Chapter 6: The Great Wall Ballad (Part 4)

  With a deep-seated contempt, several Japanese spies gathered the intelligence they had collected over the past few days in one place. In the dead of night, using a portable transmitter, they sent it to the Chinese military headquarters overnight.

  The efficiency of the Kwantung Army's China Affairs Bureau far surpassed that of Yan Xishan's Second War Zone Headquarters in China. Half an hour after receiving the telegram, a reply was sent. Greatly commending several spies for their contributions to the Empire, while emphasizing that the focus of intelligence gathering work in recent days should be on the deployment and movement of troops along the Niangzi Pass line, without having to consider other matters. Specifically, Akita Umanosuke, who had participated in the Manchurian Incident, was put in charge, with all others required to provide full assistance.

  Upon seeing the telegram, "Wool Dealer" Kimura Nobutaka's face turned pitch black. After a long pause, he handed over the telegram to several of his accomplices and went to see "Thread Seller" Akita Yuichi, whom he had previously scolded, and bowed deeply, saying: "Akita-san, I was arrogant this afternoon and offended you, please don't mind it!"

  In the blink of an eye, he had trampled his rival underfoot, and Akita Yuichi felt triumphant in his heart. However, on his face, he put on a magnanimous expression, stretched out his hand to help him up, "Don't worry, Kimura-kun was also for the Empire! You can rest assured that I won't report what you said this afternoon to our superiors!"

  "Thanks for your generosity, Akita-san!" Murakami Nobutaka bowed again at a ninety-degree angle, his forehead almost touching the floor.

  "Kimura, don't be polite, as long as we work together and complete the tasks assigned to us. I won't hold it against you for some minor details!!" Akita Yuichi again pretended to support him with a fake smile, puffing out his still-not-fully-grown beer belly in encouragement.

  "Small-minded people get their way!" The other spies secretly rolled their eyes, but didn't dare to show their inner thoughts on their faces. The intelligence department had always been a place that attached great importance to hierarchy, and if they dared to express any dissent towards the arrangements made by their superiors, it wouldn't be long before their families received a notification of their death in battle.

  Akita Yuichi didn't care what the other accomplices thought, and he finally got a chance to perform. He couldn't just do something that would make people look at him in a new light, could he? That night, he rearranged everything, using his experience from dealing with the Northeast Army, and assigned tasks to the other spies.

  Several spies had been lurking in Shanxi for many years, and had developed a number of underlings within the Jin-Sui Army and the Shanxi Provincial Government. After receiving the task assigned by Akita Kiyoshi, they made some efforts and soon retrieved a large amount of important military intelligence. This intelligence was quickly turned into telegrams and secretly sent to the Chinese Expeditionary Force Command in a small village under Niangzi Pass.

  "On the morning of October 9, Feng Qinzai led his troops onto the battlefield. The battlefield had simple defensive facilities previously constructed by the Shanxi-Suiyuan army, and according to local villagers, in order to save costs, no cement was used for reinforcement during construction..."

  "On October 10, Huang Shaohong, the deputy commander of the Second War Zone Command of China, inspected the front line. This person came from the Guangxi clique and is currently the chairman of Hubei Province. He is good at pre-war staff work but lacks experience in commanding large battles and has no notable achievements. According to reliable sources, Zhao Zhen-shan, the commander of the 17th Division, reported to Huang Shaohong that he could not contact Feng Qinzai..."

  "Huang Shaohong took command of the front line at Niangzi Pass. He set up his command post in Xiapan Shi and ordered the 26th Route Army's Special Task Force to protect it! According to reliable intelligence, many officers and soldiers of the Special Task Force were dissatisfied with this order!"

  "The commander of the 3rd Army, Wan Zhong and the commander of the 17th Division, Zhao Shoushan, had a dispute over the division of their respective defense zones. Huang Shaohong placated both sides!"

  "Huang Shaohong invited Feng Qinzai to meet at the command post, but Feng Qinzai did not accept the invitation and only sent a colonel brigade commander to represent himself to Huang's command post!"

  According to reliable sources, the 30th and 31st Divisions of the First Army of the Second Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army are taking a detour to rush to Niangzi Pass. These two divisions were formerly the 30th and 31st Divisions that confronted the Imperial forces in Liangxiang last month, but have recently changed their names. Half of the troops are new recruits gathered by Sun Lianzhong near Handan, with combat effectiveness far inferior to last month!

  The 27th Division of the National Revolutionary Army and Sun Lianzhong himself also took a detour to rush to Niangzi Pass. This division basically preserved its original strength, equipped with a large number of German-made equipment, and had strong combat effectiveness!

  "According to reliable sources..."

  "According to reports from military insiders..."

  With the cooperation of insiders, several Japanese spies disguised as merchants had a better understanding of the deployment and dispatch of Chinese troops near Niangzi Pass than most defending generals! Even specific to the name of the commander of a certain regiment, the combat effectiveness and past combat achievements. However, the Second War Zone Command of China was completely unaware of the actions of the spies.

  This made the actions of the devils more mysterious. On the evening of October 12, its vanguard had just broken through Jingxing. By dawn on the 13th, it unexpectedly attacked the junction of the defensive areas of the Third Army and the 17th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, the old pass of Niangzi Pass. With only one charge, the old pass was taken into their hands.

