Canteen System Assistance Notes

The commander of the 36th Division, Yasuyuki Mamoto, opened his mouth in disbelief. He could not understand at all that the cold and emotionless order on the phone came from the usually kind and easy-going General Iimura Mamoru.

As the successor to Inoue Kin's divisional commander, Mamoto Yasuyuki had previously served as commander of a reserve division in Utsunomiya, Japan, and lacked the experience of the Shanxi campaign that Inoue Kin had. In fact, he had only been in office for less than a month. So, while his basic command skills were solid, he had absolutely no experience dealing with communist forces.

"Commander! Forgive me for being blunt! My engineers have already laid explosives, which can destroy the bridge if activated! But if we detonate the explosives at this time,

If we blow up the bridge, the morale of our troops on the south bank will suffer a devastating blow!

"Our 124th Regiment is desperately trying to stop the Communist advance in Mixian and Sishui. Two battalions have already been killed, and the soldiers of the 222nd Regiment are also fighting on the front lines. Blowing up the bridges like this doesn't show a disregard for their courage and blood... Even if the Communists crossed the Yellow River, it wouldn't be easy for them to defeat the two regiments of the Yi Corps (106th Division)!"

"So, please allow me to at least delay it until two days... No, at least until tomorrow!"

No sound came from the other end of the line. Amidst the gentle roar of artillery fire in the distance, the silence was deafening. Finally, amidst this unsettling atmosphere, Lieutenant General Iimura Jo's voice rang out again. "Jiong Ben-kun, I understand your concerns. As an imperial general, it is your duty to care for your soldiers. You dared to call me directly to make this request—very good, you did the right thing."

His voice seemed to have regained its previous kindness and peace, which made Gu Benbaozhi feel relieved.

Although the current war situation is critical and the Communist advance is imminent, some time can still be squeezed out. Lieutenant General Iimura's tone was subtle over the phone. "Come to think of it, we were classmates at the Army Academy—and I believe that, Jyomoto-kun, you will persevere in serving His Majesty and fighting for the Empire to the end, no matter the circumstances."

"Hey! I am willing to dedicate my life to the Emperor, even if it means three lifetimes of service to my country, and even if it means a thousand deaths!"

Click, the call was hung up.

It sounded like the headquarters agreed to his suggestion to postpone the bridge blasting until tomorrow... When Ben Baozhi put down the phone, he found that his back was soaked with cold sweat.

"Pass the order down. Tell the 222nd Regiment not to support the 224th Regiment. Whatever forces they have left, gather them all and move towards Zhengxian tonight. Don't hesitate." He summoned his staff and issued orders urgently. "Retreating troops must remember to burn supplies and destroy roads. Also, tell the 223rd Regiment and the rest of the division headquarters' attached units to abandon all unnecessary baggage and accelerate the retreat!"

"Adjust the plan immediately, quickly!"

"Hey!" The chief of staff immediately stood at attention and bowed, but after a moment, he raised his head and asked tentatively, "Sir, what about the remaining soldiers of the 224th Regiment?"

Gu Ben Baozhi paused for a moment, then sighed, "This is war... There's nothing we can do. Let's ask each unit to do their best to contain the enemy..."

"Do not!"

His voice suddenly became firm again: "Let the troops that can't move forward disperse on the spot and cooperate with friendly forces to launch guerrilla warfare against the communist army! Tell them that anyone who sacrifices his life for the empire has fought for loyalty and righteousness until death, and will become a military god!"

"In addition, troops that have successfully moved but are unable to cross the river should head east to Yanzhuang and ford the Yellow River (also known as the Yellow River floodplain). After crossing the river, each unit will assemble in Kaifeng and await further instructions!"

"Hey, then, I'll have the General Staff revise the plan..."

"Sir! New message!"

