Chapter 471

  As a modern soldier, Li Bin would never engage in a meaningless war of attrition with the enemy for a particular location. What he needs is to use Jinzhou as a strategic location to conduct a series of defensive battles, thoroughly intimidating and defeating the arrogant enemy. Perhaps after being defeated, they will be cautious and avoid the full-scale invasion of China six years later, avoiding the Nanjing Massacre and other tragic events.

  The devils, who had been fighting all day, had just fallen asleep when they suddenly heard a loud explosion, followed by several flares bursting into the air, and intense gunfire erupting everywhere.

  "Oh no! The Chinese are coming to attack us!" The devils woke up from their sleep, grabbed their weapons and fired randomly into the darkness.

  The intense gunfire lasted for a long time before gradually dying down.

  After dawn, the devils launched another crazy attack. This time, they didn't even break a sweat and encountered no resistance at all, completely occupying the Gou Bangzi position.

  It wasn't until the devils entered the position that they discovered there was not even a shadow of a Chinese soldier on the position! There were only several "Imperial Army" corpses left in the trenches from yesterday's fierce battle.

  The devils who tried to carry the corpse back immediately suffered a disaster, and the special forces soldiers laid down a trap under the corpse, which exploded violently, killing and wounding dozens of devils on the spot.

  In fact, this result is very good for the devils. If Li Bin didn't have so much explosives in his hands, he would probably blow up the entire Gou Bangzi position!

  Sakaki Seishirō, Tadokoro Jirō, Hirata Yukihiko, Nakamura Karoku and other high-ranking Japanese military officers walked onto the battlefield abandoned by Li Bin, looking at the soldiers who were killed or wounded by the treacherous landmines, looking at the battlefield where not even a shadow of Chinese people could be seen. These high-ranking Japanese military officers couldn't help but curse loudly: "Baka! Crafty Chinas! Despicable!"

  The devils occupied Goubangzi, and the 20th Division of Zhang Haitian and Xiao Bo, who were led by the nose to go for a walk in Yingkou, also returned to the Jinzhou area. The two routes of the devilish army met at Goubangzi.

  However, this is different from history. Originally, the two devils in history met at Goubangzi on the afternoon of the 24th, but now it's already the morning of the 26th, which is nearly 40 hours later than the original plan.

  After the two routes of devils converged, they continued to move south and prepared to arrive at the Daling River defense line. As long as the Daling River defense line was breached, Jinzhou would be within reach. However, it wasn't until this time that these devils discovered that the railway from Goubangzi to Daling River had been completely destroyed. Not only were the rails and sleepers removed, but even the roadbed was dug out with potholes, and some bridges and tunnels were all blown up. It would take at least a week to ten days for this section of railway to be restored to traffic, which was an impossible task.

  The roads were also destroyed, and originally in the icy and snowy weather, it was not easy for cars to drive on the roads. Now the roads have been destroyed, making the Japanese people's attempt to use the highway mobile fantasy also shattered.

  In front of a volunteer army that the Japanese considered to be "a mob", they lost more than 5,000 men and gained an empty position. This made Honjō Shigeru and Sakai Takazumi extremely angry. At this time, Tōyama Kazuo received information: "According to reliable intelligence, the commander of the Chinese garrison is Huang Xiansheng, but he was not in command at the Battle of Goubangzi. The officer in charge was a certain Li Bin, a colonel in the National Revolutionary Army who claimed to have never heard of him."

  Sakai Seizaburō said: "This man will be a great threat to our Imperial Army in the future! Tōyama, you immediately organize all your forces and get me specific information about this person!"

  The railways were completely destroyed, and the Japanese 240mm heavy guns and 150mm heavy guns as well as armored trains were not small things. Without railways, it was difficult for these weapons to reach the front line. Although the heavy artillery could be pulled by mules, the running speed was extremely slow. Of course, the Japanese also had those automobile-pulled pneumatic rubber-tired heavy artillery, which the Japanese called motorized artillery and belonged to independent artillery regiments. However, at this time, these motorized artillery were still in Japan.

  Because Japan is extremely lacking in rubber, an important strategic resource, the general heavy artillery of the Japanese army are horse-drawn cannons, and motorized artillery are very rare.

  The roads and railways were destroyed, and the Japanese first had to repair the roads and railways. However, Li Bin would not let the Japanese who repaired the roads and railways have peace of mind. Under his command, Zhang Haitian, Xiang Qingshan, and Gai Zhonghua led several righteous and brave armies to frequently harass the Japanese army repairing the roads.

  Originally, historically, the Japanese could have reached the outskirts of Jinzhou City and launched a general attack on January 2, 1932. However, now it wasn't until January 6, 1932 that the Japanese barely arrived at the Daling River defense line, without even catching a glimpse of Jinzhou City.

  Due to the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai-shek had already stepped down. At this time, Huang Xiansheng sent a great victory from Jinzhou: "Goubangzi won a battle, my Righteous and Brave Army fought bloody battles, annihilating more than 5,000 Japanese bandits!"

  The news of the great victory spread, and people all over the country burst out in support of the Volunteer Army's determination to resist Japan. Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan both sent congratulatory telegrams to Huang Xiansheng. History quietly underwent a change, after the 918 Incident, Zhang Fakui, dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's non-resistance to Japan, angrily left the country. However, when he heard the news of the Volunteer Army's victory at Goubangzi, he immediately rushed back home and prepared to provide a batch of weapons and ammunition to the Volunteer Army, firmly supporting the resistance against Japan.

