Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

On the other side, in the bluestone square outside the Fourth War Zone Command Headquarters.

A scene that chilled the hearts of all the officers and soldiers present was unfolding.

One after another, military trucks covered with black tarpaulins were parked in the center of the square.

Dozens of military and political figures who usually swaggered around the local area had their general's stars and collar insignia stripped from their uniforms.

Like dead dogs, they were brutally forced to kneel in the mud by military police agents with their arms tied behind their backs.

Various voices of discussion could be heard from the surrounding area from time to time.

"I never imagined that Director Zhang, who was always so amiable, was also a corrupt official."

"You can know a person's face but not their heart."

"No wonder that old guy always has that smiling face but doesn't do anything; looks like he hasn't been paid."

"Don't discuss these things. If those dogs find out, if those spies hear us, they might interrogate us too..."

Zhang Fakui, the commander-in-chief of the Fourth War Zone, stood on the second-floor corridor, wearing a heavy general's woolen overcoat.

He looked down at his former colleagues and subordinates with a blank expression, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

"hurry up!"

"Load them all onto the truck!"

The leader of the Kuomintang intelligence team shouted angrily, and the heavy butt of his rifle mercilessly smashed into the back of a major general who was still trying to explain, causing him to fall into the muddy water with blood streaming from his mouth.

Chief of Staff Wu Shi stood beside Zhang Fakui, watching as boxes of gold bars, silver dollars, and American-made illicit drugs seized from the private residences of these officers were loaded onto another truck, and couldn't help but gasp.

"Commander."

Wu Shi lowered his voice, his tone revealing a deep sense of unease: "The anti-corruption storm that has swept through Shancheng this time is unprecedented in its toughness and ruthlessness."

"Chang Jianfeng's knife not only cut down the old bureaucrats in the Southwest, but also severely damaged our Fourth War Zone."

Zhang Fakui took a deep drag on his cigarette and stubbed it out on the blue brick railing.

"This isn't Chang Jianfeng's knife at all; it's clearly the Chairman using someone else to kill, a warning shot to intimidate others!"

Zhang Fakui's keen insight allowed him to see through the underlying political undercurrents of this storm.

"With that person's support, the Chairman's prestige is soaring. Taking this opportunity to deal with the deep-seated problems within the military and to purge the ranks is indeed a good opportunity."

Wu Shi nodded in agreement: "This ruthless purge has even stunned the Americans."

Wu Shi looked around and whispered in Zhang Fakui's ear, "There's news coming out from within the Advisory Group in China."

"Although Stilwell hated corruption, he never expected that the mountain city would be so bloody."

"I heard that a few days ago, President Roosevelt even sent a private telegram to Chairman Chiang Kai-shek himself."

"This was a tactful way of expressing the hope that the Chongqing authorities would exercise a certain degree of 'restraint' in punishing corruption, so as to avoid triggering large-scale internal strife and affecting subsequent allied joint operations."

"The number of colonel-level officers who died in the past two weeks is more than the number who died on the battlefield in the entire previous year."

"restraint?"

Zhang Fakui sneered, a mocking smile curving his lips: "The US is being far too harsh."

“Those scoundrels who were arrested will be escorted to the mountain city today.”

"What awaits them is the most severe trial and the bullets of a military tribunal."

Zhang Fakui turned around and strode back to the operations room: "The cleanup is complete. The next major task is the comprehensive reorganization of our Fourth War Zone."

"As instructed by the General Headquarters, the plan for our unit to undergo a major troop reduction and be reorganized into the South China Area Army will be postponed until after the full liberation of Guangdong before it is fully implemented."

Wu Shi quickly followed him in, holding a newly translated top-secret combat sequence in his hand.

He stared at the documents in his hand, his brows furrowed, his eyes filled with immense confusion.

"Commander, there is something that the department is completely baffled by."

Wu Shi handed the battle order to Zhang Fakui: "Regarding the main force order for this counter-offensive in southern Guangdong and the recapture of Guangzhou, the General Headquarters did not focus entirely on our Fourth War Zone."

“That was expected.” Zhang Fakui glanced at the document.

"But!" Wu Shi's voice suddenly rose, "The main attacking force assigned by the General Headquarters is actually the 18th Army, which has just been downsized, now known as the reorganized 18th Division!"

"And the 24th Army Group under Wang Yaowu, which had just been fully equipped with American weapons!"

Wu Shi pointed his finger forcefully at the Jiangnan region on the sand table: "Wang Yaowu's troops are absolute ace troops that can go toe-to-toe with the eighty-eight episodes of North China!"

"The reorganized 18th Division is the core of the Civil Engineering Department, and its combat effectiveness is unparalleled in the entire army!"

Wu Shi looked puzzled: "The Yangtze River Crossing Campaign is about to begin in the Yangtze River Delta, and the liberation of Nanjing is imminent."

