Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

The next day.

North of Boundary Marker No. 12.

The piercing battle alarms and whistles echoed wildly across the Soviet front lines.

Major General Ivanov stood at the forward command post, his hands trembling slightly as he held up his binoculars.

Clearly, the Russians have consistently maintained their habit of having their commanders deployed forward.

The charred crater in the telescope, leveled by 105mm howitzers, seemed to mock the dignity of the Russian combat troops in the Far East.

"Artillery regiment!"

Ivanov turned around and gave the order to the communications officer: "Prepare to bombard the enemy's artillery positions!"

"Mobilize all M-30 122mm howitzers. We must wipe their positions, along with the boundary markers, off the face of the earth within three hours!"

Upon receiving the order, the Soviet artillery moved swiftly.

More than a dozen tracked tractors roared across the snow, dragging heavy 122mm howitzers into their firing positions.

The artillerymen roughly lifted the tarpaulin and adjusted the firing parameters.

"Loading complete!"

"Fire!"

"Boom—!"

The snow on the ground was instantly blown away by the storm from the cannon muzzle.

Dozens of 122mm heavy grenades ripped through the leaden sky, slamming into the artillery positions of the National Defense Army three kilometers away with a piercing whistle.

Violent explosions echoed across the northern foothills of the Kent Mountains, with towering columns of fire hurling thick layers of permafrost tens of meters into the air.

Smoke and fire filled the entire snowfield.

Ivanov held up his binoculars, a cruel sneer finally appearing on his tense face.

In fact, it was a few kilometers away from him.

This battlefield, ravaged by Soviet heavy artillery, was deserted.

Apart from a few abandoned empty ammunition boxes and deep tire tracks, not a single piece of scrap metal was left.

"Squad leader, the Russian shells have really hit the snow pit and made a sound."

Two kilometers behind the reserve positions, the truck convoy of the artillery battalion of the 1st Rapid Counterattack Brigade had already completed its transfer.

A gunner sat in the cargo bed of the "Friendship" tractor, listening to the distant rumble of thunder, and breathed a puff of white vapor onto his hands.

The 105mm howitzer mounted at the rear of the vehicle still had a faint warmth emanating from its barrel.

Ironically, the Friendship No. 2 tractor unit was an improved version of the Friendship No. 1 truck, which was jointly developed by the two sides years ago.

"Enough talk, this is the work we're doing now."

The artillery squad leader tapped on the side panel of the carriage, his eyes revealing competence.

"We just fired three rapid-fire shots this morning, and we'll be on a truck within five minutes and then we'll leave."

"Who would stay put and wait for the Russians to retaliate with artillery fire?"

"That's a style of play from ten years ago!"

"The key now is to fight while remaining mobile!"

At this moment, the dull roar of diesel engines is converging from all directions on the snow-covered defense line.

The Russians did not stop their counterattack.

Under the cover of fire from a group of 122mm howitzers.

Major General Ivanov was directly deployed to his independent tank battalion.

More than thirty medium tanks, painted with red five-pointed stars, stretched out a wide line of advance through the snow.

The tank tracks kicked up clouds of snow and mud.

Large numbers of Soviet infantrymen, clad in white winter camouflage uniforms and carrying submachine guns, advanced at full speed behind the armored cover of tanks toward Boundary Marker No. 12.

"For the great nation!"

"go ahead!"

The furious roars of the Soviet troops, refusing to admit their mistake, could be faintly heard in the wind and snow.

They attempted to use armored assault to break through the seemingly weak border outpost defenses on the other side in one fell swoop.

Behind a reverse-slope snow-covered hill less than four kilometers from the boundary marker.

The 1st Mechanized Rapid Reaction Brigade and the 1st Armored Battalion of the National Defense Forces are all in place.

"Om-!"

Accompanied by an extremely imposing roar of engines.

Fourteen massive, dark green vehicles, like prehistoric beasts emerging from a steel hell, slowly emerged from behind the snow slope, their cold bodies peeking out.

