Chapter Fifty-Four: Annihilation

  At 7:00 am, the Japanese army indeed launched an attack on San Jia Fang from the left wing of Jiangqiao. The infantry regiments of Li Qing Shan and Wu De Lin of the Second Infantry Brigade were defending in Da Guan Tun and Xiao Xin Tun when they first suffered a fierce artillery attack. A large area of birch forest was cut in half by the artillery fire, which continued to pound down relentlessly. The enemy commander had assumed that the defenders would definitely hide their troops here. However, Zhao Xiao Feng gave the Japanese a false impression, choosing not to build fortifications in the birch forest. As a result, although the Japanese artillery fire was intense, the casualties of the defending forces were not heavy.

  The Japanese army that invaded the left wing of Li Qing-shan's and Wu De-lin's troops was Suzuki's brigade.

  Suzuki Ryotaro had just been transferred from Jilin to the Jiangqiao front line. Not long ago, he led his troops to occupy the entire territory of Jilin without firing a single shot or bullet, and the defeated Jilin garrison surrendered to him. He was full of pride, "The Asian" army was so weak and incompetent that they didn't even give him a chance to use up his ammunition.

  It is a great pity that the Battle of Jiangqiao has begun, and his ambition to advance by stepping on the blood of enemies and soldiers has become more inflated. He repeatedly asked Ben Zhongfan for reinforcements in Jiangqiao, wanting to show off his talents in front of the highest commander. However, Ben Zhongfan ordered him to remain stationed in Jilin without taking action. It wasn't until Motomen suffered a defeat that he was transferred to the front line to coordinate with Motomen and the defending army.

  After receiving the order to attack the left wing, Suzuki led his desperate brigade, shouting loudly and rushing over.

  In the forefront of the battlefield, Wu and Li's two regiments saw that Suzuki's troops were coming fiercely, so they immediately ordered their troops to avoid the brunt of the attack, fighting while retreating from both wings.

  Suzuki rode a tall horse, grasping a command knife, and saw that the defending army retreated without a fight. He looked down on General Matsumoto: Such a tattered and worn-out unit with long guns and short knives could actually make several tens of thousands of troops fall before them?

  "Damn it!" he cursed in his heart.

  Suzuki was overjoyed and eager to win, but he was blinded by victory and didn't notice that the defenders were luring him into a trap, committing a major military taboo: "underestimating the enemy".

  The defenders, under the pursuit of the Japanese army, seemed to have retreated in disarray to a small village with only a dozen or so households. The staff officer reminded him that the defenders might be feigning defeat and suggested ordering a halt to the advance and sending out a small team to search before proceeding further.

  Where did Suzuki listen to it? The three rooms are the gathering place of the Jiangsu Provincial Corps. Taking down the three rooms is almost taking down Longjiang, and Ma Zhanshan is not a turtle in an urn, can't he be caught? Is there such a good thing, how could he let Moden take the lead? He ordered the troops to bombard and then rushed over.

  Wu and Li's two troops were deployed by Zhao Xiaofeng in the left wing of the three rooms, laying out a heaven and earth net. The troops were ambushed between sand dunes, thistles, gullies, and civilian houses, waiting for Wu Delin's command.

  The soldiers of the Wu and Li brigades gazed intently at the unsuspecting Japanese troops, close enough to see their gloating and distorted faces. A bandage flag on a bayonet almost covered one soldier's face, but without an order, they could not fire.

  The Japanese army was completely trapped, and suddenly, a burst of gunfire rang out. The ambush troops on both sides detonated the landmines on the dirt road, and flames shot up into the sky amidst wails and screams. Immediately, the Chinese army charged forward like arrows released from a bowstring, with bayonets and bullets taking effect simultaneously. Like heavenly soldiers and generals, they cut off the invincible Suzuki Brigade in three sections. The Suzuki Brigade was caught in the encirclement of the defending troops. Those Chinese soldiers who had appeared weak and timid just moments before instantly transformed into lions and tigers, each one with a bayonet stained red and every gun covered in blood. In an instant, six or seven hundred soldiers from the Suzuki Brigade were killed or wounded. If Suzuki hadn't ordered a quick retreat, they might have been completely annihilated.

