Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Nanjing, the headquarters of the China Expeditionary Army.

"The flank of the 13th Division is under fierce attack from the 32nd Army of the Chinese Army!"

"The enemy is launching a full-scale counterattack on the front lines of the 39th Division!"

"The main force of the Guangxi Army has launched another general offensive in the Xinyang direction!"

"The Toda and Koshiba detachments are simultaneously besieged by the main force of the 10th Army Group of the Chinese Army!"

Commander-in-Chief General Shunroku Hata stood quietly before the enormous battle map.

Battle reports came from different directions.

But they all pointed to the same terrible reality—they were surrounded.

That "long snake" stretching for eight hundred miles was pinned down in Central China.

"Your Excellency Commander"

Chief of the General Staff Masazo Kawabe found it unbelievable: "How could the Chinese army launch such a large-scale coordinated counterattack at the same time on such a broad front?"

Hata Shunroku did not speak.

His brain was working at lightning speed.

Trying to find a reasonable logic in this chaotic fog.

Is this a long-planned, full-scale counterattack?

Or is it just a show of bravado under the influence of exhaustion?
He prefers the latter.

In his view, the Chinese army, which had been fighting for more than a month, was already exhausted and had no ability to organize an effective counterattack of such a scale.

This was more like a gamble, a last-ditch effort to bluff and scare off the Imperial Army.

But he dared not gamble.

He looked at the overstretched, fragile supply line on the map, and at the attacking troops who were already deep in enemy territory and extremely exhausted.

Even now, the number of casualties among his troops is still within a controllable range, and logistical supplies can barely keep up.

But once the opponent's offensive is real and sustained.

Therefore, what awaits the entire Eleventh Army is likely to be annihilation, and it is very likely that it will never recover from this blow.

He dared not gamble because he couldn't afford to lose.

"Send a telegram to the General Headquarters to inquire about their opinion. Also send a telegram to Commander Yokoyama to express the attitude of the Expeditionary Army: we believe that the combat mission has been basically completed and we can turn back."

"Hay."

……

at the same time.

11th Army Forward Command Post.

Yokoyama Yu grabbed the telegram requesting air support, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it hard on the ground.

He did not wait for a reply from Jinling.

Yokoyama Isamu knew perfectly well that he couldn't wait any longer.

When attacks come from all directions simultaneously, it becomes meaningless to consider whether the enemy is truly capable of launching an attack.

Yokoyama Isamu must take responsibility for the lives of the tens of thousands of brave soldiers of the 11th Army!

"retreat!"

Yokoyama Isamu practically spat out those two words through gritted teeth.

He was still somewhat unwilling, even though he had severely damaged the 10th Army Group and dealt a blow to the main force of the river defense army of the 6th War Zone.

But his ultimate goal was actually to take Shipai and threaten Shancheng.

Yokoyama Yu knew that there was no chance now, and they did not have the ability to conquer the stone tablet.

Fortunately, without waiting for Hata Shunroku's orders, he had already made the most difficult, and only correct, decision.

"Order all units to immediately disengage from the enemy in front of them!"

"Alternate cover, full-line turn, and shift to a defensive posture."

"Our combat mission has been completed, our strategic objectives have been achieved, and there is no need for us to make any more unnecessary sacrifices!"

These words seemed to be meant to comfort others, but more like Yokoyama Isamu's own words.

After a month of continuous fighting, even the retreat was not smooth.

Under Yokoyama Isamu's orders, each unit began to select some of its main forces to cover the retreat of the main force.

When the Japanese troops moved along the Qingjiang River, Yuyanghe River, and the banks of the Lishui River towards Yichang, Yidu, and Zhijiang.

The Nationalist troops, under Chu Yunfei's command, pursued the enemy with great decisiveness.

The 10th Army Group launched an attack towards Yuyanghe with its main force, while the 74th Army drove out the remaining Japanese and puppet troops in the Wangjiachang and Nuanshuijie areas and continued to advance northward.

At the same time, the 26th and 33rd Army Groups attacked the Japanese forces in front of them to support the counterattack at this moment.

The Japanese army was already exhausted from the long battle, and the National Revolutionary Army's pursuit was extremely decisive, far exceeding their expectations.

Based on past combat experience.

It would take at least two days for the Nationalist army to detect their retreat and complete their deployment to pursue them.

At that very moment, it seemed as if they had just begun to consider retreating when the main force of the National Revolutionary Army had already begun its advance.