This is the latest land warfare ace – the Type 38 main battle tank – secretly mass-produced at the Taiyuan Arsenal by the North China Ordnance Industry Cluster, combining the latest US technology.

Its shape is extremely low and thick.

A menacing 90mm high-pressure rifled cannon protrudes prominently from the front of the massive turret!

Inside its engine compartment was a Ford GAF ​​V8 gasoline engine, the same type used in the US Army's M26 Pershing heavy tank, which produced a powerful 500 horsepower.

Zhao Guofeng, the battalion commander of the 1st Armored Battalion, stood in the command tower of the lead vehicle.

Wearing a microphone, he stared intently through the rangefinder at the Soviet tank formation swarming towards them like ants.

"Target spotted."

Zhao Guofeng's voice was calm and steady on the radio channel, without a trace of noise.

"Enemy heavy tank formation, 1,500 meters away."

"The entire battalion, deploy in an inverted V-formation and seize firing positions!"

"All vehicles lock onto targets, load armor-piercing rounds!"

As the command was given, the hydraulic turret of the Type 38 tank began to rotate at a constant speed.

Inside the carriage, the loader struggled to pull a heavy 90mm capped armor-piercing round from the ammunition rack.

"Click!"

The projectile was violently pushed into the breech, and the locking mechanism locked instantly.

"Armor-piercing rounds loaded!"

Zhao Guofeng pressed his eyes against the periscope, the crosshairs already firmly fixed on the upper glacis armor of a T-34 tank charging at the forefront.

"1200 meters away."

"One volley, two shots fired simultaneously."

"Fire!"

"boom--!!!"

The fourteen 90mm main guns roared simultaneously in less than two seconds, their roars shaking the heavens.

The immense recoil caused the 40-ton Type 38 tank to lurch downwards, its tracks carving two deep furrows into the frozen ground.

The blinding flames from the fire control system instantly tore through the wind and snow.

The 90mm high-velocity armor-piercing projectile, with a terrifying speed almost invisible to the naked eye, instantly traversed a distance of 1,200 meters across the snowfield.

In front.

The lead T-34/85 tank had absolutely no chance of escaping.

"Bang!"

A sickening metallic tearing sound rang out.

The sloped armor that the Soviet army was so proud of was instantly pierced by the brute kinetic energy of the 90mm armor-piercing projectile, just like a cheap tin biscuit box.

The jet of scorching metal penetrated directly into the vehicle compartment, detonating the ammunition rack beneath the turret.

"Boom!!!"

The turret of the T-34 was violently blown into the air more than 20 meters high by the secondary explosion, and the heavy steel wreckage crashed heavily into the snow pit next to it.

The entire vehicle transformed into a giant torch spewing black smoke.

This is just the beginning.

As the first salvo ended, the seven Soviet tanks at the forefront were instantly reduced to burning scrap metal.

The explosion and the flying track parts threw the Soviet infantry behind into chaos.

"Is that an American heavy tank?!"

A Soviet tank commander saw this utterly desperate scene through his periscope, and his voice trembled.

"Fire!"

"Retaliate immediately!"

The remaining twenty-odd tanks quickly stopped advancing, turned their 85mm main guns around, and fired wildly at the Type 38 tanks behind the snow hill.

"clang!"

"clang!"

Two 85mm armor-piercing shells struck the front of the turret of a Type 38 tank.

The steeply angled cast turret, with a thickness of up to 100 millimeters, directly deflected Soviet armor-piercing shells.

Apart from leaving a charred bullet hole and glaring sparks on the armored surface, it did not harm any of the occupants inside the vehicle.

"A kilometer away, Russian tanks are lambs to the slaughter in front of our 90mm barrels!"

"Continue loading!"

"Call me by the name one by one!"

The artillery battle was fiercely fought on the snowy plains.

however.

As the first domestically developed main battle tank, the Type 38 was not without its weaknesses.

"battalion commander!"

Suddenly, an extremely anxious voice came from the left-wing vehicle number three over the channel.

"Transmission system overheating warning for vehicle number three!"

"The gearbox is jammed, the tracks are locked, and the vehicle cannot move!"

