Chapter Seventeen: Crossing the Grand Canal for the Fourth Time

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  Liu Zhenfeng led the remaining troops to continue eastward, with the Japanese Imperial Guard Division pursuing closely behind them. In front of them, a part of the Japanese 10th Division was blocking their way, and above them, enemy planes were constantly flying over, making it a situation of extreme danger on all sides.

  "General, this iron barrel formation of the Japanese army has almost wrapped us up like a package, how can we break through?" Ji Xingwen hastily asked Liu Zhenfeng.

  "Can a living person still be suffocated by urine?" Liu Zhenfeng glanced at Jixingwen and said, "Let the chief of staff bring over the battle map for me."

  Soon, the chief of staff brought the battle map in front of Liu Zhenfeng and pointed to the direction of Danyang, saying: "You see, on the east side of Danyang is the Grand Canal. Our troops will attack the weak point near Danyang. Look, the enemy's forces are relatively weak here." He pointed to a nearby town in Danyang and said: "The enemy has deployed weaker forces here. We'll set out tonight and must arrive at this place by 3 am tomorrow morning, then launch a surprise attack and force our way across the canal!"

  Looking at the canal, Liu Zhenfeng suddenly remembered that during the Red Army's 25,000-mile Long March, there was a Four Crossings of the Chishui River. It was because of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River that the Red Army escaped the encirclement and pursuit of the one-million-strong Nationalist army. Why not do a Four Crossings of the canal as well?

  "Let's get started right away and move quickly!" Liu Zhenfeng said.

  Liu Zhenfeng led the troops in a forced march of more than five hours, finally arriving at the Grand Canal at 2 am. On the banks of the Grand Canal, they annihilated a large Japanese army battalion and then gathered boats to forcibly cross the canal at 4 am, reaching the east bank of the canal. By 5:30 am, part of the Imperial Guard Division had arrived on the west bank of the river, and they also contacted the garrison on the east bank. The enemy's 10th Division was also rushing towards their location.

  "Looks like the Japanese want to settle us here once and for all!" Ji Xingwen said.

  At this time, the Japanese soldiers of the Imperial Guard Division were desperately crossing the river, attempting to annihilate this force on the east bank together with the 10th Division.

  "All units attention, build defensive fortifications, be ready to fight at any time!" Liu Zhenfeng gave the combat order.

  "Yes!"

  Each department started building fortifications nearby, preparing to cross the river with the Japanese Imperial Guard Division and the Japanese 10th Division rushing over.

  "I'm telling you, the Japanese devils have arrived, give them a warm welcome! Don't bother talking to them about battlefield rules, we only talk about battlefield discipline. As long as we can defeat them, no matter what method is used, it's all good methods! Whether it's a good method or a bad method, as long as it can eliminate the enemy, it's a good method!"

  After the Japanese Imperial Guard crossed the canal, they immediately found some cover and prepared to engage our troops in battle. At this time, the enemy's 10th Division, led by General Takeda, also arrived on the scene, and the two forces encircled our army with the intention of annihilating us at one stroke.

  "Brothers, give me a good fight, let them know what the consequences of chasing us are!" Liu Zhenfeng gave the order to open fire and took the lead, firing his gun at the Japanese soldiers first. The battle began, and the Takada Regiment and the Imperial Guard Division's Sakata Regiment launched several fierce attacks, but were repelled time and again. The fighting lasted from dawn till noon, when the Takada Regiment and Sakata Regiment suddenly stopped shooting. Liu Zhenfeng looked through his binoculars in the direction of the canal and saw a large number of Japanese devils crossing the river. It seemed that the Takada Regiment and Sakata Regiment were waiting for reinforcements to arrive before completely surrounding and annihilating them.

  "Brothers, since our enemies are reluctant to fight us, let's take a rest, everyone!"

  "Jun zuo, after the Japanese army crosses the river, they will definitely come over and fight us again. At that time, we won't be able to escape even if we want to!" Ji Xingwen saw Liu Zhenfeng's careless appearance and felt a bit anxious.

  "Ah, I say, General Ji, don't be in a hurry, let them cross the river, go ahead, go ahead!" Liu Zhenfeng patted Ji Xingwen's shoulder with a smile.