Before the division chief of staff could finish his words, a signalman from the telecommunications department trotted into the headquarters, panting heavily for breath as he clutched a newly translated telegram. "Joint order from the Seventh Army Commander and the North China Army Command! This telegram demands that we blow up the bridge immediately without delay!"

There was a hint of panic in his voice, and a strange sacredness:

"The end of the article says:

This is a great destiny!!!

Chapter 783: North China Surge (3) Ridiculous Fate

What is "great destiny"? Simply put, it is "order from above", an order from above.

In the context of World War II Japan, this sentence also means "the order of His Majesty the Emperor", expressing the meaning of "this order is supreme and cannot be disobeyed."

However, this does not mean that this order truly came from the Emperor Spectacles, who was hiding in the Imperial Palace. As early as the Battle of Toba and Fushimi, after Iwakura Tomomi privately crafted a brocade imperial banner, this so-called "Great Order" did not represent the will of the supreme ruler at all, but rather a flexible tool that could be easily replaced to rule and deceive the people and the lower-level soldiers.

During World War II, this so-called "great order," even if issued only by a certain commander-in-chief, his agent, or even a lone staff officer, could represent the layers of pressure and coercion of the entire militarist state apparatus, sending people to meaningless deaths.

-------one

1943年2月27日下午5点27分，郑县黄河铁桥。

During the interval of the Eighth Route Army's air raids, the expressionless commander of the 36th Division, Zhou Benbaozhi, "obeyed the imperial order" to detonate the explosives buried on the Zhengxian Iron Bridge.

Several sections of the bridge deck were blown up.

Accompanied by a dull thud and the loud noise of bricks and cement falling into the Yellow River, the Japanese soldiers on the north bank bowed, patted their buttocks and left; while the Japanese soldiers on the south bank opened their mouths wide and became wooden men with dislocated jaws.

Although the passage across the Yellow River was not completely cut off with the breaking of the iron bridge, this incident still destroyed the "bridge" in the hearts of many people and completely declared the military death of one and a third regiments of the 36th Division who had not yet evacuated.

In return, the Eighth Route Army was temporarily unable to use the Zhengxian Iron Bridge and the Pinghan Line to transport supplies across the Yellow River. However, how long would this "temporary" period last?

Aerial reconnaissance reports that the Japanese have blasted the Zhengxian Iron Bridge. While the bridge piers remain intact, the 11th and 12th spans have collapsed, and the 13th span is tilting. The majority of Japanese forces south of the Yellow River are converging and moving eastward. They are observed heading toward the Yanzhuang area, fording the flooded area, consistent with radio direction finding and monitoring. A small number of Japanese troops, artillery, and supplies are continuing to use motorboats and human-powered boats to ferry across the river.

Upon learning that the 36th Division had cut off its own arm and blown up the bridge prematurely, Liu Mingzhao, who was in charge of coordinating the battle, and Yang Jisheng, who was in charge of the southern front, only sighed for a second before continuing to advance the battle without stopping. Similar to the Japanese army, the Eighth Route Army had made numerous contingency plans for the numerous unexpected events that might occur during the battle and prepared accordingly.

"We've already contacted the comrades from the Zheng County Working Committee. The Yellow River flood zone from Yanzhuang to Zhongmu is actually about 15 kilometers wide, with the water at its deepest point being around waist-deep. There are no permanent residents in the area, and our troops aren't there either!" "Okay! We're already coordinating with the Air Force and the Infrastructure Corps!"

As intelligence from the front lines trickled in, the Eighth Route Army's frontline responded quickly to the emergency: if the bridge deck was damaged, let the construction troops repair it;

If the Japanese want to go through the Yellow River flood area, then let the air force bomb them!

If you want to cross the Yellow River from Zhengxian to the north, in addition to using iron bridges and ferry boats, you can actually build a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River like the Eighth Route Army did.