"With such a tremendous achievement, why didn't the General Headquarters deploy these two sharpest blades to the Jiangnan battlefield?"

"They actually sent them all the way to South China to undertake the mission of counterattacking southern Guangdong?"

Zhang Fakui did not answer immediately. He picked up his baton and looked south along the coastline of the map, across the South China Sea, and finally landed on the huge island marked in red in the deep ocean—New Guinea.

After a long silence, Zhang Fakui let out a long sigh filled with endless emotion: "Xiang Hua, you only saw Nanjing, but you didn't see the strategic vision of the General Headquarters."

Zhang Fakui tossed his baton onto the sand table, his eyes becoming extremely profound: "This is..."

Wu Shi was taken aback: "What does the Chief mean?"

"Look at the kind of war Zheng Tingji fought in New Guinea!"

Zhang Fakui's voice carried a hint of suppressed heartache: "In those primeval jungles where the sun never shines and poisonous insects and miasma abound! Our expeditionary force's elite troops are fighting a bloody, platoon-level battle against the fanatical Japanese army every day!"

"Non-combat casualties in a single day even exceed the casualties caused by gunfire!"

"The Americans themselves are unwilling to fill this bottomless pit, so they rely on the guns and cannons they've given us to try and use the lives of our Chinese soldiers to pave a bloody path to Tokyo for them!"

Zhang Fakui slammed his fist heavily on the table: "Do you think Chairman Chiang and Chu Yunfei don't understand what the US is thinking?"

"However, we still need to receive aid, and the 60th Division's structure needs to be further expanded. We can't directly turn against the Americans, so we can only 'reasonably' delay!"

Wu Shi nodded: "The General Headquarters deliberately transferred the 18th Reorganized Division and Wang Yaowu's 24th Division, both fully equipped with American weapons, to the South China battlefield to launch a massive offensive!"

"In this way, even if Stilwell and Marshall urge us to send troops to the Pacific Islands, we will have an absolutely sufficient excuse!"

"After all, the thirty divisions of the expeditionary force are still undergoing training. Nobody knows when they will be ready. So let's wait until they are ready before launching an attack."

Zhang Fakui nodded with a cold smile: "Not bad!"

"Our excuse is that the Chinese theater is short-handed, and its most elite forces are engaged in a deadly battle with the main Japanese forces in South China for the sake of the Allied interests in the Far East and to secure the vital maritime artery of Guangzhou Port."

……

The streets of Tokyo at this moment.

Barely clothed civilians braved the biting wind and snow to form queues stretching for several kilometers in front of the supply distribution station.

Just for a piece of sweet potato dough mixed with sawdust.

The meeting room at headquarters was deathly silent. Even the most vocal advocates of war seemed to have lost their backbone.

"The empire's resources have been depleted to an unbearable degree."

Teiichi Suzuki, president of the Cabinet Planning Institute, who was in charge of coordinating the wartime economy of the whole country, looked as pale as a dead man.

He held a newly compiled report on domestic economic mobilization in his hand, his voice trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Currently, the Empire's total land and naval strength still nominally maintains a massive scale of over four million."

“However,” Suzuki Teiichi swallowed hard, “the number of skilled workers in the country’s major military factories has dropped to an unacceptable level.”

"In the past few years, in order to make up for the huge casualties on the front line, we forcibly conscripted machinists, fitters and even miners into the army."

"Now, in the arsenal, only women and children who can't even lift a rifle are left to operate the machine tools. Even though we have adjusted our strategies in time and even recruited some laborers from the front lines, they have no longer the work ethic they used to have after experiencing the war."

"At present, the guns and cannons produced by arsenals in various places even have serious risks of barrel explosion, and their quality is far inferior to that of the past."

Suzuki Teiichi slammed the report on the table, his eyes filled with madness and despair: "As for the people's livelihood and economy, it has completely collapsed!"

"Before the war, the monthly salary of an ordinary wage earner in Tokyo could buy 300 catties of rice, and two years ago, it could only buy 150 catties."

"And now!"

"Even under the strict rationing system, black market prices have skyrocketed more than a hundredfold!"

"With the same monthly salary, you can't even buy ten kilograms of brown rice mixed with sand and gravel these days!"

"If the people cannot even maintain the most basic survival, there is no need to wait for the Chinese and Americans to attack; a complete and massive uprising will break out in the rear of our country!"

The meeting room was deathly silent, except for the jarring, heavy breathing of Hideki Tojo, which sounded like a broken bellows.

"What about the navy?"

Army Chief of the General Staff Sugiyama Gen suddenly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Navy Chief of Staff Nagano Osami sitting opposite him.

Gen Sugiyama: "The hundreds of thousands of our army soldiers in New Guinea and Rabaul are eating tree bark and human flesh in the rainforest!"