  After more than half an hour, the Japanese army's crossing troops had almost all arrived, and then they merged with the Takeda and Sakata brigades to build fortifications and prepare for another attack on my position.

  "Are you ready? Follow me, everyone." Liu Zhenfeng shouted loudly and rushed out of the formation. Although everyone didn't understand what I said, seeing Liu Zhenfeng rush out of the formation, even a fool would know that we are going to start charging!

  The Japanese defense line was not yet complete, and the unprepared troops were suddenly attacked by the 77th Army, which was like a tiger coming down from the mountain. The battlefield was immediately thrown into chaos, and they took advantage of the chaos to break through the encirclement. They also obtained small Japanese boats and quickly crossed the river. Before leaving, Liu Zhenfeng smiled and waved at them, shouting: "Thank you!"

  The Japanese troops on the shore suddenly jumped up, they never expected that the Chinese army would be so cunning, not facing them head-on, but a sudden charge, and then killing back to the other side of the river. The Japanese machine gun position frantically swept Liu Zhenfeng and his men, who retaliated by relying on the boat's body. Fortunately, the canal was not too wide, and they quickly arrived at the opposite bank. After landing, Liu Zhenfeng said to everyone: "Everyone pay attention to hiding!"

  "General, why don't we take this opportunity to break through to the west?" Ji Xingwen asked.

  "Old Ji, the Japanese Imperial Guard Division has only passed by two or three regiments, and the 10th Division on the other side of the river is just three or four regiments. That means there are still a large number of Imperial Guard Division troops and 10th Division troops west of the river, we're not safe yet. If we rush to break out now, we'll only get stuck, right? Ah, I'm telling you Old Ji, if you had even one-tenth my intelligence, that'd be great!" Liu Zhenfeng couldn't help but tease Old Ji a bit as he spoke.

  We had just concealed ourselves for a short while, when we saw a large number of Japanese troops coming quickly from the west bank of the river. They looked at the boats on the shore and then looked at their own people on the opposite shore, seeming to understand something. Then, one group hastily chased southward and westward, while another group took a boat to the opposite shore, transported the Japanese troops over, and also chased westward and southward.

  By nightfall, when it was so dark that you couldn't see your fingers in front of your face, Liu Zhenfeng led his troops to the shore and annihilated all the Japanese soldiers guarding the ship. After boarding the ship, they arrived at the east bank of the river. After disembarking, he raised a middle finger towards the west bank and shouted: "Fack you."

  "General, General, what is this cake oil used for? Is it for applying on the face or eating?" Liu Zhenfeng's guard Xiao Zhang did not understand the meaning of his words and asked in confusion.

  "What's this about lard? What lard?" Liu Zhenfeng asked Xiao Zhang in confusion.

  "It's what you just said with gestures," Little Zhang said.

  "Hey, help me out, okay? Little Zhang, I'm speaking English, you don't know what it means, but it's not good anyway!" Liu Zhenfeng patted Little Zhang on the shoulder and said.

  "Attention all units, advance southeast along the canal! Depart!" A Chinese troop disappeared into the night.

  "Hachi-gatsu, what's going on? Where did those troops go?" Lieutenant General Iida Toshitsune, commander of the Imperial Guard Division, said angrily when his subordinates reported that they had not found any trace of the 77th Army.

  "General Inada, won't they cross the river again?" said Nakajima Kojirō, chief of staff of the division, to Inada Teizō.

  "Hmm, there's a possibility. Order the troops to continue searching west and south with one part of them, send a regiment to cross the river and check the east bank. Once they find any trace, don't attack yet, inform us, then we'll all cross the river to the east bank and annihilate them!"

  "Hello, General! You're brilliant!"

  On January 20, 1938, in the afternoon, one of Liu Zhenfeng's vanguards discovered a group of Japanese troops following them, but they did not intend to attack.

  "What's going on?" Liu Zhenfeng fell into thought after hearing the report.

  "Get rid of this troop, it seems their main task is to monitor us and wait for the Japanese army on the west bank of the river to cross over and provide support. Hehe, great, I've been waiting for this opportunity. There's a village ahead, everyone go in and hide, don't worry, they won't set fire to the village for now, when they do, we'll make our move."

  "Alright, General Ji Xingwen, come here for a moment. Arrange a company to find some firecrackers and gasoline drums, the more the better. I have use for them."