In pursuit of absolute firepower and defense.

The Type 38's weight of over forty tons put its engine and transmission system, which were the same as the M26's, under extreme loads, making it prone to frequent mechanical failures in extremely cold weather.

"Damn it, it's still the drive shaft that's the problem."

Zhao Guofeng gritted his teeth and gave the order: "Vehicle No. 3, don't panic, use it as a fixed gun emplacement on the spot!"

"One rank provides flank cover for vehicle number three!"

Upon seeing a tank suddenly break down, the astute enemy troops pounced on it like wolves smelling blood.

"Hurrah!"

Hundreds of infantrymen dressed in white snow camouflage uniforms, taking advantage of the shell craters and smoke, charged frantically at the disabled vehicle number three, carrying submachine guns.

Clearly, these infantrymen were attempting to destroy the steel behemoth using anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails.

"Trying to leech off my car?"

"dream!"

The hatch on the roof of vehicle number three was suddenly flung open.

A machine gunner leaned half his body out of the vehicle, his hands gripping the M2 Browning heavy machine gun mounted side by side.

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—!!!"

The dull, terrifying tearing sound of the large-caliber machine gun instantly drowned out the entire scene.

The large 12.7 mm bullet swept across the snow like wheat being harvested.

The Soviet soldiers at the forefront didn't even have time to lie down before they were cut in half at the waist, their blood and mangled internal organs spraying onto the white snow.

Meanwhile, the mechanized infantry of the rapid reaction brigade, advancing behind the tanks, also entered the battlefield in M3 half-track armored vehicles.

"get off!"

"Spread out!"

Hundreds of soldiers from the National Defense Forces, clad in dark white camouflage uniforms, descended like tigers from a mountain, deploying in an extremely precise three-on-three combat formation.

Their Type 50 semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns unleashed a devastating crossfire against the Russian infantry attempting to flank them from both sides.

In less than half an hour of fierce fighting, twenty of the Soviet army's thirty-odd T-34 tanks had been reduced to burning scrap metal, and the rest could only retreat in disarray.

A reinforced infantry company that was part of the charge was almost completely wiped out, with Russian corpses littering the ground.

……

Inside the Soviet command post north of the boundary marker, Major General Ivanov, watching the remnants of the armored battalion fleeing in panic, was so enraged he almost lost his mind.

"waste!"

"A bunch of useless trash!"

He kicked the person next to him to the ground: "An armored battalion, actually got beaten like this by a single forward border defense force of the Chinese?!"

Smirnov, feigning disbelief, shouted loudly from the side, "The division commander has given a notification!"

"The Chinese have revealed their true colors!"

"Their firepower is indeed extremely strong, but they have very few tanks, and half of them have already been lost in the battle just now."

Smirnov pointed to the map: "We can't wait any longer. We should immediately commit all the main forces of the division, and push the infantry regiments and the remaining armored units forward!"

Ivanov's eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing was extremely heavy. At this point, if he didn't regain his dignity, the Far Eastern Military District would definitely not let him off the hook: "Pass on my orders!"

"The entire main force of the division!"

"Cross the boundary marker immediately!"

"Tear them to pieces."

This was accompanied by a completely irrational command.

Two thousand Russian infantrymen, dozens of large-caliber artillery pieces, and the remaining armored forces.

Like a black tide, it crossed the Line of Actual Control between the two countries and surged wildly into the depths of our army.

……

Beiping, the headquarters of the Northern Theater Command.

Inside the massive underground bunker, radio calls echoed incessantly.

Acting Chief of Staff Guo Chan strode to the sand table, holding the newly translated urgent telegram from the front lines in his hand.

"Your Excellency!"

Guo Chan's voice was filled with extreme seriousness and fighting spirit: "The Russians are getting desperate."

"The Ivanov Division on the other side not only did not retreat, but instead committed its entire main force to the battle, crossing the Twelfth Boundary Marker across the entire front!"

"They're trying to use their numerical superiority to wipe out our vanguard in one fell swoop!"

