Chapter 46: Bloody Battle at Liu Jipao 5

  Major Miyano was raging somewhere, and the deputy officer next to him ordered the Japanese soldiers to start collecting the bodies of the devils in the trenches. When two devil soldiers moved a devil's body, the booby trap set by the warriors under this devil was triggered, "Boom" Two devil soldiers were blown up beyond recognition.

  The remaining Japanese soldiers didn't dare to move the bodies anymore, and the helpless Japanese officer had no choice but to stop the transportation of the bodies. After venting his anger, Lieutenant Colonel Miyano seemed to have aged overnight, with a dull look in his eyes. His deputy asked: "Lieutenant Colonel, now that the Chinese troops have retreated to the back slope of Liuji Village, should we pursue them?"

  The officer didn't respond. At this time, the sky transmitted the whistling sound of shells breaking through the air, and the devil officer looked up with his mouth open wide enough to stuff an egg in it. He shouted loudly: "Enemy raid! Quick, take cover!" After finishing speaking, he pounced towards Lieutenant Colonel Miyano. "Boom boom" several rounds of artillery fire, the devils standing at the edge of the trench were blown to death and injured in large numbers!

  The deputy officer knocked down Miyano and saved his life, but he himself was hit by an incoming shell and blown to death, with almost the entire lower body blown off.

  After the cannon fire stopped, the devils retreated one after another. Lieutenant Colonel Miyano saw his deputy lying on top of him and shed a tear at the corner of his eye. The guards pulled him out from under the dead devil officer and retreated while protecting him.

  "What did you say?! The Imperial Army's General Miyano still can't take down the Zhina people's stronghold?! That idiot Miyano! Wasting so many of the Empire's artillery shells and can't even take down a small hill like Ryūji Slope. Where is he? I'll shoot him dead!" Lieutenant General Setani was furious.

  "Report to the General! Miyano has already committed seppuku ten minutes ago! And he left two sentences for the General with his last breath." a Japanese sergeant said.

  "Oh? What's going on? Tell me!" Hasegawa heard and Miyano's anger in his heart slightly subsided.

  "Mr. Miyano asked me to inform the General that the Chinese forces at Liujiazhuang are absolutely not just one battalion, they have anti-tank guns and no less than a company of artillery, their regular army strength should be around 3,000 people, totaling an entire brigade! Moreover, the commander of this group of Chinese is extraordinary, I hope the General will not underestimate them. Your humble servant is incompetent, causing the Great Japanese Imperial Army to lose face, I should disembowel myself to apologize to His Majesty the Emperor. Long live His Majesty the Emperor! Long live the Great Japanese Empire!"

  Hikawa Kei, enraged after listening to the sergeant's account, shouted: "Baka! When did those Chinese again send reinforcements to Ryūjibō?! Are our intelligence personnel all idiots?! Immediately recall the 10th Infantry Regiment (minus one battalion!) and the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment! I will personally capture Ryūjibō, capture Tōgun Prefecture!"

  Zhang Mingyu's command post.

  Lai San and Liu Zhihui, Liu Tianjie, Zhang Haisheng and others were all celebrating the repulsion of another Japanese attack. Only Zhang Mingyu stood there with a frown on his face. Zhang Mingyu knew that the Miyano Brigade was just the vanguard of the Japanese army's attack. In the original history, it was easy for the devils to attack a regiment or two regiments of the National Army with one brigade. Due to Zhang Mingyu's intervention, the Miyano Brigade did not capture Liujiazhuang, the throat of Tong County, and was almost wiped out. But these were temporary. Familiar with history, Zhang Mingyu knew that the Japanese army had equipped the Segawa Brigade with an artillery force of nearly a division in scale to attack Taierzhuang. Now that the Japanese attack was blocked, the old devil Segawa would definitely mobilize heavy artillery and troops to attack Liujiazhuang. In other words, the 122nd Division's artillery bombardment in Tong County had now been transferred to Zhang Mingyu's independent division at Liujiazhuang.

  To know that the 122nd Division relied on solid city walls to withstand the Japanese artillery attack, the Independent Division is now in the wild, unobstructed, and wants to stop the devils' offensive unless they blow up the devils' heavy artillery units. However, the devils' artillery positions are definitely heavily guarded, and Zhang Mingyu doesn't even know where the devils' artillery units are. How can we go and blow them up?

