Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 212: Katyusha stood on the steep shore, her singing sounded like the bright spring sunshine~"

The shift of the battlefield to the west was certainly not a bad thing for Zheng Yi. Otherwise, how could the Americans transport these two IBM supercomputers, which were still valuable in that era, to Penang?

How could Mr. Joseph, the top genius who is said to be the man closest to God, come to Penang in person to take charge?

Long before Joseph arrived, Zheng Yi specially selected 300 middle school students who were good at English and mathematics from various schools and incorporated them into Joseph's cryptography team as assistants.

It is no exaggeration to say that any one of Joseph's technical team can be considered a top mathematics expert or radio expert in China. This is a good opportunity for Zheng Yi to make use of his resources and cultivate a group of talents for Nanyang.

"Mr. Joseph, are you sure these are spy radios?"

"I can only say it's a suspicion. There aren't many active radio signals in Nanyang, so screening is easy. If there are spies in Penang and Alor Setar, and they've been activated recently, they must be among these eight radio stations."

"Of course, it will take time to decipher the code, and I can only find radio stations that actually sent telegrams during this period."

Zheng Yi: "That's enough. Thank you so much, Mr. Joseph."

In this era, I'm afraid the Japanese don't even know what a computer is. Joseph's attack on them is really a dimensionality reduction attack.

Several of the more active radio stations are located in Alor Setar. This is of course normal. After all, the fighting in Alor Setar is very intense right now, and this is also the time when spies there are most active.

After discovering that he could not break through the Alor Setar position from the front, Yamashita Tomoyuki has been trying to outflank the enemy and look for the so-called weak points of the position, making various attempts in recent days.

Objectively speaking, the situation on the South Allied Forces' side was a bit like that of a "stupid army" that "built a stronghold and fought a stupid battle". Even among those Malay soldiers with formal military positions, most of them joined after the expansion of recruitment and it was their first time to go to the battlefield.

There is no need to mention the Chinese, they are all recruits who have only undergone a short period of military training.

Relying on the solid position and powerful firepower to hold on, there is no problem. The basic fighting will is not lacking.

But if they were to take the initiative and launch a counterattack against Yamashita Tomoyuki, a lot of problems would immediately be exposed.

Anand even personally led the team to organize a counter-charge, but he was foolishly caught in the range of the Japanese army's flat-fire artillery. Two shells killed or injured more than half of his men. He was then strafed by heavy machine guns. His own ear was blown out by shrapnel and he was hit by four bullets.

If he hadn't been wearing a bulletproof vest, he would have died on the spot.

To put it bluntly, as a division commander, apart from his bravery, he is far inferior to Yamashita Tomoyuki in other aspects.

This kind of person might be a good company commander, but might be a little reluctant to be a regimental commander. Now if you ask him to command a division, that's pure nonsense.

Objectively speaking, Yamashita Tomoyuki was indeed one of the few Japanese army officers with the best command ability.

But the problem is that among the Malays, there is no one more suitable to be the division commander than Anand.

The situation on the Chinese side is slightly better, but not much better. Although there is no shortage of middle-level officers who are all from the country, most of the soldiers are unsatisfactory.

After all, the military system is there, and no one is a professional soldier. The most important thing is that they lack practical experience, and to a large extent their performance is even worse than Anand.

Because although those Malay soldiers were stupid, they really dared to organize a counterattack. Whether they were regular troops or auxiliary troops, they all had an urgent motivation to perform well.

Whether it is to become a regular soldier, to prove that they are worthy of being a regular soldier, or simply to prove that they, the Malays, are no worse than the Chinese.

At least he dares to fight and charge, which is commendable.

It was this kind of stupidity that, in Zheng Yi's opinion, even seemed like a deliberate attempt to cheat him out of his pension.

On the contrary, the Chinese side felt relatively restrained. After only a few attempts, they dared not launch any counterattacks. They relied entirely on artillery fire, machine guns, positions, and occasional calls for air support from Penang to stop the Japanese army.

After all, Zheng Yi himself has always emphasized that life is precious, and before dying, one must think about whether it is worth it.

Obviously, everyone felt that such a stupid counterattack was not worth it.

