Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Central Jiangsu, on the outskirts of Tongcheng.

The continuous winter rain turned into fine ice beads, which made a crisp, crackling sound as they hit the helmet.

On the heavy artillery positions of the 88th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, the gun barrels emitted scorching white smoke.

"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"

Two hours of continuous artillery fire completely overwhelmed the outer ring of Japanese defenses in the northwest of Tongcheng.

The charred soil mixed with broken sandbags was lifted dozens of meters into the air.

Sun Xinpu stood on a muddy hill, holding up his Zeiss binoculars and staring intently at the smoke and fire ahead.

"These Japanese devils in Tongcheng are more stubborn than I imagined."

"In the face of overwhelming firepower, flesh and blood are nothing!"

"Perhaps we can bypass the Langshan defense line and cut off their retreat route to the Yangtze River docks directly."

"Today, not a single Japanese or puppet soldier in Tongcheng will be able to float down the river, not even a single boat or plank!"

"it is good!"

Sun Xinpu nodded emphatically: "At three o'clock sharp, a full-scale offensive!"

3 p.m.

Three red signal flares soared into the sky, piercing the gray horizon.

The piercing bugle call to charge suddenly rang out across the muddy wilderness.

Nearly 10,000 Flying Tiger soldiers, wearing dark green M1 steel helmets, leaped out of the trenches like a flood bursting its banks.

"Alternate cover!"

"Advance!"

Platoon and squad leaders at the grassroots level were shouting tactical commands.

Da da da—!
A crossfire network of countless submachine guns and Browning light machine guns swept across the ravaged Japanese positions like a storm.

A Japanese machine gunner had just poked his head out of the rubble, but before he could pull the trigger of his Type 92 heavy machine gun, a hail of bullets from a Garand rifle shaved off half of his head.

Under intense fire suppression, the assault troops, armed with Type 31 rocket launchers, quickly approached.

"Whoosh—Boom!"

A blinding plume of flame streaked across the sky as a rocket precisely pierced the firing port of a Japanese army's sturdy concrete bunker.

The muffled explosion echoed in the enclosed space, and the Japanese soldiers inside the bunker were instantly blown to pieces.

The remaining Japanese troops were plunged into extreme despair and madness.

Several hundred Japanese soldiers, with white cloth strips tied around their heads and bayonets fixed, launched the "Banzai" charge from the communication trenches on the flank.

"Machine gun team, stop them!"

The company commander at the front roared.

The M1919A4 heavy machine guns deployed on both flanks immediately roared, spitting out long tongues of fire.

Large numbers of Japanese soldiers fell like harvested wheat, their corpses piled up in layers in the mud.

Before the general offensive was launched, similar attacks had been carried out countless times.

The Japanese army's already limited forces had been almost entirely depleted.

After the general offensive began, the stubbornly resisting Japanese army finally collapsed completely.

It was evening.

Xue Jie's troops were the first to break through the north gate of Tongcheng and successfully joined forces with Guo Yanzheng's troops who were intercepting the fleeing Japanese army from the south.

In just four days, the Japanese and puppet troops' defenses in the entire Tongcheng area were completely uprooted, and the largest bridgehead north of the Yangtze River was completely lost.

……

Almost at the same time.

South of Taizhou, along the plains of the Yangtze River.

Wang Zhonglian, commander of the 31st Army Group, stood in the cargo compartment of a half-track command vehicle.

Hearing the faint sounds of cannons coming from the direction of Tongcheng in the east, his brows furrowed tightly.

Fang Ligong's voice came clearly from the radio, informing him that episode 88 had launched a general offensive according to the original battle plan, and had captured Tongcheng ahead of schedule, annihilating the Japanese mixed brigade defending the city.

"In episode 88, they've already captured Tongcheng!"

Wang Zhonglian turned around, his eyes bloodshot: "And you?"

"Three days have passed, and they still haven't been able to capture the 13th Division's position?!"

The humiliating punishment he received at the Kaifeng Conference fueled his pent-up anger.

If he can't take down the 13th Division decisively this time, he will never be able to hold his head up in front of the War Marshal and Chang Ruiyuan for the rest of his life!
"Commander, although the 13th Division is a remnant, it is still the foundation of a Class A division!"

"The Japanese concentrated all their field artillery and machine guns on the riverside highway. Our infantry charged three times, but were all pushed back!"

"I don't care what division it is."

Wang Zhonglian ripped off his military cap and slammed it onto the map table.

"Immediately move all our American mountain guns to the front lines!"

"If the infantry can't get through, then use artillery shells to carve a bloody path for me!"

"Even if we have to use up all the resources from the previous 31 episodes, we will still drive the 13th Division down into the Yangtze River to feed the turtles."

The sound of cannons boomed.

The artillery positions of the 31st Army Group began to unleash firepower at any cost.