This pursuit caught them off guard, but the Nationalist army's offensive capabilities also puzzled them.

The pursuit was indeed a pursuit.

However, the offensive was not aggressive and lacked support from heavy weapons.

The biggest threat to them, besides the mortars fired by the defending troops, was the planes in the sky.

The Japanese army deliberately chose a rainy day to retreat, which is why neither the Nationalist army's fighter planes nor the US Fourteenth Air Force were able to provide assistance.

The current Nationalist army generally lacks offensive capabilities.

Looking at the entire western Hubei battlefield, the strongest fighting force was naturally the 18th Army, which was equipped with mountain artillery, and the 74th Army.

Of these two units, the 18th Army suffered heavier casualties, exceeding 6,000, while inflicting slightly more than 2,000 casualties on the Japanese army.

Judging solely from a direct comparison of the number of troops on both sides on a three-dimensional map, the 18th Army does indeed fall short of its reputation as an offensive force in the campaign.

What surprised Chu Yunfei was that the 18th Army's combat attitude and professionalism seemed to be fully displayed during the pursuit.

They not only possessed the tenacity required for defensive operations, but also a unique ruthlessness.

Just like...
In defensive battles, the primary objective was simply to complete the mission; now, in pursuit battles, the focus is more on seizing battlefield achievements.

Although this thought was somewhat unfair to the 18th Army, Chu Yunfei couldn't understand for a while why the 18th Army's organization level increased by 20% when they switched to pursuit.

Could it be that the 18th Army excels at offense and protracted battles, rather than defensive maneuvers?

Zhao Pengcheng and Pang Junming took on the duties of staff officers alongside Chu Yunfei.

After painstakingly organizing and compiling all the battle reports, they presented them to Chu Yunfei.

Although Chu Yunfei had figured out the specific battle situation from the three-dimensional combat map, he still checked it very carefully.

He was more interested in knowing who was trying to outsmart him in the battle reports.

I don’t know, I’m scared.

All the counter-attacking forces had one thing in common: after encountering only sporadic counterattacks, they would immediately describe in their battle reports that the battle was quite fierce, the enemy had been dealt a heavy blow, and their own losses were also considerable, and ask whether to continue the pursuit.

The Japanese counterattack consisted of only sporadic units, including elite units like the 13th Division.

The 39th Division and several detachments involved in the attack were too busy to run away, so where would they find the troops to launch a counterattack?

"This battle has been quite frustrating..." The vast majority of combat units in the Sixth War Zone were merely carrying out orders symbolically, much like these senior commanders who were expecting a victory that was already theirs.
However, this kind of victory...
Chu Yunfei stopped paying attention to the operations in the Sixth War Zone.

Instead, it is a serious consideration of the information and sunshine recovery operations of the Fifth Theater Command.

The Guangxi Army launched its corresponding offensives according to the original battle plan.

Without any probing, shells rained down during the brief intervals when the rain stopped.

The sky is currently dark, and a group of about two hundred people is gathering in the west of Xinyang, clearly intending to launch a night attack.

Chu Yunfei immediately turned his gaze to the battlefield.

Luojiawa.

The ruins of a small village located less than 500 meters from the Japanese army's front-line position.

This was one of the starting positions for the 7th Army's night raid troops.

The rain stopped, but the damp air, with its earthy smell mixed with a faint stench of blood, still made people nauseous.

A veteran squad leader named Huang Sigui was huddled behind a broken wall, carefully wiping his old Hanyang rifle with a rag.

Around him were nine equally silent brothers, each with their faces smeared black with soot from the bottom of a pot.

"Monkey, are you scared?" Huang Sigui asked in a low voice without looking up.

A thin young soldier beside him, clutching a large sword that didn't suit his size, grinned, revealing a set of white teeth: "Squad leader, what are you afraid of!"

Huang Sigui handed over the Hanyang rifle in his hand, and then picked up the American-made grease gun next to him: "That's right, I'll use this 'iron broom' to give those short bastards a good sweep later!"

"Squad leader, you'd better save your bullets."

Another veteran joked with a laugh, "Your thing is gone in one burst, and there's nowhere to refill it."

"The regimental commander said that there is plenty of ammunition sent from North China. We can fight however we want, and they will replace as many guns as we need."

"Now that things have come to this point, are we really going to hold back on our meager savings?"

The monkey loaded the last bullet into the magazine, pulled the bolt back, and made a crisp "click": "Squad leader, ready."

"Listen up."