  Defeated General Matsumoto escaped back to the county town of Tai Lai, reported to Commander Tomeno, concealed his own defeat and instead pushed all the blame onto Zhang Haipeng, who did not participate in the main attack but was in charge of the right-wing response, saying that he retreated without a fight, causing his brigade to be defeated. Zhang Damazi's whole body was covered with mouths and couldn't argue clearly.

  In November, the Nenjiang Plain was already in a harsh winter, but on another stretch of dirt road leading to Sanjianfang, it was filled with the stuffiness and heat before the battle.

  When Suzuki attacked the left wing of Sanjiafang, Lieutenant Colonel Hamamoto, commander of the 6th Regiment of the Tomen Division, advanced from the front to Sanjiafang under Tomen's orders. Riding a tall warhorse, Hamamoto stood on the gravel road waiting for scouts to investigate the movements of the defenders at Mazhan Mountain. He wouldn't be foolish again.

  At the beginning of the Jiangqiao Campaign, his disastrous defeat was due to his arrogance and underestimation. He didn't take the defenders of Jiangqiao seriously, he was confident in his own abilities as the commander of the Kwantung Army's elite troops, with advanced weapons and brave soldiers imbued with the spirit of Bushido. How could Ma Zhanshan, a former bandit, possibly stop him? Ma's Black Army not only pinned down his troops with artillery fire and flesh-and-blood at the south end of the bridge but also nearly made him a ghost under the blades of multiple swords. Having learned this lesson, he adopted a policy of steady and cautious advance, step by step, against the Heilongjiang troops.

  So, when he received multiple attack orders, Ma Zhanshan's troops did not quickly advance and retreat three rooms. He wasn't that stupid. In his heart, he cursed the commander of the Suzuki Brigade with a mocking tone: "Bastard, I really hope you can come back alive!" The order he gave was to search and advance.

  At this time his reconnaissance captain was covered in blood, rushing to his horse with a mournful cry, an ominous premonition flashed through his mind: "Damn it, where's Honda?"

  Eight soldiers carried four blood-soaked sacks and placed them in front of Himoto, dumping out eight heads of Japanese military men.

  "Son of a bitch, what's going on?"

  The reconnaissance team leader explained with a sigh: "I led the team to rush to the section where the gunfire was intense, and Ma Zhanshan's troops had already withdrawn. We saw this pile of heads on the road, and Honda was among them."

  Hamada yelled loudly and directed his troops to pursue, enraged by Honda's pair of wide-opened terrified eyes.

  The Japanese cavalry was lured into the encirclement by the defending troops, and the retreating defenders suddenly left the main road and disappeared into the birch forest. The Japanese lost their target of attack and were searching for it when two regiments of defending infantry occupied advantageous positions and opened fire with machine guns and artillery at the Shimomura detachment.

  The Hamamoto Brigade retreated without orders, and the advance was unable to proceed. Trapped on a dusty road with bullets flying everywhere, he immediately sent someone to request support from Suzuki, claiming that they had encountered the main force of Ma Zhanshan's army. Suzuki immediately ordered the Takabata Cavalry Brigade to reinforce and defeat the Heilongjiang garrison.

  The Kohtei unit immediately approached the Binbontei unit to rescue Binbon from the artillery fire attack of the defending army. Entering the outer periphery of the battlefield, he heard that the artillery fire between the two sides was not intense, but mostly the sound of Chinese soldiers' guns attacking the remnants of Binbon, and he put down his binoculars with a puzzled mind: "Was Binbon annihilated?"

  Gao Bo had a bad premonition and wanted to retreat on horseback, but a group of Japanese soldiers came running over, each with a grey head and dirty face. Gao Bo shouted loudly: "What's going on?"

  A soldier handed a note to Takashi, an urgent telegram from Hamamoto:

  I knew you were sending reinforcements, but they didn't arrive in time. The Heilongjiang troops launched a fierce attack on us. Due to our unfamiliarity with the terrain and being isolated, we couldn't utilize the advantages of different branches of the military. Now I'm left with only nine soldiers and a damaged radio transmitter, dozens of bullets, and all other officers and men are casualties. Please hurry up and rescue me.