However, considering that the "Independent Pontoon Bridge Regiment (E)", the only Japanese engineering unit with pontoon bridge capabilities in North China, was dismantled and reorganized when General Okamura Yasuji formed the Armored Brigade, and a large amount of equipment and personnel were consumed in the process of the battle in central Hebei, the Japanese army now only has manpower to cross the Yellow River flood area, assemble in Zhongmu at the other end of the Yellow River flood area, and head north along the Xinxiang-Kaifeng Railway.

But regardless of the fact that the Eighth Route Army Mobile Corps has already occupied Yuanyang and has actually cut off the newly opened railway, and can attack Kaifeng, which is only guarded by the puppet troops of Zhang Lanfeng and Sun Liangcheng, at any time, and wait for the Japanese army at the other end of the Yellow River flood area, it is an extremely troublesome task to expect thousands of people to successfully wade through the waist-deep water and more than ten kilometers wide Yellow River flood area.

Even if the Japanese army could make complete preparations to ensure that no one was left behind or that the troops were dispersed during the crossing, the speed of the troops' advance would obviously be greatly slowed down - and such a slow, concentrated, and lined-up cluster of soft targets is simply a natural target for air attack units.

Therefore, when the sun rose from the horizon on the 28th, the Japanese army, which had already turned towards Yanzhuang and began to wade across the Yellow River flood area, indeed waited for a group of fighter planes to appear from the sky.

F41-1s and TK-3s launched from Yuncheng and Luoyi, forming independent hunting groups. After easily dislodging the Japanese fighters launched from Nanjing, they launched a deadly dive into the Japanese marching column. The F4U-1s unleashed 82mm rockets from their outer wing sections until their pods were empty. The fully loaded TK-3s sequentially dropped over a ton of 10kg bombs from the centerline and wing hardpoints, then formed a deadly circular attack formation with the Corsairs, repeatedly strafing the enemy with 23mm cannon and 12.7mm machine guns until their ammunition was exhausted, and then reluctantly returned.

However, the Japanese troops who were struggling to march in the Yellow River flood area not only lacked effective anti-aircraft firepower, but also did not even have the capital to disperse and evade.

During the Liberation War of the original time and space, Liu Bei and Deng Xiaoping's army, advancing across the Yellow River floodplain and into the Dabie Mountains, had to abandon nearly all of their heavy artillery equipment to fulfill the central government's strategic deployment, and paid a considerable price to break through this ultimately rotten land "forged" by Chiang Kai-shek. Meanwhile, the Japanese army, not only lacking the same unwavering willpower and willingness to face death with equanimity as our soldiers, was also in dire straits. Their morale and physical fitness were in a state of disastrous decline, and the entire force was not fully prepared for the crossing. Throughout the entire day of the 28th, several Japanese battalions, struggling under continuous airstrikes, not only abandoned all their heavy weapons and over half of their light weapons, but also suffered thousands of casualties, and failed to even make it past the 15-kilometer Yellow River floodplain.

Meanwhile, the Eighth Route Army Field Army mobile forces, which had already waited for the arrival of follow-up troops, had already set out from Yuanyang and headed south along the railway, putting a knife to the necks of the puppet troops in Kaifeng and cutting off the road from Zhongmu, the terminal point of the Japanese crossing, to Kaifeng!

While the fate of the 36th Division was virtually certain, the infrastructure engineering troops, who had distinguished themselves in the construction of border areas and in many battles, also appeared on the battlefield.

They brought prefabricated rails and sleepers from Guanzhong by rail, prepared bagged stones and road blocks for bridge reinforcement in Shanxi Province, and prepared a large number of standard Bailey beams at Fenglingdu and Luoyi. After General Xu Hengzhi, advancing along Dengfeng and Mixian, captured Xinzheng and severed the southern section of the Pinghan Railway, numerous 25- and 5-ton satin Yellow River barges, as well as steam trains loaded with supplies and personnel, were ready for departure at the ferry crossings and train yards.

