The British had colonized South Asia for hundreds of years and understood the resistance of the people here very well. The British captain leading a company to pursue the rebellious Burmese was confused by the situation before him. Under normal circumstances, those Burmese should have been exhausted by the continuous pursuit of the British Indian Army and scattered in all directions long ago. If these Burmese were more spirited, they would launch a mindless counterattack in a relatively open area, and the colonial army trained by Britain would annihilate them with concentrated fire.

The group of Burmese in front of him did not scatter, nor did they act recklessly. They evaded the pursuit of the British Indian Army very effectively and always operated in a certain area. These Burmese must be plotting something. What on earth were these people plotting? The British captain really couldn't figure it out.

Major Li Daming, the commander of the Burmese National Revolutionary Army pursued by the British Indian Army, knew very well what his troops were going to do. According to the guerrilla tactics of mountain warfare, the troops had to drag the British Indian Army along and constantly consume the enemy's strength. According to the tactical thinking of guerrilla warfare, this is called 'drag the fat thin, drag the thin to death.'

Executing such tactics required the troops to have abundant physical strength. After several days of movement, Li Daming and other commanders had determined that the Burmese National Revolutionary Army did not yet possess such physical conditions. Li Daming was not disappointed by this. The members of the Burmese Revolutionary Army did not give up on themselves due to lack of physical strength; they used all their strength to complete the march and combat arrangements, complaining but not running away. Lack of physical strength could be completed through training, but fighting will could not be comprehensively improved through simple training.

While the cooking squad made a fire to cook, Li Daming held a discussion meeting with other commanders to evaluate the personnel of the Burmese National Revolutionary Army. Vice Captain Saya was one of the earliest Burmese revolutionary youths who decided to cooperate with China. Although the march had almost exhausted Saya's physical strength, making his head empty and his reaction slow, hearing the explanation of the upcoming battle, a wave of heat rushed from Saya's chest straight to his forehead, and his brain immediately became sharp.

"Captain Li, when do we fight? Where do we fight?" Saya asked excitedly. Because of the excitement, there was first a burning hunger in his stomach, but this discomfort was masked by the excitement of the brain.

Li Daming laughed, "Don't worry, let's chat casually first, and discuss it properly after eating."

Like Li Daming, the officers of the Republic National Defense Force were not in a hurry; battles could be fought at any time. Especially after dragging the British Indian Army running for a few days recently, they had gained a lot of understanding of the British Indian Army. Combined with previous data, the officers of the National Defense Force felt that the Indian army was not strong.

Facing the rather weak Burmese Revolutionary Army, the well-trained British Indian Army just couldn't catch up, which was enough to prove its pure strength. If it was just weak strength, the National Defense Force officers wouldn't underestimate India so much. Another weakness of the Indian army opened the eyes of the National Defense Force.

Since its establishment, the British Indian Army had spent most of its time bullying irregular troops in South Asia and was not serious in its combat attitude. Long-term 'invincibility' led to their tactical arrogance, which was particularly prominent when pursuing the Burmese Revolutionary Army.

Reconnaissance was sloppy, pursuit was relentless, and formation keeping was terrible. Several times, the officers of the National Defense Force almost couldn't hold back and wanted to launch an attack on the British Indian Army, which was obviously courting death. However, the National Defense Force was a regular army with strict discipline. Since the military order received was not to launch an attack, everyone held back the impulse.

But such an opportunity could not be missed. A National Defense Force officer led a squad to complete all preparations for an ambush. The British Indian Army passed by them blusteringly at a distance of about ten meters and entered the 'encirclement.' In order to determine the strength of the British Indian Army, the squad even implemented an extremely bold tactical action, withdrawing from the attack position under the nose of the British Indian Army without attracting their attention.

At this time, the food was served. Rice, beans, and other staple foods were placed in the middle of bamboo tubes split into two halves, tied tightly with hemp rope, and heated to become delicious bamboo tube rice. Cooking oil and salt transported from China cooked heavy-oil and heavy-salt food. The exhausted members of the Burmese Revolutionary Army ate heartily, and everyone was very satisfied.

This was the reason why the Burmese Revolutionary Army was not caught up by the British Indian Army. If training and physique were insufficient, improve from the food. Poor food for soldiers in the Indian army was a tradition. Even in the 21st century, there were large-scale incidents of using fodder to cook for soldiers in the Indian army, let alone in 1925.

With a full stomach, the body felt comfortable. Just as the troops began to discuss combat arrangements, a sentry ran hurriedly to report, "Report to Captain Li, the reinforcement troops have sent a liaison officer!"