"They faced the flamethrowers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the relentless bombing by the Americans. Every day, tens of thousands of them perished!"

Sugiyama Gen suddenly stood up, gripping the table tightly with both hands, and roared angrily at the naval officer's nose.

"And your Combined Fleet is cowering in the docks of Kure and Sasebo, like a bunch of fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered!"

"Why not send a fleet to cover the army?"

"Why not use sea transport? Don't you know their supplies are severely insufficient?"

"Our absolute defense perimeter is now in ruins, all because of the incompetence of your navy!"

Faced with the army's furious accusations, Osami Nagano gave a cold laugh.

He didn't even lift his eyelids, his tone carrying a deep-seated indifference and sorrow.

Is the navy incompetent?

If it weren't for the navy's desperate efforts to transport and cover them, these army idiots on the Pacific islands would probably be dead by now.

"Sugiyama-kun, it's not that the Navy doesn't want to go to sea."

Osami Nagano picked up the empty coffee cup in front of him.

"We are completely out of oil."

Completely out of oil.

Just four simple words.

Like a bolt from the blue, it instantly shattered the last vestiges of delusion among the high-ranking army officials.

Previously, the excuse was always insufficient fuel, which led to a reduction in the frequency of sorties and the number of missions.

These days, they're just making it clear they're out of gas...
Without fuel, which is the most critical resource for the navy at present, how can this war continue?
"The Chinese heavy infantry were wreaking havoc on the mainland, while American submarines, like ghosts, blockaded all sea routes from the South Seas to the mainland."

Osami Nagano put down his cup: "Every drop of heavy oil transported from Indonesia requires the sinking of several transport ships to obtain it."

Osami Nagano's eyes turned completely cold: "The Navy's strategy has been adjusted."

"Except for a very small number of submarines, all the remaining main warships will be kept in the waters surrounding the island to protect the empire's homeland!"

"Unfortunately, our so-called 'absolute defense perimeter' strategic plan has completely failed."

"idiot!"

An army lieutenant general angrily kicked over a chair and drew his sword.

"Since your navy is so cowardly that you don't even care about the army on the front lines, what's the point of continuing this war?"

“You have been preparing in the rear for two whole years since October 42!”

"You didn't participate in the battles in Southeast Asia, you didn't participate in the battles in North China, and you still cowered in the Qiongzhou Island battle."

“Even when the North China Army was retreating, you only participated symbolically in the withdrawal.”

The lieutenant general, his eyes bloodshot, roared in despair: "The mainland's defenses are being torn apart by the Chinese, the islands in the Pacific cannot be held, and famine is rampant throughout the country."

"Rather than let the Yamato race be completely destroyed, we might as well surrender to the Allies now!"

"when!"

A crisp, resounding metallic clang rang out.

With a grim face, Hideki Tojo suddenly drew his sidearm from his waist and pressed the muzzle firmly against the table.

"Anyone who dares to utter the word 'surrender' again will be shot dead on charges of treason!"

Hideki Tojo's eyes gleamed with a morbid, almost fanatical light.

But this time, before the army could back down, the naval representative, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Toyoda Soemu, slowly stood up.

"The Navy, too, rejects any form of unconditional surrender."

obviously.

The navy realized that it had no chance of winning this war.

But they do not accept unconditional surrender.

In other words, the navy accepted a conditional "peace talk".

These words caused the army generals to frown.

Toyota's deputy chief turned around and pointed his baton at the vast Pacific Ocean in the center of the map: "We are stockpiling strength."

"The super battleship Yamato and its sister ships are nearing completion of their final refits and outfitting, fully loaded with ammunition and ready for sortie!"

"This surface attack fleet, which carries the empire's hopes, only has enough fuel for a one-way trip and is not prepared to return!"

The generals in the conference room all gasped simultaneously.

I thought the navy was already despicable enough for disregarding the lives of the army.

I never expected their navy to be even more ruthless towards its own people.

"As long as the main force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet dares to approach our absolute defense perimeter."

With his hands slammed on the table, Toyoda Soemu gritted his teeth and uttered his final strategic fantasy: "We will commit our entire army to launch one last 'fleet decisive battle'!"

"As long as the Yamato's 460mm main guns can sink a few American aircraft carriers, as long as we can break the backbone of the American Navy."

"Those profit-driven politicians in Washington will definitely be terrified, and they will definitely come back to the negotiating table!"

Toyota's gaze shifted to Hideki Tojo and Gen Sugiyama.

"Only then can the Empire secure peace terms that are far more favorable than the current 'unconditional surrender'."

"And before the navy launched this final battle."

Toyoda Soemu stared coldly at the army's high-ranking officers: "Even if the army has to eat mud, it must hold Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula at all costs, otherwise we will not be able to carry out the final fleet battle." (End of Chapter)