The surveyors, who had already mastered the structural data of the Zhengxian Railway Bridge, put on their bulletproof vests and waited to go to the site for on-site surveys. The engineers who were good at riveting and screwing and their British Communist masters carried out the final inspection of various prefabricated components on the train and ferry; and the infrastructure engineers who already had rich construction experience were also ready to repair the bridge in the war.

"As long as the bridge piers are okay, it's fine! Or rather, as long as the bridge piers are not completely destroyed, it's fine!"

Xiao Wuyi, commander of the Infrastructure Engineering Corps, patted his chest at the front committee meeting. "We'll rebuild two spans of the bridge deck and renovate one span. We have enough materials and manpower to completely renovate the entire Zhengxian Iron Bridge deck and reinforce the at-risk piers!"

"No jokes in the military. After we capture Zheng County, the construction troops will deliver a complete Zheng County Iron Bridge in just three days!"

Chapter 784: North China Surge (4) Destruction First

"Turn! Turn! Quickly! Disperse! Don't worry about the baggage, don't worry about the wounded, don't worry about the losses! The target is Jiaozuo, Jiaozuo! As long as we get there,

We still have…”

"Our troops have already occupied Yuanyang and Xinxiang in front of us! The road to turn around is impassable. The soldiers fought bravely and advanced bravely. The Communists feared the enemy like a tiger.

They only dared to respond with gunfire, but there were too many guns and cannons, and although the soldiers died for their country, they still

The road is still blocked... Requesting tactical guidance!"

"We have 100,000 men. Shouldn't you, the Eighth Route Army, come and negotiate more often? What? You Communists have no moral principles!"

This is the sound that drifted over the area around Zheng County in late February and early March 1943. As the battle progressed, these sounds may have dissipated into the air.

Or rushing helplessly in the wired telephone, or crossing the radio frequency band

Baili, in the end, only left a small memory on the Eighth Route Army's tape.

After all, the Japanese and puppet troops in northern and central Henan were defeated.

The 106th Division, trapped in the Jiyuan-Jiaozuo-Xinxiang area, had about six battalions destroyed at a speed rarely seen in the Japanese army. After Yang Jisheng's field army crossed the river from Wenxian, the Eighth Route Army field forces attacking from Chenguan and Jincheng launched a general offensive.

Under a barrage of 107mm rockets, 75mm mountain guns, and large and small caliber mortars, the vacillating 106th Division's defenses shattered instantly, leaving several critical gaps in our defenses. The troop's organizational structure collapsed in the encirclement of the flanks. The brigade's radio station could not be set up, its field communications network was destroyed, and its running messengers were intercepted and killed. Thousands of Japanese troops were left to desperately flee along the highway, hoping to escape to Jiaozuo before the encirclement closed, hoping for a chance of survival.

But waiting for them were the soldiers of the Central Plains Field Army who had completed training in Guanzhong.

Under more violent artillery fire and denser rain of bullets, this group of Kumamoto who were crippled by the National Army in the Battle of Wanjialing and then sent to North China for recuperation and recuperation finally did not wait until 1940 to retire peacefully as in their original time and space.

After three years of floating in the hellish battlefield of North China, they were finally destroyed after being squeezed dry. With the loss of six battalions, the 106th Division, which originally had four infantry regiments but was reduced to three division units due to restructuring, had almost lost its offensive capability. It could only retreat while covering its wounds, shrinking northward from Xinxiang, intending to rebuild its defense line with the support of the 50th Division (formerly the 1st Independent Mixed Division) in the rear.

However, compared to the 36th Division, the 106th Division had good luck - although both of them had to cut off their limbs to survive, the 106th Division, code-named Yi, was able to retain its divisional headquarters and a remaining regiment to complete the transition, while the Snow Corps (36th Division), which followed the "great order" to cut off its own retreat in an attempt to escape, was "destroyed" in many senses.

