Chapter 64: Eight Hundred Sets of Military Uniforms

Watching the soldiers and civilians mingling harmoniously, Li Yunlong happily stood up. Beside him stood Wei Dayong, whose eyes were fixed with a glowing intensity on the newly served plate of hand-grabbed mutton.

Li Yunlong glanced at him sideways. "Go on, go on, don't make a fool of yourself here. You monk only have meat on your brain, you'll get your share soon enough!"

Turning back, Li Yunlong raised a hand with a broad grin and shouted in his raspy, gong-like voice, "Hahaha, everyone quiet down for a moment and listen to your old Li say a few words!"

The atmosphere gradually settled, and everyone looked quietly toward Li Yunlong.

Li Yunlong put his hands behind his back and leaned forward slightly. "Your old Li is a rough man, and I don't know how to give fancy speeches, ahahaha..."

"What I want to express is quite simple. Recently, our troops have won several battles, and it's all thanks to the hard work of all you brothers. A promise is a promise, and what your old Li said before, I must fulfill!"

"Wolves travel thousands of miles for meat, and the little Japanese are just a piece of meat right in front of our teeth. Today, we're going to improve our meals and eat meat in large bites!"

The soldiers in the audience cheered in unison: "Fight the little Japanese!"

"Eat meat!"

"Eat meat!"

...

The enthusiastic atmosphere thoroughly stirred everyone's emotions, and Li Yunlong struck while the iron was hot.

"Hahaha, good! Later on, everyone eat to your heart's content, let's have our fill!"

"There is another joyful thing today, and that is that these brothers have joined the ranks of our Eighth Route Army to fight the Japanese together!"

Li Yunlong pointed toward one side of the field, where the liberated prisoners of war and Wang Kai's group were seated.

Li Yunlong picked up a bowl of water and raised it high above his head. "We'll use water in place of wine. Once we drain this bowl, all of us are a single entity, regardless of our past statuses or experiences!"

"From now on, we are comrades in the same unit, comrades-in-arms, and brothers who share life and death!"

"Bottoms up!"

Li Yunlong drank it down in one breath, casually wiped his mouth, and looked around with delight as the soldiers with bowls at hand unhesitatingly emptied them. "Hahaha, good! Let's eat!"

In an instant, the threshing ground buzzed with the clinking of bowls and cups, turning into an extraordinarily lively scene. Accents from all over the country blended together, and no one remained confined to their original spots.

Everyone blended right in, shouting slogans with boundless enthusiasm, cheering and rooting for their comrades engaged in games, making no distinction between each other!

Zhang Dabiao pulled Wang Kai and Huang Tianning over to find Liu Bo, and immediately started arm-wrestling with the men from the First Company.

Observing this heartwarming scene, Li Yunlong sat back down in his original spot with immense satisfaction, only for his expression to suddenly twist into a fierce grimace as he violently lunged forward.

"You darn monk, you son of a gun, leave some for me! Is this any way for a human to eat?! Let go, let go right now!"

With great effort, Li Yunlong snatched the large porcelain basin right out of Wei Dayong's hands. There were barely a few pieces of meat left inside, while Wei Dayong's greasy mouth was stuffed to the brim. A trace of a smile peeked through his bright eyes, showing not a single shred of embarrassment.

"Were you a starving ghost in your past life?!" Grumbling, Li Yunlong hurriedly shoved the remaining few pieces of meat straight into his mouth.

With a chuckle, Wei Dayong casually wiped his hands on his clothes, grabbed several large flatbreads, and dug into a massive bowl of stew with a loud slurp.

While Wei Dayong and Li Yunlong were fighting over meat on this end, veteran Huzi and several soldiers, carrying intelligence reports requiring urgent submission along with white sugar and medical supplies, hurried through the night and finally rushed back to the headquarters of the 386th Brigade, where they met the Brigade Commander.

The Brigade Commander, who was studying a map in the command room, raised his head. "Li Yunlong's men? What kind of trick is this rascal pulling now?"

Tossing his lead pencil aside, the Brigade Commander said, "Alright, send them in!"

Huzi walked in, saluted the Brigade Commander, and immediately reported the intelligence entrusted to him by Li Yunlong.