This gave Yamashita Tomoyuki ample time to try various tactics to find the firepower deployment points and weak parts of the position, and even try to infiltrate the rear and bypass the defense line to attack Alor Setar directly.

Although he himself knew that his purpose was a feint attack, the Japanese army had no concept of feint attack, and they still fought fiercely.

What if the defense line is breached?

The so-called "too long to defend will lead to a loss" is exactly this principle. If you just take a beating without fighting back, no matter how big the advantage is, it will be in vain. The opponent will always find a way to break through you. There is no such thing as a 100% impregnable defense in this world.

Yamashita Tomoyuki was indeed no mediocre person, and the Japanese Army's Type A Division was indeed a powerful force. Although it was inferior to the Southern Alliance defenders in all aspects, it made the frontline soldiers feel a little exhausted.

Of course, such frequent and large-scale tests are naturally the most active time on the battlefield.

The position in Alor Setar was built along the city, with the city behind it. Even part of the entire position was originally designed and planned as an urban area.

The Southern Alliance has no shortage of manpower, so the soldiers on the front line are also rotated. After two days of fighting on the front line, they retreat to the city to rest. Some of the service industries originally used to serve Penang have also been restarted to serve these soldiers.

Although the medical and arts classes were still young, they had already begun to serve. At this time, there would inevitably be a large number of spies infiltrating them, especially Zheng Yi, who did not shy away from letting the Japanese immigrants join them.

Women served as art soldiers and medical soldiers, and some even offered to sell their bodies and provide paid services. After all, except for the families of technicians that Zheng Yi later recruited from Japan, the vast majority of Japanese women in Nanyang were Nanyang girls.

That is, the prostitutes who come to Nanyang to sell sex.

Most male expatriates also ask them for help or to give them a message, so as not to discourage their enthusiasm.

Naturally, it is also a good opportunity for espionage.

Off to the side, Toyota Risaburo's expression was clearly not good. After taking Joseph's report, he quickly scanned it and said, "Within three days, I will find these radio stations and arrest the people involved."

Zheng Yi smiled and waved his hand, saying, "No need. Just find someone to keep an eye on them. There's no need to arrest them directly. Besides, these people may not all be Japanese. Who knows, there might be people from Fuqing among them?"

Zheng Yi was very aware of this. After all, in history, people from Fuqing have always been the main force of traitors in Southeast Asia.

"Actually, I don't take spies that seriously. To be honest, most of Penang's truly confidential matters are deliberately hidden from you Japanese. And to be honest, considering the level of our frontline generals, whether they have spies or intelligence support, it doesn't matter much."

To put it bluntly, if you ask Zhang Yucai and Anand himself what the weakness is on the front line in Alor Setar, nine out of ten times they don't know.

Their skills were limited, and they fought only stupid battles. Their soldiers were all recruits, and they couldn't perform any advanced tactics such as surprise attacks, sneak attacks, outflanking, and detours.

Even if they could fight, Zheng Yi didn't want them to fight. After all, this tactic was too disabling. Zheng Yi couldn't even afford to pay the pension.

Zheng Yi could actually accept the situation where they were exchanging blows on the battlefield like this.

It's nothing more than a waste of ammunition. Penang has an ammonium nitrate factory, the cost of gunpowder is not high, and it can almost be reimbursed by the Americans. He can get as much war aid as he wants.

The news spread and it didn't really have that much of an impact.

"Can you think of a way to pass on the deployment of our artillery to Yamashita Tomoyuki?"

"How do you mean false information?"

Zheng Yi: "We don't even need fake intelligence. Real intelligence is fine. Isn't what Yamashita Tomoyuki wants most the location of the artillery on my position? Honestly, I really want to give it to him."

"I just don't know how to give it to him in a natural way so that he won't get suspicious."

Toyota Risaburo: "Ah? This... sir, you want to lure the snake out of its hole? Ah, then I won't ask, then leave it to me, I'll find a way."

Toyota Risaburo was sensible and didn't ask any more questions. It was obvious that Zheng Yi must have a backup plan, but he didn't know what it was.