At the beginning of the battle, the 224th Regiment of the 36th Division suffered heavy losses under the fierce attack of the Mobile Corps. The carefully prepared fortifications and positions intended to consume the Eighth Route Army's offensive were reduced to dust under the firepower of "Hail" rockets. Later, part of the 222nd Regiment and the remnants of the 224th Regiment, which came to reinforce, received the news that the Yellow River Iron Bridge had been blown up during their retreat. They had to turn to the Yellow River flood area and try to escape by wading across the Yellow River.

In the end, they lost all their heavy weapons in the continuous air strikes, even most of their rifles. Finally, after finally crossing the floodplain that was up to their waists and sinking into a quicksand pit that had half of their legs covered, this remnant, with heavy non-combat casualties and almost no combat effectiveness, was completely wiped out by the bullets and artillery shells of our army's flanking forces.

According to feedback from frontline commanders and fighters, many Japanese soldiers, after discovering that our troops were waiting in front of them, simply dropped their rifles and lay on the ground, crying and waiting to die. They did not have the cruelty and ferocity of the invading troops of other countries at all.

As for the 223rd Regiment, defending Luohe and Xuchang, they retreated in a hurry, barely reaching the edge of Zhengxian County before being cut off by the Mobile Corps, leaving them trapped and unable to escape. Interestingly, during the destruction of this unit, many Japanese soldiers, upon learning that the bridge ahead had been blown up by the Japanese, became disoriented. Some launched pointless suicide charges, while others sat there, seemingly lost in thought, completely unable to fight. The Eighth Route Army was forced to launch an early attack, shooting out nearby machine gunners and officers to "rescue" these Japanese soldiers.

The 36th Division headquarters, along with its small number of direct guard troops and search regiment, abandoned whatever dignity, pride, and conscience they had previously held, ultimately failed to escape. As they packed up their belongings and crossed our lines from south to north, heading toward the Japanese-occupied area of ​​Xinxiang, our aerial reconnaissance and ground surveillance forces simultaneously discovered this sizable Japanese force. Then, through combined air and ground firepower, the last remnants of the 36th Division were completely wiped out.

The only regret is that, perhaps because of the advance preparation, the commander of the 36th Division, Yasuyuki Kusanagi, completed the "seppuku" before our army approached, and the flag guard squadrons of each regiment that had been assembled long ago concentrated their firepower and burned the military flag and flagpole together, leaving the Eighth Route Army with nothing to capture.

As the opening battle of the North China Campaign, the Eighth Route Army, having achieved the feat of one and a half divisions, could be considered to have made a "good start." However, as if to add a little icing on the cake to the Eighth Route Army's achievements, the last "heavy force" of the Japanese and puppet troops in the area around Zhengxian County still made a small move.

They were the Wang Puppet Army led by Zhang Lanfeng and Sun Liangcheng in Kaifeng.

Kaifeng, a key city at the intersection of the Longhai Line and the Xinkai Line, has always been under the tight control of the Japanese and puppet troops. However, because the Japanese army could not spare many troops, the defense of this place was borne by the so-called "Peace and National Construction Army" and the "Kaifeng Pacification Office" of the Wang Puppet Regime. Therefore, before the battle began, these two most powerful traitors acted like mountain kings, winning over and sheltering various bandits, landlords and merchant gangs that had been repeatedly attacked and destroyed by the New Fourth Army, thus expanding their "troop" strength.

After the North China Campaign began, they even shouted the slogan "Three hundred thousand strong soldiers, occupying the city of Kaifeng like a tiger."

However, after the Eighth Route Army had dealt with the Japanese, slowly moved their troops in, and methodically surrounded Kaifeng City on three sides, the two traitors Zhang and Sun never slept well again.

Director Sun, the one who clashed with the Communist bandits and the Eighth Route Army today was the one who brought the weapons with him! Damn, no wonder they dared to start a fire at this critical moment. Damn this lady... Bah! The Japanese really have no sense!