Dozens of 75mm mountain guns and 105mm howitzers roared deafeningly.

The Japanese 13th Division's defensive line was immediately engulfed in flames.

Under this relentless suppression of fire.

Wang Zhonglian's infantry, bayonets at the ready, charged over the corpses and mud of their comrades, their eyes bloodshot, onto the Japanese position.

What followed was nothing more than a straightforward melee and battle for position.

"kill!"

The soldiers of the 31st Army Group were locked in fierce combat with the Japanese army.

Bayonets clashed, and rifle butts smashed into faces.

Although the Japanese 13th Division fought tenaciously, with its ammunition and supplies exhausted and its rear cut off, a fatal gap finally appeared in its defensive line.

"The enemy's left flank has collapsed!"

"Sir, the Japanese can't hold out any longer, they're running towards the riverbank dock!"

Wang Zhonglian grabbed the binoculars and stared intently at the yellowish-brown crowd fleeing hastily on the distant highway.

"Cavalry battalion!"

Wang Zhonglian shouted at the top of his lungs, "Immediately flank them! Block the road to the dock!"

"No prisoners!"

"They must not be allowed to board the ship and successfully evacuate!"

Two hours later.

The north bank of the Yangtze River, south of Taizhou.

The remnants of the Japanese 13th Division were pinned down on the narrow beachhead.

On the river, several Japanese motorboats that came to provide support were blown to pieces by the National Revolutionary Army's heavy artillery and slowly sank to the bottom of the river.

Thousands of Japanese soldiers looked on in despair at the surging river.

Behind them were soldiers of the 31st Group Army, carrying submachine guns and marching in orderly steps, pressing closer and closer.

Wang Zhonglian stepped over the corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered on the ground and walked to the highest point on the river embankment.

He watched as the remnants of the Japanese and puppet troops fell into the Yangtze River in droves under machine gun fire, and let out a long sigh of relief.

The river water was dyed a glaring dark red.

The 13th Division, a beastly unit that committed heinous crimes at the gates of Nanjing.

Finally, under the swift pursuit and massacre by the 31st Army Group, it met its deserved demise on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

……

The northern front.

The Chahar-Rehe line.

The heavy snow fell like goose feathers, turning the mountains beyond the Great Wall into a silvery-white color.

"Om-!"

The roar of hundreds of engines converged into a thunderous roar, tearing through the wind and snow.

Qiu Qingquan stood in the turret of a Sherman M4A3 medium tank.

He wore a leather windproof hat and goggles, with half of his body sticking out of the hatch, letting the sharp snowflakes hit his face.

"Full speed ahead!"

"Don't slow down!"

Qiu Qingquan roared into the throat microphone, "Get the armored infantry battalion to follow!"

"The tank company providing flank cover, spread out!" In this armored corps, which had been formed less than two months ago, infantry-tank coordination still appeared very clumsy.

Armored infantrymen traveling in trucks and M3 half-tracks were often left far behind by high-speed tanks in the mud and snow.

But this did not prevent them from displaying an overwhelming and crushing force.

Because their equipment was almost a generation ahead of the Japanese army in front of them.

The best medium tanks were capable of overwhelming all of the Japanese army's current land combat equipment.

In front.

On a Japanese defensive line, more than a dozen 37mm anti-tank guns had just had their camouflage nets removed.

"Fire!" The Japanese commander desperately swung his sword.

boom! boom! boom!
Several 37mm armor-piercing rounds accurately hit the upper glacis armor of the Sherman tank at the forefront.

"Ding! Clang!"

Sparks flew everywhere.

These armor-piercing shells, which the Japanese army had high hopes for, only left a few shallow white marks on the Sherman's thick, sloped armor before being deflected.

The Japanese artillerymen stared wide-eyed, as if they had seen a ghost.

next second.

The turrets of more than a dozen Sherman tanks slowly rotated.

The 75mm main gun roared like thunder.

"boom!"

A high-explosive shell struck the position of a Japanese anti-tank gun.

Flames shot into the sky.

The cannon, weighing over a ton, was uprooted, and the gunners were instantly reduced to dust in the violent explosion.

Immediately afterwards, the Japanese counterattack force appeared.

Dozens of Type 97 medium tanks, which the Japanese army was so proud of, rushed out from behind the snow slope, belching black smoke.

"Japanese tanks!"

The Sherman tank commanders shouted into the channel.

Qiu Qingquan's lips curled into a cruel sneer.

"Don't stop!"

"Let's use our thick American pipes to open the eyes of these little Japanese tin toys!"

The distance between the two vehicles quickly closed.

The Type 97 tank's short-barreled 57mm gun fired furiously.

The shells that hit the Sherman's side at most created a dent.

Sherman's counterattack, however, was absolute destruction.