He was not curious about this. It was not something a Japanese like him should be curious about. He took the list and said goodbye and left.

After Toyota Risaburo left, Zheng Yi took out a huge map from his pocket and began to negotiate with Joseph.

"The Japanese tank brigade's usual parking location has been determined. It should be here, between several mountains. It's difficult for planes to drop bombs accurately. The mountains and forests can easily block their sightlines."

Joseph nodded and began scribbling on the map. "I've confirmed through surveillance that the Japanese moved a howitzer regiment to Position 215 today. Based on battlefield feedback, the 215 position the Japanese are referring to should be here, this one, or this hilltop."

"Ah."

In war, the tests are mutual. While Yamashita Tomoyuki was testing the Southern Allied Forces, the Southern Allied Forces were also testing the Japanese army.

Although this battle did not last long, it seemed to be somewhat similar to the trench warfare of World War I.

The Japanese army's advantage was that they took the initiative on the battlefield and could launch continuous exploratory attacks, while the Southern Army's advantage was that they had a certain air superiority.

Although bombing may not necessarily achieve significant results, reconnaissance will not be a big problem.

In addition, of course, there are cryptographers like Joseph and his American team, as well as IBM computers, which are extremely rare in this era.

Since the war broke out, Zheng Yi has been ordering the front line to intentionally blow up telephone lines.

Moreover, the Japanese were extremely negligent in radio, especially after the Pearl Harbor attack.

The code book used by Yamashita Tomoyuki's military was exactly the same as the one he used when he attacked Singapore. It had not been changed for such a long time.

After Joseph arrived, he shared the information with the British intelligence experts and they quickly deciphered it.

Adding them together, plus the artillery positions explored on the front line, he had already figured out the current firepower and troop deployment of the Japanese army.
Especially for the command posts outside the range of rear artillery attacks, the Japanese army basically would not change their positions.

Even if he changed his position, he could still get it almost right.

Although Zheng Yi does not know how to fight, as a player who has lived in the information age and has played strategic real-time games, he is still obsessed with "opening the entire map".

"Om~"

As we were talking, there was a sudden roar outside the window. Various Japanese planes flew over again and dropped bombs on Penang.

With a loud bang, an aerial bomb fell not far from Zheng Yi's office building. It was obvious that it was meant to bomb him, and he couldn't help but frown.

But he said calmly: "Sometimes I really admire these Japanese. They clearly don't have air superiority, but they still dare to come to Penang to drop bombs, and they drop bombs almost every day."

As they were talking, fighter planes from Penang had already circled and started a dogfight with the Japanese planes.

Since the war broke out, Japanese planes came almost every day, mainly to bomb some factories, port terminals, densely populated areas, as well as their office buildings, city hall, etc. in Penang.

There are only one or two of them each time, almost all of them are lone wolf operations. They don’t do much damage, but they are quite annoying.

You should know that Penang has radar. Every time the Japanese planes enter the Penang waters, they will be discovered and then the P38D or even the P51 Mustang will be dispatched to intercept them.

If there is one more plane against him, these Japanese planes will be like delivering food to him. If two planes come, it is possible that neither of them can return, and the loss rate will be much higher than 50%.

However, despite such a high loss rate, the Japanese army still insisted on dropping a few bombs every time to bomb his civilians without causing any harm.

Of course, Zheng Yi's office building was also a prime target, but Zheng Yi himself wasn't alarmed. After all, his office building had been designed with protection against aerial bombs in mind. Even if a single aerial bomb had hit it correctly, it wouldn't have been a big deal. The entire roof of the building was reinforced with steel, and it wasn't even the top floor.

What's more, it is difficult for these planes to fly directly above Zheng Yi's office building, which is a key protected area after all.

Joseph happened to be in his office, and he couldn't help but chat: "The Japanese pilots are really brave. Don't they know that bombing Penang is a life-or-death struggle?"

Zheng Yi: "Tsk, they're just trying to win in a different way. I don't think it's anything special. On the contrary, I only see shame."

"shame?"

Joseph was quite interested when he heard this and asked, "Why does Mr. Zheng think this is a shame?"

Zheng Yi: "On the surface, if one must speculate, the Japanese bombed Penang and civilians to increase pressure on me."

