Wang Yan and the brothers spent the New Year in Myanmar.
Naturally, supplies were scarce at the time, so there was no way the celebration could be lavish. Everyone simply had white-flour dumplings with a bit of meat flavor, along with baijiu, foreign liquor, and all sorts of locally brewed Myanmar alcohol.
Even so, the brothers were quite satisfied.
After all, Nationalist Army brothers were still over there fighting the Japanese to the death.
That distinction mattered. By now, all the brothers under Wang Yan understood: they were them, and the Nationalist Army was the Nationalist Army.
Wang Yan had deliberately cultivated that consensus within the unit. It was the result of long-term, gradual indoctrination.
Ever since their failed attempt to cross north over the Salween River, the brothers had been disheartened. Wang Yan took the opportunity to convey this idea: from now on, they would fight for themselves and make money for themselves. Once the war was over, they would take that money and live well.
In truth, his brothers were all fairly well-off. Heavy weapons were somewhat scarce, but they had plenty of smaller guns and artillery pieces—some supplied by the foreigners, some issued by the Nationalist Army, and some captured from the Japanese. Every man had several guns. Those were all money.
There were also all kinds of Japanese swords, from the swords carried by the lowest-ranking NCOs to a general officer's sword—the highest-ranked one they had managed to seize after a year of fighting. Those swords could be sold for money as well.
Watches, belts, and the like were valuable too. The brothers had killed too many Japanese to count, and they were highly skilled at looting corpses.
On top of that, they had occasionally come across Japanese warehouses and seized quite a bit of gold.