Chapter 311 General Mobilization (First update, please subscribe)
The war finally broke out!
There is no doubt that the war was definitely not started by South China. After Argentina refused to apologize for its invasion, the company declared with regret that this was a tragedy.
"Since they have chosen war, this will be the only option!"
Faced with the invasion, Nanhua was forced to fight back.
All officers and soldiers who were originally on leave had their leave cancelled.
That afternoon, thousands of telegrams were sent from the General Staff Headquarters, and then bicycle postmen delivered expedited telegrams to officers and soldiers on leave.
No matter who they were or what their rank was, the orders they received were very simple.
"Sir, the General Staff has sent an urgent telegram. All personnel on leave are required to cancel their leave and report to the troops within 24 (48, 72...) hours. Otherwise, they will be treated as deserters."
The officers and soldiers who received the telegram often had frowns on their faces and were full of confusion.
"What big thing happened?"
They had never encountered such a situation before, so all leave was cancelled and they were required to report back to the troops immediately, otherwise they would be considered deserters.
deserter!
capital offense!
After saying goodbye to his wife, Sun Haitao came to the train station, which was crowded with people. Everyone there was talking about one thing - war!
“The Argentinians are invading us!”
"They want to take our land and our factories..."
When people were talking, they would often make way for soldiers when they saw them approaching, and some would even encourage them.
"General, when we get to the front, we'll have to deal with those foreign devils!"
"Sir, you must win!"
…
Faced with people's expectations, Sun Haitao looked a little nervous. In fact, he was not the only one feeling the same, most people felt the same as well.
"Which unit is the commander from?"
In the waiting room, a sergeant came up to him and asked.
"You are from the 20th Regiment?"
"Oh, what a coincidence! I'm from the 19th Regiment, Sergeant Wang Wenming."
Wang Wenming said with a grin.
"Our troops are not far away. They are all training on the grassland. It's just right for us to go there..."
Sun Haitao looked at the officers and soldiers in the waiting room. There were at least more than a hundred of them. They were all officers and soldiers who were about to return to the army, and few of them looked relaxed.
war!
It came a little too suddenly, so sudden that they, who were enjoying peace, were a little uncomfortable with it.
The train arrived in the evening. Usually, people at the station would get on the train quietly, but now, because of the limited number of carriages, even though they waited for a long time, when they wanted to get on the train, they were stopped.
"Everyone, listen up. This is a train bound for the front line. Only soldiers can board. All passengers on the train must get off..."
On the first day of the war, people's daily life habits changed drastically. The exhausted passengers on the train were driven off the train. Faced with this situation, they could only shout angrily and there was nothing they could do. Those waiting for the train at the station could only complain loudly, which immediately caused congestion and chaos in the station.
The passengers in the station were shouting something and waving their tickets in their hands. Although they all knew it was useless, they still tried to board the train. Just as they were trying to board the carriage, the train actually abandoned the carriage and replaced it with several freight carriages that were already filled with various military supplies.
Sun Haitao, Wang Wenming and other soldiers finally squeezed into an ordinary truck compartment filled with supplies. There was not much space in the compartment, but this was their only way to get to the front line and return to the troops.
The car started moving.
After more than ten minutes, a dissatisfied voice was heard in the dark carriage:
"What's wrong? Forget about the crowding, but why don't you turn on the light?"
As soon as he finished speaking, someone booed him and someone laughed dryly in displeasure.
"Why are you lighting the lights? This is a military train. If the carriages are loaded with gunpowder or something, we'll all be in trouble if we light the lights! This is not an ordinary train!"
"How did you do this? I'm still discussing it with my wife at home. I'm going to the beach in the next few days..."
Someone else muttered in the darkness:
"We haven't even gotten here yet, but they've already fallen over there and started fighting. What do you think of those foreign devils... They're so crazy that they had to attack us while we were on vacation. They must be looking for death..."
The noise of the wheels drowned out the sound of people talking.
Standing near the sliding door, Sun Haitao leaned against a pile of wooden boxes. The words on the boxes were very clear. It was just canned meat. Despite this, he still didn't dare to smoke. He was really uncomfortable with it. When he was thinking about smoking, Wang Wenming took out a cigarette from the window. Just as he was about to smoke, Sun Haitao said:
"Don't smoke, there are supplies in here."
"I've checked. It's canned food or something. There's nothing to light up. Put it over by the window and smoke one. It's okay."
Wang Wenming grinned.
"I'm craving for cigarettes. I feel uncomfortable. Let's take turns..."
Someone on the side said angrily,
"What the hell is going on? They mobilize us, but look, they don't even have a car for us. We can only sit in a car like this, and we don't even dare to smoke a cigarette... It's really ridiculous... It seems like there is no plan at all. Damn, the Military Affairs Department is just a bunch of idiots..."
The army is mobilizing!
Although the people in the carriage would definitely complain. After all, everything seemed so hasty now, as if Nanhua was fighting an unprepared war.
But in fact, what they didn't know was that Zhu Xianhai did all this deliberately. This deliberateness was not to cover up anything, but to find problems.
For Zhu Xianhai, who was accustomed to the cross-era mobilization in the 20th century, he really wanted to know how long it would take to complete the mobilization in Nanhua in the 1860s. This mobilization involved mobilization in all aspects, from local to military. Only through a mobilization that was not carefully prepared could all problems be fully exposed. Only when the problems were exposed could a mobilization plan be designed in a targeted manner so that we could be fully prepared for the next mobilization.
Of course, the reason why Zhu Xianhai regarded this mobilization as an exercise was, to put it bluntly, arrogance and contempt for Argentina's strength. After nearly a decade of development, South China is now far stronger than Argentina, not just in terms of population, which is nearly three times that of Argentina. What is the biggest gap between the two sides?
Of course it’s industry.
Compared to South China, Argentina is just an agricultural country with animal husbandry as its main industry. Not to mention weapons and ammunition, this country even needs to import the most basic cotton cloth from abroad.
This is also a common problem in South American countries. They may have been independent for many years, but they have hardly invested much energy in industry.
It seems that for countries like Argentina, there is no need to consider these issues at all. It's nothing, just buy it directly from abroad. Of course, this is also closely related to their turbulent situation. Without a stable political situation, it is impossible to develop an industrial economy.
It was their backwardness that gave Zhu Xianhai enough confidence to treat this war as a mobilization exercise!
(End of this chapter)
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