  Sweat dripped from his palms, but his mind was surprisingly clear. Rather than waiting to be killed, why not retreat while the enemy had not yet surrounded them?

  Gao Bo crumpled up the letter from Bin Ben and threw it to the ground, saying to the chief of staff: "At dusk, the defending army will definitely have an ambush, hurry back!"

  It's too late to withdraw. Wu Songlin led his troops to block all the rear roads from Daxing Station to Jiangqiao.

  Early this morning, Zhao Xiaofeng and Ma Zhan Shan led Jin Kui to the front line for inspection by car. They gave a commendation to Xu Baozhen, commander of the Guard Regiment. He entered the command post in the middle of Angangxi and was instructing on reception and replenishment matters. Deputy officer Tang Fengjia ran over with a smile: "General Ma, there is a telegram from the Central Committee!"

  Ma Zhan-shan took over the telegram, with surprise and delight in his heart. Since Ma Zhan-shan took office as acting chairman, he decisively blocked the Japanese at Jiangqiao, making the arrogant Japanese army pay a heavy price of tens of thousands of people. The major newspapers across the country reported on Ma Zhan-shan's resistance against the Japanese army at Jiangqiao. Chiang Kai-shek, under pressure from all sectors of society, sent a telegram to commend Ma Zhan-shan:

  General Ma occupies the mountain. Since taking office as acting chairman of Jiang Province and commander-in-chief of Jiang Province, he has personally gone to the front line, his prestige spreading far and wide, both at home and abroad, and has made great contributions to defending the province's territory. A telegram of commendation is hereby sent. At the same time, a telegram from Zhang Xueliang, deputy commander of the Northern Peaceful Unification Army, was received:

  Wei Ma Zhan Shan was appointed as the Chairman of Heilongjiang Provincial Government and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Northeast Border Defense Forces stationed in Jiang Province, all troops stationed in Jiang Province were placed under his command, and he took full charge of military and political affairs.

  From then on, Ma Zhan Shan's reputation soared.

  Two telegrams made Ma Zanshan's mood hard to calm down, his anti-Japanese actions finally got the recognition of the Central Government, his eyes shining with joyful light, suddenly shouting loudly: "Please ask General Wu to come here for a visit!"

  The messenger ran out of the door and got into Ma Zhan-shan's car heading north to Daxing.

  General Wu Songlin was known as the "Iron Knight" in the Jiangsu army, and he had two regiments, the Sari Bulu Regiment and the Liu Bin Regiment. Before the Jiangqiao Blood Battle, Ma Zhanshan assigned the Suilengbao Anwei Cavalry Battalion to him as his third regiment, and equipped him with more than 50 Czech-style light machine guns and corresponding ammunition. In the Nationalist army, everyone knew that having troops meant having power and opportunities for promotion. However, Ma Zhanshan prioritized the country over personal interests and did not try to expand his own influence by incorporating the Suilengbao Anwei Cavalry Battalion into his direct command. This earned Wu Songlin's respect. Therefore, when the Jiangqiao Blood Battle began, he dispatched his main force regiment, the Sari Bulu Regiment, to participate in the battle.

  Wu Songlin rushed to the temporary command center in Ang'angxi, where Ma Zanshan and Zhao Xiaofeng were. Ma Zanshan smiled: "Commander Wu, your chance has come. Since we withdrew from Daxing last night, the Japanese army has gathered a large number of infantry at Daxing Station, they are only focused on the front line, completely unguarded. So, I want you to go and clean them up."

  Wu Songlin's spirits lifted: "Chairman Mao is truly all-knowing. We counterattack the Daxing position, kill their infantry, destroy their ammunition and supply carts, cut off their retreat route, what are they going to do?"

  Ma Zhan Shan nodded in agreement: "That's exactly what I mean!"

  "Comrade Wu, on our side, there is still a reconnaissance squad hiding in the woods west of the train station. They are clear about the specific enemy troops. Zhang Haipeng's surrendered deputy battalion commander knows where the ammunition car is."

  Wu Songlin was eager to rush to the front line to retake Daxing Station, but Zhao Xiaofeng stopped him with a smile. He whispered a few words in his ear, and Wu Songlin burst out laughing: "Alright, Commander Zhao!" After that, he walked away with big strides.