Chu Yunfei stood in front of the sand table and smiled confidently, as if everything was under control: "If he backs down, I won't be able to use my full strength against him."

He picked up the red and blue pencils on the table.

It's not at the location of boundary marker number twelve.

Instead, they directly drew two huge red encirclement arcs like iron pincers on both sides of that high-standard heavy-haul railway line built with Chinese funding and running directly to the border between the two sides!
"Now that a division has come, let's not go back."

Chu Yunfei threw down his pencil and braced his hands on the wooden edge of the sand table.

"Qian Bojun!"

"exist!"

Qian Bojun suddenly brought his heels together and responded loudly.

"Don't waste your time with them in this muddy mess."

"With the help of the main railway artery in the rear, your unit will launch an immediate attack!"

Chu Yunfei tapped his finger hard on the snowfield at the northern foot of the Kent Mountains: "They have already headed north according to the emergency plan two days ago, and it is estimated that they can complete the mobile deployment within eight hours at most."

"Take advantage of this opportunity to conduct a tactical exercise of mechanized deep assault."

"Your unit, in coordination with the First Panzer Group, will cut off the Ivanov Division's retreat from both the east and west flanks, and annihilate them as much as possible."

"Yes!"

……

Thirty kilometers south of Boundary Marker No. 12.

The blizzard continued to rage across the frigid tundra.

Major General Ivanov sat in a jeep, following the main force as they struggled through the snowstorm.

The vanguard of the Soviet army was less than five kilometers away from the rapid reaction brigade's position.

With the withdrawal of the third squadron, the Russians mistakenly believed that the border guards were weak and had retreated on their own initiative.

In order to achieve results in their operations, they had no choice but to push the front line toward the enemy's border.

"Boost!"

"Artillery units, prepare to provide cover!"

Ivanov shouted into the microphone.

Not long after, a series of extremely strange and dense rumbling sounds suddenly came from afar.

The creaking sound of tank tracks crushing the frozen soil carried far across the open plains.

"What is that sound?"

Smirnov leaned out of the car window and looked into the depths of the snowstorm to the east.

Soon, the forward scouts reported the situation via radio: "Tanks!"

"It's their tank force. There are so many of them, they're all over the hills. Our advance force seems to be surrounded."

The scouts screamed at the top of their lungs, their voices distorted with terror.

"The enemy is on our flanks! We're surrounded!"

"what?!"

"Why wasn't there any advance warning? Where were our scouts?"

"They had previously built concealed positions, and the scouts were unable to discover their underground fortifications."

Ivanov shoved open the car door and raised his binoculars.

The line of sight pierced through the thin snow mist.

On the snowfields on the east and west sides.

Not a dozen or so vehicles, not several dozen.

Instead, it was a whole hundred Sherman medium tanks, along with dozens of newly commissioned Type 38 main battle tanks, that came from both flanks like a deep green ocean of steel with an overwhelming and terrifying momentum!

In the gaps between these armored behemoths.

Hundreds of M3 half-track armored vehicles, carrying fully armed heavy infantry, followed closely behind like a pack of wolves that had smelled blood.

An even deeper, more muffled roar could be heard from the sky.

This is the ultimate display of power belonging to the mechanized forces of a major power.

The binoculars in Ivanov's hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

He felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe, and his blood seemed to freeze in that instant.

Ivanov's voice trembled like a leaf in the wind: "We've fallen into a trap! Retreat!"

But it was all too late.

……

"Boom—!!!"

Hundreds of large-caliber tank guns unleashed a devastating roar at the same moment.

A deluge of armor-piercing and high-explosive shells, accompanied by the whistling of death, mercilessly crashed into the long, undefended marching column of the Soviet army.

Cut, crush, grind!

The high-speed tank formation was an extremely sharp scalpel, cutting directly into the middle of the Russian formation, its tracks mercilessly crushing the fleeing soldiers.

"Thumbs up!"

This was a battle with almost no suspense.

Russians are warlike and fond of war, but they are not good at it.