  "Yes, General." Ji Xingwen immediately dispatched security personnel to make arrangements.

  "Haha, little Japan, this time I'm going to thoroughly get rid of you guys. Chief of Staff, go arrange the ships, we'll thoroughly shake off these turtle sons tonight."

  After everything was ready, Liu Zhenfeng let everyone rest well and wait for the night to be dark and windy before making their escape.

  General Iida Shunsuke led his Imperial Guard Division across the canal and joined forces with the previously arranged brigade on the west bank, while also notifying the 10th Division to come and assist. Gradually, the villages where both sides were located, which had already become deserted due to the Japanese looting, suddenly became bustling and extremely lively.

  "Report to the regimental commander, the enemy is in this village, we have surrounded him, waiting for the regimental commander's instructions on when to start the attack." Kuroda Nobuyuki reported to Iida Tadafumi.

  "Alright! It's already dark, be careful tonight and prevent the enemy from breaking through. Wipe my eyes clean for me, we can't let a single enemy slip away under our noses, got it?" Inada Teiko said seriously to Kurosawa Nobuta, the leader of the squad.

  "Hi!"

  At over 11 pm, Liu Zhenfeng dispatched a battalion-sized force to launch a harassing attack at the village entrance, giving the enemy the impression that they were going to attempt a forced breakout from the village.

  "Take cover! Take cover!" Kuroba Nobuta yelled, waving his command baton wildly as the machine gunner beside him sprayed the village with a hail of bullets.

  The sound of gunfire echoed at the village entrance, and Tadashi Inaba sat in his chair with a pleased expression, his chubby body swaying to the rhythm of the shots outside. The chair beneath him creaked under the strain.

  "Wow, what wonderful music! Hahaha, those Chinese people, this group of ignorant Chinese pigs, they're all going to die, die, die!"

  Rice田貞固 seemed to have already seen the dawn of victory unfolding before his eyes. That Chinese general named Liu Zhenfeng, who had once humiliated the Japanese troops besieging Nanjing, his head seemed to be right in front of him. Soon, this lifeless head would turn into a pile of yen, and Rice田貞固 dreamed of becoming a millionaire, surrounded by beautiful women at home, with his arch-nemesis from his first love, Nakamura Ichirō, groveling at his feet, licking his toes...

  Liu Zhenfeng stood on a small earth mound in the village, looked at the battle direction of the village entrance, and then asked the chief of staff: "Where is the enemy's defense line weaker?"

  "General, on the west side of the village, there is only one enemy squadron defending it. If we act quickly, other enemy forces may not have been alerted yet, and we can break through!" The division chief of staff saluted Liu Zhenfeng and answered his question.

  "Alright, good! Hmm, gather a few kids with some performing talent over here. They must have an interest in this area." I said to the chief of staff, "Also, order that battalion at the village entrance to continue to attract the enemy and prepare the collected gasoline barrels and firecrackers. Especially the fuse of the firecrackers, make it a bit longer. Once our side is done, immediately order the troops to light up the firecrackers and retreat!"

  "Yes!" replied the Chief of Staff.

  "Oh, right, are those ships ready?" Liu Zhenfeng looked at the chief of staff who was about to leave and suddenly asked.

  "Please be assured, General, everything is ready!" The Chief of Staff guaranteed me.

  "Alright! Off you go!" Liu Zhenfeng waved his hand and the chief of staff took orders and hastily left.

  About an hour later, the chief of staff brought in thirty or so young men. Liu Zhenfeng looked at them and said: "Brothers, this time I called you here is to put on a show for the devils. If we succeed, we will pay a very small price to break through the siege. Do you have confidence that we can deceive the devils?"

  "Yes!" everyone shouted in unison.

  "Haha, okay, very good! Extremely good! Now I'll ask you all, who among you can imitate a woman's shriek?" Liu Zhenfeng asked with a smile.

  "What? Learning women's screams?" Several warriors asked with wide eyes.

  "Right! The schoolgirls shrieked, who would have thought?" I asked again.

  "Chief, I'll give it a try." A small warrior, pale and quiet, called out in a somewhat stifled voice. Liu Zhenfeng listened for a moment, thought it sounded pretty good, and said OK! Let him play the role of the humiliated woman then.

