The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

People often say, "Only by not fighting a battle without preparation can you be invincible."

Major Wentworth, who was temporarily in charge of the command, was only thinking about surrendering. He naively imagined that the Fuso people would treat them, the John prisoners, well based on the Fuso-John alliance during World War I. Therefore, he did not make any preparations.

The Japanese 15th Army, responsible for border operations at Pegu and Sindhu, had determined from previous aerial reconnaissance that the airfield had no resistance and had not been used for anti-Japanese operations in a long time. Therefore, they considered it a piece of meat on the chopping board, ready to be eaten anytime they wanted.

Unexpectedly, after a routine reconnaissance recently, the 56th Division of the Japanese 15th Army suddenly discovered that large-scale construction and fortifications were underway at the airport, actively preparing for defensive operations, and even shot down a Type 1 fighter with anti-aircraft firepower.

Lieutenant General Sadakazu Takeuchi, commander of the 56th Division, immediately ordered the Japanese to contact Colonel Mikichiro Sato of the 146th Infantry Regiment to send troops to attack the airport.

Colonel Mikichiro Sato ordered the new Ayame Battalion, which was searching for defeated soldiers near the airport, to immediately stop the encirclement and suppression mission and advance towards the airport.

Upon receiving the order, Major Chang Puxin immediately led his battalion headquarters, a squadron of infantry, and reinforced engineers and tank units of nearly 400 people to march towards the airport in the rainforest.

Zhang Chi's side had been seeing scattered, savage-like expeditionary force deserters appear in the surrounding rainforest over the past few days. The White-Faced Owl squad, tasked with conducting reconnaissance in the rainforest, escorted them all to the airport.

Without saying a word, he used his rank of major to recruit all the defeated soldiers, and his independent battalion expanded to more than 150 people.

After taking over the command, Sir Spencer, who had recovered from dysentery, immediately contacted the Allied theater headquarters in Sindhu by radio to try to confirm Zhang Chi's information.

At this time, the 5th Army Headquarters and the New 22nd Division, to which Zhang Chi's direct superior belonged, had just entered the Savage Mountain. The Allied Theater Command had no way of contacting them as they had abandoned their baggage and supplies and had no radio. They only confirmed that the New 22nd Division did have a major staff officer named Zhang Chi, and ordered him to gather the remaining troops in northern Myanmar, persist in fighting, and wait for an opportunity to return home.

At the same time, the Allied Theater Command agreed to try to send a C46 transport plane to the airport to pick everyone up and take them to the Allied assembly point in Sindhu.

However, Zhang Chi was not optimistic about the opportunity to retreat from the air. The sky was full of Japanese planes. A few lonely C46 transport planes escaping with a belly full of infantry were simply giving the Japanese pilots a chance to win.

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On this day, the fifth day after Zhang Chi led his team to the airport, the reinforced squadron of Major Changpu Xin appeared in the surrounding rainforest.

"This is White Owl No. 4. The Japanese have appeared in the area of ​​​​Jia-Zi-3. At least 100 infantrymen and 2 light tanks. No barreled artillery has been found. Over."

Under Zhang Chi's arrangement, the soldiers of the reconnaissance squad, armed with rifles, hid on the tops of the large trees in the tropical rainforest that blocked out the sun, "lighting up" Zhang Chi's vision of the surrounding rainforest.

Zhang Chi: The Japs have aerial reconnaissance? No problem, I have integrated signal and fire. Let's cheat and fight the whole map.

Zhang Chi used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to divide the area around the airport into small squares on the map, and asked the scouts to memorize them so that he could obtain the approximate location of the Japanese at any time through the radio.

After hearing the report from White-Faced Owl No. 4, Zhang Chi looked at the map and blew the whistle hanging around his neck.

"The Japanese troops are coming up from the rainforest in the south. They are just two kilometers away. Hurry up and get into the position!" Zhang Chi kept shouting in both Chinese and John.

The alert Sergeant Dawson immediately sent someone to sound the hand-cranked protective alarm, and the shrill alarm echoed over the airport.

John's soldiers and the independent guerrilla battalion's fighters immediately rushed out of the buildings and tents, clutching their helmets and running to their positions with their weapons in hand.

Before the Japanese infantry arrived, four Mitsubishi Type 97 light bomber aircraft appeared in the sky.

After Sir Spencer took over the command, the John soldiers finally showed some fighting spirit. Under the command of a sergeant, several John soldiers ran to the anti-aircraft artillery position near the airport terminal. They lifted off the waterproof green canvas gun cover, revealing the slender barrel of the 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang." 40mm shells equipped with fixed-height fuses were fired at the Japanese planes in the sky one after another, and clouds of black smoke exploded around the planes in the air.

"Qi Quan, tell them to switch the Vickers to anti-aircraft firing mode to cover the 40mm gun and prevent the Japanese planes from dropping bombs successfully!" Zhang Chi ran towards the Sherman Organ Tank covered with anti-aircraft camouflage cloth, waving his hands and shouting for Qi Quan to command the anti-aircraft firing.

Two planes that were diving towards the airport to drop bombs were interfered with by ground anti-aircraft fire and had to drop the 50 kg explosives in the magazine in advance, and then quickly pull up to avoid the anti-aircraft fire.

The string of bombs dropped in advance naturally failed to hit the trenches accurately, but only left a string of deep pits on the ground of the airport.

On the other side, Zhang Chi and the crew quickly removed the camouflage on the tank, opened the hatch and climbed into the tank before the Japanese planes noticed the tank.

"Quick, direction 180, distance 1500, fire all the rockets, quick!" Zhang Chi shouted anxiously, wanting to fire all the rockets.

This is because the 80 rockets in the launcher above the Sherman Organ Tank became a death warrant when facing an air raid. If a bomb exploded nearby, the shrapnel would hit the rockets on the launcher, causing a chain reaction explosion, with unimaginable consequences.

Zhang Chi estimated that by then both the tank and himself inside the tank would be instantly restored to their parts, fly high into the sky, and then be evenly distributed within a radius of 50 meters.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh." Driven by the electric lighter, one 114mm M8 rocket after another flew into the sky, drew a low parabola, and fell towards the edge of the rainforest south of the airport.

Lieutenant Kido had just walked out of the rainforest with a Nambu pistol and a saber in hand when he heard a sharp whistling sound that suffocated him. As a veteran who had participated in the invasion of Qian Country 37 years ago, he immediately realized that it was artillery fire and that the shells should have landed nearby.

He looked up at the sky and saw shell after shell with white smoke trails tearing through the air and diving towards him.

"You idiot! Get down quickly. The enemy is covering us with artillery fire. If you don't want to die, lie down!" After saying that, Second Lieutenant Kido was the first to lie down.

He supported himself with his hands and suspended his chest above the ground at a fist's height to prevent the vibration waves transmitted from the ground from injuring his internal organs.

When the Japanese recruits around saw their commander lying down, they immediately followed suit and lay down straight, their bodies close to the ground, their hands on their heads, praying that the shells would not fall on them.

"boom!"

The first rocket hit a Type 95 light fighter that had just slowly crawled out of the rainforest. The kinetic energy carried by the rocket immediately smashed a big hole in the roof of the poor little tank.

After a delay of 0.5 seconds, the rocket warhead exploded, reducing the Type 95 light fighter to its original parts.

The unburned propellant at the tail of the rocket and the fuel in the Type 95 light combat vehicle's fuel tank scattered with the explosion. Then they were ignited by sparks, turning the surrounding Japanese infantry into burning torches.