Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

After venting his anger, looking at the senior generals of the Kwantung Army who were scolded like grandsons but dared not show any dissatisfaction, Minamino Tojiro said coldly: "Now the loss of Yuancheng and Hanbian cities also means that our Kwantung Army has been completely driven out of Linzhou. In the previous Northeast Campaign, countless imperial warriors exchanged for the territory at the cost of bloodshed and sacrifice, but because of your incompetence, it has fallen into the hands of the Northern Frontier regime."

"Under this circumstance, it is meaningless to hold on to the remaining three counties and one city in Linzhou. Let the frontline commander, Sato Tai, immediately lead the remaining troops to retreat and cooperate with our six major divisions on the border of Baizhou to create a multi-layer firepower blockade area to stop the Northern Expedition Corps."

"Hai! Commander Nanno!"

In fact, the decision made by Minamino Tojiro was a very wise one. After losing Hanbian and Yuancheng, it was an extremely unrealistic idea to rely on the Steel City at the northern end of Linzhou to block the Northern Expedition Army. After all, the Steel City was a new city of its current size only in recent decades because of the Linzhou Steel Plant standing here. Compared with Origin City and Hanbian, it had neither strong city defenses, and the surrounding terrain was not conducive to defense.

In this situation, it would be better to focus on Xingzhou and Hakushu, the two provinces where the Fuso Kwantung Army's headquarters are located, and try their best to defend them to avoid being hit by more serious losses at the hands of the Northern Expedition Corps.

After the meeting, Asano Atsuyoshi, who had not been seen for a long time, pushed open the door of Minamino Tojiro's office.

"Report to the commander! I'm back. The military investigation department under my command has preliminarily found out why Su Zhengyang was able to open a gap in the Yuancheng battle in such a short time."

Minamino Tojiro was shocked. He looked at Asano Wenliang in front of him and said urgently, "Tell me the details you know quickly. I have always been puzzled about how the elite army led by the Tokyo Division spent more than two months to build a steel defense line, and how it was completely destroyed in two days. There is an old Chinese saying, "Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles." I will never feel at ease until I understand the situation."

"Commander, after detailed evidence collection and secret field investigation by our military investigation department, we found that the No. 1-12 defensive position in the southern part of Yuan City was directly razed to the ground by the enemy with a huge number of large-caliber shells. We found a soldier who escaped from the battlefield and survived. According to his oral account, at that time, when there were no enemy troops, a large number of long-range shells appeared in the sky like meteorites falling, with at least thousands of them, and indiscriminately covered our positions with firepower."

"This is a photo of the position taken by our intelligence personnel at great cost."

Asano Atsuyoshi took out the file bag he carried with him, took out a dozen black-and-white photos from it, and handed them to Minamino Tojiro.

Minamino Tojiro took a deep breath as he looked at the photo of the devastation, shell holes everywhere, and the charred ground.

Although this photo was taken secretly after the war, and the bodies of the Fuso soldiers had been burned and buried, judging from the densely packed huge craters with diameters of tens or even hundreds of meters on the battlefield, it is not difficult to imagine the despair that the garrison troops at the time experienced.

After thinking for a moment, Minamino Tojiro raised his question.

"For such a large-scale bombing, the enemy would certainly deploy a large number of artillery units. Why didn't the troops responsible for scouting the enemy at the front convey the news in advance so that the garrison troops could make full preparations?"

Asano Wenliang said solemnly: "This is the real terrifying thing about Su Zhengyang. Based on the soldier's detailed description of the situation at the time, the Military Investigation Department conducted a comprehensive analysis and unanimously determined that the Northwest Revolutionary Army under Su Zhengyang used rocket launchers that are still in the research and development test stage of the world's top military powers."

Asano Wenliang once again placed several photos of the Bird Empire testing rocket launchers on the table.

"This new type of long-range artillery, known as a rocket launcher, has the characteristics of high mobility, long range, and great power. It uses a rocket launcher to fire upward, and its ignition frequency and firing speed are far superior to ordinary howitzers. The only drawback is that its accuracy is poor, and it can only provide large-scale fire coverage. Currently, only first-class military powers such as Russia, the Bird Empire, the French Empire, and the English Empire have preliminary ideas about rocket launchers and have produced a small number of test products, but they have not yet been deployed on a large scale."

"And the news sent back by our intelligence personnel lurking in Yong'an City, Linzhou, also confirms this. Outside Yong'an City, near a secret training ground of the Northwest Revolutionary Army, they once witnessed a rocket-like shell flying high into the sky like the one in the photo. It was extremely powerful."

"According to my analysis, Su Zhengyang used a large number of rocket launchers to provide firepower coverage, which successfully captured our carefully arranged defense positions, leaving the Tokyo Division isolated and helpless, and losing the source city."

Minamino Tojiro said thoughtfully: "Even the Bird Empire, which is recognized as the number one military power in the Western world, does not have official rocket launchers in service. So where did Su Zhengyang get the rocket launchers, shells, and professionals who can operate them?"

Asano Wenliang looked solemn and slowly said, "Peace Company!"

"According to the investigation of our intelligence personnel sent to the United States, Peace Company is currently the number one large arms company in the United States and has mastered the United States' cutting-edge military technology. Over the past 20 years, the development of the United States' military industry has made them one of the world's top military powers. It is precisely because of Peace Company's unremitting support for Su Zhengyang that the Northwest Revolutionary Army can come up with such terrifying military equipment. In other words, our Fuso troops did not lose to Su Zhengyang, but to Peace Company!"

Minamino Tojiro showed an anxious and puzzled expression.

"Why did Peace Company give Su Zhengyang such great support? Even if they are the number one arms giant in the United States, if they want to provide world-leading military equipment like rocket launchers to the Northwest Revolutionary Army, they will probably be blocked by the US authorities. How could they easily cross the ocean and provide it to the Northwest Revolutionary Army on a large scale?"

"The commander's analysis is good. There must be some unknown meaning and details in this. Our people are still investigating further."

"However, rocket launchers and rocket shells like these are extremely expensive, and the number that Peace Company can build is probably limited. This also explains why Su Zhengyang did not repeat his winning tactics in the Battle of Hanbian after winning the Battle of Yuancheng. This shows that the rocket shells in the hands of the Northwest Revolutionary Army have been consumed. Moreover, according to my analysis, Su Zhengyang launched at least tens of thousands of rocket shells in this battle, which is equivalent to China's oceans, and is conservatively estimated to be worth hundreds of millions. The Northern Frontier Government and the Northwest Revolutionary Army cannot afford to continue using such horrific weapons."