Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 138 Daydreaming
On May 19, 1938, Xuzhou fell, bringing the Battle of Xuzhou, which had lasted for more than five months, to an end.

On the surface, the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou and achieved final victory, but strategically, the Japanese army did not achieve its goal of annihilating the main force of the Fifth War Zone.

Before the Japanese army occupied Xuzhou, Li Zongren had already led the main force of the Fifth War Zone to break out of the Japanese encirclement and leave. After suffering more than 45,000 casualties (including wounded and sick), the Japanese army only got an empty city.

After the war, although the Japanese General Staff claimed that they had achieved their objectives in the battle, the international community generally believed that the Japanese had gained more than they gained, exchanging more than 40,000 casualties for an empty city.

Subsequently, seeing the public outcry, the Japanese government quickly claimed that their casualties were not as high as the Chinese government had claimed, but only 1.6.

This statement immediately caused countless people to burst into laughter.

The Washington Post went even further, pointing out that the Japanese casualties at Taierzhuang alone exceeded this number. Didn't they see that after the Battle of Xuzhou, the 10th and 16th Divisions, which participated in the Battle of Taierzhuang, had already withdrawn to the mainland for rest and reorganization due to heavy casualties?

Not to mention the casualties the Japanese army paid in Tengxian, Linyi, and finally when the Chinese army pursued the 10th and 16th Divisions, in order to block the Chinese army.

In response, The Washington Post even published photos taken by Chinese journalists on the battlefield, showing countless Japanese corpses lying along the road.

The Japanese government maintains its consistent stance on this... I didn't... that's not true... you're talking nonsense...

General Terauchi Hisaichi, commander of the North China Area Army, even clamored that the Chinese would pay a bloody price in the upcoming Battle of Wuhan.

In contrast to the military's clamor, the Japanese government is deeply troubled.

To date, the enormous military expenditures have depleted Japan's gold and currency reserves accumulated before its full-scale invasion of China, even leading to a severe overdraft.

Even with increased taxes, the fiscal deficit could not be filled, forcing Japan to enter wartime economic control in early 1938. In other words, before the Battle of Xuzhou, Japan's economic situation was already in serious crisis.

This led to a heated debate within the country about whether to continue escalating the war against China.

Although the rhetoric of continuing to escalate the war gained traction under the pressure of the fanatical military, Japan found itself in a quagmire, caught in a vicious cycle of wanting to end the war against China as soon as possible, yet having to continue to expand the scale of the war in order to end it as quickly as possible.

The Battle of Wuhan took place against this backdrop.

The Imperial General Headquarters believed that the capture of Hankou was the greatest opportunity to end the war as soon as possible.

As long as we capture Hankou and Guangzhou and drive Chiang Kai-shek to the southwestern border, we can rule China.

The Japanese also bizarrely believed that as long as they occupied Hankou, they could sever the connection between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, thus causing a break between the two parties. It has to be said that this argument by the Japanese was extremely childish and immature.

This is similar to the idea held by the non-mainstream in the 1990s that as long as you dye your hair blonde, you're the coolest guy in the world.

In order to capture Wuhan, Japan mobilized a total of 250,000 troops, including nine divisions, one brigade, and two heavy artillery brigades, as well as the Third Fleet Air Group of the Navy, with more than 120 warships, more than 300 combat aircraft, and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles. It can be said that Japan had mobilized its entire force.

Faced with the Japanese army's relentless advance, the Nationalist government did not back down. It also mobilized over a million troops to fight the Japanese army in the four provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, as well as along the Yangtze River.

The Battle of Wuhan took place against this backdrop.

During the Battle of Wuhan, a force of more than 5,000 men approached Pingxingguan, skirting the borders of Hebei and Shanxi provinces.

As dusk fell, the winds of the Loess Plateau, carrying fine sand, lashed against the Willys Jeep, turning its original green paint almost silver-gray. The cliffs of Xingguan Pass appeared as if cleaved by a giant axe, with winding, centipede-like paths meandering through the reddish-brown rock layers.

The dull thud of tracks crushing gravel came from behind him; it was the tank company passing by.

These steel behemoths, weighing over ten tons, were panting heavily, and the dust that had condensed on their barrels was peeling off in a rustling sound.

Just as Su Yaoyang was observing the terrain by the roadside, a jeep stopped behind him, and a man wearing a Type 36 German military uniform and the rank of colonel got out of the car and walked to his side with a limp.

"Commander..." Pi Ruoyu, who came up behind Su Yaoyang, saluted him.

"Old Pi, you're here."

Su Yaoyang turned around and looked at Pi Ruoyu's still thin figure, laughing, "Old Pi, you've been in the army for almost two months now, how come you're still so thin? Has your wife not been feeding you enough?"

Faced with Su Yaoyang's joke, Pi Ruoyu was also helpless: "I don't know about this department. He eats plenty of sorghum rice and canned meat every day, but he just doesn't gain weight."

Su Yaoyang laughed heartily, patted Pi Ruoyu on the shoulder, took out a cigarette from his pocket, handed it to him, lit it, and pointed to the distant mountains.

"We traveled for nearly two months, covering more than 2,000 li, and finally arrived at Pingxingguan in Shanxi Province."

Now that we've arrived, we're only 200 li (approximately 100 kilometers) from our destination, Wutai County. If the tank company marches at full speed, it'll only take two days. But this road is difficult to travel. What's your plan, Chief of Staff?"

“That’s exactly what I’ve been worried about these past few days,” Pi Ruoyu said with a wry smile.

He reached into his satchel, pulled out a map, and placed it on the hood of the jeep.

"Commander, look... our current location is here." He pointed to the location of Pingxingguan.

"To get to Wutai County, you have to pass through several strongholds controlled by the Japanese army. There were Japanese troops stationed in places like Longquanguan, Shizui Village, and Shahe Town."

Of course, these strongholds are nothing to us; we can wipe them out with a wave of our hand.

The problem is that there are Japanese troops stationed in Dingxiang County, Fanshi County, Dai County, Lingqiu County, and Fuping County, which are surrounding Wutai County.

My concern is that once we take Wutai County, all the surrounding Japanese troops will surround us at the same time, and we, being newcomers, will be in a very passive position.”

"You don't have to worry about that."

Su Yaoyang shook his head: "All the worries stem from insufficient strength. You should know the strength of our militia. As long as the Japanese don't mobilize more than a brigade to deal with us, we don't need to worry about these things at all."

What we lack most right now is time. If we are given two years to develop in peace, we will no longer have to fear anyone after two years.

And don't forget, Shanxi is different from other places.

Here, various forces are intertwined, including the Central Army, the Jin-Sui Army, the Eighth Route Army, and bandits from all walks of life. The Japanese are dreaming if they think they can devote all their energy to dealing with us.

(End of this chapter)