Chapter Fifty-Nine Pursuit

  Ma Zhan Shan let out a deep sigh: "We can't just let the officers and soldiers bleed on the front lines without giving them that meager military pay. You take care of this, don't need to report back to the province, distribute it along the front lines, starting from the first line of soldiers. The command center still has food to eat, not a single penny is allowed to be left behind, just finish distributing it."

  Zhao Xiaofeng immediately spoke out to stop him: "The large amount of money, food, ammunition and equipment that I supported in the front base are now advancing towards Sanjianfang, and Feng Zhanhai, the anti-Japanese general of Hafu, has also agreed to join my Northeast Anti-Japanese Army! Now I have appointed Feng Zhanhai as the commander of the Second Army Corps! They will also support us!" In fact, these materials were all obtained by Zhao Xiaofeng from Fentian, and now only a small part was taken out to buy off Ma Zhanshan.

  "Good!" Ma Zhan Shan almost jumped up, Xie Ke also wanted to speak but stopped.

  "There's more!" Zhao Xiao Feng laughed and said: "The Germans will continue to supply us with weapons and ammunition, now our task is how to drive the Japanese back!"

  Before the two had time to express their delight, the secretary rushed in again: "Chairman Mao, there's another piece of good news. The Shanghai Municipal Relief Association has issued a telegram calling for donations to support our resistance war. The 200,000 yuan sent by Life Magazine has already arrived."

  Ma Zanshan listened and sighed: "If the central government supported him in resisting the war, why worry about not driving out the Japanese army from Northeast China?"

  "Isn't Commander Zhao more reliable than Central?" Xie Ke suddenly spoke up.

  "What?" Ma Zhan Shan and Zhao Xiao Feng stared at Xie Ke together with wide eyes.

  Xie Ke said slowly, "When did Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang ever think of us ordinary people? When did they provide a single grain of rice or a bullet for our anti-Japanese troops? When did they lead us in striking against the Japanese invaders?"

  "This!" Ma Zhan Shan completely understood Xie Ke's meaning, but he still couldn't bear it and waved his hand: "You all go down first, I need to calm down for a while!"

  Zhao Xiaofeng excitedly smiled at Xie Ke and immediately pulled him out the door back to his own office.

  That night, Zhao Xiaofeng and Xie Ke surprisingly didn't sleep at all. They had analyzed the entire situation in Northeast China, and both of them admired each other's talent and knowledge, and couldn't help but appreciate each other.

  Xie Ke again answered many of Zhao Xiaofeng's questions about military affairs, as well as the difficulties in organizing troops, how to restrain them, and how to allocate them.

  Zhao Xiaofeng really hopes to learn more from Xie Ke, because he now has hope!

  Due to Huang Xiansheng and Zhao Zhenfan's mobilization, Haerbin's anti-Japanese general Feng Zhanhai has agreed to join the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army! Now he has appointed Feng Zhanhai as the commander of the Second Military Group! His subordinates now have more than 4,000 people, plus the Fifth and Sixth Divisions assigned by him, his two military groups have reached nearly 30,000 troops! If you add Ma Zhanshan's Heilongjiang army, he will have an army of 70,000! Zhao Xiaofeng couldn't help but indulge in the joy of victory, but the only flaw is that big brother Ma Zhanshan has not yet agreed to join his Northeast Anti-Japanese Army. It seems that he needs to think more!

  The Kwantung Army is again attacking Heilongjiang Province, the atmosphere is getting thicker. At 4 pm on the 10th, at the staff meeting of the Kwantung Army, since they had already received intelligence from Teikoku's Qing Shui, they knew that Zhao Xiaofeng had arrived in Heilongjiang, so they unanimously decided to take an offensive policy towards Heilongjiang. The political strategy adopted by Ma Zhanshan and Zhao Xiaofeng was completely abandoned, relying solely on military strategy to win, because Zhao Xiaofeng is a nightmare for the Japanese.

  At this time, the main force of the Japanese army supporting Jiangqiao had arrived, still with the 30th Division as its backbone. The affiliated brigades included: Infantry Brigade 30, Infantry Brigade 70, Infantry Brigade 4, Infantry Brigade 29; Cavalry Brigade 2, Cavalry Brigade 28, Field Artillery Brigade 26 and attached units.

