Chapter 6: The First Encounter with War (Part 2)

  Under the current situation, the highest commander of the Japanese army on the Linyi battlefield, Lieutenant General Sakamoto, is a meticulous person. He specifically instructed Yamaki that if he could not kill or capture Pang Bingxun, at least destroy his command center, making it impossible for the Chinese 40th Army to contact its headquarters. He also stipulated that as soon as they succeeded, they would fire four red signal flares, and then Sakamoto's brigade would launch a full-scale attack on the Chinese army while they were in chaos, aiming to capture Linyi and defeat the 40th Army. Then, they would join forces with other units of the division to encircle Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army. At that time, the troops under the Third Army Group had already been fighting for many days, and their physical and mental strength were exhausted. If the command center was destroyed by the Japanese army again, regardless of whether Pang Bingxun could escape or not, the morale of the Third Army Group would inevitably collapse, giving the Japanese an opportunity to take advantage of it. It should be said that the feasibility of this plan is still very high.

  But this battle, which was originally thought to be a sure win for the Japanese army, turned out to be quite arrogant and contemptuous of the Chinese military's combat style. However, Lieutenant Colonel Yamaki, who had experienced many battles and was not incompetent, felt that the combat style of this Chinese army was vastly different from that of the 3rd Army Corps. Not only that, but also in terms of defensive capabilities and firepower, it far surpassed the Sakamoto detachment, which had been their opponent for over a month, and whose predecessor was a unit of the Northwest Army's Pang Yingxun division.

  The Japanese army initially gained some unexpected advantages, and their vanguard almost simultaneously wiped out the several forward sentry posts set up by the advance detachment at the front and rear village entrances. Just as the two Japanese companies were about to charge into the village to complete their mission, the Japanese good fortune came to an end. For Commissar Cheng Jiaji, who had read "Bright Sword" three times and admired Li Yunlong very much, he would never forget to set up several hidden sentry posts when camping, and now he was richer than Li's battalion commander in terms of equipment. Behind each village entrance, there were five submachine guns and one light machine gun forming a hidden sentry post, which was not simply a hidden sentry post, but a firepower position set up in an inconspicuous place behind the first sentry post, with a firepower density comparable to that of a regular Chinese army company. What was most deadly for the Japanese was not this firepower point. Cheng Jiaji, who lacked confidence in his own abilities and was fighting for the first time, also assigned one 80mm mortar to each hidden sentry post as a strong backing force that could be called upon at any time through telephone fire support. Cheng Jiaji called these two mortars "duty cannons." Wen Songyuan and Gao Shiyin both thought that such tight arrangements were unnecessary, but only Yu Juncai praised them without end, and even took the initiative to take on the task of making specific arrangements, adding some extra measures to Cheng Jiaji's already meticulous plans. He ordered the artillery to conduct accurate measurements of the village entrances to ensure that the supporting artillery could hit their targets when firing. After learning about Yu Juncai's arrangements, Cheng Jiaji was very impressed and even had the engineer company bury several electrically controlled infantry shells at the village entrance, which were rare domestic products at that time.

  These deployments combined, the Japanese took a big loss. First, several submachine guns fired simultaneously and instantly knocked down nearly half of the Japanese vanguard battalion. Then, several mortar shells hit with incredible accuracy, like sharp eyes, sending all the surviving members of the Japanese vanguard battalion into the arms of the old homosexual god Amaterasu. Not only that, but also many troops behind the Japanese were drawn in.

  Here is the translation:

  Although Lieutenant Colonel Yamaki, who was outside the village, was not on the scene, as a seasoned commander with 13 years of military service and five or six years of experience fighting in Northeast China and against the Anti-Japanese Allied Army, he could clearly estimate that at least 20 to 30 of his Imperial Army soldiers had been knocked out by the enemy's sudden attack. (In fact, 32 Japanese soldiers were killed and 23 wounded in the two villages, which was almost half a battalion. This did not include those who were lightly injured.) Stroking his neatly trimmed mustache, Yamaki cursed his two company commanders, Takuji Mokuno and Kaito Yamada, who were leading their troops into the village, calling them complete idiots. At the same time, he was surprised by the Chinese army's rapid reaction and intense firepower, which was unusual for an army that was usually poorly equipped and slow to react. As someone who had been fighting against the Chinese army for years and was familiar with their various types of equipment, Yamaki could tell from the sound of the light machine guns that not all of them were the Czech-style light machine guns he was used to hearing, but rather the German-made light machine guns, which were rarely seen in the Chinese army.

  After concluding that the Chinese troops in Zhuangzi had a large number of German-style weapons, Yamashita summoned the captain who led the way from the 40th Army and asked if there were any units equipped with German-style weapons in the Third Division. After receiving a negative answer, Captain Yamashita thought for a moment and came to an exciting conclusion: since neither the Third Division nor the 59th Army had any German firearms, the troops in Zhuangzi must be directly under the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese army.

  As the son of an ordinary fisherman in Hokkaido, Yamaki's rise to his current position in the rigidly hierarchical Imperial Japanese Army was not easy. He did not graduate from a military academy and is one of the rare officers in the army who rose from private first class to lieutenant commander through the ranks, this example of rising from soldier to lieutenant commander is unique even within the entire 5th Division.

  Compared to those military officers who graduated from military academies, not only was he older, but Yamaki also had to pay more and was discriminated against by his peers in the army. As a result, Yamaki's personality was stronger and more cunning than that of ordinary Japanese military officers. However, this person has a fatal weakness: his desire for fame and fortune is too strong, sometimes even covering up his rationality.

  Forty minutes later, the Fifth War Zone and the Japanese Fifth Division Sakamoto Detachment Headquarters almost simultaneously received telegrams from their subordinate units.

  The telegram from Lieutenant Colonel Yamashita reported that while exchanging fire with the defending troops at Dawangzhuang, the location of the Pang army unit, there was a change in the battle situation. A large Chinese army equipped with German weapons and with a strength of no less than one regiment was stationed at Dawangzhuang. The first attack by Yamashita's detachment did not succeed. He also reported his determination to Lieutenant General Sakamoto. The most critical sentences were: "After analysis, our detachment believes that there should be higher-ranking officers in the Chinese army at Dawangzhuang than Pang. Our detachment is determined to launch a full-scale assault with a desperate spirit to report to His Majesty the Emperor, break through the strong and powerful enemy forces in front of us, and realize the combat plan of the brigade commander. We hope that the main force of the brigade will launch a comprehensive attack on the 40th Army's position to constrain their troops and prevent them from reinforcing. We hope that the two armies will cooperate effectively, encircle and capture Linyi, and achieve another great victory."

  But the telegram sent by the Pang Jun to the War Zone Command and the 59th Army Headquarters was not as optimistic as the Japanese. In the telegram, on the one hand, it reported to General Li Zongren, Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth War Zone, and on the other hand, it sought help from the 59th Army Headquarters, but it blocked the news from the 40th Army units that were stuck in a stalemate with the Japanese army on the front line, apparently fearing that the frontline units would be shaken and cause a comprehensive collapse.

  At that time, the small Dawangzhuang suddenly became prominent, and for the first time, party and state officials from Xuzhou and Wuhan heard of this place name. The battle in Dawangzhuang, which was not large in scale, affected the entire Jinpu Railway war situation!