Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

The mountain city was shrouded in mist.

"Extra number! Extra number!"

"Another great victory has been achieved on the North China front! Our 31st Army Group, a fierce and powerful force, has annihilated the Japanese 13th Division!"

The newsboy's shouts echoed crisply through the bluestone streets.

In a teahouse on the street corner, a few customers waved and took out a wad of Chinese currency to buy a copy of the Ta Kung Pao newspaper, which smelled of ink.

"Another division has been annihilated?"

A middle-aged man in a long gown unfolded the newspaper and glanced at the bolded headline.

His tone carried a hint of joy, but lacked the fervor and disbelief of previous years.

"That's right. The 13th Division was a beastly unit that had shed a lot of our blood back then. Finally, it was torn to pieces by the 31st Division in Jiangbei."

The tea drinker across from me took a sip of tea and tapped his pipe. “But then again, it’s only been half a month, and we’ve already recaptured Tongcheng and wiped out the 60th and 13th Divisions. I don’t even have enough firecrackers at home to set off.”

"Who can argue with that?"

The teahouse owner, fiddling with his abacus, chuckled and interjected, "A few years ago, when the front lines won against half a division, our mountain town celebrated with fireworks for three days and three nights straight, with gongs and drums!"

"Now look what's happened, we've wiped out an entire elite Japanese division, and all we can hear on the streets is a commotion."

"That's because the command was effective and the morale of the Nationalist soldiers on the front lines was boosted!"

The middle-aged man put down his newspaper, grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds, and said, "The good news is changing every week."

"Today we capture a town, tomorrow we take over a city. The people are so tired of hearing it that they think it's only natural for our troops to win battles!"

The conversations among the people conveyed an unprecedented sense of steadiness and confidence.

The continuous victories have subtly reshaped the Chinese people's understanding of war.

As stated in the front-page editorial of the Ta Kung Pao that day:

“Since the ‘Winter Storm’ suddenly broke out, the National Army’s armored torrent swept through everything in its path.”

"There was a time when the whole country was ecstatic after the victory in the first war."

"Now, good news comes frequently, as if it were an everyday occurrence."

"The public's threshold for victory has been raised infinitely as our army's firepower has become stronger."

"The day when the Japanese invaders are completely annihilated is no longer a miracle we have been eagerly awaiting, but a countdown that is just around the corner."
-
Tokyo, Japan, Kasumigaseki.

The heavy snow had been falling all night, completely enveloping the city, which was mired in the quagmire of war, in a ghastly white blanket.

Headquarters meeting room.

In front of a long, oval conference table.

More than a dozen high-ranking Japanese military and political officials, each with a gold star on their shoulder, sat upright.

No one spoke; only heavy breathing echoed in the dimly lit room.

Chief of the General Staff, Sugiyama Gen, gripped a top-secret urgent battle report that had just been sent back from Nanjing so tightly that his knuckles had lost their color from the excessive force.

"The 13th Division, that's the most elite 'Class A Division' of the Great Japanese Empire!"

Sugiyama Gen finally couldn't hold back any longer and exploded. He slammed the battle report on the table with a dull thud: "In less than ten days, the Chinese army has completely annihilated us on the north bank of the Yangtze River!"

Sugiyama Gen surveyed the entire scene, his eyes bloodshot and appearing ferocious and terrifying.

"With the 60th Division also destroyed at the same time, we no longer have the strength to counterattack in the Central Jiangsu Theater."

"Our troops in the area were no longer able to resist, and we have lost that area forever."

Chief of the Naval General Staff Osami Nagano snorted coldly and added insult to injury without any politeness.

"The army always boasts of its invincibility."

Nagano Osami coldly stared at the high-ranking army officer opposite him: "What exactly is that 'China expert' Okamura Neiji doing?"

"Your army has a million soldiers, yet it was torn to shreds by the Chinese army like a piece of shredded cloth!"

"I propose that Okamura Yasuji be held accountable immediately for his crime of causing the loss of the army and disgracing the country!"

"Remove him from his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Army and hand him over to a military court for trial!"

"idiot!"

A roar, like that of a wild beast guarding its food, suddenly drowned out everyone else's voices.