"Penang's biggest problem right now is its overpopulation. While men can be sent to the front lines as much as possible, women and children can never be sent out. Furthermore, there are so many factories, and they are all operating at full capacity."

“So bombing factories and civilians will indeed bring some chaos to Penang, which will increase the difficulty of our governance. Ideally, it could indeed cause Penang to implode. So you say it is completely useless... but that is not entirely true.”

"But if they really expected a few bombs to bring down Penang, how naive would they be? Furthermore, Penang is a Chinese city. Given the Japanese army's behavior, which Chinese city would actually surrender? To be brutally honest, even if Penang were at its wit's end, even if people were to eat each other, it's highly unlikely that many people would choose to surrender to the Japanese."

"So, can such a small victory really make up for the loss of aircraft and pilots?"

Joseph asked curiously, "What are these Japanese pilots trying to do?"

Zheng Yi: "They're all about reports and KPIs. This is the downside of Japanese militarism, and why I've always considered them a second-rate army."

"Oh?" Joseph said with great interest, "Mr. Zheng, you are also an expert on Japanese issues. Could you tell me more about it?"

Joseph also studied, worked and lived in Japan in his early years. He could even be said to be an expert on Japan and had a deep understanding of Japanese culture. Otherwise, he would not have achieved such a high level of attainment in cracking Japanese military codes.

Hearing Zheng Yi say this, I naturally became interested.

Zheng Yi: "Because of the culture of shame, the Bushido spirit, the Showa spirit, no matter what spirit, they all require that the Japanese military operations must win."

"The Japanese army's southern campaign was generally quite successful. They only encountered resistance in Penang and the Bataan Peninsula. In other areas, they could be described as unstoppable."

"In such a smooth battle, a local defeat would be very difficult to accept. Everyone else is winning, but you are the only one losing. Isn't that embarrassing?

In our normal culture, if we lose, we lose. It's no big deal. We can't say that Penang's aircraft are necessarily better than the Japanese, but at least there are more of them. It's normal that we can't seize air superiority."

"But these Japanese pilots won't accept this. If they do, they won't be able to hold their heads up high. They've been victorious everywhere in Southeast Asia. Even now, when they're fighting in Alor Setar, Yamashita Tomoyuki has always been the attacker. Only their air force is being suppressed by me. How can they hold their heads up high in front of other air forces? How can they face those army idiots?"

"So, they have to explain it to their superiors and internal officials. They can't just say that my planes can't defeat them and then hide and stop flying. How can they explain it then? Then they have to bomb Penang or my office building."

"When they report back to their superiors, they can say that they engaged in a fierce air battle with the SAARC Air Force. Although they suffered heavy losses, we directly bombed Penang, undermining SAARC morale, causing chaos in the region, and affecting Penang's military production. Wouldn't that allow them to claim victory?"

"Anyway, the Japanese headquarters can't verify it, not even their army comrades can. To exaggerate, they can even say that I, Zheng Yi, was bombed so hard that I had to hide in the basement all day and dared not show my head. They might even give them medals."

"As for whether the sacrifices involved are worth it? That all depends on how you report it. Those who know how to do things are no match for those who know how to report."

"Taking the risk of bombing Penang is dangerous and will not be that useful. They might as well bomb Alor Setar, or even just blow up a few machine gun and artillery positions on the battlefield. But then they won't be able to brag to their superiors."

"If we can't win on the battlefield, especially since it's the first defeat of the Japanese army's Southeast Asia campaign, they'll be the easiest to blame afterwards. They might even commit seppuku. So, being killed by our Penang planes is better than being condemned by thousands of people and committing seppuku, right?"

"This is the unique Japanese culture of shame. While it makes the Japanese army incredibly brave in combat, it also exposes their greatest weakness: the inability to afford defeat."

"In order to avoid losing, the Japanese can only cheat each other, cheating back and forth. The grassroots cheat the middle level, the middle level cheats the top level, and the top level cheats the cabinet. They always win, win, win. They have to win no matter what they do, haha."

