A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

"Rush to the aid of Shanghai!" The Military Commission's urgent order reached the Training Corps.

At night, military trains sped along the Beijing-Shanghai Railway toward the Songhu battlefield.

On the train, Gui Shuaizhen, Qiu Yu'an, and Song Hongfei from the Training Corps spread out a map and discussed the battle situation.

"The situation in Shanghai has deteriorated rapidly, and the Japanese army has completely taken the initiative." Gui Shuaizhen explained the situation to the two men with a solemn expression. "Our army has retreated to the south bank of the Suzhou River and redeployed its defenses along the Liuhe River, Xuhang, Guangfu, Jiading, Nanxiang and the south bank of the Suzhou River."

"After the Japanese army captured Dachang, it received reinforcements and replenishment from several reserve corps and field heavy artillery. Matsui Iwane used the 3rd, 9th and 101st Divisions to desperately attack the defense line on the south bank of the Wusong River. Our army was extremely passive, but still controlled the urban area on the south bank."

To draw the attention of the Nationalist army and disperse its forces, Matsui Iwane ordered the 3rd and 9th Divisions to attack the south bank of the Wusong River in order to support the landing of the 10th Army and the 16th Division on the flanks of Hangzhou Bay and Baimaokou on the Yangtze River, and to carry out a flanking maneuver to encircle and destroy the main force of the Nationalist army in Shanghai.

Unfortunately, due to heavy losses in the nearly three months of fierce fighting, the Japanese army's offensive capabilities had been greatly weakened. After more than a week of fierce fighting, the Japanese army failed to break through the Suzhou River.

Caught in a dilemma, Matsui Iwane became somewhat enraged and ordered the 101st Division, which had been replenished and repaired on the rear, to join the attack. The three divisions launched a fierce assault on the Nationalist army's defenses.

For a time, the Nationalist army's defenses along the Suzhou River were under immense strain. After more than two months of fierce fighting, the Nationalist army suffered heavy casualties and was unable to launch another decent offensive, and could only hold out and wait for reinforcements.

The Military Commission mobilized all available reserve forces, and even the garrison troops stationed on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay and the south bank of the Yangtze River to defend against Japanese landings had to be gradually transferred to reinforce the Suzhou Creek defense line.

Song Hongfei stared at the situation map, his mind racing. He sighed inwardly, "I have to admit that Matsui Iwane's plan is really brilliant. It attacks where you have to defend, and strikes right at the vital point!"

Gui Shuaizhen added: "The conference of the signatories of the Nine Powers in Brussels, Belgium, is about to be held to discuss our country's accusations of aggression against the island nation. In order to coordinate with our diplomatic strategy and gain international support, our army will continue to hold the Suzhou River defense line to contain the Japanese army until the Brussels conference is held."

"For this, a part of the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division held the Sihang Warehouse in Zhabei for four days and four nights, winning the respect and support of the world, demonstrating the spirit and courage of the army, boosting the morale of the anti-Japanese soldiers across the country, and also declaring our nation's heroic and fearless will and determination to fight to the end!"

Qiu Yu'an said with reverence, "The 800 heroes of Sihang Warehouse fought brilliantly. They held their ground alone, and with a small force, they dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army. They showed their courage and morale!"

Gui Shuaizhen nodded and said, "The Sihang Army opened the prelude to the Suzhou River blocking battle and was also the last force to defend Zhabei. Afterwards, they withdrew as planned, originally intending to use the concessions to withdraw back to western Shanghai, but the concession powers broke their promise and detained our troops who had withdrawn into the concessions."

Qiu Yu'an and Song Hongfei were also concerned about this matter and unanimously condemned the despicable actions of the foreign powers in the concessions.

Qiu Yu'an, his temper flaring, exclaimed indignantly, "Damn it, those despicable and shameless foreign powers in the concessions, let's get them! In my opinion, let's just kill them all! I don't believe they can stop my eight hundred brave men!"

Gui Shuaizhen sighed, "When you need something from others, you can only be subservient to them at every turn. Alas, the country is poor and the army is weak, what can you do?"