Hideki Tojo, who held a series of official positions including Prime Minister, Minister of the Army, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, suddenly stood up.

His gaunt face revealed a hint of hysterical madness, and behind his signature round-framed glasses, a fierce glint flashed.

"What's the point of punishing Okamura-kun?"

Hideki Tojo placed his hands heavily on the table, staring intently at Osami Nagano and Gen Sugiyama like a hawk.

"Now that the north bank of the Yangtze River has fallen, who can send troops to Nanjing and conjure up fighting forces out of thin air?"

Sugiyama met Tojo's gaze without flinching: "Prime Minister!"

"If Okamura is not severely punished, where will the authority of the General Headquarters be?"

"majesty?"

"Sugiyama-kun, what about the morale of the soldiers at the front?"

Hideki Tojo let out a hoarse and cold laugh, as if he had heard an extremely ridiculous joke.

He turned around and pulled out several pages of confidential briefings printed in English and Chinese from his leather briefcase.

"Ladies and gentlemen, these are the core clauses of the draft Cairo Declaration that the Cabinet Intelligence Service has just intercepted and confirmed at the Swiss Embassy!"

Hideki Tojo slammed the documents onto the center of the table, his gaze sweeping over every military and political official present who still harbored ambitions for war.

"Are they still hoping to reach a respectable ceasefire through diplomatic channels with Britain and the United States?"

"Wake up, all of you!"

Tojo's voice suddenly rose: "The Americans simply won't accept any form of negotiation!"

"Their bottom line is very clear: the Great Japanese Empire must surrender unconditionally!"

The generals in the conference room turned pale instantly, and many of them subconsciously gasped.

"Unconditional surrender?"

Osamu Nagano frowned. "Are they crazy? Don't they know how much they've lost in the Pacific?"

"They're not crazy, the Chinese government is!"

An uncontrollable panic and hatred welled up in Hideki Tojo's eyes.

"They not only demanded the stripping of all the islands the empire had seized in the Pacific since World War I."

"It was further explicitly stated that all of XX, XX, XXXX, XX and other places must be 'returned' to China!"

"and"

Hideki Tojo paused deliberately, allowing the suffocating fear to fully ferment in the room.

"The mountain city authorities even declared that they would never accept compromise, even if it meant unconditional surrender."

"They want to establish an international military tribunal after the war."

Tojo pointed sharply at everyone around the conference table: "I want to send all of you here, all the military decision-makers of the Great Japanese Empire, to the gallows!"

A deathly silence enveloped the entire headquarters.

Surrendering would not only mean losing everything of one's brother's country, but also the loss of its glory.

It also means that these high-ranking and powerful people are doomed to die.

"Since there is no way to retreat, then we have no choice but to fight to the death!"

Seeing everyone's silence, Hideki Tojo knew that although the time was not yet ripe, he had no better option.

He waved his hand sharply, decisively stating the tone: "Headquarters will not pursue his defeat."

"But what if he continues to fail?"

……

Two hours later.

The underground bunker of the Imperial Palace Library in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

Emperor Hirohito, dressed in a well-fitting Grand Marshal's uniform, held a pair of exquisite scissors and was pruning an old pine bonsai.

The wind and snow howled outside, but they couldn't penetrate this sturdy fortress at all.

Hideki Tojo took off his coat, lowered his head, and followed closely behind his chief of staff into the room.

"Your subject, Hideki Tojo, pays his respects to His Majesty the Emperor."

Hideki Tojo bowed deeply, his forehead almost touching the cold marble floor.

"Click".

Hirohito cut off a withered pine branch without looking back.

Has the war situation on the mainland deteriorated so rapidly?

Hirohito's voice was unusually calm, without a trace of emotion, yet it carried an immense weight.

"In ten days, tens of thousands of elite Imperial Army soldiers were lost."

"Even the 13th Division, which once conquered Nanjing, was completely annihilated."

Hirohito put down the scissors, turned around, and his eyes, peering through his round glasses, gleamed with a chilling light.

"Tojo-kun, can you give me a reasonable explanation?"

Hideki Tojo's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.

He could not admit that this was a complete tactical and strategic defeat, nor could he admit that the Japanese army's combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the Chinese army.

"Your Majesty, calm down!"

