Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Through the intelligence he received and the stories told by the military police on the front lines, Zhou Zhengqing was able to picture the scenes from the middle and late stages of the Battle of Shanxi in his mind.

A month ago, the Battle of Shanghai was at its most brutal.

Compared with the Battle of Shanghai, which is well-known to everyone in later generations, Shanxi was also experiencing a large-scale battle at this time. Although the number of combatants on both sides was not as large as that of Shanghai, the degree of brutality was no less than that of Shanghai.

The mountains in the Xinkou area of ​​northern Shanxi were torn apart by artillery fire.

The Japanese 5th Division, under the command of Seishirō Itagaki, launched a fierce attack on the Chinese army positions with more than 50 tanks and 250 artillery pieces as the vanguard.

Wearing a dusty military coat, Hao Mengling, commander of the Ninth Army, stood at the observation post of the Xinkou front command, gazing through a telescope at the dark Yunzhong River Plain.

In the distance, the occasional flashes of light on the Japanese positions looked like bloodthirsty beasts blinking in the dark night.

"Commander, it's already three o'clock in the morning. You should take a rest." Chief of Staff Li Mingding said softly, placing a cup of hot tea on the table full of battle maps.

Hao Mengling didn't look back, still holding the binoculars: "The Japanese army is unusually quiet today. There must be a trick behind this calmness. Notify the frontline positions to double their vigilance."

Liu Jiaqi, commander of the 54th Division, looked up from his map. His gaunt face was covered in stubble, and his eyes were bloodshot. "The Itagaki Division has been resting for three days. According to the Japanese military's combat habits, the next round of general offensive will begin within the next day or two."

The command center was located in a relatively sturdy civilian house in Xinkou Town. The kerosene lamp hanging on the wall swayed slightly with the faint artillery fire in the distance.

Hao Mengling finally turned around. His forty-three-year-old face had aged a lot after half a month of fierce fighting, but his back was still as straight as a pine tree.

"Everyone," he said in a hoarse but firm voice, "Commander Yan has handed over the Xinkou defense line to us. If we lose this place, the gate to Taiyuan will be wide open.

Behind us are millions of Shanxi people, and there is no turning back."

At this moment, the phone rang urgently. The signalman's face changed drastically after answering it: "Report! Unusual Japanese movements have been detected at the Nanhuaihua frontline. At least twenty tanks are gathering!"

Hao Mengling grabbed the telescope and strode out of the command center.

In the darkness before dawn, an ominous white flash appeared on the distant horizon. He knew that the battle that would determine the fate of Xinkou was about to begin.

At 5:30 in the morning, at the artillery position of the Japanese 5th Division, Itagaki Seishirō put down his pocket watch and nodded coldly to the artillery commander.

In an instant, the Xinkou defense line shook violently.

The Japanese army concentrated more than 250 artillery pieces and launched an unprecedentedly intensive artillery bombardment on the Nanhuaihua Heights and the Chinese army positions along the Yunzhong River in the history of war.

The first salvo dyed the night sky blood red. Shells rained down like hail, and the shockwaves from the explosions could be felt even at the headquarters miles away.

Zheng Ting, commander of the 5th Independent Brigade, was hiding in the forward command post and was knocked off his chair by the violent shaking.

He quickly got up and shouted into the phone: "All regiments, get into position! The Japanese infantry will be coming up soon!"

The bombardment lasted for two full hours.

Many trenches on the Nanhuaihua Heights were flattened and bunkers collapsed, and many soldiers were buried alive before they even saw the enemy.

The smoke and dust mixed together to form a thick fog, and visibility was less than ten meters.

At 7:30, artillery fire extended deep into the Chinese army's positions, and the roar of Japanese tanks came from the smoke.

More than fifty Type 95 tanks formed a wedge-shaped attack formation, followed by dense Japanese infantry.

"Tanks! Japanese tanks are coming!" the soldiers at the forward observation post shouted at the top of their lungs.

Zheng Tingzhen rushed out of the command post and saw through the thick smoke the steel monster rolling across the shallows of the Yunzhong River. He immediately ordered, "Demolition team, move forward! Use machine gun fire to suppress the infantry!"

A brutal offensive and defensive battle began.

Hao Mengling was extremely anxious in the command center, as calls for help from various units on the front line came in one after another.

"Commander! The Japanese tanks have broken through the first line of defense!"

"We need artillery support! Our position is about to be plowed flat by artillery fire!"

"Too many casualties! Requesting reinforcements!"

Hao Mengling grabbed the phone and called the artillery headquarters: "Concentrate all artillery fire on the Japanese follow-up troops. Don't let them continue to reinforce!"

However, the Chinese army's artillery was far inferior to that of the Japanese army in both quantity and quality, and the limited artillery counterattack soon led to more violent retaliatory attacks from the Japanese army.

The news coming back from the front was worse than the last: the position east of Nanhuaihua was lost and the commander was killed.

The Yunzhong River crossing was breached, and an entire company died...

"Commander, please allow me to go to Nanhuaihua to command in person!" Liu Jiaqi had already put on his military cap, his eyes determined.

Hao Mengling was silent for a moment, then patted Liu Jiaqi's shoulder heavily: "Take care, I want you to come back alive."

Liu Jiaqi saluted with a standard military salute, turned around, and rushed out of the command center with his staff. Hao Mengling looked at his retreating figure, and a sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.

On the Nanhuaihua Heights, the battle has entered a white-hot stage.

Japanese tanks approached the Chinese army positions recklessly, followed closely by infantry.

Lacking anti-tank weapons, Chinese soldiers could only use the most primitive methods to fight these steel behemoths.

The demolitionist, holding a cluster grenade, crawled forward in the crater. . . .

Similar scenes unfolded throughout the Nanhuaihua position, with Chinese soldiers carrying explosive packs, cluster grenades, and even Molotov cocktails filled with kerosene, risking their lives to stop the Japanese tanks from advancing.

On the slope in front of the position, more than ten destroyed tanks were lying in a mess, but more tanks were still pouring in.

Zheng Tingzhen personally operated a Czech light machine gun and fired at the Japanese infantry.

The brigade commander's personal participation in the battle greatly boosted morale, and the soldiers fought a desperate battle with the Japanese army using rifles, grenades and even swords.

The battle line was breached in many places, but was then recaptured through brutal hand-to-hand combat.

The battlefield was littered with corpses, and blood dyed every inch of Nanhuaihua's land red.

The fierce fighting lasted until noon, and the Japanese army's first attack was repelled, but the 5th Independent Brigade paid a heavy price.

More than one-third of the troops were killed or wounded, and there were only a few battalion and company-level officers left.

When Zheng Tingzhen was inspecting the position, he saw soldiers digging out buried comrades from the collapsed trenches.

A young soldier, only seventeen years old, cried bitterly while holding the body of his platoon leader. The platoon leader stabbed a Japanese lieutenant to death with a bayonet after being shot several times.

"Brigade Commander, can we still hold on?" A battalion commander with a bleeding bandage wrapped around his head asked in a low voice.

Zheng Tingzhen looked at the Japanese troops regrouping in front of the position and said firmly: "We must defend it even if we can't. The longer we hold on, the more time the people of Taiyuan have to prepare."