"Behind the tragic scene lies the desolation of a weak nation," Song Hongfei said painfully, his fists clenched tightly.

Song Hongfei, who came from a later generation, understood even better that even if it was just wishful thinking, even if he knew that the foreign powers were unreliable, the Nationalist government, which was struggling to make ends meet, had to do its best to seek diplomatic mediation and hope that the foreign powers would "fulfill their obligations" and come to its rescue when it was in danger.

This is the tragedy of a weak nation, and there is nothing to blame but ourselves for it.

If that's the case, what else can be done?

When drowning, you have to grab onto even the smallest straw with all your might.

Gui Shuaizhen, Qiu Yu'an, and Song Hongfei were filled with grief and indignation. They all knew that this was a battle fought for the whole world to see, with symbolic significance outweighing military significance, to tell the world that we would not compromise and that we would resist to the end!

The logic is simple: if you expect others to intervene and punish aggression, you can't surrender to the enemy before others do, nor can you run away without firing a shot and just talk about resisting to the end.

"Speaking of the Four Lines Lone Army, there is something that is somewhat related to you."

Gui Shuaizhen looked at Song Hongfei and said, "After we withdrew into the concession, the British troops in the concession broke their promise and demanded that our army disarm and disarm. Our army immediately refused, and the two sides were deadlocked and on the verge of war. You all know this, the Military Commission has issued a notice."

Song Hongfei and Qiu Yu'an both nodded.

Qiu Yu'an angrily said, "Damn it, this is too much! You want me to disarm you? Fuck, I'd say just beat them to a pulp!"

Weapons are a soldier's second life.

Surrendering is a great humiliation for Chinese soldiers, and the Eight Hundred Heroes certainly could not accept it.

Xie Jinyuan, the regimental commander, angrily retorted, "You want us to surrender? No way! We might as well go back to the battlefield and fight the Japanese invaders to the bitter end!"

The eight hundred heroes were filled with righteous indignation and angrily questioned the British army for breaking their promise and betraying their faith.

British Commander Smart said, "It's not about disarming them, it's just about temporarily holding them for safekeeping."

The two sides are deadlocked, and the situation is on the verge of spiraling out of control.

Gui Shuaizhen said, "On the surface, it is because the British army did not want to offend the Japanese army, because the Japanese army used the excuse that according to custom, no armed troops could enter the concession, otherwise they would also enter to pursue them."

He glanced at Song Hongfei and said, "The Military Commission believes that the British army has another purpose behind this move: they want to take the opportunity to acquire our general-purpose machine guns. You should know that the Type 24 machine gun is the most strictly classified weapon."

Gui Shuaizhen continued, "The Military Commission then ordered the 88th Division to dismantle the damaged weapons and guns, throwing the main components such as the bolts, recoil mechanisms, and piston gas systems into the Wusong River, leaving only the empty shells to be handed over to the British army."

The 88th Division was one of the three reorganized divisions, equipped with Type 24 rifles and general-purpose machine guns, and the soldiers were well aware of the strict secrecy requirements.

Zhang Boting, the chief of staff of the 88th Division, personally rushed over with the order from the Military Commission. The eight hundred heroes, reluctant to part with their weapons and filled with resentment towards the British army, carried out the order with tears in their eyes.

The British troops in the concession were dumbfounded. The guns in the hands of the Chinese soldiers were disassembled and dismantled in the blink of an eye amidst a series of "click-click-click" sounds. The parts were then thrown into the Wusong River. The British never expected that the structural design of this gun could be disassembled so quickly.

Qiu Yu'an said, "The Military Commission has issued a notice that in times of crisis, this method should be used as a last resort. We must never allow the enemy to obtain complete firearms or major components, so as to prevent them from being copied."

He added, "However, I worry that if they salvage it before it completely rusts away, they can still obtain the actual object. And since the great powers are all in cahoots, I'm afraid it will eventually end up in the hands of the island nation."