Even today, in the new century, before Chu Yunfei transmigrated, he would occasionally hear news of high-ranking Russian commanders being killed by artillery fire at their forward command posts.

The battle lasted from dawn until night.

The Russian Far Eastern Military District's Ivanov infantry division, which had crossed the border to provoke the conflict, suffered heavy casualties and its defenses collapsed completely after being besieged for several hours.

The remaining less than 800 soldiers abandoned all their heavy weapons and fled frantically across the snowfield like stray dogs, heading north of the boundary marker.

Major General Ivanov's command vehicle was overturned in the snow by a stray bullet.

If his personal guards hadn't risked their lives to drag him onto a supply truck and help him escape, he would have become the first Russian general in the Far East to be captured alive by the Wehrmacht.

……

Beiping, General Headquarters.

Fang Ligong looked at the telegram reporting the great victory that had just been sent back from the front lines, so excited that his glasses reflected a slight glare.

"Your Excellency, the enemy division has been completely scattered, with casualties exceeding 70%."

Fang Ligong's voice echoed through the command room: "My vanguard has caught up to the 12th boundary marker!"

"The advance troops request permission to cross the border and pursue and annihilate the enemy along the entire front, directly destroying their rear field airfields and supply depots!"

The generals in the command room were all eager to fight, their eyes gleaming with fervent battle intent.

All eyes were on Chu Yunfei.

Just one word from him.

This terrifying torrent of steel will cross the border without hesitation, bringing the flames of war directly to the enemy's territory.

Chu Yunfei stood in front of the sand table, his deep gaze fixed on the red and white border line.

After an extremely brief silence, he slowly raised his right hand, clenching his five fingers into a fist.

"Pass on my orders."

"All participating troops, cease pursuit immediately!"

"No tank, no soldier, may cross the No. 12 boundary marker even half a step!"

Qian Bojun paused for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "Your Excellency, why not take advantage of the situation..."

"When they crossed the boundary marker, we crippled this trespassing force. It was a self-defense counterattack to safeguard our sovereignty."

"If our tracks roll into their territory, that would be an undeclared war."

"Don't forget, the enemy is a top superpower that possesses nuclear power."

"Although our national defense forces are not afraid."

"But starting a major war at this time is not in our national interest at this stage."

"Order the troops to build a defensive line on our side of the boundary marker."

"Collect all the tank wreckage and artillery scraps they left behind."

Chu Yunfei's lips curled into a mocking smile: "Send reporters to take photos."

Know when to quit while you're ahead.

"Next, let those writers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs take this evidence and slowly wrangle with the 'Iron Father' at the negotiating table."

……

Jinling, XXX.

"Good! Well played!"

"The balance was just right."

"It not only dealt a heavy blow to the Russians and demonstrated the strength of our national defense forces to the world, but also reined in the situation and prevented it from getting completely out of control."

"Draft a clear and explicit telegram immediately!"

"Declare to the international community in the strongest possible terms!"

"This battle was a legitimate self-defense counterattack against the enemy's unprovoked border crossing and provocation!"

"We solemnly declare to them: We have no intention of occupying any territory of XX, but for anyone who dares to violate our borders, our tens of millions of soldiers and officers will not yield an inch of land!"

……

"The news was strictly suppressed, and it was claimed to be an accidental conflict that occurred during a local garrison exercise."

"Order the forward troops of the Far East Military District to withdraw 30 kilometers."

"Rebuild the defensive fortifications."

Faced with equal or even localized disadvantages in terms of strength, this once-powerful red tycoon ultimately chose to bow down.

With the exchange of clear communications from their own side and the enemy's voluntary withdrawal, a geopolitical conflict that could have easily escalated into a major war was strangely quelled amidst the swirling snow over the course of five days.

Along the blood-stained Boundary Marker No. 12, the armed forces of both sides have re-established a new balance of actual control that is more stalemate but also more restrained.

This signifies the rise of a new and powerful nation with a well-developed defense industry and world-renowned military leaders.

They used iron and blood to carve out a dignified path of "stopping war with war" on the cruel chessboard of the Far East. (End of this chapter)