitude and see what they would think when facing foreign invasion.

Now looking at it this way, it's not bad. Although the ideas are not very good, at least they are generally aimed at fighting against foreign enemies.