  The Guan Yi was lost, and the defensive line of Niangzi Pass was immediately pierced with a big hole. The devils came in groups along the direction of Guan Yi, and at any time they might come to roll up the reed mats, giving the nearby Chinese troops a pincer movement from both front and back. The temporary commander-in-chief of the defensive line of Niangzi Pass, who was hastily put on the spot and didn't even know how many troops he had under him, Huang Shaohong, the deputy director of the Second War Zone Command, the big boss of the Guangxi clique, and the chairman of Hubei Province, immediately panicked. Without thinking, he called the commander of the Third Army, Zeng Wanzhong, ordering him to block the hole within one day, otherwise, military law would be enforced.

  Zeng Wanzhong did not expect the little devils to take action against him first, and immediately led his brothers under his command to launch a counterattack on Guan. Unfortunately, the equipment of the Third Army was somewhat outdated, and the brothers had only a few heavy machine guns in their hands, let alone mountain cannons or field cannons, and could only hold the old rifle that had been used for nearly twenty years, piling up corpses with it.

  In just one day, the Third Army had nearly two thousand casualties. The little devils not only failed to be forced out of the old pass, but instead took advantage of the Third Army's weakened attack and tore open a new breakthrough in their defense line.

  Forcing a breakthrough of the Third Army's defense line, the vanguard of the Japanese army rushed straight to Xiapan Stone, the forward command post of the Central Army. At the most critical moment, Huang Shaohong was only ten or so miles away. Fortunately, Hou Jingru, commander of the 30th Division of the 26th Route Army, arrived in time and led a temporarily assembled brigade to launch a counterattack against the Japanese devils, barely pushing them back to the vicinity of Guguan.

  Huang Shaohong was thoroughly enraged, and after slapping his forehead several times, he came up with another clever plan to rescue Zhao. He ordered Zhao Shoushan, who was defending the front line of Niangzi Pass, to launch a surprise attack on Jingxing immediately, attacking the enemy's vital point. Zhao Shoushan followed the plan and captured Liujiagou, Changshengkou, and the southern station of Jingxing within one night. Just as he was about to launch the final attack on Jingxing Pass, bad news came from the rear that the main position at Xuehuashan had been lost, and Niangzi Pass was in danger.

  Originally wanted to cut off the enemy's retreat, but didn't expect his own retreat was cut off by the little devil. Zhao Shoushan was shocked and quickly led his brothers to turn back and withdraw, withdrawing all the way to Fatou Ridge, where they barely rebuilt their defense line with the help of the terrain.

  Xuehua Mountain is far higher than Niangzi Pass, and after the Japanese army occupied Xuehua Mountain, they immediately set up artillery on the mountain top and bombarded the pass wall fiercely. The little devils in the old pass also launched another attack on the back of Niangzi Pass under the cover of aircraft. Hou Jingru's division was crippled in Liangxiang and had not been reorganized for less than half a month before being pulled to the front line again, with much weaker combat effectiveness than before. Being forced by the little devils to retreat step by step, the frontline was approaching Huang Shaohong's command post again.

  The Gui clique's big boss Huang Shaohong was furious, and he ordered the military officer training team of Yang Hucheng, who had just arrived, to give the Japanese invaders a head-on blow.

  Yang Hucheng was under pressure from all sides after the Xi'an Incident and was forced to "go abroad for inspection". At this moment, his military officers were all holding their breath, wanting to give their old superior a good show. So even though they knew that Huang Shaohong's command had many inappropriate places, they resolutely executed the order. As a result, from 9 am to 4 pm, they finally withstood the Japanese army's offensive, and more than 2,000 people in the teaching team were left with only over 500 people. More than three-quarters of the brothers fell forever at the foot of the Great Wall.

  Huang Shaohong was extremely ashamed in his heart and did not want to face the criticism of the instructional team, so he made an excuse that General Feng Qinzai on the left wing would not listen to orders, abandoned his troops, and rushed back to Taiyuan overnight to "report the situation" to Yan Xishan, the commander-in-chief of the Second War Zone. He left behind a group of mid-to-high-level generals who had come to ask for instructions on countermeasures, staring at each other in the command center!

  It has come to this, the commander-in-chief of the vanguard actually dares to abandon his troops and flee to the rear, all the officers who came to ask for instructions on the next move were furious, in front of the liaison officer of the Second War Zone, they slammed their fists on the table, "Damn it, does Huang understand how to fight?! If he doesn't, hurry up and let someone else do it! If this continues, not to mention our few brothers, even if we bring over 200,000 more men, it won't be enough for Huang to squander!"

  "It's all about the little devil's attack focus, which is entirely on the old pass and Snowflake Mountain. But he has placed several divisions of troops at Longquan Pass, isn't that just creating opportunities for the little devils?"

  "The three heroes of the Guangxi clique are nothing but this kind of trash, they deserved to be beaten out of Guangxi!"

  "This turtle son, isn't he intentionally making things difficult for us!"

  …..

  Especially the instructor team leader Li Zhenxi of Yang Hucheng, with his injured arm hanging down, had a face as black as the bottom of a pot. This instructor team was what Yang Hucheng used to cultivate military officers, half of whom were young students. Today's battle has added to the foot of the Great Wall, and in the future, General Yang Hucheng will find it even more difficult to reorganize his troops when he returns from abroad.

  "Was it the Huang surname that wanted to borrow a knife to kill someone?!" Suddenly, a very frightening thought surged into Li Zhenxi's mind. He shook his head, desperately trying to shake off this dangerous speculation from his brain, but unfortunately, this speculation seemed to have taken root in his mind, growing bigger and bigger, like a ghost tree from hell, instantly covering the entire sky.

  Note 1: Huang Shaohong was also very good at writing memoirs. Later, he attributed the chaotic command of the Battle of Niangzi Pass to Feng Yuxiang's head. However, Feng Yuxiang's subordinates were not convinced and wrote many memoirs to refute him.