"Are there any wounded Eighth Route Army soldiers? Are there any dead?" After listening to the statement of Zhang Gangfeng, the puppet army commander, Sun Liangcheng, the director of the Wang Puppet Kaifeng Pacification Office, asked anxiously, "Zhao Yunxiang, why didn't Commander Zhao stop them?" "Alas, when do the Japanese tell us in advance when they do something?"

They said they hit about a hundred Eighth Route Army soldiers, but I asked my people, and they actually hit no more than one or two. The Eighth Route Army dragged the people back afterward, but the hundred or so Imperial Guards were killed by the Eighth Route Army's artillery. Oh my god, the Communist artillery hit a large area, and the people were shattered into pieces. It was a tragic death...

"Hey! Commander Zhang, Brother Zhang!

"I didn't ask you how many of the Imperial Guards died. Are the one or two Eighth Route Army soldiers who were hit okay?"

Sun Liangcheng slapped his head, jumped up from his chair, and asked anxiously: "The top leaders of the party and the country and the representatives of the Eighth Route Army have just left. If someone dies right after that, won't we be... cutting off our own escape route!" he lamented.

Chapter 785: North China Surge (5) Different Paths to the Same End

The army of 300,000 strong was entrenched in the city of Kaifeng.

This is indeed a slogan that seems to be very encouraging, but regardless of the fact that "Tiger Ju XX" always has a strange flag, the so-called "300,000" troops alone are sufficiently exaggerated.

By recruiting and incorporating numerous militias, bandits, and security guards, the Wang Puppet Army under Zhang Lanfeng and Sun Liangcheng did indeed amass a large force. However, this group comprised a diverse group, ranging from forced bandits to habitual criminals, from landlord servants to the Wang Puppet regime's security forces, and from "battlefield cheerleaders" with no military skills to remnants of surrendered Nationalist troops who had received some training and were capable of fighting.

Its command factions were even more diverse and difficult to unify. Zhang Lanfeng and Sun Liangcheng, commanders of the Wang Puppet Army and director of the Wang Puppet Pacification Office, were elected as "bosses" and made others listen to them, simply because their troops were the strongest and their political status was the highest.

So how many people are there in this group of guys? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I'm afraid only God knows.

Moreover, even if there are tens of thousands of troops from all walks of life, under good conditions, when they can rob and fight favorable battles, this group of abstract aggregates can indeed play a role. However, when facing the Eighth Route Army, a regular army with strict discipline, strict compliance with orders, and armed to the teeth, their role is probably similar to using Band-Aids to repair bridges, using instant noodles to repair tanks, and using cardboard to make Gundams - apart from pretending to be useful, they have no other role.

Thus, in the short space of a day or two since the siege, the atmosphere within Kaifeng had been like a roller coaster, tumbling back and forth several times. Looking out, the puppet troops and bandits within the sealed city had gone from initially "highly motivated" to "fearful as rats," and finally, uniformly, sank into the realm of "abstraction."

In the past few days, the various situations in the city have really made people sigh.

Let's take what Zhang Lanfeng and Sun Liangcheng know:

The smarter ones would block the gates of their courtyards with their servants and personal soldiers, store food and water, and stay indoors, acting as "housewives" in order to maintain a safe zone and protect their women and property.

The dumber ones, instigated by some die-hards and the Japanese, gathered "tens of thousands of troops out of the city to fight a vanguard battle with the Eighth Route Army" in order to "crush the red-headed people's arrogance. Even if they wanted to surrender later, this would help improve the brothers' status." But the results were basically the same - either they were mowed down by the Eighth Route Army's machine guns, or they were blown to death by the Eighth Route Army's artillery.

