If war is about the country's comprehensive strength, then a battle is about supply.

Of course, this is not absolute, and there are many examples of undersupply on the battlefield that can lead to victory, but no one can deny the importance of supply to the battle and even the key to victory.

It's like the rivalry between the enemy and the enemy on Kuah Island...... The battle had not yet begun, but the scramble and competition for supplies continued throughout the battle.

It is clear that the Sino-US coalition has always had the upper hand in this regard, and now the Japanese are trying to change this unfavorable situation with submarine blockades and barrel transportation.

But Zhang Chi will not let the Japanese succeed easily.

In terms of submarine blockade, Zhang Chi is not the same thing at all.

This is because the Japanese army itself has a problem with its own tactics, and if they really want to blockade, they should mainly use oil tankers and merchant ships, but the Japanese army uses submarines to sneak attack US warships, which can be said to be completely deviating from their main goal of blockade, so although the Japanese army sent many submarines, the blockade of Kuah Island supplies is very limited.

This was also due to the Japanese orders given to submarines: oil tankers or merchant ships could only be targeted if no other attacking ships could be found, and only one torpedo could be used to attack oil tankers and merchant ships.

The U.S. Navy was unaware of these restrictions on Japanese submarines, so they often wondered why most of the civilian vessels, which were defenseless and unthreatening to Japanese submarines, were able to sail smoothly in the waters off Kuah Island, while their warships were often attacked.

The other is that the supply of Kuah Island does not only come from the sea...... As a result of the opening of the Kuah Island airfield, the "Cactus" fighters and bombers pushed the cordon to the north by more than 200 kilometers, which minimized the bombing and damage to the Kuah Island airfield by the Japanese naval warships. The Japanese prisoners of sappers were able to level the craters before dawn.

As a result, the transport planes to Kuah Island have never been interrupted, and not only that. The fighters and bombers of the "Cactus" air force were replenished again...... At this time, because Gormley thought that arranging fighters and bombers to Kuah Island would be more effective, the "Cactus" air force soon grew to more than 100 fighters of various types, which was nearly the number of fighters owned by the two aircraft carriers.

This has further consolidated the US military's control over the sea and airspace of Kuah Island.

But it was precisely because of this that the Japanese army regarded Kuah Island Airport as a thorn in their side, so they launched a frenzied attack on it.

Of course, that's all for later.

At this time, Zhang Chi has to do. The idea was to limit the supply of the Japanese army, because it was likely that those supplies would soon be bullets and shells fired at the Chinese and American forces. And in order to limit its supply, it is necessary to disrupt the rhythm of its "iron barrel transportation".

It doesn't seem difficult to do that.

What Zhang Chi did was to ask the navy to send a batch of transport boats for them.

The Navy is very puzzled by this, the garrisons on Kuah Island are all on the island, what do they want transport boats to do?!

However, because Kuah Island's previous performance on the battlefield was very amazing, and even the garrison of Kuah Island could be said to be a heroic force, the navy did not ask much, and soon transferred 20 transport boats to the waters of Kuah Island.

The commander of this transport boat force was a major named Adam, who watched in confusion as the garrison of Kuah Island carried iron barrels onto the transport boats as if they were going to transport them somewhere.

"Sir!" Adam asked Zhang Chi, "What's in these buckets?" Are we going to ship them back? ”

"No!" Zhang Chi shook his head. Then he unfolded a map in front of Adam, pointed to the sea area a little north of Kuah Island, and said: "The situation is like this, according to our observation during this time, the Japanese fleet will generally arrive at the sea area of Kuah Island at about eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, what you have to do is to reach this sea area before them, and then push these iron barrels into the sea!" ”

"That's it?" Adam couldn't believe it.

"That's it!" Zhang Chi confessed: "What you have to pay attention to is to return here before the arrival of the Japanese fleet. Do not be spotted by Japanese warships, and be careful when transporting these barrels. And don't open the bucket, you know? ”

"Understood, sir!" Adam replied, and his face changed.

Adam was not a fool, and he quickly guessed that the drums were most likely explosives...... This means that they are carrying barrels of explosives that could explode at any time, and just now. He was also curious to open the iron buckets and take a look.

Adam guessed correctly, the barrel was indeed filled with explosives, including timed explosives and explosives tied to trigger or tripping mines.

Of course, when making these barrel explosives. Once again, the American GIs used their humorous style by writing all sorts of messages inside the bucket:

"To the loveliest Japanese, go to hell!"

"Enjoy the moment, it's a gift for you!"

……

Of course, most of these words are not visible to the Japanese, because the moment the explosives explode, the iron barrel will also be blown to pieces. But Zhang Chi also knew that those American GIs just wanted to express their resentment against the enemy.

At half past ten that night, the iron bucket was quickly thrown into the sea as Zhang Chi expected.

The Japanese fleet reached the shore at eleven o'clock on time, and then they pushed piles of iron barrels full of supplies into the sea, as before.

The Japanese Army waited on the shoreline as usual, and when they saw an iron bucket drifting with the waves, they scooped them out of the sea one by one, and then pushed them to the shore and piled them up in a pile, and soon another group of Japanese soldiers transferred the iron buckets to the warehouse they had built in the jungle like a relay...... Among them, the Japanese army was very obedient and no one opened the iron bucket, which was due to the experience of the previous few days, the Japanese soldiers who came to "receive" the iron bucket picked up the iron bucket like a hungry ghost and opened it and frantically grabbed food, which caused a considerable degree of confusion, and finally caused many iron buckets to be washed away by the sea because they could not be fished up in time.

On the other hand, such an approach would also displease other Japanese troops...... They were all hungry, but the sappers who went to the beach to deliver supplies were the first to eat.

So Maruyama Masao gave a death order, all iron barrels were not allowed to be opened, and they must be transported back to the warehouse and distributed uniformly.

It's just that Maruyama Masao definitely didn't expect that it was precisely because of this order that the Japanese army suffered even heavier losses...... Because, the gift that Zhang Chi gave him was completely accepted by him, not only accepted but also piled up with the supplies that had been stored some time ago.

(To be continued.) )