Lieutenant General Honjō Shigeru, Commander of the Kwantung Army, followed Sakai Seizō, Tomeno Ijirō and Ishiwara Kanji to the top of the Guanbenzi position. Although Ishiwara was only a lieutenant colonel, he was an officer who had graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and entered the Army War College for further study after graduation. He was a member of the army sword group awarded by the Emperor and one of the five major culprits of the September 18 Incident.

  In comparison, Ishihara was much luckier than Hirata Hikohiro. The latter's unit suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Tonggu and Hirata faced dismissal, while Ishihara was at the peak of his career as a trusted staff officer under Sakai Takashi. He was not only Sakai's subordinate but also his best friend.

  In fact, Li Bin had already destroyed the Goubangzi position to a large extent during his retreat, and some key facilities had been completely destroyed. However, this dilapidated position still made Ben Zhuang Fan marvel at it.

  "Holy cow! This Chinese guy we're up against isn't simple at all! To be able to set up such a defensive formation, I'm afraid even the strongest graduates of Whampoa Military Academy wouldn't be able to do it!" Motomura Makoto exclaimed.

  "Commander, the Chinese officer who is opposing us is a certain Lieutenant Colonel Li Bin of the National Revolutionary Army. He claims to be a graduate of West Point, but when I had Tsuchihashi investigate, it turned out that there was no such person among the graduates of West Point! This mysterious character's true identity is unknown!"

  Ishihara Kanji's small eyes rotated and said, "It doesn't matter what this person's background is. However, through some friends in the Nationalist League, I received news that he asked several generals for many military books, all of which were English versions. It seems that this person is indeed not simple! But don't be afraid! I have a way to deal with him!"

  After finishing, he walked to a trench and said to those generals who were much higher than him: "The deployment of this Shina's troops is extremely reasonable. He did not adopt the traditional linear deployment, but adopted the multi-layered deployment method, using multiple trenches to block our brave warriors layer by layer!"

  "Ishihara-kun, what method do you think can break through this Shina person's defensive position?" Sakakibara Seishirō asked.

  "Let me think for a moment!" said Ishihara Kanji. After saying that, he went to each ditch and looked carefully, then took out his pen and paper and drew a diagram on the paper.

  After three hours, Ishihara Kanji finally finished drawing the picture. After finishing the drawing, he squatted on the ground and pondered for a moment in front of the paper, then suddenly stood up.

  "Ishihara-kun, have you thought of a plan?" Seeing Ishihara stand up, Tamotsu asked in a hurry.

  "We should bring over another demolition squadron from within the country! At the same time, let's make use of the tanks we captured from the Northeastern Army as soon as possible! We'll use the demolition squadron to cut off their transportation routes and connections, and with a large number of infantry protecting our engineers, we'll blast through the first trench. Once the tanks enter the defensive line, we can crush these Chinese devils' defenses! Let's flatten all the Chinese into meat pies!"

  "Good! Still Ishihara-kun is clever! Hahaha!" Sakakibara Seishirō burst out laughing.

  Ishiwara Kanji, known as the brain of the Kwantung Army, was the second-place graduate of the 30th class at the Army Academy. In fact, he should have been first, but his haughty attitude and poor relations with his instructors resulted in his being awarded second place. This man is certainly cunning and can be said to be Li Pin's only rival within the Kwantung Army at present.

  However, Futami Jirō raised a question: "Ishihara-san, your plan is perfect, but it's not invincible. Firstly, how long can our bombers stay in the air to attack the Chinese? Are there enough bombs to drop? I think one batch can only last for twenty minutes at most, and even so, the second batch cannot keep up, even if we launch three batches in succession, how do we make up for the time gap in between? Secondly, we use a large number of infantrymen to protect the engineers as they go up, but the Chinese resistance is unusually stubborn, how many Imperial heroes will have to die to get the engineers there?"

  "Hahaha!" Ishihara Kanji burst out laughing, "General Tomenosuke's question, as for the first one, I've already thought it through! Our bomber will reduce the number of bombs carried and instead carry more machine guns and bullets. This way, we can carry more fuel and ensure that our flight time can exceed 30 minutes. We'll divide into four batches, so we can continuously intercept the Shina transportation route without interruption! As for the second question, do I need to repeat it? Firepower coverage before the attack, infantry artillery and rocket suppression after the attack, these are all basic common sense!"

  "Hahaha! Good! With a talent like Ishihara-kun in the Empire, I'm not afraid that China won't submit!" Benmura's triumphant laughter began.

  "Right! The Chinese may be clever, but they don't have heavy weapons! We have overwhelming firepower to crush them! When the time comes, I'll see whose planes, tanks and artillery are harder, or whose flesh and blood is harder! Haha!" Sakakibara Seizaburō also burst out laughing.

  Following Ishiwara's suggestion, the Japanese military dispatched a bomber squadron to Shenyang via Korea. At the same time, a group of tank soldiers who had studied the French FT-17 light tank were sent by ship to Yingkou and would be able to take over the tanks captured from the Northeastern Army in about two days.