Gui Shuaizhen said, "I just learned this too. The Military Commission and the Ordnance Department have a very clever way of dealing with this. The Ordnance Department collected scrapped gun parts of various models overnight, and specially processed some parts of the Type 24 rifle. They loaded them into two boats with bamboo baskets and dumped them into the Wusong River at the same location. Our country's firearms are known as 'a hodgepodge,' which is complicated and messy. Even if they can secretly retrieve them later, it will be extremely difficult to identify them."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Yu'an couldn't help but laugh and said, "Ah, passing off inferior goods as superior ones, this method is brilliant. The National Government has some geniuses."

In fact, Song Hongfei already knew about this matter. However, when Yu Dawei, the director of the Ordnance Department, told him, his deepest feelings were something Yu Dawei could not know. He knew that the 800 isolated soldiers in history had been disarmed in the foreign concessions, but he could never have imagined that, in the interweaving of time and space, there would be such a connection between him and the situation.

For a moment, even he himself could hardly describe his state of mind, and could only keep sighing to himself, "Truly, the world is mysterious and unpredictable."

Song Hongfei said calmly to the two of them, "Even if they manage to pull it out, it's not a big deal. The Type 24 rifle and machine gun have anti-reverse engineering designs. It won't be easy for others to copy them."

Gui Shuaizhen and Qiu Yu'an were both taken aback, as it was the first time they had heard of this.

This is not an exaggeration or a lie by Song Hongfei.

The Type 24 rifle and machine gun are very simple in appearance and structure, but their advanced performance, reliability and stability are due to extremely complex and precise design.

The design involves internal and external ballistics, structural mechanics, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, barrel materials, hot and cold conditions, bullet matching, etc., all of which require precise quantitative analysis and a large number of calculations. Song Hongfei secretly set several traps to prevent copying during the design process.

This core secret was known only to Song Hongfei and Yu Dawei, the director of the Ordnance Department.

Without detailed information and a true understanding of the design principles, those who attempt to reverse engineer and replicate the design will only go astray.

Taking just one design example, the Type 24's rotating bolt uses a "pre-extraction + starting plane + double inclined/spiral surface drive" method. The locking support surface is a 2.6-degree spiral surface that is difficult to detect with the naked eye, which completely solves the "wedge tightness" problem of automatic weapons. Its unparalleled reliability and stability are precisely due to this superb design.

The ingenious design principle was not fully understood and adopted until the Soviet Union's VSS sniper rifle.

While Song Hongfei was designing a new rifle at West Point, the U.S. military was also developing the M1 Garand rifle at the same time, and the two sides had exchanges and cooperation.

The U.S. military referenced many of Song Hongfei's designs, and the M1 rifle underwent many iterations, improvements, and redesigns. However, the U.S. military never fully grasped the principle. Similarly, the rotating locking M1's spiral groove lacked an activation plane, and the "wedge-tightening" problem could never be solved. Therefore, they could only rely on brute force to achieve miracles, resulting in the bulky and heavy M1 with a complex structure and excessive weight.

In terms of production process, the ordnance experts of the Ordnance Bureau carefully added another layer of protection: the production process of the core bolt component must be carried out with special lathe tools.

In the days before computers were used for 3D simulation and computer-aided design, Song Hongfei was not worried about his work being leaked.

Of course, Song Hongfei only mentioned these secrets lightly and wouldn't tell Gui Shuaizhen and Qiu Yu'an.

The three of them turned their attention back to the battle map.

桂率真道：“我们的任务是在屈家桥-施家衖、张滨渡左至八字桥一线，接替67师及58师一部的阵地防御。67师和58师已经同日军第9、101师团血战了3天3夜，面对重炮和飞机的狂轰滥炸，伤亡惨重，得撤下来了。”

Qiu Yu'an sighed helplessly, "The Japanese army has more and more planes and heavy artillery, but our planes have long been exhausted, and every cannon we fire is one less we have."

Gui Shuaizhen also sighed, "This is the key issue we must pay attention to in this battle: how to defend against air and artillery fire! Hongfei, you fought against the Japanese army in the Shanghai-Nanjing battlefield. Tell me your views on the Japanese army's tactics and methods."

