Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 112 Playing Slowly
Faced with the furious Isogai Rensuke, Chief of Staff Colonel Umemura Atsuro advised from the side: "Division Commander, now is not the time to investigate the responsibility of the Army Air Force, but to consider how to take Taierzhuang."

I just received a report from Nagase Takehira that he has led the 8th Brigade to a point two kilometers south of Taierzhuang.

Please advise whether we should immediately proceed to Taierzhuang to relieve the 33rd Brigade.

“Go!” Isogai Rensuke nodded with a stern face. “Also, convey the latest appointments from headquarters to them.”

…………

Order from the Imperial Japanese Army General Headquarters
March 24, Showa 13 (1938)
By imperial decree

Army Minister Sugiyama Gen

Prince Kan'in Kotohito, Chief of the General Staff

Documents concerning the removal from office of the commander of the 33rd Brigade of the 10th Division and his return to Beijing for duty reporting.

Army Major General Kei Seya

Army Colonel Yaezo Akashiba

The following command is hereby given:
1. Removal from the post of Regiment Commander of the 33rd Brigade by Kei Seya, and removal from the post of Regiment Commander of the 10th Regiment by Yaezo Akashiba.

2. The two are hereby ordered to immediately hand over their military duties and depart for Tokyo within three days to report to the Ministry of the Army and the General Staff.

3. Upon arrival in Beijing, a detailed combat report must be submitted immediately, and the candidate must be questioned by the General Headquarters Special Investigation Committee.

This order

Inside the 33rd Brigade headquarters, all the regimental commanders and officers of the rank of colonel and above from the 33rd Brigade were gathered.

Major General Takehira Nagase, the commander of the 8th Brigade who had just arrived, slowly read out the appointment and dismissal document.

After reading the document aloud, he closed it and said to Seya Kei, who was standing in front of him, "Seya-kun, have you heard all the orders?"

"I've heard it."

Seya Kei gave a bitter smile: "As soon as I lost the cavalry regiment and two artillery battalions in Teng County, I knew that my days of returning to the mainland were numbered. I just didn't expect that day to come so soon."

“Segaya-kun, it’s good that you understand.” Nagase Takehira glanced at him and said seriously, “Due to your recklessness, the 33rd Brigade, a powerful force, has suffered great losses. It will take four to six months to recover to its original combat strength. From this point of view, you are a failure as the brigade commander.”

And you..."

He shifted his gaze to Colonel Yaezo Akashiba, the commander of the 10th Regiment, and said bluntly, "To be honest, you managed to reduce an infantry regiment of 3,800 men to just over 1,000 in just one morning. Your incompetence is so great that even I have to admire you."

"I..." Akashiba Yaezo was about to speak when he was stopped by Seya Kei.

Kei Seya, who had already resigned himself to his fate, now had reddened eyes. He sneered, "Fine, since Nagase-kun thinks so too, then I have nothing more to say."

I hope that in the days to come, you can lead the Eighth Brigade to wipe out the Nanjing Security Regiment on the other side, or capture Su Yaoyang alive.

I'll be in Tokyo with Akashiba-kun, eagerly awaiting your good news... assuming neither of us commits seppuku.

"Speak," he said, turning his head. "Akashiba-kun... let's go. We shouldn't keep the Red Hats waiting." With that, he walked over to the two military police officers who had been standing solemnly behind Nagase Takehira with cold faces.

The two military police officers were also enraged by the way Seya Kei addressed them.

Because the military police were directly under the Japanese Army Ministry or Army Headquarters, they wielded immense power. They could interfere with officer promotions and investigate disciplinary violations. If an ordinary officer was targeted by the military police, his career would be affected at best, and he could be secretly executed at worst.

The military police operate above the regular military discipline system and often consider themselves "direct subordinates of the Emperor," which has caused discontent among frontline troops. Many officers believe that the military police "hold the power of life and death without participating in actual combat" and regard them as "enemies within the army."

For example, a regimental commander of the Kwantung Army once wrote in his diary: "The military police arbitrarily arrest soldiers and even question operational plans; they are like a group of ghosts."

Given this, the relationship between frontline troops and military police is very tense, but it is very rare for an officer like Keiji Seya to openly ridicule the military police in front of so many people.

Seeing the unfriendly expressions of the two military police officers, Nagase Takehira frowned. "That's enough, Seya-kun. I know you're in a bad mood, but that's no excuse for your rudeness."

"Insolent words? You really think so?" Seya Kei laughed and stopped talking, striding outside, with Akashiba Yaezo following closely behind.

After Seya Kei and the others left, Nagase Takehira convened a military meeting.

"Gentlemen, the blood of the Seya Brigade cannot be shed in vain. Now I will deploy the next phase of the operation plan for you."

His voice was unusually serious. In the command post, the two regimental commanders, Numata and Takahashi, subconsciously straightened their backs. Just a few days ago, the 33rd Brigade had encountered fierce resistance from the Chinese army in this small village and suffered heavy casualties. Even their brigade commander and regimental commander had been escorted back to China by the military police.

With past examples to learn from, they naturally have to be extra careful.

It must be said that Takehira Nagase learned from Kei Seya's mistake.

After taking control of the positions, they did not rush to launch an attack. Instead, they first fortified the positions and contacted Isogai Rensuke, making several demands. After agreeing on a time, they launched the attack on Taierzhuang the next day... April 26th...

At dawn, the sky was filled with a buzzing sound like a swarm of bees.

Twenty-four Type 97 heavy bombers swept across the canal waterway, dropping bombs on the ruins in the southeast corner.

Haruji Taniguchi's artillery regiment opened fire simultaneously, the 105mm shells thundering like drumbeats from hell, pulverizing the city walls. Before the smoke had even cleared, the engineers' shovels were already digging trenches, like giant pythons writhing toward Taierzhuang.

"Ants are gnawing on it."

This was a new tactic adopted by Takehira Nagase, which, to put it bluntly, was to use the Japanese army's air and artillery superiority to gradually erode the security regiment's positions through a steady and methodical approach.

This tactic did indeed work. Under the cover of fighter jets and bombers, the security regiment's artillery would be bombed by Japanese aircraft as soon as they showed their faces.

Despite the efforts of the air defense battalion soldiers to fire at the air, the battalion was too small and was in a passive defensive posture.

Therefore, under the relentless bombing by the Japanese air force, the artillery battalion lost four 105mm howitzers and two heavy mortars in less than a day, which made Zhang Zhihao extremely distressed.

Seeing the heavy losses suffered by the artillery and air defense battalions, Su Yaoyang realized for the first time the difficulties and pain of an agricultural country fighting against an industrial power, especially with his own advantages. This further highlighted the greatness and resilience of those martyrs.

To avoid further losses, Su Yaoyang had no choice but to order the artillery battalion to cease fire and take cover temporarily.

Without the support of the artillery battalion, the Japanese artillery fire became even more rampant, with shells constantly falling on our positions, causing dust to fly and houses to collapse.

(End of this chapter)