  Li Bin, who had retreated to the Daling River defense line, used this time to modify the radio removed from the tank into a receiver. As soon as he turned on the radio and tuned it to Tokyo Radio in Japan, he heard the Japanese lie: "The Imperial Army of Greater Japan is mopping up bandits in the Goubangzi area, fighting with a large group of Chinese bandits, killing and wounding more than 30,000 bandits, and capturing 20,000 bandits. Because the bandits were numerous and powerful, 3,000 imperial warriors sacrificed themselves. In order to support General Honjō Shigeru's mopping-up operation, the military department decided to send an additional 100,000 troops to the Manchurian region."

  "Good! You've come at a good time! Grandfather is here waiting for you little devils to come and meet your deaths!" Li Bin suddenly bellowed.

  He tuned to another station, and a sweet voice came from within: "This is the Central Broadcasting Station of the Kuomintang, General Huang Xiansheng annihilated more than 5,000 Japanese devils in the suburbs of Jinzhou, and a wave of anti-Japanese fervor swept across the country. Many hot-blooded young people rushed to Jinzhou to request joining the Anti-Japanese Righteous and Brave Army..."

  After turning off the radio, Li Bin walked out of his command room and saw that the soldiers at the door were training enthusiastically. Suddenly, he thought of a song, so he gathered the soldiers together: "Brothers, today I'll teach you all to sing a song! The name of the song is 'The Volunteer March' Now everyone listen to me first!"

  Li Bin once again shamelessly passed off the "March of the Volunteers" as his own creation, teaching everyone to sing it. However, this is also not open to criticism, after all, this is a song that makes one's blood boil with enthusiasm.

  Because a large number of young people came to sign up for the Righteous and Brave Army, Li Bin decided to take advantage of the time before the Japanese arrived to return to Jinzhou.

  He and Wang Zihao, Hong Biao, Xiao Bo and others rode back to the Jinzhou Righteous and Brave Army headquarters. Before they reached the entrance of the headquarters, he was startled by a sea of people at the gate. There were many young people standing at the gate, including several girls, shouting: "We want to join the army! We want to fight against the devils!"

  Only to see Huang Xiansheng, wearing a lieutenant general's uniform, standing at the door, waving his hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "Children! Your eagerness to fight against the Japanese devils is understandable! But the Japanese devils are extremely cruel and you have not received any military training. If you go onto the battlefield, you will only be sending yourselves to death! It seems that many of you are still students! You are the future pillars of the motherland, you should complete your studies and make contributions to the country afterwards! Why don't you just go back?"

  However, no one was willing to leave. At this time, someone stood up and said: "General! We are not afraid of death! I am from Jinan, Shandong Province. Three years ago, during the Jinan Incident, my whole family was killed by the Japanese devils, and only I survived! I dream of fighting against the devils every day!" Before he finished speaking, he burst into tears.

  The Jinan Massacre, Li Bin knew that the commander of the 6th Division, Fukuda Hikosuke, ordered the massacre of our army and civilians! In the incident, more than 6,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed! This notorious 6th Division had already owed a blood debt to the Chinese people before the Nanjing Massacre!

  Thinking of this, Li Bin led Hong Biao and the other two to walk forward. The crowd saw the four officers coming over and made way for them.

  Li Bin walked up to Huang Xiansheng and said, "General, how about this? The Japanese won't be able to get to the Daling River for a while. I'll select some people from among these young men who are suitable for military service. If we don't do that, we'll be dampening their patriotic enthusiasm!"

  "Alright, let's do it!" Huang Xiansheng nodded, "However, I'll take care of the recruitment matters. You already have a lot on your plate, Li Consultant, can't burden you with this as well."

  At this moment, a woman's voice suddenly shouted from the crowd: "Brother! Brother!"

  Upon hearing the voice, Wang Zihao felt very familiar and turned his head to take a look. Suddenly he shouted loudly: "Sister! How are you here?!"

  When Wang Zihao's voice was heard, Li Bin couldn't help but turn his head to take a look. He saw a girl of about 17 or 18 years old, wearing a light blue top and a blue skirt, with a student-like appearance, running towards Wang Zihao.

  The girl ran to Wang Zihao's face, and the two of them hugged each other with tears in their eyes. After a while, Wang Zihao turned his head to introduce her to Li Bin and Huang Xiansheng: "Commander, participant, this girl is my own sister, her name is Wang Dandan."

  Li Bin took a closer look at the girl, and saw that she had a clear and elegant appearance, with a pair of big eyes as clear as a spring, and a head of beautiful hair cascading down her shoulders like a waterfall. She was truly a lovely young woman.

  Li Bin couldn't help but stare at the beautiful girl he hadn't seen in a long time, and it wasn't until Huang Xiansheng patted him on the shoulder that he came back to his senses.

  Wang Zihao called his sister to follow him into the courtyard. Along the way, Wang Zihao asked about the situation and only then did he know that his sister had gone to Beiping for university. It was during that massacre that she narrowly escaped the devil's clutches.

  Hearing that her parents were killed by devils, Wang Dandan couldn't help but burst into loud sobs.

  "Brother Wang comforted his sister, saying: 'Sister, don't cry! Blood debts must be repaid with blood! Under General Zhang's command, we have already won two days of victories in a row! In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, General Zhang ordered us to retreat back to the Daling River defense line.'"