Hideki Tojo bowed deeply again, his mind racing in extreme tension as he fabricated lies.

"This was not a meaningless defeat, but rather part of a plan that I and General Okamura had already devised."

Hirohito narrowed his eyes slightly: "Oh?"

"Using two divisions (referring to troop strength) in a suicide attack as a plan?"

"This is a scorched earth strategy of 'trading space for time'!"

Hideki Tojo, biting the bullet, continued to perpetuate the lie.

"The Chinese army possesses a massive amount of American heavy firepower and armored tanks. If we were to engage them head-on on the Jiangbei Plain, the losses would be incalculable."

"The sacrifices of the 60th and 13th Divisions were made to delay the enemy's advance north of the river!"

"only."

Tojo came up with a very misleading excuse.

"We did not expect that the speed of the enemy's mechanized forces would far exceed the speed of the Locust Army's foot retreat."

"This resulted in the 13th Division being unable to withdraw to the south of the Yangtze River in time while covering the main force's crossing."

ridiculous!

How could a mechanized force possibly outpace two short-legged troops in a rapid advance?
Hirohito stared at Tojo silently for a full half minute, until Tojo Hideki's legs began to tremble.

"Since Jiangbei has already been abandoned."

Hirohito turned around again, picked up a watering can and watered the bonsai: "How do you plan to fight the next battle?"

Hideki Tojo let out a long sigh of relief and quickly launched his last line of defense, which he had been racking his brains over.

"Your Majesty, our army's absolute mission from now on is to defend the Yangtze River to the death!"

Tojo Hideki's voice revealed a hint of ruthlessness that masked his guilty conscience.

"It's currently winter."

"The Yangtze River has entered its dry season, and the river surface is narrowing dramatically." "While this shortens the distance the enemy has to cross, it also greatly limits the waterways and vessels they can utilize, making it ideal for us to concentrate our firepower and launch a surprise attack while the enemy is crossing!"

Tojo stepped forward, pressing his hands tightly against the seams of his trousers.

"I have ordered Okamura Yasuji to deploy all the heavy artillery and tanks that can be plundered in Central China along the south bank of the Yangtze River!"

"Destroy all bridges that could be used by the enemy, and burn all civilian boats on the north bank!"

"We will turn the Yangtze River into a deadly chasm, so that all the Chinese troops who attempt to cross it will perish in the belly of the fish!"

"Go down."

Hirohito did not press further, but simply waved his hand: "We desperately need a victory to boost national confidence."

"Hai!"

Hideki Tojo felt as if he had been granted a pardon and walked backward out of the bunker door.

……

Kunming.

Headquarters of the U.S. Army Forces in China and the Joint Advisory Group for the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

In the spacious commander's office, the steam from the coffee machine mingled with the aroma of fine cigars.

Joseph Stilwell sat in that huge leather swivel chair, holding a newly delivered front-line briefing, a grin spreading from his lips to his ears.

"My God, these Chinese are like a pack of mad wolves that have been suppressed for too long!"

Stilwell slammed his hand on the solid wood tabletop, making the coffee cup rattle loudly.

"In less than two weeks!"

He exclaimed loudly to his adjutant Dorn, who was standing opposite him.

"Not only did we annihilate the 13th Division, which had committed atrocities, but we also forced the Japanese army to cross the Yangtze River!"

Brigadier General Dorn also wore an excited smile.

"General, investing in the War Commander and the Chinese army is the best decision we have ever made in our lives."

"The 60th Division plan has been fully launched, the equipment is on its way, and the first batch of weapons has even arrived in Yangon."

Stilwell stood up and strode to the wall where the map of Asia was hanging.

On that map, he had already drawn countless extremely grand counterattack routes with a red marker.

"Equipment allocation for sixty divisions!"

A near-fanatical political and military ambition gleamed in Stilwell's eyes.

"The equipment of thirty fully equipped American-equipped divisions will be used entirely for the upgrading and formation of the expeditionary force in Southeast Asia!"

"Dorn, do you know what this means for the National Revolutionary Army?"

Dorn straightened his back, his eyes sharp: "General, this means an unprecedented reshuffle in the military, which will be able to better eliminate corruption and factionalism within them."