Joseph is also an expert on Japanese issues, but he has never analyzed this so-called shame culture in such a systematic way before. After hearing what Zheng Yi said, he nodded involuntarily.

"Mr. Zheng, do you mean... to exploit this weakness of the Japanese army?"

Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Of course, for the Japanese air group, the huge humiliation of failing to seize air supremacy over Penang would force them to risk losing bombs and demand a false victory. But what about Yamashita Tomoyuki?"

"From what I know, Yamashita Tomoyuki has always been arrogant, and he and Sakata Seishiro are in a rivalry. In this battle, he was asked to feint an attack on Sakata Seishiro, and I'm afraid he must be holding a grudge."

"Look, it's only been ten days since the war started, and he's been jumping around and trying out at least a hundred different ways to attack, testing Alor Setar's defenses. Does this look like a feint?"

"Besides, even if it's a feint, it still has to look good. To put it bluntly, we have to win. Since the start of the southern campaign, the Japanese army has been unstoppable, winning major victories in many directions. With Yamashita Tomoyuki's arrogance, could he accept not being able to capture Penang, or even break through his position, or even reach the edge of Alor Setar?"

"Especially when our Southern Army didn't actually demonstrate a high enough level of professionalism, and even the Chinese didn't appear to be fearless and valiant."

"Failure to capture Alor Setar, or at least to penetrate Alor Setar's positions, would be a huge humiliation for Yamashita Tomoyuki. From then on, he would never be able to hold his head up high among the likes of Sakata Seishirō, Imamura Hitoshi, and Homma Masaharu."

Joseph: "So... you asked Toyota Risaburo to voluntarily reveal the specific location of the artillery fire?"

"Yes, because I'm certain that as long as I can put enough pressure on Yamashita Tomoyuki, like now, and then give him an opportunity, he will definitely gamble, and will definitely show his so-called fearless spirit and gamble his life with me. I'm waiting for him to gamble his life with me. I'm also waiting for an opportunity, a chance to destroy the 25th Army."

As he spoke, Zheng Yi's eyes couldn't help but look towards Yangon.

"It's not just Yamashita Tomoyuki who needs to gamble. I need to gamble too. If we let the 25th Army block Alor Setar, and our entire Southern Alliance army is unable to move, and we sit back and watch Sakata Seishirō attack Burma, even if Alor Setar is truly impregnable, what good will it do? Won't we still fall into the Japanese army's feint attack?"

"My army is not a coward who only knows how to defend and lacks the courage to take the initiative. We are just waiting for an opportunity to turn the tide."

"Mr. Zheng, are you confident that you can inflict heavy damage or even annihilate the Japanese 25th Army in one fell swoop?"

Zheng Yi actually nodded when he heard this and said, "Yes, I do."

………………

Three days later, Japanese headquarters.

"Hey, the intelligence that Honmura-kun sent is very timely. This route is the key transportation line for the entire Alor Setar position. It's straight and flat, perfect for our tank troops to raid."

Yamashita Tomoyuki received the latest intelligence from Japanese spies and began to write and draw on a military map.

It turned out that there was also such an artillery distribution map of Alor Setar in Yamashita Tomoyuki's command room.

"Commander, isn't this too... smooth? Could this be a trick? How could such important intelligence be obtained so easily?"

Yamashita Tomoyuki smiled and said, "It can't be wrong. These past few days, I've been probing the artillery positions in the Alor Setar position. In fact, even without this map, I've already explored most of it."

"The artillery positions marked on this map are the same as the ones I marked myself. Besides, I just ordered our reconnaissance planes to conduct close reconnaissance of these locations. This area is indeed a blind spot that the Confederate artillery cannot reach. Hahahahaha."

"Since the start of the war, the Yugoslav Allied Forces have rarely adjusted the positions of their artillery and heavy machine guns. In my opinion, they only know how to fight in a static manner. They are too rigid and lack flexibility. And most importantly, their infantry-artillery coordination is extremely poor."

"Of course. After all, it's a newly formed team with no battlefield experience. Although the Southern Alliance Army is more powerful than the British Army, it's probably not much stronger."