  At the same time, the Japanese are also increasing their troops in Northeast China. The 19th Division is coming from Korea and the 8th Division is preparing to embark for Northeast China! Moreover, the Japanese have organized the "Second Devil Corps" of Korean puppet army to go to Northeast China. In this way, Japan's military strength in Northeast China will reach 1.5 million people.

  At that time, Japan had not yet entered a state of total war mobilization. Japan only had 17 regular divisions and some independent brigades and regiments, but it immediately dispatched two divisions to the northeast, which shows how much importance Japan attached to the Battle of Jinzhou!

  Just as the Japanese were making meticulous preparations, Li Bin was not idle, he was intensifying the deployment of the Daling River defense line. From the radio, Li Bin learned that Japan was sending more troops to Northeast China. However, he was powerless to do anything about it, after all, Zhang Xueliang was implementing a policy of non-resistance, and relying on General Shao was not an option.

  After the Battle of Gubeikou, the Righteous and Brave Army's ammunition was greatly depleted. Fortunately, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan both provided a batch of ammunition to the Righteous and Brave Army, which temporarily alleviated the problem of ammunition shortage.

  At this time, Li Bin had to consider how the Japanese would deal with him next. After all, the Japanese had suffered a great loss at Goubangzi, and they must have wanted to take revenge on themselves! Although the little devils were essentially no different from pigs, would they fall twice in the same place?

  He suddenly thought of something, so he called Hong Biao: "Second brother, now I give you a task, you are specifically responsible for the training mission of our earth tank and earth air defense vehicle! Note that when you need to cooperate with Liu Chechang, his armored train will provide you with strong firepower support! Remember one thing, the air defense vehicle follows the armored train left and right, pay attention to protect the railway line in front of and behind the armored train from being bombed!"

  Hong Biao retreated after receiving the order. Li Bin then said to Wang Zihao: "Third brother, come with me now to take a look at the front line."

  The two men walked to the front of the formation, and Li Bin found that the thick layer of snow on the ground in the area specially left for the "earth tank" to pass through was very deep, so he had someone call out to Jing Da.

  "Jing Da brothers, take a group of brothers and pay attention to clearing the snow from the fifth trench to the second trench at any time. The cleared snow will be piled up in front of the second trench. Also, the snow from the tank bunker to the fifth trench needs to be cleared!" Li Bin ordered Jing Da.

  "Yes! Take your seat! I'll bring people over right away!" Jing Da retreated after receiving his orders.

  Li Bin thought that the Japanese might use tanks to charge, and in order to deal with the Japanese tank, he thought of making anti-tank armor-piercing grenades, but time was pressing, and it was impossible to produce armor-piercing grenades within a few days. At present, the only weapon that can best deal with tanks is the armored train.

  But the armored train is most afraid of the devils' aerial bombing! Not to mention that there are only a few anti-aircraft vehicles in hand, and the soldiers have no experience in air defense combat at all. This is indeed a very headache problem.

  The explosives on the Daqing River have all been laid, and after being waterproofed, these explosives will not be soaked even if they are buried in the ice for several months. At that time, as long as the Japanese army is detonated when crossing the river, it can block the pace of the Japanese army.

  In addition, Li Bin also considered that the Japanese might possibly come from Liaoxi in the west. However, he was not worried about this at all, because Zhang Haitian and Xiao Bo were fighting guerrilla warfare on the western front, and the mountainous area to the west of Jinzhou had no railways, which was unfavorable for the Japanese attack.

  What other attack methods will the Japanese take? Ah! Landmines! If there are enough landmines, they will definitely suffer heavy losses! But now, where can we get so many landmines from? The landmines that were prepared for a month before were not many, and most of them have been used up in the Battle of Gou Bangzi.

  "Everything is in short supply! This battle is going to be tough!" Li Bin muttered to himself.

  He pondered a good strategy against the enemy as he walked towards his command center.

  As he walked into the command center, he looked at the sand table he had made with his own hands and considered what shortcomings this defensive line still had.

  "Li Dage, dinner is ready." A woman's voice entered his ears.

  Li Bin turned his head and saw Wang Dandan standing behind him, already dressed in the Northeast Army uniform.

  "Dandan sister, you go eat first, I'm not hungry." Li Bin said. After finishing speaking, he lowered his head to look at the sand table again, always feeling that there was something wrong with it.

  Suddenly he thought of something: right, should leave a reserve team behind the fifth trench! Thinking of this, he picked up the phone: "Hello, operator, I am Chief of Staff Li Bin, get me Commander Huang."

  After connecting Huang Xiansheng's phone, Li Bin said: "Commander Huang, I want to make two requests, do you agree?"

  "General Li! You are the commander-in-chief of the front line, whatever you say goes! You have full command! As long as your request is not too excessive, I can arrange for planes and tanks right away." Huang Xiansheng replied over the phone.

  "Thank you, Commander Huang! It's like this, the new recruits who enlisted yesterday, send a thousand of them over to me. Also, please have Commander Huang dispatch someone to contact Old North Wind for me, I want to ask him for Xiao Bo and 500 soldiers." Li Bin made his request.

  "Haha! No problem! I'll go arrange for someone to help you right away!" Huang Xiansheng replied with a smile.