After the US Navy fully retreated, Zhang Chi discussed three things with Wang Mazi and Clifton.

The first thing was to limit the amount of food and ammunition used by the fighters.

This is necessary because it is not yet known when the navy will return, so it is not known when the supply will be on Kuah Island, which means that the Sino-US coalition forces on Kuah Island must be supported for as long as possible with limited food and ammunition, which requires a reasonable distribution of food and ammunition.

In fact, the "limit" here is nothing more than a reduction...... That is, the food has changed from three meals a day to two meals a day.

This reduction was nothing to the Chinese soldiers, because they had been fighting at home and even during the first campaign in Burma, and they had been eating two meals a day, and this situation was not improved until the supply was changed to the U.S. army, and now it is only temporarily reverted to the original ration due to the emergency...... In fact, this ration is still better than before, at least now both meals are canned beef and will definitely be full.

The U.S. military is a little uncomfortable with this, and many of them even complain...... Risking one's life on the battlefield to fight for the interests of the United States, and even starving.

There is truth to this, and the Americans have basically not suffered, especially their recruits, who have not even completed their basic training, and are starving under the pressure of battlefield death, which of course they are not willing to bear.

But Clifton was a very competent regiment commander, and he stood up in front of the American GIs and said, "You're right, but the reality is that we only have so much food...... You have two options, one: eat two meals a day as we ask, so that you can have a better chance of survival, because then you can save the next meal to hold out until the navy resupplies us. Two: Continue to eat three meals a day as you wish. I won't say much about what the result is...... If the navy has not returned by the time the food is eaten, then we will have to fight the Japanese hungry. Take your pick! ”

As soon as Clifton said this, the American GIs were silent.

Clifton's words made the American GIs understand that now is not the time to stand on their own feet and protest against the U.S. government or the U.S. military, but to consider how to save their lives under the Japanese attack.

Sometimes Zhang Chi felt a little strange why such a unit, a US military unit that could not be called well-trained, would become famous in a war on Guadalcanal.

Is it this 1st Marine Division that fought tenaciously? This may be because the 1st Marine Division in history did fight very bravely in several battles such as the defense of the Blood Ridge, but this kind of bravery is far behind the battles fought by the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, and even the opponent of the Chinese Expeditionary Force is much stronger than the Japanese army cobbled together by various units on Kuah Island. But it was the U.S. military that became famous in World War I.

It's not strange to think about it, this is actually a great power effect...... At this time, China was a weak country after a weak industry, and no matter how well the Chinese army performed on the battlefield, it would be weakened to the greatest extent.

The United States, on the other hand, was an industrial powerhouse and played a pivotal role in the success or failure of World War II...... The entry of the United States into the war can be said to have weighed the balance of victory heavily on the side of the Allies. As a result, the victory of the US military on the battlefield will be maximized in the international arena.

The second thing Zhang Chi did was to adjust the deployment of troops.

According to the original deployment of troops, the strength of several regiments formed a defensive ring of Lunga...... This is not much of a problem defensively. But it will expose the strength of the Sino-US coalition at the first time.

If you want to confuse the Japanese into believing that the Sino-American coalition forces that landed on Kuah Island are not strong, you have to hide your strength.

So Zhang Chi built several more lines of defense outside the Lunga defensive circle, and these lines of defense looked very thin, and each line of defense was only garrisoned by a few dozen people. No more than 100 people...... This would give the Japanese army the illusion that the enemy needed to lay out so many lines of defense because of the lack of troops, and the purpose was to exchange space for time.

For the rest of the troops, Zhang Chi let them hide in the hiding cave or in the jungle...... This is easy to do. Although the area around Cape Lunga is the only plain on Kuah Island, it is covered with half-human tenacious silk thatch, plus a bunch of coconut trees here and there. Pull the troops in any direction and they will disappear without a trace.

The third thing is to send a reconnaissance unit to reconnoiter the terrain of Mount Austin.

For this Austin Mountain, Zhang Chi can be said to be full of helplessness.

He knew that Mount Austin was a strategic location for Cape Lunga, but he didn't have the extra troops to seize it.

This is mainly because Mount Austin is too far from Cape Lunga...... With a straight line of eight kilometres, and no roads in between, if you were to defend both Lunga Point and Austin Hill, Austin Hill would be the salient of the entire defensive line.

As you can imagine, the troops stationed at Mount Austin could easily be surrounded by the Japanese and become a lone army.

As a result, Zhang Chi could only watch this strategic place being occupied by the Japanese army.

But not being able to occupy it does not mean that it cannot be reconnoitred, and it is much easier to reconnoiter now than it is to reconnoiter after the Japanese army occupies Mount Austin, so of course Zhang Chi will not let go of this opportunity.

The results of the reconnaissance were still very satisfactory to Zhang Chi, and the report of the reconnaissance unit was: The Austin Mountain is densely packed with jungles and the terrain is complicated, and the worst thing is that there is no road at all, not even a mountain road, and it will take a lot of effort for the reconnaissance unit to climb up, and if it is for the troops, I am afraid that it will be even more difficult.

Looking at the military uniforms of the reconnaissance troops, which were almost cut into strips of cloth by tree branches, Zhang Chi nodded.

This tells Zhang Chi two things:

First, it will be difficult for the Japanese army to form a scale on Mount Austin in the short term.

Because the troops had to have food and ammunition, in this case, if the Japanese occupied Mount Austin on a large scale, they could not afford to just transport supplies.

Second, the Chinese and American coalition forces did not need to worry too much about the Japanese army deploying artillery on Mount Austin.

This was what Zhang Chi was most worried about before...... If the Japanese deployed several artillery positions on Mount Austin and bombarded them condescendingly, then controlling the airfield would be a breeze, not to mention the rest.

But now, knowing that this is the case in Austin Mountain, Zhang Chi knows that this worry is unnecessary.

Alternatively, the Japanese would have thought it would be redundant to do so, as they felt they could easily take the airfield back.

(To be continued.) )