Chapter 49: Investigating the South

  At noon on July 17, in the central part of Chahar, a dark and gloomy cloud layer was depressing the sparse grassland. The 5th Cavalry Corps (minus the 7th Cavalry Division) which had been advancing eastward from afar split up here, with the 11th Cavalry Division continuing to advance eastward towards Jehol, while the main force of the army turned southeast.

  "Take care, younger brother Fuyama!" (Ma Lu, courtesy name Fusshan, commander of the 11th Cavalry Division)

  "Take care, Brother Bao!" (Ma Buqing, Deputy Commander of the 5th Cavalry)

  "Biao Chen, look at your teacher for a long time!" (Ma Biao, courtesy name Biao Chen, commander of the 12th Cavalry Division)

  To the south, Men Bingyue led the 7th Cavalry Regiment to sweep away the defeated pseudo-Mongolian army. De Wang organized another counterattack. The brave Mongolian cavalry showed their skilled horsemanship in front of the Central Army, but before they could teach the Central Army about the knife skills of the Mongolian knights, the Central Army used sharp bayonets, light machine guns and mortars to attack, leaving behind several hundred more dead horses and men as the pseudo-Mongolian army continued to flee.

  Further south, Fu Zuoyi's hundred or so vehicles obtained from Yan Xishan were still largely serviceable and were transporting an augmented regiment of the 211th Brigade and two batteries of mountain guns towards Zhangbei, accompanied by a regiment of the Cavalry Fourth Division, pursuing the main force of the First Cavalry Army which had driven the First Cavalry Brigade into Zhangbei.

  At this time, in the headquarters of the Chahar Expeditionary Force of the Kwantung Army, which was suspended from the source of the oil, the commander of the army, Tojo Hideki, who was also the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, loudly rebuked the cavalry commander, Koizumi Kizo, and rejected the suggestion to withdraw the cavalry from Zhangbei. After slapping Koizumi twice, Tojo, still fuming with anger, ordered the 1st Cavalry Brigade to hold its ground in Zhangbei, the 15th Mixed Brigade to change direction and rush to reinforce Zhangbei, and the 2nd Mixed Brigade to speed up its advance towards Guoyuan.

  The 1st Mixed Brigade consists of the main force of the 1st Division's 1st Brigade, the 1st Field Artillery Regiment, and the 2nd Tank Regiment.

  The 2nd Mixed Brigade, which includes the 3rd Battalion of the 15th Regiment of the 1st Division, the 3rd Battalion of the 57th Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Field Artillery Regiment.

  The 15th Mixed Brigade, under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Division's 38th Brigade, the 16th and 30th Regiments, the 2nd Division's 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the main force of the 2nd Division's 2nd Field Artillery Regiment, and the 2nd Division's 2nd Engineer Regiment.

  At 2:15 pm, Fu Zuoyi arrived at the Zhangbei front line. "Yin Fu brother, Liu Ziliang still does not want to participate in the war?"

  Liu Ruming, also known as Ziliang, was the commander of the 143rd Division of the 29th Army, which was stationed in nearby Zhangjiakou at that time. Historically, during this period, Liu also participated in the negative response to the war of resistance among the high-level leaders of the 29th Army, and refused to participate in the Battle of Nankou, even refusing to allow the Central Army to pass through its defense zone. It was not until the end of July when the Japanese army launched a comprehensive attack that he joined the battle.

  "No matter how you put it, the 29th Army will never leave the Great Wall."

  "Never mind them! We'll start attacking in 15 minutes."

  At 2:30, the 12 mountain guns of the 25th Artillery Regiment began firing, and row after row of shells fell into the small town of Zhangbei County (or more accurately, "Zhangbei Fortress"), causing chaos on the streets crowded with horses and carts of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. The cavalrymen could take cover behind ancient stone fortifications to avoid the shelling, but their mounts were helpless against the hail of shells, and many horses were blown to pieces by the mountain guns.

  At 2:40, the mortars of the 211th Brigade joined the battle, continuously hitting the narrow city wall of Zhangbei at close range, blowing up the exposed Japanese machine gun positions and soldiers who had just climbed onto the city wall. At the same time, the infantry units of the 211th Brigade charged towards Zhangbei with wooden ladders.

  As they approached the city wall, the Japanese grenade launchers began to block the shooting, covering the machine gun positions that were being hit by precise mortar fire; the remaining Japanese firepower on the city wall also started to counterattack, causing the charging troops to fall one after another. As the mountain guns again turned to deep firing, Sun Lanfeng (Commander of the 211th Brigade of the 73rd Division of the 35th Army) was about to order each mortar platoon to also enter deep firing when he was stopped by Fu Zuoyi.

  As the troops rushed to the bottom of Zhangbei's low city wall, many Japanese soldiers risked their lives to climb up and throw hand grenades down, but were quickly blown away by the incoming mortars and hand grenades. The troops at the bottom of the city wall also suffered heavy casualties, with some even being hit by their own mortars that had gone off target.

  However, more troops continued to charge to the bottom of the city wall, setting up wooden ladders to climb the city wall; subsequent batches of light machine guns were also pushed forward to close range to suppress the Japanese on the city wall. Hundreds of rounds of gunfire pinned down the remaining Japanese soldiers, who could only blindly throw hand grenades and launch mortars.

  Finally, the first batch of charging troops climbed onto the city wall but was immediately knocked down by the Japanese; then came the second batch, the third batch, and more and more troops climbed onto the city wall. The Japanese retreated step by step, eventually losing control of the city wall and entering into alleyway fighting.