"clever!"

Stilwell turned around and looked at his adjutant with admiration: "We can no longer let those equipment fall into the hands of warlords who only want to keep their territory."

"These thirty expeditionary units are like the fattest piece of meat thrown into a pack of wolves!"

Stilwell took out a baton and tapped it back and forth across the southwestern provinces on the map.

"Want to get the new equipment?"

"Want to avoid being laid off?"

"Then we must accept the most rigorous reorganization!"

Stilwell's lips curled into a sneer of triumph: "The Guangxi clique, the Yunnan clique, the Guangdong clique, and those disorganized Sichuan troops will be the primary targets of this reorganization."

"We must use US aid as absolute bait, in conjunction with the iron-fisted methods of the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Military Affairs, and the Military Law Enforcement Department."

"Completely disperse these ragtag armies and help the Chinese smash the old barriers of various warlords to pieces!"

Looking at the blueprint of this massive plan, Dorn couldn't help but gasp: "But General, such a country and army will surely develop ambitions that don't belong to them after the war ends."

Stilwell, as if he hadn't heard, continued, "According to the previously drafted plan and the agreement reached, the other half of the equipment, that is, the other thirty divisions."

"It will be used specifically to arm the directly subordinate units of the Central Army, as well as the elite aces prepared for the domestic counter-offensive."

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the logistics convoy that was busy allocating supplies.

"Based on the current progress and recruitment capacity."

Stilwell's tone exuded an extreme confidence in controlling the situation: "The front-line combat troops of the expeditionary force will soon reach an astonishing six hundred thousand!"

"This is already three times the maximum field force that China can currently deploy in a single battle!"

He turned around, opened his arms, as if to embrace the whole of Asia.

"If we add the logistics engineering corps, medical teams, supply troops, and the local construction corps being prepared in Siam..."

"A massive military force of over 1.5 million personnel will be assembled in the Southeast Asia theater!"

Dorn swallowed hard, deeply shocked by the data.

"General, 1.5 million men. This doesn't even include the army and marines we've deployed here."

"Once this power is fully unleashed in the jungles and archipelagos, not only the Japanese, but even the British Empire will tremble."

"This is exactly the result I wanted!"

"By deploying these elite troops to the brutal Pacific theater, we can at least reduce our losses and attrition by 300,000 troops."

Stilwell picked up the whiskey glass on the table and drank the amber liquid in one gulp.

"Are the British still dreaming of reviving their colonial ambitions in Southeast Asia?"

"We will use this sword of 1.5 million Chinese men to completely shatter Churchill's illusions!"

He slammed his glass down on the table: "I believe that in the new Asian order of the future, the United States will be responsible for setting the rules."

"And this Chinese army, which we have armed to the teeth."

"They are the sharpest enforcers, ensuring that these rules are absolutely enforced!"
-
Nanjing, the headquarters of the China Expeditionary Army.

A biting wind howled outside the window, mixed with damp, freezing rain.

The command post was dimly lit. On the huge operational map of the China theater, blue arrows symbolizing the Nationalist army's offensive were like sharp daggers, firmly pressed against the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Okamura Neiji stood in front of the map, his back hunched over.

Chief of Staff He Bian Zheng San strode in, holding several newly translated urgent telegrams in his hand.

"Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief!"

He Bianzheng suddenly bowed his head, his voice revealing undisguised anxiety: "The Second Army of the 'Peaceful Nation-Building Army' stationed on the outskirts of Yangzhou mutinied last night, and some of its combat units surrendered to the 88th Army Group of China."

Okamura Neiji didn't turn around; his fingers, gripping the baton, turned slightly white.

"besides."

He Bianzheng gritted his teeth and continued his report: "The people in Jinling City are in a state of panic."

“There has been serious instability within the WJW government. Just yesterday, two cabinet vice ministers secretly fled to the Nationalist-controlled areas with their families and gold.”

"When the military police went to arrest people, the place was already deserted."

"A bunch of opportunistic weather vanes."

Okamura Neiji gave a cold laugh, his tone not showing much anger, but rather a deep sense of powerlessness.

In this world that worships the strong.

Those puppet troops and traitors who depended on him would naturally flee this sinking ship as if it were a plague.

