Chapter 40 Strategy

  But the Chinese planes didn't give them a chance to retreat, and the dense bombs and bullets slaughtered the lives of Japanese soldiers as if they had eyes. The poor 2nd Division of the Kwantung Army was almost completely annihilated, and its commander, General Heitaro Kimura, was also killed by a bomb during the retreat. He was one of the highest-ranking commanders to be sacrificed after Japan launched the Manchurian Incident. Therefore, Zhao Xiaofeng's Northeastern Army thoroughly destroyed the Japanese myth of invincibility!

  The Northeast Anti-Japanese Army's planes continued to bomb for about ten minutes, then circled around the outskirts of Fengtian City and flew away in formation towards Shandong Province. This bombing mission was carefully arranged by Zheng Shan, and his pilots successfully completed their combat mission without experiencing a single battle. Only one fighter plane was shot down by Japanese machine guns due to flying too low, but as it crashed, it took out the machine gun and dozens of surrounding Japanese soldiers with it.

  "Alright! The planes have all left, we should also think about how to evacuate!" Shi Li said.

  "No!" Zhao Xiao Feng shook his head and said, "The Japanese are now only temporarily retreating. It won't take long before they definitely come back! Our task is to tie the Japanese up in this meat grinder, making it impossible for them to advance or retreat!"

  "What?" Shi Li exclaimed: "Our supporting troops have all withdrawn, leaving only a few thousand wounded soldiers. How can we fight the Japanese like this?!"

  "Don't argue about how to fight now, it's time for us to beat the dog in the water. Immediately send a message and order all soldiers to rush out of their hiding spots and start chasing the enemy, but be sure not to charge into the enemy's position!" Zhao Xiao Feng said with a smile.

  "Yes!" The orderly immediately transmitted the order for pursuit.

  At that moment, the entire city of Fengtian was shaken by a heart-stopping counterattack. The remaining 2,000-plus anti-Japanese soldiers chased after the Japanese troops of nearly 10,000 people and fired wildly.

  "The Chinese soldiers have gone mad!" Lin Xunsi sighed: "Order our troops to stay behind and cover the retreat of other troops!"

  After a day of fighting, the anti-Japanese army returned triumphantly, and in the old Tiger Hall of the Xiaoqing Building, Zhao Xiaofeng held a grand ceremony to celebrate the great victory of Fengtian.

  First, Shi Li was appointed as the commander of the anti-Japanese army corps, Cao Shangfei as the deputy commander, and Shan Mao as the political commissar. Zhao Xiaofeng was quite satisfied with his own arrangement, at least each of them had been promoted to a higher position.

  They also knew that although they were now a regimental cadre, compared to those army commanders and division commanders, they were much more powerful. At the very least, their soldiers were the backbone of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army, and all of them had been baptized in the fire of war. Each one was a good fellow who could hold his own against a hundred men.

  "Alright!" Zhao Xiaofeng looked around at everyone present and asked: "Wang Deqing, how many tanks does your tank regiment have left now?"

  "There are only three A7V combat tanks, two KV-2 tanks and nineteen armored cars left."

  "Alright!" Zhao Xiao Feng turned his head and asked Wang Zheng Yang, "How many of our machine gunners are left?"

  "There are a total of 315 machine gunners! And more than 30 wounded."

  "Hmm!" Zhao Xiao Feng asked Huang Yue Hai Dao again: "How many mortars do you have left?"

  "Report to the commander! There are 290 mortar soldiers left, 103 wounded, many mortars have been destroyed, and there is a shortage of shells. During this cleanup of the battlefield, more than 100 were seized from the Japanese, as well as three Type 92 infantry guns and over 300 rounds of ammunition."

  "Good!" Zhao Xiaofeng immediately said: "Now appoint Wang Deqing as the commander of the first battalion! For the tank battalion, only leave those three A7V combat tanks and two KV-2 tanks. The rest will be transferred to the front slope base, and Huang Junlong will be responsible for arranging and distributing them to the three war zones."

