Chapter 19: Encounter with the Sichuan Army

Entering the forest, the light grew dimmer.

Jiang Yu was about to take out an old-fashioned flashlight she had seized from the Japanese soldiers in her space for illumination.

Suddenly, faint voices mixed with painful moans drifted through the wind.

Not gonna lie, it was a little eerie.

But luckily, Jiang Yu was brave now, and her first reaction upon hearing the sounds was not ghosts — but people in the forest.

Unfortunately, the wind blowing now and then made the voices unclear.

Listening carefully, she could barely make out that the accent sounded like… Sichuan dialect…

Wait!

Could it be the Sichuan Army inside?

“Go take a look. If they really are the Sichuan Army, ask if they need any help.”

Jiang Yu stayed mounted on the donkey without moving, waiting for Liang Mengwen to limp away with a serious look.

She quickly searched her space for any supplies she could offer.

The Sichuan Army!

She figured they should be pretty much like the Sichuan Army in her original world’s history — definitely short of everything.

Too bad she had given most of her supplies to the 66th Army last time, and the stuff she had left was barely enough for herself.

Supplying a whole army now was only a drop in the bucket.

Looks like next time she couldn’t send out all the supplies at once…

Just as she was thinking this, Liang Mengwen soon returned with someone.

“This is who?”

Looking at the thinly clad person before her, feet in straw sandals, shivering from the cold, Jiang Yu immediately recognized the figure looked exactly like those historical photos she’d seen of the Sichuan Army from her childhood.

Her heart ached deeply.

Before Liang Mengwen could say anything, the newcomer spoke first:

“I am Zhao Changyun, regiment commander of the 7th Regiment, 22nd Army of the Sichuan troops sent to support this area. I wonder, miss, what kind of help you mean…”

At first, Zhao Changyun’s heart sank seeing only Jiang Yu, a lone woman with a donkey.

Hearing her voice and realizing she was a young woman, he lost almost all hope.

If it weren’t for politeness, he’d have turned and left immediately.

No choice!

Now that night had fallen, the temperature dropped sharply, barely a few degrees.

With the wind blowing, Zhao Changyun felt his body nearly freeze after just a short time outside.

“What do you need now?” Jiang Yu snapped out of her thoughts and instinctively asked.

“We lack everything. Ah… forget it! I don’t know if you have any medicine for injuries…”

“I have some medicine and food here. Can you take me to where you all are resting?”

“Sure! Follow me.”

Zhao Changyun hadn’t expected Jiang Yu to actually have medicine, even though she carried no bag.

He guessed even if she had medicine, it wouldn’t be much.

But as long as there was medicine — even if it could only save one person — Zhao Changyun felt it was worth the risk to bring these strangers back.

Ah!

Back then, they had set out from Sichuan full of passion to fight the Japanese.

But after all the hardships to reach the battlefield,

due to supply and equipment issues, they kept being kicked from pillar to post by their superiors.

It was one thing to be kicked around.

As long as they could get weapons and ammo to fight the Japanese, it would be fine.

Unfortunately!

They waited and waited but got nothing.

And to make things worse, they faced well-equipped Japanese troops.

No matter how brave or fearless they were,

their outdated or absent weapons caused many of their brothers to die or get injured.

Moreover, in the past two days, without supplies and medicine, they could only helplessly watch their brothers either freeze to death or die from wounds.

They sent one desperate telegram after another to headquarters begging for help.

The replies they got still insisted they solve the problem themselves.

How were they supposed to solve it?

Rob the bosses?

Might as well just kill them!

Zhao Changyun’s eyes darkened. Now all he wanted was to save as many of his remaining brothers as possible.

As for fighting the Japanese—sigh…

“Why are there so many wounded?”

Following Zhao Changyun through winding paths deep into the forest, they arrived at their temporary shelter.

Before Jiang Yu were people huddled beneath a cliff with three sides exposed to the wind, trembling around a fire.

Painful moans faintly echoed nearby.

Jiang Yu frowned. The medicine in her space was clearly insufficient!

What to do now?

Wait!

Seeing the large boxes of gold bars in her space, an idea suddenly struck her.

With Zhao Changyun’s astonished gaze, she tossed all the medicine from her space to Liang Mengwen, instructing him to work with the army medic to treat the wounded soldiers.

No choice!

All the medicine was seized from the Japanese, labeled in Japanese, and the medic barely recognized any of it.

Next, she pulled out ten large steaming baskets of buns from her space to give the soldiers something to fill their stomachs.

Then she brought out several large bags of flour and rice, along with some Japanese soldiers’ uniforms.

But there weren’t many clothes — she had only kept about a dozen sets, and there were at least thirty to forty people squeezed beneath the cliff.

This little amount of clothing was really just a drop in the bucket.

Jiang Yu didn’t bother worrying too much and handed all these supplies to Commander Zhao to distribute among the soldiers.

Only then did she take out over ten gold bars and hand them to Zhao Changyun.

“My supplies are limited, and my foot is injured, so for now you’ll have to buy supplies yourselves from the town and nearby areas.

As for weapons, once I rest a day and my foot recovers a bit, I’ll try to find a solution for you.”

“Isn’t this… too much?”

Looking at the glittering gold bars, Zhao Changyun, who was nearing forty and considered himself experienced, was instinctively at a loss.

His mind was a total mess as he stared at Jiang Yu, bundled up tightly with only her eyes visible.

For a moment, he simply didn’t know what to say.

“No! Take it quickly and buy more clothes, medicine, and other essentials for the soldiers! If it’s still not enough, come find me again.”

Thinking about how prices would surely skyrocket once the fighting broke out, Jiang Yu quickly took out another dozen gold bars from her space and handed them to Zhao Changyun.

“That’s enough, enough! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“No need to thank me! You just take care of your own business now. I want to rest first.”

Facing Zhao Changyun’s repeated bows of gratitude, Jiang Yu was frightened and hurriedly moved aside.

She found a clearing, summoned a small wooden cabin from her space, and immediately lay down to sleep.

No choice!

She was the worst at handling scenes like this.

Besides, she had been rushing non-stop for two days and was extremely exhausted.

She still had to go after those Japanese soldiers later and had to conserve her energy.

As for scaring Zhao Changyun and the others with her space, she could only apologize.

After all, she never intended to hide the space.

Since the Yang Gou incident, she realized that if she really wanted to help, hiding the space was too troublesome.

Not only did it waste time, effort, and brainpower, it was also inefficient—even worse than that.

Most importantly, the battlefield changed rapidly.

Her ability alone was limited enough.

If she kept restricting and hiding the space, what was the point?

It was better to just accept the slight advantage and not bother hiding the space ability anymore.