  On January 1st, Honjō Shigenaga and his co-conspirators, Toma and Mori, planned to rise up in arms on the 12th and advance along three routes towards Sanhefang and Gangouxi.

  Nagatani corps commander, Amano corps commander in charge of the left and central route army command, defense team commander Mori Ren in charge of the right route army command.

  At this time, Zhao Xiaofeng had already made up his mind. Not only because the German advisory team's elite had contributed many strategies for him, but also because Ma Zhanshan had promised that as long as Zhao Xiaofeng led the Heilongjiang soldiers to drive out the Japanese invaders from Heilongjiang territory, he would lead his troops to join the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army.

  Feng Zhanhai's second division has now dispatched 3,000 elite troops to hide near Angangxi, and Feng Zhanhai is leading the army in person. Huang Xiansheng's first division of 5,000 elite troops has also arrived at Sanjianfang and is ambushing. This time, they not only brought machine guns and mortars for the Heilongjiang troops but also brought fifty large-caliber artillery pieces and several thousand rounds of ammunition.

  At this time, Honjō Shigeru had convened a staff meeting and submitted his own Manchurian problem opinion paper to the country, which clearly stated:

  The North Manchuria problem has no room for a political solution;

  (2) In this situation, if the situation in Heilongjiang Province is not quickly stabilized, it will be impossible to stabilize the situation in Southern Manchuria.

  (3) A severe winter has arrived, and if this opportunity is missed now, it will have to be postponed until next spring to take action;

  (4) Therefore, sending troops to Qiqihar is important. If the government encounters difficulties in deciding on the dispatch of troops due to various reasons, I hope that as a measure taken within the scope of my authority as a diplomat stationed abroad, it will be tacitly approved, and I also hope that the Consul General will assist in this matter.

  At that time, Japan was in an economic crisis and Western countries were neither able nor willing to lend money to Japan, so domestically there was originally no support for this war!

  Due to the continuous reinforcement of troops in Manchuria, Japan had already been divided into two factions. On one hand, the Japanese government, led by Foreign Minister Kijūrō Shidehara (Baron), suspected that this was a plot by the Kwantung Army and attempted to resolve the situation through diplomatic means. At an cabinet meeting on September 24, it was decided not to further expand the situation. However, the Kwantung Army ignored the government's decision, using self-defense as an excuse to continuously expand the front lines, while also promoting this as a highly profitable war of plunder, although greatly increasing troops would cost money, but would definitely yield rich returns!

  After the Japanese captured Liaoning and Jilin, they discovered that China was so rich. The Chinese army either fled without a fight or surrendered, leaving some domestic anti-war activists speechless.

  Although the economy in Japan at present cannot support large-scale warfare, General Nijiura has clearly stated his desire for his army to adopt a strategy of "living off the land" within Manchuria.

  Special Note: (Here, I would like to sincerely thank the readers who have given me feedback on "Please respect my right to speak" and I will gradually correct it. I hope you can continue to give me your opinions and suggestions! Thank you for your support!!)

  Just as the Kwantung Army's highest commander requested permission to attack Heilongjiang Province, 1,500 cavalrymen attacked the Wu Songlin brigade's defensive line near Sanjiafang, Wunoutou and Zhangjiayuan, reigniting the Jiangsu war that had been dormant for four days.

  The defenders rose up to resist, and after more than 40 minutes of fierce fighting, they repelled the enemy. Two hours later, a large Japanese army came again, with an absolute advantage in heavy artillery and more than 10 aircraft, launching a fierce bombardment against the defenders. More than 10,000 Japanese soldiers divided into three routes, Tianye, Changgu, and Senlian, adopting a large-scale encirclement tactic to advance on Sanjianfang. The defenders' trenches were cut into pieces under the intense artillery fire. Commander-in-Chief Yang Chonggu of the front line believed that Wu Songlin's position was in danger. Zhao Xiaofeng immediately dispatched Zhang Dianjiu's brigade, led by Sun Hongyu, to join forces with Wu Songlin's brigade on the front line, and ordered his own First Army Corps, led by Shi Li, to wait for an opportunity to attack while hiding.

