Chapter 29: You Deceive Me and I Cheat You

  Ma Xiaoling immediately stepped forward and saluted: "Ma Xiaoling reports to Commander Zhao!" She acted as if she didn't know Zhao Xiao Feng.

  "Great! Great!" Seeing Ma Xiaoling's indifferent appearance, Zhao Xiaofeng felt a little surprised, but in order to cover up his own embarrassment, he immediately changed the subject and said: "Director Fang, if the hospital needs any materials, please let me know as soon as possible. The ordnance factory still has many medical devices!"

  "Yes!" Fang Zheng heard and immediately replied: "We are now lacking nothing, when needed I will naturally go to trouble the commander!"

  "Alright! The wounded are handed over to you! We're leaving!" Zhao Xiaofeng immediately got into a car prepared for him by A Lang, which was once owned by the commander of the Seventh Regiment, Wang Yizhe.

  Zhao Zhenfan and Huang Xiansheng sat behind Zhao Xiaofeng, the driver was an elite from the tank regiment, named Huang Baoshan.

  The car soon stopped at No. 48, Shaofu Hutong, Chaoyang Street, Shenhe District, the famous "Shaofu Mansion", and several cars behind followed by cadres who arrived later all entered the old tiger hall in the small Qinglou.

  Zhao Xiaofeng sat in a comfortable high-back chair, his hands involuntarily placed on the two fake tigers on either side of the chair. Then, he looked around at the people present and stood up to say: "Brothers, we have now taken over Beida Camp, but how long it can hold out is hard to say. Especially since I heard that the commander of the Kwantung Army, Honjō Shigeru, is coming to personally direct the battle on the southern front, which is very unfavorable for us. They have already gathered nearly 10,000 Japanese troops in the south and seem to be showing signs of reinforcements. Fortunately, we still have a contingent of ambush troops that has not been deployed yet. Otherwise, it's uncertain who will die first. So, I now order all units to immediately prepare for an attack to support the ambush troops!"

  " Ambush?" Zhao Zhenfan asked in surprise: "Commander, where are our ambush troops?"

  "It's Hongshan's team!" Zhao Xiaofeng said.

  "Ah!" Huang Xian shouted: "I heard that Hongshan has led more than a thousand bandits to attack the Japanese military headquarters, so a wanted notice has been issued throughout the province. Whoever captures Hongshan will be rewarded with 5,000 yuan!"

  "Ah!" Zhao Xiaofeng finally remembered why Ma Xiaoling was so cold to him, it turned out she was worried about her father! No matter what, the bond of flesh and blood is unbreakable. Fortunately, Hongshan didn't really surrender to the Japanese, otherwise this strong-willed Ma Xiaoling might have done something extreme! Right! I must tell Ma Xiaoling as soon as possible that Hongshan has joined the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army! But there's no time now.

  "Mountain cat!" Zhao Xiaofeng shouted.

  "Yes! Commander!" Wildcat replied, standing up.

  "Is there a telegram from Hongshan?"

  "We've already received a telegram from Hongshan!" The mountain cat continued, "Hongshan reported that he will arrive at Ben Zhuangfan's headquarters this evening! However, he said that from now on, he will cut off all contact with us to prevent the enemy from being suspicious!"

  "Alright! Everyone get ready, we must start the battle before nightfall and give Hongshan a chance to capture Ben Zhuang Fan alive!"

  "Yes!" Everyone stood up, and Huang Xiansheng immediately said: "Commander, should I withdraw the wanted order for Hongshan now?"

  "No!" Zhao Xiao Feng laughed and said: "This is just right for numbing the Japanese!"

  At 4:00 pm that afternoon, Zhao Xiaofeng had already deployed his troops to assemble in the south, while all the Japanese were as quiet as sleeping children, without a single sound.

  "Commander! It's too quiet, this is very suspicious, we must be careful!"

  "Hmm!" Zhao Xiaofeng immediately asked: "According to the Chief of Staff's meaning, what should we do?"

  "Attack!" Zhao Zhenfan said resolutely, but immediately followed with another sentence: "Only send a small team to attack, until we see the enemy's reaction clearly, can we order the whole army to attack!"

  "Good!" Zhao Xiao Feng nodded and said: "This time our operation can only succeed, it cannot fail! That's why I concentrated all the tanks and artillery here.

  "Commander! The terrain here is treacherous, it's extremely difficult for the Japanese to launch an attack from here. Why do we still need to take the initiative to attack?" Huang Xiansheng continued: "Moreover, our mobilizable troops now only have over a thousand people, while nearly ten thousand Japanese are concentrated outside the city. This battle is not easy to fight!"

  "What's there to fear!" Ah Lang shouted: "We only used five hundred men to drive out the four thousand devils from Xiao Ximen, now we have over a thousand men, can't we still deal with these turtle eggs?"

  Zhao Xiaofeng stopped Ah Lang and said: "Don't underestimate the Japanese, they are very cunning. The tactics used this morning can no longer be used today!"

  "I've already thought of a tactic!" Zhao Zhenfan immediately whispered into Zhao Xiaofeng's ear.

  "Good!" Zhao Xiao Feng immediately nodded and said: "The battle here will be handled by you, I'll supervise from the city wall!"

  "Yes!" Zhao Zhenfan immediately accepted the order. He continued to arrange: "Wang Deqing! You command three KV-2 tanks to open the way in front."

  "Yes!"