Li Daming was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered someone to welcome him. When the liaison officer arrived, Li Daming looked him up and down for a while, really surprised. The person who came was exactly his military academy classmate, Major Gao Yue.

"...Old Gao, you've lost weight!" Li Daming exclaimed.

Gao Yue belonged to the type who would get fat no matter what he ate; his weight once reached 180 *jin*, and he was almost discharged. However, Gao Yue was extremely outstanding in staff work, so he continued to work. The Gao Yue in front of him was no longer that fat man with a ruddy face, but a soldier with a very normal physique. The originally plump face looked quite handsome in its thin state.

Seeing his old classmate so surprised, Gao Yue smiled bitterly, "Hehe, I plan to live here in the future. It really sheds fat."

"It's great to have you working here for a long time," Li Daming sighed sincerely. Excellent staff officers would be liked everywhere, especially under the current conditions of overseas operations.

Gao Yue informed Li Daming of the liaison content, "The vanguard force is one regiment, preparing to completely take Myitkyina, and then go south along the railway from here. The goal is to control as much railway as possible."

Li Daming was overjoyed. "Is the higher-up preparing to fight a big battle?"

"Should be. But don't talk about this now; how is the frontline situation?" Gao Yue asked.

Half an hour later, Gao Yue stopped recording in his notebook, spread out the map, and confirmed the British military deployment in Myitkyina on it. The British army regarded this military conflict as an ordinary riot, and the main force did not leave Myitkyina.

Gao Yue quickly had a view, "It seems we have to lure them out."

"How about besieging the point to strike reinforcements?" Li Daming asked.

Gao Yue thought for a moment. "Not necessary. There are other ways. The higher-up just happened to ask us to do an experiment; just use it."

Seeing Gao Yue being mysterious, Li Daming's curiosity was piqued. Gao Yue didn't continue this topic but continued to ask whether the organizational structure of the British Indian Army maintained tradition and whether there were major adjustments.

Li Daming could only recount his feelings after personal contact. A regiment of an ordinary British Indian Army commanded 10 companies, unlike the regiment, battalion, and company organization of the Republic National Defense Force. But this did not mean that the Republic National Defense Force was smarter than the British Indian Army in organization. The British Indian Army doing this was not stupid, and was even a reflection of Britain's good military organization level.

In the Indian colony, the war intensity was very low, and high-intensity combat organization was not needed. Moreover, India was originally a geographical term, forcefully kneaded into an Indian colony by Britain. To cope with the dispersed characteristics of India, Britain adopted the means of divide and rule. Using regiments and battalions as the main combat units could adapt very well to the management needs of divide and rule.

"In other words, these 10 companies are each responsible to the regimental commander..." Gao Yue stroked his somewhat pointed chin, thoughtful.

Li Daming looked at his old classmate's pointed chin and suddenly had a very absurd feeling. The previous Gao Yue had a double chin. The funniest thing was that in front of the fleshy chin, a 'pattern' of a pointed chin could also appear. Now that the fat was gone, the pointed chin originally regarded by Li Daming as a skin 'pattern' actually existed...

Just then, Gao Yue said, "Then let's try it this way. Old Li, we have to take some responsibility."

Li Daming was baffled by these words. How could they take responsibility before fighting? In Li Daming's six-year military career, this responsibility obviously wouldn't be combat responsibility.

Two days later, the British lieutenant continued to command his company to pursue the fleeing 'Burmese mob.' The lieutenant became more and more impetuous, and the speed of pursuit became faster and faster, but the opponent wandered in the mountains and forests like a loach. Yet they insisted on not leaving this area, as if deliberately luring the lieutenant.

At noon, the lieutenant finally saw the first 'result of battle' in days. A Burmese man was beaten to death on the escape route. The lieutenant went to the corpse with hatred and personally commanded the inspection of the corpse. This was a Burmese man in his thirties or forties, looking no different from ordinary Burmese. This man was shot in the back and died quite quickly.

When the Indian soldiers turned the corpse over, a red object fell from the corpse's chest. The British lieutenant saw it and noticed it immediately. The Indian soldier next to him noticed the lieutenant's gaze, immediately picked up the object, and handed it to the lieutenant. The British lieutenant held the translucent crystal, which was obviously a roughly polished ruby, with his thumb and forefinger, and held it up to the sun. Sunlight passed through the gem, forming quite complex light refraction inside the gem. Burma was rich in gems, and the lieutenant could judge that this was a real ruby.

But how could an ordinary Burmese mobster have such a small ruby? The lieutenant worried about being deceived and asked his Indian subordinate to raise his rifle. The lieutenant scratched the rifle barrel with the ruby. The gem did not break, and a scratch was left on the outside of the barrel. This was a ruby.