  When the sun was in the west, the Japanese army, which had been fighting all day and was exhausted, finally retreated with their dead and wounded soldiers.

  Most of the Japanese army troops had withdrawn two miles away, but the Amaya Brigade, which was responsible for covering the retreat, still lingered behind, slowly withdrawing with over a thousand men.

  "Come on! Hurry up!" Commander Amagi yelled at his soldiers, but they were still slow and sluggish because they were really too exhausted. A day of non-stop attacking had exceeded their physical limits! In fact, these people didn't want to stay behind either, but there was no way out - who made Amagi want to compete for merit in front of Mori?

  The terrain here is very flat, and there were several large pits on both sides of the road, but they have all been filled in now!

  At this time, the five tanks that had been lurking in the two earth trenches received Shi's attack order. The five massive objects immediately roared out of the earth piles!

  Right behind the tanks, a machine gun battalion of more than 200 anti-Japanese soldiers led by Wang Zhengyang rushed out of the pre-buried cellar and charged towards the surrounded Japanese army under the cover of the tanks.

  "Ah!" Amagi was stunned by the scene before him! How did the enemy manage to emerge from the ground?! But with his eyes already red from killing, he brandished his command sword and shouted frantically at his soldiers: "Kill them all!"

  "What? Some soldiers are already scolding their wives! How can a person kill a tank? Are they supposed to hold rifles and fight tanks themselves? Their long-range firepower had retreated with the main forces, leaving only some infantry behind, without even a decent cannon in hand."

  Especially now, where do they have the energy to fight these iron monsters again? Just as five tanks had just fired a shell, the Japanese soldiers were in disarray. Some wanted to rush over and merge with the main force; some wanted to escape to the enemy's weak point; and some even started running wildly towards the Heilongjiang army that was chasing after them.

  "Boom! Boom!......"

  "Dada... dada..."

  The Japanese army's chaotic shouts and screams filled the sky above the three rooms, now Tianye had only over 300 soldiers left who were still desperately resisting, and Shili didn't give them any excuse to surrender!

  "Boom! Boom!..." A series of explosions erupted around Tenno, and over a hundred Japanese invaders, including Tenno, were killed by the tank's invincible artillery fire.

  And these five behemoths did not stop! Continuing to rush towards the hiding place of the Japanese.

  "Ah! Ah!......" The only place where the Japanese could hide was a low-lying area, and many of them were crushed by tanks before they even had a chance to stand up.

  At this time, the enemy and our troops had already entangled together. The artillery of the enemy reinforcements immediately lost its effect, while the tanks of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army were charging towards the fleeing Japanese army of over 100 people with great momentum.

  Mori stood on the high ground, slowly putting down the binoculars in his hand, and said sorrowfully to the staff beside him: "Tianye has already made the ultimate sacrifice!"

  "Ah!"

  "He is indeed the elite of our Great Japanese Empire!" Mori looked at the over 100 Japanese soldiers who had retreated to him and immediately gave a sorrowful order: "Fire! Open fire on the enemy tanks!"

  "What?" The adjutant was startled by these words. "Colonel! But... our men haven't retreated yet?"

  "Bah! Do you want to watch them charge into our great army?" Sen Lian cursed angrily.

  "Fire!" The staff officer gave an order with a look at the Japanese soldiers who were running towards their own army in a state of panic.

  "Boom! Boom!..." Suddenly, a deafening explosion erupted on the Japanese military position. The fleeing Japanese soldiers in front had not yet understood what was happening when they went to report to Auntie Ri Zu in disarray. Many of them were still shouting: "We are our own people! We are the Imperial Army!"

  "It's you guys who are hitting us!" The staff officer heard his own soldiers' cries and couldn't help but say in a low, mournful tone.

  "Why?" A Japanese artilleryman seeing his own people being bombed by their own side immediately stopped and shouted: "What's the meaning of this? Where are our engineers?"

  "Bastards! Baka!" The staff officer shouted fiercely with his mouth open: "Are you going to let the enemy rush into our position?"