  "Wang Zhengyang's fifty machine guns, Huang Yuhai's fifty mortars followed, five hundred soldiers followed the tanks, advancing towards the enemy position!" Zhao Zhenfan ordered.

  "Yes!" everyone replied in unison.

  "Glasses will push 100 long-range cannons to the city gate, waiting for orders. The rest of the artillery must start attacking at four o'clock sharp, requiring a three-minute stop after firing for three minutes, and then fire again for three minutes to end!"

  "Yes!" The glasses immediately went down to prepare.

  "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, it has been confirmed that Lieutenant General Honjō's unit suffered 1,924 casualties. The Chinese army also slaughtered over a thousand of our compatriots and Chinese who were willing to surrender to us at the gate of Fengtian City!" reported Tōyama Kaneji

  "Hacha, why are our soldiers so incompetent?" Ben Zhuang furiously pulled out his command knife and then resentfully put it back: "How many of them are there? And who is the highest commander on their side?"

  Tsuchihashi's report read: "The one resisting here is Zhao Xiaofeng, the founder of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army! There are about 4,000 to 5,000 troops in the entire city now, but their defense line is very large, so at most only 1,000 people can resist us from the south!" He suddenly thought of something and shouted loudly: "The politicians in our country have already paid great attention to this matter. General Nishio Toshiizo, the Minister of the Army, is about to collapse under the impact of the political arena. General Nishio hopes that the commander will end this battle immediately!

  Honjō's gaze turned to Ishiwara Kanji, known as the "military sword" of the Japanese army, hoping to hear his opinion.

  Ishihara stood up and reported: "Commander, now the only way to shut the mouths of domestic politicians is to release a message back home saying that Zhang Xueliang has assembled 3 million troops in Fengtian, posing a great threat to our safety. We request immediate support from home and transfer all troops on the Korean battlefield to Fengtian. We must take Fengtian at all costs."

  Honjō nodded, but the seasoned Itō Seiichirō immediately questioned, "Are we going to use cannons to swat flies?"

  "Right!" Ishihara Kanji nodded and said: "Our current military strength is not enough to conquer Manchuria, so we need to mobilize all troops as soon as possible. We will take Mukden as the primary target, then divide our forces into four routes, and must control the entire Manchuria in the shortest time!"

  "Why must we make such a great sacrifice for this Heavenly City?" asked Heitaro Hirata, commander of the 2nd Division.

  "We are not deploying troops for the sake of this city, but for the entire Manchurian battlefield!" Ishiwara Kanji said: "When the time comes, with the rapid advance of the Imperial Army, Mukden will soon become an isolated city, and they will not be able to hold on for long." In his heart, the Northeastern Army had already begun to resist, no longer the army that fled at the sight of Japanese people.

  "Honjō nodded: 'Chief of Staff, regarding this military operation, domestically no one knows about it. Now we must keep the secret, once a disadvantageous situation appears in the military, we will be very passive. Therefore, this action must be swift!'"

  Staff Officer Tofei Genji, who had just returned from Japan, immediately said: "Commander, a small Shenyang is not a threat to us. Compared with occupying the entire Northeast, Shenyang is too insignificant. I believe this victory will give those politicians a hard slap in the face!"

  "But!" said Hirahito Hirata: "The current arsenal of Fengtian City is enough to arm three divisions, and their munitions factory can be operational immediately! The Chinese here can fire bullets and shells at Imperial soldiers without any scruples, please consider this carefully, Commander!"

  "Yes! After all, they still have a strong firepower!" Ishihara Kanji sighed.

  "I've already taken that into consideration." Hongo Kanehide smiled and said, "Just this morning, I again telephoned General Rin Chan-nyon of the Korean army and asked him to speed up their march. The 39th Mixed Brigade will soon arrive in Fengtian, and with the assistance of these elite troops, things will become much easier!"

  "But what if the Fengtian side launches a surprise attack on us again?" Tōyama Genji was worried about the sudden attack by Fengtian on the western city wall of the Rhombus Rongbu troops, fearing that such a thing would happen to himself again.

  Honjō Tadashi slammed his fist on the table and said, "The Chief of Staff has just returned from home, you don't know, just this morning, Hirata Yoshitane, the commander of the regiment, had made all preparations, he was only afraid they wouldn't come! Hmph!"

  Hirata Yukimune immediately explained: "Our army has mobilized ten aircraft, five armored trains, one hundred artillery pieces, and dug many traps to wait for them to be delivered!"

  "Good! Very good! But we must remind the troops to be careful, those Chinese are really too cunning! It's hard to guard against them." Benjō Shigekazu cautioned carefully.

  "Yes!" Hirata Yukihiko gave a military salute.

  Tsuchihashi then asked: "Your Excellency Commander! What about Hongshan's troops?"

  "Hmm! The news from Ryōjun has arrived, saying that among the defenders of Fengtian there are several sharpshooters using German Mauser sniper rifles. This is also very suspicious! Moreover, hasn't his unit already occupied Zhao Xiaofeng's front slope? But now Zhao Xiaofeng is still alive and well, definitely related to Hongshan. However, we are currently in need of people." Motomura Shin considered for a moment before saying: "We must be vigilant towards him! I think it's best to temporarily appoint him as the commander of the Manchurian First Army! After all, this news is all from him, and also, we must unite with Chinese who are beneficial to us!"

  "Yes!" Tofu Hara Kenji immediately went down to prepare.

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