  "Report to the commander, General Li from the war zone headquarters has sent a telegram." Newly promoted Second Lieutenant Fang Jun said, holding up a telegram.

  "Remember!" Zhang Mingyu said.

  "General Li's telegram, your unit needs to cooperate with the 45th Army's 122nd Division to defend Tong County for five days, in order to win time for our army's Sun Lianzhong's unit to deploy its defense. I have already ordered Tang Enbo's unit to rush to reinforce you, please hold firmly to the outer defensive positions of Tong County, and ensure the safety of Tong County within the next five days."

  Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth War Zone Li Zongren

  March 1938

  After listening, Zhang Mingyu thought: "If we hold out for five days in Tengxian County, if Tang Enbo can really lead the army to reinforce, even holding out for ten days is no problem. However, Zhang Mingyu knew that Tang Enbo, this old fox, had the idea of preserving his strength and deliberately delayed time, lingering and not advancing. If he really wanted to fight hard against the Serigawa detachment with strong firepower from heavy artillery units and tank troops in Tengxian County for five days and nights, even if Zhang Mingyu could hold out, his own independent division and Wang Mingchang's 122nd Division would definitely suffer heavy losses."

  To know that in the face of absolute strength, any tactics are useless. If it were a guerrilla war or mobile warfare, Zhang Mingyu was confident that with his more than 3,000 men, he could slowly wear down the Matsumoto detachment. However, this is a positional warfare, and to defend Toyohashi County, one must withstand the enemy's fierce artillery bombardment and attacks by superior forces.

  At this time, a signal soldier ran in: "Report to the commander, our reconnaissance company captured two escaped soldiers. They said they were from Linyi direction! There is an important intelligence that they said on their way of escape, they found the enemy's convoy in the direction of Shanjia Ba, suspiciously, these convoys are all covered with canvas and look very heavy, it is likely to be the enemy's logistics unit. Captain Ma thought the situation was suspicious, so he asked me to bring them here."

  "Shanjiaba is a must-pass place from Linyi to Tengxian County." Zhang Mingyu thought. Suddenly, he raised his head and said: "Bring those two people over, I want to ask them personally."

  "Yes!" Soon, four scout soldiers brought the two deserters in. Zhang Mingyu asked: "Where are you from? Which unit? Why did you become deserters?"

  Looking at the epaulets on Zhang Mingyu's shoulders, one of the slightly taller soldiers said: "Report to the officer, I am a Shandong man from Heze, he is a Guangdong Maoming man, we are from the 29th Division! Later, the troops were dispersed."

  "You said you found a convoy of Japanese devils, how many vehicles were there? What was loaded in the cars?" Zhang Mingyu asked.

  "Report, sir, the enemy's convoy has over a hundred vehicles. Because they're all covered with canvas, we can't see what's inside. But it must be something very heavy." The short soldier said quickly in Mandarin with a Cantonese accent.

  "Oh! Since you can't see it, how do you know it's something very heavy?" Zhang Mingyu asked.

  "Because it had just rained, the road surface was very wet and soft. After the enemy's convoy passed by, they left very deep tire tracks. So I guess that the enemy's vehicles must be carrying heavy artillery or shells, otherwise they wouldn't be so heavy!" The soldier replied quickly.

  Zhang Mingyu nodded after listening and asked: "What position were you in the 29th Division, what kind of soldier?"

  "Reporting for duty, sir! I am Lieutenant Chen Xiaochun, leader of the reconnaissance platoon!" said the short soldier.

  "Reporting for duty, sir! I'm a platoon leader in the infantry company. My name is Liu Hong." The tall soldier also replied.

  "Alright! From now on, you two are the platoon leaders of my Independent Infantry Reconnaissance Company. Your ranks remain as captains. Are you willing?" Zhang Mingyu asked loudly.

  As soon as Zhang Mingyu wanted to take them in and even promoted them, the two of them happily said: "Report to the superior! We are willing!"

  "Alright! Now go report to Captain Ma Ligun of your reconnaissance company and get some rest, you have a mission later." Zhang Mingyu said with a smile.

  "Yes!" The two saluted and said.

  Brothers, give me more support! Rolling on the ground begging for votes!