In the subsequent search, several roughly processed rubies were found in the close-fitting pocket of the corpse, and the quality of the rubies was not bad. The lieutenant immediately remembered a 'rumor' he had received in the past few days. The local headman whose home was breached discovered a gem vein and hid a batch of high-quality rubies at home, wanting to find British smugglers to sell them.

Burma was rich in gems. Although the lieutenant didn't believe this rumor, he didn't think it was a fantasy. After all, the headman whose home was breached gained his current status by providing labor to the gem mines managed by the British. Seeing an ordinary 'mobster' carrying gems on him at this time, the lieutenant couldn't help but believe it. Regardless of his subordinates being exhausted, the lieutenant immediately ordered the troops to continue the pursuit.

This time the lieutenant chased very urgently and almost blocked the 'Burmese mob' in a col. The lieutenant entered the mob's resting place and saw a mess on the ground. In the center, a bag was broken and thrown on the ground. Several roughly processed rubies of mediocre quality were scattered next to the bag, which should have leaked from the hole.

The lieutenant picked up the bag and examined it carefully, finding a quite large ruby in the corner. The quality was much better than the other scattered ones.

At this time, in a hidden place in the distance, Li Daming and Gao Yue were watching here with binoculars. Seeing the British lieutenant actually go straight for the gems as Gao Yue expected, Li Daming signaled to Gao Yue, and the two quietly retreated, leaving here along the retreat channel.

Arriving at a safe place, Li Daming praised, "Old Gao, I didn't expect you to learn the tricks in the *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, able to predict the future!"

Gao Yue smiled. "I was just guessing blindly based on the nature of colonialists. What they think about is nothing more than making a fortune; they should be relatively sensitive to this. Although the principle is so, I didn't dare to be sure how it would evolve specifically."

Li Daming nodded but remembered the 'responsibility' Gao Yue mentioned. He couldn't help sighing, "Although gems are completely incomparable to human lives, throwing out so many gems, I will definitely write the report well."

Gao Yue nodded; this was also what he was worried about. But with Li Daming submitting the report together, the higher-ups also approved their application. And looking at the situation now, the British guy indeed took the bait, and the development of things began to enter a very good state.

However, Gao Yue and Li Daming were actually wrong. Even if things didn't develop as they expected, at least in the eyes of Southwest Bureau Committee Member Zhong Yifu, these gems were insignificant. This was not simply because the values of the Civilization Party emphasized that the fundamental driving force promoting social development is productivity. Instead, leading cadres of Zhong Yifu's level could obtain internal intelligence that these gems were all synthetic.

Since they were synthetic gems, their value was only the cost. Compared with the cost of mining gems, even if the British used Burmese labor in the traditional colonial plundering way, the overall cost was higher than synthetic gems.

And there were some things even Zhong Yifu didn't know. Entering the electronic age, the demand for various crystals greatly increased. The artificial synthetic gem technology development was a process directly given by He Rui (He Rui could only do this much), which was the source of synthetic gems. Using the mature process route from the 21st century, gem merchants in 1925 could not distinguish the difference between synthetic gems and natural gems, which also became a source of foreign exchange for the Republic.

Although the high-level and mid-to-high-level officials of the Civilization Party and the Republic government were all patriots, it didn't mean that these people would have noble internationalist spirit when facing foreign countries. For example, Minister of Industry Zhuang Jiaxiong strongly supported the liberation of Burma. Zhuang Jiaxiong believed that the best situation at present was that Burma was not liberated, but the northern gem producing areas were actually controlled by the Republic.

Currently, the capital of the entire United States had nowhere to go and had begun to enter a crazy stage. So far, the price of pigeon blood rubies produced by the hydrothermal method was quite considerable. Buying a piece of precious jewelry inlaid with pigeon blood rubies for his wife directly for hundreds of dollars would be very strenuous even for a high-level American white-collar worker. But the American installment payment could be afforded even by mid-level white-collar workers.

Now China needed a 'story' that could convince American consumers, for example, China controlled a certain gem mine. In Zhuang Jiaxiong's view, a 'story' of this level was harmless. No matter how thin a mosquito leg is, it is still meat, not to mention that the luxury consumer market at this time could be considered a locust no matter how one looked at it.

Even Zhong Yifu didn't know the plan of Zhuang Jiaxiong and his gang of industrial party members, let alone the comrades on the front line. Gao Yue and Li Daming focused their attention on the movements of the British army. Since costs had been invested, having corresponding returns was the best.