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

Chapter 372: Japanese pirates approach Shanghai, Zhang Yezhong asks for help

"That's why my commander decided to gather the whole country's strength to fight against them, just to protect the 5,000-year-old Chinese heritage!"

Li Jiayu was shocked when he heard this, he didn't know what a century-old industrial power was, but those ten million were not enough to kill them, he knew too well how powerful they were.

"Brother Zhou, what you said is true. Is Japan really that strong?"

"I'm not sure exactly how strong it is, but I got the latest news from the intelligence department."

"It is said that Japan officially attacked Beiping on September 18th. It took only 12 days to annihilate the 80,000 defenders in the Pingjin area and completely occupy Beiping and its surrounding areas!"

Li Jiayu was shocked when he heard this. He was also an old soldier and knew what this data represented. It was almost a one-sided massacre, with absolutely no power to resist.

But after the shock, he remembered a word Zhou Sansheng had said before.

"Brother Zhou just said that the 80,000-man army was completely annihilated?"

Zhou Sanxing heard this and squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, "Eighty thousand defenders, not a single one survived!"

"It's from Mr. Ge!"

When Li Jiayu heard this, he immediately burst into swearing. How could he not know what this sentence meant? How could there be no prisoners in a war?

And now there is only one reason why no one among the defenders survived.

Kill the prisoners!

After hearing this, Li Jiayu could no longer sit still and immediately agreed to Zhou Sansheng's request to join forces to fight the enemy.

But at this time, the deputy general at the side suddenly stepped forward and asked, "It is natural to fight against foreign enemies, but who is the host and who is the guest? How to arrange the soldiers under the Marshal? How to deal with the gentry and landlords under the Marshal's rule?"

"Does Commander Jiang have any explanation for these?"

When Li Jiayu heard what the adjutant said, he immediately calmed down. He was anxious and confused just now. Now after hearing what the adjutant said, he turned his attention to Zhou Sansheng.

"Marshal Li, don't worry. My commander said that this time, our commander will be the main force in the joint fight against the enemy, but he will also provide you with food, ammunition, medicine and other logistical supplies!"

"As for the general's soldiers, you are still in charge. My commander will never interfere. The only requirement is that you control your subordinates and don't plunder the place!"

"As for the gentry, landlords and wealthy merchants under your rule, as long as they can generously donate money to save the country and fight the war at this critical moment of national survival, their past mistakes can be written off!"

After hearing these words, Li Jiayu immediately stopped hesitating and agreed to Zhou Sansheng's request, and asked him to contact Jiang Li as soon as possible, as he wanted to talk to him in person.

Seeing that the task was completed so easily, Zhou Sansheng happily agreed. Then after drinking a cup of tea, he went back to report.

Zhou Sheng successfully completed his task this week, but other diplomats were not so lucky.

The warlords they met were all selfish people. Knowing that Jiang Li wanted to end the war immediately, they started to blackmail him one by one.

Some wanted money, some wanted weapons and equipment, and some wanted official positions and troops.

After Jiang Li learned about it, he gave all the things except the troops. He would have to give them when fighting the Japanese anyway, so giving them now would just be a little early.

Just when Jiang Li was quickly integrating the surrounding forces, bad news came from the Japanese again.

It turned out that after taking Peking, the Japanese did not stop, but instead divided their troops into three groups and marched south. The group led by Song Jin Shigen even made their way all the way to Shanghai with a hot momentum.

During this period, the warlords of all sizes encountered along the way were either easily defeated or surrendered directly and became traitors.

But when they arrived in Shanghai, they encountered some troubles. It was not because the Shanghai defenders were strong, but because Shanghai was an international metropolis.

Now every country has set up concessions here, but Song Jin Shigen is not stupid enough to offend so many countries, but consciously avoids these concessions.

This gave Zhang Yezhong, the highest military commander stationed in Shanghai, the opportunity to seek help from the outside world.

He knew that with only his 70,000 or 80,000 men, it would be impossible for him to stop the nearly 100,000 well-armed Japanese troops, so when he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately sent a letter for help to the whole country.

As the largest warlord in the southwest region, Jiang Li naturally received the letter for help at the first time.

So he immediately summoned his officers and the warlords he had just allied with during this period, and began to discuss the specific support plan.

"I once heard that the Japanese pirates made a bold statement that they would destroy China in three months. Now that they have divided their troops into three groups and are marching southward with unstoppable force, I think the rumor is true!"

"Now that we know that General Zhang Yezhong has asked for help, we can send troops to help, give the Japanese a head-on blow, and completely crush their wishful thinking of destroying the country in three months!"

As soon as he arrived, he set the tone and did not give those speculators any chance. Otherwise, if someone really came and proposed not to support, it would be a huge blow to their morale.

After hearing Jiang Li's words, some people at the scene actually thought about not supporting him.

But because Jiang Li, the most powerful warlord present, had already expressed his position, they did not dare to stand up and sing a different tune. If he treated them as the chicken to be killed at that time, it would be very bad.

It is true that some people have selfish motives, but there are more people who are passionate. Among them, the one who reacted most strongly was the Sichuan warlord Li Jiayu.

Speaking of Li Jiayu, Jiang Li still has some impression of him. The reason is that Li Jiayu was the head of the Sichuan military officer system during the Republic of China period.

During the warlord period, he occupied Suining, Pengxi, Tongnan, Anyue, Lezhi, Ziyang, Jianyang and other areas, and later succeeded as the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Provincial Frontier Defense Army.

With all these, it was impossible for Jiang Li, a poor student of history, to remember his name.

This is entirely because Jiang Li’s predecessor was from Ziyang, so he specifically looked for any powerful figures in the local area.

As a result, the investigation actually turned up some incredible information. In the history of Blue Star, Li Jiayu was not only quite active in the warlord melee in the Republic of China.

In the later period, he took the initiative to participate in the fight against the Japanese invaders, and he also led the Sichuan Army to make great contributions to the fight against the Japanese invaders. In the end, he died in the battle with the Japanese invaders at the age of 52.

At that time, he was the commander-in-chief of the 36th Army Group of the Revolutionary Army. He was also the highest-ranking commander in my country's fight against the Japanese invaders except for General Zhang Zizhong when he died.

As soon as Li Jiayu opened his mouth, he was ready to search and laugh. "Since we are determined to support, we should naturally go all out. I, Li Jiayu, am willing to lead all my soldiers to Shanghai to fight against the Japanese pirates!"

After he said that, everyone in the room looked at him, including Jiang Li. However, he didn't find it strange, but was instead surprised.

After all, he had said before that the Japanese pirates were powerful and this trip would most likely be a bloody battle, but he was still willing to fight for his life.