The campaign to reclaim saline-alkali land was in full swing. Departments under the county government—including agriculture, civil affairs, and the Women's Salvation Association—were all fully mobilized. Batch after batch of disaster victims were being settled, yet the number of refugees did not seem to decrease significantly.
The scenario everyone feared most had come to pass: faced with the Nationalist government's utter inaction, news that the Eighth Route Army was resettling refugees spread like wildfire, drawing even more displaced people to the area.
The Japanese and their puppet forces even deliberately drove refugees toward the region, betting that the Eighth Route Army could not possibly have enough stockpiles to feed such a massive influx of people, hoping to break the army’s back in the process.
Chapter 105