Huang Sigui's voice was clear and cold in the quiet night: "We are the vanguard squad. Our mission is to take out the Japanese's Type 92 heavy machine gun at the front."

He pointed to a blurry outline in the darkness ahead.

“I’ll go with Monkey from the left, Old Smoker, you take two men and go from the right.”

"The rest of you, provide cover in the middle."

"Loosen the caps on all the grenades beforehand, and wait for my command."

"Be careful, once the guns are fired, the main force will launch an attack. Be very careful, or you might get your brothers killed."

"Yes!"

The crowd lowered their voices and responded in unison.

In the darkness, only their slightly rapid breathing could be heard.

"go!"

Huang Sigui let out a low shout and was the first to leap out from behind the broken wall, his body pressed extremely low, like a cheetah gliding along the ground!

Ten black figures silently disappeared into the boundless darkness.

The Japanese positions were deathly silent, save for the blinding beams of searchlights that swept back and forth across the ruins like ghostly tentacles.

Huang Sigui and Monkey used every shell crater and every broken wall as cover, crawling slowly towards the deadly firing point.

one hundred meters
Fifty meters.
Thirty meters.
They could even clearly hear the Japanese soldiers talking in hushed tones and yawning inside the machine gun emplacements.

"The company commander warned us to be wary of nighttime attacks by the Chinese..."

"There are puddles everywhere outside; they couldn't possibly not make noise."

"Lie down!"

Almost simultaneously, the two pressed their bodies firmly against the mud!

Just then, a beam of searchlight suddenly swept over!

The beam of light swept over their heads inch by inch, and the blinding light made them not even dare to breathe!
"Damn it." The monkey's voice trembled slightly, mixed with a hint of relief at surviving a close call.
"do not move!"

Huang Sigui shoved his head hard into the mud.

Sure enough, the searchlight returned and swept back in their direction.

Soon, the beam of light moved away again.

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, their bodies drenched in cold sweat.

"Damn it, those damn Japanese devils are really cunning; we almost got caught."

"You're so smart, class monitor, otherwise I would be done for here..."

"Snap!"

A crisp gunshot suddenly rang out in the silent night sky!
The monkey's body jolted violently, letting out a suppressed groan!

"monkey!"

Huang Sigui rolled over to his side and saw a bloody hole in the monkey's chest, from which blood was gushing out.

"Squad leader, those sons of bitches of Japanese devils..."

The monkey's eyes were rapidly losing their sparkle: "Remember to avenge me..."

“Da da da da da—!”

The Type 92 heavy machine gun roared instantly.

The dense hail of bullets instantly sealed off the crater where the two of them were!
"Old smoker! Cover!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!" The sound of a Czech light machine gun rang out from the side and rear, and a series of bullets rang out from the Japanese heavy machine gun position.

Huang Sigui's eyes were bloodshot as he roared, "Die, you son of a bitch!!!"

Suddenly, he leaned half his body out of the shell crater, aimed at the machine gun muzzle that was spitting out flames, and pulled the trigger hard!
"Da da da da da!"

A hail of bullets swept forward again, killing several Japanese riflemen in the trench.

"Boom! Boom!"

On the flank, the grenades thrown by Old Smoker and his brothers also exploded one after another!
The Japanese positions were instantly engulfed in flames and chaos!

Without pausing, Huang Sigui threw away the submachine gun with its magazine empty, pulled out four cluster grenades tied together from his waist, pulled the fuse, and with all his might, hurled them at the machine gun emplacement that had already fallen silent!
"Boom——!!!"

The earth-shattering explosion sent the semi-permanent fortification, along with all the Japanese soldiers inside, to their deaths!
Huang Sigui was thrown to the ground by the huge blast wave, his ears ringing.

At the very first moment the gunfire rang out, on the rear positions...

A green signal flare, trailing a long plume of flame, wobbled its way into the sky.

This is the signal to launch an attack!
In an instant, dozens of flares were launched into the sky.

The night raid turned into a full-scale assault the moment the gunfire began.

The night raiding force, which was already close to the Japanese front lines, charged toward the Japanese positions.

This hastily reinforced combat force, like a red-hot iron, burned into the Japanese army's outer defenses west of Xinyang.
The Seventh Army's general offensive began before dawn.

at the same time.

News of the Seventh Army's successful attack was instantly relayed to other combat units.

The main forces of the Guangxi clique continued their fierce attacks on Xinyang.

The battle was incredibly fierce, continuing until dawn without a moment's pause. (End of Chapter)