"Honestly, I'm very disappointed with the behavior of those Chinese. Although these Southeast Asian Chinese are much richer than the Chinese back home, their affluent lives have long since worn away their courage. Their behavior is even worse than that of the Malays. They are all cowards who only care about their own lives."

Yamashita Tomoyuki's eyes lit up as he spoke, "As long as we can get close to them and engage those cowardly Chinese in close combat, the heroic soldiers of the Empire of Japan will surely win the war."

"Here, here, and here are all blind spots for the Confederate artillery positions. Although their planes are powerful, they can't bomb accurately at night, and they don't even dare to take action."

"We only need to concentrate our tanks here to break through the Confederate defenses. Meanwhile, our infantry can split into three groups and charge through these three blind spots! We only need to break through a few isolated machine gun positions to engage them in close combat."

"Thus, even though their rear-end artillery fire is fierce, as long as we can engage them in close combat, it will be useless, and our artillery can even provide cover for us during our charge."

"Given the Confederate Army's abysmal infantry-artillery coordination capabilities, I'm certain they won't risk accidentally injuring friendly forces by firing their artillery. Alor Setar, I'm sure I can get in!"

In fact, the coordination between the Japanese infantry and artillery was just so-so, not particularly excellent. It was just that they were ruthless, and even when fighting hand-to-hand, the artillerymen behind them dared to fire.

Yamashita Tomoyuki was a first-class, even top-tier, army combat commander with extensive combat experience and outstanding battlefield command capabilities. He was almost 100% certain that his strategy was feasible, and his judgment on the positions of the Southern Army's artillery and heavy machine guns would definitely not be wrong. As long as he did this, he would definitely be able to engage in close combat with the Southern Army.

He also truly believed that as long as he could fight hand-to-hand he would win!

"Pass on my order: at 2 a.m. tonight, the entire army will attack!"

To some extent, Yamashita Tomoyuki was indeed right. The attack route he chose for the Japanese army did bypass most of the artillery and were all blind spots for artillery.

Most of the artillery in Alor Setar are heavy artillery, which is not easy to move, at least they cannot adjust their direction so quickly.

They even had tanks leading the way, and ordinary infantry would find it difficult to stop them.

This plan was almost perfect. Years of experience told Yamashita Tomoyuki that he could definitely engage in close combat with the Southern Army. As for what happened after the battle, it would be the case that the bravest of two would win.

He believed that the courage of their Japanese Army was invincible.

However, what Yamashita Tomoyuki did not know was that the times were developing, society was progressing, and war was the period when new weapons were developed at the fastest rate. The development of any new weapon had the potential to completely change the way war was conducted.

Zheng Yi doesn't understand war.

But he knows how to develop weapons.

You know, the entire Second Central Bureau of the Soviet Union is in Penang.

Moreover, Zheng Yi can obtain any basic equipment from the United States for improvement and upgrade almost free of charge and without limit.

What would happen if you combined American trucks with Soviet rockets?
At two o'clock in the morning, Yamashita Fengyu ordered an assault.

Joseph's monitoring team captured the details of the assault order almost accurately.

Soon, led by Zheng Yi himself, a total of 170 Catapult trucks slowly drove out of the secret base in Alor Setar and moved flexibly and maneuverably to their respective positions.

In the dark night sky, the low roar of the 170 trucks was like 170 vicious tigers ready to devour their prey.

Zheng Yi was originally a hands-off boss who never participated in the front-line battles, but this time he took over the command and followed the car personally.

Instead of sleeping late at night, his eyes were as bright as a wolf's, and the corners of his mouth were cracked, revealing two rows of cunning teeth.

In the truck beds were rows and rows of iron racks, and on top of the racks were two layers filled with rockets.

Each one has a diameter of 132 mm.

This scene made Zheng Yi couldn't help but hum a happy song.

"Just as pear blossoms were in full bloom, and a soft veil floated over the river, Katyusha stood on the steep bank, her voice like the bright spring sunshine. Katyusha stood on the steep bank, her voice like the bright spring sunshine."

After the song, Zheng Yi even picked up the radio himself and gave the order: "Southern Alliance First Rocket Brigade, all listen to my command, follow the established direction, and shoot!"

(End of this chapter)