  "But! …" Wang Deqing wanted to ask, but was stopped by Zhao Xiaofeng. He continued: "Order Wang Zhengyang as the second battalion commander, for machine gun battalion, leaving only 200 machine gunners, and the rest will withdraw to the front slope base!"

  Zhao Xiaofeng looked at Huang Yuedao and said, "Appoint Huang Yuedao as the commander of the third battalion, which is an assault artillery battalion. Leave two hundred assault gunners behind, and the rest will follow the army back to Qianpo."

  "Right! How's our sniper?" Zhao Xiaofeng suddenly shouted.

  "It's okay!" Shi Li said with a bitter smile: "Of the ten sniper points we built, only four were destroyed, and our guns are also out of commission!"

  "Cough!" Zhao Xiaofeng sighed in pain and then asked: "Shi Li, tell me about the situation of our soldiers now!

  "Commander! Our anti-Japanese army now has 1,969 soldiers left, with more than 210 seriously injured and over 530 lightly wounded." Shi Li Hui reported.

  "Hmm!" Zhao Xiao Feng thought for a moment and said: "Leave 1,200 soldiers behind, and all the wounded will be transferred back to the front slope base for recuperation. These 1,200 soldiers will be divided into four teams, with each regiment allocated 300 people, leaving one reinforced guard company of 300 people for my use."

  Zhao Xiaofeng drank a cup of water and continued: "All the wounded soldiers as well as those sent to the front slope will withdraw from Fengtian tonight by car, horse-drawn carriage and tank! There must be no mistake!"

  "Yes!" Everyone stood up.

  "Commander!" Shi Li asked cautiously: "We now have only over a thousand people left, are we still going to fight the Japanese?"

  "Are you not going to avenge? Can you be worthy of those brothers who have died?" Zhao Xiao Feng retorted.

  "Yes! Fight to the end!" Shi Li shouted immediately.

  "No!" Zhao Xiao Feng immediately laughed and said: "Do you know why I only left these elite soldiers? He didn't wait for his subordinates to speak before saying: "I'm stalling for time, as long as we're given enough time, each division will develop rapidly, and at that time, our anti-Japanese troops in the Northeast will also emerge one after another. When the time comes, we'll make a name for ourselves and retire. You say, isn't it possible with just elite soldiers?"

  "Yes! Commander is wise!" Shi Li flattered.

  "Alright!" Zhao Xiaofeng said: "Brothers, you've all worked hard these past few days. For now, the Japanese won't dare to enter Fentian City again. Pass down the order for the troops to hide and rest for two days, we must prevent the Japanese artillery attack!

  "Yes!"

  All the wounded were withdrawn from Fengtian City on reserved military vehicles and armored vehicles, while the Japanese, who had been heavily attacked by the stubborn resistance of the Fengtian defenders, had almost become turtles with their heads drawn in, and there was no movement for three consecutive days.

  Now, the name of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army in Fengtian has become famous at home and abroad. All flesh-and-blood Chinese people are actively responding, and countless soldiers and civilians from all provinces and cities are rushing to the Northeast to join the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army. Even Chiang Kai-shek, who has always advocated for "expelling external aggression before internal pacification", is now under pressure from the situation repeatedly sending telegrams requesting the greatest assistance for the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army.

  Just in time, Zhao Xiaofeng opened his mouth and asked the National Government for a large amount of weapons, equipment, money, materials, and military intelligence. Because he knew that the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army was now limited to the Northeast border, and its understanding of the outside world was really too little, but he did not comment on the lieutenant general's title granted by the National Government, which made Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing Palace scold his mother.

  The Communist Party, however, sent a telegram requesting to join forces with the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army to resist the Japanese together and wanted to send elite troops to assist in organizing guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Zhao Xiaofeng knew that if he agreed to the Communist Party's request, it would be easy to invite them in but difficult to get rid of them later. As soon as the Communist Party gained a foothold in the Northeast, his own Northeast Anti-Japanese Army might one day become communist-dominated. But he really needed the help of friendly forces at this time, so he immediately replied to the Communist Party's proposal: "I hope you can send more non-communist experienced fighters to assist in organizing guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines." Zhao Xiaofeng knew that the Communist Party would not deceive him on this matter. Moreover, he was taking a route of not relying on any party, so neither the National Government nor the Communist Party would blame him.