Song Hongfei said, "In fact, it's quite simple: they rest at night and attack during the day. They are bombed by planes from afar and bombarded by heavy artillery nearby, and then tanks cover their charge. The artillery bombards, the infantry charges, and after the artillery bombards, the infantry charges. If they can't break through, the infantry retreats, the artillery bombards again, and after the artillery bombards again, the infantry charges again, and so on and so forth."

Gui Shuaizhen and Qiu Yu'an were almost left speechless by Song Hongfei's rhyme.

Song Hongfei continued, "The Japanese army relied on its overwhelming heavy equipment and firepower. They also had a tactical characteristic: if they still couldn't break through, they would launch a flanking attack, charge in, and not be afraid of hand-to-hand combat. With just this bombardment, charge, and flanking maneuver, they could make the defending troops, who were poorly equipped and had weak fighting spirit, unable to resist."

Gui Shuaizhen and Qiu Yu'an thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed the case, both showing signs of understanding.

Song Hongfei said, "For air defense and artillery defense, we have no other choice but to adopt flexible and mobile defense, tiered deployment, more troops stationed and fewer troops stationed, and greater depth."

"The Japanese army has deployed 305mm 'Special 24mm Howitzer' heavy artillery, as well as a large number of 150mm heavy artillery pieces, which are extremely powerful. We must increase the depth of our defense. The original flexible defense warning zone, combat zone, and rear zone must all be expanded. In addition, we should add another forward position, the main purpose of which is to disrupt the enemy's offensive deployment, force the enemy to deploy their formation in advance, and hinder the enemy's fire reconnaissance."

"The Japanese army is also very keen on flanking maneuvers, so we must strengthen the defense of the flanks, build flank positions and fortifications, deploy more troops in the flanks than in the outposts, and reserve enough reserves."

Gui Shuaizhen said, "Even the most well-equipped and well-trained training regiment in the National Revolutionary Army still has a huge gap in overall strength compared with the elite Japanese divisions, especially in artillery firepower, where the difference is enormous."

He then ordered, "Chief of Staff Qiu, use this as the operational guideline for the defensive deployment and distribute it to all regiments and directly subordinate battalions."

Qiu Yu'an: "Yes!"

Song Hongfei stared at the battle map for a long time, seemingly hesitant, before saying, "The Japanese army highly values ​​flanking maneuvers, both tactically and strategically. Their follow-up troops are still heading to Shanghai. Our army must be wary of them launching a large-scale strategic flanking maneuver to penetrate our flank and rear."

Gui Shuaizhen thought for a moment and said, "You mean the newly formed 10th Army of the Japanese army and the divisions that were reinforced from the North China Area Army?"

Qiu Yu'an seemed to remember something and exclaimed in surprise, "It seems you made this strategic idea on the cruise ship returning from Germany in August? The staff later organized a simulation exercise, but it didn't receive enough attention at the time."

Song Hongfei nodded.

Gui Shuaizhen pondered for a moment and said, "The Military Commission has received this intelligence: the Japanese 10th Army, consisting of three divisions and one brigade, is scheduled to land in Hangzhou Bay. The 16th Division, which is reinforcing from North China, and other reserve and supplementary troops are also on their way to Shanghai. However, our intelligence department has not been able to ascertain their specific landing locations."

Qiu Yu'an frowned, his expression grave.

Gui Shuaizhen sighed again, "Everywhere is a crisis, and we need to put out fires everywhere. Our forces are already stretched thin, and the Military Commission can only rob Peter to pay Paul. As you know, we are already the last reserve force of the Central Army."

Commander Gui was telling the truth. The Military Commission had no more troops to send. 60% of the main force of the Central Army had been deployed to Shanghai and Songhu, 30% to North China, and the remaining 10% was to defend key locations along the Yangtze River, in the southeast, and inland. The last elite training corps had all been deployed.

Song Hongfei could only sigh helplessly.