Then, after these terrified men fled back to the city, rumors began to spread throughout Kaifeng, such as "Black clouds appear in the sky, the Eighth Route Army is bringing death," "The Communists are invulnerable, they are hanged ghosts resurrected, summoned from the underworld," and "The Red-Headed Skeletons can't fight long. If only the gods could open their eyes, a divine dragon would descend on March 1st (on the lunar calendar) to drain the Red-Headed Skeletons' divine power." The more superstitious began to arrest Taoist priests, monks, and witches in the city, setting up altars and performing rituals, setting up a massive Yin Gate formation, aiming to break the Red-Headed Skeletons' protective skills and thunder magic. This caused a lot of money to jump from one person's pocket to another, and even the city's dogs, toilets, and women suffered.

As for those who had more extensive routes and considered themselves clever, they hid their weapons, donned ragged clothes, and, dragging their base, pretended to be refugees, slipping away at night toward the Communists' undefended east, hoping to "make a comeback" in Shangqiu and Heze. Of course, according to Sun and Zhang, their fate was unlikely to be good—the capable Eighth Route Army surrounded the city on three sides, leaving one side unencircled. This was clearly a "surround three, leave one" formation, waiting to annihilate the cowardly group in the wild. They threatened their less stable subordinates, saying, "When the time comes, the Eighth Route Army will knock you out of the city and bury you in the fields."

They were sure to lose the fight anyway. Sun Liangcheng and Zhang Lanfeng had seen how the first group of guys who wanted to "gamble chips and increase their value" "evaporated" on the battlefield. Moreover, it now seemed that the Eighth Route Army did not want to spend any more time or spend much cost on them when they could avoid fighting. Therefore, they also invited representatives of the party and the country to discuss the terms of "surrender" with these two representatives outside the city of Kaifeng.

The Eighth Route Army's terms were rather harsh, and the two found it difficult to accept. However, it was still negotiable. However, if a firefight broke out right after the Communists left, not only would their side injure Eighth Route Army soldiers, but they would also suffer a crushing defeat, which would be very detrimental to their subsequent "asking price"...

"Director Zhang! Don't panic!

"I sent people to check. On the battlefield, all I saw was the blood and bodies of the Japanese devils and the 'Imperial Guards'. I didn't see the blood of the Eighth Route Army."

Zhang Lanfeng struggled to recall. As a commander, he didn't even know the exact number of his subordinates, let alone something like this requiring a thorough investigation. However, his will to survive compelled him to ponder the remaining information. As if to convince himself, he repeated, "Director Sun, don't panic. The Communist Party truly possesses magical powers. Ordinary bullets can't hurt them..."

"If no one died, then it's fine, it's fine."

Sun Liangcheng sank back into his chair, like a boneless pile of soft flesh. After a long moment of determination, he continued, "Tonight, Commander Zhang, let's work together to arrest all the Japanese from the Kaifeng branch of the Xingyayuan. In a few days, I'll have Chen Jingzhai deliver them to the Eighth Route Army commander to apologize."

"This way, it will be easier for both sides to talk."

Compared to Zhang Lanfeng, who held a commanding position and a larger base, Sun Liangcheng, the pacification director, had a force comprised mostly of bandits. Therefore, if they wanted to "fight" the Japanese, it would be best to bring along Zhang Lanfeng, who had his own personal guards. "Um, Director Sun..."

Zhang Lanfeng scratched his head and spread his hands. "This Kaifeng branch office... has been taken over... A group of black-legged gangsters, Old Tang, teamed up with the Wuji Society to take down those Japanese and..." He continued with difficulty, "and... the Imperial Army, and chopped off the head of the branch office and sent it to the Eighth Route Army as a 'pledge of allegiance'..."

"This...this...go to the ball!"

Sun Liangcheng, having cursed, was completely out of tricks. Zhang Lanfeng, who had tried to calm him down, was also out of ideas and had no other means of making amends. Unable to defeat the enemy and daring not to cheat, the two of them were now truly bald with anxiety. "Director Sun, how about we go talk to that Sichuanese, Li Jiayu, and General Li? And maybe bring some gifts? He's still a high-ranking official in the Party and the country, and he won't be as stubborn as the Communists."