Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 89 There is another unit

On March 15, 1938, the city of Xuzhou was filled with a restless atmosphere amidst the lingering chill of early spring.

At the Peace Hotel in Xuzhou, crystal chandeliers illuminated the banquet hall.

A fundraising event is being held here, with fundraisers moving around the banquet hall and the gentry and celebrities attending the banquet generously donating.

As Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth War Zone, entered the hall accompanied by the lieutenant general, chief of staff of the war zone, and a female translator, his gleaming military boots swept across the threshold, creating a gust of wind. The frown line between his brows appeared even deeper under the spotlight.

Reporters pushed forward with their cameras in hand, and in the white light of exploding magnesium powder, Xu Zuyi subconsciously raised his hand to shield his eyes.

A female reporter wearing an indigo cheongsam had her hair clip knocked off, and when her hair fell down, it revealed an unhealed abrasion behind her ear.

"Please be quiet!" Li Zongren's Guangxi accent was particularly clear in the hall.

At this moment, he put on a simple and honest smile and said to everyone in the hall, "Welcome everyone, please take your seats."

Although he had already said that, the enthusiastic crowd refused to sit down and instead surrounded him.

Seeing the enthusiasm of the crowd, Li Zongren smiled and walked over to shake hands with them.

"General Li, hello!"

"Hello there!"

"Thank you for supporting our cause of resisting Japanese aggression!"

As Li Zongren walked to the center, a blonde, blue-eyed foreign female reporter in her thirties asked:

"General Li, since the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, the phrase 'the Chinese army relocates its positions' has become synonymous with defeat. General Li, is your visit to Xuzhou also to command your troops to relocate?"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Li Zongren.

Li Zongren paused for a moment before turning to the crowd and saying, "I would like to draw the attention of our friends in the press to the fact that during the Battle of Taiyuan, our army shifted its positions, but the 18th Group Army achieved a major victory at Pingxingguan."

During the Battle of Shanghai, our army also shifted its positions, but the Japanese army paid a heavy price in casualties for this.

Zongren was ordered to come to Xuzhou this time to thwart the Japanese army's strategic attempt to encircle Xuzhou from both the north and south.

Li Zongren's words were resounding and carried an unquestionable tone.

"Crash..."

Everyone applauded.

But soon, an untimely voice rang out, and a brown-haired foreign male reporter asked with ill intent:

"But as far as I know, the Japanese have claimed that if their troops encounter resistance from Chinese forces in the Jinpu Railway area, they will turn Xuzhou into a second Nanjing. General Li... what is your opinion on this?"

Upon hearing this, everyone around showed expressions of anger.

In this timeline, although Su Yaoyang's appearance caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army in Nanjing, it also angered the Japanese army, who then vented their anger on the soldiers and civilians of Nanjing in the following days.

The Nanjing authorities continued to perpetrate a horrific massacre, and when the news reached the entire nation, both military and civilian, it filled them with extreme indignation.

This foreigner is deliberately bringing up sensitive topics, intentionally reopening old wounds for all Chinese people.

Li Zongren snorted lightly, "In my opinion, Xuzhou today is no different from Nanjing yesterday."

Moreover, although the Japanese army committed a horrific massacre in Nanjing, they didn't seem to fare much better. As far as I know, more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers were killed by our army in Nanjing, and two infantry regiments of the 6th Division were completely wiped out. Why haven't I heard the Japanese mention this?

"Hahaha..." Everyone in the banquet hall burst into laughter.

Three months had passed since the Battle of Nanjing, and news of the Japanese suffering a major defeat in Nanjing had spread throughout the country. Li Zongren's words elicited laughter from all the reporters and gentry. After the press conference, Li Zongren, accompanied by Xu Zuyi and others, returned to his headquarters.

The command post was filled with the strong smell of tobacco, and wisps of smoke rose slowly from the ceramic ashtray on the table.

Li Zongren had just taken off his military cap, his forehead still covered in fine beads of sweat, and the Biluochun tea in his cup was steaming hot, but he didn't have time to take a sip.

The staff officer's hurried footsteps approached quickly, and the telegram in his hand trembled slightly.

"read."

Li Zongren's knuckles tapped on the mahogany table, causing the tea stems in the teacup to swirl.

The staff officer swallowed hard: "The outer defenses of Teng County have all been lost, and the Japanese heavy artillery has already breached the east gate..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xu Zuyi suddenly braced himself on the map table, causing the sand table covered with small red and blue flags to rattle.

Xu Zuyi said anxiously to Li Zongren, "Sir, Zhizhong (Wang Mingzhang) won't be able to hold out for much longer. The 122nd Division was originally a ragtag army, with only a little over three thousand men in total, and not a single heavy weapon. If this continues, it's only a matter of time before Tengxian falls."

The dim light in the operations room cast a shadow on Xu Zuyi's furrowed brow, and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the telegram.

Li Zongren's cigarette lightly tapped against the rim of the celadon jar, and the falling ash piled up into a small grave.

His gaze swept over the simple wooden sign of the 122nd Division on the sand table—a few lonely matchsticks crookedly stuck next to the mound representing Tengxian County, surrounded on three sides by tin-coated tank models symbolizing the strength of the Japanese army.

The ticking of the bronze clock suddenly became shrill, each tick sounding like sawing through a taut rope.

After a long silence, Li Zongren turned to Xu Zuyi and asked, "Where is the 20th Army Corps? Where is it?"

Xu Zuyi shook his head bitterly. "Tang Enbo did not follow orders to provide full support, but only sent a small force to probe. The main force of the 20th Army Corps is still stuck south of Lincheng (now Xuecheng District, Zaozhuang).

I urged him several times, but Tang Enbo always delayed, citing reasons such as "the need to gather troops" and "waiting for an opportunity."

The electric fan in the command center whirred, but it couldn't dispel the sweltering heat.

Li Zongren's hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and the veins on his temples throbbed.

"To amass troops?"

He suddenly slammed his fist on the table, making the teacups rattle loudly.

He strode to the military map, where the red circle of Teng County was repeatedly drawn with a pencil until it looked rough, like a festering wound.

The blue flag of the 20th Army Corps was still planted a hundred miles away, and the shadow of the flagpole cut diagonally across Teng County, as if a knife was held to the neck of the defending troops.

“Send an urgent telegram to Tang Enbo…say…”

The words stopped abruptly.

Li Zongren suddenly kicked over the wastebasket next to him, and pieces of paper flew up like snowflakes, then slowly landed next to his riding boots.

"That's all..."

He sighed deeply. Despite being the commander-in-chief of the Fifth War Zone, Tang Enbo was a confidant of the Chairman, and he was not someone he could easily deal with.

After a long pause, he finally asked, "Yan Mou... which unit is closest to Teng County right now?"

Xu Zuyi slowly shook his head. "Within a radius of a hundred miles, there are only Zhang Zizhong's and Pang Bingxun's troops in Linyi, but they are currently tied up by the Fifth Division and cannot get away at all."

At this point, he suddenly exclaimed, "Wait... no... we still have another unit."

(End of this chapter)