  "Everyone, put on those thirty or so Japanese quilted coats we captured, take up your guns and follow me to the west of the village. Chief of Staff, inform General Ji Xingwen to get ready, wait for our signal, once we succeed, you all rush out to the west of the village immediately."

  "Yes, Commander!" Although the division chief of staff did not understand what Liu Zhenfeng was going to do, since he had already spoken, he did not ask.

  Liu Zhenfeng led a group of soldiers dressed in Japanese military uniforms to the house near the squadron that surrounded us on the west side of the village. He winked at the soldier who was disguised as a woman, and the soldier loudly shouted: "Save me! Don't do it, Your Lordship!"

  "Ugh..." Seeing the warrior's effeminate behavior, Liu Zhenfeng almost vomited. He looked at the warriors behind him and their expressions were all so strange.

  Liu Zhenfeng made a gesture and started shouting: "Hua Guniang's, Hua Guniang's work! Yo Xi! Yo Xi! Pfft pfft, good figure, big stick, line up, don't rush, eight squares! Mine, first Misi Misi's work!"

  All the warriors couldn't help but disbelieve, if they hadn't seen Liu Zhenfeng's ferocity when killing devils in Nanjing, they would have suspected that their commander was Japanese.

  In the nearby squad of devils, they heard a noisy voice coming from a nearby civilian house, mixed with women's screams, their own people's half-familiar Chinese words, and even fighting sounds.

  "Yo Xi, which part of the brother is it? Such good luck, actually found Hua Guniang in our nearby defense zone, great! Brothers, let's go and have a taste too." Xixiang Sasaki Tarō, the squadron leader, thought that the enemy was currently making a forced breakthrough towards the east of the village, and here was still very safe. With a lustful smile on his face, he led his subordinates, who were already infatuated with sex, to rush towards that chaotic civilian house.

  "Hana, Hana, where is she working?" Captain Nishimura rushed into the courtyard, and a small soldier bravely ran up to him and said: "Hana, Hana, she's working in that house." He pointed to a house where a group of people were lined up waiting.

  "Hey, you guys are from which unit? This is our defense zone! So, the flower girl should be enjoyed by us first!" Xī Xiāng didn't know why, but he was still shouting in his half-fluent Chinese and directing his subordinates to intercept.

  Liu Zhenfeng slowly walked out of the house, deliberately buttoning his buttons, and saw the crowd in an uproar, shouting: "Eight! What's going on? You're all dead!"

  "Charge! Brothers, let's go! Take down these guys who dare to enter our defense zone and steal our food. Let's take them down and bring them back to our camp to enjoy!"

  So both sides started fighting, but the Soshu army thought they were their own people in front of them, so they wouldn't kill each other during the fight. Liu Zhenfu and his men took advantage of the chaos to quietly take out the members of this unit one by one.

  When Nishimura Sazaburō Tarō discovered something was amiss, it was already too late. The people he brought with him had all been annihilated by us!

  "What are you doing here?" Sazaburou Tarou of Nishihara asked with a slightly trembling body.

  "It's the 77th Army at work!" Liu Zhenfeng stabbed his bayonet into his abdomen and said viciously.

  After taking down Saigō Tarō, Liu Zhenfeng led thirty or so warriors to launch a surprise attack on the camp of Saigō's unit under cover of darkness. The soldiers left behind in the camp were also distracted, looking at the house where their commander had run past, and even though they were supposed to be guarding the camp, their hearts weren't in it. Before long, this entire unit was defeated by our thirty or so men in a confused melee.

  "Send a signal and tell Commander Ji to retreat with all troops to the west of the village." Liu Zhenfeng gave orders to a soldier.

  Ji Xingwen and Shi Canmou saw the signal sent by Liu Zhenfu and immediately ordered the regiment that was making a feint attack at the village entrance to withdraw into the village, relying on the houses in the village to shake off the enemy and retreat westward. He also ordered the person who had lit the fuse to immediately light the fuse and throw it into the gasoline barrel, and then quickly withdraw.

  Liu Zhenfeng waited until the main force had all passed by the west of the village, then led everyone to run towards the canal bank. Taking advantage of the night, they crossed the canal and completely shook off the Imperial Guard Division and the 10th Division, who were still clinging to them, while the Japanese army, thinking that Liu Zhenfeng's troops were still resisting, was still fighting in the village...