The Japanese were beaten away, so the Third Brigade naturally wanted to reward merits. As a battalion-level unit, the Third Brigade naturally did not have the right to grant soldiers a military rank. However, Li Qinglin is still the deputy captain of the Ninth Detachment. At Han Jizhong's suggestion, Li Qinglin asked someone to carve the seal of the Ninth Detachment, and he began to issue official documents to raise the military ranks to the officers and soldiers and pay bonuses.

The current military pay of the Third Brigade is not rich, and even if there is a reward in terms of money, it is symbolic. Some soldiers who perform well receive a piece of money and a half of the ocean are just an incentive effect. Although the military rank can be freely controlled, the salary will increase next month after the promotion of the military rank, which is also difficult for Li Qinglin to bear. After repeated measurements, the reward has been announced. Although the expected results cannot be achieved, the soldiers still accepted this reality after explanations from officers at all levels.

In fact, what made Li Qinglin even more worried was his ammunition replenishment issues, which gave Li Qinglin a great headache.

Two battles have been fought in Sangyu Town. The ammunition consumption is much more than the amount obtained. The ammunition consumed in daily training is not a small amount. The third brigade has not brought much inventory from the south. The bullets are spread to only about one hundred rounds per person, and the mortar shells and grenades are less than a base. The soldiers of the third brigade have now begun to pay attention to saving bullets, but the officers and soldiers who are used to being big-handed have not yet reached the ability of the Eighth Route Army to fight five rounds per person and ten rounds of bullets. If the Japanese immediately launched a large-scale attack, Li Qinglin himself doubted whether he could be able to hold on.

There is no supply in the rear, and the only way to obtain ammunition is to purchase it. Even if you have money, you can't do it at the moment. First, ammunition is very expensive, which requires a lot of money. Li Qinglin can barely pay military salaries, and he doesn't know where the money to buy ammunition comes from; second, it's the source of ammunition. Currently, some people are selling guns and ammunition on the black market, but they are all small-scale fuss, and they can't meet the ammunition needs of a brigade of troops like Li Qinglin.

In order to solve the ammunition problem, Li Qinglin also issued a secret notice to each squadron, requiring each squadron to try every means and use all channels to replenish ammunition. Although each squadron agreed, Li Qinglin knew that this would not be solved in a short time, so he started to reorganize and renovate the captured puppet army.

In this battle, more than 60 puppet troops were captured and incorporated. After discussing with others, Li Qinglin decided to draw veterans from Feng Zheng's 10th Squadron to supplement them with other squadrons. These 60 puppet troops were incorporated into the 10th Squadron for reorganization and training.

Feng Zheng had no idea about this arrangement. After all, the 10th Squadron has always been with the direct squadron because it was not on the front line and did not have any combat tasks. The original intention of the 10th Squadron was to train new recruits, so this arrangement was quickly implemented.

On the third day after the war, the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Pan Kewei came and brought Nokawa's letter, and two more good news.

Nokawa's letter was related to the so-called "Tuyan" business. Because the Yuntu that Pan Ke has obtained is extremely popular in the market. It is precisely because of the protection of Liang Dagong's puppet army and some other small traitors that the business of the Asia Trading Company can be described as hot. In just ten days, Pan Ke has already bought two batches of opium for them and made extremely profits.

In order to establish a good relationship with Nokawa, Pan Ke made a group of money to share with him along the way for his policy. Nokawa had received the first batch of smuggled profits. Nokawa expressed his gratitude in the letter for receiving this large sum of money.

In order to keep this business going for a long time, Nokawa suggested that Asia Trading Bank hire a Japanese as a manager. Nokawa means that there is a real Japanese in charge, which will be much more convenient in all aspects.

In fact, Nokawa has another meaning, that is, the profits of this batch of opium are too high, and he is afraid that "Shunji Kobayashi" will eventually leave him behind. The reason why he asked "Shunji Kobayashi" to invite another Japanese was that Nokawa wanted to install someone himself to monitor the business.

Pan Kewei and Yan Boling have actually made a decision on Nokawa's suggestion, that is, to agree that Nokawa sends someone in. Asia Trading Bank is just a cover for Li Qinglin and others to the outside world. All the people in it are Pan Kewei and Yan Boling. The real decision is in Wantong Business Name. What if Nokawa installs someone? The reason why Li Qinglin is sought is because Li Qinglin is also a shareholder of Wantong Business Name.

Anyway, Pan Kewei and others will deal with this Japanese man in the future. Li Qinglin only used the Japanese identity "Junji Kobayashi" here, so Li Qinglin certainly agreed.

However, Li Qinglin was particularly sensitive to one of the things mentioned in Nokawa's mind, that is, the military headquarters has been studying measures to restore public order in the occupied areas in the future.

Regarding the Japanese's policy of restoring public security, Pan Kewei explained its origin to Li Qinglin.

In the autumn of 1938, the Japanese side ended the two attacks of the war by completely eliminating Chiang Kai-shek's army and ending the battle of attacking Wuhan and Guangzhou. Although these two attacks defeated many national troops and occupied two important towns and large areas of China, the Japanese army's goal of completely eliminating China's anti-Japanese forces was not achieved, because the National Government had moved to the southwest and the troops were still making firm resistance.

In view of the situation on the battlefield, we have deeply realized the common point in both the National Government and the Japanese side, that is, the future battle will be a protracted war.

On the other hand, Japan has successfully instigated the rebellion of the Kuomintang Vice President Wang Jingwei. Wang Jingwei fled to Vietnam in December 2018 and issued a "Yan Dian" to publicly surrender to the enemy.

After Wang Jingwei surrendered to the Japanese, Japan was preparing to establish a pseudo-National Government headed by Wang Jingwei. They continued to implement the policy of "using China to control China", hoping to use the power of the Wang Puppet Government to fight against the Chongqing National Government.

In view of the above reality, Japan believes that from a strategic perspective, the Chiang regime has been transformed into a local regime. Instead of consuming a large amount of troops and material resources to penetrate the southwest to eliminate Chiang, it is better to support Wang Jingwei to establish a new pseudo-regime to suppress Chiang regime.

In December 1938, the Japanese Army Department issued the "Strategies for Handling China After Autumn 1938", with its guiding principle: "...In the future, independent guidance on the construction of New China and avoid impatience. To this end, the restoration of public security should be the foundation, and other measures should be adapted to this."...
Chapter completed!