  Three hours later, hundreds of cavalrymen, regardless of the hail of bullets behind them, surrounded Pian Tongmu and others and broke through to the east. Peng Yubin (Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division) led the 1st Cavalry Regiment from the side front to meet them. Obayashi Ichiro (Commander of the 14th Cavalry Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division) shouted loudly and led more than 200 cavalrymen to charge at Peng Yubin, covering Pian Tongmu's turn to the southeast. After a round of shooting between the two sides' guns, they collided with each other. The last elite of the 1st Cavalry Brigade fought against the most elite cavalry regiment of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army. Both sides wielded their sabers, and the riders slashed left and right, mixed with the sound of short gunshots. In the end, the 1st Cavalry Regiment, with three times the advantage in troops and the same casualties, did not allow the Japanese army to penetrate the formation. All two hundred Japanese cavalrymen under Obayashi Ichiro fell in a pool of blood.

  "Chase!"! Peng Yu-Bin left behind the greatest loss of consecutive sweeps of the battlefield, leading several hundred cavalrymen to pursue Kataoka Shigeo.

  At 3:50 pm, after struggling for several hundred remaining Japanese troops, with the last explosion in Zhangbei City, more than a dozen Japanese troops hiding in a solid stone house were blown to pieces. Fu Zuoyi excitedly ordered: "Send a telegram to Nanjing, my 35th Army and Cavalry 1st Army have just captured Zhangbei, annihilating over 2,000 people below the commander of the Japanese First Cavalry Brigade."

  In a mountain foot over 100 li northeast of Zhangbei, the last soldier at another blocking point fell down, facing dozens of Japanese corpses around.

  Butarechirō (what a great name! The 30th Regimental Commander) gazed at the Wolf's Tail Mountain, which filled his entire right field of vision, "This is already the fourth time! The enemy has deployed small teams consisting of one or two machine gun squads and several infantry squads along the flank of our marching route, plus a small number of landmines on the road to hinder our advance; if we don't take care of it, the enemy's machine guns will inevitably sweep our marching column from the side; if we attack, it will be a waste of time and casualties will not be small. What a difficult situation!"

  Kiyoshi Haya (Commander of the 15th Mixed Brigade) gazed at the crack troops of the 2nd Division's main force advancing like a snail and cursed loudly. After a brief rest, "If we don't hurry up, Zhang Bei's Cavalry Brigade might run into trouble."

  "Unbelievable! They still have over 2,000 people after all."

  "It's hopeless! The weather is bad, there's no air support from above, no artillery or tanks to cover us below, and the cavalry is not good at defense. There aren't even any decent fortifications, and we're surrounded by an enemy several times our size, it's impossible to hold out." Xiaoyuan added in a low voice: "Chief of Staff Tōjō is crazy!"

  "What should we do?"

  Kiyohara Takeo hesitated for a moment, "I order, Honda (Honda Takerō, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade) to advance alone with his brigade, without worrying about whether the enemy will attack from the side. He must hurry to Zhangbei at top speed and immediately attack the enemy's rear as soon as he reaches the outskirts of Zhangbei, in order to rescue the 1st Cavalry Division!"

  The targeted Motoda Takeo fell silent, reorganized the cavalry brigade, drew his command sword and shouted "Advance!" Led more than 1,000 cavalrymen to charge north towards Zhangbei, regardless of everything. Landmines continuously exploded under their feet, causing men and horses to fall; machine guns on the left flank also continuously spat out fire snakes, sweeping away batches of cavalrymen. However, Motoda led the 2nd Cavalry Brigade to rush towards Zhangbei recklessly. The following 30th Brigade took advantage of the situation to set up infantry cannons, grenade launchers and other small artillery to bombard the exposed firepower points fiercely.

  Looking at the cavalry going away, the enemy on the flank was defeated one by one. The mood of Shoya improved and he was about to order the whole army to advance when a telegram from the army corps arrived: "The 1st Cavalry Brigade has lost contact."

  "What? Hurry up and recall Bando! Stop advancing!"

  At this time, the command center of the Chahar Garrison in Guoyuan was already in a mess. Tōjō Hideki whipped several staff officers with his horse whip and ordered angrily: "Order the 15th Mixed Brigade to continue advancing and retake Zhangbei."

  "Report, the 1st Mixed Brigade encountered a large enemy cavalry force south of Dauron and is attacking the 1st Field Artillery Regiment. Commander Sakai requests combat guidance!" (Combat guidance, Japanese military's special term for requesting reinforcements)

  "What?!"

  At this time, the 1st Field Artillery Regiment (less two battalions) had already disintegrated. The artillery troops were originally at the end of the column and lacked search cavalry. The Iwai brigade, which was even more unlikely to send out a cavalry reconnaissance team in the relatively safe rear, did not do so. As a result, when the 11th Cavalry Regiment launched a surprise attack from the side on the last 1st Field Artillery Regiment, the artillery regiment only had a few infantry squads performing sentry duties to resist. These riflemen were quickly overwhelmed by the large number of cavalrymen armed with submachine guns and twenty rounds, taking many artillerymen down with them. The commander of the Takahashi regiment, who was wielding a command sword, was also among them. As a large number of hand grenades and even hand-held explosives were thrown into the cannons and gun barrels, along with numerous explosions of shells and ammunition cars, the 1st Field Artillery Regiment's neatly arranged cannons and heavy equipment on the road were blown to pieces, forming a smoky trail marker. Ma Lu did not stop, but continued to lead his troops eastward according to plan; by the time the front 1st Brigade and 2nd Armored Brigade hastily returned, only 24 damaged cannons, hundreds of piles of smoke, and thousands of Japanese corpses remained.