A Sherman suddenly stopped, its body swaying slightly, and a 75mm armor-piercing round was fired from its barrel.

"boom!"

Accurate hit!

The Type 97 tank's paper-thin frontal armor was penetrated instantly, just like tofu.

The ammunition inside the vehicle was detonated, and the entire tank turned into a huge orange-red fireball, with the turret being blown into the air more than ten meters high.

It was a completely one-sided massacre.

In less than an hour, the Japanese tank regiment that was trying to block the armored formation was completely reduced to a pile of burning scrap metal.

"Leave it to the infantry to clean up the battlefield!"

Qiu Qingquan waved his fist fiercely inside the turret and shouted orders.

"Continue the eastward assault!"

"Three days!"

"I only need three days!"

A gambler's madness gleamed in Qiu Qingquan's eyes.

"Within three days, the armored group must thrust its troops into the throat of the Beijing-Tianjin region!"

The massive torrent of steel never stopped.

They relentlessly trampled over the corpses and ruins on the Japanese defense line.

The swirling snowflakes resembled an unstoppable steel python, hurtling straight towards the capital region.

It only took three days.

The Japanese army's painstakingly constructed defense line in Rehe was breached, and the main force on the northern front arrived at the outskirts of the capital region as scheduled.

……

Pengcheng, the North China Joint Front Command.

In the vast operations room, the sand table on the walls was filled with small blue flags symbolizing victory.

The staff officers hurried along, their faces beaming with undisguised joy.

Lin Wei, the chief of staff of the joint command, strode to the sand table, holding a stack of telegrams that had just been sent back from the northern front.

"Your Excellency!"

Lin Wei's tone was tinged with shock and admiration.

"Just received the battle report from the northern front. Qiu Qingquan's First Armored Group has broken through the Japanese outer defense line in just three days."

He picked up his baton and pointed it heavily on the outskirts of the Pingjin area.

"They are currently approaching the capital region!"

"The entire corridor for the Japanese army to escape north from within the Great Wall and to advance south from outside the Great Wall has been completely cut off by our tank tracks!"

Chu Yunfei stood in front of the sand table, holding a cup of hot tea, his gaze cold and deep.

He looked at the huge arrowhead symbol on the map that represented the First Armored Group and nodded slightly.

"Three days, that speed was beyond the Japanese army's expectations."

Chu Yunfei blew away the foam on the tea, his expression calm.

Lin Wei pushed up his glasses and couldn't help but sigh, "Qiu Yu'an truly deserves to be called a 'madman' when it comes to leading troops."

"All things considered, this batch of Sherman tanks has been delivered to the troops for less than three months."

"Many armored soldiers are still at the stage of just learning to drive."

Lin Wei pointed to the assault route on the sand table.

"He actually dared to launch a deep-penetration attack in the midst of a blizzard, with such a poorly coordinated force."

"What's even more terrifying is that he actually managed to do it!"

Fang Ligong walked over from the side and placed several battle damage assessment reports on the table.

"The Chief of Staff is right."

Fang Ligong pointed out incisively: "The battle report clearly states that during the assault, the infantry-tank coordination between the First and Second Divisions was a complete mess."

"Often, the infantry were left far behind, and the flanks of the tanks were completely exposed to the Japanese."

"It was precisely because of the Sherman's thick armor and large-caliber cannon that it achieved an absolute generational advantage over the Japanese Type 97 anti-tank gun."

"They simply pushed through by sheer force of their equipment."

Chu Yunfei put down his teacup, a shrewd glint in his eyes.

"No elite army is formed on the training ground."

"Only by letting these new recruits see blood and experience life and death on the battlefield can they know what true mechanized warfare is."

He tapped his fingers on the edge of the sand table.

"Poor teamwork?"

"Then let's use the lives of the Japanese soldiers to pay their tuition."

"With the experience gained from this 200-mile raid, the framework of the First Armored Group has been completely established."

Lin Wei nodded in deep agreement: "You are right, Your Excellency."

"After this battle, this armored group will surely become a true ace elite force in our hands."

"Once they have completely absorbed these hundreds of tanks, the vast plains of Northeast China will become their perfect hunting ground."

"There's no rush in the battle in the Northeast."

Chu Yunfei turned around, his gaze sharp as a knife as he looked at the vast expanse of the Yangtze River to the south of the sand table: "The steel nails on the northern line have already been driven in."

"Next is preparation for the river-crossing operation."

Lin Wei sighed with some helplessness, "Our attack went far too smoothly, much faster than we had planned."

"We were originally supposed to finish the first phase of the operation in 25 days, but it only took seven days, which is far beyond our previous planned preparation time."

"Currently, feedback from below indicates that the supplies and equipment needed for the river-crossing operation have not yet been prepared. However, the next phase of the battle is crucial. What do you think, Your Excellency?" (End of Chapter)