Chapter 39 War Zone Commendation
After the letter was sent out, the families of these wealthy landlords did not dare to delay for even a second and immediately raised money overnight.
After all, the person who was kidnapped was the head of the family.
As for Yang Lin, he hadn't slept for a whole day and a whole night in order to attack Wanjia Town, and he was already exhausted.
After dinner, Yang Lin arranged some night watch duties and went to bed to rest.
The landlords and wealthy people were put under house arrest and would be released when they were paid.
Nothing happened during the night and time quickly came to the next morning.
“Snap, snap!”
Yang Lin was awakened by a knock on the door, and then Ma Gan's loud voice came from outside the door: "Captain, Captain!"
Being disturbed from his dream, Yang Lin angrily shouted, "Damn it, why are you so startled? Could it be that the Japanese are attacking?"
"Captain, come out and take a look. The family of the landlord has already sent the ransom!"
When Yang Lin heard this, he suddenly lost all his sleepiness. He immediately stood up, put on his clothes and walked towards the door.
There were more than a dozen boxes of various sizes placed in the yard of the headquarters, some of which had been opened.
In order to show himself well in front of Yang Lin, Wen Peng was busy with this matter last night and didn't even pay attention to his lover.
After all, he could tell the difference between having fun for one night and having fun for a lifetime.
At this time, Wen Peng was leading several soldiers, busy opening the remaining boxes. When he saw Yang Lin coming, he immediately greeted him with a smile: "Captain, we've made a fortune!"
When Yang Lin saw that the box was filled with gold and dollars, he was so excited that his heart choked.
Although he had made a small fortune by raiding Yuan Datou's house, it was nothing .
Yang Lin calmed himself down, pretended to be calm, and said, "What's the point of getting rich? Did we join the army to make money? We joined to defend our country and fight the Japanese invaders."
Wen Peng smiled awkwardly, raised his head and scratched his head, then continued counting the money.
The second company commander Zhao Dejiu beside him asked in confusion: "Captain, there is something I don't understand. These landlords are always tyrannical and bring disaster to the village. None of them is a good person.
You might as well just rob their house, wouldn't we get more money this way?"
Yang Lin smiled and said, "Old Zhao, you don't know this. I have investigated the assets of these landlords and rich people. Almost all the cash they can take out at once is here."
After a pause, Yang Lin lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, and continued, "As a person, you need to have a long-term vision."
"Catch the big fish with the long line, understand?"
"In addition to cash, these landlords have more property in the form of fields, shops and other businesses."
"Let's keep them to make money for us first, and then borrow money from them again when the time is right. Isn't that better than directly confiscating their property now?"
"Captain, this move of yours is really too powerful!"
Zhao Dejiu was full of admiration for Yang Lin. He was too insidious. It was not without reason that the two old devils, Sakata Nobutsu and Kato Daitaka, fell into his hands.
"Hahaha!"
Yang Lin and Zhao Dejiu smiled at each other.
About two hours later, the gold and cash in the box were counted, and they matched the amount written on Yang Lin's IOU exactly, without any discrepancy.
In total, he borrowed more than 300,000 silver dollars in cash from the landlords, as well as some gold and silver notes.
After lunch, Yang Lin called several company commanders to the command center for a meeting.
Yang Lin, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, looked around and saw that everyone was present. He said, "Everyone, although my independent brigade just won a victory, it also completely angered the Japanese.
Given the nature of the Japanese, they will definitely retaliate against our independent battalion."
"Of course, I'm not telling you this because I'm afraid of the Japs."
"I just want to tell you that my independent brigade must grow stronger as soon as possible to cope with the next retaliation from the Japanese devils."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Yang Lin added: "Wanjia Town is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is not a place to stay for long. We will return to Luotuo Ridge in two days."
"In addition to strengthening your training over the next two days, you will also need to write a few more recruitment notices to recruit some new soldiers."
At this point, Yang Lin fixed his eyes on Wen Peng's face and continued, "Old Wen, the training mission of your baggage company is relatively light, so I 'll leave the matter of recruiting new soldiers to you."
"yes!"
Wen Peng agreed immediately.
Next, Yang Lin discussed the training details of the independent battalion.
His method was simple and brutal.
That is to let each company compete, and the company with better training results will get more military pay and better food.
If the training results are poor, the military pay will be reduced and the money will be rewarded to the company with good training results.
An hour later, the meeting just ended.
The sentry on duty outside suddenly came to the entrance of the command department in a hurry: "Captain, two soldiers from the Shanxi Suiyuan Army have come to the station. They said they were the communications soldiers of the 358th Regiment and were ordered by the regiment commander Chu Yunfei to deliver a letter to you."
"Oh? Really?"
Yang Lin signaled everyone to adjourn the meeting, then stood up and strode towards the entrance of the residence.
"This is Yang Lin, the captain of our independent brigade."
The sentry who tipped off introduced himself, and two signalmen from the 358th Regiment immediately stood at attention and raised their hands to salute Yang Lin.
"Captain Yang, we are the communications soldiers of the 358th Regiment. The commander sent us to deliver a letter to you."
After saying that, a soldier opened his briefcase and handed a letter to Yang Lin.
Yang Lin took the letter and said with a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, brothers. Please come in and have a drink of water."
"Captain Yang, we appreciate your kindness, but we have to hurry back to report, so we won't stay here."
The two signalmen politely declined, not daring to delay even a bit.
"Since you two brothers have important matters to attend to, Yang will not try to keep you here. I will treat you two properly another day when I have time."
As he spoke, Yang Lin took out more than ten dollars from his pocket and stuffed them into their pockets.
"Thank you, Captain Yang!"
The two of them hurriedly thanked him, then mounted their horses and rushed towards the city gate.
Although Chu Yunfei would not withhold his subordinates' wages, the monthly salary of an ordinary soldier in the 358th Regiment was only 10 yuan.
Yang Lin gave the two of them a tip that was equivalent to half a month's military pay, so they were naturally very happy.
After seeing the two off, Yang Lin curiously opened the letter and started reading it.
This is a handwritten letter from Chu Yunfei. He has a beautiful handwriting and his strokes are vigorous and powerful.
Chu Yunfei said in the letter that he had reported to the war zone headquarters the independent battalion's surprise attack on Wanjia Town, destruction of Qinghe Town Railway Station, and annihilation of the Japanese Kato Battalion.
Commander Yan was very satisfied with Yang Lin's performance and prepared to reward him.
So Chu Yunfei asked them to go to the regiment headquarters, firstly to receive the commendation issued by the theater commander's office, and secondly to receive the uniforms and military expenses of the independent battalion.
As for the issue of handing over the spoils, not a single word was mentioned, because Chu Yunfei disdained to snatch the spoils from his subordinates. Of course, the more important reason was that his 358th Regiment had no shortage of equipment and supplies.