The Brigade Commander narrowed his eyes. "Oh? The little Japanese have a special unit? Using prisoners of war for bare-handed training?! And their individual combat capability is extremely strong?!"

After a brief moment of deep thought, the Brigade Commander realized that this move by the Japanese was rather targeted.

Putting himself in their shoes, if he were facing guerrilla enemies whose whereabouts and intentions always remained elusive, what would he do?

He would dispatch an elite, small-scale unit deep into the enemy's active zone to bide their time and wait for an opportunity. The moment they locked onto the enemy's trail, they would immediately summon the main force to launch a encirclement and suppression campaign, yielding an extremely high success rate in crushing the enemy.

At this thought, the Brigade Commander realized that if such a group of Japanese soldiers had indeed infiltrated the base area, the destruction they could cause would be substantial.

"It seems we must take precautions against this! Communicator, immediately send a telegram to headquarters!"

The Brigade Commander promptly reported this intelligence and his own thoughts up to headquarters, drawing the utmost attention from the Deputy Commander-in-Chief.

Leaving aside how the Deputy Commander-in-Chief would arrange to handle this situation next, the Brigade Commander was somewhat curious about Li Yunlong's experiences over the past few days. Before he could even ask, Huzi submitted another report from Li Yunlong requesting military uniforms.

Upon taking a look, the Brigade Commander burst into laughter. "Well, well, you really are something, Li Yunlong. It's only been a few days, and you've already given me a surprise—eight hundred sets of uniforms?"

The Brigade Commander was well aware that before leaving, this rascal Li Yunlong had scrounged three hundred sets of uniforms from the logistics headquarters. After deducting what was needed to outfit that single company, it turned out they weren't enough?!

"It has to be Li Yunlong, ahahaha..." The Brigade Commander was overjoyed. Even if he slashed that requested number of eight hundred sets in half, based on that kid's usual antics, it still amounted to the scale of nearly two battalions.

Questioning Huzi, the Brigade Commander learned that in less than half a month, Li Yunlong had raided a prisoner-of-war camp and cracked down on traitors, stirring up quite a storm.

The Brigade Commander nodded, getting a rough idea of how many men Li Yunlong had under his command now.

"I'll grant those eight hundred uniforms!" Without fussing over the inflated numbers in Li Yunlong's requisition, the Brigade Commander agreed outright.

Then, looking imposing, the Brigade Commander instructed Huzi, "Go back and tell Li Yunlong that I'm giving him the uniforms, but if I don't see those men when the time comes, and Li Yunlong can't produce solid results, hmph, don't blame me for turning hostile!"

"Yes!" Huzi took the Brigade Commander's approval slip, left the headquarters overjoyed, and led his men toward the logistics headquarters.

After Huzi departed, the Brigade Commander pondered over Li Yunlong once more. Though this kid was developing his troops fast, the composition of the ranks was becoming complex—not that he feared Li Yunlong couldn't keep them under control.

However, ideological and political work within the ranks could not be neglected. The Brigade Commander decided to immediately petition headquarters to dispatch a political commissar to Li Yunlong's forces to preserve the purity of the ranks.

Oblivious to all this, Li Yunlong had just shaken off one set of tight constraints, only for the dear Brigade Commander to thoughtfully find him a modern-day Monk Xuanzang to preach to him.

Meanwhile, holding the Brigade Commander's approval slip, Huzi sought out Li Yunlong's fellow townsman, Zhang Wanhe.

Zhang Wanhe first praised Li Yunlong's speed in expanding his forces, but upon hearing from Huzi that he had also brought white sugar and medicine, he sprang to his feet in sheer astonishment.

"Where on earth did Li Yunlong strike it rich? And has he turned over a new leaf, being so generous as to send things over?!"

When he learned that Li Yunlong had set his sights on the wounded soldiers in the field hospital, Zhang Wanhe burst into loud laughter. "Ahahaha, I knew it! That rascal Li Yunlong is never one to act without a profit. So he was planning to poach my men all along!"

Zhang Wanhe readily agreed. "I'll accept the supplies, and as for the field hospital, old Zhang will pull some strings for him, even if I have to risk this old face of mine!"