"What did headquarters say?"

Okamura Neiji turned around.

"Prime Minister Tojo sent an urgent telegram, demanding that we hold Jiangnan at all costs, and," Kawabe Masazo paused, "His Majesty the Emperor personally issued an inquiry, saying that our country needs a victory to boost the increasingly crumbling confidence of the people."

"victory?"

Okamura Yasuji slammed his baton heavily onto the map table.

He braced his hands on the table, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the military flags of the winged tigers flying across the Yangtze River Delta region.

The main force of the North China Joint Command under Chu Yunfei was a war machine armed to the teeth.

With B-24 bombers clearing the way in the sky, Sherman tanks advancing on the ground, and mountains of American large-caliber artillery shells piled up on top of that.

In a head-on confrontation, the Japanese army would only meet a gruesome end.

"We cannot launch a preemptive attack on the enemy's elite troops."

Okamura Yasuji took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down: "On the northern front, the enemy's advance is at its peak. We can only respond to all changes by remaining unchanged and relying on the natural barrier of the Yangtze River and permanent fortifications to carry out defensive attrition warfare."

"But what about His Majesty's expectations?"

Kawabe Masazo whispered a warning: "If we cannot achieve victory, the public's confidence may collapse entirely."

"When picking persimmons, you can only choose the soft ones."

Okamura Yasuji picked up the command baton again, his gaze sliding westward and southward along the Yangtze River defense line on the map.

"Gu Zhutong of the Third War Zone?"

"Xue Yue from the Ninth War Zone?"

The baton paused briefly above the locations of these two war zones before being rejected by Okamura.

"The troops commanded by Xue Yue are often extremely resilient. A forced attack would easily lead to a protracted war of attrition. We do not have the time or the logistics to fight a war of attrition."

"As for Gu Zhutong's troops in the Third War Zone, they are extremely cunning, and it would be very difficult to annihilate them as a whole."

The baton continued southward, finally landing heavily at the southernmost tip of mainland China.

South China, the Fourth War Zone!
"here."

A sinister and calculating sneer finally appeared on Okamura Neiji's gaunt face.

He followed the direction of the baton and his eyes lit up.

"Zhang Fakui of the Fourth War Zone in China?"

"Not bad!"

Okamura Neiji's eyes were like those of a venomous snake that had smelled blood: "According to intelligence just intercepted by the Special Higher Police, the Chinese High Command has just launched a US aid re-equipment plan codenamed '60th Division'."

"In order to prioritize the formation of a large expeditionary force in Southeast Asia."

"Wang Yaowu's 24th Group Army, which was originally used as a strategic force and was highly combat-effective in South China, has been urgently transferred out of the combat sequence and sent to the southwest rear area to receive American equipment."

"This means that the Fourth War Zone in China now only has the strength of two army groups, and their combat effectiveness is relatively weak."

Hei Bianzheng gasped, instantly understanding the commander's strategic intentions.

"Although Zhang Fakui's Guangdong army was large in number, its weapons and equipment were outdated, and it lacked anti-tank weapons and large-caliber artillery!"

"Moreover, they are riddled with internal factions, and coordination is extremely poor!"

"The troops providing assistance were under the command of Yang Hanyu, whose predecessor was the Sichuan Army."

Okamura's voice turned unusually cold, revealing a desperate madness: "Draw all available mobile forces and tank battalions from the occupied areas such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong!"

"Take advantage of the lull in the re-equipment process in southern China and launch a full-scale surprise attack on the defenses of the Fourth War Zone!"

"National strategy requires them to defeat two or three Guangdong Army divisions as quickly as possible, creating a 'local victory' with impressive casualty figures!"

"As long as we can get the battle report back home, shut up those idiots at headquarters, and calm the panic on the streets of Tokyo, we will have achieved our goal!"

"Hai!"

Kawabe Masazo lowered his head sharply, his eyes rekindling with fighting spirit: "This subordinate will immediately draft the battle telegram!"

Okamura Neiji watched the chief of staff's hurried departure, then turned his gaze back to the map.
He himself was quite aware that even if he did achieve victory, what then? It would merely mean continuing to eke out a living on this broken chessboard. (End of Chapter)