  As expected, Chiang Kai-shek was overjoyed when he heard that Zhao Xiaofeng did not want Communist Party members to come and assist. He immediately ordered a batch of non-Kuomintang personnel to go to Northeast China to support the war effort, thinking that his own National Army was the orthodox one! Zhao Xiaofeng would eventually surrender to him! Although the military intelligence for the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army still needed to be provided by Chiang Kai-shek, he refused Zhao Xiaofeng's request for material assistance on the grounds that the war had affected supplies. However, this time he went all out to provide support to the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army with a group of non-party military elites who were top graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy's 7th class, including: Luo Youlun, Zhou Lang, Huang Sizong, Yang Boguang, and Ren Yizhen.

  After receiving Zhao Xiaofeng's telegram, the Communist Party immediately convened an emergency military meeting. The only proposal at this meeting was how to support the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army in attacking the Japanese and how to bring Zhao Xiaofeng over to their side. After all, the Northeast is a rich land, and with Zhao Xiaofeng's support, the Communist Party's strength will surely develop rapidly. Therefore, the Party Central Committee immediately announced a list of elite personnel and equipped them with the most advanced weapons in the army, taking them to the Northeast to help the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army organize a people's war of resistance.

  The famous generals on this list are: Kong Qingde, Wang Zhao, Zuo Qi, Wang Fu, and Fu Chongbi. However, after the Communist Party's General Secretary Xiang Zhongfa was captured and defected in June of that year, Mikhail Borodin designated Wang Ming as the acting secretary on behalf of the Comintern. The third "leftist" deviation began to dominate within the party. In September of the same year, the Central Committee was destroyed, and Wang Ming followed Borodin to the Soviet Union, serving as the representative of the Chinese Communist Party in the Comintern. Before leaving for the Soviet Union, Wang Ming appointed Bo Gu to be in charge of the Central Committee, who continued to implement Wang Ming's "leftist" adventurism. Therefore, he proposed at a party committee meeting: Yang Jingyu, Zhao Shangzhi, and Xiao Ke would serve as special commissioners for the Northeast region, where they were already active in Manchuria, and demanded that they continue to organize and train anti-Japanese troops in the Northeast region, monitoring the dynamics of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army. After all, Zhao Shangzhi's Northeast Anti-Japanese Army was made up of bandits, so Bo Gu was full of distrust towards them.

  On October 1, Zhao Xiaofeng saw that all the soldiers had regained their strong fighting spirit and immediately convened a meeting of battalion commanders and above of the Anti-Japanese Military Corps to announce the latest developments of the Japanese army from the Kuomintang.

  The KMT intelligence reported: "Japan has approved the dispatch of the 19th and 20th Divisions of the Korean Army, with a portion of their elite troops, as well as a portion of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions from Japan, plus nearly 100,000 Japanese reserve soldiers, to begin deploying in batches to Northeast China. The total number of Japanese soldiers is approximately 150,000."

  "Now you've stirred up a hornet's nest!" Shi Li laughed and said.

  "Right!" Zhao Xiao Feng said with a smile: "What we want is to make this beehive bigger and better!" He smiled quite complacently.

  "What should we do?" Cao Zhi asked.

  "It's up to you now to think of a way, but don't worry, the Japanese will take at least half a month to reach Northeast China!" Zhao Xiao Feng said.

  "We can't just wait in Fengtian to be beaten, can we?" Shi said with a worried and bitter expression.

  "Right!" Zhao Xiao Feng stood up and said: "I don't want to wait here to be beaten either, but whether the Japanese will attack this place is still hard to say."

  "Why?" Shi Ri asked strangely.